Chapter 509: Blatant Conditions

The so-called eunuch military supervisors actually did not exist during the Hongwu and Jianwen reigns. Emperor Yongle, Zhu Di, who rose to power through the Jingnan Campaign, understood well that political power lay in military strength. Thus, even though his generals were all veterans who had fought alongside him to establish his rule, he still harbored suspicions like other emperors. Yet, instead of eliminating them once their usefulness wore off, he assigned some of these experienced generals to guard key areas or command troops, while simultaneously inserting many eunuchs into the military.

Wang Guan was not the first-generation eunuch in the Xuanfu army, but he served the longest term, as his partner was Xu Heng, the Marquis of Xing’an. Since Xu Heng was no longer among the original meritorious officials, he lacked in seniority and prestige. However, Wang Guan had been the adopted son of Huang Yan, an eunuch from the Imperial Secretariat. Although this did not completely restrict Wang Guan’s actions, he held considerable power over many matters outside of military affairs. Even the eunuch residence he governed was no less luxurious than that of the military commander—on the outside it appeared to be a large walled compound, but inside it was extremely opulent.

Yet now, the owner of this mansion was on the verge of hysteria. Wang Guan was well aware of the major reshuffle within the Xuanfu Jinyiwei, which is why he resorted to a delaying tactic, offering Zhang Yue numerous benefits. But who could have expected that as soon as he stepped back into his home, bad news followed immediately.

Lu Feng, whom he had previously manipulated at will, this time acted with ruthless efficiency. Out of the dozen or so people in the unit, that young head of the Eastern Depot arrested them all and displayed them in chains in front of the military commander’s residence! Those were people he had spent a fortune feeding, and now not only had they lost everything, but he also feared that the account books in Lu Feng’s hands might contain important information. After all, although he had kept a low profile these past few days, he had still received plenty of benefits from salt merchants!

“Eunuch sir, at this critical moment, if that Lu Eunuch values money, perhaps you should go see him right away. With enough bribes, would he really go out of his way to cause you trouble? Besides, didn’t Lord Zhang send someone to persuade Lu Eunuch?”

“Are the benefits enough? It’s too late now!” Wang Guan paced back and forth, feeling that the situation was even more dire than when the news of his godfather Huang Yan’s downfall came. If things went wrong now, he would be finished for good. “If our family had listened to Hai Shou and served that man properly back then, we might still have a chance to turn things around. But this time, he’s determined to eradicate us completely… Maybe we can still count on Zhang Yue—after all, he has no grudges against our family and no reason to follow Lu Feng…”

“Who said he has no grudges against you?”

Hearing this sudden voice, Wang Guan immediately turned around. Seeing the person who had entered the hall, he flew into a rage and cursed loudly, “How dare you show up here? If our family hadn’t listened to your nonsense, would we be in this mess? Someone…!”

The man wore a black cloak, which stood out sharply in the brightly lit room. Before Wang Guan could finish speaking, the man sneered coldly, “If Your Excellency wants someone to arrest me, that’s easy enough. But don’t forget—the things you’ve done are enough to send you to death several times. Not only that, but now there are also charges of embezzling military rations, accepting bribes from salt merchants, killing refugees from the north indiscriminately, bribing the Jinyiwei, and trading secretly with the Tartars… With all these crimes, how many times do you think you’ll die? You must know the emperor’s temper well. In his anger, even the punishment of being torn apart piece by piece might be too much for you to bear.”

Even though Wang Guan wasn’t an inexperienced man, he was trembling with rage at this moment. He pointed at the man’s nose, stammering for a long time without being able to say anything meaningful. The man grew bolder, stepping forward with a smile and saying nonchalantly, “Besides, what use would Your Excellency have of me even if you captured me? There are plenty of servants like me around my master. Do you plan to go to the emperor and accuse me of inciting you to collude with the Tartars? Tsk tsk. The emperor even dropped the serious charges of rebellion against the Prince of Han and the Prince of Zhao without much fuss. Would he listen to just your side of the story? At this point, Your Excellency has only one path left—kill those two troublemakers and blame it on the Tartar spies.”

Clenching his fists tightly, Wang Guan felt the hot breath he inhaled cause sharp pains in his chest, forcing him to swallow the curses that were on the tip of his tongue. It was all because he had been foolish enough to believe this guy’s nonsense back then. Now, even if he forced himself to carry out this terrible plan, who knew what kind of things the guy’s master would do next? His only option now was to make up his mind and see if he could find a way out of this hopeless situation.

Seeing two of his trusted men still standing in the room, his eyes flashed with fury as he pointed at the man in black and roared, “Seize this damned guy!”

The man in black thought he had caught Wang Guan off guard, but unexpectedly, Wang Guan reacted with such strength. When his arms were tightly twisted and he was forced to kneel, he raised his head and cursed, “Wang Guan, how dare you? You’ve already angered others to death. If you offend my master, you’re definitely dead!”

“We just know you must die if we don’t capture you now!”

After hurling those vicious curses, Wang Guan still wasn’t satisfied. He slapped the man in black several times. Only when he saw blood flowing from the man’s mouth and his cheeks swollen heavily did he stop. He took a handkerchief from his sleeve and stuffed it into the man’s mouth, then ordered his two men, “Tie him up tightly with rope, and go prepare a carriage!”

“It’s so late; there’s a curfew outside. If you go out, you’ll surely draw attention…”

“I’m already on the verge of death. Who cares about drawing attention?” Wang Guan kicked the man in black viciously in frustration before ordering sternly, “From now on, keep a close eye on everyone. No matter who they claim to be or what their identity is, don’t let anyone unknown in here to annoy us! Take the pass badges—I’m heading to Bazhen Street right away!”

Faced with such a harsh rebuke, the two men didn’t dare say another word. They immediately carried the man in black down to tie him up and got busy preparing the carriage. Around the middle of the night, Wang Guan boarded a green-roofed carriage adorned with gold trims and silver dragon embroidery, accompanied by only four attendants, one of whom had another person lying across the front seat.

Thus, in that small courtyard on Bazhen Street—small though it was, yet complete in every way—Meng Jun regretted having allowed Zhang Yue to stay with him. The courtyard, with its dozen or so rooms, was more than enough for him and a few servants, but now with so many extra people and even a little Wu added, it suddenly felt quite crowded. For someone who enjoyed hustle and bustle, this wasn’t a problem, but who would have thought that someone would still knock on the door in the dead of night, ruining anyone’s chance to sleep!

The dull knocking continued for a while before finally stopping as the main door creaked open. Meng Jun sat up angrily and snapped, “In the middle of the night—who’s so heartless?”

After some rustling, a servant on night duty pushed the door open, holding a candle and wearing a robe: “Young master, it’s Eunuch Wang, the guard. He seems very urgent and went straight to the east wing to look for Young Master Yue.”

“What could possibly be so urgent that it has to be done in the middle of the night…”

Before he could finish, Meng Jun suddenly remembered the conversation between Zhang Yue and Zheng Heng in the main hall earlier that day. He hadn’t understood it at the time, as he never cared about meddling in others’ affairs, so he hadn’t delved deeper, nor had he rashly asked Zheng Heng about Xu Heng’s request for him to lead troops—after all, if it was the emperor’s wish, he couldn’t avoid it. Now, after reflecting on that conversation, his heart sank, and he immediately ordered, “Go tell them all in our household to go to bed. Even if the sky falls, don’t get up!”

Wang Guan, however, had no time to deal with the Meng family’s servants sneaking away. Standing at the entrance to the east wing, he saw the light inside and heard voices. Standing in the cold, he rubbed his hands together, thinking about how to approach the situation. At this point, words alone might not be enough. Lu Feng wanted both his money and his life. So, since he had bet everything on Zhang Yue, he believed he could overcome this young nobleman. If the person he brought along proved useless, then there would only be one last option…

The moment the door opened, Zhang Yue recognized Wang Guan standing there in a thick coat. He then noticed two attendants behind him carrying someone. In the light from inside, he saw that person dressed in a black robe, with their head bowed so as to be unrecognizable, but the rope marks on their body were clearly visible. Not understanding Wang Guan’s purpose for staging this drama in the middle of the night, he frowned.

“Eunuch Wang, do you have urgent business with me?”

“We know it’s already the third watch, but the matter is urgent, so we had to come. Lord Zhang, let’s talk inside.”

Although he didn’t know what this eunuch was up to, Zhang Yue had no interest in standing in the wind either, so he stepped aside. Seeing that Peng Shisan and Xiang Long Liu Bao were at the back, he ordered them to close the door, then said indifferently, “It’s too late in the night to boil water for tea. Lord Wang, you’ll have to make do.”

“Of course,” Wang Guan replied without sitting down. With a slight nod, he signaled his two attendants to push the man forward and make him kneel. “Lord Zhang, I won’t beat around the bush. I’ve indeed done some shady things before, but it was all because I was deceived! Tonight, this man came back, trying to incite me against you! I know Lord Lu definitely intends to kill me, so I had no choice but to come to you urgently! Over the years in Xuanfu, I’ve accumulated at least hundreds of thousands of taels in wealth. If you can help me out of this predicament, I’m willing to give it all to you! It’s not arrogance on my part—even if Lord Lu searches the eunuch residence, he can at most get half of my wealth!”

This was an outright declaration of his intentions. Zhang Yue hadn’t expected Wang Guan to come straight to him after Lu Feng had purged the Jinyiwei, nor had he expected Wang Guan to bring such a person along. Yet before he could speak, Wang Guan pulled out one of his attendant’s knives and swiftly sliced open the man in black’s robe, revealing his flat throat. Not stopping there, he grinned viciously and cut through the man’s belt, glancing at his bare thighs before turning around.

Only then did Wang Guan turn around and say slowly, word by word, “There is a fixed quota for officials in Xuanfu. Lord Zhang, if you don’t believe me, you can check—it definitely doesn’t exist! If you want to deal with your enemy, keep him around so he can file a complaint and challenge you; if you’re worried about trouble, I’ll kill him for you—guaranteed without leaving any traces!”