Chapter 161 Concubine Duan
When the third watch drum sounded, Zhang Sicheng handed a thick stack of confessions to Yan Shixu.
The Yu mother and daughter were originally very calm.
When the confession was thrown in their faces, their expressions began to crack.
Jinghong's carefully applied makeup was washed away by sweat, leaving blurry marks on her face.
"Your Majesty!" She knelt down and walked forward, trying to hug Yan Shixu's thighs.
"I am innocent! These bitches are in collusion..."
Bang……
Yan Shixu kicked her a dozen feet away.
Jinghong suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood, his face as pale as a ghost.
Yu also kowtowed repeatedly to clarify: "Your Majesty, please understand. I have always loved Prince Liang as my own son. How could I treat him like this? This is a false accusation!"
Yan Shixu also kicked her out.
"You're still quibbling even when death is imminent. Thirty-seven confessions, thirty-seven pieces of evidence! Each one is enough to get you killed without a burial place!"
"No, we did not harm King Liang, Your Majesty..."
Jinghong even tried to crawl forward and beg.
Yan Shixu was extremely annoyed. He waved his hand and said, "The mother and daughter of the Yu family abused the prince. Their crime is unforgivable! They will be imprisoned and executed in the autumn. Anyone in Mingchang Palace who knew about this and did not report it will be beaten to death!"
The reason why they were not executed immediately was naturally because Yan Shixu also thought that the person behind this mother and daughter might be no simple person.
Before executing him, it is necessary to find that person first.
When the Grand Empress Dowager and the Queen Mother learned about Yan Shiliang's situation, they also rushed to visit.
Seeing how pitiful the child looked, the Empress Dowager felt a little distressed.
After all, he is his own grandson. Although he was born to Yang Guifei, Yang Guifei has now returned to dust.
The Empress Dowager immediately proposed to go to the Huguo Temple to pray for Prince Liang and Dayan for two months.
Yan Shixu guessed that she probably wanted to visit Prince Yu by the way.
He didn't object.
The next day, Yan Shixu sent Zhou Jingtao with more than a hundred imperial guards to personally escort the Grand Empress Dowager and the Queen Mother to the Huguo Temple.
After a night, Yan Shiliang's high fever finally subsided.
Three days later, Yan Shiliang woke up.
Five days later, the person had almost recovered.
Ten days later, the person fully recovered.
Yan Shixu came to see him, and Yan Shiliang once again threw himself into Yan Shixu's arms and burst into tears.
Since his biological brother was not in the palace, he subconsciously began to stick to this brother who was kind to him.
Yan Shixu comforted him for a long time, but failed to appease him.
He asked someone to ask Wen Li'er to bring Xiaoxiao over.
Yan Shiliang likes Xiaoxiao very much and has gone to Bixi Palace to play with Xiaoxiao several times before.
Sure enough, when Yan Shiliang saw a child younger than himself, he stopped crying immediately.
It's so embarrassing to cry in front of my little nephew.
Yan Shixu put Xiaoxiao on his bed and let the two of them play.
The owl tried to crawl, but its limbs were not very coordinated. After struggling for a long time, it could only keep its belly against the quilt and turn in circles.
But this did not prevent him from tilting his head and smiling foolishly at Yan Shiliang.
Yan Shiliang patiently taught him how to crawl, and then Xiaoxiao babbled a few words back to him.
Yan Shixu and Wen Li'er finally breathed a sigh of relief when they saw that Yan Shiliang was still as cheerful as before.
They were both worried that the child would become autistic because of his previous experiences.
Fortunately, it didn’t.
Chunzhi was rewarded for saving Prince Liang and was promoted by the emperor to be Prince Liang's personal female official.
He also asked Yongtai to go to the Yunting Bureau to select some reliable palace maids and eunuchs to fill the vacancies of the palace maids who were beaten to death.
In the cell, after ten days of torture, Jinghong and Yu's mouths were finally pried open.
When Zhang Sicheng handed the confessions of the two men to Yan Shixu, Yan Shixu was slightly stunned.
Concubine Duan?
The mother of Emperor Wu's uncle.
Why was it her? Yan Shixu couldn't figure it out for a moment.
He was certain that Uncle Wu was not interested in the throne, so what was the purpose of Concubine Duan's action?
Yan Shixu thought carefully about what would happen if A Liang was really tortured to death.
On the one hand, Acheng will definitely resent him in his heart, and if things get serious, the two brothers may become enemies.
If Acheng and he became enemies, thinking of the worst, he might even rebel and avenge Aliang.
By then, the court will certainly be in turmoil.
Regardless of whether the rebellion can be successful, it will definitely cause him trouble.
On the other hand, Yang Guifei was sentenced to death for conspiracy to escape, but her crime did not implicate her two sons.
Moreover, as soon as Yan Shixu ascended the throne, he made Yang Guifei's two sons kings and granted them decent fiefs.
He also allowed the two of them to wait until they reached adulthood before going to their fiefdoms.
No prince in history has ever had such an honor.
The people all praised the new emperor for his broad-mindedness and tolerance, and called him a benevolent ruler.
If something happened to Prince Liang in the palace, the new emperor would certainly be branded as being harsh on his younger brother.
He appears to be broad-minded, friendly and respectful to his brothers in front of others.
However, he deliberately abused and bullied his younger brother behind his back and tortured him to death.
A reputation for hypocrisy, unkindness, cruelty, etc. will definitely shake the people's hearts.
Yan Shixu thought that this was indeed a good strategy to alienate him and ruin his reputation.
Of course, it's also possible that he was overthinking it.
There might be other hidden reasons behind Concubine Duan's action.
Is it because of personal grudge?
But he had never heard of any personal grudge between Concubine Duan and Concubine Yang Guifei.
Yan Shi started to compose a piece of music, tapping the table with his knuckles intermittently.
He thought for a long time and asked King Xuanwu and King Lin to enter the palace.
When the two princes just returned to Beijing from their fiefdoms, they lived in the palace.
Prince Lin was there to keep vigil for the emperor, while Prince Wu was there to act as the head of government so that he could discuss state affairs with Yan Shixu.
After the emperor entered the mausoleum, the two princes returned to their respective palaces in the capital.
Yan Shixu never let them return to their fiefdom.
When he first ascended the throne, he needed their help in many things.
When Prince Lin was in his fiefdom, he was used to being lazy. He spent his days traveling, reciting poems and painting, and lived a carefree life.
But after returning to Beijing, he was forced to do the job and was busy every day, and he lost a lot of weight.
As for King Wu, when he was in Youzhou, he stayed in the military camp every day, and when he was not fighting, he trained his soldiers.
But after arriving in the capital, he was tortured by ministers for nearly two months.
Now, as for the morning court, King Wu tried to avoid it if he could.
In his own words, he had developed sequelae, and his head would hurt whenever he saw civil and military officials.
After throwing the heavy burden back to Yan Shixu, King Wu plunged into the military camp outside the capital, and trained soldiers with the father and son of the Luo family all day long.
This is also what Yan Shixu hoped for.
Uncle Wu has been fighting on the battlefield since he was a child. He has experienced battles of all sizes. If he has not experienced a hundred times, he must have experienced eighty times.
The soldiers trained by him were all good fighters.
Yan Shixu took another look at the two confessions in his hand, as well as the token that Concubine Duan's men had given to Yu's mother and daughter.
He guessed that this matter should have nothing to do with Uncle Wu.
But he had to figure out the purpose of Concubine Duan's action.
If you want to know what the other party is trying to do, you naturally need to bring him back to the capital first and keep an eye on him under your nose.
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