In fact, the most urgent task for Emperor Jingren was to deal with the matter of the King of Huainan, but firstly, there was no actual evidence, and everything was just speculation; secondly, Emperor Jingren could not understand why his brother became like this. Before dealing with the King of Huainan, Emperor Jingren wanted to meet him.
However, it was not so easy for the princes to come to Beijing. Fortunately, the Chinese New Year would be in two or three months, and the princes from all over the country would definitely send New Year gifts during the New Year. At that time, Emperor Jingren only needed to find an excuse to let all the princes come to Beijing with the team sending New Year gifts.
And what reason could be more reasonable than congratulating the Queen on her pregnancy
The most important thing is that if the queen is pregnant, it means that Emperor Jingren has a successor, and then the little thoughts of the King of Huainan will completely disappear. The King of Huainan is the only legitimate son besides Emperor Jingren. If Emperor Jingren has no successor, then he is the most likely person to inherit the throne. Therefore, the queen's pregnancy can best reveal the King of Huainan's thoughts.
Emperor Jingren was an emperor and had his reasons for everything he did. Of course, the desire to be close to the empress was the main reason, but more importantly, it was political factors.
However, he did not explain so much to the queen. He knew in his heart that his idea was too much. As an emperor, he actually used his own child to plot against his brother for the throne. But he was also sincere and wanted to have his own children with the queen.
After dealing with government affairs, there was still some time left, so Emperor Jingren summoned the imperial physician who was good at this to diagnose his pulse. Imperial Physician Zhao was an expert in this field, and was invited to the palace because Emperor Jingren had been childless for many years. However, he had never had the opportunity to diagnose Emperor Jingren, and had been living in retirement since he entered the palace. Today, he finally had the opportunity to use his skills, and Imperial Physician Zhao was very excited.
But he felt the pulse, checked the complexion of Emperor Jingren, and looked at his physical condition. He shook his head in surprise and said, "Strange, this shouldn't be the case..."
Emperor Jingren asked expectantly, "Doctor Zhao, please feel free to speak."
Doctor Zhao didn't seem to have any difficulty talking about it, and said calmly, "Your Majesty is in good health and has no hidden illness. Normally, given your Majesty's physical condition, you should have at least three or five princes and princesses after four years of marriage, but... why is your Majesty still childless? Are all the concubines in the harem infertile? This is unlikely, it's really strange."
"According to Imperial Doctor Zhao, I don't need any treatment, right?" Emperor Jingren asked.
"That's right. Your Majesty is in good health, which is a blessing for the whole world." Doctor Zhao knelt down and kowtowed.
Emperor Jingren nodded, asked Doctor Zhao to stand up, gave him some rewards and let him go. He then sat in the imperial study and began to think deeply.
He thought of the incense and his own healthy body, so the answer to why he still had no children was clear.
Emperor Jingren sneered and said self-deprecatingly: "I have three thousand beauties in my harem, but no one wants to consummate my marriage with me. I have to rely on incense to fool people in their dreams. I am really pathetic."
So he called Eunuch Lian and said, "Pass on my decree. The four virtuous concubines have been in the palace for many years and have no children. They will be demoted to Zhaoyi. As for Concubine Lin..."
Thinking of Lin Boyuan who was still working hard to promote the new policy outside, Emperor Jingren thought for a moment before saying, "Let Concubine Lin go for now."
Eunuch Lian shuddered, not knowing what tricks the Queen had used to make His Majesty alienate the concubines in the palace for him. Judging from this, it seems that the Queen is the one who succeeded in the end. Thinking of the Queen's unpredictable skills, Eunuch Lian shuddered again, secretly glad that he gave up early and chose the right master. Maybe after the success, the Queen will give him some money!
Thinking of this, Eunuch Lian became a little excited and quickly went out to find someone to draft the decree.
When he found out that none of his wives wanted to sleep with him, Emperor Jingren surprisingly did not feel angry. Perhaps he did not have any special feelings for these people, and the nights of love were not real, so it was impossible for him to have any feelings of pity for them. Emperor Jingren himself was not a person who got angry easily, so he would not get too angry with people who did not care about him.
If there weren't a lot of forces behind these four concubines, such as Concubine De being the daughter of Prime Minister Li, Emperor Jingren actually wanted to banish them to the cold palace. But now he is not at the level where no one dares to refute his words in the court, so he can't do whatever he wants. Demoting the four concubines to Zhaoyi at the same time can make people believe that he is really angry because of the issue of offspring, which can dispel Prime Minister Li's suspicion.
Changing the positions of these four concubines is to test the officials first and see what their next move will be.
Emperor Jingren was already used to the fact that every action had a lot of hidden meanings behind it, so he didn't think he was deep-minded. Moreover, he did everything according to his heart, but while doing so, he also added some additional plans.
No matter how shocked the four concubines' palaces and their respective maternal families were after hearing the news, Emperor Jingren didn't want to care about their feelings. He was looking forward to tonight. His memory before the headbutt was very vague, and he didn't remember how he and the queen spent the night together. Now he felt like he was with the queen for the first time, and his anticipation for tonight was no less than the wedding night.
Emperor Jingren felt a little nervous, so he took a bath in the Zichen Hall of Chengqian Palace, changed into new clothes, and asked a palace maid to help him with his hair to make it look very smooth. He remembered that the queen liked his hair very much.
He was as nervous as a scholar who was secretly meeting his sweetheart. After making countless psychological preparations, he walked to the Qifeng Palace by himself when the lights came on, instead of riding on the dragon chariot.
After entering the palace, he did not allow anyone to inform him, wanting to quietly walk into the bedroom to see what the queen looked like while she was waiting for him.
For Emperor Jingren who was deeply in love, he always wanted to know what his sweetheart looked like when he was not around.
But when they arrived at the bedroom, the maid reported that the queen was bathing. This made Emperor Jingren even more excited, thinking that the queen was bathing to welcome him, and he asked all the palace people to be silent and quietly walked to the bathing pool.
The door was ajar. Emperor Jingren remembered that the empress never liked to be served when she took a bath, so if he went in now, there would be only the two of them in the bath.
For the first time, Emperor Jingren was not so gentlemanly. He gently pushed the door open and entered. The first thing he saw was a screen. In the candlelight, a tall figure was reflected on the screen. From the movements, it seemed that he was wiping his body.
The saying "Don't look at what is inappropriate" had no effect on Emperor Jingren at this moment. He quietly walked around the screen and saw a man with strong chest muscles, tall stature, handsome face and majestic parts who was casually wiping his body.
And this man looked exactly like the queen.
Emperor Jingren: “…”