Flower Stealing Master

Chapter 1102: The Royal Title

Han Dingxiao’s expression shifted…but his composure ran deep, and he kept his voice steady. “I’m afraid I don’t follow what you’re saying.”

Song Qingshu smiled pleasantly. “Then allow me to be more direct, Vice Minister.”

He did not wait for a response. “Your mission to Yangzhou was conducted in the strictest secrecy…yet along the way your party was set upon several times. In the end it was only Ling— Wu Tiande, happening to pass by, who pulled you through. I imagine the Vice Minister already has a fair idea of who was behind those assassins.”

He had pieced together most of what their group had endured through conversations with Cheng Yaojia and Lu Guanying, and the point landed cleanly.

“Perhaps it was simply a band of wulin opportunists, hoping to rob and plunder.” Even with the picture largely assembled in his mind, Han Dingxiao had no intention of laying his real calculations bare before an outsider.

“Is that so?” Song Qingshu’s smile was noncommittal. “While the Vice Minister was in Ruyang Palace’s custody, I imagine you also learned that the White Lotus Sect launched an attack on Yuqing Temple?”

“I did.”

“As I understand it, the White Lotus Sect and the Vice Minister have never been on friendly terms. I doubt they came charging in to rescue you.” Song Qingshu allowed a thoughtful pause. “Ruyang Palace has suffered a rather undeserved misfortune in all this…dragged into an open clash with the White Lotus Sect for no good reason of their own. They drove the White Lotus Sect off, yes, but the damage they took in the process is precisely why they’ve been struggling so badly tonight against the Mount Song people.”

Han Dingxiao’s gaze was distant and moving…he was working something through.

“And speaking of Ruyang Palace’s misfortunes,” Song Qingshu continued, “they held off the White Lotus Sect for the Vice Minister’s sake, and now they’ve absorbed the brunt of Mount Song’s assault as well…”

Han Dingxiao could not resist: “Wasn’t Mount Song here for Wu Tiande?”

He hadn’t yet worked out what made Wu Tiande so valuable to them…but Zuo Lengchan had declared it aloud himself, and that hadn’t looked like pretense.

“Correct…Mount Song came for Wu Tiande.” Song Qingshu shifted direction. “Someone informed Mount Song that the long-lost Evil Exterminating Sword Manual was in Wu Tiande’s possession. That single rumor was enough to bring Zuo Lengchan out in full force.”

“The Evil Exterminating Sword Manual?” Han Dingxiao’s expression moved slightly. He had spent his life in the halls of government, but even there the name had reached him…a supremely rare and coveted martial treasure.

“The Vice Minister isn’t a wulin man, so perhaps Zuo Lengchan’s methods aren’t familiar to you. He presents himself as one of the orthodox world’s leading figures, but beneath that face he is utterly ruthless…and he has cultivated ties with some of the darkest practitioners in the wulin. The Bald Eagle, Qinghai Yixiao, Black and White Impermanence…every one of them is a notorious devil from the unorthodox world. To protect his public image, whenever Zuo Lengchan does something unsavory, he operates on one principle: commit to it entirely, and leave no witnesses. That is why, despite many in the wulin knowing perfectly well what he has done, there has never been any evidence to prove it.”

Song Qingshu watched Han Dingxiao’s expression cloud and clear. A man of his experience had almost certainly assembled the outline by now. “When the Mount Song people poured into Yuqing Temple tonight, they were cutting down everyone in sight. Had Ruyang Palace’s fighters not been in the way, does the Vice Minister believe he would have survived?”

“You— Jia Shixian!” Han Dingxiao could hold it in no longer. His palm came down heavily on the table. They had been locked in struggle for so many years…who else could have devised a scheme this vicious, this elegant in its indirection?  [G: Jia Shixian is Han Dingxiao’s personal name for Jia Sidao, using his courtesy name…an expression of both familiarity and contempt.] 

“I suspect you didn’t bring me in here just to tell me this.” Han Dingxiao steadied himself with visible effort and fixed his eyes on the young man before him.

Song Qingshu nodded. “I didn’t. I brought the Vice Minister in to propose a transaction.”

“What transaction?” A sharpness had entered Han Dingxiao’s tone.

“The Vice Minister is well aware of his present situation. Several factions back in court would be quite content if he never returned at all.” Song Qingshu paused, allowing the implication to settle fully before continuing. “Over recent weeks, Li Kexiu has agreed to align himself with the Golden Serpent Camp. If the Vice Minister will formally recognize that arrangement on behalf of the Southern Song court, I will see him safely back to Lin’an.”

Han Dingxiao was privately staggered. From the moment the Mongols had taken him, he had known his chances of winning Li Kexiu were finished. His primary objective had long since shifted from securing Li Kexiu’s allegiance to simply surviving and going home.

As for Li Kexiu’s power…as long as it didn’t fall to Jin, Qing, or Mongolia, Southern Song could live with the outcome.

He was in complete agreement…ten thousand times over. But a seasoned political animal like Han Dingxiao would never make that visible. He let out a deliberate grunt. “This mission has accomplished nothing. I return having lost men, failed in my purpose, and dragged myself back in disgrace. The moment I arrive in Lin’an, Jia Shixian and his allies will seize the opportunity with both hands. Attack me over what happened in Yangzhou, force me to resign…it would be all but inevitable. Rather than meet that wretched end, I might as well stay in Yangzhou and die here with what dignity remains. At least that way my name survives.”

Song Qingshu stifled his private amusement. He was long past being taken in by performances like this…Han Dingxiao was manufacturing leverage, nothing more. Fortunately, Song Qingshu had more than enough in hand to satisfy whatever the man was fishing for.

“The Vice Minister worries too much. I have a way to ensure you return to Southern Song not in disgrace but in triumph…not as a target for your enemies, but as a national hero whose moment has arrived.”

Han Dingxiao’s eyes sharpened with keen interest…and then narrowed with calculation. “What possible method could you have?”

Song Qingshu did not answer directly. Instead he turned the question around: “Which would you say matters more to Southern Song, Vice Minister…the Jianghuai region, or Sichuan?”

“Sichuan, without question.” The answer came immediately. Sichuan…the Land of Abundance…had once provided nearly a third of the entire Southern Song court’s tax revenue. And it was the western shield of the dynasty: when the Mongols took Sichuan, the court had been shaken to its foundation. Only by throwing the full resources of the nation behind commanders like Yu Jie and Wang Jian had they managed to hold the Mongol advance along the Fishing Town line.

But with Sichuan lost, the dynasty had lost its western barrier. The Mongols could drive east, sweep through Guizhou into the heartland of Hunan and Hubei, or cut through Dali and into Guangdong and Guangxi from the rear. The court had been forced into a defensive posture everywhere at once, hemorrhaging men and resources, living perpetually beneath what felt like a sword suspended over their heads…the sovereign and his ministers robbed of any peace.

With Sichuan in hand, the entire defensive line could be drawn back to the Jiange-Yangpingguan corridor, and Sichuan’s natural geography…notoriously difficult to penetrate…would do the holding. The pressure on the dynasty would ease enormously, and the wealth of the Sichuan interior would flow again into a treasury stretched increasingly thin.

“What if I could persuade the Mongols to return Sichuan to you?”

Song Qingshu’s smile carried an unreadable depth.

“That’s impossible—” Han Dingxiao was already on his feet before he caught himself. He looked at Song Qingshu again…no trace of jest anywhere on that face…and the full weight of what was being said arrived at once. He sat back down.

“If you can bring that about…I give you my word: the court will formally recognize the Golden Serpent Camp’s authority over the Jianghuai region. We will put a non-aggression compact in writing. And I will personally memorialize the Emperor to bestow upon you the formal title of King of Qi.”