Blackening starts from the golden years

Half a month later, Sun Sanniang's son Fu Zifang moved into a garden near the palace. Sun Sanniang loved her son and wanted him to continue studying, take the imperial examination and seek an official position in the future. So she begged Yuan Xudong to help arrange for Fu Zifang to study in the best academy in Tokyo. Yuan Xudong arranged for him to study in Jinghua Academy.

Alas, it is difficult to change one's nature. Fu Zifang is simply not a student. Now, half a month has passed, and he has gradually returned to his original state in Qiantang, being lazy, boastful and clever. Not only does he not study hard in Jinghua Academy, he also hangs out with those children of officials all day long, and enjoys teasing the teacher Du Changfeng who has poor eyesight. Skipping school is a common occurrence. He is simply a lawless devil.

All this was due to Fu Zifang's own innate nature and Sun Sanniang's over-indulgence on her son. Seeing how much Fu Zifang had suffered, she wanted to compensate him and give him the best.

From Jiangnan to Tokyo, from a little beggar to a student in Jinghua Academy, he was spoiled by his mother, ate well, dressed well, and hung out with the children of officials in the academy all day long. He thought his status was the same as those children of officials. He had no self-awareness and was instigated by those children of officials to do bad things. He became a laughing stock in the academy without realizing it. He thought he was good friends with them, but in fact he was being made a fool of.

Yuan Xudong knew all of this. He didn't look down on Fu Zifang's commoner status, but he thought he was stupid and bad and really looked down on him.

He thought he was just like those officials' children, hanging out with them all day, bullying and teasing others for fun, but he didn't know that they were also bullying and teasing him. If it weren't for Yuan Xudong, Jinghua Academy would have expelled him from the academy long ago. Although he knew Fu Zifang's current situation, Yuan Xudong didn't bother to care about him. The essence of this matter was still Fu Zifang himself. He was just like that. He liked to curry favor with the powerful and hang out with those noble children instead of those common people. Such a stupid and bad person, naturally no one would look down on him.

Actually, this was also his mother's fault. Sun Sanniang wanted her son to study in the best academy in Tokyo, but the best academy was not necessarily the most suitable one. Fu Zifang was just a commoner, illiterate, and stubborn. He talked about "my father" all the time. Even if he was admitted to Jinghua Academy, the teachers looked down on him, not to mention the children of aristocrats. They all wanted to drive Fu Zifang, the shame of Jinghua Academy, out as soon as possible to avoid tarnishing the reputation of the academy.

Of course, this is also related to Yuan Xudong's letting go. As I said, he doesn't bother to care about Fu Zifang's life. If he is a person with good character, he will still help him, but does Fu Zifang have good character?

Let's get back to the point. That afternoon, when Fu Zifang came home from school, he saw Sun Sanniang busy kneading dough in the kitchen. He deliberately went to make trouble and directly scooped water from a bowl of flour with his dirty hands. Seeing him like this, Sun Sanniang couldn't help but stop him:

"Fu Zifang, what are you doing?"

"I'm helping you knead the dough. I want to eat some fruit with salt and pepper flavor."

Fu Zifang said with a smile, and then he used his dirty hands to knead the dough.

Seeing him like this, Sun Sanniang couldn't help but get angry and said:

"Don't move. Your hands are so dirty. How can you eat fruit here?"

As she said that, she grabbed the bowl, pulled out the dough that Fu Zifang had soiled, and threw it aside. Seeing her like this, Fu Zifang immediately cried in grievance:

"Mom, you think I'm not clean."

Sun Sanniang was helpless. She sighed and said in a softer tone:

"How could that be? Mother feels sorry for you, but you can't touch the things here. I still have to make some fruit for the prince later."

Hearing this, Fu Zifang continued to cry:
"You clearly said you would take good care of me, but now you changed your mind. I wanted to help you out of kindness, but you yelled at me and despised me. You are as bad as your father. It's pitiful that I came all the way to Tokyo to find you, wuwu~~"

Seeing Fu Zifang crying more and more sadly, Sun Sanniang's heart softened, and she coaxed him:
"Alright, alright, stop crying. It's my fault. What do you want?"

A sly look flashed in Fu Zifang's eyes, and he cried and said:

"I want to go to the palace to have a look, mother, can you take me to have a look?"

"To the palace?"

Sun Sanniang was startled, then quickly shook her head and refused:
"No, no, why are you going to the palace?"

Sun Sanniang knew that Yuan Xudong didn't like Fu Zifang, and she didn't want to bring Fu Zifang to the palace. Her status in the palace was a bit awkward. Yuan Xudong's other women all offered their red pills to him, but she was different. Not only was she married, she also had a son. If she brought Fu Zifang into the palace now, what would Yuan Xudong think, what would Zhang Haohao and the others think, and what would the maids and servants in the palace think of her?
Seeing that his mother actually rejected his request, Fu Zifang burst into tears:
"I miss Aunt Pan'er. She is in the palace. I want to go see her, woooo~~"

Sun Sanniang only told Fu Zifang that Zhao Pan'er was the princess consort and Song Yinzhang was a concubine. As for herself, she could only be considered a concubine at best. Therefore, she had been hiding it from Fu Zifang, saying that she was a cook in the palace, and Fu Zifang believed it.

Looking at Fu Zifang crying loudly, Sun Sanniang tried to coax him for a while, but finally, when she had no more options, she promised to take him to the palace to see Zhao Pan'er. Only then did Fu Zifang smile. He wanted to go to the palace to take a look, both out of curiosity and also to see more, and then brag about it in the academy.

After Sun Sanniang had prepared the snacks, she took a box of snacks with Fu Zifang and left the garden to go to the palace.

On the way, Sun Sanniang reminded Fu Zifang:

"When you enter the palace, you will stay in your aunt Pan'er's garden. Don't run around, okay?"

"Got it, mother."

Fu Zifang asked curiously:

"Mother, are there many gardens in the palace?"

"Ah."

"Auntie Pan'er has a garden, and Auntie Yinzhang has a garden. They are both the prince's women. Doesn't that mean the prince has many women? When I grow up, I will also buy a big house and marry many women, and let them all honor you."

Fu Zifang smiled. Hearing this, Sun Sanniang frowned slightly and said:
"Zifang, who did you learn this from? The prince is the prince, and you are you. You must study hard, take the imperial examinations, and become an official in the future. Don't think about these messed up things all day long. Remember?"

"Yeah, remember."

Fu Zifang curled his lips, obviously not taking Sun Sanniang's words to heart. After a while, they arrived at the palace, and Sun Sanniang took Fu Zifang into the palace through the back door.

……

In the palace, Fu Zifang walked behind Sun Sanniang. He looked at the scenery in the palace with curiosity. He felt that the palace was so rich and luxurious, with rockery and strange rocks, pavilions, green waters, exotic flowers, and groups of maids. It was worthy of being a palace. It was really beautiful and much better than the garden where he and his mother lived now.

At this time, Zhang Haohao came towards them, followed by a group of maids. Seeing Sun Sanniang and Fu Zifang, she was slightly surprised and said with a smile:
"Sister Sanniang, you're back."

"Ah."

Sun Sanniang hummed softly, and she looked at Zhang Haohao in front of her and said with a smile:

"Good sister, is the prince home? I just made some Jiangnan-style snacks and will share some with you later."

"No, I just came back from the palace. I was already full from the snacks given by the Queen. How can I eat more now?"

Zhang Haohao smiled somewhat arrogantly. Seeing her like this, Sun Sanniang smiled and said:
"That's right. How can the snacks I make compare to the treasures in the palace? My dear sister, you are lucky."

"That's not the case. In fact, the snacks in the palace are just so-so. I think they are not as delicious as the snacks made by you, Sister Sanniang."

Looking at Sun Sanniang, Zhang Haohao said with a smile:
"By the way, the prince is still in the palace. He probably won't be back until the evening."

"It's okay, I'll go find Pan'er first." Sun Sanniang said with a smile. After that, she chatted with Zhang Haohao for a few more words, and then they separated. She took Fu Zifang to Zhao Pan'er's Pan Garden, while Zhang Haohao walked towards Changchun Garden surrounded by a group of maids.

……

At the same time, in the palace, in the queen's bedroom.

Yuan Xudong came to the palace to present treasures. After obtaining a mysterious Taoist canon and an ancient recipe from the pre-Qin period, the emperor was so happy that he couldn't wait to go into the alchemy room to study it. Perhaps because his health was getting worse, the emperor became more and more superstitious about Taoist ways of longevity and alchemy.

After the emperor entered the alchemy room, Yuan Xudong did not leave the palace immediately, but asked the eunuch to inform the queen that he had a painting he wanted to present to her.

After the eunuch reported the matter and obtained the queen's permission, he swaggered into the queen's bedroom.

The queen asked the maids to leave and looked at Yuan Xudong and said calmly:
"King Qin, I just heard from someone below that you have a painting you want to present to me. What is it?"

"Your Majesty, this is a picture of a night banquet."

Looking at the queen in front of him, Yuan Xudong said straight to the point:

"Some time ago, the case of the prophecy caused a great uproar in the city. Later, a cat demon appeared and killed people. In addition, there was a torrential rainstorm that was rare in decades. All parts of the Song Dynasty were severely affected. This was originally a natural disaster, but some people insisted that it was a demon born and an ominous omen from the sky. They were targeting the queen. This night banquet picture is the key. According to my investigation, the people behind this are the leader of the Qingliu faction, Qi Mu, and the commander-in-chief of the Tokyo Imperial City Department, Lei Jing. The two of them secretly colluded with each other and wanted to overthrow the queen."

Seeing Yuan Xudong speak so bluntly, the queen was stunned for a moment. She murmured:

"King Qin, why are you helping me?"

"because……"

Glancing at the Queen, Yuan Xudong pretended to be hesitant and said:
"This prince has admired the queen for a long time, and I really can't bear to see the queen being persecuted by those Qingliu factions."

"what?"

The queen was stunned for a moment, and when she reacted, she blushed and said angrily:

"King Qin, what do you mean? I am the current queen, and you, you are the emperor's uncle. You are simply a traitor. Do you still have the emperor in your eyes?"

"The emperor's health has always been poor, and it has been getting worse recently. The imperial doctors are helpless. It is precisely because of this that the emperor is so obsessed with Taoist longevity techniques and alchemy, Queen."

Looking at the Queen in front of him with an unhappy expression, Yuan Xudong continued:

"Prince Sheng is still too young, and like the Emperor, he has been weak and sickly since childhood. He has recently been infected with an acute epidemic. If something unexpected happens to the Emperor and Prince Sheng, Queen, who in the royal family do you think is most likely to take that position?"

"Also, I heard that Xiao Qinyan was kidnapped by a group of bandits when he returned to his hometown to worship his ancestors. The Xiao family openly paid money to redeem him, but secretly sent troops to encircle and suppress those bandits. In the end, Xiao Qinyan was killed on the spot, and the second son of the Xiao family was also killed by the bandits. The Xiao family fell apart, and the party led by Xiao Qinyan fell apart in an instant. Queen, if you lose the protection of the government again, you are a weak woman, with little power. Even if you are the queen, how can you fight against all the clean people in the world?"

Looking at the pale queen in front of him, Yuan Xudong sighed softly and said:

"If you lose the emperor's blessing, then the prophecy case, the cat demon murder case, and the recent heavy rainstorm will all be blamed on you, Queen. Even the emperor and Prince Sheng's weak and sickly health will be blamed on you. Those historians will even confuse right and wrong and write you as a demon queen like Su Daji. Queen, I admire you and I really can't bear to see you in trouble."

Looking at Yuan Xudong, the Queen said sarcastically:
"Then, according to King Qin's wishes, what should I do?"

Glancing at the Queen, Yuan Xudong said:

"I know that the emperor and the queen have a deep love for each other. I hope the queen can persuade the emperor to leave a decree to me instead of passing the throne to Prince Sheng. Prince Sheng is still too young and weak. He can't suppress those old ministers of the Qingliu faction, nor can he protect you, the queen. Moreover, Prince Sheng is not your biological child after all. There are rumors in the palace that it was you, the queen, who killed his mother. Queen, both publicly and privately, I am more suitable for that position than Prince Sheng, am I not?"

"King Qin, what you said does make some sense. Prince Sheng is too young and has been weak and sickly since childhood. However, he is the only blood of the emperor's family after all. Do you think the emperor will pass the throne to you instead of his own son?"

The Queen said sarcastically:

"The emperor and I have a deep love for each other. Although the emperor allows me to interfere in government affairs and help him deal with some political affairs, he will definitely not listen to me when it comes to passing the throne. He will definitely pass the throne to his biological son, Prince Sheng, and not to you, his biological uncle."

Hearing this, Yuan Xudong said in a deep voice:
"Even if he wants to pass the throne to his own son, the prerequisite is that Prince Sheng must be alive. Look at how sickly Prince Sheng is. It is obvious that he will not live long. If he really passes the throne to him, he will only die faster. Now that the Song Dynasty is surrounded by powerful enemies, if the emperor still cares about the country and the people, he should not pass the throne to Prince Sheng, but to someone who is young, strong and capable. If the emperor is selfish and insists on passing the throne to his sickly young son Prince Sheng, doesn't he regard the country as his private property? He would rather let his son defeat it than hand it over to a virtuous person. Isn't such a king too selfish?"

Hearing Yuan Xudong say this, the Queen couldn't help but frowned slightly and said:

"Hasn't this been the way the throne has been passed down since ancient times?"

"So they all perished. If the government was the same as them, this prosperous Tokyo would be burned down sooner or later, and the people would suffer. The nobles, including our Song Dynasty royal family, would sooner or later be trampled underfoot and made slaves. Men would be slaves, and women would become prostitutes, and finally die in humiliation. If this is true, the rulers of our country would have brought this upon themselves, but how innocent are the millions of people?"

Yuan Xudong couldn't help but think of the massacres of the Han people in history, the rape and looting, and the massacres at will. The so-called dignitaries had an unshirkable responsibility. For the sake of their own selfishness, they disregarded the entire country. Officials colluded with businessmen, and annexed land, forcing the lower-class people to unable to survive, and they rose up in rebellion, or formed cliques for personal gain, and united to attack the dissidents. Even when there was a crisis of national destruction, they still engaged in factional struggles in the court, regardless of the survival of the country and the lives of the people. When the foreign races came to power, they would either be slaughtered like pigs, and the money they had plundered from the people would be given to the enemy, or they would kneel at the feet of their masters like dogs, helping their masters to rule the world and oppress their own people.

Let's get back to the point. Looking at the indignant Yuan Xudong, the Queen couldn't help but frown and said:

"King Qin, are you exaggerating too much?"

"A woman's view!"

Looking at the queen who looked unhappy, Yuan Xudong said:

"You help the government handle government affairs. Don't you know that the people in the border areas of our Song Dynasty are often slaughtered and looted at will? Just over a decade ago, a general named Zhao led his troops to rescue the people in the border areas. In the end, he was sentenced to death by the court. His entire family was implicated. The men became slaves and the women became prostitutes. Since then, our Song Dynasty has become a fat piece of meat in the eyes of neighboring countries. They have to pay tribute every year. Do you think you can buy peace with money?

If one day, they really invade, will the Song Dynasty use money to kill them? No matter how much money a family has, if the monarch is incompetent and the civil and military officials are greedy and useless, then the money is prepared for others. Take Xiao Qinyan for example. He used to be a poor boy and his family didn't have much money. But after more than 20 years of official career, the Xiao family became the largest local landlord, with thousands of slaves, thousands of acres of fertile land, and countless shops. Local people often secretly throw manure on his ancestral graves. If he was not colluding with officials and businessmen, where did he get so much money?

Let's talk about your Liu family. You were poor back then, and you made a living by playing drums and music at a young age. But what about now? Your Liu family is the same as the Xiao family. You have become the largest local landlords with countless wealth. Where did all those fertile fields come from? Where did all that money come from? The more prosperous your Liu family is, the poorer the local people are. In the final analysis, it's all about collusion between officials and businessmen and land annexation. When you were a child, you must have hated those big landlords and corrupt officials, but do you still hate them now?

Of course you still hate him. You hate those Qingliu scholars in Qi Mu because they are against you, but do you hate Xiao Qinyan? The general surnamed Zhao I am talking about was the one Xiao Qinyan posted a message to, and the government ordered him to be executed immediately. What was wrong with the general surnamed Zhao sending troops to rescue the people on the border of the Song Dynasty? He was sentenced to death, and his whole family was also convicted?

Why is the government so tolerant of other scholars and officials, and rarely sentences them? It's because they are afraid. They say it's for the country, but in fact they are afraid. Our generals did not die under the enemy's sabers, but died at the hands of our own people. Because they are afraid of the enemy country, the government killed the general who killed the enemy's horse thieves, and sentenced his entire family to slavery. Tell me, what kind of government is this?"

Yuan Xudong sneered. The prescription he gave to the emperor was real, but the pill he made was a chronic poison because it contained heavy metals. With the emperor's current body, he would only die faster after taking it. Moreover, he had already arranged people in the Imperial City Bureau and the Imperial Guards. If he could persuade the queen to let the emperor pass the throne to him, that would be the best. If not, then he could only do it himself. Although his reputation might not be very good, but what's the harm?

Li Shimin imprisoned his father, murdered his brother, killed his younger brother, humiliated his sister-in-law, and killed his own nephew and son, but he still left his name in history and was called the Heavenly Khan.

The conditions in the Song Dynasty were very good. If it weren't for the incompetent monarch and the corruption among the officials, how could it have been so humiliating?
Therefore, Yuan Xudong decided that it would be better for him to become the emperor of the Song Dynasty. With a population of billions and the world's strongest economy, how could he end up in such a miserable state with such good conditions?
...(End of chapter)