“It’s fine, come keep me company and chat.” Consort Yin De pulled Wei Shubin to sit beside her on her couch, patted the back of her hand, and smiled sadly:
“I’ve always wanted to give Yuanheng a sister… When a prince grows up, he must leave to govern his fief in the provinces, only able to return to the capital once a year, making it difficult to meet even two or three times… But with a princess, even after marriage and establishing her household, she could stay in the capital and often visit her mother in the palace for conversation. Sadly, after serving the Emperor Emeritus for over a decade, I only bore one son, and he…”
And he died on the way to his assigned fief.
Wei Shubin had heard about Consort Yin De’s only son, the Emperor Emeritus’s eighth son, Prince Feng Yuanheng. In the early Zhenguan era, when the imperial princes reached suitable ages, they began leaving the capital to govern their fiefs. Li Yuanheng and Li Yuangui were among them. Yuanheng, spoiled since childhood due to his mother’s favor, couldn’t endure the hardships of travel. In the sixth year of Zhenguan, he suddenly fell gravely ill on his way to his fief in Jinzhou and died at merely fourteen years old.
When the news reached the capital, it caused much discussion at the court and grief from the Emperor. He ordered all princes to temporarily suspend their departures to their fiefs and recalled the Emperor Emeritus’s sons to attend him at the Great Peace Palace. Consort Yin De was devastated beyond words, and Emperor Emeritus Li Yuan felt deep remorse, thereafter showing exclusive favor to this beloved consort. According to Li Yuangui and Chai Yinglu, before this, Consort Yin De had been relatively restrained and gentle for her son’s sake, but after losing her only child, she became unrestrained and began oppressing Beautiful Lady Zhang and other imperial consorts.
“Prince Feng was loyal and filial; he must be blessed with good karma and surely watches over his mother from above,” Wei Shubin awkwardly tried to comfort her. Consort Yin De smiled at her and looked up at the ceiling:
“Yuanheng was such a naive child. In his first year away from home, he wrote to me, full of praise for the Emperor, saying His Majesty pitied his youth and long journey, missed him dearly, repeatedly sent imperial messengers to check on him, even holding banquets along the way and bestowing golden cups… golden cups… hmph… and then he suddenly fell fatally ill at a post station…”
The middle-aged beauty pressed her lips together, struggling to control the tears in her eyes. Wei Shubin held her hands in both of hers, and opened her mouth, but found no words to say.
Golden cups… sudden illness… why did it sound so familiar…
“With the hundred spirits protecting the Sacred Emperor, such things happen too often.” Consort Yin De sniffed hard, her face again showing a cold smile. “He doesn’t even need to act personally – whoever displeases him and his wife will suffer divine punishment… It happened to Yuanheng, to Lady Yi, not to mention Lady Yi’s father’s fourth uncle… Princess Pingyang…”
“Princess Pingyang?” Wei Shubin was startled, “True Master’s mother? The Third Princess?”
“You don’t know?” Consort Yin De asked in return.
“Didn’t Princess Pingyang die from complications during the birth of her second child?” How could this be related to the current Emperor and Empress, according to Consort Yin De’s words?
“The difficult birth might be true. But think about it – Princess Pingyang had already given birth twice before, both times safely. Why did she suddenly have complications with her third child?” Consort Yin De sneered. “The Chai family never dares to mention it, thinking they can hide it from everyone? In the sixth year of Wude, when Yang Wengan was forced into rebellion and the Crown Prince and Prince Qin became hostile brothers, His Majesty tried his best to mediate, and Princess Pingyang, despite her pregnancy, rushed about trying to help. That day, she had a huge argument with her second brother Prince Qin when they couldn’t see eye to eye. The anger caused her blood to rush up, leading to premature labor and ultimately her death. Ah, Princess Pingyang had led armies in battle, she was naturally very strong, riding horses and performing in plays without a care. If not for this, she probably could have lived healthily past a hundred!”
Wei Shubin felt dizzy: “If that’s the case… doesn’t True Master have… with…”
“A blood debt for her mother’s death?” Consort Yin De snorted. “How dare the Chai family think that way! At the time, the Emperor Emeritus summoned his son-in-law into the palace for private questioning, but Imperial Son-in-law Chai firmly denied any connection between his wife’s death and Prince Qin. Later, their family became even more devoted to currying favor with the Northern Command. After June of the ninth year of Wude… well, no need to say more. That Chai girl once hoped to become Crown Princess and Empress herself. How her mother died didn’t matter to her; she only cared about pleasing the current Empress.”
Wei Shubin sighed, looking down at her sleeves and hands with a gloomy expression. Consort Yin De asked softly, “What’s wrong?”
“If Consort Yin had said these things a few days ago, I wouldn’t have believed them,” the Prime Minister’s eldest daughter replied quietly. “But after seeing True Master and the Fourteenth Prince… afterward… those with cold natures are naturally frivolous, one can’t help but believe…”
Consort Yin De laughed: “I knew you wouldn’t stay long at Purple Void Temple! Your father Minister Wei is such a proper and upright moral gentleman, with such strict family education, and you, young Lady Wei, are a virtuous lady from a noble family – how could you tolerate that tramp Chai Yinglu!”
Wei Shubin bit her lower lip and asked anxiously: “Consort Yin De, what should I do now… please advise me…”
“From now on…” Consort Yin De pondered, “I’m not sure either. In my opinion, we must first deal with that little tramp from the Chai family. She’s petty and vengeful. Now that we’ve both offended her mortally if we can’t finish her off in one strike and she manages to recover, we’ll both suffer greatly!”
“This…” Wei Shubin showed reluctance, but upon seeing Consort Yin De’s expression, she quickly nodded in fear: “Yes… I’ll follow your instructions completely.”
“Tomorrow at dawn, I’ll accuse that Chai tramp of plotting to harm the Emperor Emeritus,” Consort Yin De said with a cold smile through gritted teeth. “However, since that tramp is the Emperor Emeritus’s granddaughter and has always been favored by her grandfather and uncle, Empress Zhangsun might not believe me… That’s where you come in – you need to file another accusation of ‘defiling the imperial chambers and violating human ethics’!”
“Me… me?” Wei Shubin hesitated, “Go before the Empress to accuse True Master?”
“There’s nothing to fear, just repeat to the Empress exactly what you saw and what you just told me!” Consort Yin De encouraged her. “Oh right, just mentioning Prince Wu and his guards isn’t enough… you need to include the Empress’s son, saying that Crown Prince Chengqian, Prince Yue Tai, and the other princes have all visited Purple Void Temple!”
Wei Shubin’s mouth fell open, too shocked to speak. Consort Yin De knocked her forehead and shook her head:
“No, that’s too much. The shock would be too great; the Empress wouldn’t believe it and would investigate deeply… How about this: just say you had a late-night private conversation with Chai Yinglu where she said she had her eye on the Crown Prince and Prince Yue brothers, planning to seduce them for wealth and status. As for whether she succeeded, you don’t know… That’s much more reasonable.”
“I…” Wei Shubin mumbled.
“Being bold isn’t a bad thing,” Consort Yin De smiled at her. “In this deep palace, you can’t survive otherwise. Listen to me – let’s deal with that Chai tramp first, then address your marriage alliance matter. With me here, I won’t let you suffer!”
When she mentioned the marriage alliance, Wei Shubin understood – she needed to cooperate in bringing down Chai Yinglu, and in exchange, Consort Yin De would help her escape the tragic fate of being sent to Tibet in a diplomatic marriage. There was no choice; she could only bow her head in agreement.
After talking for a while, both felt uncomfortable with the air. Consort Yin De looked around, frowning and muttering, “Why is it getting smellier?”
Wei Shubin remembered something and let out a soft “Ah.”
Note: Regarding Consort Yin De’s son Li Yuanheng, the most detailed record from “Old Tang Book Biography Fourteen” states: that Emperor Gaozu had 22 sons… Consort Yin De bore Prince Feng Yuanheng… Prince Feng Yuanheng was Emperor Gaozu’s eighth son. He received his title in the third year of Wude. In the second year of Zhenguan, he was appointed as Imperial Attendant and Governor of Jinzhou. When he went to his fief, Emperor Taizong, thinking of his youth, missed him deeply, sent golden cups along the way, and dispatched messengers to hold banquets for him. He died in the sixth year without sons, and his principality was abolished.
The historical materials are quite brief and the timeline is unclear. It cannot be confirmed how long the interval was between “Emperor Taizong bestowing golden cups and sending messengers to hold banquets” and “died in the sixth year,” so the details in the main text are fictional. Moreover, this Vol 3 – Chapter contains many historical events narrated from Consort Yin De’s conspiratorial perspective, such as the Princess Pingyang segment, which should not be taken as historical fact.