Chapter 664: Clear Understanding

Chapter 664: Chapter 664: Clear Understanding

Yang Jian picked up a face towel from the side, soaked it in the warm soup, laid it over his neck, then leaned back, half-reclining, and closed his eyes.

"For what else? Ye Lansheng and Ma Xuanlin wanted to make things difficult for him, so he chose to cut off their financial resources directly by leveraging merchants. Heh, is this meant to let Ye Lansheng and Ma Xuanlin drink the northwest wind?"

Yang Xiusheng was not particularly sensitive to these twists and turns, and for the moment couldn’t figure it out, so he asked, "Isn’t Prince Ling afraid of retaliation? Doing this at such a critical juncture seems somewhat reckless, doesn’t it?"

In Yang Xiusheng’s view, Ye Lansheng was now the head of the Civil Servants; the power in his hands was self-evident. For Yang Shu to offend such a top figure in the Royal Family’s ’Major Examination’ period felt impulsive. Anyway, Yang Xiusheng’s first instinct was disapproval.

But the Emperor was actually smiling with satisfaction. Yang Xiusheng didn’t quite see through it, but he did, and explained: "Yang Shu is justifying himself."

"Justifying himself?"

"Exactly. Ye Lansheng had Ma Xuanlin target a major merchant under Yang Shu, the Song Family, using the tactic of framing. However, the one who actually carried out the framing may not have been Ye Lansheng, but someone else unknown for now. Yang Shu’s direct confrontation with Ye Lansheng is to prove he’s capable of protecting those loyal to him, also to show his strength, to prove that he doesn’t fear the esteemed Left Minister and the Minister of Justice.

As for his confidence, there are two sources. First, the authority over fiscal tightening measures that I previously granted him. With such power in hand, no one at the local level would dare openly oppose him, and so Ye Lansheng’s influence over regional administration has been weakened. After all, following Ye Lansheng doesn’t guarantee direct benefits, but offending Yang Shu will surely bring immediate trouble; between these two choices, the decision is easy.

So Yang Shu slapped Ye Lansheng and Ma Xuanlin right back without the slightest hesitation—he’s calculated that, with such authority, for the short term, no one at the local level will dare stand against him so brazenly. This is timely, and shows real boldness and courage.

The other aspect is rather more complex. However, that Yang Shu was able to think it through so quickly is probably due to a lot of prior preparation—over the years, when we weren’t paying attention, he truly has matured a great deal.

Would you like to hear the rest, Uncle?"

Yang Xiusheng had been by the Emperor’s side for so long, yet today was the first time he’d heard the Emperor so openly praise someone. Moreover, he was praising "boldness" and "courage."

Yang Xiusheng was once involved in the struggle for the throne himself, and knew well that to be Emperor, boldness and courage were indispensable qualities. Now that the Emperor praised Prince Ling Shu in such terms, did it mean Prince Ling Shu had leapt forward like a dark horse to earn the Emperor’s high regard?

Given that, Yang Xiusheng even had to rearrange the order of the seven princes in his own mind, and of course now wanted to hear the Emperor’s take on this "dark horse."

"I eagerly await the details."

The Emperor, eyes still closed and lips curved in a smile, said, "The second reason actually lies with Ye Lansheng himself. At the previous Great Court Assembly, Ye Lansheng stood up in court and tried to have me retract the order to delegate authority over fiscal tightening to Yang Shu. Do you remember that, Uncle?"

"I remember." Yang Xiusheng, now a close garrison of the Emperor, naturally attended court sessions, so he remembered what the Emperor was talking about.

"At that time, I found it very strange. I deliberately withheld issuing a decision for several days, letting the officials react. By rights, Ye Lansheng should have guessed my intentions, yet still stepped forward to oppose. What’s interesting is that the Ministry of Revenue, who should have led the charge, remained silent. So I called on Minister of Revenue Bai Changqing to express his view, and, amusingly, Bai Changqing actually took a contrary stance to Ye Lansheng.

Bai Changqing always follows Ye Lansheng closely, so why suddenly oppose him? I then sent someone to investigate the two, and found two interesting things. First, Bai Changqing had, from before, seemed to deliberately avoid Ye Lansheng, preferring to be dubbed ’henpecked’ rather than get too close, with a very clear intent to draw boundaries.

The second interesting thing was that I wasn’t the only one investigating Bai Changqing; there was another group, which my people later identified as belonging to my youngest son, Yang Shu.

Heh, which means Yang Shu had also long suspected Bai Changqing’s abnormal behavior. Digging further, it became clear that Bai Changqing’s distancing himself from Ye Lansheng was entirely due to fear."

The more Yang Xiusheng listened, the more confused he became. He shook his head and said, "Fear? Why would Bai Changqing fear Ye Lansheng? Is he afraid that Ye Lansheng’s troubles will spill over onto him?"

"Exactly. He’s afraid of getting burned. And this fire will indeed consume Ye Lansheng, the Left Minister, until nothing’s left of him." Although Yang Jian lay at ease in the warm soup, his words were icy cold.

"Ye Lansheng? What trouble could he possibly cause?"

"Ye Lansheng, in private, tried to unite a faction of Civil Servants, hoping to keep the authority for fiscal tightening within the Ministry of Revenue under Bai Changqing’s control. As Left Minister and leader of the Civil Servants, he’d thus indirectly take that power into his own hands."

"He wants to reclaim his say in the matter?"

"Exactly. But if that were all, Bai Changqing wouldn’t be this afraid. Moreover, the southern front had just triumphed at Jianchuan and morale was soaring; even with the authority over fiscal tightening, it wouldn’t be enough for the Civil Servants to override the Military. Especially now that Yang Yansi has been hidden away by us and the Ministry of War is effectively under my support—unless the war ends, the Military’s prestige will not bow to the Civil Servants.

So Ye Lansheng had a more fundamental plan, the very scheme that frightened Bai Changqing into silence and evasion."

Yang Xiusheng frowned, catching unreserved killing intent in the Emperor’s words, and asked curiously, "What did he plan?"

"Ye Lansheng planned to use the authority for fiscal tightening to restrict supplies to the Border Army, and at a suitable opportunity, create a gap in the supplies along the army’s long supply line, dragging the Border Army down or bogging them in a quagmire. At that point, Zuo Yuliang would be forced to retreat and defend Zhuo Huo Pass, announcing the complete collapse of the southern military strategy. Then the Civil Servants could rise again, using ’peace negotiations’ as a pretext to pressure the Military—and me, the Emperor."

"Ye Lansheng is seeking his own doom!" Yang Xiusheng was stunned. He never thought the Left Minister, head of the Civil Servants, could be so selfish, treating the lives of Border Army soldiers and the safety of the Dynasty as a game. His wickedness surpassed even that of the Evil Cultivators.

The Emperor kept his eyes closed, already long past anger, and now calm. He continued with a smile, "Ye Lansheng was probably planning to first seize authority over fiscal tightening and then force Bai Changqing to submit, but he didn’t expect Bai Changqing to rebuff him and turn to Yang Shu. Tsk, tsk. Likely out of anger, Ye Lansheng tried to pressure Yang Shu, but was countered with a slap in return..."

"So, Prince Ling’s direct confrontation with Ye Lansheng and Ma Xuanlin was based on his certainty that their days are numbered?"