Chapter 102
Chapter 102
[Li Erfeng Becomes Wanyan Gou – 22]
Empress Wei was startled by her husband’s words at first, but quickly understood. She did not try to stop him. Instead, she ordered Lady Zhang to accompany him. “His Majesty is a man and does not know much about women’s affairs. Go with him and take care of the imperial princess if there is anything inconvenient for her to discuss.”
Lady Zhang answered, “Rest easy, Your Majesty. I understand.”
Rage churned in Li Shimin’s heart. He did not linger. Saber in hand, he mounted his horse and headed for the Prince Consort’s residence with a troop of Imperial Guards and attendants. Lady Zhang had originally been part of Empress Wei’s dowry entourage and came from a military family herself, so she could ride. She followed behind with several sturdy female attendants.
The Prince Consort’s surname was Wang and his given name was Bian. His ancestors had included meritorious officials under Emperor Taizong. His marriage to Princess Huifu had been arranged while Emperor Huizong was still on the throne, but before they could wed, the Jingkang Incident occurred. The Wang Family was carried north with the Imperial House and did not return until Li Shimin ascended the throne, crushed Zongfu, and exchanged him for the captives.
Even a younger sister acquired halfway through life, one he scarcely knew, was still off-limits!
The Princess Manor was not far from the imperial city. In less than half an hour, Li Shimin arrived smoothly at the gates of Princess Huifu’s manor. He swung down from his horse, tossed the reins aside, and strode straight inside.
The gatekeeper had only just noticed the sudden crowd outside and had not even risen to ask their business when someone stopped him. An Imperial Guard thrust his badge forward, and the gatekeeper’s mouth dropped so wide his tonsils showed.
Li Shimin had no patience to waste on servants. He ordered his men to secure everyone in the residence, then seized the nearest maid and had her lead him to Princess Huifu.
When they reached her door, his face darkened beneath gathering storm clouds. He looked around and demanded in shock and fury, “These are side chambers! How can an imperial princess live here?!”
The maid had already learned his identity. Trembling, she replied, “The Prince Consort said the princess was frail, and the yang energy is stronger here, which would help restore her vitality, so…”
Good. Very good!
Li Shimin’s face turned livid. After a long moment, he asked, “Then who lives in the principal chambers?”
The maid’s reply was softer than a mosquito’s buzz. “The Prince Consort.”
Li Shimin sneered. “Why doesn’t he have his concubine live there with him?”
The maid’s face went white beneath the weight of his authority. She hesitated for a long while before cautiously explaining, “Only the Prince Consort lives in the principal chambers, but every night he summons someone to keep him company…”
Li Shimin laughed from sheer fury. Did this Prince Consort turn over name plaques every night to choose his bedmate?
He did not possess an emperor’s destiny, yet he had somehow contracted all an emperor’s vices!
Inside the side chambers, Princess Huifu heard the commotion and assumed the Prince Consort had come to make trouble again. Exhaustion swept over her, and she sent someone out to investigate.
Her old nurse emerged with a face full of resentment, ready to speak, but the instant she recognized the newcomer, her expression changed.
The imperial princess’s brother had come from her natal family. Whether they shared a mother or not, they still bore the same surname. If His Majesty truly cared nothing for this younger sister, why would he leave the palace expressly to visit her at the Princess Manor?
The nurse gave a cry, and tears instantly poured from her eyes. She fell to her knees and pleaded in aggrieved helplessness, “Your Majesty must give the princess justice! The Prince Consort has gone far too far…”
Pity stirred in Li Shimin. He ordered Lady Zhang to help the woman up, then asked, “Where is Zhuzhu?”
The words had barely left his mouth when the bead curtain hanging in the doorway lifted and the haggard Princess Huifu appeared. She studied him for several moments, then exclaimed, “Ninth Brother?”
Joy and surprise mingled on her face. A few moments later, she realized she was in no state to appear before the sovereign and hurriedly raised her sleeve to hide herself. Half ashamed and half heartsick, she asked, “Why has Your Majesty come?”
In that one hurried glance, Li Shimin saw how badly the right side of her face was injured. A long, deep-purple welt stretched from the corner of her mouth to the corner of her eye. The white of the eye was webbed with red, a horrifying sight.
Lady Zhang had heard the young palace lady say that Princess Huifu’s face was injured, but she had never imagined anything so severe. She hurried closer for a look, pity and fury rising together. “Heaven-damned Wang Bian! How dare he treat a princess of the Imperial House this way!”
Then she asked anxiously, “How did it become so bad? What did the physician say?”
Princess Huifu could not bring herself to answer. She lowered her head and remained silent.
A maid beside her wept as she explained, “Yesterday, the princess learned that the Prince Consort had opened the storeroom and removed some jewelry included in the dowry sent by the palace, so naturally she went to ask about it. But when she reached the principal chambers, she found all the jewelry on that brothel woman’s head. The princess felt terribly humiliated and argued with him. They had exchanged only a few words when the Prince Consort struck her. The wound on her face was made by a horsetail whisk. If it had landed just a fraction closer, she might have lost the eye…”
The maid had accompanied Princess Huifu as part of her dowry and had always been close to her. At the most painful part of the story, sobs choked off her voice.
The nurse who had first come outside continued for her. “After such a thing, the princess was both hurt and furious, but she did not dare let the scandal grow. She would not even summon an imperial physician, only the physician kept by the household, who examined her and applied medicine. The Prince Consort struck her viciously. The skin split at once, and before long blood began seeping out. We do not know whether it will ever heal completely or whether it will leave a scar… This old servant saw it with her own eyes, and it cut straight into her heart!”
Princess Huifu felt both aggrieved and humiliated.
Her grievance came from a husband’s cruelty and the degradation he had inflicted upon her. The humiliation lay in the fact that an ordinary woman bullied by her husband and his family could return to her natal home and complain, yet she did not dare.
She feared impeachment by the Censors. Worse, she feared no one in the palace would help her at all. She would only invite further humiliation, fail to do anything to Wang Bian, and afterward be mocked by him and his concubines.
The Reigning Emperor was her elder brother, but they had different mothers and scarcely knew each other. Her mother had held an exalted rank, but she had been dead for many years. Her maternal family had once been prominent too, but times had changed, and they had long since faded into obscurity.
She bore the title of imperial princess, yet when she looked around, she could not find a single person on whom to rely. What choice did she have but to swallow every humiliation in silence?
Now her Ninth Brother had come. Princess Huifu dimly sensed a thread of hope, but she had struggled in darkness for so long that when a lifeline suddenly appeared, she did not dare reach for it.
What if it was false?
What if Ninth Brother also advised her to live properly with Wang Bian, to serve as a model for the women of the realm and an exemplar among imperial princesses?
As long as she did not say everything aloud, she could continue deceiving herself, cling to one tiny measure of comfort, and imagine that her elder brother did care about her. But once she spoke the truth, she would no longer be able to maintain even that illusion!
Heartbreak surfaced in Princess Huifu’s expression. Her lips parted several times before she finally said, “It is cold outside. Ninth Brother, please come in and talk.”
Li Shimin could not help sighing at the sight. He entered the inner hall with her, and his first question was, “Does it still hurt? Is that physician any good? Never mind. I will have someone summon an imperial physician. Only then can I rest easy. Our Zhuzhu is so beautiful; what a pity it would be if this left a blemish.”
Princess Huifu shuddered. When she looked at him again, tears already shimmered in her eyes. She choked out, “Ninth Brother…”
“You foolish girl. When something like this happened, why didn’t you tell the palace? Even if you could not see me, you still had your sister-in-law and the two empress dowagers. How could you swallow your anger and endure such injustice alone?”
Li Shimin reached out and patted her shoulder. His voice turned icy, murderous intent laid bare. “What is Wang Bian? If I had not won the war and ransomed him back, his entire family would still be eating snow in the Supreme Capital! He received my grace, yet dared bully my younger sister. It seems he has lived long enough and is eager to die!”
Princess Huifu had never expected her Ninth Brother to say such things. The heart that had drifted without refuge finally seemed to find a home. At first, she wept in quiet sobs, but before long she was wailing aloud, as though releasing every grievance she had endured in recent months.
Li Shimin waited calmly until she finished crying, then said gently, “Zhuzhu, you must never do this again. If anyone wrongs you, enter the palace and tell your brother and sister-in-law. You have a home. You have family. Does the Wang Family imagine itself greater than the Imperial House? You are the Retired Emperor’s daughter, a true branch of gold and leaf of jade. How can a subject be permitted to bully you?”
Princess Huifu wept. “Ninth Brother, I am afraid. If this becomes a scandal, the remonstrating officials will criticize us. During Emperor Renzong’s reign…”
“The remonstrating officials had best keep their opinions to themselves-not for my sake, nor for the Imperial House’s, but for their own. The ancestral law also says civil officials should be treated generously. And what good did that do? Did it keep the realm from being trampled by the Jin?”
Li Shimin sneered. “One worships the living Buddha, not those of the past. Founding Emperor Taizu would surely understand that principle. Today, my word is the ancestral law!”
Lady Zhang sent someone to summon an imperial physician. Li Shimin turned and fixed Princess Huifu with a steady gaze. “Zhuzhu, after Wang Bian treated you this way, do you still hold any hope for him? Tell Ninth Brother: do you want me to kill that shameless wretch and set the rules straight for your sisters and the princesses of later generations? Or do you want me to have him dragged here and beaten until he repents, then make him live properly with you from now on?”
“The choice is yours,” he said. “Tell Ninth Brother what you truly want.”
She was genuinely shocked. Her thoughts raced, and memories of every humiliation Wang Bian had inflicted upon her since their marriage surged through her mind.
He considered his wife’s capture and forced journey north by the Jin a source of shame and repeatedly taunted her with it, stabbing at her heart. He collected concubines in droves and haunted brothels, treating her as though she did not exist. He forced her from the principal chambers into the side rooms and willfully allowed his concubines to abuse her. And yesterday, he had struck her without restraint, showing not the slightest tenderness or concern…
The Jin were savage and vicious enemies of the realm, yet even they had never beaten her so brutally. This supposed husband, this subject of the Song court, had kicked and punched her. What was there to cherish in such a man?
Had she not been bullied enough? Had she not suffered enough humiliation?!
The Jingkang Incident had already brought her sisters more than enough suffering. The precedents of earlier reigns had steadily stripped the princesses of this dynasty of their dignity. If she retreated again now, would the civil officials unanimously praise her after her death, just as they had the Grand Princess of Jing, and hold her up as the dynasty’s model of womanly virtue?
It was one thing for her to sink into the mire. How could she drag her sisters down with her and deny them any chance to climb free?
Princess Huifu closed her eyes. A clear tear slid slowly down her cheek. “Kill him!”
“Ninth Brother!” She opened her eyes, her voice sharp and fierce. “Kill that shameless wretch who is lower even than the Jin bandits!”
Li Shimin had asked because he wanted to learn what she truly thought.
If her mind was sound and she still possessed self-respect and knew how to value herself, then naturally she ought to be saved. But if she were another legendary figure like the daughter of the Chariot God of the Gaoliang River-who, after her newlywed husband was demoted for committing adultery with her wet nurse, sprawled on the ground weeping and begged her imperial brother to pardon him…
Then the two of them might as well torment each other forever. May their union last a hundred years.
Now that Li Shimin saw how clearheaded Princess Huifu remained despite her delicate nature, he nodded inwardly. Her face was drenched in tears, so he immediately comforted her in a warm voice. “Escaping that wretch is a good thing. Why cry? Countless people were carried north that day, and countless people were ransomed back to Dongjing (Kaifeng). Were all of them guilty? Did all of them deserve to die?”
Princess Huifu was deeply moved, and a faint light appeared in her eyes.
Li Shimin could not help laughing. “Men are no great matter. Don’t take them too seriously. When Wang Bian dies, there will always be another. If you do not want to remarry but also do not wish to shave your head and enter a Buddhist convent, you could find a Taoist temple and become a priestess. You could spend your days composing poetry and painting, host flower-viewing banquets and literary gatherings, and invite your sisters to join you. Wouldn’t that be pleasant? In any case, you have your own stipend. You will never lack food or clothing.”
Princess Huifu had suffered enough at the hands of the Jin and through her disastrous marriage. Tears still streaming down her face, she asked hopefully, “Can I truly remain unmarried and enter a Taoist temple as a priestess?”
Li Shimin asked in return, “Why couldn’t you?”
Princess Huifu was profoundly tempted. After hesitating for several moments, she asked uncertainly, “But if I do, will people criticize the Imperial House? Will it harm the prospects of my younger sisters who have yet to marry?”
Surprise crossed Li Shimin’s face. “What is there to criticize? You would merely remain unmarried and become a Taoist priestess. It isn’t as though you’ve gone mad and begun murdering people and setting fires. Why shouldn’t you?”
At those words, Princess Huifu’s tears poured down like rain. She fell to her knees and performed a full ceremonial kowtow to her imperial brother.
Li Shimin hurriedly ordered someone to help her up. Amused, he said, “This is no great matter. Why perform such a solemn rite?”
As he spoke, someone came from outside to report that the imperial physician had arrived.
It would be inappropriate for Li Shimin to remain while a woman was examined. Besides, now that he had seen his younger sister, it was time to meet that little bastard Wang Bian. After giving Lady Zhang several instructions, he rose and left, ordering someone to lead him to the principal chambers.
The moment Li Shimin arrived at the manor, he had ordered all its paths and inhabitants secured. Wang Bian therefore remained unaware even now that disaster was upon him.
Imperial Guards cleared the way before Li Shimin when he reached the doors of the principal chambers. He entered and swept the room with his gaze. It was truly a scene of bright lamps, flowing wine, rich meat, and sensual indulgence. Wang Bian was impressively heartless. After beating his wife into such a state, he could still fool around with his concubines without a care in the world.
Li Shimin laughed from fury, then his face turned cold. “Every person in that room, without exception: strip off their outer robes, hang them up, and give each thirty lashes. We will discuss the rest afterward! Summon the entire Wang Family. Bring me every one of them who still draws breath, including the women who have married out!”
Then he addressed Princess Huifu’s old nurse, who had accompanied him. “Once the people inside are dragged out, identify them one by one. Then take some men and seize everyone else in this manor who ever bullied Zhuzhu! They stand on the soil of the Great Song and still dare torment my younger sister? Have they eaten the heart of a bear and the gall of a leopard?”
The old nurse’s blood surged at his words. She eagerly assented and marched away with her head high and chest out.
“You make another trip.” Li Shimin turned to one of his trusted attendants. “Call every Prince Consort currently in Dongjing (Kaifeng) here. Unless I establish some rules for them, they will imagine every man of the Zhao Family is dead!”
The attendant’s heart tightened. He silently worried for all the other Prince Consorts, but dared not hesitate. “Yes, Your Majesty.”
By then, Wang Bian and his concubines had been dragged outside. They still had no idea what was happening and cursed without pause. Then Wang Bian abruptly noticed a young man standing in the courtyard in a sandalwood-colored, round-collared robe. Tall and graceful, he radiated authority without showing anger. It was none other than the reigning Son of Heaven, sovereign of the Zhao Song.
Wang Bian immediately knew something was wrong. Remembering the Reigning Emperor’s temperament, he swallowed every obscenity at once, as though someone had cut out his tongue.
His face went deathly pale and his manner turned cringing. Two powerfully built Imperial Guards held him by the arms and dragged him forward. He forced out an ingratiating, “Your Majesty…”
Li Shimin had no intention of speaking to him. He did not spare the man a single glance. When an attendant carried a chair into the courtyard, he sat down to wait while Wang Bian and the others were punished.
Wang Bian saw his cold expression and wordless silence and knew he was finished. Before he could plead for mercy, the Imperial Guards stripped off his outer robe, bound his hands together, and hoisted him directly from a poplar tree in the courtyard.
Braziers burned in the inner rooms, keeping them warm as spring despite the bitter weather.
Wang Bian and his concubines had not been wearing much to begin with. They were dragged into the courtyard, stripped of their outer robes, and hung from the trees. The winter wind easily pierced the thin fabric that remained, its chill seeming to burrow directly into their bones.
Wang Bian shuddered involuntarily, but with his arms tied and his body hanging from a tree, he could not even shiver properly.
Then he saw the Imperial Guard who had entered the room to seize him approach. The man’s expression was glacial, and in his hand he held a gleaming black horsewhip soaked in tung oil.
Wang Bian instinctively tried to struggle, but could do no more than swing futilely a few times.
The next instant, the Imperial Guard lashed out. A sharp crack split the air, followed at once by Wang Bian’s shrill scream.
There was skill even in the infliction of punishment. Whether wielding a cane or a whip, the executioner could control both force and sound. Some blows looked terrifying but inflicted little injury. Others seemed harmless while smashing the organs inside, leaving the victim only a short time to live.
The Imperial Guard administering the punishment had no friendship with Wang Bian, despised his conduct, and knew His Majesty must hate him to the bone. He held nothing back. Every stroke landed hard and loud.
With each crack came one of Wang Bian’s screams. His flesh split open as though sliced by a blade.
At first, he still had strength to shriek, the cries bursting full and strong from his throat. By the end, his throat was damaged and his voice reduced to a rasp. The whip cracked as loudly as it had at the beginning, but he could no longer produce a sound.
His outer robe was long gone, and he had been dragged outside without his boots, leaving him clad only in his underclothes. The whip had torn even those to shreds, exposing split flesh beneath. Blood streamed everywhere. One glance was almost too horrific to bear.
If this was the state of Wang Bian, a grown man, there was even less need to describe his concubines. After the full thirty lashes, however beautiful and alluring they had once been, all had become bloody masses. They hung from the trees, groaning and crying out in pain from time to time.
Wang Bian’s father and mother naturally knew what sort of man he was. But their son was their own flesh and blood, while their daughter-in-law came from another family. Did anyone need to ask which side they favored?
Yes, their son had gone a little too far, but had they not already reprimanded him? He simply refused to listen. What could they possibly do?
Princess Huifu was both an imperial princess and a daughter-in-law of the Wang Family. Should she not know how to admonish her husband, guide his conduct, and urge him to correct his mistakes?
Assisting one’s husband and raising one’s children was one of the virtues expected of a woman!
Princess Huifu had gone to the Wang residence several times before, hoping her parents-in-law might caution their son. At first, Wang Bian’s parents patiently brushed her off with a few empty words. Eventually, they grew impatient and began claiming illness whenever their daughter-in-law visited.
The dynasty governed the realm through filial piety. Once the word *filial* was pressed down upon her, even Princess Huifu could do nothing.
She was not a fool, after all. Once or twice might be dismissed, but after it happened repeatedly, she understood that her parents-in-law had no intention of intervening. From then on, she stopped going there to invite further humiliation.
Wang Bian’s father and mother were at home when they suddenly received the emperor’s summons. Yet they were not ordered to the palace, but to Princess Huifu’s manor. They knew at once that something was wrong.
Why was His Majesty at the Princess Manor?
Had Princess Huifu complained to the palace?
How were they supposed to explain?
Was it not excessive to summon every member of the Wang Family, even the daughters who had married out?
Really, the imperial princess! This was no more than a quarrel between husband and wife. It was hardly a serious matter. Why insist on making such a scene?!
Wang Bian’s mother felt somewhat angry, but his father was deeply uneasy. He lowered his voice and consulted his second son, who had been summoned back home. “Did your elder brother go too far and provoke His Majesty’s fury? Why else would the entire Wang Family be ordered there together?”
The Wang Family’s second son served at court and knew the young emperor’s temperament well. As long as no one crossed his bottom line, anything could be discussed. But if some blind fool stepped on his sore spot, that person was finished.
Cause him a moment’s unhappiness, and he could make you unhappy for the rest of your life!
Wang Bian’s married aunt had been hurriedly fetched back to her natal family and was already anxious. Hearing her brother speak this way, she grew even more alarmed and snapped, “What was that man thinking? He must have lost his mind! If he wants to court death, fine, but he has no right to drag the rest of us down with him!”
Wang Bian’s mother had never gotten along with her sister-in-law. She immediately glared. “We do not even know what happened, yet you lay all the blame on my eldest son! If we must go, then we will go. What is there to fear? During Emperor Shenzong’s reign, the rule requiring a princess’s husband’s clan to lower its generational standing by one degree upon her marriage was abolished. Princess Huifu may be a princess, but she is also the Wang Family’s daughter-in-law. The proper bonds of human society remain. Can she overturn heaven itself?!”
“What do you know?” Wang Bian’s father snapped in exasperation. “Shut your mouth at once!”
He warned her, “If you dare spout such nonsense in front of His Majesty, heads will truly roll. Do not say I failed to warn you!”
Fear finally silenced Wang Bian’s mother. She closed her mouth in embarrassment.
The Wang Family dared not defy an imperial command. Once everyone had assembled, they set out for Princess Huifu’s manor. On the way, Wang Bian’s father tried to slip money to the Imperial Guards escorting them, but they refused it.
What a joke. His Majesty knew by name every man qualified to serve among the Imperial Guards, and every one of them possessed limitless prospects. Only a madman would leap aboard the Wang Family’s sinking wreck of a ship!
Their firm refusal made Wang Bian’s already anxious father even more uneasy. Upon reaching the gate, he saw Princess Rongde’s Prince Consort exchanging pleasantries with the Imperial Guards stationed there. After a few words, the man was shown toward the inner courtyard.
Wang Bian’s father suddenly realized that whatever was about to happen would be very serious.
Far more serious than he had imagined.
The Wang Family had been hastily assembled and summoned to Princess Huifu’s manor, and every one of them felt panic clogging their chest. The Prince Consorts felt no less unsettled.
They had all attended today’s palace banquet. They also knew that Princess Huifu and her husband had been absent due to illness. But why had His Majesty now summoned Princess Huifu’s brothers-in-law to her manor?
If Princess Huifu had truly taken a turn for the worse, surely her sisters should have been summoned to visit her instead.
Something must have happened.
Something grave.
Both the Wang Family and the Prince Consorts had braced themselves, but when they saw a courtyard full of blood-drenched people hanging from trees, their hearts still quailed and their faces turned ashen.
Wang Bian and his concubines had endured thirty lashes, then hung in the bitter wind for so long that the blood from their wounds had nearly frozen. They barely breathed.
Wang Bian was in the worst condition. The Imperial Guard assigned to him had worked hardest, leaving him most severely injured. Blood had dyed his underclothes red and dripped down his once-white socks to the ground. He had hung there for so long that a patch of bloody ice had formed beneath his feet. The sight was exceptionally brutal.
The Wang Family had left home neatly dressed, while the Prince Consorts wore brocade caps and sable coats. At the sight, however, all shuddered at once. It was as though a living chill crawled upward from the soles of their feet and burrowed into their hearts. They could neither speak nor breathe, and even their souls dared not twitch.
The Imperial Guards had placed several braziers in the courtyard. Li Shimin lounged sideways in a chair, warming himself at the fire. He ignored the Wang Family and merely smiled at the Prince Consorts. “You’re here?”
Their smiles looked uglier than tears. “Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Sit. Don’t stand on ceremony.”
Li Shimin pointed to chairs that had been arranged nearby. With the amiable air of a host, he said, “This is Zhuzhu’s Princess Manor. You are all her brothers-in-law, so everyone here is family. There is no need for such politeness. Relax and treat this as your own home!”
“Third Brother-in-Law, look how hot you are. You’re sweating.” He warmly addressed Princess Ande’s Prince Consort and offered with touching consideration, “Shall I have someone fan you?”
The Third Prince Consort: “…”
He replied with utmost deference, “This subject would not dare. This subject is perfectly well. If Your Majesty will allow me to cool off by myself, there is no need to trouble the servants.”
Li Shimin laughed several times. “Third Brother-in-Law, still so courteous!”
Then he reached toward the brazier, and the smile slowly faded from his face. “On the smaller scale, this is Zhuzhu’s Princess Manor, and she is the master here. On the greater scale, this is Dongjing (Kaifeng), capital of the Great Song, and I am the master here. So why do certain people never understand their own position? Why do they overstep their place, bite the hand of their master, and begin bullying the very people to whom this place belongs?”
“What is it?” Li Shimin’s gaze was sharp as a blade. It passed lightly over Wang Bian’s face, then swept across the terrified Wang Family. “Do you consider the heads of your entire family so worthless that you want to help them find a new place to sit?”