Ningshou Palace
Empress Dowager Fu leaned halfway on the guiding pillow, looking at her son who was sitting upright on the chair below.
I'm afraid Zong Cong didn't realize it. Whenever he and his mother had important things to say, they would mostly adopt such a posture, which also made Empress Dowager Fu understand the persistence in his heart.
"Emperor, have you thought about it?"
"I gave her chances three times and four times, but she never stopped. What she did all these years as a mother should be vividly remembered, but is she half like a queen?"
Empress Dowager Fu sighed: "The Ai family is not talking to him, but just afraid that the eldest prince will find it difficult to deal with himself."
But Zong Duo is difficult to deal with himself, so Zong Yue and the others are not difficult to deal with themselves
Zong Cong has no affection for Empress Chen for a long time, and it is not a temporary idea to abolish her, but he has had this idea for a long time, but because he is concerned about Zong Duo, he has always given Empress Chen some affection . It's a pity that she never cherishes it. How many ups and downs are caused by her
If it wasn't for her still not giving up, Concubine Xu Xian's ability would not be able to accomplish this 'big event', the crown prince would not be established, and the country would be unstable. When those ministers said these words, Zong Cong would not be unimpressed.
He thought that he could control any disturbance within the scope of his control, but the occurrence of this incident slapped him severely in the face. Humiliation, Pan'er will inevitably be wronged.
Zong Cong felt that it was time to make a choice, otherwise he would not be so merciless against Concubine Xu Xian this time, Concubine Xian was one of them, and the queen was also one.
"From Yu Guo's point of view, the queen is restless, and the country's general is restless. From Yu's private point of view, the queen mother should understand what her son wants to say."
"Then do you have a final decision on the candidate for the crown prince?"
Zong Cong didn't answer.
In fact, he already had a conclusion in his mind, but...
"Well, since you have made up your mind, go ahead and do it. The Ai family has already said that the Ai family does not care about the military and state affairs of the previous dynasty. Everything is up to the emperor."
It wasn't until the storm spread to the queen that the curtain really kicked off.
People with discerning eyes have always been indispensable in Beijing. In fact, what the whole thing is like and who is the main messenger behind it are almost clear by now. The outcome of the matter still depends on the meaning of the above.
After all, one hair can move the whole body.
When the news came out from the palace that the Chen family was related to the Xu family's treason, everyone who heard the news couldn't help but thump.
There are rules in the palace, but when the royal family is involved, things will not be that simple. It may turn into a big event and a small matter, but it may also become a big event, and it is difficult to determine.
Generally, when encountering any scandal, or something that will damage the royal reputation, the palace will relatively choose a tactful method. For example, if a certain concubine made a mistake, she should be given death. In order not to cause too much discussion, she died suddenly or died of illness.
Or maybe something happens without you even knowing it.
Therefore, when this kind of news spreads from the palace, it represents a signal—this time the major incident will not be reduced to a minor one, and His Majesty is going to deal with the Central Palace Department.
All the people related to the Chen family were unavoidably panicked, jumping up and down to inquire about various news.
But before they could find out anything, the Chen family was sealed off.
At the same time, the queen of Kunning Palace was also grounded.
If Empress Chen was struck by lightning, it was a disaster for no reason. She didn't understand what was going on until someone relayed Concubine Xu Xian's confession.
If it is said that the Xu family colluded with the Jin people, it would be a lie that Empress Chen is not afraid.
But after thinking about it, this matter has nothing to do with her. At most, she saw that the imperial concubine was in a disadvantageous situation, so she followed behind and stomped a few more feet. As for her subsequent conspiracy with Concubine Xu Xian, she completely ignored it.
For one thing, she only knew that the Xu family had dealt with Su Hai, but she didn't know anything else, and it was impossible for Concubine Xian to tell her in too much detail. Secondly, this kind of thing is nothing but words. If you want to win her as a queen, you have to have real evidence. As long as she denies it, no one can do anything about her.
It stands to reason that her thinking is correct, but she just overlooked one thing, Zong Cong has long since lost patience with her.
Whether the emperor has patience or not, the difference is quite big.
When he can still endure you for some reason, nothing will happen, but when he doesn't want to continue to endure you, everything will come.
Faced with this accusation, Empress Chen naturally wanted to deny it.
Concubine Xian was obviously not unprepared, and confessed Wang Donglai. In fact, this Wang Donglai is a villain with two sides. The Kunning Palace is weak, so he didn't want to find another way out, Jingren Palace can't go, Hu Shufei is not easy to get along with, naturally Xianfei fell into his eyes.
Even when Empress Chen got the news and took advantage of the situation to use human words to deal with Pan'er, it was not the concubine Xian's instruction, and Wang Donglai came up with ideas and fanned the flames.
For Wang Donglai, Empress Chen still trusts him, after all, she has been testing him for many years.
She also knew that over the years, Wang Donglai had offended the imperial concubine a lot, and he had no other place to go except Kunning Palace, so she could use him at ease.
Never expected that this dog slave has hidden several hands.
Even without punishment, Wang Donglai recruited everything, including one slave and two masters, including the concubine Xian's instruction, including the fact that he was the line from the middle, and the concubine Xian and the empress discussed many times in private.
However, he didn't know the specific content of the two people's discussions.
This is precisely the reason why Concubine Xian brought him out to testify. The secret conversation between her and the queen came out of her mouth and into her ears, so it is impossible to keep someone by her side.
What the content is, it all depends on what she and Empress Chen said.
It doesn't matter if there is no evidence, Concubine Xu Xian has seen that His Majesty will not tolerate this time.
At first, it was just a message from the air, but seeing that the queen kept denying it, he simply sent her to the Punishment Department. Pan'er only found out after the fact that the empress and concubine Xian had started a fight in the Punishment Department. The two women had nowhere to go, both abandoned their status and dignity, and fought together like shrews in the market.
Both were injured. According to the gossip of the messenger, his face was scratched.
The women in the palace all kept a pair of beautiful nails. In order to protect the nails from damage, some even wore special armor.
It seems that it is just for the sake of looking good, and it is only at this time that it shows its due role.
The treatment of Xu Chen's family and some other people involved in the case will come out soon.
The result of the Xu family was not beyond everyone's expectations. Almost all families were killed. Only the children under the age of eight survived, but they were exiled to Lingnan.
The concubine Xian deposed her title and bestowed her death.
However, the treatment of the Chen family was much better than that of the Xu family. At least no one died, but all the male members of the Chen family were dismissed from office and returned to their original places.
Most outsiders thought that it was because Chen Jian, the former chief assistant, dragged his old and disabled body from his hometown of Shanxi to the capital to plead for mercy. In fact, only a few people knew that the reason why the Chen family was not dead was because of Pan'er's face.
After all, there is a blood relationship. If the Chen family is punished because of Pan'er's family, people nowadays still pay attention to accumulating virtue and blessings, so it should be regarded as accumulating virtue for Pan'er.
It is worth mentioning that the Chen family made a joke after the accident, which caused people in Beijing to discuss it for a long time.
After the incident, the men of the Chen family didn't say anything, but the women made a fuss. In order to clarify the relationship with Queen Chen, the eldest wife of the Chen family, Mrs. Zhao, specially took out the genealogy of the Chen family and said a lot A few years ago, the other houses of the Chen family were separated from the second house, but the house was not separated.
For this reason, he did not hesitate to use Chen Pingwu's title to talk about it, but unfortunately no one paid attention to her, but it only added to the jokes.
So old and aging Chen Jian couldn't help but burst into tears after pleading for mercy to no avail, and deeply regretted that the Chen family should have been completely separated in the first place, and so many things would not have happened.
When people encounter disasters, they always come up with what-ifs, but Chen Jian didn't think about it at all. Even if the Chen family was completely separated at that time, it was just a formality. Being involved in the vortex of fighting for the crown prince was doomed from the time when the Chen family decided to send Chen Yan to the palace as the crown princess.
At this time, how did he know that this incident did not happen in the last life, and he did not live for so long. Naturally, he did not see the Chen family in Shanxi in the previous life meddling in the matter of seizing the heir, so that he did not even have the foundation of Shanxi. Save.
This life is much better than the previous life. At least the foundation of Shanxi is still there. It is too strict not to be an official for three generations. That's another story.
Naturally, Empress Chen's fate was also not good. She went crazy on the spot when the abolished imperial edict was read out at Kunning Palace.
It's crazy.
Zong Cong asked the imperial physician to go for a consultation, and the imperial physician said that he was insane because of a huge stimulus.
It might be fine, but it might be the same forever.
After the First Emperor Dragon Yubintian, some elderly concubines have passed away one after another in these years, so the West Sixth Palace is also quite vacant.
However, Zong Cong only had such a few concubines in total, and he didn't think about moving the palace to fill in. Now that Empress Chen has become like this, she naturally needs a place to settle her, so Zong Cong ordered people to move the most marginal Xianfu. The palace was collected and picked up for the empress to live in.
Fu Chun was still by the side of the abolished empress, and the servants of Kunning Palace were more or less implicated after this incident, cronies like Fu Chun all went to the Punishment Department, and the others also scattered dead dead.
According to Fuchun's injuries at the time, it would take a while to heal, but when she heard that the empress was crazy, she returned to serve by the abandoned empress regardless of her illness, which was considered a master-servant relationship.
But whenever the hall is silent and only the empress murmurs that she is the queen appointed by His Majesty, Fu Chun looks at the warm sun shining in from the window, and always thinks back to the time when they were there in spring, summer, autumn and winter.
Now she is the only one left.
And she was left with only her mother.
Naturally, Wan Shu and Zong Duo were also involved in this matter.
Especially Wanshu, since her marriage was fixed, she has lost all her energy, and she also knows that no matter whether Song Ming is promising or not in the future, whether she is a wimp or not, her husband can only be him.
The honor and disgrace of a woman, besides her son, is her husband. It doesn't matter if she is the princess of the Great Zhou Dynasty, if she has such a person, her whole life will be ruined.
Because of this mentality, she didn't pay too much attention to what happened outside.
Except that she showed her face after the royal concubine was grounded, but before Zong Duo was crowned prince, she said that after mobilizing her mother, she would find a way to annul her marriage, and Su Hai came back.
After that, there was a big storm, but what she didn't expect was that the queen mother would be involved in it.
It shouldn't be a surprise, should it
If she still has the mentality she had before, she should be able to discover it based on how well she knows the queen mother.
But what happens after you find out
Will she discourage the queen mother, or support her
Wan Shu is too aware of her character, she is too similar to her mother's character, so the result will not change in any way. However, as a daughter, she still had to fulfill her due responsibilities, so she went to the Qianqing Palace to intercede, and even knelt down, and Zong Duo also went.
But the father did not change his mind except to have them all sent away.
After that, the two of them didn't go again, Zong Duo was ashamed to go, and Wan Shu understood that the matter had reached such a point that there was no room for change, they could only accept it.
Afterwards, the two knew that the father and the queen had placed the queen in the Xianfu Palace, except that they were not allowed to go out of the palace, and no one was allowed to visit them. Food and clothing were still treated as concubines.
Later, the two begged Zong Cong to see Empress Chen, and saw that although she was mentally disturbed, her physical condition was not bad. Fu Chun also took care of her carefully, but she gradually felt relieved.
If you don't mention it, just when the palace was full of commotion about the abolition of the empress, the Su family also came out of Dali Temple.
He walked out of the door dignifiedly.
Su Hai had already arranged everything in the mansion, sprinkled salt over the brazier and bathed with mugwort leaves, all arranged in accordance with the local customs of Yangzhou to remove bad luck. In the past, every time Su Hai caused trouble outside, Yao Jinzhi would do this to make him feel bad luck.
So when Yao Jinzhi passed the brazier placed in the middle of the gate, he couldn't help but slapped his son: "You kid still remember this..." As he spoke, he started crying again and fell on Su Hai's shoulder.
Although Su Hai didn't speak, there was water in his eyes.
No matter how big the storm is, it will fade away with the passage of time.
Although there are two empresses missing in the palace, life is still easy, isn't it? It was because of this incident that the other concubines were very quiet. Even Concubine Li, who has always been high-profile, has kept a low profile recently, like an invisible person, never going out of the palace if it is not unnecessary.
The Kunning Palace is empty, but the country cannot live without a queen.
But because Zong Cong's actions in the court recently were quite big, it really caused everyone to feel insecure, so that no one dared to mention this matter.
Zong Cong endured it for a few days, but Pan'er looked all right.
In the end, he couldn't bear it anymore, and asked Pan'er if he wanted to be a queen.
In fact, Pan'er knew what Zong Cong was muttering recently, without him, there have been many similar speculations in the palace recently. For example, after Empress Chen was abolished, who will be the next successor, whether His Majesty will re-elect a queen from outside the palace, or restore the imperial concubine to the right.
No one objected to this, and they all felt that the imperial concubine must have been righted.
Including the Queen Mother, Pan'er went to pay her respects in the past few days, and looked at her with meaningful eyes.
The meaning seems to be saying, okay, don't pretend, did the emperor tell you a long time ago, why didn't you look happy at all, instead you seemed to be okay
The same is true for Concubine Hu Shu, who just had to say congratulations to Pan'er.
Little did he know that Pan'er was struggling in his heart.
Queen
Things that she never dared to think about in her two lifetimes, Empress Chen has always been pressing on her head like a mountain. I dare not dream that I will become a queen one day.
Now the queen's throne is within easy reach, and even before she dares to think about it, everyone thinks it should be her.
She was really in a complicated mood, so when Zong Cong muttered, she couldn't say anything.
I thought in my heart that it would be better for him to explain clearly earlier, but I was also afraid that he would explain clearly, how should she respond then, I didn't expect to come so soon.
So she was a little dazed.
"What? Don't you want to be my queen?" Seeing her expression, Zong Cong couldn't help but glance at her and asked.
"It's not that I don't want to, it's just..."
"What is it?"
"I'm just a little confused." Pan'er showed a smile that was not a joke, "I always feel that the queen's position is too high. Is it a little out of reach for me to sit on it?"
"It's out of reach, what's out of reach?" Zong Cong frowned, not knowing what she was thinking.
"You think, the empress wants to be a mother to the world. If the women in the world lead by example, I always feel that I may not be able to do it well." She said a little nervously, really nervous. Apart from being complicated, she is just nervous these days.
The queen is embarrassed.
She watched it for two lifetimes, and naturally understood the difficulty.
"You haven't done it before, how do you know you can't do it well?"
"But what if the ministers don't agree, what if the queen mother doesn't agree?"
Zong Cong looked at her meaningfully, and laughed a little: "Let me see, you are the one-in-a-kind alternative. Others are overjoyed when they know that you can be a queen, but you make yourself a problem. Ministers I will not disagree, and the Queen Mother will not disagree."
Because of the previous incident, how many people feel sorry for the Su family, don't underestimate this thought, maybe Zong Cong will not be able to guarantee it after a while, but now if he proposes to make the imperial concubine the queen, there will never be one. The minister objected.
As for the queen mother, let alone, the queen mother has already hinted at him many times, asking him what he thinks.
She also understands these reasons, but she still holds onto that possibility. When discussing with Zong Cong, she should first ask the ministers what they think, anyway, she is not in a hurry for a while.
Zong Cong understood that she was uneasy, but he didn't refute her. Anyway, it was a process to go, so he simply agreed with her.
On the other side, after the Su family returned home, they took a rest.
Although Su Hai can walk upright now, his injuries are still not fully healed, so he can only continue to recuperate at home.
It's just that what he didn't expect was that his mother threw him a bolt from the blue, saying that she had arranged for him a daughter-in-law, and it had been delayed for so long, so it's better to get married while the time is right.