After the whole family was swept away, I lay down flat

Chapter 469 The root of the problem
The old palace official said frankly: "Second Grandma Wu did not know about His Highness Seventh Prince. Ever since the Empress Dowager took her mother and daughter into the palace, she has been letting her live in a small courtyard next to the garden of Cining Palace, away from other people, without leaving the house. She had never met the Seventh Highness, Master Wu Ke, before she left the palace. After the Seventh Highness became enlightened, the Empress Dowager took Master Wu over and stayed with him. , He is just not allowed to tell Second Grandma Wu about this.”

The Queen Mother blocked the information about the Seventh Prince from Madam Gui, not because she thought she would leak the secret, but more out of anger.

The fire in Kunning Palace burned almost everyone in Kunning Palace to death, and also implicated the third prince and his entourage. Although there was fire oil to fuel the fire, which caused the fire to spread very quickly, no matter how fast the fire burned, it would still take a certain amount of time. Empress Wu could even give birth to a child during this period. Could it be that she really had no time to escape? Yet? If she said she had no strength because she had just given birth, what about the third prince?

In fact, mother and son really couldn't escape at that time. Empress Wu was attacked and she was frightened and gave birth prematurely. The third prince had his arm cut off while trying to save his mother. With the support of Liuhua and Xu Qiuniang, the two of them were able to escape to the small room under the corridor of the back hall of Kunning Palace. This was their limit. . When Queen Wu struggled to give birth to her youngest son, the third prince had already died from excessive blood loss. Empress Wu only hoped that her confidant Liuhua could bring her youngest son out of the fire safely, but she did not expect that she, who suffered from postpartum hemorrhage, could escape.

At that time, all the palace servants in Kunning Palace were either drugged and unconscious, or they were hacked to death and injured in advance, and they all lost the ability to resist. This kind of thing happened naturally because of the manipulation of a traitor.

A female official in Kunning Palace, her biological sister is also a maid in the palace. When Gui went to the palace with her mother-in-law to pay her respects to Empress Wu, she insulted her because she offended her with her words, forcing her to commit suicide in anger. The female official was saddened by the death of her sister. Seeing that although Empress Wu did not like what her brother-in-law had done, she had no intention of punishing Gui, she felt angry and betrayed her master after being provoked. However, she did not end well afterwards. After scolding Empress Wu, she turned around and asked someone to stab her without even leaving the door of Kunning Palace. Her accomplices walked away, and she became the cause of the Kunning Palace fire. one of the victims.

The only ones who could escape her plot at that time were Xu Qiuniang, who secretly hid and cried because she missed her son as soon as she entered the palace, and Liuhua, who had just taken leave and went to Xiwu Institute to visit her fellow villagers. After the fire broke out, they hurried back to the main hall of Kunning Palace and became the only two survivors present who could still move around normally.

Liuhua heard the whole story from Queen Wu, and later told the Queen Mother about the cause of the fire. The Queen Mother could understand that Empress Wu did not punish Gui because she was pregnant with Liujia, which aroused the resentment of her female officials, but she still couldn't get over it in her heart, thinking that Gui acted arrogantly and lost etiquette in the palace. Cause catastrophe. She could protect the Gui family for the sake of the two orphans of the Wu family, but she didn't want to see the other person's face, and she didn't want the other party to know too many secrets.

If Gui had not suddenly made a fuss before leaving the palace, the Queen Mother would have been worried that she would cause trouble and affect the Seventh Prince's plan to leave the palace, so she would not have told her about the Seventh Prince's existence.

In order to make Gui Shi understand the seriousness of the matter, the Queen Mother personally took her to see the Seventh Prince and explained the whole story. Although the seventh prince was young at the time, he was very sensible and took the initiative to comfort Gui. He called her "aunt" and respected her very much. He asked her about many past events of his maternal family...

The old palace official told Zhen Guogong and his wife: "Second Madam Wu has only seen His Highness the Seventh. After leaving the palace, she never went back. However, during every year and festival, she would write letters in her own hand to say hello to His Highness the Seventh. , and was forwarded to the Queen Mother by Madam Cheng'enhou, who then handed it over to Her Majesty the Seventh Prince. Her Majesty the Seventh Prince was very sensible and courteous, and would always write a letter of thanks in person, but did not sign it to prevent the letter from falling into the hands of outsiders. "

It is probably because of this that Mrs. Gui feels that she has a deep friendship with the Seventh Prince. Together with Wu Ke, her mother and daughter are the only remaining relatives of the Seventh Prince's family. In the future, when the seventh prince succeeds to the throne, they will be the most distinguished relatives, and their status will naturally be unmatched by others. The Duke of Zhen sneered after hearing this and didn't bother to comment further. Mrs. Zhen Guogong couldn't help but secretly gritted her teeth: "She's so embarrassed?! If it weren't for her, His Highness Seventh Prince lived well in Cining Palace, how could there be a risk of being discovered? The Liu Hua wouldn't be lost either. A life! Even the tragic deaths of the Queen and the Third Prince were caused by her. How could she still blame the Queen Mother and our Zhou family if she didn’t know how to reflect?”

The old palace man listened silently to the scoldings of Duke Zhen Guo's wife. After listening, he added a few words: "Secret wife Wu, the young master and the young lady of the Wu family have lived well in Cheng'enhou Mansion these years. Cheng'en Hou suddenly requested an order from the Queen Mother to send them to Chang'an for safety, and it was also because he accidentally discovered that Second Mistress Wu was secretly communicating with her brothers, and also mentioned His Majesty the Seventh Highness in the letter..."

Gui asked Chengenhou several times for help in transferring her natal brothers back to the capital to serve as officials, but Chengenhou never agreed. She was anxious, so she secretly wrote a letter to her brother, bribed the slaves in the mansion with money, asked the other party to deliver the letter, and hired someone to deliver it to her brother.

Marquis Chengen was not sure how many letters she had sent out. When he found out about it, she was angry because her brother refused to return to the capital. She was about to write a reply to her brother, explaining the reason why she asked them to return to the capital - that is, Qi The existence of the prince. She hoped that her brothers from her mother's family could win over the court officials and help the seventh prince regain his original identity and legitimately fight for the position of heir apparent.

Last year, Mr. Sun Ge was exposed to ginseng several times more often, and the number of times he was reprimanded by the emperor also increased. In addition, Prince Ji's eldest son has been unable to return to the clan, and the emperor also promoted his cousin as his new favorite. It was obvious that he wanted to replace Mr. Sun Ge with the latter. All these signs indicate that now is a good time to reveal the identity of the Seventh Prince. Otherwise, when the eighth prince is appointed as the crown prince, what will happen to the seventh prince? !
With this idea in mind, Gui wrote a letter to her natal brothers. According to her confession, she did not explicitly state the existence of the Seventh Prince at first. She only said that there was an opportunity to perform meritorious service and asked her brother to return to the capital as soon as possible. It was just that her brothers didn't listen to her and sent letters of refusal one after another, so she wanted to write more clearly in her letters to point out the existence of the seventh prince. But the letter was discovered by Marquis Chengen and was not sent out in time, so she did not leak the news.

However, this was just a unilateral statement by the Gui family. Marquis Chengen was not sure whether it was true or not. He only felt that there seemed to be a lot of people following his house, and he suspected that the Sun family had gotten the news. In order to protect the safety of the orphans of the Wu family and to seal the mouth of the Gui family, he made a prompt decision and temporarily decided to let his daughter-in-law take the grandchildren to Chang'an for a visit, and took the three Wu family members away along the way.

After listening to the old palace man's explanation, Mrs. Zhenguo gritted her teeth even more: "I knew it! This Gui family really failed in many achievements and failed in many things! If it weren't for the sake of the two children, how could I allow her to be arrogant in the house? !" She looked up at her husband, "Master Guo, are you still unwilling to agree to my predecessor's proposal?"

Duke Zhen Guo waved his hand and refused to discuss this topic. He only said to the old palace: "It sounds like the Queen Mother and Empress Xu have taken many risks in order to protect His Highness Seventh Prince over the years. But I don't understand why Empress Xu became the emperor. Your concubine? Five years ago, the Queen Mother took the Emperor to Cining Palace to recuperate, so she must have allowed the Emperor to see His Highness? Then why has there been no news about His Highness the Seventh Prince in the capital for so many years? Only Prince Ji and His Highness the Eighth. Is it possible that the Emperor refuses to recognize His Highness the Seventh?"

(End of this chapter)