The earlier campaigns had progressed far too smoothly, so much so that now, after just over half a month without any fresh news, he felt things were moving slowly.
At that thought, he immediately lost the energy to deal with the memorials.
"Never mind. Prepare to go to Tai'an Hall."
Liu Xie gathered in these thoughts and tossed aside the memorial in his hand as he spoke, abandoning his plan to finish the memorials before attending court.
What had to be faced would have to be faced eventually.
Before long, Liu Xie arrived at Tai'an Hall.
The civil and military court officials had all assembled inside. But because court had convened so early, and they had been waiting in the hall for so long, quite a few were growing drowsy.
As Liu Xie entered the hall, however, the officials all roused themselves, not daring to show the slightest lapse in decorum.
Court sessions were usually exceedingly dull.
The matters reported and brought up for discussion were neither particularly important nor particularly trivial, and the proceedings were thoroughly tedious. After several matters had been discussed in succession, Liu Xie was ready to dismiss court.
Just then, however, Yang Xiu suddenly stepped forward. "Your Majesty, I have a matter to report."
Liu Xie turned his gaze toward him. Yang Xiu rarely spoke at court; usually, his father, Yang Biao, did more of the speaking.
"What do you wish to report, Dezu?"
Yang Xiu looked respectful, his head bowed and his eyes lowered as he said, "Your Majesty, I recently conducted an inspection of my clan's farmland and discovered that our clan assets had somehow gained several thousand mu of fertile fields.
"So I sent men to investigate closely, and discovered that all these fertile fields had been reclaimed by members of the