Chapter 3: Li Che Strikes Back

Silence.

A deathly silence fell over the hall.

The eunuchs and palace maids had even forgotten to kneel. They stared openmouthed at the figure standing below the imperial desk.

What had the Sixth Prince just said? R-rebel?

Had that blow to the head driven him mad?

Since the emperor’s accession, the civil officials and hereditary nobles he had executed numbered well into the hundreds. Each had been condemned for crimes that brought confiscation of property and the extermination of entire families.

Yet not one of them had dared announce, to His Majesty’s face, that he intended to rebel.

Huang Jin, standing behind the emperor, was the first to recover.

“Such insolence! Prince of Ninggu, do you know what you are saying?” He sprang forward to shield the Qing Emperor. “To defy your sovereign and plot treason—you have condemned yourself to death!”

“I know exactly what I am saying.” Li Che looked at the emperor without a flicker of alarm.

“I intend to rebel, Father. I have come to inform you!”

By now, the Qing Emperor had recovered from his astonishment. He reached out and pushed Huang Jin aside.

“I see. You hope this display of madness will convince Me that you damaged your wits when you struck your head?”

Thought so, Li Che told himself.

This emperor had maxed out the art of ruling. Playing the fool would never work on him.

Fortunately, feigning madness had never been Li Che’s ultimate aim.

“My mind is perfectly clear. I am not mad in the slightest, and every word I have spoken comes from the heart!”

“Very well.” The emperor was so angry that he laughed. “Explain yourself. I am most eager to hear how you intend to rebel against Me!”

Li Che straightened his back. His heart was pounding, but he forced himself to remain calm.

“I shall conspire with the remnants of the previous dynasty and the great clans, gather assassins and sworn fighters willing to die, and have you killed, Father.”

He laid it out in complete earnest, as though he really were planning a rebellion.

The emperor gave a cold snort.

“I have already slaughtered the old dynasty’s adherents in the capital. The few minnows left cannot stir up so much as a ripple.”

“As for the great clans, with your present standing, which of them would dare work with you?”

Li Che continued. “Then I shall go to my fief, gather the surviving children of the previous dynasty, and raise an army. We shall break through Shanhai Pass and march on the capital.”

The emperor’s impatience deepened.

“There are indeed tens of thousands of the old dynasty’s remnants in Ninggu Commandery. They can barely keep themselves alive, and you expect them to form an army?”

“And do you imagine Shanhai Pass is there for decoration?”

“It is the greatest fortified pass under Heaven. Nothing short of two hundred thousand soldiers could take it. And you think you can?!”

Li Che’s expression did not change at the rebuff. He went on.

“In that case, I could persuade the Crown Prince and the enfeoffed princes to rise together and force you to abdicate, Father.”

“The Crown Prince?” Contempt showed on the emperor’s face. “His authority rests in My hands. Whoever I name Crown Prince is Crown Prince!”

“Besides, he is already at odds with you. You expect him to join forces with you?”

“And as for the enfeoffed princes, do you think My Embroidered Uniform Guard does nothing?”

Li Che fell silent.

Seeing that he had run out of answers, the Qing Emperor fixed him with a ruthless stare.

“Now tell Me. What have you that could sustain a rebellion against Me?”

The threat in the emperor’s gaze was almost palpable. Li Che raised his head and met it.

As though something in the body itself had answered him, his eyes reddened and he began to tremble.

“Indeed. What could someone like me possibly use to rebel against Your Majesty?”

The emperor froze.

Yes. With Li Che reduced to such a plight, how could he possibly rebel?

At last, the Qing Emperor understood why his sixth son, always so mild and forbearing, had suddenly said something so outrageous.

This was his way of showing his father that he, Li Che, posed no threat at all!

If the boy had no means of rebelling, why keep hounding him?

Merely because he carried the blood of the previous imperial house?

The emperor did hate that house. The feud was one that could never be reconciled.

Emperor Yang of Huan had killed his parents and brothers, wiped out half the Li clan, and even desecrated their ancestral graves.

But should that hatred truly fall upon his own son?

The Qing Emperor studied Li Che in silence.

The boy was handsome. He did not resemble his father; he took after his mother…

That gentle, virtuous woman, tender as water.

She had been the same. However grievously she was wronged, she endured it without a word, always with a gentle smile upon her face.

Li Che’s voice, thick with grief and anger, broke into his memories.

“I am sixteen this year. Even princes younger than me have received their titles. Of all your sons, I alone have been kept in the capital.”

“Everyone at court knows that I am out of favor with you. Even the palace servants treat me as though I am nothing!”

“Living like this is worse than death!”

“Since you dislike me, Father, I might as well rebel. Then you can order my death with every justification, and no one in the realm will utter a word against you!”

“Let every fault and every wrong rest upon me alone!”

Each word was a blade driven deep into the emperor’s heart.

With every sentence, his face grew a shade paler.

By the end, he realized that, at some point, his hands and feet had begun to tremble uncontrollably.

“Father, I beg you. Grant me death!”

Li Che clasped his hands and bent into a deep bow, remaining there.

A long silence settled over the hall once more. Only the emperor’s labored breathing could be heard.

The other eunuchs and maids scarcely dared breathe. They tried desperately to make themselves invisible, their hearts gripped by terror.

Were these things they should be hearing?

Li Che, meanwhile, felt as though his heart might leap out of his throat.

Yes. He was gambling.

Gambling that his words could dispel the emperor’s suspicions. That the emperor cared enough for his reputation to shrink from the infamy of killing his own son. That he still placed even the slightest value on the bond between them…

After a long silence, the Qing Emperor suddenly let out a deep breath.

Huang Jin’s heart leaped with delight.

One word from His Majesty, and he would summon the guards outside to hack this ungrateful, treacherous Sixth Prince into mincemeat!

Instead, the emperor spoke in a low voice.

“I never knew you had such a way with words.”