Can't bear
Inside the Purple Palace, the echoes of the cheers of "Long live the emperor" had not yet faded away.
As the officials lowered their heads, their eyes crossed, undercurrents surged, and the biting cold wind seemed to penetrate the heavy palace door and blow on everyone's spine.
Sitting on the dragon throne, the expression on Emperor Guangqi's face was difficult to discern.
He stared at the censor in silence for a long moment before he slowly spoke, "Are you speaking on behalf of the Censorate or yourself?"
The censor shuddered, but persisted, "As a censor, I must report any rumors I hear. This is my duty. This rumor has been circulating in the capital for quite some time. It affects the reputation of Your Majesty and the stability of the court. I dare not fail to report it!"
"Rumor?" Emperor Guangqi repeated softly, as if savoring the taste of the two words.
His voice suddenly rose, demanding, "Where did this rumor come from? Who spread it? What evidence do you have? As an imperial censor, you must have evidence to report rumors. If you find no evidence, you are framing the emperor and father. What crime will you be punished for?"
His gaze was no longer limited to the censor, but slowly swept across the faces of every important official under the Danbi. The chief minister of the cabinet lowered his eyes and remained silent, several nobles had flickering eyes, and the military generals looked solemn.
He could not see loyalty, but only vague masks that might be hiding evil intentions.
Do they all know? Or are they all just guessing? Are they banding together to force me off the throne?
A chill rose from the soles of his feet, mixed with the rage of being offended, almost making him faint, but he forced himself to suppress it. The majesty of the emperor was his only armor at this moment.
"The grand court meeting on the first day of the first lunar month in the third year of Guangqi!"
His voice echoed in the palace, carrying with it a sense of righteousness that came from being hurt.
"Are we, the ministers of the Southern Dynasty, actually willing to override our sovereign and father based on a few unfounded rumors? Is this how you serve as ministers? Hmm?"
The last question made all the officials kneel down in unison: "We dare not!"
Emperor Guangqi looked at the ministers crawling at his feet, and the violent murderous intent and extreme insecurity in his heart intertwined and rose.
They don't dare? Why shouldn't they dare? How rampant were the followers of the deposed prince back then! What are they thinking as they kneel down now?
Everyone must know who is the master!
He took a deep breath, a look of mixed grief crossing his face. He said, "Such remarks are not only slanderous to me, but also destabilize the foundation of our nation, destroy the trust between our ruler and his subjects, and unsettle the hearts of our soldiers and civilians! Their intentions are worthy of death, and their actions are worthy of death!"
"I will not tolerate this!" He said firmly, his eyes sweeping across the room again. "I will investigate this matter thoroughly! I will immediately set up a special case, and..."
He paused for a moment, "Prime Minister Zhao, take overall charge. Conduct a full-scale investigation for me! Trace back the source of the rumors, no matter who is involved, and get to the bottom of it! I want to see who is stirring up trouble behind this, trying to destroy our Southern Dynasty!"
Once these words were spoken, the matter could not be easily dismissed.
The ministers all knew that the emperor attached great importance to this matter, and the emperor's confidants were the only ones leading the investigation. No one should try to cause trouble by taking advantage of this, let alone interfere!
Emperor Guangqi wanted to direct this fire, which might burn him, in the direction he designated, burning towards those he wanted to get rid of.
For a time, everyone felt insecure.
After dismissing the court, Emperor Guangqi returned to the warm room. The anger, fear and pressure accumulated in the court burned his internal organs like poisonous fire.
Did they know? How much did they know? Where did it leak out? Aside from the envoys who had been silenced, the people who participated in the secret talks back then, including those from the Southern Dynasty palace who had escorted him secretly to the border to arrange the meeting...
He was restless, and the illusion of the dragon throne shaking appeared again.
Before he knew it, he arrived at Kunning Palace.
The palace was warm, and the Queen was holding the hand of Crown Prince Ning Chengze, teaching him calligraphy. The little boy held the pen and wrote very seriously.
Seeing the emperor come in, the empress hurriedly stood up and saluted. The prince also timidly put down his pen and greeted his father in a polite manner.
This should have been a heartwarming picture, but in the eyes of Emperor Guangqi, it suddenly changed.
He looked at the prince's handsome face that resembled the queen, and at the influential people from his mother's family in the court, and a deeper fear frightened him: Will they support Ze'er and depose me in the future, just like the deposed prince's followers supported the deposed prince?
If I treat him harshly now, will he resent me in the future? Will he seek revenge? Is he the next person to take my place?
The thought almost suffocated him.
His eyes fell on the piece of paper the prince had just written, on which were written a few slightly childish words of "filial piety".
"What's it about?"
His voice was unusually cold.
The prince replied in a low voice: "Father, it is the word 'filial piety'."
Emperor Guangqi picked up the paper, glanced at it, and then flung it to the ground, sternly saying, "You are so weak and powerless, your form is scattered and your spirit is broken. You can't even hold a pen steady. How can you rule the world? With such a character, how can you shoulder great responsibilities in the future? Rewrite it."
The prince was so frightened that his whole body trembled, his eyes immediately turned red, tears welled up in his eyes, but he bit his lips tightly and dared not cry out loud, and hurriedly spread out another piece of paper.
The queen was heartbroken watching this, but she didn't dare say a word. Her husband had changed a long time ago, and if she said more, it would only make him even more furious.
Emperor Guangqi paced anxiously, then suddenly stopped, stared at the crown prince, and asked abruptly, "If a treacherous minister framed you, saying that you were lacking in virtue and unfit to be the crown prince, what would you do?"
The Crown Prince was so young, how could he understand the intrigues of the court? He was stunned by his father's sudden and stern question. His face turned pale. He held the pen and hesitated for a long time before whispering in a tearful voice, "I will tell your Majesty. Please make the decision for me..."
This naive, dependent, and even somewhat weak answer made Emperor Guangqi angry.
What he wanted was decisiveness, an iron fist, an answer that would crush all threats just like he did! But what the prince gave was the weakness that he feared most in his heart!
"Make the decision?" Emperor Guangqi sneered. "Can I make the decision for you forever? You are the crown prince, you must learn to cut through these thorns yourself! If you are so indecisive and have no courage, you will become a puppet at the mercy of others! Waste of life!"
He was afraid that the prince would become a potential patricide, and he was also angry that the prince was so weak, just like the deposed prince of the past. How could he not be angry when the son was not like the father?
The prince was finally frightened and started crying, his small body shaking into a ball.
Emperor Guangqi looked at his crying son and felt a slight pain in his heart, but that little fluctuation was immediately overwhelmed by greater fear and complexity.
Does the prince respect and love him? Maybe now, but what about later?
He finally left in anger, leaving behind the trembling prince and the pale queen.
The spring of the third year of Guangqi arrived under such high pressure.
The imperial court investigated the "rumor case" strictly and arrested many people, most of whom were insignificant minor officials or playboys in the capital. Under torture, the names they brought out became more and more shocking.
At the beginning, Emperor Guangqi could still discuss the matter at hand and argue with his ministers in the court, but as the issues became more and more involved, especially when some of the old ministers who might be slightly related to the past or who he regarded as thorns in his side were involved, his patience quickly disappeared.
Those old and powerful ministers, especially those left by the retired emperor, became increasingly hateful and abominable in his eyes. They were experienced and had complex connections, and sometimes showed subtle scrutiny towards him. He needed their talents to keep the court running, but he also longed to suppress them completely.
The interweaving of dependence and jealousy made the political situation increasingly chaotic.
People were constantly imprisoned, had their homes confiscated, and even had their heads and bodies separated for charges of "spreading rumors", "slandering the monarch", and "plotting against the government".
Even people from Emperor Guangqi's mother's and wife's families were implicated. The scope of the impact became wider and wider, and the blood gradually dyed this spring red. Everyone was in danger and kept silent.
Emperor Guangqi was having increasingly trouble sleeping.
In the dead of night, his father's empty eyes with tears in them, the blood-red stain of the deposed crown prince who had died from crashing into a wall pillar, the blurred faces of the court officials, and the crown prince's crying little face, all intertwined into a nightmare that tormented him repeatedly.
Occasionally, when least expected, he reveals a glimmer of humanity.
One day, the Queen accompanied him for dinner. Seeing that he was not in good spirits, she carefully comforted him: "Your Majesty has been busy with state affairs, so you must take care of your health. When you were in the palace, Your Majesty was also busy, but not as exhausted as you are now..."
She said it unintentionally, but it made Emperor Guangqi dazed for a moment.
Although that time in the palace was depressing, there were also moments of warmth.
Especially when he was abandoned by his father and ordered to leave the capital and become a vassal, the situation was unclear, and those old people in the palace who still chose to follow him...
He suddenly murmured, "Yes, those who followed us to Yongdi back then were indeed loyal..."
The Queen's face showed a look of reminiscence, and she nodded gently: "Yes, Zhang Changshi and the others who guarded them are indeed loyal men..."
Before he finished speaking, Emperor Guangqi's expression suddenly changed.
Zhang Changshi and Guard Wang! Yes, they were loyal, but the specific arrangements for the secret contact with the Western Qiang were handled by Zhang Changshi, and Guard Wang was the entire escort. He might have heard something!
The warmth he originally felt due to memories immediately turned cold.
Loyalty? Loyalty is the most unreliable thing in the world! As long as they are alive, they may betray him at any time. Those who were able to do dirty things for him in the past will work for others in the future, or use this matter to blackmail him!
The faint spark of his humanity had just flashed when it was extinguished by his own hands.
That night, a secret decree was issued.
Soon, a fire broke out in a secret house somewhere outside the capital, and no one survived, including the family of Zhang Changshi, the former owner of Prince Yong's Mansion, and Wang Huwei and his family.
When Emperor Guangqi received the secret report of the success, he was standing in front of the window, looking at the cold moonlight. There was no expression on his face, but only relief in his heart. If it were not for his determination back then, he would still be kneeling at the feet of the deposed crown prince, gasping for breath and begging for his life. But now he was the one who killed all the traitors and rebels, and he won.
Get and then lose, not forced loss, but active destruction.
Only in this way can he feel a little safer.
He personally pushed himself to the pinnacle of loneliness, surrounded by biting cold winds and a bottomless abyss under his feet, but he would never regret it.
No one in the world can let me down.
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