Chapter 15: Unraveling the Cocoon to Become a Butterfly

  If he could attach himself to Jin Yiwei, it would also be a bright way out for Xia Liu.

  But as soon as Feng Zongqi opened his mouth, Xia Yu knew he was telling a lie. Telling lies wasn't the problem, what mattered was how big a secret this lie concealed. If this secret was more than he could handle, what would happen to someone who wasn't allowed to know the truth but had to be involved in it? He'd be silenced!

  Before the Embroidered Uniform Guard, the only similar organization that could be compared to it was the Imperial Prison during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han. At that time, there were 26 imperial prisons, and hundreds of high-ranking officials, including governors and nine ministers, were detained. More than a million people were affected, and the Prefect of the Capital Patrol was so powerful that anyone who saw him would change color. However, this Imperial Prison did not exist throughout the Han dynasty, and very few people in later generations knew about it. The Embroidered Uniform Guard, on the other hand, is different. Even those who are not familiar with Ming history have heard of them.

  Zhu Yuanzhang was a wise man, he knew why he had to use severe punishment and when to stop using it. He used the Embroidered Uniform Guard to kill off ambitious officials like Hu Weiyong, corrupt officials like Ouyang Lun, arrogant generals like Lan Yu, and even powerful nobles who threatened his rule. After that, he said: "I had to use harsh punishments during the chaotic times, but my descendants will rule in peaceful times, and punishments should be lightened." The Embroidered Uniform Guard, this fierce tiger, was then locked up by him.

  According to Feng Zongqi's words, the Brocade Guard was not stripped of its power, but rather the Emperor allowed them to go underground due to the unrest among the officials. Is this Zhu Yuanzhang's style? Not to mention Zhu Yuanzhang's usual way of doing things, any emperor would not use such a weak method when it comes to imperial power and treason, sending a few small fish to secretly investigate, even having to go to great lengths to win over a local scholar to get close to the target. Only an illiterate country bumpkin would believe such absurd nonsense.

  In later historical records, from the 26th year of Hongwu when Zhu Yuanzhang stripped the power of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, to the reign of the Yongle Emperor who revived the Embroidered Uniform Guard, there is no record of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. If the Embroidered Uniform Guard really did turn from being open to being covert, they still possessed great power and continued to carry out various activities in secret. Even if their actions were secretive and unknown to people at the time, it's impossible that there would be not a single record of them in the openly available Ming dynasty archival materials.

  Xia Yu concluded that Feng Jian's account of their origins was not entirely truthful, and their activities in Qingzhou were unlikely to be legitimate, let alone being ordered by the emperor.

  Immediately afterwards, on the way to Xishan Stockade, Zhang Thirteen in order to ease Xia Xian's mind, again deceived him saying that this case did not involve Prince Qi, and that the Emperor had ordered it to be handled secretly because of Prince Tan Zhu Zhi's involvement in his uncle's rebellion, fearing that he would be implicated and punished. The Emperor was worried that Prince Qi Zhu Yi would follow in his eighth younger brother's footsteps, so he ordered the Embroidered Uniform Guard to handle it secretly.

  This time, Xia Yu had deep doubts about their purpose. Coincidentally, he happened to know that Tan Wang's self-immolation was not because of his eldest brother's rebellion. Even if no one in the world knew the real cause of Tan Wang's death, the kings might not have known, and Zhu Yuanzhang would certainly not have believed the nonsense he had announced.

  Regarding the death of Zhu Zhi, King of Zhang, in the official account, it was because his elder brother-in-law Yu Hu was accused of being a member of Prime Minister Hu Weiyong's party, and King Zhang was so worried that he took his own life. However, among the people, there is another version of the story: Zhu Zhi's mother, Empress Dowager Ding, was originally the empress of Chen Youliang, Dala, who became pregnant with Zhu Zhi before becoming a concubine of Zhu Yuanzhang. In reality, Zhu Zhi was the posthumous son of Emperor Chen Youliang of the Tianwan Empire. When King Zhang discovered his true identity, he wanted to rebel, but the emperor sent troops to capture him. Unwilling to be defeated and humiliated, Zhu Zhi set himself on fire and died.

  The whole story is well-constructed, including the part where Princess Da orders her son to avenge his father in secret, and Zhu Zi accumulates firewood to burn down the palace. The scene where the big fire starts and how he scolds amidst the flames is vividly depicted, as if it were real. It's really hard on those believing common people - doesn't anyone think about how outsiders knew these details?

  Ding Concubine of Zhu Yuanzhang was indeed the empress of Chen Youliang. In the "Grand Pronouncement" drafted by Zhu Yuanzhang, he personally acknowledged this to his subjects: "When I had not yet pacified the world, I attacked cities and seized territories, competing with other heroes for fourteen years. In the army, I never took a single woman or girl by force. Only after capturing Wuchang, because Chen Youliang repeatedly rose up in arms against me, did I take his concubine back."

  Because of this, the rumor is quite confusing, ordinary people do not understand the specific age of these princes and which imperial concubine they were born to, many people believe it to be true, even if they don't believe it, they are happy to spread it. People all have a psychology of seeking novelty, the more absurd things are, the more vitality they have, so this unreliable rumor is spreading wildly.

  In fact, Zhu Zi was born six or seven years after Chen Youliang's death, and the birth time does not match at all. Moreover, he has an older twin brother, his elder brother is the current King of Qi in Qingzhou, Zhu Gan. If Chen Youliang really had a posthumous child, it should be his brother King Qi, not him, King Tan.

  Because there are two versions of the cause of death of Tan Wang in both orthodox and unofficial histories, later historians have made some investigations. The results of the study were astonishing: the rumor that Tan Wang was Chen Youliang's posthumous son is unbelievable, and the officially announced cause of death is also untenable!

  Xia Xun was very interested in the news of Bagua and hunting, he happened to see this analysis article that year, and remembered the main content verified by the scholar.

  The scholar first listed his reasons in the article. According to him, Zhu Yuanzhang was indeed ruthless and cruel, but that was towards others. Towards his own sons, he was extremely indulgent and lenient, as can be seen from the arrogance of the early Ming princes.

  When Tan Wang's elder brother-in-law was accused of being a member of Hu Weiyong's party, Hu Weiyong and the main officials involved in the case had already been dead for ten years. At that time, his elder brother-in-law, Yu Hu, was only a small official in Ningxia Wei, and ten years ago, when he was not yet related to Tan Wang, his official position was even smaller. Is such a small official qualified to participate in Hu Weiyong's rebellion? If so, what significant evidence of the rebellion could he have provided?

  What's most important is that Zhu Yuanzhang's own son would be so scared to death just because his uncle was a rebel? Don't forget that Prime Minister Li Shan-chang was also brought down by the Hu Weiyong case, and Li Shan-chang was listed as a major offender of the Hu Party. More than 70 members of his family were killed, leaving only four survivors: Li Shan-chang's second son Li Qi, his daughter-in-law, and their two children.

  The reason is that Li's wife was the daughter of Zhu Yuanzhang, so Zhu Yuanzhang pardoned his brother-in-law and two grandsons. His brother-in-law's father was a rebel offender, but he could be exempt from punishment; his own son, his eldest uncle, was also a rebel, what could Zhu Yuanzhang do to his own son? How could he scare a prince to death?

  This reason is fundamentally untenable. The scholar conducted a wide-ranging collection of historical materials such as Ming dynasty official documents and local gazetteers, and discovered an important fact: the self-immolation of Tan Wang occurred on April 1st of the 23rd year of the Hongwu era, whereas his eldest maternal uncle, Yu Hu, had not yet been impeached. In other words, when Zhu Ci, the Prince of Tan, was afraid because his eldest maternal uncle was a member of the Hu faction and self-immolated, his eldest maternal uncle was still safe and sound in Ningxia as the commander-in-chief, and no one had yet accused him.

  This is strange, before Da Shu Ge got into trouble, his brother-in-law Tan Wang was enthusiastically setting himself on fire with excitement?

  The biggest flaw, however, was overlooked by people at that time due to the communication conditions and news dissemination efficiency back then. Since the authorities did not report specific information to you, you could not grasp the specific situation. As a result, when the authorities reported on the two cases, they intentionally obscured the specific occurrence times of the two cases, so even people at that time mostly couldn't see the problem.

  Only a handful of people were qualified to grasp the intelligence information before and after Tan Wang's self-immolation, and among this small number of people, there were even fewer who were interested in synthesizing these materials for analysis and discovering the subtleties within. The remaining few were all officials serving in the central government, so who would be impatient enough to publicly expose these doubts? Therefore, the official explanation of Tan Wang's death not only deceived countless commoners but also many officials and scholars who believed it to be true.

  However, after reviewing a large number of archives and official records, the scholar discovered an undeniable contradiction. Of course, as for the real cause of Zhu Zhi's death, the scholar did not verify it, but only said that the true facts of this case can only be buried in the vastness of history. But his analysis from both emotional and rational aspects completely overturned the official answer announced by the Ming Dynasty. Xia Xun took a cautious approach, he analyzed problems more rationally, so he firmly supported the scholar's verification.

  In fact, in the scholar's article, there was also mention of the suspicious identity of the person who reported Yu Hu's rebellion and the loopholes in his confession, but this was no longer within the scope of curiosity, and Xia Xian didn't look closely. Unfortunately, Zhang Thirteen was already on his last breath, and Xia Xian did not verify the problems he had discovered with him one by one; otherwise, perhaps he would have uncovered the mystery of the ages from Zhang Thirteen's mouth.

  Because Tan Wang's real cause of death, Zhang Thirteen was one of the few people who knew about it. He was Luo Yan's confidant and had personally heard Mr. Luo mention this matter.

  Yes, Tan Wang did not kill himself because his elder brother was involved in the Hu Weiyong rebellion case, but because he had an illicit relationship with a palace maid.

  Tan Wang Zhu Ziwen is elegant and refined, with a handsome appearance. He excels in poetry, songs, and essays, and is rarely arrogant or domineering within the kingdom. His reputation is excellent, but he has one flaw: he is a womanizer. As a king, having a fondness for women is not unusual, and there are many beautiful women available to him. However, this lecherous man is so brazen that he even dares to flirt with the palace women.

  King Tan had already formed ties with many palace maids before his appointment as a vassal, and after his appointment, this romantic still longed for them. He often took advantage of the opportunity to return to Beijing to mix with them during the imperial court sessions. As the matter was not kept secret, it gradually leaked out and was detected by the Embroidered Uniform Guard, who secretly presented it to the Emperor. From a theoretical point of view, all palace maids were potential concubines of the emperor. Such a heinous act was unforgivable for Zhu Yuanzhang, who attached great importance to the feudal etiquette order. In his rage, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the Embroidered Uniform Guard to secretly summon Zhu Tan back to Beijing.

  Zhu Zi was well aware of the crimes he had committed, and he knew that once he arrived in Beijing to testify, it would be impossible to defend himself. At that time, even if he didn't die, he would still be exiled to Fengyang by his father, spending the rest of his life imprisoned within the high walls of Fengyang. In desperation, he chose to end his own life.

  Jin Yiwei originally wanted to bring Tan Wang back to the capital for the emperor's judgment, but who knew he took a step ahead and committed suicide, and died so tragically that the whole world knew about it. This way, they had to give everyone a reason, right? And the scandal of the prince and palace maid's adultery was really too shameful to be made public, so Luo Daren, who was in charge of the matter, racked his brains and linked Zhu Zhi's death with the Hu Weiyong case by force.

  That is to say, Tan Wang's elder brother Yu Hu was a wronged and unfortunate person. His so-called involvement in the rebellion was actually a sacrifice made by the Imperial Guards to save face for the royal family after the fact. It wasn't that he was suspected of rebelling and scared his elder brother Tan Wang to death, but rather it was his younger brother-in-law Tan Wang who became Hu Weiyong's fellow defendant.

  After the imperial court arrested him, they immediately announced that he was a traitor and fabricated evidence and confessions. However, they did not publicly disclose the time of his arrest, only saying that it was because of his death that scared Tan Wang to death. Yu Hu's reputation was too small, so when the imperial court said this, everyone believed it, and no one went to investigate whether the process and reasons for his being reported were convincing or not. No one verified whether Yu Zhihao had been arrested in Ningxia at the time of Tan Wang's self-immolation. This matter was thus settled, with only a few people knowing about it, and no one dared to express their doubts. Zhang Thirteen could never have imagined that an ignorant person from a rural area in Huzhou would actually know the truth about this case.

  Feng Zongqi and his three men's background may not be legitimate, let alone their purpose being upright and just. And the fact that they forced Xia Yu to sign his name on that murder confession is a huge blunder. It was this incident that had already made up Xia Yu's mind at the time: he would rather die than be their puppet.

  According to their own words, they are the prestigious Imperial Guards, they were sent by the Emperor himself, and they are handling a case of high treason. Such a group of imperial envoys, do they need to leave evidence to control someone like Xia Zhe? Using such despicable means can only show that their identity and behavior are not to be seen in public, and it further shows that all their promises to Xia Zhe were empty words.

  This is clearly telling Xia Jie that no matter whether their plot succeeds or fails, Xia Jie's ending will only be one: like the unfortunate Tingxiang girl who knew the real Yang Wenchuan was dead, he will become a target for the Brocade Guards to silence him. These ruthless Brocade Guards are not from the Benevolent Hall and won't spare his life.

  Drawing a snake and adding feet is nothing more than this.

  So, Xia Liu's plan to kill and counterattack began to take shape from then on. He knew that a small official who had messed up the case would not tell his superiors the truth when he finally found a way to make amends, this is human nature. Moreover, in later interactions, Zhang Thirteen and others also subtly revealed their desire for the Yang family's property, since they had moved with an unmentionable heart towards the Yang family's property, they would not tell others about Xia Liu's true identity.

  So Xia Yu only needs to kill these four people and he can turn the tables, and it is very likely that he will truly replace Yang Wenxuan and get the most generous reward.

  To kill four people, he couldn't let them suspect him before killing all of them, so he needed a space with complete freedom. Therefore, Xia Xun chose an identity recognized by the Yang family and immediately got rid of Zhang Thirteen who was like a thorn in his side.

  He is a clean and honest gentleman, he is a talented scholar with a good reputation. Everyone outside the pavilion can prove that he has not left this room, he is taking a bath, there are no murder weapons on him. Therefore, the government will not suspect him at all. General Feng will not suspect him either, because he just arrived at Yang's house, all the witnesses cannot be his accomplices, if General Feng is not too forgetful, he will also think of the murder case that happened in Yunhe Town not long ago...

  Zhang Thirteen died, from start to finish, he never figured out how Xia Jiao saw through their conspiracy, and like the Listening Fragrance girl, on the road to the Yellow Spring, Thirteen Lang was destined to be a confused ghost.

  Xia Liu jumped up and began to calmly set the scene, clothes box, coat rack, floor... everything was arranged in the shortest time possible. With his professional eyes, he checked again, confirming that there were no flaws. Then, Xia Liu grabbed the coat rack in his hand, took a deep breath, and shouted loudly with a voice slightly inferior to Xiao Ding's: "Save me! Save me..."

  At this time, Zhang Thirteen had exhalation but no inhalation, his eyes were dull and unfocused, he hadn't died completely yet...

  Xia Liu waved his clothes rack, like a frightened rabbit, jumping up and down, desperately fighting against the invisible enemy in the air: "My adventure has begun!"

  The danger is great, with killing intent lurking at every step. But if he succeeds, he can become a superior being. This rich reward makes the risk worthwhile for him.

  The adventure has just begun, and Xia Xun's excitement is no less than the first time he got into his girlfriend's bed...