Volume 5: Fellow Traveler Chapter 791: Who is understanding?
This was the first time in his life that the Third Prince spent the night in Qingning Palace.
To him, this place has always been strange and far away. Even the Queen Mother, whom he should call his grandmother, has never felt like a real grandmother. However, when he heard Chu Kuan's news and rushed here, he found that both his grandmother and his father were no different from ordinary people when they quarreled...
Of course, even this kind of quarrel between ordinary people was the first time he saw it after he arrived at Banshan Hall, because he and the eldest and second princes were not on the same level and could not quarrel, and his mother and concubine were the quietest people. After arriving at Jiuzhang Hall, he was often pulled by Lu Sanlang, and he saw more red-faced disputes.
When he entered the Ciqing Palace, Lu Sanlang did not shy away from letting him see the open and covert struggles among the various tutors in the Eastern Palace. Over time, he became more accustomed to it.
Therefore, when he first stepped forward to persuade him, although he was a little uneasy, he was not too worried because Chu Kuan was vague and did not explain the specific reasons. Until his father said that sentence that made him feel like he had fallen into an ice hole. He never thought that his father, who always respected the Queen Mother, would show such a side.
The Third Prince lay on the floor in a daze, thinking of how he had thrown himself up to his father and hugged his father's thighs in desperate begging, how his father had pried his hands apart and asked him to stay in Qingning Palace to accompany the Queen Mother, how he had followed Yuquan in a daze, helped the Queen Mother wash, and sent her to bed...
But at that time, Yuquan told him to sleep on the floor in front of the bed to accompany the Queen Mother for one night. Of course, he knew that in this warm Qingning Palace, even if the floor in front of the bed was flat, it would be very warm, and as a grandson, this was also filial piety, but he agreed with his mouth, but in his heart he felt unbelievable and incredible. Until this moment, he was still awake and had no desire to sleep.
Even so, the Third Prince did not dare to speak. If he disturbed the Queen Mother who was already in a bad mood, and he did not know what to say to comfort her, wouldn't that be a disaster? Just when he was in a depressed mood, he suddenly heard a soft sigh, followed by a voice that was much softer than usual.
"Sanlang, are you asleep?"
The Third Prince was stunned. Although he knew he should agree immediately, he felt as if his throat was blocked and couldn't speak. The next moment, the question turned into a laugh again.
"As expected, he is still a child. It's his first time seeing such a scene, but he still managed to fall asleep in the end... No wonder, he has followed your father since he was a child, so he must have learned a little bit of his indifference. Speaking of which, what's the big deal? No matter how big it is, it can't be bigger than your father's dislike of those old ministers at the beginning of his reign, and he said in front of them that he would drive them out of the court sooner or later. Wasn't he afraid that they would hear it?"
"No matter how big it is, can it be bigger than the fact that he rashly started to change the senior personnel at the beginning of his reign, which coincided with the rebellion of King Ye, and people used the banner of deposing him and establishing King Lu? No matter how big it is, can it be bigger than that after I hanged King Ye, I immediately went to poison King Lu, causing him to lose his only brother?"
The Third Prince, who wanted to speak, could not help but cover his mouth tightly when he heard that the Queen Mother had personally poisoned Prince Lu. His face was not filled with deep shock, but deep fear. It was said that Prince Lu was depressed after being imprisoned, and died of illness not long after. Who would have thought that it was the Queen Mother who did it? And he died on the same day as Prince Ye?
It was said that Prince Lu was also raised by the Queen Mother since he was a child, and he was not much different from his father, the emperor's biological son... He even heard that the Queen Mother sometimes favored Prince Lu more. Not only was the throne given to her by the Queen Mother, but it was also said that after Prince Lu died, the Queen Mother once fell seriously ill. How could this be the case...
The Third Prince's mind was in a mess, not to mention speaking, he even lost the ability to move temporarily. However, when he found that the Queen Mother was no longer talking to herself, he realized that he had just eavesdropped on his grandmother's secrets. His heart was pounding, and after thinking it over, he finally spoke with difficulty.
"Grandma, I wasn't asleep... I just... just now..."
After stuttering for a long time, the Third Prince was unable to finish his words, and was filled with shame. But then he heard a sigh, and then a hand dropped from the edge of the bed, and touched his forehead with some difficulty and hesitation. Noticing that the hand seemed very cold, he hesitated slightly, and could not help but reach out and hold the hand tightly.
“You kid…” The Queen Mother seemed a little surprised by the Third Prince’s action. After laughing, she said softly, “Yuquan was afraid that I would be depressed, so she let you sleep on the floor here to accompany me. In fact, she didn’t think about it. My grandson was with me, but my son just walked away. If I was depressed, I would have been mad to death! If I really was depressed, I would have been depressed and followed the late emperor thirty years ago.”
The third prince's heart skipped a beat, but before he could say anything, he noticed that the Queen Mother on the bed was rustling and seemed to be trying to sit up. He hurriedly jumped up to help her and went to get a large pillow beside her, but because he was short and panicked, he accidentally tripped and fell, and his whole body fell on the Queen Mother.
He was startled and tried to get up quickly, but the Queen Mother was not angry at all. Instead, she gently stroked his head and said with a smile: "You have been so calm these days, but I didn't expect you to be so reckless. When your father was as young as you, he was really a naughty monkey, not as well-behaved as you."
"Even Prince Lu is like your fourth brother, with a head full of messy ideas all day long. He is simply the ancestor of trouble. In addition, relying on your father as a backer, he is fearless and has caused countless troubles ."
The Third Prince did not expect that the Queen Mother would compare Prince Lu with the Fourth Prince, and he subconsciously wanted to jump up. Fortunately, he had strong self-control and finally lay there obediently without daring to move, but he still couldn't help but refute: "Prince Lu did a lot of ridiculous things in the past, but the Fourth Brother is different. Although he is sometimes impulsive, he knows his limits."
"He is more sensible than Prince Lu, but that's because you, your brother, are more sensible than your father was when he was your brother."
When the Queen Mother said this, she felt the little person stiffen up, so she let go and pulled him up. Seeing the Third Prince kneeling on the ground in front of the bed uneasily, his face flushed, she said calmly: "You don't have to worry too much, you are not your father, and your fourth brother is not Prince Lu."
"You are not as frivolous and willful as your father, and your fourth brother is not as unscrupulous and self-righteous as Prince Lu. When your father asked you to go to Banshan Hall and take Zhang Shou as your teacher, I didn't quite agree, but now it seems that this teacher is indeed a thousand times better than I imagined. But..."
The Queen Mother suddenly changed her tone and said word by word: "Don't think that Zhang Shou is good at everything and listen to him. Even if your father respects Master Ge, he doesn't mean he will obey him in everything. After all, many things you will face in the future will involve the lives of the people of the world, so you can't just listen to one side."
The third prince wanted to say that he did not ask Zhang Shou for help in everything, and Zhang Shou did not tell him what to do in everything, but he thought that the empress dowager had experienced the biggest blow today, so after hesitating for a moment, he simply nodded solemnly.
The Queen Mother couldn't help but think of her son, who had always been against her since he was a child. In comparison, the father and son had completely different personalities.
Therefore, she could easily understand why the emperor had not decided on the candidate for the East Palace early on, even though he had always liked the third and fourth princes. Because the third prince was too different from the emperor, while the fourth prince had a bit of the emperor's willful and capricious tendencies. However, the emperor himself thought that being willful and capricious was not suitable for a son of heaven.
Therefore, the Queen Mother couldn't help but sigh softly, and then smiled at this grandson who was really sensible and said: "I said this not to make you doubt or alienate Zhang Shou. He is a person who knows his strengths and weaknesses very well, so he took the initiative to focus on the big and let go of the small, and put more attention on the school and students."
"You are also his student, so he will definitely do his best. However, he is too young after all. His talent in mathematics does not mean that he is also talented in governing the country. Therefore, even if other teachers say clichés and you don't like to hear them, you should listen more."
"Throughout history, why are there so few wise and virtuous rulers? Because the emperor is the easiest person to lose his way in this world. He has too much power. If he insists on doing something regardless of the opposition of his ministers, although it is difficult, as long as he is tough, he can usually do it. Therefore, most of the so-called wise and virtuous rulers either become tired of politics or confused in their later years. There is almost no one who can be wise from beginning to end."
"Some people advised me not to give up power at the beginning, saying that your father was frivolous and willful, and that I was wise and brave. I almost lost my mind, but then I thought clearly. I was just struggling to support the government during those years, and my relatives from my mother's side were not very capable. Only Duke Zhao supported me, and he didn't have much ambition. Why should I monopolize this power?"
"If I were really as talented and wise as Empress Wu Zetian, I would just take advantage of the situation and seize power for the rest of my life, but I am not like that... For me, the late emperor is gone, and your father is my biggest concern. Why would you cause a rift between mother and son just for a little power?"
It was the first time that the Third Prince had been so close to the Queen Mother. Hearing her speaking her true feelings unconsciously, he hesitated to speak, but in the end he did not stop her. He just knelt there and listened quietly.
"Before his death, the late emperor, your grandfather, told me that he had seized the country by force, just like Emperor Yingzong did. However, Emperor Yingzong did not teach his son well, so he was able to seize the country. I must help my son to keep the country and pass it down safely from generation to generation. Therefore, for the sake of the word safe he mentioned, I had to suppress my original intention..."
At this point, the Queen Mother burst into laughter. "Back then, I was also arrogant and domineering, otherwise how could I get along with the late Emperor Ruizong? Good people are often bullied, and in this world, you have to be more evil than the evil ones to survive. When I accompanied the late Emperor to his fiefdom, the royal palace there had already been in ruins, but the largest local landlord owned tens of thousands of hectares of land and thousands of tenants."
"From the rich to the local officials, none of them take us seriously. The local noble ladies also look down on me, the princess. Jing'er is still young, but he is better than his good-for-nothing uncles. Taking advantage of his young age, he secretly had people take him to many famous families' banquets and hang out. He got a lot of information for us, including that the rich and unkind landlord was involved in some dirty activities."
"Then, the late emperor and I planned a plan. I invited the old lord of that person's family and a bunch of local noble ladies to the palace to enjoy the flowers under the pretext of flower appreciation. I asked the palace maids who were good at martial arts to guard the periphery. The late emperor used the evidence to threaten the prefect who was a Jinshi. In the name of suppressing bandits, he led the palace guards to uproot the wealthy family that secretly supported the so-called fierce bandits and caught them red-handed."
"Afterwards, I personally arrested the so-called old noble who wanted to leave forcefully, in front of those noble ladies who said one thing in front of me and another behind my back. Don't be fooled by the old lady who looks kind and benevolent. She has killed seven or eight women. There are several dead bones buried in the well in the backyard. It's all because she believed the rumor that the heart and liver of a young woman can prolong one's life!"
Speaking of threatening the prefect, suppressing bandits and arresting people, and then using the confiscated gold and silver to bribe the left and right eunuchs of Emperor Yingzong, and then those eunuchs persuaded the furious Emperor Yingzong to purge certain civil servants who clamored in the court, and then they took advantage of this wave of dividends to secretly win over patriots, quietly develop, and how they placed Zhu Jing into the guard post, the empress dowager was suddenly a little dazed.
It was such a long time ago, now thinking about it, it seemed like it happened in the last life, if she didn't talk about it, she would forget it. She had been in the palace for so long that she didn't even remember that when her husband was in the most difficult time, she had led women and children to fight.
What is stable and secure? If she had been so conservative back then, how could she be where she is today? In that case, she would just be an old and weak woman who lives day by day with her son and a small palace!
When the third prince first heard this, his eyes widened, because even his father had never mentioned to him and his brothers the part about Emperor Ruizong seizing the throne - of course, it was not that he had never mentioned it, because his father had talked about how Emperor Ruizong fought in wars, but the part that the empress dowager talked about was probably about something that happened before his father was even born.
It is even possible that the Queen Mother and the late Emperor had not mentioned it to my father, so he did not know about it. So, does this mean that he was the first to know?
The third prince was surprised and his eyes widened immediately. Since the Queen Mother had opened her mouth, he thought it would be better to let her continue talking rather than let her sleepless. Therefore, when he saw the Queen Mother pause, he immediately asked about the follow-up with great interest.
The empress dowager, who was obviously in a mood to talk, simply pulled her little grandson onto the bed, wrapped him tightly in a quilt, and then began to talk about the past in a vivid manner.
Outside the bedroom door, listening to the old man and the young talking about the past, Yuquan couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, and his resentment towards the emperor's previous words and deeds was also dissipated a lot.
The Queen Mother had suffered so much in her life, but Emperor Ruizong, who knew her and understood her, died early. As a result, the hateful son always bullied her... Fortunately, she had a considerate grandson!
