Wang Jinnian has also followed Emperor Cheng'an for decades, and he is usually deeply trusted.
Although Emperor Cheng'an also felt that Wang Jinnian's words were a bit inappropriate, he really couldn't find fault if he wanted to pick a fault. He could only think that it was Concubine Zhou Xian who died of his son, and he was a bit critical for a while.
In order to appease Concubine Zhou Xian, Emperor Cheng'an also changed someone. He was still the former imperial eunuch beside him, but his identity and status were not as high as Wang Jinnian.
But Wang Jinnian had already accidentally handed over the topic. Cattail is usually smart, and she knew well that what happened to the master should not be known to anyone. Since he said that the master was with the prince, the prince did not refute , she naturally followed the words.
Said that after the master saw the prince, he told her to go back to get things, who knew that she lost her way for some reason, and was trying to find her way back, but she was hit from behind and fainted.
The eunuch who asked the question wanted to be loyal to his duty, and even asked Cattail from different angles. Unfortunately, as long as the words were on the right track, other questions would not be hindered. No matter what, Paner and Cattail only met people around the prince. , You can talk to each other in the blink of an eye.
The matter came to a stalemate, at this time Gao Guifei suddenly said: "I heard people say before that the prince invited Su Liangdi to come over using the excuse of his children, but at that time the young princes of the East Palace were clearly waiting with the empress and concubines. "
Speaking of which, she hesitated for a moment, as if she wanted to say that the prince invited someone as soon as he invited him. Why she made such an excuse made people suspicious. And Concubine Zhou Xian had been struck by the loss of her son for a long time. Seeing that the interrogation of the maid had made no progress, she couldn't help but take this matter as a clue, and immediately looked at the prince with a fierce look.
The prince showed a bit of embarrassment, not too much, just enough for people to see, but not too embarrassing.
He hesitated to speak, but Concubine Zhou Xian seemed to have caught something, and kept asking, Empress Fu scolded her for being disrespectful, and the scene was extremely chaotic for a while.
In the end the prince told the truth.
"I came out alone to drink and saw the moonlight was very beautiful, so I invited someone to invite Su Liangdi to enjoy the moon together. Since there are many people, it's hard to speak clearly, so I made an excuse."
"Appreciating the moon is fair and aboveboard, why make excuses?"
Concubine Gao Guifei saw that the more Concubine Zhou Xian asked, the more shameful she became, and it would be unreasonable to ask any more, so she hurriedly interjected: "Since Concubine Zhou Xian is suspicious, no matter what His Highness the Crown Prince says, she doesn't believe it, so let's call Su Liangdi in and ask."
Concubine Zhou Xian also felt that the prince was too watertight, so she asked someone to pass the plate in.
Not long after, Paner came in.
After entering, she saluted respectfully and greeted her again, but no one called her, and it was Empress Fu who called her.
Concubine Gao smiled and said: "Su Liang Di, don't panic, I just asked you to come here to ask about His Royal Highness asking you to go away before."
"The imperial concubine just asks, and the concubine knows everything."
"Well, I will ask this on behalf of Elder Sister Zhou." Concubine Gao said with a smile, seeing that Concubine Zhou Xian did not object, she said: "His Royal Highness asked you to come over, why?"
"His Royal Highness ordered people to invite concubines to go to enjoy the moon."
"But if I'm not mistaken, the crown prince asked someone to invite you at that time, and it was the third son of the East Palace as an excuse."
Pan'er cautiously raised her head and glanced at Concubine Gao, then she blushed and said timidly: "That's true. I was also very curious when I arrived at the place, but I think it was an excuse made by His Highness. After all, there were many people on the occasion, and the Crown Princess and Hu My sister and the others are also there, I don’t want to let people know.”
According to Pan'er's intentions, the prince pretended to use an excuse not only to not let outsiders know about his tryst with his concubine's room, but also not to let the princess and others know, trying to cover up people's eyes and ears.
In fact, it is not impossible to say that in the past. The crown prince has a noble status and attracts everyone's attention. If he is a little careless, he will be suspected of pampering his concubine and destroying his wife. As for men, it is actually quite normal to have a doting concubine, and it is also quite normal to act behind the back of the main wife and not want her to know that there is a doting concubine.
Look at this Su Liangdi again, she looks beautiful, but her brows are timid and delicate, she is also timid, if she lies in front of so many people, she will definitely not be able to be so calm. Besides, there are so many people present with sparkling eyes, since they didn't see anything, it's true to say... it's true.
Only Concubine Gao Gui and King Qi understood the truth in their hearts, but let alone the crown prince, even this Su Liangdi behaved impeccably. They had arranged everything, and they always thought that even if it didn't work out, the prince would have to take off a layer of skin, but it didn't count that Wang Jinnian, an old man, had an affair with the prince, and dared to collude with the prince in front of his face. The key is that Emperor Cheng Andi didn't feel anything.
Since then, the alarm bells in the hearts of the two of them have been aroused. Yuan saw that the prince did not show himself, and occasionally the king of Qi and the king of Chu made any provocative actions, but he always backed down, but he did not expect him to hide so deeply.
Looking at it now, it doesn't seem to be surprising that this matter cannot be accomplished today.
What Concubine Gao was thinking, Concubine Zhou Xian naturally didn't know, seeing that Concubine Gao stopped asking, she scolded Concubine Gao for running away, but also hated that Concubine Gao must be suspected of King Chu's death. But she can't take care of it now, the prince must be one of the real culprits who killed the king of Chu, she must take the prince off the water to avenge her son.
As for King Qi and Concubine Gao, they are all waiting, and she will not let them go.
"You said that you are admiring the moon, you are admiring the moon, can someone prove it?"
Facing Concubine Zhou Xian's aggressiveness, Pan'er was a little dazed.
"If you don't believe me, you can ask His Highness, and Fulu and the others."
"Is it possible to appreciate the moon for so long?" Concubine Zhou Xian pressed her step by step.
"This—" Pan'er's face turned extremely red, but she stumbled and couldn't speak.
"I asked you something, why didn't you say it?!"
At this time, Fu Tao stood up and spoke.
"Concubine Xian, speaking of it, you are a concubine and the concubine of His Highness the Crown Prince, and I am the uncle of the Crown Prince, so let me just say something based on your status. It is human nature to admire Ai when you are young. Although Your Highness has become a father, you have not yet died. At the level of human desire, he and Su Liangdi are the husband's master and the other is the concubine's room, the two of them are neither having an affair nor having an affair, so why should they tell you everything they have done in private
"Are you interrogating a prisoner, or are you interrogating? Is it possible to interrogate the crown prince as a prisoner? Marquis Zhenyang, don't you care about this matter? Or are you pretending to be ignorant and letting the concubine Xian make such trouble? King Chu When things happen unfortunately, we are also sympathetic, and we can’t help but give in again and again, but don’t take people’s tolerance as a guilty conscience. If you really want to make a fuss, let’s go to the court tomorrow to make a clear distinction. Anyway, this matter has long been human. As we all know, it is just for everyone to discuss the benefit of the crown prince killing his brother, so that this incident happened at the queen mother's birthday banquet!"
Fu Tao's words are concise, but every sentence goes straight to the core.
It is said that Concubine Xian is suspected of extorting a confession, and that Marquis Zhenyang is just pretending to be confused, wanting to watch Concubine Xian make trouble to vent his grievances, and threatens to go to the court to distinguish, so as to prove that he has no suspicion of guilty conscience .
I don't mention how others can tell the difference, anyway, at least Prince Gong, who was temporarily pulled as a witness, is biased towards the crown prince.
Yes, it's not good for the prince to treat him as a good prince. What good will it do him to kill the king of Chu? Even if there is any cleverness in this matter, it must be that others want to plant the crown prince's head, otherwise why did Su Liangdi's court lady faint near the place where King Chu's accident happened
If the prince kills someone, he will clean up the scene and will not leave anything that is not good for him.
Prince Gong didn't know that the incident happened suddenly, the prince had to go forward bravely, the reason why he was not smashed on the spot was because he went fast enough, and it happened that Pan'er was humiliated and brutally killed King Chu Accident. At that time, the time was urgent, so the prince could only take Pan'er and leave quickly. He didn't care about the finishing touch, so there were so many mistakes.
"They are all relatives of the emperor. Why bother to bring such a scandal to the court? You don't have to make those courtiers laugh at you. Concubine Xian, please calm down. What the prince of Jin said is not unreasonable. After all, the prince is a country Chu Jun, it's really inappropriate for you to press him about his private affairs with his concubine like this."
According to his seniority, Prince Gong is the uncle of Emperor Cheng'an, and he is in charge of the clan mansion. Among the royal relatives, he can be regarded as an extremely respected figure. The prince couldn't say anything.
"The emperor's uncle said that if such a thing goes to the court, you are afraid that I will not lose face enough?!" Emperor Cheng'an frowned.
"It's not that the Seventh Prince is still there. The Seventh Prince was awake at the time and called someone over to ask." Prince Gong also... knew that there was no conclusion to this matter, and I was afraid that Concubine Xian and Marquis Zhenyang would not let it go, so he said so.
Emperor Cheng'an nodded and asked someone to call the Seventh Prince over.
Not long after, the little eunuch who went to invite someone came back, and said in a low voice: "Returning to Your Majesty, the Seventh Prince was really frightened, and he hasn't spoken yet, and he is also dull. The Seventh Prince invited an imperial physician to take a look, but because the masters had spoken, they would not let anyone get close to the Seventh Prince, so this matter... "
"This—" Emperor Cheng'an looked around and landed on Prince Gong's face, "Uncle, look at this—"
Prince Gong didn't know that it was because Emperor Cheng'an had fallen out of favor with Empress Fu and Duke Jin's son just now, so he showed a look of staying out of the matter. Normally, he would not respect him as the emperor's uncle so much.
He cast his eyes on the faces of Concubine Xian and Marquis Zhenyang, and pondered: "Let's ask, don't call me up, let Empress Empress and Empress Xian concubine each send one person to follow His Majesty's people to ask questions The Seventh Prince's child is pitiful. He is usually innocent and carefree. No matter what happens, it has nothing to do with this child. It is better not to do too much, lest the late emperor and Taizu emperor will be in the sky. disturbed."
What Prince Gong said was obviously using the Seventh Prince as a metaphor that some people go too far, even a foolish prince would not be spared, be careful to hurt Tianhe.
Everyone else looked gloomy.
Emperor Cheng'an didn't know if he heard it or not, as soon as he heard about the first emperor and the Taizu emperor, he hurriedly put on a serious look, and said solemnly: "What the emperor said is true, I am very sorry for that child Lao Qi. It is also extremely distressing, when you go to ask questions, I will keep some, that is my prince, not a prisoner!"
What Emperor Cheng'an said was a bit meaningful, because he usually hated the Seventh Prince, but now he said this. And this sentence of prisoner also corresponds to what the Prince of Jin said about Concubine Xian. Could it be that His Majesty knew that this matter had nothing to do with the Crown Prince, and used this to mock Concubine Xian
There were only a few people who had this idea, and then the thoughts faded away, because from the beginning to the end, Emperor Cheng'an's behavior didn't seem to show any signs of looking differently at the prince. After the prince arrived, he asked his teacher to ask him to blame, how could he speak for the prince.
The servants went down in response, and the hall fell into silence again, and a maid came up to change tea for everyone. On the contrary, the crown prince and Pan'er have been standing there, but at the moment everyone's thoughts are not on this, and no one cares about it.
After about a quarter of an hour, the person who went to ask questions came back.
Although the Seventh Prince said something useful, it was not detailed. The person who went to ask the question tried his best to get him to speak, but he only mentioned the river lantern and the man in black, and when he mentioned the man in black, he was so frightened that he covered his head and shivered, and couldn't ask any more questions.
The man in black is the assassin
Could it be that the assassin killed the king of Chu
Although everyone knew that the matter was not that simple, because two eunuchs died beside the Seventh Prince, but the matter has developed to this point, and it can only be concluded as an assassin.
It's getting late, it's almost four o'clock, it's almost a night of tossing about this matter.
Emperor Cheng'an stood up, ordered the guards of the Imperial Army to search the entire Xiyuan, and left, which was considered to be a temporary end to this matter.