Prince Rui fainted without warning, but he was frightened by Princess Rui who was traveling with him. The child was handed over to the wet nurse, and he immediately followed the eunuch to help Prince Rui to the Chongzheng Hall. On the Shangyuan Festival, Emperor Xuande was in a good mood. He wrote a few simple lantern riddles, waiting to guess for the grandchildren who entered the palace for a while. Hesitating about the lantern riddles would be too difficult. He shouted something to Prince Rui.
Emperor Xuande walked out with a sullen face, and then saw his most filial second son being carried over by two eunuchs. He was unconscious and his face was blue, as if poisoned!
Shaking his body, Emperor Xuande fell backward uncontrollably, and was supported by the eunuch Wang En in time. There were still eunuchs about to rush over. Emperor Xuande waved his hand and ordered in a flustered manner: "Emperor doctor, Chuan Eunuch!"
Immediately, some eunuchs rushed to the imperial hospital, and Prince Rui was helped to the dragon couch in the side hall. Before the imperial doctor arrived, Emperor Xuande became a doctor after a long illness. He personally opened his son's eyes to examine it. The more he looked at it, the more he looked like poisoning. When he turned his head, he saw Princess Rui kneeling on the ground, looking at their father and son in horror and weeping uselessly.
"Before Yuan Qian passed out, did he feel uncomfortable, and what did he say?" Emperor Xuande asked in a cold voice.
Princess Rui was already panicking, and she tried her best to recall the situation of the past two days. Princess Rui snorted and said: "Yesterday, the prince was fine, Li Ge'er caught Zhou, the prince was happy, drank a few more bowls, and went to bed at night. Get down... When I woke up this morning, the lord said he was a little dizzy, and he said it was a hangover, and we didn't take it seriously, and then... "
Having said that, I started to cry again.
Emperor Xuande clenched his hands, remembered something, and turned his eyes to the little eunuch behind Wang En.
The little eunuch came in for a while, and with the permission of the emperor, he reported in a low voice: "Your Majesty, His Royal Highness King Shou and King Gong have arrived."
Hearing the word "Shou Wang", Emperor Xuande narrowed his eyes imperceptibly and stared at Prince Rui who was blue-faced. After a while, Emperor Xuande nodded. The little eunuch bent over and stepped back, went outside, and asked the two highnesses to follow him in. Zhao Heng had already heard of Prince Rui's accident, and softly instructed Song Jianing and Li Mulan to take the children to stay outside first, and he and Prince Gong went to visit alone.
"Royal father, what's wrong with the second brother?" Prince Gong's thoughts were light, and when he saw Prince Rui on the bed, he frowned and asked directly.
Emperor Xuande didn't return, and looked up at his third child.
Zhao Heng only looked at Prince Rui, with more shock and surprise on his face than worry. Although he appeared ruthless, it was consistent with his usual behavior. After briefly checking Prince Rui's situation, Zhao Heng turned to Emperor Xuande, as if waiting for Emperor Xuande to answer Prince Gong's question, openly and aboveboard.
Emperor Xuande, who had been closely observing his son, found no flaws.
At this moment, the imperial physician arrived, and Emperor Xuande led his two sons out of the way. The imperial physician stepped forward to check the pulse. It didn't take long for the imperial physician to solemnly announce that Prince Rui had been poisoned by arsenic. To induce vomiting to Prince Rui. The hall was busy. Emperor Xuande was both worried about his son and furious. He ordered to block Prince Rui's mansion and not allow anyone to enter or leave.
Looking at Prince Rui who was being tossed by the imperial physicians in various ways, Prince Gong suddenly felt a little cold. He wanted to look at the third brother next to him, but he didn't dare.
Zhao Heng watched all this with a blank expression.
In fact, at the beginning of the month, he knew that Chen Xiu sent his confidant servant to buy arsenic. Chen Xiu's affairs were quite secretive, and he chose to arrange the arrangement when Prince Rui and his wife entered the palace, and asked the servant to pretend to be a commoner to buy arsenic from the little-known little man in the capital. Afterwards, Chen Xiu gave the servant one hundred taels of silver and ordered him to fly away.
Zhao Heng knew all of this, but he thought that Chen Xiu would poison Princess Rui or Brother Li. He never expected or understood that Chen Xiu was going to kill Prince Rui. If Prince Rui couldn't be rescued...
Zhao Heng's eyes turned cold. He didn't want Prince Rui to die, he wanted Prince Rui to live. When Prince Rui sent people to the Chu palace to worship his uncle and cousin, he provoked his elder brother to set fire to the Qin palace and angered his father. In the end, his father was demoted to a commoner and confined to the Nangong Palace. Zhao Heng had already found evidence. But at that time, the father was very angry. Even if he exposed Prince Rui, the father was immersed in his disappointment with his brother, and he might only punish Prince Rui. .
Therefore, Zhao Heng has been waiting. When the father and the emperor completely believe that Prince Rui is as good as he has shown, he will choose the opportunity to move. In the winter of last year, the father promoted Prince Rui to be Jing Zhaoyin, but he was sceptical in favor of Prince Rui. This was a good time for him to act, but he could not act too hastily. It seemed that someone was deliberately trying to harm Prince Rui, so Zhao Heng planned to act on the anniversary of his uncle's death in early April. . Finding out that Chen Xiu had a plan, Zhao Heng temporarily changed his plan, preparing to throw bait while Prince Rui's mansion was alive.
Now Prince Rui's mansion is in chaos, but it's not the chaos Zhao Heng wants. What he wants is that Prince Rui lives, that he is rejected by his father, that he is banned from Nangong, and that he feels the pain of his brother. If Prince Rui is so simple, Being poisoned by a side concubine... It was like punching cotton, Zhao Heng could not experience any pleasure in revenge.
He really hoped that Prince Rui would survive.
Emperor Xuande and Princess Rui also wanted Prince Rui to live.
Emperor Xuande threw himself on Prince Rui and wept bitterly. He had only five sons in all who lived to the age of five. After Empress Li's beloved Xiaowu died of illness, Emperor Xuande was in so much pain that he could not sleep at night. His eldest brother, who has high hopes and high expectations, only has the uncle in his heart. Without him, the father and emperor, Emperor Xuande was heartbroken. His young and brave fourth brother lost an arm in the battle with Liao, and Emperor Xuande felt the same way, as if he had lost an arm too. Now, his most filial and benevolent second son has been poisoned to death for no apparent reason!
"Check! Check! Who harmed my Yuan Qian, hurry up and check!" Emperor Xuande, who was holding his beloved son and then tasting the pain of the white-haired man sending the black-haired man, wailed like a beast.
As a matter of decree, all royal relatives who went to Prince Rui's mansion to celebrate their birthdays were banned from their respective palaces, pending a thorough investigation, including Prince Shou and Prince Gong.
Song Jianing's heart skipped a beat. How could Prince Rui die? She didn't want to doubt her own prince, but after doing all the calculations, in the entire capital, it seemed that only her prince had the motive to murder Prince Rui, right? Moreover, Prince Rui didn't die sooner or later, but he died after the prince had been there. You must know that at the end of the year, the prince could not go there more than twice.
Even she couldn't help thinking about Zhao Heng, not to mention Princess Rui and Concubine Wu, Princess Rui could only cry in the palace, but Concubine Wu ran to Emperor Xuande with her hair disheveled, and directly named Zhao Heng, begging Xuande. God is in charge of her.
Emperor Xuande suffered a serious illness last year, and his body was already collapsed. Now the pain of losing his son is like a mountain. All the strength of Emperor Xuande was used to support himself. handle political affairs. As soon as Concubine Wu came in, Emperor Xuande closed his eyes. After listening to Concubine Wu's cry, Emperor Xuande barely opened his eyes and asked Concubine Wu diagonally, "Do you have any evidence to identify King Shou?"
Concubine Wu raised her head and cried recklessly: "Do you still need evidence? Since Yuanqian was promoted to Jingzhaoyin, everyone in the capital knew that the emperor wanted Yuanqian to be the prince, and King Shou coveted the throne, jealous in his heart, and secretly went down Murdering my son with poison... Your Majesty, Yuan Qian just got Li Ge'er, he is wronged to die!"
Cried hoarsely.
It was also his son who died, and Emperor Xuande was also in pain, and the corners of his eyes were sore again, but Emperor Xuande still closed his eyes and said weakly: "I have already sent Dali Temple to investigate, and if the murderer is found, I will give Yuan Qian to everyone in the world. Everyone will explain, but until the truth is revealed, no one should slander and slander King Shou. I will not hold you accountable this time, and I will punish you severely if you dare to destroy King Shou's reputation in front of anyone."
When Wu Guifei heard this, she stared at him in disbelief: "Your Majesty..."
"Go down." Emperor Xuande was tired and lay down on his side.
Concubine Wu was not reconciled and stood up and wanted to rush over, but Wang En stopped him in time, and pushed and shoved the person out.
On the dragon couch, listening to Concubine Wu's cries getting farther and farther, Emperor Xuande clenched his chest tightly, tears rolling down the corners of his eyes. He only has the third son who is intact, a son who is both civil and military capable of deterring the courtiers and the army. He hopes that this is not done by the third child. He can't move the third child, and he can't let the third emperor of Da Zhou be accused of mutilating siblings and be shamed by the world.
He had a choice in his heart, but Emperor Xuande was ashamed of his second son who had been unjustly killed, so he hid in the inner hall, gritted his teeth, and unknowingly, it was dark outside the window.
Emperor Xuande turned inward and instructed Wang Enxuan to come in and write an imperial edict.
Zhizhi will arrive soon, the four treasures of the study are ready, please speak to the emperor.
While recalling the filial piety of his second son, Emperor Xuande praised King Rui's virtuous virtue, and then pursued King Rui as the crown prince. After the edict was written, but the ink was still dry, the Dali Temple Minister Sun, who was in charge of the thorough investigation of Prince Rui's case, asked to see him. Guessing that the murderer had been found, Emperor Xuande suddenly regained his strength, turned around and sat upright, staring at Dali Siqing, saying: "Speak!"
Lord Sun knelt on the ground and said in a complicated mood: "Your Majesty, this minister has found out that Prince Rui's concubine Chen Shi hates the princess for having a son, so she ordered her confidants to buy arsenic and put it in the water on her fingertips, intending to poison the eldest son of the prince, unexpectedly. , Unexpectedly, the prince visited the side concubine temporarily that morning, and mistakenly took arsenic..."
Emperor Xuande froze on the couch.
The eunuch Wang En handed over Chen Xiu's confession to him.
Emperor Xuande bowed his head, and saw that the confession was clearly written.
So, his son died in the battle between wives and concubines, not the third one
At this moment, Emperor Xuande didn't know whether to be happy or sad. He was happy that his third child was not a vicious person, and he felt sorry for his Yuan Qian's wrongful death at the hands of the woman.
"Your Majesty, I have something to tell you." Lord Sun, the minister of Dali Temple, looked up and said cautiously.
Emperor Xuande's head was full of his unjustly killed son, but he nodded tiredly.
Master Sun's throat rolled, and his head dropped even lower: "Chen, I interrogated the guards beside the prince. One of them confessed that the case of the former Chu prince setting fire to the Qin prince's mansion is related to the prince."
Emperor Xuande raised his head sharply.
Lord Sun once again raised a confession.
Emperor Xuande read it several times and asked several times, and determined that the eldest eldest was insane at first, and it was really a trap set by Prince Rui, but he was still suspicious of his son, the third one mutilated his siblings. His hands were tightly on the couch, and he kept coughing.
"Your Majesty!" Wang En rushed over quickly and shouted to the imperial physician.
Emperor Xuande coughed for a long time, and his chest barely calmed down. The first thing Emperor Xuande did was to ignore Wang En's obstruction, go to the ground barefoot, staggered to Zhizhigao, and grabbed the chasing seal he had just finished writing. The paper edict that Prince Rui was the crown prince was torn into pieces.
Evil barrier, evil barrier, how did he give birth to such a evil barrier! If it wasn't for Prince Rui's provocation, his eldest might still be alive and carefree, and his two good grandsons would not have imprisoned Nangong with their father. If Prince Rui hadn't caused the eldest eldest brother to fall out of favor first, he wouldn't have become the prospective heir, and he probably wouldn't have held a big birthday banquet and was killed by a sinister side concubine!
Self-inflicted, self-inflicted!