Taichang Ming Dynasty

Chapter 694 Li Erzhan's Visiting Letter
“This is hardly a legitimate cause,” Yuan Keli frowned. The more Luo Yangxing said this, the more he suspected that this was premeditated. “A case like this, which involves so many people, can easily create a climate of fear and unrest. If Hanyang descends into chaos at this time, it will certainly not be a blessing for any of us!”

"Tsk!" Luo Yangxing couldn't help but slap his forehead. "Guardian Yuan, what happened today really has nothing to do with us. How can I explain it to you for you to believe me?"

“Nephew, I’m not blaming you, but I’m afraid you might do something wrong with your good intentions.” Yuan Keli looked at Luo Yangxing with a concerned expression, and even changed his form of address.

“Alright then,” Luo Yangxing shrugged, spread his hands, and sighed. “We, the Embroidered Uniform Guard, will absolutely not interfere in this matter. You can handle it however you want. Even if you want to suppress it, we will fully cooperate. Is that acceptable?”

Yuan Keli was taken aback, and then began to believe it. "This really isn't cooperation?"

"What cooperation?" Luo Yangxing dismounted and said, "I just think this matter can be used in this way. If you don't want to use it, then so be it. Anyway, the important matter is in your hands, and I will follow your orders."

“Use it? Heh,” Yuan Keli smiled bitterly and dismounted. “This case has suddenly come to light, and I really don’t know what to do.”

"If it's too difficult, then let's not do it." Shen Yourong, who was the last to dismount, looked at Yuan Keli and said. "Anyway, that princess isn't dead. Let's just reveal her identity, throw her into Changde Palace, and this case will be closed, right?"

"This is probably not a good idea," Yuan Keli said, handing the reins to the approaching guard.

“It’s not so bad. That Queen Kim is greedy and insatiable. She wants protection and she wants to cry injustice. Why should we be her pawns for nothing?” Hearing this, even Shen Yourong, who was over sixty years old, understood the implications.

“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it either. But there’s no turning back now, and this matter probably won’t be so easy to suppress,” Luo Yangxing said. “In any case, there is indeed a skeleton buried by the back wall of Xiyutang, and the assassination is most likely true. If you have concerns, then we might as well…” Luo Yangxing abruptly cut off his sentence.

"Why not?" Yuan Keli stopped and turned around, looking at Luo Yangxing.

"It's nothing. I'd better not say anything." Luo Yangxing put on a pitiful look.

Yuan Keli was taken aback, then gave a wry smile. "Hey, tell me."

"The more you say, the more mistakes you'll make. If I say anything, you'll probably overthink it again," Luo Yangxing shook his head.

"Speak," Shen Yourong said, stepping forward and patting Luo Yangxing's shoulder heavily with his large hand. "Does Nephew Luo still want Minister Yuan to apologize to you?"

"I apologize!" Yuan Keli, trying to smooth things over, immediately picked up the thread and gave Luo Yangxing a slight bow.

"No, no. I don't deserve that." Luo Yangxing quickly returned the courtesy.

"Then please speak." Yuan Keli gestured towards Da'anmen, just in time to see the guards at the gate come out with a visiting card.

Luo Yangxing stopped putting on airs and said, "If Guardian Yuan doesn't want to make a big fuss, then go along with what Consort Jin wants and get rid of Li Erzhan, Li Tingbiao, and Zheng Hang."

"Does my nephew mean to stick to the matter at hand and stop here?" Yuan Keli immediately understood, but his eyes subtly wavered.

“That’s right.” Luo Yangxing nodded. “Close the case quickly, without implicating anyone. That way, everyone won’t feel insecure and people won’t be restless.”

"What if they didn't do it?" Shen Yourong asked, approaching. "Didn't the princess say she didn't know who sent the assassins?"

"What does it matter?" Luo Yangxing said matter-of-factly. "Anyway, these three are all lackeys of the deposed king, and they've done plenty of heinous things. If we say they did this, no one will doubt us."

Yuan Keli ignored this, instead frowning as he looked at the gatekeeper's guards approaching. "Didn't I say I wouldn't accept invitations? Why are you still accepting them?"

"This," the gatekeeper chuckled awkwardly, "the person who sent the letter said that their master came to our door about troop deployment and the new policies you announced in the palace today. We felt it was of great importance, so we dared to accept it."

"Whose is it?" Yuan Keli held out his hand.

The gatekeeper handed over the visiting card, glancing at Luo Yangxing subconsciously. "It says it's from Li Erzhan, the Training Supervisor and concurrently the Judge of the Ministry of Rites."

--------

Li Erzhan had been sitting for a long time in a two-story restaurant near the street corner where Qingyun Palace was located.

Looking at the street quickly regaining its vibrancy after the long queue passed, Li Erzhan couldn't help but feel a little emotional.

In the past, he could sit back and wait for others to come and observe his mood. But now, he could only sit in the empty private room, filled with trepidation and growing unease, watching helplessly as the imperial envoy's procession marched in from afar and then disappeared into the distance.

Tuk-tuk-tuk.

Just as he was feeling lost, there was a knock on the door of the private room, and Li Erzhan's heart immediately jumped. "Come in."

The door opened, followed by a flurry of footsteps.

"Are you Li Erzhan?" the man who entered asked in Chinese.

"I am Li Erzhan," Li Erzhan said, slowly rising as he looked at the newcomer. "May I ask who you are?"

The man didn't answer his question, but instead asked, "Why are you sitting here?"

"Can't I sit here?" Li Erzhan looked the newcomer up and down. He saw that the man was strong and sturdy with bright eyes, but he was dressed in coarse cloth clothes without any identification, making him look like an ordinary person.

"I'm asking you why you're sitting here, just answer me." The man's tone was calm, yet brooked no argument.

“Then I will reply to Your Majesty,” no one except the King would dare to speak to Li Erzhan in Korean, but since the other party was speaking Chinese, Li Erzhan could only smile and bow. “I have sent a visiting card to Qingyun Palace. I am waiting for Supervisor Yuan to summon me.”

"A visiting card." The man's expression softened slightly. "When was it submitted?"

“Just now, not long after I came out of the palace,” Li Erzhan said truthfully. He had already roughly guessed the identity of the person in front of him.

"What is the purpose of this letter?" the man pressed. "It's about the new policies that Yuan, the guardian, announced in the palace." To avoid misunderstanding, Li Erzhan added, "I support the new policies."

“Okay. I understand,” the man nodded and turned around. “You can wait here.”

"Please wait, Your Excellency!" Li Erzhan quickly caught up with him.

"Does Judge Li have anything else to say?" The man stopped and turned around, but did not turn back.

Li Erzhan walked around to the man and bowed. "May I ask if you are a member of the Imperial Guards?"

The man's pupils narrowed slightly, a faint smile playing on his lips. "So what if it is, and so what if it isn't?"

"It's just a small token of my appreciation." Li Erzhan didn't reply, but instead took a finely carved white jade pendant from his waist, without any markings, and handed it to the man.

The man had a keen eye for quality. He quickly assessed the value of the white jade pendant. He was tempted, but his face showed no sign of greed. "I'm just a nobody; I can't help you much."

“This is nothing valuable. I don’t need your help. I just want to make you my friend; consider this a small gift.” Li Erzhan smiled, took the man’s hand, and placed the white jade token into his palm. “May I ask your name?”

"Hehe." The man chuckled lightly, tying the white jade token to his waist. In the instant he lifted his robe, the imperial envoy's badge, engraved with his name and rank, was revealed. "I'll be going now. I'll return the favor another day when I have the chance."

"Then I will await your arrival, Commander Pei." Li Erzhan stepped aside, cupped his hands in farewell, and made no requests.

Commander Pei took two steps, then turned back. "I'm just giving you a friendly reminder: don't sit by the window around here for too long, and especially don't stare intently at the street. It could easily cause misunderstandings."

Li Erzhan had already guessed why the Embroidered Uniform Guards had come to his door, but he still put on a sincere expression and bowed to express his gratitude: "Thank you for informing me."

Pei Zongqi descended the stairs with a smile. As he reached the top of the stairs, he saw Li Erzhan's servant, who had spoken to him earlier, running towards him from the restaurant entrance.

"This humble servant greets Your Excellency." This servant could even speak fluent Chinese.

"Did someone come from Qingyun Palace?" Commander Pei asked.

"Yes, sir. It was Guardian Yuan who sent someone to summon my master to the palace for an audience." The servant smiled and wiped the sweat from his brow. He had assumed that the official before him was sent by Qingyun Palace.

"Go back now, I'll go upstairs and tell your master the good news." With that, Commander Pei turned and went upstairs.

--------

About fifteen minutes later, Li Erzhan, weary from his journey, met Yuan Keli, Shen Yourong, and Luo Yangxing sitting side by side in the remodeled Junming Hall.

"I am Li Erzhan. I pay my respects to Guardian Yuan, Admiral Shen, and Young Marshal Luo!" Li Erzhan quickly walked to the center of Junming Hall, lifted his shirt, knelt down and kowtowed.

"Get up and sit down," Yuan Keli said, casually pointing to a spot that was neither too close nor too far for Li Erzhan.

"Thank you, sir." Li Erzhan stood up, hunched over, and sat down in the seat Yuan Keli had indicated. Once seated, Li Erzhan put his legs together and placed his hands awkwardly on his thighs, looking as obedient as an elderly scholar, showing no trace of his former dignity.

Yuan Keli did not speak immediately, but waited for the tea-serving servant to come and go before slowly opening his mouth, breaking the long silence that Li Erzhan found suffocating: "Prefect Li is a famous person. From Yizhou to Hanyang, from Ping'an to the capital, you can hear about you everywhere."

Li Erzhan focused intently, carefully savoring this seemingly casual yet profound remark.
With the deposed king's influence gradually diminishing and Park Seung-jong seizing the opportunity to rise and control both internal and external affairs, he was unlikely to gain a good reputation among outsiders. If Yuan Keli, upon hearing these matters, wanted to make an example of him, he could simply send the Imperial Guards to arrest him; there was no need to accept the invitation and summon him to Junming Hall. Conversely, if Yuan Keli didn't want to make an example of him, or simply wanted to win him over, he wouldn't have needed to say these things. Now, Yuan Keli had both accepted the invitation and said these words; what exactly did he want—

correct!

Li Erzhan's eyes suddenly lit up. He understood that Yuan Keli wanted him to give an explanation.

Li Erzhan took a deep breath and turned to look at the three of them. His gaze was one of slightly furtive looking up, as if he were forced to look up at the sun on a sweltering summer day, risking having his eyes burned.

"I'm truly ashamed. I'm afraid the guardian heard nothing good, did he?" Li Erzhan didn't explain immediately, but first tested the waters with a seemingly pointless question.

"Hmph." Yuan Keli snorted softly, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.

"If only you esteemed envoys had come two years earlier, back then His Highness the Deposed King wouldn't have started to distance himself from me, and I would still have quite a few friends outside. Unlike now, in the entire Three Kingdoms and Eight Provinces, I only have a few close confidants left in the Gyeonggi region."

Li Erzhan spoke very slowly, pausing after almost every sentence, as if deliberately trying to get interrupted with questions. But neither Yuan Keli, Shen Yourong, nor Luo Yangxing showed any intention of responding. They just stared at Li Erzhan silently, making him feel uneasy.

Li Erzhan endured the stares and forced himself to keep talking, dragging his feet for a while before finally finishing his planned dialogue in a monologue amidst the suffocating silence.

“What Judge Li means is,” Yuan Keli said in a completely emotionless tone after the echo had completely faded, “that you were rejected by the deposed king because you strongly advocated sending troops to help suppress the rebellion. And your political enemies took advantage of the situation to eliminate your supporters from the outside world and continue to fabricate rumors against you?”

“Is that so! It’s not just that!” Li Erzhan changed his tune repeatedly, his forehead covered in cold sweat. “Over the years, I have indeed done many bad things, and that can’t be erased no matter what.”

"What do you mean by 'bad things'?" Yuan Keli's voice was light and indifferent, but Li Erzhan still detected a hint of sarcasm in it.

"That's right... that's just factionalism and the suppression of dissent! But!" Li Erzhan urgently argued, "But there's nothing I can do about it! That's just how things are in Korea. If I don't suppress them, they'll suppress me. And they were the ones who started this whole thing in the first place. People like Liu Yongqing and Kim Dae-rae not only fabricate death sentences for people at the drop of a hat, but they've also been trying to drive a wedge between King Seonjo and the deposed king for decades! I have no choice."

"Sowing discord? I'm afraid it's not sowing discord, is it?" Luo Yangxing, sitting to Yuan Keli's right, suddenly interjected in a sinister tone.

Li Erzhan looked at Luo Yangxing in the direction of the voice, his eyes glistening with tears and a thoughtful expression. "These matters are documented in the records of the Spring and Autumn Annals. If you don't believe me, sir, you are welcome to send someone to investigate!"

"Is Yuan Keli interested in investigating?" Luo Yangxing asked, throwing the question to Yuan Keli.

"Let's revisit these old matters when we have more time later." Yuan Keli still looked at Li Erzhan. "Right now, I only want to ask you, does your persecution of the late King's second wife and your cruelty towards the late King's legitimate children count as forming cliques and eliminating dissidents?"

(End of this chapter)