Professional Ethics of a Concubine

The matter of the Crown Prince raising private soldiers for rebellion was not revealed by the Emperor until Prince Su brought Li Anping and others back to the capital.

All the civil and military officials in the court were in an uproar.

To be honest, some officials of the prince's party had no idea that the prince had such great ambitions. He actually secretly raised 30,000 private soldiers and did so many things.

To them, these are thunderbolts!

A group of officials from the Prince's Party were waiting in fear for their property to be confiscated, exiled, or even directly executed.

They said they were wrongly accused and had no idea that the prince was going to rebel. Could the emperor believe them?

Woo woo woo, they themselves don’t believe it!

Moreover, they felt that the older the emperor got, the more decisive he became. Over the past six months, he had been constantly wielding his sword towards the court or the homes of prominent families, making people afraid from time to time.

This time the prince has raised private soldiers and is preparing to force the emperor to abdicate and rebel!

This, the emperor must be furious, he will not be satisfied until the blood flows into a river!

The emperor was indeed angry!

After hearing the evidence of the prince's crimes listed by the Embroidered Uniform Guards, as well as the charges against the Chen family, the emperor was furious.

With a wave of his hand, he stopped the trial and ordered the imperial guards to drag the crown prince, Minister Chen and others outside the Meridian Gate and behead them!

Execute immediately!

This is outrageous, how could he be killed so quickly? We need to try him out.

However, it was precisely this ruthlessness and outrageousness that discouraged the ministers who wanted to plead for mercy. They dared not stand up for fear of being implicated.

As for the princelings, they were in utter despair. They collapsed to the ground, crying bitterly as they thought of their wives and children.

However, at this moment, the prince was carried into the court, dragging his broken leg and kneeling on the ground, taking all the blame.

He claimed that he had not informed the ministers of the prince's party and begged the emperor to show mercy and spare his life.

The prince also pleaded for the Chen family, saying that it was Minister Chen who took the initiative to inform the emperor of the 30,000 private soldiers, and that his merits could atone for his sins.

He knew about some of the atrocities committed by the Chen family in Qingzhou but condoned them, which was also his fault. Moreover, half of the silver that was extorted went into his pocket and was used to raise private soldiers.

There was also the matter of misappropriation of money from the national treasury, which was designed by him and Chen Shangshu, who forced him to rebel with him.

After hearing what he said, the emperor pointed at the prince and cursed him as a rebellious son, saying that he deserved to die. The drama was fully acted.

However, Shangshu Chen and some ministers from the prince's faction were so moved by the prince's words that they cried even harder.

As long as the monarch they were loyal to still thought of them and pleaded for them, they would be willing to die.

Then, Prince Su, Prince Jing, and Fang Yunyan all stood up and pleaded for these ministers.

When the others saw that Prince Su and Prince Jing had come out to plead for mercy, they also stood up to plead for mercy.

Finally, the emperor reluctantly agreed and did not sentence them to death immediately, but instead put them all in jail for trial.

The emperor was particularly merciful to those officials who were completely unaware of the situation and had not committed any serious faults. He would not confiscate their property or exile them, but would simply demote them to serve as county magistrates or minor officials in remote areas.

However, the punishment does not stop there. They have all received serious disciplinary warnings on their official records and are subject to supervision.

From now on, anyone who commits corruption or abuses the law will be severely punished, with the entire family being executed, or even all nine generations of the family being exterminated.

In other words, although their heads were saved for the time being, there was still a knife hanging over their heads.

This knife may fall at any time, not only killing you but also your family members.

If you don't want the knife to fall, then you have to make political achievements. If your political achievements are good enough, you may be able to obtain immunity.

For those officials who were unaware of the situation but committed a lot of corruption and law-breaking, they were given a one-stop service of boxed lunches, their homes were searched, they were beheaded, or they were exiled.

The emperor was merciful to the Chen family. He only confiscated their property and exiled them. Minister Chen's life was also saved and he was not dragged out and chopped off.

However, although his life was saved, being exiled to Lingnan would definitely not make his life easy.

It was extremely hot. If the escorting officers were not considerate and beat and scolded the prisoners, they might die on the way.

It's really a living hell.

In the Eastern Palace, the prince refused to accept house arrest and contradicted the emperor. The emperor was furious and sentenced the prince to death.

The deposed Crown Princess and a group of women and children moved out of the Eastern Palace and lived in a courtyard with four entrances. They were guarded by the Imperial Guards and were not allowed to go out easily, and people were not allowed to visit them often.

If nothing unexpected happens, they will spend the rest of their lives in confinement.

However, the emperor made special arrangements for the Crown Prince Xie Hongbao. He would no longer be the Crown Prince, but only the eldest grandson of the emperor, and would still live in the palace.

He still had to go to Wenhua Hall to attend classes every day and was not placed under house arrest with the deposed Crown Princess Chen and others. He had half a day off every month so that he could visit his biological mother, Chen.

When Chen learned that the prince had raised private soldiers to rebel, she felt like the sky was falling.

She cursed the heavens and the earth, and cursed the prince to die a miserable death, saying that he had brought such misery to herself and her son, and to their family, that she was almost going crazy.

Chen even wanted to commit suicide, thinking that death would be the end of everything rather than living in despair.

However, when Chen learned that her son would not be imprisoned and could still attend classes in Wenhua Hall, she was no longer so desperate.

She no longer had the delusion of her son becoming emperor; she only hoped that her son could live in peace and dignity, marry and have children.

The queen was naturally deposed, but the emperor did not take her life. Instead, he sent her to the cold palace and placed her under house arrest, depriving her of freedom for the rest of her life.

However, after learning the news that the prince had been executed, the queen committed suicide.

When the emperor learned of the queen's death, he fell silent and sighed.

Although the emperor did not have the empress buried in the imperial mausoleum, nor did he have a grand funeral, he still buried her with great ceremony in the cemetery for concubines near the imperial mausoleum.

-

half a month later.

Shili Pavilion outside the capital.

The deposed crown prince Xie Wenyuan, who faked his death and escaped, as well as Feng Yuxi, Zhang Zhanfeng and others, will officially leave the capital today and set off for the State of Chu.

Prince Jing brought Xie Niankang, and Prince Su brought Xie Hongbao to see them off.

It was also at this time that Xie Hongbao realized that his father was not dead.

He got on one of the carriages and saw that the person inside was his father. His little head was so shocked that he was confused and couldn't process what was going on.

"Father, have you been wronged?" Xie Hongbao asked him with red eyes.

"Come closer." Xie Wenyuan's leg had not healed yet, and he was half lying on the carriage. Seeing his son squatting at the door of the carriage, he waved at him.

Xie Hongbao used his hands and feet to half crawl to his side and reached out to touch him.

It's warm, not a ghost.

Father is really not dead!

"Father, why?" Xie Hongbao didn't understand.

"Don't call me father anymore. I'm just a commoner. Just call me daddy." Xie Wenyuan reached out and touched his head lovingly.

"Dad was not wronged. He did raise private soldiers and did many wrong things. It was your grandfather the Emperor who was kind and your uncle Prince Jing who was generous and magnanimous that gave Dad a way out.

They let me fake my death and set me free, so that I could work for the Great Zhao Jiangshan in a different way and atone for my past mistakes.

Hongbao, do you understand why Daddy is like this? Daddy will make a long story short and tell you about Daddy's past.

I hope you can learn some lessons from Daddy, and don’t live such a failure like I did in the first half of my life…”

After hearing what his father said, Xie Hongbao opened his little mouth wide, unable to utter a word for a long time, and just shed tears.

"Your mother loves you, too. She is much stronger than your royal grandmother. She is not that tough.

However, she also has her expectations. She hopes that you will become the emperor so that she can become the supreme empress dowager. She will constantly instill this idea in you and force you to do things that you may not want to do.

You must remember that although she is your biological mother and has given birth to you and raised you, she has no right to control your life. Don't let her ignorance and ambition harm you."

Xie Wenyuan said,

"You are already a big child. Your grandfather asked you to live in the palace and leave your mother. This is a better arrangement for your future."

Xie Hongbao nodded with red eyes and choked up, and asked him, "Dad, where are you going? What are you going to do? Will I be able to see you again in the future?"

"In three years at most, Daddy will come back to see you again.

Then you will know what Daddy is doing outside. You must keep it a secret. Don’t tell your mother that you have seen Daddy. "

Xie Wenyuan said gently,

"Hongbao, the world outside is huge and exciting. If you like, daddy can take you to explore the outside world.

You are still young and may not understand what this means, but you must remember that your life is not that dragon throne and you have many choices.

In the future, spend more time with Xie Niankang, Xie Mingyu and others, and it would be best if you could become good friends with them."

Xie Hongbao nodded again. Perhaps he could not fully understand what his father said now, but he carefully kept his father's words in his heart.

"Get off the car, Daddy is leaving, you should live a good life and don't hold any resentment." Xie Wenyuan touched his head and said gently.

Xie Hongbao wiped his tears, nodded again, kowtowed to his father, turned around and got out of the car.

Here, Xie Niankang had also said goodbye to his father and the others, and was waiting for Xie Hongbao and the others to finish speaking before they could leave.

Xie Hongbao jumped out of the car with red eyes from crying.

After watching his father and the others leave, Xie Hongbao cried even harder, with tears falling all the time.

Seeing him like this, Xie Niankang walked up to him, reached out and patted his shoulder, and said in a mean way,

"Bao, call me Brother Kang. Brother Kang will protect you from now on."

Xie Hongbao sobbed, stared at him for a long time, and finally called out, "...Brother Kang."

This is what it means when a tiger is bullied by a dog in plain land.

Oh, he understood.

"Be good, if someone bullies you next time, I will help you vent your anger." Xie Niankang looked like he was the boss and he would protect you.

"You do what you say?"

"of course!"

Xie Hongbao wiped his tears and felt that this seemed to be okay.