Early one morning in mid-February, the emperor summoned Han Bo into the palace.
He now had virtually no one he could use. Previously, he had still had Ming Ji at his side, but after the incident involving Wang Qia, Ming Ji, a man who cared about his dignity, knew he bore some of the blame and voluntarily resigned as Director of the Secretariat Library. Under these circumstances, the emperor could only cling to whoever he could get.
Besides, Han Bo was a duly appointed Attendant Gentleman of the Central Secretariat, which in theory made him one of the emperor's close ministers.
The emperor had called him back this time essentially because of the enormous shock of last night's revelations. He wanted to resolve the confusion, natural enough at his age, of "who should I use?" or, rather, "who can I still use?"
And so he first questioned Han Bo carefully about everything Xun Xian had said before his death, then asked his advice. "Attendant Han, why exactly did Gentleman of the Palace Xun want General Liu of the Vanguard Army to replace Army Secretary Xi? Was there some discord between Gentleman of the Palace Xun and Army Secretary Xi?"
"Forgive my frankness, Your Majesty." Han Bo considered for a moment before answering. "Gentleman of the Palace Xun did indeed fall out with quite a few people in the army during this Northern Expedition, but the ones who had some conflict with him seem to have been precisely General Liu of the Vanguard Army and Army Secretary Xi's nephew, Xi Chao. His relationship with Army Secretary Xi himself should have been reasonably amicable... for when we were in Pengcheng, Army Secretary Xi clearly attempted to mediate between Gentleman of the Palace Xun and Gentleman of the Palace Xie."
"Gentleman of the