Chapter 147: Shocking Change (Part 2)
"Crying towards Jinling, things are even more sad."
No more assumptions, no more guesses, this one line of poetry alone is enough to clear up all the emperor's confusions.
Over the years, the emperor couldn't let go of the Heavenly Book. He repeatedly read the internal and external materials and could recite almost every word on it. What he remembered most was the curse that sounded like a prophecy that he read somewhere in the Voice of the Heart Diary:
[…The royal family still refuses to restrain themselves. Do they really intend to go to Emperor Gao’s mausoleum to mourn? Crying to Jinling is even more tragic, it is really outrageous...】
"Crying towards Jinling, things are even more sad"! For a dynasty that originated in Jinling, this sentence is too harsh!
Now, this terrible impression finally took effect. The emperor just took a look and his pounding heart immediately dropped.
——There is no doubt that the owner of the "Voice of the Heart Diary", the mysterious and unpredictable exiled immortal, has finally revealed his true colors at this time.
When you understand one thing, you will understand everything. As long as you suddenly realize a key, all the clues can be connected. In just a moment, all the details that the emperor had originally ignored suddenly emerged in his mind - the incredible technology of the Duke's Mansion, the sometimes crazy and sometimes normal behavior of the Mu family, and the almost surging speed of the country's reform since Mu Qi came to power...
It turns out it’s you, it’s really you!
After a brief moment of shock and trance, there was more intolerable anger. Judging from the details leaked from the Heavenly Book, this banished immortal of unknown origin undoubtedly remained quite indifferent in the ending where the court "cried towards Nanjing for even more sorrow; he had obviously foreseen the future long ago, but apart from revealing some vague prophecies and predictions, the banished immortal did not lend a helping hand to the court, the royal family, or the eternal foundation of Lord Feixuan and Lord Wanshou. How can such an attitude be tolerated? !
In the eyes of Master Feixuan, he was thoughtful and respectful enough in serving the gods and immortals. He offered incense every day, fasted and sacrificed every month, and burned green poems and held grand ceremonies every now and then. He was extremely considerate. However, after spending so much energy on offering sacrifices, he got such a result in return - how could Master accept this?
Is this attitude worthy of the money I spent? Geneva, give your money back! !
It is always especially painful to be hurt by someone close to you, and the Mu family just happened to have all the buffs of being close to you: a strong base like an iron cannon, the most trustworthy nobles, and immortals who are carefully respected... Such a person actually stood by and watched at the critical moment, which really made the True Lord feel disappointed and resentful.
There is no doubt that this is a huge subversion of the emperor's three views over the years. Compared with the horrific consequences of "crying to Jinling", what made him most upset and angry was probably the indifference shown by the banished immortal towards him and his foundation. This careless arrow hit the nail on the head, instantly piercing through all his disguises of decades and going straight to the point:
You, Master Feixuan and Emperor Wanshou, have practiced for so long, but in the end, you are nothing more than an ant ignored by the immortals and abandoned by fate!
The most crucial killing move is always silent and can break the defense. Just this one sentence, just this one sentence, is enough to destroy all the psychological preparations of the emperor, and knock him, who has cultivated the unity of his imperial body, Taoist body and self-cultivation, off the altar and down to the mortal world!
When the emperor thought of this, his throat gurgled and he really wanted to throw down his red pen immediately and start a massacre on the spot, killing everyone in the Muguo Mansion, the cabinet, and the Foreign Affairs Office. Years of fantasies were shattered in an instant, and the future of the court was shaky. In such a crazy and manic atmosphere, the True Lord with bloodshot eyes no longer cared about any etiquette or rules. If the hall had not been empty, he would have shouted out orders.
The unleashed imperial power has no rivals. As long as the emperor dares to bear the consequences, he can kill anyone.
Unfortunately, perhaps because his legs were numb from sitting for too long, the emperor struggled to get up and call for help, but his feet inexplicably went soft and he sat down again. He also overturned the abominable demon book on the couch, and sparks flew out again.
The demon book that was being tortured twitched for a moment, and helplessly popped up another bunch of error warnings and a long string of text. The emperor did not want to read this text, but every word and stroke pierced his heart:
【
...Reforms that rely on imperial power are ultimately just a pipe dream. Zhang Taiyue spent fifteen years proving this.
Obviously, as early as when Gao, Zhang and others were in power, the situation had already been very delicate. As Gao Suqing said, "The world is in danger, but people still say it is peaceful." It requires very clever and sophisticated means to maintain it. But after Zhang Taiyue, it was Emperor Wanli who came to power - a young, irritable, and extremely power-hungry giant baby.
From the perspective of later historians, Emperor Wanli was probably immersed in some kind of strange youthful rebellious mood throughout his life, but his morbid impulse of patricidal rebellion was not directed at his biological father, Emperor Longqing, but at Zhang Taiyue, who was responsible for most of his education. In short, after gaining power, the first thing Emperor Wanli could not wait to do was to abolish all of Zhang’s laws. In just half a year, he issued hundreds of edicts, almost dismantling the entire system that Zhang Taiyue had worked so hard to build. People at that time ridiculed him as follows: "Every time you oppose Zhang, you can get a job!"
This kind of operation is really incredible. It is difficult for outsiders to judge the private relationship between the monarch and his minister, but Zhang Taiyue worked hard for the Zhu family during his fifteen years in power, without any selfish motives. He spent a full fifteen years explaining to the whole world that the court was sincere in its intention to reform and change the law, that the state apparatus was willing to share power with the emerging class, and that everyone could still sit down in a row and share the fruits and continue to enjoy the cake. These fifteen years were extremely fruitful, and the vast majority of forces actually recognized Zhang Taiyue's work and were willing to cooperate with him - and then, Wanli took half a year to destroy it all.
So everyone should be able to imagine how shocked and horrified the court and the country were, and how disappointed the people were after the emperor acted so brutally. The notes of people at that time said "the whole country was shocked and terrified", which was roughly the case.
Under the rule of Zhang's cabinet for fifteen years, local forces actually had a filter for the central government. They took Gao Suqing Zhang Taiyue as a benchmark and felt that the person in power must be both wise and knowledgeable, and it would be impossible to defeat him in battle; even if they had ambitions, they had to be patient. But after seeing the emperor's embarrassing behavior of going around in circles for the past six months, I'm afraid everyone would have some secret thoughts.
However, Emperor Wanli may not have known this. After eliminating the influence of Zhang Taiyue, he confidently broke the taboos of successive cabinets since Yan Fenyi and began to speculate in key bulk commodities - Yan, Xu, Gao, and Zhang had different political views, but they were all very cautious in finance and only dared to tamper with precious metals and luxury goods; such investment was certainly safe, but the profits were limited. Emperor Wanli, who grew up in a wealthy family, was much bolder. He decisively broke the tacit understanding of the central government and invested heavily in commodities such as coal, iron ore, and rubber.
Such an investment is certainly lucrative, and is actually quite safe - after completing initial industrialization, China has become the largest market for bulk goods, and its powerful navy is sufficient to control the resource production areas. It is said that it is both the client and the contractor, with its hands in its pockets, and it has no idea who its opponent is.
Unfortunately, no matter how small the risk is, it is still a risk, and the country cannot afford even the slightest risk in critical materials. After six years of taking power, the complacent emperor invested heavily in the rubber trade and waited quietly for a generous return. As a result, a strong typhoon suddenly broke out in the South Pacific that year, and the rubber plantations in Southeast Asia and Hainan Islands suffered heavy losses and were almost wiped out. The emperor's investment quickly went bankrupt, leaving him with an incredible debt...
】
Zhenjun was no longer able to speak, his eyes just stared at the evil and hideous words. Perhaps it was because Great Sun's operation was too amazing and too delicious, Feixuan Zhenjun Wanshou Emperor took a lot of effort to barely understand the above words, and then his eyeballs gradually rolled up, the black pupils disappeared, revealing only the red whites of the eyes.
Unfortunately, the Heavenly Book still refused to let him go. New text begins to appear on the paper:
[Because the archives were lost, the specific losses are difficult to detect, but according to later estimates, the total amount is more than 25 million taels, and the amount of debt is unknown - such a staggering amount almost instantly overwhelmed the weak finances of the royal family and triggered unpredictable speculation: the emperor was ruined by natural disasters, which is definitely not a good thing in traditional metaphysical concepts.
However, compared with the financial losses, the bigger trouble lies with the emperor. The young Emperor Wanli encountered extremely strong stimulation in the natural disaster, and the existing defects in his character finally broke out completely - he was completely unable to acknowledge the reality. Not only did he refuse to pay the compensation, he even tried to forcibly close the financial market in Southeast Asia and tear up decades of free trade practices.
Since the Jiayin Reform, the Nanyang market has been increasingly developed and has almost become the center of communication between Europe and Asia, accumulating more than one-third of the world's wealth. Closing it rashly would be tantamount to blatant default, seriously damaging the interests of the Chinese and Western bourgeoisie and pushing a large number of wealthy merchants to the opposite side. Faced with the raging voices of anger and opposition at home and abroad, Emperor Wanli probably could not withstand the pressure and actually refused to summon court officials. He retreated into the deep palace and never responded to any memorials.
Under the imperial autocratic system, the central government came to a standstill after the emperor went on strike; facing the raging opposition outside, the Da'an court was paralyzed for three full months. This gave the opposition valuable time to unite, while the supporters' confidence was shaken and they were inevitably weak and fragmented. Given the dangerous situation at the time, this was indeed a sign of extreme danger.
In short, after the little emperor's almost neurotic actions, the end of the imperial power finally came...】
Although he had fully anticipated this, the emperor still went dark before his eyes when he saw the word "doomsday" for sure. He struggled to crawl over, grabbed the evil book and crumpled it into a ball, wanting to throw this evil monster into the spittoon, smash it, burn it, turn it into ashes and shit, and vent the emperor's anger and resentment for being fooled.
However, the evil book could not withstand any more torture; after being crumpled into a ball, a few wisps of green smoke emerged from the title page of the book, and then there was a sizzling sound, and a flash of lightning flashed by, going straight through the emperor's palm.
Generally speaking, the current of this kind of portable product is not very large and it is estimated that it will only cause a slight sharp pain. But the emperor's body had reached its limit in his rage. After some violent tremors, Zhenjun felt a black screen before his eyes and fell down involuntarily!
·
The hall was empty and closed, and the sound of Zhenjun falling on his back hardly caused any commotion, and no one dared to go in to spy. He could only lie unconscious on the carpet alone, with the damned demon book tightly clutched in his hand.
Of course, this can also be considered as the cause and effect caused by the emperor himself. Li Zaifang and Huang Shanggang, who originally served him, were both extremely cautious people. Even if they were not summoned, they would secretly take a look at the closed palace through the crack of the door every now and then to prevent any accidents from happening to their master. But after his paranoia broke out, the emperor replaced all high-ranking eunuchs with palace maids who were rough and clumsy and would never have any connection with the outer court. These palace servants are taciturn and abide by the rules. They certainly would not have any collusion with the outer court, but they definitely do not have the smartness to prevent problems before they arise.
Therefore, Zhenjun could only lie there with his eyes rolled back, motionless, until Princess Sishan, who had returned to get the token, carefully stepped into the hall and saw her father collapsed.
The stimulation the princess felt at that moment was of course incomparable. She stood there in a daze for a moment before she crawled over on her knees and quickly hugged the emperor in her arms and shook him, her voice trembling:
"Your Majesty! Your Majesty!"
Zhenjun finally opened his eyes in a daze, his eyeballs darting around and his gaze could no longer focus. He tried hard to open his mouth, but only a stream of saliva came out.
Princess Sishan burst into tears immediately:
"Your Majesty, please hold on! I will call the imperial physician immediately!"
As she spoke, she was about to stand up, but the emperor tried to open his eyes wide, and the gurgling sound became louder and louder. He grasped his daughter's sleeve tightly, and even though his limbs were no longer under his control, he still tried hard to point at her waist. He opened his mouth wide and squeezed out a word from his throat:
“Yellow… yellow!”
The princess did not dare to use force, so she could only follow her father's hand and squat down again. Her eyes moved downwards and she saw a fish-shaped jade pendant made of Hetian jade dangling from the emperor's waist. The style and texture were ordinary, as if it was just the most common decoration. However, it was a bit strange that such a common decoration appeared on the emperor who had been extravagant and spent a lot of money recently. Even if the emperor wanted to establish a persona of only eight sets of clothes for four seasons, there was really no need to do so at this time...
The princess' eyes suddenly widened.
After all, he was a relative who grew up in the palace. Even if he was ignorant and introverted, he had heard the secrets of the royal family from the elderly palace maids. It is said that Emperor Gaozu left behind ancestral teachings, teaching his descendants to be prepared for danger in times of peace and to nip problems in the bud. Fast horses and tunnels for escape must be prepared at all times in the palace; and soldiers of death who would only obey the imperial power must be trained in private. Once the emperor was in danger, he could use a unique token to mobilize this special force, which would be of great use.
Such rumors were not worth verifying, but seeing the emperor pointing desperately to his side, the princess' heart was in suspense.
She whispered, "Your Majesty...Your Majesty wants me to hand this item over to Huang Shanggang?"
Zhenjun tried his best to nod, and seemed to want to give instructions verbally, but this time his mouth, teeth and throat were so stiff that he couldn't even make a "uh" sound. He could only move his fingers to ask the princess to quickly take off the jade pendant.
No more doubts. In the palace, only the eunuch Huang Shanggang from the East Factory could mobilize personnel, and even Li Zaifang had to take a step back. The emperor sent a message to the eunuch he had served since childhood at this time, and his intention was obvious - to the imperial power, power was as important as life. Even in such a dangerous moment, he must have the most terrible violence in his hands!
——Then, who is the emperor trying to deal with by so urgently calling for manpower?
The princess trembled as she took off the jade pendant, then stood up tremblingly. Just as she was about to go out and call for help, she caught sight of the book that the emperor had thrown aside - it was wrinkled, dirty, and faintly emitting white smoke, but the large words "Prince Mu Guogong" jumping on the paper ball were clearly visible and instantly pierced her eyes.
...Well, the princess's hands and feet finally grew colder inch by inch.
·
The book being kneaded and tortured by the venting style, the word "Mu" flashing on the book, the emperor falling down inexplicably, the seal that can summon the dead soldiers... As long as one is not completely naive, one can guess the shocking change that just happened in the hall. But it is meaningless to just infer and list them. Now there is only one question:
What should she do?
Sometimes, the rise and fall of a country, the future of civilization, and the life and death of millions of people are often dramatically tied to the words of an insignificant person. What’s even more dramatic is that before fate pushes you to such a critical forking point, it often doesn’t give any signs.
Now, the ignorant Princess Sishan was pushed into such a delicate and tense life-and-death moment. She walked quickly outside in a daze, while the fingers of her right hand tightly grasped the cool and smooth jade pendant - she knew very well that what she was holding on to was probably the blood and honor of countless people, and it was the chess piece that was crucial to the chess game of the world; the situation of the court, the situation of the country, and the outcome of the power battlefield would all depend on this one gamble!
So, how can she make her move?
This was not a difficulty that could be explained by "Rules for Women" or "Instructions for Women", and it was completely beyond all the experiences in the first half of life. In traditional history books, this is the so-called "deciding major plans and resolving major doubts." When major issues must be resolved without making a fuss, and when danger and distress must be resolved, it is also the time when true gold is tested in a fire. It is the cruelest and sharpest test of a person's courage and conviction. Those who can experience such a test will be praised and respected by history, and will be called the backbone of the country, the pillars of the country, and the heroes who support the country. But now... now, the one facing this difficulty is just a princess who is imprisoned in the deep palace and has not received any political training.
No matter how boiling your heart is, the road under your feet is always so short. Princess Sishan stepped over the threshold of the hall and could already see the bright sunshine outside. Eunuchs were standing solemnly with their hands hanging down on all sides.
She opened her mouth weakly, and it seemed as if fear and panic were about to overflow from her throat. But the princess managed to make the sound anyway, and although her voice was stiff, it did not tremble.
She said: "The emperor is seriously ill, call the imperial physician immediately!"
There was a small commotion among the eunuchs, and some of them immediately turned around and ran for the door, while the others rushed into the hall to check; but the princess suddenly stretched out her hand and stopped Feng Bao, the eunuch of the Imperial Household Department, who was walking quickly past her.
"Your Majesty's intention." She said very clearly: "Since the Supreme is ill, the important officials of the Central Government should be notified."
This sentence was more difficult than tens of thousands of others. After saying it, Princess Sishan's legs felt weak and she could hardly stand. But it wasn't over yet, she had to hold on, because Feng Bao didn't obey her orders docilely, but showed a puzzled look:
"Your Highness, are you saying to notify the important officials at the Central Government?"
That’s right, although Princess Sishan had stayed in Xiyuan for so long, she was actually just a figurehead serving the emperor. In reality, although she seemed noble as a princess, she had no real position and could not even give an order to the eunuchs. Her real power was far less than that of Li Zaifang and Huang Shanggang. It would be fine if it was just an ordinary matter, but informing important officials of the news from the Forbidden City is a big deal. How can it be agreed to with just one word?
The princess had anticipated this question. She reached into her sleeve and slowly pulled out - she pulled out the imperial note with the word "Mu" written on it.
"It is written by His Majesty himself."
Everyone could recognize the emperor's handwriting. After Feng Bao took a closer look, all his doubts disappeared. He quickly saluted:
"I will obey your order."
"You need to inform the cabinet and the prince of Muguo about what happened here." The princess said, "Tell them that the emperor had an acute illness while reading and is being treated."
In the end, she still didn't hand over the jade pendant.
·
It is only a few steps from Xiyuan to the cabinet duty room. Half a cup of tea later, the prince had received the news from the eunuch. He stood and listened respectfully, then sent Feng Bao out the door. Then he turned back into the house and called Zhang Taiyue who was hiding outside.
Because the imperial calligraphy only wrote one character "Mu", the news could only be told to the prince of Duke Mu. Zhang Taiyue wanted to ask a question indirectly, but Prince Mu spoke directly:
"I'm afraid something big has happened in the palace."
"Big change?"
"It's unspeakable."
Zhang Taiyue gasped, and the teacup in his hand slipped and shattered to the ground.
The change was so sudden that even a smart and perceptive person like Zhang Hanlin had a blank mind. After a moment, he spoke in a trembling voice:
"How should I do this..."
Unexpectedly, Prince Mu was very calm.
"Don't panic." He said, "Taiyue, now is not the time to panic. The more serious the matter, the more careful we must be. At this critical moment, we cannot delay any of the things that need to be done."
Mr. Zhang managed to calm down, but due to his lack of experience, his mind was still blank. He whispered:
"In the palace..."
"Let's not talk about the palace for now. We have to stabilize the situation in the court." The prince said, "How about this, you go and notify Prince Yu and Gao Suqing, and I'll notify the other elders, the sooner the better. We'll meet in the cabinet duty room, and then go into the palace immediately!"
At such a delicate and tense moment, the most feared thing is to be at a loss, panic, and miss the opportunity. Now that he had received firm orders from his superior, Zhang Taiyue's fear was slightly reduced, and he seemed to have vaguely found his backbone. He didn't dare to hesitate any longer, grabbed the clothes beside him, and hurried out the door.
The residences of Cabinet Elders Yan, Xu, and Li were actually farther from the palace, but the prince deliberately waited for a while. When Zhang Taiyue disappeared, he quickly tapped the air, typed a crucial message, and clicked send:
[It’s time, you need to be prepared]
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
