Chapter 549: Verbal Battle with the Empress Dowager

Chapter 549: Trading Words with the Empress Dowager

Yuan Jiuan insisted on seeing Emperor Chu, but Empress Dowager Yuan kept making excuses and flat-out refused to let him see the emperor.

As they argued, the old grudge over her nephew Yuan Zeming getting killed in Jizhou with one of his hands chopped off got dragged back up.

Empress Dowager Yuan's face was cold as she glared at him. "Prince Chengxuan, my nephew died in your Jizhou, and then you had the nerve to send me back one of his hands. I haven't even settled this score with you yet. So I'd advise you not to push your luck!"

Yuan Jiuan looked at her with gentle eyes and smiled slightly.

"Funny you should mention it—I was actually hoping to ask you for an explanation on that very matter."

"When your nephew came to Jizhou, I had officials wine and dine him and roll out the welcome mat. But as a guest from afar, he went out of his way to nitpick everything and publicly humiliate my men."

"Not only that, your nephew also ran his mouth, bragging that his aunt was the Empress Dowager and that Jizhou was her personal gift to him. He said the Yuan family was nothing but a dog the late Emperor kept, and now that the dog had outlived its usefulness, the Empress Dowager was going to butcher it and eat it. He even threatened to have the Empress Dowager wipe out the entire clan of any Jizhou official who didn't do what he said."

"That was not all. During the banquet, your nephew also called the Jizhou officials a bunch of useless trash who weren't fit to lick the boots of the capital's officials. He said the people of Jizhou were all beggars, not even worth a single hair on the heads of the capital folk."

"I want to ask, were those words coming straight from your heart, Empress Dowager? Do you really see the Yuan family as nothing but a dog the royal family raised—one you'd skin, gut, and throw on the fire?"

"By sending someone like that to Jizhou, did you ever show me an ounce of respect? Did you ever treat the people of Jizhou as human beings?"

As Yuan Jiuan spoke, a cold fury crept into his eyes. The Empress Dowager was taken aback.

Ever since Yuan Jiuan arrived in the capital yesterday, he'd come across as nothing but warm and polite, hardly ever losing his cool in public.

But now he was dressing her down in front of all these ministers—there was no way she wasn't furious.

She said coldly, "I sent my nephew to Jizhou purely to study the region's geography and local customs. I never told him Jizhou would be handed over to him as his own fief, and I would never call the Yuan family a dog of the late Emperor that ought to be butchered and eaten."

"I'm well aware of everything the Yuan family has done for the Xishu Kingdom, and I've always been grateful. You've governed Jizhou so well and kept the northwest so peaceful—how could I ever be so ungrateful?"

"I have no idea where you heard such things, Prince, to make you misunderstand me so badly. I just hope we can clear this up now."

Even as she said all that, the Empress Dowager was cursing her nephew a hundred times over in her head.

What a useless, good-for-nothing fool—couldn't get anything done and just ruined everything.

She'd sent Yuan Zeming to Jizhou to schmooze the local officials and win them over for her.

Ideally, they'd be Yuan Jiuan's inner circle, so that whether they were gathering intel or stripping the feudal princes of their titles, having people on the inside would make everything twice as easy.

But instead, he went to Jizhou and threw his weight around on someone else's turf, acting like a total bully and trash-talking the local officials and common folk in public.

With behavior like that, how could Yuan Jiuan ever let him off the hook?

Just then, another figure rose to his feet.

He had a broad forehead, thin brows, full cheeks, and graying sideburns. He wore a deep blue court robe and pointed boots. His aged eyes were sharp and piercing, and he carried himself with an air of arrogance.

That man was none other than the Empress Dowager's own father, Grand Marshal Yuan.

After standing up, he looked at Yuan Jiuan with displeasure and spoke coldly.

"You've got it all wrong, Prince. Zeming studied under renowned tutors from a young age. He's learned and well-mannered. I watched him grow up with my own eyes. What proof do you have that those words actually came out of Zeming's mouth, and that someone isn't just framing him?"

"I've also heard that when the Empress Dowager sent Zeming to Jizhou, you didn't even bother to meet him yourself—you just had a couple of officials receive him. You didn't put him up in your residence either; you stuck him in some courier station."

"Zeming went to Jizhou as the Empress Dowager's representative, after all. Of course he'd be upset when you treated him like that."

"He's still young and hasn't committed any serious crime. Why did you have to kill him and send back a chopped-off hand just to humiliate us?"

Yuan Jiuan looked at Grand Marshal Yuan, a faint trace of mockery curling at the corner of his mouth.

"I've long heard that Grand Marshal Yuan has a silver tongue—that you once made a barbarian envoy cry in court all by yourself. Seeing you in action today, you really do live up to the hype."

"All you see is that I ordered Yuan Zeming killed. Did you ever bother to look into why I had him executed?"

Grand Marshal Yuan snorted coldly and said through gritted teeth, "Isn't it because you were scared the Empress Dowager would strip you of your title? So you took out your anger by killing every last official the Xishu Kingdom sent."

Yuan Jiuan smiled.

Sure enough, the fact that he could say such a thing meant that Grand Marshal Yuan knew the Empress Dowager's true intentions.

Perhaps the idea of removing the feudal princes had even been his suggestion.

After all, if his title as Feudal Prince was stripped, the ones who benefited would be the Yuan family, would they not?

Yuan Jiuan looked at him with a mocking gaze and said, "Fortunately, I brought something with me this time. After you all see it, you can reconsider whether the Empress Dowager's nephew deserved to be killed."

As he finished speaking, his attendant Ying Jue immediately handed over several complaint papers and a case closure document.

Yuan Jiuan took them and casually pulled out one of the complaint papers.

He read it aloud in front of everyone: "Common girl Liu Cui, age seventeen, from Liujia Village, Anping Town, Jizhou. She had a fiancé and was expected to marry in two months."

"But fate was cruel. When she went to the city to sell silk flowers, she caught the eye of the capital official Yuan Zeming. He sent men to abduct her, drugged and raped her, then directly threw her to his three subordinates to be violated all night, while he walked away without caring about her life or death."

"When her fiancé learned of this, he broke off the engagement. The village chief wanted to drown her in a pond. Knowing she had no face to continue living, she hoped the county magistrate would read her complaint and seek justice for her. She would die without regret."

After reading it, Yuan Jiuan continued, "This girl Liu Cui has already drowned herself in the river. Her parents have four children and no source of income. She was the eldest. Her younger siblings all depended on her selling silk flowers and embroidery to fund their schooling."

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