Chapter 419 The Confrontation between the Emperor and the Queen Mother
The queen understood this and her expression softened a little.
"What if the Queen Mother doesn't want to?"
Seeing that the queen's complexion had improved a little, the emperor felt completely at ease, and his tone became much lighter when he spoke.
"I am the emperor. My decision must be accepted even if the queen mother disagrees."
Hearing the emperor's decisive words, the queen felt completely relieved.
The emperor and Chu Huaixu knew the news, but most of the ministers in the court did not.
Some people are still immersed in the emperor's previous promises.
They felt that as long as they could come up with good ideas, they would definitely please the emperor.
Almost every day, many memorials were submitted to the emperor.
But the emperor threw these memorials out in the same way they were delivered, without even opening them.
As for welcoming the Queen Mother?
Of course we will welcome it.
Just hand it over to the Ministry of Rites and follow the regulations.
No new ideas are needed.
Many people don’t understand why this is the case.
It was clearly the emperor who proposed it, but he changed his mind.
Those who thought hard ended up with nothing.
Although I don't understand it in my heart, I even feel a little aggrieved.
But the person they were facing was the emperor.
You can't just ask the emperor why he's playing tricks on them.
Everyone can only suppress their dissatisfaction and grievances in their hearts.
It was not until mid-September that the Queen Mother finally returned.
On the day of welcoming the Queen Mother, I saw her come out of the carriage with my own eyes.
Seeing with their own eyes that next to the empress dowager stood a young man who looked 80% like the emperor, the officials who had never understood what was going on finally understood.
The Queen Mother is not doing this for the Prince to devote himself to worshipping Buddha!
This is clearly helping the emperor raise his son!
He is a son whom the emperor does not like at all and even does not want to exist!
None of the officials standing here are fools.
They all knew that in order to prevent the monopoly of power by external relatives and to prevent the imperial power from being undermined, the emperor would never allow a girl from the Shen family to enter the palace, let alone allow a prince with Shen family bloodline to be born.
Although I don’t know how the Empress Dowager did it, I can guess that the Emperor must have been plotted against.
No wonder the emperor was looking forward to the empress dowager's return!
At the Mid-Autumn Festival banquet, let them find ways to please the Queen Mother.
But after a few days, the emperor changed his attitude again.
It turns out that the root of everything is here!
The officials looked at the Empress Dowager, then at the young man following her, and their hearts were filled with complicated feelings.
The fact that the Empress Dowager was able to rise to the position of Empress Dowager step by step shows that she was indeed a smart person.
But smart people also have times when they are not so smart and sometimes do wrong things.
And now, this is the most wrong thing the Queen Mother has done.
The Queen Mother didn't care what others thought or looked at her. She led the two people and walked step by step towards the Emperor and Empress.
One of these two people is a young man who looks 80% like the emperor.
The other was a noble lady who resembled the emperor a bit.
The distance was not far, and the Queen Mother and the other two quickly stopped.
The emperor smiled and greeted, "Your Majesty is finally back! I have been waiting for a long time. Your Majesty must be tired after the long journey. Go back and have a good rest. We can discuss other matters later."
If the empress dowager was knowledgeable and sensible, she should be able to understand the emperor's attitude from his words and make the right choice.
But now, although the Empress Dowager heard it, she chose to play dumb.
"Emperor! There's no rush to rest. While everyone is here, I have something to say."
The emperor had a smile on his face, but after hearing the empress dowager's words, his smile faded a little.
"Mother, you're back now. No matter what's going on, there will be plenty of opportunities to talk about it later. Why bother talking about it now? Why not go and rest first? There's still time to talk about it after you've rested well!"
Things have come to this point. If the Empress Dowager still cares about the relationship between mother and son, she will choose to keep silent at this time.
But the Queen Mother showed no sign of shutting up.
Even the look she gave the emperor became a little harsher.
"Emperor! I am your mother after all, and now you have to stop me from saying anything? Do you still take me, your mother, seriously? If I had known you would act like this, I would have stayed in Mount Wutai and not returned. That would have satisfied some people, don't you think?"
The Empress Dowager did not mention anyone by name, but when she spoke at the end, she looked straight at the Queen.
When the people present saw this scene, they all lowered their heads subconsciously and dared not look anymore.
It was already September, and although the sun was still shining brightly, the wind was cool.
In this case, even if you stand in the sun, you won't sweat at all, and it's good enough if you don't feel cold.
But now, everyone who lowered their head was sweating all over.
Even beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.
If possible, they really don't want to stand here. If they can dig a hole and bury themselves, it would be a good choice.
It’s a pity that these can only be thought about in my mind.
The Queen Mother pressed forward aggressively and refused to give in at all.
The emperor had no doubt that if he continued to try to stop her, the empress dowager would say something even more unpleasant.
With a helpless sigh, the emperor could only say, "Since the Queen Mother wants to say it, then go ahead!"
Finally getting what she wanted, the Empress Dowager smiled much more happily this time.
"Don't be nervous, Emperor. This isn't a bad thing. On the contrary, it's a good thing."
"Back then, you and Lirong were both young, and that's when you made the mistake. At the time, Lirong didn't want to embarrass you, and since I was going to Mount Wutai to worship Buddha, she followed me."
"After arriving at Mount Wutai, Lirong fell ill. I thought it was due to fatigue from the long journey, but I never expected that Lirong was actually pregnant."
"I thought that at that time, the Crown Prince was in poor health and you were worried about him. I didn't want you to worry too much, so I didn't tell you about this."
"Over the years, whether it's the Crown Prince or the affairs of the previous dynasty, you've been constantly worried. I'm an old woman, old and not very capable anymore. I can't help you with anything else, so I can only help you take care of Lirong and the child."
"Now, the former dynasty has finally stabilized, the Crown Prince has recovered, and the child has grown up and wants to return to his roots. So, I brought them back with me. Are you happy that your family of three is reunited today?"
The smile on the emperor's face had long since disappeared.
He looked at the Queen Mother calmly, "Mother, you are wrong about one thing."
The Empress Dowager was a little puzzled. "What? Have I ever said anything wrong?"
The emperor reached out and held the queen's hand.
"The Queen and I are husband and wife. The Queen is my wife, and Xu'er is our son, and the Crown Prince. Only the three of us can be called a family.
In the harem, even the Imperial Noble Consort has no right to call me husband and wife, let alone someone without a name or status. My mother is also a legitimate daughter, and she is the Empress Dowager. You cannot make such a mistake in public!"
The empress dowager was smiling brightly just now, but after hearing what the emperor said, her smile disappeared and her eyes were full of anger when she looked at the emperor.
The emperor ignored this and continued, "Don't be angry, mother. I didn't mean to embarrass you. It's just that this matter is so important. If I don't make it clear and it gets out, how will the world view you? I might think that you, as the empress dowager, don't know the difference between high and low. I'm only thinking about your reputation!"
The Empress Dowager gave a forced smile, "In that case, I should thank you!"
"You're joking, mother. You and I are mother and son. It's only natural for us to consider each other. There's no need to say thank you or not."
This time the Empress Dowager was so angry that she laughed.
"Okay! Okay! After not seeing you for so many years, I didn't realize that the Emperor was even more considerate than he was that day! However, since you mentioned status, I'd like to ask you this: Lirong has no status, and neither does your son. For so many years, you've ignored them. Shouldn't you compensate them now?"
"Your Majesty, you are wrong again!" The emperor shook his head and sighed. "If it weren't for Your Majesty, you would have taken them away. And when you sent me letters over the years, you never mentioned their existence. How could I have been so indifferent? It's not that I didn't care, I simply didn't know they existed!"
The Empress Dowager was almost furious.
Why is the existence of this mother and son never mentioned? Doesn’t the emperor know?
Isn't she afraid that the emperor will kill her?
She knows her own son best.
Although it is said that even a tiger won't eat its own cubs, that's because I haven't met a cruel one.
As an emperor, how many people can be not cruel?
But even though I knew these words in my heart, I could not say them out loud no matter what.
The Empress Dowager took a deep breath and suppressed her anger. "I won't say anything else. Just tell me what position you plan to give Li Rong!"
The emperor thought for a moment and said, "Then give it to a noble."
"What?"
The Empress Dowager's face turned dark in an instant.
Her great-niece!
She still gave birth to a healthy prince and raised him up.
In the end, he was only given the position of a nobleman!
Isn’t the emperor slapping her in the face?
Not only did he slap her in the face, but he also slapped the Shen family in the face!
The Empress Dowager's face was as black as the bottom of a pot, and she stared at the Emperor with her eyes wide open.
"Emperor, are you joking with me?"
The Emperor looked at the Empress Dowager in astonishment. "How could you possibly think so? How could I possibly joke with you about such a serious matter in front of all the civil and military officials and the entire harem?"
The more seriously the emperor spoke, the darker the empress dowager's face became.
"No! The position of a noble is too low! Li Rong has a son!"
The emperor thought for a moment and said, "Since the Queen Mother has said so, then for the sake of the Queen Mother and the child, I will give her the title of a concubine!"
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