A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 1276 Fire in the East Palace
The autumn wind blows and the white dew falls.

In August, white dew falls, and the locust leaves gradually turn yellow.

"It's dry, be careful with fire, keep your water tank full and your stove clean!"

"Tuk, Tuk, Tuk!"

On quiet autumn nights, night watchmen patrol the streets, holding lanterns and beating clappers to tell time and remind people to take precautions against fire.

night is deep,
In the Taiwei Mansion, Wu Huaiyu was still not asleep.

"Husband, why aren't you asleep yet?" Li Sanniang turned around and found her husband still sitting there in the dim light. "It's the 18th day of the Beginning of Heat, don't expose your body during the White Dew. The cold in the autumn night can hurt your body even more," she said as she sat up and gently covered her husband with a thin quilt.

"But because of those rumors that have been spreading recently?"

She reached out and held her husband's cold hand. "I don't know who is behind this conspiracy, but the rumors couldn't hurt Alang back then, so there's no need to worry about it now."

Wu Huaiyu said nothing.

This time, he was the one who secretly spread the rumor. Although it was just the beginning, Chang'an City was a very peculiar place. There were people who believed in any rumor and liked to spread it.

There are many people in Chang'an, so the rumor spreads quickly.

This is a risky move.

Wu Huaiyu had no plan to tell his wife and children.

He is waiting now, waiting for a result.

Now the rumors that the heroine Chang and the heroine Wu Wang will rule the world after Tang III have been spreading like wildfire again.
Wu Huaiyu believed that the supreme being in Jiucheng Palace would not sit idly by.

Waiting is always painful.

He couldn't guess what means the Supreme would use, but he thought it probably wouldn't be public and formal.

It shouldn't be poison.
Was that a sudden death?

But Wu Huaiyu is the King of Medicine, and ordinary tricks cannot be hidden from him.

"Go to bed early and stop thinking too much." Li Qing comforted.

Wu Huaiyu was very upset and couldn't sleep. He had a lot of anger in his heart but didn't know where to vent it.
"Sanniang,"

Wu Huaiyu hugged her and bent down to kiss her.

·······
The rapid knock on the door woke Wu Huaiyu up from his sleep.

He got up with red eyes.

Before dawn,

He must have just fallen asleep.

The maid who was on duty outside the room came in and said, "Ah Lang, the maid from the front yard is here. She said she has something important to ask Ah Lang."

Wu Huaiyu stood up and put on his clothes.

When he arrived at the front yard, he found that many managers and guards had already gathered there.

"What happened?"

The housekeeper came over and said, "Ah Lang, there seems to be a fire in the East Palace, and flames are shooting up into the sky."

Wu Huaiyu was stunned.

The fire in the East Palace was seen by many people in the Upper East City.

But it was midnight.

The palace gates were locked and no one was allowed to enter or leave. If there was a fire or a water disaster in the palace, only people inside the palace could rescue.

Although there are many corresponding fire prevention and fire-fighting measures in the palace, the fire must be quite big since it is so large.

A bolt of lightning flashed through Wu Huaiyu's mind.

Is this the method used by the Supreme Being?

Not poisoning, but arson?

This night,
Wu Huaiyu waited until dawn,
At dawn, the palace gates opened.

The news finally came out.

Last night, a fire broke out in the Lizheng Hall of the East Palace. The cause was probably the dry weather in autumn, and the candles in the palace were not properly looked after, causing the fire to be caused accidentally.

Although the palace has always arranged eunuchs to patrol the fires and has many fire prevention measures, it is difficult to extinguish the fire once it is dry in this season.

Last night, a fire suddenly broke out in the Lizheng Palace, and it quickly spread to both sides, and the fire was difficult to contain. Although the eunuchs and maids of the East Palace tried their best to fetch water to put out the fire, the fire was extremely fierce when it started.

Later, due to a change in wind direction and the fact that the palaces were separated by a certain distance, the fire was finally brought under control and gradually extinguished.

But the entire Lizheng Hall, together with its side halls and auxiliary rooms, the entire palace complex was almost completely burned down.

Wu Huaiyu rushed to the East Palace early in the morning.

The Crown Prince Cheng Qian was in a very sorry state, his clothes were disheveled, there were traces of ashes on his face, he had no shoes on his feet, and no crown on his head.
She was still wearing her nightgown.

He ran over when the fire started. If the guards hadn't tried their best to stop him, Cheng Qian would have rushed into the sea of ​​fire.

At this time, he was standing beside the fire in a daze.

The attendants around him advised him to go back and change his clothes, but he turned a deaf ear to them. It was not until Wu Huaiyu appeared that he seemed to come alive.

"teacher,"

"Second Mother, Second Mother..." Cheng Qian's voice was choked with sobs.
"Your Highness, let's go back to the palace first."

Wu Huaiyu persuaded Cheng Qian to return to Chongxian Hall, but he refused.

The fire reduced the Lizheng Hall to ashes and also burned the Crown Prince's Consort Wu, who was in charge of the Eastern Palace, to charcoal. Not only her, but the fire was too fierce last night and the wind was too strong, so most of the eunuchs and palace maids in the palace did not have time to escape and were burned to death.

The charred corpses were carried out one after another, their faces were so distorted that they were unrecognizable.

"Where are Princess Taiyuan and Prince Longxi?"

"Yesterday, Liang Di went to Daming Palace to pay a visit to Concubine Yang and others. Later, Concubine Yang liked the little princess and the little prince, so she kept them in the palace and did not follow Liang Di back to the East Palace..."

Wu Mei had many relatives in the Daming Palace. The four Yang concubines in Li Shimin's palace were all her relatives. Yang Shufei, the daughter of Emperor Yang of Sui, gave birth to Li Ke and Li Yin. She and Yang, who gave birth to Li Fu, the Prince of Zhao, were cousins. They were also the cousins ​​of Wu Meiniang and Concubine Yan De, and the cousins ​​of Concubine Chao and Concubine Yang.

Yesterday was the birthday of Concubine Yang, the mother of Prince Zhao Li Fu, so she invited her niece Wu Liangdi from the Eastern Palace to attend, and all the relatives in the palace gathered together.

Later, Concubine Yang said she liked Wu Mei's two children and asked them to stay in Daming Palace for a few days. Her son Li Fu was named Prince of Zhao and was adopted by the emperor as the son of Crown Prince Yin Jiancheng.

Wu Liangdi didn't want to refuse her cousin's kindness, but she was sure it was not suitable for her to stay, so she returned to the Eastern Palace on her own.

Unexpectedly, a fire broke out in Lizheng Hall at night.

"Liang Di drank some wine at Concubine Yang's place yesterday, which might be why she was unable to escape from the fire scene immediately. Fortunately, the little princess and the little prince stayed in Daming Palace and did not come back..."

After hearing this, Wu Huaiyu became more and more convinced that the fire was not an accident, but someone had caused Wu Liangdi to suffer an accident.

He even deliberately kept the Princess of Taiyuan and the Prince of Longxi in Daming Palace.

Maybe Wu Meiniang's drinking at Concubine Yang's place yesterday was also arranged in advance, just to avoid this accident.
Heaven is merciless,

Wu Huaiyu looked at the fire, at the charcoal that was being carried out, and at the heartbroken prince. After being a prince for seventeen years, he still lacked some experience.

He probably never imagined that the gentle, considerate, empathetic, smart and virtuous Wu Liangdi beside him could actually be so cruel as to sacrifice even her own children.
I also didn't expect that my father, the emperor, would depose Su even though he knew that Su was wrongly accused, and also expel and banish Su's father and brother.

Now he did not let Wu go, but just chose this method.

A fire turned this ambitious woman into charcoal, and took away the crime as well as the hidden dangers that the female protagonist Chang and the female protagonist of the Wu family would rule the world after three generations of the Tang Dynasty.

Get rid of the mother and keep the child.

The Wu family and the Yang family will no longer be implicated.

This is indeed a very good solution.

This may be the best solution for the emperor.

And Wu Huaiyu was the one who facilitated this result.
It was he and Li Shimin who jointly executed Wu Meiniang, strangling this young, ambitious and even unscrupulous woman.

They all didn't want this woman to continue like this and saw her as a huge hidden danger.

"Confirm the identity carefully, find Liangdi, and restrain yourself."

Wu Huaiyu walked among the charred corpses. Although he could no longer recognize their faces, he was still able to identify their identities through some other features.

It has been confirmed that Wu Mei was burned to death and turned into a piece of charcoal.

She died of her own ambition.

Wu Huaiyu lowered his head and observed a moment of silence for her.

But he has no regrets,

This may be the best ending, for him, the Wu family, and perhaps for the Tang Dynasty.

"Poor Xue'er and Xian'er lost their mother when they were still so young," Cheng Qian was still sad for the two children who lost their mother.
Wu Huaiyu, however, felt that given Wu Erniang's cruelty, this might actually be a good thing for her two sons. In history, several of her children were severely tortured by her.

Let everything go with the autumn wind.

Qizhou, Jiucheng Palace.

A fire broke out in the Eastern Palace, Lizheng Hall was burned down, and the news that Crown Prince's Consort Wu was burned to death was delivered to the Li Palace by express horse.

The emperor was fishing with Li Jing, Xiao Yu, Fang Xuanling, Wei Zheng, Ma Zhou and other ministers.

Upon hearing the news, there was silence for a long time.

"I have a beautiful son and a beautiful wife, a match made in heaven, but I didn't expect that heaven would be jealous of me. Alas."

The emperor sighed.
This is where Wu Liangdi's story ended.

The emperor issued an edict, ordering the officials to bury Wu Liangdi with great honor, but did not mention posthumously conferring the title on Wu Liangdi.

Three days later,
An imperial edict was sent from Jiucheng Palace to Chang'an.

The emperor formally appointed Prince Liangyuan Han as the Crown Princess. At the same time, the emperor ordered the Chief Supervisor of Works, the Minister of Works, the Minister of the Imperial Household and others to rebuild the Lizheng Hall of the Eastern Palace.

Han became the new Crown Princess.
Li Xiang and Li Jue, born to her, were originally illegitimate sons, but now they have suddenly become the eldest and second legitimate sons of the Eastern Palace. Originally, the third son of the crown prince born to Wu had a higher status than Li Xiang and Li Jue because of his mother's noble status, but now he also has the distinction between legitimate and illegitimate sons and is far inferior to his two brothers.

New Lizheng Hall, new hostess.

After Wu Mei's death,

The rumors about the female protagonist Chang'an also quickly disappeared.

quickly,

No one mentioned Wu Liangdi anymore. Chang'an City was so big, and there were all kinds of new news every day. Who would still care about a dead person?

In early winter,
The emperor went from Jiucheng Palace to Tangquan Palace in Mount Li and specially summoned Wu Huaiyu to accompany him.

In the hot spring pool with steam rising,
The king and his minister soaked in the pool and spoke to each other frankly.

"Your sister, Concubine Wu Liang..." the emperor began, but paused for a long while before continuing, "The dead are gone, and the living are like this. I will definitely take good care of the two children she left behind."

"I'm going to appoint Han Liangyuan as the Crown Princess. You won't object, will you?"

"This is your Majesty's family affair." Wu Huaiyu still had the same attitude.

Li Shimin rubbed his face and said, "I originally planned to make Wu Liangdi the Crown Princess after the New Year, but I didn't expect this unexpected incident."

Wu Huaiyu also sighed.

Suddenly, he said, "Your Majesty, a few days ago, Chang'an suddenly spread the same rumor again, saying that the female ruler Chang, the female ruler of the Wu family would rule the world, etc. Now that Er Niang is dead, those rumors have disappeared.
For so many years, some people have been unwilling to see the Wu family doing well and have tried every means to slander and attack them.

Even if Er Niang didn't die in this fire accident, she would have died from the attack of those people.

I am tired.

Your Majesty, I want to go to Luzon Island, away from the court, facing the sea every day, and relax. "

Taking this opportunity, Wu Huaiyu once again proposed to return to Luzon.

"Now that the Xueyantuo in the northern desert have been destroyed, and the Goguryeo in Liaodong have also sent people to surrender, the world is peaceful and there is no trouble. I just want to take my wives, concubines, and children to Luzon to relax and enjoy this prosperous and peaceful era."

(End of this chapter)