Chapter 14 The Heir
Zhou She's face twitched slightly, an expression of wanting to laugh but not daring to.
You are such a good father to me.
Although Zhou's father spoke softly, Xiao Yichun heard him clearly. He frowned slightly, disagreeing: "Young Master, what Minister Zhou said should not be followed entirely."
Although Xiao Yichun was two cycles older than him, Zhou's father still respected Prime Minister Xiao and nodded expressionlessly: "What Prime Minister Xiao said is very true."
But I couldn't detect a trace of conviction in him.
Amidst the commotion, Huai Leju stood silently, his face expressionless, with two dark circles under his eyes—the marks from being hit by Zhou She.
Zhou She was pulled far away, his gaze fixed on Huai Leju: This Huai Leju, knowing he was in the wrong, should have shut up and kept quiet.
Inside the hall, the eunuchs who heard the noise came out to investigate and were immediately shocked: "Lord Huai! This is..."
They didn't dare finish speaking because Zhou She stood there with a long face, and anyone with eyes could tell what had happened.
As Zhao Wen stammered, he pushed Emperor Hong'an out of the palace gate, and Emperor Hong'an's voice came from afar: "What are you doing!"
Zhou She was slightly startled and unconsciously became a little nervous.
Emperor Hong'an approached slowly. Even when he was sitting in a chair and not speaking, his aura was imposing and superior.
Zhou She remained silent for a moment, but before he could speak, Emperor Hong'an turned away in displeasure and ordered someone to examine Huai Leju's injuries.
A soft conversation broke out on the other end, but Zhou She didn't listen carefully. Emperor Hong'an was clearly in a bad mood, giving Zhou She a warning look, as if he wanted to say something.
But his voice was drowned out by another person's.
It was a cheerful, familiar female voice.
Hello everyone, welcome back to the bizarre history of the Ning Dynasty: a special episode on Emperor Zhongzong. Yesterday we talked about how the second, third, and fourth princes brought disaster upon themselves before Emperor Zhongzong ascended the throne. Today we'll continue with "My incompetent fifth prince."
I see the comments section is buzzing with discussion; everyone's very concerned about the scandals surrounding King Jungjong. They'll come, they'll all come, don't worry.
The sky, which had already darkened, suddenly lit up, and everyone squinted slightly to carefully decipher the words on it.
Distracted by this, Emperor Hong'an immediately forgot about dealing with Zhou She and began to listen attentively to the lesson.
There's no rush to deal with family matters.
The mention of the Fifth Prince by Tianmu filled him with mixed feelings.
Yesterday, the second son, who was accused of the most serious crime, seemed to be too shocked after hearing the news and couldn't accept his own suicide. He didn't seem to be in a good mental state.
His other three sons had been severely scolded by him, and it was unclear how much they had regained their senses by now.
As the emperor was pondering this, several figures appeared in the distance. His three sons approached together, each looking spirited and radiant.
Wow, that's a quick recovery.
The emperor was lost in thought when he heard Tianmu continue:
Then I saw a viewer mention the issue of Hong An establishing an heir. Hmm... that's really hard to say, since each of his sons has their own unique characteristics.
As mentioned earlier, Hong'an appointed each of his sons as crown prince, except for his sixth son who died at the young age of twelve. His crown prince success rate was as high as 83%, almost on par with the rate of students entering top-tier universities in some prestigious high schools, surpassing 99% of emperors.
Emperor Hong'an remained silent.
Tianmu's words were as unpleasant as ever, but he had automatically modified and rearranged them: What abstract... perhaps he meant that force can control phenomena?
This suggests that perhaps things weren't as serious as he thought.
He even had a degree of confidence: this object had never existed in his father's or grandfather's time, yet it had appeared in his possession. Clearly, he was favored by Heaven, and thus a divine object had descended upon him to help him establish himself as crown prince, ensuring the Ning Dynasty's continued existence for generations to come.
This kind of wide-net tactic shows that there is no difference between the people, or rather, Hong'an did not see the difference. He can only blame his sons for not being of high quality.
Strangely, Crown Prince Xiaoren was of very high quality; perhaps he absorbed all the essence of his brothers, causing the later ones to become dull and complacent.
The three people present exchanged glances.
My brother is nothing special.
If the third/fourth/fifth sons were too clever, how could I have ascended the throne?
Thinking about it this way, I felt much more at ease. It really was just silly, and I felt reassured.
Therefore, people can be a little more lenient when mocking him, and it's not entirely his fault that he can't find an heir. After all, given Emperor Zhongzong's status, even if ten more people died among the imperial relatives, he still wouldn't be chosen.
Including Emperor Cheng, the successor of Emperor Zhongzong, it's highly likely that Emperor Zhongzong got incredibly lucky, just happened to get an SSR character, and he himself was stubborn enough to push the character up, preferring death to adoption. In some ways, I still admire him...
Here it comes again, the same words we used yesterday!
Emperor Hong'an keenly noticed the strange sounds and thought to himself, "Why is it all just some incomprehensible bird language?"
However, no matter how he guessed, he understood quite well: Tianmu looked down on his sons, and had always done so, so it was not surprising.
But Emperor Zhongzong's successor, who seems to be called Emperor Cheng, sounds like he's done a lot of bad things, so how come he's still doing good things?
Does all the good fortune in the world belong to Emperor Jungjong?!
In conclusion, apart from the sixth brother who had never been involved in politics, the talents of the others had all been displayed, which is essentially equivalent to nothing.
So my suggestion is—just stop struggling and pass the throne to Emperor Zhongzong; we're all family anyway. Anyone who's not afraid of death, tell Hong'an when you burn paper money for him; I'm more afraid of being beheaded if I say it to his face.
Emperor Hong'an chuckled.
He's already heard it. Even if yesterday he was accused of failing to raise his sons properly, and today it's said to be the sons' fault, he still won't forgive Tianmu.
Tianmu, having no other intention, continued:
Speaking of this, let me mention Emperor Cheng. Emperor Cheng should also thank Emperor Renzong, because compared to Renzong's sons, she looked remarkably beautiful and perfectly normal.
In the later years of Emperor Renzong's reign, the prototype of modern newspapers appeared, but because they were relatively expensive, they were mainly sold to high-ranking officials, wealthy scholars, and other affluent individuals.
Some people suspect that this was the work of Emperor Jungjong. There is no doubt that it was. It was his favorite propaganda war, but it wasn't initially aimed at the fifth prince. In his words, "The fifth prince is just a fool. Taking him to heart would only pollute myself."
That's just how arrogant they are.
Fifth Brother: "..."
This is the first time I've ever been so angry that my teeth itch.
I was frightened the last few times, but today I feel even more that Emperor Zhongzong is extremely hateful!
His two older brothers looked at him with a mixture of pity and schadenfreude: "Fifth brother is lucky; he's already famous for all time!"
The Fifth Prince retorted, "Third and Fourth Brothers, there's no need to be anxious. I believe that you will be remembered in history and will have your place."
Let's not talk about who's clean. We're all covered in dirt, so who's cleaner than whom?
This newspaper, intended to broadcast information to the world, was filled with all sorts of absurd rumors and gossip. For example, Ren Heng, Emperor Renzong's most beloved general—the self-appointed Minister of War—had his wife subscribe to the "Zongbao," which detailed daily events of the princes, down to which wife the fourth prince married and which brothel he frequented. Later, the newspaper underwent some revisions, but its content continued to spiral towards the bizarre and outlandish.
Some widely circulated rumors, such as "the Fifth Prince remained childless after becoming Crown Prince because he was homosexual" and "the Fourth Prince was so fond of other men's wives that he even favored his father," are clearly deliberate acts of retaliation by Emperor Zhongzong.
After Tianmu finished speaking, everyone's faces darkened.
When the Fifth Prince heard the rumors spread by Tianmu that he loved men, he was so angry that his nose was crooked. Just as he was about to start cursing, he heard another rumor, this time about his father.
This is intolerable!
The fourth prince was furious.
After a day and a night, he finally managed to calm himself down. So what if he had a broken leg? He didn't believe in fate. Since the heavens had warned him about the future, it must be in his favor.
But now the heavens have dealt him another blow, not only bringing up the old story again, but also expanding the rumor!
The Fourth Prince had a dark face, but Emperor Hong'an's face was even darker.
Anyone who gets cuckolded would be in a bad mood, let alone the emperor.
Moreover, with the live broadcast on the sky, their story might spread all over the world immediately, and the public doesn't care whether it's true or false!
Emperor Hong'an's lips trembled, and he couldn't speak for a long time. His Dao heart, which he had just calmed down, shattered again.
Xiao Yichun lived up to his reputation as a peacemaker. Observing the emperor's expression, he saw that the emperor's lips had turned pale and quickly said, "Fourth Prince, the empresses have been living in the inner palace for a long time. I don't know how Your Highness has been lingering in the inner palace!"
The fourth prince, jolted awake from his anger and panic by the reminder, knelt down with a thud and said urgently, "Father! Since establishing my own residence, I have never entered the inner palace!"
Emperor Hong'an, barely catching his breath, began his rebuke with a blank expression: "Do you think I don't know?! It's your reckless behavior that has caused these rumors to spread like wildfire, and now you've made your mark on history, Fourth Prince Zhong, are you satisfied?!"
Zhong Laosi shut up.
The old father was furious. He felt disgusted by his son who disregarded human ethics. He kicked him half a meter away, then looked up and pretended that he didn't have a son.
Zhou She shuddered at the sight. Emperor Hong'an was old but still vigorous, and his health was still good. If, as Tianmu said, he had developed his martial arts skills in his early years, he might have become another emperor on horseback.
[I'm not referring to any random, unofficial historical anecdotes from the newspapers. After all, even after Emperor Zhongzong ascended the throne, he continued to relentlessly smear the fourth prince, turning him into a black mud. This little bit of dirt is nothing.]
In fact, newspapers are very effective at shaping public opinion. When Emperor Cheng ascended the throne, he relied on the "precedents" of his predecessors. Emperor Cheng's own abilities are beyond question. After comparing him with the princes of the Hong'an Dynasty, everyone was convinced that he had the aura of an emperor. Gender was not a big deal, as long as he could do his job properly.
Secondly, they relied on newspapers to brainwash people. The Zongbao newspaper later became a history of the young emperor's growth, publishing a few things about the emperor every day, turning the old-fashioned Ren Heng into a die-hard loyalist.
After all, before that, it was very rare for women to ascend the throne; she was only the second legitimate female emperor in history. Moreover, after her, the throne was contested fairly between men and women, which, in a sense, liberated many women.
"What?!"
"absurd--!!"
Before the words were even finished, horrified voices of doubt erupted from every corner of the sky.
Ren Heng, who was handpicked as an old-fashioned person, was momentarily at a loss for words, whether to curse "What kind of behavior is this?" or to applaud and cheer, after all, he seemed to be a die-hard loyalist of Emperor Cheng...
The sheer force of that last statement left everyone present stunned. It was bad enough that treacherous officials were plotting to seize the throne, but to actually allow a woman to ascend to the regency?
After a long while, the Grand Master of the Imperial Academy, who had been standing dumbfounded in the center, finally reacted and raised his arm, shouting: "A hen crowing at dawn, what kind of behavior is this?!"
Emperor Hong'an's expression twisted; he didn't even have time to manage his facial expression.
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