The Succession Struggle in the Dream of the Red Chamber

Chapter 13 Dark Clouds Gather to Press Down on the Imperial City

The night before the new emperor's coronation ceremony.

In the imperial palace's outer court, inside the imperial study.

The emperor, who was about to ascend the throne, looked at a memorial with a face full of anger.

After he suppressed his impulse and finished reading the memorial in his hand, he finally couldn't help but throw it to the ground.

Then a roar filled the imperial study: "How dare he? How dare they? I have repeatedly yielded to them, yet they have taken advantage of my kindness."

Seeing the emperor's angry expression, the two brothers, Tu Chengying and Tu Chengyu, exchanged glances. Finally, Tu Chengying mustered his courage and asked, "Father, what happened?"

The emperor sighed, sat down, and said, "Lu Feiwu is dead."

"Ah!" the two brothers exclaimed in surprise.

They had just reported Lu Feiwu's situation to the emperor. The three of them had already discussed it and decided that after the coronation ceremony, they would find a reason to send Lu Feiwu out of the capital.

This person is embroiled in controversy, yet he cannot be easily dealt with; keeping him in the capital is truly inappropriate.

Unexpectedly, just as the discussion was finished, Xia Shouzhong sent over this memorial, as if someone was constantly monitoring the emperor.

Tu Chengyu bent down to pick up the memorial from the ground, spread it out, and the two brothers huddled together to examine it.

I felt something was off after reading just two sentences.

This is not a normal memorial to the throne, but a memorial left behind by Lu Feiwu.

The memorial stated that Lu Feiwu had inadvertently offended the heir apparent of Prince An half a year ago. Now that Prince An had ascended the throne, the heir apparent was about to be named Crown Prince.

Lu Feiwu was filled with fear and anxiety, living in constant unease. He had someone intercede on his behalf to request an audience with the Crown Prince, hoping to personally apologize and beg for forgiveness.

Unexpectedly rejected by the crown prince, he was terrified and unable to eat or sleep. In order not to implicate his family, he offered his life as an atonement.

When his second uncle left that day, Tu Chengyu guessed that the person behind the scenes would definitely use Lu Feiwu to make a fuss.

Unexpectedly, they would exploit this so thoroughly, directly causing Lu Feiwu to commit suicide to slander the Crown Prince.

With Lu Feiwu's death, the Crown Prince was left with no way to defend himself. Even if the officials knew that Lu Feiwu's death had nothing to do with the Crown Prince, they couldn't help but have their own doubts.

It is foreseeable that the people behind the scenes will take advantage of this incident to stir up trouble. They may not dare to make a scene at tomorrow's coronation ceremony, but they will definitely cause a scene after tomorrow.

The best way is to resolve this matter tonight and not give others a chance to make a move.

After a moment's thought, the emperor said to Xia Shouzhong, who was standing at the door, "Shouzhong, I asked you to investigate this Lu Feiwu half a year ago. Did you find anything?"

Xia Shouzhong bowed and replied, "Your Majesty, Lu Feiwu is from Yuzhang Prefecture. He was orphaned at a young age and was raised by his mother alone. He passed the imperial examination three years ago and was recommended by Prince Ping to serve as the Imperial Inspector. According to his colleagues, he is bold, loves fame, and is extremely adept at scheming. The only thing he is worthy of praise for is that he is very filial to his mother."

After listening, the emperor said, "I don't believe that such a person would commit suicide so easily. There must be other reasons. My son, please tell me what those reasons are."

Prince Tu Chengying knew that his father was testing him, so he quickly replied, "Father, I think there are only two possibilities. First, someone killed Lu Feiwu, made it look like he committed suicide, and then forged his will. Second, Chief Steward Xia said that he was filial, so maybe someone used his mother to threaten him and made him write a will to commit suicide."

After listening to the prince's words, the emperor remained noncommittal and asked, "Tell me again, how should we proceed next?"

The crown prince replied, "We can send someone to investigate the truth overnight and let all the officials know that the person did not commit suicide, but was coerced."

The emperor said, "My lord, this matter is not so simple. They may be waiting for you to investigate so that they can make a big fuss about it."

Tu Chengying asked, "In that case, what should I do?"

The emperor said, “This matter cannot be handled in the conventional way, otherwise it is easy to fall into their trap. Since they are coming for you and want to find a loophole, you should do the opposite and pretend you don’t know anything. I will send someone to handle it.”

The emperor clearly had a plan in mind. He called Xia Shouzhong to his side and carefully instructed him on what to do next.

However, before the instructions could be finished, a eunuch's voice rang out from outside the Imperial Study.

"Your Majesty, Chief Steward Dai of the Daming Palace requests an audience."

The imperial study fell silent; no one had expected Dai Quan to return at this time.

Since the Crown Prince rebelled three days ago, forcing the old emperor to issue an abdication edict on the spot and becoming the retired emperor.

The retired emperor, along with Dai Quan and a group of his confidants, retreated to the Daming Palace in the East Palace. To this day, he has not met with any outsiders, not even the new emperor. Why did he suddenly send someone tonight, especially at such a sensitive time?

The emperor, having seen much, only paused for a moment before instructing Xia Shouzhong to go out and handle some business from the other side, and then ordered the eunuch Dai Quan to bring him in.

A moment later, the young eunuch brought in a middle-aged eunuch. Apart from having fairer skin than most people, the man had no other distinguishing features. He was of average appearance, neither tall nor short, neither fat nor thin.

Holding a whisk, Dai Quan walked steadily and knelt before the emperor upon entering. Tu Chengyu was quite curious about this Chief Eunuch Dai, whom he had only heard of but never seen, and couldn't help but glance at him a few more times. Unexpectedly, his eyes met those of Dai Quan, who had risen to greet him. Dai Quan dared not be negligent and quickly bowed his head in return.

Tu Chengyu thought this person was quite polite.

After the greetings were completed, the Emperor spoke first, asking, "Chief Eunuch Dai, you've come so late at night. Does Your Majesty have any instructions?"

Before speaking, Dai Quan smiled, a smile that felt like a gentle breeze. He said, "Your Majesty, the Retired Emperor has been reciting scriptures and writing calligraphy these past few days, and originally did not want to pay attention to outside affairs. However, when serving the meal, he overheard a eunuch mentioning that a minor censor had committed suicide and even submitted a memorial implicating the Heir Apparent. Knowing that someone outside is plotting against His Highness the Heir Apparent, he is very worried. He thought that I had once managed the Imperial Horse Stables and could still command some servants, so he sent me here to be under Your Majesty's command."

This Imperial Horse Stable, nominally responsible for raising horses for the emperor, was in reality a secret service agency used by the emperor to monitor all officials. It had previously been under the control of Dai Quan, and was only handed over to Xia Shouzhong a couple of days ago.

However, Xia Shouzhong had only been in charge for a few days, and he had been busy with the new emperor's ascension to the throne. He hadn't even met all the heads of the Imperial Horse Stable yet, so naturally he couldn't command these palace eunuchs.

This might be the intention behind the retired emperor sending Dai Quan—to help the new emperor. From this perspective, it's a good thing, showing that the retired emperor cares about his grandson and is willing to help the new emperor.

But upon closer inspection, it's not that simple.

The distance between Daming Palace and the Imperial Study is not short. However, before Xia Shouzhong, who was in charge of handling the matter, had even left after receiving the memorial, Dai Quan arrived. Moreover, Dai Quan said that the retired emperor already knew about it when he ordered the meal.

This indicates that the retired emperor knew about this memorial earlier than the emperor did.

This was not a good thing for the emperor. It showed that both inside and outside the court, the retired emperor was still being treated as the emperor, while the real emperor was being ignored.

Furthermore, if the retired emperor knew about the memorial, he could pretend nothing had happened and suppress it so as not to give the new emperor too much thought.

However, the retired emperor immediately sent Dai Quan over, saying that Dai Quan had once been in charge of the Imperial Horse Administration and could help the emperor.

This move was blatantly a declaration of authority to the new emperor, directly telling him that the retired emperor did not want to relinquish power.

Although the emperor had long anticipated that with the retired emperor in power, he would not be able to secure his throne so easily, he never expected the retired emperor to be so ruthless.

Tu Chengyu secretly glanced at his father. The emperor looked calm, but after being father and son for ten years, Tu Chengyu could still tell from the subtle details that the emperor was very angry.

Unlike his half-hearted anger when he threw down the memorial earlier, this time he was genuinely angry.

However, when faced with Dai Quan, who represented the retired emperor, the emperor could only suppress his anger.

The emperor said, "Thank you for your concern, Father. I wonder what Your Majesty wants me to do?"

Dai Quan bowed and said, "Your Majesty, the Emperor Emeritus did not give any instructions, he only said to let this servant come and listen to Your Majesty's orders."

Upon hearing this, for some reason, the emperor smiled and said with great pleasure, "Father understands me best. Knowing that I am in trouble, he sent you, an old palace elder, to come at just the right time. I just received the memorial and I didn't know how to handle the matter. It's good that you've come, Chief Eunuch Dai. Now I will entrust this matter to Chief Eunuch Dai. I believe that with Chief Eunuch Dai's abilities, he will definitely handle it properly."

Dai Quan came here for two reasons: first, to assert the authority of the retired emperor, and second, to find out the emperor's attitude toward the matter. He did not intend to actually do things for the emperor.

Now that he heard that the emperor was going to force this hot potato into his hands, he became a little anxious.

Just as he was about to decline, he heard the emperor continue, "Chief Eunuch Dai is a trusted old man of Father Emperor. You handle this matter, and I believe you will give me and the Crown Prince a satisfactory explanation."

With the emperor saying this, Dai Quan could no longer refuse, after all, the person in front of him was the emperor.

Dai Quan accepted the order and left, and Tu Chengyu then asked the question that had been bothering him.

"Didn't Father just say that it's not appropriate to investigate this matter now? Why is Dai Quan being sent to handle it? Aren't you afraid he'll take this opportunity to escalate the situation?"

The Emperor said, “Now that the Emperor Emeritus knows about this matter, I can’t suppress it even if I want to. Rather than doing something in vain, I should hand this matter over to Dai Quan and see how he makes a fuss. However, this will also mean that the eldest son will have to face criticism from the outside court.”

The crown prince replied, "Your subject is not afraid."

The emperor looked at the crown prince with satisfaction and said, "But you don't need to worry too much. Your father is here to protect you and won't let them get too arrogant. Alright, it's getting late. There are many trivial matters to attend to tomorrow, so you two should go back and rest."

The two brothers emerged from the imperial study, exchanging silent glances, their hearts heavy with sorrow.

In just a few days, the father and his sons felt pressure from all sides, which they could barely cope with before.

Now that the retired emperor has suddenly made his move, and at this critical juncture, it's simply impossible to know how to deal with it.

The joy brought by his father's succession has vanished, leaving only endless pressure.

Meanwhile, Xia Shouzhong and Dai Quan, the two chief eunuchs representing the emperor and the retired emperor, left the palace late at night.

The nobles and civil and military officials who had been keeping a close eye on the palace also learned of the news.

Tonight, I wonder how many people will be unable to sleep. And how many more connections will be made in the darkness?

(End of this chapter)