Great Zhou Empire: Kill Zhao Kuangyin at the beginning

Chapter 494: The Thirty-Seventh Year of Kaixi (Special thanks to the book friend 2021…3214 for the 2 monthly tickets!)

However, she had not given birth to a child in the more than ten years since she entered the palace. Chai Zongxun went to her palace to sleep with her no less than fifty times over the years, but seeing that she was still not pregnant, he was soon attracted to the new concubines in the palace, and went to Concubine Gong less and less often.

When Concubine Gong learned of the imperial decree, she was overjoyed and immediately agreed.

A few days later, New Year's Eve of the 37th year of Kaixi arrived.

As the "Bianliang Expansion Project" had been completed for more than half, princes, ministers and common people had moved into their new houses in the new inner city and new outer city before New Year's Eve. The joy of moving into a new house and the New Year's Eve made the whole Bianliang filled with an extremely festive atmosphere.

On New Year's Eve, every household starts decorating their homes early in the morning and preparing for the "family reunion dinner" in the evening.

Most people had already bought New Year's goods in the streets a few days ago, but a small number of people who were busy with business or work only had time to buy New Year's goods today.

People buy a wide variety of New Year goods, but most of them are food, clothing and daily necessities.

With the increasing prosperity of the commodity economy of the Great Zhou Dynasty, people's income has continued to rise steadily. In recent years, the types of New Year's goods have expanded from food and clothing to a new common item: jewelry.

During the Chinese New Year, buying each family member a new piece of favorite jewelry became a new custom for the people in the wealthiest areas of the Zhou Empire, such as Bian Jing, Yangzhou, Jinling, and Chengdu.

In the past few years, with the steady and strong support of Emperor Chai Zongxun for the development of skills, a new change has also emerged among the people:

In many large cities with prosperous commerce, there emerged many skilled folks who jointly founded academies to cultivate students' technical talents.

The skills taught to students include: architecture, carpentry, clothing, arithmetic, accounting, jewelry, masonry, silk weaving, mining, papermaking, porcelain making, printing, oil making and many other production categories in today's Great Zhou society.

When such colleges were first applied to the government two or three years ago, they received strong support from Emperor Chai Zongxun. The colleges were allowed to recruit students independently, charge tuition fees independently, and the founders were responsible for their own profits and losses.

When colleges were first established in various places, they sprang up like mushrooms after a rain, and hundreds of them appeared across the country all of a sudden. The operating conditions and tuition fees also varied.

The duration of study is mostly two to three years, and the tuition fees range from five taels to several dozen taels per year.

The emergence of technical colleges changed the slow process of technology transmission from father to son and from master to apprentice in the agricultural society before the Great Zhou Dynasty, and entered the stage of commercial society with "centralized teaching and mass training".

After several years of operation, more than a dozen private colleges with excellent teaching and good employment opportunities for students after graduation have stood out among hundreds of colleges.

Time flies by in the joyful New Year atmosphere.

During the New Year holidays, Chai Zongxun had been hesitating whether he was determined to be so cruel as to not accept Mo Zang Liuyun into the palace. He couldn't help but think of the incident with Empress Dowager Hu of the Northern Wei Dynasty.

Not long after the Battle of Feishui, Northern Wei's Taizu Tuoba Gui rebuilt the Dai Kingdom. Afterwards, he slaughtered the main force of Murong Chui's Later Yan in the Battle of Chanhepo and established the "Great Wei", which is known in history as the Northern Wei.

In order to prevent the harem from interfering in politics, Tuoba Gui, who was of Xianbei origin, established the ancestral rule: "If the son is noble, the mother must die." Any concubine whose child is made the crown prince must be executed.

The Northern Wei Dynasty lasted for a hundred years, but during the reign of Emperor Xuanwu, changes occurred in the system, which eventually shook the country.

Hu Xianzhen, a native of Linjing, Anding, was the daughter of Si Tu Hu Guozhen and her mother was Huangfu.

Hu's aunt was a nun and was very good at explaining Buddhist principles. In the early years of Emperor Xuanwu's reign, Hu's aunt often entered the palace to give lectures.

A few years later, she hinted to people around her that Hu was beautiful and virtuous. When Emperor Xuanwu heard about it, he summoned her into the harem to be his wife. At that time, the Northern Wei regime followed the system of "sons are noble and mothers die". If a son is made crown prince, the mother will be executed. In the palace, the concubines prayed to each other, hoping to give birth to kings and princesses, not crown princes.

Only Hu often said to Madam Ji and others:

"How can the emperor be without a son? Why is it that the fear of his own death prevents the royal family from raising the eldest son?"

When Hu became pregnant, her fellow concubines were still afraid for her because of the old rules and advised her to find a way to have an abortion.

Hu was determined and swore to herself in the middle of the night, "I hope the baby is a boy, who will be the eldest son in the order of birth. I will not refuse even if I am put to death if the boy is born."

On March 510, AD (the third year of Yongping), Hu gave birth to the prince Yuanxu in Xuanguang Hall and was promoted to Chonghua.

Before this, Emperor Xuanwu had lost many princes, and he thought he was old, so he took extra care of him. He chose wet nurses and nannies for Yuan Xu, and chose women from good families who were good at raising boys. He raised Yuan Xu in another palace, and neither Hu nor Concubine Chong Hua could raise him.

On October 512, AD (the first year of Yanchang), Yuan Xu was made the crown prince. Thanks to the help of court ministers such as Liu Teng, Yu Zhong, and Cui Guang, Hu was not executed according to the old system, but was promoted to a noble concubine.

In 515 AD, Emperor Xuanwu died and Yuan Xu ascended the throne, becoming Emperor Xiaoming.

Hu was honored as the empress dowager. Because Emperor Xiaoming was young, Empress Dowager Hu was in charge of government affairs.

However, as her power eroded, Empress Dowager Hu quickly turned evil. Finally, in 528 AD, when Emperor Xiaoming grew up, Empress Dowager Hu, unwilling to return power, poisoned her own son and took control of the government.

After her power was no longer restricted, the box of selfish desires was completely opened. Empress Dowager Hu acted recklessly, the government was in chaos, she violated the palace rules, did perverse things, built many Buddhist temples, disturbed the people, and eventually caused chaos in the Northern Wei Dynasty.

A few months later, he was eventually drowned in the river by the warlord Erzhu Rong, who launched an uprising to "clean up the imperial court."

Chai Zongxun thought that although Mo Zang Liuyun was beautiful, she was not like other concubines who had no ambition for power. She was a master who had tried to seize power step by step in Gaochang Kingdom. If he accepted her into the palace, he might fall under her charm and gradually fall.

The Great Zhou must never produce someone like Empress Dowager Hu or Wu Zetian.

Chai Zongxun finally made up his mind.

On the holiday of January 12, the 37th year of Kaixi, Chai Zongxun went to the "Bao'en Temple" in the afternoon to burn incense and worship the gods, and then came to the "Yaoguang Hall" to visit Mo Zang Liuyun and his two children Chai Jifei and Chai Yingzhen.

After greeting each other and chatting for a while, Chai Zongxun ordered the chief eunuch in front of the hall, He Yao, to take Chai Jifei and Chai Yingzhen out of the hall.

Chai Zongxun pondered for a moment and said:
"My dear, I have named you the 'Great Jade True Master of the Heavenly Protection of the Nation'. You are well versed in the Daoist Canon and have an extraordinary status.

It is not good for Fei'er and Zhen'er to be wandering outside, so I will take them into the imperial family and bring them into the palace to be raised by Concubine Gong."

When Mo Zang Liuyun heard this, he immediately understood what Chai Zongxun meant, and he became very panicked and cried:
"How can your majesty be so cruel? I have served your majesty wholeheartedly for several years, but your majesty not only refused to accept me into the palace, but also separated me from my children?!"

Chai Zongxun sighed:
"Aiji, there is no room for personal feelings in front of the country.

It's just that Ai Ji is so beautiful and charming that I can't take risks just because I like you."

(End of this chapter)