Chapter 145
On the second day, the letter of impeachment from the officials against the police battalion and King Li’s incompetence flew to the Emperor’s desk like snowflakes.
The emperor knew that this matter could not be closed by closed-door meditation, but he always had some doubts in his mind, and he wanted to wait for Zhou Xian Yang to return before making a decision.
The Marquis of Yongan was also “sick” and pleaded for his second son, Zhang Qing, in the Great Hall.
His Majesty was still not angry with the old Marquis, but only said, “I don’t expect my children and grandchildren to be good at what they do. After all, they are your own children, and you can only support them even if they make mistakes.”
These words have a deep meaning.
People in the court speculated and said that His Majesty was a kind and benevolent ruler who remembered the past.
His Majesty then added the title of Prince to King Qing’s title, giving him the Seven Jeweled Crown for his service in defending Kyoto.
By now, King Qing’s status had become as honorable as that of King Li.
Considering that King Li is the adopted son of the Empress, while King Qing is the son of the Imperial Concubine, the people in the court are even more uncertain about who the future Crown Prince will be.
The thrill of that night at Yuhuang’s residence is not mentioned by the Duke of England and the other three.
It is rumored that the Yuhang Mansion’s turmoil that night was due to the banditry.
Early this morning, the person in charge of purchasing at the Yuhang Mansion comes back from outside and says, “Recently, the capital is not at peace. That night, not only did the bandits cause trouble, but the flower boat on the Fenxian Pond also caught fire, and they said that the drama cloud from the Descending Cloud Cuisine fell into the water, but it was never fished out. It was not until this morning that a woman’s body was recovered.”
When these words reached Rong Xiangmian’s ears, his face turned a little white.
King Yu said that he would arrange for someone to rescue Yu Xiangyi and told her not to worry about it. What was the matter with that female corpse?
When Zhou Xian Yang returned to the capital, he went straight to the palace to resume his orders to the emperor.
The strike has been found to be due to corruption and fraud on the part of the examiners. The emperor was furious, punished severely, named the State Prison lecturer, the state dynasty candidates in the high reputation of the Ministry of Rites Wang Coronation personally as the examiner, went to take charge of, so that the candidates to rest assured to wait for the examination.
A local examination, so important, the candidates let go.
The emperor praised Zhou Xian Yang for doing a good job and rewarded him on the spot. Seeing that he was so dusty, he wanted him to go home and rest first. But he was the first to ask about Yu Xiangyi.
“Father has a lot of work to do, I wonder if there is time for someone to investigate the matter of Descending Clouds Xuan?”
The Emperor looked at him with an expectant face and was quite unable to bear it, but in the end, he let Duan Fei speak for him.
Chief Duan has a sad face, “Your Highness, that play cloud girl, fell into the water at the Phoenix Fairy Pond, has drowned.”
Zhou Xian Yang looks disbelieving, “What?”
Duan Fei sighed, “My humble servant went to see it with my own eyes. The body was soaked beyond recognition, but the attire was identified by the people from the Descending Cloud Xuan, and it was indeed the clothes of the Playing Cloud. Moreover, that female corpse …… foot is six toes.”
The emperor inadvertently sighed.
He still remembered that when Xian Yang was a child, he didn’t know any better and often mocked this cousin as a monster with six toes.
Yu had punished him for this not once or twice.
When Zhou Xian Yang heard this, he was so shocked that his face turned pale, “That woman …… is really her?”
The emperor mused, “Six toes are rare in this world, they look alike and wear the same clothes, how can there be so many coincidences?”
Zhou Xian Yang was silent for a moment, and laughed out bitterly: “If I had known it was like this, I would have preferred her to die in exile with her parents in the first place, or better than to suffer so many years of pain and abuse | insults, and in the end ended up with such an end!”
The emperor also thought the same way. Although the heart angry Yu family dared to exile in the land, hide the sea, but Yu Xiangyi a small child family, now people are gone, also have no intention to care.
He squarely said: “Yu family in the peace talks when the foreigners, I give them exile has been extraordinarily generous. Yu Chang couldn’t stand the pain of exile and killed himself in Mohe, which was his own choice. Yang Xian, they are not worthy of asking me for grace.”
Zhou Xianyang shook his head, “I don’t dare to ask my father for forgiveness, but I just don’t want to see Xiangyi fall into prostitution. Now that the person is gone, I have nothing to say. But I am puzzled, if I hadn’t found her, would she have died so quickly?”
The emperor’s complexion changed slightly, “You think her death was not an accident?”
“My son just thinks it’s too much of a coincidence. Yu Xiangyi managed to escape from exile with great difficulty, so why was she sold to Jinling. There were quite a few people who had seen her in Jinling, wasn’t it obvious that she was going to be discovered? She had a chance to get out of there, but she gave her life after I left the capital. If I had known, my son should not have gone to the Descending Cloud Xuan, it was me who killed her!”
The Emperor saw that he looked self-condemning and advised him twice, and Zhou Xian Yang steeled himself and asked Duan Fei again, “Where are her bones now? I want to buy her a piece of land and bury it.”
Duan Fei quietly glanced at the Emperor’s expression before saying, “It’s already buried in the Western Mountains, Your Highness need not worry.”
Only then did Zhou Xian Yang give up and quit the Emperor, going to greet the Empress Dowager, Empress and Imperial Consort.
Looking at his son’s departing back, the Emperor asked Duan Fei, “What do you think, the way Xian Yang looked just now, was it real, or was he faking it?”
Duan Fei weighs his words, “Forgive my poor eyesight, just now, His Highness clearly looked shocked, sad, and blaming himself.”
“He’s quite affectionate towards the Yu Family.”
“I feel that if His Highness is calm and collected, it would be abnormal. After all, they are relatives and grew up together in Kun Ning Palace as children. Now that you know that the other person is back from the dead, and before you have a chance to recognize each other, they are dead again, this ups and downs, how can you be calm ah?”
The emperor sighed deeply.
When Empress Yu received her niece to live permanently in the palace, the Emperor guessed in his heart that she was trying to pave the way for Yang Xian’s future marriage.
The Yu family already had her as the Empress, Empress Yu especially did not know enough and wanted Yu Xiangyi to be able to become the next generation of Empress, this was the reason why the Emperor could not tolerate and did not forgive Yu Xiangyi.
This is the reason why the emperor could not tolerate and did not forgive Yu Xiangyi. Now this child, really no, no strange, he had a little pity.
Zhou Xian Yang entered Ci Ning Palace, and just outside the main hall, he heard the Empress Dowager lashing out inside, rebuking the Empress in front of the Imperial Consort. The palace staff outside did not dare to come out of the atmosphere, and did not inform him that he had come.
Only to hear the Empress Dowager in full voice: “The Harem shall not interfere in politics, the Empress is to forget all these things? I and the emperor pitied you for not being able to give birth to a child, and put the oldest three in your lap to raise, but in the end, this is how you teach your children? If not for King Qing and General Xiao Rong that day, if the Emperor’s safety had been in danger, your life would still be in jeopardy! Now you still have the face to take advantage of the emperor’s birthday to ask me to go and speak to the emperor?”
The Empress was spoken to severely and held her breath. When she left the palace, she saw Zhou Xianyang and sneered, “Don’t be complacent, the best is yet to come!”
Zhou Xian Yang was so confused that he went in to ask for peace and listened to the Empress Dowager and the Royal Consort’s description before realizing that so many things had happened that night.
After dining with the Empress Dowager, Zhou Xianyang returned to the Chongzheng Hall to see His Majesty.
The Emperor thought that he had heard the news in the harem and was coming to request that King Li be held accountable, but he didn’t expect him to open his mouth and say, “I ask Father’s permission to allow my son to move his family to Qinzhou.”
“What are you babbling about?” The Emperor looked displeased.
Zhou Xian Yang’s anger was hard to quell, “Father, Qinzhou is my son’s home, and although it’s hard, I’m willing to go and guard the border gates for my father, so I can at least live a peaceful life.”
“You don’t want to stay in Jinling?”
“Jinling city’s treacherous clouds, my son is really already tired and weary, the royal consort has also been repeatedly implicated, and the peace and divorce has not been allowed. My son is afraid of the future, and if I want to take the Wangfei to Qinzhou to spend a few days in peace, I don’t even have that chance.”
The emperor rebuked in a bad mood, “The empress dowager is already advanced in years, it was not easy to bring you back, do you have any filial piety?”
Zhou Xian Yang was speechless.
The Emperor walked to the center of the hall and consoled, “I know that you have been wronged. Your third brother made a big mistake, what do you think should be done about it?”
Zhou Xian Yang coldly said, “I want him to make amends and apologize to Princess Yu in public.”
“Make amends and apologize?” The Emperor couldn’t believe it, “This is your disposition?”
“Disposing of him is Father’s holy decision, which does not allow my son to have any say. My son only needs him to pay back the grievances that Wangfei has suffered.”
The Emperor was noncommittal: “I intend to cut off his title of Prince and demote him to County King, what do you think?”
Zhou Xian Yang lowered his eyes, “But let father make the decision, anyway, no matter if he is a Prince or a County King, he will have to give thanks to the Wangfei in public!”
The Emperor took a deep breath, “I have it in my mind that I will let him apologize to Princess Yu in person.”
Only then did Zhou Xian Yang calm his anger a little and added, “Just now, at Ci Ning Palace, I had a fight with Empress Dowager. She said for me not to be complacent, the best is yet to come. Father, I didn’t know that the original Empress hated me so much that she didn’t even bother to save face. In the future, I don’t know how many more cold shots and dark arrows I have to guard against.”
The emperor waved his hand, “She has this temper, don’t get serious with her. She raised Hsien Han, so she can’t help but be concerned. Although she is in a momentary rush and has sharp teeth, she can’t do anything bad.”
“Is that so?” Zhou Xian Yang looked at his father indifferently, experiencing what happened to the crown princess in Shoukang Palace, how could he still say such words.
The Emperor finished before snapping to mind this section, and was unexpectedly dumbfounded by the question.
“What is Empress Dowager doing giving side consorts to my son and fifth brother for a good reason?”
On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, the Empress Dowager had reminded the Emperor that the Empress had given side consorts to several of the imperial residences, and seemed to have ulterior motives.
Seeing the Emperor’s hesitation, Zhou Xian Yang immediately bowed and pleaded, “Father, in the Harem, the women’s rivalry is no less tragic than in the court. I do not wish for my own home to become like this, and only want a wife to accompany me for the rest of my life and simply live out my days.”
The Emperor condescendingly scrutinized the incomparably serious figure of Xian Yang, seemingly hard to believe, “You mean you don’t want any side consorts, not a single one?”
“Yes, my son does not want to disobey my father and the Empress’s good intentions, but my son wants a clean home, please father fulfillment.”
In the Chongzheng Hall, it was quiet for a long time. Finally, the emperor sighed, “That’s all, the girls of the Wu family, I will follow your request and give them marriages to the two generals of Qinzhou.”
“Thank you father for your understanding.”
“It’s just that in the future, if the Empress Dowager wants to give someone to your mansion, are you going to refuse as well?”
Zhou Xian Yang said, “I will try my best to convince the Empress Dowager.”
“How will you convince? Unless the crown princess can give you an heir soon, the Empress Dowager will never let your backyard go cold.”
“Father, my son’s heir has nothing to do with the kingdom, so how much does it matter? It’s fine to be like Uncle Jin.”
“Nonsense!” The Emperor was a bit angry, “How many times have I told you not to learn from your seventh uncle.”
Zhou Xian Yang immediately bowed his head and admitted his mistake. The emperor lectured him again, but then, thinking that he had been traveling for a long time, he finally lost his temper and advised him, “You can just do your work without worrying about anything, and you’ve done a good job on your previous errands, which both your father and the entire court have seen. When you become a father in the future, I will still give you the title of Prince.”
The title of Prince?
Zhou Xian Yang did not respond with the expected gratitude, but instead looked puzzled.
The Emperor really had no idea what to do with this son, “What? I’m going to make you a Prince, and you don’t know how to thank me?”
Zhou Xian Yang hesitantly asked, “Why does father think so highly of my son? You don’t mind at all and don’t blame me? When Yu did something as treacherous as that, it was ultimately for me.”
From his son’s eyes, the emperor seemed to see the scene of Empress Yu’s bitter plea back then.
She knelt down in the hall of Kun Ning Palace and cried bitterly, “Your Majesty does not believe in my concubine, I have nothing to say, I am willing to bear all the chastisement. But please, Your Majesty, do not take it out on Xian Yang, he is innocent.”
The Emperor was out of his mind for a while, and when he realized how careful Xian Yang was, he suddenly felt a hint of sadness in his heart.
“A man’s son builds up his career, regardless of his birth. You are my son, and I will naturally treat you like the rest of your brothers, and will never be partial.”
Only then did Zhou Xian Yang let out a sigh of relief and thanked the emperor for leaving the palace.
From the Emperor’s brief moment of disorientation just now, he became more and more certain of what he had been laboring over for so many years.
Why did the Emperor refuse to believe the Empress Mother at all?
In fact, he already knew, but didn’t care.
After Zhou Xianyang left the palace, the emperor sent someone to Chengqian Palace to pass the order, the Wu family girl to the two unmarried Qinzhou garrison generals, as a means of pacifying the border guards.
Then he went to talk to the Empress Dowager in detail.
The Empress Dowager listened to the Emperor’s retelling of Xian Yang’s words and was overcome with grief.
“What happened to Yu is too great a blow to Xian Yang. Turning the good and well-behaved grandson of the mourning family into this ……”
The Empress Dowager wiped her tears and was quite resentful of the Emperor, adding, “Since he thinks this way, let’s just let him be for now. They are still young, if Consort Yu can give him a few children, it will be just that.”