Qin Ge invented gunpowder and rifles to prevent the male protagonist of the original novel from rebelling against a tyrant.
Jun Chenbi suppressed the ambition of an emperor to conquer the world in order to uphold the prophecy of the temple and prevent Qin Ge from bearing a bad reputation.
They were both doing it for each other.
…
And that's how gunpowder was created.
So, starting two years ago, the Divine Soldiers Battalion secretly began training in a valley on the outskirts of Beijing.
Divine soldiers descended from the heavens, decisively thwarting a potential palace coup.
The son of the imperial family whom Empress Dowager Cixi wanted to support to ascend the throne was the male protagonist in the original novel.
However, encountering Qin Ge, a bug, was simply his bad luck.
The male protagonist of this world cannot die, but the consequences of a failed rebellion are not much better; the best outcome is a lifelong confinement.
*
The Cixi Palace was completely silent, not even a single palace servant was present. On the night of the palace coup, the imperial guards and the rebels fought fiercely, and the palace servants fled in all directions. Blood and fire stained half of the imperial city red. After the Divine Soldiers arrived, the rebels retreated to the Cixi Palace and resisted stubbornly for a while before finally surrendering.
Empress Dowager Cixi, the mastermind behind the rebellion and usurpation of the throne, was surrounded in the palace by the Imperial Guards, who were as impenetrable as an iron barrel.
The palace servants were naturally no longer available to be ordered around.
She was all alone in the entire palace, no longer enjoying the glory of an empress dowager.
Empress Dowager Cixi remained calm and unhurried, as if she were not the one who had failed in the rebellion. She even had the leisure to sit in front of her dressing table. The light was dim, and the mirror was yellowish, vaguely reflecting a face that was no longer young, stained with the marks of time and stories. One could only vaguely glimpse that she must have been a dignified and beautiful woman in her youth.
She was not wearing a phoenix crown or a ceremonial robe; her well-maintained, long, jet-black hair cascaded over her shoulders.
Empress Dowager Cixi held the ivory comb and gently combed her long hair strand by strand, appearing like a ghost in the quiet palace.
Not long after, she spoke, "You've arrived."
Nowadays, the only people in the world who can still enter and leave Cixi Palace to see the Empress Dowager who is under house arrest are the Emperor and Empress.
However, Empress Dowager Cixi's words "You've come" were directed at Jun Chenbi alone.
It seemed as if they had expected him to appear here.
Therefore, the Empress Dowager looked in the mirror and combed her hair without even turning her head.
Jun Chenbi's light gold robes reflected light in the dim palace. The Empress Dowager was not his biological mother, so he felt neither anger nor sadness at the betrayal of the Empress Dowager Cixi's plot to rebel. He didn't even ask her why she wanted to rebel. He only said, "Do you have any last words? You can say them now."
However, he might not necessarily pay any attention to it.
His Majesty the Emperor thought casually.
Empress Dowager Cixi paused in her combing of her hair, "..."
She probably didn't expect that the emperor wasn't curious at all about why she rebelled against him and supported a collateral branch of the Jun imperial family to rise to power.
This left Empress Dowager Cixi with no opportunity to express her pent-up feelings.
Qin Ge is now always with Jun Chenbi. Although he didn't say anything, the corners of his lips couldn't help but curve slightly.
Empress Dowager Cixi hesitated for a moment, then finally couldn't help but ask, "Aren't you curious..."
"The victor is king, the loser is villain. Why should I be curious?" Jun Chenbi scoffed coldly.
This dismissive and autocratic attitude angered the dignified and beautiful Empress Dowager.
Empress Dowager Cixi finally lost her temper, slammed her hand on the table, and the ivory comb smashed to the ground, breaking into pieces. "You insolent brat!"
She said, "Although I am not your birth mother, I am the Empress Dowager of the Yong Dynasty. Jun Chenbi, since you ascended the throne, have you ever put me in your eyes? Have you ever put the civil and military officials and the common people in your eyes?"
Immediately afterwards, Empress Dowager Cixi's arm drew a sharp arc in mid-air, its spearhead aimed directly at Qin Ge—
"You use the prophecy of the temple as a pretext to make such a man by your side your empress. You are disregarding the ancestral laws and bringing shame upon the entire Jun royal family!"
"As the Empress Dowager of the Great Yong Dynasty, what wrong have I done in restoring order and purifying the court?!"
A pot came crashing down from the sky and landed on Qin Ge's head.
Qin Ge, "..."
He won't take the blame for this.
It wasn't that he was trying to defend himself; although Empress Dowager Cixi spoke with great righteousness, Qin Ge still felt a subtle sense of unease.
Sure enough, the next second, a deep coldness appeared on the tyrant's handsome face. He slightly parted his thin lips and sneered, "Alright, stop giving me these high-sounding reasons, and don't even bring up the Empress."
The key point of that rebuke is in the second half of the sentence—
Don't bring the Empress.
Dragons have reverse scales; touching them means certain death.
Clearly, Jun Chenbi's Achilles' heel is his empress.
If Empress Dowager Cixi hadn't dragged Qin Ge into the rebellion, Jun Chenbi probably wouldn't have bothered with her at all.
"It's just that I'm afraid I'll find out about how you forced Consort Zhen to her death."
Empress Dowager Cixi's expression suddenly changed drastically. "You...you actually knew!"
Qin Ge frowned slightly.
Zhen Meiren.
The birth mother of Emperor Qingjia.
He was completely unaware that Empress Dowager Cixi had forced the tyrant's birth mother to her death...
*
During the reign of the late emperor, he doted on Consort Shentu.
This imperial concubine was not originally surnamed Shentu. She came from a commoner background and had known the late emperor since she was a nobody. Due to her low status, she could only watch helplessly as the late emperor made the eldest daughter of the Gu family empress. Even her later title of imperial concubine was due to the late emperor having her registered under the name of a noble family and giving her the name Shentu.
Consort Shentu attempted to monopolize all of the late emperor's favor, but regardless of the emperor's need to maintain balance in the court or the inherent flaws of men, it was destined that the late emperor's harem would not consist of only Consort Shentu.
Consort Shentu was beautiful, domineering, jealous, and the most favored concubine in the palace.
At the height of her favor, she roamed freely in the harem, and even the Empress had to avoid her.
Or rather, Consort Shentu, relying on the emperor's favor, never took the empress seriously.
Empress Gu and the concubines in the six palaces lived a difficult life under her oppression.
Consort Shentu herself was unable to conceive, and the late emperor had promised her that her child would be made crown prince, so she would not allow anyone to give birth to a child before her.
The late emperor truly loved Consort Shentu, and he turned a blind eye to her arrogant and domineering behavior of harming his own children, even tacitly approving and indulging her.
The Empress suffered two miscarriages, which damaged her health, making it impossible for her to conceive again.
The plight of lower-ranking concubines can be easily imagined.
When Consort Shentu dominated the harem, the concubines struggled to survive. The late emperor's offspring were few and far between, and the saying "a mother's status rises with her son" no longer existed.
In order to protect themselves, the concubines took the initiative to request to avoid the emperor's favor.
After all, falling out of favor is better than losing your life.
On one occasion, the late emperor quarreled with his concubine, and in a fit of pique, while drunk, he favored a palace maid.
This palace maid is Consort Zhen.
After discovering she was pregnant, Consort Zhen was filled with anxiety and eventually sought help from the Empress.
With the Empress's help, Consort Zhen gave birth to a baby boy in the Cold Palace and secretly raised him.
During those dark, sunless, and long years in the Cold Palace, at the most difficult time, Consort Zhen didn't even dare to let her child cry out loud, for fear that the Imperial Concubine would discover the child's existence.
Later, they even made the young prince in the cold palace dress up as a palace maid and dress him up as a girl.
Later, in his old age, the late emperor fell seriously ill and his health deteriorated. Consort Shentu still had no children, and only a few princesses of the late emperor's children survived. When the ministers in the court stopped targeting the wicked concubine and began to advise the late emperor to make a young member of the imperial family the crown prince, the late emperor finally realized that... his empire had no heir to inherit it.
No emperor would willingly hand over his kingdom to his brother's son.
Therefore, when the young prince in the cold palace was brought to the forefront by the Empress's faction, the late Emperor was overjoyed and immediately issued an edict to appoint him as the Crown Prince.
However, the young prince, who grew up in the cold palace, had already developed a gloomy, violent, and sickly personality due to the dark and long years of being bullied.
Even though the late emperor left a will instructing the new emperor to treat Consort Shentu well, and even poisoned his own son with a secret palace poison, giving the antidote to Consort Shentu in exchange for protection after his death, the new emperor still coldly gave Consort Shentu a cup of poisoned wine, forcing her to commit suicide.
The young prince who grew up in the cold palace became the new emperor.
The empress who was persecuted by Consort Shentu became the empress dowager and was given the title Ci'an.
As for the prince's birth mother, a lowly palace maid who had a one-night stand with the late emperor, she hanged herself in the cold palace the night before the empress promised to take the young prince out of the cold palace openly and honorably and help him ascend to the supreme position.
For an empress to become empress dowager, she needs to support a puppet monarch, and this puppet can only have one "mother".
Lady Zhen died voluntarily and with a smile on her face.
Did the Empress Dowager force Consort Zhen to her death?
That's one way to put it.
Because Lady Zhen never had a second choice.
The Empress Dowager believed she could control the new emperor.
However, the new emperor was tyrannical and tyrannical. He was not afraid of what people said or how they cursed him, and he loved bloodshed and killing.
Therefore, realizing that the new emperor was out of her control, the Empress Dowager, who was keeping the secret of Consort Zhen's death, gradually became restless.
The target of her conspiracy was none other than the son of the imperial clan who, according to the officials, was the one most favored in the court to be made crown prince because the late emperor had no heir.
That is, the male lead.
In the male protagonist's view, if it weren't for the sudden appearance of the prince from the cold palace, the Yong Dynasty would have been his for the taking.
He is just—
Set things right and take back what belongs to us.
*
Qin Ge only learned about the palace secrets from the late emperor's time today.
These were things the tyrant had never told him.
He looked at Jun Chenbi.
Jun Chenbi slightly parted his thin lips and clicked his tongue, "Don't look at me like that. It's been so long, I've long forgotten about it."
His Majesty the Emperor gave him an expression that said, "I don't need pity."
Qin Ge's eyes narrowed slightly. Indeed, the last thing a tyrant needs is sympathy.
That was an insult to an emperor.
Qin Ge smiled slightly and said, "Your Majesty is mistaken. I didn't mean that."
"I was just thinking..." Qin Ge's voice trailed off, and Jun Chenbi suddenly had a bad feeling. Sure enough, he continued, "...So His Majesty has also dressed as a woman before!"
"I really don't know what His Majesty would look like in women's clothing, but I bet he would be an absolute beauty."
As she spoke, Her Majesty the Empress even sighed in a mocking manner, as if regretting that she had not been able to catch a glimpse of the stunning beauty!
Jun Chenbi, "..."
~~~
[Note]: The late emperor and Consort Shentu are based on the literature of Consort Wan of the Ming Dynasty.
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