I kicked out my vicious husband and married his great-uncle

The Queen looked at Duke Dingguo coldly, with a joking expression on her face: "Duke Dingguo, please tell me, if Prime Minister Kang and Prince Xie bribe me, what benefits can they give me?"

Duke Dingguo said without hesitation: "Of course I will give you the supreme status."

"Status? My Jingbian Duke's Mansion has guarded the borders of Daqi for generations, and I am the queen. Now, what supreme status can catch my eye? Besides, I have no children, so I don't have any selfish motives. Under such circumstances, I am curious, why does Duke Ding think I can be bribed?"

Duke Dingguo was speechless for a moment.

The Queen spoke again, "If you say I have selfish motives, I do. My selfish motive is that I cannot bear to see any problems happen to the country that my Duke of Jingbian has protected for generations. Since I am the Queen, I should fulfill my duties as the Queen. Now that His Majesty is ill, as the mother of a country, what is wrong with ordering people to treat him and let him rest?"

"But your Majesty didn't look like you were crazy just now." Duke Dingguo racked his brains and could only come up with such a dry sentence.

"No? You all know very well what his Majesty's temperament was like in the past. Can his current behavior be considered normal?"

Prime Minister Kang's eyes were red, and he immediately said, "Of course not. In the past, even if His Majesty was very angry, he would not say a harsh word to us. It is not like now, where he wants to behead me at any time. In the past, this would never happen."

As soon as Prime Minister Kang finished speaking, the other ministers followed suit.

As a result, the momentum of Duke Dingguo's side was not so strong.

The Queen immediately ordered: "Commander Mu, escort His Majesty back to the bedroom immediately. Moreover, His Majesty is not fully awake right now. In order to prevent him from being influenced by people with ulterior motives, from now on, no one is allowed to disturb His Majesty without my order."

Mu Ling immediately bowed his head: "Yes."

However, just as Mu Ling and the others lifted up Emperor Zhaowu and were about to leave, an angry shout suddenly came from outside the palace: "Wait!"

The one who came was the oldest prince in the royal family of Da Qi, Gao Chengzu, who was also the current clan leader of the royal family. He was in charge of managing the royal affairs and was the person with the most say in the royal family of Da Qi.

Following behind him were Consort Xian and the Sixth Prince Gao Hengyuan.

The queen was very surprised: "Uncle, why are you here?"

You know, the old prince is in poor health and rarely shows up in public.

He would only attend when the royal family had important affairs.

However, the queen could not imagine when the old prince became involved with Concubine Xian.

Hearing the Queen's question, the old prince was very disdainful: "If I don't come, won't the country of Da Qi be ruined by a woman like you?"

"Uncle, what do you mean by that?"

"I heard that the emperor had issued an edict to establish a crown prince last night, but now you refuse to acknowledge the edict and gather here to threaten His Majesty. With this action, where does your reputation for the Great Qi royal family stand?"

"Uncle, you don't know that His Majesty just said a few days ago that the Sixth Prince took credit for other people's achievements and is not even qualified to be a human being, let alone a crown prince. Therefore, His Majesty will never make him the crown prince. I'm sure you also know that His Majesty was ill a while ago, and for some reason, he has gone a little crazy now. Under such circumstances, how can we take his words and actions seriously?"

"How dare you! No matter how foolish he is, he can't treat the appointment of a crown prince as a joke. Besides, parents love their children deeply and criticize them harshly. The emperor said those harsh words only because he was angry and was angry at his child for not fighting back. How can he make it a big deal? Now that he has issued this edict, it means that he intends to make Xiaoliu the crown prince."

"Uncle, appointing a crown prince is no joke. In my opinion, we should wait until His Majesty is fully awake before making any plans. Otherwise, if there is any mistake, it will be a disaster for the country and the people. We must not be careless!"

"Hmph, after all, you still want to cover up everything. Today, I am here, and I will not allow you to act rashly!"

After saying this, the old prince looked behind him and called Gao Hengyuan forward: "Your father has issued the edict to establish the crown prince, and from now on you are the crown prince. Now that your father is ill, you should be the regent and handle government affairs on his behalf."

Gao Hengyuan's eyes swept over Prime Minister Kang, Xie Xingyuan and others, and hesitantly said: "I'm afraid they won't obey me."

The old prince glanced at him, put his hands behind his back and said with full confidence: "You are the crown prince appointed by your father, and you have the right and authority. If they don't obey you, you can use your power to make them submit. I don't believe it, they are all rebelling, do they want to rebel?"

Gao Hengyuan was encouraged. Holding the edict to appoint the crown prince, he walked up the jade steps in front of the dragon throne step by step, and then stood under the dragon throne.

He looked down at the court officials and said, "I was appointed the Crown Prince by my father's order. Now that my father is ill, I will handle government affairs on his behalf..."

After saying that, he added: "…It makes sense."

"Yes, yes, what your Highness said is right. We will definitely follow your Highness's lead and will not dare to disobey!"

The first to kneel down and kowtow were Duke Dingguo and others.

Prime Minister Kang, Xie Xingyuan and others were originally kneeling to worship Emperor Zhaowu, but as soon as Gao Hengyuan went up, they immediately stood up and stood straight.

The old prince was immediately so angry that he jumped up and down: "Well, you really want to rebel? Where is the commander of the imperial guards? Take them all to the prison. I want to see who is harder, their bones or the torture instruments in the prison!"

Seeing that Mu Ling was about to take action, Xie Xingyuan stepped forward.

He walked up to the old prince, clasped his fists towards him, and said politely: "Prince, it's not that we don't obey your majesty's order, it's just that this order came so unexpectedly. Moreover, even if this order is true, it's too early to directly honor the Sixth Prince as the Crown Prince, and it doesn't seem legitimate enough."

The old prince glanced at Xie Xingyuan with disdain in his eyes: "Why is it not legitimate?"

"Although there is an imperial edict now, it has not been announced to the world, and the ceremony of conferring the title of crown prince has not been carried out. Strictly speaking, this is not a good sign."

Traditionally, after a crown prince was appointed, the first thing to do was to send an imperial edict to all states and counties so that everyone in the world would know.

The next step is to choose an auspicious day and conduct the ceremony of enthroning the prince after all preparations are completed.

Only in this way can it be considered legitimate.

After listening to what Xie Xingyuan said, people who didn't know the inside story thought he was a fence-sitter or had been bribed.

But Prime Minister Kang narrowed his eyes, thought carefully, and understood the deeper meaning of Xie Xingyuan's words.