The Lone Minister - Chapter 2

Chapter 2

At morning court, I gathered up the hem of my robe

and planted a kick squarely on the Vice Minister of Rites’s backside.

A moment ago, he had been running his mouth, accusing me, a dignified senior minister of the Grand Secretariat, of flouting propriety and impeaching officials at random.

He called me willful and reckless, spoiled by His Majesty’s favor.

Old bastard. You’re well past sixty and still stuck as vice minister.

Even if pigs started climbing trees, you still wouldn’t make it up.

Did you think that by clinging to the Yin Faction and taking a swing at me, you’d rise through the ranks and rake in riches?

You can’t even flatter properly.

And you think you can impeach me properly?

The emperor watched my viper-like gaze sweep through the assembled ministers and looked me over with amusement.

“Minister Feng, whom are you planning to impeach next?”

I lifted my robe and knelt, presenting a memorial on my own.

“This minister wishes to impeach the current Grand Secretary of the Grand Secretariat-Yin Xiansong!”

An uproar swept through the court.

The memorial hidden in my sleeve lay across my palm. The attending eunuch’s expression sharpened. He stole a glance at the emperor, and only after seeing His Majesty’s tacit permission did he dare hurry down the steps to take the memorial and present it.

The late-morning sun streamed through the doors of the Hall of State Affairs, falling across the cold blue bricks and casting a figure as dark as thick ink.

The seventy-year-old Grand Secretary remained as favored as ever.

With both hands resting on his knees, he sat upright on the cushioned seat granted to him by the emperor, eyes closed in the sunlight as if the dispute before him had nothing whatsoever to do with him.

Only the tails of his longevity brows twitched ever so slightly.

Then all was still again.

The emperor leisurely opened the memorial.

“Oh? So this concerns the next Grand Secretary of the Grand Secretariat.”

A signal seemed to explode among the officials.

The various factions rapidly exchanged glances that only they could understand.

In court politics, one tug could set the whole body in motion.

The emperor, however, merely waved a hand with perfect nonchalance and had the eunuch put the memorial away.

“Take it down. Let Yin Peizhi have a look.”

Yin Peizhi was the son of Yin Xiansong, the current Grand Secretary of the Grand Secretariat.

He had entered the Grand Secretariat, concurrently overseen the Ministry of Revenue, and acted in the capacity of minister.

People called him the “Little Grand Secretary.”

“Utter nonsense!”

Yin Peizhi took my memorial, and as he read, his expression changed abruptly.

With a snap, he shut the memorial and pointed straight at my nose.

“What right do you have to impeach the Elder Grand Secretary for an unfair recommendation?”

“In all the nine provinces and ten thousand domains of the Great Liang Dynasty, what burden has not rested on my shoulders?”

“Even without the Elder Grand Secretary’s recommendation, by seniority and merit, the succession should have come to me by now. You say I lack the virtue for the position, so I lack the virtue? Who do you think you are?”

Only then did Elder Yin speak, unhurried.

“Peizhi, when discussing affairs before the throne, one must allow others to speak.”