Niao Ni
Chapter 453: Heart's Blood as One
(Also: The monthly ticket chart today is bleak and full of murderous intent, truly like angry mountains and blood-red sunsets, with Deng Shichang by my side... Ahem, just soliciting votes, pulling for monthly tickets with all your might.)
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The second day is the day before the third day. This isn't nonsense, because Wan'er will return to Kyoto on the third day. Fan Xian is accustomed to keeping his wife and family away from all filth, so he set the time on the second day. This day was sunny and the accumulated snow gradually melted. Tianhe Avenue was wet, and the stone pools along the street with accumulated snow finally flowed, carrying snowballs and withered leaves towards the low-lying areas.
The thirteen city gate divisions are responsible for the security and defense of the city gates in all four directions, inside and outside Kyoto. These thirteen city gate divisions are directly under the palace's command. Not to mention the Kyoto garrison not being able to interfere, even the senior military officials of the樞密院 (Shumi Yuan, Privy Council) wouldn't make too many overt moves. Every night, the gates of Kyoto would be closed. In the history of Qing Yu Nian, except for those few bloody political upheavals, as well as messengers reporting major natural disasters and border unrest, there had never been a precedent for opening the gates at night.
Old Master Chen Pingping, the head of the 監察院 (Jianchayuan, Supervisory Council), is an exception. He lives in Chen Garden outside Kyoto, and His Majesty gave this headmaster special privileges, allowing him to enter Kyoto at night.
But there is only this one exception. Apart from Chen Pingping, no one can enter or leave Kyoto late at night without imperial orders, but after Fan Xian took charge of the Jianchayuan, this special case added one more person.
So even if the Kyoto garrison, 元台大营 (Yuantai Daying, Yuantai Barracks), discovered Yan Shendu's corpse and reported it level by level, finally reaching the level of general who knew Yan Shendu's true identity... The generals in the barracks, in shock and fear, still had no way to notify the adults in Kyoto.
Qin Heng, the commander of the Kyoto garrison, only learned of this news the next morning.
Then Yan Xiaoyi, the Grand Commandant of the Northern Expedition who was returning to Kyoto to report on his duties, also learned of this news.
His biological son was assassinated in the barracks last night.
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Yan Xiaoyi sat on the edge of the bed, his legs spread wide apart. This was a habit developed from years of military life riding horses. His eyes were somewhat indifferent as he looked at the messenger kneeling in front of the door, tilting his head slightly, somewhat unable to believe his ears.
"Lord." The two concubines on the bed suppressed their inner fear and unease, struggling to get up and help the Grand Commandant Yan put on his clothes and wash up.
Throughout this process, Yan Xiaoyi maintained a cold calmness, and his hands rubbing in the basin of hot water did not tremble in the slightest.
Since he was young, he had extraordinary energy. After joining the army, he had been indulging in women every night. He had countless concubines in his household. Even though there was no official wife in this Kyoto mansion, he still kept five concubines to serve him. Last night, under the wind and rain, these two concubines were somewhat unable to bear it.
Yan Xiaoyi glanced at the concubines beside him. In the past, he was accustomed to secretly being proud of his physical strength and energy, but today he felt a strange feeling in his heart, feeling a trace of loathing towards these charming women.
He had many women, but he only had one son.
He calmly stood up, fastened his black-gold jade belt around his waist, put on a snow-shielding cloak, and walked out the door. Outside the door, his personal soldiers and the Kyoto garrison generals were already waiting, their faces filled with fear.
Looking at the longbow and quiver of arrows that his trusted aide was holding, Yan Xiaoyi seemed a little lost beside the horse. Even so, from the moment he heard the news until now, his expression remained calm, and his slightly dark but resolute face showed no strangeness.
The sound of hooves gradually moved away from the Yan residence. Inside the residence, two beautiful concubines died tragically in bed, and blood stained the entire green curtain.
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Under the protection of his personal soldiers, Grand Commandant Yan left the city gate and arrived at the 元台大营 (Yuantai Daying, Yuantai Barracks) not far away. His expression was indifferent, and he didn't even look at the barracks generals who came to comfort him. Even Qin Heng, who rushed over in a hurry, was ignored by him.
He went directly into the central military tent.
Yan Shendu's body was placed in the tent. No one dared to move the body, because everyone was waiting for Grand Commandant Yan to come and see it in person.
Yan Xiaoyi stood in front of his son's body, not speaking for a long time, but his eyebrows furrowed slightly. After a long time, he lowered his gaze slightly and reached out to pry open his son's already stiff palm.
The dead man's hand was clenched extremely tightly. Yan Xiaoyi pried with great force, breaking two of his son's fingers. He took something from his son's palm, then held it up to his eyes and examined it carefully.
The light of the sky outside the tent shone in, lightly refracting from the jade pendant and entering Yan Xiaoyi's eyes, causing his pupils to shrink slightly.
He recognized this jade pendant. There was a small sword on the jade pendant, and a few words were engraved on the other side, so his heart grew cold, and then it burned again.
The other generals in the central military tent didn't know what this jade pendant represented. Qin Heng sighed and stepped forward to comfort him, while also expressing the Qin family's sincere apologies for the matter. The son of a Grand Commandant was assassinated in the barracks under their control. In any case, the Qin family had to bear great responsibility.
Yan Xiaoyi nodded slightly and finally spoke. His voice was a little hoarse as he slowly said, "Little Marquis need not say more."
Qin Heng was silent, and after a moment said, "Please, Grand Commandant, take care."
There was no sorrow on Yan Xiaoyi's face. He had the 正将 (zhengjiang, chief general) of the 元台大营 (Yuantai Daying, Yuantai Barracks) take him to the camp where his son had lived. He went in alone and stayed in that camp for a long time.
Everyone was waiting for him outside, not daring to disturb him.
After having one last conversation with his son's aura in the camp, Yan Xiaoyi walked out from the hole at the back of the camp, his expression wooden. Looking at the several large puddles of blood on the snow that had been blown away by the wind, he didn't say a word.
Returning to the central military tent again, Yan Xiaoyi looked at his son's body, lowered his head, and suddenly reached out, grasped the arrow stuck in his son's chest, and pulled it out with slight force.
With a "噗哧" sound, the arrow left the body and fell into Yan Xiaoyi's hand. He personally inserted this arrow into the quiver carried by his personal soldier, and then turned to Qin Heng and said, "Burn it."
The sound of hooves rose again, leaving the 元台大营 (Yuantai Daying, Yuantai Barracks) and heading towards Kyoto. Even though his son had been assassinated, as an important official of the imperial court, Yan Xiaoyi still had to stay in Kyoto. This was the inconvenience brought by power.
The cold wind blew in his face.
The faces of the personal soldiers of the Northern Expedition Army were full of grief and anger. They had fought against the Northern Qi people in the northern frontier of Qing Yu Nian for several years, believing they had contributed to the country, but they had not expected that someone in Kyoto would dare to assassinate the Grand Commandant's son!
Yan Xiaoyi's expression remained unchanged, but he said coldly to his attendant, "Not Si Gu Jian. That assassin bled. Ninth Rank."
The jade pendant explained the assassin's origin. Yan Shendu's strength and the price that person paid explained that person's level. The attendant rode his horse beside him and said, "After Ye Zhong left Kyoto, there are only a few Ninth Rank cultivators on the surface in Kyoto. Now that Grand Commandant and Little Master Fan have returned to Kyoto, there are two more, but there should still be some hidden in the dark, such as the Jianchayuan."
Undoubtedly, the first to bear the brunt after Yan Xiaoyi's return to Kyoto would be the forces of the Jianchayuan, especially the whip that Fan Xian waved at him in front of the樞密院 (Shumi Yuan, Privy Council) that day, which turned this hidden confrontation into a conflict that was about to erupt.
So, everyone would immediately associate Yan Shendu's death with Fan Xian.
"Not Fan Xian," Yan Xiaoyi said coldly, "but it must be related to Fan Xian."
The city gate was right in front of them. The arrow-carrying attendant looked at the Grand Commandant with concern, wondering what the Grand Commandant would do if it was really related to that Little Master Fan? Could he just shoot His Majesty's illegitimate son with an arrow in Kyoto?
Yan Xiaoyi narrowed his eyes slightly, not saying anything, just coughing twice, and then covered his lips. A trace of blood flowed from between his fingers.
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The assassination last night was not publicized. One reason was that not many people knew about Yan Xiaoyi's son in the Kyoto garrison, and the second was that the time was too short, and even the Jianchayuan headquarters had not obtained relevant details. The civil and military officials of the Qing Yu Nian court belonged to two different systems, so naturally not many court officials knew about this.
Today was a small court meeting. The officials at the palace gate gathered in twos and threes, each with their own faction. However, the relationship between the Crown Prince of the Eastern Palace and the Second Prince had eased a lot, so the two factions of civil officials were not standing too far apart.
However, Fan Jian, the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, was talking in a low voice with the two Great Scholars of the Secretariat. No one approached these three.
With the sound of a whip, the palace gate slowly opened, and the First Prince, the commander of the Imperial Guards, walked out with a calm expression. He saluted the leading old officials, and everyone quickly returned the salute. Since His Majesty had put the First Prince in charge of palace security more than a year ago, the defense of the entire palace was indeed as solid as a rock. And this First Prince was also a diligent person. Whenever there was a court meeting, he would personally be on duty, not making any mistakes because of his noble status.
Because of this, these officials who attended the court meeting all had a sense of respect and fear for the First Prince.
The officials filed in, going to court to discuss the gossip of the world with the Qing Yu Nian Emperor. The palace gate suddenly became quiet again. The accumulated snow on the square in front of the palace had already been cleared away, revealing the wet bluestone below. The swept-away snow was piled up into a half-person-high snowdrift on the side of the square, like a short city.
A carriage came from behind the long snowdrift. The carriage body, horse body, and coachman were all black. The Imperial Guards guarding the palace gate and the guards inside the gate immediately knew the identity of the person in the carriage, and they couldn't help but feel curious and excited.
The First Prince, holding his sword, personally greeted him and helped the young official, whose movements were still somewhat inconvenient, down from the carriage. The two of them talked softly all the way as they entered the palace.
The soldiers inside and outside the palace gate didn't dare to breathe loudly, just cautiously watching this scene with their peripheral vision. It wasn't until the figures of the First Prince and the young official disappeared into the palace that everyone breathed a sigh of relief and began to discuss it in a low voice with excitement.
"Did you see that? Everyone said that the relationship between the Great Prince and him is good, and it seems that it's not false."
"What's so strange about that? They're originally brothers."
"Brothers?" Someone sneered, "Don't you remember how Supervisor Fan cleaned up the Second Prince a year ago?"
"Keep quiet!"
Although the folk customs of Qing Yu Nian were open and there were few cases of punishing people for their words, to discuss the gossip of the royal family in such a magnificent palace gate, it must be said that these soldiers who had followed the First Prince to the west to conquer the 胡蛮 (Human, Barbarians) and then returned to the Imperial Guards to stand guard were indeed extremely bold.
Two small eunuchs looked at these Imperial Guards as if they were gods.
"Is that the legendary Little Master Fan?" A guard, who had obviously entered the palace not long ago, said with excitement on his face, "As expected, he is as handsome as a celestial being in the legends, but his complexion doesn't seem very good."
"Nonsense! He was assassinated a few days ago and suffered such serious injuries, how could he be well... It's also strange to say that Little Master Fan's injuries are healing so quickly. He can actually walk on the ground now. Why is he in such a hurry to go to court?"
"Don't forget, Little Master Fan is the youngest Ninth Rank expert in my great Qing Yu Nian!"
"But speaking of sniping..."
Everyone suddenly fell silent, knowing that this matter was too terrible and it was best to discuss it less.
Fan Xian and the First Prince walked in the palace, not knowing what these people were discussing behind them. However, the First Prince couldn't help but be curious as to why he was in such a hurry to enter the palace even though his injuries hadn't fully healed.
"Why are you in such a hurry to enter the palace? The palace has been a little chaotic recently and everyone is tense while investigating your assassination attempt."
Fan Xian smiled and said, "Have you forgotten? I remember sending an invitation to the Prince's mansion. It should have been Princess eldest who received it personally... I'm hosting a banquet at Baoyue Tower tonight. I have the strength to host a banquet, but I'm not rushing to enter the palace to report on my duties. I'm afraid His Majesty will spank my butt."
"You should call her Princess Consort eldest, or you can call her sister-in-law. Why do you still call her Princess eldest?"
"Forget it, Princess Consort eldest sounds awkward, and it always reminds me of that girl Ye Ling'er. The title of sister-in-law is even more impossible... I don't want to be scolded in the face by the 正卿 (zhengqing, chief) of the 太常寺 (Taichangsi, Court of Imperial Sacrifices). My surname is Fan, but yours is Li." Fan Xian's words were a bit unrestrained. At least as a subject speaking to the Great Prince, he seemed a bit impolite.
The First Prince knew what he was thinking and smiled helplessly. Suddenly, he said solemnly, "Did you know about that matter?"
"What matter?" Fan Xian frowned slightly.
"Yan Xiaoyi's son was assassinated last night." The First Prince stared into Fan Xian's eyes, seemingly wanting to judge from his expression whether this assassination was related to him.
Fan Xian raised his eyebrows, not bothering to pretend to be surprised, and said, "He died, so he died. Anyway, he's not one of mine. Don't guess. This matter has nothing to do with me."
The First Prince looked at him and shook his head. "Regardless of whether it's related to you or not, I'm afraid this matter will be pinned on your head."
"Pin it then." Fan Xian said with a gentle smile, "I have a lot of enemies in this life, and I don't care about one or two more."
"That person is... Yan Xiaoyi." The First Prince reminded him with a heavier tone.
Fan Xian didn't respond, just thinking in his heart that this Great Prince beside him really had some influence in the military. At this time, he probably knew the story that happened in the 元台大营 (Yuantai Daying, Yuantai Barracks) as soon as the city gates opened.
Seeing that he ignored him, the First Prince frowned and said, "I'm afraid this matter won't be so easy to resolve. Think about it, an assassin actually infiltrated the garrison barracks near Kyoto... Once the matter is exposed, no one will have a good time. This matter... was done too presumptuously."
Fan Xian heard the hidden meaning in his words and couldn't help but sneer, saying, "元台大营 (Yuantai Daying, Yuantai Barracks)? A few days ago, someone dared to move the military's city-defending crossbow to murder an imperial envoy in the valley... Who is more presumptuous?"
Seeing that he was angry, the First Prince knew that he had lost a lot of subordinates in that valley ambush, so he had to change the subject and asked, "When will Chen丫头 (Chen丫头, Chen Yatou, a familiar term for a young girl) be back? Grandmother and my mother have been thinking about it for a long time. I'm afraid they won't be willing to let her go to Jiangnan again next year."
Fan Xian said, "She'll be here tomorrow. By the way, I also brought back that 胡族 (Huzu, Barbarian) princess... Also, I bought a mansion in Yangcong Lane. The place is remote and quiet, just right for hiding a mistress."
Hearing this, the First Prince was stunned and asked in a daze, "What mistress?"
Fan Xian took out a deed from his arms and threw it to him, the corners of his lips slightly raised as he said, "Here's a second wife for you."
The First Prince didn't know what to say, glared at him angrily, and then said, "In front of people, you put on the refined and elegant face of a poetic immortal, who knew it was actually a sharp-tongued fox's mouth."
"Those words are indeed true." Fan Xian said proudly, "I already have enough fame. Next, I'm going to tear off this face and have a good time with everyone."
The First Prince was slightly startled in his heart, frowned, and said, "What exactly do you want to do by inviting so many people tonight? Don't mess around."
"How could I? They are all nobles, and I can't wait to curry favor with them." Fan Xian sneered and said, "But I also understand your thoughts. If you don't want brothers fighting each other, it's simple, just defeat them quickly."
The First Prince said disapprovingly, "Those words are unpleasant. We are all born of the same father. We should just wait for His Majesty's decision. You should also be a little measured."
"Don't do that." Fan Xian shook his head and said, "It's still the old saying, my surname is Fan... But you can rest assured, I don't have the hobby of cutting off my own fingers. As long as they are willing to be honest after tonight, I naturally won't do anything."
The First Prince smiled. After Fan Xian pondered for a while, he couldn't help but laugh self-deprecatingly. From ancient times to the present, as far as history records go, there have been very few young officials who dared to threaten the crown prince and princes like him, especially with this kind of teaching tone. This matter seemed really absurd.
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Fan Xian insisted that his surname was Fan, but he knew that if it weren't for the fact that he should have been surnamed Li, he would not have had enough strength to negotiate with the royal family children, or even have the qualification to do so. According to his style of doing things, he would have kicked the bucket a long time ago.
So when he waited for a long time in the Imperial Study and finally saw that Emperor 老子 (Laozi, an impolite way to refer to one's father) with the surname Li lifting the curtain and entering, he behaved respectfully, only occasionally revealing a few traces of coldness and stubbornness in his eyes.