Chapter 20 King Rui's Experience
"At the morning court today, Prince Rui accused Prince Kang of poisoning and murdering him in front of Your Majesty and all the civil and military officials. He also presented witnesses and evidence."
"In addition, Prince Rui also presented evidence that Prince Kang embezzled disaster relief funds allocated to Qiang Prefecture by the imperial court a few days ago, amounting to a full five million taels."
"Not only that, Prince Rui also discovered that the poison came from Prince Jing of Yuheng State. He also read out the intercepted secret letters between Prince Kang and Prince Jing of Yuheng State in public at the morning court."
"From the secret letter, we learned that Prince Kang planned to poison Prince Rui and His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, thus making himself the sole heir to this vast kingdom. If the poisoning plan failed, he would borrow assassins from the enemy, Prince Jing, to exterminate the other two princes."
"The evidence is overwhelming, and the incident happened during the morning court session. It will be difficult for Your Majesty to show leniency."
"Then, Your Majesty demoted King Kang to a commoner on the spot and imprisoned him for life in a mansion in Kyoto."
"Prince Rui was probably dissatisfied with the outcome, so he drew his sword and chopped off Prince Kang's head as soon as he left the palace."
Su Yuyan: “…”
It's a werewolf.
It was just as the rumors said: decisive, bloodthirsty and brutal.
"Father, there are only three princes in the Dafeng royal family. Prince Rui killed one of them. His Majesty will definitely be furious."
Su Lin continued.
"Your Majesty's anger is inevitable due to his lack of offspring, but Prince Rui is protected by the Queen Mother, so Your Majesty will not punish him. Moreover, it was Prince Kang who attempted to poison him using despicable means and also embezzled military funds to collude with the enemy."
Su Yuyan, who had nothing to do, ate the melon to the end.
"Father, why did the Queen Mother not favor the legitimate grandson prince but Prince Rui instead?"
Before Su Lin could answer, Mrs. Du spoke.
"Yan'er, your father has government affairs to attend to and must also train at the martial arts training ground. Let him be busy, and I will tell you what's going on."
Su Yuyan responded with "OK".
After Su Lin left the room, Mrs. Du continued to talk to her daughter.
"Prince Rui's biological mother, Concubine Wan, was selected into the palace. Although she came from the lowest family among the same batch of selected ladies, she was stunningly beautiful, surpassing all the other beauties."
"Her beauty made the three thousand beauties in the harem jealous and resentful, which led to her being ostracized and treated as a slave by the concubines as soon as she entered the palace."
"But she was a very smart woman. She knew that if she wanted to survive in the ruthless harem, she had to stay away from the palace fighting. So after entering the palace, she didn't interact with the three thousand beauties, but instead went to the Queen Mother every day."
"Not only does the Empress Dowager live in the harem, but there's also a concubine. Which woman of the same generation in the palace doesn't have some hatred and resentment towards each other? So before the concubine died, she was planning to drag the Empress Dowager down with her, but by some strange coincidence, she was saved by Concubine Wan."
"From then on, Wanpin came to the Empress Dowager even more frequently. Except for returning to her own room at night, she spent the rest of her time in the Empress Dowager's palace. Gradually, the Empress Dowager became more and more accustomed to spending every day with Wanpin."
"Once you enter the palace, you become His Majesty's woman. After His Majesty has favored all those beautiful ladies one by one, the next is Wanpin."
"Everyone loves beauty. When His Majesty called upon Concubine Wan's service once, he became fascinated by this beauty who made all the other concubines pale in comparison."
"Then, His Majesty summoned her to his bed for three consecutive months."
"Wanpin's family background was one of the lowest in the entire harem. She knew full well that such a favor would make all the other women in the harem want to eat her flesh and drink her blood, so she later pretended to be arrogant and did everything she could to displease the emperor."
"The emperor's majesty is inviolable, so she quickly fell out of favor after her extremely excessive actions. After all, the harem is not short of beauties, and new ones will continue to enter."
"Having fallen from favor, she began to run to the Empress Dowager's palace every day again."
"Not long after, Wanpin, who had been favored for three full months, became pregnant. When the Empress Dowager found out, she was genuinely happy because, out of the three thousand beauties in the harem, except for the Empress who gave birth to a prince, all the other pregnant concubines suffered miscarriages."
"The Queen Mother had been in the harem for decades and knew exactly what was going on. However, the murderer not only did it perfectly, but also found a scapegoat. Moreover, if you dig deeper into this kind of thing, it will involve a lot of things. So the Queen Mother asked the pregnant Wanpin to live in her palace until she gave birth."
"When Concubine Wan gave birth to a prince, the Queen Mother was overjoyed and immediately decided to raise Prince Rui in her own palace until he grew up safely. The title of Prince Rui was bestowed upon Your Majesty by the Queen Mother. Your Majesty values filial piety and will respect the Queen Mother's opinion on many matters unrelated to state affairs."
"And Wanpin fully supported the Queen Mother's decision, because she knew very well how many women in the harem wanted her son dead."
"The harem is full of hidden dangers, making it difficult to guard against them. When Prince Rui was five years old, Concubine Wan was poisoned. He watched his mother die before his eyes, bleeding from all seven orifices."
"After investigation, it was found that a palace maid took the blame."
"From then on, Prince Rui never smiled again and became very quiet. He just studied literature and martial arts day and night."
"The Emperor of Yuheng Kingdom is a warlike person. They often invade our borders. When Prince Rui was sixteen years old, he accompanied His Majesty on his first expedition."
"Whenever war breaks out, His Majesty will always appoint your father to quell the rebellion. Your father said that Prince Rui is not only extremely brave on the battlefield, but also resourceful in deploying troops, which has earned His Majesty's favor."
"Prince Rui is your majesty's second prince, and Concubine Wan once saved the Queen Mother's life. Moreover, the Queen Mother and the Empress have never gotten along, so the Queen Mother is particularly partial to Prince Rui, the grandson of the Emperor."
"It's just that Prince Rui's mother was of too low a birthplace, so she was only a Wanpin until her death."
Hearing this, Su Yuyan sighed.
"A wise man will inevitably make mistakes, and a fool will inevitably gain something. With so many women in the harem, it's impossible to guard against them. Even the slightest mistake could cost you your life."
Mrs. Du sighed softly.
"Yes. Ever since Concubine Wan successfully gave birth to a child, the concubines in the harem followed suit and shamelessly moved into the Empress Dowager's palace as soon as they became pregnant."
"Although several princes were born in the palace, the Queen Mother didn't have the energy to protect every one of them. She put all her energy into protecting Prince Rui. As a result, the princes who came after her died one by one, and the only ones who survived were princesses."
"Later, after giving birth to Prince Kang in the Queen Mother's Palace, Prince Kang's mother took him back to her own bedroom, often claiming that childbirth had damaged her foundation. It took many years for Prince Kang to grow up without leaving the house."
Su Yuyan: “…”
The queen is worthy of being called the CEO of an aborted company. She even killed the prince she gave birth to.
She thought of the palace drama she had watched in her previous life:
The mastermind behind the scenes can either use someone else's knife to kill someone without doing anything himself, or give the cats, dogs, and other small animals in the harem some drugs or use some special incense to let them bump into the bellies of pregnant concubines, or create various situations to scare the concubines until they have a miscarriage.
There is nothing that cannot be done, only things that cannot be imagined.
"The harem is truly a place where people are eaten without leaving any bones. The previous dynasty and the harem are closely connected, and one move can affect the entire body. The emperor's tactics of checking and punishing the women in the harem must also be combined with the dynamics of the previous dynasty."
"Mother, how do you know so much about these harem matters?"
Du replied.
“Those who are in high positions are lonely.”
"Your grandmother and the Queen Mother were close friends. After the current emperor ascended the throne, the Queen Mother, who had no one to confide in, occasionally summoned your grandmother to the palace to accompany her."
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