Chapter 210 Who dares to question her bloodline now?
This game of chess began as soon as Li Yuanzhao learned about his origins.
She always takes the lead in everything she does.
Cui Yunyi chose to replace the real prince with a baby girl simply because she felt that a princess posed no threat to the throne.
But no one expected that Cui Yunyi would run into Li Yuanzhao.
Over the years, they have suffered greatly at her hands, retreating one after another, powerless to fight back, and even unable to express their grievances.
However, even so, Li Yuanzhao did not ignore Cui Yunyi as a potential threat.
When Cui Yunyi was still a young lady in her boudoir, she dared to do such a daring thing as "switching princes," so she must not be a stupid, dull, or foolish person who left no way out.
Since they dared to gamble back then, they must have kept some chips to turn the tables.
After all, if she wants to reveal her background in the future, how can she convince everyone if there are no witnesses and she only speaks on her own?
Therefore, Li Yuanzhao immediately dispatched Ru Mo to secretly investigate all those involved in the Empress's childbirth twenty years ago.
Records show that, apart from Imperial Physician Wen, all the palace maids, midwives, and eunuchs who delivered babies inside and outside the delivery room that year were secretly executed by the Emperor for "improper care".
She immediately sensed that something was wrong.
The Emperor's "rooting out the weeds" approach seems less like grief over the loss of his wife and more like a deliberate attempt to cover something up.
At that time, she was focused on the question of her origins and did not delve deeper into it.
Unable to find any witnesses, Li Yuanzhao changed his approach and had Ru Mo secretly investigate Cui Yunyi.
How could someone hide for nearly twenty years without leaving a trace?
Sure enough, it was discovered that the nanny serving Cui Yunyi would make a detour to Bianzhou every year during her vacation.
Following the clues, they found a family in Bianzhou City.
This family was strange; they had no livelihood, yet they were very wealthy, and their sons and grandsons all lived in luxury and indulged in extravagance.
I heard that the head of the household is an old lady who has a "distant relative who is an official" in the capital who sends them a large sum of money every year.
More importantly, this old lady had lived in Bianzhou for nearly twenty years, yet she still spoke with a heavy Shandong accent.
The midwife who delivered her mother's baby was from Shandong.
It would be even simpler to get Wang Po to betray Cui Yunyi.
If this person was willing to take risks for wealth and glory back then, how could he suddenly become loyal and willing to die for him now?
Moreover, the lives of their entire family were in her hands.
However, she did not punish Wang Po immediately. Instead, she allowed her to remain in Bianzhou and sent people to secretly monitor her.
Firstly, she wasn't sure if only Cui Yunyi and this old woman knew about this matter.
If Cui Yunyi had already told the rest of the Cui family, even if she dealt with Wang Po and Cui Yunyi, she wouldn't have completely eliminated the risk of her true identity being exposed. On the contrary, it would have easily alerted the Cui family and made them aware of the abnormality.
Secondly, she had already planned that if the Cui family really wanted to use her "family background" to cause trouble, this old woman, Wang Po, would be the key move for her to turn the tables on them.
In fact, Li Yuanzhao's initial plan was to first kill Li Yuanyou to cut off the Cui family's escape route, force the Cui family to rebel, take the opportunity to eliminate her father, and finally annihilate the Cui family under the pretext of "suppressing the rebellion" and ascend the throne.
Now that she has troops and power, she can directly rebel and kill her father, excluding the Cui family.
This was not difficult for her; it was an easy task.
But this trip to Hebei Province changed her mind.
She witnessed firsthand the displacement of people and the starvation that filled the land, and realized that the Great Qi was already beset by internal and external troubles and was in dire straits, unable to withstand any more internal turmoil.
What she wanted to do was become the first female emperor in the history of the Great Qi Dynasty.
In this world where "fathers die and sons succeed, and men are superior to women," the path to the pinnacle of power is destined to be a thousand times more difficult than that for men.
The men of this world may hate, fear, and dread her because of the power she holds, but they will never truly submit to her.
Even if someone is an ordinary and mediocre person, as long as he is a man, the world can find a thousand or even ten thousand legitimate reasons for him to succeed to the throne.
But she wouldn't, simply because she was a woman.
Because they knew that if they allowed a woman to reach the pinnacle of power...
Then the women of the world could no longer be left to their own devices and easily manipulated.
This is their deepest fear.
Therefore, it was more difficult for her than for anyone else to secure her throne.
What's even more difficult is that she is not the emperor's biological child.
As long as Chen Yanqing, who is immortal, exists, her true identity will eventually be revealed.
Therefore, even if she killed her father and took the throne, her throne would not be secure.
Once the truth is exposed, the men of the world will unite to openly oppose her, the military governors of various towns will use this as an excuse to raise troops to attack her, and even neighboring countries will take the opportunity to invade.
She was certainly not afraid of war and was confident that she could quell any rebellion.
But how innocent are the common people?
The people, who had already suffered so much, could no longer bear the ravages of war.
Therefore, in order to avoid starting a war, she chose a more prudent path.
Instead of trying to hide her background, she should present herself as the legitimate eldest princess of the Great Qi Dynasty in a "clean and upright" manner to the whole world.
Then, by virtue of the "decree of the emperor," they rightfully ascended to the throne.
Interestingly, she originally wanted to force the Cui family to rebel, but unexpectedly, the Cui family wanted to force her to rebel as well.
Since that's the case, Li Yuanzhao simply went along with it and staged a grand "rebellion" for them.
She first instructed Ru Mo to secretly intensify the training of the Golden Guards, deliberately creating the illusion of "military preparation for war".
The "plan to take action" was also leaked through Su Qingci.
They even contacted Consort Xiao, who already harbored deep resentment towards Cui Yunyi, and choreographed a dance with a double twist for the banquet.
Sure enough, Cui Shiliang completely lowered his guard, convinced that she was desperate and would make a last-ditch effort on New Year's Eve.
And so, they gradually walked into the trap she had set.
And Cui Shiliang really did follow her "plan." After realizing he had been deceived, he chose to take a desperate gamble and launch a rebellion.
In fact, from beginning to end, she was hoping that the Cui family would take action.
If they don't make a move, where will she get such a good reason to wipe out the entire Cui family in one fell swoop?
The death of Cui Shiliang is not enough. The Cui family is large and powerful, and even a centipede that dies will not fall down.
Only a heinous crime like treason could warrant the extermination of nine generations of the family, completely eradicating the Cui family from the court of the Great Qi and eliminating any future threat.
Even the fact that Lian Chen Chu Rong and the Imperial Guards arrived "late" was also her deliberate arrangement.
With so many men in the court, how can positions be made available for women if a few don't die?
She didn't have the energy to spend her days debating "ancestral rules and ethical norms" with these self-proclaimed "hard-working and meritorious" old ministers after ascending the throne, and to be hampered by them.
What she wanted was a dynasty that truly belonged to her.
As for the scene where she publicly exposed the "switched to fake," it was a masterpiece she meticulously planned.
It's true that she had red spots, but she only revealed that to Granny Wang and Physician Wen later.
Of course, news needs to be a mix of truth and falsehood to make it completely believable.
Who would doubt that these two seemingly unrelated people would stage such a flashback in the palace?
As for blood-based kinship testing, that's utter nonsense.
She had already had someone verify that as long as the basin was big enough and there was enough water, the two drops of blood would slowly mix together, so how could it be determined whether they were biologically related or not?
If this method were truly used to test whether someone is biologically related to another, then dogs and monkeys could produce turtles.
But this absurd method is precisely the "truth" that has been passed down among the people for a long time, and everyone firmly believes in it.
Even her father, the emperor, despite being so cautious and worried that something might have gotten into the water or been smeared on the dagger, still believed that this method would work.
Now, she is the biological daughter whom her father personally acknowledged in front of civil and military officials and envoys from various countries. She is the eldest princess whose "legitimate identity" has been verified by both "witness testimony" and "material evidence".
From now on, who will dare to question her bloodline?
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