Now that Concubine Lu has given birth to the eldest prince, there is no point for Concubine Shu to keep jumping around.
Even if she gave birth to a prince, he would only be the second son. If she wanted to surpass the eldest son, either the concubine would be promoted to the title of queen and her son would become the legitimate son, or she would kill the eldest son, then her child would likely be the eldest son.
When Yingbao thought about this, she felt that she shouldn't get involved with Concubine Shu.
The Lu family was also a prominent family in the capital. Concubine Lu's father was the prime minister of the dynasty and one of the founding heroes of the Zhou Dynasty. She was just stupid enough to get involved with the Lu family's competitors.
"Jiang Yingbao! How dare you!" The eunuch pointed at Yingbao with a fierce look on his face and said, "I am following the order of the Concubine Shu to let you enter the palace to meet the Emperor! You dare to disobey the Empress, don't you want to live?"
"Who do you think doesn't want to live?" Jiang Wu came out of the room and asked coldly, "You guys are so arrogant for forging the imperial edict. Don't you even take the emperor seriously?"
The eunuch was speechless, threw his sleeves, and said harshly: "Good job! Jiang, just wait! I will report this to the queen and punish your whole family!"
After saying that, they turned around and left the Jiang family. The two of them boarded a royal carriage and drove away quickly.
Yingbao watched the imperial carriage go away, feeling a little uneasy.
This Concubine Yao is really haunting me. She keeps pestering me about what she wants to do.
Jiang Wu pulled his sister back to the house and said, "Sister, Concubine Shu asked you to come to the palace at this time, it must be something bad, you are right not to go."
The eldest prince's full-month banquet will be held in a few days. The emperor will invite court officials and noble ladies to the palace for a banquet. If anything goes wrong before that, it would be like stirring up a hornet's nest.
Not to mention anything else, the concubine is about to give birth. If she meets an outsider at this time, if there is an unexpected miscarriage or something, my sister will definitely be involved.
How will His Majesty deal with the Jiang family in order to appease the Yao family's anger? I really don't dare to think about it.
"I know." It's not that Yingbao and her brother are talking about conspiracy, it's just that the situation in the new dynasty is still in an unstable period.
Many aristocratic families seemed to have submitted to the new dynasty, but in fact they had been eyeing it covetously.
Those people might have thought that since Zhou Wuchang could become emperor, they could too.
This is probably the reason why Zhou Wuchang had so many concubines but did not have a queen.
Once a queen is established, other noble families will be dissatisfied and will begin to make moves in secret.
But after one day of failure, everyone felt that their daughters had hope, so they temporarily suppressed their thoughts.
After all, who wants to go through mountains of swords and seas of fire when you can win without bloodshed
The next day, Jiang Wu went to court with Old Man Wu.
They were both fifth-rank officials and could enter the main hall to pay homage to the emperor.
However, the two of them could only stand behind the officials of the first, second, third and fourth ranks.
However, not long after he took office, someone impeached him, saying that he had no respect for superiors and was lawless.
Jiang Wu was speechless and remembered the person who impeached him in his heart.
Officials who were impeached also had the opportunity to defend themselves, so after Jiang Wu left the court and returned home, he wrote a long memorial in which he wrote about the false imperial edict that day.
If it were other officials, they might have been cautious and afraid of losing face for the emperor, after all, the person who falsely conveyed the imperial edict was his concubine.
But Jiang Wu didn't care. He wrote down every word those people said on a memorial and presented it to the emperor.
Fortunately, Zhou Wuchang was very concerned about this matter. He asked the prime minister for Jiang Wu's appeal and took a general look at it.
After reading it, Zhou Wuchang's face turned black and he immediately stood up to find Concubine Yao Shufei.
Concubine Yao Shu was due to give birth in just over a month. She felt heavy at the moment and was a little confused when she was ordered to kneel down: "Your Majesty, what did I do wrong?"
Zhou Wuchang asked with his hands behind his back, "What do you want to do by repeatedly falsely conveying my will?"
Concubine Yao was stunned, "I... don't have any."
Zhou Wuchang threw the letter in her face and said, "Look carefully, is there a single lie?"
Concubine Yao picked up the memorial with trembling hands, looked at it carefully, and broke out in a cold sweat.
"Your Majesty, I just want to invite Jiang Yingbao to the palace to check my pulse. I have no other intentions, and I have not... falsely conveyed the imperial decree."
Zhou Wuchang snorted coldly: "You have your own imperial physician in charge of diagnosing your pulse, why do you want to find a little girl to enter the palace? Why? Do you think that my imperial physicians are all a bunch of rubbish?"
"No, I didn't mean that." Concubine Shu covered her face and cried.
Zhou Wuchang glanced at her coldly and said, "I have warned you once before that you are not allowed to bring anyone into the palace without the arrangement of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Do you think my palace is your Yao family's back garden and you can summon anyone you want? Are you turning a deaf ear to my words?"
"I know I was wrong, wuwuwuwu..."
Zhou Wuchang was unmoved. He walked to the palace gate with his hands behind his back, looked at the palace servants kneeling at the steps of the palace, and asked in a cold voice: "Who left the palace that day to falsely convey the imperial edict? Stand up!"
The two palace maids trembled and crawled out of the crowd, kowtowing repeatedly: "This slave is following the order of the Concubine Shu."
Zhou Wuchang: "Drag him out and beat him to death!"
Several guards came over, picked up the two palace maids, and dragged them outside the palace gate.
"Your Majesty, please spare my life... Your Majesty, please spare my life..."
The two eunuchs kept begging for mercy, but their mouths were soon blocked.
A series of crackling sounds of sticks were heard in the hall, and Concubine Yao's eyes rolled back and she fainted.
The palace maids did not dare to step forward to help until Zhou Wuchang spoke. Then they carried Concubine Shu to the bed and called the imperial physician in.
That night, Concubine Yao gave birth to a baby girl. Because she was premature, her body was only slightly longer than an adult's palm. Her skin was red and wrinkled, and her cry was as weak as a cat's.
Doctor Wen had no choice but to tell the emperor the truth: "The baby is premature and his five internal organs are weak. I'm afraid he can't be saved."
Concubine Yao Shufei was so frightened that her life was hanging by a thread.
"Take this and feed it to her and her child." Zhou Wuchang took out two wax-shelled pills from the secret compartment and handed them to Doctor Wen.
Wen Jingyan took the pill, opened it, and smelled a fragrance that was very familiar.
He did not dare to hesitate and fed one pill to Concubine Yao Shufei, and dissolved the other pill in water and fed it to the baby. Finally, the mother and daughter were safe and sound.
When the news of Concubine Yao Shu's premature birth spread to the Yao family, everyone was very angry, especially Yao Qian, the Minister of the Central Secretariat, who immediately slammed the table and cursed the emperor for being heartless and ungrateful.
But when he learned that his daughter and granddaughter were saved by the magic medicine bestowed by the emperor, he calmed down and secretly inquired where the magic medicine came from.
As a result, people around the emperor said that the emperor could summon gods, and that the magic medicine was a life-saving magic treasure bestowed by the gods to the emperor. They also said that the magic medicine could not only save lives, but also prolong life.
The Yao family was shocked, and the 72-year-old Duke of the Yao family was even more yearning for the magic medicine.
The ancients said that at the age of seventy-three or eighty-four, the King of Hell will not invite you to go. These two ages are a big hurdle in life. If you can get through it, you can live. If you can't, there is only one word: death.
Old man Yao was a strong man all his life, but he was extremely afraid of death.
Seeing that he was about to reach the age of 73, the old man was in fear every day. He did not allow his family members to mention his age, let alone celebrate his birthday.
When he heard that the emperor had a magic medicine, the white-haired old man wanted to run into the palace immediately to ask the emperor for one.