Ning Chen held up the letters in his hand, looked at the Xuan Emperor, and bowed his head.

“Your Majesty, these are the letters that passed between Li Hongzhuo and the Wu Prince Regent. Your subject found them in Li Hongzhuo’s residence last night.”

“These few secret letters are enough to prove that Li Hongzhuo dealt with the enemy and betrayed his country.”

Eunuch Quan came hurrying down, took the letters from Ning Chen, and presented them to the Xuan Emperor.

The court fell dead silent.

Every official there, civil and military, watched tensely as the Xuan Emperor turned the letters over.

The Xuan Emperor’s face grew darker and darker.

Their hearts climbed into their throats.

Han Zhengqing above all. The cold sweat was running off him and his back was soaked through, and he had the feeling of a great disaster coming down on his head.

“Scoundrel. You worthless scoundrel, eating at our table and working for outsiders…”

The Xuan Emperor roared it out and slammed the letters down on the dragon desk.

The ministers dropped to their knees in fright, the whole floor of them, shaking.

The Xuan Emperor said furiously, “First the Left Chancellor, and now the President of the Secretariat… A pack of dogs who ate at their own table and worked for outsiders. In what single thing has this emperor wronged them?”

“Subjects of the Great Xuan, high officers of the court, holding high rank and fat salaries, eating the sovereign’s pay — and instead of thinking how to ease this emperor’s burdens they league with a foreign enemy and work for outsiders. It is beyond contemptible!”

The Xuan Emperor was in a fury.

He snatched the letters off the dragon desk and flung them out over the officials below.

“All of you take a good look for this emperor. Is that Li Hongzhuo’s hand or is it not? Take a good look at what this dog has been doing.”

Eunuch Quan hurried to gather up the letters scattered across the steps and carried them to the Right Chancellor.

The Right Chancellor read them through and said, appalled, “It is Li Hongzhuo’s hand.”

The letters went around the whole court after that.

Each man read, and each man said nothing.

Ning Chen glanced at Han Zhengqing, who had the face of a man who had buried both his parents.

In fact the letters had not come out of Li Hongzhuo’s residence at all. The woman emperor had given them to him.

She had sent men to slaughter every soul in the Prince Regent’s household, and these secret letters had turned up in the search.

“Scoundrel. A dog who ate at our table and worked for outsiders. His crime deserves ten thousand deaths!”

The Xuan Emperor’s anger would not go down.

The ministers, terrified, cried out together, “Your Majesty, calm your anger!”

“Calm my anger? Is there nothing you can do but say useless things like that… Can none of you ease this emperor’s burdens the way Ning Chen does?”

“Your subjects are useless!”

Ning Chen was complaining to himself. Come on, Dad. Please. Can we stop dumping all the hate on me?

The Xuan Emperor set his face and said harshly, “Let this emperor’s edict go out. Li Hongzhuo dealt with the enemy and betrayed his country… Three generations of his family!”

The ministers went white with fear and shook where they knelt.

The Xuan Emperor’s gaze came to rest on Han Zhengqing. “Han Zhengqing framed the marquis, and there is something unclean between him and Li Hongzhuo. Strip him of office and put him under investigation. When it is clear, a decision will be made.”

Han Zhengqing’s legs gave out and the world went black in front of him, and he collapsed on the floor with a thud.

He had been sitting in the Minister of Revenue’s chair for less than three months.

Now it was not only the office he had lost. If things went badly he would lose his head with it.

“Mercy, Your Majesty, mercy, I beg Your Majesty…”

The Xuan Emperor gave a cold snort. “Drag him out!”

Nie Liang accepted the order, and the guards of the imperial presence dragged Han Zhengqing out while he was still begging.

Shen Min watched Han Zhengqing being dragged out and shook his head with a sigh. Of all the men in the world to provoke, you had to provoke Ning Chen. No eye for people at all. How does a man like that climb this high?

The censors who had attacked Ning Chen earlier were frightened clean out of their bodies and shaking.

The Xuan Emperor’s gaze fell on them. “Drag these pedantic, useless dogs out for this emperor as well. Strip them of office and put them under investigation. When the investigation is clear, a decision will be made.”

“Spare us, Your Majesty. Have mercy, Your Majesty…”

The censors were frightened out of their wits and begged piteously.

In the end the guards dragged them away like so many dead dogs.

The court fell dead silent.

Every official in it looked terrified.

The Xuan Emperor was quiet for a while, and then spoke slowly. “In a few days the woman emperor of Wu will send men with the terms of the peace… These talks have succeeded, and the merit belongs to the altars of the state and the benefit to the common people. The first place in it belongs to Ning Chen.”

“Ning Chen, attend the investiture!”

Ning Chen knelt on the floor.

The Xuan Emperor looked at him. “Ning Chen went to Wu in this emperor’s stead, brought the talks to success, dug out that woodworm Li Hongzhuo, and cleaned the court. The service cannot be passed over.”

“This emperor makes you a General of the Second Rank and grants you a tally of command. You may move any force below fifty thousand without asking for an edict first.”

“Further, a thousand taels of gold and a thousand acres of good land.”

Ning Chen’s heart lifted, and he called out, “Your subject thanks Your Majesty for this great kindness!”

Before this, His Majesty had made him General of the Northern Expedition, a title with no substance in it.

Now he was a General of the Second Rank with a tally of command in his hand, and that was power he could actually put his hand on.

He could move fifty thousand men as he pleased.

There was a great deal going on in the officials’ faces.

Ning Chen was rising too fast.

He had only just been made a marquis, and now a General of the Second Rank with troops in his hand, and on top of that he was to marry the Ninth Princess… Envy pulled their features out of shape.

The Xuan Emperor looked at Ning Chen and gave him a slight smile.

Then his gaze fell on Shen Min. “Beloved Minister Shen served well on the embassy. He is promoted to Minister of Rites, and granted a hundred pieces of gold and a hundred acres of good land.”

Shen Min’s hands and feet shook with the shock of it. He dropped to his knees and cried out, “Your subject Shen Min thanks His Majesty for this great kindness!”

At last… at last he was sitting in that chair.

There was no measuring what Shen Min felt.

The Xuan Emperor went on. “Pan Yucheng and the others served well on the embassy. This emperor will reward them as their service warrants.”

After that came the discussion of everything else.

When the court broke up, Ning Chen walked out of the Golden Hall.

The officials crowded around him, offering their congratulations one after another.

However envious and jealous and hateful they felt underneath, appearances had to be kept up.

Ning Chen smiled and answered every one of them.

He was no longer the hot-blooded, reckless boy he had been at the start.

Enough had happened to him that he had grown smooth and worldly.

Once he had finally shaken the officials off, Ning Chen walked quickly for the door.

He had been on the road the whole way, then spent last night ransacking Li Hongzhuo’s house until the small hours, then risen early for the morning court. He had not rested at all, and he meant to go home and sleep it off.

Shen Min came trotting after him with a joy on his face he could not hide.

“My lord marquis, thank you!”

He knew perfectly well that without Ning Chen, climbing into that chair would have been as hard as climbing to heaven.

Ning Chen gave him a slight smile. “We are our own people. There is no need for that… But Lord Shen is Minister of Rites now, and from here on we should keep a proper distance between us.”

Shen Min nodded slightly. “This official understands the marquis’s meaning!”

Ning Chen waved a hand. “I’m off. Home to sleep it off!”

Ning Chen really did go home and sleep it off.

He meant to build his strength back up, and go to the courtesans’ quarter that evening to explore the true meaning of the propagation of life with Yudie.

When he woke, it was already dark.

Ning Chen rode his beloved Diaochan clopping along to the courtesans’ quarter.

He went up to the second floor and was about to go and find Yudie when his foot stopped in mid-step.

In a private room standing half open, a young man in fine brocade, thickly built and handsome, was drinking and enjoying himself with several of the courtesans’ quarter girls.

Ning Chen’s eyes narrowed slightly, and he walked over.

As he came into the room the young man saw him too, blinked for a moment, and then let out a hearty laugh.

“Well, well, Ning Chen. Here you are at the courtesans’ quarter chasing your pleasures, and you see me and you don’t even hide… Not afraid I’ll tell Huai’an?”

Ning Chen gave him a slight smile. This was nobody else. It was the Fourth Prince.

Finding the Fourth Prince here was a real surprise to Ning Chen.

By the law of the Great Xuan, members of the imperial house and officials of the court were forbidden the pleasure quarter.

It did not stop the officials, of course. They came quietly.

The Xuan Emperor knew it, and where the thing did no real harm he kept one eye shut.

But everyone else came by stealth… The Fourth Prince was here in the open, hiding nothing.

Ning Chen smiled. “With your position, if this got out… I’d say the punishment would fall a lot harder on you than on me.”

(End of Chapter 364)