They Are Saying You Are a Puppet Emperor.
Lu Ronghuai did not care in the least about what was happening in Ye Jing.
Even though, in essence, the matter had to do with him.
He had not even remembered who Noble Consort Ning was when Nie Siran brought it up.
A person who had long since become a passerby in his life was not worth the effort of his attention. Because of that, he forgot the matter almost as soon as he heard it.
His not caring did not mean others would let the matter pass so easily.
As Prince Li’s birth mother, Imperial Consort Ning publicly announced before the imperial clan that she was severing the mother-son bond with him. It stirred up a monstrous wave in Ye Jing.
Since the founding of the dynasty, such a thing had never happened.
To call it shocking would not be too much.
For a time, not only were the court historians enraged and turning all blame toward Lu Ronghuai, even the common people also began pointing fingers and passing judgment on Prince Li.
What mother would dislike her own child?
Even his birth mother had stepped forward to draw a clear line between them.
Prince Li must have done something truly excessive, something that left Imperial Consort Ning heartbroken and disappointed, before she would choose to sever the bond between mother and son.
When that was linked with all the uproar of the past half year, the story spread and changed, until quite a number of people even began praising Imperial Consort Ning for possessing the mettle of a heroine, for being fair and selfless. They even wrote many poems in her praise.
Listening to the report from the guard commander, Empress Dowager Xu reclined against her noble couch and smiled in graceful satisfaction, her expression full of certainty.
Her special “care” toward that woman Ning Shurui these past days had not been in vain. Who knew what that woman was thinking? She had severed ties the instant she was told to. It had saved Empress Dowager Xu no small amount of trouble.
It was truly enough to make one’s heart open in delight.
When the people’s hearts turned away and even mother and son became divided, then what of it if he took the Six Kingdoms?
Would he not still be like a rat crossing the street, cursed by ten thousand mouths?
Even if he coveted the throne and even if his intentions were treacherous, what then?
His name was not right, and his words could not follow.
In the end, he had still lost.
Empress Dowager Xu felt that all the irritation of recent days had vanished. Her vivid lips lifted as she beckoned toward the guard commander outside.
“Go to Prince Qi’s residence and deliver this Dowager’s decree. Have Prince Qi lead troops to reinforce the south.”
The guard commander was now one of Empress Dowager Xu’s trusted confidants. Hearing this, he was startled for a moment. Unable to suppress the doubt in his heart, he asked, “Is Prince Qi fit to lead troops?”
Setting aside the matter of his broken leg, in these past years he had passed his days in drunken indulgence within his residence. He had truly become a genuine wine sack and rice bag.
Empress Dowager Xu gave a cold laugh. “The imperial house has fed him for so many years. It is time for him to put forth a little strength.”
The guard commander said, “Yet with Prince Qi’s ability, I fear he will not be able to hold the south...”
“What this Dowager wants,” Empress Dowager Xu said, a calculating look flashing through her eyes as the smile on her lips grew colder and deeper, “is precisely for him to fail to hold the south.”
At the sight of this, the guard commander felt a chill run down his back. He did not dare ask another question and hurriedly accepted the order before taking his leave.
Seeing that the weather was fine, and as her own mood was good as well, Empress Dowager Xu very much wished to walk about the palace.
She therefore summoned the palace maid who attended closely upon her and instructed, “Prepare the sedan. This Dowager will go take a look at Taide Hall.”
The palace maid answered in assent and stepped forward carefully to support her. In her heart, however, she could not help but mutter to herself that the person residing in Taide Hall was none other than the Retired Emperor. Ever since the Fourth Prince ascended the throne, the Empress Dowager had ordered the Retired Emperor moved to Taide Hall, yet afterward she had gone there only rarely.
One could say that the Retired Emperor now was no more than a man hanging on by one breath. The only reason he had managed to last until now was because the palace held many precious medicines. Otherwise, with a body hollowed out by elixir pills, the Retired Emperor would have long since breathed his last.
These were words she did not dare speak aloud. After supporting Empress Dowager Xu into Taide Hall, she bowed and withdrew.
Empress Dowager Xu dismissed every palace servant, then slowly walked to the bedside in the inner hall. The chamber was dim, the windows shut tight, and there lingered in the air a smell that could not quite be described.
Her brows and eyes bore the traces of years. With cold eyes, she looked toward the person lying insensible upon the bed.
Emperor Hongjia was still alive, though his breath was so weak it could almost be overlooked. He could no longer speak nor could he open his eyes. Day after day, he lay upon the bed like a living corpse.
Empress Dowager Xu took out an embroidered handkerchief and wiped away the layer of dust from the bed’s edge. Expressionless, she sat down and stared at Emperor Hongjia’s face.
A long silence passed.
“Your Majesty.” She still addressed him in this way, yet unlike the soft and tender cadence of former days, the tone in which she now spoke those words was calm as dead water.
She began speaking of the past in a quiet, unbroken stream.
“This concubine married Your Majesty at eighteen, and in the blink of an eye, so many years have passed.”
“Back then, Empress Liu, Noble Consort Fang, and this concubine entered the residence in the same year. We were all young then. Three women vying against one another, each refusing to yield to the others, each determined to come out first.”
As she spoke, she lifted the hand adorned with nail guards and pulled the quilt covering Emperor Hongjia a little higher.
“The three of us fought for several years. Noble Consort Fang and Empress Liu each bore imperial sons one after the other. This concubine alone bore only a daughter, and truly suffered every slight and every sneer...”
“This concubine’s days were not easy. For three years, this concubine waited hand and foot upon Empress Liu. This concubine had thought that so long as I tried just a little harder, Your Majesty would eventually see what was good in me. Yet regrettably...”
“This concubine still remembers to this day the appearance Your Majesty wore when you returned from court that day, so full of joy that you could not contain it.”
“Apart from the time of Your Majesty’s ascension, that was the second time this concubine saw such a happy smile upon Your Majesty’s face. This concubine could not help asking what happy event had occurred.”
At this point, Empress Dowager Xu gave a self-mocking laugh. “Only on that day did this concubine understand that when Your Majesty liked someone, you too could be happy like a callow youth.”
Yet that liking had not been directed toward her.
“Your Majesty liked Ning Shurui, yet that woman was a fool. That Your Majesty could look favorably upon her was her good fortune, but she would not appreciate it.”
Empress Dowager Xu recalled that proud and beautiful woman and gave another mocking laugh.
After Ning Shurui entered the palace, where in Emperor Hongjia’s eyes was there room left for anyone else?
Even though that woman never showed him a pleasant face, he still went to Mingwei Palace every day, thinking up every possible method to coax her into happiness.
At the thought of this, Empress Dowager Xu’s expression gradually darkened.
Looking at Emperor Hongjia’s deathly still face, she said bitterly, “Your Majesty was truly cruel. That woman bore Lu Ronghuai, and Your Majesty all but wished to hand even the position of Crown Prince to him. As for this concubine, this concubine risked life itself to bear Rongze, yet Your Majesty would not even give him a glance!”
When she reached the final words, Empress Dowager Xu suddenly raised her voice, almost shouting the words at the man on the bed.
Her breath came fast with anger. Once it had finally evened out again, a smile quickly appeared upon her face.
“Fortunately, all of that has passed. Your Majesty, yours was also rather a pitiful life. The woman you liked did not love you, and as for the son you favored... heh, he too will not go on leaping about for much longer.”
“The rivers and mountains of Lu Kingdom can only belong to this Dowager’s son.”
After venting herself before Emperor Hongjia’s bed, Empress Dowager Xu left Taide Hall feeling refreshed in both spirit and mood.
She turned and went straight to Lu Rongze’s place.
Yet she was informed that the Seventh Prince had come to speak with him about a matter, and that after listening for a long time, Lu Rongze had become too weary in spirit and had already gone to rest.
Empress Dowager Xu thought of Lu Rongze’s pale and colorless face. Her lips moved, and she gave a sigh. “If he is resting, then this Dowager will not disturb him. Prince Ping has already left?”
Prince Ping was precisely the Seventh Prince, Lu Rongbo.
The eunuch answered in the affirmative.
Empress Dowager Xu did not linger any longer, but departed with the people attending her.
Only after she had gone completely out of sight did the eunuch turn around and respectfully knock once upon the hall doors.
Inside the room, Xu Zhizhi set down the book in her hands and let out a breath. Half in jest, she said, “That was close. Aunt nearly came in.”
Lu Rongze sat by the window. He seemed somewhat lost in thought, and no one knew what he had been looking at. After quite some time, he still gave no response.
“Cousin?” Xu Zhizhi called.
Lu Rongze returned to himself and slowly turned his head to look at her.
Seeing that his face had grown so gaunt it was almost without flesh, the faint smile upon Xu Zhizhi’s lips also faded. She drew in a light breath and solemnly promised, “The matter Cousin entrusted to me, Zhizhi will certainly accomplish.”
Lu Rongze looked no better than the half-dead Emperor Hongjia. His face was dry and withered, his eyes sunken deep, and his body so thin it seemed a gust of wind might blow him away.
Such a man, already ill past the point where medicine could reach him, a man of whom even the Imperial Medical Bureau had once said he would not survive beyond a few months, had stubbornly endured until now and drawn sigh after sigh from all who saw it.
Yet looking at the ashen withered color of his face, Xu Zhizhi still could not help feeling somewhat soft-hearted. She had always been bold. Thus, at once, she spoke her true thoughts aloud.
“Cousin, why not... simply stop being Emperor?”
Lu Rongze merely looked at her quietly. Those eyes were too calm, without even the slightest ripple.
Xu Zhizhi said, “To be Emperor is exhausting. Every day one must rise early and rest late, and the matters to be handled never end. Cousin’s body should be properly nursed. Perhaps you might yet improve.”
“At present, Cousin keeps his doors shut and will not appear, and all great power lies in Aunt’s hands. Outside, they are all saying...”
“Saying what?” Lu Rongze parted his lips. His voice was hoarse.
“Saying... saying... that you are a puppet Emperor.” After speaking, Xu Zhizhi shrank her neck a little.
No sooner had the words left her mouth than regret arose within her. Because of that one sentence, the atmosphere in the hall fell into silence.
After a while.
Lu Rongze, however, let out a faint laugh. Then he slowly turned his head back again to look toward the white clouds at the horizon.
“It grows late. Go back.”
“Cousin...” Xu Zhizhi twisted her fingers together, uneasy. “I am sorry. Zhizhi spoke wrongly.”
“You did not speak wrongly.”
“But...”
“Go back.”
After Xu Zhizhi returned, she learned that Prince Qi was to lead troops out to war.
It was said that after Prince Qi received the imperial edict, he cursed loudly within his residence. Had his legs not failed him, and had there not been guards stopping him, he would have rushed straight into the palace to raise a great uproar.
Prince Qi made a great scene, yet three days later he was still helped onto a carriage and sent south with eighty thousand soldiers.
At present, only Chu Kingdom’s troops remained in the south. Without Duan Kingdom’s support, the pace of their attacks upon the cities had clearly slowed. Several times, the fighting reached a deadlock, and Chu Kingdom did not gain any real advantage.
By the time Lu Ronghuai had led troops to seize half the cities of Liu Kingdom, he could no longer remain seated. He wrote a letter to the ruler of Duan Kingdom.
When the two of them had first formed their alliance, he had spent no small amount of effort. Later, they had even performed a play together with Duan Kingdom and successfully fouled Lu Ronghuai’s name.
Now, though Lu Ronghuai’s offensive was fierce, he had already lost the hearts of the people. So long as they added another armful of firewood to the flames, Lu Ronghuai would find it difficult to ever turn matters around.
Yet Duan Kingdom, which by all rights should have acted according to plan and coordinated with him from within and without, had for some reason been strangely quiet during this past half month, without the slightest movement at all.
He was anxious as if fire were burning his heart. Only then did he write to ask about the situation.
After waiting about five days, the ruler of Duan Kingdom’s urgent reply reached him.
Along with the letter came a square brocade box.
The box was exquisitely made and of fine materials, one of the superior gift boxes used only when the Six Kingdoms presented tribute.
The ruler of Chu Kingdom set the letter aside and impatiently opened the lid first.
“Ah!”
In the next instant, the lid of the box smashed to the floor with a slap. The ruler of Chu Kingdom fell backward onto his royal seat, cold sweat pouring from him as he was frightened by the rotting, stinking head inside.
The eunuchs and palace maids in the hall also screamed and all hid behind the pillars.
The ruler of Chu Kingdom stared fixedly at the head in the box. The flesh of his fat face twitched because of his extreme panic. With trembling hands, he reached for the letter.
His hands shook so badly that he tore three times before he finally opened the envelope.
The ruler of Duan Kingdom’s reply was very brief.
There were only four characters.
“Resign oneself to fate.”
As for the owner of that head, it was none other than the ruler of Liu Kingdom.
Lu Ronghuai had sent men to deliver it to the ruler of Duan Kingdom. How could the ruler of Duan Kingdom fail to understand that this was Lu Ronghuai’s warning? After weighing it over and over, he decided not to continue helping Chu Kingdom attack Lu Kingdom together.
Because of that, after the ruler of Chu Kingdom’s letter arrived, he passed that head along to him as a gift in return.
Staring at those four characters, the ruler of Chu Kingdom tore the letter to pieces in fury.
“Someone, go summon Liu Mingyue!” the ruler of Chu Kingdom roared.
The palace servants were badly frightened and crawled away in a panic to summon him.
Before long, Liu Mingyue hurried over.
At a glance, he saw the rotting head placed upon the table. His expression paused, and then he bowed toward the ruler of Chu Kingdom.
“For what matter has Your Majesty summoned me?”
The ruler of Chu Kingdom’s expression was dark. “Liu Mingyue, This Ruler was willing to save you because this Ruler saw that you hated Lu Ronghuai as much as I did. As the saying goes, the enemy of one’s enemy is one’s friend. This Ruler erased the traces of your flight and sheltered you in Chu Kingdom. Yet in the end, is this how you repay this Ruler?!”
Liu Mingyue said, “Mingyue bears the grace of Your Majesty’s rescue deeply in heart. I would go through boiling water and tread through fire without refusing. It is only that Mingyue does not understand what Your Majesty means by these words.”
The ruler of Chu Kingdom gave a heavy snort. “You had this Ruler form an alliance with Duan Kingdom and attack Lu Kingdom’s southern border while they were off guard. Now the southern front is half fought, yet still there has been no progress. Meanwhile, Lu Ronghuai has already taken half of the Six Kingdoms. Before long, will this Ruler not end up just like him?!”
The ruler of Chu Kingdom pointed at that head, his expression full of agitation.
Liu Mingyue glanced at the putrid skull and smiled, “Your Majesty may set your mind at ease. Matters have not yet reached their worst point. There is still a chance to turn the tide.”
“How are we to turn it?”
Liu Mingyue smiled with composure, though hidden beneath that smile was malice.
“In the shaping of war, avoid what is solid, strike what is hollow.”
✧ A Word from the Author ✧
Lu Ronghuai: Speak plainly.
0 Comments