You have distinguished military service? Too bad, you’re not worth as much as a boy who passed the Imperial Examinations.
You are a blood-soaked Marquis? You still have to bow to me.
Whatever merit you achieve, if I let even a tiny scrap of it slip through my fingers to you, it is considered an act of divine mercy.
And now, that plaque that had weighed down military men for over a hundred years… Gu Huaiyu had just ordered it to be taken down?
Pei Jingyi shoved the blood petition into his robe and suddenly wheeled his horse around.
“General! Where are you going?!” Zhao Cheng shouted after him. “It’s full of mad scholars over there! Even the patrol guards won’t go near!”
Pei Jingyi was heading straight for Xuande Gate. Even if the path ahead was a mountain of knives or a sea of fire, he would charge through it today.
In front of Xuande Gate, he vaulted off his horse, his black cloak spreading like the wings of a hawk. In one fluid motion, he snatched a white-feathered arrow from a guard’s quiver.
He drew a bow to the shape of a full moon, the string snapping like a crack of thunder—
CRACK!
The arrow pierced the very center of the drum. The force was so great that it carried the entire Drum of Grievance back, pinning it firmly against the gallery pillar.
The crowd of Imperial Students and Hanlin scholars was struck as if by a bolt of lightning. The noise died instantly.
Pei Jingyi tossed the bow back to the guard. As he swung himself back onto his horse, the hem of his cloak brushed against the face of the nearest scholar.
“Strike it again,” he said coldly, “and the next arrow goes through a person.”
The snow grew heavier, and the wind began to howl.
Yet the Lord Chancellor’s Manor was eerily quiet, as if completely insulated from the chaos outside.
Pei Jingyi strode through the courtyard but came to a sudden halt outside the floral hall.
There stood a sea of identical official robes, their shoulders dusted white with snow. From fifth-rank secretaries to second-rank censors, no fewer than ten men were present—some kneeling, some standing. All were long-time members of Gu Huaiyu’s faction.
“My Lord, you are the Lord Chancellor of the dynasty! You should be the exemplar of ancestral law! How can you personally tear down the Founding Emperor’s system? We beg you to reconsider!”
“If this precedent is set, the cultural heritage and moral constants of a thousand years will be destroyed! We are terrified and cannot fail to remonstrate!”
“We implore the Lord Chancellor to withdraw the order! Restore the orthodoxy of Great Chen! Protect the honor of our ancestors!”
Every one of these kneeling officials had climbed the ranks through the imperial examinations and the study of the classics. Even if they relied on Gu Huaiyu for power, they still prided themselves on the “integrity” of a scholar in their bones.
Now, with a single decree, Gu Huaiyu was forcing them to stand on equal footing with “crude brutes”—fifth-rank officers deliberating on policy, no longer bowing to them, and sharing their stipends? This was cutting the very roots of the thousand-year academic lineage!
The Director of the Privy Council was the first to spot him. He scrambled over, stumbling as he grabbed Pei Jingyi’s sleeve. “General Pei! You’ve come at the right time! Please, go in and persuade the Lord Chancellor!”
Pei Jingyi looked down at him, his eyes cold.
“His Lordship has… this time he has truly…” The Director was sweating profusely despite the cold. “You know as well as anyone that ancestral laws cannot be violated! The separation of civil and martial was set by the Founding Emperor. For the Lord Chancellor to abolish it now… he is making an enemy of the entire world!”
The other civil officials chimed in, “Yes, General Pei! You are the Lord Chancellor’s favorite right now. If you speak, perhaps His Lordship will listen…”
Pei Jingyi allowed the Director to hold his sleeve, his frigid gaze sweeping over the men in the courtyard.
If even these officials, who feared Gu Huaiyu like a tiger, could not accept this, then how could the scholars of the world?
Gu Huaiyu had truly torn a hole in the heavens this time.
Seeing no reaction, the Director lowered his voice further, trying a different tactic. “In truth… though you hold a military post, in His Lordship’s eyes, you are no different from a civil official…”
He said it earnestly, as if it were the greatest gift imaginable.
Pei Jingyi abruptly yanked his sleeve back. He marched through the crowd of officials dressed in their purple and crimson robes.
Reaching the door to Gu Huaiyu’s private quarters, he suddenly dropped to his knees. He bowed low, his forehead pressing against the ground with crisp, decisive finality. His posture was so respectful it bordered on the sacred.
“Your subordinate, Pei Du, requests an audience with the Lord Chancellor.”
His voice was neither humble nor arrogant, yet it sent a tremor through the hearts of every civil official in the courtyard.
Hehehe 🌝😏🤭 I’ve been waiting for this !!