Chapter 134

While Fu Tingjun was praying to Buddha, Yuwei would attend to the incense and candles by her side.

No matter how strong she appeared, she was, after all, just a seventeen-year-old girl.

As time passed, she could not help but ask Fu Tingjun, "Miss, Ninth Master... he will succeed, won't he?"

If so, Fifth Master would certainly no longer stand in the way of Ninth Miss's marriage!

Fu Tingjun felt utterly lost at heart.

Even if they fought their way into the capital, what use would it be? As Zhao Ling himself had said, this was not a change of dynasty—what mattered most was being able to hold the realm steadily. The west and the south remained silent, but there were still Liaodong and Jiangnan—Liaodong garrisoned a hundred thousand elite troops, and two-thirds of the court's tax revenue came from Jiangnan.

Moreover, Prince Mu had raised his banner under the slogan "Execute Hong and Shi, cleanse the court of evil." If the emperor truly handed over the heads of Hong and Shi to Prince Mu, would Prince Mu then withdraw his troops?

If Prince Mu did not withdraw, what justification would he have for his campaign?

How could the realm unite behind him?

Fu Tingjun tossed and turned, unable to see any bright prospect no matter how she looked at it.

But Shopkeeper Ye San came bustling over in high spirits.

"It's done, it's done." His face was brimming with excitement. "Prince Mu's matter is settled!"

Fu Tingjun did not understand.

Shopkeeper Ye San said animatedly, "I hear that Grand Princess Ruyang has gone to the imperial nunnery at Yuquan Mountain to escort the Grand Empress Dowager back to the palace. The whole city is buzzing with talk of it."

The Grand Empress Dowager?

The emperor's grandmother? The late emperor's mother?

The late emperor had reigned for forty-one years...

Fu Tingjun was stunned into exclaiming, "Then... then how old is Her Grace now?"

Shopkeeper Ye San burst into laughter. "The Grand Empress Dowager is not the late emperor's birth mother. Word has it she is not much older than the late emperor." He added with a beaming smile, "But the Grand Empress Dowager is Prince Mu's own grandmother!"

Fu Tingjun felt her spirits lift at these words.

What Prince Mu lacked now was legitimacy.

Since the Grand Empress Dowager was Prince Mu's own grandmother, how could a grandmother not help her own grandson and instead help an outsider?

Her face lit up, and she urged Shopkeeper Ye San eagerly, "Do tell—what exactly is going on?"

Perhaps it was the joy of good news that made Shopkeeper Ye San shed some of his usual gravity and take on a lighter, more casual tone as he spoke: "Emperor Wuzong established three empresses in succession. The late emperor was the eldest legitimate son born of Empress Yuan, Emperor Wuzong's first empress. From birth he was held in great expectation—made crown prince at five, and at ten began studying statecraft at Emperor Wuzong's side. Perhaps because of this, the late emperor was rather overbearing in his conduct."

"It is said that once, Prince Qing—the ninth prince born of Consort Liu—angered the late emperor by committing a breach of decorum before the throne. The late emperor actually handed him over to the Tengji Guard for punishment. Had Consort Liu not hurried to plead with Emperor Wuzong in time, Prince Qing would likely have lost his life."

"Because of this incident, the palace consorts and all the princes came to fear the late emperor deeply."

"Not only that—the late emperor had strong opinions from a young age. On matters of military campaigns in the northwest and taxation in Jiangnan, he consistently held views contrary to Emperor Wuzong's, and gradually a rift grew between father and son. Then, when Emperor Wuzong's second empress passed away, he established Wang, the eldest daughter of Marquis Wuding, as his new empress. Empress Wang bore a prince who was greatly favored by Emperor Wuzong. The emperor bestowed upon Empress Wang's son the title 'Ning'—the same title he himself had held at his Former Residence of the Emperor—and the relationship between the late emperor and Emperor Wuzong grew even more strained."

"At one point, during a grand council meeting, Emperor Wuzong accused the late emperor of being 'cold and unfeeling by nature, not a benevolent ruler.' For a time, there were rumors in the capital that Emperor Wuzong intended to depose the eldest son in favor of the younger..."

Such secrets of the imperial house—Fu Tingjun would never have had anyone to tell her of them before.

She listened with rapt attention and asked, "This Prince Ning—he was Prince Mu's father, was he not?"

"Exactly!" Shopkeeper Ye San nodded and said, "The Grand Empress Dowager is none other than the former Empress Wang."

Fu Tingjun could not help but frown. "In that case, after the late emperor ascended the throne, Prince Ning must have had a very difficult time."

"Difficult is an understatement!" Shopkeeper Ye San sighed. "When Emperor Wuzong passed away, Prince Ning was only eight years old. To protect her son's life, the Grand Empress Dowager voluntarily requested to go into retreat at the imperial nunnery and never once set foot in Cining Palace again. At the time, the late emperor had just ascended the throne, and Marquis Wuding worked tirelessly on Prince Ning's behalf. Only then was Prince Ning able to have his title changed to Prince Mu and be enfeoffed at Jingzhou in Huguang. Even so, he died of illness before reaching thirty." He added with a sigh, "And Marquis Wuding did not fare well afterward either. In the twelfth year of the Xiping reign, a censor impeached Marquis Wuding for privately raising warhorses. The late emperor stripped him of his title, reduced him to commoner status, and exiled him three thousand li away. He died on the road."

Fu Tingjun felt deeply unsettled upon hearing this.

Shopkeeper Ye San laughed. "Think about it—the Grand Empress Dowager has been living in the nunnery for decades now. Grand Princess Ruyang could have gone to fetch her at any time, so why now, of all times, would she bring the Grand Empress Dowager back to the palace? Clearly, the imperial clan has already reached a decision and is merely waiting for the right moment to have the Grand Empress Dowager come forward on Prince Mu's behalf."

Fu Tingjun thought so too.

"Who knows how things will turn out before the final moment?" Which deposed emperor had ever managed to survive? At a life-or-death juncture like this, the emperor would hardly sit idly by and wait for death. She still felt somewhat uneasy. "We'd better be careful."

Then she thought of the Marquis of Yingchuan and the Duke of Fuguo's household.

Neither seemed to have made any move.

"Logically speaking, no matter how bad the late emperor was, that was the late emperor's affair. Even if Emperor Wuzong wanted Prince Ning to be emperor, that was a thing of the past." She hesitated. "Why does it seem like even the imperial clansmen and relatives are not well regarded by the current emperor?"

"Emperor Wuzong had twenty-two sons. Do you know what has become of all those imperial nobles now?" Shopkeeper Ye San asked.

Fu Tingjun truly did not know.

"Either they were forced to commit suicide, or they died of illness from fright, or they were demoted to commoners by the late emperor," Shopkeeper Ye San said. "Even the late emperor's own full brother, the Prince of Shu, was not spared. Those still alive now are only Prince Rong, enfeoffed at Xinyang, and Prince Xuan, enfeoffed at Daning. And of these two princes, the former stutters and cannot express himself clearly—he is a famously simple-minded prince; the latter broke his back in a riding accident in his early years and has lain in bed for over a decade, breathing in more than out, just waiting to die... The late emperor truly lived up to Emperor Wuzong's words about being 'cold and heartless by nature'!"

But Fu Tingjun's heart stirred at the words.

Xinyang belonged to Henan.

Daning belonged to Liaodong.

It was said that the Liaodong Regional Military Commission had cavalry that could travel two hundred li in a single night. Prince Mu had been besieging the capital for half a month already, yet the troops from the Liaodong Regional Military Commission had still not arrived!

Perhaps things were not as dire as she had imagined.

The thought flashed by.

Shopkeeper Ye San was still speaking of the current emperor: "Never mind whether Prince Qin's death had anything to do with him, or whether he was in league with Hongdu. Just look at how he treated the Marquis of Yingchuan in his early years—it sends a chill down everyone's spine."

"The Marquis of Yingchuan?" Fu Tingjun was taken aback.

"Yes!" Shopkeeper Ye San said. "The Duke of Fuguo had six sons, and the Marquis of Yingchuan was the third. From childhood, his talents were ordinary, with nothing particularly outstanding about him. He was betrothed from a young age to Shao, the eldest daughter of the Marquis of Yichun. When that Shao girl was thirteen, she accompanied her mother to the mansion of Grand Princess Yongjia to offer birthday congratulations, where she encountered the current emperor. Seeing that Shao was incomparably beautiful, the emperor urged his birth mother, Consort Hong, to petition the late emperor for an imperial edict of betrothal. The Marquis of Yichun, currying favor with the powerful, refused to acknowledge the engagement with the Marquis of Yingchuan, and the marriage contract between the two families was dissolved. Because of this matter, the Duke of Fuguo sent him to serve under General Han Tao, the General for the Pacification of Barbarians stationed in Huguang. It was there that the Marquis of Yingchuan won Han Tao's appreciation. Not only did Han Tao give his niece, née Mei, to him in marriage, but he also led him on three campaigns against the Miao and Li tribes, where he earned great military merit and became a young general renowned throughout the north of the Yangtze."

Fu Tingjun listened, dumbfounded.

She had never imagined that the Marquis of Yingchuan and the current emperor had such a history of conflict.

At that time, the Marquis of Yingchuan had been serving in Huguang—could it be that he and Prince Mu had become acquainted back then?

She pondered this and asked Shopkeeper Ye San somewhat eagerly: "And then what happened? How did the Marquis of Yingchuan and the current emperor become brothers-in-law?"

"Later, the Crown Prince died of illness," Shopkeeper Ye San said. "The current emperor and Prince Qin contended for the position of heir. The Duke of Fuguo was a founding meritorious official of high prestige and virtue. The Marquis of Yingchuan was a skilled warrior and elite of the military... The current emperor took the initiative to extend goodwill to the Marquis of Yingchuan."

"So much time has passed since then, and the Marquis of Yingchuan is no longer the man he once was. Moreover, if the Marquis of Yichun's household had defied the imperial edict back then, the current emperor might not have been able to marry that Shao girl. The Marquis of Yingchuan did not make things difficult for the current emperor either—during festivals and holidays, he would send over visiting cards with his regards."

"Who would have thought the current emperor still felt uneasy. He proposed sending Princess Shao's younger half-sister to the Marquis of Yingchuan as a concubine."

"The Marquis of Yingchuan and Lady Mei were deeply devoted to each other. Even if he were to take a concubine, he would never take a daughter of the Shao family. He politely declined."

"Who would have known that the very next day, Princess Shao invited Lady Mei to the palace for a chat. Lady Mei assumed it was about the concubine matter and went prepared with excuses to decline. But upon returning to her residence, she was seized with agonizing abdominal pain. A physician was summoned, who said only that she had eaten something unclean. Before the medicine had even finished brewing, Lady Mei was dead."

"Ah!" Fu Tingjun's face turned deathly pale, her heart pounding like a drum.

She had thought that being forced to drink poison was already the most absurd thing in the world, but she never imagined there were others who had suffered like Lady Mei.

"And then what happened?"

"Afterward," Shopkeeper Ye San said with a somewhat wistful expression, "afterward, the current emperor again proposed marrying Princess Shao's full younger sister to the Marquis of Yingchuan as his second wife. The Duke of Fuguo refused, but the Marquis of Yingchuan agreed. Then the Marquis of Yingchuan went to Zhangye..."

Was it then that the seed of hatred was planted?

Fu Tingjun could not help but think of the Marquis of Yingchuan's two children: "When did that happen?"

"Seven years ago."

The Marquis of Yingchuan's youngest child should be seven years old this year.

That meant both children were born to Lady Mei.

For some reason, Fu Tingjun let out a long sigh of relief.

Shopkeeper Ye San said, "Such a secretive matter, yet now everyone in the capital knows about it. Especially the story of Emperor Wuzong once intending to establish Prince Ning as heir apparent—it's being spread with such vivid detail. Clearly, someone is fanning the flames. Prince Mu should be arriving in the capital soon." He smiled quite optimistically.

Fu Tingjun recalled how Zheng San, when delivering gifts, had overheard the stewards of the Duke of Fuguo's mansion spreading gossip while seeing off guests, and couldn't help but ponder inwardly: Perhaps these words were spread by the Duke of Fuguo's mansion themselves, or even by the Marquis of Yingchuan and his faction!

Zheng San burst in frantically: "Miss, miss, Li Hui, the Commander of the Five City Military Patrol, has opened the Zhengyang Gate."

"What did you say?" Fu Tingjun and Shopkeeper Ye San stood up simultaneously, staring at Zheng San in utter disbelief.

Zheng San swallowed hard and quickly said, "Li Hui opened the Zhengyang Gate and welcomed Prince Mu's troops into the city. The city is now in complete chaos..."