Chapter 654: The Peasant Uprising Isn't Over Yet!

Pang Tianshou was so nervous that beads of sweat covered his forehead. He glanced left and right, made sure no one was watching, and only then repeated himself.

"Retired Emperor, the Fifth Prince and Gao Yushun are contacting loyal subjects on all sides to restore you to the throne. Quite a few people have already responded..."

"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 a lonely pair — what could they use to restore Us? Besides, We still have a legitimate son, the Prince of Dai, with tens of thousands of troops and distinguished battle honors. Even if... it should be the Prince of Dai who becomes Crown Prince. What good is that boy Cihuan?

As for loyal subjects... those are all Big Chun's loyal subjects!"

Chongzhen was muddled, but not muddled to the point of believing that a twelve-year-old wandering prince could restore him to the throne, or believing in any loyal subjects... Now that the traitors and rebels no longer missed him much, could loyal subjects still be counted on?

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

"Retired Emperor, look — it's Gao Yushun's own handwriting..." Pang Tianshou had been 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, pulled out the letter inside, and saw that it really was Gao Yushun's handwriting — Gao Yushun was the seal-holder 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 the bow earlier or from fright at the letter's contents, he could not tell.

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.

"This, this, 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 not quick-witted and simply could not figure out what was going on.

"To fight over Sichuan, of course..." the Chongzhen Retired Emperor said. "Right now both bands of roving bandits have entered Sichuan, and the situation there is critical. The court, in its urgency, has no troops to spare and can only transfer Wu Sangui's 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!"

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

"This..." Chongzhen mulled it over. The 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 that give 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, telling the Prince of Dai to hold his fief firmly, not to trust Gao Yushun lightly, and not to start hostilities with Wu Sangui. Do you have a reliable man 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 from my own clan. They are all studying and working at my home now, and are very reliable."

"Good, send them on the trip!" Pang Tianshou nodded.

The Chongzhen Retired Emperor immediately ended his exercise, 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 also 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 a character too — the moment he left the house he headed straight for the Southern Provost Office of the Embroidered Uniform Guard... By early the next morning, the Chongzhen Retired Emperor's edict had been delivered into Wu Sanmei's hands by Guard Commander Zhu Chunjie.

That efficiency truly left nothing to be desired!

"Gao Yushun again..." Wu Sanmei finished reading Chongzhen's secret edict, and her fair, clean face had darkened like 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!

The Embroidered Uniform Guard had even set up a temporary "Case 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 people, so the Embroidered Uniform Guard could not seize him casually — it had to be done by Wu Sanmei using the regency seal.

"No need..." Wu Sanmei shook her head gently. "His Majesty will be back soon; there is no need for us to take this extra step... Pang Tianshou is a palace servant — can he run anywhere?"

"Your Majesty the Empress," Zhu Chunjie thought for a moment, "on the Prince of Dai's side... could there really be a conflict with the Imperial Brother-in-law?"

"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 set himself up 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 Ourself." Wu Sanmei thought for a moment, then added, "Send someone 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-holder of the Directorate of the Imperial Horses, walking in hurriedly. But Qiu did not speak; he merely stood behind Wu Sanmei.

"This subject takes his leave." Zhu Chunjie knew Qiu Zhizhong had urgent business that was not convenient for him 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 down its cards for the second time.

She stood up. "Let's go and take 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 had a fiery, impatient nature 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 group of people around her.

Thus inside and outside the palace where Chagu lived, everyone had been fed full with Zheng family silver, and the palace maids serving Chagu were all from Quanzhou. The midwives attending her delivery had all come from Fujian, and in 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 all been northernized. She was naturally the leader of the northern faction in the palace, and the eunuchs and palace maids around her were all northerners... Truly a clear divide, as between the Jing and Wei rivers!

When Wu Sanmei, leading a great procession 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, and 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, according to Ming dynasty rites, was at a disadvantage in the matter of succession to the throne,

at present there was no legitimate son!

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 Zhu Cilang 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 rightful foundation of the Great Ming state!