“This is truly bullying! Bullying!” Chu Yue’an slammed the table hard, his face full of anger:
“Breaking his word! How dare that traitor Gu!”
Chu Muhe also looked unhappy. He turned and closed the door, and said in a low voice, “Yongdu is not Wuzhou. The walls have ears. Keep your voice down.”
Since that day in the study in Wuzhou when they had spoken secretly with the Grand Tutor, the two had packed their luggage, taken leave of their father and the rest of the household, and traveled south all the way. Just before the Mid-Autumn banquet on the fourteenth, that is, on the evening of the thirteenth day of the eighth month of the twenty-third year of Jinghe, they entered Yongdu, and now it was noon on the fourteenth.
And just this morning, at the early court after Chu Muhe’s return to the capital, something big had happened that neither of them could swallow.
To speak of this matter, one has to mention the origin of Chu Muhe’s title, that is, the position of Commander of the Palace Guard.
The Palace Guard was not originally called by this name. As early as the former dynasty it was called the “Throne Guard.” The difference was one character, but the duties were different.
At that time the Great Yan had the Throne Guard and the Forbidden Army Governor jointly responsible for the safety of Yongdu. The former carried blades and stayed close to protect the emperor’s safety, and the latter drilled troops and formed ranks to guard the peace of the imperial city. The two did not interfere with each other, each governing its own area.
But the trouble was that in those years the Right Prime Minister’s branch, that is, the line of the Wang clan of Langya, colluded with the former Forbidden Army and tried to rebel. Although Noble Consort Wang had luckily poisoned the late emperor, the alliance between the Right Prime Minister and the Forbidden Army was not firm. The former Commander of the Throne Guard, Guo Hongping, swore to defend the palace city to the death, and together with Chu Weiting (Chu Yue’an’s father), who led troops back in time to relieve it, attacked from both sides and ended the rebellion case.
Therefore, after the new emperor took the throne, he abolished the Forbidden Army Governor, and the Throne Guard was renamed the Palace Guard. Its original duties stayed unchanged, and all the duties of the Forbidden Army Governor were placed under the Palace Guard’s charge. A separate post of Commander was established, holding the Commander’s seal, with the power to deploy the troops defending the city.
However, when Chu Muhe entered the Palace Guard that year, having won His Majesty’s favor for his merit in protecting the emperor, he was only fifteen. Even though he was later recommended twice by Xie Qing, Libationer of the Imperial Academy, and so was promoted to Commander of the Palace Guard, he had only just come of age.
Holding a high and dangerous post, he inevitably drew suspicion. So, almost under His Majesty’s secret instruction, Gu Shaoshi, who then had become famous for exposing the case of the Vice Minister of War embezzling military pay and had been moved up to Vice Director of the Secretariat, submitted a memorial saying:
“Commander Chu is still young and may not be fit to command the troops of Yongdu. I request that Your Majesty take back the seal of the Throne Guard and let the Secretariat keep it for the time being, and return it when Commander Chu reaches the age of capping.”
“…Clearly Gu Shaoshi himself was only nineteen then too! Who gave him the face to say you were young!” Chu Yue’an was extremely angry and gulped down a mouthful of cold tea. “Now Second Brother has already reached the age of capping, and he still dares to bring up an excuse, saying ‘you have been away from the capital for a long time and are unfamiliar with government affairs,’ and wants to take back the seal for the Prime Minister’s office?”
“Doesn’t His Majesty even control him!”
Chu Yue’an had truly been made so angry by this news that he spoke without thinking, even saying words like these.
Chu Muhe walked to the table and patted his back to help him catch his breath:
“Looking at it this way, I’m afraid that in the time you and I were out of the capital, the Gu faction’s power has expanded, and can’t be spoken of in the same breath as before.”
Chu Yue’an had cursed what he wanted to curse, and fell silent for a moment, frowning, and did not reply.
Chu Muhe glanced at him and said carefully:
“Fortunately His Majesty did not agree in court. I suppose he is also afraid of Gu Shaoshi’s power growing too large.”
But Chu Yue’an shook his head: “That’s not right.”
“What’s not right?”
Chu Yue’an: “By logic, shouldn’t His Majesty have objected immediately and given the seal back to you?”
Chu Muhe was stunned, and also belatedly realized where the oddity lay.
Since His Majesty wanted to use him to balance the situation, it should have been right for Chu Muhe to get the seal back at this time.
The scene as it stood was more like Gu Shaoshi had struck first and held His Majesty in check with something, so His Majesty neither advanced nor retreated and was ambiguous, neither relenting nor refusing, as if…
As if he were waiting for Chu Muhe to take the initiative to ask for a favor.
The two evidently thought of the same thing. They looked at each other, and Chu Muhe’s face looked bad:
“Your marriage.”
Chu Yue’an opened his mouth, closed it again after a long while, his expression turned somewhat cold, and he was silent for a moment, and only then said with no small amount of mockery:
“I thought His Majesty, now past middle age, should have long since had his mind decline and strength fade. Now it seems he is clearly stronger with age. When it comes to playing schemes, what place is there for us?”
These words were too disrespectful. Chu Muhe frowned: “Yue’an.”
Chu Yue’an spread his hands, stuck his tongue out at him, and did not care at all.
Chu Muhe knew he was upset, sighed, and did not say much more, but this moment of distraction reminded him of something:
“…So that’s how it is,” he murmured.
Chu Yue’an looked at him in confusion: “What?”
Chu Muhe gave a sighing laugh and told him what he had just thought of.
It turned out that not long after the two left Yongdu last month, the Governor of Yingyang Commandery had presented to His Majesty a beauty said to have a face that could topple a city and a dance that moved the world, and this beauty, by coincidence, was surnamed Gu, a daughter of a branch family of the Gu clan of Yingyang, the line of Prime Minister Gu Shaoshi.
This move was the same as an open scheme. In recent years His Majesty had grown ever more weary of court affairs and indulged in sensual pleasures. The women of the rear palace only increased in number, and he took all who came without refusing any. But who knew what ability this Beauty Gu had, as she was favored on her very first night in the palace, and in half a month had been promoted three ranks in a row, and was now addressed as “Consort Gu.”
“Today the court was dismissed in a hurry. Before leaving, I heard a gossipy little maid in the Golden Chime Hall say that Her Ladyship the Noble Consort ran to Consort Gu’s place first thing in the morning to make trouble and smashed two sets of tea ware. At that time Grand Attendant Zhao leaned close to His Majesty and whispered in his ear, and what he said should have been about this.”
Her Ladyship the Noble Consort was of the Yao clan. She had been very favored in the early years and was even expected to be promoted to empress, but unfortunately the Yao family had been in decline in recent years, and a local snake can’t suppress a dragon crossing the river. The Bai clan, who moved from Wuzhou to Yongdu, got ahead of her. The Bai woman, Bai Xuan, was now the empress, and Chu Yue’an’s other identity, Bai Zhi, was a branch son of that very Bai clan of Wuzhou.
Chu Yue’an folded his arms, very contemptuous: “Lust clouds the mind.”
“Yue’an,” Chu Muhe said again.
“…I won’t say it, then.”
Chu Yue’an leaned on the soft couch in the carriage and closed his eyes to rest.
However angry one is about the matter at the early court, it can’t be eaten as a meal. As for sending Chu Muhe to bring up his marriage with His Majesty, that was even more absurd. In the end, they still had to see this Mid-Autumn palace banquet first.
Apart from the matter of Chu Muhe’s Commander’s seal for the Palace Guard, what the Gu and Lu factions had been contesting in the Yongdu court in this half month was a matter of grabbing land.
In the outskirts of the imperial city of Yongdu there was a famous mountain, Nanjun Mountain, which enshrined a quite efficacious Guanyin temple called Jingci Temple.
The late emperor liked Buddhist teachings, and the present Empress Dowager was likewise keen on worshiping the Buddha. Jingci Temple’s incense had never been cut off through the generations, and the land around Nanjun Mountain all belonged to Jingci Temple and paid no taxes.
Although it paid no taxes, this land was tacitly an “imperial field.” To the north of Nanjun Mountain there was a royal hunting ground, where spring and autumn hunts were held every year, and all supplies were provided by Jingci Temple.
Many people secretly wanted to move on this land, but few dared to. Gu Shaoshi was counted as one of them.
About ten days ago, a dispute not big and not small had broken out at the foot of Nanjun Mountain. A group of refugees destroyed fields and occupied land, and the temple monks, unable to suppress them, chose to report to the authorities. The one in charge of the case was a man of the Gu faction, Zhou Tonglin, Vice Minister of the Dali Court.
Without a disaster year, where would refugees come from? These people were in fact poor souls whom Jingci Temple had taken in within the temple in earlier years, old and young. Their numbers had originally been small, but later they gathered more and more, and finally, a few months ago, the temple abbot decided to clear them all out of the temple, and that was how the present matter came about.
So, Gu Shaoshi wanted to use this chance to take back the land at the foot of the mountain and return it to the Ministry of Revenue, and naturally was opposed by the Crown Prince.
Whether it was because of this matter or not, a month ago the Empress Dowager caught a cold and fell ill, and the Crown Prince, in the name of praying for the Empress Dowager, moved into Jingci Temple, and was even absent from tonight’s Mid-Autumn banquet.
The carriage shook. Chu Yue’an opened his eyes, lifted the curtain and looked at the sky, was about to enter the palace, sat back down in his seat, and sighed in his heart to himself.
With the Crown Prince absent, he could at least not worry that His Majesty would suddenly bring up the marriage, but for some reason he always felt a little uneasy.
To soothe this inexplicable restlessness, he silently went through in his mind the information he had prepared in these past few days on the noble sons who would appear at the Mid-Autumn banquet: family background, character, interests, life history…
Among them, he had to pay particular attention to the two young gentlemen who were usually close to Gu Shaoshi: one was Yu Han, the son of the Minister of Justice, and the other was that Vice Minister of the Dali Court, Zhou Tonglin.
Of these two, the former was a noble-family son who ranked among those counted in Yongdu, and the latter was a humble-origin scholar whom Gu Shaoshi intended to promote. If Gu Shaoshi meant to arrange for someone to approach Chu Yue’an, these were the most likely candidates.
If they came, that would just happen to suit Chu Yue’an’s wishes. It was only that, however cunning and crafty Gu Shaoshi was, there was no way he could guess that the General’s Residence’s only young lady was actually a man. This calculation was bound to come to nothing.
The carriage shook once. They had reached the palace gate. By the rule since the founding of the Great Yan, no one other than His Majesty was allowed to ride in a carriage or palanquin inside the palace, so the remaining stretch of road had to be walked by the guests themselves.
Chu Yue’an took a small bronze mirror out of his sleeve, adjusted the expression on his face in the mirror, then stood up and smoothed his crumpled skirt, lifted his hand to raise the curtain, and was about to step out, when he froze on the spot at the sight in front of him:
For no other reason than that the person he had been cursing in his mind just now, the Great Yan’s number one treacherous official, Prime Minister Gu Shaoshi, was actually standing beside the palace gate, less than five chi from him.
Prime Minister Gu today, rarely, was not in official dress. A lake-blue long robe with wide sleeves swayed lightly in the wind, setting him off as a gentleman like jade, gentle and upright. He wore a mild, faint smile on his face, and his pair of black eyes, like cold stars, looked straight at him. That look was not like waiting for a stranger, but more like welcoming his newly married wife.
Chu Yue’an got a layer of goosebumps on his arms from his own hypothesis and couldn’t help flicking his sleeves. The next moment, their eyes met, and he heard Gu Shaoshi speak gently with a smile:
“I have long heard the fine name of the young lady of the Jingyuan General’s Residence, and today meeting her I find that it is indeed well deserved.”
He paused, and seeing that Chu Yue’an’s expression had not changed, the smile on his face deepened:
“I have long been acquainted with your honored brother. I heard that the young lady has been weak since childhood and is often bedridden, so I waited here today, wishing to lend a sedan chair from the palace to travel and rest in. I wonder whether the young lady would do me the honor?”
Chu Yue’an followed his gaze and looked into the palace, and sure enough, a small vermilion sedan chair carved with palace patterns, with red and green window-flower panels on both sides and a hanging curtain, was standing quietly on the palace road at this moment.
…This is not what I had planned.
Chu Yue’an with difficulty moved his gaze back to Gu Shaoshi’s face, thinking inwardly:
How had he forgotten that the “everyone else” in the Great Yan now didn’t include this great traitor!