Chapter 341 (End of Main Text)
Because of this palace coup, Li Yuanzhao's personality changed drastically, and he implicated and punished many people.
Su Qingci's sister, who had close ties with the Third Prince, Xue Nanzhi's youngest daughter, who was the Third Prince's study companion, and a group of princes and nobles who were on good terms with the Third Prince were all exiled, demoted, or stripped of their titles.
Not only civil officials were implicated, but many military officers were also implicated.
The Imperial Guards protecting the capital region underwent several large-scale replacements of officers at the middle and upper ranks.
Even many of the palace officials were implicated and were all banished to the cold palace.
A sense of unease and fear permeated both the government and the public.
For a long time after the Crown Prince's death, Li Yuanzhao personally handled all matters, reviewing memorials until late at night every day.
Her desire for control over government affairs reached its peak, and she would not tolerate any decisions deviating from her will.
The second prince was never truly given important responsibilities and could only handle some peripheral matters.
However, the more this happened, the more clearly Li Yuanzhao felt the decline in his physical strength and energy.
Out of fear of death, she began to favor Taoist priests and alchemists, setting up alchemy rooms in the palace to have them concoct elixirs of immortality.
But later, for reasons unknown, she suddenly ordered the execution of all the Taoist priests and alchemists in the palace and the destruction of their alchemy furnaces.
He also issued a decree forbidding anyone in the palace from mentioning the words "Taoist priests, elixirs, and immortality," under penalty of execution.
In the thirty-seventh year of Zhaoming, Li Yuanzhao finally issued an edict, appointing his second son, Li Ganxu, as Crown Prince and ordering him to oversee the country.
That year, Li Ganxu was twenty-eight years old.
Coincidentally, twenty-eight years ago, Li Yuanzhao was also twenty-eight years old when he "gave birth" to this daughter.
In the grand scheme of things, everything is preordained.
Later, Li Yuanzhao arranged for Li Ganxu to marry the eldest son of the Shen family, who would become the Crown Prince's principal wife.
However, the two remained incompatible after marriage.
Even before his wedding, when Li Ganxu was in Tongzhou, he already had more than a dozen wives and concubines, and three children had been born to him.
This Ms. Shen was born into the Shen family, which had produced "one emperor and two kings." She was of noble birth, had a strong and unyielding personality, and could not tolerate any injustice.
How could anyone tolerate so many women around his wife, let alone illegitimate children?
Furthermore, without this imperial decree of marriage, he would very likely have inherited the Shen family's throne.
Now that one has entered the palace, even a noble prince or emperor is not free and must always be mindful of others' opinions.
Therefore, he always kept his distance from Li Ganxu.
But who is Li Ganxu? He would never tolerate Li Ganxu's temper.
In her eyes, whether a child is a son born of a concubine or not, as long as he comes from her womb, he is her legitimate son.
Therefore, after their wedding night in the bridal chamber, Li Ganxu never set foot in Shen Zhengjun's room again.
The two lived in the same palace, yet they were like strangers.
In the thirty-eighth year of Zhaoming, the fifth prince, who was far away in his fiefdom in Jiangnan, after searching extensively, presented two handsome young men, both around eighteen years old, to his mother, the Empress.
The two men were indeed exceptionally handsome, blessed by heaven.
One person was tall and slender, with an otherworldly air and a cool temperament like a solitary orchid under the moon. He was also skilled in playing the zither and chess, knowledgeable in poetry and literature, and his speech exuded the elegance of a scholar.
The other person is flexible and gentle, with eyes that curve like spring water when they smile. They are skilled in dance and music, and especially have a wonderful voice that is clear, melodious and beautiful, like heavenly music.
The two, one still and one active, one cold and one gentle, complement each other beautifully, a rare sight in the world.
The emperor was overjoyed and especially loved it.
He immediately appointed them as vice ministers and showered them with affection, never leaving their side.
Soon after, she handed over most of the court affairs to the Crown Prince and moved with her two new favorites to a scenic hot spring palace outside the capital.
Rumor has it that the emperor spent his days feasting and making merry with the two vice ministers in the imperial palace.
He often ordered two attendants to wear magnificent robes embroidered with flowing clouds and cranes, jade crowns on their heads, and tassels around their waists, to pretend to be immortals who ride the clouds and are detached from worldly affairs.
A person, their face veiled in white gauze, dances gracefully among the flowers and under the moon. Their wide sleeves flutter and their clothes sway, as if they might ride the wind away at any moment.
A person sits upright on a blue stone platform beside a waterside pavilion, playing a guqin (a seven-stringed zither). The clear and melodious music flows gently, like celestial music.
Many young and beautiful palace maids were selected to dress up as the wine-serving fairy boys at the legendary Jade Pool Fairy Banquet. They moved lightly through the swirling incense smoke and melodious music, serving wine and fruit to the empress who was reclining on the soft couch.
Day after day, they lived a life of debauchery and pleasure, thoroughly enjoying themselves.
In the forty-third year of the reign of Emperor Zhaoming, two ministers awoke to find that His Majesty had passed away in his sleep at the age of sixty-two.
When news of the emperor's death reached the capital, the world was shocked, and the whole country was plunged into mourning.
Upon learning the news, Wang Shiqing, a palace maid, committed suicide by swallowing gold, resolutely following the emperor in death.
According to the established rites, the imperial court decided on the posthumous title "Emperor Chengtian Kaiji Wenlie Wude Zhaosheng Ruiyuan" and the temple name Xingzong for the emperor.
Later historians mostly referred to him as "Emperor Zhaosheng".
There are various legends circulating among the people about the death of Li Yuanzhao.
Because there were rumors in his early years that His Majesty was the Son of Heaven, and in his later years he also spent time playing with "immortals" in the imperial palace.
His passing away peacefully without illness and with a smile on his face is considered by many to be a sign of "perfect merit, which was responded to by the Heavenly Court, which dispatched a celestial messenger to guide him back to the ranks of the immortals."
These legends added a layer of mystery and nobility to her legendary life, and also somewhat diluted the grief of national mourning, replacing it with a romantic imagination of "attaining immortality".
In the autumn of that year, Crown Prince Li Ganxu, following the late emperor's edict, ascended the throne before the spirit tablet, changing the era name to "Jinghe," thus officially beginning her era.
The new emperor ascended the throne at the age of thirty-four, a time when he was in his prime and full of energy.
He adopted a tough stance from the very beginning of his reign, severely punishing corruption and quickly establishing his authority to gain absolute control of the court.
Externally, it appeases the border tribes, strengthens border defenses, and ensures peace and stability in both the northern and southern border regions.
The court was enlightened, the world was at peace, the country was prosperous and the people were strong, and the "Zhaoming Prosperity" created by the previous emperor was steadily continued, which is known in history as the "Jinghe Restoration".
The only outrageous thing was that, just three months after the new emperor ascended the throne, he deposed Empress Shen on the grounds that she "lacked the virtue of a virtuous empress".
Less than six months after the deposed empress was deposed, the new emperor issued an edict to establish a new empress.
The new empress was the son of a minor county magistrate in the northern frontier, and his surname was Bai.
But many people in the capital knew that the new empress was not the son of some minor official from the borderlands.
It was clearly the late Emperor Zhongzong, the former crown prince, who had long since entered a Buddhist monastery, Zhengjun Rubai!
However, due to the new emperor's rising prestige, no one dared to voice their opinions.
Rumor has it that the new empress has always been lukewarm towards the emperor.
However, less than a year after entering the palace, the emperor gave birth to their daughter.
He even made his young daughter the crown prince when she was just a month old; she later became Emperor Qi Ming.
(End of text)
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