Proclaiming Emperor (2)
King of Chen Liu Chong, the standard-bearer of the South, was a broad-minded man who enjoyed beautiful women—living proof of the old adage that heroes love pleasure. His more than twenty lovely concubines testified to that taste for beauty.
-Liu Chong's enthronement was imminent.
-A cadet-branch imperial clansman who had seized control of the South was about to make himself Emperor.
Xu Province.
Yang Province.
And their original heartland, Yu Province.
He had declared the Raising of the Army and seized supremacy over Xu and Yang Provinces in a lightning campaign. It was only natural that the common people of the Central Plains, groaning under tyranny and oppression, fixed their attention on the superhuman advance of Liu Chong's forces.
"By any reasonable standard, ought not I, who have attended the Great King the longest, be elevated to Empress? His Highness the Crown Prince would surely acknowledge it."
"The Great King favors this humble consort above all others. Why does my lady seek to settle the matter solely by seniority?"
Women excel at sharp judgment where their interests are at stake.
And the palace women, specialists in intrigue and slander, were sharper still.
Empress.
The position above all others that a woman could attain.
As time passed, Liu Chong's concubines grew increasingly fixated on the Empress's throne.
The Queen Consort who had borne the Crown Prince had died long ago.
The concubines who had comported themselves as mistress of the household ever since had no intention of letting a heaven-sent chance slip by. They threw themselves at Liu Chong by any means, fair or foul, each determined to become Empress—the representative of the Ladies of the Inner Court and the rear palace.
"This consort entered the palace in the flower of youth and willingly devoted her youth and labor to attending her beloved Great King with utmost sincerity...! Ought I not by rights be crowned Empress?"
"Your Majesty, base-born consorts are clouding Your Majesty's wisdom with their ambition and envy! You must at once appoint this maiden Empress and quell the strife within the palace!"
Power is like salt water.
The more you gulp it down, the deeper the thirst.
As consorts to a Vassal King and attendants to a cadet-branch imperial clansman, Liu Chong's concubines had enjoyed countless privileges and authority as if by right. Yet the palace privileges and power they had wielded until now could not slake their parched thirst, and they made no effort to hide their naked ambition.
"This infighting cannot be left unchecked...! The Great King must make a decision!"
"But the Great King is too benevolent to coldly rebuff his consorts' desperate pleas. It will only deepen his deliberation."
The longer the power struggle dragged on, the more the justification and legitimacy of the Raising of the Army were undermined. And it would inevitably impress upon the Scholar-Officials and Local Gentry the image of an irresolute sovereign of weak character.
Strife and discord are the deadliest of weaknesses.
Across all ages and lands, have not countless uprisings that sought to found new dynasties collapsed at last from repeated factional strife and enmity?
The enthronement was imminent.
The great cause that would pacify the realm was about to begin.
Strife and discord would therefore become an even deadlier poison, threatening the whole of Liu Chong's army.
Zhang Zhao and Zhang Hong, alarmed by the situation, prepared a joint memorial together with the officials under them. Though meddling in the royal power struggle was tantamount to prodding a dragon's reverse scale, they showed not the slightest hesitation.
"Let the Civil and Military Officials attending the congratulatory banquet hear this."
When anxiety and unease had reached a fever pitch,
the victory banquet celebrating the completion of the Jiangdong campaign was convened.
Gazing down at the vassals assembled at the feast, Liu Chong delivered an unexpected decision.
"We shall not select a new Queen Consort. The queen whom We parted from too early shall be posthumously elevated as Empress."
He would not select a Queen Consort.
The words meant there would be no Empress... no Mother of the Nation.
It was a truly unprecedented decision.
Not one vassal failed to be thrown into consternation by the sudden pronouncement.
Precisely because Liu Chong had always followed the exemplary and natural course, the confusion was all the greater. The vassals received the abrupt decision with stricken faces and heavy silence.
"G-Great King?!"
"If you declare that you will not select a Queen Consort... how then do you mean to establish an Empress?"
It was impossible to swallow.
Utterly impossible to comprehend.
No Empress?
Then the Empress's seat would remain vacant even at the Enthronement Ceremony?
Even Zhang Zhao and Zhang Hong, who had genuinely feared internal strife in the royal house, could not hide their dismay.
"The glory and great blessing of this day are the fruit of the Crown Prince's extraordinary deeds and filial devotion. If We were now to enthrone an Empress and sire a legitimate son, would the clear line of succession not be thrown into confusion? This arrangement is meant to return in full the glory and blessing We have received from the Crown Prince. Every official, irrespective of rank, is to obey this stubborn royal command."
The Legitimate Lineage must have but a single main stream.
It must not be divided into branches.
The calamities he would invite far outweighed any practical gain from crowning an Empress. Liu Chong had therefore reached this extreme decision: he would have no Empress at all.
"Th-That cannot be permitted!"
"We raise no objection whatsoever to posthumously elevating the Late Queen Consort as Empress... but to leave the Empress's seat vacant at an auspicious Enthronement Ceremony proclaiming a new Emperor—!"
Several high officials sprang to their feet.
They were the consorts' kinsmen.
This was the moment that would bear fruit.
Become the Emperor's maternal relatives and they would seize power second only to the throne.
And if Heaven favored their cause, a new child might yet supplant the present Crown Prince.
The kinsmen who had been at odds over the Empress's throne now made common cause to raise objections.
"Do you mean to defy Our royal command?"
"Th-That is not our intent...! We merely petition that you decide in accordance with the proper order."
He asked the question while pressing his temples.
In response, the assembled kinsmen gave voice to bold utterances that bordered on insolence.
"Great King! Your humble servants have served with all the loyalty of beasts of burden! Should the Great King now turn his face from our devotion and toil... we shall have no choice but to withdraw."
"Warlords across the Central Plains covet your territory. Why then does the Great King persist in misguided pronouncements that foster strife and discord? For the prosperity and tranquility of the royal house... appoint my sister Empress!"
My daughter—!
My sister—!
The kinsmen vied to voice ambitions disguised as loyalty.
Pitiful greed.
The ugly spectacle of these kinsmen elbowing each other aside and glaring daggers was enough to make a man's brows furrow.
"Shut your mouths! You wretches dare make a mockery of Us—!!"
The sharp roar resounded through the hall.
The kinsmen dropped hastily to their knees.
Liu Chong then rolled up his sleeves and bared his forearms.
"Great King!" "What are you doing?!"
Beneath the loose sleeves of the Ceremonial Robe, thickly corded muscle asserted itself. It was evidence that in his youth he had been a bold, hot-blooded champion of a general.
A bow fashioned from water-buffalo horn lay at his side.
Crunch—
His rough hand closed around the bow.
The movement was natural and practiced, as befitted a man famed as a master archer of Hundred Shots, Hundred Hits.
"We...! We...!! All this time We called Ourself the Solitary One and comported Ourself with benevolence and humility—and now it seems you see nothing but a scarecrow! Had We carried the temper of Our youth into the present, your lives would have been forfeit long ago!"
The old, long-serving ministers of Chen Kingdom would surely remember Liu Chong's bellicose disposition with vivid clarity. He had been notorious for the savagery that showed not a shred of mercy to the foreign raiders who trespassed on his territory.
Boom—
The palace gates slammed shut with a dull report.
Then armored guards in heavy mail poured in as one.
* * *
While the debate over the Empress's enthronement was raging,
Liu Seong-hwi, conqueror of Jiangdong, was enduring a mortification of his own.
"Hoo... The heat has arrived already—much sooner than last year."
The silver-haired beauty, her tresses carrying a blue-tinted sheen, wiped a trickle of sweat from her fair skin and let out a labored sigh. Even a woman of modest and demure character found the stifling heat difficult to bear, and as the swelter wore on her clothing had begun to grow thinner.
A bold expanse of full breasts.
The sweet scent of her body thickening with every bead of sweat.
Each time she raised a leg, the slender thigh beneath the hem of her skirt announced itself like a temptation.
"It's terribly hot today... are you all right, Your Highness? You've been sitting in place the whole while."
"Not really bothered."
A handsome lady of gallant beauty asked, flicking her red hair.
Sun Ce too wore a thin garment that laid her pale shoulders bare.
'This erection will not go down.'
The longer Liu Seong-hwi stared at the beauties unconsciously flaunting their allure, the more he felt his lower belly surging without cease.
No.
He must not be found out.
If he was caught, it would mean catastrophe.
Had the sworn sisters of the Oath of the Peach Garden—who had satisfied his carnal appetites night after night—been here, he would surely have enjoyed the Pleasure of the Clouds and Rain until an erection became impossible... But since launching the Jiangdong campaign, Liu Seong-hwi had been unable to relieve his pent-up lust, and he was approaching his limit.
"Your Highness, it is time to receive the local gentry."
"..."
Every ounce of effort was devoted to desperately concealing a member that felt ready to burst at any moment.
Just as he was confronting that precarious torment,
buxom beauties whose chests could not be contained by any breastplate entered the office. Zhao Yun and Taishi Ci, each flaunting a figure and charm of intoxicating allure.
Breasts barely half-covered by cloth wraps.
And breasts simply laid atop the cuirass.
With every step the slender bodyguards took, their heavy breasts asserted their weight.