Chapter 493
With the Emperor fallen, the Empress Dowager was nothing more than a toothless tiger. She could only rely on her status to press these outer ministers, but when it came to real power play, she truly did not dare make a rash move.
Behind Empress Dowager Jiang stood her natal family, the Jiang clan—true enough. And for a long time, thanks to their status as the Emperor's maternal relatives, the Jiang family had indeed enjoyed considerable glory.
But that was only how outsiders saw it. To powerful ministers like Li Jie, the Jiang family was merely a case of flowers embroidered on brocade, flames fed by boiling oil—all show, no substance. Though they outwardly bore imperial favor, in reality their true power had been whittled away by the Emperor time and again. They could no longer stir up any waves.
"Prime Minister Li, you tell me—where did these venomous words come from?" Empress Dowager Jiang's originally kindly face twisted into something terrifying in that moment.
Like a cat whose tail has been stepped on, she was furious enough to smash everything in front of her! But she knew she could not. Not now. Her son was gravely ill, the Crown Prince was still young, and even the help her natal family offered was limited. She, her son, and her grandson all still depended on these outsiders to prop them up.
The cup in front of Li Jie was her vent after reaching the limit of her endurance.
What did Empress Dowager Jiang care about most? Aside from her son, it was her face and her reputation. It was precisely on these three pillars that she had climbed from being the daughter of a disgraced official to the supreme seat of Empress Dowager.
Now she was old, and her only son was about to die. All she had left was her good name. With that good name intact, she could support the young Emperor's ascension and, as his grandmother, hold the curtain and oversee court affairs from behind.
Now someone was driving a knife into the only thing she had left—how could she not hate it, not rage?
Li Jie glanced at Dai Ping'an. "Her Majesty the Empress Dowager, please see clearly. These are merely rumors Your minister heard from the common folk in the streets. As for where they originated... I imagine Commissioner Dai would know better than I."
Li Jie deftly kicked the ball away—better his fellow minister dies than he himself. Indeed, after meeting with the steward who had returned from Feng City, he had eased off on the matter of slandering Yue Fuguang. He no longer dared to offend her to the death. Even when the womenfolk in his own household secretly worshipped her divine statue, he chose to turn a blind eye.
The Empress Dowager turned her gaze to the Emperor's favored minister, Dai Ping'an. "Ping'an, you heard what Prime Minister Li said, did you not?"
Li Jie and Fei Yongxing behind him felt a stir in their hearts—the rumor that the imperial mother and son treated Dai the Infernal differently from everyone else seemed to carry some weight after all.
Hearing the Empress Dowager's question, Dai Ping'an immediately stepped forward and bowed respectfully. "In reply to Your Majesty the Empress Dowager, according to intelligence gathered by my men, the rumor of His Majesty's lack of virtue first spread from Yu City a few days ago."
"Yu City? How could it be Yu City! Wasn't the matter of the heavy rains in Nanyue first reported from Wei and Feng Cities?"
"It must be reckless talk from commoners stirred up by petty troublemakers." On Dai Ping'an's perpetually unsmiling face, there was now obvious awkwardness. Could he say that it was because the Goddess had only brought rain to Feng City and Wei City, making the people of Yu City—also occupied by the Dayan army—burn with jealousy?
All were cities seized by Dayan, yet the Goddess had been partial. That imbalance shattered their composure. The common folk dared not direct their resentment at the Goddess, so they picked the softest persimmon to squeeze—and in their eyes, His Majesty was that soft persimmon.
Though Dai Ping'an was deeply favored by the Emperor and bore the title of Dai the Infernal, he did not dare speak as recklessly as that old scoundrel Li Jie. He was different from outside ministers like Li Jie. His power came solely from the Emperor's favor—something utterly insubstantial.
"Go on." Dai Ping'an had no idea how much of his words the Empress Dowager believed, but he steadied himself and moved to the next question.
"As for the second rumor that Prime Minister Li mentioned, it first spread from teahouses and taverns in the capital." Dai Ping'an felt the words burning his tongue, but he had no choice but to steel himself and continue.
"I had my men investigate carefully for two days. But the first people to spread those words mysteriously vanished just as we were closing in on their trail."
"Vanished? Not a single one caught?" The Empress Dowager's gaze was sharp, cutting across Dai Ping'an's face.
The Emperor had once told her that this man was the most loyal and capable. The Emperor cherished talent and trusted him deeply—but seeing him today, he was nothing special. He couldn't even catch a single person. Utterly useless!
Under that piercing stare, even Dai Ping'an, who carried the name of the Infernal, could not hold his ground. He hastily begged forgiveness. "Your Majesty, please forgive me. My men ultimately traced these people back to... to the Former Crown Prince and the Late Empress—there is an inescapable connection."
At the mention of the Late Empress, the Empress Dowager unconsciously tightened her grip on her prayer beads. Some memories she would rather forget came surging back to assault her.
The Empress, who had remained as still and silent as a bodhisattva of clay, stirred slightly at the mention of the Former Crown Prince. In truth, she was merely a spectator in all this.
The Empress of the central palace had borne no children. The Crown Prince had only been registered under her name in name alone. As his nominal mother, she shared no real bond of affection with the boy.
After all, his birth mother was still alive, and she was the darling of the Emperor's heart. There was simply no need for Empress Chen to raise the Crown Prince or cultivate any mother-son feelings with him.
At this moment, Empress Chen was far more interested in enjoying the drama. She was deeply curious about the feud between the Empress Dowager and the Late Empress. As for the death of the Former Crown Prince—as the one who slept beside Gan Sheng—Empress Chen felt it was ten to one that he had done it. Even if he hadn't done it with his own hands, he was inextricably involved.
That saying about retribution might very well be true!
If so, the Later Empress's death afterwards is also highly suspicious.
Empress Chen munched on her melon while her mind raced, unaware that her guesses were already close to the truth. In the future, she would uncover even more.
The Empress Dowager didn't want to dwell on this topic. She waved her hand weakly. "Alright, I'm tired. All of you may withdraw."
Since it was connected to the Former Crown Prince's people, the Empress Dowager inevitably thought of the force the prince had hidden away.
There were too many matters at hand right now; it wasn't yet time to track down those people.
Chancellor Li saw that after all this talk, not a single problem had been solved, and grew anxious. Fei Yongxing was even more anxious than he was. "Your Majesty, Empress Dowager, Prince Cheng will arrive in the capital in no more than three to five days. How should we respond?"
Three to five days already included the time bought by their obstruction. None of the outside officials could see the emperor now. If not for the various signs indicating the emperor was still alive, they would all think he had already passed and the Empress Dowager was secretly withholding the announcement of his death.
Now that the emperor couldn't be seen, and the only person who could make decisions—the Empress Dowager—refused to set a course of action, what were they, as subjects, supposed to do?
At the end of the day, this was both a matter of state and a family matter. It was up to the imperial family themselves to decide.
The final say did not belong to them, outsiders.
Everyone deliberately ignored the second most powerful woman in the dynasty—Empress Chen.
Empress Chen: Peace and quiet!
"Didn't we send Hu An's fifty thousand troops to block him?" The Empress Dowager's gaze turned cold. "Fei Yongxing, are you saying Hu An can't stop Prince Cheng?"
Even when the emperor was alive, she had never realized that every single minister at court was useless!
Fei Yongxing's face darkened. He considered himself one of the emperor's closest officials, yet the Empress Dowager seemed even more indifferent to him than to Dai Ping'an. "Your Majesty, Empress Dowager, with an external enemy at the gates, if Prince Cheng forces his way through, General Hu—in order to preserve our dynasty's fighting strength to deal with the coming Dayan army—will certainly not move against Prince Cheng."
At most, he would delay Prince Cheng's entry into the capital, buying time for the ministers to handle the situation.