Chapter 1214 Plan
The emperor knelt on the ground and said, "I know all about a mother's love for her son, just as I love Chengming and Ali."
The Queen Mother had her back to him.
The emperor continued to kneel on the ground and whispered, "Mother, do you know what the fifth brother did after returning to the capital? He instigated a fight between Chengming and Ali. Chengming finally had a child..."
The Queen Mother couldn't help but turn around and spit at him, saying, "Your two sons are fighting, and you're blaming my son. If you hadn't held Ali back from going to his fiefdom, and if you hadn't doted on him too much and given him illusions, how could he have dreamed of that position?"
The Queen Mother couldn't help but point at his nose and scolded him, "I know you've been fed up with your brother for a long time, otherwise you wouldn't have sent Yin Li away so early. When did you start thinking about this? Was it when you secretly went south to Jiannan Road two years ago, or even before that?"
The emperor said nothing.
The empress dowager wanted to say something else, but when she thought of the Ying family and their two children who were still imprisoned in the cold palace, she stopped talking and swallowed back the words that might touch the emperor's bottom line.
She held back her tears and waved her hand, saying, "Go away. I don't want to see you today."
The emperor didn't leave.
The Queen Mother had no intention of chasing him away, so she lay with her back to him. The mother and son, one lying down and the other kneeling, seemed to be in the same world, and yet in two different worlds.
The Queen Mother was originally in good health, but she suffered a series of blows and was old, so she collapsed.
Late at night, she began to breathe rapidly and talk in her sleep. The emperor quickly held her hand, asked the imperial physician to examine her, and gave her medicine. Only then did she get better.
The empress dowager's illness was intermittent, so the emperor handed over state affairs to the crown prince and several ministers including Wei Zhi, and he concentrated on taking care of the empress dowager in the palace.
The third prince wanted to come and take care of the emperor, but was rejected by the emperor, and the queen was not allowed to get close either.
The emperor relented and allowed the Princess of Yizhou to bring the young prince to take care of him. After the empress dowager looked after her little grandson, her condition improved slightly.
For three days straight, the emperor remained in the Empress Dowager's palace, looking much more haggard and his beard barely trimmed. This made the ministers who saw him nervous. Some officials who wanted to impeach the emperor for being unfilial withdrew their memorials and remained silent, intending to discuss state law when the emperor began to plead for the King of Yizhou.
Princess Yizhou handed the medicine to Xinqing and whispered to him, "Give it to the Empress Dowager and be careful."
Xinqing nodded and carefully handed it to the empress dowager.
The Queen Mother took it, drank it in one gulp, then reached out and touched Xinqing's little head, whispering, "Good boy."
Seeing Xinqing flinch, she turned her head and saw that it was the emperor coming in from outside. She put away her smile, handed the medicine bowl to Xinqing, and whispered, "You and your mother should go back and rest first."
Xinqing bowed and stepped back, then kowtowed to the emperor again.
The emperor kindly asked Xinqing to stand up, and was also very calm towards Yingshi. The mother and son carefully retreated.
After the mother and son had walked away, the Queen Mother asked, "Where is the coffin?"
The emperor said quickly, "They should arrive in Beijing tomorrow."
The Queen Mother closed her eyes and asked, "What are you going to do?"
The emperor lowered his eyes and said, "Bury him according to commoner rites."
The Queen Mother glared at the Emperor, then smiled bitterly and said, "You didn't delay at all."
The emperor said, "Mother, he is guilty of treason."
"If you commit treason, three generations of your clan will be executed. Are you going to execute me as well? Don't forget, you are also one of the three generations!" The Queen Mother never believed in any laws or rules. If the world could be governed by laws and rules, why would they want to become emperors and hold power even if it meant breaking their heads?
The Queen Mother was silent for a moment before she said, "It's the rites for commoners, but I want him to be buried with me in the Xian Mausoleum."
That was the tomb of the late emperor, and she would be buried nearby after her death. After the death of the third prince, the late emperor also ordered him to be buried with him in Xianling.
The emperor was silent for a moment before agreeing.
The Queen Mother then brought up the issue that concerned her most, "What about Xinqing and Yunfeng? How do you plan to deal with them?"
The emperor immediately said, "Xinqing is still young. I intend to make him the King of Dizhou. If your mother is reluctant to let him go, you can keep him by your side and raise him. It would be fine if he gets married and has children in the future, and then go to Dizhou."
The Queen Mother was a little dazed for a moment and asked, "Where is Dizhou?"
The emperor said, "It's near Cangzhou, not far from Bohai. My twelfth brother is in Laizhou, which is not far away. From now on, uncle and nephew can take care of each other."
Too far...
But the Queen Mother said nothing. She nodded and leaned back on the pillow. After a while, she said, "Tomorrow, I will send a nanny to pick her up..."
The emperor breathed a sigh of relief and responded in a low voice.
The Queen Mother curled her lips. This was a deal between mother and son. The Emperor would show leniency to Xinqing, and the Queen Mother would not come forward and would not express her position on the rebellion of the King of Yizhou.
Otherwise, if she said in front of others that the emperor's accession to the throne was illegitimate or that there was something fishy about the rebellion of the King of Yizhou, the emperor would be drowned in the saliva of people all over the world, and who knows how long he would be remembered by future generations.
The emperor returned to the Taiji Hall tiredly.
The queen personally helped him take off his outer clothes and asked all the palace staff to leave.
She brought him some hot water to soak his feet. The emperor's feet felt a little painful from being massaged, and he finally came to his senses. He grabbed the queen's hand and pulled her to sit beside him. "Don't bother, I can do it myself."
Seeing his frown, the Queen whispered, "Your Majesty, are you still unwilling to give in? How about I go..."
The emperor shook his head and said, "The Queen Mother has already agreed to send only a maid to check tomorrow."
He squeezed her hand and said, "She has resentment in her heart. You are not in good health, so you should recuperate in the palace for the next few days. Let the Crown Princess go over there."
The Queen gave him a sidelong glance and said, "You seem to care about me, but how do you know Chengming doesn't care about his wife?"
The emperor smiled and said, "You still think you are young. Just let them do this kind of thing. If Chengming feels bad, you can teach him to let the eldest daughter-in-law take the third daughter-in-law and others with her to help her share the burden."
The queen laughed.
The couple laughed for a while, then cuddled together. The queen hugged his arm and said, "Erlang, don't pay too much attention to the comments of the court officials. Right and wrong, merits and demerits should not only be judged by them, but also by the people."
The emperor smiled bitterly and said, "A hundred years from now, I'm afraid I'll become a guilty emperor."
He coughed lightly and said, "What do you say? I should ask the Grand Historian to change some of the records?"
Queen: ...
She laughed and said, "Since the Han Dynasty, historians have loved using the Spring and Autumn Annals method to conceal the mistakes of emperors. But since they concealed them, there are still traces to follow. Why bother causing trouble for future generations?"
The emperor curled his lips, not convinced. He still wanted to have a chat with the Grand Historian.
The Queen didn't force him and continued, "If Your Majesty is bored, why not find some time to leave the palace for a walk? Didn't you say two years ago when you returned from Jiannan Road that what you earn in the palace for three years is not worth what you earn in a month away from the palace?"
The emperor fell silent, thinking back to his journey south to Jiannan Road two years ago, the joys and sorrows he had witnessed along the way. He thought of the disaster victims struggling to survive, and saw their perseverance, sadness, and aspirations...
He pursed his lips, released the Queen's shoulders, and said, "Our Great Jin has only been established for twenty-four years, and yet the gentry and wealthy across the country have already begun to seize land. The Fifth Brother was exposed because he raised private soldiers to rebel. I wonder how many more such cases there are in places where we can't see."
He said, "Governing the people is different from fighting a war. In a war, you can win by brute force, but governing the people is not. Zi Tong, I want Cheng Ming to leave the capital and gain some experience."
The power has been outage, I wrote this on my phone, I think it is too difficult to write on the phone, so I decided to wait for the power to come back before writing the next chapter, don't ask me when the next chapter is, because I don't know, although the group said that the phone will come around 2 o'clock, but I always feel that it will not be too punctual
Just like my update, hahahahaha
(End of this chapter)
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