All he could see was white in front of him, which was quite uncomfortable for his eyes, but he could still vaguely discern some blurry shapes and shadows. As he took a few breaths, it seemed that even his bones were sore, he opened his mouth to call out.
After a short moment, it seemed that someone had approached and lowered their head, calling him gently.
“Huang Jin……” He called out with much difficulty, his entire body had no strength, luckily his sight was slowly coming back, and he could see some silhouettes in front of him.
He swept a glance around the palace, the hall was completely empty, he could not see Teng Xiang who should be serving him, there was only the Prince of Jing sitting by his bed, who reached out to help him up.
“You……” Why are you here?
“Father1, I2 knew that you were ill, so I especially came to serve you.” The Prince of Yu said carefully, he still held onto a trace of fear and terror towards his father, which accumulated over the years.
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“Go…. and get Huang Jin……” Jiajing was breathless trying to get out the words, his lips trembled, he had extreme dark circles under his eyes, his entire face looked sickly and aged, with his white hair dangling over his temples. If it wasn’t for the fact that he was sleeping here, whoever saw him would just think he was some sort of old person who had one foot in the grave.
“Father, you’ve forgotten, Huang Jin committed a grave error and you reassigned him elsewhere.”
“Well, what about the Prince of Yu….”
“San-ge has caught a cold, and is resting at his manor, and has no way of entering the palace…..”
The Prince of Jing’s words tailed off, because he saw that his father was staring at him, although the gaze was hazy, it could still incite great fear in him. “Father…..”
“What about Xu Jie, the other grand secretaries, tell them all to come…..”
Although, Jiajing was half-awake, in the depths of his mind, he was still able to maintain some form of clarity, it was just that over the last few decades he had taken a lot of immortality elixir which had stayed within his body, and all of a sudden, the elixirs had all taken effect, which was taking an even bigger toil on his aged body, continual decline was inevitable.
The Prince of Jing smiled: “Father, you need to rest to get better, the imperial physician said not to let you see any outsiders. You need to relax, if you need to do anything, just order me to do it.”
Jiajing understood what he was trying to do and slowly said: “You’re trying to usurp the throne?”
The Prince of Jing was not able to hold it together and his father had hit the nail on the head, his face immediately changed: “How could father say such a thing, I’m just acting out of filial piety!”
“What?” Jiajing sneered: “So why don’t you let me3 see my officials?”
The Prince of Jing defended himself: “I am just thinking about your health….”
“You can’t hide what you’re thinking from me!” Jiajing gasped, he started to regret having sent Huang Jin away in anger, looking at the situation, it was likely that Teng Xiang had already allied with this son of his. “The Eastern depot, the Upper Straight Guards4, how many have you recruited?”
“I don’t understand what father is trying to say…..”
The Prince of Jing advanced to help him up but Emperor Jiajing pushed him away fiercely making him fall, whilst the Emperor sat up by himself. “I’m telling you, perhap not for the others but regarding the Embroidered Guard, there’s not one that you can pull to your side!”
He stared fiercely at his son, his eyes were completely bloodshot and bulging out of their sockets.
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The Prince of Jing knew that there was no turning back, so he decided that he might as well just go ahead and break an already broken pot5, he flapped his sleeves6 and then got up: “If father wishes to think like that, then I do not have anything to say about it. In terms of status, or even ability, where am I worse off than my good-for-nothing7 san-ge! Aside from the fact that our eldest two brothers passed away early, so now he has the status of the eldest son! Father’s health is declining day by day, and you are unwilling to issue an official edict. When the time comes, those officials of the Grand Secretariat will definitely want to elect san-ge as the next Emperor, and what wrong have I committed to do this!”
As he spoke, the emotions that he had locked deep inside him began to bubble up and ignited something inside of him: “After all these years, you’ve never even looked at me properly, when the crown prince was alive it was like this, after the crown prince died it was also like this!”
Emperor Jiajing slowly closed his eyes and didn’t say a word.
The Prince of Jing had put everything on the table but he saw that his father did not react at all. At first he was unsatisfied, slowly he calmed down and then he thought that it was pointless, so he just told his father to rest and then hurriedly left.
He came here, originally wanting to force the Emperor to elect him as his heir in his posthumous edict, but when it came down to it, he was actually unable to rise to the occasion. The imperial edict that he had already drafted was still tucked in his sleeve and he didn’t take it out. He entered with a belly full of nerves and he left with a belly full of anger.
He left Jiajing alone in the enormous old palace hall, the latter’s heart was utterly empty.
He was enthroned in his youth, ruling for over 45 years, fighting with the palace maids, fighting with his officials, fighting with his sons, fighting with heaven and earth, in the end he realised that aside from the throne, he had gained nothing at all.
Amongst his imperial concubines, some of them had already passed away, some others had been forced to commit suicide due to the renyin plot back then, those who remained, feared him more than they revered him or were completely dull and interesting.
Many officials of the court, over the decades, had come and gone. The closest official to his heart, Yan Song, sadly had a son who wanted to rebel, he had wanted to continue this close relationship between ruler and subject but in the end this was impossible.
His sons had died young, the two that remained could not be considered as particularly outstanding, but had at least learnt how to fight for power, and had even wanted to force him to abdicate.
And the immortality that he had been searching for all his life, to achieve the Dao and ascend to the heavens, in the end, was just flowers in a mirror and the moon reflected in the lake8, a dream of golden millet9.
His hair and beard was grey, his withered old face was perplexed, as if he was reminiscing, or pondering deeply, there was barely any light in his eyes, it was as if countless people had just flashed across in front of him, but indistinctly, just a bunch of voices whispering and lingering by his ears…..
In the Belvedere of Literary Profundity, everyone had been up all night.
Standing or sitting inside the not-so-large room were four people.
Li Chunfang and Guo Po were sitting on either side, looking at each other with clenched fists and frowns on their faces.
Gao Gong strolled back and forth with the hands clasped behind his back, he had a look of impatience on his face.
Xu Jie opened his eyes, and knitted his brows, stretching out his words: “Oh Suqing10, can you stop pacing, you’re making me dizzy.”
Gao Gong was livid: “What time is it now, how can you still stay so calm, I certainly don’t have that kind of willpower!”
“So what should we do then?”
Gao Gong wanted to say let’s rush over there, he opened his mouth to speak but in the end swallowed his words.
A few days ago, a decree fell under the orders of the Emperor, saying that there was a matter he needed to discuss with the grand secretaries, but then he did not summon them to see him. Gao Gong was impatient and sent someone to inquire, and was told that the Emperor had gone into secluded meditation and was not going to see anyone. But the matter was serious, so as soon as he finished his meditation they must immediately go to see him. Xu Jie and the others guessed that it must be about drafting an imperial edict to name his successor, thinking that the Emperor had finally decided to name a crown prince, so they did not dare to leave, but who knew that after a few days, they were still waiting. They wanted to leave the palace but couldn’t, and someone had just come to pass on the message to ask them to continue waiting.
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Xu Jie, Gao Gong and the others were intelligent individuals and it was impossible for them not to have felt that the situation was rather odd, but the problem was that they were not serving an ordinary Emperor. According to Jiajing’s previous behaviour, he would often go into secluded meditation from ten days to half a month without seeing a soul and this was quite normal. Plus, this time, the matter was regarding naming a crown prince, Xu Jie and the others had been greatly bothered by the matter and had rejected seeing anyone else, and had only just gradually began to suspect something was up.
Even if he didn’t want to see them, he would not go as far as to lock the doors and not allow them to leave the palace, and even the guards outside seemed to have increased, this was evidently house arrest.
What exactly was happening in the palace, and what was exactly happening outside of the palace? They pondered over it and came up with numerous scenarios, that they’d even thought of the possibility of Prince of Jing bringing troops into the palace. If Zhao Su was present, he’d definitely tell them that they had an overactive imagination.
Now, the four of them had become suspicious, they were still sitting there worrying whilst trapped, they didn’t have any solutions. There was only Xu Jie who remained calm and collected, not flustered at all: “There’s no point in getting worked up, there will definitely be someone coming for us in a bit.”
Just as he spoke, the door was pushed open, the first to enter was a burly stranger who moved to the side to let the others in.
The Prince of Yu and Zhao Su hurriedly entered.
The people in the room were stunned and all looked towards Xu Jie:Â Are you psychic?
Xu Jie was also in a state of disbelief, he meant that the Emperor would definitely send someone over, he didn’t think that it would be the Prince of Yu.
“Your Highness? Shaoyong?”
Zhao Su had just entered from behind them, when the burly individual wearing the uniform of the Embroidered Guard reported: “Your Highness, we will go outside and keep watch” and then he left and closed the door behind him.
“Your Highness, what is the meaning of this!” Gao Gong couldn’t help asking.
The Prince of Yu told them what was happening and then sighed and said: “This prince grew up within the palace walls, but this is the first time I have seen so many troops, if it wasn’t for Shaoyong and the help of Qi Jiguang, we wouldn’t have been able to come see you.”
Gao Gong was astonished: “Things have already advanced to this stage?”
Zhao Su nodded: “The Prince of Jing does not have an army and he cannot command the palace guards. He can only go through the Eastern Depot to exercise control over the imperial palace, and this cannot be maintained for long, otherwise, as time goes on, suspicions will arise on the outside. The voices of the civil officials would be enough to drown him out.”
Guo Po was deeply worried: “It is easy to say that, but we mustn’t take the matter lightly, this means that His Majesty has been put under house arrest, we must find a way to determine whether the Emperor is still safe and sound.”
Xu Jie asked: “Since you’ve entered the palace, you must know what we can do?”
Zhao Su said: “We want to deliver the Prince to see His Majesty, and ask His Majesty to immediately issue the imperial edict and then deliver the imperial edict out of the palace to the princely heir so that we can bring troops into the palace to liberate the Emperor.”
Who knew that Xu Jie would shake his head: “That isn’t a good idea.”