Chapter 1903 Punishment
The little grandson is almost half a year old, but he can't sit steadily. When he is placed on the wooden couch, he can only sway from side to side. It has been even longer since the Crown Princess became pregnant.
If the Eastern Palace had been intentionally practicing contraception the previous year in order to ensure that the Crown Princess gave birth to a legitimate son, the court officials were still a little worried because there had been no pregnancy in the past five months.
But now it’s all good. As soon as Doctor Liu and the others left the Eastern Palace, the prince was released from the ancestral hall and returned to the Eastern Palace to appease the people.
When the court officials returned to the yamen after their holiday, although some people still impeached the prince for being unfriendly to his brothers, the tone of the court was still mostly joyful.
But things did not end well for Prince Gong. The emperor originally wanted the prince to take the blame and he would try to make a big deal out of a small matter. However, he did not expect that the Crown Princess was pregnant. While he was happy, he could only watch the court officials impeach Prince Gong.
Although it was the prince's fault that Prince Gong was thrown by the prince during the "sparring", the court officials asked about the pulse diagnosis. Whether it was the pulse diagnosis added later by Zhou Man or the pulse diagnosis made by Xiao Yuanzheng and others, it showed that the injuries on Prince Gong's body were minor abrasions.
After all, who hasn't fallen down during a fight? So this is normal in the eyes of everyone, and even more normal in the eyes of the generals.
But it was very abnormal for Prince Gong to break his own leg because of an argument with the Crown Prince. Therefore, the Crown Prince was impeached, and Prince Gong was impeached even more.
There were even censors who viewed him with the most vicious attitude, thinking that he was extremely dissatisfied with the prince.
The Crown Prince is not only Prince Gong's brother, but also the next heir to the country. You are dissatisfied with the next heir. What do you want to do?
Even when Prince Gong was recuperating from his injuries, he was still severely scolded.
This was something Prince Gong hadn't anticipated, but the Emperor had. He took one last look at his wife and daughter, then at the Crown Prince, and couldn't help but ask the Empress for help. "Didn't you also say that this was Da Lang's fault? Are you just going to watch San Lang get scolded?"
The Queen was also upset, but she said, "They are right to scold me. Sanlang has a lot of complaints against Dalang."
emperor:……
The Queen said, "Let them scold me. If Sanlang can figure it out, that's great. If not, just punish him."
"But……"
"Erlang," the Queen suddenly called him by the name he used before he became Emperor, and said softly, "You blindly suppress the eldest brother and favor the third brother. This will not improve the relationship between them. Look, has the eldest brother visited the third brother in the past two days?"
The emperor frowned.
"I know you're going to make the eldest brother dislike his younger brother again, but there's still a life between them. Even if the eldest brother comes to his senses and realizes that he was partly to blame for his past mistakes, and that some of it was instigated by the people around the third brother, the third brother did think about replacing him."
"People's hearts are made of flesh, and when they're cut, they hurt. The third brother wants to replace the eldest brother, but has he ever considered the fate of his brother?" The queen said softly, "No deposed prince has ever lived out the rest of his life in peace. Wasn't the fight between you and your eldest and third uncles a life-and-death struggle?"
The emperor was shocked, feeling annoyed, angry, and deeply sad.
The Queen sat motionless on the couch, her back slightly turned to the Emperor, and said to him, "Originally, I didn't want to talk about these things. I don't have much time left, so I just want you and your son to live in harmony. I don't know whether what I insist on is right or wrong. After all, Dalang has no children..."
The Queen's voice was low and choked with sobs as she spoke, "I've often worried that if he remains childless, his throne will be unstable. How much will the people of the world and future generations resent me then?"
The still somewhat angry emperor hurried forward to sit beside her, holding her hand and saying, "What does this have to do with you? If there's any fault, it's mine. Don't they all say that I came to power illegitimately, and that's why God is punishing me..."
The Queen shook her head slightly and continued, "Erlang, the eldest brother had no children before, but he now has a eldest son. If you continue to favor Sanlang like this, it will only harm him and not benefit him at all."
The emperor was silent for a moment.
The Queen stopped talking, saying that even between husband and wife, there were some things that could not be said openly. But even if they didn't say it, the Emperor could still guess.
After all, the Queen was also hurt by Prince Gong.
She has always tried to treat her two children equally, including Mingda and Changyu.
Changyu was not her biological child, but because she had raised her since she was a child, she set aside a separate dowry for her, which was almost the same as that of Prince Gong.
In comparison, she was stricter with the Crown Prince, because he had to study and practice martial arts with many masters, and also had to follow the emperor to attend government affairs. On the contrary, Prince Gong stayed with her longer.
The queen had never thought that he would have such thoughts before. She had admonished and reprimanded him more than once, but the child responded to her verbally while continuing to do so in private.
It would be fine if the prince was just stupid, but when he had this idea, apart from not having any offspring, the prince's behavior was not particularly unusual, and he was still a qualified heir recognized by the court officials.
If he wanted to replace the prince, the prince would die, and she, as a mother, even knew that given the physical conditions of her and her daughter, they would probably die as well.
The emperor couldn't see these, but the queen could.
That's why she was so sad.
She is his biological mother, and the prince and Mingda are his siblings. Yet he is so selfish and narrow-minded. How much love and generosity can he have for the people of the world?
He had the ruthlessness of an emperor, but he did not have the affection of an emperor.
Therefore, the queen has always been pessimistic about him. Even if the prince has no children, she would rather suppress him than surpass the prince.
Now, Prince Gong has no chance at all. If there is any conflict, it will be between the emperor and the crown prince.
The conflict between these two people is even more serious. The queen doesn't want the emperor to criticize the prince anymore, nor does she want the prince to feel resentful towards the emperor anymore, so she broke some window paper.
She told the emperor clearly that there was a life between the Crown Prince and Prince Gong. If they really wanted to repair their relationship as Mingda and Zhou Man said, it would not be done overnight. She did not want the emperor to have too many illusions.
The emperor, who was just dreaming of a happy family outing, was splashed with a bucket of ice water. He turned around and left without paying any attention to the queen.
The queen didn't call him back and let him go.
The emperor walked around the palace with his hands behind his back, and then he came to the outside of the empress dowager's palace.
It was evening dinner time and the Empress Dowager's Palace was still quite lively.
He stopped and asked, "Who's in there?"
"It's Princess Yunfeng. She comes to the palace to serve the Empress Dowager at dinner and usually leaves the palace after dinner."
The emperor thought of him and the King of Yizhou, and also of his mother's attitude towards him and the King of Yizhou, and he felt more and more uncomfortable.
The next day when he went to court and read the impeachment and punishment suggestions from the Censorate, he was heartbroken but forced himself to approve them.
Not to mention the Crown Prince, the court officials were all shocked and exchanged glances, wondering if the Emperor had been poisoned? Why did he actually agree to punish Prince Gong?
Still such a heavy penalty?
Even Old Tang felt a little uneasy. He just wrote it casually because he knew the emperor wouldn't really punish him. Who knew the emperor would actually approve it? This...
See you at 6pm
(End of this chapter)
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