King Xiang of the Red Chamber

Chapter 830 Sheng Er-Jing'an or Not Jing'an

My name is Zhu Yunsheng, I am a princess of the Ming Dynasty, and my title is "Jing'an.

When my father was the emperor, my status was very noble. Among all the women in the Ming Dynasty, only my two sisters-in-law could be compared with me. However, they were far less favored by the emperor than I was.

I had a very happy childhood because my father had already ascended the throne when I was born, and the grudges of the older generation had nothing to do with me.

My parents doted on me and my three brothers took great care of me. I could be said to have grown up in a honeypot.

My fourth brother is a modest gentleman and a good man in the literal sense, but he suffered a lot because of this, even though he was a noble crown prince.

My sixth brother is a hypocrite. Although he is very nice to me, my mother doesn't like him because he goesssips all the time, and I also have a prejudice against him.

However, my Thirteenth Brother, who I thought was stupid and reckless, is actually a truly wise man.

There is no need to find evidence to prove that Thirteenth Brother is stupid and reckless, because there are too many things he did in the past ten years to serve as evidence, many of which I have experienced personally.

I was deceived by my Thirteenth Brother, but I don’t think I’m stupid. After all, my parents are so smart and wise, but they were still deceived by him in the end.

Of course, I also want to mention my tutors here. I think they are really smart, otherwise why would they have set their sights on Thirteenth Brother so early.

Among them, my Thirteenth Sister-in-law is the most powerful. She uses her ability to make my Thirteenth Brother be completely infatuated with her.

A fatherless girl pushed my cousin, my mother's niece, from the position of princess to the position of concubine, and became my sister-in-law, the Princess of Xiang.

Honestly speaking, they were a perfect match made in heaven. One pretended to be stupid while the other played nice, and their cooperation was perfect. No one else was alerted.

By the time his intentions were discovered, Prince Xiang's Palace had become a huge monster.

Especially my thirteenth sister-in-law, she is really kind-hearted to me. Even a wise mother like me was coaxed by her to praise me many times and regarded as the closest daughter-in-law to me.

I even speculated that the Thirteenth Brother's transformation was instigated by her. After all, things started to go wrong in the tenth year of Zhengtong, and that was when they met.

Of course, it took me a long time to realize Thirteenth Brother’s ambition. During this period, I was also gradually growing up, from a naive child to a girl waiting to get married.

It was also during this process that the tutors around me left one by one, and their destinations were surprisingly the same, they all moved into the inner house of Prince Xiang's Mansion.

Among these tutors, my best friends are Daiyu and Xiangyun, simply because they are the two who have been with me the longest and have spent the most time with me.

When I first met Daiyu, I thought she was weak and frail, but I admired her knowledge.

She was surprised that I, the legitimate daughter of the royal family, was so "crude", but later she was greatly influenced by me.

Just as my Thirteenth Sister-in-law said, when you see a virtuous person, you want to be like him... It is very normal for them to want to be like him when they see a "virtuous" person like me.

Compared to Daiyu, Xiangyun is more lively and active, so I get along best with her, and I can even say that I am closer to her than to Daiyu.

It’s a pity that they eventually left me, even though they were only separated by a palace wall.

All my tutors were abducted by Thirteenth Brother. I feel like I've become a joke.

But I was not really angry, because Thirteenth Brother was indeed a rare hero in the world, and even I, his own sister, admired him very much.

But when I reached the age of marriage, this became a fatal problem for me, because other men seemed too mediocre. Even though the ones listed by my father were all legitimate heirs of wealthy families, I didn't like any of them.

Therefore, I was very opposed to the idea of ​​selecting a prince consort, which made my father and mother very worried.

Until one day, I met someone who made my heart beat a little bit at the polo field of Fourteenth Brother’s Palace.

This man is called Liang Yi. His family only has the lowest title. Logically, he and I are not a good match, but I chose him in the end.

From this point of view, I was trying to emulate my Thirteenth Brother, and fortunately my parents finally fulfilled my wish.

It was also after I got married that the fighting between my three brothers became more and more intense, which made me truly understand that the so-called "struggle for succession" is not just two simple words.

But what happened later proved that I was still thinking too simply, too gently, and too naively.

In the seventeenth year of Zhengtong, the Queen Mother fell ill, while the Thirteenth Brother was thousands of miles away in the northwest.

I went into the palace to accompany my mother day and night, and I understood her final feelings very well. I knew that she cared most about my three brothers.

When my mother pointed out that my thirteenth brother would succeed to the throne in the future, I was actually very surprised. I realized that my mother had seen the situation very clearly and was at least much wiser than I expected.

However, my mother was still worried that Thirteenth Brother would have trouble with his brothers in the future. At that time, I just thought she was worrying too much. After all, Thirteenth Brother was a broad-minded person and not an intolerant person.

Upon learning that his mother was seriously ill, the Thirteenth Brother quickly returned from the northwest and was able to see her for the last time.

When my mother was dying, she summoned my brother and me alone. Although I don't know what she said, I can guess the general content.

In the end, my mother passed away. I lost the person I loved most in my life. I was devastated and heartbroken.

My brothers seemed to be the same as me, but what happened later proved that they were preparing for a life-and-death struggle.

Only three months had passed since my mother passed away, and on the Mid-Autumn Festival of that year, something happened that completely disgraced our royal family and broke my father’s heart.

Although I tried my best to stop it, it was futile. I could only watch my fourth brother rebel and my sixth brother get into trouble.

Afterwards, the fourth and sixth brothers lost power, and the thirteenth brother became the undisputed heir.

My fourth brother was in poor health, and this blow made his condition even worse. I felt so heartbroken watching his health deteriorating.

My sixth brother, on the other hand, was never honest and was eventually ordered by our father to stay at home and rest.

Not long after, the fourth brother's condition became more serious and he reached the end of his life.

On the day my fourth brother passed away, my sixth brother and his family were under house arrest and were unable to go to the Eastern Palace to pay their respects in time. But my thirteenth brother also did not come, which made me extremely angry.

So, when my Thirteenth Sister-in-law came over, I asked her in public why my Thirteenth Brother didn't come.

Although she was extremely shrewd and never showed her emotions, I still caught a glimpse of a hint of anger on her face.

I know I did a stupid thing, but I don't regret it because I really want Thirteenth Brother to show up in time. After all, Fourth Brother once took such good care of him.

This incident made Liang Yi very angry, but he could only beg me to stop doing those useless and stupid things.

After all, I have offended not only my Thirteenth Brother, but also the future Crown Prince and the future Emperor who will rule the Ming Dynasty for decades.

My mother died of illness, and my fourth brother also passed away. Within two years, my father's health also collapsed.

It was the night of July 28th, the 20th year of Zhengtong.

My father urgently summoned all the kings and officials to meet him. When I saw the anxious look on the eunuch’s face when delivering the imperial edict, I knew something big was going to happen, so I quickly went into the palace.

When I arrived at the Qianqing Palace, members of the royal family and important ministers were already there. Because I was the emperor's legitimate daughter, I was allowed to sit next to the imperial bed.

Looking at my father who was barely breathing, I was terrified because, apart from the eunuchs who were serving him, none of my brothers were around.

Later I found out that my half brothers were afraid of coming too early and arousing suspicion, and my sixth brother was obstructed by the guards and even had difficulty leaving the house.

As for my thirteenth brother, in order to show off his performance, his subordinates led him to enter the palace via the Daming Gate instead of the Dong'an Gate, which delayed him for quite a while.

Standing alone in front of the imperial bed, I watched my father's breath grow weaker and weaker. I was so sad and scared that I couldn't stop crying.

But I didn't dare cry out loud, for fear of disturbing my father's rest.

But even so, while waiting for the arrival of the kings and officials, my father woke up twice.

He saw me close to him, and I could see he wanted to say something, but after hesitating, he closed his eyes again.

Later I realized that my father was conserving his energy, waiting for all the kings and officials to arrive, and of course the most important thing was to wait for my Thirteenth Brother.

This period of waiting was no more than half an hour, but at that time it felt extremely long to me.

It felt like the sky was falling and I was the only one holding it up, even though I wasn't doing anything useful at the time.

Fortunately, my half brothers arrived, and my thirteenth brother finally arrived at the Qianqing Palace. At this time, he had been the crown prince for two years.

He was greeted with respect by everyone just by walking through the door, which shows that his fame and status were already set.

Upon learning that his thirteenth brother had arrived, his father finally mustered up the courage to publicly announce his last will, ordering all the kings and officials to serve the new emperor wholeheartedly.

In addition, his father also told his thirteenth brother to treat his brothers well, to love the people more, and to be sympathetic to the passing of court officials.

At that time, only my Thirteenth Brother and I were guarding my father. I was hoping that my father would say something to me, but until the last moment of his life, I didn't hear a single word from him.

My son should be like Yao and Shun. These were my father’s last words. I felt worried when I heard them. The worries that my mother had before she passed away came back to my mind.

Yao and Shun were both virtuous and virtuous. Will the Thirteenth Brother become a man like them? Will he forgive the Sixth Brother who has made many mistakes?
When I think about how my father, before he died, also told my thirteenth brother to treat his brothers well, this makes me even more worried?
It was also on this night that the sixth brother came late after the reading of the will, and he was so crazy that he said treasonous words, and was expelled from the palace and imprisoned by the thirteenth brother.

This incident makes me even more worried, but I still hope that the situation will not deteriorate further.

However, the Sixth Brother, who had been smart all his life, turned out to be an extremely stupid fool, or perhaps he was just being too stubborn.

Anyway, he just had no intention of accepting his fate, and did a lot of rebellious things after his Thirteenth Brother ascended the throne, and I don’t know all of this.

October 28, the 20th year of Zhengtong.

This was originally an ordinary day. I was invited by Daiyu to the palace to chat. At that time, she had been conferred the title of Imperial Concubine.

During the conversation, I learned that Thirteenth Brother wanted to confer the title of Princess on me, but because I was worried, I was not too excited.

After a while, someone from Daiyu's palace came to report that Thirteenth Brother was meeting with officials from the factory and guards, so he could not attend the banquet at Daiyu's place.

So I asked casually, and then I found out that the matter was related to Sixth Brother, which made me feel anxious. Being targeted by the factory guards was not a good thing, especially since Sixth Brother had offended many of them.

After hurriedly having a meal with Daiyu, I left the inner court and originally planned to go to the Qianqing Palace to plead for Sixth Brother. However, I was afraid that I would make things worse and harm Sixth Brother, so after some hesitation, I gave up the idea.

When I left the palace, I met my two half brothers riding horses into the palace. This was also a very rare thing, so I guessed that what happened today was not simple.

After my two elder brothers left the palace, I took the opportunity to find the fifteenth elder brother and asked him about his audience with the emperor, but he evaded me with casual words.

That night I was restless, so I went to Prince Gongshun's palace, and there I met Ni Jinzhong, a captain of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

I have known this person before. His original name seemed to be Ni Er. He was a low-ranking ruffian in the capital. Later, he got into the Jinyiwei through the relationship with Chen Yuntai. After some flattery, he caught the eye of Thirteenth Brother, who promoted him a lot and gave him the name Ni Jinzhong.

This guy does the dirty work for Brother Thirteen. His appearance here is definitely not a good thing. When I think about what happened during the day, I feel even more anxious.

I wanted to break into the palace, but this man was so bold that he refused to budge no matter how I threatened him. I then realized that he was following orders.

The person who tied the bell must untie it. I knew I had to meet my Thirteenth Brother to explain the matter of Prince Gongshun's Mansion.

Liang Yi tried to stop me from going. I knew what he said made sense, but I still rejected his idea and chose to go to the palace to meet the emperor late at night.

This was not a matter of national or military importance, and such behavior was tantamount to seeking death. However, relying on my status as a legitimate princess, I was still able to enter the Dong'an Gate.

However, I was stopped outside Donghua Gate, and even though someone helped to inform the emperor, I still did not see Thirteenth Brother.

At this moment, I truly felt that I had lost my best brother, the one I respected the most and the one who loved me the most.

Immediately afterwards, my Thirteenth Sister-in-law issued an imperial decree to expel me from the imperial city.

At that moment, I thought of my mother's life. At that time, the imperial edict was just an ordinary thing to me. After all, every word my mother said was an imperial edict, and I could accept it according to my heart. Even disobeying the edict was not a big deal.

But right now, the Empress's order is an iron rule, and I have no way to resist it.

I left the imperial city sad and lost. When I went out of Dong'an Gate, I saw Liang Yi waiting for me under the lights. The worry and concern in his expression gave me great psychological comfort.

It was not until this moment that I developed a strong love for him and completely eliminated that person from my heart and no longer viewed him as a substitute for him.

The next day after returning home, I received news that my biological sixth brother had passed away.

I was heartbroken and helpless, but there was nothing I could do but stay at home.

After a few days, my thirteenth brother exempted me from the restrictions and allowed me to go and pay my respects to my sixth brother.

Soon more than a month passed, and I was invited to the palace by Daiyu and Xiangyun, and met my thirteenth brother again.

He and I were strangers, even enemies, so when he showed goodwill, I deliberately hurt his feelings with cold words.

In Brother Thirteen's eyes, I saw disappointment, grievance and heartache, but they were only fleeting. His calm eyes even made me think that those things had never appeared.

I didn't care about his reputation as an emperor and said goodbye and left on the spot, but I didn't feel the pleasure of revenge. After all, he was my biological brother who grew up with me.

After some time, with the help of Daiyu and Xiangyun, I learned about some shameful royal scandals, each of which was related to my sixth brother.

Only then did I realize that my Sixth Brother was indeed unworthy of being a human being. Thirteenth Brother was tolerant and kept retreating until he had no more room to retreat and finally took action to punish him.

The ugliness of the royal family saddened me, but what made me blame myself even more was that I hurt my thirteenth brother who had always tolerated and protected me.

It was then that I realized that all I had thought myself to be fearless of power was actually because I believed that Thirteenth Brother loved me, his sister, and that was why I dared to act so recklessly and rebelliously.

I received his tolerance and love, but trampled on my brother's friendship and sincerity, which made me regret and feel ashamed.

At the royal banquet near the end of the year, I apologized to Brother Thirteen. He comforted me with a carefree smile, but it made me feel even more guilty.

However, we always have to look forward. After Liang Yi’s repeated advice, I finally got over the incident.

To be honest, thanks to my status as a legitimate princess, I do live a very comfortable life, and even my sister-in-law has to give me some face.

But I was no longer spoiled at all. I devoted myself to taking care of my husband and children, and went to the palace from time to time to meet Daiyu and Xiangyun.

Of course, we only talked about trivial matters in life. I didn't say a word about the palace affairs, just because they all had sons.

I can see that although the inner court seems calm on the surface, there are actually undercurrents among the concubines.

But I didn't expect that the first person to be eliminated was my cousin. She, as a royal concubine, was ambushed, at least that's what she said.

It’s a pity that this kind of thing will not have any results, and the queen herself will not investigate it strictly. As for the reason, it is not convenient to say.

But among all the concubines in the harem, there was one person who made me feel extraordinary, and that was Jia Tanchun, the third daughter of the impoverished Jia family. She gave me the impression that she was pretending to be simple and innocent.

But I thought about it, isn't everyone in the harem like this? I'm afraid Daiyu is the only one who looks at everything lightly and has no obsession with fame and honor!

In fact, this is true. Even Miaoyu, who was placed in a corner of the imperial palace, I think was unstable and had many troubles. Of course, this was also because Thirteenth Brother was too naughty.

However, the extent of Thirteenth Brother's mischief still exceeded my expectations.

One morning in the twelfth month of the eighth year of Qiansheng, when I entered the palace, I found that Crown Princess Zhangdao had walked out of the harem, which was very unusual.

I was the first person to arrive. The palace gate had not been opened before me. How could Crown Princess Zhang Dao be in the inner court?

Although I was puzzled, her three younger sisters were imperial concubines and lived in Yijing Palace. Although it was against the rules for them to stay here, it seemed reasonable.

There was surprise on my face, while Crown Princess Zhang Dao was shocked when she saw me, and then I saw shame and fear on her face.

But the next moment, my thirteenth brother appeared from Yijing Palace, and the next moment he saw me, and then he stopped.

Although I quickly lowered my head, I could still see the embarrassment on Brother Thirteen's face, which made me somewhat nervous.

Fortunately, Thirteenth Brother returned to Yijing Palace without saying a word, and Crown Princess Zhang Dao walked away in silence, as if nothing had happened.

I stood there in a daze for a while, and then I smiled with relief, because the royal family is just so ridiculous.

This incident was indeed uneventful, but I was sure the true story could not be concealed. At least the people in the inner court probably knew about it, but there were indeed no rumors.

I can be sure that this is all thanks to my Thirteenth Sister-in-law. She is indeed a very qualified queen and has won the recognition of my Thirteenth Brother and the court and the public.

Unfortunately, my Thirteenth Sister-in-law also has troubles, that is, her sons, especially the three older ones, whose fighting has become more and more intense as time goes by.

In these three boys, I seemed to see my older brothers when they were young. It is clear that nothing in the world can escape the cycle of reincarnation.

On a certain day in the first month of the fifteenth year of Qiansheng, my thirteenth brother summoned me to the palace.

When I arrived in front of the emperor, I saw my thirteenth brother with a sad face. He told me that he had dreamt of my father, the emperor and my mother at night. They were as harmonious as they were in life, and my fourth and sixth brothers were serving them.

By that time, the Thirteenth Brother had already accomplished his hegemony, conquered the world and made his name known throughout the world. He had become an emperor respected by all nations like a god.

I have read history books and know that Emperor Ming of Han had a similar dream, so I guess that the dream that Thirteenth Brother mentioned was most likely made up by him.

He had accomplished his mission and what he was pursuing was fame, but what the royal family lacked most was filial piety and brotherhood.

The fourteenth and fifteenth brothers have been playing the role of brothers to him for ten years, but after all, they are not the legitimate heirs of the royal family. It is obvious that Thirteenth Brother needs me, his legitimate sister, to help.

I could only cooperate with Brother Thirteen and hugged and cried with him. Soon the news spread throughout the court and the country.

Less than a month later, I was rewarded by my thirteenth brother and was conferred the title of Princess Jing'an.

Logically, I should have been given the title of Princess fifteen years ago, but due to the turmoil that year, it was left unresolved, and now it has finally been given to me.

On the sixteenth day of the first lunar month in the fifteenth year of Qiansheng, my thirteenth brother held a ceremony to confer a title on me in the Chongzheng Hall.

At that time, I was already over thirty years old. Looking at my brother and sister-in-law on the imperial steps, there was only a peaceful smile on my face, and I blended in perfectly with the harmonious atmosphere around me.

As the female official read out the imperial edict, I recalled the time many years ago when I was crowned a princess by my father.

My father bestowed upon me the title “Jing’an”. What kind of Jing’an does he want to achieve?

Do you hope for peace in the world? Or do you hope for harmony in the royal family? Or do you hope for filial piety among your sons?
My father has passed away, and his expectations have become smoke. Now my thirteenth brother has conferred the title of "Princess Jing'an" on me. What does he want to achieve Jing'an? Can he achieve Jing'an?
I don't know the answer, but the ceremony was completed successfully.

The next day, I went to the palace to express my gratitude. When I entered the Donghua Gate, I ran into my little nephew.

He was the fourth son of Thirteenth Sister-in-law. Because he was the ninth among the princes, he was named Zhu Muji by Thirteenth Brother.

But this brat was not as sensible as his brother. He was often reprimanded by the Queen for his mischief, and even the Thirteenth Brother had beaten him personally several times.

When I met this kid Zhu Muji, he was with a few younger brothers and sisters and some noble boys who were tutoring, using tree branches to demonstrate a battle between two armies.

The group of kids were having a lot of fun, and I was particularly fascinated by them. It reminded me of when I was a kid and used to play around with my Thirteenth Brother like this.

But because I stopped, these guys were afraid of being punished, so they all ran away after they saw me, which made Zhu Muji so angry that he scolded them for being cowards.

Come back here, this is an order, staying here is an order, you cowards... Zhu Xiaojiu shouted angrily on the spot.

Xiaojiu's voice was childish, but it already showed the royal majesty, which still made me laugh.

I asked Xiaojiu why he didn't run away, but he told me that a real man should take responsibility for his actions. His unyielding look was exactly like that of Brother Thirteen.

Then I asked him why he skipped classes and played around, but he said that the poor and pedantic scholars could not teach him.

Seeing his ambitious spirit, I asked him about his ambitions.

He was holding a small wooden sword and said proudly: "I will cross the Indian Ocean with my sword, drink water from the Atlantic Ocean with my horse, and revive the Han Dynasty!"

(End of this chapter)