Zhao Mingting rushed to the front hall in panic alongside Empress Dowager Xu, Niu Gengru, and others.
Crown Prince Yang Yuanwo, along with Wen Muqiao, Junior Supervisor of the Palace Attendants Chen Xingmo, and others were personally supervising matters here.
Seeing Empress Dowager Xu and the others hurrying over, Yang Yuanwo came forward somewhat frantically and said, “Mother Empress, Father Emperor has passed away!”
“What are you panicking about? That old thief is dead—isn’t this exactly what allows you to legitimately inherit the throne?” Empress Dowager Xu frowned slightly, fixing her gaze on the bewildered Crown Prince Yang Yuanwo as she strode straight toward the sleeping chamber.
Zhao Mingting noticed Wen Muqiao exchanging meaningful glances with Niu Gengru, thinking that with Wen Muqiao’s cunning experience, he probably sensed that the current situation was far more complex than they had anticipated—extremely thorny. If handled even slightly wrong, their favorable position would collapse entirely.
Zhao Mingting followed them inside. On the brocade couch in the inner sleeping chamber, His Majesty lay flat, his face ashen gray. A patch of coughed-up black blood stained the yellow silk dragon-embroidered quilt. There was no visible rise and fall of breathing, and his sunken eye sockets were tightly closed—he appeared dead. However, the corners of his mouth were slightly upturned, looking eerily like a strange smile no matter how one looked at it. This made Zhao Mingting shudder with cold dread, unable to fathom what His Majesty had been thinking at the moment of death.
Empress Dowager Xu’s withered body stood before the dragon couch, motionless as a sculpture.
Zhao Mingting, Niu Gengru, Wen Muqiao, Crown Prince Yang Yuanwo, Chen Xingmo, and others stood behind Empress Dowager Xu. They saw the flesh on the back of her cheeks twitching slightly, though they didn’t know whether she was furious about the eerie smile on His Majesty’s face after death.
They dared not step forward to verify whether His Majesty’s breathing had truly ceased completely.
After a long while, Empress Dowager Xu finally turned around, gnashing her teeth with a fierce expression: “Transmit my decree: declare that the treacherous Consort Wang secretly communicated with Marquis Xinchang Li Pu. When their sordid affair was exposed, they became desperate and, colluding internally and externally with Marquis Xinchang Li Pu, harmed His Majesty and fled the palace…”
Niu Gengru and Wen Muqiao exchanged glances, thinking that since the other side had already sent proclamations throughout the realm, they could only respond in kind, continuing to muddy the waters and obscure the truth.
“Minister Wen, personally go see Yang En. Tell him the old thief has already passed away, and ask if he wants to see the Yang clan members in Jinling City beheaded one by one. If he doesn’t want that, this Empress Dowager won’t force him to do anything—he just needs to obediently return to his residence to drink wine and compose poetry, and not jump out to cause us trouble,” Empress Dowager Xu said. “Minister Niu, you send someone to summon Shi Yandao and Yang Tai to the palace. If they’re willing to assist Wo’er and help arrange the enthronement ceremony, the Six Ministries will continue to be led by Shi Yandao, and clan affairs will continue to be managed by Yang Tai. If they’re unwilling, arrest their wives and concubines, their nephews and grandchildren, and kill them one by one before their eyes—kill until they’re willing to submit—Zhao Mingting, you escort me out of the city to meet Marquis Zhenyuan Yang Jian!”
“…” Both Wen Muqiao and Niu Gengru were greatly alarmed, advising, “Yang Jian took his family out of the city this afternoon. Even if he hasn’t colluded with Han Daoxun, Li Pu, and Wang Wenqian, closing his military camp has already shown his attitude…”
“What can he do—kill this old woman who’s about to be buried?” Empress Dowager Xu’s murky old eyes suddenly became sharp, fixing on Wen Muqiao and Niu Gengru. “If we had thought earlier that today would turn out like this, we should have acted when Shen He died from poison, instead of delaying three or four more months, giving that bastard three or four more months in Tanzhou to prepare…”
Wen Muqiao and Niu Gengru dared not refute.
Looking back, their delay of three or four months was indeed extremely poor strategy, causing many matters to slip beyond their control. But if it weren’t absolutely necessary, who would commit regicide and usurp the throne? And throughout history, how many who committed regicide and usurped the throne came to a good end?
Wen Muqiao and Niu Gengru looked at each other. Thinking carefully, whether they could win over Marquis Zhenyuan Yang Jian immediately was indeed the crucial winning move that would determine the future direction of Great Chu’s situation.
Yang Jian controlled Great Chu’s most powerful naval forces. His choice would directly determine how the situation in Jinling City developed next.
Even if Xu Zhu led troops over, there was no certainty of storming Qiuhu Mountain in a short time. A standoff could drag on for ten days to half a month.
At that point, if Yang Jian led the naval fleet to assist the other side, the Chuzhou forces could cross the river at the fastest speed and join with the rebel troops at Qiuhu Mountain. The Third Prince’s Dragon Sparrow Army could also move downstream along the river without any concerns—perhaps in less than ten days, tens of thousands of troops could march to Jinling City.
In comparison, it would become extremely difficult for the Shouzhou forces to cross the river on a large scale.
If they won Yang Jian over, the situation would reverse completely, helping them thoroughly control Jinling City, while making it difficult for Chuzhou forces to cross the river, and the Dragon Sparrow Army wouldn’t dare move downstream recklessly.
The middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, spanning ten to dozens of miles wide, were the natural barrier Jinling City relied upon. Even in the most adverse circumstances, it could ensure that the Liang army would have difficulty attacking the counties on the southern bank of the Yangtze in a short time.
“But…” Wen Muqiao and Niu Gengru still felt it was too dangerous for Empress Dowager Xu to leave the city personally. “Perhaps we should make this trip?”
“But what?” Empress Dowager Xu’s eyes looked sharply at everyone. “If you go, it’s impossible to gain Yang Jian’s trust. This Empress Dowager cannot lead troops into battle, so if I don’t show my face now, I’ll truly be completely useless. After Wo’er ascends the throne, this Empress Dowager and the ministers will establish Fen’er as Crown Prince. This Great Chu realm will still belong to the Yang family. When I go, I’ll give him this guarantee. Could Yang Jian really hope to see the Yang family’s entire clan exterminated?”
“How should Han Daoxun be dealt with?” Niu Gengru asked.
“Send someone to see him. If he’s willing to write a confession denouncing that lowborn woman in Cishou Palace, temporarily spare his life—however, I believe he’s not afraid of death, so conveniently bring a cup of poisoned wine to send him off,” Empress Dowager Xu said. That old face painted with lead powder appeared rigid, and her eyelids twitched slightly twice. Her murky old eyes revealed malice and cold ruthlessness, yet she spoke in an extremely calm tone: “No matter how ingenious his supernatural schemes, if he cannot be used by this Empress Dowager, leaving him alive will only be a source of trouble!”
Hearing Empress Dowager Xu’s cold tone, Crown Prince Yang Yuanwo, Niu Gengru, Wen Muqiao, Zhao Mingting, and others all felt a chill rising from within their bodies. They didn’t know whether this chill arose from the malice in Empress Dowager Xu’s words, or from Han Daoxun’s infallible supernatural schemes…
……
……
The Palace Attendants Bureau, located in the Ban Courtyard east of Qiuyang Palace, was used to punish palace eunuchs and maids who broke rules.
Besides detaining and executing offending eunuchs and palace maids, in the sixteen years since Great Chu’s founding, no fewer than eight hundred to a thousand eunuchs and palace maids had been beaten to death in this Ban Courtyard.
Blood had seeped into the cracks between the floor bricks. Accumulated over time, every time Internal Affairs Bureau Administrator Zhou Bin walked into Ban Courtyard, he could sense an indescribable foul qi permeating the air. He would involuntarily feel a chill enveloping his heart, making him want to flee. This time was no exception.
If not for someone committing an offense and being sent here for detention or punishment, normally only two supervisors with a dozen or so blue-robed junior eunuchs would guard this place—quite leisurely, since palace discipline was strict and not every day would someone dare to commit offenses.
Today, however, this place was heavily guarded. Besides the previous supervisors and clerks, Ban Courtyard was filled inside and out with garrison soldiers transferred from Anning Palace and the Eastern Palace. The twenty-odd cells were also packed today—over four hundred eunuch officials not trusted by Anning Palace had been gradually detained here this afternoon, stuffing each narrow cell completely full.
The aged and decrepit Supervisor of Palace Attendants Zhang Xinchun now sat in Ban Courtyard’s courtyard, a small cotton quilt covering his thighs. The rising sun’s morning light shone upon him. The weather wasn’t as cold as at dawn. He snored lightly, but the moment Zhou Bin entered Ban Courtyard, Zhang Xinchun, who had seemed like a sick cat, suddenly opened his eyes and looked over. A sharp gleam flashed in his pupils, like a hungry beast ready to pounce at any moment.
Zhou Bin knew that Zhang Xinchun was truly the formidable figure beside Empress Dowager Xu, only in recent years he had grown too old, like a beast that had lost all its teeth.
Zhou Bin didn’t understand why Zhang Xinchun, nearly eighty years old and so aged he could barely walk, could give him such an intense sense of oppression, with eyes that revealed a majesty and sharpness seemingly capable of tearing anyone to shreds at any moment.
Zhang Xinchun had served three generations of the Xu clan heads.
When the Guangling Military Commissioner’s Office was incorporated into Huainan, Emperor Tianyou hadn’t yet developed the habit of privately employing eunuchs in the inner palace. Later, it was Zhang Xinchun who led the eunuchs privately kept by the Guangling Military Commissioner’s Office to assist Empress Dowager Xu in establishing the internal affairs of the Huainan Military Commissioner’s Office.
Zhang Xinchun could be said to be, aside from Empress Dowager Xu, the most core backbone of Anning Palace.
In recent years, Zhang Xinchun had been frail and sickly, aged and decrepit, his body nearly drained by the merciless passage of time. He seemed ready to collapse and die at any moment, yet he just kept managing not to die.
Usually, Zhang Xinchun only occasionally reported to Anning Palace and had long since stopped concerning himself much with palace affairs. Yet Emperor Tianyou never had a way to make Zhang Xinchun relinquish his position as Supervisor of Palace Attendants and retire peacefully.
After the palace coup, Zhang Xinchun didn’t have the energy to run around everywhere. He gave the opportunity to serve Empress Dowager Xu and the Crown Prince to several disciples he had trained who now held high positions as Senior Palace Attendants, while he personally remained to oversee Ban Courtyard where prisoners were held.
Zhou Bin also understood the importance of guarding this place.
They could replace all the palace guards, but they had no way to replace all eight thousand-plus palace maids and eunuchs in the palace.
The vast majority of low-ranking eunuchs and palace maids went with the flow, normally under the absolute command of middle and high-ranking eunuch officials.
Therefore, the four hundred-plus middle and high-ranking eunuch officials with official positions who were detained in Ban Courtyard this afternoon—if even one person spoke out for Emperor Tianyou and escaped, they could potentially stir up some waves.
Strictly detaining all unreliable middle and high-ranking eunuch officials was key to ensuring not the slightest accident occurred in the imperial palace. Since Zhang Xinchun didn’t have the energy to run around, he personally stood guard here.
“Attendant Zhou,” Zhang Xinchun opened his eyes and cupped his hands toward Zhou Bin in greeting. Seeing the wine pot and cups on the trays held by the two blue-robed junior eunuchs behind Zhou Bin, he lazily stood up and said, “You’ve come to send Han Daoxun on his way?”
“I’ve come to carry out Empress Dowager’s oral decree. Under Administrator Zhang’s persuasion, is Han Daoxun willing to serve the new emperor?” Zhou Bin asked.
“…” Zhang Xinchun smiled faintly, not saying whether he had gone to persuade Han Daoxun. “Where in this world exists someone with such infallible schemes and supernatural strategies? In this old muddle-head’s opinion, you’re mostly scaring yourselves. However, eliminating him early also saves long nights and many dreams—he’s detained in the room at the upper left. Attendant Zhou, take your people and go yourself. I won’t accompany you.”
Having said this, Zhou Bin signaled the junior eunuch behind him to carry the wine and go with him.
Zhang Xinchun hesitated for a moment, then said to Zhou Bin: “Attendant Zhou, wait a moment. Han Daoxun is also a significant figure. To poison him to death so quietly in the palace without making full use of his value seems wasteful—wait here for now. I’ll go and return shortly.”
Zhou Bin was slightly stunned, not knowing what new trick Zhang Xinchun wanted to play. Could he want to drag Han Daoxun out for public execution in the marketplace?
Zhou Bin maintained his proper position, standing there and saying, “I’ll follow Administrator Zhang’s instructions entirely.” He signaled the junior eunuch behind him to hold the wine pot and wait in the courtyard while Zhang Xinchun hurried off to Chongwen Hall to see Empress Dowager Xu.