The next day, the Secretariat drafted the complete imperial decree.
Lin Cuo, Duke of Liang, was appointed Director of the Secretariat and Grand Marshal, authorized to bear the imperial staff and wield the Yellow Battle-Axe, and charged with establishing the Western Common Defense Secretariat Traveling Office. He would command all military forces within and beyond the capital, tour the west under imperial orders to supervise the armies, and act at his discretion as circumstances required.
The final approval that truly mattered still rested with Jiang Lihua.
When Lin Cuo entered the inner chambers, dawn had not fully broken.
The Son of Heaven had clearly just been awakened by a court lady. Her long white hair was only loosely tied, and she wore a loose, pale sleeping robe. She had not even had time to put on socks or shoes. Standing barefoot on the thick rug beside her bed, she drew her feet slightly inward and held the decree that had already been presented to her. The first thing she said when she saw Lin Cuo was, "Are you really going?"
"I must, Your Majesty."
Jiang Lihua did not look at him immediately. Her fingers slowly moved along the edge of the decree. After a while, she said quietly, "Minister Li is in the south, and now you're going west. With neither of you in Luoyang, I'm a little scared."
She said a little, but the expression on her face showed it was far more than that.
Ever since they had decided on the Palace Coup, either Lin Cuo or Li Xingke had always been close by.
After the Chief Eunuchs died, a new set of people had taken over the court. The faces in the Forbidden City, the troops on night watch, and the daily documents had all changed. She