"Who said that?" Prince An was confused by Prince Chen's question. "My mother told me. Is there anything wrong with this?"
Although there was a little accident, the scenery here is still nice.
Princess An and Jiuzhu turned their heads to look at him. Prince Chen's expression was also intriguing: "Concubine Lu has lived in the deep palace for a long time, how did she know that the flowers here are in full bloom?"
Princess An realized that something was wrong. Seeing that her prince was still unaware of the seriousness of the matter, she quickly said, "Fifth brother, my prince has always been a confused person. Why don't we go back to the palace and ask mother?"
"Second sister-in-law is right." Prince Chen nodded, glanced at the head of the noble family who was blocked by the dragon guards and could no longer howl, waved his hand to call a dragon guard and whispered a few words to him.
"Ming Xiaozhu, let's go back to the palace." Prince Chen turned to look at Jiuzhu, and saw that her eyes fell on the girls holding the wine. He whispered in her ear: "Don't worry, the prefect of Jingzhao Prefecture is a good official who enforces the law impartially, and he comes from a humble family, so he won't favor the aristocratic families."
"I know." When she walked on the streets of the capital for the first time, she knew that this was a peaceful and prosperous time.
But even in prosperous times, there are still people who live a hard life.
Fortunately, someone can give them justice.
She suddenly understood why her father and two uncles were unwilling to submit to the foolish man even though their entire families were exiled.
I wish to assist a wise ruler and protect the peace of all people in the world.
When she first met her family, her parents felt very guilty about her. But she knew that even if they had the chance to do it all over again, they would still make the same choice.
But she doesn't complain.
Only when there are more officials like my father and uncle can the people of the world have a peaceful and tranquil life.
"Your Highness." She placed her hand in the palm of Prince Chen's hand: "Father, you are a very good emperor."
Prince Chen was stunned for a moment, then smiled: "You are right, but you forgot one sentence."
"What less?"
"Yun Duqing is a very good prince."
"Yes." Jiuzhu nodded: "Your Highness is a very good prince."
Yu Jian led the Jinwu Guards up the mountain, followed by two doctors carrying medicine boxes.
"These noble families went to such a high mountain just to drink tea and have a glass of wine. Now they have been assassinated and it takes a lot of effort to carry them down the mountain." Jinwu Guard Jia asked his companions: "More than a year ago, the scholar who was ridiculed by the King of Chen in the street seemed to be from a noble family?"
It seems that the dispute was caused by a student from a noble family who mocked a military commander. Things got so serious later that the Jinwu Guards were afraid of a fight, so they sent two teams over. As a result, when they arrived at the scene, the generals did not fight with the guards of the aristocratic families. Instead, the Prince of Chen rode on a tall white horse and mocked the students of the aristocratic families with sharp words, making them look humiliated.
From then on, the reputation of Prince Chen, who already had a bad reputation among scholars and literati, became even worse.
"I remember this. We rushed there together." Jinwu Wei Yi became excited: "Those students from aristocratic families are good at speaking. If it weren't for Prince Chen, those generals would definitely suffer."
"Wait, the person coming down from the front... seems to be the King of Chen?" Jinwu Guard Jia looked at the group of people coming down the mountain, half-squinting his eyes and carefully looked at them for several times: "It really is the King of Chen."
Yu Jian stopped and had only one thought in his mind: how come they met again.
"Greetings to His Royal Highness Prince An, greetings to His Royal Highness Prince Chen, and greetings to the two princesses." Yu Jian saluted with a fist.
"You've come just in time." Seeing Yu Jian, Prince Chen was not surprised at all. He pointed to the mountain and said, "Imprison all the family heads on the mountain."
"All?" Yu Jian hesitated. "Your Highness, do you mean to take everything to Jingzhao Prefecture?"
"Investigate first, and then release those who can prove their innocence."
"Fifth brother." Prince An pulled Prince Chen's sleeve and whispered, "That Du Qingke has a good reputation among the literati, and he is also the uncle of the third brother's wife. Would it be troublesome if we bring him to Jingzhao Prefecture?"
Although he always knew that his fifth brother was very courageous, he never expected that he was so courageous.
"If he is innocent, Jingzhao Prefecture will naturally let him go. If he is guilty, it doesn't matter who he is." Prince Chen said: "Second brother, don't worry. If the third sister-in-law has any objections, let her come to me."
As for whether to give her face or not, that is his business.
"That's not the way to say it. Since we both came out together, we should share the responsibility." Prince An thought of those poor wine girls and remembered that he still had to curry favor with someone. He gritted his teeth and said, "You are right. No matter who he is, whether he is guilty or not, the government has the final say."
Prince Chen turned his head and looked at him with a smile on his face.
"Second brother is so heroic."
Prince An smiled firmly, but his smile was a little bitter.
It doesn’t matter whether he is heroic or not. What matters is that things have come to this point and he can’t just turn a blind eye to it.
The Jinwu Guards rushed to the mountain. The two doctors looked at the head of the noble family who had fainted from the pain and had a hairpin tied around his neck, and shook their heads at each other.
"Young General." The doctor bowed to Yu Jian and said, "This injury is extremely serious. I'm afraid this lord is in great danger."
"Doctors, please do your best to treat him and try to save his life." Yu Jian did not have much good feelings towards this descendant of aristocratic family who was addicted to alcohol and sex and bullied the common people. If he wasn't worried that this man was dead now and the wine-serving girl who stabbed him would lose her life, he wouldn't want to bother with this beast in human clothing at all.
"Sir Du, please come with me." Yu Jian walked to Du Qingke and clasped his fists to him.
"Who gave you the courage to arrest me?" Du Qingke looked at the young sixth-rank Jinwu Guard general and put his hands behind his back. "My servants assassinated an official of the imperial court, and you ignored them and came to find fault with me instead?"
"I am only following the law. I hope Lord Du will understand." Yu Jian touched the shackles around his waist, and the shackles made a clanging sound. "Lord Du is kind and righteous. I really don't want to use other means to take you to Jingzhao Prefecture."
Du Qingke sneered: "Then let's go."
A small Jinwu Guard is so bold, he must have someone backing him up.
Who is it?
Could it be... Prince Chen?
Lu Zhaoyi was hiding in the house eating a folk snack that didn't smell good but tasted delicious. When she heard her son asking to see her, she quickly asked the palace maid to take the snack away, rinsed her mouth, and washed her hands.
"Light up the incense too." Concubine Lu thought of the incense that Concubine Wei sent her a few days ago: "The incense that Concubine Wei sent smells pretty good."
As soon as Jiuzhu walked into the main hall where Concubine Lu lived, she started sneezing continuously because of the incense. Prince Chen quickly covered her mouth and nose with his sleeves and helped her out: "Lü Zhaoyi, my princess cannot smell incense, please remove the incense."
"Quick, quick, take away the incense burner and open all the windows." Concubine Lu was in a panic. After the smell of incense in the room had dissipated, she invited Prince Chen and his wife back into the house: "Is the princess feeling better now?"
"Thank you, my queen. I'm sorry to bother you." Jiuzhu smelled a faint, strange smell in the room.
"Everyone, please take your seats. Don't stand." Concubine Lu secretly glared at her son. She invited Prince Chen to come along without telling him in advance. What a useless guy.
"Mother, my daughter-in-law just bought some little gadgets outside the palace. Take a look and see if you like them." Princess An approached Concubine Lu with a smile on her face. She coaxed her with a few words and soon forgot about her son.
"Luckily, mother told us that the scenery over there is beautiful, otherwise we would not be able to enjoy such a beautiful scenery." Princess An brought the tea to Concubine Lu: "Mother is so amazing, she knows the beautiful scenery of the capital without leaving the palace."
"How could I know all this?" Concubine Lu took the tea and drank it, then explained with a smile, "A few days ago, Concubine Xu was not feeling well. When Concubine Wei and I went to visit her, we heard about it from someone in Concubine Xu's palace."
"So it was someone in the palace who said that." Princess An turned her head and glanced at Prince An: "How is Concubine Xu's health?"
"It's still the same. She has been bedridden for many years. Fortunately, the Queen Mother loves her and has been taking good care of her with good medicine. Although her spirits are not very good, her life is not in danger." Speaking of this, Lu Zhaoyi smiled at Prince Chen and Jiuzhu: "Over the years, the Queen Mother has always been good to us. If it were someone else, our lives would definitely not be so comfortable and relaxed."
Half of these words were meant to flatter the Queen in front of Prince Chen, and the other half came from the heart.
More importantly, she had done something wrong in the palace back then, and had been feeling guilty all these years, so she didn't dare to get close to His Majesty.
"I will take my leave first so as not to disturb the happiness of Her Majesty and Second Brother." Prince Chen stood up and said goodbye.
"Please stay for lunch before leaving." Lu Zhaoyi politely tried to persuade him to stay.
"Okay, thank you for the hospitality, Your Majesty." Jiuzhu agreed on the spot.
Prince Chen looked at her in confusion, without asking her why, and sat back down.
Lu Zhaoyi was slightly stunned. Wasn't this just a polite remark? Why did someone take it seriously?
"It is my honor to have you two dine in my place." Lu Zhaoyi quickly recovered and arranged for people to go to the small kitchen to prepare meals.
I was very confused. The Prince of Chen never dine with other concubines in the palace. What happened today?
Prince An was very excited. Did the fact that his fifth brother was willing to dine with his mother's family mean that he had succeeded in currying favor with her?
"You young people, sit together and talk for a while. I'm going back to my room to change my clothes." Lu Zhaoyi supported the hand of the palace maid, stood up and left the main hall. The smile on her face disappeared. She turned around and asked the eunuch who accompanied Prince An: "What happened when the prince went out today?"
I went out specially to enjoy the scenery, but ended up returning to the palace before noon. Something must have happened.
The eunuch looked back at the main hall and whispered to Concubine Lu the whole story.
"It's not surprising that those aristocratic families would do such things." Concubine Lu's tone was filled with undisguised disgust for the aristocratic families: "When the late emperor was alive, the aristocratic families were much more ostentatious than they are now. I thought that after Your Majesty ascended the throne, they had learned to be low-key, but it seems that they haven't learned it well enough."
The eunuch whispered, "Princess Jing's uncle was also taken to Jingzhao Prefecture. This was... the intention of His Highness and His Highness Prince Chen."
Lu Zhaoyi was silent for a moment, then said, "My son did a good job."
Over the years, mother and son have never been involved in the affairs of the previous dynasty and the harem, just because they don't want to repeat the mistakes of the last years of Xian De. It doesn't mean that they are weak and can be bullied.
"The order has been given. If Princess Jing has any complaints, I will bear the responsibility." Concubine Lu glanced at the eunuch who looked a little uneasy. "Besides, we have Prince Chen to support us. What is there to be afraid of?"
"Second sister-in-law." After Consort Lü left, Jiuzhu said to Princess An, "The incense in Consort Zhaoyi's palace smells a little strange."
“Yes, is that so?” Princess An was embarrassed to tell Jiuzhu that her mother had the habit of secretly eating folk snacks in private, so she answered casually: “Thank you for your reminder, sister-in-law. I will ask the imperial physician to come over and check the incense.”
Prince An didn't know his mother's private hobby. When he heard Jiuzhu say this, he was so frightened that his face changed. He quickly sent someone to invite the imperial physician who was good at pharmacology.
"When I entered the palace just now, I also felt that the smell of the incense was not right." Prince An whispered to his princess: "Did someone tamper with the incense?"
Princess An's face was frozen from smiling. There was no trick at all. It was just that her mother had eaten secretly and didn't have time for the smell to dissipate.
As for why she knew it so clearly, it was simply because the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law had the same aspirations and liked to hide away and eat together.
The imperial physician rushed over and paused slightly when he saw Prince Chen and Princess Chen were also there.
Last time, there was a problem with Concubine Zhang's sachet, and when he went to check it, these two seemed to be there too.
What kind of fate is this?
"Your Highness, don't worry. There won't be any big problems with these incense sticks." Princess An saw that her husband's face had changed with worry, and she comforted him, "Maybe the queen has changed the incense sticks and you are not used to it..."
"Your Highness, Princess, there is indeed something wrong with this incense." The imperial physician put down the incense and bowed, saying, "It may be a problem with the preparation method. There are two spices in it that counteract each other in pharmacology. If you smell it for a long time, it will weaken your spleen and stomach and make you thin."
"What?" Princess An couldn't help but blurt out, "The taste is wrong. Isn't it because mother secretly ate something?"
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