The Privy Council and Chongwen Hall were separated by only a palace wall. When outer court officials entered the Imperial City to reach Chongwen Hall, they had to pass in front of the Privy Council. Zhao Mingting and Niu Gengru naturally knew about Han Daoxun’s early morning palace entry to submit his memorial.
Zhao Mingting stepped forward to report:
“Early this morning, Han Daoxun entered the palace to memorialize that the Internal Affairs Bureau sent people to the two markets to procure palace supplies, frequently bullying merchants and dominating the markets, stirring up public resentment. Several petitions have already been submitted to the Capital Magistrate’s office. He entered the palace just when Internal Affairs Bureau Director Zhong Yuli was also attending His Majesty. He seized upon Zhong Yuli and brought the lawsuit before His Majesty. His Majesty ordered Zhong Yuli to accompany Han Daoxun to the Capital Magistrate’s office to handle this matter!”
“It sounds rather trivial. Could Chen Xingmo have possibly missed hearing or seeing something?” Empress Dowager Xu asked.
“Chen Xingmo attends His Majesty constantly and dares not leave even for a moment. Han Daoxun’s palace discussion only concerned this matter—when we saw Chen Xingmo just now, we specifically asked again. There should be no missed information.” Niu Gengru stepped forward at this moment to explain on Zhao Mingting’s behalf.
“Even so, how do you view this matter?” Empress Dowager Xu glanced at Niu Gengru and asked coolly.
“If the Internal Affairs Bureau people truly acted improperly and stirred public resentment, given Han Daoxun’s character, memorializing before the throne is possible. After all, the Capital Magistrate’s runners don’t yet have the authority to directly enter the Imperial City to arrest suspects.” Niu Gengru said calmly.
“But this doesn’t rule out that Han Daoxun’s actions today were intended to make private contact with Zhong Yuli, does it?” Empress Dowager Xu’s pupils grew increasingly sharp as she stared piercingly at Niu Gengru.
Zhao Mingting stood quietly to the side, staring at the tips of his boots showing beneath his official robes. At such moments, he was only responsible for providing intelligence information so Empress Dowager Xu and Niu Gengru could make final decisions. He did not participate in decision-making.
Of course, in Zhao Mingting’s view, Niu Gengru couldn’t possibly fail to guess that Han Daoxun’s palace entry today might have been to deliberately make private contact with Zhong Yuli. But Niu Gengru was now speaking evasively—deep in his heart, he probably still couldn’t bring himself to contemplate bearing the crime of regicide.
“It’s time to make a decision!” Empress Dowager Xu didn’t entangle with Niu Gengru. She reached out to pluck a flower bud from the plum branch before her and gently flicked it down to the base of the courtyard wall.
“Han Daoxun has been transferred to the capital for a month without any unusual movements. How can we determine today that his dragging Zhong Yuli to the Capital Magistrate’s office was to avoid Chen Xingmo? There are too many unclear points! Moreover, Marquis Zhenyuan Yang Jian, Vice Privy Council Minister Wen Muqiao, and the father and son Wen Bo who serves as Military Virtue Commissioner on palace guard duty, along with Zhong Yuli and others, are all utterly loyal to His Majesty and control portions of military power. If we cannot first eliminate them and they become aware of abnormalities, they may very likely mobilize troops in retaliation. When Jinling falls into chaos, we may not be able to control the situation!” Niu Gengru urged in a lowered voice.
Inside and outside Jinling City, over one hundred thousand Imperial Guards and Palace Guards were currently stationed. What they directly controlled, including the Crown Prince’s Eastern Palace guards, was less than twenty thousand.
Although Niu Gengru believed Empress Dowager Xu had made some arrangements over the years that he couldn’t fully discern, he believed more in absolute control through strength.
The remaining Imperial Guards and Palace Guards comprised eighty percent of Jinling’s garrison. The vast majority of commanders had been personally promoted by His Majesty. Even if some would sit on the fence and wait, and some commanders feared Shouzhou’s military strength and would heed his advice to support the Crown Prince’s enthronement, Niu Gengru couldn’t predict at all how Yang Jian, Yang En, Zhong Yuli, and the seemingly senile Wen Muqiao and his son Wen Bo would react.
Shouzhou and Chuzhou restrained each other, and they also had to guard against the Liang army stationed in Caizhou. There was no way to mobilize Shouzhou forces in advance. He didn’t advocate acting now. Beyond not wanting to bear the eternal infamy of regicide, he dared not lightly risk the backlash that regicide would bring. He hoped His Majesty would “gradually worsen in illness,” then one day “succumb to his illness,” allowing the Crown Prince to legitimately ascend the throne.
“Although there are many unclear and opaque points, I’ve followed His Majesty through wind and rain these years, weathering countless open and hidden arrows. You must trust my strong intuition as a woman.”
Empress Dowager Xu seemed to feel a chill. She clutched her brocade shawl tighter, her body curling slightly, yet revealing an even sharper, piercing killing intent.
“Regardless of whether Han Daoxun has seen through the truth of Shen He’s death, given Jinling’s current tense atmosphere, as Capital Magistrate, Han Daoxun has too many things he should do and can do. How could he waste his limited energy on trivial cases? If he had memorialized on other matters and incidentally impeached the Internal Affairs Bureau, that would be normal. How could he specifically use such a trivial matter to disturb His Majesty’s peace? Furthermore, don’t think that because you’ve done everything secretly, you can truly deceive heaven and cross the sea. Think about it—His Majesty has been a warrior all his life. Could he have no intuition for danger and killing intent? Could he have no understanding of his own physical condition? When Shen He returned from Tanzhou and died of illness, he not only transferred Han Daoxun to the capital as Capital Magistrate but also had Zhong Yuli constantly attend him. He should have been alerted then. Today, for such a small matter, he ordered Zhong Yuli, whom he ordinarily favors greatly, to follow Han Daoxun to the Capital Magistrate’s office to be disciplined and suffer this humiliation—how could this be normal? If you truly wait until everything is clear and understood before acting, the Second and Third Princes will probably already be at the city gates.”
Niu Gengru’s face turned pale. Although he had contemplated taking this step thousands of times before, he hadn’t expected that when truly making the decision, he would instinctively feel his hands and feet trembling slightly.
……
……
In the palace city, Cishou Palace and Anning Palace were the most distant from each other—they could even be said to be the two most distant building complexes.
However, climbing the western courtyard side wall of Cishou Palace and passing through the lower eaves corner of the majestic Chongwen Hall, one could just see a corner of the corridor leading in and out of Anning Palace. No one had imagined this would be an excellent vantage point for observing Anning Palace’s movements from Cishou Palace.
Chun Shisanniang put away the bronze telescope she had cajoled with great effort from Han Qian through Old Fei. She descended the wooden ladder and said softly, “That person at Anning Palace suddenly summoned Niu Gengru and Zhao Mingting into the palace today. Who knows what conspiracy they’re plotting?”
Learning immediately that Han Daoxun had been transferred to Jinling as Capital Magistrate by imperial order, Chun Shisanniang and Yao Xishui had rushed back to Jinling first. They were now serving as adopted daughters of Chief Chamberlain and Prince of Tan’s Chancellor Zhang Ping, recruited by the Princess Consort as Palace Officials and Female Scribes, allowing them to move freely within the palace precincts.
The previous dynasty had precedents of recruiting officials’ daughters to serve as palace officials.
Now that the Third Prince’s influence was flourishing, the Princess Consort following precedent and recruiting several trusted female officials from Prince of Tan’s mansion to serve at her side would face no obstruction.
Besides Chun Shisanniang, Yao Xishui and the Lady in Black Veil, who was hiding in the palace under the identity of Cishou Palace Director, were accompanying Princess Consort Wang as she stood before the pavilion. Hearing Chun Shisanniang describe what she had observed, they all furrowed their delicate brows, speculating on Empress Dowager Xu’s purpose in suddenly summoning Niu Gengru and Zhao Mingting to Anning Palace today.
Although Empress Dowager Xu differed from other palace consorts—as mother of the nation and having established illustrious achievements alongside the Xu clan in Great Chu’s founding, possessing the privilege of summoning officials to the palace—even to set an example for other consorts, Empress Dowager Xu rarely directly summoned officials to discuss matters in the palace.
In any case, the Chamberlain Bureau had numerous people who were direct Xu family loyalists. Empress Dowager Xu could easily send a trusted family member to relay messages, without worry that the messages would fall into others’ ears.
“Han Daoxun entered the palace early this morning to impeach the Internal Affairs Bureau, then dragged Zhong Yuli to the Capital Magistrate’s office to argue. Could this be related to that Xu woman suddenly summoning Niu Gengru and Zhao Mingting to Anning Palace?” Princess Consort Wang asked.
Chongwen Hall had numerous attending eunuchs, so Han Daoxun’s early palace entry was no secret in the palace by now.
Seeing that Yao Xishui and Chun Shisanniang couldn’t answer, Princess Consort Wang anxiously asked again: “Tell me, what are father and son Han Daoxun and Han Qian really scheming in their hearts?”
Princess Consort Wang had gained favor at sixteen and given birth to a prince at seventeen. Seventeen years had passed—she was now thirty-four, at a woman’s most beautiful age. But she dressed solemnly, having been suppressed by Anning Palace for years in the palace, leaving her heart gloomy. Her face lacked its proper radiance, appearing somewhat cold and overcast.
Zhao Wuji had led fifty retainers to Jinling two nights ago. Yao Xishui had received the news immediately in Jinling, deducing this should have been arranged after Han Qian learned in the Shu capital that his father had been transferred to Jinling while on his diplomatic mission to Shu.
After all, Yao Xishui and the others knew about Zhao Wuji accompanying Han Qian on the diplomatic mission to Shu.
Yet precisely because of this, their hearts grew increasingly confused. Much information, when carefully considered, was contradictory and conflicting, making it difficult for them to answer Princess Consort Wang’s question.
After pondering a moment, Yao Xishui said: “Perhaps we need to write to Tanzhou to ask exactly what’s happening—Han Qian very likely has something he’s concealing from us.”
As the four women struggled without solution, an old eunuch holding a whisk entered Cishou Palace’s rear courtyard and reported to Princess Consort Wang: “His Highness sent a messenger back to Jinling. He just sent a young eunuch into the palace to relay that His Highness asked him to pay respects to Your Ladyship and has urgent matters to report in person…”
Yao Xishui and Chun Shisanniang looked at each other, not knowing who had returned or what matter couldn’t be written directly in a letter but had to be reported to Princess Consort Wang in person.
Had Chai Jian or Li Chong returned from Tanzhou?
Princess Consort Wang, unlike Empress Dowager Xu, lacked the privilege of directly summoning officials in the palace.
Besides female family members who could enter and exit more freely, if Princess Consort Wang truly wanted to summon male officials in the palace, it wasn’t impossible, but the procedures were extremely troublesome and would necessarily alarm the Chamberlain Bureau.
“Let’s first go to His Highness’s mansion to see what exactly has happened!” Yao Xishui said hesitantly.
“No,” Princess Consort Wang shook her head. She could sense the current situation was too strange. She couldn’t rest easy staying in Cishou Palace even for a moment waiting for news. She told the old eunuch who had come to report: “Go to Chongwen Hall now and tell His Majesty that I find living in the palace stifling and wish to stay at Prince of Tan’s mansion with Yao’er for a couple days. Request His Majesty’s gracious permission…”