Three Kingdoms: The Kingdom Cannot Be Partial

Chapter 213 Remember to tell your grandfather at the family sacrifice

"Your Highness, the Prime Minister's wife has come to the palace to celebrate the occasion. The Empress Dowager invites Your Highness to Chang Le Palace for a chat," a female official said respectfully as she approached the Empress.

"The lady has already entered the palace?" Empress Zhang was overjoyed upon hearing this, and immediately led Consort Wang to Chang Le Palace.

Changle Palace.

Yongshou Hall.

Inside the hall, a row of small ebony tables had already been set up, with only fruit platters and fine wine on them, and no other ceremonial items.

Upon seeing the Empress arrive, the Prime Minister's wife stepped forward with a smile, and together with the wives of important officials such as Zhao Yun, Wei Yan, Liu Yan, and Dong Yun, they all bowed to the Empress.

The Empress returned the greeting and then bowed to the Empress Dowager to inquire after her well wishes.

After the ceremony, he took the thick cakes he had made himself from the female official and presented them to the Empress Dowager. He also gave a few more to the wives of the ministers.

"Your Highness, I thank you for your gift." The Prime Minister's wife and the wives of the ministers, having received gifts from the Empress, all bowed and expressed their gratitude to her.

Today is Mid-Autumn Festival, a day to honor the elderly.

Since the late emperor's passing, the wives of high-ranking officials have come to the palace every year on this day to offer their congratulations to the Empress Dowager.

The atmosphere was lively and harmonious at first, but as they talked and laughed, the Empress Dowager suddenly sighed.

"Two more people have left this palace this year. When you have free time, come to the palace often to talk to me. Living in the palace is good in every way, but I can't go to find you when I miss you."

The women were also somewhat saddened upon hearing this.

Fewer and fewer people are able to come to the palace each year to congratulate the Empress Dowager, as everyone is getting old.

Upon seeing this, the Empress Dowager quickly laughed again:
"Alright, alright, let's not talk about that. I've been craving osmanthus candy lately. Whose garden produced osmanthus flowers that made candy this year?"

"Your Majesty, the osmanthus tree in my residence has been blooming like crazy this year. I've preserved some in honey, and I'll bring it to you tomorrow."

Liu Yan's wife, Madam Hu, was all smiles.

After the late emperor's death, she often entered the palace to accompany the Empress Dowager, and the two were like sisters.

The ladies, the Empress Dowager, and the Empress did not discuss matters of state or family; they simply chatted about everyday life.

The conversation moved from flowers to sugar, from sugar to fragrance, from fragrance to medicine, and then back to needles and thread.

General Zhao's wife took out a foot-wide brocade ribbon and handed it to the Prime Minister's wife:

“Madam, the belt I made for A-Zhan was spun by my youngest daughter. She thought the colors of the woven fabric were dull, so she secretly picked hibiscus from Chief Secretary Jiang's house to dye it.”

"Thank you, Madam Zhao." Huang Yueying accepted it with a smile. "It's really beautiful, beautifully woven, and the colors are beautiful too."

After exchanging a few words of laughter with the Prime Minister's wife, Lady Zhao finally looked kindly at the Empress:

"Your Highness, I have come to believe that the color of this hibiscus is exceptionally beautiful and rare, and it perfectly complements the fair skin of my young son. Therefore, I have reserved several more pieces of brocade thread for Your Highness, which I believe will be used soon."

"Thank you for your kind words, Madam Zhao," Empress Zhang replied with a graceful smile.

When Lady Zhao presented Zhuge Zhan with a belt, the Empress Dowager, of course, could not be stingy and ordered someone to fetch some precious items suitable for boys from the rear palace to bestow upon him.

Empress Zhang also ordered her maid to bring something and personally handed it to Madam Huang: "Madam, this is a garment I knitted for Zhan'er in my spare time. Please take a look and see if it fits."

After receiving it, Madam Huang gestured and said with a smile:
"It is perfectly fitting, Your Highness. Your Majesty is very kind. On behalf of Zhan'er, I thank Your Highness for this gift."

Before long, the Empress Dowager, together with the wives of the ministers, began to impart their child-rearing experiences to the Prime Minister's wife.

Despite bearing the weight of the nation's burdens, the Prime Minister did not have a son with Lady Huang until he was forty-six years old, the same year he wrote the Memorial on Dispatching the Troops for the Emperor.

When the Prime Minister left Chengdu, his wife was less than seven months pregnant. He didn't even have time to see the birth of the child named Zhan'er before heading to Hanzhong to prepare for the Northern Expedition.

When someone else says the phrase "dedicating oneself to the cause until death," some might think it's just a cliché or empty phrase.

Prime Minister Yu, however, thought otherwise.

Seeing the Prime Minister devoting himself to the country, even neglecting his own child after having one late-life son, the Empress Dowager, the Empress, Lady Zhao, and others transformed all their respect for the Prime Minister into love for his bloodline.

Who could be more favored than Zhuge Zhan? Perhaps only the future emperor's heir.

As the Empress Dowager and the wives of many high-ranking officials generously imparted their parenting wisdom to the Prime Minister's wife, laughter and cheerful conversation frequently filled the hall.

The Empress and Consort Wang listened attentively and took notes.

The emperor has no heir yet, and none of the concubines in the palace have any experience in raising children.

As darkness fell, the Empress Dowager, the Empress, and the ladies sat in the hall, their topics shifting and changing without them even realizing it.

Starting with childcare, the story goes to the flowers in the small garden, the cakes in the small stove, and the illnesses of children. It also tells of how the Empress had a fever when she was a child, and cried until she lost her voice. The Empress Dowager personally prepared osmanthus paste, and just a small spoonful was enough to make her stop crying and start laughing.

The usually quiet and secluded imperial palace was transformed into a warm and inviting neighborhood amidst the laughter and chatter of the women.

The full moon rises.

The Empress Dowager and the Empress led a group of ladies to the small garden to admire the moon.

The moon has never been rounder or brighter than it is today.

The Empress Dowager gazed at the full moon and suddenly said, "The moon is so round. I hope His Majesty can return from the front lines soon and no longer have to travel so far."

Then he looked around at the ladies and said with a smile, "I hope all the soldiers who have gone to war are safe and sound, and I hope that the whole world will soon be united as one family, and that all households will be reunited."

The Empress gazed at the moon in a daze, the Emperor's image and voice appearing in her mind. Since becoming the Crown Princess and then the Empress, this was the first time she had been separated from her beloved for so long.

After the emperor's victory in the campaign, everyone said that the emperor was a man of few words but who would make a name for himself. However, as his wife, no one understood the emperor better than her. She did not understand why the emperor had suddenly changed his ways and accomplished something that would never have been possible before.

This change sometimes made her feel apprehensive.

If it weren't for the fact that the Emperor would occasionally write to her, and that his handwriting was so familiar, and that his overly cloying words revealed that he was still the same unreliable Emperor as before, she would have thought that the Emperor might really have been bewitched by a demonic bird, as the rumors suggested.

Lost in thought as she gazed at the full moon, she suddenly thought of her short-tempered yet often pretentious father.

Father, Father, if all of this is truly as Your Majesty said in your letter, and is the result of the late Emperor appearing in a dream, when will you also appear in a dream for your child?

Your Majesty personally donned armor and led the charge, together with the Prime Minister and General Zhao, to recapture Guanzhong and return to the old capital. You and the late Emperor may have witnessed this from heaven.

After personally seeing off all the ladies, the Empress Dowager kept the Prime Minister's wife behind, stroking her hand and asking with a smile:
“Yueying, I haven’t been sleeping well lately. I toss and turn until the rooster crows.”

"The imperial physicians were summoned to examine him, but the physicians in the palace were all mediocre and could not help him."

"I know you are skilled in perfumery, but do you have any remedies for calming the soul?"

Madam Huang observed the Empress Dowager's expression for a moment, and finally smiled gently:
"How does the Empress Dowager know that I am capable?"

"The Prime Minister wrote to me the other night, saying that he had been tossing and turning all night and could not close his eyes."

"My wife then twisted benzoin, mulberry leaves, and dried mugwort into a fragrant rope, and had the Prime Minister break off two inches each night and burn it at the corner of the tent."

"The Prime Minister soon replied to my wife, saying that the incense was indeed effective."

"However... judging from the Empress Dowager's complexion, she does not seem to be suffering from insomnia."

The Empress Dowager lightly tapped the Prime Minister's wife:
"Alright, Yueying, stop pretending. You're so smart, how could you not see why I can't sleep well?"

As she spoke, the Empress Dowager looked at the Empress's belly.

"Your Majesty and the Empress are people I watched grow up. Although they are not my biological children, they are more like my own."

“I am worried that the royal family has no heir, and I am also worried that the imperial heir cannot come from the empress.”

"Yueying, for His Majesty's sake, for the Empress's sake, I will not care about what I should ask or shouldn't ask today."

"You and the Prime Minister have been together for over twenty years without having any children until last year when you finally had Zhan'er. I wonder if you have any ideas?"

The Empress stood by, her expression deeply moved.

Everyone says that royalty is heartless, but in this palace, she never experienced what coldness and indifference meant.

The lady's wrist was held by the Empress Dowager. She looked at the Empress Dowager and then the Empress, her smile becoming even gentler.

"Empress Dowager, Empress."

"For more than twenty years, I have felt ashamed that I cannot produce an heir for the Prime Minister. I have tried countless remedies, but none of them have worked."

“Until last year…” As she spoke, Madam Huang couldn’t help but smile. She gently moved the Empress Dowager’s hand away and came to the Empress’s side, whispering in the Empress’s ear.

The Empress listened intently and took notes, but by the end, her fair face flushed slightly under the bright moonlight.

"Has the Empress remembered everything?" Madam Huang took a step back and asked gently with a smile, looking at the Empress's blushing face.

"Yes! I've got it!" The Queen's eyes widened, and she nodded her head several times like a chicken pecking at rice.

The Empress Dowager paused for a moment upon seeing this, then couldn't help but smile:
"The Empress looks exactly the same as she did before she came of age."

The Empress, embarrassed, composed herself.

Then, the Empress Dowager looked at the Prime Minister's wife and reprimanded her in a serious tone:

"Yueying, this is where you went wrong."

"Since you have a method, why keep it to yourself and not present it to the Empress sooner?"

"If you had presented your method earlier, I'd probably be holding the emperor's grandson by now."

"If the Empress Dowager and the Empress dowager don't ask, how can I, a mere subject, easily interfere in the affairs of the royal family?" the Prime Minister's wife replied somewhat seriously.

The Empress Dowager's face still showed a reproachful expression:
“The succession to the throne is a matter of national importance; how can it be considered a family matter?”

"Now Your Majesty personally dons armor, braving wind and rain, and commands the six armies in the field. With no heir apparent to form a solid foundation for the nation, the hopes of the people have nowhere to rest."

"Therefore, the imperial heir is not the private property of one family, but a public instrument of the state."

"Furthermore, His Majesty calls the Prime Minister 'Father Prime Minister,' which means they are family. His Majesty's family affairs are naturally also the Prime Minister's and your family affairs, Yueying. How can you, like the wives of other ministers, keep your distance from His Majesty's affairs?"

At this point, the Empress Dowager's feigned reproach softened, and she took the lady's hand again, saying:
"The Prime Minister is a most impartial subject, and his respect for the imperial family is both heartfelt and manifested in his actions, never overstepping his bounds."

"But the late emperor and Your Majesty are both people who value loyalty and righteousness, and we women in the harem have also been influenced by the two emperors."

"So... Yueying, you can treat His Majesty and the Empress as your children, and me, the Empress Dowager, as your little sister. Come to the palace often to talk to me and have a chat."

"Otherwise, are we to believe that the emperor, the empress, and I, the empress dowager, will all end up as lonely figures in history books?"

The Empress Dowager spoke with heartfelt sincerity, and the Prime Minister's wife smiled gently and said, "If Your Majesty likes my visit, then I will come often from now on."

"Good, good, good." The Empress Dowager said "good" several times, her eyes crinkling with laughter, smoothing out her wrinkles and making her look several years younger. "Please come, we can talk about anything."

"His Majesty wrote in his last letter that the curved plow and dragon-bone waterwheel that you've been working on lately... he's tried them out and they're actually several times better than what the craftsmen in the Ministry of Works made?"

The lady paused, incredulous: "His Majesty was discussing these things with the Empress Dowager?"

"The Empress told me that His Majesty wrote to her about everything... his experiences from all over the world, all sorts of people, as if he wanted to take the Empress with him on his personal campaigns."

The Empress Dowager smiled and said again:

"The Prime Minister has devoted himself to the country with all his heart and soul, and you, as his wife, have also used your intelligence to do your best for the country. You are truly remarkable women who are no less capable than men. With parents like you, Zhan'er's future achievements are bound to be bright..."

After a while, the Prime Minister's wife left the palace.

But then Jiang Wan's son, Jiang Bin, came forward to greet them.

The lady was first taken aback, then overjoyed upon hearing the good news, but in the end, a look of sorrow suddenly appeared on her face.

The Prefectural Governor's Office of Shu Commandery.

Prefect Yang Hong lay on his couch, on the verge of death.

During the Battle of Hanzhong, the late emperor urgently issued an edict to conscript soldiers. The prime minister hesitated, but this man rallied the prime minister's resolve, saying, "Men should fight, and women should transport supplies."

When the late emperor was about to pass away, the prime minister went to visit him because of his illness. Huang Yuan, the governor of Hanjia, rebelled and tried to force his way to Chengdu. Huang Yuan helped the crown prince quell the internal strife.

When the Prime Minister launched the Northern Expedition and the Emperor personally led the campaign, the capital of Han was left without a ruler. The Prime Minister worked tirelessly day and night, guarding the capital together with Xiang Chong, the Commander of the Central Army, and handling important matters with Jiang Wan, the Chief Secretary of the Imperial Secretariat. He ensured sufficient troops and food, so that the Northern Expeditionary Army had no worries about its rear.

Now, his life has come to an end.

“Zhang Junsi… once lent me a liter of salt. Remember to return it to him for me.” Yang Hong’s voice was so weak that it was almost inaudible.

“Okay, okay…” his son replied in a trembling voice.

"Li's soy sauce shop in the West Market bought me a jar of soy sauce on credit last month. I plan to pay him back next month after I get my salary. Please remember to help me..."

"I've got it! I've got it!"

"And... that loquat tree in the courtyard, when it's ripe, don't let anyone pick it all. Leave three liters for the old woman who sells hemp shoes at the East Market... she loves to eat them."

He would pause for a long time after each sentence, as if the most trivial little things were the heavy stones weighing on his heart.

"Mmm...mmm..." His son sobbed uncontrollably.

"It is my regret that I cannot witness Your Majesty unify the world."

"When Your Majesty annihilates the Wu barbarians... when Your Majesty leads the royal army to pacify the Central Plains, you will surely remember... and tell me from the afterlife."

"I remember, I will definitely remember!" Upon hearing this, the son was stunned and burst into tears.

At this point, Yang Hong fell silent, each breath becoming difficult, and he occasionally let out a few meaningless groans.

"Chief Secretary... Chief Secretary..." Just when everyone thought he could no longer speak, he suddenly spoke again.

"I'm here, Ji Xiu, I'm here." Jiang Wan stepped forward upon seeing this, feeling a pang of sympathy.

Yang Hong was younger than him, but his talent was no less. He was once a candidate for the position of Chief Secretary of the Imperial Household Department. Little did anyone expect that he would pass away before him.

"The clerk Xue Qi is no less capable than me... You may give him a try..."

“I know him well. After you go, he can temporarily serve as the governor of Shu Commandery in your place.”

Upon hearing this, Yang Hong drew his withered fingers in the air and said, "Chief Secretary... I have a plan to attack Wu. I will tell you, and you may listen."

Jiang Wan stiffened, exchanged glances with the other officials and ministers for a moment, and then immediately bowed and whispered in their ears.

"The Wu people rely on the river as a natural barrier, laying iron chains between the two cliffs to obstruct our naval forces. We can sneak out with the river mist and melt them with kerosene..."

"Great, great!" Jiang Wan's eyes lit up.

"The Wuling Wuxi Yi people are loyal to the Han Dynasty but have a grudge against Wu. Their king, Shamoke, is willing to die for the Han. We can send Ma's son to persuade them to cross the You River and attack Gong'an and Chanling. The Yi soldiers are good at the mountains and forests, and the Wu army will have a hard time doing anything to them..."

"Ok!"

"And...and..."

Jiang Wan listened intently, but Yang Hong lay quietly on the couch, making no further sound.

When the Prime Minister's wife arrived, she saw that all the important officials and ministers of the government, including Jiang Wan, Li Fu, Liu Min, Fan Qi, Hu Ji, and Xi Long, had gathered at Yang Hong's bedside to see him off on his final journey.

His son wailed and threw himself on top of him.

Seeing out of the corner of his eye that the Prime Minister's wife had arrived at the bedside, he quickly said to his father:
"Ah... Father, the Madam is here! The Prime Minister's wife is here!"

Yang Hong remained silent.

The lady stood before Yang Hong's bedside, her face filled with sorrow.

However, after a moment, Yang Hong slowly opened his eyes, saw that it was the Prime Minister's wife, and struggled with all his might to speak:

"Madam...wife."

"Do you...do you know?"
"Your Majesty...Your Majesty has decisively defeated Wu!"

"Ha...ha...haha...I never expected that this old minister...this old minister would hear such great news before he dies."

"My lady, the nation is destined for prosperity. I will now deliver this message to the late Emperor... The late Emperor will surely... surely rejoice for Your Majesty and for the Han Dynasty..."

Upon hearing this, everyone in the room was moved to tears.

"Yes, it will be alright, Ji Xiu, go in peace." The lady comforted him softly. Since the Prime Minister was not here, she could only send off this important minister on his behalf.

Yang Hong lay down gently and died with a smile on his face.

(End of this chapter)