Chapter 176: The Bridal Chamber

In the great hall of the palace, joyful red silk hung high everywhere, along with countless red palace lanterns.

Stepping into the bedchamber, Zhu Youxiao saw Empress Zhang seated on the carved wooden bed, as quiet as a white orchid waiting to be plucked.

According to palace custom, even the consummation that followed was attended by someone at the Emperor's side.

At this moment, quite a few waiting maids stood in the room.

But Zhu Youxiao had no habit of letting people watch; he waved his hand and sent them away.

Empress Zhang then rose to her feet, her small face slightly flushed, and walked softly to Zhu Youxiao's side to pay respects to her Emperor, her husband.

Zhu Youxiao reached out and helped the petite Empress Zhang to her feet.

Both of them were now dressed in casual robes, having already changed when they drank the nuptial cup.

Looking at Empress Zhang before him, Zhu Youxiao truly felt his heart stir—this must be what the saying meant: beholding a beauty by lamplight, the more you look, the more spirited you grow.

"It's getting late; let's turn in early." Zhu Youxiao's voice came out somewhat hoarse.

Empress Zhang nodded gently, a little shy, her cheeks slightly flushed, yet she let Zhu Youxiao take her hand and lead her to the bedside.

Zhu Youxiao smiled and reached out to draw down the gauze curtains on both sides of the bed. This small corner of the world was thus sealed off from the great world outside.

This was their own little world.

Reaching out to pull Empress Zhang onto the bed, Zhu Youxiao gazed at her without blinking and praised her: "The Empress is truly beautiful."

Hearing Zhu Youxiao's words, Empress Zhang's cheeks flushed slightly, and she said timidly, "An Empress should not be praised for her looks."

Hearing her words, Zhu Youxiao smiled softly.

In this era, there was a universal value: one takes a wife for virtue and a concubine for beauty. In plain terms, for a man, a wife's virtuousness mattered more, while for taking a concubine, beauty mattered more.

But for a husband, wasn't a beautiful wife an even better thing?

Virtue and beauty did not conflict.

Zhu Youxiao held Empress Zhang's small hand, patted it gently, and coaxed her softly: "Well now, this—we'll have time later for the Emperor and Empress to discuss it slowly. For now, we should do something more important."

Empress Zhang naturally knew what the Emperor meant; her face flushed crimson in an instant, even her slender neck turning pink.

Zhu Youxiao looked at this shy little person before him and gently pressed her down onto the bed.

Empress Zhang, her small face red with shyness, bit her lip lightly and turned her head away.

For Zhu Youxiao, the wedding was actually not yet over, because he still had many things to do.

On the second day, Zhu Youxiao and Empress Zhang still needed to don ceremonial robes to pay respects to the Empress Dowager.

Although Zhu Youxiao had no Empress Dowager, a Consort Dowager Zhuang still resided in Kunning Palace, so Zhu Youxiao brought Empress Zhang there.

It should be known that this Consort Dowager Li held no low position in the palace—she was the one who had raised Zhu Youxiao and his younger brother, the Chongzhen Emperor.

On the third day after the wedding, Zhu Youxiao was to wear the ceremonial crown and robes, and Empress Zhang still wore ceremonial robes to pay respects to the Consort Dowager. If the other party had been the Empress Dowager, then the eight-kowtow grand ceremony would be required; but Consort Dowager Zhuang was merely a consort dowager, so the eight-kowtow grand ceremony was unnecessary—still, the proper rites had to be observed.

On the fourth day after the wedding, Zhu Youxiao needed to wear the imperial ceremonial robes to the Huagai Hall, where Princes kowtowed eight times and the officials in charge of the wedding kowtowed five times; then he proceeded to the Fengtian Hall, where civil and military officials presented congratulatory memorials and performed the grand congratulatory ceremony.

On the fifth day after the wedding, Zhu Youxiao and Empress Zhang were to perform the "washing and offering rite" (attending to the washing and meal service of their elder). This rite originated in the Song dynasty and continued into the Ming.

At this point, Zhu Youxiao's imperial wedding was completely concluded.

After the wedding was finished, Zhu Youxiao felt utterly drained, as if he might collapse—he wanted to do nothing but sleep.

But he could not, because although the wedding between Zhu Youxiao and Empress Zhang was done, he still had two consorts to favor.

If he did not go to the consorts, that would violate propriety.

So Zhu Youxiao could only drag his body and steel himself to go to the consorts.

Of Zhu Youxiao's two consorts, one was surnamed Yuan and the other surnamed Tian. Earlier, when the Empress was being enfeoffed, both had also received their own titles—both as consorts—and each had her own palace.

Quite a few people in the palace were watching, wanting to see which palace Zhu Youxiao would visit first, because that represented whom Zhu Youxiao favored more.

But one had to come first and the other second; truthfully, Zhu Youxiao did not favor one over the other. Still, such a thing could not be avoided—how could one call the two of them together?

So Zhu Youxiao went to Consort Tian's place, which was closer to Qianqing Palace, and the next day went to Consort Yuan's place.

On the third day, Zhu Youxiao went nowhere at all, not even to Empress Zhang's place.

He planned to return to his own Qianqing Palace and sleep soundly, not wanting anyone to disturb him.

He was somewhat tired.

Only after resting for three full days did Zhu Youxiao feel he had recovered.

He felt somewhat helpless—his body was still a bit weak, though perhaps he had also been a little indulgent, since he had worn himself out considerably every night.

After a sip of porridge and a bite of refreshing sour radish, Zhu Youxiao finally felt much better.

In the past few days, he had been so drained that he had no appetite at all; now he had finally recovered.

Setting down the bowl, Zhu Youxiao looked at Chen Hong standing to the side and said, "Has anything happened recently?"

Although he had been busy with his grand wedding and had not needed to manage anything, his not managing did not mean nothing had happened. Now that he had recovered, it was time to ask what had occurred.

"Reporting to Your Majesty, all is stable at court. Some matters have been handled well by the Grand Secretaries of the Grand Secretariat, and there are no other major affairs. Here is a list of recent events for Your Majesty to review." Having said this, Chen Hong presented a booklet.

Reaching out to take the booklet, Zhu Youxiao flipped through it and found that indeed nothing too major had happened.

He could roughly understand—after all, this was his grand wedding. To stir up trouble during the Emperor's wedding, whether the troublemaker was in the right or not, would not leave a good impression on him.

Ministers generally would not make such a mistake.

Still, one matter did catch Zhu Youxiao's attention: Zhao Nanxing's side had already finished judging the case.

It was basically handled the same as last time—the ringleaders were beheaded outright, the rest had their properties confiscated, and their families were all sent to Liaodong for military service.

Last time it was handled this way, and this time it was handled the same way, with no major problems. The Grand Secretariat had given its draft rescript and approved it; if he also agreed, the Directorate of Ceremonial would issue the red endorsement, and it would be carried out accordingly.

So Zhu Youxiao nodded and said, "Alright, handle it this way."

Zhu Youxiao smiled and set down the booklet in his hand. At this point, the matter could be put to rest; his earlier groundwork was mostly complete, and he could imagine what to do next.

In truth, Zhu Youxiao had a clear idea of what to do.

What he needed to do next was simply a few directions:

First on the list was certainly the military—without an army in his hands, he could do nothing, and outside there was Nurhaci watching covetously, so training troops ranked first.

The second priority should be making money. He needed to find a way to acquire vast sums of money—without it, nothing could be done, whether it was dealing with future natural disasters, putting down rebellions, or training new armies.

He would have to think about this one carefully. Although he had scraped together some funds through confiscating households, he couldn't keep doing that forever—relying on confiscation too often would only create serious problems.

It was acceptable for some to oppose him as Emperor, acceptable for some to dislike him, but he absolutely could not let everyone oppose him or let everyone dislike him.

To borrow a phrase from his past life: rally one faction to strike another. Now that the striking was done, it was time to rally.

Although Xu Guangqi had been pulled over to his side, he had no trusted people of his own handling financial matters for him.

If he wanted to get a hand in the economy, he needed people working for him in that sphere—otherwise there was no hope.

Aside from those two points, the third priority should be officialdom.

Although he had temporarily quelled the strife at court, struck down the Donglin Faction, and brought Xu Guangqi up, Xu Guangqi's strength was still very weak. He had some help in the provinces, but not much.

Moreover, matters in officialdom were complicated. It wasn't a matter of "if I'm your man, I must do your bidding"—rather, you had to bring me enough benefits before I would.

The ideological struggle, establishing academies, and next year's imperial examinations were the focus of his work ahead.

None of the three directions would be easy to handle, but all of them had to be pursued. If he didn't act, things would only get worse, so—take it slow!

His situation now was far better than when he had first transmigrated. At least Liaodong was stable, and he no longer had to live in constant fear.

Standing up, he stretched his limbs, then Zhu Youxiao walked outside.

Gazing at the bright sunshine and breathing in a breath of fresh air, Zhu Youxiao's mood lifted greatly. At last, on this day, he had the leisure to enjoy the sunlight.

"Your Majesty, Minister of Rites Shen Tingyun requests an audience." Chen Hong came to Zhu Youxiao's side and bowed as he spoke.

Zhu Youxiao hadn't expected someone to come seeking an audience at this time.

His grand wedding had only just concluded three days ago, and already they were coming. He hadn't expected it to be Shen Tingyun—it seemed the man was truly anxious.

Zhu Youxiao had no way to fault him for this.

Shen Tingyun was someone he himself had promoted, and besides, the man did real work—you couldn't take out your frustration on him over something like this.

So Zhu Youxiao waved his hand and said, "Let him in!"

Before long, Shen Tingyun walked in from outside.

He bore two enormous dark circles under his eyes, and the whites of his eyes were bloodshot—clearly the result of severe sleep deprivation.

During Zhu Youxiao's wedding earlier, the Ministry of Rites had been bustling about the whole time, and Shen Tingyun had been terrified of making even the slightest mistake.

Shen Tingyun understood his own situation very well. Countless people regarded him as a thorn in their eye and a nail in their flesh, eager to pull him out and be done with him. So he dared not make a single error, working with all his heart and effort every day, exhausting himself greatly.

Although Shen Tingyun ought to rest properly, and although he knew this was not the time to disturb Zhu Youxiao, he simply could not keep it bottled up inside any longer.

Shen Tingyun needed to get matters settled as quickly as possible—even if, once settled, they were dragged out and left unexecuted, they still had to be nailed down early.

"Your subject, Minister of Rites Shen Tingyun, pays respects to Your Majesty." Upon seeing Zhu Youxiao, Shen Tingyun hurriedly performed the ritual greeting.

Zhu Youxiao waved his hand to signal him to rise, and asked with a smile, "My dear minister, have you come on some matter?"

"To answer Your Majesty, your subject knows full well that this is not the time to disturb you, but the matter is urgent—I beg Your Majesty's forgiveness." Shen Tingyun bowed once more as he spoke.