Pu Yunshan stood up, his expression solemn, and took out the oiled paper package from the hidden pocket of his inner garment, presenting it with both hands.
"Your Highness, this is a secret letter found inside the armor of the Tubo commander Chile. It bears a special coded mark from Anyang."
Liu Ruyan stepped forward and took the oil paper package. She lightly ran her fingertip along the special geometric pattern on the seal and said coldly, "It is indeed the private seal of the Prince of Anyang 'Prince An's Residence, and it was written with pine soot ink, a specialty of Anyang, which will not fade when wet."
She used a knife to pry open the seal, pulled out the secret letter inside, and handed it to Gu Moran.
Gu Moran unfolded the letter and scanned the lines of writing on it.
The letter was written in the handwriting of Zhou Huaili, the chief strategist of the Prince An's Residence, but the seal at the end was Gu Mochen's personal seal.
The letter stated that as long as the Tubo army marched south to cut off Bronze Gorge, disrupt the Northern Expedition's supply lines, and trap Prince Yi Gu Moran, in Jiannan Circuit,
After ascending the throne, Prince An Gu Mochen, agreed to cede all the commercial taxes from the three southern prefectures of Jiannan Circuit and the Ancient Tea Horse Road to Tubo's Silver City!
"Ceding territory for personal gain, colluding with the enemy and betraying the country."
Gu Moran softly, casually tossing the letter onto the desk. His tone was calm and even, yet the temperature in the study seemed to drop several degrees.
"Second brother, you've really played a big game here."
"For this dragon throne, they'd even sacrifice the bones of their ancestors."
Su Yao stopped using the abacus, picked up the secret letter, glanced at it, and frowned. "Your Highness, if this secret letter is sent to the capital and given to my father and Grand Commandant Lin, it will surely cause a huge uproar in the court."
Prince An's collusion with the enemy is tantamount to treason, and the court will not tolerate him.
"Send it to the capital?"
Gu Moran picked up the warm ginseng tea specially made by Shen Ling'er, took a small sip, and his eyes were deep and unfathomable.
"The old emperor is paralyzed on his bed, the crown prince is imprisoned in the Eastern Palace, and the civil and military officials in the capital are now more afraid of chaos than anyone else."
The commander of the troops in Anyang was easily swayed.
Even the one from Xiang Prefecture had an extremely ambiguous relationship with him.
"If this letter is sent up, for the sake of the overall situation, at most Prime Minister Chancellor Su send an imperial envoy to Anyang to reprimand Gu Mochen and place him under house arrest in the Prince's residence. He would never dare to force a grown prince who commands an army of 30,000 to rebel at this time."
Liu Ruyan raised her eyes. "Does Your Highness mean..."
"Keep the letter. It's a trump card that can send Gu Mochen to the guillotine, but you have to reveal it at the most opportune moment."
Gu Moran put down his teacup and narrowed his eyes.
No sooner had he finished speaking than Uncle Fu's hurried footsteps came from outside the door.
The old steward, holding a wax pellet he had just removed from a carrier pigeon's leg, strode into the study and bowed to report.
"Your Highness! Urgent report from Anyang! Over a hundred skilled riders and fine horses have delivered it in relay!"
Prince An, Gu Mochen, suddenly recovered from his illness and claimed to have received the help of an elixir from overseas. He ordered the entire city of Anyang to be sealed off overnight and forcibly requisitioned more than 40,000 shi of private grain from major merchants!
At the same time, the Imperial Guard was mobilized to seal off government offices, and 30,000 troops were assembling and training, vowing to march into the capital after the New Year to "purge the emperor's inner circle of corrupt officials!"
The study fell silent instantly.
Pu Yunshan's eye twitched violently. "Immortal pills from overseas? Forcibly requisitioning private grain? Has Prince An gone mad?!"
"Would the Commandant of Anyang obey his orders?"
Gu Moran leaned back on the soft couch, looking at the clear sky outside the window.
"He's not crazy; his brain has been emptied by his desires and the poison."
"As for the Commandant of the Vanguard, heh heh."
"It's tolerable that a vassal king would use his soldiers to perform acrobatics every day."
"But is he really willing to risk his life by besieging the Gu Mochen?"
Gu Moran stood up and smoothed out the wrinkles on the fox fur coat.
"Order that the 20,000 soldiers of the Yi Prefecture Camp immediately cancel their annual leave, and the entire army be equipped with newly made horse-slaying swords and Subduing Fire Thunder, entering a state of first-level combat readiness."
"Order Si Renyou to requisition all guides and post horses in Jiannan Circuit, and secretly transport half of the 30,000 shi of military rations captured at Bronze Gorge to the front-line fortress."
Gu Moran turned his head and looked out the window at the vast northern landscape, his eyes sharp as knives.
"If Second Brother can really persuade the Commandant and Governor of Anyang to rush to the underworld to snatch that dragon throne..."
"Then I, Your Majesty, would not mind escorting him on his way."
The rear hall of the Anyang Prefectural Governor's Mansion.
The hearth burned brightly, and when the embers crackled, a crisp sound echoed inside the room.
The window cracks were all stuffed with thick felt, preventing the heat from escaping.
Seven or eight shopkeepers stood with their collars open, sweat beading on their foreheads, their faces paler than the snow outside the door.
" Lord Cui, please give me a straight answer."
Shopkeeper Qian, the biggest grain merchant in the east of the city, leaned against a rosewood table, his sleeves trembling incessantly.
When will the Prince's Palace release that batch of grain?
He pulled a stack of crumpled contracts from his pocket and slapped them on the table.
"Last night, the guards of Prince An's Residence smashed up my storehouse gate and, without even a word, hauled away 20,000 shi of millet from the old storehouse in the west of the city."
"I borrowed 20,000 taels of silver from Tonghui Firm to pawn this batch of goods. If I can't repay the principal and interest by the fifth of next month, my entire family of thirty will have to jump into the moat!"
" Shopkeeper Qian, please have a seat."
Prefect Lord Cui of Anyang sat in the main seat, holding a celadon teacup in his hand.
The tea had long since cooled, with two withered tea leaves clinging to the bottom of the cup.
He stared at the tea leaves, speaking slowly.
"The prince is thinking of the entire city's military and civilians. With the heavy snow blocking the roads and the capital in chaos, the 30,000-strong army must first have sufficient provisions and pay."
"Once the imperial court bestows its rewards, you will certainly receive a generous sum of money."
"Not a small amount?"
Mr. Sun Boss Sun, stood up with red eyes.
" Lord Cui, are you trying to fool a three-year-old with those words?"
He pointed at the contract in Shopkeeper Qian's hand, his chest heaving.
"Of the eight thousand bushels of coarse grain in the north of the city, your wife holds a 20% share. Last month's dividend slip was personally delivered to the backyard by me."
"If Your Highness were truly capable, we would accept it even if we only got a taste of the good life. But now, with all four gates closed, the grain market shut down, and even the pancake stalls on the street smashed by your personal guards, things are really messed up."
The prince's mansion takes our goods, and the lady takes our share of the profits—is this what they call preparing for war?
This is like treating Anyang like their own cellar, moving everything in!
The back room immediately descended into chaos.
Some people cursed Tonghui Firm for pressing for debt, some said they didn't even have enough rice for tomorrow in their granaries, and others gritted their teeth and pressed Prefect Cui to find out if the Prince's residence had any official documents from the court ordering the allocation of grain.
Prefect Cui's finger hovered over the rim of the teacup.
Before he could speak, Commander Wei.
Black iron light armor clung to his body, and a broad-bladed short sword hung at his waist.
The large, rough hand tapped the knee three times, the nail plate making a dull thud.
"Smack!"
A teacup shattered on the blue brick, and scalding tea splashed onto several pairs of boots.
The noise in the room stopped instantly.
"Have you all shouted enough?"
Commander Wei stood up and scanned the faces of everyone present.
"The 40,000 shi of grain has already been deposited into the main account of the Northern Camp. Shopkeeper Qian's 20,000 shi, Boss Sun's 8,000 shi, and Boss Shen's 5,000 shi are only a part of it. The rest is grain collected by the military camp according to the old order."
"You still want to bring back every single piece of goods?"
No one dared to speak.
He looked at the contract in Shopkeeper Qian's hand.
"Those 20,000 shi of millet were taken away by the Prince's personal guards and were not stamped with the seal of the Military Supplies Bureau. As for the 8,000 shi of coarse grain that Boss Sun mentioned, there is also a 20% share of the governor's wife in the account."
"You've come to see Lord Cui today, do you want grain, or do you want him to take responsibility for this debt?"