Chapter 378 — Hypothesis
Purple Streets of Chang'an · Page 2 of 4
Dou Yan could not help saying, "Whatever you have thought of, at least tell me."
Song Cen sighed. He cupped Dou Yan's face in his hands and kissed her once. "I don't know whether to call you clever, or bold — or neither clever nor bold, but uncommonly lucky!"
This was the first time Dou Yan had so openly, in front of Song Cen, supposed that the Prince of Liao might rebel...
She grew a little impatient. "Stop talking in circles and tell me."
Song Cen said quietly, "If the realm is at peace, and the Prince of Liao truly harbors such designs, then a palace coup is his only road. And for a coup to succeed it must be swift as thunder and lightning — by the time men realize something has changed, he must already have the situation in his grasp.
"But to hold the situation, the first necessity is trusted men in the imperial guards and among the palace eunuchs.
"The former can bring blades and arrows to bear and leave the emperor no strength to resist; the latter carry word, so that the Prince of Liao knows every shift within the inner palace, and at the critical hour can even cut the emperor off from all news for a time, and keep him lulled.
"Empress Wan now governs the inner palace. With her managing the eunuchs, that quarter is beyond failure. As for the guards — leave the Jinyi Guard aside for the moment. The Jinwu Guard keeps the palace gates, the Five Cities Command defends the inner city, the Divine Machine Battalion is stationed beyond the outer city, and the Five Armies Battalion answers them from afar. If any one of these garrisons stirs, the whole thing comes to nothing."
As he spoke, his expression turned grim.
"And among them all, the Jinwu Guard is the crux. If the Jinwu Guard can quietly seal off every scrap of news from the inner palace, the business is already half won.
"Next comes the Divine Machine Battalion. Once the inner palace changes hands, they are armed with firelocks and move fast over short distances — there is no garrison under heaven more formidable — and they lie closest to the capital. Give them a handwritten order from the emperor or the crown prince, and they will march without a heartbeat's hesitation. The Jinwu Guard would be no match for them. Not only might the tide turn, but the Prince of Liao might be caught like a turtle in a jar, with no strength left to resist.
"Then there are the Five Cities Command and the Five Armies Battalion.
"If the Divine Machine Battalion attacks the city, the Five Cities Command sides with the Prince of Liao. With the Jinwu Guard and the Five Cities Command, there is risk enough, but who would win is still undecided. And in such a pass, if the Five Armies Battalion stationed at Wanping also backs the Prince of Liao and joins hands with the Five Cities Command and the Jinwu Guard inside the city, then the outcome is settled.
"Conversely, if the Divine Machine Battalion and the Jinwu Guard join hands, then even should the Five Cities Command and the Five Armies Battalion receive a handwritten edict from the emperor or the crown prince and come to the rescue of the throne — never mind that the Five Armies march slower than the Divine Machine — their camp lies half a day's march away. By the time they arrive, I fear the matter will already be decided."
The Emperor's personal guards — did anyone truly imagine they could be turned so easily?
Let a single link in the chain go wrong, and a whole house could be cut down to the last man.
Just hearing it made Dou Yan's scalp prickle.
This Prince of Liao was quite a piece of work!
He had actually brought off a palace coup.
A pity that in her last life the Prince of Liao had kept the whole affair buried in silence, and the Jining Marquis household had been a lamp guttering in the wind, unable to bear the slightest disturbance — how would she have dared probe into a coup? Had she known the Prince of Liao's arrangements, she might at least have spared herself some wrong turns.