Chapter 90 Fighting is a battle between brothers
"She's so foolish!"
When the Empress Dowager woke up, she found that the entire Forbidden City had changed. The palace was on fire, the Crown Prince had been appointed, Nian Gengyao had been demoted, and the Empress was under investigation. It was already the season when people were prone to illness as summer turned to autumn, and all the news came at once, which made her cough incessantly. She leaned against the bed and vomited so much that she could hardly speak.
"Empress Dowager, please summon the imperial physician to take a look." Zhu Xi, looking anxious, slid along the Empress Dowager's thin back and took a step to go out and call for someone.
"No." The Empress Dowager gently raised her hand, clutching her chest. "We must go and see how Hongzhao is doing first."
She tried to prop herself up, but lacked the strength and could only focus her attention on Zhu Xi. Her gaze was somewhat dazed as if she were recalling something—"Zhu Xi, do you think I made a mistake?"
"If I hadn't agreed to bring Rouze to the palace in the first place, none of this would have happened. Honghui wouldn't have died, Rouze wouldn't have died, and none of the Emperor's many children or concubines would have died."
"Empress Dowager..." Zhu Xi hesitated, wanting to offer words of comfort but unsure where to begin.
"I have always wanted to preserve Empress Yixiu's position and the glory of the Ulanara and Uya clans, but it seems that the Empress has become obsessed."
——
Everyone clearly witnessed the fire that broke out in the palace last night during the court assembly. Today, the civil officials were all eager to impeach Nian Gengyao. Zhen Yuandao and Guarjia Emin were the first to stand up.
Guarjia Emin spoke first: "Your Majesty, Nian Gengyao abused his power and prestige, deceived the emperor and nearly caused the palace to catch fire with no one to save it. His crimes are too numerous to count."
Zhen Yuandao followed closely behind: "Your Majesty, Nian Gengyao is disloyal and disloyal to the emperor, and he has purged dissidents and persecuted innocent people. I beg Your Majesty to punish him severely!"
Seeing them step forward one by one, Yinzhen was not in a hurry, but simply waved to Su Peisheng.
Su Peisheng understood and took two steps forward. He slowly unfolded the imperial edict he had been holding and read it aloud: "By the grace of Heaven, the Emperor decrees: Nian Gengyao has failed to uphold the proper conduct of a subject and has acted without any restraint. He transferred all the Qing fire troops, which nearly caused my beloved son Hongzhao to perish in the fire. I cannot tolerate this. Therefore, I hereby order Nian Gengyao to be removed from his post as Governor-General of Sichuan and Shaanxi, stripped of his first-class merit title, and demoted to a minor official."
As soon as the imperial edict was read, everyone's expression tightened. A fire in the Cold Palace was one thing. But if it affected the princes and imperial heirs, that would be a completely different matter.
Not to mention Prince Hongzhao? Prince Rui?
Anyone with a brain knows how much the Emperor favors the Fifth Prince. Almost everyone who frequently attends meetings in the Hall of Mental Cultivation has seen the Emperor holding the prince in his arms and instructing him. No wonder the Emperor was so angry.
Lu Wenzhong knelt at the lower end, his brows furrowed so deeply they looked like they could trap a fly. Prince Hongzhao was the eldest son of the Imperial Concubine, and he himself was, to put it more grandly, the child's maternal grandfather, so naturally he couldn't help but be anxious.
After reading one imperial edict, Su Peisheng didn't give anyone time to react. He turned around, picked up another one, unfolded it, and continued reading.
"I, as ruler of this land, toil tirelessly in governing the people. The responsibility of the heir apparent is paramount, ensuring the stability of the imperial lineage. My fifth son, Hongzhao, is naturally gifted and virtuous, filial and benevolent, wise and kind..."
Before the imperial edict was even finished being read, the people below couldn't kneel down any longer. This wasn't an imperial edict at all; it was clearly a decree to appoint the crown prince!
Lu Wenzhong knelt below, eyes downcast, deliberately ignoring the various scrutinizing gazes coming from all directions. He thought to himself that his grandson Lu Jiusi was right; the Emperor's affection for the Fifth Prince was almost unheard of in the royal family.
"I respectfully inform Heaven and Earth, the ancestral temples, and the state that I hereby bestow upon Hongzhao the title and seal of Crown Prince. He shall remain calm and accept the position of Crown Prince. Respectfully so."
Su Peisheng read the long document aloud for quite some time, and Yinzhen listened carefully from behind. In fact, he had not originally intended to write so much; this was already a controlled word count. His Hongzhao could not be fully praised in just a few words.
"Your Majesty, please reconsider!"
After Su Peisheng finished reading, a minister stepped forward, knelt down, and loudly requested instructions: "Your Majesty, the country is now rich and powerful. Although the Fifth Prince is intelligent, he is still too young. It is too early to establish an heir. I hope Your Majesty will reconsider."
“Your Majesty!” Another person stepped forward—“The heir apparent should be the eldest son of the legitimate wife. Prince Hongzhao is neither the legitimate son nor the eldest son. It is really inappropriate to make this decision.”
Yinzhen sat upright on the dragon throne, his eyes unconsciously turning cold as he stared at the dissenting voices below. After a moment's thought, he stood up, took two steps forward, and spoke: "I am over forty years old, and I have only four sons who have reached adulthood. The third prince, Hongshi, is mediocre and unfit for great responsibility, and the fourth prince, with his humble origins, is unlikely to win the hearts of the people. Only Hongzhao and the sixth prince, Hongzhou, are born to the Consort. The sixth prince is still too young to understand anything, and I have never considered the heir to the throne."
“You say that Hongzhao is neither the eldest son nor the heir apparent, but Hongzhao has been raised by me since childhood. He has had a photographic memory since he was a child, and at the age of five, he could shoot a goose with a bow and arrow, piercing six eyes with one shot. Tell me, whose son can compare to my crown prince?”
He became more and more certain as he spoke, and at the end he even curled his lips into a slightly provocative smile and shrugged as he looked at everyone—"Hongzhao and Hongjin were born with auspicious omens. During the previous plague, it was Hongzhao himself who tested the medicine on himself and obtained the formula to treat the plague, so that the people were not devastated. Yesterday, when the palace caught fire, it was because the late emperor's vital energy protected him that he was able to survive the fire. The establishment of the crown prince is the will of heaven."
After the Emperor finished speaking, Lü Wenzhong clenched his fist, knelt down, and performed a deep bow, saying, "Your Majesty is wise, and Heaven blesses the Great Qing!"
Once one person spoke up, the others followed suit and knelt down one after another, saying in unison, "Your Majesty is wise, Heaven blesses the Great Qing!"
He fumbled with the court beads in his hand, his eyes flashing as he spoke again—"I also intend to bestow the title of Princess Gulun Jinghua upon the eldest princess Hongjin. The investiture ceremony will be held on her birthday in winter, and she and Hongzhao will perform the ceremony together."
courtier"..."
With the crown prince already established, what could they say about giving a princess of the first rank? They could only say, "Your Majesty is wise."
——
When the Empress Dowager rushed to the Hall of Mental Cultivation, the Emperor had gone to court and had not yet returned. In the hall, only the dazed Hongzhao and Xiao Dezi, who was standing by his side, were present.
"Grandma has arrived...Grandson greets Grandma."
The Empress Dowager looked at the child's flushed face on the bed, walked over, pressed his shoulders and tucked him back into the quilt—"Lie down properly, my good child must be frightened."
Hongzhao looked at him and shook his head innocently—"No, Grandmother, you don't need to worry about your grandson. I just had a dream. In the dream, there was Grandmother and a palace lady in a plum blossom branch protecting me. Do you know who that person is? Her face looks vaguely familiar."
The Empress Dowager's hand, which was tucking the quilt in, froze, and her gaze slowly rose in disbelief—"Hongzhao, you said...plum blossoms? Did you ever say that to your father, the Emperor?"
Hongzhao nodded as a matter of course—"Of course, but Father Emperor was worried that his grandson was only talking to the imperial physician and did not tell his grandson who that lady was."
Who...who else could it be...?
Could it be that this child really...
This is going to be a difficult situation. The Emperor has always favored Hongzhao, so this matter is unlikely to end well. If Rouze is also involved, then the Empress... her reign is truly over.
Hongzhao continued speaking, oblivious to everything else: "I heard that General Nian has been punished. Does Grandmother know who Father will use if he needs to fight another war? I just hope I can grow up quickly so that I can go to the battlefield as soon as possible and share Father's burdens."
He looked directly at the Empress Dowager. "After all, brothers fight side by side, and fathers and sons go to war together. Don't you agree, Grandmother?"
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