Chapter 31

Chapter 31

[The Real and Fake Heiresses – 1]

Once Emperor Gaozu had made up his mind, he did not hesitate. Most of the Lü Family members who deserved to die were dead by now, and the Patriarch of the Lü Family knew what was at stake. He would never dare profess obedience while secretly defying the throne. Emperor Gaozu promptly ordered the story spread, seizing control of public opinion before anyone else could.

After all, there was nothing wrong with our princess. She was gentle and virtuous. That bastard of a Prince Consort had tormented her for more than four months, and she had never uttered a word. If that did not prove how innocent and kind she was, what did?

This whole mess was Lü Xiuzhen’s fault for losing his head, Lady Gao’s for being utterly shameless, and Madam Lü’s for being blind, witless, and arrogant!

Lü Xiuzhen was granted death, Lady Gao was beaten to death, Madam Lü took her own life out of fear of punishment, and the Patriarch of the Lü Family submitted a memorial confessing the family’s guilt. The entire affair was settled with lightning speed. By the time the nobles of Chang’an grasped what had happened, the Lü Family had already left the capital and returned to their ancestral lands. Beyond remarking on the family’s outrageous audacity and lamenting Princess Qinghe’s pitiful fate, there was little left for anyone to say.

After the incident, Emperor Gaozu did not send Princess Qinghe back. He had her remain in the palace for the time being with Consort Xian of the Han Clan. Princess Zhaoyang knew the whole story, and when she heard that Lü Xiuzhen was dead, she shouted that he had gotten exactly what he deserved, then hurried into the palace to see her elder sister.

Emperor Gaozu felt great tenderness for this daughter as well. He made a special visit to Consort Xian’s residence, dismissed the palace attendants and eunuchs, and kept only Consort Xian beside him. Then he said gently, “Jingrou, your Imperial Mother and I have discussed it. The Princess Manor will remain yours. If you wish, you may still leave the palace and live there. If you miss your mother, you may make your home here instead. You are family. There is no need to stand on ceremony.”

Princess Qinghe thanked him for his grace. Emperor Gaozu then recalled the suggestions his two old companions had made and asked with some delicacy, “Do you have any desire to marry again? If anyone catches your eye, your father can arrange the marriage for you.”

Princess Qinghe gave a rueful smile and shook her head. “I know you mean well, Father, but at this moment, I truly have no heart for such things.”

“Oh,” Emperor Gaozu said. Then he asked, “Shall your father choose a few male favorites for you instead? What sort do you like?”

Consort Xian choked on her water and began coughing, one hand pressed to her chest.

Princess Qinghe flushed. Once her surprise had passed, she could not help laughing.

She rose and bowed, deeply moved. “I understand how dearly you wish to protect me, Father. It is only that such talk is rather premature. Please give me some time to put my thoughts in order and leave this nightmare behind me for good.”

“Very well.” Emperor Gaozu did not press her. “Your father only wants you to be happy.”

Sons were meant to be taken out into the wind, frost, rain, and snow. Daughters were meant to be cherished in the palm of one’s hand. If an emperor could not protect his wife and children, what was the point of being emperor at all?

Perhaps because of her conversation with her father that day, Princess Qinghe dreamed again that night. This time, she dreamed of what had happened after her death in the nightmare she had seen before.

Though she was the eldest daughter in that life, she had never enjoyed her father’s favor. After her death, she was hastily prepared and buried. Lü Xiuzhen submitted a memorial claiming that the princess had died of illness. Her father casually bestowed a few mourning honors, and the matter was declared closed.

Her death caused no stir at all. It was like a stone dropped into water: ripples spread swiftly, then the surface soon became calm again.

Her personal maid was fiercely loyal. Knowing that Lü Xiuzhen and Gao Yanyan controlled the Lü Family, she did not dare reveal her hatred. Only when the night was deep and all was still did she quietly rise, crawl through a hole she had secretly dug in the rear garden, and escape. She made for the capital to ask Han Zhaoyi to seek justice for the princess.

Luan Jingrou was Han Zhaoyi’s only daughter. From the moment news of her death arrived, Han Zhaoyi had wept day after day. The maid went to the Han Family and, after many twists and turns, finally gained an audience with her and revealed the truth of the princess’s death.

The murder of one’s daughter was a hatred that could never be reconciled. How could Han Zhaoyi endure it? She immediately took the maid to Taiji Hall and begged the Emperor to dispense justice. Yet the Lü Clan was a great family with a thousand-year history and old ties to the Qin Family. As Patriarch of the Lü Family, Lü Xiuzhen enjoyed the protection of eminent families and nobles outside the palace, while within it the new Empress, Lady Qin, smoothed matters over for him. In the end, he escaped entirely unscathed.

There was no need to describe Han Zhaoyi’s grief and bitter disappointment. When the lips were gone, the teeth felt the cold; the palace consorts of long standing were just as frightened.

Luan Jingrou was a Daughter of the Emperor, yet she had been beaten to death on her Prince Consort’s orders. Afterward, the Emperor had not said a single word. Such utter indifference could not help but fill them with dread.

Hearts churned throughout Chang’an as a hidden storm gathered. The princess born to the deposed Empress, Lady Miao, and her younger brother secretly contacted veteran officials at court and befriended military commanders. They wove the anger and resentment that had accumulated among the officials over the years into a vast net. When the Emperor and Empress Qin traveled together to the outskirts of the capital to perform sacrifices, they struck without warning. One thunderous blow, and the coup succeeded.

That day, the Son of Heaven died, and Empress Qin was strangled. Empress Miao’s eldest son was already dead, so the ministers enthroned her second son and made his elder sister Princess Zhenguo. They also bestowed posthumous honors upon the late Empress Miao and the officials, princes, and princesses who had died unjustly over the years.

The Han Family had also taken part in the coup. Princess Zhenguo still cherished the bond she had shared with her eldest sister for so many years, so she honored Han Zhaoyi as Consort Dowager. Soon afterward, she ordered Lü Xiuzhen and Lady Gao beaten to death. She posthumously honored her eldest sister, Princess Qinghe, as a Grand Princess, offered incense to inform her spirit, then had her remains exhumed and reburied with the proper rites. The new emperor thereafter swept away the old policies, suppressed the great families, and undid the effects of years of misrule. But all that came later…
The night lay silent. In the inner chamber, the curtains stirred though there was no wind. Several palace attendants on night duty leaned against the incense burner, their chins bobbing as they dozed.

At that moment, Princess Qinghe jolted awake and sat up.

Worried about her daughter, Consort Xian of the Han Clan had shared her bed that night. Princess Qinghe’s movement startled her awake as well. After a moment of confusion, she called softly, “Jingrou, what is it?”

Princess Qinghe raised a sleeve to wipe the fine beads of sweat from her forehead. She turned toward her loving mother, and tears suddenly welled in her eyes.

She slipped her arms around her mother’s waist and buried her face in her embrace, just as she had when she was little. A faint catch entered her voice, too slight for anyone to notice. “I am all right. It was only a nightmare. Now that I am awake, everything is fine…”

When Princess Qinghe rose the next morning, her maid happened to be leading Princess Zhaoyang into the chamber to visit her. She remembered the maid’s lonely courage in fleeing to Chang’an, and the sisterly affection Princess Zhaoyang had preserved through all the years that followed. Overcome, she embraced them both and burst into tears.

Consort Xian stroked her back, shedding tears of her own. “She was tormented by nightmares all night again. Let her have a good cry. That heaven-cursed Lü Xiuzhen…”

The mere sound of his name made Princess Zhaoyang furious. “No. I have to go dig up his grave!”

Princess Qinghe laughed through her tears. “It is all in the past. Why waste another thought on him? Enough. Let us not speak of it again!”

…

From its rise to its fall, the Great An Dynasty endured for six hundred years. Its Founding Emperor, Luan Zhenghuan, and his son Luan Anguo ushered in a golden age and laid the foundations for generations to come. Though some of their descendants proved unworthy, the dynasty also produced rulers of restoration who turned the tide and saved the realm when it stood on the brink of collapse.

The nation was rich and powerful, and envoys came to court from every direction. The confidence, openness, and tolerance of a great power gave birth to a brilliant civilization. The formidable spirit of the princesses of Great An became one of the dynasty’s defining traits.

Princess Qinghe, eldest daughter of Emperor Gaozu, was first wed to Lü Xiuzhen. The Prince Consort took in a female criminal as a concubine and, after quarreling with her, injured himself so badly that he was rendered impotent. When Princess Qinghe learned the truth, she entered the palace in a fury and reported the matter. The Emperor put the Prince Consort to death to appease her anger. Two years later, she was wed to Lady Deng. The spouses lived in harmony and remained together until the end of their days.

Princess Qinghe’s example ensured that women of the Imperial House no longer regarded divorce as shameful. The custom gradually spread among noble families and commoners alike. Second and third marriages became too numerous to count, and some women openly kept male favorites and went about with them in public. Censors and remonstrating officials submitted protest after protest, but the practice never died out throughout the Great An Dynasty.

Princess Zhaoyang, Emperor Gaozu’s second daughter, shared her father’s martial spirit and was as valiant as any man. In the sixth year of Jianning, her Prince Consort, Guo Yangjia, was ordered to the frontier, and the princess accompanied him. When the Prince Consort traveled to Liangzhou over a matter of army provisions, the Rouran happened to invade. The princess donned her armor, mounted her horse, and routed the enemy. Emperor Gaozu sent a letter jokingly calling her the tigress of their family.

During a border emergency in Emperor Taizong’s reign, Princess Zhaoyang organized able-bodied women into companies known as the Ladies’ Army, earning the acclaim of her contemporaries. Thereafter, martial pursuits became fashionable among the women of the capital. In later generations, princesses frequently led armies on campaign or took command of the court. Such openness was rarely seen in any other dynasty.

…

The familiar dizziness swept over Emperor Gaozu. When his awareness returned and he saw the boundless white mist around him, he knew he was back in the space.

His old companions sat in a circle nearby. As one, they tilted their heads upward and watched the strip of white silk representing the source consciousness of this world descend slowly through the mist.

Liu Che rubbed his chin, his eyes darting about. “What do you think it will be this time?”

“How could anyone guess?” Emperor Gaozu said.

Ying Zheng frowned. “Surely it cannot be any more absurd than a Prince Consort having a princess beaten to death.”

Li Shimin clicked his tongue. “I would not count on that.”

“Why bother guessing?” Zhu Yuanzhang snatched the white silk out of the air. “We can just look!”

With that, he unfurled it and carefully read the words upon it.

At first, the other emperors stayed where they were. But as Zhu Yuanzhang’s frown deepened, they could no longer contain themselves and crowded around him.

“Lemme see, lemme see!”

They surged forward and found several lines written on the silk:

Her father is a powerful warlord. Her mother is the daughter of an illustrious family. She even has two elder brothers who dote on her beyond measure. Baozhu was born with a winner’s script, but one day, someone suddenly tells her that she is not her parents’ biological child at all. She is a peasant girl secretly switched at birth by a midwife!

Her parents say: You are the only daughter we recognize!

Her brothers say: You are the only sister we recognize!

The true heiress watches her position like a hawk, devising one vicious scheme after another to force her to surrender everything. See how Baozhu stirs the winds and clouds, exposes the true heiress for what she really is, and writes a glorious life of her own!

Emperor Gaozu: “…”

Ying Zheng: “…”

Zhu Yuanzhang: “…”

Li Shimin: “…”

Utterly baffled, Liu Che scratched his head. “I was thinking, if she is the fake heiress, then the true heiress is not wrong to make her give the place back, is she? She took what belonged to someone else in the first place!”

Emperor Gaozu curled his lip. “She ate their food and took over their parents, and she still thinks she is in the right?”

Zhu Yuanzhang possessed the bluntest possible view of both power and blood. “She is not even their flesh and blood, and she has the nerve to stay in their house? Letting her keep a bowl of rice is merciful enough. Now she wants this and that too? Does she think she can fly up to heaven?”

Ying Zheng looked equally disgusted. “This family does not seem terribly bright either.”
Zhu Yuanzhang’s brows drew into a knot. Just as he was about to speak, his vision blurred. Light wheeled before him and the world turned upside down. By the time he came to himself, a fierce wind was howling and battle cries rang without end. Blood filled his sight, and its reek rose to the heavens.

He steadied himself and discovered that he was standing inside a crude command tent. Armored officers and guards stood in disciplined ranks on either side, their armor stained with blood. Several middle-aged scholars who looked like strategists were gathered around a map of the terrain, arguing heatedly. Outside, war drums mingled with shouts, and the heat of battle seemed to rush straight into the tent.

Zhu Yuanzhang still had no idea what was happening. He lifted the tent flap and glanced outside. A fortified city stood nearby, its defenders arrayed along the walls with crossbows, bows, and other weapons at the ready. Yet they were not all strong soldiers. He could vaguely make out old people, women, and children among them.

His suspicions stirred. His own army was well equipped and vastly superior in numbers, yet instead of assaulting the city in earnest, the troops were milling back and forth, wasting their strength for nothing. It made no sense at all.

The army was already at the walls. All preparations were complete. Why were they dawdling instead of attacking?

Could there be some other stratagem that required them to delay here and create a false impression?

But judging by the battle map, that did not seem to be the case either.

Zhu Yuanzhang was full of doubts when a crash sounded behind him. He turned and saw a furious middle-aged scholar straighten his robes and bow.

“King of Wu, we cannot delay any longer!”

Grief and indignation filled the man’s face. “That villain Dong refuses to leave the safety of the city. He means only to hold out until his reinforcements arrive. It has already been three days. If we do not launch an all-out assault now, his reinforcements will join him and close around us from both sides. You and I will die without a place to be buried!”

King of Wu?

Well, well. Now that was a title that sounded wonderfully familiar.

No, wait. So they did not have some brilliant scheme after all? They really were just sitting here wasting their army’s strength?

Had they been kicked in the head by a donkey?!

Anger flared in Zhu Yuanzhang. He was about to speak when a figure flashed before him, followed by a sharp slap.

He focused and saw that the noblewoman who had been kneeling on the floor in tears had suddenly sprung to her feet and struck the strategist across the face. She clawed and battered at him, shrieking abuse. “Xu Hongwen, what are you plotting? Huayao is still in the enemy’s hands. If we attack the city now, how can he possibly survive?!”

Xu Hongwen’s face darkened with anger. He shot back, “The Second Young Master fell into enemy hands because he concealed the truth from our lord and rashly advanced in his greed for glory. He brought this disaster upon himself! What crime have the two hundred thousand men of our army committed? For one man’s sake, we have remained here for three days, launching attack after attack without advancing a single step, and more than ten thousand soldiers have died in vain! How can one reckless child’s arrogance be allowed to destroy the King of Wu’s foundations, built over so many years, and reduce the entire northern campaign to ashes?”

“Fine words!” The noblewoman’s gaze was sharp, her tone overbearing. “If you were the one who had been captured today, would you still say the same?”

Tears shone in Xu Hongwen’s eyes. “The King of Wu gave me a new life. If I ever fell into enemy hands, I would take my own life rather than place my lord in such a dilemma and gamble the lives of two hundred thousand soldiers on the chance that I might survive!”

The noblewoman sneered. “You are not the one who was captured. Of course you can make lofty speeches and pretend to stand above everyone else!”

Xu Hongwen flushed crimson under her goading. Before anyone could react, he snatched a long saber from a guard’s waist and pressed it to his neck.

Everyone in the command tent paled in horror and rushed forward to seize the weapon. “Mr. Xu!”

“Stay back!” Xu Hongwen shouted. “My lord recognized my worth, and all of you have treated me as a brother-in-arms. Matters have come to this. If we do not advance, we will lose Jiangzhou and disaster will be upon us. I, Hongwen, am willing to trade my life for a single command from my lord to take Jiangzhou by force. I will die without regret!”

With that, he resolutely drew the blade across his throat.

Cries of “Don’t!” rang through the tent. Someone lunged forward to wrest away the saber, but the edge had already cut into flesh. Blood sprayed through the air.

The noblewoman gasped and instinctively stumbled back several steps. Someone in the tent with medical knowledge hurried forward to cover the wound, laid Xu Hongwen flat, and ordered that medicine be brought at once.

Another strategist, drenched in hot blood, stepped forward with tears in his eyes. “My lord, indecision will only bring chaos!”

If Huayao had simply fallen into enemy hands during battle, that would have been one thing. But he had courted death through a reckless hunger for glory. Whom could he blame but himself?

They had delayed for three whole days over that mangy brat. How many opportunities had been squandered?

Now that Zhu Yuanzhang understood the situation, he did not hesitate. He slammed a palm onto the table and thundered, “Pass down my command. Attack the city!”

The generals’ spirits soared. They answered in one voice, “Yes!”

“Father, you cannot!” The noblewoman cried out, rushed forward, and dropped to her knees. Clinging to his leg, she pleaded through streaming tears, “Huayao is still in the enemy’s hands. If you attack now, he will die! He is your own grandson!”

Zhu Yuanzhang had long since grown sick of her. He kicked her aside and said without a second thought, “If a grandson dies, we can have another. If we lose the realm, we’re finished! If he lives, that is his good fortune. If he dies, that is the fate he earned. Pass down my command. Attack!”