Chapter 650: Bad News

It was customary for a new emperor to issue a general amnesty and new edicts upon ascending the throne. After these matters were settled, it was natural to appoint an empress and crown prince. Whether it was Princess Zhang, the crown prince’s wife, or Zhu Zhanji, the former heir apparent, both had enjoyed Zhu Di’s trust during his lifetime, so this appointment should have been straightforward. After repeated petitions from the ministers, Zhu Gaochi ordered the Ministry of Rites to select a date for the ceremony.

While occupied with these formalities, Zhu Gaochi’s main concern was Zhu Gaoxu, the Prince of Han who had come to the capital. He also had to deal with troublesome other princes like Zhu Quan, the Prince of Ning, as well as handle funeral affairs, leaving him exhausted both physically and mentally. Already in poor health, he simply delegated all state affairs to the Grand Secretariat, ordering Yang Shiqi and others to prepare all memorials for his review daily. Even so, he had no time to go through them all, so the newly appointed Empress Zhang took it upon herself to examine them.

With the emperor and empress both extremely busy, Zhu Zhanji, the crown prince, was no less stressed. The funeral rituals were extremely complicated, and as the crown prince, he could afford no mistakes, leaving him utterly exhausted after over a month. Had he not been a delicate nobleman unaccustomed to the intrigues of the palace, skilled in riding and archery, he might not have even survived the journey back from the funeral.

After ascending the throne, Zhu Gaochi moved into the Qianqing Palace. Now that Zhu Zhanji was the crown prince, he rightfully took residence in the Duanben Palace. With the mourning period now over, he finally had some free time. One day, while taking a walk outside the Duanben Palace, he recalled the general amnesty edict issued when Zhu Gaochi ascended the throne.

Suspending all non-urgent matters—such as the procurement of gold and silver, ironwood for shipbuilding, and construction projects—was indeed a benevolent policy that did not burden the people. Halting the treasure-seeking ships to the West was understandable given the heavy criticism in the court. But what surprised him most was that he had seen in his mother, Empress Zhang’s, memorials requesting the abolition of the Ningbo Maritime Administration to enforce the first emperor’s ban on overseas trade. The military garrisons in Kaiping and Danning in the north, which were costly and labor-intensive, were also being phased out. Reading these matters from his mother’s selected memorials, he felt uneasy.

It seemed his father intended to overturn many of the policies of the Yongle era!

Due to the major funeral, the area of the Eastern Palace appeared rather deserted. Moreover, unlike his father who had ruled as regent, he encountered no officials along the central path. As he turned a corner, he suddenly heard a voice from the left.
“Heir apparent… Your Highness the Crown Prince.”

Upon hearing the sound, Zhu Zhanji turned around and saw it was Zhu Ning, so he turned back. Seeing Zhu Ning dressed in linen clothes, unadorned with makeup, her black hair unaccompanied by any accessories, he waved his hand to stop her from bowing and asked, “Aunt Ning, have you come from the Empress?”

Empress Zhang was seated in the central palace, and the other concubines also had their respective positions. That day was the day when the palace ladies and all the imperial wives in official robes came to pay their respects. Zhu Ning had already paid her respects early on and then changed into these clothes to go to Renzhi Hall. Since Empress Zhang had given instructions, she planned to leave the palace after meeting the Crown Princess Hu. At this moment, she nodded in response. Seeing Zhu Zhanji’s thin face, she remembered when she last saw Zhu Gaochi—this emperor also appeared exhausted, which stirred her emotions.

“Your Highness, although one should observe mourning properly, health is still of utmost importance. I saw the Emperor struggling to hold on earlier, and your complexion doesn’t look good either. You must take better care of yourself. After all, the heir to the throne is crucial to the fate of the realm; one must not give others any opportunity to exploit. If you are healthy, no matter what tactics others use, they will be useless.”

Although Zhu Ning was younger than him, hearing such words from an elder made Zhu Zhanji feel genuinely happy, so he nodded. After chatting with Zhu Ning for a while, just as he was about to leave, he suddenly remembered something and called her back, asking, “Father allowed Aunt Ning to come to the capital because, even when the late Emperor was still alive, he treated you like his own daughter. I know you came here also because the ZhouPrince’s mansion is not stable. In that case, you might as well stay in the capital for a while longer; there’s no need to rush back.”

Zhu Ning had already indirectly mentioned this matter to Empress Zhang, so hearing Zhu Zhanji say so gave her peace of mind, and she quickly thanked him. Since the matter had been discussed, Zhu Zhanji simply accompanied her to see Crown Princess Hu. However, he was impatient to talk to Hu, so after sitting for a short while, he left first. When he returned to his own palace, he sat down and saw a large stack of memorials sent for his review. He settled in to go through them one by one. When he reached the middle two, he froze instantly.

“Chen Wu!”

Chen Wu, who had been by his side the whole time, quickly stepped forward. Glancing at the two open memorials on the desk, he caught a few striking words and promptly lowered his head. Sure enough, Zhu Zhanji tapped those memorials firmly with his index finger, remained silent for a long time, before finally ordering, “Go to the Crown Princess’s place to see if Aunt Ning is still there. If she’s left, head straight to Donghua Gate. I remember someone brought some high-quality Gastrodia elata earlier; take that with you for her as well, and say it’s from me. First, show her these two memorials and inform her of the matters mentioned in them—don’t say anything else.”

“Yes, I understand!”

Chen Wu nodded knowingly, skimmed through the memorials in an instant, and set off right away. He first went to the Eastern Palace’s storage to select a box of Gastrodia elata, then hurried to Crown Princess Hu’s residence, only to find her gone. Not daring to delay, he rushed to Donghua Gate just in time to catch Zhu Ning as she was about to board a carriage. He handed over the items with both hands and quietly mentioned the two matters, adding one more sentence at the end.

“The Emperor has ordered an increase in the annual allowances for the princes. Apart from the King of Han and the King of Zhao, the King of Zhou is the first to receive it. I also heard the Emperor say that the princess is treated like the Emperor Taizong’s own daughter, so there are no restrictions when choosing a husband—please rest assured, Princess.”

“I understand. Thank you, Eunuch Chen, for reminding me.” Zhu Ning took out a purse from her clothes and handed it to Chen Wu. “For all your trouble, keep this trinket as a memento. Please convey my thanks to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince!”

By the time the carriage left Dong’an Gate and headed toward the King of Zhou’s residence, a middle-aged eunuch passing by mustered the courage to ask, “Princess, is that in the purse a golden Buddha personally consecrated by the abbot of Daxiangguo Temple? It’s your personal accessory—giving it to her as a reward seems too generous. Besides, Chen Wu clearly came by order of the Crown Prince; he’s just doing a favor…”

“You should never underestimate even a messenger in the palace. What’s a golden Buddha compared to that?”

Zhu Ning gave the eunuch a dissatisfied glance. Seeing him become embarrassed and stop speaking, she said calmly, “The first two matters were merely messages passed on by the Crown Prince, with no connection to what Chen Wu said later. It’s clear he added those things on his own to curry favor. If others have already shown their intentions, if I remain indifferent, who will bother to take action in the future? With the death of Emperor Taizong, among all the vassal kings, aside from those of the Han clan, only my father could send me to pay respects; the others could at most send a senior official. If we truly want to protect our Zhou royal line, we must set aside our pride—today’s vassal kings are not what they used to be!”

Her words left the eunuch speechless. He had been specially chosen by King Zhu Tu to accompany him, meant to offer advice in critical situations, but now it was Zhu Ning who was giving him advice. Back at the King of Zhou’s residence, he dared no longer act as if he were an elder of the royal family. He served Zhu Ning into the house and then went to arrange as instructed.

With the emperor’s death, the Ministry of Rites was naturally extremely busy. Yet after Zhang Yue returned from Shandong to report, Minister of Rites Lü Zhen unusually granted him three days off. Although he had many matters on his mind, there were too many idle people in the capital at this time, making it unsafe to wander around casually. Moreover, he had yet to hear back from his father, Zhang Zhuo, so he decided to take this opportunity to spend time with his family at home.

While Zhang Yue was idle, Du Wan was extremely busy. Early in the morning, Lingxi came to invite her to the Duke of Ying’s residence, and she didn’t even return home for meals. By afternoon, when she still hadn’t returned, people from the King of Zhou’s residence came to look for her. Learning she wasn’t there, they immediately went to the Duke of Ying’s residence. Since his wife had not a moment to herself, Zhang Yue could only spend the entire morning playing with his children and trying out clothes made by Qiu Hen and Hu Bo. In the afternoon, he focused on dealing with matters related to the clan school and estates reported by Lian Sheng and Lian Hu. It wasn’t until evening that Du Wan returned with two maids, her face showing signs of fatigue.

Since it was still a period of prohibition on slaughtering and marriages, it was inconvenient to cook in each household’s small kitchen, so the whole family simply ate together. After dinner, the brothers, sisters-in-law, and others drank tea, during which Zhao Fen kept nagging. She mentioned that several noble families had suffered greatly from the previous mourning rituals, with many elders passing away and some younger children falling ill, attributing it to bad weather. Everyone’s expression darkened at her words. Eventually, Zhang Qi grew annoyed and snapped, silencing her chatter. But since they were concerned, the family didn’t dare neglect anything and immediately went to take care of the children.

Although Zhang Yue didn’t believe there could be any adverse weather in the dead of winter, it was still necessary to be cautious. So after returning to his room, he helped Du Wan arrange for someone to take care of the child and warned Zhang Jing, who kept wriggling and refusing to comply, not to go out for a few days. Once everything was taken care of and it grew late, he said to Qiu Hen and Hu Po, “You two go back and rest early. Everyone has been working hard these days. I still have leave; let’s all go to Chongguo Temple to pray for blessings the day after tomorrow.”

Hearing this, Qiu Hen’s face lit up with joy. She nodded in agreement, bowed, and then happily took Hu Po away. As soon as they left, Zhang Yue sent a maid to fetch hot water and found an excuse to send Shi Jing away. Once only the couple was left, he asked, “Sister Wan, I noticed you looked unwell while preparing dinner. Is something wrong? By the way, this afternoon, Princess Chenliu sent Mother Ying to invite you. She left right away after finding you were not here. What did the princess want?”

Du Wan could no longer maintain her calm expression. She rubbed her temples with her index and thumb, showing a worried look. “Sister Ning called me for two reasons. First, the Censorate submitted a memorial stating that since the Duke of Ying is now the Grand Tutor and in charge of the Military Command, it’s not appropriate for you to stay in the capital. Sister Ning said you might be transferred to serve as the deputy magistrate of Yingtianfu. Second, the Oirats are holding our envoys hostage. Xinghe reports that heavy snow has blocked the roads in the grasslands, making it impossible to move or get any news about them…”

Although neither piece of news was good, Zhang Yue wasn’t too surprised by the possibility of being transferred to Nanjing, as that was exactly what he had planned secretly. But hearing that there was no news about the envoys shocked him greatly. He stood up abruptly. He clenched and unclenched his fists several times before finally regaining his composure and sitting back down.

Forcing himself to calm down, Zhang Yue realized the key issue: “There had been no news from Old Wan before. The princess is a distant relative from another region—how did she know?”

“It’s the Crown Prince,” Du Wan said directly. “Today, Sister Ning went to the palace. It was the Crown Prince who sent Eunuch Chen to tell her specifically. Sister Ning thought that must be the intention, so she asked me to come over. As for why no rumors have spread, Sister Ning and I guess it’s because these past few days, the five governors, including the Grand Uncle, have been staying in the military camps and can’t be informed about state affairs. Meanwhile, Father and the others are staying in the inner chambers of the palace, so he can’t send out messages out of favoritism. Father has always doted on the fifth son and values family reputation greatly; I don’t know how he’ll feel when he hears about this… I really don’t know whether to tell him or not.”
“Tell her anyway!” Zhang Yue made up his mind instantly and said firmly, “I’ll send someone to investigate this and definitely give her a definite answer. The Oirats of today are not the same as before; there’s constant strife among the three tribes. By the time Lao Wan and the others arrive, the emperor hasn’t passed away yet, so Tuohuan should not be hostile to them. He’s a lucky man with a long life—nothing will happen to him!”
Seeing Du Wan nod slightly, he remembered that Zhang Zhuo had also mentioned that Yuan Fang had been sent to Nanjing to retire. He raised his eyebrows and said, “Now that the capital has been moved to Beijing, everyone thinks Nanjing is just a place for retirement, but that’s not necessarily true. I’ve discussed this with you before—it’s beneficial with no harm. It’s not a position near Nanjing, but rather the position of Deputy Governor of Yingtian Prefecture, which would be a pleasant surprise. The current emperor is different from Emperor Taizong; staying in the capital gives me plenty of opportunities to find faults, while being further away makes it easier to carry out tasks.”
Du Wan didn’t care about the size of Zhang Yue’s official position; her only concern was that he might be sent to some dangerous place again. Hearing his words, she felt relieved. Recalling the bits and pieces she heard at the Duke of Ying’s residence that day, she asked, “Today, I heard those noblewomen mention the daughter of Marquis Ningyang. It’s said that the late emperor once intended to take her as a concubine?”
“How could such rumors get out? What else did they say?”
“There are many rumors, but Marquis Ningyang is now second only to the Grand Uncle, holding the title of Grand Protector. They were just whispering among themselves. Sister Ke’s marriage caused them quite a bit of concern for a while… Also, when Sister Tian came out to see guests, she attracted a lot of attention. I really find it strange—she’s only five years old now; it’s a bit early to arrange a marriage even if it were to happen.”

“That’s the legitimate daughter of the eldest uncle and his wife; it’s not strange that someone is interested in her.” Zhang Yue pondered for a moment before saying to Du Wan, “After returning to the capital, I went to Shandong without stopping by home, and I haven’t had time to talk to you these past few days. Before his death, the late emperor had me write an imperial edict to arrange for Sister Tian to become the emperor’s concubine.”
Du Wan’s complexion changed instantly. Not to mention Zhu Gaochi was approaching fifty, even Empress Zhang was no ordinary woman. If the emperor had given Zhang Fuzhi’s daughter to Zhu Zhanji, that might have been acceptable, but such a match would surely be an absurd pairing.