Volume 4: Gathering of Sages Chapter 551: Mother and Child Connected
The Queen Mother had always been more tolerant of the Empress. This was not something the Third Prince had experienced himself, but something he had heard his mother mutter to herself when she occasionally held him in her arms to admire the moon and flowers. Although he did not understand it at the time, he understood it after seeing it more often. If it had not been for the Queen Mother's protection, the Empress who had lost her heart would not have been able to be so domineering in the palace.
Therefore, even though the Queen Mother was indifferent to the First and Second Princes, when giving gifts during festivals, he and the Fourth Prince together often did not get as much as the Second Prince, and the Second Prince and the others together only got as much as the First Prince. Therefore, he always believed that the Queen Mother did not like him.
But at this moment, this unprecedented pat on the head seemed to disrupt all his previous guesses. The bewildered Third Prince was stunned, forgetting etiquette for the first time in his life. In the end, it was the Fourth Prince's shouting that brought him back to his senses.
"Grandmother, my third brother has always been very steady and has always been a role model for his grandson! He will definitely not disappoint you and my father!"
The Queen Mother glanced at the Fourth Prince, whose expression was obviously more excited than the Third Prince, and couldn't help but think of the First Prince and the Second Prince, who had been fighting like black-eyed chickens since they were young.
She had tried her best to maintain the hierarchy in the palace, but in the end, she ended up with the emperor deposing her and imprisoning her son. Even though she took full responsibility for deposing the queen, the emperor personally issued an announcement and severely punished the first and second princes. At this moment, she saw the third prince immediately move in front of the fourth prince and bow as if he wanted to defend him, so she waved her hand.
"How can I not be happy that you two brothers are so harmonious? There is no need to explain anything. You two are both good kids. Go back now and remember to study hard and make progress." At this point, she instructed Yuquan beside her, "After we return to Qingning Palace, go to my desk and give Sanlang the jade lion paperweight from the previous emperor. Give Sanlang the She inkstone as well."
Although the gift had not yet been received, the Queen Mother's words were as good as gold, so the Third Prince was stunned but hurried to thank her. As for the Fourth Prince, he was even more excited, and after thanking her, he shouted: "My grandson will definitely use that She inkstone to grind ink for writing in the future. When it is the Royal Grandmother's birthday, I will definitely write 10,000 longevity characters as a gift!"
"Yuquan, please remember this for me. If he misses a word, I will settle the score with Silang, the boaster."
The Queen Mother instructed Yuquan with a half-smile, and when she heard the person respond immediately, she glanced at the dumbfounded Fourth Prince, but continued to move forward. Although she was over sixty years old, she still maintained her graceful figure as she did in her youth . When she walked into the Qianqing Palace, the palace servants who followed her quietly looked up at her back, and couldn't help but feel a little envious.
The emperor was filial, had many children and grandchildren, and once held power over the world, commanding civil and military officials. The empress dowager was truly the person most desired by women in the world.
But the empress dowager was not as complacent as others thought. After she entered the Qianqing Palace with a smile on her face, she took the initiative and ordered everyone to leave. When Yuquan and Liu Feng dismissed the palace servants without saying a word and then both left, she saw the emperor sitting down on the throne in a rebellious manner, so she frowned and walked straight forward until she stopped in front of them.
She looked down at the emperor and said calmly, "You are the only one who is right. The civil and military officials cannot object, or even say a word. You are the only one who makes decisions. Do you think you are very proud? You reluctantly imprisoned one son and expelled another, and then said that you would offer sacrifices to the ancestral temple and apologize to the ancestors. Do you think you are very responsible?"
"That's right."
The emperor uttered two words in a concise manner, then looked up at his most respected mother. After a long while, he finally said word by word: "I have grown up a long time ago. I don't need you to protect me from the wind and rain, and I don't need you to protect my reputation at the cost of your reputation. Besides, what is reputation? Even if history vilifies me, I can't see or hear it in my coffin!"
"Ridiculous!" The empress dowager could not help but scold angrily. Seeing the emperor's nonchalant expression, although this situation was different from when she scolded him harshly when they were children and he stiffened his neck to resist, they were the same in essence.
Therefore, she was too lazy to say more and just asked directly: "Has someone been sent to watch over the Second Prince's villa?"
"Of course, otherwise, given that kid's arrogant temper, he would definitely come out and make a scene." The emperor sneered and stood up. With his sturdy build, he immediately looked half a head taller than the empress dowager. He was very satisfied with this visual effect and suddenly stretched out his hand and hugged his gray-haired mother into his arms.
Such a sudden action frightened the queen mother so much that she almost froze. She instinctively reached out to break free. But even if she had practiced martial arts in the past, she was now old and only did a little exercise on weekdays. How could she compare to the emperor who liked to spend time in the martial arts arena when he had nothing to do? Therefore, when she saw that she couldn't break free, she angrily shouted: "Let go, what will it look like if people see us?"
"It's mother-son nature, why should we be afraid of being seen!" The emperor not only did not let go, but instead put his chin on the empress dowager's shoulder. He found that the empress dowager's shoulder was so stiff that it seemed that she would not move. Then he said softly, "In the past, when my father was not around, I would wake up in the middle of the night. It was my mother who moved to the Qianqing Palace to live with me. At that time, I could only sleep with you."
The empress dowager's harsh reprimand, which was about to come out, suddenly turned into a sigh. She and Emperor Ruizong had no children for many years, so she had advised her ambitious husband to take concubines and maids to have children, but Emperor Ruizong only took Concubine De, and it was she who got pregnant first when the situation was most dangerous. Concubine De's son, Prince Lu, was born after Emperor Ruizong ascended the throne from a vassal king.
Later, Emperor Ruizong suddenly fell ill. From top to bottom, many people were not mentally prepared, including the eldest son who had always been attached to his parents. When the emperor ascended the throne, he was only twelve years old. She moved into the Palace of Heavenly Purity, firstly to make it easier for the empress dowager to rule the country from behind the curtain, and secondly to take good care of her only son, whom her husband Emperor Ruizong praised as the successor of Qianliju.
After a long while, she finally gathered her energy and scolded him, "You are already grown up, and your two sons saw you. Aren't you ashamed as a father?"
"It won't happen again." The emperor finally let go of her hand and took two steps back. He saw the empress dowager hurriedly adjusting her hair and clothes, just like when she was in power, she had to make sure her appearance was not messy. He explained the abrupt action in such a calm tone, but walked around the empress dowager and went down two steps, then turned around and bowed deeply to her.
"Mother, you have raised me with great difficulty for many years, you have braved all the hardships for many years, you have cleaned up the mess for me for many years, and you have shouldered all the responsibilities for me for many years. I owe you a lot. Now that I am about to be crowned as the Crown Prince, I want to thank you first."
"Sanlang is still young. Some people used to say that he was timid and cowardly, but now that I look at him carefully, I feel that he is kind but determined, humble but responsible. Most importantly, even if he doesn't like his two brothers, he will treat them well, not to mention Silang who grew up with him."
"If I am in good health, I can continue to teach him by example for another ten or eight years; if I am not in good health..."
"Shut up!" The Queen Mother stopped the Emperor. When he finally straightened up, she shouted angrily, "You are in your prime, and your muscles and bones have been tempered in the martial arts arena on horseback. How can you be in poor health? When I heard the news, I thought it wouldn't be a bad idea to marry Sanlang. He is still young, and by the time you reach the age of 50, he will have just married."
"During this period, he can be taught by the best teachers in the world ."
"My mother and I have the same idea." The emperor was stunned for a moment, but then he said lightly, "But I don't need the best teacher in the world, I just need the most suitable teacher. Back then, Dalang and Erlang had hired famous teachers, but the queen would rather humiliate the teacher for her son. How can she teach her son well in this way? What's more, those teachers who always claim to be kind, righteous, polite, wise and trustworthy..."
"Did they teach those two bad boys about benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and trustworthiness? No! Because benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and trustworthiness should not be taught by teachers, but by parents through words and deeds! I failed to discipline my two older sons, but at least I taught Sanlang and Silang right and wrong since they were young. Therefore, my greatest requirement for Master Donggong is tolerance and erudition."
"Emperor Taizu once said that the Confucian system of rulers and subjects has been changed by many emperors in successive dynasties according to their own wishes. It is naturally very convenient to use it to govern the world. However, it is more than enough to maintain the status quo, but not enough to create something new! The world is big, and there are more than just the defeated enemies in the north. If we stick to our old ways instead of making progress, foreign enemies will take advantage of the opportunity to invade."
"This foreign enemy may come from land, sea or sky! Although Taizu's words are a bit nonsense, many things today are hard to imagine for the ancients. And I also gained a lot from Zhang Shou's workshop today."
The emperor told the empress dowager everything he had seen and heard from Zhang Shou, as well as what Guan Qiu had told him. Seeing that the empress dowager was silent for a moment, he said frankly, "Yingying has not only found a good husband, but also a peerless scholar."
"My Sanlang and Silang must not miss such a good teacher. Because what Zhang Shou can teach cannot be replaced by anyone else."
The empress dowager could only smile bitterly at the emperor's judgment.
When Emperor Ruizong was selecting teachers for the emperor, the biggest criterion was also that they must be irreplaceable. At that time, Ge Yong was a brilliant writer who hated evil, but he was also humorous and had a lot of wit. His attainments in mathematics were top-notch - after all, Qi Jingshan and Chu Ying were far from qualified at that time.
Thus, Ge Yong became the emperor's teacher. Not only did he control the emperor's naughty child, he even helped the emperor to cheat her. Whenever she thought of this old story, she didn't know whether to say that Emperor Ruizong had a unique vision, or that this pair of teacher and student were really a perfect match.
Now the third prince meets Zhang Shou, who is also full of tricks... Will that gentle, respectful, frugal and modest child be corrupted?
The Queen Mother shook her head, trying her best not to think about the bad side of the matter. Seeing the Emperor looking at her in surprise, she immediately realized that it was her attitude of shaking her head that made the Emperor mistakenly think that she disagreed.
She immediately coughed and changed the subject, "Old Master Ge said that Zhang Shou's courtesy name was changed to Jiuzhang. Have you heard about that? Don't call him by his first name in the future. If you want him to be Sanlang's teacher, you have to show some respect to him, even if he is Yingying's husband."
The emperor smiled so hard that his eyes narrowed. "Teacher was so stubborn that he originally wanted to hold a ceremony for Zhang Shou to wear a crown. But when Yingying said that, he remembered that Zhang Shou was an official and should have worn a crown long ago. So he had to settle for the next best thing and quickly gave him a courtesy name. It was Chu Ying who reminded him of this. He was afraid of being embarrassed and didn't dare to let anyone know."
He did not explain how he knew that Ge Yong did not want others to know, and smiled again, "In front of the court officials, I will naturally be more careful, but in private... I am old enough to be his father, so what if I call him by his name? The teacher is not afraid of what others say, and he dares to give him a courtesy name. Jiuzhang... This is really worthy of Zhang Shou."
The Queen Mother said angrily, "Why not? It's better than you complaining that the courtesy name given to you by Grand Tutor Ge was not majestic enough, so you changed your courtesy name to Xiongba, right?"
"Cough, cough, cough, cough, cough..."
The emperor was choked by the empress dowager's sudden ridicule and coughed loudly. After finally recovering from his shock, he begged for mercy awkwardly: "Mother, can you please not mention this? I was only thirteen years old at that time, young and ignorant..."
That was his lifelong black history. When he thought about how he had openly written the courtesy name Xiongba on a piece of paper and then Ge Yong took it home, he felt heartache, stomachache, liverache, and pain everywhere... Why did he do that in the first place? Ge Yong had made so many demands on him using these two characters!
The Queen Mother was just making a sarcastic remark. Seeing the Emperor was as embarrassed as a teenager, she couldn't help but laugh. After walking down slowly, she said gently, "The harem will no longer appoint a queen. Since you have made this promise, let's leave it at that. But if the Third Prince wants to appoint a Crown Prince, his biological mother..."
"Promote her as a noble concubine." The emperor said this readily, but then added, "Concubine Yu will also be promoted to a noble concubine."
"Then I will let Yuquan use the seal after I return to the palace." The Queen Mother did not reject these two ideas. The biological mother of the Third Prince, Consort He, was just like the Third Prince in character, gentle and docile, not fighting with others, and it was impossible to expect others to help her share the affairs of the harem. Princess Yongping had already refused to share the palace affairs, so the only person she could choose was Consort Yu.
"Since you have made up your mind, then let Hong help Yongping to open a girls' school. When the matter of enthroning the crown prince is attracting much attention, girls' school becomes a trivial matter." At this point, the queen mother changed her tone and said, "However, you don't intend to let Yongping be single like that Hong, do you?"
When asked this, the emperor's expression suddenly became a little subtle. He looked around for a long time, and finally laughed dryly: "Since she doesn't want to, then wait a while... Maybe when you are not paying attention, her peach blossom will bloom like Yingying."
The Queen Mother was immediately filled with suspicion at the Emperor's words. How could it be that the Emperor had already made his choice of the person?
