Chapter 183, War in Troubled Times 31

Yu Hanjiang took Concubine Xian and Qi Fenghua back together.

Concubine Xian was suspected of murdering the prince, queen, and concubine thirteen years ago, and may also be related to the serial poisoning and murder cases in the capital. She was involved in too many cases; and Qi Fenghua united with the second prince of Zhao to rebel. In ancient times, the crime of rebellion was

A serious crime that requires everyone to be executed

Yu Hanjiang couldn't decide how to deal with these two people, so he had to write to the emperor and ask for his opinion.

In order to prevent any accomplices from rescuing the two people, Yu Hanjiang specially vacated a room in the backyard, secretly imprisoned Xian Fei and Qi Fenghua, and personally guarded them. He asked Long Sen to continue to the capital to see His Majesty.

However, before Long Sen set out, Lao Mo came to Yu Hanjiang with a sullen face and whispered, "The concubine Xian committed suicide in her room."

Yu Hanjiang's pupils suddenly shrank, "Why, I just checked her teeth and found no poison. I also asked Liu Qiao to look at her in person. How did she commit suicide?"

Mo Xuemin pressed his temples with a headache and said, "She secretly smashed her bracelet when Liu Qiao went out to get her food. She didn't expect that her bracelet had a compartment, and there was a poison hidden in it. It's really

It’s impossible to guard against it.”

Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang looked at each other and immediately followed Lao Mo to the crime scene.

Concubine Xian was lying on the bed, her eyes closed tightly, her hands lightly placed on her abdomen, her face as peaceful as if she was asleep.

She must have been so heartbroken that she had already made plans to commit suicide the moment she was caught by Yu Hanjiang, so she died very calmly.

There is a letter on the table, written in her own hand.

Yu Hanjiang immediately picked up the "suicide note" and read it carefully.

Concubine Xian explained everything in the letter.

Her real name is Zhao Qingyan, and she is the daughter of a noble of the Zhao Kingdom. Her father has always raised her as a boy and made her well-read since she was a child. Her mother is a descendant of a famous doctor and taught her medical skills, hoping to train her to become the queen of the Zhao Kingdom.

Their family was powerful and had close relations with the royal family. The Emperor Zhao originally fell in love with her and wanted to make her the crown prince.

When she was eighteen years old, she was young and playful, so she secretly came to Daqi, a neighboring country, to see the legendary scenery of Jiangzhou. On the way, she accidentally got separated from the escort and maid, and was kidnapped by bandits. The bandits forced her to

As Mrs. Yazhai, she managed to escape on the night when she was forced to pay homage to the church. It happened that the late emperor went to Jiangzhou for a private visit and met her who had escaped from the mountain and was covered with bruises. He was fascinated by her beauty and gave her to her.

Saved.

When she woke up, she was already in the capital of Daqi.

The late emperor sent someone to heal her injury and took the opportunity to take possession of her. She was alone in a foreign country and did not know martial arts, so naturally she did not dare to go against the emperor rashly. Although she was very reluctant, she could only make up her own name in the end.

She was brought into the palace by the late emperor under the excuse of "both parents were dead and had no relatives or friends", and she became one of the many concubines in the emperor's harem.

When she entered the palace, the emperor already had four princes, the eldest was five years old and the youngest was just born.

The emperor's favorite was the queen, and the eldest prince who was the queen's direct descendant was naturally established as the prince. She could see that the other concubines were not convinced, but they did not dare to mess around. The situation in the harem was changing, and a group of women had their own intentions.

In order to protect herself, she had to find the most secluded place to live, pretending that she was indifferent to the world, chanting Buddha's name and making tea every day.

The emperor could not be called doting on her, but when he was depressed, he liked to come to her place to sit, drink tea and meditate. Compared with a couple, she and the emperor were more like friends who took time to drink tea and chat.

One year after entering the palace, an envoy from the State of Zhao came to visit. She heard a piece of news from the envoy. Since the legitimate daughter of the Zhao family was missing, her family could not find her and thought she had died at the hands of bandits. Therefore, the Emperor of Zhao had her

My sister is made a princess

After entering the palace, she had been secretly eating Bizi Tang. She did not want to give birth to an heir for the emperor, but she had a glimmer of hope that one day she would be able to return to Zhao. However, the news brought by the messenger made her completely despair. Her sister was appointed as

The Crown Princess will become the Queen of Zhao Kingdom in the future. My younger sister has always disliked her as an older sister. What will happen to her even if she returns to Zhao Kingdom?

She has become the wife of the Emperor of Qi. Can she still return to the country and remarry someone else?

Zhao Qingyan was disheartened.

That night, the emperor warmly entertained Zhao's envoys. There was singing and dancing in the palace. Zhao Qingyan was alone in the remote courtyard of the harem, facing away from his hometown, and toasted three glasses of wine. The first one was to his parents, the second to his motherland, and the third to his hometown.

Respect yourself.

The daughter-in-law of a famous family named Zhao Qingyan died completely from that day, and the only woman left was the Emperor of Da Qi.

It is impossible for her to return to Zhao country in this life, she must plan for herself.

So, she stopped taking the anti-child soup and tried to seduce the emperor. Soon she became pregnant and gave birth to the eighth prince. His Majesty was very happy. After the child was born, he officially named her the virtuous concubine and let her live with Shufei and Mingfei.

Sit on an equal footing.

But there is a queen above. Every time she sees the queen, she must kneel down and worship her.

Over in Zhao State, the crown prince soon ascended the throne, and her sister turned from a crown princess into a queen respected by thousands of people. The position was originally hers.

How could she be willing to be a concubine here?

So, she began to plan carefully.

As the prince grew up, various forces in the harem began to make moves. Over the years, Concubine Xian gradually cultivated some of her confidants in Qi State. Several eunuchs and maids in the harem were her confidants, and there was an imperial doctor.

She listened very much to her words, and some people in the world, as well as officials from the Ministry of Punishment and the Ministry of Rites, were also controlled by her through various means.

The opportunity has finally arrived.

She learned from the spies from the palace that the third prince and His Highness the Crown Prince had a dispute a few days ago, and next month is the spring hunting time. His Highness the Crown Prince likes hunting the most and goes to the royal hunting ground at this time every year.

She immediately gave the self-made poison to the eunuchs to take out of the palace, and then handed it over to the dead soldiers who had been trained in advance, and asked them to dress up as the guards of the third prince's family. When the prince was hunting, she shot the prince to death with one arrow.

After the dead man was captured, he refused to confess at first, but after being tortured, he finally insisted that the third prince sent him there. In addition, the dispute between the third prince and the prince was quickly found out, and the third prince's home happened to be found.

highly poisonous

The moment the poison was discovered, it is said that the third prince was so frightened that he almost peed his pants.

With all the witnesses and material evidence available, His Majesty was so angry that he directly gave the third prince a glass of poisoned wine.

On the day when the third prince was sentenced to death, the concubine Xian carefully wrote down the names of the prince and the third prince with a pen in the palace, and while making tea, she burned the two names to ashes.

Killing two birds with one stone, the success of this strategy doubled her confidence.

After killing the prince and the third prince, she immediately targeted the women in the harem.

She bribed a maid in Concubine Shu's palace, and when Concubine Shu went to deliver food to the Queen, she secretly sprinkled a layer of colorless and odorless poison into the Queen's favorite fruit plate.

The queen ate the grapes and died on the spot.

The emperor found Concubine Shu's head. Concubine Shu refused to admit her guilt. She knelt on the ground and had her head cracked to show that she was innocent. No matter how brave she was, she would not dare to poison the queen.

The palace maid had already been released from the palace privately by her. She deliberately kept Concubine Shu in order to drag Concubine Ming into trouble later.

Since there was no evidence of her death, the emperor suspected Concubine Shu, but was unable to convict her. He gradually became suspicious of Concubine Shu and the fifth prince.

The same strategy worked very well. Not long after, Concubine Shu was poisoned and killed by her. All signs and evidence pointed to Concubine Ming.

The emperor was furious and wanted to give Concubine Ming a three-foot white silk ribbon to kill herself, but Concubine Xian pretended to be kind and persuaded the emperor: "His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and the third prince have suffered misfortune because of brotherly fratricide. After all, the fifth prince and the sixth prince are your majesties."

For the sake of the prince, your majesty, please spare Concubine Ming. Otherwise, if this matter gets out, how will the fifth and sixth princes deal with it? One's concubine was poisoned by another's concubine, and they know the truth.

Later, they might fight against each other again. Does Your Majesty want to see their brothers turn against each other?"

Your Majesty thought about it carefully and felt that it made sense, so he announced to the public that both the Queen and Concubine Shu had "died of illness."

The emperor hugged her shoulders and sighed, "Xianfei, you are the most knowledgeable and reasonable person in the harem. If all the concubines were as gentle and kind as you, there wouldn't be so many troubles in the harem."

The wise concubine sneered in her heart, but pretended to be pure and stoic on the surface. While making tea for the emperor, she said, "I have no relatives or friends. Thanks to your majesty for taking me in, it is my blessing to be able to serve you in my three lifetimes. I have no relatives."

I don’t dare to think too much.”

The emperor was moved to tears and immediately said, "The position of empress has always been vacant. I have long felt that the virtuous concubine is gentle, kind, and virtuous, and she is a model for the concubines in the harem. Why don't I choose a day to make you the empress, and the eighth prince as the prince, and from now on the virtuous concubine will be the queen."

The concubine is in charge of this harem for me."

In order not to show off her flaws, and worried that the emperor was just testing her, the concubine immediately knelt down in panic in front of the emperor, "I am afraid that your majesty and the queen are deeply in love with each other. The queen died of illness less than three months ago. It is really inappropriate to establish a queen at this time. I am afraid that your majesty and the queen are deeply in love.

I am without virtue and incompetence. I would like to pray for the queen. I will never take the position of the queen."

She thought at the time that rushing to become the queen might arouse suspicion. It would be better to wait two years until her son became the prince and the queen's mourning period expired. Then she would naturally take over the queen's position and find a way to bring the old queen to justice.

The emperor was killed and his son ascended the throne directly.

When the queen is doing something good, a group of concubines in the harem are watching, and a group of ministers in the court are watching. Maybe the ministers will analyze and reason and think that it was her who did it, and His Majesty will depose the queen if he is not happy.

Queen Mother, that is the safest position.

No emperor would depose his own queen.

Now, the original prince and the third prince are dead, and the fifth and sixth princes are dragging down their mother and concubine to disappoint His Majesty. Only her son, handsome and talented, can be worthy of being the "prince" of Daqi.

She has been planning for so many years, so she can afford to wait another year. As long as the eighth prince successfully becomes the prince, she will immediately kill the emperor and promote herself to the empress dowager without anyone else taking action.

She never expected that the eighth prince had no interest in government affairs and would write a memorial to the emperor before he ordered the appointment of a prince.

Concubine Xian was so angry that she wanted to kill the newly established young prince too, so that the eighth prince would not be able to oust him from the throne. However, just when she was about to take action, the old emperor finally had a clear mind.

Because there were too many things happening in the capital this year, the emperor was worried that the newly established little grandson would also be plotted against, so he thought of a way to let Prime Minister Yu's grandson Yu Hanjiang enter the palace to accompany the little prince, read to him as his companion, and eat with him.

They lived together; and they also mobilized dozens of secretly trained shadow guards to protect the little prince at every turn.

At the same time, in order to prevent the eighth prince from changing his mind and triggering a party dispute, the emperor simply did not do anything. Instead, he gave the eighth prince the title of Prince of Zhenjiang and transferred him to Jiangzhou. However, her worthless son actually happily took several

A wife and concubine went to Jiangzhou to enjoy the mountains and rivers

Concubine Xian was almost heartbroken.

It wasn't until this moment that she realized that she had been planning carefully for many years, but she had overlooked a key point.

She ignored her son's thoughts

As a mother, she neglected to discipline her son. The eighth prince had left her side when he was ten years old and would only return to the palace to visit during holidays. Every time mother and son met, she had nothing to talk to her son. She thought that as long as

He's a prince. Who doesn't love being an emperor?

But her son just doesn't like to be the emperor.

The disagreement between mother and son was the root cause of the failure of her plan.

She can't blame herself for the failure of the operation. The maids who were released from the palace, and all the eunuchs who knew about it, were all silenced by her, including Xiao Lou's father, who found out some clues, and was also neatly eliminated.

She made an excuse to return to Jiangzhou because Jiangzhou is located in Qi, the border between Zhao and Zhao. She was still unwilling to give in and wanted to contact Zhao to make other plans. Currently, the eldest of the several princes of the Zhao Kingdom has been established as the prince, and there are several others.

Naturally, the princes and their mothers and concubines would not be reconciled.

She hid in the temple and waited for her opportunity.
To be continued...