The princess has been a little anxious these past two days. After the emperor woke up, he didn't see anyone except Wei Min.
What did the emperor do when he met Wei Min?
This is not the point. The point is that the emperor's condition became more serious the next day. She heard from the young servant who served the emperor closely that there were signs of a stroke.
The emperor had suffered a stroke, and his speech was slurred and his movements were limited, so he naturally could no longer attend court. At this time, it was natural for her, the princess, to act as regent.
This should have been a good thing, but the annoying thing is that when the Queen Mother was conscious, she summoned the Eighth Brother several times.
Jiang Wuyong could not sit still, and after Jiang Wuque left, he rushed into the palace. He wanted to find out what the queen mother had said to the eighth brother, but he was scolded instead.
Jiang Wuyong felt uneasy, fearing that her mother would lose her mind and depose her as the crown princess.
After listening to Jiang Wuyong's worries, the left prime minister frowned and said, "You are the eldest daughter of the Jiang family. You have done nothing wrong. Why would the emperor depose you?"
Jiang Wuyong spoke quickly and said, "Aunt, you don't know that the Queen Mother might have had a stroke. If the Eighth Master uses some tricks, she will be able to do anything. Besides, I have already lost the Queen Mother's favor because of the Southern Xinjiang incident."
Zuo Xiang didn't hear anything else clearly, but he heard the word "stroke". She stood up from her seat, pounded her fists on her palms, and walked around the room a few times, trying her best to suppress the excitement on her face, and said, "Your Highness, if that's the case, what are you afraid of?"
"You are the princess of the crown prince. Once the emperor... you can legitimately become the regent."
"My mother has been summoning the Eighth Prince these past two days, and she doesn't allow anyone else to stay and listen. Who knows what they are talking about?" Jiang Wuyong felt uneasy. "If the person who regents the country is Jiang Wuque, then I, the princess, will be a joke."
The left prime minister thought for a moment and said, "Your Highness will not feel at ease until the emperor tells you something. In this case, why don't we make some plans."
Isn't the emperor showing signs of a stroke? Then why not let her really have a stroke?
If something happens to the emperor in the palace, then when he returns this time, the situation in Chiang Kai-shek will be completely different.
After Jiang Wuyong left, the left prime minister sent people to contact the ministers of the aristocratic families to discuss the matter together.
In the following days, the emperor's condition became more serious, and he had not summoned anyone for several days, including the princess. The palace was strictly guarded by the imperial guards, and those who served her every day were either the Palace Officials or the Imperial Guards.
Jiang Wuyong couldn't see the emperor and had no idea what was going on in the palace, so he felt uneasy.
The Left Prime Minister knew the princess's character well and was afraid that she would lose her composure, so he submitted a memorial requesting an audience with the emperor.
This memorial was submitted to the palace but no response was given. No one knew what happened to the emperor. Only the palace officials came out to pass on the message that the emperor did not want to see the ministers.
The left prime minister was suspicious and decided to join forces with other ministers to request an audience with the emperor.
Perhaps it was a coincidence that the ministers met the Eighth Princess and her husband Feng Yu on their way to the palace, and then Wei Min also came as if they had discussed it beforehand.
"We really think alike," Zuo Xiang smiled, "In that case, let's go together."
Everyone arrived at the palace hall, and the left prime minister stepped forward and said, "Your Highness, I would like to ask you to see me. Please inform the palace department."
The Palace Minister said in a neither humble nor arrogant manner: "The Emperor is ill and will not see you, please go back."
The left prime minister was unwilling to give up, "Your servants are really worried about the emperor, so let's go in and report to the emperor."
Hearing this, Jiang Wuque looked at the Left Prime Minister and frowned, saying, "Didn't the Palace Ministry say that the Queen Mother would not meet with the ministers? Why did the Left Prime Minister bother to embarrass the Palace Ministry?"
"I have something important to say," Rong Shen said, "The country cannot be without a monarch for a day. Now that the emperor is seriously ill, the princess should be the regent. As the left prime minister, I should remind the emperor of this matter."
Jiang Wuque said: "The emperor is seriously ill at the moment. It is better to wait until the emperor wakes up before discussing what the left prime minister said."
"Wait? The Eighth Prince can wait for such a big thing as the Regent, but the people of the world can't." The left prime minister glanced at Jiang Wuque and the Palace Secretary, and said hesitantly: "Your servants just want to see His Majesty, but they have been blocked again and again. This makes me suspect that the emperor is not seriously ill, but is controlled by someone."
"The news that the emperor is ill is just from other people's mouths. We can't see the emperor, so who knows whether it is true or false?"
The left prime minister glanced at Jiang Wuque's wife and husband, then looked at Wei Min and asked, "Are you three here today to see the emperor as well?"
"If that's the case, then why didn't you insist on going in when the palace officials said the emperor was ill? Didn't the news that the emperor didn't see the ministers spread a long time ago? Why did you come here today when you knew you couldn't see the emperor?"
The left prime minister's tone became more and more aggressive. Seeing Jiang Wuque's disdainful sneer, he frowned and said, "Eighth Prince, the person the emperor met the most before he became seriously ill was you. Your reaction today makes me wonder if you took this opportunity to do something to the emperor?"
Jiang Wuque raised his eyebrows and said "oh" meaningfully, and asked with great interest: "According to what the Left Prime Minister said, the Queen Mother was placed under house arrest by Lord Wei and me, along with the Palace Department?"
"I am just guessing." The left prime minister seemed to be certain of something and said, "Unless I can see Your Majesty in person."
The Palace Ministry still said the same thing: the emperor will not meet with his ministers.
Jiang Wuque looked at Jiang Wuyong who was standing beside him and said, "Why didn't the Left Prime Minister suspect the Crown Princess? The Queen Mother saw her quite often before she became seriously ill."
Jiang Wuyong was furious when she called him out, "Am I the same as you? I am the crown princess, how could I be bad to the queen mother?"
"I think what the left prime minister said just now makes sense. I will make a judgment on whether you did anything to the queen mother after I see her." Jiang Wuyong said loudly, "Come here, arrest the eighth prince Jiang Wuque, Wei Min and the palace governor first."
The emperor refused to see outsiders, so he must have had a stroke. Jiang Wuyong and the left prime minister took advantage of this and wanted to take advantage of Jiang Kunjun's slurred speech after suffering a stroke to pin the crime of plotting to murder and control the emperor on the Eighth Prince and Wei Min.
The person who can give orders at this time is the princess Jiang Wuyong, and they just take this opportunity to get rid of the two people who have always been an eyesore.
At the princess's command, guards in armor rushed in from outside the palace.
Feng Yu was standing quietly beside Jiang Wuque's wheelchair. He showed no expression when he heard the princess calling for help. But when he raised his eyes and saw the guards rushing in from outside the hall like a tide, his hand subconsciously touched the soft whip hanging on his waist, and he took a step forward to protect Jiang Wuque.
The ones coming are the imperial guards.
The expressions of all the ministers in the hall changed to some extent.
Jiang Wuque looked at the person standing in front of her, smiled helplessly, raised his hand and grabbed the person's arm and pulled him behind him, whispering: "It's okay."
Everything that happened in the palace today was roughly within Jiang Wuque's expectations, and she told Feng Yu all of it. However, her silly husband's first reaction when encountering danger was to stand in front of her.
Feng Yu pursed his lips, glanced at his belly, and whispered to her, "I know my limits."
Jiang Wuque didn't dare to let go, looking at his visibly pregnant belly, he glanced at him, "If you had any sense, you shouldn't have followed me here."
No matter how good the plan is, the sword has no eyes. What if something goes wrong?
Feng Yu saw that Jiang Wuque was really afraid that he would get bumped into something, so he reluctantly put away the whip.
After seeing clearly that the person coming was not an ordinary guard but the imperial guard, the left prime minister's face changed instantly. He hurriedly raised his hand and pulled the princess, shaking his head at her.
The princess was currently immersed in the joy of having dealt with Wei Min and Jiang Wuque, and had no idea that anything was wrong. They were doing everything according to plan, so what could go wrong?
The Left Prime Minister felt vaguely uneasy. The people Jiang Wuyong had called in were supposed to be ordinary guards, so why did they become their trump card, a detachment of the Imperial Guards?
Rong Chan strode towards the commander of the imperial guards with a sullen face, suppressed his anger, gritted his teeth and asked her, "Who allowed you to come in?"
The commander of the Imperial Guards also looked puzzled. "Didn't the princess send a message asking us to stay outside the palace today and rush in once she gave the order?"
Jiang Wuyong then realized that something was wrong, and his eyes were filled with confusion and fear. "I, I didn't send a message?"
No matter how stupid she was, she knew that only the emperor could mobilize the imperial guards. Even if she was a princess, she did not have this power.
Upon hearing this, Zuo Xiang felt a darkness before his eyes, his head was dizzy, and his body swayed twice. He was supported by someone and he was able to stand steadily. His face was pale and ugly.
Now that things have been forced to this point, the left prime minister weighed the pros and cons, gritted his teeth, glanced at Jiang Wuque and Wei Min with a gloomy look, and said to Jiang Wuyong: "First control the Eighth Prince, and then ask the emperor to abdicate."
This is forcing the emperor to abdicate.
Jiang Wuyong was a little scared. Seeing that she was still hesitant, the Left Prime Minister said, "If the emperor knew about this, you would be guilty of a serious crime just for mobilizing the imperial guards!"
Jiang Wuyong was so frightened that his face turned pale. His voice trembled as he hesitated to give orders to the imperial guards. His voice was unsteady, "Come, come, arrest them first."
Seeing the imperial guards coming towards him, Jiang Wuque held down Feng Yu, who was about to move, and said, "Trust me, it's okay."
Feng Yu lowered his eyes and looked at the calm woman in front of him, pursed the corners of his lips slightly, and stood obediently behind her.
Wei Min's husband was not around, so she was particularly calm and her face was so calm that it seemed as if she did not see the imperial guards coming towards her. She did not show any panic at all.
"Where are you taking them?"
An angry and majestic voice came from the inner hall. The palace official reached out and opened the curtain, and everyone saw Jiang Kunjun, who had suffered a stroke and was bedridden for many days without seeing the ministers, standing there upright.
The moment the princess saw the emperor, she felt a chill running down her soles to her head, and her heart instantly turned cold, "Mother, Mother Queen..."
Jiang Kunjun's face was as gloomy as water, "You still have the nerve to call me the Queen Mother!"
When the ministers saw the emperor coming out, they immediately knelt down and saluted.
Jiang Kunjun's eyes swept over the heads of the people one by one, and finally stopped at the imperial guards. "Tell me, what's going on?"
Jiang Wuyong knelt on the ground, his voice trembling, "I am worried about you and want to go in to take a look, but the Eighth Elder and the Palace Minister kept stopping me. I then suspected that you were being held under house arrest by them. I then, I then... Mother, I am worried about you."
Jiang Wuyong walked towards the princess, kicked her on the shoulder, pointed at the imperial guards kneeling on the ground, and said angrily: "You are really my good child! I am not dead yet, and you can mobilize the imperial guards!"
Jiang Kunjun gasped for air and asked Jiang Wuyong, who was kicked to the ground by her, "Besides the imperial guards, did you send someone to place my medicine?"
Jiang Wuyong lay on the ground with a blank look in his eyes, "What medicine? How come I don't know what the Queen Mother is talking about?"
"You don't know," Jiang Kunjun laughed in anger, kicked Jiang Wuyong again, and asked harshly: "You don't know?"
Jiang Kunjun's condition had not yet recovered, and her violent emotional fluctuations made her body unstable. The Palace Governor hurried forward to support her, but was pushed away.
She lowered her eyes and stood in front of Jiang Wuyong, with a complex emotion in her eyes, "The left prime minister mobilized the imperial guards with ill intentions, and he will be sentenced to death and executed in the autumn. The princess..." Jiang Kunjun closed his eyes and said slowly: "The princess is imprisoned in the East Palace and awaits punishment."
A good autumn hunt has almost turned into a palace coup. After this incident, the emperor naturally lost interest and took his people back early.
As soon as Jiang Kunjun came back, he ordered a thorough investigation into the matter of the imperial guards. After the secret guards handed him the results, he became furious again.
"They actually put their hands into my imperial guards!"
Jiang Kunjun coughed and covered his chest, his voice hoarse, and raised his hand to slap the table, "And the princess, I have doted on her for many years in vain."
This was the noble family whom she had trusted and indulged for many years, the princess who was honest and filial in her eyes... One by one, they wanted to kill her.
If this incident had not happened, Jiang Kunjun would probably have died without knowing that the Imperial Guards were not completely under her control.
…
After the autumn hunt, the situation in the court changed drastically.
The emperor, contrary to his usual practice, began to employ officials from humble backgrounds, and the gentry was severely suppressed.
After Wei Min returned to Beijing, he was still responsible for investigating the drugging incident.
The princess was imprisoned in the East Palace. It was such a huge palace, but there were only a few servants serving her there.
After a long time, Wei Min stepped into the gate of the East Palace again, only to find it very desolate.
The princess already knew about the drugging. Now she sat in the empty hall, looking at the man at the door, her fists clenched tightly, unable to hide the hatred in her eyes.
Wei Min walked in with his back to the light, his official boots treading on the shadows. He stopped a few steps away from Jiang Wuyong. Instead of bowing to her, he lowered his eyes and adjusted his sleeves, saying, "I came here before and told Your Highness that the man is my lifeblood, and the child in his belly is equally precious to me. If anyone wants to touch him, I will not come here in such a nice tone next time... Your Highness, you may have forgotten this, but I remember it."
Jiang Wuyong stood up from his chair, took a few steps forward, grabbed Wei Min's collar, and glared at her, "It's you, you did all this!"
"You were the one who gave me the drug, and you wrote the letter to the Imperial Guards, right?"
Wei Min pulled Jiang Wuyong's hand away and whispered in her ear, "I have already won the top three places in the imperial examination before I even reached the age of twenty, so it is no problem for me to imitate your handwriting."
“Wei Min!” Jiang Wuyong raised his hand to strangle her, angrily saying, “I’m going to kill you! You and Jiang Wuque did all this, what does it have to do with me? I’m going to tell the Queen Mother and ask her to kill you!”
Wei Min has been exercising with Eighteen, and both his reaction ability and strength are much better than those of the princess who only knows how to enjoy herself.
She pushed Jiang Wuyong away, raised her hand to straighten her wrinkled collar, and said, "You can go and tell him. Anyway, the person who drugged you came from your East Palace."
"The servant who drugged you is a relative of your East Palace manager, and he admitted it." Wei Min looked at Jiang Wuyong and asked her, "Your Highness, does this method look familiar to you?"
The princess was startled, and suddenly remembered the cheating in the provincial examination. At that time, she asked Wei Min to admit the crime, saying that she was the niece of the kitchen manager.
Wei Min saw that Jiang Wuyong had remembered, so he said, "Your Majesty asked me to interrogate Your Highness to see if you were the one who gave him the poison. I don't think it's necessary to interrogate you. The person belongs to your palace, so it's natural that you had someone give him the poison."
Wei Min smiled, raised her hand to straighten her clothes, put her hands behind her back, and walked out leisurely just like when she came, leaving Jiang Wuyong in the room who wanted to kill her but was stopped by the guards.
The next day, Wei Min reported the results and said, "The princess said she had no knowledge of the drugging and kept saying she wanted to see His Majesty."
Jiang Kunjun glanced at the memorial, closed it tiredly, and asked, "Is the person from the Eastern Palace?"
Wei Min lowered his eyes, "Yes."
Jiang Kunjun looked at the memorial in front of him, and after a long silence, he said, "I understand. You can go down."
Three days later, the emperor deposed the princess, saying she was immoral and incompetent and had been bewitched by the left prime minister. He demoted her to a commoner and imprisoned her in Xingyu Lane. Her father, Rong Guijun, was stripped of his title and banished to the cold palace.
On the day when the imperial edict of dethronement came down, in the Wei Mansion, Eighteen was vividly describing the events of the autumn hunt to A'ruan and Erjiu who were sitting on the couch.
Wei Min was sitting at the table drinking tea. When she looked up, she saw A Ruan looking at her with fear. She couldn't help but smile. She walked over and put her hand on his round belly, saying softly, "It's all over."
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