King Xiang of the Red Chamber

Chapter 756: The throne is vacant
"Fourth sister-in-law, you have to worry about everything here, so please accept my condolences!"

"Sister... The death of the crown prince breaks my heart. It's really..."

Surrounded by people around them, the two sisters-in-law entered the hall, while Zhu Yunsheng stayed where they were.

It was only after the crowd left that Liang Yi was able to squeeze forward and pull Zhu Yunsheng back.

Coming to the corner, Liang Yi asked: "Little Ancestor, do you know what you are doing?"

"I know!" Zhu Yunsheng replied calmly.

"In front of so many people, you asked Thirteenth Brother why he didn't come. Isn't that..."

Before Liang Yi could finish, he was interrupted by Zhu Yunsheng: "I said I know!"

After a pause, Liang Yi asked, "Knowing that you still do this, doesn't it mean..."

Looking up at Liang Yi, Zhu Yunsheng said with tears in his eyes: "I'm sorry for putting you in a difficult position!"

Liang Yi did have some complaints in his heart, but when he saw Zhu Yunsheng like this, his dissatisfaction disappeared.

"But I just can't help it. Tell me...how did a good family become like this!"

"My mother is gone, and now my fourth brother is also... Husband, I feel so sad!"

At this time, Zhu Yunsheng was almost crying, which made Liang Yi feel extremely distressed. He couldn't blame his wife anymore.

"Forget it, forget it. From now on... let's live our lives in peace and stop worrying about these troubles!" Liang Yi said soothingly.

At this time in the main hall, Baochai was already paying her respects to the prince's coffin. As a younger sister-in-law, it was only natural for her to kowtow to her brother.

On the other side, inside Prince Rui’s palace.

Because the palace was blocked, Zhu Jingyuan received the news of the prince's death two hours after the incident.

Upon hearing the news, Zhu Jingyuan thought he would be happy. After all, this was his lifelong opponent, and he had been hoping for the other party to die soon for many years.

However, the reality is that his mood became even more depressed, and he was filled with a feeling of grief for the loss of his loved one.

Of course, there was also a little bit of brotherhood that flashed through Zhu Jingyuan's mind.

But as a political animal, Zhu Jingyuan immediately grasped that this was his opportunity to make a comeback.

The reason why it is said to be "coming back" means that Zhu Jingyuan has not given up and plans to try again.

From the perspective of others, this is like hitting a rock with an egg, but from his own perspective, this is what he has been striving for all his life, something he is willing to fight for even at the cost of his life.

So after a brief period of sadness, Zhu Jingyuan changed into mourning clothes and went to the Eastern Palace to pay his respects.

After everything was ready, Zhu Jingyuan and Chen Zhi set out by car, but were stopped at the side gate of the palace.

"Your Highness, without an imperial decree... we dare not let you go!"

Looking at the captain of guards kneeling in front of the carriage to report, and the soldiers behind him holding torches with sharp eyes and cold attitudes, Zhu Jingyuan was so angry that he wanted to kill all these people.

But right now, he still had to talk to these people properly.

"The Crown Prince passed away, and I, as his younger brother, went to pay my respects. You stopped me... Do you care about justice or human nature?"

"You all know that if my brother is absent, and the whole world sees the royal family as a joke, can you afford it?"

Generally speaking, when someone accuses you of something like this, the best way to deal with it is to report it to your superiors and pass the hot potato on.

However, the situation of the palace guards is special. They are organized as flag bearer guards, but the management authority is strictly speaking in the palace.

Because Zhu Jingyuan lost power, these people took on the task of guarding him, so the guards actually had no superiors and could only face problems on their own.

Zhu Jingyuan thought his plan was ingenious, but the centurion did not make any excuses, but repeated, "Your Highness, I dare not let you go without your order!"

"This is an extraordinary period. If you let me go to mourn, His Majesty will not blame me. He will only say that you are flexible and you will benefit from it in the future!"

If intimidation doesn't work, then bribery will do. In order to achieve his goal, Zhu Jingyuan didn't care about anything else.

But the centurion was still not angry, and said slowly: "Your Highness, I dare not disobey your order!"

This almost pissed Zhu Jingyuan off to death. He had all these strategies but now he couldn't even get out of the door. He felt extremely aggrieved when he thought about it.

What made him even more angry was that at this moment, the centurion had stood up and said with a firm look: "Your Highness, it is late at night, please go back and rest!"

"you……"

In fact, Zhu Jingyuan could have done something extreme next, but he didn't dare to act too recklessly at this time. After all, a bad impact would not be a good thing for him.

"I want to submit a petition, and you can't stop me!" Zhu Jingyuan said coldly.

It was true that he was confined to the palace, but his right to submit memorials was not deprived, and his daily greetings were all made through memorials.

"Your Highness, please do as you please!" replied the captain of guards.

When Zhu Jingyuan turned back, the centurion sighed and immediately ordered his men to find Deng An. The East Factory and the East Palace were very close to each other.

"Without the permission of His Majesty and Old Thirteen, you can't even leave the palace gate. Do you really want to fight again?"

Inside the carriage, Chen Zhi looked pessimistic; she didn't think she had any chance of winning.

"Now that I am the eldest son, the throne should be mine!"

After saying such nonsense, Zhu Jingyuan felt it was meaningless, so he continued: "There are people in the court who will support me. I am just trapped temporarily. Once I get out... there will be a hundred responses!"

"Although I'm having a hard time now, think about it, it's still better than seven or eight years ago when Old Thirteen had nothing, right?"

Zhu Jingyuan was optimistic, but after hearing what he said, Chen Zhi still felt pessimistic, so she continued to persuade him.

But now Zhu Jingyuan has been trapped in the cage he built, so he will not listen to other people's advice.

In the end, Chen Zhi failed to persuade him. After returning to the bedroom, Zhu Jingyuan went into the study and began to write a memorial to mourn his fourth brother.

This fellow's literary talent is indeed good. Through the memorial, he both mourned his brother and sincerely admitted his mistakes. He hoped to personally apologize in front of his fourth brother's spirit.

The memorial was sent out, and despite the fact that the court officials were very busy, it was delivered to the emperor's desk very smoothly and quickly, which shows that there were many people in the court who supported him.

Even though court officials have been replaced one after another in the past two years, these people are civil servants after all, and they have never been very fond of Zhu Jinghong.

According to the Ming Dynasty's ancestral precepts, the eldest son should be the heir apparent, and now that the crown prince has passed away, Zhu Jingyuan has become the eldest son. It is normal for those who originally supported the crown prince to turn to support him.

Zhu Jingyuan also saw this point clearly, so he felt that he still had hope.

But the problem was that the emperor was heartbroken at the time and had no intention of reading any memorials, so Zhu Jingyuan's memorial had to be put on hold.

In a blink of an eye, three hours passed and it was July 21st.

As for the prince's funeral ceremony, the Ministry of Rites had made plans after working overtime all night, and after obtaining Zhu Jinghong's approval, it sent the plan to various government offices for preparation.

After a busy night and finishing reviewing the last list, Zhu Jinghong originally planned to go to the East Palace to pay his respects, but he received an imperial edict summoning him.

Zhu Jinghong had no choice but to rush over. When he arrived at the Qianqing Palace and saw the emperor again, Zhu Jinghong was surprised again.

People say that a person's hair can turn white overnight. Now he saw it with his own eyes. In just three or four hours, the old man's hair had turned almost completely white.

When I saw him last night, he was still the same black and white as before. Who could have thought he would become like this.

He was an emperor for only fifty-seven years!

“Dad…you!”

This scene really made Zhu Jinghong sad, so his eyes were moist at this moment, which shows that he still has some humanity.

"Accompany dad to the Eastern Palace!" Zhu Xianming's voice was still hoarse.

"Okay!" Zhu Jinghong responded.

At this time, the emperor was wearing a green robe, which was a symbol of grief.

So Zhu Jinghong accompanied the emperor all the way from the palace to the East Palace. At that time, a large number of officials had come to pay homage outside the East Palace.

The crown prince is the heir to the throne, and all officials, whether civil or military, must come to pay tribute and mourn, as this is the duty of a subject.

But because there were too many people, these people could only stay outside the East Palace, and only members of the royal family were allowed inside.

Learning that the emperor was coming, all the royal family members came out to greet him, kneeling on the left and right according to their rank and age, which pushed the officials further away.

The emperor's dragon chariot stopped outside the gate of the East Palace.

He could have been carried in, but when Zhu Xianming planned to walk in, he was afraid to go in too early, afraid of seeing his son's coffin.

Zhu Jinghong came to the sedan chair and waited. Zhu Xianming sat quietly for a while before he stretched out his hand tremblingly.

Zhu Jinghong hurried forward, helped his father down from the sedan chair, and then walked in slowly step by step.

The autumn wind blew gently, ruffling the emperor's gray hair and beard, making him look even older.

After walking up the steps to the East Palace, Zhu Xianming said, "Everyone, get up!"

After everyone shouted "Thank you, Your Majesty", they slowly stood up and stood respectfully, while Zhu Jinghong helped the emperor into the gate.

After entering the main gate of the East Palace, going around the screen wall and passing through the hanging flower gate, and then entering into the Chengyun Gate, you can see the Chengyun Hall of the East Palace.

The prince's mourning hall and coffin were set up in the Chengyun Hall. At this moment, there were monks and Taoists chanting sutras on the platform outside the hall. A quick glance showed that there were more than a hundred people.

They walked slowly across the square in front of Chengyun Hall, helping the emperor up the stairs step by step. Finally, the father and son arrived at the platform. They could see the prince's coffin across the mourning hall.

Zhu Xianming stood there for a while, then left Zhu Jinghong and walked towards Chengyun Hall alone, while Zhu Jinghong followed closely.

Walking up the steps in front of the hall, Zhu Xianming arrived at the door of the hall and took in everything going on inside.

After crossing the threshold and entering the hall, Zhu Xianming came to the coffin and stared at the spirit tablet in front of him in a trance.

Zhu Jinghong stood behind the emperor, while Yuanchun, Baochai and others were waiting outside the hall. There was no other noise except the sound of monks and Taoists chanting sutras.

"Old Four, why did you leave?" Zhu Xianming sighed.

Then he pointed at the incense on the table. Zhu Jinghong hurried forward to pick it up, but was stopped by the emperor when he was about to light it.

So Zhu Jinghong handed the incense over, and Zhu Xianming took it and personally brought it to the candlestick, lit it, and placed it in front of the spirit tablet.

Afterwards, Zhu Xianming moved slowly around the coffin, while Zhu Jinghong picked up the burning incense, lit it, and solemnly saluted the prince.

Of course, it is only natural to cry a few words, so Zhu Jinghong also squeezed out a few tears.

After walking around the coffin to the other side, Zhu Xianming stopped where he was, then reached out to the coffin lid, stroked it for a while, and then patted it twice.

Even though he had seen it all, he didn't want to stay any longer in this place that made him sad.

Just as he walked to the coffin, he suddenly looked at Zhu Jinghong and asked, "Why didn't Lao Liu come?"

"This... my son doesn't know. Maybe Sixth Brother is under house arrest and doesn't know the news yet!"

At this point, Zhu Jinghong slapped his forehead and blamed himself, "It's all my fault for being careless. I was so busy arranging the funeral for my fourth brother last night that I forgot to send someone to notify my sixth brother!"

After staring at Zhu Jinghong for a while, Zhu Xianming said, "Let him come to pay tribute to the fourth brother as well. After all, you are brothers from the same mother!"

"Father, I am wise. I will send someone to invite my sixth brother over right away!"

"Yeah!" Zhu Xianming nodded.

"You brothers, you must be more united and friendly in the future. The fourth brother is gone... but there are only two of you left!"

"Yes!"

The emperor came to pay his respects and stayed in the mourning hall for less than five minutes before leaving, aided by the eunuchs.

As for Zhu Jinghong, he stayed behind. As a younger brother, he had to keep vigil for the prince for at least a few hours, so that others would not accuse him of being ignorant of etiquette.

The emperor's decree for Zhu Jingyuan to go to the Eastern Palace was quickly executed. About half an hour later, Zhu Jingyuan and his wife arrived at the Eastern Palace.

Just as Zhu Jingyuan guessed, his appearance did attract great attention, and the civil servants on the scene were looking forward to seeing him.

Zhu Jingyuan felt all of this, so he became more confident in himself and thought he still had a chance to fight.

When he came out of the palace today, he had completed the most important step in his plan. The next step was to consolidate the current gains.

The first point is to remove the house arrest so that he can rebuild his network.

Therefore, Zhu Jingyuan was very quiet after arriving at the scene and was even more polite to Zhu Jinghong, showing an image of a reformed person.

Only when he arrived in front of the prince's coffin did Zhu Jingyuan become emotional, crying as if he was more distressed than if his father had died, and his tears could not stop flowing.

Watching his performance, Zhu Jinghong didn't care, because he was strong enough at the moment.

Time flies, and in the blink of an eye, a month has passed. With the prince being buried on the east side of Siling, the funeral of the prince came to an end.

As the saying goes, dust returns to dust, now that the prince is dead, it is time for everyone in the East Palace to move out.

In order to express sympathy for the prince's line, the prince's eldest son Zhu Muchun was named "Prince of Anle" and the Guangyang Palace was changed to Anle Palace.

On the first day of September, the entire Eastern Palace family moved out, and the Eastern Palace became vacant.

It doesn't really matter if the house is empty, but when the position of crown prince becomes vacant, it affects the hearts of everyone in the court.

The emperor was old now, and it was only right to appoint a crown prince. However, the emperor was extremely sad about the death of the crown prince, and no one dared to mention the matter of appointing a crown prince at this time.

However, although no one mentioned it openly, there were many different opinions in private.

Some people support "establishing the eldest son" and nominate Yunyang Prince Zhu Jingze; some people say that the eldest son should be established, and Rui Prince Zhu Jingyuan is the most suitable; there are even people who say that Zhu Muchun should be established as the crown prince, after all, he is the "eldest grandson of the eldest son" of the royal family.

Of course, these were mostly the views of the civil servants, while the military generals remained silent as before.

(End of this chapter)