Chapter 559
Chapter 559
At last, the King’s gaze fell upon the Crown Prince and the Third Prince, Ning Qi.
“Crown Prince, you have worked hard overseeing the state in my absence.”
Crown Prince Ning Yi bowed his head and replied.
“Not at all! It is Your Majesty who has truly labored, defeating the King of Chu in battle and elevating our nation’s prestige.”
Ning Yuanxian said coolly.
“The great victory on the border was entirely due to Ning Zheng’s merit. Lü Zhun, draft an edict. The Admiral of Tianyue, Zhang Zhao, is to be dismissed from his post. The Marquis of Changping, Ning Zheng, is appointed Admiral of Tianyue, and the Marquis of Changping’s estate is authorized to expand its army to five thousand men!”
His words struck the hearts of all the officials like a sudden clap of thunder.
*What does this mean? Is His Majesty openly allowing the Fifth Prince, Ning Zheng, to join the struggle for the throne?*
The Admiral of Tianyue, Zhang Zhao, was present. As soon as he heard the edict, his mind went blank. *I’ve been dismissed?* He had indeed provoked Shen Lang, even surrounding Ning Zheng’s residence to arrest him. But he had been acting on orders. How could he not execute a command issued by the Grand Secretariat and the Privy Council?
The King glanced at Zhang Zhao. He was in his fifties this year. He came from a prestigious military family, but they had never reached the highest echelons; his grandfather had been a mere sixth-rank military officer. Zhang Zhao’s father had only attained a fifth-rank office in his old age. Zhang Zhao himself had fought in the war between Yue and Chu at twenty, and the war between Wu and Yue at thirty. While not a brilliant general, he could be considered a capable one.
He was of the same rank as Zheng Tuo, but Zheng Tuo had soon left him far behind. Of course, there were many men of his type, their existence gradually overlooked in times of peace. A few years ago, Zhang Zhao had held the title of Guerrilla General in the Northern Garrison Command, while Zheng Tuo was already the General of the Pacified West, commanding tens of thousands of troops. In truth, the two had started on equal footing, with similar military achievements. When they took the highest military examination, Zhang Zhao had even ranked higher than Zheng Tuo, placing fourth in the second division. However, firstly, Zheng Tuo was of noble birth, and secondly, he was better at currying favor with the powerful. Twenty-odd years later, Zhang Zhao was not even fit to sit beside Zheng Tuo.
The most humiliating incident had occurred six years ago. Due to his somewhat cantankerous nature, the Northern Garrison Commander, Nangong Ao, disliked Zhang Zhao, making it difficult for him to get by in the Northern Army. He recalled that he and Zheng Tuo had passed the same military examination, had been comrades on the battlefield, and had even called each other brothers. He sought out Zheng Tuo, hoping to transfer from the Northern Garrison Command and join Zheng Tuo’s army, even if it meant only a single step up in rank.
At the time, Zheng Tuo had been exceedingly warm, inquiring after his well-being without a hint of arrogance and personally hosting a banquet to welcome him. The next day, after sobering up, Zhang Zhao went to see Zheng Tuo to discuss important matters, only to be told that the general had already left on urgent official business and would not return for several months. A servant was sent to gift Zhang Zhao one hundred taels of gold. It was a profound humiliation.
*Zheng Tuo, do you think I came here to beg? Are you trying to send me away?*
How could a man of Zhang Zhao’s prickly disposition have ever suffered such a great insult? After learning a painful and humiliating lesson, he gritted his teeth and immediately pledged his allegiance to the Crown Prince. The Crown Prince had a vast network of followers, but they were all civil officials; he had only one outstanding military commander, the Grand General of the Pacified South, Zhu Lin. Because a general like Zhu Lin was already in his service, when a mere Guerrilla General like Zhang Zhao offered his loyalty, the Crown Prince did not pay him much mind.
But later, during a certain incident, Zhang Zhao risked offending the Northern Garrison Commander, Nangong Ao, to handle a major affair for the Crown Prince. The matter did indeed earn him Nangong Ao’s wrath, and he was promptly dismissed from the Northern Garrison Command, only to be reinstated a mere two months later. This proved that for someone with a powerful backer, any punishment was fleeting.
He was soon transferred to Zhu Rong’s Tiannan Province as an Adjutant General. Two years later, he was promoted again, and three years ago, he was officially transferred to the capital to serve as the Admiral of Tianyue, taking command of the city’s entire defense with twenty thousand troops under him. Though his position was slightly lower than Zheng Tuo’s, their statuses were now somewhat equal.
As Tianyue City was the capital, his position as Admiral of Tianyue could be called the foremost admiral in the State of Yue. When Zhang Zhao took charge of the Tianyue Admiralty, Zheng Tuo personally visited, bringing an extremely lavish gift and addressing him as ‘brother’ with every other word, his posture exceedingly humble. At that moment, Zhang Zhao felt an immense sense of satisfaction, as if a lifetime of resentment had been washed away. From then on, he served the Crown Prince with even greater devotion. He did whatever the Crown Prince commanded, even mobilizing troops to surround Ning Zheng’s residence and arrest Shen Lang for quarantine—all of it he had faithfully carried out on the Crown Prince's orders.
The King had tolerated Zhang Zhao for some time, believing that while the man was aggressive, he was not disloyal. Moreover, with Ning Qi personally serving as the Grand Commandant of Tianyue, allowing one of the Crown Prince's men to be the Admiral of Tianyue created a suitable balance, which was not a bad thing. In any case, the King's own Marshal of the Imperial Guard also held power over the capital's defense, so it mattered little if one of the Crown Prince's men shared the responsibility. But now that Ning Zheng had risen, the time had finally come to get rid of Zhang Zhao.
At this moment, Zhang Zhao felt as if his entire body had turned to ice.
*Am I finished? It wasn't easy to climb this high, and now I have to fall back into the dust? Am I to be trampled and laughed at by others again?*
Zhang Zhao’s gaze instinctively turned to Crown Prince Ning Yi, hoping he would speak up for him. But the Crown Prince and the Third Prince, Ning Qi, remained prostrated on the ground, unmoving. The Crown Prince had no time to spare for Zhang Zhao. The shock they both felt was the greatest of all.
*Ning Zheng actually managed to distinguish himself? Father is truly allowing him to openly join the fight for succession. How is this even possible?*
The officials present also could not believe what they had heard.
*Does His Majesty think the court isn't chaotic enough? The factional strife between the Crown Prince and the Third Prince has already stirred up astonishing turmoil, and now His Majesty is letting the Fifth Prince, Ning Zheng, join this war? Has His Majesty lost his mind? Wasn't Prince Ning Zheng an ill-omened person? Never mind that he's short, dark-skinned, and has a strange birthmark on his face—but he stutters! We can't have a king who can't even speak properly in the State of Yue, can we? Can such a person really compete for the throne?*
*This must be Shen Lang's doing again. That scoundrel never does anything good. Does he think the great affairs of our State of Yue are a child's game? His Majesty is far too lenient with Shen Lang.*
But they only dared to condemn him in their hearts. King Ning Yuanxian had returned from a great victory, his presence imposing as he held his sword and surveyed his surroundings. There was no one here who could stand against him. Anyone who dared to object now would be offering their own neck to test the sharpness of the King’s blade. With a troublemaker like Shen Lang stirring up the cesspool of the succession struggle, it seemed the State of Yue would know no peace from this day forward.
“Let us go! Return to the palace!”
Ning Yuanxian gave the order and returned to the palace in grand fashion. As for Shen Lang, he could wait no longer and hurried home. He had not held his precious daughter for nearly a month.
***
The next day, Shen Lang's concubine, Bing'er, brought their daughter, Shen Mi, to the palace. The King held the baby for a quarter of an hour, and Consort Zhong held her for another quarter of an hour, but Consort Bian held her for a full three hours. In the end, they even had dinner in Consort Bian’s quarters, and it was only as dusk fell that Bing'er was finally able to bring Shen Mi home. By now, everyone could clearly see that the King and Shen Lang had been putting on an act before. Such favor was excessive. She wasn't even the child of Jin Mulan, just the daughter of a mere concubine. Was all this necessary? The King had fathered over a dozen children but had personally held less than half of them. For the King to now personally hold the child of a concubine was simply too much.
***
Shen Lang held the baby with one hand and flipped through a list with the other. Bing'er was still examining the baby’s birth gifts one by one, chattering incessantly.
“Her Highness Consort Bian is so wonderful. She doesn’t put on any airs at all. I felt like she was my own mother.”
Shen Lang smiled.
“Our mother-in-law might get angry if you say that.”
His mother-in-law, Su Peipei, treated Bing'er like her own daughter. When Su Jianting had stormed the Count of Xuanwu's Estate and taken Bing'er hostage, Su Peipei had immediately yielded to him. Fearing he would harm Bing'er, she had even given him the forged secret letter.
Hearing this, Bing'er stuck out her little tongue. She knew, of course, that Su Peipei treated her exceptionally well, but her mistress was bold and somewhat heedless, and could be careless when looking after the young lady. Today, however, Consort Bian had truly broadened Bing'er's horizons. Though she had never borne a child, Consort Bian seemed to know everything. How to hold the baby, how to soothe her, how to change her diapers—she did it all more skillfully than Bing'er herself. And once she held the baby, she was reluctant to put her down for even a minute. When it was time for Bing'er to leave, the look of longing in Consort Bian's eyes had been enough to move her. She seemed less like a high and mighty royal consort and more like a pitiful woman who yearned to be a mother more than anything else.
Shen Mi was now over three months old. Her features had blossomed, making her astonishingly beautiful, as exquisite and lovely as a porcelain doll. Her large eyes, in particular, shone like black agate. She didn't cry, scream, laugh, or babble much, but she was full of spirit, overflowing with curiosity about the world around her.
When she saw something new, she would stare at it with her big eyes, unblinking. If someone blocked her view, she would tilt her head to see, and if they changed direction, she would twist her body to keep looking. Though she could not yet speak, her eyes seemed to talk for her. She was so utterly adorable that no one who held her could bear to put her down.