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Shaoyong, get more than two, the Palace is very dangerous, two might not be enough
“After being ordered by shaoye and the Prince to go there, it was already late evening so today, I woke up early, got dressed, picked up my basket and then hid by Yuan Manor’s back door, waiting for their servants to come out to go to the market to run errands. When I saw them come out, I followed them from a distance. When I saw an opportunity, I approached to strike up a conversation, can you guess….. Owwww!”
Zhao Ji was narrating like a storyteller in a teahouse, and was getting quite worked up and in high spirits, when Zhao Su suddenly hit him on the head: “Stop exaggerating and tell us properly!”
Everyone laughed, even the Prince of Yu was unable to resist.
“Shaoyong, I think your pageboy is quite interesting, just let him speak!”
After receiving the Prince of Yu’s recognition, Zhao Ji was even more enthusiastic. “I pretended to be one of the servants of an imperial official of the court, to throw him off the scent, but instead, he ended up trying to curry favour with me. I chatted with him about the day to day errands in his household, and he wasn’t suspicious of me at all, and even laid out his grievances to me. He said that, these last few years, his master’s health wasn’t too good, which meant he was also in a bad mood. The servants of the manor had suffered a lot as he took it out on them, luckily, the last few days, their master was not at the manor and everyone was feeling quite relieved.”
“Yuan Wei was not at home?” Chen Yiqin asked.
Zhao Ji nodded: “So I asked him where his master was, he said he didn’t know, and he had just seen that a few days ago, his master had rushed out and had still not come home.”
“Zhao Su said: “This is already quite good to be able to get so much information from a servant. I doubt he’d be able to know much more.”
The Prince of Yu was anxious: “That means our suspicions were correct, Yuan Wei is not at home, that means he’s probably with my brother. Now, there’s absolutely no contact with the palace, who knows, he’s probably, probably……. ahhhh!”
Chen Yiqin said: “We must immediately find a way to make contact with the palace, so that we can know what is going on, otherwise, when they come knocking at the gate, it’ll already be too late.”
“Well what can we do!”
“Please calm yourself, my Prince.” Cutting through the heavy atmosphere, Zhao Su’s voice remained as calm as ever, which made the others also calm down somewhat. “The Grand Secretaries cannot come out, so naturally we will be unable to enter. Now, aside from one person, there is no one who can enter the Palace.”
“Aside from who?” The Prince of Yu was startled.
“You.”
The Prince of Yu shook his head like a rattle drum: “No way, no way, if this Prince goes into the palace, isn’t that just the same as delivering a lamb to the tiger’s mouth?”
Zhao Su’s mouth twitched. It was the first time he had heard someone compare themselves to a lamb and this person was supposed to be a Prince.
He was just thinking about persuading him further when Chen Yiqin said: “My Prince, Shaoyong is right. There is a lockdown in the palace, water cannot flow in, the fire will not ignite, there’s no point in us just staying here doing nothing. Looking at the inside and the outside of the Palace, there is only you, my Prince, that can enter the Palace. In addition to this, the Emperor, all the Grand Secretaries as well as all the Civil Officials…… If the Prince of Jing has truly used a fake imperial edict to summon the vassal princes, then why would he pay attention to any of the officials from the Six Ministries, and plus, there are many amongst them, who support the Prince of Jing. I’m afraid that we won’t have a chance to wait for the backup troops to arrive and something big will have already happened!”
His reasoning was correct, Yin Shidan nodded in agreement.
The Prince of Yu said with sadness: “Well, the Embroidered Guards, the Eastern Depot, and the Wardens’ Offices of the Five Wards1, not one of them listens to me. If I enter the Palace now, I’m afraid I won’t be able to leave……..”
Zhao Su said in a pleasant manner: “My Prince, please be rest assured. Have you forgotten that in the Capital, there is still a loyal and devoted valiant General!”
The Prince of Yu came back to his senses: “Oh, who’s that?”
“Qi Jiguang.”
The Prince of Yu was disheartened again: “Shaoyong, what kind of plans are you coming out with today. This Qi Jiguang, he’s loyal to the Prince of Jing!”
“My Prince, you are mistaken. Qi Jiguang is not attached to the Prince of Jing. It’s just that previously he had some dealings with the Yan faction. He just wanted to get some funds so that he could fight his wars, and he needed to pay his respects to the Yan faction, in case there was anyone who caused any trouble for him on the battlefield. Now the Yan faction has disintegrated, he was also implicated and lost his position, but he is not resentful at all. All he wishes is to return to garrison the borders. This person is a master of strategy, even Xu da-ren and Zhang da-ren have spoken highly of him.”
Prince of Yu was not totally convinced: “Truly?”
Chen Yiqin said: “I’ve also heard of him. Taiyue2 and Shaoyong often go over to visit Qi Jiguang, and have a close friendship with him. Taiyue is Secretary Xu’s most trusted student, so Secretary Xu must have tacitly agreed to it.”
Zhao Su: “That’s correct. If the Prince enters the Palace, I will follow. I will also ask Qi Jiguang for a few personal guards to bring with us. At the moment, the Palace is trying to keep something under wraps, there must be something that has not yet been realised. They won’t try to make it too difficult for you, my Prince. Qi Jiguang’s guards are also war heroes who have climbed out of pits of hell. There’s nothing further to add, the Prince’s safety will not be called into question.”
Chen Yiqin looked pensively for a moment and then replied: “Shaoyong, what you mean to say is, the Prince of Yu should personally enter the Palace to find out what is happening and then he must get the word out to us so that we can gather forces on the outside?”
“Correct.”
Chen Yiqin frowned: “There’s a problem, I am a Civil Official. I am unable to command the Warden’s Office and the Embroidered Guards.”
“Well, I’m here!”
A bright voice smashed through the tense atmosphere, Zhu Yijin stepped over the doorstep and entered, he was wearing a jade dragon hat on his head, the tassels draped down longer than his ears. He was also wearing dark patterned white robes, which made his pale face even more adorable, but he had a very serious expression on his face, bringing with it an air of solemnity that he rarely exhibited on the day to day.
“This official3 greets father4, teacher, tutor Chen and tutor Shi.”
His tiny frame was held up very straight as he cupped his hands together and greeted the seated officials.
“Jun’er, don’t make a scene, quick go and find your mother5!” The Prince of Yu lightly reprimanded him but was not in the slightest bit harsh, to this son, he had only ever shown doting fatherly love and had never reprimanded him.
“I’m not young anymore. At this moment, I should be helping father to shoulder some of his burdens. Why must I hide away just because I am a child?”
The Prince of Yu’s jaw dropped, he realised that he didn’t know how to deal with his son.
Chen Yiqin laughed: “Congratulations my Prince, the Princely Heir has grown up, it’s just that this matter is not a trivial one, perhaps the Princely Heir will be unable to help this time.”
Zhao Su also laughed, when no one was watching, Zhu Yijun had secretly stuck his tongue at him.
“I heard everything that you were saying from outside.” When Zhu Yijun smiled, his face would reveal dimples which were unbelievably adorable. “Teacher and father will enter the Palace. I will go with the two tutors to seek Qi Jiguang, and following that, I will go with Qi Jiguang to seek the Commander of the Embroidered Guard, Liu Shouyou6 to ready the troops. As soon as we hear from you, we will immediately make a move.”
Zhao Su nodded: “That’s right, the Embroidered Guard have always been loyal to the Emperor. Although Liu Shouyou has always been indifferent, he would never partake in any rebellious activity, so we do not need to worry about him siding with the Prince of Jing. As long as we can prevent him from standing back and doing nothing, but instead encourage him to maintain personal integrity during these chaotic times. That’s why we need Qi Jiguang to go and persuade him, with the status of the Princely Heir and pressure from Qi Jiguang, he will definitely not sit idly by, and then we just need to obtain the imperial edict, and this matter will be within our grasp.”
Yin Shidan added: “I’ve thought about it, and perhaps this is the best idea. Otherwise, just staying here and discussing military tactics is essentially useless.”
The Prince of Yu was still hesitant, Zhu Yijun went over and looked up at him: “Father, don’t worry. I will look after mother and didi and wait for you to come home.”
That little ball of fluff that used to cry in his arms had already grown up, and his words carried the air of a dignified Princely Heir, and he was even bravely stepping up to the plate.
The Prince of Yu was deeply moved, and reached out to pat him on the head: “Jun’er……”
The tender moment between father and son was abruptly interrupted by Chen Yiqin: “My Prince, time is of the essence, since the plan has been made, we should immediately put it into action!”
The Prince of Yu had actually wanted to ask for more time to consider things, but he saw that the people in front of him were waiting upon his decision, looking upon him with expectant eyes that in the end he had to do a double back, he almost choked: “*Cough cough*, well, well okay, let’s do it!”
“Let me first go and get some personal guards from Qi Jiguang.” Zhao Su hurriedly reported and then turned and left.
The Prince of Yu quickly called after him: “Shaoyong, get more than two, the Palace is very dangerous, two might not be enough!”
Zhao Su stumbled a little, and then turned around, neither able to laugh nor cry, “My Prince, if there are too many people, the palace guards will think we are entering to force the Emperor to abdicate. Then, not only will we not be able to enter the Palace, I’m afraid we won’t even be able to get through the front gate.”