Chapter 3

Chapter 3

[Prince Consort, the Princess Has Been Beaten to Death – 2]

Black lines of exasperation covered Emperor Gaozu’s face as he stared at the sentence. At last, he could not help saying, “This world does not appear terribly intelligent…”

The moment he finished speaking, his vision blurred violently. When the haze cleared and his senses returned, he found himself inside an imperial palace. Painted beams and carved rafters surrounded halls of jade and storied towers. Several palace attendants in formal dress stood silently to one side with lowered hands, as motionless as clay statues.

Broken porcelain and spilled tea littered the tiled floor. Several eunuchs crouched to clean it up while a middle-aged eunuch with a pale, beardless face supervised nearby. When he saw Emperor Gaozu open his eyes, he hurried forward and bowed with utmost respect. “It is nearly noon. Where will Your Majesty take the midday meal? Here in Taiji Hall, or at Noble Consort’s Ganlu Hall?”

Taiji Hall. Ganlu Hall. Both names had some distinction, but neither was My Heqing Hall.

Emperor Gaozu guessed that he had now entered the world that did not appear terribly intelligent. A strange gleam flashed through his eyes and vanished. Without speaking, he waved the eunuch away, propped his cheek on one hand, and rested his brow against it.

This was a dynasty never recorded in any history he knew. Its name was An.

Now he was Luan Zhenghuan, Founding Emperor of the Great An Dynasty.

Luan Zhenghuan had been born in the countryside. One of his ancestors had worked as a butcher. The previous dynasty fell into turmoil, while crushing taxes and levies made survival impossible. After his parents died, he fled into the wilderness and became a bandit, gathering a fair number of men around him. Later, the military governor Pang Wei offered him amnesty and made him a deputy general.

Luan Zhenghuan was brave and skilled in battle, shrewd beneath his rough exterior, and loyal to his comrades. Power quickly gathered around him. In time, he displaced Pang Wei and became the leader of the force.

The final emperor of the previous dynasty was a muddleheaded fool who was poisoned by a powerful minister. Warlords in every region seized the opportunity to raise armies and contend for the realm. After ten years of chaos, Luan Zhenghuan crushed every rival power, ascended the throne, named his dynasty An, and adopted Yongning as his reign title.

Luan Zhenghuan was an outstanding fighter, a match for a hundred men. It was true that he had ridden the favorable wind provided by Pang Wei, but there was no denying that he had conquered the realm through his own blood and steel. Yet conquering a realm and ruling it were two different things. Swords, spears, axes, and halberds could win the contest for all beneath Heaven; they could not win men’s hearts or make the people willingly submit.

He understood what he lacked. At the beginning of his reign, he therefore treated scholars generously and invited upright scholars and eminent men to the capital in great numbers. In part, he wished to demonstrate his eagerness to recruit talent. In part, he wished to reassure the people that the disasters of war were over and that they could live and work in peace.

There was nothing wrong with the move itself. In Emperor Gaozu’s view, however, Luan Zhenghuan had carried it too far.

He was a coarse military man by nature. Forcing himself into the company of renowned scholars was like setting an earthen crock beside fine white Xing ware. No matter how one arranged them, they looked absurd together.

Perhaps because he lacked learning and cultural refinement, Luan Zhenghuan always felt subtly inferior before these great scholars and celebrated men steeped in the classics. Though he was the Son of Heaven, he behaved as though he were begging them to take office.

That failing could be attributed to the limits of his origins and experience. His other failing, however, was purely a product of man’s lustful nature.

When Luan Zhenghuan first became an outlaw, he married Lady Miao. The land was in chaos at the time. The entire Miao family fled as refugees, and Lady Miao’s stepmother seized the opportunity to abandon her and her younger brother. She was a girl in her teens with a boy of six or seven beside her, unable to summon aid from Heaven or earth. Luan Zhenghuan gave the siblings a mouthful of food and gained a wife for himself.

Lady Miao’s father had led a squad of constables at the county yamen, an unranked petty official. The family had no maids or servants, but she had at least learned to recognize a few characters. She was not especially beautiful, though her features were pleasant and regular.

Luan Zhenghuan had a straight nose and a square mouth and could fairly be called handsome. Although he was a bandit, he robbed only corrupt officials and oppressive landowners. He had never forced or threatened anyone with violence. His character was, at the very least, above the line of acceptability.

In circumstances like those, neither had any cause to scorn the other. With the brothers of the mountain stronghold as their witnesses, they bowed to Heaven and earth and became husband and wife.

In Emperor Gaozu’s judgment, Lady Miao’s treatment of Luan Zhenghuan was beyond reproach. She was gentle, virtuous, and capable. She kept their household in perfect order and looked after the families of Luan Zhenghuan’s brothers with great care. Even after Luan Zhenghuan became a regional warlord, she remained a fully competent mistress of his household.

But men went bad once they had money. Rising in the world had much the same effect. Luan Zhenghuan was thirty-seven that year. Lady Miao was two years younger, which made her thirty-five.

She had never been a beauty, and the hardships of her early life had weathered her further. Even after rising to wealth and status and tending carefully to her appearance, she still looked haggard, with wrinkles long since formed, as though she were a woman of forty.

Before Luan Zhenghuan proclaimed himself emperor, he had already taken several concubines. Some were gifts from Pang Wei, some were presented by subordinates seeking favor, and some were daughters sent by allied powers as pledges of loyalty. At that stage, matters remained tolerable. A few of the concubines came from families of higher standing, but Luan Zhenghuan still knew who was mistress and who was subordinate. The brothers who had conquered the realm beside him all acknowledged Lady Miao as their elder sister-in-law.

After he became emperor and new women entered the harem through palace selection, everything changed.

When Luan Zhenghuan had merely dominated one region, the women around him had been gifts from wealthy merchants or offerings from subordinates. Even the best-born among them could not claim truly exalted origins. There were also widows he had taken in after their husbands died. Once he became emperor, however, matters were entirely different.

Noble daughters from generations of high officials, beauties from pure and illustrious scholarly houses, even two princesses of the previous dynasty-women so far above him that in earlier days they would not have spared him a second glance as they passed-all became his palace consorts, his possessions. Luan Zhenghuan’s attitude changed with them.

The princesses and noblewomen born with golden spoons in their mouths moved with such quiet grace and spoke with such elegance. When they poured tea, a pale wrist would emerge from the sleeve, white as jade and smooth as polished cream. Whenever Lady Miao-a woman from a modest family who knew only a smattering of characters-stood among them, she appeared hopelessly out of place.
He began to despise Lady Miao.

When Luan Zhenghuan later ascended the throne, he did make Lady Miao his empress, but he did so largely to placate his old companions and the children she had borne him. Afterward, he seldom visited her and never spent the night in her chambers. Instead, he constantly lingered among the beauties newly brought into the palace.

The generals who had followed him in revolt privately remonstrated with him. Luan Zhenghuan agreed with them aloud, but inwardly grew ever more impatient.

After twenty years together, her husband’s callousness deeply wounded Empress Miao. During the Mid-Autumn Festival the previous month, the moon stirred her grief, and she let some of her weariness show.

It should have been a trivial matter. Noble Consort Qin, however, seized upon it. She accused the Empress of harboring resentment, showing disrespect to the Son of Heaven, and holding her sovereign in contempt. The other palace consorts eagerly agreed, fanning the flames.

Several of Luan Zhenghuan’s old subordinates had already admonished him repeatedly, leaving a smoldering anger inside him. A few cups of wine turned those three parts of anger into ten. Reckless of all consequences, he actually ordered Empress Miao expelled from the palace and sent back to her family home, forbidden to leave without an imperial command.

Empress Miao was stunned and heartbroken, her dignity shattered. Once back with her natal family, she fell ill and could not rise from her bed. The children she had borne grew bitter and angry. They quarreled with Luan Zhenghuan several times afterward, while Noble Consort Qin and the other palace consorts kept whispering poison in his ear. The positions of Empress Miao and her children were already precarious.

Not long before, Liao Yuanyan, a strategist who had helped Luan Zhenghuan conquer the realm, entered the palace for an audience. He asked, “If one day this subject were to lose his manners after drinking in the palace and overturn a banquet table, would Your Majesty punish him?”

Luan Zhenghuan answered without hesitation, “You and I were brothers in the old days, as close as flesh and bone. How could We blame you over such a minor matter?”

Liao Yuanyan asked again, “Suppose this subject started a fight with a colleague at a palace banquet. Would Your Majesty condemn me and throw me into prison?”

Luan Zhenghuan laughed. “Yuanyan is a gentleman. How could you do such a thing? Even if some misunderstanding arose in the heat of the moment, it would be enough to explain matters afterward.”

“Would Your Majesty hold it against this subject?” Liao Yuanyan pressed.

Luan Zhenghuan considered for a moment, then shook his head. “If the disturbance became too serious, We might be angry at the time, but it would pass. Ruler and minister, you and I know and appreciate each other. How could a few paltry incidents create a rift between us?”

Liao Yuanyan hailed Your Majesty three times, then dropped to his knees and said earnestly, “This subject has followed Your Majesty for little more than ten years, far less than Her Majesty the Empress. Even so, Your Majesty shows me such tolerance and generosity. Why, then, are you so harsh toward the Empress? Today Your Majesty possesses all within the four seas and rules all beneath Heaven, but you must not forget the first wife who washed and mended your clothes and served your meals in that mountain stronghold.”

Luan Zhenghuan had never imagined the man would circle so far merely to plead for Empress Miao. He erupted in fury, his face darkening, and ordered Liao Yuanyan to withdraw at once.

Liao Yuanyan pleaded again, and Luan Zhenghuan’s anger intensified. He hurled the teacup before him to the floor and told the eunuchs to escort the minister out.

After several more attempts, Liao Yuanyan finally rose. He said his elderly mother at home required his care. The realm was now at peace and the seas were clear; he had fulfilled his duty as a subject, and it was time to resign his office and return home to fulfill his filial duty as a son.

Luan Zhenghuan was burning with anger and incapable of considering anything else. The moment he heard this, he agreed, then waved irritably for the man to leave.

Liao Yuanyan bowed to him one final time, rose, and withdrew.

When the long sequence of memories ended, both within and outside the System’s space, no one spoke.

A quarter of an hour passed before Zhu Yuanzhang burst out furiously, “That bastard’s brains have been greased with lard! He listened to a young concubine and let her humiliate his old wife. What kind of filth does that? If anyone in Old Zhu’s harem dared bully Old Ma this way, I’d have her flayed!”

Li Shimin frowned as well. “How can a man lightly discard the wife who shared his hardships? Luan Zhenghuan is without virtue, and Lady Qin is a bewitching calamity. She cannot be allowed to remain!”

Ying Zheng frowned without speaking. Liu Che said, “If this continues, ruler and ministers will grow estranged. It will do immense harm both at court and throughout the country.”

Emperor Gaozu shook his head with a long sigh. “It is true that Lady Miao’s birth was humble. It is also true that she lacks the perfect ritual manners and stately grace of princesses from the former dynasty or noblewomen of great houses. But she is the wife who shared Luan Zhenghuan’s poverty-the woman who suffered beside him and endured every hardship. How could he treat her this way? Besides, are kings, nobles, generals, and ministers born to their stations? If he considers princesses and noblewomen so exalted in blood, so far beyond his reach, then why did he ever rebel? He might as well have obediently starved to death.”

Although Ying Zheng had never appointed an empress, he respected a loyal and virtuous woman like Empress Miao. He shook his head. “If even a worthy wife like Lady Miao meets such an end, no wonder Liao Yuanyan lost heart and refused to continue serving him. In Our judgment, Luan Zhenghuan is a man who can share adversity but not prosperity. Liao Yuanyan’s withdrawal at the height of his career seems a heavy loss, yet it preserved his life and let him enjoy a peaceful old age. The other meritorious ministers may not be so fortunate.”

Liu Che never missed an opportunity to challenge Ying Zheng. “Are you not a hater of women? You can actually admire one?”

Death had brought old affairs to an end. The hatred and fury Ying Zheng once found too humiliating to discuss had gradually faded, and he could now face the past calmly. “We merely despise shameless creatures. When have We ever hated women? When Widow Qing of Ba came to Xianyang, We treated her with the greatest courtesy. And throughout Our life, when did We ever kill a meritorious minister or discard the bow once the birds were gone?”

The other emperors’ expressions sobered. Even Liu Che refrained from mentioning that Ying Zheng had shared the realm with a widow. Li Shimin fell silent, while Zhu Yuanzhang looked upon Luan Zhenghuan’s conduct with utter contempt. “He used a straw rain cape to shelter from the wind and rain, then the moment he reached shore, he despised it for being heavy and ugly. Why does he not remember what sort of thing he used to be? The heartless bastard! Old Zhu could never do such a thing!”

The emperors argued noisily in the White Mist Space. Emperor Gaozu quickly returned to himself and asked the middle-aged eunuch, “How long ago did Mr. Liao leave?”

The eunuch visibly froze. “About half an hour ago.”
Even after Liao Yuanyan left, Luan Zhenghuan’s anger did not abate. His expression shifted darkly, and the surrounding eunuchs and palace attendants did not dare make a sound. Only after a long while, when his face had softened slightly, did they venture forward to clear away the shattered teacup.

Emperor Gaozu nodded at the eunuch’s answer and immediately rose. “Prepare a horse. We leave the palace at once.”

“Leave the palace?” The eunuch jumped in alarm. “Your Majesty, it is time for the midday meal. You must at least eat something! Noble Consort has been stewing a bird’s-nest pigeon at Ganlu Hall for more than four hours. She is waiting for you…”

Emperor Gaozu gave him a cold sidelong glance. “Is it you who commands Us, or does Noble Consort command Us?”

The eunuch’s face changed abruptly. Cold sweat streamed from him as he dropped to his knees. Every eunuch and palace attendant in the hall held their breath; the silence was deep enough to hear a pin fall.

Emperor Gaozu could not be bothered to waste words on him. Without even changing his clothes, he strode out of the front hall and down the steps.

Servants had already prepared a horse outside. Emperor Gaozu vaulted into the saddle and lashed the animal toward the palace gates.

Riding horses within the palace was strictly forbidden, but the emperor was plainly exempt. One palace gate after another swung open before him, heavy and majestic, bowing to the sovereign who stood above ten thousand men.

Emperor Gaozu rode straight out of the palace without pause and headed directly for Liao Manor.

When he reached the street outside the manor, Emperor Gaozu dismounted. He had an attendant remove his outer robe and exchanged garments with him, intending to knock at the gate himself.

The attendant did not understand. “Your Majesty, why trouble yourself over such a minor task?”

“Wait here. Do not approach.”

Emperor Gaozu offered no explanation. After giving the order, he straightened his robes and hat, approached the gate, and told the porter, “I am an old acquaintance of Mr. Liao’s. I happened to pass this way today and came especially to call upon him. May I trouble you, sir, to lead the way and announce me?”

The porter saw that his clothes were of fine quality and his bearing imposing. This could not be some rogue attempting a swindle. Besides, what scoundrel would dare cause trouble at a household of the Liao family’s standing?

The porter bowed respectfully. “How should I address my lord?”

Emperor Gaozu smiled. “Mr. Liao will recognize me when we meet. Please lead me in, and I shall pay him my respects.”

Liao Yuanyan’s acquaintances included eminent men from every quarter, and more than a few of them had eccentric tempers. The porter acknowledged him, left instructions with the others, and led him into the manor.

Liao Manor did not employ many servants, yet people hurried endlessly through the corridors. Some carried belongings, some packed luggage, and others went to settle accounts and tally outstanding debts.

Emperor Gaozu sighed inwardly. “Is Mr. Liao planning to move?”

“Yes,” said the porter. “The master says he has resigned his office and intends to take the old madam back to their native place for her retirement.”

Emperor Gaozu said nothing.

The porter led him to the main hall. Presumably all the servants were busy, for no one stood watch outside. He asked Emperor Gaozu to wait for a moment and went in to announce him.

“Master, a gentleman has arrived. He says he is an old acquaintance and is waiting outside the hall.”

Liao Yuanyan’s face was ashen, his manner sickly. “Did he give a name?”

“He did not. He only said that you would certainly recognize him on sight.”

Liao Yuanyan was puzzled, but he did not hesitate. He rose. “Let us go and see.”

The porter led the way. Liao Yuanyan followed him around a cobbled path and halfway down a covered corridor. The moment he saw the visitor, he froze. Recovering quickly, he hastened forward and bowed. “Your Maj-”

Before he could kneel, Emperor Gaozu caught him by the arm. “Today, the man who came to see you is merely Yuanyan’s old friend. We are here to renew an old friendship, not to distinguish ruler from minister.”

Liao Yuanyan stood dazed for a long while, a tangle of emotions surging in his heart. “With all the affairs that occupy you, how did you find time to come to this humble house?”

Emperor Gaozu straightened his clothes and bowed to him with great solemnity. “I came to thank you, and to apologize. You spoke loyally and without reserve, offering honest counsel. My virtue was thin and My conduct poor, and I could not accept it at the time. After you left, I turned it over endlessly in My thoughts and found My shame unbearable. I have come especially to ask your forgiveness.”

Liao Yuanyan had never expected him to lower his head in such a way. Thinking of the more than ten years ruler and minister had spent together, tears soaked the front of his robe. He hurriedly returned the bow. “Why should Your Majesty go so far? This subject is ashamed and unworthy of such courtesy!”