Chapter 185: Clashing Sparks

Under the bright daylight, someone dared to whip an official appointed by the imperial court—this scene left all the officials in the courtyard stunned. After the initial shock, a few officials dressed like prefects stepped forward to intervene, but when they saw the young man’s sharp and vicious whip coming straight at them, none wanted to suffer such unjust punishment, so they fled in disarray.

The young man clad in a bright red robe embroidered with golden dragons grew even more domineering. With a fierce swing of his whip, it emitted a sharp crackling sound. “As the magistrate of Le’an, you fail to educate the people or serve diligently. Instead, you allow unruly subjects to attempt to assassinate the king! Such useless scum deserve to be beaten to death! Whoever dares to stop me will be beaten along with them!”

With that, he turned to glare fiercely at Sun Lianggan, who was covering his face, a cold smirk on his lips. At that moment, thinking of his king who always looked down on him, his elder brother who despised him, and those generals of the Tiance Guard who never took him seriously, along with his recent setbacks, his anger surged uncontrollably. All sense of reason and calmness had long vanished; it seemed as though the man before him was a reflection of those he hated.

Raising his wrist carelessly, Zhu Zhanqi, ignoring the risk, swung his whip at Sun Lianggan with all his strength. Just as the whip’s venomous tip was about to strike the cowardly man’s head, he suddenly saw a blur before his eyes. The whip tightened in his hand. Upon closer inspection, he saw that someone had firmly grabbed the whip—it was a young man around his age, but with an unfamiliar face. His anger intensified, and he shouted, “Let go!”

“Although the Prince of Shouguang holds the rank of a prince, beating an imperial official in public—doesn’t he remember the laws of the Ming Dynasty? Doesn’t he consider the consequences?”

Zhu Zhanqi pulled hard at the whip but found it unmovable. Filled with rage and humiliation, he snapped, “Who are you to dare lecture me! This useless wretch let assassins into the palace—he deserves not only to be beaten but also killed! The Ming Dynasty belongs to the Zhu family! I can beat whoever I want! Let go now, or I’ll teach you a lesson too!”

As soon as Zhang Yue recognized Zhu Zhanqi, he saw him whipping people. He had thought that the few prefects who went up to stop him might be of some use, but instead they were beaten into fleeing in panic. Remembering the two whips he had inexplicably received on the main street, he could no longer hold back and stepped forward to block him. Hearing these threats, he sneered inwardly but refused to back down.

“The Great Ming belongs to the emperor, not to you, Prince of Shouguang! Even if this magistrate of Le’an has committed crimes, it should be the authorities who investigate and convict him—how can private punishment be used? Moreover, the Han Prince was assassinated not in the palace of Le’an but in the palace in Qingzhou, which is no longer under the Han Prince’s jurisdiction! The court has already dismissed and questioned all the officials involved. Since the magistrate of Le’an remains in office, it means he is not at fault. For Prince of Shouguang to punish him for negligence is nothing but arbitrary!”

The officials around them kept their distance, fearing they might suffer as collateral damage. Seeing Zhang Yue stubbornly defying Zhu Zhanqi, they gradually began to admire him. Since they were serving in Shandong, everyone knew Prince of Shouguang Zhu Zhanqi was temperamental. Over the past year or so, three or four county magistrates had been replaced in Shouguang County because they couldn’t bear his tyranny, and officials avoided him like the plague. The prefects who tried to stop him were only doing so to avoid blame from their superiors and the eunuch Zhang Qian, just for show. Yet they couldn’t stop him either—how dare someone confront Zhu Zhanqi head-on?

“Dare you call me arbitrary?” Zhu Zhanqi’s face turned ashen as he gritted his teeth and spoke slowly, “Today, I will teach you a lesson to show you what hierarchy means!”

As soon as he finished speaking, he threw down the whip in his hand and swung his right fist hard at Zhang Yue’s face. He was used to whipping servants and local officials, and even the palace officials feared him. Now, he wanted to teach this ignorant boy a good lesson. On the other hand, Zhang Yue, seeing the fist coming toward him, didn’t even try to dodge. He only tilted his head slightly as the fist approached, causing Zhu Zhanqi to miss.

If the whip didn’t work, would a punch work any better?

“Prince of Shouguang, stop!”

At that moment, a firm voice finally came from the direction of the courtroom. Before Zhu Zhanqi could react angrily, he saw Zhang Qian rushing out of the hall. Though reckless and irritable, he knew that if Zhang Qian went back and said something unpleasant, his own fate would be even worse. So he angrily retracted his hand, though his deadly gaze still remained fixed on Zhang Yue.

“A few days ago, someone tried to assassinate our father the king, and now someone dares to attack this fiefdom. Eunuch Zhang, is this what the emperor-grandfather meant by ‘pacification’?” Accusing others first was a skill Zhu Zhanqi had mastered since childhood. He strode up to Zhang Qian, pointed at Zhang Yue, and said viciously, “How can such a person who knows neither propriety nor hierarchy become an official? Are those who select officials in the court blind?”
Seeing Zhang Yue take a step back and bow deeply, Zhang Qian glanced at Zhu Zhanqi’s furious face and felt an intense headache. Zhu Zhan Tan, the heir to the Han King, was one thing—he always appeared as a humble gentleman—but in the three days since Zhu Zhanqi had arrived, he had been pestering nonstop. If it weren’t for Zhang Yue stepping in today, that violent prince might have beaten the magistrate of Le’an to death with a whip! If things really escalated, he, a fourth-rank eunuch, would surely become the target of everyone’s anger.
“Prince of Shouguang, I am here by imperial order. But if you keep causing trouble, I will have no choice but to take you to Beijing for the emperor to make a decision!” After all, Zhang Qian wasn’t just an eunuch who spent his days in the palace, deceiving superiors and subordinates. Like Zheng He, he had once demonstrated the might of the Great Ming before foreign princes. His stern expression revealed a hint of authority. “This is the Qingzhou prefecture office. All those waiting here are imperial officials from Qingzhou. How can you, Prince of Shouguang, keep humiliating us?”
“You…” Zhu Zhanqi, who had previously dismissed Zhang Qian as weak and humble, never expected him to speak to him so firmly. In his anger, he blurted out insults, “You’re just a eunuch slave, yet you dare to scold this prince! How outrageous! Very well, I’ll go to Beijing to file a complaint. I want to see if the Great Ming still has any sense of hierarchy or laws at all…”
“I think it’s you who has no respect for laws!”
Zhang Yue, who had been watching coldly, expected more crazy actions from this foolish prince, but suddenly heard this fierce shout and turned around. He saw a group of men dressed as guards leading a seventeen- or eighteen-year-old youth into the gate. The youth wore a purple-gold crown inlaid with jewels, a blue brocade robe with dragon patterns that covered his shoulders, and a rose-colored tourmaline pendant at his waist. His face was terrifyingly pale. When the youth stepped forward and slapped Zhu Zhanqi hard, Zhang Yue felt a stir in his heart.
“Why do you hit me!”

Zhu Zhanqi had always looked down on his frail elder brother, but now he had been slapped by him, which filled him with rage. Before he could resist, two burly guards rushed up from behind Zhu Zhan Tan and grabbed his arms—one on each side. He struggled hard twice but to no avail. Fueled by anger, he kicked and cursed loudly, only to have his usually gentle elder brother slap him again hard. Feeling searing pain in his cheek and seeing the unfathomable gaze in his elder brother’s eyes, he remembered the saying that a true man does not suffer unjustly, so he forced down his curses.

“Someone, take Prince Shouguang back to his palace in Shouguang County!”

At that moment, the officials in the courtyard also hurriedly bowed, saying, “We pay our respects to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince!”

After giving this order in an unmistakable tone, Zhu Zhan Tan ignored Zhu Zhanqi, whose face was pale with anger as he was led away. He walked straight up to Zhang Qian and personally helped him stand. After offering his apologies and asking a few questions, he turned to Sun Lianggan, the disheveled magistrate of Le’an County, who was sitting on the ground, and ordered his men to help him up. Seeing the several whip marks on his face and his tattered official robes, he comforted Sun Lianggan gently before waving for him to be taken away to apply medicine. Then he helped Zhang Yue up and bowed deeply to him.

Zhang Yue, suspecting that this was aimed at him, tried to dodge as Zhu Zhan Tan approached without saying a word. How ridiculous! Taking advantage of others unjustly would only bring disaster!

“What does His Royal Highness mean by this?”

“If it weren’t for Lord Zhang stopping my younger brother today, he might have committed a grave mistake. This bow is of course to express my gratitude for Lord Zhang’s loyalty!” Unlike Zhu Zhanqi’s arrogant demeanor, Zhu Zhan Tan was gentle and kind. He then sighed, “Our father has always focused on major matters and has been somewhat lenient with my younger brother. As his elder brother, I failed to supervise him properly, almost causing him to create a major problem. It is indeed a serious fault on my part. My younger brother was violent and impulsive just now—was Lord Zhang injured?”

First there was a furious prince who bullied others with his power, and now this gentle and courteous crown prince. The officials in the courtyard felt as if they were in two completely different worlds, and they all breathed a sigh of relief. But Sun Lianggan, who had been whipped for no reason, felt a bitter taste in his throat as he was led away, his vision going dark. An indescribable sense of resentment surged through his mind.

Zhang Yue merely pretended to intervene and was unharmed at all, yet the Prince of Han still showed such concern—completely different from his perfunctory attitude earlier. How could such absurd things exist in this world! Gathering his remaining strength, he clenched his fist so hard that he even bit his tongue until it bled, vowing in his heart to avenge this insult. However, no one else paid any attention to the unlucky Sun Lianggan. Since the incident was over and the Prince of Han had made his stance clear, everyone naturally turned to praise Zhang Yue. Zhang Qian looked at him with great admiration.