The Crown Prince led the hundred officials to pray for rain, but the rain in Yong City still did not fall. Jiang Qingshan ran about everywhere raising grain, Liang Dishan was still auditing the accounts of Chuancheng. Helian Hou was terrified; after Han Cheng’s death he fell gravely ill, and these past few days he did not even dare step out the door.
“These accounts can’t be glossed over,” Helian Hou lay in bed sighing. “And the Empress Dowager is confined in the deep palace—Heaven is going to destroy my Fei clan!”
The young marquis, Fei Shi, had been frightened by Li Jianting at the banquet that day and did not dare run around anymore. He stayed by his father’s side and complained, “Why did you embezzle so much? Such a huge sum—now even if we want to fill the hole, we can’t.”
“How can you blame me? Who was I doing it for?” Helian Hou shed old tears, barely propping himself up as he pointed at Fei Shi. “If you had shown any promise, why would I have needed to beg others like that? Look at you—no learning, no martial skill, inheriting the title just to idle and wait for death. If I didn’t pull some strings, what would become of our Fei clan in the future?”
“Yes, yes, yes,” Fei Shi, hearing his father’s breath grow labored, hurriedly helped him lie back down. “I’m a fool, I’m useless—just don’t get so angry you faint.”
Helian Hou clutched his chest to steady himself, tears soaking the pillow. “If they confiscate the family… I don’t even dare think…”
Princess Zhaoyue held her child, a white flower pinned at her temple. After her divorce she had stayed at home; upon hearing of the Pan clan’s misfortune, she had grown much more haggard. She handed the child to the wet nurse and signaled for the attendants to withdraw.
“If you had known it would come to this, why do it in the first place?” Princess Zhaoyue’s apricot eyes were slightly red. “These accounts have killed so many people.”
“True, these accounts have indeed killed people,” Helian Hou lamented. “But without them, how could you have married into the Pan clan? Your honor today was given by these accounts. When the Hua family was at its peak, Hua Siqian wielded power across the court. We lived at others’ mercy and had no choice but to board the pirate ship. After Hua Siqian died, I hoped that Shi’er could at least secure an official post, at least have a voice in court—but he idles about all day. I had no choice.”
The Fei clan of Chuancheng had few descendants; in the main line there was only Fei Shi. If Helian Hou did not plan ahead, they would become the next Xue clan. But even though the Xue clan had declined, they still produced a Xue Xiuzhuo. In contrast, the Fei clan truly had no one.
Thinking of this, Helian Hou struggled up again and asked, “What was the name of that child who once served in the Embroidered Uniform Guard?”
Fei Shi said, “You mean Fei Sheng?”
“Yes, yes! Fei Sheng,” Helian Hou said. “He could inherit his father’s post because I backed him. When Han Cheng promoted him back then, it was also for my sake. Later he followed Xiao Chiye, and now he serves Shen Zechuan in Zhongbo.”
Fei Shi’s expression changed. “That’s a rebel faction! Being connected to him will get us beheaded.”
“This hole is too big to fill,” Helian Hou raised his voice. “Not only will they confiscate our property and strip our title, they might even execute us. Look at the Pan clan—how many are still alive? Even if exiled, they’d die halfway there.” The more he spoke, the colder his heart became. “We might as well defect to Zhongbo… even Tao Ming of Huaizhou ran…”
Fei Shi sat there in a daze. Born into wealth, a young marquis, always a subject of Great Zhou—suddenly being asked to consort with rebels felt absurd and laughable. After a long silence, he said, “No. How can I be a servant of three surnames? Chengzhi never betrayed the country even in death; he was my closest friend. I cannot do such a disloyal and unrighteous thing. Besides, Shen Zechuan is sinister and hard to deal with, and Fei Sheng is greedy for fame and power… no.”
“With disaster at our doorstep, who cares about loyalty?” Helian Hou said bitterly. “What you should learn, you don’t learn—you’ve instead picked up all of Pan Lin’s sour airs!”
“Anyway, I’m not leaving,” Fei Shi stood up. “You’re still a marquis. I don’t believe the Grand Secretariat truly dares act.”
“What is there they wouldn’t dare?” Princess Zhaoyue wiped her tears. “Without the Empress Dowager, if the Crown Prince proceeds according to law and the Grand Secretariat’s票子 comes down, confiscation and execution can happen in a single night.” Thinking of Pan Yi, she covered her face and wept. “That’s how the Pan clan was taken.”
“Look at your sister—she still has a child,” Helian Hou wept as well. “Can you bear to watch your old father be executed, your elder sister exiled, the whole family turned into mounds in a mass grave?”
“But fleeing won’t work either,” Princess Zhaoyue raised her head and wiped her tears clean. “Shi’er is right. Back when Fei Sheng was in the Embroidered Uniform Guard, he was already adept at scheming, greedy for fame and power. Without benefits, he won’t be moved. Father, listen to me—right now Yong City is in drought, Jiang Qingshan is raising grain in Qudu, and Tao Ming of Huaizhou has fled. The court is in difficulty. Why not sell off the estates at home and use that money to procure grain for the court?”
Helian Hou said, “But right now there’s no grain anywhere. Even with money, I’m afraid we can’t obtain any.”
“From whoever Father sold the grain to before, buy it back from them,” Princess Zhaoyue tucked away her handkerchief. “As for the path through Fei Sheng, if we truly need it in the future, we’ll consider it then.”
A few days later, the ice basins in Mingli Hall were replaced. Li Jianting was reading memorials. Fuman bent at the side, lightly fanning the Crown Prince.
“Your Highness has been looking for an hour,” Fuman said softly. “Please rest a bit.”
Li Jianting closed the memorial and had not yet spoken when Fuman turned and called outside, “Bring up the chilled sour plum soup—Your Highness, the weather is hot. Drink some to reduce heat and cool down.”
Fuman had recently gained favor. Li Jianting seemed still angry with Fengquan, so only Fuman remained at her side. Fuman was in high spirits. In the past, he would never have dared make decisions for the Crown Prince, but after several tests, seeing that she did not rebuke him, he grew bolder.
As Li Jianting wiped her hands, Fuman tidied the desk for her. Seeing him arrange the memorials one by one, sorting them by region and department, she asked, “Why are Ming Cang’s memorials placed together with the Grand Secretary’s? I recall they are not from the same hometown.”
“Your Highness may not know—they are teacher and student,” Fuman said with a broad smile. “Lord Ming’s promotion was due to the Grand Secretary’s recommendation.”
Kong Qiu, as Grand Secretary, had evaluated countless officials during inspections; by convention, those officials could all call him “teacher.” Li Jianting had only recently taken over governance and indeed did not know. With the various departments so complex, such matters were hard to remember without deliberate attention.
Fuman was now merely serving before the throne, but once the Crown Prince ascended, he might become a brush-holding eunuch—one who could hold the vermilion brush for the emperor. But Li Jianting was not the Xiande Emperor; she personally handled governance and was in her prime. She had no need for eunuchs to manage such key affairs. For Fuman to have all these relationships memorized so thoroughly showed his ambition.
Li Jianting understood and said, “You know better than I do.”
Fuman was momentarily startled, then quickly responded, “This servant does not handle affairs of the outer court. It was only that the Grand Secretary mentioned it once in the office of duty, and this servant remembered it while serving at the side.”
“A good thing,” Li Jianting said gently, smiling. “I can’t remember clearly. In the future I’ll have to rely on your reminders.”
While collecting the bowls, Fuman stole a glance at Li Jianting. Seeing her expression unchanged and her tone as mild as usual, he finally relaxed and said, “For this servant to share Your Highness’s burdens is the fortune of three lifetimes.”
“Have the gentlemen arrived?” Li Jianting said. “If they have, let them enter.”
Kong Qiu, Xue Xiuzhuo, and the others, who had just arrived outside Mingli Hall, were summoned in. They all knelt and bowed. “This臣等 pay respects to Your Highness.”
“All of you gentlemen are my teachers,” Li Jianting signaled Fuman to help Kong Qiu up. “Grand Secretary entering the hall—why such ceremony? I should be the one paying student’s respects.”
Kong Qiu took his seat and said with a smile, “Your Highness is no longer as before; there is no need to observe teacher-student etiquette. Mingli Hall is a place for handling state affairs. Here there are only ruler and ministers; this臣 does not dare overstep.”
Li Jianting examined Kong Qiu and could not help but smile. “There is good news today.”
Kong Qiu was usually stern and composed, rarely showing such delight. Sure enough, the next moment he said, “This morning I heard Jiang Qingshan report that the relief grain for Yong City has already been fully gathered.”
“So quickly?” Li Jianting was overjoyed. “Was it borrowed from Hezhou?”
“It was Helian Hou,” Kong Qiu said, his smile slightly restrained. “Knowing that there were errors in the field taxes, in order to receive lenient punishment from Your Highness, he sold off his estates, raised the grain himself, and relieved the people of Yong City.”
The Chuancheng tax case was an unspoken matter among those in the hall. The court wanted to recover the deficit and also remeasure good fields to return them to the people. Helian Hou would inevitably bear responsibility, but by doing this, the Grand Secretariat would have to consider mitigation.
“As the saying goes, the law does not tolerate sentiment. Your Highness must not let petty men harbor luck,” Xue Xiuzhuo knelt and said, “In my view, although Helian Hou prepared grain for Yong City, he must still be dealt with according to the law.”
Cen Yu was an old minister, and a commoner-born one at that, yet at this moment he wanted to protect Helian Hou—for Li Jianting’s sake. Helian Hou’s procurement of grain for disaster relief would earn him a benevolent reputation in Yong City. If Li Jianting insisted on confiscating his entire family, then for the remaining noble families still watching, there would be only one path left—to fight to the death.
As early as the investigation of Dancheng’s accounts, Cen Yu had repeatedly urged Kong Qiu to slow down. Now Duanzhou had won a great victory, and the six prefectures were all under Shen Zechuan’s command. Once Libei stabilized the war, the next target would be Qudu. As the saying goes, dripping water wears through stone. Since the noble families were a deep-rooted illness, it could not be rushed; otherwise it would injure the vital organs, leaving no strength to deal with Zhongbo. Moreover, remeasuring farmland in Dancheng would require rechecking the Yellow Registers. If the court wished to focus on treatment, it must do so without external threats.
“In the Xiande era, the court left them room, yet the eight cities only worsened matters, which led to the trafficking of official grain,” Xue Xiuzhuo said. “If we do not kill the chicken to warn the monkeys, how can we make them afraid?”
“Now the state is in peril,” Cen Yu also knelt. “Libei and Zhongbo have successively rebelled; the rebel factions gather in the rivers and fields. Shen Zechuan—”
Cen Yu raised his head and spoke earnestly, “The strong medicine has already been administered. Pan, Han, Hua, Wei have all collapsed. The noble families’ restraints are far weaker than before. At this moment, if external threats are not removed, it will become a great disaster. Your Highness, governing a great state is like cooking a small fish!”
Li Jianting fell into silent thought.
Outside the hall, heat waves rolled; the stillness was oppressive. After a long while, a young eunuch, face hurried, rushed to the front of the hall and whispered something into Fengquan’s ear.
“Your Highness!” The bead curtain swayed chaotically as Fengquan said, “The Empress Dowager is critically ill!”
Everyone in the hall changed expression.