The crown prince is consumed by thoughts of revenge!
Before the Crown Princess died, the Duke of Cheng'en said to the Crown Prince, "The deaths of the two imperial grandsons were certainly not an accident."
The crown prince asked him what evidence he had.
Cheng'en Gong said, "Back then, when the Empress Dowager gave birth to a prince, the child suddenly contracted smallpox and died within two days."
After that child died, they had no choice but to begin supporting Emperor Hui.
The Crown Prince's son died in the exact same way as Empress Dowager Wei's son. The Duke of Cheng'en suspected that both the late Emperor and the current Emperor possessed some kind of secret poison that looked like smallpox but could not be detected.
"Even tigers don't eat their cubs. The late emperor and Your Majesty both hated the Wei family, and they didn't even spare the princes and grandsons of the Wei clan." Duke Cheng'en roared. "This must have been done by His Majesty. He has gone mad."
The crown prince could not believe it.
He knew that his father hated the Wei family and was unhappy that he was too close to them, but he did not believe that his father would kill his own grandson, who was the eldest grandson of the emperor!
Now they see through it all: the Wei family, the crown prince with Wei blood, and his children and grandchildren will be eliminated sooner or later.
He needed to develop gunpowder as soon as possible; he didn't want to wait any longer. Forget about biding his time, forget about his father, his brother, Grand Secretary Gu, Grand Secretary Liu, the Zhang family, the Xie family—to hell with them all!
The next morning, the Crown Prince sent someone to the East City to pick up Guan Yingying, and together with a group of people from the Military Equipment Bureau, they intensified their efforts to develop gunpowder.
Guan Yingying had exhausted all her tricks regarding black powder.
Knowing is one thing, doing is another, and I just can't seem to get it done!
If she could make it herself, she wouldn't bother with the panacea. Anyone who offends her would be blown up in a flash, instead of going to all the trouble of coaxing people into drinking tea and taking pills.
She now has to do everything in her power to make the prince lower his guard and take the elixir.
The Crown Prince went to the court today.
Now he's not going to tolerate it anymore; he's going to settle the score for the first time.
As soon as the court session began, Censor Yu stepped forward, holding up his ceremonial tablet, and said: "I impeach His Highness Prince Qi for colluding with rioters and for inciting thousands of people to defecate in public on both sides of the Shahe Bridge on the day the Crown Prince returned to court."
The Duke of Cheng'en immediately stepped forward and said with great sorrow, "As a prince, His Highness Prince Qi has disregarded the dignity of the royal family, disgraced the name of the crown prince, and instigated the people to rebel. This is intolerable! This old minister begs Your Majesty to punish him severely."
Half the court officials knelt down, denouncing Prince Qi's actions as immoral and disgraceful, a truly unprecedented event.
Immediately afterwards, the Crown Prince's faction produced dozens of confessions from the arrested perpetrators, all pointing the finger at Prince Qi.
Prince Qi swore to the heavens that it had nothing to do with him, but then his confidant pointed out that the Crown Prince had killed someone in the street on the day he returned to court.
While the Crown Prince was busy with disaster relief, he didn't go to Zhongzhou. Instead, he frequented the Eight Beauties of Qinhuai on the Wancheng River, going in and out of the pleasure boats every day. He not only went there himself, but also tried to win over local dignitaries to visit the brothels and pleasure boats together.
"As the crown prince, you disregard the national crisis, gather crowds to patronize prostitutes, squander money, and indulge in pleasure, ignoring the lives of people in the disaster area. You sit on a mountain of corpses and turn Zhongzhou into a haven, forcing the people to rebel. As the crown prince, does Your Highness still have any ambitions in mind?"
Not only did he frequent prostitutes, but he also stole their money to support his private army. When the prostitutes reported him to the Dali Temple, he feared exposure and killed all the prostitutes who had filed the complaint on the spot. He even sent men to Jiangnan to silence the prostitutes and their madams on the pleasure boats.
...
The two stripped each other down until they were completely naked, which made Emperor Hui so angry that he almost fainted again.
Emperor Hui angrily rebuked: "Whenever a country is about to decline, it will not need external forces; the internal swords will be able to pierce the country with a thousand holes."
Both the Crown Prince and Prince Qi have committed offenses. His Majesty has ordered that each of them be given one hundred strokes of the cane and confined to their residences for three months, forbidden from leaving their homes.
Prince Qi knelt on the ground, his heart filled with despair.
The crown prince kept a private army, frequented brothels, drove the people to rebellion, forced the crown princess to her death, and indiscriminately killed innocent people... He only deserved one hundred strokes of the cane!
He couldn't defeat the Crown Prince, and even his father, the Emperor, didn't dare to touch him. Over the years, no matter how big a mistake he found in the Crown Prince, it always ended inconclusively.
On the same day, Prince Qi was executed and sent a message to Gu Shaoyu, requesting to see him.
Gu Shaoyu only replied with two words, "No."
He was not afraid of the Crown Prince, nor did he want to collude with the other princes. The Crown Prince was immoral, and Prince Qi was not clean either; Grand Secretary Gu only listened to His Majesty.
After the court session, Gu Shaoyu went to Moon Lake Garden, where Bei Chen and two other young men were already waiting.
"How's it going at the teahouse?"
"The Crown Prince asked Tu Qianyue to help him continue developing gunpowder."
"Have you found the panacea?"
"Found her. She hid in six different places."
"Leave her only 10% for herself, bring the rest 90% back. Keep an eye on it."
"yes."
Bei Chen really wanted to ask, why steal 90%? Madam was so worried, wouldn't it have been better to steal everything?
But if their master doesn't say anything, they won't ask; they'll just do as instructed.
Gu Shaoyu returned to the Marquis's residence and saw Xie Zhaozhao counting silver notes.
A smile involuntarily appeared on his face, and he teased, "Hey, who's this? He's rolling in money!"
"Are you envious of all these silver notes?"
"No," the Grand Secretary smiled radiantly, "I feel very happy that Madam is not hiding anything from me and treats me as one of her own."
He stopped asking her how much money she had or how she planned to use it; he was simply pleased that she was becoming increasingly unguarded with him.
My little one is trusting me more and more, that's great!
Xie Zhaozhao said, "The second shipment has returned. I've invested all two million taels of silver that His Majesty gave me. Go and ask His Majesty if he wants the goods or the silver."
Without a second thought, Gu Shaoyu said, "Give him the money. If he takes the goods, you won't have a monopoly anymore, and Cheng En will think that His Majesty has opened a shipping route without permission."
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