Chapter 652: The Eldest Prince

Pang Tianshou was so tense that his forehead was beaded with sweat. He glanced left and right to make sure no one was watching, and only then repeated himself.

"Retired Emperor, the Fifth Prince and Gao Yushun are reaching out to loyal subjects on all sides, preparing to restore you to the throne. Quite a few have already answered the call."

"Nonsense!" The Chongzhen Retired Emperor stamped his foot. "Fifth Brother is only twelve, and Gao Yushun is useless. Even if they escaped from the roving bandits, they'd be nothing but two men alone — what could they use to restore Us? Besides, We still have a legitimate son, the Prince of Dai, who commands tens of thousands of troops and has distinguished himself in battle. If anyone should be Crown Prince, it ought to be the Prince of Dai. What good is that boy Cihuan?"

"As for loyal subjects — those are all loyal subjects of Big Brother Chun!"

Chongzhen was muddled, but not so muddled as to believe that a twelve-year-old wandering prince could restore him to the throne, or to put any faith in so-called loyal subjects. Now that the traitors and rebels no longer thought much of him, could loyal subjects be counted on?

Was all that silver in Zhu Cilang's pockets fake? It was silver — and the loyal subjects and treacherous subjects of the Great Ming all loved silver very much.

"Retired Emperor, look — it's Gao Yushun's own handwriting." Pang Tianshou had served as a eunuch alongside Gao Yushun for so many years that he could certainly recognize the latter's script.

The Chongzhen Retired Emperor took the envelope, drew out the letter inside, and looked — it really was Gao Yushun's handwriting. Gao Yushun was the seal-holding eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial, the eunuch Chongzhen trusted most, the equivalent of Huang Dabao at Zhu Cilang's side. Though they had not seen each other for years, he recognized the writing at a glance.

"This is a stratagem to sow discord." Chongzhen's forehead was beaded with sweat too — whether from the exertion of drawing his bow earlier or from fright at the letter's contents, it was hard to say.

In the letter, Gao Yushun said he had already made contact with His Highness the Prince of Dai and was preparing to strike at the traitor Wu Sangui, who was entrenched in Guanzhong. After Wu Sangui was destroyed, they would welcome the Retired Emperor into Xi'an Prefecture to restore him to the throne.

"Th-this—" Chongzhen was terrified out of his wits. "Has this Gao Yushun gone mad? How dare he— No, no, that's not right! He couldn't do such a thing! He's still in the grip of the roving bandits. This is a trick of the roving bandits!"

"Retired Emperor, why would the roving bandits do this?" Pang Tianshou was slow-witted and simply could not figure out what was going on.

"To fight over Sichuan, of course," the Chongzhen Retired Emperor said. "Right now two bands of roving bandits have both entered Sichuan, and the situation there is critical. The court, hard-pressed, has no troops to spare and can only transfer Wu Sangui or the Prince of Dai's army into Sichuan. If the Prince of Dai and Wu Sangui become hostile to each other, then neither force can move — and Sichuan will be in danger!"

"Th-this—" Pang Tianshou very much doubted the Chongzhen Emperor's judgment, but he still asked, "Retired Emperor, what should we do? Should we go warn His Majesty and the Empress?"

"This—" Chongzhen mulled it over. This matter seemed difficult to handle!

Would that unfilial son Zhu Cilang listen to him? And Zhu Cijiong was far away in Shaanxi — he might already have fallen for it. If he handed over Gao Yushun's secret letter now, wouldn't he be giving the unfilial son a pretext to strip the princedom?

After much deliberation, the Chongzhen Retired Emperor finally found a solution. He said to Pang Tianshou, "Companion Pang, We shall write a letter at once, instructing the Prince of Dai to hold his fief firmly, not to trust Gao Yushun lightly, and not to provoke hostilities with Wu Sangui. Do you have reliable men who can make a trip to Shaanxi?"

Although the Chongzhen Retired Emperor had no intention of restoring himself to the throne at present, he still regarded his two sons Zhu Cijiong and Zhu Cizhao as his own power base, and naturally did not want them stripped of their princedoms by Zhu Cilang.

"Yes," Eunuch Pang said. "This slave has four adopted sons, all nephews of my own clan. They are all studying and working at my residence now, and are very reliable."

"Good, let them make the trip!" Pang Tianshou nodded.

The Chongzhen Retired Emperor immediately ended his exercise session, hurried back to his study, and in the name of the Retired Emperor wrote a secret edict to the Prince of Dai, Zhu Cijiong, which he gave to Pang Tianshou to smuggle back into Nanjing.

Pang Tianshou was an eager and diligent sort. That very night he arranged for one of his nephews to disguise himself as a merchant and set out carrying the Chongzhen Retired Emperor's letter.

This nephew of Eunuch Pang was quite a character too — the moment he left, he headed straight for the Southern Provost Office of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. Early the next morning, the Chongzhen Retired Emperor's edict was delivered into Wu Sanmei's hands by the Embroidered Uniform Guard Commander Zhu Chunjie.

The efficiency was truly beyond words!

"Gao Yushun again." Wu Sanmei finished reading Chongzhen's secret edict, and her fair, clean face had turned as dark as water.

It turned out that in recent days, the letters and secret reports concerning Gao Yushun and Zhu Cihuan that had been delivered to Wu Sanmei one after another numbered over a hundred already!

The Embroidered Uniform Guard had even set up a temporary "Case Number Five" office specifically to handle intelligence on this matter.

"Your Majesty the Empress, this affair involves the Retired Emperor and Eunuch Pang. Should we arrest Eunuch Pang?"

Pang Tianshou was a senior eunuch and one of Chongzhen's inner circle, so the Embroidered Uniform Guard could not seize him at will — it required Wu Sanmei to use the regency seal.

"No need." Wu Sanmei shook her head gently. "His Majesty will be back soon. There is no need for us to go to extra trouble. Pang Tianshou is a palace servant — where could he run?"

"Your Majesty the Empress," Zhu Chunjie thought for a moment, "on the Prince of Dai's side — could he really come into conflict with the Imperial Uncle?"

"That..."

Wu Sanmei knew that her second brother had always been on very good terms with Zhu Cijiong. It was Wu Sangui who had helped Zhu Cijiong become Prince of Dai. Later, when Zhu Cijiong established himself in the Lüliang Mountains, Wu Sangui had also helped a great deal. And when Wu Sangui was short of funds, Zhu Cijiong had helped him borrow money.

"We will write to Sangui Ourselves." Wu Sanmei thought for a moment, then added, "Also, send men to deliver this intercepted edict of the Retired Emperor to His Majesty's army camp!"

Just as Zhu Chunjie was about to say something more, he saw Qiu Zhizhong, the seal-holding eunuch of the Directorate of the Imperial Horses, walk in hurriedly. But Qiu did not speak; he merely stood behind Wu Sanmei.

"This subject takes his leave with Her Majesty's decree." Zhu Chunjie knew Qiu Zhizhong had urgent business that he was not meant to hear, so he accepted the order and withdrew.

"Companion Qiu, what is it?" Wu Sanmei asked.

"Your Majesty, the Imperial Noble Consort is about to give birth!"

Wu Sanmei's heart gave a sudden lurch. She had borne Zhu Cilang two daughters, and Zheng Chagu had previously borne a daughter as well. Now the Zheng family was laying its cards on the table a second time.

She rose to her feet. "Let's go and have a look."

When she said go, she meant go on foot. Wu Sanmei was now Empress and could ride in a palanquin within the palace. But she was of a fiery, impatient temperament and found the soft palanquin too slow; she preferred to walk herself and let the palanquin follow behind.

Zheng Chagu was Imperial Noble Consort, second only to Wu Sanmei in Zhu Cilang's harem, and she also had the richest father in the land, so she naturally could rally a whole faction around herself.

Thus inside and outside the palace where Chagu lived, everyone had been fed full with Zheng family silver. The palace maids attending Chagu were all from Quanzhou, the midwives who delivered her babies had all come from Fujian, and inside her palace they ordinarily spoke the Minnan dialect.

Wu Sanmei, though her ancestral home was Gaoyou, had lived in Liaodong for untold years, so her habits and speech had become thoroughly northern. She was naturally the leader of the palace's northern faction, and the eunuchs and palace maids around her were all northerners. The line between them was as clear as the divide between the Jing and Wei rivers!

When Wu Sanmei, leading a great host of northern-born eunuchs and palace maids, arrived in force outside the gate of the Palace of Spring Harmony where Zheng Chagu lived, she heard from a distance someone shouting loudly in the Minnan dialect: "Good news! Good news!"

Wu Sanmei did not understand the Minnan dialect, but she could still tell from the joyful tone that Zheng Chagu had given birth to a son!

Zhu Cilang had a son. The Great Ming had an eldest prince — but the mother of this eldest son was not surnamed Wu!

Wu Sanmei's face darkened until it was nearly livid. Although Zheng Chagu's son was not born of the primary wife, and under Ming dynasty ritual law he would be at a disadvantage in the matter of succession to the throne—

But at present there was no son born of the primary wife!

With no legitimate son, the eldest son was the greatest.

"Waa—waa—waa—"

A full-throated cry rang out from within the Palace of Spring Harmony, like peal after peal of thunder striking Wu Sanmei's ears. She even had the urge to turn around and go back to the Palace of Earthly Tranquility, but in the end she forced herself to endure it. She was Zhu Cilang's first wife, and he had always doted on her! Her second brother Wu Sangui was the King of the Northwest whom the great Zhu Emperor relied upon. Most crucially, she and Zhu Cilang were the same age — just past twenty this year — and she still had plenty of time to bear a son. Her son would be the true, rightful foundation of the Great Ming state!

(End of Chapter)