gnovel Chapter 066: Counterattack
Chapter 066: Counterattack
The 23rd day of the 12th month of the 12th year of Shaoxing was the Little New Year.
The city of Lin'an has been bustling with activity for a whole month since the grand ceremony to worship Heaven on the winter solstice.
The eight words that Consort Wei uttered at the Imperial Ancestral Temple—"Serve the country with utmost loyalty, and the truth will be revealed to the heavens"—have struck like a thunderbolt and have yet to be quelled.
The storytellers in Xihefang adapted Yue Fei's last words into new stories, and after each performance, tea drinkers would throw copper coins onto the stage.
The students of the Imperial Academy privately circulated a signed memorial listing the names of Yue Fei's former troops, ending with only one line: "The heavens are clear, when will they shine again?"
No one knows who wrote this list.
No one noticed that Qin Hui had not attended court for a whole month.
The gauze lanterns at the back gate of the Qin residence have not been lit since the beginning of the twelfth lunar month.
This was completely unimaginable in the past.
For the past eleven years in Shaoxing, that gauze lantern has been lit almost every night until the third watch.
Secret reports from various prefectures and counties, clandestine memorials from the Imperial City Guard, and private letters from Jin envoys all passed through the lamplight.
A saying circulated in the officialdom of Lin'an: "If the lanterns at the back gate of the Qin residence are extinguished for one day, the court will be peaceful for one day; if they are extinguished for three days, someone will surely be imprisoned; if they are extinguished for more than ten days—"
No one dared to say the second half of the sentence.
This time, the gauze lanterns remained extinguished for a full twenty-three days.
On the evening of the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, Qin Keqing passed by the back gate of the Qin family mansion. She was carrying a bamboo basket full of laundry, with an indigo cloth wrapped around her head, and walked through the alley with her head down.
The stone steps at the back door were covered in dust.
She paused for a moment at the corner, looking at the tightly closed black lacquered wooden door.
She knew her father's habits all too well. When the gauze lanterns went out, it usually meant two things: either he was preparing something big that required absolute secrecy, or he had already taken action, but everyone was still in the dark.
The wind blew in from the alley entrance, making the clothes in the bamboo basket rustle.
She didn't look at it much and continued walking forward with her head down.
It was already dark when they returned to the Prince of Puan's residence.
In the small house in the side yard, a cat was curled up on the windowsill, dozing off, its tail drooping down and occasionally flicking.
Qin Keqing put down the bamboo basket, took out the booklet filled with tiny characters from her sleeve, and turned to the latest page.
She picked up the charcoal pencil and wrote on the paper:
"On the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, the gauze lanterns at the back gate of the Qin residence were extinguished for 23 days. No unusual mobilization of the Imperial City Guard was observed, Qin Hui was not seen attending court, and no large-scale entry or exit of personnel was seen at the Qin residence."
Then she stopped.
The charcoal pencil hovered above the paper, hesitant to fall.
Putting these three "unseen" together, we can only draw one conclusion: Qin Hui is not lying low; he is about to close the net.
If a hunter makes no move for twenty-three consecutive days, either the prey has already escaped, or he no longer needs to chase after them.
The cat suddenly jumped down from the windowsill, arched its back, and let out a low whimper towards the door.
Qin Keqing closed the booklet and reached into her sleeve for the short dagger she always carried with her.
The door was pushed open from the outside.
Liu An stood at the door, his face ashen, with a few dark red bloodstains splattered on his clothes. His left hand was on the hilt of the knife at his waist, and his right hand was holding a lantern that had been smashed out.
"Miss Qin," he said in a low voice, as if he were trying to control something, "the dead mail drop-off point at the back door of Shunhe Tea Shop in Wazi Lane was raided by the Imperial City Guard half an hour ago."
Qin Keqing's fingers tightened slightly on the hilt of the dagger.
Where are they?
"The messenger ran away, but—" Liu An's voice trembled slightly, "the deputy commander of the Imperial Guard was surrounded by scouts when he was waiting for him at the city gate. He asked me to give this to you."
He took something out of his pocket and placed it on the table.
Half a bamboo hairpin.
Qin Keqing looked down at the broken bamboo hairpin, but did not reach out to touch it. The broken end of the hairpin was very fresh, indicating that it had been broken by someone stepping on it.
The deputy commander of the Imperial Guard was her most capable assistant in Lin'an City.
During Qin Keqing's absence from the city, he independently managed all seven drop-off points for death messages within the city. He knew the location of each drop-off point, the alias of each messenger, and every set of backup codes.
What's worse, he knew Qin Keqing's true identity.
Where was he taken?
"The Dali Temple," Liu An's voice was hoarse. "Qin Hui personally signed the arrest warrant, the charge being treasonous communication with the Jin Dynasty and the transmission of military intelligence."
Qin Keqing picked up the broken bamboo hairpin and held it in her hand.
"Does Your Highness know?"
"I understand. Minister Zhao has already entered the palace and wants to use the tokens from the Court of Imperial Clan Affairs to bring the person out, but—" Liu An did not finish his sentence.
Qin Keqing knew what he wanted to say.
The Grand Court of Imperial Clan's tokens were useful to the Imperial City Guard because Qin Hui was unwilling to openly break ties with the imperial clan.
But if Qin Hui no longer intends to play openly, then the lottery ticket is just a piece of waste paper.
This long, covert battle finally came into the open on the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month.
......
At the same time, the Qin family's signing room was brightly lit.
Qin Hui sat behind a rosewood desk, with a copy of the interrogation record that had just been sent by the Dali Temple spread out in front of him.
He was wearing a worn-out plain cotton jacket, and his hair was simply tied up with a jade hairpin. He didn't look like a powerful prime minister, but rather like an ordinary old official reviewing documents late at night.
But there was a calligraphy scroll hanging on the wall behind him.
"It is easy to bind a tiger, but difficult to release it."
This was written by Yue Fei himself on the night of the 29th day of the twelfth lunar month in the eleventh year of Shaoxing, the night he died at Fengbo Pavilion.
Two people were standing opposite the desk.
The Imperial City Guard Director was Wan Qixie, and there was also an old man with a gaunt face wearing a gray cotton robe.
If anyone is familiar with the intelligence business in Lin'an City, they will recognize this old man—Tian Ruyi.
He served as the Chief Intelligence Officer of the Privy Council in the early years of the Shaoxing era. After retiring due to illness in the seventh year of the Shaoxing era, he lived in seclusion by the Qiantang River and had not set foot in Lin'an City for five whole years.
At this moment, he stood in Qin Hui's signing room, holding a thick stack of papers, which were densely covered with names of people, places, dates, and events.
"Prime Minister," Tian Ruyi's voice was old and steady, like an old storyteller in a teahouse, "as you instructed, I spent three months reviewing all the unusual developments in the Puan Prince's Mansion over the past six months."
Qin Hui did not speak, but simply nodded slightly.
"The first clue: In May of the twelfth year of Shaoxing, three days before the Battle of Jiaoshan, an unidentified woman approached the Privy Council's naval grain ships at Zhenjiang Wharf under the pretense of washing clothes."
Subsequent investigation revealed that the woman's travel permit was fake, but her figure—"Tian Ruyi turned to a page, "is a perfect match for someone from the Qin family."
Tian Ruyi did not specify who this person was from the Qin family, because some information could not be made public.
Qin Hui's face remained expressionless.
"Second clue: In August of the twelfth year of Shaoxing, this person left the city under the pretext of purchasing embroidery and stayed in Xiuzhou for five days."
In the past five days, a group of representatives from the branch families of the imperial clan suddenly appeared in Xiuzhou, claiming that they were willing to help the Prince of Puan's mansion to conduct an inventory of the imperial clan's lands.
The contact person for this group was a tea shop owner surnamed Wang, whose tea shop happened to open three days before this person arrived in Xiuzhou.
Tian Ruyi turned to the next page.
The third clue: In September of the twelfth year of Shaoxing, Yuwen Xu, the doctor in charge of the water clock at the Imperial Observatory, was transferred to the Imperial Clan Court to work on the archives.
I have checked Yuwen Xu's past records. He was promoted in the first year of Shaoxing because of his improvement of the fire alarm bell reporting method. The person who promoted him was the supervisor of the Observatory at that time.
This official was demoted to Lingnan by you, Prime Minister, in the ninth year of the Shaoxing era for submitting a memorial opposing peace negotiations.
"Yuwen Xu served as the supervisor of the Heavenly Terrace for twelve years, never getting involved in court politics. But every month he would go to a small tavern in the west of the city to drink alone, which happened to be on the street where this man was in charge of laundry."
Wan Qixie's expression changed upon hearing this.
"Prime Minister, these clues—"
"Not enough," Qin Hui interrupted him, his voice low. "These are just clues, not evidence. What I need is something that kills the enemy instantly."
Tian Ruyi closed the paper in her hand and took out another thin file from her sleeve.
"That's all we have then."
He placed the file on his desk without opening it.