A year ago, when there were no new members in the harem, no one in the palace knew about Yun Fenghuang, but no one knew about Xue Xiaoge.
Ji Zhaoyuan's direct cousin, her father and brother were both high-ranking members of the Ji Party, both talented and beautiful. Because of this background, there was one high-ranking vacancy waiting for her in the palace at that time.
Not to mention the Xue family arranged for her to enter the palace, and the Ji family's two legitimate daughters have never given birth to an heir. Are you expecting her to give birth to an heir with the brand of Ji Dang, and have a lofty plan
But things are unpredictable. After so many years, the Empress of the Ji family has been ill for many days, and Zhaoyuan was once demoted to Yuwan. She was recently promoted to Jieyu, but she still prayed for the two empresses. The name of filial piety arose.
If Yun Fenghuang hadn't mentioned it at this moment, Chunjia would have forgotten that there was such a Xue Jieyu in the palace.
He had never been lucky enough to meet the daughter of his rival in the temple, so of course he didn't feel sorry for her.
So the matter was settled - but, after a while, the two emperors and concubines were about to show off at the Huanqing Palace, but a palace official came over to report urgently: "Your Majesty, Concubine Xian, Xue Jieyu is not good!"
The emperor's concubine's heart sank, and she sternly asked what was wrong
I heard the palace servant say: "Just now, the people in front of Xue Jieyu went to Yanfu Palace and Xuanqing Palace to report that their master had been staying behind closed doors since this morning and was not allowed to disturb him. I originally thought that Jieyu was just in a bad mood. , or maybe you want to be alone for a while. But just now a civet cat ran in through the back window and knocked over something. The people below were worried that the wild beast would reach Jieyu, so they boldly knocked on the door to say hello, but did not hear Jieyu's reply. Voice… "
The next step was a matter of course. When they boldly opened the door, they saw Xue Jieyu hanging on the beam, with a kicked-over stool and a suicide note written and suppressed with a paperweight next to her.
Chunjia's face showed no emotion or anger, and she asked in a deep voice: "What was written in the suicide note?"
"My servant doesn't know." The palace man said cautiously, "The person sent by the Queen did not explain anything. They only asked Your Majesty to come over as soon as possible."
Yun Fenghuang then said: "Your Majesty, will I go with you?"
Of course they had to go, so they decided to involve Xue Xiaoge to settle the matter. Xue Xiaoge would be gone, how could they ignore it
The two of them arrived at the scene together. At this time, Xue Xiaoge had already put it down under the command of Empress Ji, who was one step ahead. However, the bedroom was still in a mess, with tables and chairs overturned and a few hairpin rings falling off the side of the dressing table.
"Your Majesty, I am guilty!" Seeing the arrival of the holy driver, Empress Ji took the lead to greet her, knelt on the ground and said with tears, "It was all because of my negligence that I made Mrs. Xue do such things!"
As he spoke, he took out a stack of colored paper from his sleeve, raised it above his head, and offered it to Chunjia.
Chunjia glanced at it but said nothing. Yun Fenghuang reached out to take it, glanced at it roughly, and said to him: "Your Majesty, these seem to be Xue Jieyu's last words."
Xue Xiaoge's last words were very long. There were five or six words written in dense regular script with hairpin flowers. They described in great detail how after she entered the palace last year, she thought that with her family background, beauty and talent, she would be favored in one fell swoop and become Chunjia. I feel good about it.
As a result, Yunfenghuang emerged from the horizontal thorn, which stole everyone's attention from the first day he entered the palace. Since then, Wei Hengyan, who entered the palace with the highest status at the same time, rarely got lucky, let alone Talk about Xue Xiaoge.
She was not willing to be annihilated among the concubines, but she tried several times to win favor, but got nothing. The most annoying thing was not that Yun Fenghuang laughed at her, but that Yun Fenghuang didn't pay attention to her at all.
This made Xue Xiaoge's resentment grow day by day, and even turned his anger on Concubine Zhenxi Shu - because everyone knew that Yun Fenghuang was originally not qualified to be listed in the imperial edict, but it was Concubine Zhenxi who recommended it to the Empress Dowager. Wait for good fortune.
Every time Xue Xiaoge stayed alone in an empty room, his resentment towards Concubine Shu and Yun Fenghuang increased by one point.
Last year, the emperor was assassinated and fell off a cliff on his way to the Qishan Palace to visit the Empress Dowager. The uncertainty about his life and death completely shocked Xue Xiaoge - she was still so young, and she had only been in the palace for a few months, and was she about to start being a widow? !
The most frightening thing is that she is only a minor concubine and is not ready to be promoted to the throne.
In other words, once Chunjia cannot return and a new king ascends the throne, she can only be a concubine instead of a concubine.
The boundaries between concubines and concubines were clearly defined in the dynasty, and the treatment of concubines and concubines was also very different.
Xue Xiaoge came from an official family, and he shuddered because he had heard about the treatment of concubines who had no children and no favors when they grew old. In her fear, she resented Concubine Shu and Yun Fenghuang more and more, because in her opinion, if Concubine Shu had not brought a dark horse like Yun Fenghuang into the palace, she would have been the newcomer most loved by Chunjia!
After all, although Wei Hengyan had the highest status when he was first granted the title, he had no helpers in the palace; Yun Qingman's sister-in-law was kind to her, but Yun Qingman had a soft nature and could not stand up on her own without Yun Fenghuang. , among last year's newcomers, who can compete with Xue Meiren, who is the most talented and beautiful woman from a good family, and who has the full support of her cousin
In this way, in extreme anger and fear, she became murderous towards Concubine Shu!
Well, you said that Concubine Shu was still alive when the Emperor and Yun Fenghuang returned, and after the Emperor came back, Xue Xiaoge did not need to consider going to the palace to wait for death as a concubine. There was no need to murder a high-ranking concubine
Xue Xiaoge's explanation in her suicide note was that despite this, Yun Fenghuang's status had not diminished but had increased, which made her feel that unless the Yun family's daughter was eliminated, she would never be able to get ahead!
No, while Concubine Shu was under house arrest due to the miscarriage of the imperial concubine, Yun Qingman, who was still under Yun Fenghuang's control at the time, sent someone to visit her. She bribed the palace officials to kill Concubine Shu and tried to frame Yun Qingman's fault. Yun Fenghuang tried to instigate the Yun sisters to fight among themselves - although it seemed that the instigation was not successful, she was not exposed, so she has lived peacefully until today.
But who knew that this matter did not spread in the palace, but the news leaked outside the palace
Hearing that the Chao family publicly stated that there was another reason for Concubine Shu's death, Xue Xiaoge felt that there was no way to escape this time. In order to avoid being tortured after being imprisoned, he could not face the fall from the high-ranking concubine, so he would rather commit suicide.
The suicide note ended with various apologies. I was sorry to the Empress Dowager, the three empresses, the emperor and the queen, to her cousin Ji Muzi, to my entire family, to... well, to Concubine Zhenxi Shu, to Yun Fenghuang and Yun Qingman, and of course to Winged Duke.
If there is an afterlife, she will definitely be a good person and never make mistakes, and will never kill others just because they are favored.
After Yun Fenghuang read it to the emperor in a passionate voice, he chuckled and twirled the ink on his fingertips: "These last words were written in a hurry, and the ink is not dry yet!"
I'm afraid you didn't just start writing it when you came back from Taichu Palace
"After all, Mrs. Xue also heard that Mrs. Chao revealed the secret behind Concubine Shu's death in the temple, so she panicked and decided to die." Empress Ji said calmly, "It would be suspicious if the ink mark lasted for a long time."
Anyway, the real culprit of Concubine Shu's death is known, and he committed suicide. You have no evidence for your suspicion, right
"But Chao said that Concubine Shu's death was at the hands of Ji." Yun Fenghuang put the suicide note on the table, looked at the queen, and said with a smile, "Although Xue Jieyu has a close relationship with Ji, after all, Isn’t your surname Ji? Moreover, regarding the temple matter, I just happened to go to the court to see His Majesty, and only heard a few words. Who is Xue Jieyu? She lives deep in the palace, and she can actually know everything about the court. ?"
Empress Ji did not look at her and only said to Chunjia: "This is the reason why I want to apologize to Your Majesty: Xue is Kang Jieyu's direct cousin and lived in Surong Palace when she entered the palace. Therefore, Kang Jieyu was demoted in the first place. Later, I became disheartened and relied heavily on Mr. Xue to take care of the palace affairs. In the previous dynasty, some of the palace guards were arranged through my guidance, Mr. Ji."
"As we all know, Kang Jieyu treats Mr. Xue very kindly, like a biological sister."
"So when Mr. Xue sent everyone on Kang Jieyu's orders, no one doubted him!"
"I am a queen, but I lost my guard and watched my in-laws do such wrong things. Please punish me!"
Chunjia remained silent.
He had just made an agreement with Yun Fenghuang that Xue Xiaoge would be blamed for this matter.
Now the Ji family acted preemptively, which seemed to cater to his wishes, but in fact it was not the case at all - first of all, if Xue Xiaoge was the real culprit in murdering Concubine Shu, and it was the emperor who "investigated" it, the initiative It must also be on the emperor's side, who will be implicated and who will be spared. This alone will have enough room for movement to win over or intimidate;
But if Ji takes the initiative to hand over the "culprit", there won't be much room for Chunjia to make the decision now.
Secondly, the Ji family had been dormant for many years due to the filial piety of Duke Ye's wife. There was the Royal Tomb Incident in the previous dynasty, and the Chao family was beating the drum in the harem, just to make the emperor focus on one thing and miss the other, and be overwhelmed.
Chunjia's plan was similar. In the Wangling Incident, he tried to comfort Xiaozong and delay the war; while Chao's grievances directly instigated him to rebel and turned against him.
The assassination of Qi Jiulu, the Dingbei military captain, and the Qi family of the Chao family were coerced by the Ji family and falsely accused the innocent. These were the reasons for Chunjia's liquidation of the Ji family in the temple; and the death of Concubine Shu would be the final punishment for the Ji family in the harem. Another round of cleaning and weakening attacks.
These two things go hand in hand, enough to distract Ji from doing anything else.
But the Ji family is now directly abandoning the car to protect the commander-in-chief, and abandoning Xue Xiaoge's family to support the family. Once she is freed from the harem fight, she can concentrate on dealing with the affairs of the previous court.
And it's not just that. Since Xue Xiaoge confessed his crime, everyone from the Empress Dowager to Kang Jieyu did not need to bear the charge of murdering Concubine Shu, so... they could also contribute to the previous dynasty.
In addition, there is another secret: Chunjia once told Yun Fenghuang that many people were involved in Concubine Shu's death. Cui Wan's daughter, Cui Lianye, was not innocent.
But Xue Xiaoge didn't mention anything in his suicide note, and he took it all by himself.
Is this Ji's kindness
impossible.
It's just to keep Cui's handle for later use.
"The Queen's body was left with a vegetarian meal, and she indulged her family members, causing the Xue family to murder high-ranking officials. It was a heinous crime and a deep fault!" After a long time, Chunjia finally spoke. He did not look at Queen Ji who was kneeling on the ground in a respectful posture, but only looked at the empty courtyard outside. Plainly, "I think of you as my first wife, and I cannot bear to be harshly criticized... I will be confined for three years to pray for Concubine Shu and to comfort my old ministers."
"During the period of confinement, all palace affairs will be taken care of by Concubine Shu's sister, Concubine Xian, and Concubine Xuan, Concubine Rui."
Luo Hanyi and Ouyang Fulu were promoted back yesterday. Originally, the ninth concubine was promoted to concubine. Even if they were restored to their original positions, it would be a great joy and worthy of a banquet to celebrate.
But now, no one takes it seriously.
Even they themselves really don't think this is anything to do.
"Your Majesty." Empress Ji was very obedient and kowtowed to accept the order without any objection. But at this moment, Yun Fenghuang suddenly spoke and suggested, "The empress has certainly done something wrong, but is Kang Jieyu innocent? In the final analysis, It was Kang Jieyu's inattention that allowed Xue to take advantage of this opportunity!"
"It's just that Kang Jieyu is praying for the two empress dowagers, and she is the biological mother of the two princes. She can't punish her too much, lest the princes grow older and look bad."
"How about criticizing the goddaughter of her parents for being incompetent?"
Chunjia turned to look at her, with a faint smile in her eyes: "That's right!"