The emperor frowned slightly, with a hint of impatience in his expression. When he learned that Xiaoliu was forcing the emperor to abdicate, he decided to take his life in order to warn the third and fourth brothers who were ready to make a move that he was not dead yet and they did not need to be so anxious.
But thinking of Concubine Zhen, the murderous intent in his heart subconsciously faded a little. That was the fifth year of his reign. The court was stable and he could finally relax a little. He remembered that the harem was not opened to the public that year. Only officials of the fourth rank and above were allowed to send their daughters of youth to the palace. Concubine Zhen was not among them. The Sun family only had her as a daughter, so it was reasonable for her to marry him off or marry into the family.
But she entered the palace. It was said that it was her own idea because the Sun family and his royal brother had a past relationship, and Sun Qi was in charge of hundreds of thousands of troops guarding the most important pass for Yu Daqing, so naturally he would not be without any ideas.
So Concubine Zhen sent herself into the palace, which was tantamount to the Sun family's token of allegiance to him. Up to now, the Sun family has never adopted anyone. Sun Qi even seldom comes back to the capital, and he stays at the pass year after year. Since the death of Concubine Zhen, the direct branch of the Sun family has been extinct.
Concubine Zhen saved Sun Qi and the Sun family at the cost of her own life.
She was a smart woman who never liked to show off. She just went with the flow. When other women competed for favor, she would compete for it; when other women were jealous, she would be jealous; when other women wanted rewards, she would demand them. She looked no different from any other concubine, but once you got to know her, you would know that she was different. Zhenfei's Frost Cloud Palace was the place he liked to go to most in those years, and he had cherished it, but he did not dare to go there often in order to prevent her from being envied.
Yes, she had begged him before she died, asking him to promise that if Xiaoliu wanted to leave Beijing when he grew up, he would grant her permission, and he had agreed at that time...
The emperor closed his eyes and looked at Xiaoliu again. "For the sake of Concubine Zhen, I will pardon your death sentence, but you cannot escape the punishment of life."
Just as he was about to convict him, he heard a noise outside the door. He frowned and looked, and soon Hua Zhi came into his sight.
The softness in his heart disappeared instantly, and the emperor shook his sleeves and laughed angrily, "The eldest daughter of the Hua family is so powerful that she can come to the inner court whenever she wants, but you may not be able to leave even if you want to."
Hua Zhi walked to Xiao Liu's side and knelt down. After bowing respectfully, she replied, "Whether you come or not, I will die. I want to be a clear-headed ghost."
"You are quite self-aware." The emperor sat back down. "Well, I will let you know what is going on. Hua Zhi, you are indeed smart. If no one had reminded me, I would not have realized that you have woven a network of amazing power in just two years. Several of my important ministers are in this network. Your interests are interconnected and you support each other. In a few years, I am afraid that this country will be under your name Hua."
The emperor snorted angrily, "You have a good idea. You coaxed Xiao Liu into obeying you in everything, and then you gave him your own resources. It's a win-win situation. In such a short time, you have won the support of so many people for Xiao Liu. I ask you, do you deserve to die?"
"According to your standards, he deserves to die." Hua Zhi raised her head. "Since all this is my fault, Xiao Liu was just deceived by me, so what crime has he committed?"
The emperor felt a little sweat on his back. He tugged at his collar, and his attitude became even worse because of the sudden irritation. "Some things are not important in the process, but the result. Now you feel sorry for him? If you had known this earlier, why did you push him to death!"
"Weren't you the one who pushed him to his death?" Hua Zhi's lips curled up in a mocking manner, as if she knew she wouldn't live long and was no longer afraid. "When he had no power to protect himself, he was plotted against by his brothers in turn. Did you protect him? Where were you when he almost lost his life? Other princes have their mothers to rely on, but he has to calculate the time to go to his maternal grandparents' house in case he goes there too often and you blame him. He spends his days guarding the relics left by his mother. Where were you? As the saying goes, the father is in front and the emperor is behind. Are you like a father to him?"
"Shut up! Shut up!" The emperor stood up suddenly, walked over quickly and kicked Hua Zhi to the ground, then staggered back two steps. Fu Gang hurriedly went to help her, but Xiao Liu knelt down immediately to help his master up, and protected him behind him.
The emperor was so angry when he saw this that he fell backwards. He pushed Fu Gang away and strode over to kick Hua Zhi again. Xiao Liu stood in front of Hua Zhi and took the kick.
"Pull him away, pull him away!" the emperor shouted, unconsciously pulled his collar, and kicked Hua Zhi again.
"emperor… "
The Queen Mother had just opened her mouth when the Emperor raised his head with a grim smile, "Why, Queen Mother, are you going to stop me too?"
"I am worried about your health."
"Thank you, mother. My son is fine." The emperor raised his foot and stepped heavily on Hua Zhi's shoulder, smiling strangely, "Mother, please see if my son is fine."
The Queen Mother secretly thought that it was not good. The Emperor's lips had turned black, how could it be considered good? She did not care about anything else and immediately ordered, "Call the imperial physician! Quick!"
"Who dares!" The emperor stopped smiling and looked at his mother dangerously, "Who dares to call the imperial physician?"
"emperor!"
"Someone, help the Queen Mother! Bring me my whip!"
The palace maids looked at each other, no one dared to step forward. Haoyue turned her head to glance at her maid, and the maid understood and winked at the people around her, who stepped forward and offered to help. The empress dowager looked at them coldly, and they stood there, unable to move forward or retreat.
But the empress dowager did not take any more action. The emperor did not believe her and only thought that she had summoned the imperial physician to treat Hua Zhi, but he had no idea what he looked like at the moment.
Seeing the emperor like this, Haoyue was also anxious. She had calculated the time. Even if the Sixth Prince unexpectedly knelt for an hour before coming in, the emperor would not have lost his temper at this time. She was now hoping that things would end quickly so that she would have a reason to persuade the emperor to go into the inner hall to rest.
The palace attendant handed the whip to the emperor, who took it and whipped it a few times in the air. The crackling sound made him very satisfied.
He lowered his head to look at Hua Zhi, his eyes were as if he was looking at an ant, "Now that Yan Xi is not in the capital, Hua Zhi, no one can save you!"
Hua Zhi knelt on the ground, enduring the pain all over her body, and said in a sonorous tone, "If you had any concern for Yan Xi in your heart, you would not have refused to see Chen Qing when he came back from Jinyang, and you would have planned to catch us all in one fell swoop. You want a leader of the Qisu Division who is as obedient as before and only obeys you, but you don't care at all whether he will be injured when fighting with the Chaoli people, or whether he can come back alive..."
Bang!
A whip went from the left shoulder to the right abdomen, scraping the chin. Hua Zhi trembled in pain, but she kept talking, "I hope he doesn't come back alive, so that he won't be sad that his dear uncle, whom he served as a father, never treated him as a relative!"