Chapter 96: Shocking News! The Giggling Emperor and the Unamused Emperor
Chapter 96: Chapter 96: Shocking News! The Giggling Emperor and the Unamused Emperor
Great Zhou Capital City, the Northern Military Governor’s Office.
Wei Yue was having lunch.
Though he held a high position, his personal life was quite simple. Unless he was hosting a banquet, his meals when dining alone consisted of just one meat and one vegetable dish.
"Adoptive Father," a sturdy, dark-skinned young man with a calm demeanor strode in.
Wei Yue asked, "Feng’er, what is it?"
"I ran into a man from the Tongzhou Hundred Households at the gate. He said that Pei Shaoqing has an urgent matter to report, a matter of utmost urgency," Lu Feng said, his face impassive.
It wasn’t that he was in a bad mood; his childhood experiences had simply forged his current cold temperament.
Wei Yue immediately said, "Bring him to the side hall."
’For Pei Shaoqing to bypass the Thousand Households and send someone directly to the Capital City means it must be something incredibly important.’
How could he possibly have any appetite left?
"Yes." Lu Feng accepted the order and left.
Soon, Sun Youliang, led by Lu Feng, met Wei Yue in the side hall. He immediately saluted, "This humble officer, Banner Commander Sun Youliang of the Tongzhou Hundred Households, pays his respects to you, my lord!"
"At ease." Wei Yue waved a hand and got straight to the point. "For what reason did Pei Shaoqing send you?"
"This is a personal letter from my commander." Sun Youliang took out Pei Shaoqing’s letter and presented it with both hands, his head bowed.
Lu Feng stepped forward, took it, and passed it to Wei Yue.
Wei Yue opened it, and his expression changed drastically. He looked up and asked sharply, "Where are the confessions mentioned in the letter?"
He was not a man who couldn’t control his emotions.
But the King of Shu plotting rebellion... that was too horrifying to contemplate.
"My lord, the confessions are here." Upon hearing this, Sun Youliang immediately produced the statements from Wang Wu and Yan Sichen.
Lu Feng once again stepped forward, took them, and handed them to Wei Yue.
Wei Yue had calmed down by now, his expression returning to its usual placidity. He silently and quickly read through the two confessions, then said, "You will accompany me to the palace for an imperial audience."
"Me, my lord?" Sun Youliang asked, shocked and disbelieving.
’I’m actually going to have the honor of seeing the Emperor!’
"Mm." Wei Yue was already striding out the door.
Only then did Sun Youliang snap out of it and hurry to follow.
On the way to the palace, Wei Yue continuously instructed him on the etiquette for meeting the Emperor. "Do not speak unless His Majesty addresses you. When you are called to answer, you must kneel with your head bowed. Remember, you must never look up at the sovereign..."
Emperor Jingtai was in a very good mood today.
A letter from Pei Shiqing had arrived by express horse, stating that he had begun preparations for war. As soon as spring arrived next year, he would march his army north to launch a war of annihilation against the Northern Barbarians. He also requested that the Capital City begin gathering provisions and other supplies for the coming great war.
He got so happy, he felt Jill start to move.
"Go inform Noble Consort Wan that We are on Our way."
’When you get old, you have to act the moment the mood strikes. Otherwise, once the excitement passes, you’re left as limp as a frost-bitten eggplant.’
Liu Hai suppressed a smile. "Yes, Your Majesty."
"What are you laughing at, you dog? An old dog like you wouldn’t understand a man’s pleasures anyway." Emperor Jingtai clearly saw the teasing smile on his face but didn’t mind.
Liu Hai said with a grin, "This servant was castrated at ten to follow Your Majesty, so of course I don’t understand. But seeing Your Majesty happy makes this servant happy too."
"Alright, hurry along now. We will head over after We finish replying to Marquis Weiyuan," Emperor Jingtai said with a wave of his hand.
Liu Hai replied once more, "This servant will go at once."
When Noble Consort Wan heard the Emperor was coming—and to have her attend to him in broad daylight, no less—she was both delighted and worried.
Delighted because she, who had been neglected for so long, would finally be ’watered.’ Worried because the Emperor always left her hanging, making the aftermath even more unbearable than if nothing had happened at all.
But with the Emperor present, she couldn’t take matters into her own hands, use any aids, or engage in mock lovemaking with her palace maids. She had to endure it until the Emperor left.
After seeing Liu Hai off, Noble Consort Wan looked down at the calico cat in her arms and sighed. "Tell me, how did my life become so bitter? I’m living like a widow in my prime."
’If only the Emperor were willing to take medicine.’ But for the sake of his health, the Emperor never took those potent, tiger-and-wolf-like aphrodisiacs.
"Meow." The calico cat could not empathize with her.
Because General Li was quite fierce in one-on-one combat.
Noble Consort Wan interpreted the calico cat’s meow in her own way, stroking its fur and saying, "Don’t worry, I certainly won’t let you suffer this same emptiness and loneliness. I’ll find a tomcat for you another day."
"MEOW!" The calico cat immediately expressed its refusal.
’She’d never betray her husband!’
Despite her frustration, Noble Consort Wan still had to think of every possible way to please the Emperor and ensure he left fully satisfied.
She immediately ordered her palace attendants to make preparations.
When Emperor Jingtai arrived at Yongning Palace and saw that the door to Noble Consort Wan’s bedchamber was closed and she hadn’t come out to greet him, he wasn’t displeased. On the contrary, he felt a sense of anticipation and excitement.
He knew her well. Noble Consort Wan was not only domineering but also sensuous and unrestrained. In the past, she had always come up with new games to please him, and this time was sure to be no different.
The year she first entered the palace, setting aside political interests, he had truly been infatuated with her young, beautiful body.
Otherwise, Noble Consort Wan would never have even gotten pregnant.
"All of you, stand back."
He dismissed the eunuchs and pushed the door open himself.
Through the hanging bed curtains, he saw a graceful, curvaceous figure on the bed. A fire ignited within him. He strode forward and ripped the curtains aside, and his heart gave a violent tremor.
On the bed, Noble Consort Wan’s hair was neatly styled, but her face was hidden behind a Faceless Mask of the Jing’an Guard. She wore a standard Jing’an Guard uniform, but beneath the hem of her tunic were two beautiful legs and jade-like feet wrapped in white Ice Silk.
"This humble officer, Banner Commander Jiang Yue’e of the Jing’an Guard’s Northern Garrison Command, pays her respects to Your Majesty," Noble Consort Wan said in a sweet, coquettish voice as she got up, kneeling with her rear raised high.
The Emperor was greatly pleased. He pinched her chin and said, "You always manage to come up with new tricks for Us."
"Your Majesty~" Noble Consort Wan reached up to remove the mask.
"Don’t!" Emperor Jingtai stopped her, his breathing becoming ragged. "We want a Jing’an Guard."
"Your Majesty! Wei Yue requests an audience! He says it is a matter of utmost urgency!" Liu Hai’s voice suddenly came from outside the door.
He actually already knew from Wei Yue what the matter was, which was why he dared to disturb the Emperor’s pleasure at such a critical moment, but he couldn’t say it openly.
For an old man, especially one who was physically and mentally exhausted every day, it wasn’t easy to get in the mood.
The slightest distraction, and it was all over.
The blood that had just rushed to both his heads instantly receded. Feeling no more stirring from down there, he looked at the utterly seductive Noble Consort Wan and was suddenly filled with disgust.
He immediately turned to leave. "Prepare the carriage for the Imperial Study."
"Your Majesty! Your Majesty!" Noble Consort Wan tore off her mask and shouted repeatedly at Emperor Jingtai’s retreating back. Watching as the eunuchs closed the door, she furiously threw the mask and pointed at two palace maids. "You two, come here!"
"Yes, Your Highness."
The two palace maids walked toward the bed, their faces blushing.
They were clearly well-practiced in such matters.
The calico cat was dumbfounded. ’Humans are so debauched.’
’It wished for a pair of eyes that hadn’t seen this.’
............
By the time they reached the Imperial Study, the Emperor had already regained his inscrutable expression. At least, Wei Yue couldn’t tell at all that the Emperor’s private pleasures had just been disturbed.
"Your subject, Wei Yue, pays his respects—"
"If it’s a matter of utmost urgency, dispense with the formalities and speak directly," the Emperor interrupted him.
"Yes!" Seeing that Liu Hai was the only eunuch in the Imperial Study, Wei Yue spoke with a grave expression, "Pei Shaoqing sent an urgent report to the capital, claiming that the King of Shu intends to rebel."
"The King of Shu is plotting rebellion?" Emperor Jingtai’s face twitched violently, but he didn’t fly into a rage. Instead, he first glanced discreetly at Liu Hai.
Liu Hai shook his head slightly. The Hidden Guards he had handpicked to monitor Pei Shaoqing had probably just arrived in Tongzhou.
’They couldn’t have sent back any relevant intelligence so quickly.’
Emperor Jingtai turned back to Wei Yue. "Is there any proof?"
"We have the confessions of the King of Shu’s Heir and the private soldiers he recruited as evidence," Wei Yue replied in a low voice.
In his letter, Pei Shaoqing had defined the Hidden Guards and Death Warriors recruited by Yan Sichen, like Wang Wu, as a "private army."
The difference between the two was more than just a name.
Emperor Jingtai said immediately, "Present them."
Wei Yue handed Pei Shaoqing’s letter and the two confessions to Liu Hai, who then presented them to the Emperor.
After receiving them, Liu Hai opened and inspected them carefully, only placing them before Emperor Jingtai after confirming there were no issues.
The more Emperor Jingtai read, the uglier his expression became.
This was especially true for Yan Sichen’s confession, in which the various details and the entire sequence of events were exceptionally clear and corresponded with parts of Wang Wu’s statement.
"Good, good, good! Excellent! Wonderful!" Emperor Jingtai laughed in his fury, his eyes terrifyingly cold. "Look at Our good brother! What has he done? Fed Our subjects to a ghost! All because he believed that ghost could help him drive Us from the Dragon Throne so he could take it!"
"Your Majesty, calm your anger!" Liu Hai and Wei Yue pleaded.
"Calm my ass!" Emperor Jingtai grabbed the inkstone from his desk and hurled it, roaring, "That useless fool actually believed a ghost spouting ghostly nonsense! If he had even tried to rebel on his own, We would have thought more highly of him! But he believed the words of a ghost to rebel against Us!"
Both Liu Hai and Wei Yue were very close to the Emperor.
But at this moment, neither dared to even breathe too loudly.
Rebellion from the Royal Family was something the Emperor could absolutely not accept, because that was how he himself had ascended to the throne.
Back then, he had driven his own brother from the throne. For all these years, he had worked himself to the bone, toiling tirelessly, just to prove to the world that he could do a better job than his elder brother.
And what was the result? First, the Crown Prince had rebelled against him five years ago.
Now, his own younger brother was rebelling against him.
What would the world think of him?
Was this karmic retribution for his own treason?
Thus, Emperor Jingtai’s rage was understandable.
"Bastards! One after another! Do they really think We value kinship so much that We wouldn’t dare to kill them?" In front of his two closest confidants, Emperor Jingtai had completely abandoned his imperial image.
Liu Hai forced himself to speak, "Your Majesty, the King of Shu has always been respectful..."
"Are you suggesting that Our dear Pei Aiqing would dare to deceive the throne on this matter?" Emperor Jingtai cut him off coldly.
’Respectful?’
’Before he raised his army, he too was very respectful to his elder brother.’
Liu Hai immediately fell to his knees. "This servant knows his crime."
"Old dog," Emperor Jingtai snorted, then asked, "Is the messenger who brought the report to the capital present?"
"He is," Wei Yue answered quickly.
Emperor Jingtai said, "Summon him."
"Banner Commander Sun Youliang of the Jing’an Guard’s Tongzhou Hundred Households pays his respects to Your Majesty! Long live Your Majesty, for ten thousand years, ten thousand times ten thousand years!"
The moment Sun Youliang entered, he knelt and proclaimed "long live" three times.
He kept Wei Yue’s instructions firmly in mind, his head bowed the entire time.
"We ask you, how much do you know about the matters in Pei Shaoqing’s letter?" Emperor Jingtai’s tone was devoid of emotion.
Sun Youliang answered honestly, "This subject only knows that in the course of investigating a case of missing women, Lord Pei arrested two men. The first was named Wang Wu. Later, another man came to break him out of jail. Lord Pei did not announce his identity."
"Did you participate in the arrests?" Emperor Jingtai asked.
Sun Youliang replied, "I had the honor of participating, but this humble officer only contributed a meager effort. It was mainly thanks to Lord Pei’s strategic planning and his leadership in fighting the enemy that the two were captured."
"You may withdraw," Emperor Jingtai said with a wave of his hand.
Sun Youliang backed out of the Imperial Study, his head still bowed.
"Our dear Pei Aiqing is a true pillar of Our state!" Emperor Jingtai exclaimed with feeling, then looked at Wei Yue. "Even if the King of Shu has treasonous intentions, he should still only be in the planning stages and hasn’t yet won over many useful people."
"Otherwise, he wouldn’t have had to send his own son to stage a jailbreak. You will go personally, and you must go quickly. With Yan Sichen captured, We suspect the King of Shu might act like a cornered dog and launch his rebellion ahead of schedule. If you confirm this, you are to quell the rebellion directly."
He didn’t say how to deal with the King of Shu.
Wei Yue knew this was an order for him to kill the King of Shu.
’He couldn’t be brought to the Capital City. Could the Emperor, already infamous for killing his elder brother, bear the stigma of killing his younger brother too?’
But if he wasn’t killed, the Emperor would never be able to swallow this insult.
Nor would it be enough to deter other members of the Royal Family.
The path the Emperor himself had taken to the throne was the very path he now had to guard most vigilantly against others.
He could forgive his own son for something like this once.
But not his own brother.