Demoness, where are you Fleeing to?
Chapter 747 - 618: The Grape Trellis Collapsed _1

Chapter 747: Chapter 618: The Grape Trellis Collapsed _1

On February 25th, Shaofu Yu Jie, the current Minister of War, returned to the capital city on the ’Red Thunder Chariot’ borrowed from the Jingtai Emperor.

As he drove the chariot through the Fucheng Gate in the west of the city, he noticed a surge of blood energy in the direction of the vegetable market.

Shaofu Yu Jie hasn’t cultivated any Taoist techniques and was not knowledgeable about observing auras. However, the blood energy was so thick that even his naked eyes could see it.

This was clearly the result of thousands of people being beheaded there, causing such a strong blood energy.

Witnessing this, Yu Jie couldn’t help but feel surprised, "The case of Prince Xiang’s conspiracy has already begun?"

The person he asked was a man dressed like a Xiuyiwei Qianhu next to him, whose surname was Yu, and his name was Jianji. He was the son-in-law of Shaofu Yu Jie.

Even though he also has the surname Yu, this man has no connection with the royal family. He also holds the position of a Qianhu in the western city of the Xiuyiwei, responsible for ’Patrolling and Capturing’ in the west of Beijing.

"Not so soon, the trial of Prince Xiang’s conspiracy has just begun, many of his accomplices haven’t been caught yet. According to my estimation, it will take at least two or three months to finish."

Yu Jianji shook his head, "Those being executed over there are the criminals from the previous salt merchant case and the Yushi Xia Guangwei case. Shangshu Yu of the Ministry of Punishments found out that someone had heavily bribed Prince Xiang and his party during the case proceeding, so they could mitigate the charges and hide their assets.

After hearing about it, His Majesty was extremely angry and disregarded the season and the admonishments of the Ministry of Rites, and directly ordered their immediate execution."

In this era, death sentences are generally carried out in the autumn and winter seasons, which is a tradition passed down from ancient times.

Originally, this was because during these two seasons, everyone was comparatively idle, with no grain to plant, so the people could be forced to watch.

This not only had a deterrent effect, but also considered the ancient motto of "not missing the farming season."

Over time, execution after autumn became part of the ’ceremonial law’.

People believe that the Emperor is the son of heaven, so he must abide by the heavenly season in his actions. The execution of criminals is no exception.

This time His Majesty disregarded the ceremonial law to carry out executions during the spring, which shows how deep his anger was.

At this moment, Yu Jianji remembered something else: "By the way, Shangshu Yu was appointed by the Emperor a few days ago as Daxueshi of Donge and entered the cabinet. Yesterday, He Wenyuan, the left servant of the Ministry of Rites, was promoted to Shangshu of the Ministry of Personnel and appointed as Taibao of the Crown Prince. The original Shangshu of the Ministry of Personnel, Wang Wen, was stripped of his office and ordered to reflect at home."

He Wenyuan is an old official who has served several dynasties, and is a staunch member of the Emperor’s Party. At the end of the twelfth year of Jingtai, He Wenyuan was the key person in the impeachment against the former Crown Prince, Prince Yi, Yu Jianshen.

He Wenyuan, in his capacity as a Ritual Officer, publicly criticised the deposed Crown Prince for his immorality, delivering a heavy blow to the Prince’s Party.

Shaofu Yu Jie nodded slightly in acquiescence. Although he had been inspecting border defenses for the last two months, he had always been paying attention to the situation in the court.

Especially the case of Prince Xiang’s conspiracy, Yu Jie was extremely shocked, and also furious at Prince Xiang’s theft of identity and nefarious methods.

In his view, the serious illness of Crown Prince Yu Jianji is the root of the current unrest in the court.

For his own selfish desires, Prince Xiang has consecutively plotted to assassinate two Crown Princes, a crime that can only be described as extremely abhorrent!

Luckily, there are pillars of the court like Li Xuan, or else the consequences would be unthinkable.

Even he, Yu Jie, felt this way, let alone the Emperor?

The Crown Prince, Yu Jianji, is still unconscious, and there seems to be little hope that he will recover his normal intellect once he awakens.

Can the Jingtai Emperor not be angry? This is almost the equivalent of the pain of losing a son.

At this moment, Yu Jie noticed a look of hesitation on the face of his son-in-law, so he raised his eyebrows slightly: "What’s the matter? Why are you hesitating so much?"

Yu Jianji just replied with a bitter smile, "A few days ago, the Emperor summoned me and intended for me to take command of the Xiuyiwei, to serve as the commander of the Xiuyiwei, taking charge of the Northern Zhenfu Division."

Hearing this, Yu Jie was taken aback, then smirked. He thought that the Emperor’s style of doing things was really unique.

Now, most of the military power of the Weisuo army and the capital camp of the Jin Dynasty was in his hands.

Yet the Emperor did not fear him and wanted to hand over the Emperor’s ears and claws, the ’Xiuyiwei’, to his son-in-law.

Yu Jie was both moved by the Emperor’s trust and troubled by the decision.

Without any hesitation, he shook his head, "Decline it! The Xiuyiwei already has Zuo Daoxing. What are you going there to meddle for?"

"Yes, sir." Yu Jianji responded despite showing a hint of reluctance in his eyes.

He thought that the Emperor had actually not been unfair to Zuo Daoxing. Aside from continuing to command the Southern Zhenfu Division, Zuo Daoxing is now also commanding the inner Jishi Bureau.

In the absence of a chief butler from the inner Jishi Bureau, Zuo Daoxing, the ’inner chang commander’, is now the head of the inner Jishi Bureau.

However, Yu Jianji understood his father-in-law. If he really dared to agree to this, there would surely be a storm of impeachment in the outer court. Countless people would accuse Yu Jie of being a power schemer.

His father-in-law wouldn’t care about how others viewed him, but would strictly adhere to the ’Ceremony of the Minister’ on his own.

Also, the so-called oil in the fire, when things are too prosperous they decline, Yu Jianji also felt that having too much power in their hands was not a good thing.

At this time, Yu Jie turned his gaze toward the eastern city again and asked, "Where is the Marquis of Guanjun? At this time, at which school should he be lecturing?"

Without hesitation, Yu Ji answered, "He should be at his manor, right? Ever since the case of Prince Xiang’s conspiracy, the frequency of Marquis of Guanjun’s lectures has decreased significantly. Most of the time, his physical body stays at home, or in the military camp."

After speaking, he curiously asked, "Father-in-law, are you going to see Marquis of Guanjun? Aren’t you going to meet the Emperor first?"

Yu Jie shook his head, "The military situation is urgent, I need to see the newly appointed Tongzhi, the commander of the capital camp, before I can meet the Emperor and discuss the military situation so that I have a complete grasp of the overall situation."

The reason he hurriedly returned to the capital was that during his inspection in Datong, he discovered signs of the Mengwu people gearing up for an invasion again.

Yu Jie estimated that the scale of this invasion by the Mengwu people would be less than that of the 13th year of Jingtai, but the number of Mengwu’s archers still reached a huge amount of 800,000 to 900,000. Even if only half of the Shiwei mobilized, the numbers could still reach 450,000 cavalry.

— If it was only these 450,000 cavalry, it wouldn’t matter much. The current national power and military strength of the Jin Dynasty are enough to cope with it.

But at the beginning of this year, the Tu Division chief of Lu River in Yunnan had expelled the officials sent by the Jin court.

Then the Qiuhu Office in Chengde also had major problems brewing, making the situation on the Jin Dynasty’s frontier start to stretch from left to right again.

And now, Li Xuan, the Marquis of Guanjun who has been promoted to ’Tongzhi, the commander of the capital camp’, is becoming more and more weighty in the military.

Yu Jie especially values his ’Shenji right and left camp’.

Half a year ago, Yu Jie also didn’t appreciate Li Xuan’s strategy of all firearms warfare.

To convince him, Li Xuan designed a chess battle simulation. The combatants were the ’22,000 people of the left Shenji battalion’ and the ’one hundred thousand Mengwu soldiers of the Qiexue army’. The result was a disastrous defeat for the Qiexue army.

After this, Yu Jie had some expectations for Li Xuan’s ’left Shenji battalion’. But deep down, he still didn’t think that this all firearms warfare could become the main force on the battlefield.

But the current situation forces him to pay more attention to the ’Shenji right and left camp’.

Yu Jie thinks that although the ’chess battle simulation’ is not enough to rely on, as long as the ’Shenji right and left camp’ commanded by Li Xuan can bring out three to four tenths of the combat effectiveness during the chess battle simulation, it is enough to greatly improve the overall situation faced by the Jin Dynasty.

A short while later, the ’Red Thunder Chariot’ that Yu Jie was driving landed in front of Marquis Guanjun’s mansion. The housekeeper Li Sihai immediately came out to welcome them, leading them into the great hall of the mansion to serve tea.

Yu Jie was not here for tea, he didn’t even sit down, and directly asked, "Where is your master?"

An awkward expression appeared on Li Sihai’s face, "My master is currently not available, so could Lord Shaofu please wait a moment."

Yu Jie frowned upon hearing this and then went straight towards the back hall.

Li Sihai hurriedly chased after him, looking embarrassed: "Sir, sir, this isn’t convenient, my master is not here in the mansion either."

Yu Ji frowned: "Marquis Guanjun is not at home? Where is he then?"

He looked a little displeased, since Li Xuan was not in the mansion, why did they have to invite his father-in-law into the mansion?

But Yu Jie’s face was calm, he went all the way to the training ground in the back and then stopped.

Only because at this time, Yu Jie had already seen ’Li Xuan’.

This was the ’Li Xuan’ he sensed in the great hall of the manor with his Divine Consciousness. Its qi and spirit were exactly the same as the real Li Xuan, but it was just a wooden puppet.

There was also a young girl standing next to him, manipulating the wooden puppet to perform various actions, practicing with a knife and boxing, making loud noises, creating gusts of wind.

This girl should be called Dugu Biluo. After seeing Yu Jie, she looked a little embarrassed and paid a courteous visit, "Xiuyiwei Baihu Dugu Biluo, sees Lord Shangshu."

Yu Ji was stunned, he looked at the wooden puppet whose qi and spirit were the same as Li Xuan’s: "Baihu Dugu, may I ask what’s going on? Where is Marquis Guanjun?"

Dugu Biluo hesitated, unsure how to answer.

Just at this time, a young girl dressed in a purple driven Taoist robe also walked in with grace: "I also want to know, where did Li Xuan go? Didn’t he tell me that he was going to concentrate on practicing martial arts today and would not be free all afternoon?"

This was Young Heavenly Master Xue Yunrou who had sensed the movement here in the marquis’s mansion and had come over to see the situation.

However, Yu Jie frowned and looked at the scene in front of him with a strange expression.

Because at this time, Li Xuan had just rushed over the high wall from the north, with his clothes messy.

When he saw Yu Jie and Xue Yunrou, he couldn’t help but look embarrassed and said, "Cough, cough! I apologize for keeping Shaofu waiting. I had been busy with official duties and neglected Shaofu. Please don’t take offense."

Yu Jie looked at the high wall in the north with a weird look.

If he remembered correctly, isn’t that the Princess Mansion of Princess Changle?

Yu Ji also had a strange expression, he quietly said to Yu Jie: "Although Princess Changle often stays in the palace, for the past half month, she would occasionally come out of the palace to handle affairs in the Princess Mansion."

Xue Yunrou looked calm as she saw this. She walked to Li Xuan’s side with a smile and then said softly to Yu Jie, "Could Shaofu wait for a moment in the outer hall? I have some private matters to discuss with Li Xuan, it will only take a moment."

Yu Jie immediately left without saying a word.

He felt quite embarrassed, he had come to discuss military affairs, so maybe he was a bit impatient. But who would have thought that he would bump into this kind of trouble?

Just as Yu Jie was leaving the courtyard, he noticed that a large area of grape trellis nearby had collapsed.