Three memorials emerged, a sword pierced the throat, and the emperor erupted in fury!
For days, the lamps never went out at the Censorate, the Ministry of Justice, and the Court of Judicial Review.
One official dispatch after another left the Capital as Song Jing requisitioned case files.
Kou Yuan took charge at the Ministry of Revenue and began examining the original granary reports from past years.
For a time, every gust of wind and cry of a crane sparked alarm; every tree and blade of grass seemed an enemy.
In a single morning court session, the Shen Faction lost four senior officials from the Ministries of Works and Revenue.
After morning court adjourned, Shen Duan returned to his residence, his expression unchanged.
He looked as though the three memorials that had shaken the Court in the Hall of Supreme Harmony that day
were merely official business that had nothing to do with him.
Seeing his usual expression, the servants in the residence all breathed a sigh of relief.
As always, the steward presented the afternoon's calling cards. Shen Duan looked through them,
selected a few and wrote brief replies, then had the rest returned.
Then he said he would rest awhile and was not to be disturbed.
That rest lasted until nightfall.
No one knew what Shen Duan had done in his study.
But it could have been nothing more than...
Mount Tai collapsing before him without changing his expression, and deathly silence before the storm.
Only when night fell did the lamp in the Shen Residence's study come on.
Two small sedan chairs draped in blue cloth were carried silently through the rear gate.
Fang Qi, the Minister of Works, arrived first. Entering the study, he dispensed with pleasantries
and merely bowed to Shen Duan before sitting