Recaps

As Wei Nisheng and Jiang Heng prepared for a future campaign to recover Gansu, Shen Duan and Kou Yuan maneuvered to share control of its military and grain preparations. Wei’s strategy won the Emperor’s praise, while Zhang Zai faced obstruction in the work of supplying the frontier.

• Shen Duan reshaped the Ministry of Personnel, while Emperor Jing of Zhou tested Jiang Heng’s judgment on sending his younger brothers to their fiefs and entrusted Wei Nisheng to guide the Crown Prince.
• Wei Nisheng met Zhang Zai returning from Suzhou, while Wei Shouzheng left for the Tangut territory despite his family’s pleas and Zhou Quan later destroyed a Tangut cavalry force at Jingtai.
• Jiang Heng proposed a swift campaign into Gansu, but Wei Nisheng urged him to prepare the land, troops, intelligence, and grain supplies before seeking victory.
• Shen Duan and Kou Yuan agreed to share influence over the Gansu project, with Zhou Quan handling the troops and Zhang Zai the grain, while three new posts were created in Shaanxi without the Selection Bureau’s approval.
• Wei Nisheng arranged for Wang Kan to challenge the unauthorized appointments and presented Jiang Heng with his Pacify the Rong Strategy, which called for patient preparation before attacking the Tanguts.
• Emperor Jing of Zhou rebuked Shen Duan for growing too close to Kou Yuan, while Jiang Heng heard Wei Nisheng explain the strategy and promised to present it to his father.
• Emperor Jing praised Wei Nisheng as a rare strategist after reviewing his intelligence on the Tangut, as Shen Duan warned Shen Yi against repeating their ancestor Shen Yue’s political mistakes.
• Zhang Zai confronted officials who repeatedly delayed his frontier supply proposals and stamped the Ningxia winter provisions document with his seal, accepting responsibility for moving it forward.

As a hidden plot stirred unrest in Ningxia and targeted Fang Qi, Shen Duan and Wei Nisheng tried to protect military farmland and expose the conspirators. Shen Duan entrusted his ministerial seal to Wei Nisheng, who used it to promote Xie Lin despite Zou Mo’s resistance.

• Zhang Zai defended his promise to the Li Family when Kou Yuan criticized his conduct and questioned his marriage.
• Wang Kan and other censors exposed irregular appointments, prompting Emperor Jing of Zhou to order an investigation, while Kou Yuan’s retreat angered Shen Duan.
• Wei Shouzheng confronted Liang He and Li Renyong on his mission to Tangut territory, asserting the authority of the Imperial Envoy Banner and entering Wuwei.
• Shen Yi chose to transfer to the Ministry of Justice, while Shen Duan and Kou Yuan renewed their alliance after agreeing to consult and protect their interests.
• After Zhou Quan reported repeated unrest around military farmland, Wei Nisheng sent Zhang Zai to investigate the Ningxia officials and their patrons.
• Zhou Quan quelled a firelit veterans’ revolt, and Emperor Jing of Zhou ordered an inquiry while refusing to abolish the land policy or let veterans’ fields be taken.
• Kou Yuan led an attack on Wei Nisheng in court, but Fang Qi’s death and Shen Duan’s collapse interrupted the confrontation.
• Shen Duan told Shen Yi that Fang Qi had likely been poisoned, gave him his ministerial seal, and ordered him to summon Xie Lin and pursue the case.
• Wei Nisheng accepted Shen Duan’s seal, appointed Xie Lin Reader-in-Waiting, and forced Zou Mo to confront the transfer order after Zhang Cheng endorsed it.

Wei Nisheng and Jiang Heng faced attacks from the Upright Officials as the court’s rivalries sharpened, while Xie Lin returned to the Capital to help uncover the hidden hand behind the disorder. Xie Lin was cleared to take his post, and he and Wei Nisheng began working together from opposite sides of the city.

• Zou Mo warned Kou Yuan that Wei Zi'an’s use of Shen Duan’s seal threatened Kou’s bid to lead the Grand Secretariat, and urged him to burden Wei with military farmland duties and funding problems.
• Emperor Jing of Zhou confronted Kou Yuan over annual memorials that echoed the Upright Officials, then restricted Kou Yuan’s authority in the Grand Secretariat.
• Xie Lin concluded that Shen Duan and Wei Zi'an had summoned him to counter an unseen strategist, while Shen Duan urged Wei Nisheng to expose Kou Yuan’s clean reputation and hold the court together.
• Wei Nisheng told Jiang Heng that Fang Qi might have been murdered and that he had promoted Xie Lin to confront the hidden faction, and Jiang Heng promised to stand by him.
• The Upright Officials attacked Wei Nisheng over his use of Shen Duan’s seal and his frontier work, but Jiang Heng accepted responsibility for the military farmland policy and defended his authority as regent.
• Jiang Yu warned Jiang Yun to end his correspondence with Prince Jin, while Prince Jin’s agent sought to nurture Jiang Yun’s resentment and Emperor Jing of Zhou worried about the future of Jiang Heng and Wei Nisheng.
• Wei Nisheng met Xie Lin outside the Capital and asked him to investigate the tampering with the Statute, and Xie Lin entered the city by invoking his duty to visit Shen Duan.
• Emperor Jing of Zhou exempted Xie Lin from investigation and ordered him to assume his Reader-in-Waiting post, and Xie Lin exchanged formal courtesies with Wei Nisheng at the Eastern Palace.

Wei Nisheng and Xie Lin moved against Stone Record’s network while political rivalries sharpened and threats mounted on the Tangut frontier. The stretch left the court weighing Zhou Quan’s unauthorized victory against the danger to the missing embassy and facing the deeper costs of an overcrowded bureaucracy.

• Pei Zhi warned Jiang Xuan that Wei Zi'an was more dangerous than Xie Lin and proposed targeting Zhang Zai and Zou Mo to weaken Wei’s plans.
• After He San died in prison, Jiang Heng ordered Luo Wenjin’s arrest and a joint investigation, while Kou Yuan rallied the Upright Officials around the case.
• Xie Lin’s clues helped Wei Nisheng expose Zou Mo’s unauthorized control of the Ministry of Personnel, and the officials recognized Wei’s authority.
• Zhang Zai married Li Shi as his friends gathered to celebrate, while Wei Nisheng’s inquiry into Luo Wenjin continued.
• Wei Nisheng confronted court officials over Luo Wenjin, Stone Record, the Tangut threat, and the missing embassy, and Jiang Heng ordered investigations and defensive measures.
• Song Yue rejected Wei Nisheng’s approach, while Zhou Quan led cavalry against Tangut raiders and rescued frontier people despite orders against unauthorized deployments.
• Zou Mo warned Song Yue that Zhou Quan’s rise threatened his position, and Jiang Heng and Wei Nisheng discussed the costs of the bloated bureaucracy.
• At court, Song Yue reported Zhou Quan’s attack and warned that it could provoke the Tanguts and endanger Wei Shouzheng’s detained embassy.