Chapter 23: A Second Incursion into the Imperial City

Compared to the defensive patrols of the Lin'an Imperial City, the security along the city walls was significantly more lax. After a few well-placed leaps, Qiu Zhiqin successfully scaled the wall near the Qianhu Gate and re-entered Lin'an. This time, he didn't even have to pay the entry tax!

Lesson learned: he had saved himself another expense. In these times, even the wealthy had no spare grain, so every little bit saved counted.

As Qiu Zhiqin continued down the road, he felt something was off. The area was not only dense with government offices, but the frequency of military patrols was surprisingly high. Fortunately, he noticed there wasn't a single commoner in sight, and the streets were hauntingly empty, so he decisively steered clear of any potential encounters.

It was only later that Qiu Zhiqin realized the area he had previously frequented was a garrison zone, while his current location was home to the Six Ministries and various government bureaus. These two areas were exactly what that fellow Qin Fei had been harping on about as the "Imperial City."

The place he actually needed to go, however, was the Inner Palace...

Although there were patrols here as well, the security was clearly perfunctory. Based on over an hour of reconnaissance, Qiu Zhiqin observed that the military's defensive focus was on the line between the Hening Gate and the Chaotian Gate, while the patrols and guards between the government offices and the palace were noticeably thinner.

After mapping out the guard rotations on the palace walls, Qiu Zhiqin learned his lesson and did not act rashly. He suddenly recalled the concept of "hidden sentries." To test the waters, he mischievously hurled a pine nut with all his might toward the Hening Gate watchtower thirty yards away.

The clattering sound successfully alerted the guards, but to his surprise, none of the hidden sentries he had feared appeared. Qiu Zhiqin chuckled to himself, thinking he had become so jumpy that even the chirping of birds made him flinch.

He seized the opportunity to scale the palace wall, landed silently, and vanished into the shadows at the base of the structure. Only after the commotion on the wall died down did he finally breathe a sigh of relief.

That was more like it. A "Little West Lake" and an "octagonal pavilion" within the palace—that sounded like something only found in the rear harem. He had been a fool to wander into the front administrative districts earlier; it was as if he’d lost his mind! He had nearly blundered right into a hornet's nest of soldiers.

Like the assassins in the novels, Qiu Zhiqin dared not take the main paths, nor did he dare walk along the rooftops. Under the bright moonlight, walking on a roof would be like lighting a lantern in a latrine—utterly suicidal.

He could only creep carefully toward the lake he had glimpsed when he first scaled the wall, sticking strictly to the shadows.

After more than half an hour, Qiu Zhiqin finally reached the lakeshore. On the opposite side, there was indeed an octagonal pavilion, and sitting within it, just as his master had described, was a Taoist priest.

Perhaps it was a trick of the light, but as Qiu Zhiqin caught sight of the figure in the pavilion, the man seemed to glance in his direction. That single look sent a shiver down Qiu Zhiqin's spine. However, he quickly shook it off, telling himself he was just being paranoid—how could that be possible?

He carefully tried to circle around to reach the Taoist, but with the entire Little West Lake between them, he couldn't simply use his light-foot skills to dash across the water—he feared being turned into a pincushion by archers. As he skulked along the bank, he suddenly heard voices from a water pavilion ahead and quickly ducked for cover.

Before long, two figures appeared in his line of sight: a man in a round-collared red robe with a neck ring that looked quite ridiculous, and a man in a purple robe standing respectfully at his side.

Their positioning made their hierarchy clear: the man in red was the superior.

The man in the red robe spoke first: "The Huaixi Army claims that the Huaixi Transport Commissioner has embezzled their pay. Is the Chancellor aware of this, Minister Shi?"

Upon hearing this, Qiu Zhiqin took a closer look at the man in the purple robe, addressed as Minister Shi. He appeared to be in his sixties, somewhat portly, and reminded Qiu Zhiqin of Di Renjie from the television dramas, though much thinner.

Qiu Zhiqin was baffled. Wasn't it forbidden for men to enter the harem? First, there was a Taoist priest sitting openly by the lake, and now here was a Minister Shi chatting with the Emperor in a waterside pavilion?

Qiu Zhiqin couldn't be blamed for his confusion, as his impression of the imperial palace came from the Forbidden City of later eras. Due to historical reasons, the Southern Song palace had its administrative offices mostly near the North Gate—that is, the Hening Gate and the Donghua Gate. Although it was called the Donghua Gate, it was actually quite close to the North Gate, serving as a minor entrance.

Consequently, the Southern Song emperors simply used the Little West Lake as a boundary, setting up the Hanlin Academy and other offices to the north of it, where the imperial library was also kept. This was one of the reasons why security in this area was so lax.

The pavilion Qiu Zhiqin was looking at was the Yunjin Hall, where the Southern Song Emperor usually received officials who entered through the Donghua Gate. After all, when there was an urgent matter, trekking all the way to the Zichen Hall in the front was far too troublesome.

Shi Miyuan quietly studied the Emperor's expression. Seeing nothing, he dared not delay and replied cautiously:

"Your Majesty, in truth, Xu Dehou has already raised a batch of supplies for the Huaixi Army. It is merely that the army finds the provisions insufficient. Furthermore, since the Jin Dynasty invaded the Western Sichuan, Huai, and Jingxiang lines last year, the imperial treasury has been stretched thin. With the Jin invading Xiangyang again early this spring, we had to provide a bit less this year. Their fuss is merely an attempt to extort more benefits!"

Hearing this, Qiu Zhiqin couldn't help but find it amusing. Shi Miyuan’s words sounded reasonable, but Meng Gong had told him otherwise. Although last year's campaigns had been costly, they had also been victories, and the spoils of war were substantial.

He was eighty percent certain that the funds had been embezzled layer by layer, which was why the Huaixi Army was acting up. This was a hallmark of the Song military: make a scene, and you'll be given a little extra just to keep you quiet.

The Emperor, in his youth, had been ambitious and dreamed of retaking the North. To suppress the capitulationists, he had even watched as Han Tuozhou curbed the influence of his teacher Zhu Xi’s Neo-Confucianism and conferred a royal title upon Yue Fei.

But as the northern expeditions failed, and one after another of his nine sons and one daughter died—none surviving to adulthood—his spirit was gradually worn down. He had adopted a prince as his heir, who had died just this month. It was a miserable existence. He had slowly lost his edge.

Life was like a butcher's knife; having left no heirs, for whom was he toiling so hard? It was better to let these officials have their way and spend his remaining years living a quiet life of Taoist cultivation. What of it? He had already given them the power; wasn't he allowed a hobby of his own?

However, "lying flat" was one thing, but a military mutiny was not a minor matter. It might not only disrupt his peace but also cost him his throne. Thus, he had to address it.

Listening to Shi Miyuan, the Emperor thought to himself, "What a load of nonsense. Isn't it just that those above pocketed too much, and now the Huaixi Army wants me to discipline them? What’s there to discuss? Just give them a rap on the knuckles and be done with it."

With this in mind, the Emperor said languidly, "According to intelligence from the Imperial City Guard, a shipment of weaponry being smuggled to the Jin was intercepted at Xiangyang. And it seems there is an influx of arms entering Jin territory from Shouzhou?"

The Emperor explicitly mentioned the Imperial City Guard rather than a report from officials, clearly signaling to Shi Miyuan that he knew who was behind it. This was the Emperor’s response to the Huaixi Army’s impeachment of the Transport Commissioner, and a warning to Shi Miyuan himself.

Qiu Zhiqin was growing sleepy. This was all old news from a month ago—why bring it up now? And could they hurry up? It was already late at night; didn't they have an early morning court session tomorrow? They must have been talking for ages, and now they were still out here catching the breeze!

Shi Miyuan, naturally, ignored Qiu Zhiqin’s silent grumbling. He bowed in terror, "Your Majesty, please grant me a moment. Last year, the Jin suffered heavy losses during their large-scale southern invasion, and the Mongols once again swept through the Hedong circuits. The Jin are as vicious as wolves, and the Mongols as fierce as tigers. Our Great Song can still handle the wolves, but the national treasury is increasingly empty. If this continues, I fear the tragedy of Jingkang will repeat itself before long. That is why someone presented this strategy to this old servant: to use captured resources to enrich the state, while playing the wolf against the tiger. I felt it was a strategy worth pursuing. I feared those incompetent pedants would only fuss and delay the great undertaking, so I sent men to conduct these transactions privately. I have not touched a single coin of the proceeds, waiting for the trades to complete so I could present it all to Your Majesty! I beg Your Majesty to see the truth of my loyalty..."

Qiu Zhiqin gasped. The man had managed to make his smuggling operation sound noble and selfless—Good Heavens! Lesson learned: as long as your logic is slippery enough, there are always more excuses than problems!

If he hadn't been a firsthand witness to the situation, he might have actually believed the man's lies. Perhaps his high-minded words were partially true, but he had definitely been lining his own pockets! But really, could they hurry it up? There were mosquitoes, for heaven's sake!

Qiu Zhiqin hadn't reached the level of a legendary martial arts master who could prevent a feather from landing on him, but by constantly maintaining the circulation of his *Quanzhen Inner Technique*, he could at least keep flies and insects from landing on him. Still, with so many mosquitoes buzzing around, he found it hard to suppress the urge to swat them.

Then again, his Quanzhen sect had no rule against killing living things—he wondered if the Quanzhen sect of later generations did...