That Lai Chenglong had also been dispatched to Jin region to assist Zhou Weizhao in quelling the rebellion was truly something Fan Liangdi found difficult to endure. She carefully raised her head to glance at His Highness the Crown Prince, reached out to pour him a cup of clear tea, lowered her eyelids and sighed: “Father Emperor values His Highness the Grand Heir far too highly. Having already bestowed upon him the imperial sword of authority, he actually still specially dispatched Lai Chenglong to assist him. This is for fear that His Highness will return without merit and be ridiculed by others.”
Yes, yet toward him as his son he wasn’t this attentive. The Crown Prince rotated the chess piece in his hand, slowly placing it on the board, staring expressionlessly at the board for a long while without speaking.
The Eastern Palace still had him as Crown Prince, yet Emperor Jianzhang simply hadn’t thought of him at all, directly bypassing him to dispatch Zhou Weizhao to Jin region to quell the rebellion. Counting it up, he had previously been constantly suppressed by Prince Duan and Prince Gong until he couldn’t catch his breath, precisely because he couldn’t produce any achievements. Everyone felt he had stepped in dog shit and become Crown Prince only by virtue of being the legitimate eldest son.
Emperor Jianzhang could tolerate Prince Duan leading troops to repel invaders when he was in his Fujian fiefdom, allowing him to gain fame in Fujian and even increasing the number of his guards. He could tolerate Prince Gong privately opening and operating mines in Taiyuan, yet he was particularly guarded against him, this sickly Crown Prince.
These old undying fossils—why did they always feel he had ulterior motives? He coldly broke into a smile, turning his hand to place down another chess piece.
Seeing that although his expression was gloomy he didn’t speak, Fan Liangdi knew she couldn’t say more. She turned instead to smilingly bring up other matters: “Your Highness, speaking of which, since the entire court’s attention is now focused on the Grand Heir quelling the rebellion in Yangquan, our connections in Fujian…”
Prince Duan had long since died. The relationships, connections, and wealth he had accumulated through so many years of operation in Fujian could all be put to use. The Crown Prince had always wanted to support Fan Shikun’s rise to power and grasp Fujian in his hands as well—never mind anything else, year in and year out, just the silk shipped out from Zhangzhou alone was an immensely considerable profit. The Crown Prince needed money. Nowadays he needed money for everything everywhere. To firmly grasp both the northwest and the south in his hands, he needed a very, very large sum of money.
Previously, because the matter of Marquis Jinxiang’s household had suddenly erupted, he’d had to first tell Fan Shikun to restrain himself somewhat. But now the storm had mostly passed, and the news of Zhou Weizhao going to Yangquan to quell the rebellion had attracted the attention of the entire court above and below. To begin supporting Fan Shikun now wouldn’t appear too abrupt or draw too much attention.
The Crown Prince himself had long since begun to notice this point. The longer it dragged on, the harder Fujian would be to bring to order. It truly should be settled as early as possible. He reached out to tap on the table, turning his head to ask Fan Liangdi: “What did your elder brother say in the letter he sent back?”
The current Fujian Governor-General was Guo Huaiying. Guo Huaiying’s backing was quite formidable—his in-laws were the Shen family, he himself also had backing, his relationship with Chief Minister Chang was also quite close, and Emperor Jianzhang had always been very mindful of old sentiments toward him. Last year he had just obtained a white deer from the mountains to present as tribute, claiming it was some heaven-sent auspicious omen, which had pleased Emperor Jianzhang greatly. For someone both shrewd and capable with such strength, trying to push him down would be very difficult. The best method was mutual benefit. Therefore he had always instructed Fan Shikun to properly cultivate good relations with Guo Huaiying.
“Elder Brother says Governor-General Guo ordinarily doesn’t engage in such business dealings, nor does he permit those under him to do so.” Fan Liangdi raised her head to glance at the Crown Prince, then immediately lowered it again: “Elder Brother has tried to probe several times, but Governor-General Guo sternly reprimanded him each time.”
Did this mean that unless Guo Huaiying was pulled down from his position, the business in Fujian couldn’t be done either? The Crown Prince felt somewhat irritated, yet intuitively knew this idea wasn’t feasible. Guo Huaiying was different from Zhang Yuan. Zhang Yuan himself had an improper foundation, but Guo Huaiying wholeheartedly fought against invaders. Like Cui Shaoting, he was very popular with the people in Fujian. If one wanted to move against him, it wasn’t that easy.
They needed to win over the Guo family. Having thought through this point, the Crown Prince immediately instructed Lady Fan: “You tell Qi’er to interact more with Guo Yantang. Isn’t Guo Yantang in the capital right now?”
Fan Liangdi quietly assented. In the evening when she saw Prince Dongping, she mentioned this matter and again cautioned him: “You must pay more attention. That elder brother of yours is now an imperial commissioner, dispatched by imperial decree to quell the rebellion. Once he successfully returns, his position will become even more consolidated.”
His Highness the Grand Heir had Emperor Jianzhang as his backing; Zhou Weiqi only had the Crown Prince. However, who would prevail was still unknown. After all, no matter how capable Emperor Jianzhang was, he was still just one person. Once he died and the Crown Prince ascended the throne, naturally everything would be for the Crown Prince to decide.
Prince Dongping lifted his robe and sat down, nodding: “I know these things even without you instructing me. By the way, Mother, those people at Huangjue Temple—I’ve now grasped them all in my hands. The results of their operations over these years are not insignificant. Quite a few people at court are their people. I never imagined we could gain such great assistance. It truly is a windfall from heaven.”
This was naturally a good thing. Fan Liangdi rubbed her somewhat aching temples, propping up her chin to sigh faintly.
Nanny Fang quietly stepped forward to cover her with a blanket, then secretly shook her head at her. Fan Liangdi’s brows furrowed even tighter, her mood evidently becoming even worse.
Zhou Weiqi still thought she was unhappy because of Zhou Weizhao’s matter, so he frowned to counsel her: “As long as Father doesn’t value him, no matter how capable he is, could he possibly bypass Father and directly ascend to the throne? Once Father ascends…”
Fan Liangdi hastily spoke to cut him off: “Watch your words! Are these things to be casually spoken aloud? Moreover, I’m not distressed over this matter. How could I not know this reasoning?”
“Then what is it for?” Zhou Weiqi was somewhat surprised: “Right now we’ve already taken all those people who formerly belonged to Prince Duan under our command. This is an extremely large force. With them, we don’t need to worry about many things.”
Fan Liangdi looked at him, wanting to say something, but in the end ultimately still didn’t speak. She could see that her son had now developed aversion toward his brother-in-law Han Zhengqing, whom he had formerly greatly respected. Whatever she said would only add to the discord between these two and bring trouble upon herself, so she could only remain silent. It was just that she didn’t know what exactly Han Zhengqing was up to over there. After so long, still no reply had been transmitted back—this was something that would have been absolutely impossible before. She didn’t know if someone had said something in his ear that caused him to suddenly change his attitude.
But Fan Liangdi somewhat couldn’t figure it out—what exactly could have been said to influence Han Zhengqing? This was completely different from what she had planned. Han Zhengqing had never before gone this long without replying to messages, as if he had died.