White sails like gulls—an official vessel flying the tributary flag emerged from the Yuxi River into the Yangtze waterway, immediately drawing the attention of passing boats.
Approaching dusk, this official vessel slowly docked at the Jinghai Gate wharf. The Liang Kingdom envoys aboard were seen directing their men to carefully hoist down a large wooden crate over ten feet tall and load it onto a heavy-duty wagon.
“What kind of contraption is inside that thing? Looks like it’s being sent to the palace?”
Watching the palace duty guards in their magnificent armor riding tall horses, along with numerous Great Chu officials and Liang Kingdom envoys escorting the wagon carrying the large wooden crate straight toward the palace district, a large crowd near the wharf took notice and began discussing among themselves.
“It should be a congratulatory gift sent by the Liang Kingdom’s sovereign for Empress Dowager Changxin’s birthday,” someone familiar with the situation said, showing off their gossip knowledge. “Ever since the Tangyi Military Commissioner succeeded as Liang Kingdom’s sovereign, not only has the Liang Kingdom submitted to our Great Chu and sent over a million strings of cash in annual tribute, but the Liang Kingdom’s sovereign also has people send rare and exotic items he’s collected from throughout Liang territory every year for Empress Dowager Changxin’s birthday to please the sacred countenance. Every year it’s something novel—last year he sent two sets of bronze mechanical figures into the palace. I heard that driven by water flow turning wheels below, the bronze figures move as if deploying troops for battle formations, quite spectacular to watch. The year before that was a self-playing stringed instrument that, when placed under flowing springs, tinkled and chimed out ‘Song of Peace and Tranquility,’ no worse than musicians from the music workshops. Who knows what’s inside this large wooden crate this year…”
“This Liang Kingdom sovereign certainly puts great effort into winning the Sacred Empress’s favor.”
“Of course. The Liang Kingdom’s sovereign also has old ties with Empress Dowager Changxin—back then, if not for the Liang Kingdom’s sovereign, Empress Dowager Changxin might not even have been able to marry into our Great Chu—so naturally he must put extra thought into these congratulatory gifts!”
“The Liang sovereign has old ties with the Empress Dowager? How did that come about?” Immediately many people excitedly pricked up their ears.
When Yang Yuanpu was alive, many matters were strictly forbidden from discussion, and many people didn’t know the old stories from back then. But no matter how severe the crime of “great disrespect,” the marketplace naturally possessed fertile soil for spreading secret affairs.
Nothing in this world was probably more worth inquiring about and speculating on than romantic connections between men and women, especially when those involved were currently the most powerful man and woman in the realm.
“…This goes back to when the traitorous empress murdered our Great Chu’s founding Emperor. Back then, the Liang Kingdom’s sovereign was still a Chu subject, dispatched on orders to the Shu Kingdom to escort the bride. It coincided with the rebellion—Great Chu nearly fell apart completely. Many thought that marriage arrangement surely couldn’t be preserved, but who would have expected the then-Liang sovereign to make a decisive decision and directly abduct Empress Dowager Changxin from the Shu Kingdom and bring her into our Great Chu to complete the marriage with the Late Emperor. If not for the Liang sovereign, not only would Empress Dowager Changxin and the Late Emperor’s marriage have fallen through, our Great Chu back then might have turned hostile with the Shu Kingdom and fought a great battle. Later, when the Shu Kingdom saw that Empress Dowager Changxin and the Late Emperor had already consummated their marriage, they had no face to demand Empress Dowager Changxin back to the Shu Kingdom, so the matter went smoothly to completion.”
“Heh heh, you probably don’t know—before Empress Dowager Changxin married into Great Chu, she once disguised herself as a man and accompanied the Shu sovereign on a diplomatic mission to Great Chu. She should have become acquainted with the Liang sovereign back then. Otherwise, why would the Liang sovereign later expend so much effort and take such great risks to bring Empress Dowager Changxin into Great Chu? I also heard that back then, the Empress Dowager actively cooperated with the Liang sovereign to first go to Xuzhou after being abducted—otherwise it wouldn’t have been so easy to leave the Shu Kingdom…”
“Indeed, by rights, the Liang Kingdom submitting and paying tribute should be enough. Why would the Liang sovereign bother every year to search out these rare treasures to send into the palace? So there are all these twists and turns involved!”
“Ahem…” Someone coughed, indicating the topic should stop there—to continue would be taboo.
Congratulatory gifts entering the palace through Jingjiang Gate required opening the wooden crate to inspect for anything concealed. Feng Yi and Wen Ruilin stood tall and composed, chatting with Han Jianji—who had represented Great Liang as a permanent resident in Jinling in recent years—while observing the restoration work that had slightly preserved scorch marks from the palace upheaval of those years.
Vice Commander郑希玄 of the Palace Guards Cavalry Command and Cai Chen, who had been transferred to supervise the Court of State Ceremonial in recent years, watched as officials from the Court of State Ceremonial and Palace Attendants Bureau opened the wooden crate to reveal a strangely constructed sandalwood-cased mechanism about the height of a person.
The mechanism had a glass-covered metal circular disk with two cast-gold pointers, and a long rod pendulum hanging down. Opening the sandalwood case’s back cover revealed precision-cast gears and spring pieces inside—just looking at it made one’s eyes swim with dizziness.
Zheng Xixuan curiously asked Feng Yi, “What has the Liang sovereign sent this time to celebrate the Empress Dowager’s birthday?”
“A newly manufactured timekeeping clock from Luoyang. Only two have been made so far. Wind it fully and the spring pieces drive the pointers, able to keep accurate time for twenty-four hours,” Feng Yi said.
“The Liang sovereign truly takes great care for the Empress Dowager,” Zheng Xixuan said with a smile.
“My sovereign considers that Empress Dowager Changxin dwells secluded in the palace and has surely seen all manner of rare treasures ordinarily, so he issued an edict to have one of these sent to Jinling,” Feng Yi said.
The timekeeping clock traveling from Luoyang, despite being extremely careful throughout the journey, inevitably had some parts loosen. Luoyang Academy specifically sent people to calibrate it on site while also instructing the Palace Attendants Bureau craftsmen on how to repair and maintain it.
Feng Yi and Wen Ruilin, as Liang envoys, naturally couldn’t casually enter the palace. Seeing the Court of State Ceremonial and Palace Attendants Bureau officials verify everything was in order and carefully transport the timekeeping clock into the palace, they had to first go to the Liang Kingdom Guesthouse on Duting Station South Street to await an audience.
Before leaving for the Liang Kingdom Guesthouse, Feng Yi warmly invited Zheng Xixuan to a banquet, but Zheng Xixuan only smiled and politely declined.
In the past two years, both Zheng Yu and Zheng Chang had successively retired from the Great Chu court due to age and illness. Neither remained in Jinling city but returned to their ancestral home in Huangzhou to spend their twilight years peacefully.
However, besides Zheng Xixuan serving as a principal general of the Palace Guards, Zheng Hui was moreover the frontier official Great Chu had stationed at Prince Xing’s domain. The Zheng family’s foundation in Jinling had never been shaken by anyone.
Nevertheless, even though the Zheng family had vigorously promoted the Liang-Chu peace agreement and was among the pro-Liang faction in the Chu court, if Zheng Xixuan as a great Palace Guards general privately accepted a banquet from Liang envoys, who knows how many impeachment memorials would fly into the Council of State tomorrow.
Feng Yi’s invitation was merely polite courtesy. He then had Cai Chen accompany them toward the Liang Kingdom Guesthouse.
“Ruan Yanzhi’s son Ruan Tao came to Jinling again just the day before yesterday, separated by two months, yet hasn’t met with other high officials. These past days he’s been staying at Prince Shou’s mansion. Perhaps the Sima family and Prince Xin’s side have already negotiated sufficiently,” Cai Chen said. As Minister of the Court of State Ceremonial, receiving and attending to Liang Kingdom envoys was his duty. Accompanying them into the Liang Kingdom Guesthouse and sitting down in Mingxi Hall, when the opportunity arose as accompanying officials were entangled in other matters, he shared some intelligence he’d gathered with Feng Yi and Wen Ruilin, while also curiously asking, “The Sima family resides in Xuzhou and Sizhou, and has always been opportunistic fence-sitters. Why hasn’t your sovereign sent people to win them over?”
“Though the Sima clan is contemptible, the Xuzhou-Sizhou Army occupies six prefectures including Xuzhou, Sizhou, Haizhou, Mizhou, and Yizhou with over two million soldiers and civilians. If they could be won over, it would greatly accelerate the progress of the war. How could Luoyang not try to win them over?” Feng Yi slapped his forehead and said. “However, it’s precisely because the Sima clan has been accustomed to selling itself to the highest bidder these years, and hasn’t fought hard battles with us in recent years, so they inevitably can’t clearly assess how many pounds and ounces of muscle they actually have!”
“Perhaps the Shouzhou Army lying across the west of the Si River blocks the Sima clan from having other options!” Wen Ruilin said. “If Luoyang could first send troops to defeat the Shouzhou Army, the situation in Xuzhou-Sizhou might change!”
Besides warfare, Han Qian had always paid attention to using various means to solve problems, so he naturally had sent people to secretly probe the Sima clan’s attitude.
However, the two points Feng Yi and Wen Ruilin mentioned also struck at the core.
First was that the Sima clan, isolated east of the Si River by the Shouzhou Army, had few opportunities to engage in battle with Great Liang forces and hadn’t fought bitter battles before. Therefore, they didn’t believe Great Liang’s elite combat strength was particularly formidable.
They attributed the results of the previous series of battles to Eastern Liang Army’s incompetence, and also believed the Meng Army wasn’t actually as invincible as imagined.
Therefore, deep in their hearts they didn’t feel Great Liang forces were undefeatable—no psychological shadow had formed—so they naturally absolutely couldn’t accept Great Liang’s harsh conditions to abandon their ambitions of regional warlordism and submit to Great Liang. And Han Qian obviously absolutely couldn’t agree to the Sima clan maintaining regional warlordism.
Of course, some in Luoyang advocated using regional warlordism as a condition to first stabilize the Sima clan, but more military officials felt this wasn’t necessary.
In comparison, if the Sima clan submitted to the Chu court at this time, they could barely maintain their status as regional warlords acknowledging vassalage.
Another important reason, superficially the same, was also that the Sima clan was isolated east of the Si River by the Shouzhou Army.
The Shouzhou Army and Liang forces had fought for so many years with countless mutual casualties. As long as there was the slightest possibility, the Shouzhou Army wouldn’t surrender to the Liang Kingdom. And the Xuzhou-Sizhou Army, isolated east of the Si River by the Shouzhou Army, even if they wanted to directly submit to Great Liang, would face being attacked from three sides by Zhu Rang, Xu Mingzhen, and Prince Xin Yang Yuanyan.
Of course, Luoyang had also considered this entire series of circumstances. Even if they wouldn’t promise to allow regional warlordism in Xuzhou-Sizhou, they still worked hard through internal channels, hoping the Sima clan could maintain the status quo—there might not be no opportunity or possibility for negotiations in the future.
However, now from Ruan Yanzhi’s son Ruan Tao secretly rushing to Jinling twice, only holding secret meetings with Yang Zhitang, along with various other traces and clues, Secret Bureau personnel lurking in Jinling and elsewhere tended to believe the Sima clan had already reached consensus with Prince Xin, just waiting for Yang Zhitang—who had been convalescing at home for many years—to step forward and formally promote the Chu court’s acceptance of the Sima clan’s submission.
Currently the Chu army had also concluded the warfare in Fujian territory. Gu Zhilong and Huang Lü led tens of thousands of troops escorting the Min Prince Wang clan and over ten thousand officers and officials back to Jinling from Jianzhou. This greatly boosted the morale of the Chu Kingdom’s court and countryside.
This could very likely push the Chu court and countryside to accept the Sima clan and adopt a harder stance toward the Liang Kingdom.
Besides the Sima clan, the movements of various figures in the Shouzhou Army remained a focus of Southern Bureau attention.
Currently the Shouzhou Army had not determined to bind itself to the same tree as Zhu Rang and Liang Ren. Though as one of the chief culprits of the Jinling rebellion, they had an unbridgeable gulf with the Chu court preventing reconciliation, Xu Mingzhen had fallen ill and bedridden since early this year with no signs of improvement, causing many variables in the situation.
If Xu Mingzhen died at an opportune moment, the Chu court wasn’t without the possibility of accepting the Shouzhou Army’s submission.