Zu An felt a chill run down his spine, never expecting that he would be involved with the previous dynasty.
Zhang Zitong, standing to the side, also stared wide-eyed. She was unaware of the details of her parents' murder and the extermination of her entire Zhang family; this was the first time she had heard of it.
"Since you are a Gold Medal Embroidered Robe, you must have heard of Attendant Dongfang Bai, right?" Zhang Jie asked.
Zu An nodded. There were four court attendants, with Dongfang Bai as the leader. His son, Dongfang Han, was a Yellow Gate Attendant, and they had dealt with each other in the palace before.
However, she didn't have much of a presence. On the contrary, the more famous and powerful Chamberlain was Pei Zheng, the Duke of Linhai, who was also Da Manman's grandfather. However, Da Manman was not the eldest daughter of the main wife, and her father was only Pei Zheng's fifth son, so her status in the family was not high.
Zhang Jie seemed to see through his thoughts: "Haven't you ever wondered why Dongfang Bai, despite being the head of the Four Attendants, has such a low profile?"
"Why?" Zu'an hadn't cared about these things before, since the two sides had no interaction, but now it seemed to involve the death of Zhang Zitong's parents and was also related to the previous dynasty, so he couldn't help but be interested.
“Dongfang Bai’s wife is the princess of the Qi Kingdom from the previous dynasty. The princess of Qi Kingdom is the daughter of Emperor Zhao of the previous dynasty,” Zhang explained.
Zu'an knew about Emperor Meng Zhao, who could be considered the last emperor of the Meng Dynasty with real power. The emperors who succeeded him were all young, and the government was controlled by powerful ministers. In the end, the Meng Dynasty was replaced by the Zhou Dynasty.
"However, Dongfang Bai was not the first husband of the Qi Kingdom princess." Zhang explained, his expression seemingly sympathetic.
"Oh, who was her first husband?" Zu'an didn't know the details about the previous dynasty, but he wasn't too surprised that she remarried. After all, she was a princess, a golden branch and jade leaf, and she couldn't stay a widow forever.
"The son of Qian Xuan, who was then the Grand Secretary of the Meng Dynasty. Back then, Qian Xuan opposed Emperor Taizong of the current dynasty and wanted to join forces with the imperial relatives to stage a coup. However, the plot was leaked and he was executed. The Qian family was also exterminated. Of course, the princess of Qi Kingdom was of noble status and was not among those exterminated. Later, she was arranged to marry Dongfang Bai." Zhang Jie said with a lot of regret when he talked about this past event.
Zu An knew that the Taizong he mentioned should still be a subject of the Meng Dynasty at that time. In fact, whether it was Taizu or Taizong, although they were actually in power in the country, it was Zhao Hao who formally established the Zhou Dynasty.
The titles of Emperor Taizu and Emperor Taizong were posthumously conferred by Zhao Hao.
"Is it because he married the princess of the former Qi Kingdom that Dongfang Bai is no longer valued by this dynasty?" Zu An was a little curious, not understanding what he was talking about had to do with this matter.
"Of course, it's not just because of that. You know Zhen Xueyi, the Imperial Clan Minister of this dynasty, right?" Zhang Jie continued. Zu An nodded. The Imperial Clan Minister was in charge of various matters concerning the imperial family and clan. Come to think of it, he had dealt with him before.
At the time, due to some rumors about himself and the Crown Princess, the Imperial Clan Court and the Grand Master of Ceremonies came forward to interrogate him in order to verify his innocence.
However, he didn't have a deep impression of Zhen Xueyi, only remembering him as a cunning old fox who was good at shifting blame.
“He is not actually surnamed Zhen, but is a relative of Empress Huang of Emperor Mengzhao. Because the Zhen family had no heirs, he was adopted into the Zhen family. However, his bloodline of the Huang family cannot be changed. His relationship with the previous dynasty is no more distant than that of Dongfang Bai, but he is highly valued. What do you think is the reason?” Zhang Jie looked at him with a cold smile.
Zu An shook his head. Many things from the previous dynasty were sealed off, and he couldn't find out anything even if he wanted to.
Fortunately, some elders from the previous dynasty are still alive today, so some things can be passed down orally.
"Why do you think the great foundation of the Meng Dynasty was acquired by the Zhao family of this dynasty?" Zhang Jie did not answer, but instead posed another question.
Zu An thought for a moment and replied, "It should be because the emperors of the Meng Dynasty did not live long, and the struggle for the throne back then made the Meng Dynasty extremely wary of and suppressing the royal family members, which gave the current emperors Taizu and Taizong an opportunity to take advantage of the situation."
Hearing his answer, Zhang Jie was somewhat surprised: "You actually spoke so frankly, unlike other Embroidered-Robe Envoys who whitewashed the dynasty. I don't know how you passed the relevant political review."
Zu An was taken aback. As a transmigrator, he could naturally view everything from a detached perspective, but he didn't expect that he would be seen as an oddity by others.
"Good, good, you've got a rebellious streak. Looks like I didn't lose out by telling you all this." Zhang Jie suddenly became happy.
Zuan frowned as he listened: "You've been rambling on and on without saying anything of value. Are you deliberately stalling for time? My patience is limited."
Zhang Jie laughed and said, "Don't be impatient. The reasons you just mentioned are indeed important, but there is an even more crucial one: Emperor Meng Zhao's sons all died young, which meant that he had no adult sons to succeed him, so he had to find some young members of the imperial clan to inherit the throne."
“It’s not uncommon for princes to die young, especially since Emperor Meng Zhao himself didn’t live very long, which proves that there was something wrong with his genes,” Zu An replied.
"Genes?" Zhang Jie was taken aback, clearly having never heard of the term. "Premature death is indeed not uncommon, but what if it's not an accident, but rather caused by human intervention?"
"Man-made?" Zu'an exclaimed in surprise. "Who would dare to do such a thing?"
“According to what you just said, whoever benefits is the most suspicious.” Zhang Jie sneered. “You mean the founding emperor and the founding emperor of this dynasty?” Zhang Zitong, who had been listening the whole time, couldn’t help but ask, after all, it concerned the case of the Zhang family’s massacre years ago.
“That’s right.” Zhang Jie was quite direct. “Strictly speaking, it was the founding emperor. Back then, only he had that ability.”
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