Niao Ni

Chapter 300: A Slight Ailment Does Not Impede Viewing the Falling Leaves

During these days, under the wise guidance of Director Fan, and the specific command of Young Master Yan, the Overwatch Council armed itself to the teeth, biting ruthlessly into the Second Prince's faction from officials to economic interests, and forcefully occupied a very advantageous position. Using the Baoyue Brothel incident as a lead, and the assassination outside Kyoto Prefecture as a root, it fought its way through the court, searched high and low in the business community, and dug deep into the opponent's soul, not letting a single thought of conspiracy slip by, advancing step by step.

First, unsurprisingly, Xie Bi'an, one of the Eight Great Generals, died violently in the Kyoto Prefecture prison. This naturally gave the Overwatch Council an excellent excuse. The Council, in the form of a joint meeting, submitted three memorials to the palace, and Tian Jingmu, the prefect of Kyoto Prefecture, was finally suspended for investigation.

The Second Prince's foolish move to protect himself allowed the Council to remove his greatest support in Kyoto, one step at a time. On the other hand, Yan Bingyun began to use other means, successfully controlling several checkpoints supporting Kyoto from Xinyang, forcing the Cui family to live in fear, unsure of how much money they had lost. They had no choice but to mobilize funds from the Jiangnan main family in an attempt to forcibly open the northern route, which had been cut off due to Shen Zhong's death, and the Second Prince's income began to shrink.

The public opinion was also extremely unfavorable to the Second Prince's faction. Although there were strategists in the Prince's Mansion, they were no match for the Overwatch Council's agility and professionalism. Compared to the propaganda personnel of the Eighth Division, the lackeys sent to the teahouses and taverns by the Prince's Mansion had no power to bewitch people's hearts. Although the Overwatch Council acted ruthlessly, the people of Kyoto still vaguely stood on the Fan family's side, always feeling that the missing Second Young Master Fan had taken the blame for the Second Prince, which was why Lord Fan had retaliated so harshly.

As for Hong Cheng... this pitiful Heir Apparent of Jing Wang, his reputation stank to an appalling degree. Who told him to have an affair with Yuan Meng? The people of Kyoto all knew that next spring, Li Hongcheng was going to marry the eldest daughter of the Fan family, but he instructed Fan Sizhe, a mere fourteen-year-old boy, to open a brothel, and made him bear the blame for the prostitute's murder! -- Mother, he’s a dog! Is there such a shameless brother-in-law in this world who takes advantage of his wife's younger brother?

For a time, whether in the officialdom or in other aspects, the Second Prince's faction was defeated again and again, their momentum was low, and they had no power to fight back. The only counterattack they had ever attempted was through the Censorate, controlled by the Eldest Princess. But the censors wasted their efforts. All the Overwatch Council's actions were based on the Qing legal code, and there was not a single flaw that could be seized. As for the assassination of the three Baoyue Brothel case witnesses in the rainy night, it was an unsolvable murder case. Even if someone guessed that the Overwatch Council had done it, where was the evidence?

The Overwatch Council's attitude towards the assassination was also very clear - those three people were personally sent to the Kyoto Prefecture Yamen by Director Fan's family. How could they have died outside Kyoto Prefecture? If there was a problem, then the Kyoto Prefecture Prefect Tian Jingmu, who was friendly with the Second Prince, had the biggest problem!

Fan Xian was extremely satisfied with the current results. Anyway, the palace's bottom line was there. He could not possibly drive the Second Prince out of Kyoto directly. As long as he could weaken the Second Prince's power to the point where he could no longer threaten him, and beat him so hard that he cried out in pain, and let out a mouthful of bad air for the Old Fan family, that would be enough.

Even at this point, the terrifying power of the Overwatch Council had only shown a part of itself.

The reason why this operation could be so smooth was partly because Chen Pingping had delegated all authority to Fan Xian through that paper transfer order, and more importantly, Fan Xian's actions had already begun to be planned during his visit to Shangjing, Northern Qi. From summer to autumn, he and Yan Bingyun had been preparing for a long time. The memorial presented to the Emperor at that time mentioned the relationship between the Second Prince and the Eldest Princess, but the Emperor did not act on it last time. This time, because of the Baoyue Brothel incident, Fan Xian took advantage of his anger and made this matter happen ahead of schedule.

Using a prepared mind against an unprepared one, using a strong wind to blow away thin clouds, if the Overwatch Council still couldn't win this battle, Chen Pingping would probably jump up from his wheelchair in anger and scold these little bastards for damaging his prestige!

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...

The palace had been maintaining a mysterious silence. All the nobles, including Consort Shu, the Second Prince's birth mother, the Crown Prince of the Eastern Palace, and the Empress, were like deaf and blind people, cautiously not expressing any opinions. Everyone knew that they were watching the Emperor's attitude.

What was the Emperor doing?

News came from the palace that the Emperor had invited a Daoke opera troupe from Jiangnan to perform a grand opera in the palace! At this time, Kyoto was experiencing a storm, but the Emperor of Qing was still leisurely accompanying the Empress Dowager, watching a whole day of opera, and rewarding countless baskets of copper coins, saying that he was unspeakably happy and relaxed!

Now everyone finally saw the situation clearly. It turned out that His Majesty did not think that such a trivial matter was worth watching at all, and he was too lazy to even lift his eyelids. The small-scale squabbles of young people in Kyoto were nothing compared to the plays performed by the famous opera troupe from Jiangnan.

The situation was clear. Those officials who had been maintaining neutrality used their keen minds to realize a fact. Fan Xian's imperial favor had reached an astonishing degree! Who was Fan Xian's opponent? It was the Second Prince, the Emperor's own son! The Emperor could still be so impartial... This, this, what kind of favor was this?

However, these people did not dare to offend the Second Prince, so they had to stand even more firmly, firmly planted on the wall, sticking their feet in the mud, and tenaciously practicing the grassroots spirit, swaying from side to side, but refusing to fall to either side.

This fact made the Second Prince himself suck in countless breaths of cold air. He knew that his years of developing power in the court silently had all fallen into his father's eyes. He couldn't help but wonder if Fan Xian's actions against him after returning to Kyoto were secretly authorized by the palace? However, this Second Prince was also a ruthless person. He knew that the current situation did not allow him to retreat any further. Even if he was willing to put down the dignity of a prince and hope to shake hands with Fan Xian for the second time, the other party might not be in the mood. Moreover, the Emperor's ambiguous attitude made the Second Prince know that if he could not defeat Fan Xian, he would only have to wait for Fan Xian to knock him down into the dust—just like what they said in the teahouse.

Under this immense pressure, the Second Prince reluctantly acted again. The censors of the Censorate collectively impeached Fan Xian again. This time, the charges were extremely concrete, and the evidence they presented was also extremely solid. In short, it was inextricably linked to the things that Fan Sizhe had stirred up, and it also involved Fan Jian, the Minister of Revenue. The snow-like memorials were submitted to the Department of State Affairs, completely skipping the Ministry of Justice and the Court of Revision, and directly demanding that the Fan family resign and plead guilty, putting on a stance of a do-or-die fight.

On this day, dozens of remonstrating officials put on a bigger show than the last time they impeached Fan Xian, kneeling straight in front of the palace gate. There was no rain today, and the dozens of ochre official robes, slightly dancing in the autumn wind, on the green-gray palace square were particularly dazzling, causing the senior court officials who came and went at the palace gate to shake their heads and hide in the side door, not daring to meddle in this matter.

According to the Qing legal code, officials who are impeached must submit a memorial to defend themselves. In cases like this impeachment, the Fan family had to personally enter the palace to plead guilty to the Emperor and then explain clearly at the court meeting. However, the Second Prince's faction still had extremely strong power at the court meeting, and the defense in front of the hall was really difficult for the Fan family to pass.

The censors of the Censorate were full of confidence, waiting for Fan Jian and Fan Xian, this pair of Qing's biggest "corrupt officials," to be honestly defeated by them. Because this time was different from the last time. This time, with the help of the Second Prince, they had obtained solid evidence to prove that the Fan family, and even the Liu family's Loyal Duke Mansion, were inextricably linked to the notorious Baoyue Brothel!

They knelt on the ground, excitedly waiting for Fan Xian's arrival—even if the Fan family had sent Fan Sizhe away, and divested the Baoyue Brothel, even if the Emperor showed mercy outside the law, but with all the evidence, your Fan family would have to pay the corresponding price—they were waiting for the arrogant Director of the Overwatch Council to appear in front of their iron-shouldered censors to admit their mistakes, plead guilty, and bow their heads!

Not only the censors of the Censorate, but in fact, many people were preparing to see how the Fan family, or rather, the Overwatch Council, would face this fierce impeachment at the height of their power. Officials valued face, and being bitten to death by the Censorate like this was really a shameful thing. And as everyone knew, Fan Xian was a person who valued his reputation very much, so the officials were even more interested, even including Grand Academician Shu Wu, who held a heart of schadenfreude, revenge, or mockery, preparing to see Fan Xian's embarrassed appearance.

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...

But no one expected that when the Emperor summoned him, Fan Xian did not come! Not only did he not come, but even Minister Fan did not come. This pair of father and son had a tacit understanding and shamelessly used the same trick - illness!

Hearing this news, the Second Prince was stunned at first. He did not expect that the Fan family was not only like a hungry wolf in terms of interests, biting randomly when provoked, but also so ruthless in terms of face, a trivial matter, that they did not even give themselves a chance to regain some face... Ruthless, these two are really ruthless.

Grand Academician Shu Wu, who was older and usually hid in the tea room outside the side door to drink tea, spat out a mouthful of tea after hearing this news. He had played a few games of chess with Fan Xian at the Imperial Academy that day, and the boy had promised so well, but in the blink of an eye, he had stirred up such a big storm in Kyoto, and even said that he was reluctant to "eat pieces"! Grand Academician Shu was so angry at Fan Xian, who was outwardly respectful but inwardly full of bad intentions, that he almost vomited blood. He had hoped to see Fan Xian's discomfited appearance at today's court meeting, but he did not expect that this boy would feign illness and not come, which made the old academician unable to relieve his anger from watching the show, and he was very unhappy.

The news of the Fan family's illness reached the hall, and the Emperor, who was reviewing the memorials submitted by various prefectures, was also stunned, then frowned, and said nothing.

The ladies in the harem also knew about this matter, and laughed and scolded that this child of the Fan family was really a troublemaker. They did not know how to worry the Emperor less, and did not know why Yi Chen married such a husband. At first, he looked like a man full of poetic talent, but now he looked like a full of complaints rogue.

The most disappointed were the censors of the Censorate who were kneeling outside the palace gate. Since the opponent was feigning illness and did not come, no matter how murderous the formation was, without a point of force, they were exerting great effort in vain. They felt empty in their hearts and were very uncomfortable. They dejectedly dispersed, and even the ochre official robes on their bodies weakly clung to their bodies, too lazy to pay attention to the teasing of the autumn wind.

People all grow up eating grains, and they are not made of steel, so how could they not have any illnesses, but it was too strange that the Fan family were so coincidentally ill, and that their illness came so suddenly, and that they were even unable to get out of bed... especially since Fan Xian was the direct disciple of Fei Jie of the Overwatch Council. Although he did not practice medicine, even the imperial physicians in the palace knew your methods, so how could he suddenly fall ill?

Not only the officials in the court did not believe it, the people of Kyoto did not believe it, but in fact, even the ladies in the palace and the Emperor on the dragon chair did not believe it. Therefore, after the court meeting dispersed that day, palace guards led imperial physicians, under the leadership of Hong Gonggong, who rarely left the palace, and went to the Fan Mansion in a mighty manner to convey the Emperor's condolences and see what kind of illness the father and son had contracted!

Many of the spies from the mansions followed this procession, because everyone thought that the Fan family were feigning illness, so they subconsciously thought that the father and son had offended the Emperor in order not to be embarrassed in court, and that even a small matter was a crime of deceiving the Emperor... it was really extremely foolish and extremely arrogant.

The Second Prince also could not figure out this matter. He was a prince and had grown up in the palace since he was a child, so he naturally knew Hong Gonggong's methods. Any pretense of illness could not be hidden from that sickly old eunuch.

...

...

Fan Xian was really sick.

This news was confirmed by Hong Gonggong, and the Emperor's lack of follow-up punishment proved it, spreading to every corner of Kyoto. No one doubted that Fan Xian was feigning illness anymore. Although Minister Fan was only suffering from a slight cold, Lord Fan was really bedridden and his body was very weak.

At the critical juncture of the Overwatch Council's struggle with the Second Prince, Fan Xian was very unlucky to fall ill.

This fact made many people have a very strange emotion. Would the situation in Kyoto change because of this? After all, a similar situation had occurred in history. When the Northern Wei Emperor liquidated the Zhan family, which had made great military achievements, the reason why he was able to succeed so thrillingly was because at that time, the famous general Zhan Qingfeng very unluckily had diarrhea for three days.

History is absurd, but extremely real.

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"Don't worry about anything." Fan Xian frowned, looking at Mu Tie, who was standing in front of the bed with a slightly uneasy expression. "Just listen to what Young Master Yan arranges."

He had fallen ill after returning from Kyoto Prefecture. Although it was not very serious, the True Qi that had begun to be out of control after the battle with Xie Bi'an was scurrying around in his body, forcing him to spend more time meditating and calming his mind. His pale complexion and strange pulse had successfully deceived the unfathomable Hong Gonggong.