Chapter 10: Illness and Death in Liangzhou, Han Princess Ascends
Su Yuzhou’s current analysis led her to believe that the main reason she won the struggle for succession was because she had given birth to a son. Up to now, she had recorded all the major events happening each year, and she now realized that there were spies from the other Princess in the Han Princess’s mansion.
The news of her son’s birth being exposed turned out to be a blessing in disguise. With the advantage of “the mother of the heir” and the emperor’s desire for a grandson to ascend the throne, she became the most favored heir. However, the feeling of being watched was uncomfortable.
“In that case, the next thing I need to do is simple: nurture my son to become talented. The more the emperor values this grandson, the more stable my position will be. When the emperor passes away, I’ll bring My darling back.” Su Yuzhou began to make plans for herself.
“Nonsense.” Su Yuzhou suddenly realized that she was actually hoping for the emperor’s early demise. She was truly unfilial, and she felt deeply ashamed of having such thoughts.
In the new year, Su Yuzhou scheduled all her activities around teaching her son. Meanwhile, Lu Cheng’an embarked on the road to exile in Liangzhou.
This exile to Liangzhou was a heavy political blow. Lu Cheng’an found that his happiness value had been continuously declining since he was exiled.
“This is bad.” Lu Cheng’an felt miserable. Happiness was an important value. When happiness dropped to a critical point, characters would develop a pessimistic mood and become physically weak. The lower the happiness value, the lower the health. The way to maintain a high happiness value was to participate in various entertainment activities, but this time the happiness value was dropping too quickly. In simple terms, watching a play or listening to music could increase happiness by 5 points, but being in a state of demotion and exile caused happiness to drop by 6 points, making the increase slower than the decrease.
Lu Cheng’an wished he had a younger brother who was a high-ranking official in the government. Then he could help him out. Unfortunately, Lu Cheng’an didn’t have such luck. He was the leader of the Han Princess’s faction, and with his downfall, no one could help him. Moreover, the crimes he committed were not easy to absolve. This wave was doomed to fail.
[In the winter of the 16th year of Zhengying, you sent a letter to the Han Princess in the capital, expressing your feelings of being frustrated and missing him.]
[In the spring of the 17th year of Zhengying, some local aristocrats in Liangzhou city recklessly rode horses and injured pedestrians. You rebuked them angrily and intended to confront the local aristocrats with the government. The local aristocrats framed a poor stableman and mocked you as a fallen nobleman trying to show off. Afterwards, they publicly whipped you and fined you with ten taels of silver in front of the officials.]
[Due to the fact that most scholars in Liangzhou looked down on the emerging Hanlin in the south, news of you being whipped and humiliated spread throughout Liangzhou.]
[In the summer of the 17th year of Zhengying, you were seriously ill and sought medical treatment in Liangzhou, but there was no way to get treatment, so you could only suffer at home.]
Lu Cheng’an watched as his happiness value approached zero and realized that this game should also be coming to an end. Despite the powerful benefits of Dragon Field Enlightenment at the beginning, they couldn’t counteract the vicious negative effects of demotion and exile.
The main reason was that Liangzhou was not a place he had developed vigorously. If he had been exiled to the south, life might have been better. Unfortunately, he was exiled to a place where his political views were different, and he had no connections here, and no one was willing to help him.
[In the autumn of the 17th year of Zhengying, with illness in your body, you looked back on your wandering life of nine years in politics. Knowing the warmth and coldness of the world, you wrote a “Gratitude Memorial” (a record of gratitude) before you died and left it in your bookcase.]
Lu Cheng’an didn’t expect to trigger a special opportunity before he died. This golden pattern should have created a masterpiece that would be remembered in history.
All in all, Lu Cheng’an didn’t regret his life. At least in this save, it was a perfect ending. As for this “Gratitude Memorial,” Lu Cheng’an glanced at it. The content was similar to Zhuge Liang’s “Letter of Advice Before Departure.” First, he introduced his background, then he thanked Emperor Zhengying and the Han Princess for their favor towards him. In a tactful manner, he expressed his hope that the Han Princess would ascend to the throne one day, open up the path of speech, enforce rewards and punishments strictly, and be close to the virtuous and distant from the sycophants. Unfortunately, he would not have the opportunity to see this scene and could only regret it.
The ending is vivid, leaving a poignant blank space. Within Lu Cheng’an’s “Gratitude Memorial,” there is a hint of the flavor of “Letters to his Wife,” with heartfelt monologues between the lines.
This “Gratitude Memorial” had been triggered by Lu Cheng’an before when he played the game. The conditions were very strict: first, the mutual trust between the minister and the monarch had to be quite high; second, the minister had to be in a dangerous situation, knowing that there was no way to turn the tide; and finally, the literary and administrative abilities of the character had to be high. Lu Cheng’an, enlightened by the Dragon Field, had met all the requirements. With his close relationship with the Han Princess and the most crucial condition being fulfilled, he was exiled to Liangzhou and died in his hometown.
[At the onset of the winter of the 17th year of Zhengying, under poverty and hardship, you passed away due to illness.]
[Game over.]
Your life was full of ups and downs. In your first year of office, you encountered the Southern and Northern Rankings case, involuntarily getting involved in the political struggles of favoritism and corruption. Your imperial examination results were invalidated. In the second year, you studied hard, became the top scholar, and officially entered the court. You then created a new political system, introduced the Cabinet system, and were later demoted to a local post as a district magistrate. Enlightened by the Dragon Field, you established the School of Governance, becoming the main school of thought among southern scholars. Your reputation reached its peak, and after being reinstated, you won consecutive court battles, rising from a principal in the Hanlin Academy to the position of Cabinet Vice Minister.
In the 16th year of Zhengying, you made a “big mistake,” were exiled to Liangzhou, clashed with local aristocrats, and were subsequently humiliated and whipped.
In the 17th year of Zhengying, you died in a foreign land, leaving behind the famous “Gratitude Memorial.”
As the Vice Minister of the Cabinet, you reached heights that many civil officials could not. The School of Governance you founded influenced hundreds of years. Three years after your death, Emperor Shengming posthumously conferred the posthumous title “Wenzhong” (Faithful in Culture).
Your score for this political journey: 91 points.
Historical image: Positive.
Historical evaluation: A figure of romanticism and idealism in governance.
Historical events associated: Top scholar, palace examination, Dragon Field Enlightenment, School of Governance, leading figure in southern literature, exile to Liangzhou, confrontation with local aristocrats, humiliation and death in a foreign land. (Hidden entry: Liangzhou Incident.)
The Liangzhou Incident refers to the period when Emperor Shengming, Su Yuzhou, ascended the throne. Unable to let go of the artifact “Gratitude Memorial” left by Lu Wenzhong in the imperial library, she learned about Lu Wenzhong’s humiliation and whipping in Liangzhou. Subsequently, forty-seven officials were exiled, local aristocrats were purged, and fourteen hundred and sixty-nine people were executed for crimes, making it the largest upheaval in the court since Emperor Shengming ascended the throne.
Lu Cheng’an chuckled, “Not bad, not bad at all. Indeed, she’s my Han Princess. Although justice was a bit delayed, it finally arrived. Ah, being exiled is truly unlucky for me. Such a perfect start, enlightened by the Dragon Field, with such invincible three-dimensional data, but a single exile led to a collapse, and being exiled to Liangzhou and humiliated made my character depressed.”
“Now these two fools must realize they’ve offended the wrong person, right?”
“After my wife ascends the throne, and my son ascends after her, I don’t know what you guys will have to compete with me anymore.” As Lu Cheng’an spoke, he suddenly noticed that the sky outside the window was brightening.
“Stayed up all night again. Back to reality, I’m still that poor little scholar.” Lu Cheng’an sighed.
In his hazy memory, he only remembered failing the imperial examination and not having much money. Now he had to figure out a way to get some provisions for the journey home.
