Ch 89 “Come and watch it with me when that day comes.”
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When the imperial procession arrived at the foot of Mount Tai in mid-February, the weather was not favorable, and it rained continuously for several days. The procession could only temporarily stay at the palace at the foot of the mountain.
“After calculating the Yellow Path days, there are still a few days left. We have observed the celestial phenomena, and this rain should stop before that day,” reported the officials from the Qintianjian to Xie Chaoling. He was slightly relieved as long as it did not delay the sacrifice.
“Don’t worry, brother. The heavens like you, and they will definitely give you face. It will definitely be a sunny day on the day of the sacrifice,” Xie Chaoyuan said to Xie Chaoling as he entered the door after finishing his duties and saw the officials from the Qintianjian leaving. He comforted him offhandedly.
Xie Chaoling smiled and asked, “How do you know that the heavens like me?”
“No one wouldn’t like emperor brother,” Xie Chaoyuan replied confidently, “but brother is mine.”
“Yours?” Xie Chaoling asked.
“Isn’t he?” Xie Chaoyuan said.
Xie Chaoling looked at him and suddenly laughed.
Xie Chaoyuan raised his eyebrows, and Xie Chaoling coughed lightly. Not mentioning the momentary strange thought that came to his mind, he just suddenly thought that if Xie Chaoyuan had been a girl, he would have been a jealous woman and not qualified to be an empress.
In the afternoon, Xie Chaoling summoned his courtiers for discussion. Finally, it stopped raining. Xie Huizhen said he wanted to go to a nearby county to play, so Xie Chaoling asked Xie Chaoyuan to accompany him, saying, “You accompany the crown prince to play and keep an eye on him.”
Xie Chaoyuan spoke up and said, “Brother, you are hiding something from me.”
Xie Chaoling laughed and said, “You be obedient and go.”
Since Xie Chaoling wanted to send him away, Xie Chaoyuan didn’t say anything and took a team of people to escort Xie Huizhen out.
The county at the foot of Mount Tai was a prosperous large county, and it was a lively place. Additionally, the emperor’s procession had come here, so the county had opened a market. People from the surrounding areas had come to the market these days to be blessed by the emperor’s aura. Therefore, Xie Chaoyuan and Xie Huizhen, accompanied by a few servants dressed as household servants, did not plan to draw attention to themselves.
Xie Huizhen, who was out of the capital for the first time, found everything exciting. The market was crowded and noisy. If it weren’t for Xie Chaoyuan holding him tightly, he was afraid he would have disappeared. Xie Chaoyuan was impatient with the child and saw a teahouse on the side of the street, so he took him in to rest.
This bustling market is only a county town, far less prosperous than the bustling areas of the capital. After walking around the two streets and seeing everything there was to see, Xie Huizhen settled down and sat with Xie Chaoyuan, drinking tea and eating snacks.
While pouring tea, Xie Chaoyuan casually asked, “Do you know what your father called people to discuss?”
“I don’t know, how would I know if Uncle Six doesn’t know? But just now when I came out, I saw officials from the Ministry of Rites go in. They should be discussing the ritual process,” Xie Huizhen replied, his attention drawn to the storyteller in the lobby on the first floor.
Xie Chaoyuan hesitated for a moment. The ritual process? Why did Xie Chaoling specifically send him out?
Xie Huizhen had already leaned over the railing, eagerly listening to the old man telling stories.
Xie Chaoyuan threw a peanut into his mouth and listened casually. The old man was telling a story about a non-existent dynasty, saying that there was an emperor who was wise and skilled in martial arts throughout his life, worthy of being a great ruler. Unfortunately, his most criticized flaw was that he had no heirs or consorts, and he disregarded the objections of the court officials and appointed a man as Lord Empress. Furthermore, he repeatedly violated the court’s laws and ancestral system for the sake of this man, and after his death, the throne fell to his brother’s family, which was really lamentable.
Xie Huizhen was amazed by the story and turned to Xie Chaoyuan, saying, “This storyteller is very bold. Is he using ancient stories to criticize the present, or is he inventing stories to do so?”
Xie Chaoyuan didn’t think much of it. “He’s just an old storyteller. Of course, someone else gave him the courage to say such things.”
Especially since the imperial carriage was nearby, it was hard to believe that it wasn’t deliberate. Even though Xie Chaoling had already crowned a crown prince and even let rumors circulate that his health was poor, he couldn’t resist those who still harbored designs on his harem, especially after he had appeared as a Tekeli Khan.
For a man to be so favored, in the eyes of the vast majority of people, it was still unacceptable.
But even if Xie Chaoling were here himself and heard this, there was nothing they could do. For one thing, what the old man said was just a made-up story, and for another, if they took action against him, it would only make them look guilty.
Seeing Xie Chaoyuan still calm and composed, Xie Huizhen curiously asked, “Aren’t you angry, Uncle Six?”
“Why get angry?” Xie Chaoyuan seemed to be listening to a joke. “The story he told was quite interesting, it was just for fun. Moreover, the emperor in his story enjoyed all the luxuries he deserved during his lifetime, except for leaving the throne vacant after his death. His empress also enjoyed the same, despite being disliked by many officials in the court. Even future emperors will pay tribute to him. Isn’t that a happy ending?”
Xie Huizhen said, “Uncle Six makes sense.”
Xie Chaoyuan rubbed his chin and said, “I am just the commander of the imperial guards. Do these people really want me to become their empress? They even came up with a title for me.”
Xie Huizhen had no words to respond. He thought Xie Chaoyuan would be unhappy after hearing the storyteller’s story, but now he seemed quite pleased.
Xie Chaoyuan poured himself another cup of tea and said with a smile, “Your father has even chosen the burial site for us a hundred years from now. What do these idle talks matter?”
…He was clearly showing off.
Xie Huizhen didn’t say anything, lowered his head, and continued to drink his tea in silence.
The storyteller downstairs was still rambling on, and before leaving, Xie Chaoyuan ordered someone to call him.
He threw two silver coins, and the old man, trembling hands, eagerly received them, asking, “What can I do for you, noble sir?”
“It’s simple. Just continue your story,” Xie Chaoyuan said, “But the content of your story is too monotonous. You need to expand it.”
They only returned to the palace in the evening. Xie Chaoling had just finished discussing matters, which were indeed about determining the ritual procedures. Xie Chaoling took it seriously, confirming every detail with his subordinates one by one, which took an entire afternoon.
Xie Chaoyuan waited outside the hall for a while, and the officials inside were finally released by Xie Chaoling. When they saw Xie Chaoyuan standing outside with a smiling face, they all had weird expressions, especially the cabinet ministers who were sighing. He didn’t know what they were suppressing.
After everyone left, Xie Chaoyuan called Wang Jin and asked, “What did His Majesty do to them?”
Wang Jin explained in a low voice, “Before the sacrifice, the candidate to perform the preliminary offering hadn’t been decided yet. The Ministry of Rites suggested that the Crown Prince perform the task, but His Majesty insisted on having you do it. The officials below didn’t agree and said it violated the ritual norms, but His Majesty had already made up his mind…”
That’s why they had been deadlocked until now, and those people had only just left.
Xie Chaoyuan was slightly surprised. Even he didn’t expect Xie Chaoling to make such a sudden proposal.
According to the ancestral system, the sacrifice to Mount Tai is divided into two parts: worshipping the sky and worshipping the earth. On the day of the ceremony, the emperor personally goes to Mount Tai’s Dai Temple to worship the sky, and the next day, he worships the earth god at Shan Mountain. After the emperor performs the initial offering, the current empress ascends the altar to perform the second offering. This has been the standard procedure for sacrifices to Mount Tai by emperors of the Daliang Dynasty.
But Xie Chaoling did not have a Empress. He was the only emperor in Daliang who did not have an Empress at the beginning of his reign.
So the officials of the Ministry of Rites searched through old records and proposed to follow the precedent of previous dynasties by making the Crown Prince to do the consort position. But Xie Chaoling did not agree and insisted on having Xie Chaoyuan instead.
Xie Chaoling’s idea was not entirely far-fetched. In earlier dynasties, there were indeed instances where civil and military officials offered sacrifices to Mount Tai. Since it was following precedent, in Xie Chaoling’s view, choosing Xie Chaoyuan was not inappropriate.
But the idea of having a person who was not the Empress would be deeply ingrained in the minds of the people of Daliang, from the royal nobles and officials to the common people. Even if it was the Crown Prince who replaced the Empress, what would people think if an emperor’s favored courtier was chosen?
Xie Chaoyuan was still a Xirong person, and he was a Xirong person who had been rumored to have an ambiguous relationship with their emperor. He had been allowed to stay overnight in the palace and in the emperor’s bedroom as the commander of the Forbidden Army. Now he was even chosen to offer sacrifices to the local gods. Wouldn’t this tell the whole world that the Tekeli Khan, who came from the Xirong, was indeed a privileged guest of the Daliang emperor?
Despite all the advice from below, Xie Chaoling was determined to go ahead with it. In fact, these officials had already noticed that the Crown Prince, who had previously practiced self-restraint and etiquette, had changed since his accession. He was indeed a good emperor who was willing to listen to true advice on other matters, but when it came to the matter of the succession and the heir apparent, he became particularly stubborn and no one could sway his opinion.
So in the end, Xie Chaoling won.
When Xie Chaoyuan entered, Xie Chaoling was in a good mood, painting the landscape they had seen on their way here.
“I heard someone speak just now,” Xie Chaoyuan asked him, “why did brother deliberately send me away before discussing this matter with others? You didn’t tell me beforehand either.”
Xie Chaoling didn’t lift his head and calmly said, “If you knew, you would stay here to confront them and make things worse for me. Perhaps you would even incite those people to kneel outside and die for their cause. Now that they have reluctantly agreed, what’s wrong with that?”
Xie Chaoyuan couldn’t help but laugh and went over to see what painting Xie Chaoling was working on. “What are you painting?” he asked.
“A landscape painting,” Xie Chaoling replied.
With the final stroke, Xie Chaoling finally looked up at him and said, “I thought of painting it, so I did. I’ve heard that the view from the mountaintop is even better. Come and watch it with me when that day comes.”
Xie Chaoyuan’s eyes twinkled with amusement. “Okay,” he said.
Afterwards, they sat down for dinner. Xie Chaoyuan told Xie Chaoling a story he had heard at the market in the county that day. Xie Chaoling frowned and then called for Liao Zhi to privately investigate who was behind these small actions.
After a moment of relief, Xie Chaoling said, “The title ‘Lord Empress’ was not bad. It’s amazing that these people came up with it.”
He then asked Xie Chaoyuan, “What did you ask the storyteller to say with the money you gave him?”
Xie Chaoyuan replied casually as he ate, “Naturally, I asked him to continue telling his story and to praise the brilliant and heroic emperor and the touching love story of the Lord Empress. I noticed that no one had ever thought that His Majesty could marry a male consort before, so it’s good for everyone to learn something new.”
Xie Chaoling laughed at his words. “You really are…”
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