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

Chapter 710 Say it
Jin Jiashu turned away with a guilty look, "Yes, the Sun family wanted to make a fuss about my aunt's identity, so they could only make up stories. If they didn't make a big fuss about it and let all the court officials know about it, no one would probably hold them accountable for making up stories. Hasn't the emperor always been indulgent towards Lord Sun? Lord Sun doesn't have to worry about the consequences anyway, so they can just make up some lies to disgust people. As long as they can make the emperor give in and agree to keep the Sun family rich, then their efforts will not be in vain."

The emperor now only hopes that the eighth prince can be successfully appointed as the heir. As for whether the newly-appointed Queen Mother Xu can rule the country from behind the curtain after the new emperor ascends the throne, and whether the Grand Queen Mother can inquire about state affairs, it is not important to him. He can completely order the cabinet to fully assist the emperor and not let the harem interfere in state affairs. Queen Mother Zhou is his biological mother who has no blood relationship with him, and the mother-son relationship has been cold for many years; the most important thing about Concubine Xu is that she gave birth to a healthy and intelligent heir for him. It doesn't matter if they can't inquire about state affairs, anyway, there is Tao Yue in the cabinet, and that is his most trusted trump card!
As for Sun Ge Lao wanting to continue to serve as the Prime Minister of the Cabinet... then let him continue. He is so old, who knows how many more years he can hold on? When he dies or becomes seriously ill, even if he doesn't want to retire, he will have to retire, right? It is not a big deal to promote his descendants to the cabinet. When Sun Ge Lao dies or retires, even his descendants who have entered the cabinet can only go home to mourn for his father's death or go home to take care of his illness. As for whether they can return to the cabinet afterwards, it depends on what the new monarch thinks.

The emperor probably did not think that the descendants of the Sun family were a problem. As long as he could stabilize Lord Sun and prevent him from continuing to hinder the eighth prince's succession, the emperor would agree to any conditions.

Jin Jiashu laid out his thoughts to Haitang one by one, and then said: "Sister Hai, you see, the Sun family's accusation does not require any witnesses or physical evidence. As long as the emperor believes that they do have evidence, once it is made public, it will affect the eighth prince's succession to the throne, and the emperor may back down. This matter does not cause any loss to the emperor, and it only affects the reputation of the eighth prince. But as long as he succeeds to the throne smoothly and takes power smoothly in the future, those rumors will naturally disappear. Only my aunt, Concubine Xu... her reputation is damaged. Even if she has suffered injustice, she cannot defend herself. That's too aggrieved!"

Haitang nodded seriously: "That's right, so you'd better not wait for the Sun family to make a move and then think of a way to deal with it. You have to think of a way in advance and determine that Jin Wu's confession is a lie from the beginning, so as to avoid trouble later."

For example, the Cheng'en Marquis's Mansion came forward to prove that Concubine Xu entered the mansion at a very young age, and it was impossible for her to meet Mr. Jin and his wife before entering the palace.

For example, find someone to prove that Mr. Jin had never been to a brothel and that the couple loved each other, while Mrs. Jin Xu had a bad relationship with the second branch of the Jin family and it was impossible for her to drag them to a brothel to catch her husband committing adultery.

For example, if you ask the acquaintances, old servants or neighbors of the Wu family to testify, after the second branch of the Jin family came to Beijing, the Jin family began to work on the matter of Jin Xushi being the wet nurse for Empress Wu. It is impossible for Jin Juren to have the leisure time to go to brothels, and the second branch of the Jin family would not tolerate him spending money on such places. Jin Juren was a young scholar with a bright future and was quite noble in his words and deeds. The reason why he recommended his original wife to the Wu family and let her be the wet nurse for Empress Wu's unborn royal heir was because the Jin family was short of money!

Jin Juren failed the imperial examination and stayed in the capital. He had high expenses but little income. In addition, so many people from the second branch of the Jin family suddenly came to the capital, and he was so tight on money that he had to ask his wife to be a wet nurse. How could he have spare money to drink and have fun? !
If Mr. Jin had not drunk the wine, Jin Xu would not have taken the people from the second branch of the Jin family to the brothel to catch an adulterer. Naturally, there would have been no story of Jin Xu recognizing her sister, and the sisters recognizing each other, which led to the people from the second branch of the Jin family discovering that their sister had ended up in a brothel.

Haitang said, "Madam Xu could have publicized in advance the suffering her elder sister endured in her husband's family. The second branch of the Jin family was unreliable, owed gambling debts and came to suck the blood of their cousins, and your father, Jin Juren, was kind and soft-hearted, so he had to wrong his wife, and so on. As long as the dignitaries in the capital knew in advance how poor the Jin family was in the capital and formed a fixed perception, no one would believe it even if Jin Wu came out and said that Jin Juren had money to go to a brothel."

Jin Jiashu couldn't help but smile bitterly. How could Concubine Xu do this? She would try not to mention the news about her "eldest sister" in front of others, otherwise the emperor would suspect that she was going to reveal the truth, and what would await her would definitely not be a good outcome.

Although the emperor favored Concubine Xu, it was because she gave birth to the Eighth Prince. If her words and deeds were detrimental to the Eighth Prince, her identity as the biological mother would not necessarily protect her from the emperor's blame. Jin Jiashu was silent for a while, and then he suddenly said, "In fact, if the Sun family wants to use these reasons to slander my aunt, they need to be supported by witnesses and physical evidence. Once the emperor does not believe it, it will be useless. Even if Cheng'en Marquis Mansion is the Empress Dowager's family, and testifying for my aunt does not seem credible, it is easier to gain trust than the testimony of the Sun family. Now I am afraid that the Sun family will not use these reasons, but other... charges that are simply impossible to defend."

He paused, "For example... my mother and my aunt are sisters from the same mother and look very similar. When my mother followed Empress Wu's maids and fled to the Cining Palace with the Seventh Prince in her arms, she was recognized because she looked like my aunt. But my mother was secretly sent out of the palace by the Empress Dowager and my aunt. There was no record at the palace gate, and few people knew about it. After she returned home, she died soon after... What if... What if the Sun family made up a lie, saying that my mother didn't actually leave the palace, but stayed in the palace at that time and became a maid for the Empress Dowager, which is today's aunt... What should I do then?"

Finally got to the point!

Haitang was immediately cheered up. She pretended not to know the truth and thought it was just one of the many ridiculous excuses that Jin Jiashu listed that the Sun family might use. She deliberately showed an embarrassed expression: "If they are really so despicable, it will be very difficult to deal with... The people in the Jin family who saw your mother coming back from the palace are all dead now, right? The surviving Jin Wu was still a baby at the time and probably doesn't remember it. But if he insists that he remembers and has never seen your mother come home, and that the people buried in the grave by your family are other unrelated people, then the matter cannot be explained clearly. Your mother has already turned into bones, how can we prove that she is your mother? Besides, she has been buried for so long, we can't let people dig her out just because of a few slanders from the Sun family? That would be too sinful! Madam Xu will definitely be very angry!"

Jin Jiashu felt a lot more relieved. He had hidden the secret from the Hai brothers and sisters for so many years, and now he just told them out loud so simply and directly. It didn't seem like a big deal.

Sister Hai didn't realize at all that he was telling the truth!

Jin Jiashu looked at Haitang and didn't realize that he still had a faint smile on his face. "Yes, if they find another person to testify and say that my mother and my aunt look similar and are of similar age, they must be the same person, then it will be even more troublesome. My aunt was kidnapped when she was young, and there is no one in the world who can testify for her unless my mother is alive and standing with her. It's a pity that the people who saw the sisters at the same time were all from the Cining Palace. The Sun family will definitely say that they all colluded and lied together."

Haitang looked up at him and said, "When your mother came home, was it true that no one saw her? What about the neighbors? She walked down the street, and soon after she came home, the news of her death spread. Didn't anyone think something was wrong? If we can find such a witness to prove that Jinwu's statement is unreliable, this matter will be easy to handle!"

She lowered her voice: "Can we find such a witness?"

(End of this chapter)