Chapter 214 The concubines have withdrawn from the election
One morning at court, the power of the Prince of Zhujiang County was basically reduced to zero. The Crown Prince went on strike and refused to do anything. The changes in one day were so rapid that many civil servants and generals did not understand what was going on. The wise ministers did not say a word about the matter at this time.
Those who were not smart enough were still complacent. They helped Chen Yun win the battle and suppressed the royal family. This was the happiest moment for the officials.
After the morning court dispersed, Zhu Di sat on the dragon chair alone, looked at the empty hall, and sighed.
The sound of sighs echoed in the empty hall, lingering for a long time.
"Yao Guangxiao, Yao Guangxiao, why did you leave? Now I don't even have anyone to tell my true feelings. My children and grandchildren have grown up and have their own ideas. They are not as obedient as before. They are old and old.
"
The tall man, who was as majestic as a pine tree, could not help but feel a little stooped at this moment. He stood up holding on to the armrests of the dragon chair and walked down slowly.
People will always grow old.
…
When Zhu Zhanzhen was punished in the court, the princess was furious: "Why do you treat Zhanzhong like this? Zhanzhen is bound to Jiaozhi in the south. Now all the countries in Nanyang have surrendered and paid tribute every year. How can your majesty punish you just because of this?"
Treat Zhan Chang like this."
Zhu Di's eldest daughter-in-law has always been good-tempered and good-natured, but today she also became very angry.
"No, I have to go find His Majesty."
Hu Shanggong hurriedly grabbed the Crown Princess: "The Crown Princess is not allowed to interfere in politics in the harem. You must not be impulsive."
"Am I impulsive? I just want to give my son an explanation."
Just when the Crown Princess lost her composure and was about to rush out, the Crown Prince walked over with a gloomy face.
"Go back, the noble princess looks like this, she has lost etiquette and respect."
"Your Highness, but..."
The Crown Princess was anxious and angry, and reduced Zhu Zhanzhen's power, which was equivalent to a concubine in the harem being relegated to the cold palace.
The prince sat down, took a sip of tea, and said lightly: "This matter is already as it is. It's useless to talk more. You don't need to care about the affairs of the court, and you can't care about it. The key for you as a mother now is to choose a good person for Zhan Yi."
Just be a concubine."
"Your Highness! Now that Zhan Yi has been reduced from power, how can I still think about choosing a concubine? You should go and beg the old man."
Zhu Gaochi was obviously different from usual today. His somewhat fierce eyes looked very much like Emperor Yongle, and his aura was quite scary.
"No one is allowed to mention this matter again, just go about your business."
The Crown Princess started nagging: "I shouldn't celebrate such a birthday. If I don't live up to it, I won't come back. If he doesn't come back, he will stay well in Guangzhou Mansion. He's only been back for a few days and it's like this."
"Okay, that's it." Zhu Gaochi interrupted the Crown Princess's complaint and left.
Zhu Zhanyong whispered in his mother's ear: "Mother, my father asked himself in the court today to hand over the responsibility of supervising the country to his second uncle. I think he was protesting to His Majesty about Zhan Yong's matter."
The Crown Princess was shocked. Her husband must have offended His Majesty. His Majesty never accepted any threats.
…
Zhu Zhanzhen's incident spread throughout the capital in an instant, and everyone was afraid to avoid the emperor's grandson who had been deprived of his power.
"What should we do? Our daughter participated in the selection of the princess of Pearl River County. What if she is selected? If she marries the prince of Pearl River County, will she be sent to the Clan Mansion to be imprisoned with him?
." A noble lady was spinning anxiously.
"Mom, my daughter doesn't want this, wuwuwu."
"Sir, please think of a way. I originally thought that marrying the Prince of Pearl River County would be a way to enjoy happiness. If I am chosen to marry you, I will be in trouble for the rest of my life. Our family may also be despised by His Majesty."
"As I see it, your majesty has deprived himself of military power, but his title has not been taken away. He is still the king of Zhujiang County."
"But sir, how can a despised prince be worthy of a daughter? Our family is also a prince's house after all. We only have a daughter, how can we marry a prince who has lost his power? This will not help you, sir.
If you are demoted in the future, it will affect our family."
At this time, the weeping noble lady said, "Furthermore, there are rumors that the Prince of Zhujiang County is arrogant and dissolute, and his behavior is unreasonable. He even said that humans and monkeys are the same. There may be something wrong with his brain."
"No nonsense." Although the man said this, he frowned and thought deeply: "We have already participated. If we withdraw now, we will not offend the prince and the princess. Besides, our daughter may not be chosen."
"That won't work, that won't work either. I have already discussed with a group of old sisters to quit together. The Crown Prince and the Crown Princess are also in trouble. They blame so many of us. The marriage of children is just a matter of fate. Anyway,
Don't force me to wait until my daughter becomes the princess of the county."
There are many people who have the same idea as the lady of the Marquis. Who wants his daughter to be the princess of a fallen prince? It is uncertain whether he can recover in the future. The risk is too great, and the officials have unanimously captured Zhu Zhan before.
Hey, I have a bad reputation, and I say all kinds of nonsense.
Wanting to break off the engagement but not daring to offend the Crown Princess, in the end more than a dozen ladies with titles in their families entered the palace together.
I hesitated and said a lot of nice things to the Crown Princess, and then a lady said: "Crown Princess, I am a young girl with little talent and little knowledge. It is really a high standard to participate in the selection of a concubine for His Highness the Prince of Pearl River. I have discussed it with the elders in my family and decided to do it today."
I want to get the portrait back so that my little girl won’t be embarrassed.”
"Yes, yes, we are the same."
A group of noble ladies looked embarrassed, fearing to displease the Crown Princess. However, this was related to their daughter's happiness, and more importantly to their own family's future, so they had to do it even if they were afraid. There were so many people, and the Crown Princess could not only blame her own family.
The Crown Princess looked at these well-dressed ladies with cold eyes. They stuck to her when they were good, and many of them even called them sisters. But now they would run away faster than anyone else when something happened.
The Crown Princess didn't say anything, but Princess Jiaxing was angry. The thirteen-year-old Princess Jiaxing was already a tall and graceful girl.
"Do you really think that your daughters are worthy of my fifth brother..."
"Jiaxing!" The Crown Princess dissuaded the Princess of Jiaxing who wanted to continue speaking. She was a woman waiting to be married. It would not be good for these women to spread such wild words.
"Hu Shanggong, please return the portraits of your daughters to the ladies at home. Zhanzong is not so lucky, and he is too stubborn to be sweet, so it is hard to embarrass the ladies."
When everyone heard what the Crown Princess said, their worries were relieved. As expected, the Crown Princess was still considerate.
Hu Shanwei returned all the portraits of the women to them.
"The matter has come to an end, I will keep you here soon." The Crown Princess gave the order to expel the guests.
"Prince Concubine, please rest a while, I will take my leave first."
When everyone stood up to leave, the Crown Princess said to Hu Shanwei, seemingly unintentionally: "Hu Shanggong, I came here today to withdraw the paintings and take note of them all. You ladies will not come on my birthday, so as not to embarrass everyone in the future!"
No more coming!"
"The gate of the East Palace cannot accommodate you distinguished guests!"
You look down on my son, why can I still be so easy to negotiate with? From today on, one by one, all contacts will be cut off, and you can't even think of entering through the gate of the East Palace.
The Crown Princess had a cold expression on her face, flicked her long sleeves, and left without giving them any time to talk.
No one expected that the Crown Princess would all fall out because of Zhu Zhanzhen. She was the wife of more than a dozen Dukes and Dukes, and without even a trace of hesitation, the meaning behind her words was to sever ties directly.
After dismissing everyone, the Crown Princess knocked on the table angrily: "They are all ungrateful guys."
"Why bother, Madam? According to the rules, it is impossible to choose these high-ranking ladies as concubines for His Highness. What I am afraid of is that they have too many thoughts and their relatives are involved in politics. It may be better to be cleaner now. Look at those people.
They all have evil intentions. Just seeing how powerful the Fifth Highness is, it would still be a disaster if he became the princess of the county. There are always some good girls who are willing to be the concubine for His Highness. Your Highness is one of the best in the world.
Men, it’s those women who have no vision and no luck.”
The Crown Princess rubbed her head: "Bring me a cup of calming tea from Jiaxing."
"Yes, mother."
Then someone from the team, Hu Shanggong, said: "Shanwei, most of the distinguished people have withdrawn their portraits in the past two days, who is left?"
"Replying to my mother-in-law, there are also the youngest daughter of the British Duke's family and the daughter of Uncle Pingjiang's family. These are the only two left."
Both of their families knew Zhu Zhanzhen well, but because they were both powerful figures, it would be difficult for them to become Zhu Zhanzhen's concubine.
"Crown Princess, Your Highness the Crown Prince invites you." At this time, the old eunuch next to the Crown Prince came to ask for an audience.
"What's the matter?"
"Marshal Ping Jiangbo and Chen Xuan of the East China Sea Navy are talking with His Highness the Crown Prince in the study room of the East Palace. Your Highness invites the Queen to come."
Speaking of Cao Cao, when Cao Cao arrived, generally speaking, the prince would not be involved in the discussions between the ministers and the prince, but now that he came here specifically to invite her, it was probably something related to the harem. If you think about it carefully, what else could it be?
Are you here to cancel the engagement? The princess murmured in her heart.
"I will be there in a moment."
Because of today's worries, the princess's hair is messed up, so she needs to straighten it out now.
Hu Shanwei was about to dress the princess. The princess thought for a while and asked: "Shanwei, do you think Chen Xuan is also here to withdraw the painting?"
"Marshal Chen has always been on good terms with His Highness the Fifth Highness. We have a close relationship. The possibility of adding insult to injury is not high. If others don't understand His Highness the Fifth Highness, doesn't he also understand him?"
"Hey, true love is revealed in times of adversity. Those ladies usually don't care about each other. Before my sister and after my sister, at the critical moment, they all chose to protect themselves. They tried their best to offend me, the Crown Princess, and were unwilling to marry their daughter to someone else.
The grandson of the emperor who has seized power and lost power cannot be said to have much sincerity."
Hu Shanwei comforted him and said, "Your Majesty is right. A friend in need is a friend indeed. The woman chosen to be His Highness's concubine at this time should be able to share the joys and sorrows with His Highness."
"As for your words, Shanwei, if you were more than ten years younger, I would make you Zhan's concubine." The Crown Princess was in a better mood and started to joke.
The speaker is unintentional and the listener is intentional. Hu Shanwei really wanted to, but if he said it, this best friend became his daughter-in-law, I am afraid that the heart of the Crown Princess would not be able to bear it, so it is better not to keep such thoughts.
"Okay, that's it, I'll go see Marshal Chen."
"Oh, by the way, Zhan Zhen has been eating fast and chanting Buddha's name in the Zongren Mansion these days. He doesn't like vegetarian dishes the most, and I can't go there in person. I will go to the imperial dining room with you and order someone to make some food, using meat and oil.
Also hide some meat dishes under there and send them to Zhan Xi, so that Zhan Xi won’t starve."
"Is this not good, your Majesty?" The emperor ordered Zhu Zhanchen to eat fast.
"What's wrong? Hurry up and give Zhan Zhan some meat."
－－－－－－Digression－－－－－
Hey, I have a feeling it will be another day of scolding
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