The maid's road to success

After everything was settled, everyone left the palace. The ministers who attended the banquet today looked at each other in bewilderment as they left the palace.

I finally understand why many people don't want to come to this kind of banquet. I thought it was a supreme honor to be qualified to attend the Mid-Autumn Palace Banquet, but now it seems like a sharp knife on my neck.

Several families who were on good terms had already boarded a carriage together to discuss what to do next.

Having served in the court for so long, there have never been so many scandals exposed in one day, and they all involved people in high positions in the royal family.

What happened today might have very serious consequences and might have a very bad impact on the entire Chen Kingdom. They have to discuss how to deal with it later.

After the banquet, Gong Qisu sat alone in his bedroom with a gloomy face. The palace maids and eunuchs serving him did not even dare to make any sound when they walked.

Gong Qisu really regretted that he did not put enough effort into managing state affairs after he ascended the throne. He was seduced by those people with ill intentions and was always obsessed with the women in the harem, so much so that he neglected so many things in the court.

He hadn't noticed for such a long time that the Fourth Prince and the Grand Princess were having a falling out. If someone hadn't tipped him off, the fact that Duke Cheng'en was raising troops would have been a secret to him. If he hadn't investigated the harem and Duke Cheng'en, he wouldn't have discovered that his mother had given birth to an illegitimate child outside. He didn't even notice that the Sixth Prince had enough power to challenge the Fourth Prince.

When we drove the Sixth Prince out of Kyoto before, we thought his strength had been weakened by 30%. But it hasn't been long since he came back, but he has recovered with the help of the affairs of Duke Cheng'en and the Grand Princess.

Gong Qisu felt extremely frustrated. So many things had happened, but he knew nothing about the affairs of Duke Cheng'en and the Queen Mother, for which he paid special attention after being reported.

It can be seen how unsuccessful he was as an emperor. He couldn't even control the affairs in Kyoto. If those people hadn't been fighting over the years, I'm afraid he wouldn't have been able to be the emperor for long.

Now Prince Li will investigate all the evidence of the Fourth Prince's crimes, and the Sixth Prince will go to Linjing to investigate the matter of Duke Cheng'en raising private soldiers. I just hope that they will not be partial to each other and trample those two people under their feet.

This is also the solution that Gong Qisu has thought about for a long time. The Fourth Prince’s affairs must be thoroughly investigated, and it would be best if the bigger the incident, the better.

This is the only way to conceal the Queen Mother's affairs and keep her alive. The Fourth Prince must attract everyone's attention.

Moreover, Prince Li and the Fourth Prince had been at odds for a long time. After he ascended the throne, the Fourth Prince tried many times to win over Prince Li, but the old man would not help anyone. The Fourth Prince became angry and humiliated and has been targeting Prince Li's Mansion in recent years.

I hope Prince Li has not forgotten the difficulties and humiliations he brought upon himself in the past and will teach the Fourth Prince a lesson.

As for Duke Cheng'en, to Gong Qisu, the threat he posed was far greater than that of the Sixth Prince and the Fourth Prince. After all, those two were still thinking about how to find out his faults and pull him down from the throne, or if there was no one to inherit the throne after his death, his closest brothers would naturally inherit it.

However, Duke Cheng'en wanted to become the emperor himself and replace the Gong family's Chen Kingdom with his own Chen Kingdom. Even though Duke Cheng'en has paid great attention to physical care in recent years, he is too old to afford any more time. He is simply looking for a more suitable opportunity to start a rebellion.

Gong Qisu felt that Duke Cheng'en had been interfering in the fight between the Fourth Prince and the Sixth Prince over the years, perhaps just to find a breakthrough in them, or maybe he had already found it.

It was not a big deal that the Sixth Prince's princess took action against a mistress, but the Fourth Prince seized the evidence and exposed it to everyone, and launched a large-scale investigation into other affairs of the Sixth Prince. During this period, Duke Cheng'en also took action many times.

So he most likely wanted to maximize the dispute between the two people and force one of them to resist. This would be his best opportunity to send troops and purge the court?

Yes, isn't clearing the court the best reason for rebellion? The ambitious prince usurped the imperial power and plotted evil. As the head of the first family and the person with the most say in the vicinity of Kyoto, he had a legitimate reason to rush into Kyoto with his troops.

By then, no one will know whether it is really a purge of the court. Anyway, he will take the opportunity to kill himself and the fourth and sixth princes.

The reason is that the Fourth Prince or the Sixth Prince harmed him, and everything he did was to avenge the Emperor. As for the truth, how many people would care? History is always written by the victors.

Therefore, Gong Qisu would rather let the Sixth Prince live to the end. He felt that neither the rebellious Duke Cheng'en nor the Fourth Prince, who wanted to convict the Queen Mother and make the world question his origin, could be kept.

After all, the Sixth Prince was the weakest among them. These two people had no chance to compete, and only the Sixth Prince was left. Instead, he was not worried.

An Zizhong already knew everything that happened in the palace. He sat with An Wenniang, looking at everything written in the letter and looking at each other.

"What are you going to do next, brother?"

An Zizhong looked at An Wenniang's pretty face in the flickering candlelight and spoke calmly.

"The Sixth Prince doesn't know the Emperor's true intention yet, so he needs to go over and analyze the pros and cons with him, and ask him not to really kill Lord Cheng'en and the Fourth Prince."

An Wenniang didn't understand. Didn't they intend to convict Duke Cheng'en and the Fourth Prince so that they would never stand a chance to turn things around? Why did they ask the Sixth Prince to show some mercy?

"Now that Prince Li is on our side, he will certainly help us remove all the sharp teeth of the Fourth Prince. The Fourth Prince will not be a big threat to us, and all his hatred will be focused on the Emperor and the Sixth Prince."

"As for Lord Cheng'en, if he really died so easily, how could my father and brother bear witness to the tragic death of their enemy?"

An Zizhong looked at An Wenniang's increasingly confused expression, pinched her cheek lovingly, then let go and stood up before she could dodge.

He took out the picture of flying birds and tigers among flowers and pointed at the flowers below.

"Do you know why the emperor targeted the Fourth Prince and Duke Cheng'en this time, but left the Sixth Prince behind?"

An Wenniang shook her head, indicating that she didn't know.

"If the emperor attacks three people at the same time, I am afraid that the three will join forces to pull him off the throne first. However, if the Sixth Prince is left behind, he will be able to work with me to deal with the Fourth Prince and Duke Cheng'en. It will be safer in the confrontation."

"Then the Sixth Prince is the least vicious and decisive one among them. The Fourth Prince attacked the Grand Princess in order to concentrate power in his own hands."

"Duke Cheng'en has always wanted to be the emperor himself."

"Only the Sixth Prince has been thinking that after the Emperor dies, he will be able to inherit the throne as the Emperor's brother. He is the only one among these people who dares not to rebel."

An Wenniang looked at An Zizhong and felt even more dizzy.

"But don't we just want the Sixth Prince to overthrow the emperor and then have him redress the injustice done to the Huaiyuan Marquisate? If he doesn't replace the emperor, why do we have to make such a big arrangement?"

An Zizhong used a pen to paint over the four flowers and the tiger behind them.

"Because we want him to fight and compete. The Fourth Prince is too vicious. If he has the chance to take the throne, there will be too many uncontrollable things. It is even more impossible for Duke Cheng'en. Moreover, among these people, only the Sixth Prince made the least move in the incident back then. He is our best choice. He cannot rebel even if he does not want to."

An Wenniang nodded, now she understood.

Even if the Fourth Prince did not directly harm the Huaiyuan Marquisate, everything the Grand Princess planned was for him. The Grand Princess had a lot of hand in the events of the past, and it was the Fourth Prince's idea that was indispensable. Duke Cheng'en and the Huaiyuan Marquisate have always been mortal enemies. The Emperor and the Queen Mother also pushed all the blame on the Huaiyuan Marquisate and used the destruction of the Huaiyuan Marquisate to support their ascension to the throne.

Although the Sixth Prince was not clean either, he only participated in the division of forces after the defeat of the Huaiyuan Marquis Mansion. He was the one who caused the least harm to the Huaiyuan Marquis Mansion, so An Zizhong chose him to vindicate the Huaiyuan Marquis Mansion.

He was the only one who was willing to redress the injustice done to the Huaiyuan Marquis's Mansion and let the murderer who murdered the Marquis's Mansion overturn the verdict. How could that be possible? Therefore, the Sixth Prince was the best candidate. He was also the candidate with the most sufficient reasons.

The death of the late emperor was caused by the emperor and the empress dowager. The Sixth Prince is the late emperor's son and the legitimate son of the royal family. His proposal is the most reasonable. After all, Prince Li has Princess Yong'an as his wife, and people will inevitably think that he is partial. Therefore, only the Sixth Prince is suitable.

Therefore, the Sixth Prince had to rebel even if he didn't want to.