They are all concubines, so of course they choose the future emperor.

In addition to holiday gifts, Jiang Wanyue also prepared something else.

The gold locket is for the nephew, the jewelry hairpin is for the eldest sister-in-law, the elder brother and the younger brother have the same four treasures of the study, and the palace fan is for the younger sister.

The piece of jade given to her father was used to carve a seal.

The pair of jade bracelets she gave to her mother were made of the same material as the jade.

Then, a painting was given to my grandfather.

Xiuchun handed over the calligraphy and painting respectfully.

"Master, this is something the young lady specially found. It is your favorite painting by Master Dong."

Jiang Zhi took the painting, unfolded it and fell silent.

After a long time, he sighed.

"It's hard to believe she still remembers it."

Xiuchun looked at the master's expression and added carefully.

"The prince knows that the young lady likes it, so he asked people to collect many rare calligraphy and paintings from the previous dynasty. However, many of them are difficult to distinguish between true and false. The young lady said that when the master recovers from his illness, he would trouble the master to take a look at them."

Jiang Zhi gave a helpless smile.

"Okay, I get it. Prince Jing's subordinates are all rude and reckless. How can they know whether these antiques are real or not?"

Seeing this, Jiang Guang said, "Wan'er is filial and still thinks about you, Dad."

Jiang Zhi raised his eyelids, glanced at his son, and snorted.

"She is smarter than you and your elder brother. In just a few months, she dispelled Prince Jing's hatred for our family. If you had her cleverness in dealing with the higher-ups, you would have been promoted to the third rank long ago."

Jiang Guang didn't care about his father's disdain at all. He just laughed and picked up a rice dumpling for his father.

Jiang Zhi withdrew his gaze, rolled up the painting, and looked up and said to Xiuchun.

"Tell Wan'er to bring those antiques and paintings here tomorrow. I have a few old friends I haven't seen for a long time, so I'll take them to show them."

Xiuchun quickly responded "yes".

When Xiuchun returned, she told Jiang Wanyue about this, and Jiang Wanyue couldn't help but look delighted.

"Grandfather finally figured it out?"

My grandfather’s friends were either great scholars of the time or high-ranking officials who played an important role in the court.

They have been good friends for decades and will not become estranged just because the Jiang family is in trouble.

But my grandfather was stubborn. Although he tacitly agreed to Jiang Guang's surrender to Prince Jing, he himself refused to give in.

It's not that he still misses the King of Qi and protects him, but for people like them, propriety and etiquette are engraved in their bones. What they protect is not the "King of Qi" as a person, but the "etiquette" represented by the "King of Qi", the eldest son of the emperor.

The succession to the throne should be to the eldest son if there is a legitimate heir, or to the eldest son if there is no legitimate heir.

Prince Jing is neither the eldest nor the legitimate son. No matter how great his contributions are or how capable he is, in the eyes of people like Jiang Zhi, he is still a "traitor."

This is also the reason why the King of Qi is not panicked until now.

He has the support of a lot of scholars and literati, so even if a Minister of War falls, it will not affect him.

In the previous life, the emperor passed the throne to Prince Jing, but Prince Qi was able to gather a large group of people to force the emperor to abdicate. This shows the importance of the identity of "the eldest prince" in these people's hearts.

Jiang Wanyue thought for a long time but couldn't think of a practical and effective way to disintegrate this group of people.

After much thought, the only way is to break it from the inside.

Today was just a test. Jiang Wanyue herself didn't expect that her grandfather actually understood what she meant and took the initiative to agree.

This is a big surprise.

From that day on, the wind direction in the court changed.

The one who felt it most clearly was the King of Qi.

It’s not that many officials immediately defected to Prince Jing, they just stopped supporting Prince Qi as wholeheartedly as before and returned to neutrality.

But this alone was fatal to the King of Qi.

The King of Qi tried to win these people back, but failed without exception.

The King of Qi became anxious.

Seeing that Prince Jing's momentum was getting better and better, and even Prince Jing's Mansion had invited a great scholar to teach the prince, Prince Qi could no longer sit still and summoned all his staff to discuss countermeasures.

An aide suggested that since Prince Jing had the support of military generals and had now won over civil officials, Prince Qi could also do the same and win over the military generals.

The most direct way to win over military generals is through marriage.

Not long after, news came from the Wei family that they were engaged to the general of Liaodong.

A few days later, the King of Qi took in two concubines. They were not from high-class families, but both were born into military families.

When the news reached Prince Jing's Mansion, Jiang Wanyue immediately guessed Prince Qi's intention.

She wasn't too worried.

The King of Qi has a good idea, but unfortunately, it is a little late to implement it now.

The Great Zhou had a vast territory, and its border troops were generally divided into the northwest, north, Liaodong, southwest, and southeast. The southeastern border troops were naval forces with weak combat effectiveness, so they were not included. The southwest had a complex terrain, and any conflicts were small-scale, so no major battles had ever been fought. The number of garrisoned border troops was small, only 30,000, so they were not included either.

The rest, from the northwest to the north, is almost all controlled by Prince Jing. Even if Prince Qi can gain control of the Liaodong area, he will not be able to compete with Prince Jing.

Jiang Wanyue has also thought about it from her perspective: if she were the King of Qi, what should she do to break the impasse?

After much thought, the only option is to win over the military generals.

But if it were her, she would not choose the General of Liaodong, who was thousands of miles away from the capital.

She would choose the commander of the imperial guards.

However, the Imperial Guards are fully controlled by the emperor, and it is not easy to avoid the emperor and win over the commander of the Imperial Guards.

The emperor valued the imperial guards far more than his concubines and sons.

The commander of the imperial guards is the emperor's most trusted confidant and the person he trusts the most.

This commander never socialized with other officials. There was not even a mistress in his mansion, only two old concubines. The servants who served him were all retired soldiers, and all of them were loyal.

He doesn't even have children.

Jiang Wanyue had inquired and found out that this commander originally had children, a son and a daughter, both born to his original wife. However, after his original wife passed away fifteen years ago, the two children fell seriously ill and died one after another.

Jiang Wanyue was very suspicious about this matter.

But regardless of whether it is true or not, this commander-in-chief does seem to be as tough as a pea, making it difficult to deal with him.

Jiang Wanyue did not give up just like that. She asked Xiuchun to pass a message to the butler, asking someone to keep an eye on the commander of the imperial guards' every move, and to record in detail what he did, where he went, and what he ate every day, and present it to her.

Butler Cao has been very idle recently. His mansion has become smaller and there are fewer servants. As a butler, he has nothing to do every day and spends his time counting the swallows on the beams.

Having received the task from the eldest lady, Butler Cao was overjoyed and started to prepare eagerly.

He handed over the affairs of the mansion to his eldest son and took charge of them himself.

On the first day, he disguised himself as a firewood porter and went to the back door of Zhu's mansion.

Although the commander of the imperial guards was a military general, he had a very literary name, Zhu Zhiwen.

Steward Cao used a different identity every day to keep an eye on Commander Zhu's every move. He did this for a whole month before sending the filled book to Jiang Wanyue.

By this time, it was already early July.