Chapter 96 The fake prince ascends the throne as emperor!
Zhou Xi acted very quickly. He took action almost immediately after discussing it with Si Yuan.
He did not personally reveal to the emperor the Chen family's ambition to support the eldest prince as the new emperor.
Zhou Xi felt that it was impossible for the emperor not to know about the Chen family's ambition. The reason why the emperor was still concerned about Queen Mother Chen and showed more leniency to the Chen family was only because the emperor was still a little self-deceiving. He was wary of the Chen family, but since no one had clearly pointed out the Chen family's ambition, the emperor could sometimes pretend not to know.
Therefore, the person who made the Chen family's ambitions clear could not be Zhou Xi himself. He did not want to be the emperor's wrath and be completely hated by Empress Dowager Chen and the Chen family.
Although the emperor had no intention of letting him go, the Chen family and he were already in an irreconcilable relationship.
But the emperor now at least had to pretend to favor him on the surface, and the Chen family did not completely break off relations with him on the surface.
Zhou Xi didn't want to break the current situation, so he planned to use the second prince.
The second prince was born to Concubine Shu. Among the so-called four noble, virtuous and virtuous concubines, Concubine Shu had a better family background than Concubine Gui. Her father and brother were both very capable, unlike the Chen family, the maternal family of Concubine Gui. Their current prosperity was mainly due to Empress Dowager Chen and the current emperor. Only then did it come to Concubine Chen and the eldest prince's turn to rely on the Chen family to win the throne.
The second prince can only compete with the eldest prince by relying on the influence of his mother's family.
Moreover, the second prince was very close in age to the eldest prince, only half a year apart. The eldest prince had always been proud of his status as the eldest prince. As the saying goes, if there is a legitimate son, the legitimate son shall be established; if there is no legitimate son, the eldest son shall be established. The emperor did not have a queen, so all the princes were illegitimate sons and there was no legitimate son to suppress them. Therefore, the eldest prince, the eldest prince, was uniquely noble.
The second prince was not convinced. Why should you be more noble than me just because you were born half a month earlier than me and have the title of the eldest son? My mother's family background is no worse than your mother's.
The two princes are of the same age, and have been fighting each other since they were young. The emperor, their trouble-making father, also deliberately stirs up a fight between the two sons.
Before the third and fourth princes grew up, and before the rise of Crown Prince Zhou Xi, the eldest and second princes were lifelong enemies.
Even though the younger brothers grew up, the eldest prince and the second prince no longer fought each other to the death in order to fight their younger brothers, but their relationship was still very bad, the kind that would kill each other if they had the chance.
Zhou Xi simply used the spies he had planted around the Second Prince to leak some information to the Second Prince's staff, who naturally offered the Second Prince a plan - to expose the Chen family's ambition to support the First Prince to ascend the throne and make the Emperor completely dislike the First Prince.
There is no emperor who would not be dissatisfied with his own prince coveting his throne, even if these are tacit facts known to everyone, they cannot be revealed on the surface.
Many things are like this, you can do it but you can't say it.
When the second prince heard the vicious plan proposed by his aide, he thought it was extremely vicious. If other competitors used this vicious plan against him, he would definitely be disliked by his father.
So the second prince happily used this vicious plan on his eldest brother.
I'd rather my brother die than this prince!
As for the fact that kicking the eldest prince out of the decisive battle for the throne in this way would offend the Chen family? The second prince said that he was not afraid at all. He and the Chen family had been at war for a long time. Empress Dowager Chen had made things difficult for him and his mother time and time again. He would not care about this grandmother who did not treat him as her own grandson.
The second prince was very efficient. His staff had proposed the evil plan in the morning, and he had filed the complaint in the morning.
Anyway, he had been fighting with the eldest prince's camp for so many years, and he had already obtained a lot of evidence about the collusion between the Chen family and the eldest prince. He had not released it before only because he felt that everyone knew that the Chen family was the eldest prince's maternal family, and they were in the same boat. What evidence could their collusion provide? As for the evidence of the Chen family's crimes, there was no need to bring them out. Could the emperor punish his own mother's family for some untouchables? Aren’t you afraid that Empress Dowager Chen in the palace will cry, make a fuss, and even hang herself?
The best proof is that a few days ago, the prince's men reported the Chen family for committing crimes with complete evidence, but in the end the emperor lifted them up high and let them go gently.
Now the second prince discovered that these things could be used to kill the eldest prince from another angle, so he immediately took the evidence to the palace to ask for an audience.
The emperor treated his sons with some fatherly love, except for the fifth prince born to him by true love. But when he saw his other sons, he could only think of how much of a threat the power of their mother's families posed to his imperial power.
Only the Fifth Prince, who had no support from his mother's family, could be trusted with the loving heart of a father.
When the emperor heard that the second prince wanted to see him, he was slightly startled, and then he guessed that his second son might have caught some handle on his other sons and came to him to complain. It was just right that he could take this opportunity to weaken the power of one of his sons, so he nodded and agreed to his request for an audience.
After the second prince entered the palace, he dropped a big bomb on the emperor: "Your Highness, I pay my respects to you, Father. May you live in peace and happiness! Your Highness, I came here today to sue my eldest brother for colluding with the Cheng'en Mansion to seize the throne with evil intentions..."
The emperor sat up straight immediately, because he had no queen, so the Cheng'en Mansion referred to the Chen family, the empress dowager's mother's family. Was the eldest prince colluding with the Chen family to seize the throne with ill intentions?
The emperor stared at the kneeling Second Prince with cold eyes and asked in a low voice, "Do you have any evidence?"
The second prince shouted, "I have evidence!" Then he pulled out a thick stack of account books and some paper from his arms. These were the evidence of the collusion between the first prince and the Chen family. There was evidence that the first prince had covered up the traces of the Chen family's crimes, and there was also evidence that the Chen family had made money and bought people's hearts for the first prince...
The chief eunuch took the evidence from the second prince and presented it to the emperor. The emperor read it carefully and his face became increasingly gloomy.
Although the emperor has long known that the Chen family is supporting the eldest prince, the eldest prince is after all the biological son of Concubine Chen. The Chen family is not only the maternal family of the emperor, but also the maternal family of the eldest prince. It is natural for them to stand behind the eldest prince.
This is also the reason why the emperor was afraid of the Chen family's collusion with the eldest prince, but at the same time felt it was normal for them to collude with each other.
The same is true for other princes; their mother's families are their natural support forces.
But knowing it in your heart and witnessing with your own eyes the evidence of the collusion between the Chen family and the eldest prince are completely different feelings.
Especially in the emperor's mind, the Chen family, as his mother's family, should only be loyal to him as the emperor, instead of ambitiously supporting one of his sons to seize his throne.
The emperor felt as if he had been betrayed by Empress Dowager Chen, Concubine Chen, and the Chen family.
What does the Chen family want to do by helping the eldest prince get so much silver? Recruiting soldiers and rebelling? What is the purpose of bribing so many officials? Force the emperor to revolt?
Originally, the emperor's fear of the Chen family and the eldest prince was just a seedling that had just sprouted in his heart. After seeing the evidence presented by the second prince, this seedling was quickly watered and grew into a towering tree.
Endless anger burned in his heart. The emperor was so angry that he even took his anger out on the second prince. He shouted at him, "You are suing my elder brother. You have no brotherly love. Get out!"
The second prince was so frightened that he crawled out. He didn't know that the emperor was angry with the eldest prince and the Chen family, but was only angry at him as the one who made the complaint. He thought the emperor was angry with him, and didn't want to punish the Chen family and the eldest prince even after seeing so much evidence of their crimes.
The second prince was jealous of the emperor's favoritism towards the eldest prince, so he went to the palace of Concubine Shu in a dejected manner.
He accidentally angered the emperor, and had to ask his mother to help him smooth things over.
However, just as the Second Prince told Concubine Shu about this in the palace, the eunuch in charge of Concubine Shu came to report: "Your Highness, the Imperial Concubine has offended His Majesty and has been demoted to Imperial Concubine."
Concubine Shu showed an expression of surprise and realization.
The four concubines of Guishu, Xiande and De were of the first rank, while Guipin was only of the third rank. Concubine Chen was demoted from the first rank to the third rank, which can be said to be a demotion of four levels.
Concubine Shu felt that if it weren't for Empress Dowager Chen, Concubine Chen would have been demoted not only to a noble concubine, but possibly even lower.
But even taking Empress Dowager Chen into consideration, the emperor still demoted the imperial concubine. This shows the emperor's dissatisfaction with the imperial concubine, or rather, his dissatisfaction with the Chen family.
The demotion of Concubine Chen was more of a warning from the emperor to the Chen family and the eldest prince.
Concubine Shu smiled at the Second Prince and said, "Don't worry, my son. Your father scolded you before, not because he favored the First Prince. He was just too angry and took his anger out on you. Just don't show up in front of His Majesty recently."
The second prince was not stupid, and of course he understood from the emperor's move to demote Concubine Chen. He said with some regret, "If I had known earlier, I shouldn't have come in person."
He thought that by reporting the collusion between the eldest prince and the Chen family to covet the throne, he would be rewarded and appreciated by his father. He could also take the opportunity to show off, such as telling his father that he was different from his ambitious eldest brother and that he was more filial to his father.
Unexpectedly, not only was he not rewarded, but he was also angered.
If he had known this would happen, he should have planned to let the third, fourth or fifth brother be the first to take action, or let one of his officials report it instead of doing it himself.
Concubine Shu was more open-minded and said, "Every failure is a lesson learned. Just remember this lesson next time. This time it's not a big deal. Your father's anger should still be directed at the Chen family and the eldest prince. Even if the queen mother protects them, your father will not consider the eldest prince to succeed to the throne in the future."
The second prince was just happy that the eldest prince was really out, but then he thought of the crown prince, and his face fell again: "What's the point of overthrowing the eldest prince? There is still a crown prince above him. I really don't know how the fifth prince got the support of the Duke of England. It's obvious that his mother's family, the Li family, is a poor family and can't give him any support. As a result, not only does the emperor favor him, but the Duke of England is also willing to support him."
Thinking that the Crown Prince has the support of the Duke of England, who is an important minister with military power, if his father ever thinks of changing the crown prince in the future, the hundreds of thousands of troops in the hands of the Duke of England will be the Crown Prince's chance to fight desperately!
Concubine Shu smiled and said, "It is precisely because the prince's mother's family is useless that your father dotes on him. Your father chose him as the prince, and the Duke of Ying was willing to support him. If the prince loses your father's trust, he will no longer be the prince."
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