The Prince and the Imugi Who Covet Ascension (3)
What Zheng He meant was this: though all ten thousand eunuchs were one body, Jin Myeong was the one among them he cherished above the rest.
"I... see."
Confronted with a fact he had not expected, Zhu Gaoxu looked to Huang Yan for confirmation. Huang Yan sighed and nodded.
Zheng He had never taken anyone Under his Name. The great voyages that kept him at sea for two or three years at a stretch had made it impossible. Which meant Jin Myeong was the first eunuch Zheng He had ever claimed as his own — and the implications of that were considerable. There was no need to belabor the point. Zheng He had chosen the man who would provide for his old age.
"Jin Myeong."
"Yes, Gonggong!"
They had seen a good deal of each other since jointly resolving the tumultuous incidents at the Yingtian Banquet two months prior, and with the Under Name ceremony now complete, Zheng He and Jin Myeong had grown rather close.
"What happened here?"
"Yes! An inner attendant and a guard in His Highness the Prince of Han's service released their inner energy in the presence of His Highness the Crown Prince. As you can see, the guard had his sword strapped at his side, so I was in the midst of correcting them."
Jin Myeong's answer was not the truth, but Zheng He had grasped the entire situation the moment he arrived. He had received a telepathic message as well. A eunuch past thirty — not some wet-behind-the-ears novice who'd just entered the palace — would have to be out of his mind to commit a transgression like that. His own neck would be forfeit, and he knew it. Zhu Gaoxu had thrown a tantrum at his elder brother. That much was certain. He did it every time.
Zheng He had asked the question as a formality, nothing more — to save Jin Myeong's face and force Zhu Gaoxu to back down. He already understood exactly how the pieces sat on the board.
Prince of Han, this boy isn't the Crown Prince's man — he's mine. O-hong!
Zheng He sneered inwardly at Zhu Gaoxu for having the gall to lay hands on one of his people, then turned to the eunuch Jin Myeong had indicated.
"O-ho...! Inner energy released in the inner court, and a guard with his sword strapped at his side? Attendant, your rank and name."
"Th-this servant is Chae Yong, Attendant Eunuch of the Prince of Han's household. This humble one has committed a capital offense, Gonggong!"
The instant Zheng He asked, Chae Yong — a Rank 6 Attendant — folded at the waist. He tried not to tremble. He failed. How could he not? To a eunuch, the man before him was a presence equal to the Emperor himself — a man who held the power of life and death in his bare hands, free to kill or spare as he pleased.
The one mercy was that Jin Myeong had sent him a telepathic message only moments before.
Chae Yong was deeply moved by the consideration. He had been startled enough to learn that this green young eunuch held the rank of Jeonbu — and had written him off as a dog who swaggered about on the strength of his rank and his master's prestige. But looking again, was this not a true-blooded eunuch? A proper castrate who had not forgotten the clan's first principle: that the eunuch family is one body.
The young Jeonbu was no arrogant court parasite. He was a loyal minister who would not flinch from danger for the lord he served — and a eunuch of genuine character who knew how to look after his own.
Moved as he was, Chae Yong had thoroughly misunderstood Jin Myeong. Anyone who knew Zhu Gaoxu's filthy temper either grovelled or fled at the mere sight of his shadow. And here was a eunuch who looked barely twenty, not only stepping into Zhu Gaoxu's path but standing in his face and delivering a satire about dragons and whatnot. Watching him, one could almost believe the boy had ten lives to spare.
The truth, of course, was that Jin Myeong was a born contrarian who simply could not stand watching someone preen in front of him.
With the dread gone from him, Chae Yong looked considerably more at ease.
"This official is glad to see His Highness the Prince of Han after so long. I will not make an issue of this, so see that you do not commit the same transgression again. If a guard is ignorant of palace etiquette, is it not the inner attendant's duty to make up the difference?"
"Yes! I shall take it to heart, and take it to heart again, Gonggong!"
"Have you forgotten what happened three years ago? Keep your wits about you and attend your lord properly. Your Highness the Prince of Han — have you paid your respects to His Majesty?"
Having given Chae Yong a once-over, Zheng He turned to Zhu Gaoxu and asked. Zhu Gaoxu's face twisted, just slightly.
"Not yet."
The matter of three years ago that Zheng He had invoked was the incident in which Zhu Gaoxu had come within a hair of being stripped of his title and reduced to a commoner. The Yongle Emperor, returning from an imperial progress, had learned that Zhu Gaoxu had been raising a private army without authorization. The Emperor himself had organized troops as Prince of Yan and seized the throne with them — and for that very reason, once he sat the dragon seat, he had forbidden the practice with iron severity, the better to stabilize imperial authority. That his own ambitious son had gone and done the same thing enraged him beyond measure. He had been ready to strip Zhu Gaoxu of his court robes and degrade him to commoner status. Zhu Gaochi had stopped him.
That Zhu Gaoxu still held his rank and his life today was entirely thanks to his elder brother.
Crafty old snake. If it weren't for His Majesty my father, I'd have had your head off long ago.
On the surface, however, Zheng He was not delivering an insult. He was simply urging Chae Yong to serve his lord well so that such a thing would never happen again — which left Zhu Gaoxu with nothing he could reasonably explode over.
"Is that so? This humble one intends to wait upon His Majesty shortly. Would Your Highness care to accompany me?"
"I would not. Eunuch Huang, we're leaving."
Zhu Gaoxu shook his head at Zheng He's invitation. Accompany him? Sharing the same air in the same room was unpleasant enough.
"Yes, Your Highness."
"Your Highness the Crown Prince, Your Highness the Crown Princess — we shall meet again."
Mindful of Zheng He, Zhu Gaoxu used their proper titles and inclined his head, just slightly. His father's closest confidant, that wily old eunuch, was a presence exacting enough to make even Zhu Gaoxu observe the courtesies.
"Until then."
"You — Jang Jinmyeong, was it?"
"Yes, Your Highness the Prince of Han."
Zhu Gaoxu snorted down his nose at Jin Myeong's reply, then left Yeongan Palace with Huang Yan.
A short while later, Zhu Gaoxu and Huang Yan sat facing each other. The two of them were discussing a subject of shared interest: Jin Myeong and Zheng He, the pair who had just made such a spectacle of them.
"I thought the bastard's guts looked swollen. So he was Zheng He's creature all along."
"Just so, Your Highness. The moment the Grand Director returned, he started keeping the boy at his side."
Zhu Gaoxu received a full accounting of Jin Myeong's particulars from Huang Yan — the business of saving his elder brother from the assassins' ambush, the affair at the Yingtian Banquet, all of it.
"Jeonbu within three months of entering the palace... That old snake Zheng He sent a specimen like that not to the Eastern Palace but to the Crown Princess's residence? He ought to be keeping the boy at his elbow."
"I am told His Highness the Crown Prince requested it personally."
"Which means there was a transaction of some kind... Zheng He isn't the sort to grant the Crown Prince's requests without a fight. His Majesty, perhaps — but the Crown Prince? Would you agree?"
"Even the Grand Director must prepare for his old age."
Zheng He was forty-nine — on the threshold of knowing Heaven's mandate. And his greatest patron, the Yongle Emperor, was sixty. Put simply, Zheng He had arrived at the hour when a man must look to what comes next.
A eunuch's life, as a rule, rose and fell with the sovereign he served. The next emperor would naturally promote the eunuchs who had attended him. When an emperor departed this world, the eunuchs who had been his inner circle were pushed to the margins — or, if fortune turned truly sour, buried alive alongside the consorts in a sacrificial burial.
Zheng He would be needed to safeguard the sickly Zhu Gaochi and the succession that followed, so that particular fate was unlikely. But the possibility that he would become a kite with a cut string, depending on Zhu Gaochi's will, was real enough. An emperor and a crown prince were not the same thing.
Eunuchs were a breed that enjoyed power only by borrowing the Emperor's authority. They had been created, from the moment of their making, to serve the sovereign and the sovereign's women. The Emperor was the reason a eunuch existed — and the wellspring of eunuch power. Which meant that once Zhu Gaochi sat the throne, even a figure as formidable as Zheng He could be made to lay his authority down.
"I suppose so. He wouldn't want to grow old and die in the Wanyi Bureau."
"Just so. The Grand Director will live out his full span of years..."
The martial art Zheng He cultivated was not the Sunflower Manual. He borrowed the power of medicine to compensate — but the point was that Zheng He stood a strong chance of living past sixty.
Eunuchs who retired through age or illness often ended their days in the Wanyi Bureau, an office that housed elderly palace maids and those who had been dismissed for crimes. The Wanyi Bureau had been established, in essence, to keep useless livestock fed until they died. Its true purpose was to prevent the Forbidden City's secrets from leaking to the outside world. The saying that eunuchs and palace maids could leave the palace only in death had its origin there.
"All the more reason to keep the boy at his side. The Eastern Depot will open before long, won't it? Leave him in Yeongan Palace and he won't be of any use in the Depot either."
As Zhu Gaoxu said, that was precisely why the Under Name bond mattered. When a eunuch bound to you as master and disciple rose to power, you could lean on that power and spend your remaining years in comfort. In imperial terms, you would live as a Retired Emperor. In Jianghu terms, as a Retired Sect Leader. If Jin Myeong were to seize the Grand Directorship of the Directorate of Ceremonial at the youngest age in history, it would be no great feat for Zheng He to pass his twilight years in some palatial estate beyond the Forbidden City's walls.
"That... the Grand Director is currently revising the statutes so that even inner-court attendant eunuchs may hold a dual posting in the Eastern Depot."
Huang Yan spoke with care. It was not news Zhu Gaoxu would be glad to hear.
"What? That snake! Did His Majesty give his consent?"
Sure enough, a sullen growl burst from Zhu Gaoxu's mouth. Huang Yan's explanation meant that both the Directorate of Ceremonial and the Eastern Depot would fall into Zheng He's hands.
"...He did. If that comes to pass, we shall have to be considerably more cautious when approaching the inner-court attendants ourselves."
Huang Yan lowered his head. Their plan had been this: if Zheng He retained the Grand Directorship of the Directorate of Ceremonial, Huang Yan would take the Superintendency of the Eastern Depot. If Zheng He claimed the Superintendency himself, they would move to seize control of the inner-court attendants. But allowing those attendants to hold dual posts in the Eastern Depot meant folding even the intelligence of the innermost palace into the Depot's grasp. Zheng He would never surrender the secrets of the ninefold inner court. This was as good as a declaration that he intended to keep the Grand Directorship and personally command the Eastern Depot.
Rage was the only possible response.
"Kwahahaha! Clever! Truly a clever man. He's scored on us again. Kwahahaha!"
"Your Highness..."
If Zheng He had his way, he would be able to control Zhu Gaochi and Zhu Zhanji in all but name through Jin Myeong, an inner-court attendant. Zhu Gaoxu finally understood why Zheng He had not kept Jin Myeong at his side — why he had planted him in the Crown Princess's palace. He hadn't dumped the boy there. He had embedded him, to steer the Crown Prince and the Imperial Grandson. And a remarkably capable specimen at that. He had staked his claim on the next power and the power after that, well in advance.
In the end, prying Jin Myeong away from Zhu Gaochi and Zheng He was nothing less than a matter of survival. Wang Guitong, second in the eunuch hierarchy, was already at Zhu Gaochi's side. Add Jin Myeong — the man who would take the helm of Yun Bong's next generation — and all ten thousand eunuchs would throw their support behind Zhu Gaochi.
"Jang Jinmyeong... that bastard will make Directorate Supervisor within five years just by breathing. And if the Crown Prince takes the throne before then, he'll skip Vice Director entirely and go straight to Grand Director. A eunuch wearing a Grand Director's cap before he's even thirty. What a farce that will be."
Huang Yan ground his teeth at the mention of Jin Myeong. The mere thought of it felt as though years were being shaved off his life.
"There is a way to pull him out of Yeongan Palace, Your Highness."
"How? You think that old snake Zheng He will sit still and watch? The only person who can overrule Zheng He is His Majesty my father."
Zhu Gaoxu shook his head as if the suggestion were absurd. Huang Yan, by contrast, was certain.
"There is one more, is there not?"
"Who?"
"There is one person who can move His Majesty."
"So who is it, then...? Ah...! That's right. There was that woman."
Zhu Gaoxu, who had been scowling in frustration, suddenly recalled a face, and color bloomed across his features. He locked eyes with Huang Yan.
"Just so, Your Highness. Make use of Her Ladyship the Noble Consort."
The one person who could move the Yongle Emperor. The woman who had captured the Emperor's heart after it had been drowned in grief by the death of his beloved Consort Kwon — the woman who had accompanied him on the Tatar campaign nine years ago. Noble Consort Wang, née Wang, of whom talk of an empress's investiture was already circulating through the court.
The following morning.
Clear autumn sunlight lay across Yeongan Palace when an unexpected visitor arrived.
"Your Highness, Her Ladyship Noble Consort Wang has come."
"The Noble Consort? Show her in."
A palace maid announced the guest. The visitor who had come to call on Crown Princess Zhang and her daughter was none other than Noble Consort Wang.
Crown Princess Zhang checked her attire. It was uncommon for a consort to visit the residence of a crown princess older than herself. Not in every case, of course — but if one looked at it squarely, it was rather like a mother-in-law calling on a daughter-in-law who happened to be her senior.
Since the death of his principal consort, Lady Xu, the Yongle Emperor had refused to take an empress, despite the persistent petitions of his ministers great and small — a gesture of respect for the wife of his youth.
A short while later, after greetings had been exchanged and a stretch of superficial conversation had run its course, a silence settled between Noble Consort Wang and the Crown Princess.
"I hear the Crown Princess has recently taken on a new inner attendant... Ah. Is it that young one over there?"
Noble Consort Wang wet her lips with tea and glanced toward Jin Myeong. True to her Suzhou origins — a city famed for its refinement — her beauty was striking. She was also six or seven years younger than the Crown Princess, who was thirty this year.
"Ah... His Highness the Crown Prince, thinking of myself and Gaheung, brought in Secretary Jang."
"I see."
Noble Consort Wang flicked another glance at Jin Myeong, then lifted her teacup again, her expression sinking back into thought. From that look, Crown Princess Zhang understood the purpose of the visit. A woman's instinct was a thing, after all. A woman's constitution was a thing a woman knew. The reason for Noble Consort Wang's call lay with Jin Myeong. That much was certain.
For an instant the Crown Princess's face hardened. She recovered her composure just as quickly.
"Secretary, pay your respects to Her Ladyship."
"Yes! Your Ladyship the Noble Consort, this servant is Jang Jinmyeong, Jeonbu of the Directorate of Ceremonial."
"So you are the Jang Jinmyeong of whom one hears so much of late."
Noble Consort Wang studied the bowing Jin Myeong with unhurried care, and the conversation of yesterday afternoon rose in her mind.
"Your Ladyship, I trust you have been in good health?"
Yesterday afternoon, Zhu Gaoxu, Prince of Han — a man who had never in his life given her so much as a glance — had come to call. That Zhu Gaoxu, the one people found so difficult on account of his notoriously vicious temper.
"You will have heard of a Jeonbu named Jang Jinmyeong at Yeongan Palace. He is the eunuch favored by the Grand Director of the Directorate of Ceremonial."
She had asked, uneasy, what the matter was. And he, attaching honorifics he had never used with her before, had put a proposal before her.
"Your Ladyship ought to make some preparations of your own, ought you not?"
The preparations Zhu Gaoxu had named as his reason were preparations against sacrificial burial.
When an emperor died, it was common practice to bury ministers and consorts with him. The Hongwu Emperor, founder of the dynasty, had taken more than forty consorts into the tomb with him. More than forty living souls sacrificed for one that was already dead.
I cannot die with His Majesty.
When an emperor passed, the palace filled with wailing in mourning for the dead sovereign. The consorts were not weeping for the emperor. They were weeping because they were terrified of being buried alive. If the emperor had named them in life, or if the principal consort named them after his death, they went into the earth without a word of protest — save in the most exceptional of cases.
At my age.
In other words, Noble Consort Wang had come to find Jin Myeong in preparation for the Yongle Emperor's death. To live. To hold the surest card that would let her escape sacrificial burial.
"I have come hoping the Crown Princess might grant a request of mine."
"A request, of this unworthy one...?"
Crown Princess Zhang understood that what she had been waiting for had arrived — that the words about to leave Noble Consort Wang's mouth were the purpose of this visit, the true business. She did not know the reason behind it. But she was certain of the rest.