Chapter 645: - Kneel

Prince Cheng Residence had crossed the line itself.

Settling accounts after autumn and killing the donkey once the grinding was done were old traditions. It would have been the same even if the people governing this place were not Yan, but Qian or Chu. Once the external threat had been dealt with, the authorities would inevitably turn inward to purge and reorganize, seeking long-term peace and stability.

Besides, Prince Cheng Residence was hardly spotless as a lotus. The facts had already proven that the residence was not clean.

But the moment Wenren Minjun revealed her clan crest, smiling as she spoke of the child in her belly and even repeated words exchanged in the bedchamber, everything became irreversible.

The line had been crossed.

Once it was crossed, Situ Yu was left exhausted and helpless, while the two greatest figures now in Yingdu, the Marquis and the Prefect, were freed from the restraints that had bound them before.

What they had previously respected was the face Situ Lei had left behind, the face the Emperor of Yan wished to give him. But there was a prerequisite: Prince Cheng Residence had to respect that face too.

If you destroyed the rules of the game yourself, then do not blame the Yan for ending the game.

Ending the bloodline was not merely a threat.

The fact that Marquis Zheng had torn away all pretense and said those words directly to the current Prince Cheng already made his attitude clear.

Whether Wenren Minjun was a fool, whether she was truly innocent and naive, she could not deceive Zheng Fan or Xu Wenzu.

This woman was definitely not simple.

There was a very high chance she had deliberately chosen the most appropriate moment to blow herself up and drag Prince Cheng Residence into the abyss with her.

The truth behind that could be excavated later. Right now, the problem that had to be dealt with was Prince Cheng Residence itself.

Marquis Zheng took out his iron case, removed a cigarette, and put it between his lips.

He Chunlai stepped forward with a fire striker and lit it for him.

Rumor had it that Marquis Zheng had once been wounded during his campaigns north and south, leaving cold poison trapped inside his body. He therefore needed to use tobacco to fight poison with poison and ease the symptoms, which was why he had to smoke one from time to time.

Fengxin City even had a tobacco shop run exclusively by the Marquis Residence that sold these cigarettes. The price was high, but sales had remained extremely brisk.

It had made Marquis Zheng realize that even in this age, a Marquis Residence Tobacco Bureau was still a genuine river of profit.

He exhaled a smoke ring and crossed one leg over the other. Amid the curling haze, he found that he did not particularly want to think too deeply.

Too many things had happened tonight, one after another. He was tired.

More importantly, there had been a fork in the road ahead of him, and whether he chose the left path or the right, it seemed both routes lay within that person’s calculations.

If he had taken the left path and helped loosen Prince Cheng Residence’s restraints, then perhaps what awaited him after he went to Yanjing would have been a storm of accusations and attacks.

So he had chosen the right.

And Prince Cheng Residence had collapsed before his eyes, one block after another, then whole sections at a time.

Looking at Wenren Minjun now, Zheng Fan could not help thinking of Dujuan from years ago.

Could this be the work of the same person?

If it was, that was fine too.

You are in Yanjing, are you not?

The atmosphere inside the discussion hall had plunged directly to freezing after Marquis Pingxi’s words about “ending the bloodline.”

At that moment, the pearl curtain was lifted and the Queen Mother walked out.

She went to Wenren Minjun.

Wenren Minjun was still smiling. Perhaps because she had been smiling for too long, the expression had inevitably grown somewhat stiff.

The Queen Mother was smiling too.

She reached out, took Wenren Minjun’s hand, and patted it gently.

“Truthfully, this Dowager knew long ago that the Prince had hidden you inside the residence.”

Wenren Minjun nodded. “This concubine also understood that the Queen Mother knew about me.”

“The reason this Dowager never made an issue of it is that my son has suffered too much. His father cared only about campaigning north and south and accomplishing great undertakings. He was almost never at his side. Later, my son became emperor, then ruler of a state, and finally a Prince. From beginning to end, the ministers and powerful men around him merely pushed him wherever they wanted him to go. Put plainly, my son has always been their puppet on strings. My son has lived bitterly. The older he grows, the more he understands, and the more deeply he feels that bitterness. So this Dowager knew about you, and knew your identity. This Dowager was not thinking about some Wenren remnant. This Dowager has never dreamed of restoring any former glory. I merely thought that my son deserved to be willful once in his life. Since my son likes you, this Dowager accepts you.”

Then the Queen Mother looked toward Zheng Fan, who sat there smoking.

“Did Marquis not also seize a Princess of Chu and bring her home as a wife? What is wrong with my son taking a woman of the Wenren family as a concubine?”

Zheng Fan said nothing.

Xu Wenzu pointed at Situ Yu.

“Him? He thinks he is worthy of being compared with Marquis Pingxi?”

Xu Wenzu did not know the phrase “switching concepts,” but his answer was far more direct and ruthless.

The Queen Mother did not grow angry. She merely looked affectionately at her child and reached out to caress Situ Yu’s face.

“Why is my son not worthy? This Dowager believes he is. If the late Emperor were still alive, would it not be perfectly natural for my son to marry an imperial princess of Chu? Would he have fallen so far that if he wished to marry some noblewoman from the Ji imperial clan, he would first have to see whether the Ji family was in the mood to permit it?”

Xu Wenzu said, “The late Emperor of Cheng is gone. Cheng State has long since ceased to exist as well.”

The Queen Mother seemed unconcerned. “She is only one woman of the Wenren family, and there is only one child in her belly. This Dowager refuses to believe that you, Prefect, and you, Marquis, failed to understand what the girl just said. She actually claimed that the Wenren family finally had a descendant again. But the child’s father is surnamed Situ. Naturally it is a descendant of the Situ family. How could it count as a child of the Wenren family? This Dowager does not know why she chose to do this. My son treated her extremely well. Perhaps she has troubles of her own. Marquis, Prefect, what do you think?”

The Queen Mother looked at Wenren Minjun with pity, then lowered her gaze toward the young woman’s belly.

Her grandson might be inside.

Marquis Zheng tossed the cigarette onto the floor, rose, and ground it beneath his boot.

Then he slowly walked forward.

He did not answer the Queen Mother.

He simply stopped in front of Situ Yu.

Situ Yu looked at Zheng Fan.

Zheng Fan raised his hand.

Smack!

The slap landed solidly across Situ Yu’s face.

He had held back very little.

A bright red handprint immediately appeared across Situ Yu’s right cheek. The corner of his mouth split and began to bleed, while his body trembled.

Not from anger.

From fear.

When a Marquis who had once led thousands upon thousands of troops into charging slaughter, and who still commanded thousands upon thousands now, stood in front of you and slapped you across the face, anger?

There was no such thing.

Grievance, exhaustion, confusion, all those somewhat self-indulgent emotions vanished in an instant.

Only the purest, most primitive fear remained.

“Come down,” Marquis Zheng said.

Situ Yu rose shakily, both hands clutching his right cheek as he slowly moved away from the throne.

Perhaps Marquis Zheng thought he was moving too slowly.

He reached out and seized Situ Yu by the back of the neck.

That spot was one of the softest parts of the human body. When someone with sufficient strength clamped down there, it was almost like gripping a snake at its vital point. The pain, numbness, and spasms were unbearable to an ordinary person.

“Aaah...”

Situ Yu cried out in agony.

Marquis Zheng swung his arm and threw him onto the steps.

The Queen Mother rushed forward and shielded her child.

But she did not dare look at the Marquis.

She had not dared before.

Now, she dared even less.

Marquis Zheng turned around and sat down on the throne himself.

“He has suffered greatly?”

Marquis Zheng asked.

“This Marquis has always believed that once a man has enough to eat, a place to sleep, and no fear of freezing or starving, claiming that he suffers is already a little shameless. The child is his. He suffers so much, does he? If he had not untied his belt and gone looking for pleasure, did this child fall out of the sky? If you are going to live as a human being, then be honest about it. Stop acting as though the whole world has wronged you. Outside Fengxin City, how many refugees spent this winter, spring, and summer surviving on nothing but potato gruel? Outside Yingdu, no one even knows how many people freeze or starve to death every day. And yet the Prince of Yingdu and his Queen Mother sit here saying how bitter his life is, how even brocade robes and jade meals cannot fill the bitterness in his heart. Where is your shame?”

Situ Yu’s face alternated between green and white.

The Queen Mother opened her mouth. Her lips trembled, but she no longer dared make a sound.

The smile on Wenren Minjun’s face gradually faded as well.

First, she had already laughed enough.

Second, once this Marquis of Great Yan tore away every disguise and brazenly sat himself on the throne, she no longer dared continue smiling.

“Great Yan believes in reason. This Marquis rose from an ordinary commoner to the position of Marquis. That alone is the finest proof that Great Yan has its principles. Otherwise, there would never have been a Marquis Zheng today. It is true that the late Emperor of Cheng left an extremely rich legacy of goodwill for his descendants. But if those descendants insist on courting death with everything they have, no legacy, however rich, can withstand it. Great Yan’s principle is very simple. Those who submit to Great Yan shall prosper. Those who oppose Great Yan shall perish. Situ Yu, you chose this road yourself. You will bear the consequences yourself.”

Hearing the ice beneath his words, the Queen Mother hugged her son and painfully forced herself to gather enough courage to raise her head.

She looked at Zheng Fan.

“Marquis, he is still only a child.”

“The Queen Mother can go outside the city and count how many children younger than your son freeze and starve to death every day before saying that again. Besides, your son is already becoming a father. Can he still be called a child?”

Marquis Zheng crooked a finger at Situ Yu, signaling for him to come over.

Situ Yu did not dare move.

The Queen Mother did not let go either.

Marquis Zheng smiled.

Two well-trained personal guards in Flying Fish Robes stepped forward, seized Situ Yu by the shoulders without the slightest hesitation, dragged him out of the Queen Mother’s arms, and brought him before their Marquis on the throne.

Marquis Zheng tilted his head slightly and looked at Situ Yu.

“A child?”

Situ Yu stood there in a daze.

His right cheek suddenly hurt even more.

“Heh. A child.”

Marquis Zheng laughed.

As he laughed, he raised one foot and kicked Situ Yu directly in the stomach.

Situ Yu was sent tumbling down the steps.

The Queen Mother’s maternal instincts erupted completely.

Almost hoarse with desperation, she shouted at Marquis Pingxi:

“Marquis! His surname is Situ!”

Marquis Zheng looked at the Queen Mother and spoke one word at a time.

“How did the brothers Situ Yi and Situ Jiong die?”

The hall fell silent again.

Everyone beneath Heaven knew that the puppet-emperor Situ Yi and his younger brother Situ Jiong, the two elder brothers of Situ Lei and the eldest and second uncles of Situ Yu, had been captured when the current Marquis Zheng breached their city.

And then drowned in shit and piss.

So what if your surname was Situ?

Among the people present, Marquis Zheng was not even the only man who had killed a true direct descendant of the Situ line.

Marquis Zheng had killed your eldest and second uncles.

There was another man who had killed your own grandfather.

“Must Marquis Pingxi truly leave not even a shred of dignity? Must you humiliate people like this?” the Queen Mother asked through tears.

“We gave you dignity.”

Zheng Fan lifted his head.

“But did you ever give Great Yan any dignity?”

Then Zheng Fan took out a command token from his robes.

He hesitated for a moment.

Instead of tossing it to He Chunlai, he threw it toward Gou Moli.

“Pass down this Marquis’s order. Mobilize the South Gate Camp and bring its troops into the city!”

Gou Moli caught the token and immediately saluted.

“Yes!”

The army was entering the city.

Until now, Zheng Fan, Xu Wenzu, and even Prince Cheng Residence itself had all tried their utmost to avoid this. An army entering the city signified that the nature of the incident had changed, and none of them had wanted the affair to transform into something more serious.

But the problem was that its nature had already changed.

So now the army had to enter Yingdu, both to maintain control and to settle people’s hearts.

Most importantly, everyone knew that the true strength of Prince Cheng Residence extended far beyond those registered guards.

Only with overwhelming force in hand could they stop worrying about a counterattack from the residence’s hidden power during what came next.

And only that force could deter all the lesser vermin watching from the shadows.

Gou Moli took the command token and left to mobilize troops.

Zheng Fan continued issuing orders.

“Summon Sun Youdao, former Grand Tutor of Cheng, to Prince Cheng Residence for deliberations.”

“Yes!”

A personal guard accepted the order and left.

“Send strict orders to the North Gate, East Gate, and West Gate Camps. Maintain the highest vigilance. No unauthorized movement!”

One camp entering the city would be enough to stabilize the situation.

There was no need to move the other three.

More importantly, they had to be prevented from stirring.

“Summon every official in Yingdu of Fifth Rank and above, together with the heads of every yamen, to the Prefectural Yamen and have them wait there!”

“Yes!”

“Close all four gates of Yingdu except the South Gate immediately. Anyone who dares open a city gate without authorization, whether the gate commander or the guards on duty, is to be charged with treason!”

“Yes!”

After making these arrangements, Zheng Fan looked toward Xu Wenzu.

He had, to some extent, overstepped the Prefect’s authority.

Xu Wenzu merely nodded, indicating that he understood.

At a moment like this, with Marquis Pingxi present, the situation naturally ought to be controlled by Marquis Pingxi. His identity and standing were the best possible way to suppress any thoughts certain people might otherwise entertain.

Xu Wenzu would not imagine that Zheng Fan was trying to seize authority from him.

This was not the time to think about struggles over power.

With Zheng Fan here, Xu Wenzu genuinely felt secure.

At minimum, the situation would not descend into chaos.

Put another way, if Marquis Zheng tried to hide his light and bide his time at a moment like this, or continued worrying about this person and that consideration, that would instead amount to dereliction of duty.

Gou Moli had once speculated that they seemed to have fallen into someone’s trap. If the Marquis Residence had been too eager to loosen Prince Cheng Residence’s restraints, then in the eyes of certain people in Yanjing, it would have revealed their intentions too plainly.

In reality, with Marquis Zheng’s present status, there were not many people or matters he truly feared.

And he also understood how those three men would view a matter like this.

If you acted entirely for the public good, sat in your proper position, did what that position required, and considered everything from the standpoint of Great Yan, then those three would see it clearly.

And they absolutely would not blame you.

Perhaps that was the thing Zheng Fan found most comfortable about Great Yan.

He pointed at Wenren Minjun.

“Take her away. Guard her strictly. Without this Marquis’s permission, she is not to come into contact with anyone else.”

Two personal guards stepped forward and seized Wenren Minjun.

Marquis Zheng’s gaze then fell on the Sword Saint.

This woman was critical.

Zheng Fan hoped to learn from her the true identity of the person behind the scenes.

He trusted no one else to guard her.

Only the Sword Saint.

The Sword Saint did not make a fuss about it.

He rose and followed the guards out.

Zheng Fan finally felt somewhat reassured.

Then he continued giving orders.

“In addition, arrest every servant in Prince Cheng Residence, including the eunuchs, palace maids, and household servants. Check their identities one by one, thoroughly. Order the Secret Intelligence Department to assist. And tell the head of the Secret Intelligence Department branch in Yingdu that he cannot escape a charge of dereliction of duty in this affair. If he cannot redeem himself through merit, there is no need to report it to the court. This Marquis will personally take his head and sacrifice it to the banner!”

“Yes!”

Order after order was passed down.

The only matter on which Zheng Fan gave no public command was Gong Wang’s troops.

First, on the very night Xu Wenzu had warned him, Zheng Fan had already sent a messenger to Gongsun Zhi’s command and ordered him to keep watch on Gong Wang’s men for the time being.

At the same time, he had sent a letter to the Blind Man in Fengxin City and informed him of the situation.

Second, Gong Wang was an internal affair of the Marquis Residence.

It needed to be dealt with personally by Marquis Zheng.

The Wenren Minjun affair was already serious enough.

Adding Gong Wang publicly would not make it much more serious, and exposing the matter would instead damage the prestige of the Marquis Residence by making it appear incapable of controlling its own subordinates.

As one order after another went out, everyone present understood that this was merely the prelude to the sky collapsing over Prince Cheng Residence.

Once the preparations were complete, the residence itself would be sentenced.

That would take longer.

They still needed approval from Yanjing.

But once the affair had been dragged fully into the open, once it became public and undeniable, given Yanjing’s temperament, there was no possibility of swallowing the insult again.

Great Yan had never possessed a good temper.

The Emperor of Yan might have been recuperating in the Rear Garden for a long time, but no one believed His Majesty’s temper had somehow been recuperated away.

Zhao Wenhua lay bound on the ground.

He could not break free of the restraints, but he still raised his head toward Zheng Fan.

“Marquis, I beg you to show restraint in what comes next. If Prince Cheng Residence is dealt with too harshly, it may chill the hearts of the Jin people!”

“Heh. Chill the hearts of the Jin people?” Marquis Zheng lightly patted the armrest of the throne. “Fine. If they have the ability, let them rebel. You say that as though this Marquis were afraid. If the Jin lands dare rebel once, this Marquis will lead troops to suppress them once. If they dare rebel twice, this Marquis will suppress them twice. However many times they dare rebel, this Marquis will suppress them that many times. This Marquis has already received his title, but who knows how many young men beneath my command are still craving noble ranks of their own? You want to use war to threaten this Marquis? Ridiculous. If the soldiers of Great Yan were afraid to fight, the man sitting here today would never have been this Marquis!”

Zhao Wenhua gave a desolate smile and knocked his forehead against the floor.

“The Prince is, after all, still a Prince. I ask Marquis to leave him a little dignity.”

Marquis Zheng answered calmly:

“It is not as though this Marquis has never crippled an imperial prince before.”

At that moment, Xu Wenzu said, “Marquis Zheng, this official will return to the Prefectural Yamen first and prepare to meet the officials. We need to stabilize Yingdu. I will leave this place to you for now.”

Zheng Fan nodded. “Go, Prefect Xu. Rest assured. I have everything here.”

“Mm.” Xu Wenzu smiled. “Good thing you happened to be here this time, Marquis.”

The speaker had not meant anything by it.

But the listener did.

Zheng Fan suddenly realized something.

So... was this the true reason the mastermind behind the scenes had drawn him into Yingdu?

The target was not Zheng Fan himself.

Rather, the goal was to use a legitimate, unassailable reason and a perfectly upright method to uproot Prince Cheng Residence from Yingdu at the most fundamental and legal level?

Or perhaps this was merely the mastermind’s second choice after failing to calculate him directly?

No matter how Zheng Fan chose.

No matter how he responded.

That person could always accomplish one objective or another.

Only the order changed.

Zheng Fan slowly closed his eyes.

He did not feel the frustration of someone who had been calculated against.

Instead, a trace of anticipation rose in his heart.

Because Marquis Zheng understood one thing perfectly clearly.

Aside from Old Tian, anyone else in this world who dared use him as a blade had better be prepared for that blade to cut their throat.

Seeing Marquis Zheng fall silent and drift into thought, no one spoke for a long time.

At last, Situ Yu slowly climbed up from the floor.

He tried to stand.

The Marquis sitting in his place spoke two words.

“Kneel there.”

Situ Yu, who had just gotten to his feet, knelt again.

[End of Chapter 645]