Chapter 24 The Evergreen Palace

It was the rain season.

It rained today in Shaoliang City, but this spring rainfall came all of a sudden and stopped soon. It rained since the midnight and stopped at seven o’clock in the morning. Afterward, there was much fog in the air, and the capital of Dazhou seemed to be covered with gauze and looked hazy.

The Evergreen Palace was brightly lit at five o’clock in the morning. There were many eunuchs and maids in this main palace of the imperial palace of Dazhou, whose duty was to ensure that this palace was smoothly running every day and prevent anything wrong in the Evergreen Palace. The emperor of Dazhou would spend one day in this palace while spending the night at the palace of one of his concubines randomly, so the eunuchs and maids working in this palace should be more cautious. Before five o’clock, almost every one of them had to get out of bed and come to the place they were supposed to work in, lighting the lamps in the Evergreen Palace at five o’clock on time. After all, nobody knew when the emperor who was famous for his ambition and diligence would come here to start his work every day.

The one who lit the lamps in the imperial study today was the eunuch Su Jin, the manager who kept the seal of the Ceremony Department. As the leader of the twelve departments in the imperial palace, in fact, Su Jin was the head of more than ten thousand eunuchs. In those years when Dazhou was newly established, the eunuch in this position had the power to revise the officials’ reports for the emperor. But in the past, nearly one hundred years, the rules in Dazhou were changed and the emperor took over the important power by himself. Even so, in the whole imperial palace, all people, especially the eunuchs and maids were subject to Su Jin, except for the emperor and the people related to the royal family. This eunuch manager was in charge of every significant matter and trifle in the imperial palace and was favored by the emperor, so he got more power. However, no matter how much power he had, Su Jin had to light the lamps in the imperial study in the Evergreen Palace every day and wait silently for the emperor to come.

When Su Jin went out at five o’clock, the imperial palace was still in the light rain. This short eunuch manager didn’t bring a lantern or hold an umbrella but just let the spring rain wet his head and walked in the imperial palace with his hands in the sleeves. On the way, he met many eunuchs who brought lanterns but ignored him. Occasionally, some eunuchs and maids saw this manager under the dim light of the lanterns and then stayed silent, standing on the other end. They lowered their heads and didn’t dare to continue walking until this powerful eunuch passed by.

Nobody had the courage to talk with this eunuch manager.

This eunuch had been in this position for twenty years and had great prestige. Everybody was clear about his character and didn’t dare to behave randomly. It was said that the Ministry of Penalty carried out a new criminal law in the past few years, which was to bury a criminal in the soil with only one head shown. Then they would break his scalp and pour mercury down through the skull. The criminal would feel itchy all over and get up with his flesh and skin getting separated. Then he would be skinned. And this idea was offered by this eunuch.

Although it was merely a rumor, nobody in the imperial palace wanted to investigate if it was true.

However, if somebody carefully stared at this eunuch manager’s face, he would think that this eunuch looked gentle and wasn’t vicious at all.

He was the servant most favored by the emperor of Dazhou, so he took the job to light the lamps in the imperial study. In fact, the eunuch managers in the whole palace in the history would do this job in person, so there was a saying that if a servant wanted to get close to the emperor, he had to enter the imperial study.

Before Su Jin entered the imperial study, he stood on the stairs made of jade outside for a short while. Then he unhurriedly pushed the door open and walked into the study.

After he took out the firelighter from his sleeve and lit the lamps in the imperial study, Su Jin slowly stepped out of the room. During this period, he didn’t take a second glance at the arrangement in the study. Then he closed the door and quietly waited outside for the emperor.

In about eight minutes, as expected, he saw the middle-aged man wearing a black robe and a random bun come to the imperial study’s door. He glanced at Su Jin who bowed while waiting and didn’t hurriedly come into the study. He just looked up at the dim sky far away. Then the emperor asked with a smile, “Manager Su, is there news in the imperial palace today?”

It was just 5 o’clock in the morning and it was still dark. How could there be news? If somebody else asked such a question, this eunuch manager naturally wouldn’t answer, but at the moment, he had to reply in a low voice, “In the Peace Palace, Lady Li asked for a young new eunuch to serve her. According to the information I got, that young eunuch bribed the Castration Department, and he didn’t suffer the castration indeed.”

He didn’t need to say many words, but enough information was revealed.

In the history, there were many significant and insignificant matters in the imperial palace, and the stories about the castration were common.

The middle-aged man stayed silent for a while and frowned, “Put Li in the Cold Palace. As for that eunuch, you check if he has any ability. If he can be used, send him to the frontier. And kill the servant in the Castration Department who was related to it. Don’t get anybody else implicated.”

The middle-aged man handled a royal family scandal with a few words and then sighed, asking all of a sudden, “Which family is Li from?”

Su Jin whispered, “The Yang Family in Shaoliang City. Lady Li’s younger brother is the vice minister of the Ministry of Personnel, Yang Changyun.”

The middle-aged man furrowed his brows, “Yang Changyun is a young talented man, and it’s a pity that he has such a sister. Su Jin, you go out of the imperial palace after dawn to tell the Yang Family about how I deal with this matter. Don’t need to say anything else. If somebody from that family enters the palace to ask for mercy in the future, just drive Li away. If nobody comes, don’t have to tell me.”

Su Jin nodded and said nothing.

However, when the eunuch manager was about to leave, the emperor in a black robe asked, “Anyang went out of the palace yesterday. Who did she meet?”

Su Jin showed a bitter smile on his wrinkled face all of a sudden and responded helplessly, “Her Highness is clever and unrestrained since childhood. After she went out of the palace, she shook off the guards. I really don’t know where she went yesterday.”

The emperor joked, “If you didn’t spoil the girl from her childhood, how can she be so reckless?”

Su Jin lowered his head and answered softly, “I don’t dare.”

Before the emperor pushed the door open, he told the eunuch, “By the way, if Anyang comes later, please stop her for me.”

Su Jin smiled bitterly, “I will go to the Yang Family’s mansion later. How can I stop her for you, Your Majesty?”

The emperor shook his hand and seemed to be resentful, but he then waved his hand to show that he didn’t mind.

Su Jin bowed and watched the emperor walking into the imperial study. Then he closed the wooden door of the study. He had been in the imperial palace for at least fifty years and been the eunuch manager for twenty years. Su Jin had watched as the emperor grew up from a baby learning to speak to the ruler of Dazhou, so he knew well about his master and didn’t feel surprised at all.

Standing outside the imperial study, Su Jin could indistinctly see the emperor’s figure as he lowered his head and worked. He was expressionless and thought perhaps nobody in Dazhou was more tired and had more responsibilities than this man.

Su Jin stood outside the study for about thirty minutes. After two middle-aged eunuchs came, he nodded and didn’t forget to tell them before leaving, “When His Majesty reads the documents, nobody is allowed to come in except for Princess Anyang.”

The two ordinary-looking eunuchs nodded, “Manager Su, please don’t worry. We know.”

Su Jin didn’t say more and turned to leave, preparing to tell the imperial palace’s office that he would go out. Dazhou was strict with the eunuchs who would go out of the palace. Even though he was the leader of the twelve departments and the head of the eunuchs and he was permitted by the emperor in words, he had to report to the office before going out. If he went out in private, he would suffer miserably, too.

In the imperial study.

The emperor glanced at the stack of reports from officials like a hill in front of him and rubbed his head. Although everybody at the imperial court knew that he was always diligent, he had a headache when facing these documents.

However, just after a sigh, the emperor started to read the documents from the top. But in no time, he began to utter a few words such as “bastard”, “idiot”. His voice was so loud that it spread far away from the imperial study.

Obviously, it was not the first time for the two eunuchs guarding outside the study to hear that, so they were emotionless and unmoved.

Soon, the emperor in the imperial study started to speak out some people’s names. The two began to remember which official’s name was mentioned most frequently by the emperor. After they counted, they looked at each other and noticed the helplessness in each other’s eyes.

The emperor mentioned Xin Taikang’s name most often again today.

The old lord, the minister of the Ministry of Revenue, was in charge of the money in the national treasury. Every time the emperor wanted to spend money, Xin Taikang would object to him and say that it was difficult to save money or there was no enough money in the treasury. Anyway, he didn’t let the emperor take out money from the treasury easily. Even if the emperor would take some, Xin Taikang would try to minimize the spending. So all the other officials said in private that this old lord was extremely stingy, but he didn’t mind at all. Instead, he even took it as a pleasure.

Although the emperor was often mad at this old lord, he knew that it was fortunate to have such a minister of the Ministry of Revenue in his country, so he had never planned to dismiss that old lord from office and even turned down his resignation many times. Thus it was said at the imperial court that the country was the family of the Ministry of Revenue and the people in Yanshi.

The former was the old lord Xin Taikang, and the latter was naturally the Xie Family as some courtiers joked harmlessly.

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At the moment, in the imperial study, the emperor unfolded a report from the frontier. There were few words on it and the generals of the army read few books, so they couldn’t write the report to the emperor with beautiful words like the civil officials.

A few words told everything that should be told.

After Xie Ying reached the frontier, he defeated more than ten thousand soldiers riding horses from the Southern Wei Country in the first battle while losing only one thousand soldiers or so.

The emperor folded the document and then laughed heartily, “You deserve to be the talent from the Xie Family and live up to my expectation.”