At this moment, in the imperial palace of the capital city of Jinzhou, the emperor was throwing a tantrum in Consort Liu's Jinchen Palace.
One wine cup after another was smashed, and the palace maids were so frightened that they knelt in two rows, not daring to breathe.
However, Consort Liu, who was beside the emperor, still leaned against him in a seductive pose, indicating that she was extremely favored.
"Your Majesty, please don't be angry anymore. It's not worth ruining your health!"
Consort Liu spoke in a sweet voice, reaching out her soft little hand to pat the emperor's chest to help him catch his breath.
With his other hand, he took out a brocade box from the drawer next to him, carefully opened it, took out the golden pill inside, and brought it to the emperor's lips. The emperor opened his mouth and swallowed it without any suspicion.
"Hmph, if my sons were as considerate as my beloved concubine, I wouldn't have these worries. It's a pity that my beloved concubine doesn't know how to help me solve my problems!"
The emperor grabbed Consort Liu's small hand and kissed it. Even though he was very angry, he was still gentle with this favored concubine, which shows that she was quite capable.
"Your Majesty doesn't tell me what's troubling you, so even if I wanted to help you, I'm powerless to do so!"
Consort Liu pouted, looking somewhat aggrieved, and tears instantly welled up in her eyes.
Her tearful appearance touched the emperor's heart, and he comforted her, saying, "My beloved consort, don't be sad. I misspoke. Actually, it's alright to tell you this."
The Emperor took a breath and said with great annoyance, "The recent assassination attempt on the Crown Prince of Nantai has become common knowledge. My beloved concubine has heard about it, hasn't she?"
Consort Liu nodded obediently and asked, "Isn't this a good thing for us?"
"It's a good thing, but the third brother got all the credit!"
The emperor was furious about this matter. When he first learned about the Nan Tai affair, he was quite happy. After all, the Nan Tai crown prince had been ambitious for more than a year or two. His previous plan to send troops to Nan Tai while Bei Yan was suffering from drought was aimed at the Nan Tai crown prince.
But within a few days, the winds of change shifted. The common people, without distinguishing right from wrong, attributed the credit to the third prince, Prince Chen, leaving the emperor in a rather unfavorable position.
It is a major taboo in the royal family for a son to be more favored than his father.
"Why is the third brother so eager for quick success and instant benefits to fabricate rumors before even finding out the truth?"
The emperor couldn't hear any kind words now. He was just holding a grudge, feeling that his son was ambitious and was already plotting to seize the throne even before he was dead.
Consort Liu understood the emperor's meaning: he was neither capable himself nor allowed others to be capable.
She smiled and said, "So Your Majesty is angry with Prince Chen. That's easy to handle. I have a way to temper his arrogance, but it depends on whether Your Majesty is willing to do it."
As she spoke, she pointed at the emperor's heart with her red fingernail in a rather ambiguous manner.
These words should not have come from the mouth of a favored concubine, but the emperor doted on her and was not only not angry, but also very happy.
"My beloved concubine, speak quickly!"
"According to His Majesty's wishes, Prince Chen has been making quite a stir lately, which has displeased His Majesty. So let him suffer a bit. Isn't Changzhou currently unmanaged? Why doesn't His Majesty let Prince Chen give it a try?"
Upon hearing Consort Liu's words, the emperor's eyes immediately lit up.
It hasn't rained in Changzhou for a long time, and no one would want to be in that situation. It's a good opportunity to throw the currently popular Prince Chen out there. Firstly, it can serve as a deterrent to the disaster victims, and secondly, with Prince Chen in Changzhou, no one will be around to keep an eye on him, so he won't have to worry so much.
"My beloved concubine is indeed intelligent!"
He hugged the woman in his arms and gave her a big kiss, then got up and left in a hurry.
Only after his figure completely disappeared into Jinchen Palace did Consort Liu wipe her face with great disgust.
This is the very place where the old emperor just kissed.
"Alright, all of you get up. Clean up this mess and prepare hot water for my bath."
Consort Liu was helped up by her maids and slowly entered the inner palace.
As soon as the emperor returned, he sent someone to summon Prince Chen to see him, and then very concisely and clearly dumped the mess in Changzhou on him.
“Father, I am willing to go to Changzhou, but the drought in Changzhou is severe. We need to open the national treasury to distribute grain and silver, otherwise it is inevitable that another riot will break out in Changzhou City.”
Prince Chen had no objections. He had originally wanted to find an opportunity to go out and avoid the limelight, but the high level of public opinion would not do him any good.
I had originally planned to recommend Sun Qi for credit when he returned, but now that I see the emperor is clearly unhappy, I have to postpone this matter.
Hearing that the prince wanted both money and grain, the emperor was naturally reluctant, but then he remembered that the matter in Ganzhou City was indeed quite serious, and it would be bad if it escalated to the capital. So he reluctantly agreed to the prince's unreasonable request.
Prince Chen received his orders and left the palace. His trusted aide, Cheng Meng, upon learning of this, couldn't help but complain in a low voice: "I really don't know what the Emperor is thinking. His Highness has clearly done something good for the country and the people, and he deserves to be rewarded. Why is he being made to make things difficult for His Majesty like this?"
If it weren't for the fact that Prince Chen looks somewhat like the Emperor, he would have doubted whether Prince Chen was the Emperor's biological son!
Prince Chen gave a bitter smile. Since ancient times, serving a ruler has been like serving a tiger. Even if he is his own son, so what? If he feels threatened, he will naturally try to get rid of him as soon as possible.
Actually, the emperor was quite tolerant. In recent years, some people have been pushing him behind the scenes, making his reputation very high, saying that he has won the hearts of the people, even more than the emperor.
Any person in a position of power would be displeased to hear such words. Although he sent people to investigate, they found nothing, so he could only try to keep a low profile.
However, the matter of Prince Nantai still caused the emperor to become wary of him.
"Stop with the nonsense. Go and make preparations. You will come with me to Changzhou in three days."
Cheng Meng immediately agreed and dared not say anything more.
His master is now in a precarious situation, facing danger from both sides. He can only hope that everything goes smoothly for Sun Qi and his group, that they can find out the traitor who has been secretly contacting Nan Tai, and that they can return to the capital safely.
This way, the master will have more capable people around him, and he won't have to run around like this anymore.
At the same time, Prince Jing also learned of this matter and was overjoyed, feeling that this was his opportunity.
However, knowing his own tendency to be impulsive, he did not act rashly. Instead, he sent someone to the Lin residence to invite Lin Yiping over for a discussion.
His subordinate returned and said that Lin Yiping had gone out for a trip and had left this morning.
That's really unfortunate.
"Your Highness, Young Master Lin left you a message, saying that you should do whatever you want without worry, but be careful and don't leave any future troubles."
These words successfully pleased Prince Jing, who laughed loudly, "As expected of Brother Yiping, you understand me so well! I certainly wouldn't be foolish enough to do it myself. You go and send the message to the Crown Prince's residence. I don't believe the Crown Prince will miss such a good opportunity!"
"yes!"
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