How could the Yongji Emperor’s personal name be called so casually?
Hearing this, the ministers looked at each other in dismay. After a moment, they bowed down again, as if apologizing on Shen Xi’s behalf.
Two censors had no choice but to step forward and remind him: “Duke, His Majesty is honored as the Son of Heaven, our sovereign. Directly calling his name is truly the crime of disrespecting superiors. Though Duke is an imperial relative, there is still the distinction between sovereign and subject with His Majesty. We hope you will be cautious in word and deed hereafter and never commit such offense again.”
Shen Xi laughed coldly: “What kind of ‘His Majesty’ is he?”
Speaking disrespectfully again and again—if it were in private it would be one thing, but in front of so many court ministers, the Imperial Censorate could not fail to punish him.
The two censors exchanged glances. One of them returned to the rear and quietly reported a few words to Vice Censor-in-Chief Yan Xiu, who was in charge of discipline today. Yan Xiu hesitated for a moment, looked across the crowd at Shen Xi from afar, then nodded slightly.
When the censor returned, two imperial guards followed behind him, making as if to arrest him: “Duke, pardon the offense.”
Just then, a guard wearing protective armor with a gold-inlaid sword at his waist approached and bowed to Shen Xi: “Lord Shen, His Majesty summons you to Jinshen Hall for an audience.”
This person was precisely Zhu Yushen’s personal guard, Que Wu.
After saying this, he also addressed several people among the ministers: “Also please Minister Luo from the Ministry of Rites, Vice Minister Shu, Minister Zeng from the Ministry of Personnel, Vice Minister Ren, Minister Liu from the Ministry of Works, Minister Qian from the Ministry of Justice, and Vice Minister Chen from the Ministry of War.”
Everyone was puzzled for a moment, not knowing what medicine His Majesty was selling in his gourd. Only Shen Xi remained completely unconcerned. With a flick of his sleeves, he was the first to step onto Xuanyuan Platform.
Inside Jinshen Hall, aside from the few people Zhu Yushen had summoned earlier, Zhu Yiheng was also waiting inside.
As soon as Shen Xi entered the hall, he laughed aloud: “This winter’s snow is truly remarkable. Once it fell, not only did Tenth Prince’s injuries heal completely, but Vice Minister Shu, who had been bedridden for over a decade, is no longer afraid of the cold. Even my brother-in-law’s dementia was cured without medicine. Those who don’t know might think what fell wasn’t snow, but some miraculous elixir.”
This was an audience before the Emperor—how could he address him as “brother-in-law”?
Wu Chang couldn’t help but step forward to remind him: “Lord Shen, you’ve just returned and are a bit confused. This one is—”
“This official doesn’t need you to remind me who he is!” Shen Xi’s voice and expression turned severe.
His demeanor cooled: “Moreover, when the Grand Ancestor Emperor established the dynasty, he clearly stated ‘Palace eunuchs must not interfere in government; violators will be executed.’ Eunuch Wu constantly attends before the Emperor. Are you too idle or what? How dare you act as others’ eyes and ears, become a lackey, and still want to curry favor from all sides?”
By now, what was there not to understand?
The reason Zhu Yushen’s faction always knew things one step ahead in every matter was nothing more than relying on these eunuchs who constantly moved about various places in the deep palace and knew a bit about every secret.
However, these eunuchs alone weren’t enough. If information was too scattered, it was like drawing water with a bamboo basket—scoop up a basketful and catch nothing.
Therefore, there must be someone in the palace coordinating and collecting this information. Like catching fish—cast out a net and nothing could escape it.
This person collecting information must not be a eunuch. Which palace eunuch would be so audacious? They would have been dragged out and beheaded long ago. Looking throughout court and countryside, the only one with such leisure time, who could frequently move about the palace, who wouldn’t arouse suspicion, and whose mind was adequate—was only the former Hanlin Academician, now Vice Minister of Rites Shu Wenlan, who had claimed illness for years.
When Shu Wenlan first met Su Jin, he had said he was “extremely idle, collecting baskets of trivia from inside and outside the palace—palace secrets, street rumors, ministerial family matters—I know them all clearly.”
Looking at it now, he truly hadn’t lied. He held a sturdy net in his hands, with eunuchs from each palace as the knots. Once cast out, nothing could escape his ears.
The several high officials who had entered the hall hearing Shen Xi’s disrespectful words coming one after another all bowed down, only hoping not to be implicated by him.
Who knew Zhu Yushen didn’t argue with him. He first said: “All beloved ministers, rise.” Then looking at Shen Xi, he said calmly: “The messenger said you wanted to see me. For what matter?”
“Brother-in-law is a person of great ability. Can’t brother-in-law calculate what Qingyue’s purpose is?” Shen Xi gave his sleeves a shake, clasped his hands behind his back, looking completely unafraid of death, even laughing: “It’s nothing much. Every grievance has its source, every debt its debtor. I’ve more or less sorted out the beginning and end of these years’ events. Brother-in-law is honored as the sovereign—I can’t touch you. But as for the rest, matter by matter, exactly who did what—today I want to get to the bottom of it all!”
The hall fell completely silent. Those with smaller courage already had their legs trembling.
This was the palace’s greatest secret. Shen Qingyue actually spoke of it so openly—wasn’t he afraid of having His Majesty flay his skin?
Luo Songtang felt this matter had nothing to do with him. Fearing that knowing too much would bring disaster, he was just about to request permission to exit when Zeng Youliang grabbed his sleeve. The next moment, Zhu Yushen slightly raised his chin toward the hall doors. Que Wu understood and made a gesture. The guards before the hall slammed the doors shut with a “bang.”
The entire Jinshen Hall instantly became like a latched birdcage, trapping all these precious personages as cornered beasts.
Zhu Yushen said flatly: “From which matter shall we begin?”
“The twenty-fourth year of Jingyuan, the Dengwen Drum case.”
The former Dengwen Drum case involved two cases: first, the Shanxi traveling palace case, verified as committed by Third Prince Zhu Jiyou, with the person behind him being Fourteenth Prince. Second, the Shaanxi embezzlement case, verified as committed by former Minister of Revenue Qian Zhihuan, with the person behind him being Zhu Zhaowei.
“The causes and consequences of the cases have been clarified. I won’t pursue that. But I remember that during Su Shiyu’s investigation, she told me she felt there was someone who wanted her to quickly clarify the case, wanted to put Fourteenth Prince and the Ministry of Works to death, and therefore didn’t hesitate to poison Zhu Lin, using Lin’er’s convulsions to remind her of the cause of death of the last person who beat the drum to file a complaint, Lu Qianqian. Among you, who was the one who instructed the wet nurse to poison Lin’er?”
The hall was so quiet a dropped needle could be heard. Shortly, a heavy voice responded: “It was me.”
Zhu Yushen said: “In the past, Fourteenth Prince took advantage of Third Brother building the traveling palace to sell craftsmen’s positions and amass wealth on a large scale, already harboring intentions to seize the heir position. Unfortunately, his actions were ostentatious and left many handles. Removing the Ministry of Works and Zhu Jiyou could weaken his power.”
“If you were the one who instructed the wet nurse to poison Lin’er, then the setup in the Front Palace Hall was also laid by you?” Shen Xi asked.
“Also this prince.” At this moment, Zhu Yiheng stepped forward. “The poisoning was merely to quickly remove Zhu Mixiao’s ‘fangs,’ but in the Front Palace Hall setup, the most important target was Zhu Zhaowei.”
That’s right. In the Front Palace Hall setup, Zhu Yushen intended to weaken all the heir apparent’s power. Then his main targets at that time shouldn’t have been Zhu Mixiao, but rather Zhu Zhaowei and Zhu Minda.
“At that time, Zhu Zhaowei’s bargaining chips were: first, the Fengyang Army stationed in Fengyang; second, the Ministry of Revenue, this money tree; third, his greatest reserve force, the Yulin Guard.”
“With financial and military power, plus his temperament, even if Zhu Minda succeeded to the throne in the future, he had long planned to raise troops to seize power. Therefore, to deal with him, the most important point was weakening his financial power.”
Weakening financial power relied on using Qian Zhihuan’s eldest son Qian Yu as a chess piece—framing Qian Yu for the affair with the glass beauty, making Qian Zhihuan lose heart toward Zhu Zhaowei.
And Qian Yu was then serving as Vice Commander of the Yulin Guard. Killing Qian Yu just happened to remove Zhu Minda’s suspicions about the Yulin Guard, thereby making him trust even more this imperial guard that had always protected him.
“However, power waxes and wanes. When Zhu Zhaowei lost power, the Eastern Palace gained power. Plus, with Thirteen’s establishment of his princedom and his connection to the Northwest Army, he leapt to the forefront of the princes. With the Jingyuan Emperor gravely ill and succession imminent, after this setup, you turned your spearhead toward the Eastern Palace?” Shen Xi asked.
Zhu Yiheng nodded: “Yes, but to deal with the Eastern Palace, our strength wasn’t enough. We could only use Zhu Zhaowei’s hand.”
“Zhu Zhaowei had long planned to use the Yulin Guard to assassinate Zhu Minda. On the eve of the winter hunt, he even formed an alliance with Zhu Mixiao, who had lost power along with him. The two planned that if they couldn’t prevent Zhu Minda from succeeding, they would join forces to seize power.”
“Unfortunately, plans can’t keep up with changes. Zhu Mixiao was arrogantly conceited. During the winter hunt, indulging in personal grudges, he set up a trap wanting to kill Su Shiyu. He was punished by Thirteen, had an arm severed, and was thus completely废ed. And Father Emperor ordering the Huben Guard into the mountains to protect Zhu Minda also made Zhu Zhaowei lose this excellent assassination opportunity.”
“Fortunately, the night before the winter hunt, Lord Shu Wenlan, using palace informants, learned that His Majesty would dispatch the Huben Guard into Fenglan Mountain, and passed this information to a sleeper agent he had cultivated in the Yulin Guard. This sleeper agent, at the most critical moment, prevented the Yulin Guard’s assassination plan.”
That’s right. Actually, before the winter hunt, not only did Zhu Jingyuan anticipate Zhu Minda would be in danger, but Shen Xi, Zhu Nanxian, and Su Jin had also guessed this. At the time, Zhu Nanxian had secretly dispatched the Jinwu Guard to protect his eldest imperial brother. Who knew that when the assassins came to kill Zhu Minda, it was instead the Yulin Guard who fought desperately to save him.
So the Yulin Guard and those assassins were originally in league together. It was only because they had glimpsed His Majesty’s plan beforehand that they staged a show of killing their own people, thereby gaining even more of Zhu Minda’s trust.
After the winter hunt, Zhu Minda firmly believed the Yulin Guard wouldn’t harm him. So much so that on the day he went to Zhaojue Temple to pray for blessings, he specifically designated the Yulin Guard as his accompanying military escort. At that time, Shen Xi, due to Qian Zhihuan’s sudden retirement, had already sensed something was wrong. If only he’d had one or two more hours, he could have prevented that disaster.
“How did you… manage to control the specific day Zhu Zhaowei would commit the assassination?”
In other words, how did they obstruct his purpose?
Just by Qian Zhihuan’s retirement? He didn’t believe it. Qian Zhihuan had long since lost heart toward Zhu Zhaowei.
At this moment, Shu Wenlan said: “Naturally it wasn’t solely by Minister Qian’s retirement.” He bowed to Shen Xi. “Does Lord Shen still remember that before the New Year festival, an old cat died in the palace, and then on the day of the New Year festival banquet, several more cats died?”
This was actually a small matter. Others might have forgotten, but Shen Xi wouldn’t fail to remember.
Because on the day of the New Year festival, those mad cats had scratched Shen Jing. There had always been rumors in the palace that harem people scratched by cats would die within seven days.
Something flashed through his mind, but thinking of Shen Jing, he felt disoriented again.
Shu Wenlan said: “Actually, the day of the assassination wasn’t chosen for Seventh Prince by us. Everyone previously thought the winter hunt was the most suitable opportunity. Even at the New Year festival, those dead cats and the old cat’s corpse were actually shown to Seventh Prince.”
“This old cat was actually killed by Seventh Prince—fed medicine and thrown in water, dying shortly after. Because it was long-lived and raised by the former Consort Shu, palace people all doted on it and allowed it everywhere. That day it happened to discover Seventh Prince’s secret meeting with Consort Qi and called out a few times.”
A few calls weren’t much, but in Zhu Zhaowei’s childhood, there was once when he didn’t go to study because of a white cat and was scolded by Consort Cen. Consort Cen later skinned and killed the white cat before him. Because of this, Zhu Zhaowei later greatly disliked cats.
“The matter of Seventh Prince killing the cat happened to be witnessed by a eunuch who came back and reported it to me.”
Having illicit relations with imperial consorts was disrespecting superiors, a crime punishable by decapitation. Finding that white cat’s corpse, along with several mad cats, skinning them to show Zhu Zhaowei—this was actually more to tell him that walls have ears, and people in the palace already knew about his shameful affair with Consort Qi.
For Zhu Zhaowei at that time, the Front Palace Hall setup had already severely weakened him. Zhu Minda was about to take power and would certainly not tolerate him. Plus with the illicit affair exposed, he truly had no way out at all—unless he seized the throne before Zhu Minda’s enthronement.
He first tried assassination during the winter hunt, but the plan failed. After the plan failed, news of Qian Zhihuan’s retirement left him with no retreat. Therefore, he had no choice but to rush things on the day at Zhaojue Temple—succeed or die trying.
So to speak, Qian Zhihuan’s retirement was actually just a valve after all the groundwork had been laid. Press it down, and Zhu Zhaowei would move.