After Court adjourned, Wei Nisheng did not return to the Ministry of Personnel.
He made his way around most of Imperial Street and headed for the Ministry of War.
Song Yue, Minister of War, was an old hand at the ministry whom Lord Feng had personally mentored.
Wei Nisheng had come that day intending to use "deliberations on defense" as a pretext to discuss the military situation in the Northwest with his teacher's former subordinate and sound out the Ministry of War.
The Tanguts had massed troops at Hengshan, and the delegation had been detained in Xingqing. This was the gravest matter before Court, and its weight bore down on the Ministry of War.
If the Ministry of War stood united with him, the game in the Northwest could come alive. If it stood by with folded arms, then however fine his words at Court, they would remain empty.
At the Ministry of War, Song Yue went straight back to the Duty Room after Court adjourned.
Military reports from the Northwest lay spread across his desk, page after page, weighted down with an inkstone.
He feared Feng Yan, but he knew even better that without Feng Yan, there would have been no Song Yue as he was today.
When Lord Feng passed away, he had knelt before his spirit tablet for a long time.
In his heart, he had made a vow: Lord Feng, from this day onward, your student will keep watch in your stead.
He would look after the young man Lord Feng had been most reluctant to leave behind.
Yet now, one year-only one year-had passed.
The very air in this Duty Room had taken on a different flavor.
No one stood over him and frowned anymore.
For matters in the Ministry of War, he needed