The emperor turned his head sharply, looked at Concubine Shu coldly, stared into her eyes, and said word by word: "Eighteen steel needles.
Concubine Shu's face suddenly turned pale, she knew she had said the wrong thing, big beads of sweat were pouring down her face, and her breathing became rapid. It was not that she didn't know the emperor's temper. She hated people playing tricks in front of him the most, even if it didn't cause any harm. All consequences must be dealt with strictly, not to mention that this time the consequences were quite serious and directly killed Concubine Xiao.
At this point, there was nothing more to say. The emperor stood up and said: "Shu Concubine, you have done a good job!" Then he walked away. Concubine Shu stood up and wanted to chase her, but her legs had no strength at all. , fell softly to the ground, and the palace ladies screamed in surprise, but the emperor didn't even look back and went straight to the chariot.
The whole Changchun Palace was filled with miserable wind and cold rain. Concubine Xiao's lesson was right in front of her. Now it was Concubine Shu's turn. The maids hugged each other and cried, and the eunuchs also wailed endlessly, waiting for the Jin Yiwei to come and take someone away tomorrow.
The emperor returned to Qianqing Palace, dismissed everyone, sat quietly for a while, and suddenly shouted: "Here comes someone!"
Several chamberlains hurried over to wait for orders, and the emperor said: "Go and invite the prince."
Although it was already late at night, the eunuchs did not dare to neglect the emperor's words. A group of people went straight to the East Palace with lanterns. When they arrived at Fengxian Hall, they passed on the emperor's oral instructions. The eunuchs in the East Palace hurried to inform the prince. But after entering the warm pavilion where the prince slept, he saw that the bed was empty. Looking around, there was still no one. The eunuch only felt something dangling above his head. When he looked up, he screamed in fright and sat down on the ground. .
The prince committed suicide by hanging from a beam.
When the emperor arrived, the body had been untied and placed on the ground. The prince was wearing full court clothes, his whole body was cold, his face was pale and his tongue was sticking out, and he looked extremely scary.
The emperor just looked at him with a cold face and went back to Qianqing Palace without even leaving a word.
The next day, news came from the palace that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince fell and fell while riding a horse in the palace. He was being treated for a serious head injury and his life was in danger. The news spread, and the government and the public were shocked. There were different opinions. The crown prince is necessary for the stability of the country and the country. One year It is not a good sign that two princes died in a row.
But what is gratifying is that although the prince is dead, the emperor's health has improved, his spirit is much stronger than before, and his actions are more decisive and ruthless, and he has executed several generals who were unsuccessful in suppressing bandits.
At the same time, Concubine Shu was also relegated to the cold palace, and the former aristocratic Changchun Palace became a deserted place.
There may be someone else behind Concubine Shu's frame-up of Concubine Xiao. Cao Shaoqin played a certain role here. The emperor knew this very well, but without his own consent, how could Cao Shaoqin dare to do these things? To Lao Cao, The emperor had never had murderous intentions, but Lao Cao was no better than others. He was an important minister that the emperor relied on, and he had always been loyal. Therefore, the emperor tolerated it and only ordered to increase Wen Hai's power and make him responsible for the power of the palace guard. , At this point, Jin Yiwei can also compete with the inner factory. In this contest, there are winners and losers. Cao Shaoqin eliminated the prince and won space for himself, but his power was weakened. Concubine Shu killed her opponent Concubine Xiao, but she also It came to a bleak end, being thrown into the cold palace, how could there be a good ending? Concubine Xiao and her son were the biggest losers, they even lost their lives. Only Wen Hai got power out of thin air and was the biggest winner.
As for the emperor, he was in charge, and winning or losing did not matter to him. The lives of his concubines, sons, and ministers were not valuable in his eyes.
The prince did not leave any last words when he died, but he left a small note with only four words written on it: "A lonely man." These four words were written to the emperor. There is no doubt about it.
The prince Zhang Chengtai loves to play tricks and is timid and weak. Ever since he became the prince, he has been living in extreme fear. When the emperor asked him to serve as an assistant in the cabinet, he thought it was a temptation and did not dare to accept the move. Despite his cautiousness, he still did not
If you can prevent it, Concubine Xiao was framed, and the target was actually the prince. After witnessing his mother being poisoned to death in Tianlao, Zhang Chengtai was so stimulated that he couldn't bear it, so he used a rope to kill her.
He took his own life, leaving only those four words as a complaint against his father.
The son of the old Zhang family has a fierce temper.
But the emperor was unmoved. The third child couldn't bear the pressure, so he was not worthy of being the prince.
As an emperor, he was originally a loner. What's there to say? It's just a few concubines and sons. The emperor was in his prime, and now he's only in his early fifties. He has a strong body. It's so easy to have sons from his concubines.
…
At this day's court meeting, after discussing national affairs, and just as the court was about to disperse, Yang Feng, the cabinet co-organizer, suddenly came out and said: "I have my own foundation."
The emperor nodded: "Say."
Yang Feng said: "Now that the prince is seriously ill and the royal family is not prosperous, it will be detrimental to the stability of the country. I suggest that the emperor recruit beautiful women from the people to fill the harem, so as to spread the branches and protect the country forever."
It has to be said that Yang Feng came up with a bad idea. What juncture has it reached now? Meng Yuan's counterattacks against the Central Plains are becoming more and more fierce. Xiliang is also watching with eager eyes. The rebels in Jiangnan are also in full swing.
Sporadic rebellions, killings of officials, and tax resistance are all happening in endlessly. At this time, the search for beautiful women will simply add fuel to the fire.
Liu Songpo was the first to stand up and object, saying that it was not appropriate to disturb the people at this time, and even if the harem was to be expanded, it would have to wait until the war calmed down.
At this time, Yang Feng was no longer the obedient student who followed his mentor. Instead, he had his own opinions. He argued: "The recruitment of beautiful women can be narrowed down, from the capital to the south of the Yangtze River. It will definitely not
It is disturbing the people, and the royal family has too few heirs, and several princes have nothing to do. It happened to take this opportunity to choose the princesses together. Combining several things into one is really a great savings, and this matter has already arrived.
At this critical moment, fighting is important, but isn't it important for the emperor to marry a wife and have a son?
The ministers are all human beings and knew that Yang Feng would never say this casually. Judging from the recent events, this was probably the emperor's own instruction. If he didn't show it now, it would be better if he didn't show it now. So, the ministers expressed their opinions.
, made impassioned speeches, but they were all on Yang Feng’s side.
There was no suspense about the result. The emperor finally made the decision to draft a thousand people to expand the harem.
Aren't you being cunning and committing suicide? I can still be afraid of you. There are plenty of women in the world who can give birth to children.
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…
The task of recruiting beautiful girls was handed over to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Etiquette. Since the two departments did not have jurisdiction over each other, the emperor appointed Yang Feng as the minister of talent selection to take charge of all matters. In fact, his main task was still in the cabinet, but he only took on this responsibility as a
Just qualifications.
When the emperor chooses his concubine, some families are happy and others are sad. Those families who only want to be a dragon and a phoenix are thinking hard and want to send their daughters to the palace. Those families who really love their daughters quickly find someone to marry their daughters to avoid suffering a lifetime of sin.
.
The scope of this draft is relatively narrow. It only faces the capital and the Jiangnan region. It was also considered after a lot of consideration. The capital has outstanding people, tigers and dragons, and there are many princes and nobles gathered. They are well-informed and well-versed in music, chess, calligraphy and painting. There are more ladies than anywhere else.
The quality of the population in the Jiangnan area is also the highest compared to the whole country. The women of Jiangnan are delicate, charming, gentle and generous, which is perfect for enriching the harem.
Yang Feng is not involved in the specific work, but he still needs to guide the general direction of the draft. His strategy is to try to choose targets from official families. Firstly, the daughters of official families have a high level of education, a secure life and excellent physical fitness.
After all, the person who is finally selected is to produce offspring for the emperor, and it is not enough to just find some country girls to fill the gap.
The number of candidates for the draft is 1,000. In order to ensure quality, at least 100,000 women of the right age must be selected to select only one in a hundred. Not all of the 1,000 beautiful women finally selected can enter the palace to serve the emperor.
After layers of screening, those who were eliminated were given to princes, princes, or served as palace maids. The best ones became low-level concubines. There were only more than ten people in this number. What attracted everyone the most was that one of these beautiful girls would eventually become a concubine.
Become the current queen!
It is really not easy for one hundred thousand unmarried women of the right age to be well-educated, healthy and good-looking. However, this is the most important thing in the Zhou Dynasty at present. Governments at all levels are doing their best, and all the famous ladies are running away.
No, we have collected them all, even if you are engaged, as long as you are not married, everything will be written on the roster.
Suddenly, there were people everywhere in the south of the Yangtze River who attacked married women. They didn't dare to show off their skills and carry them quietly in a small sedan chair. They didn't dare to set off firecrackers, let alone hold a banquet. If the government knew about it, it would be a serious crime of bullying.
This vigorous draft brought a catastrophe to the people of Jiangnan. The government took the opportunity to extort money, causing public resentment. The already unstable political situation of the Great Zhou Dynasty added a touch of uneasiness.
But the emperor no longer cares. In his opinion, it is quite necessary to enrich the harem. With his own physique, it is no problem to give birth to ten or eight princes and princesses. In the past, he thought four princes were enough, but each of these sons is not up to the mark.
, I guess it’s not that their genes are not good enough, but that their mothers’ qualities are too poor. It’s no wonder that most of these concubines were married when they were not emperors. Their qualities were average. After they ascended the throne, in order to establish an image of a simple and diligent emperor.
, has never expanded the harem, and now it is not too late to make amends.
By the way, the emperor's impression of Yang Feng became a little better. Every afternoon, Yang Feng would come to Yangxin Hall to meet the saint and report on the world's major events. Although he was still the co-organizer of the bachelor's degree, his status had far surpassed that of Zeng, who was also known as the cabinet's best.
Meng Zhiqiu was vaguely on par with the two auxiliary academicians.
That afternoon, Yang Feng came to the Yangxin Hall again to report the progress of the draft to the emperor. Afterwards, Yang Feng hesitated and said as if he had made a lot of determination: "Your Majesty, I want to impeach a person, but I want to impeach someone."
This man is my benefactor, so I don’t know what to do.”
The emperor smiled calmly. He liked Yang Feng very much. He didn't hide anything. He said, "Whether it's law or love, I guess you already have some concerns in your heart, but it doesn't matter."
Yang Feng said: "I want to impeach Mr. Liu Prime Minister. He has a daughter of suitable age in the house, but he did not participate in the draft. He knows the law and breaks the law. It is really difficult to convince the public. The prime ministers and ministers of the dynasty are like this. It is difficult for me to carry out my work."