The enthronement ceremony was not completed in a single day. Before this, there were rituals such as the feng and shan ceremonies and sacrifices to Heaven. The first day of the ninth month was already the final stage—the court officials’ congratulations and the proclamation to the realm.
On this day at the yin hour, when the sky had just begun to turn white, the assembled ministers were already waiting below the dais.
Imperial clan members, civil officials, and military generals were arranged in separate rows on both sides.
Among them, the imperial clan was led by Zhu Min’er and Zhu Yiheng. At the front of the civil officials were the Seven Ministers from the Six Ministries and the Imperial Censorate. The military generals should originally have been personally led by the Left Commander of the Central Military Commission, but with Qi Wujiu on campaign at the Eastern Sea, two Vice Commanders from the Commission took his place.
Beyond this, from the dais southward, through Fengtian Gate, Zhengwu Gate, and Chengtian Gate, more than twelve Imperial Guard units were arrayed on both sides.
The commanders of the Twelve Guards and the Commander of the Northern Camp each led elite forces of one thousand, arranged in order from outside Fengtian Gate, extending all the way to the end of Xuanyuan Terrace at Chengtian Gate.
When Su Jin, wearing a wind-breaking cloak and supported by Ma Zhao, arrived at the dais, the assembled ministers and military officers had already taken their positions.
The censor Song Jue, who was maintaining order and discipline today, saw from afar two people inexplicably appearing outside the dais. Quite annoyed, he walked over to reprimand them: “Who are you two? Don’t you see that today is—”
Before he could finish speaking, he suddenly recognized that the person wearing the cloak was actually Su Jin. In shocked delight, he said: “Lord Su, you’ve awakened?”
Su Jin nodded: “I woke during the night. I’m still somewhat disoriented.”
Her face was pale, her entire person even more gaunt than before. It seemed her health was still very weak. However, as she spoke, she removed the ink-colored cloak, revealing a full set of properly worn court attire.
Seeing Su Jin’s attire, Song Jue knew she had forced herself to come attend Emperor Jin’an’s enthronement ceremony. He quickly stepped aside and bowed: “My Lord’s position is at the front. This subordinate official will guide my Lord.”
The so-called front position was precisely on the dais, in the row where the Seven Ministers stood together.
The officials standing behind, seeing Censor Song Jue leading Su Jin forward, all stepped back and performed bowing salutes to her.
On the dais, Luo Songtang and Gong Quan noticed the commotion behind them and summoned another censor in charge of discipline, Yan Xiu: “Go see who’s coming from over there.”
Yan Xiu received the order, walked to the edge of the steps, recognized the person, and was immediately greatly shocked. He hurried back to Luo Songtang and the others: “In reply to my Lords, it’s Lord Su who has come.”
“Truly?” Before Luo Songtang and Gong Quan could speak, Shen Xi said. Without waiting for Yan Xiu to reply, he strode to the edge of the steps and looked down. Who else could be ascending the steps but Su Jin?
Shen Xi was stunned for a moment, then asked with a smile: “When did you wake?”
“Last night.” Su Jin said.
She walked very slowly. Even with just this short distance, fatigue already showed in her eyes. But the smile in her gaze was extraordinarily genuine, and she added: “I have many things to ask you. I haven’t sorted them out yet.”
“You slept too long.” Shen Xi said, rarely refraining from teasing Su Jin. “But that’s fine too—stealing half a day’s leisure in this floating life. You stole two months of leisure, making up for all the sleep you missed in the past.”
He reached out to support Su Jin. Turning his head, he saw all the ministers behind him had gathered around, only Liu Chaoming remained at the back of the crowd. His gaze paused on Su Jin for a moment, then moved away.
Before long, a low, reverberating bell sound rang out.
The mao hour had arrived.
From the gate towers of Fengtian Gate, Xihua Gate, Donghua Gate, and Xuanwu Gate, horns sounded in unison, accompanied by Wu Chang standing on the dais singing out: “Respectfully welcoming His Majesty—”
The Imperial Guards arrayed outside Zhengwu Gate and on Xuanyuan Terrace shouted in unison: “Respectfully welcoming His Majesty—”
Through the three wide-open palace gates, one could vaguely see at the end of Xuanyuan Terrace, Zhu Nanxian wearing ceremonial robes striding forward.
Behind him, a row of guards had changed into black attendant uniforms, with the two at the front holding high the imperial canopy.
More than twelve Imperial Guard units bowed down in order as he passed. Afterward, starting with Jin Wuwei Commander Zuo Qian and Hubenwei Commander Shi Fei, twelve elite Imperial Guards from each unit joined the procession.
The palace seemed solemn and austere in the sound of bells and horns. Though there wasn’t excessive decoration, this new Emperor who had spent half his life in military service, long tested on the battlefield, along with the Imperial Guards behind him holding long spears with iron armor reflecting cold light, draped the entire palace grounds in a fresh, chilling, magnificent military aura.
This was probably the dragon’s authority unique to Emperor Jin’an.
The base color of Zhu Nanxian’s ceremonial robe was black, with imposing, tooth-and-claw cloud dragons woven in gold thread. Their magnificent momentum seemed ready to soar into the clouds, yet they were restrained by the person wearing them, submitting to the warfare concealed in his sword-like brows and the steel-forged composure in his starry eyes.
Zhu Nanxian had originally been walking forward with eyes fixed straight ahead. Wherever he passed, civil and military officials bowed to him shouting “ten thousand years.”
But he suddenly seemed to sense something. The instant he ascended the dais, he couldn’t help but shift his gaze to look left.
At the position that should have been empty—the head of the Ministry of Justice among the Seven Ministers—actually stood a person.
Gaunt cheeks, eye corners like butterfly wings, clear and cold gaze.
For an instant, Zhu Nanxian thought he had seen wrong, that because he had hoped day and night for her to awaken, he was seeing such a realistic illusion.
His steps didn’t stop, his expression remained composed. He looked away, then looked back again.
She was still there.
The bell sounds and horn music resounding throughout the palace suddenly became unreal in this moment, as if separated by water, separated by mist. The palace towers and pavilions near and far also seemed ready to blur. Only the long wind rising from the horizon blew coolly into his heart, carrying three parts coldness, turning his heartbeat into drumbeats that resounded through the mortal world.
The only sound.
He so wanted to walk over, to go before her, to distinguish whether all this was real or false.
But he couldn’t. He was already the sovereign of this dynasty.
So he could only keep looking at her, until he saw her lower her eyes, press her lips together, smile slowly, lift her robes and bow down to him together with the surrounding assembled ministers.
Until he saw that on the jade clasp at her waist were carved the two characters “Jin’an.”
She perhaps didn’t know that her jade was actually somewhat more translucent than others’—it too was something his mother had left him, specially commissioned from craftsmen to be made for her.
This moment was actually very brief.
Zhu Nanxian quickly withdrew his gaze. Only before he raised his eyes to look straight ahead, the corners of his mouth lifted in a slight smile as well. His eyes suddenly brightened like they were infused with stars, brilliantly luminous, like that original Thirteenth Prince.
Upon entering Fengtian Hall, Liu Chaoming led the civil officials, Zhu Min’er led the imperial clan, and Central Military Commission Vice Commander Chen Jinsheng led the military generals, all together offering congratulations to Zhu Nanxian once more.
Afterward, to proclaim the new Emperor’s benevolent virtue, Zhu Nanxian should draft an edict before the assembled ministers for a general amnesty throughout the realm.
However, the edict for the general amnesty was not to be read in Fengtian Hall. Zhu Nanxian had to ride the imperial palanquin, exit through Chengtian Gate, and under escort of the Imperial Guards, travel all the way through Yingtian City to personally read it from atop Zhengyang Gate tower, accepting the congratulations of the myriad people.
After the rituals inside Fengtian Hall were completed, the imperial palanquin was already waiting outside Zhengwu Gate.
Zhu Nanxian was the first to exit Fengtian Hall, followed by the commanders of the Twelve Guards.
As Liu Chaoming stepped out of the hall doors, he glanced back and saw that Su Jin’s complexion had already become miserably pale. Though it was the frosty cold ninth month, fine beads of perspiration densely covered her temples—clearly she was depleted of strength.
Liu Chaoming paused his steps without speaking. Beside him, Shen Xi raised his hand to block Su Jin and asked: “Can you still hold on?”
Though they could ride in carriages after leaving the palace, arriving at Zhengyang Gate would inevitably require standing attendance for another hour or two.
Su Jin thought for a moment and spoke honestly: “I’m afraid not. I’m extremely dizzy.” She added, “But if I leave midway, I don’t know if it conforms to protocol.”
“What of it?” Shen Xi said. “The ancestral regulations of the Great Sui dynasty don’t include such a provision. As for other regulations, aside from His Majesty setting them, the Left Chief Censor sets them. It shouldn’t be that Liu Yun would use regulations to chase you to Zhengyang Gate.”
Liu Chaoming glanced at Shen Xi but didn’t respond to his words. He only said to Su Jin: “Go rest.” Then he said to Censor Yan Xiu who had followed from behind: “Go report to His Majesty that Vice Minister Su’s health cannot support her and she must take leave first.”
Over there, Zhu Nanxian was already mounting the palanquin. Noticing the commotion here, he waited slightly for a moment before Yan Xiu came rushing to inform him of Su Jin’s condition. Upon hearing this, Zhu Nanxian frowned: “Naturally let her go rest. Also summon Physician Fang Xu—he need not follow to Zhengyang Gate. Have him go to Weiyang Palace to treat Vice Minister Su.”
At noon, the horn sounds rang out once more.
The long road from Chengtian Gate to Zhengyang Gate had already been cleared by the Five Cities Military Commission. The common people on both sides were held back by guards. Seeing the imperial palanquin pass, they bowed with faces to the ground, their cries of “ten thousand years” like mountains calling and seas roaring.
Zhu Nanxian ascended Zhengyang Gate tower and looked down at the densely packed, boundless subjects below the city wall.
The moment they saw him, they all knelt down in unison, as if worshipping a deity, and began paying homage to him. Among them, some wore luxurious clothing, some wore tattered garments. There were elderly people past seventy nearing the end of their lives, children innocent of worldly affairs with childish gazes, and also devout men and women, gentlemen and petty people, travelers and returnees.
At this moment, with the entire realm kneeling before his eyes in the posture of believers, Zhu Nanxian, who had always been casual and carefree, suddenly couldn’t help but ponder—what exactly were they worshipping?
Did they truly believe that the new Emperor before them was a divine Buddha in flesh, able to open new heavens and earth and create new fortune?
Or were they merely entrusting a thread of their obsessions in this rising and falling pious posture, seeking peace of mind?
Zhu Nanxian knew most clearly what kind of person he himself was. He was a mortal, not a divine Buddha. He and all these people bowing to him were complete strangers. He still had his own wishes he wanted to fulfill, none yet fulfilled.
A trace of confusion appeared in Zhu Nanxian’s always firm and clear gaze. Then, looking past these thousands upon thousands of bowing subjects, he gazed toward the infinite rivers and mountains in the distance.
This was the capital, the imperial family’s home, so everything within sight was prosperous as brocade.
However, in places he could not see, north of Yingtian Prefecture, two fast horses were simultaneously racing toward the capital from the Northwest and Northern Frontier directions.
The fast horse coming from the Northwest, due to galloping non-stop day and night, gave a long whinny, foamed at the mouth, and died halfway on the road.
The military guard on the horse dismounted, patted the steed. The anxious expression in his eyes seemed ready to ignite. He thought for a moment, took an urgent dispatch from his pack, traveled light, and relying on his own two feet, rushed urgently toward the nearest relay station twenty li away.
If someone from the military had seen the urgent dispatch in this guard’s hand, they would certainly be greatly shocked.
Urgent dispatches related to military affairs were usually divided into several levels. Only in the most severe situations threatening the state and territory would the dark vermilion color—Great Sui’s national color—be used for the seal.
Since Great Sui’s founding, dark vermilion urgent military reports had only been used once. That time was ten years ago, when Northern Frontier generals died in battle and Northern Liang pillaged Qiongzhou Wei, killing tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians at Qiongzhou Wei. Afterward, the nineteen-year-old Zhu Yushen was entrusted with heavy responsibility for the first time as commander-in-chief of the three armies to campaign against the Northern Frontier.
And this time, in the hand of this military guard from the Northwest, the wax seal on the urgent dispatch he gripped was precisely dark vermilion.