Chapter 10: Three Talents

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Zhao Si was the biological younger brother of the original host; before he was born, Emperor Shenzong Zhao Xu died, and by the time he reached five years old, his biological mother, Consort Lin, had also passed away.

Thus, the original host was Zhao Si's closest person in this world, without exception.

Since childhood, Zhao Si had trailed after the original host like a little tail, obeying him in every matter.

Only upon reaching adulthood were the two brothers separated, each establishing their own princely mansion.

Yet even then, Zhao Si still looked to the original host as his leader, and their bond remained exceptionally strong.

During the day, Zhao Si had been stunned to see Zhao Yu fiercely rebuke Liu Qingjing, publicly humiliate Zhao Xu, and staunchly defend Empress Dowager Xiang—he couldn't understand why his usually composed elder brother had acted so impulsively. More crucially, while others didn't know, didn't Zhao Si himself know that the original host had little affection for Empress Dowager Xiang?

Zhao Si wanted to stop Zhao Yu's recklessness, but he was so accustomed to caution that he dared not "defy" his elder brother, nor dared to entangle himself in this court political struggle involving Zhao Xu, Empress Dowager Xiang, and Liu Qingjing.

In the end, Zhao Si could only watch helplessly as Zhao Yu performed.

After the incident passed, Zhao Si hurried to find Zhao Bi, Zhao Ji, and Zhao Si, hoping they would join him in going to Zhao Xu to plead for Zhao Yu's mercy.

Zhao Bi, a kind-hearted man, immediately agreed.

Zhao Si also wished to go along.

But Zhao Ji said: "Prince Shen acts rashly, offending the imperial majesty; he deserves punishment. Moreover, our elder brother has been defied by Prince Shen—if we all side with Prince Shen, what will our elder brother think?"

Hearing Zhao Ji's words, Zhao Si—who was clearly closer to his own elder brother Zhao Xu—could only abandon the idea.

Zhao Bi and Zhao Si went at once to the Chuigong Hall to petition Zhao Xu.

Yet Zhao Xu refused to see Zhao Bi and Zhao Si, leaving them waiting indefinitely.

Zhao Bi and Zhao Si waited outside the Chuigong Hall until the hour of Hai; only then, wishing to avoid escalating the matter, did Zhao Xu send a eunuch to accompany Zhao Bi and Zhao Si to release Zhao Yu.

When Zhao Bi and Zhao Si found Zhao Yu, they saw him comfortably reclining on a temporary bed brought in, with one eunuch and two young eunuchs tiptoeing around him to shoo away mosquitoes; the food boxes sent by Zheng Xiansu and Wang Yisu had already been emptied.

Seeing Zhao Yu ate well and slept soundly, suffering no punishment at all, Zhao Si felt relieved.

Yet Zhao Si also felt a pang of injustice—he and Zhao Bi had been anxious all day, not eating a single bite or drinking a drop of water—so who was truly being punished?

Zhao Si stepped forward and shook Zhao Yu awake: "Elder brother, rise."

Zhao Yu opened his eyes, saw Zhao Bi and Zhao Si, and immediately guessed he was free.

"Can I return to my mansion?" Zhao Yu asked.

"Our elder brother has shown mercy and pardoned your offense," Zhao Si replied.

"Prince Shen must never provoke our elder brother again, or next time you may not be so fortunate," Zhao Bi kindly advised.

"Yes, yes, yes, I'll be careful next time," Zhao Yu replied dismissively.

"I'm tired. Let's return to the mansion," Zhao Yu added.

The eunuch and the two young eunuchs immediately stepped forward to help Zhao Yu put on his shoes.

Seeing Zhao Yu pay no heed to their words, Zhao Bi and Zhao Si still wished to urge him: never again challenge Zhao Xu, never again provoke Liu Qingjing.

Zhao Yu didn't want to listen to Zhao Bi and Zhao Si drag him into their worries, so he turned and asked the three eunuchs who had served him diligently all day: "What are your names? I wish to promote you."

All three had reached the position of guarding a remote palace rarely used even once a year—they naturally longed for Zhao Yu's patronage; otherwise, they wouldn't have gone all out to fetch the Daqing table, brushes, ink, paper, and bed, and served Zhao Yu so meticulously all day.

Seeing Zhao Yu "remembered kindness and repaid it," all three were overjoyed, vying to announce their names:

"Your servant Huang Jingchen."

"Your servant Liang Shicheng."

"Your servant Li Yan."

Hearing these three names, Zhao Yu was utterly stunned!

Zhao Yu never imagined that, merely to escape Zhao Bi and Zhao Si's nagging, he had recruited three celebrities of this era.

Zhao Yu first turned to Huang Jingchen.

Historically, during the Jingkang Humiliation, Emperor Qinzong Zhao Huan and his court of incompetent officials foolishly believed the sorcerer Guo Jing's absurd claim that seven thousand seven hundred seventy-seven Six Jia Zhengbing could repel the Jin army.

These so-called Six Jia Zhengbing were utterly routed upon leaving the city, crushed by five hundred Jin cavalry.

The Jin army then seized Xuanhua Gate and immediately advanced eastward along the city wall toward Dongshui Gate.

Wherever the Jin army went, towers and ramparts were set ablaze.

The Song soldiers guarding Dongshui Gate, terrified by this sight, lost all morale and fled in panic.

Only the eunuch Huang Jingchen held his post, refusing to flee.

At the time, Huang Jingchen, serving as Commander of Baode Army, had been ordered by Zhao Huan to oversee the eastern wall.

Seeing the eastern wall collapse and the soldiers rout, Huang Jingchen gazed afar at the majestic imperial palaces within the city, overcome with grief, and burst into loud sobs.

He knew he could not turn the tide or save the crumbling Song dynasty, and resolutely threw himself into the flames to die.

Thinking of how numerous eunuchs had been in the Song dynasty, all deeply favored by imperial grace,

Yet during that national catastrophe, the only eunuch who died for his country was Huang Jingchen alone.

His heroic act rivaled that of Wang Cheng'en, the eunuch who accompanied Chongzhen in hanging himself on Coal Hill.

In past Han and Tang dynasties, decline came from eunuchs.

Whenever they were employed, disaster inevitably followed.

Yet who could have imagined that Lord Huang alone possessed noble insight?

With white hair and sincere heart, he spoke truth whenever he heard falsehood.

He gave his all at the eastern city, dying for the nation.

His name shall never fade, shining bright for ten thousand generations.

Zhao Yu never imagined that this middle-aged eunuch, in his thirties and slightly overweight, was the most courageous and loyal eunuch of this era—Huang Jingchen!

Zhao Yu was overjoyed!

An eunuch like Huang Jingchen, once employed, would surely be trustworthy—he would never betray him.

Zhao Yu immediately resolved to appoint Huang Jingchen as the chief steward of his Shen Wang Mansion and to heavily promote him in the future.

As for the original owner's former money manager—who could only hoard money and was useless at everything else—just find any excuse and fire him.

Zhao Yu grew increasingly pleased as he watched Huang Jingchen. This even caused him to overlook two other eunuchs more famous in history—Liang Shicheng and Li Yan.

In history, Liang Shicheng and Li Yan were grouped with Cai Jing, Accompanying Tong Guan, Wang Fu, and Zhu Mian as the Six Rascals.

Cai Jing and Wang Fu were the two most powerful chancellors during Emperor Huizong's reign.

Accompanying Tong Guan was the supreme military commander during Emperor Huizong's reign.

Zhu Mian helped Zhao Ji collect the Flower and Stone Fleet, triggering Fang La's rebellion, which severely damaged the foundations of the Zhao Song dynasty and indirectly led to the Jingkang Humiliation and the fall of the Northern Song.

The fact that Liang Shicheng and Li Yan were grouped alongside the other four Rascals shows how deeply harmful and widely influential they were at the time.

In fact, Liang Shicheng and Li Yan—especially the former—were in no way inferior to the other four Rascals in either reputation or power.

At his peak, Liang Shicheng long controlled state secrets and even altered imperial edicts, imposing his will upon court politics. He colluded internally with Chancellor Wang Fu to jointly control the government; contemporaries regarded him as the "Hidden Chancellor." Wang Fu treated him like a father, and even Cai Jing and Cai You bowed and fawned upon him. He held over a hundred official titles.

Notably, Liang Shicheng claimed to be the "son of Su Shi" and "Su's legacy," meaning he claimed to be Su Shi's son.

Li Yan, meanwhile, ran rampant in the regions. His administration, the "Xicheng Office," ruthlessly seized farmland, leaving countless peasants homeless and sharply intensifying social tensions.

In history, to help Zhao Ji solve fiscal difficulties, Li Yan and his predecessor, the senior eunuch Yang Jian, established the Xicheng Office, declaring the entire eight-hundred-li expanse of Liang Shan Lake as "public property." They mandated that any peasant entering the lake to fish, harvest lotus roots, or cut reeds must pay heavy taxes based on boat size; violators were treated as bandits. Poor farmers and fishermen, unable to pay the heavy taxes, finally erupted in rage against social injustice, rising in rebellion under the leadership of Song Jiang and thirty-six others.

Liang Shicheng and Li Yan not only generated massive popular resentment but also embezzled vast wealth—they were unquestionably traitorous ministers.

Acquiring Huang Jingchen made Zhao Yu very happy.

But acquiring Liang Shicheng and Li Yan gave Zhao Yu a headache.

Not using these two great traitors was impossible, since Zhao Yu had already publicly declared his intention to elevate them.

The key point is, traitors are evil, but not incapable.

Take Liang Shicheng: he was clever and cunning, well-versed in bureaucratic procedures, skilled at flattery, and astonishingly, he had even passed the imperial examination with top honors in history—an absolute first-rate talent.

Li Yan was no different. After Yang Jian's death, he succeeded him as Chief Eunuch, managing the entire imperial garden for Zhao Ji, while also seizing over thirty-four thousand three hundred hectares of land around Dongjing Bianliang, ruining countless wealthy merchants and commoners. He alone had killed over a thousand innocent civilians—he was undoubtedly a ruthless man.

Put simply, anyone who left their name in history was rarely mediocre.

If judged by this standard, Liang Shicheng and Li Yan's abilities were likely superior to Huang Jingchen's.

Zhao Yu's current dilemma was that not only did he face obstacles like Zhao Ji on his path to the throne, but he also had no capable men at hand.

—The people of the Wang Fu, Zhao Yu had already assessed; none were worth promoting.

Moreover, Zhao Yu was a prince, his status highly sensitive—he could not use Song dynasty ministers like Zong Ze, Zhang Shuye, or Zhong Sida; they were unlikely to defect to a powerless prince anyway.

In other words, for Zhao Yu, the best—and perhaps only—choice now was to use eunuchs.

Zhao Yu comforted himself: "Use a man's strengths, and no one in the world is unusable; use a man's weaknesses, and no one in the world is usable. I'll just use them to ascend the throne and seize imperial power. If they truly become traitors and threaten my rule, as they did in history, I can always kill them myself—still plenty of time."

"Besides, how a minister behaves depends on how the emperor uses him. Traitors are often more loyal. A ruler cannot possibly rely solely on one kind of minister."

Thinking thus, Zhao Yu suppressed his revulsion toward Liang Shicheng and Li Yan and said to all three: "Tomorrow, report to my Wang Fu. I'll handle the rest."

—After all, Zhao Yu was a prince; securing three gatekeepers was effortless.

Seeing that Zhao Yu wasn't just talking but swiftly secured their transfer to the Wang Fu, Huang Jingchen and the other two were overjoyed. They bowed together in the manner of household retainers and cried out: "Thank Your Highness! We humbly offer our lives to serve Your Highness…"

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(End of Chapter)