Chapter 11
1779 Words
“Your Majesty, I have a memorial to present—Gao Changgong, Prince of Lanling, has colluded with the Northern Zhou!”
The hall was dead silent.
Zu Ting stepped out from the ranks of civil and military officials. He held a yellowed letter in both hands, raised high above his head.
Gao Wei sat upright on the dragon throne. His eyes fixed on the letter, his face contorted with manufactured rage.
“Zu Ting! Treason is a capital crime. You dare accuse an imperial clansman?”
Zu Ting kowtowed heavily.
“I have irrefutable proof!”
“The city gate guards intercepted and killed a Northern Zhou scout. This letter was found concealed in his clothing.”
“It bears the Prince of Lanling’s private seal!”
The chief eunuch hurried to present the letter on the imperial desk.
Gao Wei tore open the paper.
*Bang.*
He slammed his palm on the desk’s edge.
“Ceding twelve cities in Jin Province in exchange for Yuwen Yong’s support in raising an army to declare himself emperor!”
Gao Wei hurled the letter to the floor.
“Gao Changgong has quite the audacity!”
“He wants to trade my empire for his throne!”
The court officials dropped to their knees in a wave.
Lu Lingxuan’s fan moved slowly. Her gaze swept toward the imperial clansmen’s ranks.
Zheng Wantang stood straight.
She didn’t even blink.
Three days.
Zu Ting had finally played this worthless hand.
She stepped toward the center of the hall.
“Your Majesty.”
She met the emperor’s eyes.
“I wish to see the letter that would annihilate my entire household.”
Zu Ting rose and pointed at her.
“You dare, Zheng!”
“This is a matter of state security. No woman should touch it!”
“If the Prince of Lanling colluded with the enemy, you are his accomplice. Confess your crime now!”
Zheng Wantang did not look at him.
“The laws of Great Qi require a prince accused of treason to have physical evidence examined by three judicial bodies.”
Her voice was not loud, but every word carried.
“Or does Minister Zu fear his letter cannot withstand scrutiny?”
Zu Ting’s walnuts clicked in his palm.
“His Majesty’s judgment is keen. How could he be mistaken?”
Gao Wei stared at Zheng Wantang.
He didn’t need evidence at all.
But if this letter failed to silence the imperial clan, rebellion would follow.
“Let her see it.”
Gao Wei’s jaw was tight.
“Let her die knowing her crime.”
“If she cannot refute the evidence today, the entire Lanling household—all three hundred—will be thrown into the death pits tonight.”
The chief eunuch retrieved the letter and handed it to Zheng Wantang.
Zu Ting’s wrinkled face relaxed.
This letter had been forged by his finest shadow agents at the northwestern relay station.
The seal copied.
The handwriting imitated.
Flawless.
Zheng Wantang took the letter.
Her fingertips touched the paper.
Rough.
Oily.
Official documents of Great Qi used mulberry paper—absorbent, matte.
This paper had a faint scent of mutton fat.
It was windproof parchment made in the northwest, treated specifically for frontier use.
Gao Changgong was fighting for his life in southern Jin Province. Where would he find northwestern parchment?
Fool.
Her eyes moved down.
The handwriting was a fair imitation.
But Gao Changgong had spent years gripping a lance. His strokes cut deep into the paper.
On this letter, the strokes began hesitantly, the turns deliberately forced.
A petty scribe’s forgery.
Her gaze stopped at the signature.
Third day of the third month.
Beside it, a square vermilion seal.
Its edges stained with faint red clay.
The same red clay Old Han had found in the ashes from Zu Ting’s kitchen three days ago.
All of it fake.
So poorly made it was almost insulting.
Zheng Wantang’s face betrayed nothing.
Tai Chi Hall was not a court of reason.
If she exposed the forgery now, Zu Ting would simply deny it.
She needed the original forgeries. The drafts, the scrap seals, the physical evidence. Then she could crush them with proof.
“Well?”
Gao Wei looked down at her from the throne.
“Zheng, you have nothing to say.”
Zheng Wantang folded the letter and returned it to the eunuch.
“The handwriting is indeed a fair likeness.”
“And the private seal resembles that of the Prince’s household.”
The hall erupted in whispers.
Zu Ting’s walnuts clicked sharply.
The woman had admitted it.
“You heard her, Your Majesty!”
Zu Ting dropped to his knees.
“The Princess herself confesses!”
“I beg Your Majesty for the order—annihilate the entire household!”
Gao Wei’s face flushed red with rage.
“Issue my decree—”
“But the letter is a forgery.”
Zheng Wantang cut him off.
Gao Wei froze.
“On the third day of the third month, Zhangzi City was surrounded by the Northern Zhou army. Its supply lines were cut.”
She walked toward Zu Ting.
“If the Northern Zhou were truly colluding with the Prince, why were they trying to break through the city gates that very day?”
“What would be the purpose?”
Zu Ting rushed to answer. “It’s a trick! Yuwen Yong’s ruse!”
“If it’s a trick, there must be some evidence of troop movements.”
Zheng Wantang turned to Lu Lingxuan.
“What does Court Attendant Lu think?”
“A letter with no provenance, used to execute the commander of the front lines.”
“If news of this reaches the border, who will take responsibility for the mutiny of hundreds of thousands of soldiers?”
Lu Lingxuan’s fan stopped.
The Zheng woman was buying time.
But whether Gao Changgong died at the front or in the capital made no difference to her. Let Zheng Wantang and Zu Ting tear each other apart. That was the better play.
“The Princess makes a fair point.”
Lu Lingxuan stepped forward.
“Treason is a grave charge. The verdict must be beyond doubt.”
“Grant the household three days to prove its innocence.”
“If they cannot produce evidence by then, they can be imprisoned without further delay.”
Gao Wei’s face was dark.
But he dared not overrule Lu Lingxuan.
“Fine.”
He pointed at Zheng Wantang.
“I give you three days!”
“When those three days are done, you will be executed by a thousand cuts!”
“Court dismissed!”
---
The wind was biting outside the hall.
Zheng Wantang descended the white marble steps.
“The Princess has remarkable composure.”
Zu Ting hurried to catch up.
“What can three days do? Measure your home for coffins?”
Zheng Wantang stopped.
She turned her head and looked at him.
“Three days can accomplish quite a lot.”
Her voice slowed.
“For instance, locating the exact rat hole in Yecheng where the shadow agents you sent to the northwestern relay station have been hiding.”
*Thud.*
The walnuts slipped from Zu Ting’s fingers and struck the ground.
His smile vanished.
The northwestern relay station.
This woman knew his hand.
Zheng Wantang swept away.
---
Half an hour later.
The hidden chamber of the Prince of Henan’s mansion.
Gao Xiaoyu sat in his wheelchair and pulled the blanket from his lap.
“The letter is forged?”
“Laughably so.”
Zheng Wantang drank deeply from her tea bowl.
“Gao Wei doesn’t care about logic. He just needs evidence so damning that Gao Changgong cannot recover.”
“Brother, I need you to trace the Prince’s movements on the third day of the third month. Every hour. With witnesses.”
Gao Xiaoyu frowned.
“Zhangzi City is five hundred li away. A round trip takes at least ten days.”
“Three days are not enough.”
Zheng Wantang planted her hands on the desk.
“I’m not going to Zhangzi City.”
“The letter was forged by Zu Ting’s men here, near Yecheng.”
“If I can find the original drafts, the discarded seals, I can strip him bare in court.”
“My people have already tracked where the forgers are hiding.”
She straightened.
“Physical evidence alone isn’t enough.”
“I need proof that the Prince never left his camp.”
Gao Xiaoyu wheeled himself to the bookshelf and pressed a hidden mechanism.
“On the third day of the third month, a group of military inspectors were sent to the front.”
“If we can obtain the Inspector’s Log proving that Gao Changgong spent the day fighting on the city walls, then this letter—supposedly written from his tent—collapses on its own.”
“Where is the log?”
“The Ministry of War’s restricted archive.”
Gao Xiaoyu’s face was grim.
“Zu Ting has men guarding it tightly. By the rules, it’s impossible to retrieve.”
Zheng Wantang walked to the wall.
She took down a short-bladed knife with no handguard and slipped it into her boot.
“I don’t plan to follow the rules.”
She pulled a black cloak over her shoulders.
Gao Xiaoyu watched her.
“You’re going to break into the Ministry of War?”
“No.”
Zheng Wantang pushed open the hidden door.
Cold wind swept in with dry leaves.
“I’m going to retrieve my husband’s honor.”
She looked back.
“Brother, that Inspector’s Log must be in my hands by midnight.”
Gao Xiaoyu’s fists tightened.
“Midnight. Changsheng Bridge.”
“I’ll have my people bring it out.”
---
Zheng Wantang stepped through the gates of the Prince of Henan’s mansion.
The sky was dark.
Han Changluan waited by the horses at the alley’s end.
“Princess, we have trouble.”
He handed her a bamboo slip stained with blood.
“Zu Ting has sent thirty imperial guards to surround the abandoned relay station north of the city.”
The forgers’ hiding place.
Her mention of the northwestern relay station had shaken him. Now he wanted them dead. He wanted the evidence burned.
Zheng Wantang swung onto her horse.
She pulled the reins tight. The animal reared.
“Send word to Old Han. All our people, to the north city.”
She pressed her heels into the horse’s flanks.
“Tonight, we intercept the imperial guards.”
“And strip every bone of Zu Ting’s forgery bare.”
- Writer
