nashuaworldcup Chapter 110 The Legend of Zhen Huan 5
Chapter 110 The Legend of Zhen Huan 5
Zhu Xi hurried to the Hall of Mental Cultivation. Yongzheng was not surprised to see her coming. After all, such a big thing had happened in the harem, it would be strange if the Empress Dowager did not react.
He put the confession and other findings that Xia Yi had sent over into a brocade box and had it handed to Zhu Xi: "Aunt Zhu Xi, take this back to Shou Kang Palace. Once the Empress Dowager has seen it, she will know what happened."
Zhu Xi was surprised that he wouldn't go. After hesitating for a moment, she took the brocade box and returned to Shou Kang Palace.
The Empress Dowager opened the brocade box and read through the papers inside one by one. She was both shocked and furious, and then she let out a series of earth-shattering coughs:
"Cough cough... How dare they! Cough cough... They are so daring!"
Everyone in the palace is scheming. She only knew that the Empress was ruthless, but she didn't expect that the others were just as ruthless as the Empress, and they even went so far as to target the imperial heirs without any scruples.
It's true that she favored the fourteenth prince, but the emperor was also her own son, and the concubines were carrying her own grandchildren.
How many of the emperor's children did these women harm? How many of his grandchildren did they kill?
The Empress Dowager's pupils constricted, and the hairs on her body stood on end. When the late Emperor was alive, he kept a close watch on the harem, and apart from a few princes who didn't make it in the first few years, most of them grew up smoothly.
Now it's the fourth prince's turn. So many pregnant concubines in the palace failed to give birth, and now he only has four sons.
It's all her fault for letting Yixiu harm the imperial heirs, allowing others to follow suit, which ultimately resulted in the fourth prince having so few children.
Zhen Huan even colluded with the imperial physician to poison other concubines, which is absolutely terrifying!
Wen Shichu is a highly skilled physician and is highly regarded by both Zhen Huan and the Emperor. It is astonishing that Zhen Huan could even bribe him. If Zhen Huan was able to get him to poison Consort Xiang, will she also poison her and the Emperor if she later harbors disloyal intentions?
What frightened her most was that the Empress's plot to harm Chun Yuan that day was also on the list.
The Emperor's favorite person was Chun Yuan, and when it came to Chun Yuan's death, he was capable of anything, no matter how crazy.
When Consort Xi was conferred the title of Consort, she was only wearing an old dress from the late Empress Chun Yuan. The Emperor immediately exempted her from the investiture ceremony, revoked the imperial decree, and stripped her of her Consort rank attire. She was forced to walk back to Suiyu Pavilion in her undergarments in front of all the palace servants. Just imagine how humiliating that must have been!
If a piece of clothing is treated this way, now that the Emperor knows that Yixiu killed Rouze, I'm afraid he'll make Yixiu pay with her life.
The men of the Ulanara clan from the previous dynasty were already incompetent, and her days were numbered. If something happened to Yixiu, what would become of the Ulanara clan's honor?
Thinking about it this way, the Empress Dowager became even more worried, and her cough became even more severe.
Zhu Xi quickly tried to soothe her and gave her some medicine. It took a while for the situation to calm down.
"His Majesty's actions this time are clearly not going to tolerate these concubines anymore," the Empress Dowager said with a heavy heart.
Zhu Xi had served the Empress Dowager for decades, and she could say a few words about things that others couldn't.
"Shouldn't you try to dissuade His Majesty from doing this? After all, if so many concubines in the palace are punished at the same time, there will definitely be a lot of gossip outside."
The Empress Dowager shook her head: "The Emperor has made up his mind. He did not include the Empress's matter in his calculations. It is clear that he wants to keep the Empress in charge of the harem. Otherwise, if something happens to the concubines, they will all be in trouble, and then the world will really be in chaos!"
He sent the Empress's charges to me, firstly to silence me, and secondly to persuade the Empress not to misbehave in the future, otherwise he could use the evidence in his hands to depose her at any time.
Upon hearing this, Zhu Xi could only advise, "His Majesty also cares about the Empress Dowager and couldn't bear to see you worrying about the Empress, so he let the Empress off the hook."
The Empress Dowager closed her eyes to rest, and after a while, as if she had thought of something, she suddenly opened her eyes: "Zhuxi, go and get paper, pen and ink. I want to leave a will for the Empress and the Ulanara family as a last guarantee!"
Seeing that the Empress Dowager was still worried about her family and the Empress at such a time, Zhu Xi felt a pang of sorrow and couldn't help but shed tears.
"Your Majesty, you must take better care of your health!"
"While I am alive, I can still help them out, but once I am dead, if the Empress does something outrageous, who can protect her?"
Despite her weakened state, the Empress Dowager wrote a will and entrusted it to Zhu Xi for safekeeping, saying: "After my death, when the Emperor wants to depose me, this will should be brought out."
With tears in her eyes, Zhu Xi agreed to the matter and carefully hid the imperial edict.
As a result, by evening, the imperial edict she had put away had been replaced with a fake one, while the real one was placed on Yongzheng's desk.
"The thrill of cheating!"
When Yongzheng opened it, he found it to be the same edict he had heard when he was a ghost, the one that said the empress Ulanara could not be deposed.
She was puzzled. The Empress Dowager's surname was Uya, and the Empress's surname was Ulanara. She didn't know how these two people became relatives, and even when the Empress Dowager was dying, she was still thinking about the Ulanara clan, not her maternal clan, Uya.
How strange!
Emperor Yongzheng was completely baffled by this, but there were many things in this world that couldn't be explained, so if you can't figure it out, don't bother thinking about it anymore.
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Two days later, the results from the Shenxing Division were also released. Several of the palace servants sent in refused to confess, such as Huanbi and Cui Jinxi, who served Zhen Huan, and Jixiang, who served Consort Duan. They did not confess a single word.
However, their refusal to confess did not mean that the other palace servants would not confess either. After two days of interrogation, they revealed everything they knew. Although they did not serve their master personally, they lived in the same palace and knew some things.
Based on their confessions, it was quickly proven that what Xia Yi presented was authentic.
Although there are still doubts about Consort Hui's difficult childbirth, since everything else is true, how could this be false?
Thus, under the interrogator's guidance, the palace servants confirmed the matter.
Emperor Yongzheng was very satisfied with the confession. Just as he was about to issue an edict to punish Zhen Huan and the others, Prince Guo and Prince Shen requested an audience.
It turns out that when Zhen Huan was confined to her quarters that day, her younger sister Zhen Yu Rao was also no longer fit to live in the palace and was directly expelled from the palace. Zhen Yu Rao was also a woman of her own mind; after the initial panic, she quickly calmed down.
Her family has fallen on hard times. Her sister is in trouble, and her father and mother can't help her at all. She doesn't know many people in the capital, and even fewer of them are powerful and influential enough to speak up for her sister.
After much deliberation, she set her sights on Prince Shen.
Although she and Prince Shen had only known each other for a short time, they got along very well and had developed feelings for each other. If her sister hadn't been in trouble, she probably would have asked the Emperor to grant them a marriage.