Changsheng: Peak at the Beginning

Chapter 187: Legend of Zhen Huan 57

Yi Xin pretended to sleep in the Waterside Room. After the emperor dealt with the queen, he sent her directly back to the palace. He turned around and saw Yi Xin and her servant nodding in unison, indicating that they had fallen asleep due to boredom. Anger rose in his heart at first, and then he felt that Yi Xin and her servant had not heard or seen him when he was embarrassed, so he felt strangely relieved.

However, the emperor still suspected that he had lost face in front of Yi Xin, especially since his marriage with Queen Chun Yuan was not innocent. Therefore, he was somewhat angry with Yi Xin. From then on, until the day he returned to the palace, the emperor did not stay overnight at Wanfang Wanhe where Yi Xin lived, let alone accompany Yi Xin for dinner. Even if he missed Hong Sheng, he asked Su Peisheng to invite Hong Sheng over.

All news about the Queen was sealed, so even Concubine Duan and Concubine Wan, who plotted against the Queen, and Noble Lady Guarjia, who took action, did not know about the Queen, and they did not even know that the Queen had been sent back to the palace. So there were many speculations about the news that Yi Xin seemed to have "fallen out of favor", but no one dared to conclude that Yi Xin had angered the Emperor. After all, her son still enjoyed special treatment in front of the Emperor.

When he returned to the palace, the emperor immediately summoned all his ministers to hold a grand court to discuss the issue of deposing the queen.

The court officials from the Guwalja clan naturally knew the emperor's determination, but the court officials from the Fucha clan did not know this, so they followed Zhang Tingyu and other Han officials in expressing their opposition to the dethronement of the empress. The reason was very simple: the emperor and the empress were one, and the empress should not be deposed or enthroned lightly.

However, the emperor produced evidence of the queen's actions against concubines in the harem when she was in the palace in the past, and after she was crowned queen. The emperor had evidence to show that he now had few children, and the queen had played a major role in this.

When it comes to the issue of offspring, even Zhang Tingyu can no longer speak for the empress, even if he just wants to preserve the royal family's face from the perspective of ancestral rules. But now that the empress has done such a evil thing and is even controlling the emperor's offspring, this is unacceptable in any family, let alone in the royal family.

As a result, the empress was deposed and directly demoted to a commoner and imprisoned in the cold palace. The empress's family, the Ulanara family, was also reprimanded by the emperor's edict, and even their ancestral position as a captain was lost. The married daughters of the Ulanara family were also in a very difficult situation. Even if they were not divorced by their in-laws, their situation was much worse than before. It can be said that the empress's family had almost no possibility of rising again.

The queen was deposed, and because of the involvement of Queen Chunyuan, although the emperor did not announce the cause of Queen Chunyuan's death, he sent Xia Qian to secretly investigate who was responsible for the deposed queen.

The first to be investigated were Yi Xin and Fu Cha. Fortunately, Ma Qi was very cautious. Although he went to find the person who delivered Empress Chun Yuan at the suggestion of Yi Xin, he did not take the initiative to contact anyone. Therefore, the emperor only found out that E Min's people found the midwife who escaped from the capital that year. She was also from the Guaerjia clan where E Min was. Through the niece-in-law of Madam Sorenzhuo's mother's family, another woman from the Guaerjia clan, the matter of the midwife was reported to the Sorenzhuo family, and then it was heard by Madam Sorenzhuo.

However, the midwife also revealed one thing, which was that when they were escaping from the capital, she always felt that there was a group of people who were secretly taking care of them and controlling them not to return to the capital or go anywhere else.

Originally, this matter was difficult to investigate because of the long time that had passed, but the emperor himself gave Xia Qian an idea: those who had witnessed the process of Empress Chunyuan giving birth and the premature death of the Second Prince would definitely have doubts about the death of Empress Chunyuan and the premature death of the Second Prince, so they quickly locked on to the old Concubine Duan, and Concubine Duan was thus exposed to the emperor.

The emperor felt somewhat guilty towards Concubine Duan because she was completely innocent in Concubine Dunsu's miscarriage and her health was damaged as a result. That was why Concubine Duan was initially given the same title as Concubine Dunsu, a concubine with a title.

But now the situation has changed. Noble Concubine Dunsu has passed away, and Nian Gengyao has been dealt with. The person who can make the emperor feel guilty about Concubine Duan is no longer around. In fact, because the emperor occasionally misses Noble Concubine Dunsu, Concubine Duan's situation has begun to become dangerous.

A pure white jasmine flower was suddenly tainted with a hint of filth. The emperor felt that he had been fooled by Concubine Duan. He even began to suspect that Concubine Duan knew from the beginning that a heavy amount of pregnancy-preserving medicine had been added to the bowl of pregnancy-preserving medicine. At that time, Concubine Duan was jealous of Concubine Dunsu's favor, so she ignored Concubine Dunsu's deep affection for her and took the initiative to harm the child in Concubine Dunsu's belly!

The previous dynasty also wanted the emperor to establish a queen. The emperor listened to the candidates recommended by the ministers and asked Ma Qi with a dangerous look in his eyes: "The imperial concubine in the palace is from the Fucha family. Lord Ma Qi, don't you think of letting the imperial concubine take a step forward?"

Ma Qi felt his scalp tingling when he heard this, and he quickly stood up to reply: "The Imperial Concubine is young. I heard that when the Imperial Concubine was in charge of the palace affairs, she still relied on the experienced maids in the palace. How can the Imperial Concubine take on the responsibilities of the Queen?"

This did not convince the emperor. Ma Qi also knew that this was a bit too modest, so he quickly added: "Besides, my Fucha clan has always disliked these nepotisms. Even if the imperial concubine is really valued by the emperor, it will only be icing on the cake for the Fucha clan. If this matter falls into the eyes of others, I am afraid that the Fucha clan will be in a state of turmoil, which is a sign that it will not last long."

Of course, these words convinced the emperor more than the previous ones. He couldn't help but relax his expression and praised Ma Qi in a rare way, saying, "Your Highness is indeed worthy of being from the Fucha family. Like you, Ma Qi, you are loyal to me and are also very honest."

When Ma Qi entered the ranks, she felt the cold sweat on her back soaking her inner garment. Although she knew that she had fooled the emperor with her response, she was also disappointed that the position of empress would soon fall to someone else.

Even though Ma Qi's words were very clear and understandable, that was the position of Queen after all. If Yi Xin could sit on it, then the only one who would succeed to the throne in the future would be the Sixth Prince Hong Sheng. Since Fu Cha was the descendant of Emperor Taizong, she would once again aspire for the position of Queen and become part of the royal family. This was also a great honor for Fu Cha.

But a safer option would be to let the Sixth Prince Hongsheng succeed to the throne and Yi Xin become the Queen Mother. This way, the Fucha clan can be considered half a royal family and the Fucha clan's glory can be further enhanced.

The emperor had no plans to appoint a queen right away, and the next year would be a general election year, so the emperor had no plans to hold a general election, so the New Year's Eve banquet was still hosted by Yi Xin and Concubine Jing. However, the palace was ultimately divided over the issue of appointing a queen, and thanks to the support of the Dong and Xia families behind Yi Xin, nothing went wrong at the New Year's Eve banquet.