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

Chapter 790 New Year Banquet
The handwriting on the letter was very illegible, obviously written in a hurry.

Although time was urgent, Jin Jiashu still tried to explain the situation in as much detail as possible.

There was indeed a messenger from the capital who arrived. He entered the gate of the Duke of Zhenguo's Mansion just a little later than the time when Xie Wenzai left.

The messenger brought a handwritten letter from Queen Mother Zhou, explaining the changes that had occurred in the palace during the New Year.

It is said that during the New Year banquet in the palace, the Seventh Prince took the initiative to write a letter to the Emperor, asking him to make Consort Xu the empress and to appoint the Eighth Prince, born to Consort Xu, as the crown prince. This was something the Emperor had planned, with the Seventh Prince advocating it and Empress Dowager Zhou cooperating. Even in the Cabinet, Tao Yue and two other cabinet ministers persuaded by him helped. The Emperor tried to settle this matter before the New Year to avoid complications later.

However, what should have been a smooth process was ruined by Concubine Sun who suddenly appeared.

Concubine Sun accused Concubine Xu of being a married woman who abandoned her husband and children to enter the palace as a concubine, committing the crime of deceiving the emperor and being unworthy of being the mother of a country. She then questioned whether the eighth prince was of true royal blood. She looked hysterical, as if she had gone crazy, and wished to put Concubine Xu to death.

Because Concubine Sun had such a bad reputation in the past and she used all kinds of vicious charges to attack Concubine Xu, most people who attended the palace banquet that day did not believe her words and thought she was just fabricating charges to frame Concubine Xu. Apart from other things, Concubine Xu was originally a maid in the Cining Palace. She was favored by the emperor because of her meritorious service in tending to the sick and was canonized as a concubine. Then she gave birth to the eighth prince, so no one could question the eighth prince's royal bloodline.

Regardless of whether she was married or not, she had been in the palace for many years before becoming a concubine. If such a concubine had the opportunity to have an affair with an outsider and give birth to a child, then the entire imperial guards in the palace would become blind and deaf, and countless people would lose their lives.

Furthermore, the older the eighth prince grew, the more he resembled the emperor. To say that he was not the emperor's biological son was simply a lie.
No one present, whether the emperor, the empress dowager, royal family members or important officials of the court, believed Concubine Sun's words. However, Concubine Sun seemed to be determined and had to hold Concubine Xu accountable. Since she could not question the bloodline of the eighth prince, she focused on the fact that Concubine Xu was a married woman and firmly opposed the emperor to make her the queen.

Concubine Sun also claimed that she had a witness who could prove Concubine Xu's identity, and that the witness was staying at the Sun family. He was the nephew of Concubine Xu's ex-husband, and he had personally seen Concubine Xu giving birth to a child in her husband's family.

She asked her father for confirmation on the spot. It was said that Sun Ge Lao was very angry at the time, but he still admitted her statement, claiming that there was indeed a young man named Jin in his family, who was said to be looking for relatives. After investigation, it was found that the uncle Jin Sen he was looking for, his wife Xu, had just been selected by the Wu family as one of the wet nurses for the heir in Queen Wu's belly before the fire in Kunning Palace more than ten years ago. She was sent to the palace by the Wu family, but disappeared after the fire. Afterwards, Jin Sen received a letter from someone else in the palace, saying that his wife had become a palace maid in Cining Palace, and she admired the prosperity of the palace and did not want to go home to be an ordinary citizen, so he was asked to go back to his hometown with his family.

Jin Sen had no choice but to take his family back to his hometown. A few years ago, he could no longer suppress his longing for his ex-wife, so he took his son back to the capital. Since then, his whereabouts have been unknown, and no one knows whether he is alive or dead. After his parents and relatives died one after another, the young man surnamed Jin thought that something was wrong, so he went to the capital to find his missing uncle and find out the truth. The Sun family met this young man by chance and found that the "aunt" Xu he was looking for was most likely Xu Qiuling, a palace maid in the Cining Palace, that is, Concubine Xu herself. Even the "handwritten letter" written by the so-called "Aunt Xu" in the young man's hand to his uncle to sever the marital relationship looked like Concubine Xu's handwriting. However, Concubine Xu was the biological mother of the eighth prince, and the Sun family did not dare to act rashly, so they first appeased her and planned to find out the truth before reporting to the emperor.

In short, the Sun family pushed Jin Wu to be the so-called "victim" in order to attack Concubine Xu for being a married woman and to frame her for murder to silence her.

The emperor knew what was going on and had long been on guard against the Sun family's mischief, but he did not expect that the Sun family was even more vicious and shameless than he expected. The Sun family knew exactly how Jin Sen died and why the other members of the Jin family died, but now they wanted to put all the blame on Concubine Xu, and even forged her so-called letters. If they succeeded in framing Concubine Xu, not to mention being made queen, even the Eighth Prince would instantly become the son of a criminal and lose the qualification to be crowned as the heir. Unfortunately, there were too many people present at the time, and Concubine Sun was so sure that she had witnesses and evidence that even if the emperor wanted to dismiss her, he was worried that he would not be able to convince the public, so he could only postpone the matter for a later trial. However, the two matters requested by the Seventh Prince to establish a queen and a crown prince were put on hold again.

The palace banquet ended unhappily, and the emperor was furious when he returned to the harem, and he also vented his anger at Concubine Sun. But Concubine Sun didn't care and openly shouted: "I can't be the queen, and she, a lowly maid, can't succeed!" It seemed that she would give up everything as long as she could step on Concubine Xu.

The emperor scolded her for being unreasonable and fainted again that night. But the problem still needed to be solved, and someone had to stand up and clear Concubine Xu's dirty water. Even if the emperor was no longer willing to summon Jin Jiashu to the capital, he had no other choice.

Jin Jiashu was the best witness to refute the accusations of Jin Wu and the Sun family. He didn't even need to mention the complicated "sisters lost" story between his biological mother and Concubine Xu. He only needed to use the place where Jin Sen died as an excuse to prove that Jin Wu was lying. Since Jin Wu lied, all the accusations of the Sun family against Concubine Xu were untenable.

Queen Mother Zhou wrote a letter in her own handwriting and gave it to the messenger of Cheng'en Marquis's Mansion, who rushed to Chang'an on horseback. The emperor also sent an envoy to accompany the messenger. However, halfway through the journey, their horses had an accident, and both messengers were injured. They walked more than ten miles with injuries overnight before they found the post station, treated their injuries, applied medicine, bandaged them, and then changed to new horses and continued on their journey. This delay made them one day later than the man in black.

They also suspected that the man in black had injured their horses, but they had no evidence. As for how the man in black knew Jin Jiashu's identity and address, even they were confused.

Jin Jiashu said in the letter that the situation in the capital was critical and he had to rush over as soon as possible to testify for his aunt. He didn't know whether he would be able to return to Chang'an afterwards, but no matter what the outcome, he believed that the emperor would do his best to protect him and not let anyone hurt him.

Jin Jiashu asked Haitang not to worry about him and to keep his properties for him temporarily. If he didn't return to Chang'an, he would have to ask Haitang's family to help deal with these houses and shops.

He planned to leave in the morning tomorrow when the city gates would open. By then, most people in the city would not be awake yet, so he probably wouldn't be able to go home to say goodbye. He could only tell Haitang in advance and let her rest assured and wait for good news from him at home.

Jin Jiashu's letter was not long, and he just tried to explain the situation as clearly as possible to avoid Haitang's worry. But Haitang saw it and understood clearly what had happened in the capital.

She couldn't understand. Didn't Lord Sun want to use Concubine Xu's so-called handle to make a deal with the emperor, so that after the eighth prince ascended the throne, the Sun family would still hold real power in the cabinet and their status would remain unchanged? He let Concubine Sun pour such a big basin of dirty water on Concubine Xu's head in front of all the participants of the New Year's banquet, almost tearing off the emperor's face. He still thought that the emperor would agree to make a deal with him? And would the eighth prince tolerate the Sun family continuing to hold power?

Is he getting old and confused, and really thinks everyone else is made of clay? !
(End of this chapter)