"Your Majesty, Prime Minister Yang and the Supreme Court Minister have entered the palace and are now heading towards the Cining Palace."
Emperor Jiahe paused and looked at Bei Lingyao, who asked Zhang De to step aside first.
Emperor Jiahe said, "When you go to the Cining Palace, your uncle's confession of guilt can be forgiven, but he will be stripped of his position as the Minister of the Dali Temple and demoted to the fourth rank Minister of the Honglu Temple."
"Who will take over then?"
"Tomorrow morning, at the court, let the Junior Secretary of the Dali Temple..."
Emperor Jiahe had been prepared for this, but he had not taken any action against Yang Chengye before.
If Yang Chengye had behaved himself, Emperor Jiahe would have only promoted him to a nominal position, rather than demoting him, no matter how wary he was of him.
When Bei Lingyao arrived at the Cining Palace, Prime Minister Yang and Yang Chengye were already there.
"Your humble servant greets His Majesty."
"Grandfather, uncle, please stand up."
Bei Lingyao looked at Prime Minister Yang, who was in his sixties, thin and with a head full of white hair, but he looked energetic and full of vigor, a handsome old man.
Yang Chengye, on the other hand, was white, plump, and round, with a blessed look on his face, and looked somewhat similar to the empress dowager.
This family is all very good-looking, no matter their height, weight or body shape, their facial features are very outstanding.
From this perspective, it is hard to see that Prime Minister Yang and Yang Chengye have any ambitions, nor do they look cunning.
"Your Majesty, I have also been deceived by the Shi family."
Yang Chengye didn't get up with red eyes. He looked extremely sad. He knelt in front of Bei Lingyao and slapped himself twice.
Bei Lingyao also felt that the Yang family was difficult to deal with.
Although they were in a relationship between an emperor and his subject, Yang Chengye was the empress dowager's biological uncle and the empress dowager's eldest brother. He knelt before the emperor's nephew without any reluctance, admitted his mistakes in a good manner, and was ruthless enough in attacking himself.
At least when the Queen Mother saw her brother like this, her anger subsided.
Fortunately, Bei Lingyao had a broad spiritual awareness and had already taken everything in sight, so she knew how to deal with it.
Otherwise, if Emperor Jiahe were here, he might have softened his heart and the matter would have been exposed.
"How can I forgive my uncle? Even if he was deceived by the Shi family, the teahouse was run by his son-in-law's family.
I have been on secret tours several times and have encountered them every time. I just treated them as a pair of wild mandarin ducks and did not meddle in their affairs.
I never imagined that the Concubine Shi that my mother had mentioned to me was actually that wild mandarin duck. How could I not be furious? Since my uncle had sent her to the palace, why didn't he investigate? If my uncle was determined, how could he not find out?
Uncle, there is no need to use the self-torture trick in front of me. You are my elder, and if you hurt yourself, Mother will be sad."
The Queen Mother sighed and looked at her brother. "Brother, you sent Concubine Shi to the palace. I bestowed upon her the title of Eighth Rank Concubine and urged the Emperor to visit her. Fortunately, the Emperor didn't go. Otherwise, Concubine Shi's fickleness would have inevitably tainted the royal bloodline."
The more the Queen Mother thought about it, the angrier she became.
Even if my brother didn't know about it, it was negligence that showed he wasn't paying attention to the emperor's affairs.
After all, it’s his son-in-law’s teahouse. If he really wants to check it out, there’s no way he can’t find it.
If her brother knew about this, it would be even more wrong. It’s no wonder that the emperor was angry, she was angry too.
Prime Minister Yang remained silent, allowing Bei Lingyao and the Queen Mother to vent their anger at Yang Chengye, as if letting Bei Lingyao and the Queen Mother vent their anger.
When he comes out again, the matter will be exposed.
But how could Bei Lingyao possibly do as he wished? "The Dali Temple is the head of the Five Temples, a position of great power and influence, and is more suitable for someone with more careful thinking to lead it. My uncle has been demoted to the rank of Fourth Rank Minister of the Honglu Temple. I hope my uncle will reflect on himself, be more rigorous in his work, and be able to take over my grandfather's responsibilities in the future."
Yang Chengye's eyes widened. He never expected that the emperor would take away his position as the Chief Justice of the Dali Temple.
He was demoted from the third rank to the fourth rank, a drop of two levels.
Moreover, the Minister of the Honglu Temple was mainly responsible for receiving foreign envoys and was not as powerful as the Minister of the Dali Temple.
Prime Minister Yang's eyes narrowed slightly, and when he saw that the Queen Mother didn't say anything, he shook his head slightly at his son.
As soon as the father and son left the palace, Yang Chengye couldn't wait to speak in the carriage, "Father, why didn't you let your son speak? I was doing a good job as the Dali Temple Minister. I was about to be promoted with excellent performance at the end of the year, but I was demoted two levels. You didn't even speak up for your son, and what about my sister? You actually..."
"Shut up"
Prime Minister Yang said in a low voice, "If you hadn't been so foolish, we wouldn't be in such trouble today. This should be a lesson for you. It will teach you a lesson. Be more cautious when it comes to matters concerning the palace in the future."
Yang Chengye said, "Father, the emperor is dissatisfied with our Yang family."
Prime Minister Yang closed his eyes. "From now on, you should behave more restrainedly and make the concubines in the palace behave themselves. This time, the confinement should be three months. Don't always come to you and your wife to pretend to be pitiful, and then you go to the palace to ask the Queen Mother to release her from confinement."
"If it weren't for the strong support of our Yang family..."
"Shut up. If I hear you say that again, I'll make you get out of the Yang family."
Prime Minister Yang opened his eyes and glared at his son.
Yang Chengye said nothing more.
But in my heart I feel that the Empress Dowager and the Emperor are ungrateful and disregard family affection.
If it weren't for the support of the Yang family, how could the empress dowager and the emperor succeed in their fight for the throne and sit on the supreme throne.
In the Cining Palace, the Empress Dowager was obviously in a low mood after her father and brother left.
Bei Lingyao said, "Mother, it is true that we have achieved what we have today thanks to the unwavering support of the Yang family, but back then, we also shared the same fate.
If you don't help us, other royal brothers will come to the throne, and the Yang family will not end well.
Therefore, my mother does not need to feel guilty or owe anything to my grandfather, uncles, and the Yang family.
In the past ten years since I ascended the throne, I have been very good to the Yang family. My grandfather and uncle are in the court, and outside the court, all the members of the Yang family hold important positions, not to mention that the concubine is still domineering in the palace.
If you are still not satisfied with this, then I have nothing more to say."
"I know everything the emperor said. I'm just sad. Your grandfather and your uncles were not like this before."
The Queen Mother was sad. She was loved by her parents and protected by her brothers when she was in the boudoir. After entering the palace, her family's care and support were her concerns.
But now, she is the empress dowager and her son is the emperor.
The Yang family was a family of unlimited honors and favors. Not only did they have two dukes in the family, but their father also held a high position of power in the court, second only to the emperor.
All the members of the Yang family hold important positions.
Why has it changed now?
"It's just that people are greedy. Over the years, my grandfather was the Prime Minister, and my uncle was a third-rank official. I have always been holding back on my uncle and cousins from being promoted too quickly. Otherwise, the entire court would be filled with Yang family members. But even so, there are countless Yang family disciples in the court."
Bei Lingyao had the memories of Emperor Jiahe, so she naturally knew the dilemma that Emperor Jiahe was in. Emperor Jiahe was afraid that the empress dowager would be sad and that her job would be difficult, but she was not afraid.
It’s better to take precautions in advance for some things so that the Empress Dowager can be mentally prepared.
It would be fine if the Yang family could just stay calm, otherwise, the conflict with Emperor Jiahe would only get bigger and bigger.
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