The capital of the prosperous country, the imperial palace.【】
In the side hall of Ninghe Palace, the Empress Dowager was sitting on the couch with a pale face, her chest was rising and falling, and she looked very angry.
The maids and eunuchs on the side were all afraid to express their anger, for fear of angering the Queen Mother at this time and getting into trouble.
After a while, the eunuch's voice came from outside the palace: "The emperor has arrived..."
Then, Liu Lang, accompanied by Pei Yang and a group of eunuchs, appeared at the entrance of the palace.
When Liu Lang entered the palace and saw the expression on his mother's face, he turned to Pei Yang and said, "All of you, go down."
As soon as he finished speaking, the maids and eunuchs in the palace, as well as Pei Yang and his entourage, all retreated, leaving only Liu Lang and the Queen Mother.
At this time, the Queen Mother remained silent and looked very annoyed.
Liu Lang stepped forward and said, "My son, I would like to express my regards to my mother."
"Forgive me." The Queen Mother didn't even look at Liu Lang.
Liu Lang straightened up, looked at the Queen Mother's face, and then asked softly: "Is the Queen Mother still angry about that matter?"
When the Queen Mother heard this, she immediately raised her eyes and stared at Liu Lang and asked: "Emperor, did Zhongyong Hou really deceive us and deliberately hide his concubine in a house outside the city?"
Liu Lang nodded, walked to the side and sat down, saying: "She is the real queen. My son ordered Wude to investigate this matter. There is no way it is false."
"This Zhongyong Marquis is so audacious. He dares to lie in such a huge panic. It is simply... simply... Emperor, you must punish him, you must punish him!
"The Queen Mother was extremely angry.
The reason why the Empress Dowager was so angry was that she had believed Mrs. Sui Fengmao's words before and felt that Sui Zhan really belonged to the category of "a prodigal son who never returns for gold", and had people chase him to Jiezhou in order to take Jimo Qiao away by force.
return.
Looking back now, I realized that it was thanks to the failure of those few people that their operation failed. Otherwise, if Jimo Qiao was really brought back and something like this happened again, she would be so embarrassed as the Empress Dowager, and she would not be able to come to Taiwan for a long time!
Liu Lang said: "My mother and I have ordered Marquis Zhongyong to stay at home, under the supervision of Wude. Without my permission, he can't go anywhere. As for what crime to punish him, I would like to ask my mother to let my son think about it."
After all, Sui Zhan is an old loyal and brave prince, so he cannot be punished too severely either publicly or privately."
The Queen Mother breathed a heavy sigh of relief. After thinking about Liu Lang's words seriously, she felt that they were not unreasonable, so she asked: "Then what is the emperor's plan?"
Liu Lang lowered his head and pondered for a moment, and said: "Mother, this is what I think. The loyal and brave Marquis Sui Zhan is frivolous, and his words and deeds are inconsistent. It can be said that his virtue is not worthy of his position. Therefore, I think that his title of marquis should be cut off."
He was demoted to the rank of earl, and his descendants no longer have hereditary rights. How does the mother feel?"
After saying that, Liu Lang stopped talking and waited for the Queen Mother to express her opinion.
The Queen Mother was stunned for a moment and asked: "Is it...that it's gone?"
Liu Lang was slightly surprised: "Mother, do you think the punishment is light?"
The Empress Dowager said without hesitation: "Of course it's too light! Emperor, you are no longer the prince, but the king of a country and the leader of a country! Although Sui Zhan is the son of the old Zhongyong Marquis and a hero, but after
In this matter, he committed a serious crime of deceiving the emperor, but you only cut off his first-level title. When the ministers in the court know about it, they will talk about you, the emperor!"
Liu Lang frowned and was silent for a moment, then asked: "What do you think Empress Yi would like to do?"
The Empress Dowager immediately cheered up, turned around and faced Liu Lang, and said extremely seriously: "Emperor, in addition to the punishments you mentioned, the Ai family thinks that Sui Zhan must also donate a sum of money, which is just right.
It can alleviate the military spending problem in the north."
Liu Lang hesitated for a moment: "Mother, is this...?"
"What's this?" The Empress Dowager's voice suddenly became louder, and then she sat up straight, raised her neck and said: "If Sui Zhan hadn't used the donation of silver as a bait, the Ai family could have pulled off this old face.
Are you getting involved in this matter?"
The Empress Dowager said angrily: "Emperor, the Ai family will leave their words here today. If Sui Zhan doesn't donate a sum of money honestly, the Ai family will make it impossible for the Sui family's business to continue in the capital. When the time comes, we will see
Whose loss is greater!"
After saying that, the Empress Dowager began to gasp for air, obviously angry again.
Liu Lang hurriedly stood up and came forward to caress his mother's back and said comfortingly: "Mom, please calm down. It's not worth it if you get so angry over this."
The Empress Dowager took a breath and thought for a while before saying: "Emperor, the Ai family has thought about asking Sui Zhan to donate money. You still don't have to come forward. This matter will be left to the Ai family. The Ai family will do it for the emperor."
Go and do it, if you don’t peel off a layer of his skin, where will the royal family’s face be?”
Liu Lang understood immediately that the queen mother wanted to take the opportunity to vent her anger and regain the lost face.
"Mother, what are you going to do?" Liu Lang asked curiously.
The Empress Dowager said loudly: "It's simple. Whoever came to mention this matter to the Ai family in the first place, the Ai family went to find that person and asked her to give the Ai family a good explanation."
Liu Lang immediately understood that the person the Empress Dowager was talking about was Sui Fengmao's wife.
At this point, Liu Lang stopped continuing the topic, and instead asked about the queen mother's physical condition and some trivial matters.
The Empress Dowager answered them all one by one, and then said: "Emperor, you are busy with state affairs, so don't waste time at Ai's house. Go and get busy, go..."
Liu Lang immediately understood why his mother urged him to leave, so he bowed respectfully, apologized and left the side hall.
After Liu Lang left, the Empress Dowager shouted loudly: "Here comes someone!"
"My servant is here." A young eunuch appeared immediately.
The Empress Dowager said loudly: "Go to Sui Shangshu's house quickly and send Mrs. Sui Shangshu to the palace. If you ask about it, tell her that the Ai family has something very, very important to say to Mrs. Shangshu."
"As ordered." The little eunuch responded and left.
Because of Sui Zhan's matter, Sui Fengmao took leave today and stayed at home instead of going to the household department.
In fact, Sui Fengmao didn't want to stay at home, but he couldn't do it without him, because Mrs. Sui Shangshu started crying early in the morning, making the house very chaotic and unpeaceful. It took Sui Fengmao a long time to comfort her, and she made herself
His head is as big as a bucket.
Although Mrs. Sui stopped crying, she never stopped complaining. She kept complaining that her husband should not let her enter the palace to bewitch the Queen Mother for that boy Sui Zhan.
Now that Sui Zhan's crime of deceiving the emperor has been proven, the emperor and the empress dowager will definitely not let it go. Maybe Sui Fengmao will lose his official position, and he himself will be unable to bear the consequences.
Sui Fengmao was also very angry. For a moment, he wanted to rush to the Zhongyong Hou Mansion with a knife and chop the bastard Sui Zhan into eight pieces.
"Okay, okay, stop nagging, can you be quiet?" Sui Fengmao finally couldn't listen to his wife's constant complaints anymore.
Mrs. Sui paused for a moment, then sat on the chair and jumped a little, and said impatiently: "I don't, I won't stop, I want to say, it's all your fault. If it weren't for you, I would have offended the emperor and the empress dowager."
Me?"
Sui Fengmao said with a bitter face: "Things are already like this, and you still keep nagging. Is your nagging useless? You might as well save your energy and think about how to remedy it!"
"Repair? I am just a woman, why don't I listen to you? I don't know how to remedy it, but you tell me how to remedy it?" Mrs. Sui cried anxiously again.
"I... wasn't I thinking? You either need to be quiet or go cry somewhere else. Don't bother me here!" Sui Fengmao was very annoyed now and felt like he had a splitting headache.
Mrs. Sui was very unconvinced. Just when she was about to have a good talk with Sui Fengmao, a servant came outside.
The servant reported: "Master, Madam, the Empress Dowager has sent someone over..."
"Ah?!" Mrs. Sui was suddenly shocked, her voice trembled, and her legs began to shake involuntarily.
Sui Fengmao stood up in a hurry and asked his servant: "What are you here for?"
The servant said: "As soon as the father-in-law came in, he said that the Queen Mother wanted to see Madam and asked her to come into the palace immediately. He said that he had something very, very important to say to Madam."
"This...this...I, I, I, I'm dead..."
After hearing this, Mrs. Sui was anxious and scared. Suddenly she couldn't catch her breath and fainted on the chair on the spot.