Standalone Northern and Southern Dynasties

Chapter 15 Important Officials
Su Ze saw a team of soldiers escorting the emperor's carriage from Yongning Temple back to the palace, and he secretly sighed in his heart that the turmoil in the Northern Wei court had just begun.

Just like the Eight Kings Rebellion in the Western Jin Dynasty, the Northern Wei Dynasty gradually exhausted its vitality in repeated internal strife.

The first was the case of the deposed crown prince during the reign of Emperor Xiaowen. Yuan Xun, the deposed crown prince of Emperor Xiaowen, actually wanted to lead the ministers back to Pingcheng when Emperor Xiaowen appointed him as regent, in order to overturn Emperor Xiaowen's Han-style reform measures of moving the capital to Luoyang. As the deposed crown prince was deposed, a large number of ministers were also implicated.

After Emperor Xuanwu ascended the throne, he did not trust the ministers of the royal family and appointed his foreign relative Gao Zhao to exercise absolute power, which led to a major purge of the Northern Wei court.

Now that the emperor has ascended the throne, first the ministers supported the emperor and expelled the powerful minister Gao Zhao. Then, the commander of the imperial guards, Yu Zhong, who supported the emperor, abused his power and was finally exiled by Empress Dowager Hu.

The struggle within the entire Northern Wei court became increasingly intense, and the court quickly became corrupt and decadent in foreign wars, and problems in border towns became increasingly serious.

But what does all this have to do with a small Yulin soldier like Su Ze?

What Su Ze did not expect was that his life was really affected by the collapse of the golden bottle in the Yongning Temple wooden pagoda.

Just when Su Ze had been standing on the palace city for a whole morning and finally waited for his turn to guard, he saw a white-bearded minister in a purple official robe coming to the military camp next to the palace city under the escort of armored soldiers.

"The Minister of the Imperial Court, the Imperial Academy's Chief Priest, and the Marquis of Ping'en County, Cui Guang, has received the Empress Dowager's order to dispatch the Yulin Army to blockade the Yongning Temple. This is the Tiger Seal to mobilize the troops. Captain, please follow me to the Yongning Temple as soon as possible."

Although this old minister was old, he was full of energy. After he read out his long title, the captain in charge of guarding the palace wall bowed down hurriedly. After taking the tiger talisman for inspection, he immediately organized Su Ze and his group of Yulin soldiers who had just been replaced from the palace wall, and followed Cui Guang to Yongning Temple.

Su Ze secretly groaned. The old minister in front of him, Cui Guang, was a veteran of three dynasties of the Northern Wei Dynasty and was also one of the important ministers who supported the emperor back then.

Although he was dismissed for a period of time because of his dependence on Yu Zhong, he was soon reinstated and became an important official of the Northern Wei Dynasty.

The most crucial thing about this incident is naturally to investigate why the golden vase on the top of the Yongning Temple pagoda overturned. Empress Dowager Hu no longer trusts anyone, so she chooses the old minister Cui Guang to lead the investigation, and unfortunately she herself was drafted into the army.

Su Ze had just watched a play on the palace wall when he was arrested the next moment. He could only sigh at the fickleness of fate.

The queen mother of a country was almost killed. Such a case must have far-reaching implications. I'm afraid I won't be able to return home during the investigation. Su Ze got an even bigger headache when he thought of this.

After counting the soldiers, Cui Guang kindly said to the captain: "Please send someone to inform everyone's home and send the things used today to Yongning Temple, so that the soldiers can rest assured at home."

This sentence made Su Ze have a much better impression of Cui Guang. As a superior, he could still think about the soldiers at the bottom. No wonder Cui Guang had a good reputation and could survive three dynasties.

As expected, with Cui Guang's words, most of the resentment of the crowd about being temporarily conscripted dissipated. Su Ze also asked a familiar soldier to take a message to his sister Su Yuyao, telling her not to go out during this period and to stay at home honestly.

After the soldiers regrouped, they escorted Cui Guang to Yongning Temple.

When Cui Guang arrived at Yongning Temple, there were already two other ministers, one of whom was wearing a purple robe like Cui Guang, and the other, who was younger, was wearing scarlet.

Both of them were younger than Cui Guang and held lower official positions than Cui Guang. The minister in purple robe bowed to Cui Guang and said:
"Tingwei Pei Yanjun greets Lord Cui."

"Mu Shaoyou, the Junior Supervisor of the Ministry of Works, greets Lord Cui."

Su Ze hid in the team behind Cui Guang, looking at the two court officials, and sighed in his heart. Sure enough, the court was about to stir up a storm again. Emperor Xiaowen's reforms inherited the Jin system, which was improved from the Han system. The Tingwei was an official in charge of public security and prisons in the capital area, and was also a judicial official responsible for investigating the crimes of ministers. It was natural for him to investigate the assassination of the empress dowager.

The General Administration of Construction was an institution responsible for the construction of palace buildings. Yongning Temple can be considered a royal temple, so it was probably built by the General Administration of Construction.

Since there was a problem with the Yongning Temple Pagoda, naturally the Supervisor of Construction had to be brought in to identify it. The reason why it was the Junior Supervisor who came instead of the Chief Supervisor was that I'm afraid that the Chief Supervisor of Construction, who is now the biggest suspect, has been taken under control.

Cui Guang intervened and said, "According to the Queen Mother's decree, the investigation is mainly led by the Court Justice, with the Military Supervision Bureau as a supplement. I am only ordered to protect the Yongning Temple to avoid disturbing the gods and Buddhas in the temple."

Although Cui Guang said so, these two officials had been in the officialdom for many years. How could they believe that Empress Dowager Hu sent an important official like Cui Guang just to protect Yongning Temple? It was obvious that Cui Guang came to monitor their investigation.

Chief Justice Pei Yanjun had a calm expression on his face. He was born into the Pei family of Wenxi and was the direct descendant of the Jia family appointed by Emperor Xiaowen himself. He had always enforced the law strictly since he entered the officialdom. He had just been transferred back to the capital from the provincial governor. No matter how you looked at it, it had little to do with the case and all he had to do was handle the case impartially.

In comparison, Mu Shaoyou's expression was much uglier.

He was one of the eight Xianbei surnames. Although he was also from the Jia clan, he was from a side branch of the family and it was not easy for him to get the position of Junior Supervisor of the Ministry of Works.

Moreover, the Construction Supervisor where Mu Shaoyou worked participated in the construction of Yongning Temple. If he could not clear the suspicion of the Construction Supervisor, he would probably be implicated as well.

Just when the three men finished their discussion and were about to begin their investigation, there was news of commotion in Yongning Temple again.

A clear female voice rang out: "My master wants to go back home! Why won't he let us leave?"

Cui Guang frowned, and the Junior Supervisor Mu Shaoyou frowned and said, "How can there be women hiding in such a peaceful place of Buddhism? Capture this man immediately!"

Several masked warriors in black walked out from behind Mu Shaoyou. Su Ze only saw egrets embroidered on their black clothes. After hearing the order, he immediately rushed into Yongning Temple.

Cui Guang frowned and said, "The Queen Mother transferred Bai Lu Cao to Mu Shaojian?"

Mu Shaoyou quickly smiled and said, "The Chief of Works is composed of craftsmen, and there is no talent who is good at investigating cases, so I asked the Queen Mother to invite the envoy of Bai Lu Cao."

Su Ze looked at these black-clad and masked warriors. It turned out that they were the White Egret Messengers that were feared by everyone in the Northern Wei court.

Bailu Cao is a secret agency established by Emperor Xiaowen. Although it is one of the thirty-six Caos under the Secretariat, it belongs only to the royal family and now only obeys Empress Dowager Hu.

After a while, the Egret Messenger who had just entered Yongning Temple came to Cui Guang and others, escorting two maids in monk robes.

The two maids saw that the officials in purple and crimson robes in front of Yongxing Temple were not afraid at all. One of them looked at Cui Guang and said quickly:
"Lord Cui! We are the maids of Princess Chenliu! My princess has been fasting and praying in Yongning Temple for Princess Lanling's divorce. When she was about to return home after the fast, she was stopped by these soldiers!"

This time even the usually calm Cui Guang couldn't hold it anymore. Now a princess was involved, and there was no way to investigate the case!

(End of this chapter)