The truth was that the Right Chancellor was not speaking up for the Left Chancellor. He simply felt that making Ning Chen a marquis really was improper.

Everybody has envy in him!

I crawled and scraped for decades to get where I am now. What gives you, Ning Chen, the right to stand level with us at fifteen?

“Reporting to Your Majesty. Your subject also thinks it improper!”

A start of astonishment went through them, because the man who had spoken was Ning Ziming.

His Majesty wants to make his son a marquis, and the boy’s own father takes the opposite view? The devil was in it.

“Father Emperor, Your child also feels that making Ning Chen a marquis now is truly improper.”

Nobody had expected the crown prince to step out and block it too.

The Xuan Emperor’s face went bad.

These wretches. Whatever this emperor decides, somebody always jumps out to oppose it… as though not opposing it would leave their ability with nothing to show.

The censors above all. Detestable. Always setting themselves against him!

He looked at the crown prince, a little at a loss.

You fool. Let the others get in the way if they must. What are you jumping out for?

He had brought Ning Chen along with such care precisely so that Ning Chen would support the crown prince later.

For the crown prince to jump out now — wasn’t that shoving Ning Chen away?

The crown prince went on: “Father Emperor, Ning Chen has indeed worked hard and served greatly, but what the ministers say is not without reason… He is only fifteen, and to make him general and marquis already — if he performs some service later, how is he to be rewarded?”

The Xuan Emperor’s face went worse and worse.

Even if the whole court is right, this is not the moment for you to jump out.

How did this emperor father a thing like this?

A pig’s brain, plain and simple.

The Xuan Emperor was furious!

“In two days, my beloved ministers will go out of the city with this emperor to meet Ning Chen coming home in triumph!”

“As for the marquisate, since my beloved ministers all oppose it, we will discuss it another time!”

“The audience is closed!”

The Xuan Emperor rose, swept his sleeve and went.

The Hibiscus Palace.

“What did you say?”

The Empress stared at the old eunuch in front of her, astonishment all over her face. She half suspected she had misheard!

The old eunuch kept his head down. “This old servant only had the news himself just now. Ning Chen has actually taken the King of the Left Court alive.”

The Empress’s whole face said she could not believe it. “How is that possible? How did that bastard do it? Is the news accurate?”

The old eunuch nodded.

“In the court just now, His Majesty proposed openly that Ning Chen be made Idle Marquis… but most of them took the opposite view, and His Majesty could only order it discussed another time.”

“Made a marquis?”

The Empress’s voice went up an octave.

The old eunuch said quickly, “Fortunately the Lord Left Chancellor and the others have held the matter down for now.”

“But this servant has already learned that His Majesty has had the victory report posted through the whole city, to share the gladness with the people!”

“Your Highness, once that is done, even without a marquisate Ning Chen’s standing will only climb higher… I am afraid that if nothing is done now, killing him later will be harder still!”

The Empress said furiously, “That worthless Left Chancellor. How is he conducting his business? Is one little mongrel so hard to be rid of?”

“He assured this empress again and again that there was no possibility of that little mongrel coming back to the capital alive… And now not only has he come back, he has come back with merit of this size.”

“Go to the chancellor’s residence and tell him… This empress gives him one more month. If he cannot be rid of Ning Chen, he need not complain when this empress stops being civil to him!”

The old eunuch nodded. “Yes. This servant goes at once!”

Two days later, at the Sky River landing, the dragon banners were flying.

The Xuan Emperor had really come out with the whole court to meet Ning Chen.

For any subject alive, that is an honor past all measuring.

It has to be understood that in the past the only man who could bring the Xuan Emperor out of the city was Old General Chen.

For an ordinary general summoned back to the capital for an audience, the Xuan Emperor coming down one step to meet him counted as an enormous favor.

Which shows that His Majesty’s favor toward Ning Chen had no equal anywhere.

Five warships came in slowly and made fast at the bank!

Ning Chen had seen the dragon banners flying while he was still aboard.

He had not expected the Xuan Emperor to come.

Far from feeling honored by it, he was somewhat unhappy.

Because the Xuan Emperor’s appearance had wrecked his whole arrangement.

His original plan had been to hide Kong Yongchun and the rest away first, then find the secret letters, then take a long view of it and work to get the utmost out of the evidence.

Even if it would not bring the Left Chancellor down, it would break bone and tear sinew.

But now, with the Xuan Emperor turning up out of nowhere, Kong Yongchun could not be hidden!

Ning Chen led his men off the ship, walked quickly to the foot of the Xuan Emperor’s dragon palanquin, and knelt.

“Your subject greets Your Majesty!”

“Your subject went to the border by Your Majesty’s order, and did not disgrace the commission, and did not fail Your Majesty’s grace… Your subject now presents the King of the Left Court to Your Majesty!”

The Xuan Emperor said, “Rise!”

“Thank you, Your Majesty!”

Ning Chen and the others got up.

The Xuan Emperor looked Ning Chen over, the smile at the corner of his mouth harder to hold down than an AK. (TL Note: an AK-47 climbs off target as it fires and is notoriously hard to hold down.)

He had not seen the boy in two months, and he had missed him badly… Every time he saw Ning Chen, something in him settled, and he never knew why.

And Ning Chen had never failed the favor shown him. He could always bring a surprise!

“Black, and thin too… It seems the border cost you a good deal.”

Ning Chen grinned wide. “Thank you for Your Majesty’s care. The soldiers went a thousand miles at a run, cut clean through the North Royal Court and took the King of the Left Court alive… The whole way we ate in the wind and drank the dew and filled our bellies with snow. There was no help for the thinness.”

The Xuan Emperor smiled. “You don’t need to ask credit for them at every turn. Their merit is written in this emperor’s heart, and he will reward them.”

Just then several men in manacles and leg irons were brought down off the ship.

The Xuan Emperor was a little curious. Why so many of them?

But the moment the Left Chancellor saw Kong Yongchun and Zhang Yuancang, he went white in the face and stood there stupefied, a humming in his skull!

Kong Yongchun had actually been taken, and not one word of it had reached him.

And Zhang Yuancang — hadn’t Ning Chen beheaded him? How was he alive?

A shiver ran clean through the Left Chancellor and woke him up entirely, and he saw at once that all of this was Ning Chen’s contrivance.

Ning Chen glanced at the Left Chancellor, then bent from the waist. “Reporting to Your Majesty. Besides the King of the Left Court, your subject has one other matter to lay before you.”

The Xuan Emperor said, smiling, “What matter?”

“The Army Supervisor of Beilin Pass. Kong Yongchun.”

“Your Majesty, your subject has established that Kong Yongchun sold out to the enemy and betrayed the country, conspired with the King of the Left Court, and had seven commanders of our Great Xuan killed, and soldiers past counting. The crime is past forgiving!”

At those words, astonishment came over the whole court!

The Xuan Emperor, whose face had been all smiles, went dark all at once.

Ning Chen pointed at Zhang Yuancang and said loudly, “Your Majesty, this man is Zhang Yuancang, Prefect of Lingzhou.”

The Xuan Emperor and the whole court were stunned!

The Xuan Emperor said heavily, “Wasn’t Zhang Yuancang beheaded by you, and his head shown to the people?”

“Reporting to Your Majesty. Zhang Yuancang was not the head of the gold-mine business. There was a man behind him directing it… That man stands high and holds power, and your subject was about to leave for the border and feared that the man behind it would kill Zhang Yuancang to close his mouth, and so had no choice but to fool heaven to cross the sea. In fact your subject had hidden him.”

Ning Chen paused, then went on: “Your Majesty, Kong Yongchun is one petty Army Supervisor. He would never have had the nerve for it. Somebody directed his selling out to the enemy as well.”

The Xuan Emperor said furiously, “Who?”

Ning Chen said, “That man stands high and holds power. Your subject knows what the evidence is but has not yet got it into his hands… Your subject begs Your Majesty to have all these men taken back to the Inspectorate and set under Lord Geng’s guard.”

“Your subject begs Your Majesty’s leave to go now and take the man and fetch the evidence… Presently your subject will drag out the greatest woodworm in the Great Xuan for Your Majesty.”

The whole court was as quiet as cicadas in the cold. Selling out to the enemy and betraying the country is punishable to the ninth degree of kin, and not a man dared open his mouth just then for fear of drawing it down on himself.

Only the Left Chancellor, white in the face, had the feeling that a great disaster was standing over him.

The Xuan Emperor’s face was black. He said, “Geng Jing. Take them back to the Inspectorate for this emperor and keep them under close guard.”

“Yes!”

Geng Jing took the order.

The Xuan Emperor looked at Ning Chen. “This emperor will wait for you at the Inspectorate with the whole court… This emperor would also very much like to know who this traitor is.”

“Your subject obeys the command!”

Ning Chen took his men, swung up into the saddle and went off at a gallop!

“Lord Ning…”

“General Ning…”

“Ning the immortal of poetry…”

In the distance, the common people were cheering.

Because the Xuan Emperor had ordered the victory report posted all over the city, the people all knew what Ning Chen had done, and had come out on purpose to welcome the Great Xuan’s hero home in triumph.

In the crowd stood one slender figure in a pale blue dress with a thin veil across her face… and a pair of great liquid eyes gazing at Ning Chen as if lost.

Yudie had of course had the news too, and had come early.

Ning Chen waved a hand toward the people in the distance, and then, as if something had touched him, his gaze moved and came to rest at last on that blue figure.

Ning Chen raised a hand to her and gave her a gentle smile, then put his horse forward and was gone.

“Xiaoxing, Ning, dear, saw me. He saw me…”

Yudie said it in her excitement, holding Xiaoxing’s hand.

Xiaoxing’s eyes and brows were smiling. “Lord Ning does have the girl in his heart… It’s bitter cold. Let’s go back first? When Lord Ning has finished his business, he will certainly come and find you.”

Ning Chen took Pan Yucheng, Yuan Long, Qi Yuanzhong and a body of armored horsemen straight to the Left Chancellor’s residence.

At the Left Chancellor’s residence, Steward Ding was pacing at the gate, waiting to receive the Left Chancellor.

Somebody had come from the palace just now, but the Left Chancellor was not there.

By the look on that eunuch’s face, the one above was certainly angry now!

That bastard Ning Chen, to have this much in him — to have taken the King of the Left Court alive.

All at once the ground shook.

Steward Ding looked up and saw a body of armored horsemen coming on at a gallop.

At the head of them, of all people, was Ning Chen.

Steward Ding’s face changed completely, and he turned to go back inside.

“Stand where you are!”

Ning Chen had already seen him, and shouted it sharply.

Steward Ding knew it was bad, and walked faster.

“Old Pan. Take him for me. He must not be allowed to get away!”

Pan Yucheng only made a sound of assent, and then all at once he came up off his horse’s back, drove a foot down against it, crossed seven or eight meters through the air and landed on the wall of the chancellor’s residence.

Then he pushed off the top of the wall and was gone behind it.

Holy shit!!!

Ning Chen was stunned.

Pan Yucheng could fly.

“Yuan Long, take men and surround the residence. In, but not out.”

“Yes!”

Ning Chen took the rest and rode straight into the chancellor’s residence.

The moment he was through the gate he saw Pan Yucheng blocking Steward Ding’s way.

Steward Ding shouted, blustering to cover his fear: “Ning Chen, you have a great deal of nerve… You dare force your way into the chancellor’s residence? That is a capital crime.”

Ning Chen looked at him coldly. “Steward Ding. Do you happen to know Kong Yongchun, Army Supervisor of Beilin Pass… I have already taken him.”

Steward Ding’s face changed instantly, and sweat the size of beans came out on his forehead.

Ning Chen had come home in triumph today, and yet here he was with troops. From the second he saw Ning Chen he had felt it was wrong… and when Ning Chen said the name Kong Yongchun, he felt cold all through him, cold to the last inch.

“I don’t know him. I have never heard of the man!”

Ning Chen smiled coldly. “Whether you know him or not, you’ll find out when the two of you meet. Take him.”

Pan Yucheng said mildly, “Put up your hands and be taken. Don’t resist for nothing. You are no match for me.”

Steward Ding bolted suddenly to the side.

Pan Yucheng made a cold sound in his nose, raised a hand and flicked it, and two streaks of cold light burst out with a sharp shriek of air, and took Steward Ding in both legs.

There was a scream!

Steward Ding went down headfirst, and his own momentum rolled him over the ground like a gourd.

Ning Chen’s mouth fell open, because only now could he see that what had knocked Steward Ding down was two pebbles. Ordinary pebbles, the kind lying at the side of any road.

Well now. He had underrated Pan Yucheng after all.

This closed-up man was that good with his hands… two pebbles and he had put Steward Ding on the ground.

And Steward Ding was a genuine master.

Something flickered in Ning Chen’s eyes. That trick of Pan Yucheng’s with the pebbles — he was going to have to get the man to teach him.

(End of Chapter 170)