CH 61

Qi Jiguang was an intelligent man.

His intelligence was not only demonstrated on the battlefield against his enemies, but he also understood the dynamics of the imperial court, and he was also willing to play along to the rules of the game.

Usually, generals who were great in battle were not very popular in the imperial court, even for those generals who had begun as civil officials, who led large numbers of troops naturally had their shortcomings of becoming overly arrogant regarding their merits like Hu Zongxian. Not to mention, those generals were half a ranking lower than civil officials and received no respect from the others, and lastly, they could become someone’s scapegoat at any moment.

But Qi Jiguang got on very well with others and was open-minded, he had connections all over the imperial court, even though he had been implicated by the fall of the Yan faction and made to resign from his post, that was all. Thanks to his tact and his ability to stay under the radar, no one had come to cause him any trouble.

But in Zhao Su’s opinion, this wasn’t what was most extraordinary about Qi Jiguang.

The most extraordinary thing was that even when he was smoothly handling affairs, he was able to stay true to his own heart at the same time.

He was precisely someone who saw the darkness of the world everywhere, but could still stay true to his own beliefs and to still be willing to use his utmost power to render his service and repay the kindness to this imperial court and to this country.

Five hundred years later, in the era that Zhao Su had once lived – by indulging in a life of luxury, everyone had lost sight of their own beliefs and convictions and fell into greed and corruption. When one was hesitant to give aid to someone in need, when those who were courageous and brave never obtained their happy ending, naturally there were many people who could no longer understand this kind of reasoning.

So when the Prince of Yu was faced with an impossible predicament, the first person that Zhao Su thought of was precisely the ‘crafty’ Qi Jiguang.

Thanks to their friendship, Zhao Su could ascertain that Qi Jiguang was a slick and sly person who was able to navigate the ways of the world and could be entrusted to help during this major political event and at this moment, in fact, there was no one who was more suitable than Qi Jiguang.

On the one hand, Qi Jiguang didn’t have any official position, although he had gained great merit in the southeast, in the Capital, there was an abundance of individuals from influential families who had also achieved meritorious deeds. Therefore, he did not stand out in any way, and everyone believed that he had already been branded by the mark of the Yan faction, and would never be able to rise up to the top again. Even the Prince of Jing had completely disregarded him, only having sent a person to return his gift and then completely ignoring him. —— He had been completely overlooked, because Qi Jiguang couldn’t bring his troops into the Capital. However, he had brought twenty of his own personal guards, and these soldiers were even more skilled than the Embroidered Guard, so at a critical time, these men could be used to save lives. In addition to this, Qi Jiguang had been on the battlefield for many years and was an influential leader.

Secondly, Qi Jiguang understood very well that in the eyes of the imperial court, a pure army was important and he also understood that he did not have a lot of people on his side, therefore, if he wanted to rise to the top once more, he had to once again, find support from the civil officials, and the latter, were mostly siding with the Prince of Yu and Xu Jie, for example, Zhang Juzheng and Zhao Su.

It was killing two birds with one stone, whether it was for the greater good, or whether he was thinking about his own future, he naturally had to support the Prince of Yu.

Therefore, he agreed to lend Zhao Su some personal guards. Two shichen later, the Prince of Yu and Zhao Su brought He Zizhong and four guards that Qi Jiguang had personally selected to be disguised as servants and guards of the Prince’s manor to enter the palace.

“Do you think everyone is like you, I’m not into that kind of thing, hey, you know that bunch of castrated lot who have been running around near the gates lately, what is going on there, the superiors have only told us to be more careful watching the gates……”

“Why would they tell us anything? Just drop it! Anyway, it’s already been raining heavily for half the night, there’ll definitely not be anyone coming here, in a bit, let’s just get some shut eye and then it’ll already be daylight……”

His voice trailed off, as he looked into the distance.

Song Yuan didn’t understand what was going on: “What is it?”

Liang Wen hesitated: “Is there a carriage over there, I seem to have heard the patter of hooves?”

Song Yuan rolled his eyes: “What carriage sound, don’t tell me you’re so hungry, you’ve got horse meat on the brain?”

“No, it’s really the sound of horse hooves!” Liang Wen said, whilst moving closer outside, not long after, his voice was heard saying: “Stop there, who are you!”

Song Yuan, hearing this, thought that something was not quite right and rushed out to take a look.

This is when he saw that there really was a horse and carriage outside, the coachman was wearing a straw cape and it was impossible to see his face, but his voice could be heard clearly in between the pitter patter of the rain: “Our Prince wishes to enter the palace, immediately open the gates!”

“Prince of Yu, what is the meaning of this, this is the forbidden palace, the home of the Son of Heaven!” Liang Wen shouted loudly, but his voice had been concealed by the noise of the heavy rainfall, so his voice was more like the sound of a mosquito buzzing.

“Nothing at all, we just wanted to ask you something.” Zhao Su lifted up the curtain of the carriage, he was wearing a straw cape. He jumped down from the carriage. “Have the grand secretaries left the palace these past few days?”

Liang Wen had been incapacitated by the sword on his neck, Liu Da added some force and the sword cut into his neck a little, his face immediately went pale: “This official has been on duty the last few days and has not seen any of the grand secretaries leave the palace.”

“What has been happening in the palace then?”

“This….. Official does not know.”

Zhao Su saw that he was clearly lying: “You should know that the Prince is still the eldest prince of the Emperor, even if he breaks the rules, it is just because he is worried about the Emperor, and this is perfectly natural, but you are not the same, even if we kill you now, even if someone asked about it tomorrow, no one would care.”

The sound of the rain gradually began to lesson, Zhao Su’s voice was particularly cutting and cold in the silence of the night, making the two guards shudder.

Song Yuan sneered: “Please forgive us, my Prince. All this official knows is that our superiors have asked us to not let anyone leave the palace, as for why, the superiors have naturally not shared with us lowly officials…..”

So something had indeed happened.

Zhao Su and the Prince of Yu looked at each other, the Prince of Yu quickly said: “What about my father, my father hasn’t been harmed surely?!”

Song Yuan hesitated to reply: “I haven’t heard anything, it seems to be calm inside…..”

“What about the imperial guards, anything out of place?”

Zhao Su couldn’t be blamed for asking for clarification, in reality, in the last few days, people were only allowed to enter, but people were not allowed to leave, and there were many things that were still unclear.