Jing Chen directly admitted to Ma Zhuo's identity; the latter indeed had been his reading companion during his childhood. When the Zhuo family was convicted, he was also exiled. Originally, due to Jing Chen's pleas, he could have been allowed to remain, but thinking of how his family was full of old and weak women and children who needed him to take care of them, he declined the prince's kindness and went to the remote place which they had been exiled to.
Mu Hanzhang confirmed Ma Zhuo's status, and his good impression of him immediately rose.
Jing Chen's reading companion had been Zhuo Yunji, the eldest son of Minister Zhuo. It was rumored that he was highly intelligent and could recite text he had only seen once. Before the Zhuo family incident, the teacher of the Mu family had often mentioned him.
"How can he be as awesome as the rumors?" Jing Chen shook his head helplessly. Ma Zhuo was just a good talker and had been able to win over their teacher, which was why the latter praised him a bit in public. The teacher of the Mu family was taught by a teacher at Taixue, so when it came to his beloved teacher, he naturally exaggerated his teacher's words.
"That's right, he can't recite something he's only seen once!" Jing Shao echoed. When he was a child, he had once caught Zhuo Yunji copying the book he needed to memorize onto his hand. The rascal gave him a handful of candy and asked him not to tell anyone.
Mu Hanzhang heard this and laughed, then switched to talking about what had happened in court recently. "The eldest prince wishes to return to court, but the letter requesting this is still on the way." During this period of time, it was only when he was helping Jing Chen manage part of his affairs that he found out how powerful he was and how wide his reach extended.
Jing Chen took a sip of tea and looked at Jing Shao. "What do you think?"
Jing Shao frowned. Before the southern barbarian rebellion was even quelled, Jing Rong, that soft and weak idiot, wanted to come back with his tail between his legs. If this wasn't taken care of, the responsibility would fall on Jing Shao. "He's not afraid of losing face and we can't stop him, but Imperial Father will never give up on the Yunnan-Tibet region... No matter what, I'm not going."
"I didn't say you have to go." Jing Chen stared at him, then turned to look at Mu Hanzhang, and asked him what he thought.
"We can send someone else." Mu Hanzhang slowly rubbed the rim of his cup. The eldest prince wanted to come back. They couldn't stop the letter from arriving. Everything depended on the emperor's intentions.
"Who?" Jing Chen had some people in mind, but he still wanted to hear their opinions.
"It is most suitable for the Count of Yongchang to go; maybe he can even be granted a marquis title." Jing Shao sneered. Didn't the Countess of Yongchang hate that his Wang Fei had been conferred as a marquis? Then let her husband go to the battlefield in search of a marquis title. kOaxQ6
A few days later, a letter from the eldest prince Jing Rong requesting to return was passed on to Emperor Hong Zheng.
"Useless!" Emperor Hong Zheng threw the letter to the ground in front of the whole court.
"Your Majesty, the southern barbarians have become arrogant recently. If we suddenly withdraw our troops, it might be interpreted as fear and boost their arrogance. It will become even harder to deal with them in the future," the Minister of War said worriedly.
Since the death of the old prime minister, Emperor Hong Zheng hadn't appointed a prime minister all these years. He assigned the prime minister's duties to six ministers, with the princes, dukes and marquis in charge and official positions given to the rest of the nobility. Any miscellaneous duties unaccounted for were directly assigned to the ministers. Hence, the six ministers had a lot of weight when they spoke in court.
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Sure enough, when Minister Sun said this, people
echoed him one after the other.
"Imperial Father!" Jing Yu, the fourth prince, suddenly stepped forth and bowed. "Erchen heard that Eldest Imperial Brother is suffering from the poor air and miasma in Yunnan-Tibet. He has been ill for more than a month. The weather is now getting hotter, and there are more and more snakes, insects, rats and ants in Yunnan-Tibet, which will be very bad for Imperial Brother's health. Imperial Brother is now earnestly giving up the chance to do meritorious service, but only because his body cannot endure anymore!"
The fourth prince's words were very emotional, as if he really was deeply concerned for his brother.
Emperor Hong Zheng was very satisfied with the
fourth prince's demonstration of concern for his
elder brother, and the severe expression in his
eyes softened slightly.
Jing Chen looked at the fourth prince, who was almost in tears. His eyes were deep. When he was in Jiangnan, Gu Huaiqing showed him the letters sent by the imperial court. The imperial court's intent to withdraw the vassal status was becoming more and more obvious. The song that the eldest prince and Jing Yu were currently singing had to have something to do with the situation in Huainan. He couldn't help sneering in his heart. When a good opportunity arose, they could just give up the bad one. How could there be such a free thing in the world?
Jing Shao snuck a look at his Wang Fei. Mu Hanzhang indicated for him not to speak, so he lowered his head and said nothing.
Emperor Hong Zheng was just silent as he listened to the ministers quarreling about the matter. Generally speaking, one side felt that the southern bandits were just a small group who weren't worth spending too much time on. The other side felt that the overall situation was important, and the prince would lose great face to flee just before battle. Hearing the word "flee," Emperor Hong Zheng frowned again.
Jing Chen stepped forward after everyone was done making a ruckus. He picked up the memorial which had been thrown down the steps, carefully read the content, gently lifted the hem of his robe, knelt down and said, "Addressing Imperial Father; after reading this memorial, it seems that Eldest Brother truly doesn't seem well. Erchen sincerely requests that Imperial Father allow him to return to the capital."
The fourth prince's eyes widened abruptly. He couldn't believe Jing Chen's reaction. He quickly thought about his motive. He glanced at Jing Shao out of the corner of his eye, but he wasn't speaking. He then realized that Rui Wang wanted to take the lead and recommend someone to plug this gap to prevent Jing Shao from being sent to Yunnan-Tibet. He sneered; how could he just let them do what they wanted?
"Your Majesty, the eldest prince should naturally return to the capital, but the southern barbarian rebellion has not been quelled, so we need to send a person who is capable of using troops to take command and resolve this situation as quickly as possible," Duke Mao quickly stepped forth and said.
"Yes, your majesty. Chen thinks..." The Count of Yongchang stepped forth to speak, but the North Marquis snatched the opportunity to get the first word in on the subject. "Chen thinks that the Count of Yongchang is the most suitable."
The Count of Yongchang immediately stared with big eyes; he didn't expect Mu Jin, who ordinarily had few words to say, to suddenly push him forward.
"Chen is soft-spoken, and not intimidating enough in the face of the southern barbarians," the Count of Yongchang quickly said. Before the campaign had been approved last year, he had already wrangled using this. It was best for a prince to lead the charge against the southern barbarians.
Emperor Hong Zheng heard this, and thought of the noise the Countess of Yongchang had been making before the Empress Dowager. He was suddenly unhappy. He turned to look right at his son who was standing so straight that he was about to become one with the coiled dragon pillar behind him, and asked, "Jing Shao, what do you think?"
