The eldest prince woke up after the acupuncture, drank a bowl of medicine, and fell asleep again.
Over the next two days, the eldest prince would wake up from time to time, but not for long.
Seeing his son dying, the emperor was furious, "Investigate, investigate for me, why did the eldest prince eat something that was incompatible with his health?"
Everyone who served the eldest prince in the imperial kitchen felt insecure.
The emperor was furious and corpses were scattered all over the place. In just one day, more than twenty palace maids and eunuchs were beaten to death.
The execution site was covered in blood and was a horrific sight.
Concubine Liu stayed by the eldest prince's side and almost cried her eyes out.
She had long since fallen out of favor, and the emperor rarely entered the harem. If the eldest prince died, she would have no one to rely on.
The Queen Mother was annoyed by her crying, so she kicked her hard and said sternly, "Go away and cry."
You know how to cry now, what were you doing before
If the eldest prince had been more attentive, he wouldn't have been harmed like this.
The Imperial Medical Bureau has a complete range of precious medicinal materials. In order to save the eldest prince, the imperial physician did not care about the taboo of using strong and dangerous drugs on young people.
Bowl after bowl of medicine was poured into the eldest prince's mouth, but his breath became weaker day by day.
That morning, the eldest prince, who had been suffering for several days, died.
With the death of the eldest prince, the emperor only had the second prince as his son.
For a prince who died in infancy, there was no need for each prefecture to ban banquets and music, nor did commoners need to be banned from marrying, and they didn’t even need to go to the palace to mourn.
Despite this, the various mansions were still very honest. Before the coffin was buried in the imperial mausoleum, it was hung for a few days. At this time, it was better not to anger the emperor.
The eldest prince's coffin was placed in the prince's residence for seven days. The day before the funeral, the right vice minister of the Ministry of Rites submitted a memorial, stating that all prefectures should hold roadside sacrifices to send off the eldest prince's funeral.
The emperor pretended to think for a while, "I have lost my beloved son, and you all feel the same pain. Since this is your request, how can I not agree?"
When the various government offices learned of this, they said kindly, "After all, he is the emperor's eldest son, not like a child from an ordinary family. Let's just hold a roadside sacrifice for him."
The mean ones said, "For the funeral of a child who is less than five years old, I wonder if the governments can afford such a grand ceremony to hold roadside memorial ceremonies for him?"
Whether they like it or not, every prefecture has to hold a road sacrifice, which stretches for more than ten miles.
Pregnant Jiang Changning had to avoid funerals, so only servants attended the roadside sacrifice at Prince Jin's mansion.
Song Yirou stayed at her parents' home and refused to return to the palace. She had been vying for a divorce for so long but to no avail. There were only servants in the roadside sacrificial shed at the Ningxia Palace.
No one gossiped about the Prince of Jin's mansion, but people were pointing fingers at the Prince of Ningxia's mansion. "On the wedding day, the bride fell asleep in the bridal sedan. This is a bad omen. It would be strange if they didn't get divorced."
"I heard that the person Song wants to marry is the Prince of Jin."
"That's before marriage you're talking about. Now the man is married and the woman is married."
"I heard that the Song family wanted to divorce just to marry the Prince of Jin."
"Princess Jin is still here, how can she get married?"
"It's impossible for you to give up being the wife and become a concubine, right?"
After some discussion, they came to a conclusion: "The rumors are not credible."
Song Yirou really had never thought of being a concubine. She wanted to be the Princess of Jin. In order to bribe the midwife, she secretly sold the farm that came with her dowry.
Yes, she didn't have enough money, and she didn't dare to ask Mrs. Song for money, so she could only sell her dowry.
There were more than a dozen midwives frequently visiting various mansions, but Jiang Changning, who was six months pregnant, was not in a hurry and had not yet decided on the two midwives to deliver her baby. This forced her to bribe all the midwives.
On this side, Song Yirou spent money like water, on the other side, Jiang Changning made a lot of money.
The money from women and children is the easiest to earn.
"Princess, the total is 17,390 taels." Fang Ju said in surprise after calculating the bill.
"Not bad, not bad. It's worth my trouble to draw them." Jiang Changning was quite satisfied. "Give 10,000 taels to Uncle Nan, 5,000 taels to Aunt Gui, and change the rest into gold and silver melon seeds and send them to the mansion."
After Jiang Changning took over the Jiang family business, he began to spend money on charity everywhere, and Aunt Gui was in charge of the charity home.
Fangju put away the account book and was about to leave when Shufei came in, "Princess, Aunt Zhuang Wu gave birth."
"Is it a son or a daughter?" Jiang Changning asked casually.
"It's a girl, mother and daughter are safe." Su Fei lied for fear of scaring Jiang Changning.
Zhuang Qingmei had an attack in the middle of the night and didn't give birth to the baby until early this morning.
It would have been fine if it had taken a long time, but after giving birth, she had heavy bleeding and the doctor diagnosed that it would be difficult for her to have children in the future.
Jiang Changning said calmly: "It's good that the baby is born. As usual, I'll send a gift."
When the Zhuang family found out that Zhuang Qingmei had given birth to a daughter and that it was difficult to have children, they were shocked and asked, "What should we do?"
Princess Yirao asked her husband to take Zhuang Qingmei as a concubine in order to have children. Now that Zhuang Qingmei is unable to give birth, he will definitely take a second concubine.
As the banker had expected, Princess Yirao spread the word that she would take two concubines for her husband, and whoever gave birth to a son would be made a lady.
Those who have concubines in their families are very jealous and eager to receive the invitation to Princess Yirao's flower-viewing party.
The Prince of Jin’s Mansion also received one, which was given to Yan Yinyao.
Looking at the invitation, Yan Yinyao was a little dumbfounded, "Why did you send me an invitation?"
Not to mention that she was still in mourning period, even if she divorced and returned home, it was impossible for a second-married girl from the Yan family to be a concubine. At most, she could marry down and become the main wife.
"Is Yirao trying to humiliate Prince Jin's Mansion?" The Concubine Dowager was furious.
"Mother, please calm down. I'm afraid my cousin has been implicated by the prince." Jiang Changning said.
"What do you mean?" Yan Yinyao asked in confusion.
"When Annan rebelled, the emperor initially wanted General Xiong to lead the troops there, but the prince was adamantly against it. General Xiong was not reinstated and is now idle at home. Princess Yirao should not be so stupid. This should be the prince consort's attempt to help his father vent his anger."
Although it was just a guess, I accidentally guessed it right. The invitation was indeed sent by Prince Consort Xiong.
"Come here, ask the chief secretary to personally deliver the invitation back to the princess's mansion and tell the princess that the Prince of Jin's mansion is of humble status and is out of her reach." The concubine sneered.
The chief secretary took the invitation to the Princess's residence and asked to see Princess Yirao. After handing the invitation to her, he also told her what the concubine had said and said, "Princess, I will take my leave."
Princess Yirao was so angry that her face turned blue. "Go, find the consort for me."
Prince Consort Xiong was not in the princess's mansion. The servants looked for him and found him drinking wine in Fengyue Tower in the city.
When Xiong, who was drunk, returned to the princess's residence, he was faced with the angry eyes of Princess Yirao and an invitation thrown at him, "Are you crazy? Why did you provoke the Prince Jin's residence?"
"She is just a widow. It is her blessing that I can take her as my concubine." Prince Consort Xiong said disapprovingly.
"Fuck you! If you want to die, go ahead and die. If you die, I will remarry." Princess Yirao said angrily.
Seeing that she was really angry, Prince Consort Xiong quickly tried to comfort her, "Princess, don't be angry. I did this because Prince Jin was too much. He targeted my father in the court, causing my father to be idle at home. I was so angry that I sent the invitation in a moment of confusion. I don't really want to take her as a concubine, princess, my good princess."
As Prince Consort Xiong spoke, he reached into Princess Yirao's clothes.
(End of this chapter)