“You can set this matter aside for now!” The Grand Princess fingered her prayer beads with an indifferent expression. “From today, personally watch Fu Ruoxi. If Fu Ruoxi makes any moves, report immediately. Also, have your hidden contacts in the palace watch the Empress. Whatever happens, we must prevent the Empress from doing anything irreversible.”
“Yes!” Wei Zhong responded.
·
Early on the twenty-third day of the seventh month, before the Crown Prince had finished court, Old Fang was already waiting in the front hall of the Crown Prince’s mansion, his face showing joy.
Hearing the sound of the Crown Prince’s carriage returning to the mansion, Old Fang hurried to greet him at the entrance.
The Crown Prince, having just stepped through the main gate, saw Old Fang trotting over and instructed Quan Yu: “Go personally tell the Crown Princess that I have business here. I’ll go accompany her for lunch at noon.”
“Yes…” Quan Yu nodded in acknowledgment.
The Crown Prince walked with Old Fang to a secluded area and asked: “Does Old Fang have urgent business?”
“In response to Your Highness, the wronged party, who lost children, entered the capital as soon as the city gates opened this morning. Soon they’ll probably go beat the Dengwen Drum. This old one’s meaning is that Your Highness should enter the palace now to observe His Majesty’s reaction upon hearing this news, to see whether these elixirs are being made for His Majesty or Prince Liang himself! We must strive to control the direction of this matter at all times and never give Prince Liang another chance to recover!” Old Fang spoke rapidly and urgently. “Yesterday, after Your Highness entered the palace, didn’t His Majesty already approve sending new soldiers to Nan Jiang? Your Highness can perfectly report the recruitment numbers to His Majesty and request His Majesty’s early decision!”
Old Fang took out the detailed recruitment report that had just been delivered to the Crown Prince’s mansion from his sleeve and respectfully handed it to the Crown Prince.
The Crown Prince nodded and took the recruitment report: “I am fortunate to have Old Fang calculating for me!”
“That this old one could meet Your Highness is this old one’s blessing! This time… Your Highness must remember, regardless of whether these elixirs are being made for His Majesty or Prince Liang himself, Your Highness must insist on knowing nothing about this matter! Otherwise, His Majesty will think Your Highness is using the same method Bai Qingyan once used to force His Majesty to deal with Prince Xin, forcing Prince Liang to death!”
“I understand!”
The Crown Prince, holding the detailed report, didn’t enter the mansion but turned and got back on his carriage to head to the palace.
After court, the Emperor changed into casual clothes and leaned against a round pillow embroidered with golden dragons, sitting on a luohan bed by the window covered with a cool mat, reading memorials.
Ice was placed in the four corners of the great hall, and the bronze vessel at the Emperor’s feet also contained ice. Palace maids used fans to direct cool air toward the Emperor – it was very refreshing.
Gao Demao entered the hall quietly and said to the Emperor in a low voice: “Your Majesty… the Crown Prince has arrived!”
“Mm!” The Emperor was in a good mood and responded, “He comes at just the right time. Have him also look at these memorials. This heavy burden will be handed to him in the future – let him adapt early.”
The Emperor now found reading these memorials extremely tedious. He’d rather go to the rear palace – recently, Concubine Qiu had many new tricks and was particularly enticing.
He had also come to terms with things. Now that Jin was strong, why should he, as Emperor, continue to torment himself as before? He could hand things over to the Crown Prince. Besides, that immortal master had said… after taking the elixirs, one must cultivate quietly and not overwork.
Gao Demao smiled until his face was full of wrinkles: “Who says His Majesty doesn’t have a father’s loving heart! This is truly hand-in-hand teaching of the Crown Prince!”
Speaking thus, Gao Demao withdrew from the hall and personally invited the Crown Prince in.
After the Crown Prince entered the great hall and respectfully bowed to the Emperor, he first placed the detailed recruitment report before the Emperor’s desk: “Father Emperor, this is the details of this recruitment. We have now gathered twenty thousand new soldiers who can be sent to Nan Jiang first. If Father Emperor feels the forces are insufficient, we can transfer ten thousand from the new soldiers guarding the northern frontier and send them to Nan Jiang as well!”
“Transfer ten thousand…” The Emperor pondered carefully.
“This time, Great Liang was badly beaten by our Jin! Even Xun Tianzhang lost his life. Even if we transfer ten thousand new soldiers to Nan Jiang, Great Liang wouldn’t dare harbor any ill intentions! Look at this peace negotiation… Princess Nandu isn’t marrying into Great Liang, yet they didn’t dare say anything!” The Crown Prince smiled.
The reason Great Liang’s envoys didn’t persist about Princess Nandu’s broken engagement and refusal to marry their Fourth Prince during this peace negotiation was because before coming to negotiate, their Fourth Prince had specifically instructed them – he would rather die than marry this Princess Nandu Liu Ruofu.
Unexpectedly, this worked out perfectly. Since Liu Ruofu had lost her purity with a Jin prince, Great Liang naturally used this as an excuse to drop the matter. They were afraid that if they brought this up, the Jin Emperor might say the rumors were baseless and insist Liu Ruofu marry into Liang – then the Fourth Prince would skin them alive!
Great Liang’s peace negotiation envoys truly had it difficult.
The Emperor picked up the lily sweet soup sent from the rear palace, took a sip, and nodded: “You are the Crown Prince. If you think this is feasible, then do it! There are also these memorials here… you should look at them too for experience. If there’s anything you can’t decide, feel free to come find Father Emperor!”
Hearing these words, the Crown Prince was so frightened he quickly knelt: “Father Emperor… what does Father Emperor mean by this?”
The Crown Prince thought he had said something wrong and that the Emperor was hinting that his reach was too long, that he was overstepping his bounds.
The Emperor: “…”
Seeing the Crown Prince’s terrified expression, the Emperor wondered if he had been too harsh with the Crown Prince before, making him so afraid.
“Get up first. I have no other meaning – I just feel that since you are now the Crown Prince, you should familiarize yourself with government affairs early to help me share the burden! Also… I intend to have Old Master Cui Shiyan teach you. What do you think?”
Hearing the Emperor say this, the Crown Prince finally breathed a sigh of relief but hurriedly expressed loyalty: “Father Emperor is still in the prime of dragon-like vigor, may you live ten thousand years. You can slowly teach your son and minister. Why so quickly want your son and minister to familiarize himself with government affairs? Your son and minister… is extremely terrified. If Father Emperor’s health has any discomfort, please speak plainly!”
“Get up! You’ve handled the government affairs I assigned you very well before. Father Emperor is very confident in you. Get up! Remember! You are the Crown Prince! You need not live in such constant fear and trepidation every day!”
The Emperor frowned deeply, picked up the lily sweet soup at hand, and lowered his eyes, about to take a sip to suppress his anger. Before the sweet soup reached his mouth, drum sounds suddenly rang out from the direction of Wude Gate.
The Emperor’s hand trembled, and the lily sweet soup nearly spilled.
What was this if not the sound of the Dengwen Drum?!
The Emperor was so angry he almost smashed the soup bowl in his hand. He had just prepared to hand the memorials to the Crown Prince, so he could relax – and now the Dengwen Drum was sounding again!
Ever since this Dengwen Drum was beaten by Bai Qingyan, it had practically become a marketplace toy that anyone could beat a couple of times.
The Emperor heavily placed the soup bowl on the desk and shouted: “Gao Demao!”
The Crown Prince quickly stood up beside the Emperor. He knew in his heart what had happened and was still somewhat nervous, his hands hidden in his sleeves clenching into fists then relaxing again. Old Fang had instructed – this time… no matter what, he could not tell Father Emperor the truth!