Chapter 164 Emotions of Personal Command

Just a few days after the Emperor's birthday celebrations, it was time for Princess Chunxi to get married.

She was the eldest princess, Emperor Kangxi's adopted daughter, but also the daughter of Prince Gong. Emperor Kangxi, who had a deep affection for Princess Chunxi, specially granted her the privilege of not leaving the city directly after her marriage from the palace, but instead making a detour to Prince Gong's residence.

Emperor Kangxi's intention was to ensure that Princess Chunxi could marry not only from the Forbidden City but also from Prince Gong's Mansion, and receive the blessings of her biological parents and siblings on her wedding day.

Under the escort of the eldest prince, Princess Chunxi left the capital and embarked on her journey to marry a foreign prince. She traveled north to the Khorchin tribe in southern Mongolia.

After the Emperor's birthday celebration, regardless of any major events that occurred in the previous dynasty or any unusual movements by the Dzungar Khanate in the far west of Mongolia, the inner palace remained calm and peaceful. Nothing major happened, except for two pieces of news that garnered some attention and spread throughout the inner palace.

First, Consort Xiao Hesheli, who entered the palace at a young age in the nineteenth year of the Kangxi Emperor's reign, finally served the emperor ten years later. Second, at the end of April, Consort Zhangjia, the birth mother of the thirteenth prince, was diagnosed with a pregnancy of more than a month.

Consort Chuxiu has finally begun to serve the emperor. Although she is not particularly favored by Emperor Kangxi and there is no indication that she will receive his favor, serving him means that Consort Chuxiu may become pregnant and give birth to a royal heir.

It is unknown what Hesheli and Suo'etu, who have been subtly abandoning their support for Consort Chuxiu in recent years, think about this matter.

And then there's the Crown Prince. If Consort Chuxiu really does become pregnant with the Emperor's child and gives birth to a prince, how will the Crown Prince treat the little prince, who is both his half-brother and his cousin?

Compared to the first piece of news, the second piece of news, that Consort Zhangjia had been diagnosed with pregnancy, attracted some attention, but did not elicit much surprise or astonishment from the other concubines in the harem.

In recent years, Lady Zhangjia has been very favored. Although she is only a concubine, she has long enjoyed the rank of Noble Lady. In the 25th year of Kangxi's reign, she gave birth to the 13th Prince Yinxiang, and in the 26th year of Kangxi's reign, she gave birth to the 12th Princess (originally the 13th Princess). This year is her third pregnancy, which is not unusual.

The crown prince was born in May, a month known as the "poisonous month," on the third day of May.

Perhaps it was bad luck, or perhaps it was fate's way of working against him. The Crown Prince had just finished celebrating his birthday in a lively manner, and after the First Prince left the capital and there was no one to cause trouble, he seized the opportunity to mend the rift between father and son with Emperor Kangxi and they became close again. Then, an urgent report came from Mongolia beyond the Great Wall.

As soon as May arrived, Galdan, the leader of the Dzungar tribe, led 30,000 troops across the Ursan River in four separate routes.

While the Dzungars were loudly proclaiming that they had made contact with Tsarist Russia and borrowed troops from it, they feigned attacks on tribes such as Kundulun Bosoktu. Under this diversionary tactic, the Dzungar tribes once again invaded Khalkha, catching the Khalkha off guard.

When the urgent report from Mongolia reached the capital, Emperor Kangxi immediately responded.

He issued a statement condemning the Dzungar tribe for wantonly provoking war and committing excessive killings, causing many Khalkha families to be broken apart and wives and children to be separated. He demanded that the Dzungar immediately withdraw its troops and "cease hostilities" against the Khalkha. At the same time, Kangxi mobilized troops and made early preparations for war with the Dzungar.

With Emperor Kangxi in charge of the capital, he mobilized troops and prepared provisions. Although the current focus was on preventing the Dzungars from continuing their invasion of Outer Mongolia, the entire Qing Dynasty was actively preparing for war and was determined to fight the Dzungars. The voices of those seeking peace were barely heard.

May was spent in busy preparations for war. In June, bad news came one after another from beyond the Great Wall: Galdan led an army of 30,000 men to break through several Khalkha Mongol tribes and then fought against the Qing army on the banks of the Ursan River. He defeated the Qing army and entered Ujumqin, which was only 900 li away from the capital.

The Ujumqin Grassland is located in the eastern part of Xilin Gol League in southern Mongolia. It is the most expansive and fertile grassland in southern Mongolia.

As the Dzungar tribe swept through Western Mongolia and directly attacked Southern Mongolia, they occupied the fertile Ujumchin region. Along the way, the Mongol tribes that were attacked by the Dzungar tribe sent urgent appeals to the Qing Dynasty, requesting them to send troops to repel the Dzungar tribe.

On June 22, Emperor Kangxi summoned his civil and military officials to the Golden Palace. After a heated discussion and debate, Kangxi made a decision and issued an edict announcing his personal expedition against the Dzungars.

After Emperor Kangxi made the decision to personally lead the expedition against the Dzungars, the eldest prince also decided to participate in the war, which would give him the opportunity to fight on the battlefield and earn military merit.

The eldest prince, who has always been brave and skilled in martial arts, was not afraid of going to the battlefield. On the contrary, he was eager to do so and was very much looking forward to it. He did not care at all whether he would get even darker and his skin would be several shades darker after two months of traveling on the road after sending Princess Chunxi to marry into Mongolia.

The Crown Prince was still unhappy about the First Prince's impending military campaign. However, although he was displeased, he was not stupid and knew that it was not appropriate to bring up his discord with the First Prince at this time. So he only had a few private conflicts with the First Prince and did not bring it to Emperor Kangxi's attention.

It's no wonder that the Crown Prince and the First Prince often clashed; given their mutual animosity, they were bound to run into each other in the palace, with no way to avoid it. Whenever they did meet, given their mutual loathing, conflict was almost inevitable.

—Although the eldest prince had graduated from the Imperial Study, he did not leave the palace to build his own residence and still lived in the Princes' Residence and the Gan Dong Tou Residence; while the crown prince lived in the Yuqing Palace. Since both of them lived in the palace and often went to the Ganqing Palace, it would be strange if they did not run into each other frequently.

After Emperor Kangxi issued an edict announcing his personal campaign against the Dzungars, the border guards, who had previously only been preparing for war, became much more active, with the movement of food and troops becoming increasingly frequent.

On June 29th, Emperor Kangxi ordered Prince Kang, Jieshu, and Prince Keshen, Yuexi, to lead a garrison to Guihua City (present-day Hohhot) to assist in defense.

On July 2nd, the Qing army officially set off to conquer the Dzungar Khanate.

Emperor Kangxi appointed Prince Yu, Fuquan, as the Grand General of Pacification, with Prince Yu as the commander-in-chief and the eldest prince, Yinti, as the deputy commander, to cross the border from Gubeikou to the north. Emperor Kangxi also appointed Prince Gong, Changning, as the Grand General of Anbei, with Prince Gong as the commander-in-chief and Prince Jian, Yabu, and Prince Xin, Ezha, as the deputy commanders, to cross the border from Xifengkou to Mongolia.

After the two armies set off, Kangxi ordered Grand Ministers Tong Guowei, Suo'etu, and Mingzhu to stay in the capital to prepare for the war's logistics. They were to rush to Yinshan to join the main army after the main army arrived there.

After settling logistical issues in the capital, Emperor Kangxi planned to personally lead his army to the border to conquer the Dzungars. Before the army set off, Kangxi ordered all officers below the rank of commander-in-chief to inspect and carefully verify military supplies and equipment, sternly reiterated military discipline, and ordered the armies of Prince Gong and Prince Yu to join forces.

On July 14th, Emperor Kangxi finally set off, heading north to the border to personally lead an expedition against the Dzungar Khanate.

Just a few days after Emperor Kangxi set off, news broke in the palace, which had been quiet due to the impending war between the Qing Dynasty and the Dzungar Khanate: Consort Xiao Hesheli of the Chuxiu Palace had been diagnosed with a pregnancy of nearly two months.

The Crown Prince, who remained in the capital, was furious and vented his anger in Yuqing Palace. Even though Ling Pu, the chief steward of the Imperial Household Department, helped cover it up, news still spread that Yuqing Palace had replaced nearly ten batches of cups and teaware made by the official kilns in just a few days, resulting in a huge consumption of fragile porcelain items.

Emperor Kangxi already had thirteen sons, and the Crown Prince did not care whether newborns were born in the harem or whether new princes were born.

However, the Crown Prince's indifference only applies to the sons of concubines. If a Noble Consort or one of the Four Consorts becomes pregnant again, the Crown Prince may not react as strongly as he has this time, but he will still be worried and troubled.

The fact that Consort Chuxiu was pregnant was worse for the Crown Prince than the pregnancies of the Noble Consort and the Four Consorts. Because Consort Chuxiu's surname was Hesheli, if she gave birth to a prince, her son would also be of Hesheli blood. This would give the Hesheli clan another candidate to support, and it was hard to guarantee that their attitude would not change.

Emperor Kangxi established a crown prince early on largely to appease Han Chinese scholars and officials. Therefore, the true supporters of the crown prince were not the Manchu nobles and powerful families, but rather the literati, led by those from Jiangnan; they were the most steadfast supporters of the crown prince.

Unlike the attitude of Han Chinese civil officials, most Manchu noble families opposed the early establishment of a crown prince.

The Manchus always had the eldest son leave home to work hard while the youngest son stayed home to guard the family. They did not designate an heir early on. When the Crown Prince was only two years old, Kangxi made him the heir apparent, which greatly displeased the arrogant generals, nobles and powerful families who were used to discussing national affairs with the royal family.

The only Manchu aristocratic family that firmly supported the Crown Prince was the Hesheli clan, his maternal family, who naturally stood on the same side as him.

As long as the Crown Prince still wants to win the support of the Manchu nobles, and as long as he understands that the Manchus hold the vast majority of power, he will not give up the support of the Manchu nobles, and he also understands the importance of the Hesheli clan to him.

Now that Consort Chuxiu is pregnant, it means that the Crown Prince is no longer the only one in Kangxi's harem with the blood of the Hesheli clan, and the Hesheli clan no longer has only the Crown Prince as their sole hope.

However, the imbalance was that the crown prince, who was not favored by the Manchu nobles, only had the Hesheli clan as an option, and could not win the support of the other seven clans besides the Hesheli clan, such as the Tongjia, Niohuru, Magia, and Guarjia clans.

Just as the Crown Prince was still furious, news came from the front lines that Emperor Kangxi had ordered the Crown Prince to take the Third Prince to the front lines to visit him.

It turned out that after Emperor Kangxi set off from the capital on July 14th, he had only been traveling for four days when he arrived at Mount Gurufuerjianjiahunga on the 18th. He fell ill due to a strange disease, which was a bad start. Before the war to personally lead the expedition against the Dzungars had even begun, Emperor Kangxi had already fallen ill.

After setting up camp at Mount Gurufuljianjiahunga, Emperor Kangxi, weakened by his illness, was overcome with emotion and missed his son dearly. He sent a long message back to the capital, asking the Crown Prince to visit him at the front.

As for the Third Prince, he was merely an accomplice. Kangxi was mainly reluctant to let the Crown Prince travel alone. With the First Prince already on his way to the frontier, he chose the Third Prince, the eldest son after the Crown Prince, to accompany the Crown Prince to the front lines.

Emperor Kangxi truly loved his crown prince the most. If he had ten parts of fatherly love, nine parts of it went to the crown prince, who had lost his mother at birth and was raised and educated by him personally. It was precisely because of his deep affection for the crown prince that when Kangxi fell ill after going on a military campaign, he missed the crown prince even more and wanted to see him while he was sick.

But Emperor Kangxi was neither omniscient nor all-knowing. He did not know that the Crown Prince, upon receiving the news of Consort Chuxiu's pregnancy, was harboring a burning anger, nor did he know that the Crown Prince was carrying these emotions as he set off from the capital to the front lines.