Zhu Yijun walked out of Cining Palace, deep in thought.
That little performance had finally settled Empress Dowager Li — even, one could say, slipped into the gap she left open and made himself, for the moment, the support she leaned on.
And he had forced the answer out of her mouth.
What surprised him was that Empress Dowager Chen's banishment to the cold palace truly had nothing to do with Empress Dowager Li.
According to Li, she had never once moved against this elder sister of hers.
Under the circumstances just now, and knowing Empress Dowager Li as he did, she would not lie.
So there must be some other reason behind it...
Perhaps he really did have to dig something out of Chen Mingyan.
Yesterday he had not understood what Chen Mingyan's move was meant to convey.
Thinking back on it now, the man had plainly been declaring his position to him.
He hoped Chen Mingyan knew something. Not knowing what Empress Dowager Chen wanted left him far too passive.
Even after the killing was done, he would still have to bring this principal mother of his around; otherwise, without an edict issued jointly by the emperor and the Two Palaces, dismissing Gao Gong was by no means certain.
Best would be to prescribe the right remedy — to understand what she actually needed.
If he had to give ground, then at least he needed to know the root of it, so he could decide whether to let her live out her years in peace, or keep her in Changle Palace as an Immortal Master called Jingci, or let her sicken with worry and waste away into an early grave some years hence.
Spinning these idle thoughts, Zhu Yijun returned to Qianqing Palace.
...
After the evening meal, Zhu Yijun leafed through the files the Embroidered Uniform Guard had set aside for him while he waited patiently for Chen Mingyan.
Zhu Xixiao had sent over every scrap of writing concerning Empress Dowager Chen.
There were volumes upon volumes; he could never finish them in any short stretch of time.
Zhang Hong stood beside him holding the lamp, when he suddenly heard the emperor's voice: “Elder Zhang, I hear that around the time my mother Chen was sent to the cold palace, Chen Hong and Feng Bao fought each other bitterly?”
Long used to this Emperor's habit of splitting his attention, Zhang Hong now kept himself ready for questions at any moment.
He answered softly: “Yes, Your Majesty, there was such a thing. This servant heard the two of them nearly came to blows in the Directorate of Ceremonial's duty office.”
Zhu Yijun was taken aback. The Director of the Eastern Depot and the Seal-Keeper of the Directorate of Ceremonial brawling — what kind of martial-arts-film scene was that.
Curious, he asked: “So little regard for dignity?”
Zhang Hong explained: “Their grudge ran too deep.”
“There was an old grievance from Prince Yu's estate, and a new enmity from the palace.”
“At the time, Chen Hong offered beauties to the late emperor to win his favor. Before they ever reached the late emperor's presence, Feng Bao claimed they seemed to carry some pestilence and had his Eastern Depot men dispose of every one of them.”
Hearing this, Zhu Yijun suddenly remembered: it was said that Chen Hong and Meng Chong had courted the late emperor with beauties — so had Feng Bao done the same?
As soon as the doubt arose, he asked it aloud.
Zhang Hong weighed his words, then spoke cautiously: “Grand Eunuch Feng relies on Lady Li's favor. Why would he present beauties and divide the imperial grace against himself?”
The meaning was clear enough: if a beauty were offered and bore a dragon son, what then? The late emperor had only the two sons to begin with, and both were Empress Dowager Li's. With the outcome so certain, why would Feng Bao, who was Empress Dowager Li's man, stir up trouble for nothing.
As for Chen Hong, Meng Chong and the rest... the principal consort they leaned on was plainly barren, so what scruples would they have left?
Zhu Yijun nodded. He understood.
Then he asked: “So it's only Chen Hong and Feng Bao fighting? Is there anyone behind them...”
To spare the person he respected, he did not say it outright.
Zhang Hong thought a while, choosing his phrasing for some time: “Your Majesty, in the inner court's struggles, one always looks to who stands behind a man. Even those who never step onto the field themselves, everyone is thinking of them.”
The veiled meaning was that even if Empress Dowager Li never entered the fight, Feng Bao was still her man.
Let the ones below scramble against each other as they might; in the end, the account would still be charged to whoever stood above them.
Zhu Yijun sighed. This was exactly what he feared.
If it was over some honorary title or some power, then anything could be negotiated.
What he feared was that some old grudge or some fixed obsession lay inside it.
Zhu Yijun was still brooding when Jiang Keqian came in from the outer room.
“Your Majesty, Chen Mingyan requests an audience.”
Zhu Yijun came back to himself.
He nodded: “Let him in.”
With that, he rose and stretched.
He signaled Zhang Hong to gather up the confidential files on the desk.
Zhang Hong tidied them away nimbly, held them to his chest, and withdrew without a sound.
...
Chen Mingyan followed close on Jiang Keqian's heels.
He tried to strike up some familiarity with this colleague of the Guard and received nothing but silence.
He was even more terrified.
What had happened inside and outside the palace today was, by tacit agreement, left unspoken on the surface.
But anyone of sufficient standing understood how vast the consequences were.
The emperor had likely already conceived a hatred for the Chen family.
“Commander Chen, His Majesty is within. Go straight in.”
Jiang Keqian's voice cut through Chen Mingyan's thoughts.
Chen Mingyan thanked him, turned, and went in.
Before entering the hall he had been searched from head to toe, and even the standard-issue shoes of the Guard had been exchanged for another pair — distrust taken to its extreme.
Walking through the rather empty hall, Chen Mingyan felt especially uneasy.
Only when he came near did he see a young sovereign seated behind the imperial desk.
He risked a single glance and did not dare look again.
Chen Mingyan stepped quickly forward: “Chen Mingyan, Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, pays his respects to Your Majesty!”
Zhu Yijun raised his eyes to this commander.
He slowly set down the document in his hand and said, puzzled: “Commander Chen, your family is already preparing to rebel — why offer me such courtesy?”
Chen Mingyan's heart missed a beat.
Forgetting even the breath that was nearly stopping in his chest, he hurried to cry his innocence: “Your Majesty! My Chen family has received the boundless grace of the throne. We are cautious and meticulous, treading on thin ice, never daring the slightest transgression!”
“Why does Your Majesty say such a thing!”
Zhu Yijun shook his head, not bothering to look at him: “Oh... Commander Chen still wants to soothe me, and then deliver a thunderbolt.”
Chen Mingyan could bear the pressure no longer, and at last laid his cards on the table: “Your Majesty! My Chen family knew nothing of the empress dowager's move. I beg Your Majesty to see clearly!”
Since he was done circling, Zhu Yijun stopped pressing.
He asked directly: “You scoundrel — as one family, we shouldn't speak as if we were two separate households. We share the good times and the hard ones together; that isn't something you can shrug off with a single sentence.”
The empress dowager held the upper hand now. Why not go latch onto her? Why instead throw flirty looks at me?
Chen Mingyan said hoarsely: “The empress dowager cannot bear children, but my Chen family's branches are still fairly flourishing.”
The words were as blunt as words could be.
He saw it plainly too: whatever the empress dowager was doing, however fully she basked in favor now, the Chen family would come to grief in the end. His declaration today was for the sake of saving himself.
Zhu Yijun accepted the reason inwardly, but still clicked his tongue: “So you're hedging your bets on both sides.”
He waited a while, and no further sound came from Chen Mingyan.
Curious, he looked down at the man kneeling there.
Suddenly Chen Mingyan struck his head three times against the floor.
“Your Majesty's suspicion has its causes, and this servant has nothing to argue against it,” he said firmly. “This servant is willing to cut open his heart and spill his brains on the ground for Your Majesty, to atone for his crime with merit!”
“If Your Majesty's heavenly grace deems this servant's trifling merit sufficient to atone, then when Your Majesty has my Chen family executed to the last man, I ask only that Your Majesty remember this servant and spare the few lives of my own branch.”
“And if this servant's trifling merit is not enough to atone — then my Chen family has sought its own death!”
“This servant will have no complaint!”
Zhu Yijun was silent.
He could not help being a little disappointed.
He had placed some hope in this younger brother of Empress Dowager Chen coming to him with a trump card in hand.
Even a trade of interests, a negotiation from a position of leverage — anything?
A pity. Once the man had laid everything bare, there was nothing at all.
As for whether he was hedging on both sides, that hardly seemed important now.
Zhu Yijun sighed: “Get up.”
“First tell me what your declaration to me yesterday was about. If you noticed something, why not say so earlier?”
Chen Mingyan stayed on his knees.
He recounted it exactly: “This servant only noticed that Chen Hong repeatedly did things in the empress dowager's name outside the palace.”
“This servant wanted only to make the man behave himself, and not bring disaster down on my Chen family.”
“Declaring myself to Your Majesty was only to draw a clear line between myself and the likes of Chen Hong.”
“As for the empress dowager... this servant truly did not foresee it.”
Zhu Yijun frowned.
If you knew nothing, what use are you to me? Is one commander of the Guard going to be missed?
He pressed on: “Didn't foresee it? That doesn't sound like family.”
You are kin to her, after all — does she care nothing at all for the lives of you and yours?
Chen Mingyan straightened and, with a complicated expression, explained: “Does Your Majesty know that Empress Dowager Chen was moved to a separate palace in the third year of Longqing?”
Zhu Yijun nodded.
Chen Mingyan's expression turned pained: “The late emperor once had it in mind to depose his empress!”
Zhu Yijun showed no expression.
He understood what Chen Mingyan meant.
Being moved to a separate palace was in itself the treatment of a deposed empress; Emperor Shizong's deposed Empress Zhang had been “deposed and confined to a separate palace.”
In the third year of his reign the late emperor had packed the Lady Chen off to a separate palace. Once the clamor subsided and the moment came, deposition would follow — it was only that the late emperor died quickly.
Which meant that for two and a half years, Empress Dowager Chen had lived in constant dread of being deposed at any moment.
So toward the birth family that had spoken up to excuse the late emperor and quiet the censors' outcry, she could hardly feel anything but a chest full of resentment.
Zhu Yijun let out a slow sigh and asked: “Then in your view, what does my mother Chen want?”
Power and rank were unlikely — was it a matter of venting her spite?
But the late emperor was already gone; she couldn't hold a grudge against him and want to secretly mutilate his corpse to vent her anger?
Anyone with a halfway normal mind shouldn't be that mad.
Chen Mingyan paused, weighed his words a long while, terrified of saying the wrong thing: “Does Your Majesty know that this servant's wife is a daughter of the Earl of Deping?”
Zhu Yijun nodded.
Li Ming, the Earl of Deping, was the Imperial Father-in-Law who had died just a few days ago, before his enthronement — the father of the late emperor's principal consort.
That made Chen Mingyan and the late emperor brothers-in-law by marriage.
Chen Mingyan went on: “So I occasionally hear certain palace rumors, especially about offspring.”
Only after this groundwork did Chen Mingyan finally come to the point: “In the forty-first year of Jiajing, both of the present dowagers were with child. The next year, Empress Dowager Li bore Your Majesty, and Empress Dowager Chen did not.”
Zhu Yijun shot to his feet!
He stared Chen Mingyan down: “You mean...”
Chen Mingyan begged pardon, yet would not give way: “My sister is suspicious by nature, and after failing to bear a child she grew even more withdrawn. It was inevitable...”
“Enough!”
A cold rebuke.
Zhu Yijun cut Chen Mingyan off abruptly.
His expression shifted between light and dark.
He finally understood why Empress Dowager Chen carried such deep resentment, and why she had been willing to run such a risk by colluding with Gao Gong.
That whole ugly account — the barrenness, the move to the separate palace, all of it had in all likelihood been charged to Empress Dowager Li's head!
And the woman might well have taken the notion of killing the mother and raising the son herself...
She was truly mad.
He said stiffly: “Have your mother enter the palace tomorrow. These next few days she should go often to keep my mother Chen company.”
“And go make contact with Chen Hong. When the time is right, I'll have Jiang Keqian find you.”
Chen Mingyan paused a moment, then assented quietly.
Seeing that no further sound came from above, he withdrew with careful respect.
Not until he had left the hall did all sound cease.
...
The seventeenth day of the sixth month.
Gao Gong stood once again at the head of the court's ranks.
Liu Ziqiang, the Minister of Justice who had collapsed yesterday from exhaustion, did not attend the deliberation.
Though he claimed to have recovered, Gao Gong had considerately told him to rest a few days more.
Attending in his place was Vice Minister of Justice Cao Jin, also Gao Gong's in-law.
Likewise, Tang Lian, the censor who yesterday called Gao Gong deranged, today also claimed illness and stayed at home.
He said only that he had unfortunately come down with a bout of madness and needed a few days to recover.
Apart from these two, the rest of the court went on as usual.
As if nothing had happened at all, they gathered once more beneath Gao Gong's gate.
Once the deliberation began, Gao Gong presented again the “Five Urgent Matters of the New Administration.”
He said that after the sagely emperor and his fellow officials had filled in the gaps, certain things had been altered — a few passages repunctuated, some synonyms swapped out.
Then he openly laid it before his colleagues for deliberation, and respectfully submitted it to the emperor for perusal.
Lü Diaoyang, Feng Bao, and Wang Guoguang all kept silent.
The imperial steps were quiet today as well.
Afterward, Vice Minister of Justice Cao Jin, Censor-in-Chief Ge Shouli, and others stepped out to voice their approval.
Seeing that more than half agreed, Gao Gong drafted the rescript approving the proposal.
From start to finish, Lü Diaoyang and the others were never given a chance to speak.
Yesterday the emperor had pushed the memorial back on the grounds that it had not won half the court's support.
Today Gao Gong put the memorial through by drafted rescript on the grounds that half the court approved.
In the span of that single exchange, the east wind had turned into the west wind.
The wavering officials took up their hymns of praise again, declaring that these five matters would sweep away the decay and open the beginning of reform.
Then Han Ji of the Office of Transmission replied to Feng Bao that the Senior Grand Secretary Gao Gong's memorial requesting retirement had been held back by the Two Palaces and the emperor, and not issued.
Gao Gong sighed deeply, called himself old and feeble, unequal to such weighty charge, and asked again in open court to retire.
The officials all begged him to stay.
Han Ji of the Office of Transmission then presented memorials from the provincial supreme commanders and grand coordinators, such as Grand Coordinator Wang Daokun of Huguang and Supreme Commander Yin Zhengmao of Liangguang, petitioning for Gao Gong to be kept on.
Likewise, Vice Directors Mu Wenxi and Cheng Wen of the Ministry of Personnel, Secretary Xu Fuyuan of the Ministry of Personnel, the censors Li Chunpu, Du Huazhong, Hu Jun, Desheng, Shi Xuan, Liu Yuerui, and Zhang Ji, and the Left and Right Supervising Secretaries Tu Menggui, Yang Rong, Zhou Yun, and Zhang Bo — eighty-six officials in all — signed a joint petition for Gao Gong to stay.
Right Vice Commissioners He Yongqing and Han Ji of the Office of Transmission, Left Vice Minister Liu Siwen and Right Vice Minister Song Liangzuo of the Court of Judicial Review, Vice Ministers Liu Bo and Chen Xingjian of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, Vice Ministers Dong Yaofeng, Chen Lianfang, and Li Youzi of the Court of the Imperial Stud, and Vice Prefect Liu Yaohui of Shuntian Prefecture, among others, submitted that with the sovereign young and the state in doubt, the Senior Grand Secretary must not withdraw to spare his own body.
In addition, twenty-six officials from the Southern Metropolitan Region and elsewhere — Minister of Works Chen Shaoru, Minister of Rites Qin Minglei, Chancellor of the Imperial Academy Wan Hao, and others — echoed them from afar.
The momentum was enormous.
The emperor answered in his own voice, earnestly and sincerely begging the Senior Grand Secretary Gao Gong to stay.
Gao Gong could not refuse, and had no choice but to remain in office.
Afterward.
An earthquake struck Ningxia; Senior Grand Secretary Gao Gong asked for disaster relief, and the emperor approved.
Zaihuang, Prince Heng, died; the Ministry of Rites submitted that his posthumous name be Zhuang, and the emperor approved.
Senior Grand Secretary Gao Gong requested that Minister of Works Zhu Heng supervise the river works and take charge of imperial tomb affairs, and the emperor approved.
Senior Grand Secretary Gao Gong requested the dispatch of Censor Zhou Yude of the Jiangxi Circuit to supervise the Lianghuai salt revenues and oversee the rivers as well, and the emperor approved.
Feng Bao of the Directorate of Ceremonial stood quietly on the imperial steps, without a word, like a man made of glass.
Halfway through the deliberation.
Chen Hong entered Wenhua Hall carrying the memorial of Empress Dowager Chen's reply.
It was, plainly, approval of the honorary titles proposed by the Ministry of Rites.
Gao Gong did not consult the Directorate of Ceremonial either; he reported it to the emperor in open court and asked for his personal reply.
The emperor assented gladly.
He said:
For the Two Palaces' honorary titles, we look up the old precedents. Among them, only Emperor Xianzong honored his principal mother the empress as Empress Dowager Ciyi, and his birth mother the Imperial Noble Consort as Empress Dowager.
The matter of today is exactly the same. Therefore, honor the emperor's principal mother the Empress Dowager as Empress Dowager Rensheng.
Honor the emperor's birth mother the Empress Dowager as Empress Dowager.
The deliberation ended.
Gao Gong, court tablet in hand, bowed down and cried out that this was a sage emperor and enlightened sovereign, and the assembled officials joined in the shout.
The emperor exhorted them earnestly, and bestowed loquats on the Grand Secretaries, the lecturing officials, and all of the third rank and above.
Then the court withdrew.
...
The duty office of the Ministry of Rites.
Lü Diaoyang sat behind the desk, staring blankly.
Sure enough, his own skill was still too shallow.
Zhang Juzheng's wisdom — he could not match it.
The emperor's scheming — he could not fathom it.
Gao Gong's methods — he could not even see their dust.
Now everything the New Faction had undertaken had been ruined in his hands.
Far from retiring in peace, Gao Gong even stood poised to take the whole of the court into his grasp.
If Zhang Juzheng returned, he did not know how he would face him.
“Minister Lü, the Senior Grand Secretary asks you to come over.”
The abrupt voice startled Lü Diaoyang awake.
He looked up sharply: “The Senior Grand Secretary?”
The official nodded.
Lü Diaoyang rose slowly, put on his court cap with stiff formality, and pushed the door open.
He had assumed he was to go to the Grand Secretariat's main hall.
But as soon as he stepped outside, he saw Gao Gong standing not far off by the pond, hands clasped behind his back, gazing up at the clear sky.
Lü Diaoyang slowed his steps and walked over to Gao Gong's side.
He imitated him and lifted his head too, following Gao Gong's line of sight.
Saying as he did: “Even when gazing into the distance, the Senior Grand Secretary ought to look at his feet more, lest he step into the pond.”
Gao Gong knew Lü Diaoyang had come.
He made no unnecessary movement, and merely said: “Heqing, the moment I see these wild geese, my heart flies off with them.”
“When a wild goose crosses ten thousand li of clear sky, I doubt it has any mind to lower its head and take one look at this little pond below.”
Lü Diaoyang shook his head: “I'm afraid the Senior Grand Secretary will fall into the pond and startle the fish in it.”
Gao Gong smiled: “Come, walk with me a while.”
The two had been walking one behind the other; Lü Diaoyang quickened his pace and forced himself level with Gao Gong.
Gao Gong did not mind, and went on: “Yan Jidao once wrote a line — the wild goose in the clouds, the fish in the water.”
“This goose and this fish, one in the sky, one in the water below. How am I to keep an eye on both?”
Lü Diaoyang shook his head: “The wild goose flies far, and the light never reaches it; the fish and dragons dive and leap, and the water writes patterns.”
The two traded veiled thrusts and parries like this, neither yielding.
Seeing that Lü Diaoyang would not relent, Gao Gong nodded in appreciation: “I know your resolve, and that it cannot be shaken.”
Gao Gong turned his face toward Lü Diaoyang: “Heqing, would you enter the Grand Secretariat?”
Lü Diaoyang was startled.
That Zhang Juzheng wanted him in the Grand Secretariat was to be expected.
That the emperor tried to draw him in yesterday was also within reason.
Why had Gao Gong suddenly taken a mind to bring him in as well!?
They were still squared off against each other!
Lü Diaoyang asked instinctively: “The Senior Grand Secretary can still make room for me?”
Gao Gong smiled broadly: “I can make room for the whole Shanxi Faction, and Wang Chonggu will still enter the Grand Secretariat — how much more you?”
“As for the new laws, I was carrying that banner before Zhang Juzheng.”
Lü Diaoyang was silent.
He had already prepared to retire, and never expected this... Gao Gong's breadth of mind truly won him over.
He did not disguise his admiration: “I thought the Senior Grand Secretary meant to drive out all who would not submit and hold the whole court alone.”
Gao Gong shook his head: “I've done all this precisely so that men like you and me can act without restraint and put the new laws into practice.”
Lü Diaoyang had even less to say.
For a while neither spoke; they simply walked on.
Gao Gong did not press him, only waited quietly.
They walked nearly half an hour, and the sun gradually slanted west.
Then Gao Gong, looking about at his ease, suddenly caught sight of Zhang Hong's figure.
He thought a moment, then called out to stop him: “Where is Grand Eunuch Zhang off to?”
Seeing that it was Gao Gong and Lü Diaoyang, Zhang Hong hastily saluted: “Senior Grand Secretary. Minister Lü.”
“His Majesty's and the Two Palaces' oral order.”
“Grand Secretary Zhang Juzheng and the others have returned from Mount Tianshou. An edict orders the tomb of the departed emperor to be built at Dayu Mountain, and Grand Secretary Zhang and the rest are each rewarded twenty taels of silver according to precedent.”
Lü Diaoyang blurted out: “Grand Secretary Zhang is back!?”
Chapter 41