A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 1111: Relegated to limbo
"I see. I thought Your Highness hated me."

"You are worrying too much. How could that be? His Highness still needs to rest for half a year. Please take good care of him."

In the Eastern Palace, Wu Mei saw Huaiyu off, and the two talked as they walked in the courtyard.

"Brother, you are going to the Western Expedition. Please be careful. I wish you a safe journey and success." Wu Mei took out a sachet and said, "Here is a peace charm I got from Longmen Temple. I sewed the sachet myself. Brother, please wear it."

After getting rid of her worries, Wu Mei smiled again.

"Take good care of yourself in the palace. Su Niang is also your niece. You can spend more time with her in the East Palace, and you will have a companion and helper. If you miss home, you can also ask your mother, sisters, or your sister-in-law to come to the palace to see you and chat with you."

"Thank you, brother,"

After Wu Shigui's death, Wu Mei's greatest support was her cousin Wu Huaiyu. With Wu Huaiyu's support, she did not feel so lonely in the palace.

"You have to pay attention to the prince's diet. Don't take any pills or supplements randomly in the future. It's best not to drink deer blood wine."

Wu Mei saw him off to the palace gate, feeling somewhat reluctant to let him go.

She has more than one half-brother, but unfortunately those two brothers never gave her the care and warmth she had as a brother.
On the contrary, this cousin who was almost five generations apart had been very kind to her since she was a child.

Tai Chi Palace.

Zhang Ananda walked up to the emperor and presented him with a secret letter. Li Shimin read it, frowned, and his face turned ugly.
"Was this an accident or was it intentional?"

The emperor didn't expect that the prince would have such a big problem, and the Crown Princess Su was actually involved.

Li Shimin blew his beard and glared, slammed his palm heavily on the imperial desk, stood up and turned around in the hall, turning faster and faster.

"Why didn't you notice this earlier? Why didn't you report any information to me?"

"If Wu Huaiyu hadn't gone to the East Palace to say goodbye to the Crown Prince today, and if he hadn't been an excellent doctor, would this matter still be kept in the dark?"

The crown prince is the foundation of the country, so he cannot be allowed to lose.

"What are the servants around the Crown Prince of the East Palace doing? Why did such a big leak happen? Ananda, go and clean up the East Palace."

"No, I will go to visit the Crown Prince in person and tidy up the East Palace."

Li Shimin was very angry. Zhang Ananda said that the prince's health was seriously damaged before, and it was unfair that it affected his sexual intercourse and even his legs and feet were affected.

If Wu Huaiyu had not discovered it in time and delayed it for a while, it would have been a big mistake.

Zhang Ananda whispered, "The prince deliberately concealed this matter, and it is difficult for outsiders to easily detect it."

It’s not that those people in the Eastern Palace are negligent, but Cheng Qian would not spread such things everywhere.

Cheng Qian even concealed the true condition of his recent weakness from the imperial physician who prescribed medicine for him. The only person who knew the true condition of the prince was the princess Su.

But the Crown Princess just thought that Cheng Qian hated her, which was why he acted like this, and she didn't know that there was something wrong with the medicine he took.

Li Shimin couldn't bear to hear this explanation.
He had been harmed by the poison in the past, and had a deep understanding of it. He was terrified just thinking about it.
"No one is wrong?"

"Ignorance is not a crime? How can this be true? Not knowing is a serious dereliction of duty. This time I must chop off a few heads to make them wary."

The emperor rushed to the East Palace angrily.
He first went to see Cheng Qian, looked left and right, then waved away the people around him, and after leaving only the two of them, he began to ask with concern.

Cheng Qian was a little embarrassed.
"How did your Majesty know that?"

"You are confused. Why would you take those medicines at such a young age? And why did you drink deer blood wine after taking the medicines?"

Cheng Qian told the truth and confessed to his father helplessly that he had no feelings for Su now, but his father forced him to make Su pregnant as soon as possible, so he had to have sex with her every five days.

But I felt less and less, and when facing Su, sometimes I couldn't even lift a gun, so I had to use medicine.

I never thought that something would happen.

"Does the Su family annoy you so much?"

"My son,"

Li Shimin sighed and waved his hands weakly, "Don't say anything. If this is the case, I can't force you, let alone harm you. If you really don't like Su, don't force yourself to sleep with her in the future."

The emperor was really worried that if he continued to force Cheng Qian like this, it would be troublesome if Cheng Qian became completely useless in the future.

She is still so young, even though she has already given birth to two grandchildren and several granddaughters for him.

"Your Majesty, can I divorce Su?" Cheng Qian asked courageously. This incident made Cheng Qian's disgust for Su reach its peak.

The emperor looked at his son.

In the end, he still shook his head, and he patted his son on the shoulder, "Cheng Qian, you are now the crown prince, the heir to a country, and the foundation of the country. You have to consider every aspect of your words and actions.

Su was chosen for you by me and your mother. She has a good family background, good looks and good character. She has been in the palace for a few years and has done nothing wrong. Now you want to divorce her, how will people in the world view you?

How will the Wugong Su Clan view you?"

"I don't want to hear you talk about divorce anymore. If you don't like her, I won't force you. If you don't want to have children with her, then don't have them.
If it really doesn't work, then we can establish the eldest son as the heir apparent, or even let the Su family raise this eldest son together..."

Choose the lesser of two evils. Su may be pitiful and innocent, but she is a person of another surname after all, and Cheng Qian is not only his biological son, but also the crown prince. Li Shimin can only choose Cheng Qian.

In fact, in addition to those reasons, Li Shimin had another reason that he did not tell Cheng Qian.

If Su is deposed, who will succeed as the Crown Princess?
Now, after the Crown Princess, the concubine with the highest status in the Eastern Palace is Wu Erniang, who is the Crown Prince's Consort, and followed by the Crown Prince's Consort Han Yingsu.

While Wu Erniang had not given birth yet, Han Yingsu had given birth to two sons, one of whom was the eldest son of the Eastern Palace.

If someone is to be appointed, it must be one of the two.

But whether it was Wu Er or Han Yingsu, Li Shimin actually didn't want to see either of them. One of them was Wu Huaiyu's cousin and the daughter of former prime minister Wu Shihuo, and the other was Wu Huaiyu's niece and the stepsister of current Zhongshu Ling Ma Zhou.

Whoever becomes the Crown Princess will make the Wu family, the in-laws, even more powerful.

In the future, the crown prince will inherit the throne. No matter whether it is Empress Wu or Empress Han, the Wu family is behind him. Wu Huaiyu is so young, how can Li Shimin feel at ease?

You have to know that he ascended the throne at the age of 28. Although he was young and powerful, he still had to be cautious when facing the Changsun family, his relatives.
He constantly suppressed Changsun Shunde and Changsun Wuji for a long time. He also used Changsun Anye's rebellion case to strike at Changsun.
However, the Changsun family and the Gao family still have extremely strong influence in the government and the country.

And when Cheng Qian becomes emperor in the future, Wu Huaiyu and Ma Zhou will only be stronger than the current Changsun family and Gao family.

It doesn't mean that Wu Huaiyu will definitely be unfaithful.

But some things must be prevented in advance.
"I will find some ladies from famous families and noble families for you," Li Shimin patted his son's shoulder, "Take good care of yourself during this period of time."

"Wu Huaiyu will go to the west to fight immediately. I will send people to Longmen Temple to invite the King of Medicine Wei Shanjun, and then go to Zhongnan Mountain to invite the old doctor Sun Simiao to see you."

"How's your leg? Does it hurt a lot? Does it have trouble walking?"

His father's care made Cheng Qian feel warm in his heart, and even his nose ached, and he couldn't help but cry.

Li Shimin saw it and reached out to wipe his tears. "A man shouldn't shed tears easily. Your mother is gone. I will take good care of you for her."

"Father, I have grown up and I am now the father of five children. I will take good care of myself and be more filial to my father."

It's rare for the father and son to have such a heart-to-heart moment.

When Li Shimin walked out of the East Palace with heavy steps, murderous intent flashed in his originally kind eyes.
He summoned Zhang Ananda,

"Clean up the people around the prince. Those bastards who neglect their duties should be killed or exiled."

"Replace them with a group of more loyal, hardworking and honest people,"

"Also, Crown Princess Su will move out of the Lizheng Palace in the East Palace and move to another place. Arrange for someone to serve her, and let her live there peacefully from now on."

Zhang Ananda understood.
The emperor is banishing his daughter-in-law to the cold palace and is going to imprison her, forbidding her to contact the prince ever again.

Although the emperor did not allow the prince to divorce his wife,
But it was only out of various other considerations, but he also completely hated his daughter-in-law. He might have felt sorry for her before and would have come forward to protect her.

But after this incident,

The emperor was left with nothing but disgust.

He even thought that Su was a little stupid.

How could a good woman, with a decent family background and good looks, make her husband hate her so much?
"One more thing,"

"From now on, the deer in the deer park must be strictly managed. If Taiji Palace and Donggong want to take deer blood, they must strictly declare it, especially the purpose of use."

Deer blood wine is indeed effective.

But this time Li Shimin was so frightened that he dared not allow the concubines in the harem to take deer blood to make wine again.
If a concubine took deer blood and mixed it with wine in order to please the emperor, it would be fine if she did it openly, but if she did it secretly, wouldn't it be easy to get into big trouble like Cheng Qian?

The emperor thought for a moment and said, "The East Palace Prince's Household Manager should replace him with a loyal, diligent and capable housekeeper. You should personally select him. The first task of the new housekeeper is to strictly manage the prince's diet.
Also, it would be best if the Crown Prince could rest for a year, and during this year, the concubines and maids in the East Palace should not sleep with him. Keep an eye on him."

The Eastern Palace not only has the Zhanshi Mansion and Zuoyou Chunfang, which are similar to the three ministries of Shangshu, Shu and Menxia in the imperial court, but also has ten guards, which are modeled after the twelve guards in the imperial court.

There are also Jialing Temple, Shuegeng Temple and Taipu Temple, which are the three temples of the Eastern Palace. They were set up in analogy with the Dianzhong Province, Neishi Province and the nine temples of the imperial court.

Among them, the Prince's Household Director was equivalent to the Palace Attendant and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the imperial court. He was in charge of the Eastern Palace's criminal justice, food, storage, slaves and other affairs. He was in charge of the three offices of Food Officials, Warehouse Manager, and Treasury Manager, as well as the Neifang Director and Secretary.

This is the chief steward of the East Palace.

Wu Huaiyu also served as the Prince's Secretary, the most important official in the Eastern Palace, but he was in charge of the affairs outside the Eastern Palace.

This position is very important.

The emperor was obviously dissatisfied with the current order and replaced him directly.

"Ananda,"

"saint."

Li Shimin hesitated to speak, and finally looked around and asked in a low voice, "Have you heard any rumors about Prince Jin and Concubine Wu?"

(End of this chapter)