"Ah~ My Queen, save me~"
Gong Huaijin had been executed. The Yuwei's knife was very fast, accurate and ruthless, and it was over in just one stroke.
With one slash of the knife, Gong Huaijin was completely desperate. They said they were descendants of the royal family, but it was just a title, and he didn't know how far away they were. He had never even seen the real people in power until now.
In order to stand out among the many royal children of the previous dynasties, he did not hesitate to sneak into the palace and serve the old women, obtaining a lot of information and leverage over the court officials.
He had just received a reward from his superiors, which raised his status by one level. If he had been promoted one level further, he would have had the opportunity to compete with others for the throne. Now, what chance did he have? He had lost everything.
There is not even a shadow of a thing, yet they are thinking about competing for the throne. These people's brains must have been PUA'd.
"Humph, don't you want to stay with the noble concubine? I will grant you your wish!"
"Huai Jing"
The noble concubine probably really had some feelings for him. Seeing him being executed was more difficult than being executed herself. She ignored the white silk wrapped around her neck and tried to rush over.
"What an adulterous couple! You really should let the King of Chu see what you look like."
"Qin Minghao, I know you hate me and want to deal with me, let him go!"
"Hmph, you do have feelings for him, but I don't know if he's really interested in you. If you know who he is, what's his purpose in being with you?"
"He's no one's man, but we just fell in love with each other, and I asked him to serve me."
Of course she checked it at the beginning, and her identity was very clean.
"Haha, how did he get to you without anyone's help? You are so smart, you can't figure this out, right?"
Zhuang believed too much in what she had found out, and she also had real feelings for him, so of course she was unwilling to admit that there were some problems.
She no longer struggled to crawl towards Gong Huaijin, but just looked at him, hoping to get the answer from his eyes.
When the guards saw the emperor waving his hand, they immediately increased the strength of their hands. They were all powerful and could not hold on for much longer even if they used only 50% of their strength.
At this time, there were rapid footsteps outside
"Mother~"
What I saw when I came in was the scene of the noble concubine being hanged.
"Stop, stop now! Your Majesty, do you know what you are doing?"
As he was about to go over and kill the person who started the fight, he was stopped by other guards.
"You came really quickly. I'm afraid my palace has been under your control all along. How could you just get the news and break into the palace after just a short while?
Of course I know what I am doing, but do you know what your mother has done?"
The noble concubine was in disarray at the moment, and there was a person lying next to her, holding her lower body and twisting in pain.
He naturally saw what was going on, but he couldn't let him sentence his mother to death.
“There must be a misunderstanding.”
"Misunderstanding? I saw it with my own eyes and heard it with my own ears. If you don't agree, summon the royal family to investigate immediately. How about we conduct the trial here?"
If all the clan members came to listen to the trial, how could his mother save her face, and what about his own face? Most importantly, how could he seize the throne with such a reputation?
He looked at his mother's expectant eyes, feeling reluctant, unwilling, and even a bit of hatred. His mother had always been rational and wise, so how could she do such a wrong thing? Not to mention in the royal family, even ordinary families would not be able to resolve it peacefully.
I dared not look into my mother's eyes again, and turned my head away guiltily.
"You are bringing shame to our father by doing this!"
"So this is the best way to deal with it."
"Yes, mother~"
The emperor looked at the noble concubine who was almost out of breath.
"You heard it, he didn't want to be embarrassed by you, so now he's willing to die!"
The guards exerted more force, and the noble concubine's neck twisted, and she died with her eyes open.
Qin Minghao felt relieved. He had bet right that the King of Chu would use his mind to force him in an emergency and would definitely not stop him.
The death of the noble concubine was a great blow to the King of Chu, but at least it allowed him to regain most of his control over the palace.
When the King of Chu saw that his mother had left, he took his sword and went to stab Gong Huaijin.
"You thief, how dare you break into the palace at night and harm my mother? I will kill you."
This is to protect the reputation of the noble concubine.
"Stop, you want to silence me? I'm afraid that won't work!"
"Royal brother~ Do you really want to be stigmatized even after our father's death?"
"If you want to protect the reputation of your noble concubine, it's not impossible. Hand over your people in the palace."
The emperor was not in a hurry this time, and he grabbed the king's ribs and hit him hard.
"I have shown mercy on the matter of your noble concubine. Otherwise, your throne will be in jeopardy, and the Duke of Zhenguo's Mansion will also punish you."
It's not that he doesn't want to do that. The King of Chu and the Duke of Zhenguo have troops, power and influence. If they are pushed too hard, they might force him to abdicate. He cannot ensure a complete victory now, so he can only take it step by step.
Being able to deal with the noble concubine is already a victory
"Okay, okay, what a good plan!"
"It depends on whether you want the reputation of a noble concubine!"
The King of Chu gritted his teeth.
"Okay, I agree, but you must ensure that my mother is treated decently, and that man must die."
He wanted to seize the throne, but he did not want to resort to the method of forcing the emperor to abdicate and killing him unless it was absolutely necessary. That would be unjust and would be criticized by the world.
Qin Minghao was very happy, he won this time.
"I can give her a decent treatment. I will still interrogate the people behind this man, so there is no need for you to interfere. Once the matter is clear, I will naturally not spare his life."
Minister Wang of Rites had no connections to any particular faction, so how did Gong Huaijin become connected to the Noble Concubine? Clearly, it wasn't the Prince of Chu's men who were helping him, so who was that? Could it be that there were other forces within the palace that he wasn't aware of?
Zhuang is a woman with great strategic thinking. How did he gain her favor? This matter must be investigated.
The guards were all surrounded here and the King of Chu had no way to silence them, so he could only keep silent.
"I hope my brother will keep his word!"
"The noble concubine died of a sudden illness yesterday. The palace servants failed to attend to her properly and failed to discover and treat her in time. They deserve death!"
According to the late emperor, they were one and the royal family could not have such a stigma.
The King of Chu wiped his face and said that this was all he could do.
Qin Minghao asked Yuwei to take Gong Huaijin to the special interrogation room of the guard station. He believed that he would be able to get a confession soon.
On the first day of the Lunar New Year, all the ministers were supposed to pay their respects to the emperor, but this year they were exempted from entering the palace to pay their respects. They were only allowed to kneel at the palace gate towards the main hall.
The palace even issued an order, requiring the masters of each palace to stay quietly in their own palaces, and the palace servants to stand in the courtyard and not walk around.
Then I heard that the Yuwei were arresting people everywhere. They were almost everywhere in every palace, such as the Imperial Kitchen, the Laundry Bureau, the Imperial Household Department, and the Jingshifang. There were people from the King of Chu.
There were also people arranged by the noble concubine in the Queen's Fengqi Palace and the palaces of several concubines. This time, more than one hundred people were cleared out.
On that day, the entire palace was in a state of fear, with no festive atmosphere at all. It wasn't until the second day of the Lunar New Year that it was announced that the Imperial Concubine Dowager of Ruyi Palace had died suddenly, and all the palace servants had been buried with her.
They asked each other, but the affairs of Ruyi Palace, including the arrests, were all handled by the emperor's guards, and no news of it leaked out.
Not to mention that the ministers outside the palace didn't know either. Even if they knew, they couldn't send the news in for the time being. Moreover, no concubine dared to risk her life to ask the emperor, so it just let it go.
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