Chapter 694: Indeed, It Was I

At the grand court audience... inside the great hall... there was not a sound.

The people standing beneath those golden roof tiles were among the most intelligent men in Great Yan.

The overwhelming majority had already calculated the answer.

After all... at a moment like this... if a crow flew overhead outside and dropped a single feather, you would instinctively wonder whether it had something to do with the succession struggle.

The range of possible answers had already been circled for everyone.

Only two imperial princes were inside the hall.

Even if you started with several possible answers and worked backward, it would not take long to determine which one was real.

Four words appeared inside the minds of many ministers:

The Crown Prince has lost virtue.

In most situations, this would not actually be an especially grave offense.

The Empress had passed away.

The entire country mourned.

That was true.

But most of the strict mourning obligations applied primarily to official households.

They had to pay close attention to propriety.

Among ordinary people, it was usually enough not to go wildly overboard. No one would seriously come after you for a minor lapse.

And after the Empress passed, the Emperor of Yan had even issued an edict shortening the mourning period as much as possible because military disturbances seemed to be rising again around Jin and Chu.

The purpose was to avoid disrupting the court's operation.

Even among official households, if some fool lost his head during those few short months and hired an opera troupe, took a concubine, or held some other festive event... the usual result would be a fine, a reprimand, perhaps a demotion.

That was all.

Yan people had always treated ritual law more loosely than Qian or Chu.

But the problem was... the Empress was the Crown Prince's birth mother.

And the Crown Prince... was heir to an entire state!

If an ordinary official lost virtue, at worst he might suffer a demotion and a harsh rebuke. Unless those above already wanted him dead and a powerful enemy happened to be waiting at court, the offense would usually only wound him badly rather than destroy him.

The Crown Prince was different.

Great Yan's ministers did not possess the same moral obsession as Qian's officials.

Otherwise, they could never have tolerated the existence of the Prince of Jingnan.

But the Prince of Jingnan was different from the Crown Prince too.

Everyone had already accepted that the Prince of Jingnan would probably not meet a good end.

And judging by the way he conducted himself... he did not appear to be planning on one either.

Most importantly, this God of War had never lost a battle and was of immense use to the state.

Yet even Tian Wujing himself had once said that if he truly rebelled, how many men in this court would actually follow him?

At most... he would lead a gang of grunts and smash Great Yan's existing order completely to pieces.

Because...

Yan people... cared about face!

To bed a woman during deep filial mourning and even leave her pregnant... if a man capable of such conduct later sat on the Dragon Throne, would the ministers not feel disgusted every time they knelt before him?

If His Majesty had only one son, then perhaps everyone would pinch their noses and endure it for the sake of Great Yan's state and ancestral altars.

But His Majesty did not have only one son.

And there was another imperial prince standing right in front of them who was every bit as outstanding as the Crown Prince, perhaps even more so.

Everyone understood the succession struggle.

So the man who had exposed this scandal... must naturally be the Sixth Prince standing in the left-hand ranks.

Everyone could only sigh inwardly.

This move by Sixth Highness... was truly ruthless.

A single strike aimed directly at the heart!

As for whether anyone thought this method relied too heavily on schemes and manipulation... most people actually did not care much.

As long as the Crown Prince's moral disgrace could be confirmed... such a major stain on his character would be enough to make most court officials unwilling to stand with him.

Sixth Highness was ruthless?

Fine.

Everyone had already grown accustomed to serving beneath the Emperor of Yan.

At worst... there would simply be another generation of Emperor of Yan.

They were used to it, weren't they?

The core members of the Crown Prince's faction, however... were burning with anxiety.

For days, they had thought through every possible direction of attack.

They had searched everywhere for weaknesses.

Tried to calculate exactly where the Sixth Master's faction would strike.

Tried to seal every gap in their defenses.

Who could have imagined... that the fatal weakness would turn out to be the Crown Prince himself failing to control his own trousers?

And the Crown Prince's people hated something even more.

Fine.

Suppose you could not control yourself.

Suppose you really did get the woman pregnant.

How could you then allow her to leave?

Why had you not handled it cleanly?

Why had you not eliminated the danger completely?

The great undertaking stood before them.

The Dragon Throne stood before them.

How could you be this foolish?

The Crown Prince's benevolence was precisely why so many officials had openly chosen to support him.

Not all of them acted for personal profit.

In their view, after Great Yan had been tossed and hammered for so many years by this Emperor for the ages... the country truly did need to recuperate.

Yet now... more than at any time before... they wished the Crown Prince had been more ruthless and heartless back then.

One woman.

One child.

Compared with this Golden Hall... what did either of them amount to?

Your Highness the Crown Prince... if your heart is soft to this extent... where does that leave all of us who staked everything on following you?

What we wagered on you was not merely our future careers.

It might even be the lives and property of our entire households!

As for the members of the Sixth Master's faction... first they were shocked.

Then shocked again.

And finally... at this very moment... ecstatic!

The core members of the Sixth Master's faction all knew a major move was coming.

That much had already been obvious.

The wind had long since begun blowing.

But exactly how the attack would be made... and where the main strike would land... none of them had known.

They had simply assumed the main assault was not coming through their own hands.

Like deploying troops before battle, absolute secrecy had been necessary.

So they did not know.

But they were not anxious.

They only needed to wait for the offensive to begin, then throw their weight behind it.

But never in their wildest dreams had they imagined... that their Sixth Master would unleash a killing move like this!

This strike bypassed every layer of the Eastern Palace's defenses.

The Eastern Palace could not even sacrifice the chariot to save the general the way it had in the past.

It was like a master archer... firing one arrow straight into the foundation of the Eastern Palace!

Every official of the Sixth Master's faction... and even many officials who had belonged to neither side before but were now instinctively shifting toward Sixth Highness... could not help applauding this inspired stroke inside their hearts.

Purely as strategy... it was pulling the firewood from beneath the cauldron!

But precisely because it was too elegant... too direct... too effective... the Sixth Master's officials who had prepared to coordinate today's battle suddenly found themselves with nowhere to apply their strength.

Look.

The Crown Prince's expression had already changed.

The Crown Prince was panicking.

His mind had clearly taken a blow so severe he could no longer maintain even basic composure.

Look.

Their own Sixth Highness stood there with all the calm of a man holding the pearl of wisdom in his hand.

His eyes were steady.

He clearly believed victory was already secured.

But the problem was... this matter concerned imperial blood.

At a moment like this... even though everyone had more or less guessed the truth... they could not simply stand up and attack.

Because... they first had to see what His Majesty intended.

Factional struggle was factional struggle.

Since ancient times, what dynasty had never experienced it?

But no matter how violently people fought... everyone had to silently accept certain roads and certain boundaries.

Did the dignity of the imperial house matter or not?

This was an enormous scandal.

Yes, the Crown Prince could be deposed because of it.

But the offense absolutely could not be written openly as the reason.

Otherwise... how would the history books record it?

How would later generations view Great Yan's Ji imperial clan?

His Majesty had only just returned to the palace.

For a scandal like this to explode openly at a grand court audience... the destructive force was simply too great.

Anyone who rushed out to charge first now might be pulverized along with the scandal itself.

Being crushed personally was not the frightening part.

The frightening part was that it might drag Sixth Highness down too.

An imperial prince who pursued the throne without the slightest concern for the dignity of the imperial family... could such a man truly be allowed to sit on that position?

And so... the Crown Prince's faction had nothing to say.

The Sixth Master's faction had stomachs full of things to say but dared not say them.

For a moment, the great hall fell into a bizarre silence.

Yet everyone knew... the silence could not last.

Because the matter itself... would continue developing.

Everyone was waiting to see how.

First... they would see what the Emperor of Yan intended.

Would he wave one hand and cover the scandal over?

Second... they would see what Grand Director Ji Changwang intended.

Would he insist on continuing?

Would he poison the arrow he had already fired and completely define the Crown Prince's crime?

Officials liked to say:

"How can one possibly stop the mouths of all beneath Heaven?"

But in truth... the people attached to those mouths were afraid of death.

If the Emperor of Yan exerted enough pressure... and the Grand Director could not withstand it... then Ji Changwang might simply change his wording and say:

"Oh. After investigation, this is actually the bloodline that First Highness, Fourth Highness, or Fifth Highness left outside the palace."

Then the Emperor of Yan would have those princes beaten or punished a little.

And that would be the end of it.

After all... the Empress had indeed been the principal mother of every imperial prince.

But she had not been their birth mother.

If another prince had behaved absurdly during her mourning period... people could swallow it.

The history books could swallow it.

Everyone could swallow it.

Besides... the truth of whose child it actually was, and who had done the deed, was already clear.

The damage to the Crown Prince had already been inflicted.

And Ji Changwang himself bore the surname Ji.

He was clan head of the imperial house.

There was no reason for him to strip the Ji Clan's face completely bare here in the Golden Hall and before the assembled court.

Why bother?

"Oh? Grand Director, speak plainly. Which imperial prince dared commit such a damned beastly act?"

The Emperor of Yan had spoken.

Damned.

Beastly.

That meant His Majesty was already angry.

When an elderly man in an ordinary household became angry, the younger generation had to follow his mood, coax him, calm him down.

Even deceiving him a little could count as filial behavior.

Now the sovereign-father was angry.

Naturally... everyone needed to give the sovereign-father a way down.

Every person present understood.

His Majesty had already extended his hand.

His meaning was clear.

Push this situation away.

Cover the scandal.

Factional struggle could continue.

It was supposed to continue.

His Majesty's attitude had always been clear.

Otherwise... why would he ever have given Sixth Highness another opportunity to rise?

Back then, no one even knew where Sixth Highness had been banished.

Then one imperial decree summoned him back.

Then he took control of the Ministry of Revenue.

After that... everything accelerated.

The Sixth Master's faction grew larger and larger.

The Eastern Palace was suppressed until it could barely breathe.

Yet one imperial decree from His Majesty could still have knocked Sixth Highness back into the dust at any moment.

But His Majesty never issued it.

You could say that earlier, Great Yan needed wars and therefore needed grain and money, so His Majesty tolerated the arrangement.

But now the wars had ended.

For the sake of the national heir...

His Majesty should have stopped hesitating.

Therefore... this had to be balance.

Balance between the imperial princes.

Perhaps also balance against the gradual delegation of imperial authority.

Everyone present had survived years of court politics.

They understood.

This was a factional struggle the Emperor himself had permitted.

His Majesty did not want his sons to coexist peacefully.

He did not want his ministers to become one happy family.

For example... if one day Sixth Highness suddenly ran into the Eastern Palace and swore loyalty to the Crown Prince... that might actually be the situation His Majesty would find least acceptable.

So now...

His Majesty had tacitly accepted this move.

The next step... was simply to control the damage.

Yet despite such an obvious hint...

Grand Director Ji Changwang suddenly dropped to his knees.

Then he said heavily:

"This minister... does not dare say!"

In an instant... many ministers inside the hall sucked in sharp breaths.

Of course, no one truly made some enormous noise.

What actually happened was that many men instinctively leaned their heads back slightly, shock appearing across their faces.

Even Marquis Zheng... standing in the broadest patch of open space among the assembled officials... froze for a moment.

Hm?

They were going to clash head-on?

Wasn't this the moment to take the victory and stop?

If they kept forcing it... they would smash themselves to pieces along with the Crown Prince!

Ji Old Sixth stood across from Zheng Fan.

And at this moment...

Zheng Fan suddenly found him a little unfamiliar.

Could it be... that Ji Chengjue, who had always been just like him and preferred hiding while developing steadily... knew this was the final battle... and had therefore chosen to make it a true life-or-death struggle?

Ji Chengjue noticed Marquis Zheng's gaze from across the hall.

But... just as Zheng Fan had once done to him outside the city gates...

Ji Chengjue's eyes happened to drift aside.

Perfectly avoiding him.

The atmosphere inside the hall continued fermenting.

Silently.

To strike a political enemy, one had to make a move.

Had to attack.

That was only natural.

But refusing to sheathe the sword after the advantage had already been gained... then following with a deliberate retreat meant to advance... was this truly intended to block every road of retreat and compromise?

The Grand Director had already played his move.

His purpose had already been achieved.

The correct choice now should have been:

"After investigation, this is the bloodline of such-and-such imperial prince."

Then... whether it was First Highness, Fourth Highness, or Fifth Highness... one of them could be dragged out, beaten, and forced to carry this inexplicable pot on his back.

The matter would then end there.

The assembled ministers would understand the truth.

His Majesty would understand the truth.

What punishment followed for the Crown Prince... and how severe that punishment became... would depend on the real contest between the two factions afterward.

For example, the Sixth Master's faction could submit memorials like snowflakes, furiously attacking mistakes made during the Crown Prince's regency.

There would always be mistakes to find.

How could anyone govern a country this large without leaving flaws?

Even if the Crown Prince himself had done nothing wrong... could every member of the Eastern Palace remain spotless?

Could every member of the Crown Prince's faction remain spotless?

Impossible.

Before this, those mistakes had amounted to little more than scratching an itch through a boot.

After this... the wine-drinker's intention would no longer lie in the wine.

They would simply attack.

Attack everything.

The nominal target could be some other matter.

But the true purpose would be to tear again and again at the wound labeled "the Crown Prince has lost virtue."

Until finally... the Crown Prince was dragged down.

And the master of the Eastern Palace changed!

That... was the correct operation.

That... was the political game.

But Ji Changwang's single sentence...

"This minister does not dare say"... meant he had no intention of tossing this blame onto some random prince.

He intended to speak.

Intended to announce the truth his investigation had uncovered.

For him to dare say those words... the evidence must be ironclad beyond dispute.

The woman's identity.

The young girl's identity.

Everything... must already be nailed down!

The Grand Director... was preparing to draw blood directly inside the Golden Hall!

Many officials of the Sixth Master's faction almost wanted to rush forward, cover Ji Changwang's mouth, press his head down, and force him to change his words.

Ally.

Comrade.

You've already done enough!

You've done more than enough!

If you keep going... you'll go too far!

Too far!

A desolate expression appeared on the Crown Prince's face.

His body swayed.

He staggered backward two steps.

Fortunately, he caught the railing beside him in time and managed to remain standing.

His gaze fell first upon the Grand Director.

Then... upon his Sixth Brother standing among the assembled officials.

There was... despair in his eyes.

Because the Crown Prince stood on the raised platform beneath one man and above ten thousand... every movement he made was visible to the entire court below.

Anyone capable of surviving at court was a human spirit.

All of them knew how to read expression and intent.

The Crown Prince's face did not merely show the shock of being struck.

There was also the heartbreak of being betrayed by someone he had trusted most deeply.

That made sense.

For a woman to have access to the Crown Prince during that particular period... and for something of that sort to occur between them... she must have been an extraordinarily close and trusted woman.

And after the act... for the Crown Prince not to force her to drink contraceptive medicine... not even to kill her outright and eliminate the hidden danger... he must truly have been unable to bear harming her.

Knowing perfectly well that if this matter ever surfaced, it would destroy him utterly... and yet still refusing to take those steps... that woman's place in the Crown Prince's heart must have been extraordinary.

But...

Your Highness the Crown Prince... how foolish.

The Emperor of Yan's gaze slowly swept downward.

He sat atop the Dragon Throne inside the Golden Hall.

The highest place.

Everything below naturally fell within his sight.

And the Crown Prince standing on the platform nearest to him... could be seen more clearly than anyone.

At last... the Emperor of Yan spoke.

"Say it aloud. We... pardon you of all guilt!"

He did not dismiss court.

Did not forcibly halt the matter by declaring it a private affair of the imperial family.

That would certainly have been somewhat like covering one's ears while stealing a bell.

But His Majesty possessed enough authority to do it if he wished.

Yet... he was, after all... an Emperor whose pride reached the bones.

He was more accustomed to facing things directly.

He disliked evasion.

Even in a matter like this.

Marquis Zheng pressed his lips together.

He was studying the atmosphere.

At the same time... he was thinking about what came next.

Ji Old Sixth had told him to watch how he knocked down those brothers of his.

Mm.

Marquis Zheng had seen it.

It truly was excellent.

So excellent it bordered on the miraculous.

But he could not avoid considering one question.

If Ji Chengjue kept clashing this directly... if, in his determination to destroy the Eastern Palace in a single strike, he completely enraged the Emperor of Yan... would Ji Old Sixth really meet a good end?

Would the Emperor of Yan recognize an imperial prince who had no understanding of preserving the larger situation?

Would he truly hand the future of the state to such a son at this particular moment?

Marquis Zheng thought about it more and more.

And grew increasingly uneasy.

The Emperor of Yan was proud.

Proud people often did things that did not follow ordinary logic.

More precisely... things that did not follow a simple calculation of interests.

Ji Chengjue... you dare strip away the imperial house's dignity like this?

Where is the awareness of a future head of the family?

Where is the posture?

If that's the case...

We will simply choose another son to inherit the household.

Do you truly think that once the Crown Prince falls...

We are forced to choose you?

Marquis Zheng bit his lower lip.

He could not help worrying.

Yet at the same time... he understood.

Although he did not know why the Emperor looked so radiant today... yesterday, he had personally watched the man swallow medicine.

When something behaved abnormally, there had to be a reason.

So perhaps Ji Old Sixth believed the Emperor had very little time left.

That would explain why he wanted to settle everything in one stroke and avoid endless trouble afterward.

That logic worked too.

Even if one wanted to move calmly and plan over the long term... time first had to allow it.

Otherwise... if the Emperor of Yan died while the Crown Prince was still cursed by ten thousand men... so long as no explicit imperial decree had removed him from the position of Crown Prince... then... he could still ascend the throne perfectly naturally!

Ji Old Sixth probably did not dare wait.

And did not dare gamble.

"Thank you, Your Majesty."

Ji Changwang first offered thanks.

Then... his gaze turned toward the Crown Prince standing above, lost and desolate.

He began:

"This minister has already investigated the woman's identity and the full chain of events. As Grand Director of the Ji Clan, duty leaves this minister no choice. Today, this minister must identify the one who committed this act of moral disgrace. It was..."

At that moment...

Ji Chengjue... who had remained standing among the assembled officials... stepped out of the ranks.

Then... he dropped to his knees.

Forcibly interrupting the Grand Director's words.

His forehead pressed against the floor tiles of the Golden Hall.

And he shouted:

"It was this son!"

[End of Chapter 694]