Emperor Ming: Your Majesty, you have caused me so much suffering.

In the Cining Palace, the more Empress Dowager Sun thought about what had happened that day, the more uneasy she felt, and she angrily smashed a cup.

The mistake today was keeping Zhu Qiyu behind to reprimand him, which gave Zhu Qiyu an opportunity to make a fuss.

Consort Wu arrived crying and sobbing, clearly harboring ill intentions. However, even knowing that the other party had ulterior motives, there was nothing one could do.

It's only natural for a mother to care about her son, and she was thinking of him at that moment.

The thought of Zhu Qizhen saddened Empress Dowager Sun. A moment later, she rallied, realizing that if she herself gave up, Zhu Qizhen would have no chance of returning.

Empress Dowager Sun composed herself and roared, "Where is Li Yongchang dead?"

The palace servants were startled and scrambled to find Li Yongchang.

Fifteen minutes later, Li Yongchang returned, panting. As soon as he stepped into the hall, he miraculously tripped and fell.

"Your Majesty, I am late and deserve to die."

Empress Dowager Sun ultimately couldn't bring herself to blame her trusted confidant who had been with her for decades, after all, Li Yongchang had gone on a mission on her orders.

"Get up. Are there rumors circulating in the palace?"

When Li Yongchang heard that Empress Dowager Sun had asked about this matter, his expression became extremely solemn. He replied, "Your Majesty, that is indeed the case. Someone must be secretly stirring things up. This servant is working hard to investigate."

"Has anything foolish approached Chang Le Palace?"

Empress Dowager Sun concluded that someone from Chang Le Palace must have tipped them off. Consort Wu's arrival was so swift; her information network was exceptionally efficient.

"This servant has not yet found out, but Lady Xiang, who serves Consort Wu, did leave Chang Le Palace today."

Empress Dowager Sun nodded and said, "Summon Jin Ying and Xing'an here!"

"Here you go!"

Upon hearing the Empress Dowager's summons, Jin Ying and Xing An arrived extremely quickly.

"This servant greets the Empress Dowager. Did the Empress Dowager summon me here for any instructions?"

Empress Dowager Sun looked at the three elderly palace officials, her expression softening slightly. These three could be considered the most trustworthy people in the inner palace.

Xing'an and Jin Ying were both brought back to the palace from Annam during the Yongle era. In the Ming Dynasty, they were helpless and the emperor was their only support. Li Yongchang was even more so.

Empress Dowager Sun said softly, "The three of you are all the Emperor's close advisors. Now that the Emperor is on his northern journey, the situation at court is complicated. Do you have any solutions?"

Upon hearing this, Xing'an remained calm and said, "Reporting to the Empress Dowager, the most urgent task is to cleanse the palace. His Majesty has been captured in the north, causing widespread panic and rumors. I heard that Consort Wu came to cause trouble just now. Consort Wu usually ignores worldly affairs, so how did she know about the news in the court so quickly today? Someone must have leaked the information, and we must investigate."

Empress Dowager Sun looked at Xing'an with great satisfaction and asked, "In your opinion, what should be done?"

"Consort Wu is a Dowager Consort, and this servant dares not make things difficult for her. I cannot interfere in matters within Chang Le Palace. However, we can replace the palace with trusted servants to isolate Chang Le Palace, preventing news from reaching Consort Wu's ears. Furthermore, we must rectify palace rules. Before His Majesty's return, the palace will be under martial law, and no one may move about freely. Any servant found engaging in misconduct should be severely punished with beatings to death!"

Empress Dowager Sun immediately realized that Xing'an's suggestion was very reasonable. Simply monitoring would only make it harder for the other side to transmit messages. The safest way was to completely impose martial law and surround Changle Palace.

"Yongchang, you should personally oversee this matter, and Xing'an should also assist in making it a success. True friendship is revealed in times of adversity."

"Your servant obeys!" Li Yongchang and Xing'an replied in unison.

Jin Ying was slightly taken aback. So it turned out that she had nothing to do with it. Was she not loyal enough?

Seeing the flash of disgust in Empress Dowager Sun's eyes as she looked at her, Jin Ying felt a little flustered and hurriedly said, "Your Majesty, this servant has something to say, but I don't know if I should?"

"What, are you keeping me in suspense?" Empress Dowager Sun sneered.

Startled, Jin Ying immediately knelt down and blurted out.

"This servant dares not. This servant has always been worried about His Majesty and feels that we should not rely solely on His Highness Prince Cheng and the court officials to request His Majesty's return, but should strive to do so ourselves."

Empress Dowager Sun knew that Jin Ying's words had a hidden meaning, and at this moment she also became serious and asked, "What do you mean by this? This time, sending people to deliver the things that the Oirats demanded to the north has already aroused the dissatisfaction of the court officials, and it is unlikely that there will be a next time."

Jin Ying quickly suggested, "Your Majesty, it's not necessary to send gifts to see His Majesty. Perhaps Her Majesty the Empress could sew a garment, and Your Majesty could also bestow clothing upon your ministers to take to His Majesty in the north. It's already autumn, and the northern border is cold; we don't know if His Majesty is suffering from the cold. Are the court officials really going to interfere with even basic human decency?"

Empress Dowager Sun's attitude towards Jin Ying suddenly changed completely. She was overjoyed, thinking that this was indeed a good idea.

Xing'an stole a glance at Jin Ying, clearly having guessed Jin Ying's thoughts. Rather than letting Jin Ying perform, he decided to perform himself.

While Empress Dowager Sun was still pondering Jin Ying's words, he preemptively added, "Empress Dowager, this servant believes that a trustworthy minister should be sent. There are still many court officials who are loyal to His Majesty and are loyal subjects of our Great Ming."

Upon hearing this, Jin Ying's expression froze, and a hint of anger flashed in her eyes. "These are all my words!"

Jin Ying was both angry and helpless. Now, Xing'an's power was no different from his own. The key was that the Prince of Cheng was in charge of the country, and the government affairs were transferred to the Prince's palace. His eunuchs from the Directorate of Ceremonial were just decorations, only serving to supervise the outer court and act as intermediaries between the Empress Dowager and the court officials.

Nominally, he was still Xing'an's superior, but in terms of real power, he was already a step behind Xing'an. The Eastern Depot was in Xing'an's hands, and the key point was that Xing'an and he were almost equally favored by the Empress Dowager.

Taking advantage of Jin Ying's momentary daze, Li Yongchang hurriedly seized the opportunity to say, "Empress Dowager, Xing'an's words make sense. Someone like Liang Gui, the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, is just a rough man. Such a person cannot persuade the Oirat. We might as well select some shrewd and eloquent ministers to go. Perhaps they can find out the Oirat's bottom line. If we know ourselves and our enemy, His Majesty will surely return safely."

Looking at the three "cobblers" before her, Empress Dowager Sun slowly nodded. In the past, Su Qin changed the course of the world through "vertical alliance" and Zhang Yi changed the course of the world through "horizontal alliance". It can be seen that a capable envoy may really be able to persuade Esen to release the people.

"Do any of the three of you have someone in mind?"

On this point, the three were surprisingly in agreement, saying, "This servant begs the Empress Dowager to make the final decision."

None of them dared to make any recommendations recklessly; if they made a mistake, it could be fatal.

Moreover, he couldn't personally recommend someone; if he did, wouldn't that be blatantly telling the Empress Dowager that they were colluding with outsiders?

Empress Dowager Sun did not make things difficult for the three men. She knew perfectly well which of Zhu Qizhen's ministers were still trustworthy.

"You three have done a good job; each of you is to be rewarded with twenty taels of silver and ten bolts of Suzhou embroidery."

"This servant thanks the Empress Dowager for her grace!"

The three were overjoyed, as Suzhou embroidery was a valuable item.

"Go down!"

The three filed out, and less than an hour later, Xing'an hurriedly arrived at Cining Palace.

When Empress Dowager Sun saw Xing'an return, she frowned and asked, "Xing'an, what is it?"

Xing'an reported back: "Chang Le Palace sent Xiang Shi, saying that she wanted to give the Princess clothes that Consort Wu had personally sewn, but I stopped her. I was arrogant and presumptuously checked the clothes, but found nothing unusual."

Upon hearing this, Empress Dowager Sun's face turned extremely ugly.

Just now we were discussing how court officials wouldn't stop sending clothes to the emperor because of human relationships, but now Chang Le Palace has taken the lead in doing so. How could I possibly stop the paternal love of my children?

Fortunately, Xing'an was cautious and stopped them. The delivery of clothes was a pretense; the real purpose was to send someone out of the palace to inform them of the situation.

"Xing'an, you handled things well. Xiang Shi must not leave the palace. I don't trust anyone else. Go to the Prince of Cheng's residence in person and collect a reward to give to the Prince of Cheng."

Xing'an remained expressionless and respectfully replied, "This servant obeys the decree!"