Empress Dowager Lu had the courage to fight to the death, and nothing could destroy her desire for power. If she had not been eager to subdue Hu Shanwei today, Hu Shanwei would never have expected that the seemingly superficial Empress Dowager Lu actually had ambitions similar to those of Wu Zetian.
The Queen Mother's move seemed reckless, but in fact it was carefully thought out. This secret was a shackle that bound Hu Shanwei to her side. The Queen Mother used this opportunity to turn from passive to active - if Hu Shanwei disobeyed, the Queen Mother would tell Emperor Jianwen that Hu Shanwei knew the secret, and then Hu Shanwei would surely die.
Empress Dowager Lu looked at Hu Shanwei with full expectation. She was always as quiet as a virgin and as agile as a rabbit. When she was quiet, she was a pure and innocent white lotus, but once she took action, she was a gluttonous carnivorous plant.
Either do nothing or take a big gamble.
Hu Shanwei didn't expect that Empress Dowager Lu had dug such a big trap and tempted her to jump into it. Now she is stuck in a dilemma. She really lost more than she gained.
what to do
Hu Shanwei thought about the countermeasures and decided to use a delaying tactic first. He said, "I thank the Queen Mother for her appreciation. I also admire her ambitions. However, judging from her previous reputation, your words do not seem to be so credible. I need time to verify."
Empress Dowager Lu smiled and said, "Mrs. Hu is cautious. I can wait. However, Wang Dianzheng, the only one who knew about this, was also forced by the emperor to hang himself. The suicide note was also written by Wang Dianzheng. Does Mrs. Hu feel that it is similar to the death of Baoqin three years ago? I can swear to heaven that I did not do Wang Dianzheng. Back then, the Eastern Palace was my world. I could force Baoqin to death, but the harem now... I don't have that ability. It was all my good son who learned my method and did it. I have done enough for him in my life. I don't want to bear this black pot for him."
Looking at the confident look on Empress Dowager Lu's face, she was either a master of lying or everything she said was the truth.
Hu Shanwei decided to test the Queen Mother's ability and said, "I would like to ask the Queen Mother a question. I hope the Queen Mother can answer it for me."
Empress Dowager Lu said, "Gong Shang Hu, please feel free to speak."
Hu Shanwei asked, "When Donggong Baoqin died, how did the Queen Mother make Baoqin hang herself even though she knew that suicide would kill her whole family? Judging from her previous correspondence with her family, she was a filial and family-oriented girl. Wang Dian was born a government slave, with no home or family, so it was easy to force her to commit suicide, but it was too difficult to force Baoqin to do so. This doubt has been bothering me, and I wonder if I will have the honor of knowing the answer today."
Empress Dowager Lu hesitated for a moment. She knew that if she didn't tell the truth, her credibility would be even lower. Baoqin had been dead for three years anyway, and Hu Shanwei didn't dare to tell anyone. She might as well use this as a condition for surrender.
Queen Mother Lu said: "Everyone has weaknesses, and this weakness is what she wants most and what she wants to protect the most. I used this as bait to trick Baoqin..."
Baoqin’s weakness was the Crown Prince at that time.
Baoqin was an ambitious woman like Empress Dowager Lu, and tied her future to a man. At that time, the crown prince was a talented boy, gentle and handsome, with a gentle personality. Baoqin had served the crown prince since she was a child. When she was older, she fell in love and had only eyes for the crown prince, hoping to become his concubine in the future.
Empress Dowager Lu seized on Baoqin's weakness and used the person in the room who would become the Crown Prince in the future as bait. She wanted Baoqin to be her eyes and ears and tell the Empress Dowager everything about the Crown Prince, no matter how big or small.
Hu Shanwei accidentally exposed the tacit understanding between Baoqin and Empress Dowager Lu. The Crown Prince was furious and sent Baoqin to the Eastern Palace to serve her mother.
Baoqin's dream was shattered and she was grief-stricken. Empress Dowager Lu asked her to spread rumors about Hu Shanwei and Ji Gang's affair. After the rumors were exposed, she tempted Baoqin: "... You and the Crown Prince have been together for so many years. You have feelings for each other. The Crown Prince is just angry. You also know that the Crown Prince is soft-hearted. I have an idea for you. Write a suicide note and take the blame. Say that your unrequited love for the Crown Prince led you astray, and then pretend to hang yourself."
"Before you hang yourself, I will send someone to invite the Crown Prince, and then find an excuse for him to come find you. You will stand on a stool, and when you hear someone coughing outside, you will immediately kick the stool away and pretend to hang yourself."
"The Crown Prince is a man who cherishes women and will surely be moved by your infatuation..."
Baoqin believed it, wrote a suicide note, took the responsibility for spreading the rumor, expressed her love, threw a piece of white silk over the beam, picked up an embroidered cushion, climbed up, tied the white silk into a knot, and hung it around her neck.
Faint footsteps were heard outside, and the person squatting at the door coughed. Baoqin kicked away the embroidered cushion with her longing for love.
However, the person she was waiting for did not come, and only Queen Mother Lu pushed the door open!
"Roar... Heh..."
With her neck hung, Baoqin was speechless. She waved her hands in vain, scratching at the air, and looked at Queen Mother Lu begging for help.
Empress Dowager Lu looked at Baoqin struggling on the white silk with pity, "Love makes people stupid. I know that you have been secretly learning how I dealt with the former Crown Princess, how to treat the Crown Prince as an equal, how to play some true love games, how to favor the East Palace alone, and how to climb from a concubine to the position of Crown Princess."
"But you don't know that love is just a means for me. I have never been blinded by love. We are different."
"Everyone, including the Crown Prince and the Crown Prince, are chess pieces in my eyes. And you... you are not even a chess piece, you are just my scapegoat."
After Baoqin stopped struggling, Empress Dowager Lu waited for a while. When Baoqin's body began to cool down, Empress Dowager Lu screamed and cried, "Someone come! Help!"
Empress Dowager Lu spoke of the past slowly and at ease, as if she was not talking about a matter of life and death, but just chatting about today's weather. "... I don't need to say more about what happened later. Baoqin had a suicide note, there were no signs of fighting in the house, and there were no marks of beating or coercion on Baoqin's body. All the evidence points to her committing suicide."
"I thought I had done everything right, but I didn't expect that Lady Hu would immediately team up with the Shangyi Bureau, the Shangshi Bureau, and the Jinyiwei to set a trap for me with the so-called family letter. I fell for your trick and sent people to kill Baoqin's family to snatch the non-existent family letter. I was caught in the act by the Jinyiwei and was imprisoned in the Eastern Palace from then on. All my confidants were purged out of the palace by Lady Fan, and I became a clawless tiger from then on."
"I thought my claws would grow back when the emperor ascended the throne. However, my eldest son, whom I spent my entire life cultivating, turned out to be an ungrateful person. Not to mention his claws, he didn't even give me face."
Even though Hu Shanwei was well-informed, he was still frightened by the vicious plot of Empress Dowager Lu. Empress Dowager Lu's grasp of human desires was as accurate as a doctor's diagnosis of a pulse, and she "prescribed the right medicine for the right disease." Baoqin actually "committed suicide" in this way.
Seeing Hu Shanwei was shocked, Empress Dowager Lu was very proud. "Those who achieve great things do not care about trivial matters. Even the noble Empress Xiaokang was defeated by me. An ant-like figure like Baoqin is not worth mentioning. Concubine Hu, you must make a choice as soon as possible, be my ally or my opponent."
Empress Dowager Lu approached Hu Shanwei and whispered, "If I accidentally let it slip and the emperor knew about it, he wouldn't kill me, but he would kill you."
Empress Dowager Lu used both inducement and coercion to recapture Hushanwei.
"I am tired." Empress Dowager Lu said loudly, "Empress Hu has something else to do, so you don't have to send me back to the Cining Palace. If you are free tomorrow, come to the Cining Palace to chat with me and take a walk, just like today. I am very happy."
Hu Shanwei responded, "I respectfully send the Queen Mother off."
Empress Dowager Lu returned to the palace with a huge ceremonial procession. Hu Shanwei sat in the waterside pavilion for a while, then returned to the Shanggong Bureau and summoned Shen Qionglian and Huang Wei De, the two female officials who witnessed the day when Emperor Gaozu passed away.
Hu Shanwei said, "You two should think carefully about whether Lady Fan left the Palace of Heavenly Purity that day?"
The imperial edicts for the death penalty for the concubines in the harem were all drafted by Shen Qionglian and stamped with the imperial seal requested by Huang Wei De. Both of them still remember the scene of that day vividly.
Shen Qionglian shook her head. "Emperor Gaozu trusted Consort Fan very much. After he ordered the concubines to be buried alive with him, he said he was tired and drove us all out, leaving only Consort Fan by the bedside. I don't know what he said."
Huang Weide said, "I don't know what Emperor Gaozu ordered later, but Concubine Fan didn't ask me to take out the imperial seal to stamp it. The imperial edict for the concubines to be buried alive was the second to last imperial edict of the Hongwu Dynasty, and it was stamped with the imperial edict. The penultimate imperial edict was the imperial edict ordering the crown prince to succeed to the throne, and it was stamped with the imperial edict."
Huang Wei De was a female official in charge of keeping the imperial seal. In layman's terms, she was in charge of the seal. The emperor had a total of 24 imperial seals, each with a different purpose. The seals were stamped according to the content of the document issued.
For example, if the emperor wanted to give a seal to a minister after appreciating a painting or calligraphy, he would seal it with "Guangyun Zhibao" to show his grace, and the minister who received the gift would show it off to show off, which would make him feel proud. If the emperor wanted to appreciate and collect it for himself, he would seal it with "Qinwen Zhixi".
Therefore, it is quite difficult to be a good female official in charge of imperial treasures. It requires carefulness and a deep understanding of various court documents, and absolutely no mistakes can be made.
Shen Qionglian added, "Between these two imperial edicts, Consort Fan came out once and gave instructions to Wang Dianzheng, the Palace Administrator, about something. Wang Dianzheng was out for about two sticks of incense, and then came back. Consort Fan asked her to go into the bedroom and she didn't know what she said. Anyway, Consort Fan came out again soon, and Crown Prince Xuan and several ministers went to the bedroom and said the final edict of succession."
Shen Qionglian has a photographic memory, and Huang Wei De is familiar with all the official documents issued. These two people's memories are the most reliable.
Hu Shanwei asked: "When did the Crown Prince come?"
Shen Qionglian thought for a moment, "At that time, the Qianqing Palace was heavily guarded and no one was allowed to enter without being summoned. The same was true for the Crown Prince. I remember that he was around the same time as Wang Dianzheng."
Hu Shanwei captured the fragments of information in the two people's words, and like a puzzle, he gradually pieced together the last scene of Emperor Gaozu's death:
Concubines were buried alive with the emperor, and an oral decree was issued to Palace Lady Fan to order the death of the Crown Princess - it had to be an oral decree because it did not need to be stamped. Palace Lady Fan was about to ask her confidant Wang Dianzheng to carry it out, but Wang Dianzheng was stopped by the Crown Prince on the way and deceived Palace Lady Fan and Emperor Hongwu, saying that the Crown Princess had been sentenced to death - if it had not been confirmed that the Crown Princess was dead and this biggest hidden danger had not been eliminated, Emperor Hongwu would never have issued an edict for the Crown Prince to succeed to the throne.
So now it is certain that the Crown Prince disobeyed the order to save his mother. Lady Fan and Wang Dian are witnesses.
The author has something to say: I updated less today because I caught a cold. My snot was flowing down three thousand feet and rushing to the sea and never coming back. It even blocked the keyboard and I couldn't type at all.
Congratulations to the reader Liushiguang for receiving a 100-point red envelope~
№12 Netizen: Liu Shi Guang Comment: "Hu Shan Wei" Score: 2 Published: 2019-04-14 23:53:33 Reviewed chapter: 174
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