gnovel Chapter 064: Loyalty to the Country
Chapter 064: Loyalty to the Country
On the fifth day of the twelfth month, Qin Keqing arranged for Yuwen Xu to secretly enter the Prince of Puan's residence.
They bypassed all the checkpoints and imperial city control points in Lin'an City, taking almost half an hour to complete the journey.
Yuwen Xu waited in the woodshed for a while, and then was led into Zhao Bozong's study.
Standing in his study, Dr. Lao Louke first looked around at the map of Lin'an city on the wall, the bronze scrolls on his desk, and the Xihe waist knife in the corner.
Then he slowly walked under the lamp to examine Zhao Bocong's face. He examined it for a long time, and then suddenly knelt down.
"Your Highness, you don't look like the founding emperor, but the way you look at people—it's as if you've been let down by many people."
He knelt on the ground, his voice low and hoarse.
"In my life, I have only trusted two people. One was the old supervisor who promoted me to the Imperial Prison of Tiantai. In the ninth year of Shaoxing, he was demoted to Lingnan by Qin Hui and died on the way."
The other one is Zhijia. Before he died, he asked the old man to guard the copper bell, saying that one day a person with a missing piece of copper coin would come to find him.
Today you sent this girl in your place, so I'm handing over the copper bell to you, with only one condition.
If the fire alarm goes off again in the future, it won't be to save files, but to save people.
Last winter, the Imperial City Guard surrounded and arrested a storyteller in Xihefang. The charge against him was that he was making irresponsible remarks about peace.
The old man watched helplessly as the constables dragged him away; the copper bell was for alarms, not for saving lives.
From that day on, the old man has been drawing this picture.
After he finished speaking, he took out a roll of blueprints from his pocket and spread them out in front of Zhao Bocong.
The picture shows a double-layer bell tongue modification scheme.
Zhao Bozong hadn't expected this old chronometer doctor to be so genuine. After meeting him, he blurted out so much, offering up all the results he had painstakingly preserved without reservation. After looking at the blueprints, Zhao Bozong remained silent for a long time.
Then he looked up at Yuwen Xu and stamped a blank letterhead from the Imperial Clan Court with his own seal.
He wrote: "The document archives and city defense emergency dispatches are to be compiled. Based on the old precedent of the Imperial Clan Court inspecting the fire prevention layout, Yuwen Xu is appointed as the communications supervisor and placed under the jurisdiction of the Imperial Clan Court's document archives."
This line of text means that from now on, Yuwen Xu will no longer be the Doctor of the Water Clock at the Observatory, but an official registered staff member of the Imperial Clan Court, receiving a salary from the Imperial Clan Court and performing the legitimate official duty of "inspecting the layout of old fire alarms".
The hidden bell tongue he modified on the copper bell will be referred to as the "Fire Alarm Support Copper Bell Verification Device" in the Zongzheng Temple archives.
If he were captured by Qin Hui because of this, the entire archive would be used to bail him out in the name of the Imperial Clan Court.
Yuwen Xu looked down at the words and said in a voice as if he had just received a heavy weight, "It was worth it."
He took out the last jug of rice wine from his pocket and placed it on the table.
"Your Highness, regarding the copper bell, the first section can be revised in at least a month, from the Observatory to Deshou Palace, and then to the East Watchtower of the old camp in the southern suburbs."
This bell line passes right through Wazi Lane and also the old watchtower on the east side of the outer wall of Cining Palace.
After the changes are complete, the first test signal must be sent during the day, mixed in with the midday clock strike, so as not to attract the attention of the Imperial City Guard.
Zhao Bozong pushed the pot of wine in front of Yuwen Xu.
"This pot of wine will be temporarily stored in the archives in the southern suburbs. When it is completed, you and Tongling will inspect it together."
As Yuwen Xu bowed and left the study, he brushed past Qin Keqing at the door.
He paused for a moment and whispered to her, "Last time you sent someone to check the dimensions of my drawer lock, it was four and a half inches, a brass spring lock, and the key was an old iron nail with a bent head."
Then he leaned slightly towards Qin Keqing and added a sentence that only she could hear: "Girl, you are less able to protect yourself than anyone I have ever met."
Qin Keqing did not answer.
She went back to her study alone to put away the modified copper bell diagram for Zhao Bozong. She then laid out the newly marked bell route on the map of Lin'an city, marking the distance between each watchtower and the time it took to send a message in fine print. This was her way of responding in silence.
Receive all the weight, and then install each part in the most appropriate position.
Zhao Bozong sat under the lamp looking at the blueprints brought by Yuwen Xu without looking up, but he knew what Qin Keqing was doing.
"Miss Qin, tomorrow you will combine this bell wire diagram with the previous connection point diagram and produce a complete version."
Qin Keqing said "okay," pulled out a chair, and sat down again.
......
On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, fourteen days before the winter solstice, Feng Yi, following Zhao Bocong's instructions, quietly adjusted the duty roster of the eunuchs in Cining Palace.
The reason given for this adjustment was that "there was an increase in traffic within the palace during the preparations for the Winter Solstice, and the eunuchs' schedules needed to be readjusted," which was reasonable and no one suspected anything.
After the adjustment, a new name was added to the list of eunuchs on duty accompanying the Empress Dowager on the night of the Winter Solstice: Zhang Quwei.
When Feng Yi created this schedule, he used the normal personnel allocation authority between Deshou Palace and Cining Palace.
He deliberately moved the drafting date of the schedule forward by five days, so that the clerks could trace the continuous revision records, making the matter seem completely unintentional.
At the same time, following the route rearranged by Qin Keqing, Jiao Qiong increased the patrol frequency between the old camp in the southern suburbs and Houchaomen to three times every night.
The patrols were no longer conducted at fixed intervals, but were instead carried out at different times under the guise of "nighttime delivery of historical materials" for the Zongzheng Temple archives.
Two of these additional shifts were set up at the beginning of Zi (11 PM - 3 AM) and the end of Yin (3 AM - 5 AM) respectively, which coincided with the regular shift change times of the Imperial City Guard.
The patrol route still strictly followed Qin Hui's approval of "limited to the official road outside the old camp", but Jiao Qiong secretly added something to the patrol team's equipment: each person had an extra copper whistle hanging on their waist.
If anything happens at the old camp in the southern suburbs, three short whistles can travel half a mile at night, and the deputy commander of the Imperial Guard at the city gate will know immediately and transmit the alarm to the nearest drop-off point within the time it takes to drink a cup of tea.
On the tenth day of the twelfth lunar month, Zhao Bocong went to Cining Palace again after making preparations.
That afternoon, there was no wind outside Chang'an Gate at first, but halfway through the journey, a dry, cold north wind suddenly picked up.
Zhao Bozong temporarily instructed his coachman to take a detour around half the city, exiting through an old alleyway belonging to the imperial clan that had been abandoned for many years, in order to avoid passing by Qin Hui's carriage on the Imperial Street.
When he entered the side chamber of Cining Palace, Consort Wei had a draft of the Winter Solstice sacrificial poem presented by the Court of Imperial Sacrifices in front of her.
This draft was personally reviewed by Qin Hui, and the eulogy was full of clichés of blessing—"favorable weather and abundant harvests" and "national prosperity and peace."
Consort Wei pushed the manuscript in front of Zhao Bocong.
"The words you asked me to say during the sacrificial ceremony to Heaven are not in this draft at all. The draft was reviewed by Qin Hui, and the Court of Imperial Sacrifices dared not add them."
After reading the eulogy, Zhao Bozong put it back on the table, his face remaining calm.
"The Empress Dowager need not be included in the manuscript. After the sacrificial ceremony to Heaven is completed, the Court of Imperial Sacrifices will invite the Empress Dowager to offer incense and pray for blessings separately."
This step is not part of the formal ceremony; it is a customary practice for elder members of the royal family to pray for the nation's well-being.
Qin Hui couldn't stop it, because this wasn't about court politics, but about the family rituals of the imperial clan.
Consort Wei nodded slowly. "You want me to say it when we offer incense alone?"
"When offering incense alone, the Empress Dowager only had ancestral tablets in front of her, and the people from the Imperial City Guard were not allowed to stand in the Imperial Ancestral Temple."
At that time, the Empress Dowager prayed for the loyal ministers and generals, asking the ancestors to bless those who were devoted to serving the country so that their grievances could be redressed.
Zhao Bozong spoke in a low voice, "There's no need to mention names; everyone in the world knows whose banner bears the four characters 'Serve the Country with Utmost Loyalty'."
"When I said these words, all the civil and military officials were kneeling outside the Imperial Ancestral Temple."
They can't hear inside, but this message will definitely get out.
That evening, word spread that Zhang Quwei would spread, and the Empress Dowager prayed for loyalty and patriotism in the Imperial Ancestral Temple.
By the next day, everyone in Lin'an City would know that the Empress Dowager had spoken up for Yue Fei. Consort Wei stood up and walked to the shrine.
The ebony box sat quietly in the shrine, the lotus carvings appearing and disappearing amidst the incense smoke.
"Don't worry, I've been waiting for this one sentence for sixteen years in the north." She turned to look at Zhao Bozong, her deep-set eyes revealing a sharpness that had been suppressed for too long and was finally about to be unleashed.
"If you are captured by Qin Hui on the winter solstice, I will scatter this eulogy manuscript along with the letter in the box in front of the steps of the Imperial Ancestral Temple."
Zhao Bozong stood up and bowed.
As he left the side room, he heard Consort Wei whisper the words "Serve the country with utmost loyalty" before the shrine.
The voice was very soft, so soft that it seemed as if the person outside the temple was afraid of hearing it.
But Zhao Bocong heard it.