Chapter 76 of Volume 1: Awareness

  King Guangping let out a long sigh after hearing Zhao Wei's words.

  Zhao Wei secretly measured his expression, his heart racing with anxiety, although he knew that the King of Guangping couldn't see him, but he still didn't dare to look directly at him.

  He came to the Guangping King's mansion today at the behest of his grandmother, ostensibly to "pay respects to the Crown Prince", but this was just a pretext. His real purpose was to convey his grandmother's words one by one to inform the Guangping King.

  Now that the injury of Prince Guangping has stabilized, he has also petitioned to abdicate, and the palace's examination of the various princes has begun. What Prince Guangping needs to do is to recuperate as quietly as possible and avoid meeting with members of the imperial family, court officials, and meritorious nobles as much as possible. Although the second branch of the Zhao family has already distanced itself from the court, they came to Prince Guangping's mansion once yesterday. The old lady of the General's Mansion went to the Zhao family, and Zhang Shi ran over again, which is too eye-catching and makes people suspect the General's Mansion even more. Now there are not just one or two people outside watching Prince Guangping's mansion.

  But if it's between young children, it seems much more natural. Boys of similar age, with similar temperaments, visiting each other every day to play together, is the most normal thing in the world.

  Zhao Wei took another surreptitious glance at the Guangping King, his grandmother's words still fresh in his mind as he had memorized them before leaving. Except for the Guangping King, he was not to mention this to anyone else. In fact, he didn't fully understand what his grandmother meant either. He understood that Zhu Liangyu had a problem and ambitions regarding the position of Crown Prince, but what did it mean that there might be someone behind her stirring up trouble? Wasn't Zhu Liangyu just trying to get her own son, the sixth prince, onto the throne? Who could be backing her? The Zhu family? They were not in power, so it couldn't be the Emperor...

  However, these thoughts he would never mention in front of Guangping King or anyone else. If there was something he didn't understand, he'd rather go home and quietly ask his grandmother.

  Zhaowei was still thinking wildly, but the King of Guangping had already calmed down and smiled: "I've got it all figured out, thank you for reminding me, Mrs. Zhao. You can go back and let your grandmother rest assured, I'll take care of things from now on. You and your grandson can just head back south with peace of mind."

  Zhaowei's expression suddenly relaxed, and a joyful look appeared on his face: "Yes, Your Highness, I will definitely tell Grandmother."

  The King of Guangping smiled and nodded, raising his voice to ask: "Is Zhēn in the outer room?" The clear and melodious voice of the young man sounded from outside the door: "Yes, Your Majesty." Then, with a creaking sound, he opened the door and walked in. The King of Guangping said to him: "Take Huì's brother down to play, take good care of him, don't neglect him. It's rare for you to have a friend of the same age."

  Gao Zhen blinked his eyes, looking at Zhao Wei, and Zhao Wei returned him a smile. The two young boys seemed to have a tacit understanding. They bowed to the King of Guangping in unison, then happily walked out the door together.

  Mr. Zhou came out from behind the screen, walked forward to close the door, turned around and sat down beside Prince Guangping, saying in a low voice: "Your Highness, what Mr. Zhao just said..."

  Guangping King nodded: "We have long been aware that Zhu Li had a problem. At the time, we thought she just had high hopes for the throne and private thoughts of sending the sixth emperor to the throne of the crown prince. But she was only a palace concubine, with no external support in the court, and her family members were not competitive. She relied solely on the emperor's favor, but the emperor did not even give her the title of imperial concubine. I didn't think she could make any waves. I didn't pay attention to it anymore. I really didn't expect that there might be someone behind her."

  Zhu Li said she was a princess of the previous dynasty, but she came from a side branch of the Zhu family and her grandfather was an unremarkable member of the imperial clan even in the previous dynasty. It can be said that except for the surname "Zhu", there is no difference with ordinary people. Although because she entered the palace as a favored concubine, her family still has some dignity among the remaining Zhu clan members, but it's just some dignity. Those descendants of former vassal kings didn't take them seriously, and they all thought about how to use Zhu Li's favor in front of the emperor to gain power and benefits for the Zhu family.

  Unfortunately, the emperor was not yet confused and firmly remembered the legacy of the previous emperor. He still adopted a semi-captive and semi-released policy towards them. As long as they were honest enough, it was no problem for them to become officials or rich men, indulge in luxury, wear brocade and silk, call slaves and maids, and do whatever they wanted. However, once they had the slightest dishonesty, dared to overthrow the current dynasty, restore their former glory, or commit evil deeds, bully the countryside, it was unforgivable. There might be imperial spies among the people around them, ensuring that before they took any actual action, they would already become prisoners of the lower classes, and their lives would be in danger, not to mention wealth and honor.

  If Zhu Li's son were to become the crown prince, these people might be overjoyed, but they would never dare take enormous risks for it. Since Zhu Li's favoritism has not brought them any real benefits, why would they willingly give up their good life for her sake? These descendants of the Zhu family are not the kind of people who can unite and work together towards a common goal; even now, they have not stopped infighting, and they cannot become Zhu Li's backing.

  While among Zhu Li's own relatives, only one elder brother was an official. Her elder brother had originally risen to the rank of fourth-grade in the Imperial Guard, but he was incompetent and looked down upon by his colleagues. When Guangping Wang was still the Crown Prince, he took precautions and easily demoted him back to sixth-grade, assigning him a low-key and unimportant position in the city defense, with someone constantly keeping an eye on him, so he couldn't cause any trouble either.

  In such a situation, Zhu Li still dares to dream of the position of queen and crown prince, if she is not a fool, it means that she really has this confidence.

  It can be certain that the one who gave her this confidence would not be the emperor, then who could it be?

  He was somewhat uneasy and asked Mr. Zhou: "The flag hand Wei Tongling who promoted Zhu Li's brother that year, had no connection with the Zhu family, did he?"

  Mr. Zhou nodded: "He was transferred to Liaodong soon after, so when our people brought down Zhu Li's brother, he didn't stop them and didn't ask about it afterwards." He paused for a moment, "This person should still be in Liaodong now."

  Guangping King remembered a name: "Hong Wencheng... He was an old subordinate of Zhao Jun Gong..."

  Mr. Zhou said, "Hong Wencheng, the former commander of the flag hand guard, was already a third-grade official at that time and was quite trusted by the emperor in front of him. Suddenly, he requested to be transferred back to Liaodong, which surprised many people. He said he couldn't put down the border and his old comrades, so the emperor let him go. Now he is the commander-in-chief of the Liaodong Metropolitan Government, a second-grade official. Your Highness should have seen him when you led the army out of Jinzhou in the spring." Frowning, he continued, "It's strange that with this man's experience and ability, he shouldn't have only been promoted one grade in five years? Being transferred from the capital to Liaodong should have meant a promotion of one or two grades."

  The King of Guangping's eyelid twitched: "His rank is already high, if he rises again, that would be a commander-in-chief, a high-ranking general who has to go into battle."

  Mr. Zhou paused for a moment: "The duties of the commander-in-chief are to train soldiers, manage the garrison, and take charge... Although the power is not as great as that of the commander-in-chief, the actual power is not to be underestimated. Once a mistake is made, our army will be in danger when fighting against the Qing army."

  Guangping Wang raised the corner of his mouth: "This kind of invisible mountain, not revealing water, can arrange people at will... You send someone to Liaodong to investigate, Zhao Yue's promotion, whether it has anything to do with him, and whether he has had any dealings with Zhao Yue in recent years."

  It seems that everything is going well, if this person is the one who colluded with King Ying among Zhao Jun Gong's old subordinates, then it is likely that King Ying is the one who instigated Zhu Li to compete for the throne. How did he deceive Zhu Li? Since neither can be empress, nor can the sixth prince be crown prince, they thought of a way to get rid of all the adult princes, leaving only the sixth prince, even if he was still young, he would be the only candidate for the throne. But what if at this time, someone exposed that everything was a conspiracy between Zhu Li and the sixth prince? How could the emperor possibly establish this little son as crown prince again? If all the princes are gone, who can the emperor find to inherit the throne? Will someone suggest brother succeeding brother?

  Guangping King sneered, he didn't know if the arrow that hit him on the head of Jinzhou City was related to Hong Wencheng and Zhao Yue who were also in the city. He only knew that whether it was Zhu Li or Ying Wang, he would not allow their conspiracy to succeed!

  Zhao Wei was completely unaware of all this, and after playing with Gao Zhen for a while and comparing fists once more, they parted ways amicably. He reported to his grandmother everything that the King of Guangping had entrusted him with, and saw that half of the worried look on Zhang Shi's face disappeared at once.

  He was a bit curious and quietly asked Zhang: "Grandma, who is the person behind Zhu Li? What do they want to do?"

  Mrs. Zhang gently patted her grandson's mouth: "Don't talk nonsense, this is not something you kids should be concerned about, hurry up and forget about it, and don't tell anyone when you get home."

  Zhao Wei obediently replied, then asked: "Grandmother, are we going home? The King of Guangping told us to just focus on returning home safely, so when will we go back?"

  "Isn't it still hot outside at this time? You're in such a hurry to go back?"

  Zhaowei nodded vigorously: "I miss my sister, I still have homework, sir assigned me to write an article, I've finished writing it, and practiced the words too. There are some thoughts that I want to go back and ask for advice from sir as soon as possible. Beijing is not very interesting, although Prince Guangping of the Wang family is quite good, but he seems to have a lot of troubles on his mind, I don't dare to disturb him all the time."

  "Oh?" Zhang thought of asking the young master what was troubling him, but then thought again and felt that the young master's affairs were for the King and Queen of Guangping to worry about, so why should he ask? He didn't bring it up again. After thinking for a moment, he said: "In that case, in three more days, we'll set off. You can go back to your room and instruct the servants to pack their luggage."

  Zhaowei happily agreed and ran back to his own yard. Zhangshi sat in the hall, carefully thinking about all sorts of things in the capital, sighed, and decided to send someone to inform relatives and friends tomorrow that she was preparing to leave. Just as the old lady of the pillar country general's mansion said, the situation in the capital is getting more and more confusing, it's better for her family to leave early, old and young, didn't you see that her old friend came yesterday and left the capital for Xishan to avoid the heat today?

  Zhang summoned the servants in his residence and announced this decision. Lu Dasou and his wife both reacted extremely fiercely.

  Lu Dasou's face changed, and he asked, "Why is the old lady in such a hurry?" His wife blurted out, "The old lady is leaving now, what about the title? Doesn't brother want the title anymore?"