The Succession Struggle in the Dream of the Red Chamber

Chapter 2 Father and Son Go into Battle Together

After Little Twelve left, the princess was helped to the back hall by her maid.

Prince An summoned all his sons to his presence, including the younger ones from the back hall.

“Listen carefully, the danger tonight is extraordinary. If we are not careful, the Prince An’s mansion will be destroyed.”

"Only by defending the Prince's Mansion can my son and I survive. If the mansion is breached, the soldiers may live, the servants may live, and the women in the mansion may live, but my son and I will have no hope of survival."

"In view of this, Father wants to send you to follow the guards of the Prince’s Palace to guard the wall. This is not to make you fight the enemy to the death, but to tell the guards of the Prince’s Palace that the entire Prince’s Palace will live and die with them."

"However, you must remember that once you arrive, you should treat yourselves as ordinary guards and not interfere with the guards' arrangements."

Prince An's words added even more solemnity to the already tense front hall.

After a long pause, Prince Tu Chengying asked softly, "Father, Xiao Wu and the others are still young. If we send them, the guards will have to be distracted and protect them, which is not good. It would be better to let them stay with you, Father, which is also their way of doing their part for the family. As for fighting the enemy, we older ones can go."

The older ones the Crown Prince mentioned were only the first four sons of King An. The Crown Prince and the second prince were sixteen years old, and the third and fourth princes were fifteen years old, so they were still children.

As soon as the crown prince spoke, the other three older princes echoed his sentiments.

Prince An seemed to realize that his arrangement was somewhat inappropriate. After a moment's thought, he followed the Crown Prince's suggestion and made new arrangements.

"It was my oversight. In that case, let Xiao Qi and the others stay with me, while Xiao Wu and Xiao Liu will go to the second gate together."

Before anyone else could react after Prince An finished speaking, Tu Chengyu was surprised. He knew his father, with whom he had lived for ten years, quite well.

Although Prince An, a prince with little influence in court, held considerable power within his small residence, his word was law. Tu Chengyu had never seen Prince An repent of his words before, so why was he so readily heeding the advice of the heir apparent today? Was he perhaps frightened by tonight's military turmoil?
Tu Chengyu thought to himself, but answered along with his brothers.

Prince An then sent someone to fetch Tu Chengyu and Xiao Liu's armor, and had Xiao Si help them put it on. Only then did he send someone to lead the two of them to the back gate of the front courtyard.

The Prince An's Mansion is roughly divided into four parts: the front, middle and rear courtyards, plus a garden.

The front courtyard was where Prince An handled affairs and received guests. It had a main hall that connected to the main gate of the Prince's Mansion in the front and the middle courtyard of the residence in the back.

A high wall separates the front and back courtyards, connected by a large, three-bay red gate. Tu Chengyu and Xiao Liu are going here to guard this gate with the guards.

Prince An was concerned about the two young brothers' young age, so he specially sent General Yuan Jian, the deputy commander of the Prince's Guard, to accompany them on their journey.

The front yard wasn't very big, and the three of them reached the second gate in no time.

The second gate connects the front courtyard and the middle courtyard, and is the only part of the front courtyard that does not face the street. Therefore, only a dozen or so armored guards were sent, while the rest were servants and lackeys carrying sticks. The guards were fairly dutiful, standing guard on the walls, while the servants and lackeys had no sense of danger, casually dragging their sticks around chatting and laughing.

Tu Chengyu came from the front gate and, looking around, discovered that the weakest point in the entire front yard's defenses was actually this place.

"General Yuan, why is the guard here so lax?" Yuan Jian seemed to know someone was going to ask this question. Upon hearing Tu Chengyu's words, he replied without hesitation, "Replying to Fifth Master, the second gate is different from the others. It is the inner gate of the Prince's Mansion and is not connected to the outside streets. The rebel soldiers do not know the layout of the mansion. They will definitely have to enter from the backyard. Fifth Master also knows that the inner courtyard of the Prince's Mansion is cleverly and intricately arranged. The rebel soldiers will not be able to find this place for a while. Therefore, I have taken the liberty of letting the stewards of the mansion rest. It is not too late to climb the wall when the rebel army arrives."

Although Yuan Jian's words were quite reasonable, Tu Chengyu dared not easily reassure him, as the lives of the entire Wang family were at stake. After pondering for a moment, he said:

"It's still better to be careful, General Yuan. How about this? Send two brave men to the east and west crescent gates of the central courtyard to act as scouts. No matter where the rebels come from in the mansion, they can be detected in advance and then report back here."

Tu Chengyu's suggestion was sound enough that Inspector Yuan couldn't object, so he could only send two guards out through a side door. After the two left, Tu Chengyu looked at the guards squatting on the wall and the servants below, and spoke again:

"Have the servants stand guard on the wall, and relieve the guards to come down and rest."

Tu Chengyu's idea was to let the guards conserve their energy so that they could fight the enemy with all their might when the rebels arrived.

However, this move meant that the servants in the mansion had to endure the cold wind of the autumn night. Those servants who usually enjoyed the pleasures of the mansion rarely suffered such hardship, especially since some of them were stewards of the mansion, who were more honored than ordinary landlords and minor officials outside. How could they endure such hardship?

Shen Ye, the wet nurse of the young master, took the lead in objecting: "Fifth Master, in principle, you are the master of the mansion, and I should not speak out against your decisions. However, you are young and inexperienced, so I need to explain the ins and outs of this to you."

Tu Chengyu didn't understand what he was trying to say, and frowned as he said, "Then you tell me."

Shen Ye didn't see any dissatisfaction from Tu Chengyu, so he said with relief, "We servants only know how to sweep and run errands and serve our masters. We have no martial arts skills and our courage is not as great as that of the guards. If we rashly replace the guards, we may delay important matters."

Although the reason was far-fetched, the meaning was clear: they didn't want to stand on the wall in the cold wind for the guards.

Shen Ye's blatant rebuttal infuriated Tu Chengyu, but he couldn't force the arrangement. After all, Prince An had only sent them to boost morale, not to interfere.

Just as things were about to reach a stalemate, Yuan Jian, with his keen insight, interjected.

"Fifth Master, guarding the Prince's Mansion is of utmost importance, and we dare not complain about the hardship; we also dare not shirk your protection. I thought, why not compromise and remove half of the guards on the wall and let the stewards take over? This way, the guards can take turns to rest, and the wall can be kept on guard at all times."

After Yuan Jian finished speaking, Shen Ye wanted to retort, but Tu Chengyu glared at him and shut him up.

Seeing this situation, Shen Ye shook his head and sighed, seemingly unwilling to accept it. Yuan Jian, on the other hand, went to make arrangements personally as instructed.

As the two of them left, Xiao Liu leaned over and whispered, "Fifth Brother, Father told us not to interfere with the guards' actions. How dare you disobey Father as soon as you arrive?"

“My father has no idea that these servants are so undisciplined. It concerns the safety of our whole family, so I have no choice but to disobey my father’s instructions.”

Although Tu Chengyu had lived in this world for ten years, pretending to be a shut-in for ten years, and had accepted the world's hierarchical customs, he was, after all, a mature soul who had grown up in the new century, and would not strictly adhere to the father-son and ruler-subject system.

When faced with a life-or-death situation, he doesn't care who gives the orders; as long as he feels it's right, he will do it according to his own ideas.

(End of this chapter)