Chu Xiao made this decision quickly. He issued an edict to dismiss the concubines from the harem. He would grant any concubine who wanted to return home the privilege of having her family take her home, change her name, and remarry. Concubines who did not wish to return home were moved to the royal villa, where all their living necessities would remain the same as before.
The imperial edict caused an uproar throughout the court and the imperial harem.
The Empress Dowager was the first to disagree. Although she liked Yun Chaoxi, being in the royal family, having children and continuing the imperial line was of paramount importance. The emperor could favor one person, but he could not dismiss the harem for that reason.
She hurriedly found Chu Xiao, "Your Majesty, why are you dismissing all the women in the harem for no reason? You've been sending them contraceptive potions for so many years, and now you're not even leaving any of them behind. Do you really intend to have no descendants?"
"Or is it that Consort Zhao can't tolerate these women?"
The Empress Dowager sincerely hoped that it wasn't Yun Chaoxi who suggested it.
"Mother, you're overthinking it. This is my decision, not the Consort's. If they stay in the palace, I will not allow them to get pregnant. Most of them are in their twenties. Rather than wasting their lives in the palace, they should go home and find a good husband."
"As for the matter of offspring, only the Imperial Concubine can bear me a prince. I intend to choose a day to make the Imperial Concubine Empress." Chu Xiao's tone was firm.
Seeing his insistence, the Empress Dowager sighed and took a step back. "The Consort's family background is sufficient, and I have no objection to making her Empress. However, I still feel that it is inappropriate to dismiss the harem."
“If you insist on going your own way, people outside will not dare to criticize you, but will only target the Consort, calling her a vixen. You can silence the court officials, but how will you manage the gossip and rumors circulating in the streets? If the Emperor truly likes her, he should also think about her.”
"Furthermore, some of the concubines come from prominent families. Sending them all away would cause dissatisfaction among many court officials, leading to turmoil in the court and the country, which would not be good for the Great Chu. I suggest leaving a small number of them to silence the gossip."
Chu Xiao thought for a moment, "What the Empress Dowager said makes sense. The court officials are not to be feared, but we must not let the Consort be scolded because of this."
"Then send these people out in two batches. One batch will leave in three days, and the other batch will be sent away after the Consort becomes pregnant, under the pretext of worrying about the imperial heir. This is reasonable and justified. Let's see who dares to criticize her."
Empress Dowager, "..." So you really have to send them all away!
The Empress Dowager, tired of trying to persuade him, stopped and said, "The Emperor can decide for himself."
Those families with daughters sent to the palace disagreed with the emperor's decision to dismiss the harem. However, Chu Xiao was no longer the young emperor who needed to rely on his ministers when he first ascended the throne. He was decisive and punished several disgruntled officials, issuing an imperial edict despite pressure from all sides.
The many concubines in the harem felt like the sky had fallen! It was one thing for the emperor to favor Yun Chaoxi so much, but now he was actually sending them away, never to return to the palace for the rest of their lives. Wouldn't that mean they would never see the emperor again and would have to live a life of widowhood in a separate courtyard?
Several concubines knelt outside Chu Xiao's Zichen Palace, trying to persuade him to retract his order. Their knees were swollen and red from kneeling, but they still couldn't see the emperor.
Consort De, who rarely left the palace, readily ordered people to pack her things and prepare to go to the villa. She even came to ask Chu Xiao to build a Buddhist hall in the villa so that she could devote herself to Buddhism. Chu Xiao agreed.
Yun Chaoxi had only seen Consort De on the few days she paid her respects to the Empress Dowager. She was a gentle and dignified woman, dressed simply, and often had Buddhist prayer beads wrapped around her wrist. Apart from paying her respects, she had never seen Consort De anywhere else.
"Your Majesty, why did Consort De agree to leave so readily? I've always felt that she doesn't fit in with the other people in the palace."
Chu Xiao recalled for a moment, "Before entering the palace, Consort De already had someone she liked, a young general in the court at the time, Liu Bi'an."
“Liu Bi’an?” Yun Chaoxi knew this person. “He was the second son of the Marquis of Pingshan. He went to the battlefield at a young age and died on the battlefield eight years ago.”
"That's right. Consort De was originally Liu Bi'an's fiancée. After Liu Bi'an died, she followed her family's arrangements to participate in the imperial concubine selection and enter the palace."
Therefore, when Consort De proposed to no longer be favored by the emperor, Chu Xiao had no objections and allowed her to observe a vegetarian diet and chant Buddhist prayers in her palace to mourn Liu Bi'an. Fearing that Consort Shu and Consort Xian would dominate the harem, Chu Xiao also shared some of the harem's power with Consort De, creating a balance of power among the three.
Yun Chaoxi sighed, "For Consort De to dare to say that she would no longer be favored by the emperor, she must have very deep feelings for General Liu."
Chu Xiao pinched her cheek, "Why envy others? Don't I have deep feelings for you? I even dismissed my harem for you."
Yun Chaoxi glanced at him. "Weren't these concubines also selected by the Emperor? I haven't asked the Emperor yet. You said you were previously... impotent, so how did you summon the concubines?"
Chu Xiao, "..."
Chu Xiao coughed awkwardly twice, "I had An Yi act as my double. His figure is similar to mine. As long as the lights are off and he doesn't make a sound, no one will notice."
"I don't care about the selection of concubines. Most of them are chosen by the Empress Dowager. I have never touched them since they entered the palace."
Chu Xiao's impotence stemmed from a scheme orchestrated by his elder brothers during their youthful struggle for the throne. He concealed this fact well; otherwise, he would never have been able to ascend the throne.
Yun Chaoxi widened her fox-like eyes, as if she had caught Chu Xiao red-handed, "So it's true that the person I met on my first day of serving the emperor was not you! I knew that person smelled bad and didn't look like an emperor."
"As for lust... I've found that you are even more lustful than him," Yun Chaoxi muttered quickly and softly.
Chu Xiao: "Ahem! He has hundreds of experiences. I only have you. How can you compare?"
Suddenly, Yun Chaoxi seemed to remember something, "So the guard who appeared in Qinfang Garden wearing a mask was actually you!"
Chu Xiao admitted it.
"Oh! The Emperor deliberately kept it from me! Then... then you... you knew all about how heartbroken I was by the lake that day!"
Chu Xiao nodded leisurely, "If it weren't for that, I wouldn't have known that my little concubine has been looking forward to serving me in bed, hoping that I would visit her more often."
Yun Chaoxi covered her face in embarrassment, then pounced on Chu Xiao, covering his mouth with one hand and raising her little fist to hit him with the other, "Your Majesty is so bad!"
The two of them started playfully fighting.
...
With the three-day deadline fast approaching, the women in the harem began racking their brains to find ways to stay.
Consort Shu began feigning illness, claiming she was too ill to get out of bed. Chu Xiao immediately ordered that Consort Shu be sent away and that a royal physician be dispatched to treat her at a separate residence.
Consort Shu felt like the sky had fallen.
It wasn't just Consort Shu who was feigning illness; several other concubines were also falling ill, and suddenly the entire harem was in a state of sickness. Chu Xiao personally called them all out and sent them away.
Some pleaded with the Empress Dowager, some tried to curry favor with Yun Chaoxi, and others bribed people in the Imperial Observatory to claim that their birth charts brought good fortune to their husbands and the nation. All of them were on the first batch of people sent away.
Those who try to play tricks are not allowed to stay; they must all be sent away.
Consort Xian never expected that her scheme to sow discord would not only fail but also cause the Emperor to consider disbanding the harem, and she was filled with regret.
Before she could even congratulate herself on how well she had cleaned up the mess, she immediately started thinking of ways to stay in the palace.
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