When Xun Zu and Xun Fan walked out of the imperial palace, there was no one left on the palace pathway. The two brothers silently walked along the long corridor. Xun Zu maintained his silence throughout, but halfway there he still turned to look at Xun Fan: “Elder Brother made your choice long ago? Otherwise, why didn’t you remind me at the palace banquet?”
Xun Fan was silent for quite a while before saying: “His Majesty… lacks inherent wisdom. I teach him the Great Learning. When the Grand General manages state affairs, she has him listen in at the side and occasionally asks his opinion.”
“No matter how we suspect her, judging by her actions, she truly is doing her utmost to teach His Majesty to be a good emperor. But it’s very obvious that His Majesty is not concealing his inadequacy.” Xun Fan sighed: “All the intelligence of the Jin house was concentrated in its ancestors, leaving not a bit for the descendants.”
The meaning was that the young Emperor was truly inadequate—he couldn’t become a qualified emperor.
“But His Majesty is the legitimate line of Jin…” Xun Zu was somewhat agitated. “If you think His Majesty isn’t good, once he marries an Empress and has several young princes, carefully cultivate them.”
Xun Fan sneered: “Third Brother, Zhao Hanzhang is not someone easy to deal with, and neither are those under her command. Do you think the current harmony can last ten or twenty years?”
“If there were no precedent with Emperor Hui, if the War of the Eight Princes hadn’t come before, I might agree with your words, but… you and I both lived through that chaos.” Xun Fan stopped walking, faced Xun Zu, and said through tears: “War, war—do you really want the country to descend into chaos again? From Empress Jia’s causing chaos until today, our Xun family had several dozen people. Now only you and I remain.”
Xun Zu heard this and couldn’t speak for a long while.
The Xun family wasn’t populous, but they had descendants of reputable families, with several branch families depending on them for livelihood. Since Empress Jia caused chaos, people in the capital began dying, and the Xun family was no exception.
Through several great battles, from the several dozen people in the family, plus guards and servants—over three hundred people—in the end only Xun Fan and Xun Zu remained.
Xun Zu had neither wife nor children. His beard was already graying. Xun Fan’s two sons went missing. He had been asking people to search, but so far there had been no news. It looked like their prospects were grim.
Common people suffered from the hardships of war, and the aristocracy suffered equally.
No matter how high and mighty, under war, grain shortage, and natural disasters, they were all the same.
Xun Fan and Xun Zu had experienced fleeing with the young Emperor and the Prince of Yuzhang. At that time they had nine narrow escapes from death. Not only were they pursued and killed, they also went hungry, repeatedly hovering on the brink of death.
That feeling—Xun Fan truly didn’t want to endure it again.
He wanted to uphold the Jin imperial legitimacy, but the prerequisite was that the young Emperor had this natural talent, had this will. Now he had neither the talent for managing state affairs nor the heart to be an emperor. They self-righteously fought for him, struggled for him, thinking it was good—but was it truly good?
Xun Zu said in a low voice: “Elder Brother is certain about Zhao Hanzhang? Now she’s just gained power and looks fine, but what about in one or two years?”
“Think about Gou Xi—what an upright and incorruptible person he once was. What did he become in the end?” Xun Zu said: “And there’s still the Prince of Langye in Jiangnan. If you do nothing now, once she changes, even if we want to protect the Emperor, protect the court, protect the realm, we won’t be able to.”
Xun Zu didn’t believe Zhao Hanzhang wouldn’t change.
He had already been frightened by the pattern of Jin state power-holders turning bad. From the Eight Princes to power-holders like Gou Xi, every single one, after gaining power, became arrogant and self-satisfied, let themselves go, then completely fell.
He didn’t believe Zhao Hanzhang would be the exception.
Xun Fan previously didn’t believe it either, but this period of interaction had given him some confidence in Zhao Hanzhang. “In any case, the Emperor himself doesn’t want to do it. You might as well focus on teaching him to study, and wait a few years to see what Zhao Hanzhang becomes before taking action. It won’t be too late.”
“By then it will be too late!”
“It won’t be too late,” Xun Fan said confidently. “If you don’t trust Zhao Hanzhang or Ji Yuan, you should trust Ming Yu.”
“Ming Yu followed Gou Xi for over ten years as his confidant. Under those circumstances, when Gou Xi lost his integrity, he left. How long has he been at Zhao Hanzhang’s side now? Do you think if Zhao Hanzhang turns bad, he won’t react?” Xun Fan said: “At that time, if you do what you want to do now, you’ll achieve twice the result with half the effort.”
Xun Fan said meaningfully: “This world never lacks people who care about the realm, who are benevolent and embrace great virtue, nor does it lack ambitious people.”
Xun Zu lowered his head in thought.
Their conversation with the young Emperor tonight indeed hadn’t escaped Zhao Hanzhang’s notice. As soon as Xun Zu and Xun Fan left, Zhao Hanzhang received a live report.
After reading it, she threw all the papers into the brazier to burn.
Fu Tinghan was quite curious: “Don’t they know you would know?”
“They know. I also know they know I know. This kind of thing is just tacitly understood.”
Fu Tinghan: “Then how can you be sure what they said is true or false? What if they deliberately said it to mislead you?”
“That’s why hearing may not be believing,” Zhao Hanzhang smiled. “For this kind of thing, just watch what they do afterward. I never rashly judge their thoughts.”
“However, intelligence is still very important. The palace truly needs to add some personnel—one group to serve, and another group to assist in managing state affairs.” Zhao Hanzhang said: “After the New Year, we’ll make a public announcement across the realm to recruit talented people.”
“Now that the realm is temporarily stable, there should be more people coming to take the examination than in previous years.” She rubbed her chin: “We need to leak some information, have the capital’s inns, restaurants, and such prepare.”
But these matters could be done slowly, because there was still plenty of time.
With the palace banquet over, Zhao Hanzhang decided to have a happy, joyful New Year. The first thing was to sleep until she woke naturally.
As a result, her biological clock was too precise, causing her to wake up on time every morning.
Fortunately, the weather was cold. Lying in bed listening to the whooshing north wind outside, she actually felt at peace. Though she still couldn’t fall back asleep, she didn’t want to get up either. She simply lay in bed counting on her fingers which letters she hadn’t received yet and which she hadn’t replied to this New Year.
Counting and counting, her finger was grasped by Fu Tinghan: “What are you counting?”
“Counting the letters I must complete before the seventh day.” Zhao Hanzhang pillowed both hands behind her head, sighing: “Now that I’m suddenly leisurely, I’m actually a bit unaccustomed. How about we go hunting after we eat?”
Fu Tinghan: “Today is the first day.”
“True, the first day isn’t suitable for killing,” Zhao Hanzhang gave up. “Forget it, let’s just stay home and play. Today the shops and workshops outside are also closed, otherwise we could go out and observe the people’s livelihood, or go to the glass workshop to test telescope lenses.”
For three consecutive days, Zhao Hanzhang and Fu Tinghan just visited relatives, ate with family, and met guests who came to pay New Year calls. Sometimes when they were too lazy to receive visitors, they just had the gatekeeper accept the gifts, record the names, serve the visitors a cup of hot tea, then send them away.
For the gifts received, regardless of whether they were valuable or not, she accepted them all. Unwrapping gifts became the happiest part of each day.
This leisurely and happy life only lasted four days. On the morning of the fifth day, Zhao Hanzhang mounted her horse, bringing Zhao Erlang, Zeng Yue, and others to go hunting outside the city.
Fu Tinghan didn’t want to ride a horse and brave the wind. Knowing his archery wasn’t good enough to hunt animals in winter, though he followed them out of the city, he turned around and brought his guard team to the glass workshop to work on lenses.
—