Langhua: The Codependence of a Prince and His General

Ploy

"I hate to ask this of you, Your Highness, but... does anyone else in the palace know about the letters?"

The question was a long time coming, but Lin Junli waited until the two of them were sitting in a discrete pavilion in a corner of the palace before asking. Xuanyuan Lang's voice sounded distant to his own ears when he replied. "Yes. Aside from my mother, I let my guard down once and allowed both the First and Second Princes to find out."

"I see." Lin Junli did not seem surprised.

Xuanyuan Lang had to ask. "Do you know who's behind this yet? You said you had an idea."

Lin Junli chose his words carefully. "Ding Jin was one of Great General Ma's proteges."

"In other words, he's part of the Noble Consort's camp." Great General Ma was the Noble Consort's father, and it was said that his sway in the court rivalled the Prime Minister's. Even an irresponsible prince like Xuanyuan Lang knew that. "But why?"

"On the surface, it's probably so they can take Hua Meng's place at the borders and have one of their men claim the military power in the ensuing vacuum. If you look deeper, however..." Lin Junli hesitated and looked at Xuanyuan Lang. "It was probably to make you choose, Your Highness."

"Me?" Xuanyuan Lang's voice rose despite himself. "Why me? What do I have to do with anything?"

"Recall the accusations held against Hua Meng and the Emperor's attitude this morning. Isn't there something odd amongst them?"

"I... I don't know."

"Think harder, Your Highness." Lin Junli's tone and expression were both firm. For some reason, he was determined to make Xuanyuan Lang figure out the answer by himself.

Xuanyuan Lang fought through the haze in his mind and tried to sort out the information he had gleaned today. There was just so much of it. His letters were used to transmit top-secret information out of the palace. Hua Meng was killed. Hua Yuheng was captured and now they had two weeks to—

His eyes widened. "We shouldn't be able to walk around like this. Ah Heng should be dead."

Lin Junli raised a brow at "Ah Heng", but he chose to ignore that for now. Instead, he simply nodded. "That's right. The charges are far more severe than the 'punishment' and restrictions we were given. If truly important information had been relayed to the enemy, the consequences would be much more severe.

"Hua Meng was the highest-ranked general in charge of watching the borders. If they truly believed he was a traitor, the court would be in much more of an uproar, baying for the reinforcement and restructuring of the border armies. At the same time, the punishment for traitors, both at the governance and grassroots level, is total extermination of the entire bloodline.

"At the very least, Yuheng should not have been able to reach the capital in one piece."

Xuanyuan Lang remembered the bruises and wounds on every inch of Hua Yuheng's exposed skin, and his heart ached. That was what Lin Junli meant by "in one piece"?

"What I mean to say is, it should have been much worse." Lin Junli chuckled at the protest in Xuanyuan Lang's eyes. "And if the parties who framed Hua Meng had truly sold the kingdom out to the enemy, the battle would not have ended with only Hua Meng's death. If the information was of any consequence, we should be preparing for all-out war now."

"So the leaked information was inconsequential?" Xuanyuan Lang asked.

"If it was ever leaked at all. That's why His Emperor was so blasé when he set the two of us to investigate." Lin Junli clenched his fists on his lap. He was not laughing anymore. "This was all just a game, and we are merely pieces on the board."

"All this... to make me choose?" Xuanyuan Lang murmured. "I still don't understand."

"That's what you and Hua Meng have in common, Your Highness. The battle between the two factions in court is intensifying, and almost everyone has chosen their sides. Hua Meng was one of the few neutral parties left. Should he continue to refuse to bend, others may begin to rally around him. He had simply become too strong to stay in the middle of the fence any longer. That's why they had to take him down."

Lin Junli looked Xuanyuan Lang directly in the eyes. "And they went out of their way to make sure you were involved, too. That's why I said they're telling you to choose.

"You've turned thirteen. Amongst the commonfolk, you are deemed almost old enough to start your own family. You can't stay out of this any longer. The longer you do... the more difficult it will become."

The more people will die, was it?

"What about you? Are you part of the neutral faction too?"

Lin Junli grimaced slightly. "Unfortunately, no. As you may have noticed during court, I call Prime Minister Wang my esteemed teacher. That means that, for better or for worse, I am tied to the Empress' faction. I... may have attracted some unsavoury attention lately as I rose through the ranks. They might have thought it amusing to take a jab at me and see me squirm."

Xuanyuan Lang lowered his eyes. "You keep saying 'they'. You mean the Noble Consort's faction, don't you?

"In that case, what choice do I have?"

Lin Junli cast his eyes away from the pavilion, leaning over the side of his seat to look at the sky outside. "You could have just as easily denounced Hua Meng as the traitor. If you had chosen to hold your tongue during the court, or if you had claimed that the treasonous contents were attached to the letters after they left your hands and without your knowledge, then you could have wiped your hands clean of everything.

"In doing so, you would have affirmed the version of reality proposed by the Noble Consort's faction. In other words, you would've helped them clean up their mess too."

"And what about you?"

"You would've condemned me to death, of course," Lin Junli said breezily. "So I am considerably glad you did not choose that route, Your Highness."

Xuanyuan Lang gave a hoarse laugh. "It wasn't much of a choice. I had no idea about any of this."

"Conscious or not, you took action."

"To put it bluntly, I played right into their hands." Xuanyuan Lang put his face in his hands, his voice muffled as he asked, "What now?"

"We could continue investigating as though this was a real case, not merely a farce. If we look into it, I'm fairly certain that the Noble Consort's faction will offer up a scapegoat whose death will close the matter. But if we do that, we would nevertheless officially position ourselves against the Noble Consort." Lin Junli coughed softly. "By we, I mean you, of course."

"That means I'll take the Empress' side, huh?" Xuanyuan Lang let out a long breath and shifted his face to one hand so he could look at Lin Junli. "Are you just here to recruit me to your side, then?"

Lin Junli touched the cut on his forehead from when he split his head open on the court floor that morning and gave Xuanyuan Lang a wry smile. "You think too highly of me, Your Highness. As my teacher said, I am merely an emotional fool who could not help but jump into a trap even if I see it laid out before me."

His neutral stance in exchange for General Hua Meng's good name... Xuanyuan Lang remembered the back of Hua Yuheng's head as he prostrated himself on the prison floor.

No matter what Lin Junli said, Xuanyuan Lang had never had a choice.