Taichang Ming Dynasty

Chapter 673: Using the dead alive
Hanyang, the Military Affairs Office.

Ju Shibo lightly dismounted, flung his waist token, and before the guards at the gate could completely move aside, he half-bumped his way into the yamen.

In the main hall, Li Erzhan, the judge of the Righteous Forbidden Prefecture who was in charge of military affairs, and Liu Xifen, the emperor's brother-in-law who was temporarily acting as the judge of the military affairs department and the judge of the civil affairs department, were both silent and waiting.

"Your subordinate, Ju Shibo, pays respects to Judge Li and Judge Liu!" Ju Shibo lifted his robe, kowtowed, and bowed in a smooth and graceful manner.

Li Erzhan's eyebrows twitched, and he raised his face, which was full of worry. "Get up and speak."

"Thank you, Judge Li! Thank you, Judge Liu!" Ju Shibo kowtowed once before standing up from the ground.

"What did you find out?" Li Erzhan asked.

"In response to Judge Li, we did indeed find your sedan chair in that dilapidated temple called Yanfo Temple." Ju Shibo gave Liu Xifen a very deliberate look.

"There won't just be a sedan chair, will there?" Li Erzhan asked, but nodded heavily.

Gu Shibo understood Li Erzhan's meaning and immediately reached into his robes to pull out the piece of red fabric still covered in charred ash. He then approached the table. "Besides the sedan chair, I also found this piece of fabric, and someone who claims to have seen those rebels." Gu Shibo paused. "An informant."

“They burned my official robes.” Li Erzhan had sharp eyes; he immediately recognized that what Ju Shibo was holding was a fragment of his own official robe.

“It was burned, but not completely,” said Gu Shibo. “Besides this, there are some small fragments, which I have already had collected.”

"What a pity about my fine brocade." Li Erzhan waved his hand, then asked, "Where are my four sedan chair bearers?"

"Probably." Gu Shibo tucked the fragment of his official robe back into his pocket. "He's already been murdered."

"What do you mean by 'probably already'?" Li Erzhan frowned slightly.

Gu Shibo immediately tensed up. "In the kitchen of Yeonbu Temple's backyard, we found a lot of dried bloodstains and signs of struggle. My men followed the bloodstains to search for the bodies, but so far we haven't found the sedan bearers' bodies or any signs of burial. Therefore, Jeong Dian-kyung speculates that the four sedan bearers were probably killed by the rebels and thrown into the Han River."

Li Erzhan remained silent for a long while, finally letting out a long sigh. "It's my fault that they're in trouble." His tense upper body unconsciously relaxed, and his two shoulders, which had been high from supporting himself on the table with his elbows, slowly slumped down.

"No!" Ju Shibo said firmly, "The grievances have their perpetrators and the debtors their accomplices. It was those rebels who harmed them. It has nothing to do with anyone else, let alone with Judge Li."

“They have sacrificed their lives for the country and served His Highness the Prince.” Liu Xifen said from the side, “I will report to the Prince later and ask him to order a reward and provide generous compensation to their families.”

"No rush." ​​In the blink of an eye, Li Erzhan's gloomy expression vanished. "Let's wait until the imperial envoy arrives in the capital before making a decision."

"What do you mean?" Liu Xifen didn't expect Li Erzhan to contradict him on such a matter.

"First, please have the Crown Prince report to the Imperial Envoy. Once the Imperial Envoy approves, then issue an order for rewards in the Crown Prince's name," Li Erzhan said.

"Does this kind of thing really need an imperial envoy to make the decision?" Liu Xifen suddenly asked, somewhat dissatisfied.

“It is precisely in such matters that the Imperial Envoy needs to make a decision,” Li Erzhan explained. “For the families of the sedan chair carriers, compensation is very important. But for the Crown Prince and the country, compensation is not important; what is important is the Imperial Envoy’s permission itself. Only by making those sedan chair carriers receive compensation in writing as victims of treason can we completely nail down the identity of that ‘Your Excellency’ as a traitor.”

"Weigh me?" Although Liu Xifen was a little slow to react, he quickly came to his senses.

“If I don’t weigh them, won’t my poor sedan chair carriers die in vain?” Li Erzhan’s eyes were gloomy.

"Li Guangchang," Liu Xifen felt a chill run down his spine. "You truly are worthy of your reputation."

"Hehe." Li Erzhan chuckled lightly twice, then asked Ju Shibo, "What about the person you mentioned who knew about this?"

Gu Shibo shrank back, not even daring to meet Li Erzhan's gaze. "He has already been taken to the Uijinbu for detailed interrogation."

"What has he said so far?" Li Erzhan asked.

“He said,” Ju Shibo gently licked his dry lips, “that he spotted the rebels in the distance two days ago, around noon the day before yesterday. At that time, the rebels were escorting a sedan chair towards Woniu Mountain.”

"Is that my sedan chair?" Li Erzhan interjected.

“It should be,” said Ju Shibo.

"Where did you find this informant?" Li Erzhan asked.

“It’s a village on the east side of Woniu Mountain. The main family’s surname is Wen,” said Ju Shibo. “It’s only two or three miles from that village to Woniu Mountain.”

"Is there anything else?" Li Erzhan asked.

“There are more! There are many more.” Uncle Ju nodded hurriedly. “That village has at least a hundred people living there, so we can definitely find other people who know the truth.”

“I’m not asking if you have anyone else,” Li Erzhan asked. “I’m asking if you’ve found any other clues?”

"Your subordinate is foolish!" Gu Shibo quickly apologized and changed his tune. "There are other clues as well. The insider said that some refugees who fled famine originally lived in Yanfu Temple. The tattered clothes and signs of habitation we found in the backyard can probably confirm this."

“Confirmed?” Li Erzhan quipped, “So you haven’t found those refugees yet?”

"Those rebels took advantage of the chaos to rise up and usurp power; we must drive them to other places."

"Stop talking nonsense and just tell me if you found it or not." Li Erzhan tapped the table lightly to interrupt him.

"No," Gu Shibo said quickly, head down. "However, I have already ordered people to expand the scope of the investigation, and I believe we will have results soon."

“I think it’s very likely that there won’t be any results,” Liu Xifen interjected from the side.

Ju Shibo's eyes lit up, and he hurriedly replied, "What makes Judge Liu say that!" "Those rebels even killed your Judge Li's sedan chair carriers to silence them," Liu Xifen nodded at Li Erzhan. "Would they be so kind as to spare the lives of those refugees?"

"This," Ju Shibo raised his head, his voice trembling as he looked at Li Erzhan.

"Let's investigate as best we can," Li Erzhan said calmly. "We'll see how far we find out."

In reality, from the beginning, Yi Erzhan never expected Gu Shibo to find or even capture the rebels who kidnapped him by searching the temple. Rather than sending Gu Shibo out of the capital to investigate in order to capture the rebels, it was more to prove to the Crown Prince that he had indeed been kidnapped by rebels after leaving the palace the day before yesterday.

Li Erzhan was somewhat smug, even contemptuous of those rebels. If he were in charge of this matter, he would have destroyed all traces that could prove the powerful minister had been kidnapped, thus deepening the suspicion between the monarch and the minister. Now that the sedan chair was still there, the clothes hadn't been completely burned, and there were traces of murder at the scene, his suspicion of treason was completely cleared.

For a moment, the idea of ​​making a comeback suddenly popped into Li Erzhan's mind. The king's exclusion and suppression of him was not only due to the lack of progress in the matter of deposing his mother, but also because those who could threaten the throne had been almost completely eliminated. But now, with the imperial army pressing in and the emperor deposing the king, a ruthless official like him had emerged openly in rebellion, and he would once again have a place to use his power.

"Yes." Ju Shibo bowed and then asked, "Judge Li, I intend to arrest everyone in that village. What do you think?"

Li Erzhan asked, "Are there rebels in that village?"

"I don't know." Gu Shibo didn't dare to say for sure. "Probably not. The main reason for arresting them was to find clues and get confessions."

“Don’t bother arresting traitors,” Li Erzhan said. “It’s not like we’re handling that kind of case. If the traitors hide themselves, you still won’t be able to catch them. You’ll just end up getting yourself into trouble.”

"Then I will release them all?" Ju Shibo said.

Li Erzhan thought for a moment. "Don't release them all. At least keep the one you mentioned who knows the truth, and find some other similar informants. They must be genuinely informed. Get their confessions. Don't embellish anything, and definitely don't torture them. Treat them well. Right now, catching the rebels is secondary. The most important thing is not to tarnish the Crown Prince's reputation. You must always remember that you are acting in the Crown Prince's name. Do you understand?"

"Yes, I understand." Ju Shibo's heart tightened at first, then relaxed—fortunately, he had listened to Huang Tingyue's advice and had not yet forced the training of the military commander's troops to wipe out Wenjia Village in one fell swoop.

"Go ahead," Li Erzhan waved his hand.

"Yes. Judge Li, Judge Liu, I'll take my leave." Ju Shibo turned to leave, but quickly turned back: "Judge Li."

"Anything else to say?" Li Erzhan withdrew his hand that was about to pick up the pen.

"Your sedan chair will be delivered to your residence shortly, but it was pushed down the hillside by thieves and rolled quite a distance. Many of the carvings are broken, and there's a crack in the left-side partition. Although there's no obvious damage to the load-bearing and stabilizing parts like the four pillars and crossbeams, I'm afraid there might be hidden damage. So, I think we should have a few carpenters thoroughly inspect it, and not just use it after replacing the carvings and partition." Ju Shibo smiled as he looked at Li Erzhan.

Li Erzhan was silent for a moment. "Let's find a place to burn it."

"Burned!?" Ju Shibo exclaimed in surprise. "That was a sedan chair made of huanghuali wood! It should still be usable."

"It's just material possessions. In any case, those four sedan chair carriers died tragically at the hands of the rebels because they were carrying my sedan chair. Burning this sedan chair can be considered a way to commemorate them," Li Erzhan said.

"So what will you be sitting on from now on?" Ju Shibo asked.

“I still have two old ones at home, I’ve already had them taken care of.” Li Erzhan waved his hand and picked up a pen. “Go ahead, burn them. No need to bring them back.”

"Yes. I'll take my leave." Ju Shibo clasped his hands in a fist and bowed, then turned and left.

--------

“Yesterday’s search yielded nothing, and today’s search of Yanfo Temple also yielded nothing. If this continues, I’m afraid we’ll never catch that traitor.” Liu Xifen withdrew his gaze and turned to look at Li Erzhan.

"Hmm," Li Erzhan exhaled a long breath through his nose, which was considered a response.

Liu Xifen frowned. "Hmm, what do you mean? You need to figure something out."

"What can we do? There's no way. That 'sir' will never show himself for us to capture at this time." Li Erzhan finished writing the last word before raising his head again. "From Incheon to Hanyang, a round trip by galloping horse takes only one day, and even a normal march only takes one day. If that Admiral Shen doesn't stop in Incheon and doesn't stop after meeting Zhang Wan, he'll probably arrive at the gates of Hanyang by dusk this day. We're out of time. The best outcome now is just to confirm the identity of that 'sir'."

Liu Xifen's eyes dimmed. "Do you think Magistrate Li and his men can find the Xing'an brothers at Feng'en Temple?"

This morning, Li Erzhan dispatched two teams from the capital. One team, led by the third-ranking official of the Uigeumbu (Court of Imperial Sacrifices), Tongzhi Gu Shibo, was tasked with gathering evidence at Wonyu Mountain. The other team, personally led by the second-ranking official of the Uigeumbu, Zhishi Li Yingxing, was to travel to Fengen Temple in Jiangnan to search for the whereabouts of the Heungan-gun brothers. It can be said that the Uigeumbu had deployed its elite forces to solve this case.

“We probably won’t find them,” Li Erzhan said. “If it really is them, they would have already hidden themselves by now. If they were just worshipping Buddha, they should have left by now.”

"Then why did you send Governor Li on this grand trip?" Liu Xifen said.

“We can ask even if we can’t find the person.” Li Erzhan rubbed his forehead and said, “As long as we can find out whether the Xing’an brothers really went to worship Buddha, when they went, and how long they stayed there, we can roughly deduce whether they are the ‘sir’ who kidnapped me.”

“That’s true.” Liu Xifen paused for a moment, then suddenly asked, “What if Brother Xing’an really went to worship Buddha?”

"What do you mean by that?" Li Erzhan immediately sensed the probing tone in his words. "You might as well just say what you want to say; there's no need to beat around the bush like this."

"It doesn't mean anything." Liu Xifen's heart tightened, and he involuntarily lowered his head, looking at the empty desk as he asked. "I was just saying it casually."

“Uncle Liu,” Li Erzhan bluntly stated, “are you still doubting my relationship with Lord Lingyang?”

“After all, Shen Jingxi is one of your protégés,” Liu Xifen said softly, staring at his fingertips.

"Shin Kyung-hee, Shin Kyung-hee, humph!" Lee Er-chan exhaled a breath filled with contempt. "What did Park Seung-jong say to you again?"

Liu Xifen's pupils contracted. "Speak your mind, don't beat around the bush!"

“Alright, then I’ll be frank.” Li Erzhan lowered his hand from his forehead and turned to face Liu Xifen. “Sitting in this position now, I oversee both the Ministry of War and the Uigeumbu. If I truly wanted to protect Prince Lingyang because of Shin Gyeong-hee, I wouldn’t have let you know about this suspect. Besides, why would I protect Prince Lingyang? To rebel? Don’t forget, when I left the palace the day before yesterday, I was able to lead the Training Supervisor into Hanyang with impunity. If I wanted to rebel, wouldn’t things have been better then than now?”

(End of this chapter)