Wanli Emperor Chapter 47 Part 1 (Patreon)

Chapter 47 Part 1: The Crown and the Dagger

Ciqing Palace, just past the hour of zi.

The summer heat had deepened in recent days, and blocks of ice were placed in all the halls and pavilions, allowing the nobles to sleep in peace.

Empress Dowager Chen had not enjoyed such comforts in the separate palace. Now, finally able to enjoy a cool summer night, she had fallen asleep early.

At this hour, the eunuchs and palace maids who usually attended her had long since withdrawn.

Empress Dowager Chen lay resting peacefully on her bed, her elegant neck extended.

For some reason, a look of unease began to cross her face. Her fine brows gradually furrowed, as if she were caught in a nightmare.

With a sudden palpitation of her heart, Empress Dowager Chen's eyes flew open.

She tugged wearily at the bell by her bedside, intending to summon a palace attendant for some water.

But after waiting a moment, no palace maid appeared.

Instead, an unexpected person entered.

"Mother, why are you here?" Empress Dowager Chen blurted out.

Her eyes were filled with vigilance as she watched her slightly aged mother walk in from the outer chamber.

These past few days, the Chen family had repeatedly sent people to contact her. She had shown them no courtesy, refusing them all.

Now her own mother was inside Ciqing Palace! How had she gotten in!?

The Chen matriarch looked at her daughter with a complex expression.

She did not answer the question, only sitting gently on the edge of the bed and saying, "Your Majesty has grown much thinner."

Empress Dowager Chen's brow tightened. She shrank back and called out, "Attendants!"

Her call summoned no one.

Her mother took her hand, her touch filled with pity. “I was the one who brought Chen Suan into our household. He owed me this favor.”

"Come, let your mother help you dress. We will go to the main hall; I have something to say to you."

Empress Dowager Chen stared blankly at her mother.

She was no fool. When her shout brought no response, she understood immediately.

What did she mean, Chen Suan had granted her a favor? There were other people in the palace.

This was clearly… history repeating itself.

Back then, when she was sent to the cold palace, the Chen family had sold her out in just this way.

Now it was exactly the same… If she went to the main hall, she feared that Lady Li, Li Jin, and Feng Bao would be waiting for her.

At this thought, a bitter smile touched her lips.

Seeing her mother about to dress her, she suddenly composed herself, sat up, and said in a formal tone, "Help me into my coronation robes!"

Her mother fell silent, nodding only after a long moment.

The two looked at each other without a word, moving in silence. After a long, fumbling while, they found the coronation robes and began to dress her.

The coronation robes of an empress were worn only for receiving titles, visiting the ancestral temple, or holding court. Her request for them now clearly marked this as a momentous occasion.

Empress Dowager Chen allowed her mother to arrange her accessories, then personally took up the empress's crown.

The crown's frame was round, covered in kingfisher feathers, and adorned with nine dragons and four phoenixes—a symbol of unspeakable nobility.

Once she was fully dressed, she gently adjusted the twelve large floral ornaments on the crown and was the first to move. "Let us go. I should like to see who has come to call upon me in the dead of night."

…...

The main hall of Ciqing Palace.

Empress Dowager Chen saw the second unexpected person of the night.

It was the emperor!

After her mother withdrew, the vast, empty hall held only the reigning emperor and the principal empress dowager.

Zhu Yijun glanced at the coronation robes Empress Chen wore, trying to fathom her state of mind.

On the surface, however, he performed the full measure of courtesy. "Your subject, Emperor Jun, pays his respects to Mother-Empress."

Empress Dowager Chen also looked steadily at the emperor, her expression bewildered.

She had thought it would be Lady Li waiting for her. She had not expected it to be this young emperor, for whom she held some affection.

Her gaze shifted from the world outside the hall back to the emperor.

Had the emperor come as a vanguard for his birth mother?

Or was the entire inner court now under his control?

Empress Dowager Chen gave a slight nod, probing, "For the emperor to seek me out in the dead of night is contrary to propriety. For what reason have you come?"

But the emperor's reply was not what she had expected.

Zhu Yijun bowed once more, his voice filled with a thousand emotions. "Your child has come to question you, Mother-Empress!"

Empress Dowager Chen remained noncommittal, waiting for him to continue.

Zhu Yijun went on, "Mother, Gao Gong—his oppression of the Directorate of Ceremonial, his coercion of the sovereign, his bullying of my birth mother—is he not acting with your backing!?"

"Now, Gao Gong's word is law in the court. A subject oppresses his sovereign, leaving your child in a state of misery. In my bitterness, I find it difficult to believe that you sanctioned this!"

"For days, I have not slept. Today, I could no longer restrain myself and had to come and ask you, Mother-Empress!"

"Mother! Am I not your son!"

Zhu Yijun knew very well what it meant to strike first and establish the narrative.

Even if he were to coerce Empress Dowager Chen, he could not use force.

To seize the moral high ground from the very beginning was a matter of utmost importance.

People are masters of self-deception.

If he did not place her in a position of fault, her mentality, when pressured, would rebound fiercely—I am innocent, why is everyone bullying me?

At that time, if her emotions spiraled and she saw that all was lost, she might simply dash her head against a pillar in the hall. Then Zhu Yijun would be caught in a situation where he would be blamed regardless of the truth.

Once caught in such a compromising position, it would be a political stain for a lifetime.

All manner of court commentators, unofficial histories, and conspiracy theories would swarm around him like flies.

One could say that if Empress Dowager Chen were to die here tonight, no matter whether he was responsible or not, the outside world would believe he was.

At that time, never mind his ability to rule being affected, even Gao Gong would seize upon this flaw in a desperate struggle.

The entire scholar-gentry of the realm, the civil officials of the court and the country, would all place a large question mark over him, the emperor.

Under such conditions, if his rule did not come to a standstill, the difficulty would at least be doubled.

Therefore, this was his only concern tonight.

He had to coerce Empress Dowager Chen gently. He absolutely could not allow any irreversible tragedy to occur.

Empress Dowager Chen, dressed in her coronation robes, moved with serene grace. She walked closer.

She looked the emperor up and down.

A fine son. Truly, a fine son.

Without a sound, he has amassed such overwhelming power.

I had thought he came on behalf of Lady Li. Now it seems I underestimated this sovereign.

Empress Dowager Chen's face was expressionless. "The emperor is, naturally, my son."

"And it is precisely because you are my son that I must properly supervise the state on your behalf. To rely on veteran ministers is because the emperor is still young. You have overthought things."

She naturally knew the emperor had come with backing—the area in and around Ciqing Palace was probably filled with his men.

But if he wanted to find fault with her, she would not admit it.

At the very worst, there was always the silk cord. She had already endured three years in the cold palace.

Things could not possibly get any worse.

But Zhu Yijun had no intention of watching her pretense.

He tore away all masks and looked at Empress Dowager Chen with pain in his voice. "I know the Two Palaces are not in harmony. I know you have your reasons for acting as you have."

"But… what crime has your child committed?"

He raised his head defiantly, looking directly into Empress Dowager Chen's eyes. "My birth mother is my mother, but my legal mother is even more so my mother."

"Now, caught between the Two Palaces, my heart feels like it's torn between heaven and earth!"

"Your child also wishes to serve both mothers with filial piety, to let you both enjoy all honor and glory."

"Mother, if there is even the slightest possibility, could you please… not place your child in an unfilial position."

"This earnest heart—I hope Mother will see it clearly!"

There was truly no fault to be found in these words.

The emperor had always been filial, paying his respects every few days and sharing any fine things he received with her.

Not to mention his frequent requests for guidance in his studies, which made it clear to her that the emperor was indeed a filial and benevolent person.

Her only point of weakness was when facing the emperor.

But… that was before. Now that the emperor had forced his way into the Ciqing Palace at night, to still be playing the victim was to underestimate her.

She looked directly at the emperor, her tone firm. "The emperor has forced his way into the Ciqing Palace at night, just for this pretense?"

If the emperor were truly so submissive, he would not have secretly taken control of the inner court.

He would not have forced his way into her bedchambers at night, leaving her unable to summon even a single attendant.

Zhu Yijun shook his head, his voice sorrowful. "Mother has her guard up, and your child has his grievances. If there were any other way, your child would not have forced his way into the palace at night."

"I know Mother is preparing to brand me with the reputation of being unfilial, so that you may depose me."

"If not for Gao Gong's private coercion today, saying he wished to place my obedient four-year-old brother on the throne, why else would your child be so flustered as to be disrespectful to you now?"

Empress Dowager Chen was taken aback.

These words caught her off guard. She asked subconsciously, "The Senior Grand Secretary said he wants to depose you!?"

This was something even she did not know.

Seeing that he had successfully diverted the rhythm of the conversation, Zhu Yijun pressed his advantage.

He raised his head, his face a picture of defiance. "Why does Mother ask what she already knows! If not for your approval, how could Gao Gong have uttered such words!"

Zhu Yijun absolutely could not allow this mother of his to claim the role of a perfect victim. That persona was one only he could bear.

Empress Dowager Chen fell silent.

She and Gao Gong did have some tacit understanding, but their ultimate goals were different.

She did not have so much concern for the state and the world in her heart.

As for what Gao Gong was thinking, she could not control it. The two of them were, at most, using each other for their own needs.

At this thought, Empress Dowager Chen finally sighed and helped the emperor before her to his feet.

She turned her head away somewhat unnaturally and explained, "I did not mean that."

Deposing an emperor was certainly a shocking matter, but she did not actually care.

The greater good, the world—she held none of it in her heart.

But… she only wanted to settle the scores that needed to be settled. For the rest, she had no mood to stir up trouble.

Empress Dowager Chen looked up at the world outside the palace, a silent and soundless place, and continued, "Perhaps I have said this too late. The emperor should be preparing to use this to eliminate me?"

For the emperor to have come this far, he could not possibly be here just to vent his grievances.

Perhaps it was just for peace of mind, to say a few more words before he acted.

But Zhu Yijun did not confirm this guess. Instead, he looked at Empress Dowager Chen with disbelief. "Is this how Mother sees me?"

He suddenly seemed lost. "Your child has long wished to explain things to you in person, but I have always been blocked outside Ciqing Palace."

"Now, for the sake of a single meeting with you, I had no choice but to resort to this desperate measure."

He said in a low voice, "I know why Mother relies on Gao Gong."

"Mother resents being the principal empress yet having no son of her own. She also resents my imperial father for moving her to a separate palace…"

Before he could finish, Empress Dowager Chen suddenly lost her composure. She whipped her head around, stared at the emperor, and said, word by word, "And who do you think is to blame for that!"

The emperor knew nothing, yet he presumed to persuade her?

If the affairs of the empire could be solved with words, why would the Great Ming Dynasty raise such a large army?

To her surprise, Zhu Yijun nodded. "Your child naturally knows."

"Not only do I know, but I have also brought the culprit to you."

Empress Dowager Chen's words died in her throat.

She looked blankly at the emperor. "Brought… here?"

Zhu Yijun went forward and supported Empress Dowager Chen. "Your child will take you to see."

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