Niao Ni
Chapter 605: Having Seen Through All the Scenery
Although Bao Yue Brothel's intelligence gathering is far from as professional and powerful as the Supervisory Council, it at least provides Fan Xian with another source of information.
The Supervisory Council is, after all, Qing Kingdom's official intelligence agency. Fan Xian always harbors a faint apprehension. If His Majesty the Emperor were to ask him to hand over the Supervisory Council one day, his sight and hearing would be greatly diminished. For example, this secret report about the First Prince confirms the benefits Fan Xian has gained from vigorously supporting Bao Yue Brothel.
The news in the secret report was not mentioned in a single word in the Supervisory Council's reports or even in the Qi Nian team's secret reports. If it weren't for Bao Yue Brothel's tip-off, Fan Xian wouldn't have known that a good show was about to unfold in the capital.
Of course, Fan Xian also understood that this could not be blamed on the Supervisory Council or the Qi Nian team. After all, it involved the royal family's honor and the Emperor's family affairs. Even if the official intelligence agency had found some information, it was supervised by the inner court and the censors of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, making it impossible to report the news to him without solid evidence.
But Bao Yue Brothel didn't care about these things. In Fan Xian's organizational structure, Bao Yue Brothel was more like the Imperial Censorate, with the freedom to report rumors. This secret report mentioning the First Prince's intention to take a concubine was just a rumor occasionally circulating in the capital.
Where there's smoke, there's fire. Fan Xian frowned, thinking about what was happening in the capital.
If it were just His Highness taking a concubine, it would be a minor matter, not worthy of his tension. But the key is that the intelligence from Bao Yue Brothel clearly stated that taking a concubine was entirely decided by the palace. The First Prince was unaware of it beforehand, and it is said that the First Prince has a great aversion to this matter and has entered the palace to argue with His Majesty twice.
Fan Xian had a headache. He knew what kind of person this eldest brother was. Although the First Prince was very considerate of the overall situation, he was stubbornly powerful when it came to the Wang family affairs involving the roots of the family. Also, given his harmonious relationship with the First Princess Consort, how could he agree to another marriage assigned by the palace?
The palace's intention for him to take another concubine clearly carried deeper considerations, which Fan Xian was also very clear about.
Since the Kyoto rebellion was truly quelled, after the Emperor regained his love for his eldest son, the first thing he dealt with was not transferring the First Prince to the border army to serve as a powerful general, but secretly preparing for the First Prince to take a concubine. So, the matter of taking a concubine had actually been going on in secret for a long time, only it had been resisted by the First Prince and had not truly surfaced.
The First Princess Consort is the Great Princess of Northern Qi, and the honeymoon period between Southern Qing and Northern Qi has ended. For the sake of future wars, His Majesty the Emperor would never allow his eldest son to be completely controlled by a Northern Qi woman. And for the final Northern Expedition in the future, the First Prince is obviously the best candidate for the vanguard general. The Emperor's intention is very clear: first let him take a concubine, and then find an opportunity to abolish the First Princess Consort on some pretext.
The meaning was very clear. Unfortunately, Qing Emperor's sons were a little disobedient. The First Prince had never been such an obedient person, and he had been able to resist for two years. But according to the news from Bao Yue Brothel, the palace was preparing to make this matter clear and take charge directly.
Fan Xian hugged his knees with a headache, feeling very annoyed. He had great opinions about the First Prince, thinking, "Since His Majesty is forcing you so hard, what are you afraid of temporarily agreeing to? Drag it out as long as you can. Do you have to wait for His Majesty to issue an imperial decree, and then you go to the palace to play a trick of rather dying than submitting?"
How can royal family members be qualified to be love saints? But the First Prince and the First Princess Consort, a couple who married for political reasons, do have a very good image of a long-lasting and mutually supportive relationship, which Fan Xian greatly admired and felt inferior to.
In addition to admiration, what gave Fan Xian a headache was that the intelligence from Bao Yue Brothel was vaguely worded, but secretly revealed a message: after discussing with Consort Ning, His Majesty the Emperor temporarily suppressed his anger and prepared to have Fan Xian return to Kyoto to persuade the First Prince to take a concubine.
It must be said that after the Kyoto rebellion and the deaths of the Crown Prince and the Second Prince, Qing Emperor's attitude towards his only three remaining sons was much gentler than in previous years. If it had been in the past, if the First Prince had dared to resist the imperial decree so stubbornly, he would have been imprisoned in the Wang mansion long ago. How could he still be able to endure his temper and let Fan Xian persuade him now?
The Emperor's secret decree was estimated to take some time to reach Fan Xian. The news received by Bao Yue Brothel was much faster. Fan Xian held his head, thinking, "What is this all about? When the Great Princess of Northern Qi traveled thousands of miles south to marry the First Prince, I served as the wedding envoy. Has it been four years, and I have to be the one to break up the marriage?"
As he had sighed before, the world is truly unpredictable.
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It was morning, and the sunlight that sprinkled from the east, passed through the lonely autumn trees in the Qingzhou military yamen, cutting into several large patches of clear light, shining clearly on the paper windows of the room. A maid passed by outside the window with a tray, casting a shadow on the window.
The shadow stood quietly beside Fan Xian, watching his worried face, without saying a word. This number one assassin in the world was accustomed to standing quietly behind Chen Pingping or Fan Xian, blending into the shadows of buildings or scenery. He had seen the troubles of the two previous masters of the Supervisory Council all the time, and still had not gotten used to talking to them or giving them advice, because his task was only to kill people, and did not include these pitiful things that required brains.
After returning from the grassland, Shadow took off his herdsman's clothes and returned to Fan Xian's side, as he had done in previous years, very quietly. But Fan Xian occasionally found that this number one assassin in the world would occasionally glance at Wang Shisanlang, who was recuperating in the courtyard, with a complex and strange look.
"I can't go back to Kyoto yet." Fan Xian knew that Shadow was not Yan Bingyun, not Deng Ziyue, and certainly not the talkative Wang Qinian. Waiting for him to speak was an impossible thing. He rubbed his brow and said, "First, the matter of Xiliang Road has not ended. Second, since there is no news from Kyoto, it is inappropriate for me to rush back like this."
"These are just small matters." Shadow knew that Commissioner Fan wanted to talk to him. After a slight pause, he said, "No need to worry too much."
Fan Xian shook his head and sighed, "It's not a small matter. You don't know that these men in the Lao Li family are more stubborn than the other. Take Chengqian and Lao Er, for example. They stubbornly died rather than bowing their heads to His Majesty. Although the First Prince is much more open-minded, he has the taste of the Dongyi people who love freedom in his bones. With His Majesty forcing him like this, who knows what kind of frightening response he will make."
Without waiting for Shadow to respond, Fan Xian continued with a melancholic face, "His Majesty, and even everyone in the court, seems to firmly believe in one thing, and that is that those who are not of our race must have different hearts... If it weren't for this, it wouldn't be the case that because the First Prince has half Dongyi blood, no one believes that he will inherit the throne. He himself has half Dongyi blood, and the Princess Consort he married is from Northern Qi. In the current situation, His Majesty wants him to abolish the Princess, which is actually a protection and reuse of him."
In the Kyoto rebellion, there were three great heroes: Fan Xian, Ye Zhong, and the First Prince. At that time, the First Prince held the Forbidden Army and controlled key points, but he resolutely executed His Majesty the Emperor's so-called posthumous edict, successfully controlling the situation of the rebellion within a range acceptable to Qing's national strength. Because of this, His Majesty the Emperor's attitude towards him has also changed greatly, no longer as indifferent as in previous years.
"To be precise, His Majesty the Emperor has a slight sense of indebtedness towards the First Prince." Fan Xian rubbed his aching brow and said softly, "So he wants to make up for the First Prince. And in terms of the First Prince's lifelong ambitions, the best compensation is of course to appoint him as the vanguard and let him conquer the north and south for Southern Qing, unifying the world, and shining on the battlefield... His Majesty has really decided to use him as the commander, which is why he must abolish the First Princess Consort."
Thinking of this, he also felt a little resentment towards His Majesty the Emperor. The First Princess Consort is the Great Princess of Northern Qi, which does have some impact on the First Prince serving as the commander of the Northern Expedition, but why use such an inferior palace intrigue method to solve it? This is not like the demeanor that a monarch should have, but like an old guy who is sulking with his son. He suddenly felt a shock in his heart and guessed: Could it be that the old emperor has not learned a lesson from his previous experiences and still maintains a strong suspicion, so he wants to use various means to eliminate these doubts in the bud?
Fan Xian's heart gradually cooled down, and he realized that he had made a mistake in the past few years. He had still underestimated His Majesty the Emperor's powerful desire for power, as well as the natural suspicion and coldness of being an emperor.
It is difficult to be a son, and it is even more difficult to be the son of an emperor. It is even more difficult to be the son of the Qing Emperor. Fan Xian let out a breath of turbid air, knowing that after he returned to Kyoto, he was afraid that he would be caught in a difficult situation between His Majesty and the First Prince, so he might as well not think about this problem for now.
But he was a little curious, wondering whose daughter His Majesty the Emperor had assigned to the First Prince as a concubine, and which princes and ministers were so unafraid of death as to send their daughters into the mouths of the First Princess Consort, this tigress, the First Prince, this male tiger, and Consort Ning, this old tigress in the palace.
After the Kyoto rebellion, considering Ning Cairen's meritorious service and also taking into account the First Prince's face, His Majesty the Emperor finally promoted her position and finally named him as a Noble Consort after more than twenty years. However, this Dongyi slave of the past, after becoming a Noble Consort, still did not change her past fiery temper, and was full of tigerishness.
The First Prince's family, that is the tiger forest ah.
In any case, it could not be Ruoruo. Fan Xian was confident about this. His Majesty the Emperor now had full trust and love for him, and he also knew that he had beaten Hongcheng into a generation of lechers for Ruoruo's marriage, so he would not use this to provoke him, so as to lose the big for the small.
Fan Xian stood up, pushed open the door, and welcomed the autumn scenery of the courtyard, no longer thinking about the vexing affairs in Kyoto. It was already late autumn, and the military yamen was full of clean and detached colors. The sky was extremely high, and the clouds were extremely pale, giving people a sense of openness and magnanimity at a glance.
Qingzhou City is close to Xihu and has the style of the grassland. Perhaps only in this kind of place can people cultivate a cheerful and bright mood, such as the First Prince, an outlier in the royal family, and Ye Ling'er, an outlier in this aristocracy.
Fan Xian smiled and looked at the young woman in the courtyard, thinking that the First Princess Consort's current situation was very difficult, but the Second Princess Consort seemed to have gradually broken free from the shadow of Lao Er's death. There are always some good things happening in the world.
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Wang Shisanlang's body recovered extremely quickly, and now he could sit in a wheelchair and wander around the Qingzhou military yamen. Because of Ye Ling'er's words, Fan Xian was too lazy to do those useless cover-up efforts, and he called a few maids to be responsible for pushing the cart, and also sent a few subordinates from the Sixth Division to follow and protect his safety.
In these ten days or so, Fan Xian was busy contacting the Dingzhou direction, commanding the entire counter-offensive operation on Xiliang Road, and also had to conduct private transactions with the grassland, so he was very busy and did not pay much attention to Wang Shisanlang's movements, but his eyes were not blind, and he also saw that this lonely and cold Qingzhou military yamen was gradually undergoing some changes due to Wang Shisanlang's awakening, and occasionally a hint of spring was revealed in the autumn garden.
When Wang Shisanlang was sitting in a wheelchair, resting occasionally in the garden, not far from him, there would be a young woman sitting, doing something else, such as embroidery, or pretending to be a silly goose watching the scenery.
And at that time, Wang Shisanlang would become a silly goose, staring blankly at the silly goose watching the scenery.
This pair of young men and women, except when they bumped into each other face to face, would greet each other, and did not say any idle words, just doing the role-playing in this silly way, wishing to crane their necks to sing to the sky, but fearing that their red palms would lightly stir, disturbing the innocent clear waves.
Fan Xian was the little ancestor of the Supervisory Council, and Ye Ling'er was the little ancestor of Qingzhou City. With her order, she no longer went out of the city every day to intercept the Huren who were grazing out of the grassland as she had done in the past year, but stayed in the military yamen honestly, and all the old subordinates in the military yamen were driven out, leaving only servants and maids.
So, there is now an extra scenery in the small garden of the Qingzhou military yamen, which is the two silly geese that Fan Xian smiled to himself. If you use more beautiful words, it would be the sentence what scenery, what people in the scenery, and what people watching the scenery.
For two people who admire each other, each other is the scenery of the other, right?
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What kind of woman Ye Ling'er was, Fan Xian, as her master, of course knew very well. Sometimes he asked himself, if he were a woman, he would probably be shocked and engraved in his heart by Wang Shisanlang's frontal thirty-eight knife scars, let alone that Shisanlang was a silent, gentle, and handsome person. How could such a person not move the heart of Ye Ling'er, who was born in the army?
Although Ye Ling'er's identity was a bit troublesome, Fan Xian was not worried about this. His Majesty the Emperor had secretly issued an imperial decree two years ago, allowing Ye Ling'er to remarry and choose her own husband. This was a great favor. As long as the person she liked, the Southern Qing court would probably snatch him over for her.
The problem now is Wang Shisanlang's identity. Although he secretly does things for the Supervisory Council and His Majesty the Emperor also secretly knows about this, he is, after all, the closed disciple of Si Gu Jian and the thirteenth apprentice of the Jianlu in Dongyi City. Ye Ling'er was once the Second Princess Consort, but she is going to marry a master from Dongyi City. I don't know if she can get through this hurdle in the palace.
Of course, if Dongyi City can completely lean towards Qing under his leadership, then these obstacles will no longer exist. Fan Xian decided to do his best in this matter, which can also be regarded as compensating this pitiful young woman for the Emperor and Ye Zhong.
But there is one problem.
Fan Xian looked at the two people in the garden with amusement, and touched his nose, thinking that these two people were currently in a wonderful state, and someone always had to expose it, and the most crucial thing was, Ye Ling'er's love for Wang Shisanlang was not surprising, what was Wang Shisanlang's heart really thinking? No matter how noble Ye Ling'er's identity was, she was still a real little widow after all.
He knew why Wang Shisanlang was attracted to Ye Ling'er's profile, because that profile was very lonely, but Fan Xian knew that the real Ye Ling'er was not like this.
Especially... embroidery.
Fan Xian shivered. Ye Ling'er actually embroidered and pretended to be delicate in front of Wang Shisanlang. If this matter was reported back to Kyoto and reached Wan'er's ears, it would probably make his wife laugh to death.
He decided to tell Wang Shisanlang the real Ye Ling'er, so as to prevent his very admired young friend from discovering after marriage that his life was actually a huge misunderstanding.
Just as Fan Xian walked down the stone steps, preparing to disturb the two young men and women who were "disregarding others," Shadow behind the door softly said a word, and he immediately stopped.
These days, Shadow had been carefully hiding his tracks, so as not to be discovered by Wang Shisanlang. Fan Xian knew the complex relationship between Shadow and Jianlu, and he also knew Shadow's true identity, which must not be known to anyone. Si Gu Jian and Shadow had an irreconcilable hatred. At this time, watching Si Gu Jian's most beloved youngest apprentice in the autumn garden, Shadow's mood was not as pleasant as the men and women in the garden.
After a while, Fan Xian said, "We'll go again next spring. He won't die so soon."
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(Successfully narrowed the gap with the fourth place to within fifty votes, thank you, sincerely continue to ask for monthly tickets. This chapter's scenery is to praise His Highness, appreciate Shisanlang and Ye Ling'er's youthfulness, as for Shadow, he of course wants to kill Si Gu Jian, if he doesn't kill him again, he's afraid it will be too late, they are all beans, poor people ah, recently the body is very bad, so the written words deliberately went to the happy place, I hope everyone has a happy time, His Highness's matter is not troublesome to solve, the troublesome thing is further behind.)