Top Scholar

Chapter 631 Royal Secrets
"That's how my father died!" As soon as Zhu Houzhao finished speaking, the air in the imperial carriage instantly froze.

He softened his tone, his eyes reddening as he said to Su Lu, "That year there was a similar drought. My father caught a cold while praying for rain and fasting. At first, he didn't take it seriously and continued to work hard every day. Who would have thought that his condition would worsen day by day, and he would suddenly pass away in just eight days..."

Overcome with grief, Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but shed tears. He gripped Su Lu's hand tightly, as if afraid he too would vanish. He choked out, "I've already lost my father, I can't lose my only brother too..."

Su Lu felt a warmth in his heart and quickly bowed, replying, "Your Majesty, I obey! I will go back and recuperate quietly, so as not to worry Your Majesty."

"Hmm, that's more like it." Zhu Houzhao's expression softened slightly, but he solemnly instructed, "But there's one condition: you must not call the imperial physician! Absolutely not!"

"Ah, this..." Su Lu didn't react for a moment. It seems that a cold really does make people sluggish.

"Haven't you heard of the famous 'Imperial Medical Academy's herbal decoctions'?" Zhu Houzhao asked with feigned seriousness.

"I've heard of it; it's on par with the articles in our Hanlin Academy," Su Lu said with a light laugh.

"The Hanlin Academy's articles are actually quite good, but the Imperial Medical Academy's herbal medicines can kill people!" Zhu Houzhao said with an increasingly serious expression.
"Actually, my father's condition wasn't serious at the time, and he was in his prime; he shouldn't have died so suddenly. However, the Imperial Medical Academy judged that Liu Wentai had misdiagnosed the illness and prescribed a very strong remedy, resulting in an incorrect treatment. After taking the medicine, my father became extremely agitated, his complexion turned red, and he became very angry. His condition deteriorated rapidly, leading to his sudden death!" Zhu Houzhao said, slamming his fist heavily against the wall of the imperial carriage in resentment, gritting his teeth.
"After I ascended the throne, Minister of Personnel Ma Wensheng submitted a memorial demanding a thorough investigation. The court's investigation found that my father's death was indeed caused by the improper use of medicine by Zhang Yu, Liu Wentai, and others. I issued an edict to imprison and punish them! However, due to that woman's interference, Liu Wentai and others were ultimately only spared death and exiled, unable to avenge my father's death..."

'That woman…' could only be Empress Dowager Zhang; no one else could stop Zhu Houzhao's determination to avenge his father.

Su Lu finally understood why Zhu Houzhao and his mother were like strangers, with no affection left between them.

It turns out it wasn't just a simple conflict between mother and son...

"You don't believe me?" Zhu Houzhao glanced at Su Lu.

"Your Majesty's words are of utmost importance to me," Su Lu said with a forced smile. "I just didn't expect the Empress Dowager to be so magnanimous."

"Hmph, that woman has absolutely nothing to do with 'magnanimity'!" Zhu Houzhao sneered. "But if she doesn't save their lives, I'm afraid she'll be dragged into it in the end!"

"What?" Su Lu couldn't help but gasp. He instinctively didn't want to hear about such palace secrets.

But Zhu Houzhao had finally found someone to confide in, so how could he let him off the hook? He then angrily said to himself:

"This leads to another case—the Zheng Wang seditious speech case. I wonder if you've heard of it?"

“I’ve heard about it. Wasn’t he executed?” Su Lu nodded slightly. Back then, when he heard about this case, he was just a minor scholar and took it as gossip from the royal family.

To his surprise, the next part of the story was told to him by the emperor himself. Life's twists and turns are truly unpredictable...

"Yes, Zheng Wang is a military household surplus soldier from Tongzhou who went around claiming to be my maternal grandfather. He was imprisoned by the Emperor and personally interrogated," Zhu Houzhao said in a low voice.
"Actually, my father had already found out before he died that Zheng Wang was not my maternal grandfather; he was an imposter! But that woman didn't know that; she still thought Zheng Wang really was my maternal grandfather..."

"Gulp..." The emperor's words made Su Lu swallow hard. Ouch, it hurts so much, it's like a razor blade in my throat!

"Furthermore, although Zheng Wang isn't my maternal grandfather, I certainly wasn't born to that woman!" Zhu Houzhao lowered his voice even further, speaking in a volume only the two of them could hear:

"Actually, my birth mother's surname is Wang. She was a palace maid who became pregnant after being favored by my father... That's why we are father and son, even in the same way. However, I was slightly luckier than my father. That woman was not as ruthless as Consort Wan. She only claimed me as her child and did not take my birth mother's life."

"But it's only slightly better. She still insists that my birth mother continue to serve as her palace maid, forbidding my father from bestowing any title upon her, and even more so, forbidding her from revealing this secret!" Zhu Houzhao said angrily.
"But secrets can't stay hidden forever, and besides, the woman's failure to conceive and give birth was already suspicious. Who could they fool? Soon everyone in the palace knew, and then the news spread outside the palace..."

Su Lu couldn't help but think to himself, "The high palace walls really can't hide any secrets..." "Back then, rumors circulated that my birth mother's surname was Zheng. Upon hearing this, Zheng Wang guessed it might be the daughter he had sold years ago. He then inquired with his friend Tuo Gang in the capital. This man was a 'sheyu' (a low-ranking officer) in the Embroidered Uniform Guard, and he actually managed to find out things." Zhu Houzhao continued in a low voice:
"Tuo Gang told a eunuch named Liu Shan about the situation and asked Liu Shan to help find out where his daughter was. Liu Shan then found my birth mother, Wang Gongnu, through the palace maid Zheng Jinlian. However, Wang Gongnu said that her father's surname was Zhou, not Zheng."

"However, she also said that she was sold when she was a child and changed owners three times in a row, so she couldn't remember very clearly. Liu Shan, for his own purposes, told Zheng Wang that his birth mother wanted to reunite with her relatives, but she was not sure, and told him not to give up and to keep trying. After Zheng Wang went back, he spread the word everywhere that he was a relative of the emperor, and bribed more than 600 of his fellow villagers. Even the son of the Prince Consort Qi associated with him."

"In the seventeenth year of the Hongzhi reign, the Zheng Wang case came to light. The Emperor issued an edict to imprison Zheng Wang, Liu Shan, Tuo Gang, Zheng Jinlian, and others, and personally tried the case."

"At first, Liu Shan relied on my birth mother's relationship with the Emperor to exonerate himself, but the imperial trial yielded no results. Later, the criminal was sent to the Northern Garrison for interrogation, and the truth was quickly revealed—first, my birth mother did not have the smallpox scars and burn marks that Zheng Wang claimed, and second, Zheng Wang's daughter was already twelve years old when she was sold, which did not match her age, proving that she was not the daughter that Zheng Wang sold in his early years, so Zheng Wang's impersonation of a royal relative was indeed true."

"Secondly, Liu Shan, Zheng Wang, and others spread heretical rumors and misled the public, which constitutes the crime of spreading heretical rumors according to the law. The main culprits should be executed. After the case was settled, Liu Shan was executed by slow slicing for the crime of eunuchs interfering in foreign affairs. Tuo Gang and Zheng Jinlian were beheaded for the crime of misleading the public. Zheng Wang was imprisoned in the imperial prison by the emperor, neither killed nor released."

Zhu Houzhao sighed, tears welling in his eyes, and said, "As for my birth mother, Wang, she was sent to the laundry department shortly after the incident. It's regrettable that I knew nothing about it at the time, and only learned about my background when Zheng Wang's case was retried. I quickly sent someone to the laundry department to check on her, but she died soon after entering, and even her body was cremated to ashes..."

By the end, Zhu Houzhao was sobbing uncontrollably, and Su Lu could only sigh sadly beside him.

After a long while, the emperor stopped wailing, then said bitterly, "Behind both of these cases, there is that woman's shadow, but she is the Empress Dowager, my rightful mother, so I cannot investigate openly, nor dare I investigate thoroughly..."

“Yes, it really can’t be investigated.” Su Lu nodded emphatically, expressing his deep agreement. Thoroughly investigating this case would greatly shake the emperor’s legitimacy… With a complete falling out with the civil service group and years of severe drought, Zhu Houzhao was under immense pressure. He couldn’t do without the golden signboard of being the only son of the late emperor and his wife, so he still had to maintain a “filial piety” relationship with Empress Dowager Zhang.

Even a natural search can't find it...

"But I was still unwilling to accept it. Through indirect inquiries and my own fragmented observations, I learned some of the truth." Zhu Houzhao then whispered:

"For example, when Zheng Wang's case came to light, that woman insisted on his immediate execution. Her father, who had always been very accommodating to her, refused to agree and, after the case was settled, simply ordered that he be kept in custody."

"Immediately afterwards, Li Mengyang impeached the Zhang brothers. That woman and her mother then strongly urged the Emperor to execute Li Mengyang. However, the Emperor only imprisoned him for a few days and then released him."

"These two incidents completely estranged them, so in the last few months of his life, he and that woman were actually in a state of cold war. Or to be more precise, that woman was throwing a tantrum at him..."

"After Father Emperor fell ill, the Imperial Physicians of the Imperial Hospital should have been allowed to examine him according to procedure. It was Zhang Yu, the eunuch trusted by that woman, who conspired with Liu Wentai and others to prescribe medicine, which led to Father Emperor's death. The most absurd thing is that Liu Wentai had killed my grandfather back then. If she had any affection for her husband, how could she have allowed such a quack doctor to treat Father Emperor?"

"I'm not saying she killed Father Emperor, but she's absolutely implicated!" Zhu Houzhao said with an extremely complicated expression.
"But the diagnosis and treatment of Father before his death were indeed all decided by that woman. You've seen for yourself how stupid that woman and her mother are. Who knows what they were thinking, managing to turn Father's minor illness into a major one, causing him to die in just a few days?"

Su Lu noticed that the emperor was shivering slightly, just like him. However, Su Lu was shivering from a cold, while the emperor was shivering from immense inner turmoil…

Even though he trusted Su Lu completely and wanted to confide in him, Zhu Houzhao couldn't bring himself to reveal his innermost thoughts.

To interpret this with the utmost malice, the woman believed that the late emperor's decision not to kill Zheng Wang was a prelude to revealing Zhu Houzhao's true parentage, causing her immense anxiety. Therefore, taking advantage of the late emperor's illness, she deliberately had the quack doctor who had killed Emperor Xianzong administer potent drugs to him…

After the late emperor died, she ordered the palace maids to be killed, thus completely eliminating the threat.

Of course, these were merely Zhu Houzhao's speculations. His position dictated that he could never investigate the case, let alone help the Empress Dowager cover up the truth. The price of revealing the truth would be the complete collapse of imperial authority and prestige—something Zhu Houzhao could never afford…

But things are just so paradoxical—the more something cannot be investigated, the less it can be clarified, and the more malicious speculation will arise. This is the real reason why the two saints have no mother-son relationship at all, and are even like enemies.

No wonder the emperor moved out of the palace under some pretext and didn't even go back for the New Year. Who would want to live with a suspect who murdered their father or mother?
(End of this chapter)