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

Chapter 671: Stalemate
In the past few years, Jin Jiashu has maintained close contacts with the Hai brothers and sisters, especially with Hai Jiao. Apart from his true relationship with Concubine Xu, he basically would not hide anything from Hai Jiao.

Hai Jiao had heard a lot of news about the capital from him in the past, and he was familiar with the current situation in the capital. However, there were some things that Jin Jiashu had never told him, mainly the things about the imperial palace revealed by Concubine Xu in her letter, or the news about the palace occasionally mentioned by Ma Shangyi. For the sake of the emperor's face, Jin Jiashu would never mention it to outsiders. But today, his dissatisfaction with the emperor reached its peak, so he threw away all these concerns, and as long as he could remember, he told it all, and told the Hai brothers and sisters.

For example, after the emperor restored Concubine Sun's position, he completely ignored her, believing that she was seriously ill at the time and was faking it in order to trick him into restoring her status as a concubine. The emperor originally wanted to give Concubine Sun a decent treatment before her "death" because of their long-term relationship, so that she could be buried as a concubine "after death", but he didn't expect to be deceived. This was obviously not a clever play, but he was fooled, and he couldn't save face. After that, the emperor did not demote Concubine Sun's position again, so as not to let people inside and outside the palace know that he had been deceived, but severely punished the imperial physician who diagnosed Concubine Sun at the time, and demoted all the eunuchs and maids in her palace to the laundry department, regardless of Concubine Sun's crying, and arranged for her to have close servants.

For example, the emperor reduced some preferential policies for important cabinet ministers on the grounds of saving court expenses, especially not allowing Sun Ge Lao and his followers to stay overnight in the imperial city. When they were on duty at night, they could no longer enjoy the food provided by the imperial kitchen in the palace; in winter, the cabinet duty room no longer burned high-quality silver charcoal. This did not have much impact on Tao Yue, because the emperor would always give special rewards to his cousin, but other ministers could not stand it, but they could not refute the emperor. After all, the expenses in the palace were not large, and the emperor even saved the silver for the concubines to make new clothes and jewelry. Why couldn't foreign ministers be frugal?

In addition, the emperor sent imperial doctors to diagnose the pulse of Sun Ge Lao and his closest allies many times, and always advised them not to work too hard in front of the court officials. After all, they are old and their energy is not as good as before, so they still need to take care of themselves. Sun Ge Lao pretended to be fine and did not react to this. However, his ally was not so thick-skinned and took the initiative to write a letter to retire last year. The emperor gave the old minister a decent gift, and specially granted his eldest son a fifth-rank leisurely official position, and also granted him another house in the capital. The old minister thanked the favor with gratitude, and retired to his hometown with his wife, grandchildren and servants. The eldest son moved into another granted house with his wife, children and brothers. The original imperial mansion was naturally taken back by the court.

The emperor used the same method to dismiss the two old ministers in the cabinet who were inclined towards Sun Ge Lao. The newly promoted cabinet officials all had mediocre or bad relations with Sun Ge Lao. The current Prime Minister is still Sun Ge Lao, but the second-in-command under him is a good-natured man who always says yes and yes to everything. He usually lets Sun Ge Lao or Tao Yue make the decision on small matters, but when it comes to big things, he will definitely stand on the side of the emperor or Tao Yue. Sun Ge Lao usually gets along well with him, but when it comes to big things, he thinks he is in the way, but he has a lot of experience, good relationships, and a good reputation, and his position is unshakable. Even if Sun Ge Lao wants to kick him out of the cabinet and replace him with his own people, he can't do anything about him.

Now this old man is a few years younger than Sun, and has expressed his intention to retire from time to time. He just wants to be the Prime Minister for a few days before retiring, and then he persuades Sun to go home and retire as soon as possible. Once he takes the lead, more and more people persuade Sun to do so, which makes Sun very upset.

In fact, no matter how blind the court officials were, most of them could recognize the direction of the wind. Even if they did not take the initiative to persuade Sun Ge Lao to retire and preserve the dignity of themselves and their families, they would no longer agree with him in everything. Although Sun Ge Lao still holds power, Concubine Sun has no children, and his grandson-in-law, Prince Ji, is not on good terms with his wife Sun, and he often has conflicts and disputes with the Yue family. Even if the emperor really recognizes this adopted son and makes him the crown prince, the wealth of the Sun family will not last long. Why should everyone continue to follow the Sun family without a future? Now, let alone the rising status of the two major forces, the new nobles Tao Yue and Wumen Gusheng, in the court, even the young officials who are not attached to them have slowly begun to oppose the Sun family, relying on the small braids of the Sun family to achieve their own official reputation.

In addition, the biological mother of Prince Ji, Lu Zhaoyi, was not as respectful to Concubine Sun as before because of her demotion. After Concubine Sun was restored to the throne, she held a grudge against her and bullied her in the palace. The relationship between Prince Ji and the Sun family deteriorated day by day, not only because his second wife, Sun, had a bad relationship with him, and the Sun family was suspected of doing something to his children born to his concubines, but also because Concubine Sun used Lu Zhaoyi as a punching bag after she was restored to the throne. The latter had long lost popularity in the palace. Except for occasionally running into the Queen Mother, she could rely on the palace rules to avoid Concubine Sun's embarrassment, but most of the time no one was willing to help her get rid of Concubine Sun's poisonous hands. She was sick and injured again and again in the short two years in the palace. Once she almost lost her life. Now even her appearance has been ruined and she has been scarred for life.

Although Prince Ji was a selfish person, he was still somewhat filial to his biological mother. He repeatedly begged the Sun family to persuade Concubine Sun to be nicer to his biological mother, but failed to change Concubine Sun's behavior. He suspected that the Sun family had already given up on him and wanted to ruin his future. How could he not feel resentment in his heart?
He had said more than once in front of Prince Ji's mansion and his confidants that once he successfully returned to the throne, the first thing he would do after ascending the throne would be to order the death of Concubine Sun and have her buried with the emperor. He would also never allow a daughter of the Sun family to occupy the position of empress again, and he would also give white silk to the Crown Prince's Concubine and the father and son of Sun Ge Lao to avenge their current disrespect and rudeness to him, and so on.

Although Prince Ji thought he was speaking in secret, in fact, the news had already leaked out. Even the emperor and the empress dowager had heard about it. How could they hide it from the Sun family? The Sun family also had other ideas, thinking that they should have given up Prince Ji long ago. For the long-term wealth of the Sun family, one of the two princes in the palace could always be chosen as a puppet. Which one is not better than Prince Ji, the ungrateful bastard?
The Seventh Prince was born to Empress Wu, so he has a deep blood feud with the Sun family, so that's fine. Although the Eighth Prince was born to a palace maid, he is the most likely heir to the throne. Even though the Sun family has been hostile to Concubine Sun, the Eighth Prince, and Concubine Xu for many years, they have not formed any deep hatred, and they can completely turn enemies into friends. The Eighth Prince is young, and he is not even ten years old now. If he succeeds to the throne before he is fifteen, he will definitely need the assistance of important ministers in the cabinet. If something happens to his biological mother, or if she is in poor health or has bad character, there will be no trouble for the Queen Mother to govern the country from behind the curtain. When the Eighth Prince grows up a few years and is ready to marry, he will be arranged to have a daughter of the Sun family as the Queen. When the heir is born, even the Eighth Prince can stand aside, and the Sun family will still have the final say in the court. Why not do it?

The Sun family is currently working hard on this path, but has not yet succeeded. The emperor keeps a close eye on the Eighth Prince, not allowing the Sun family's followers to get close to him. Even the teachers who taught the Eighth Prince had to be met in person one by one, and he would go to sit in on a few classes from time to time, fearing that the Sun faction would have the opportunity to take advantage of the situation and influence the Eighth Prince's thinking.

Therefore, Sun Ge Lao's attitude towards the Eighth Prince is still ambiguous, and he is reluctant to formally appoint him as the crown prince. The relationship between the emperor and Sun Ge Lao is becoming more and more contradictory. The situation in the court is deadlocked, and no one knows what will happen in the future.

(End of this chapter)