Princess Menglang is hard to change, the whole capital is embarrassed for her

Royal study room.

Shen Zhaojiang, who was highly expected by Shen Yao, was standing in the imperial study with other ministers, listening to the emperor's stern lecture.

"The Mizhou case is getting more and more complicated. How many teams of people have the Censorate sent there? They haven't cracked a single inch of the case yet. What use are you to me?" The emperor coughed twice, and Eunuch Chang hurriedly handed him the medicine bowl. The emperor drank it in one gulp, the bitterness numbing his tongue. "Isn't everyone saying it was the eldest prince who did it? I've summoned him back, and he's right here with us. All of you, investigate thoroughly, investigate hard."

No one dared to breathe and kept their heads down, fearing that the emperor would call on them.

"What? Aren't you all quite talkative in private? Aren't you all gathered together guessing and guessing? Why are you all pretending to be deaf and dumb now?"

The emperor was so angry that he really wanted to drag a few of them down and chop them off.

What kind of people does the imperial court support? How many of them are truly dedicated to the court?

He hasn't even died yet, but they've already started forming a clique for personal gain. Do you really think he knows nothing while he's in the palace?

There were so many ministers like him, and he couldn't imagine who he could trust at the last moment. Who could he trust?

He glanced at his son, kneeling before the desk with his head bowed. His face was sallow, and he was as silent as a gourd with its mouth shut. He didn't move a muscle. Only beads of sweat rolled down his forehead, dripping onto the ground, then seeping into the ground and disappearing.

"Boss, regarding the incident in Michigan, many people suspect you're behind it. Tell me what you think."

Everyone's attention was focused on Xiao Chenze, whose name was called by the emperor.

Xiao Chenze moved his knees. After kneeling for a while, there was an injury on his knee that had not healed completely yet and it hurt a lot.

The stitches on the inner thigh were removed before departure, and the stitches needed to be bandaged and applied. However, the emperor urged them to hurry, and they rushed, day and night, daring not to rest, and finally entered the palace today.

His injuries had not fully healed, and with the bumpy ride, he felt like he couldn't hold on any longer.

"The matter of Mizhou has nothing to do with me. Please understand clearly, Father."

It was a matter involving the Mizhou Iron Mine and the Queen's family. He said he didn't do it, but others insisted that he did.

Whether it is or not, just check.

The emperor seemed not to have expected that he would only say these few words. He stared at him for a long time, breathing heavily.

Xiao Chenze looked up at the emperor, his eyes slowly filled with heartache.

"Father, please take care of yourself." He prostrated himself on the ground and kowtowed.

Flashing before his eyes were the scenes of his father taking him to the Imperial Garden to fly kites when he was a child, the scenes of his father and mother staying up with him to celebrate the New Year together, and the scenes of his father staying by his bedside, holding his hand and coaxing him to take his medicine when he was sick...

Once upon a time, he was the son most beloved and highly regarded by his father, the emperor, and his mother. When did everything change?

He couldn't remember.

Was it after Concubine Yao became Empress Yao, or after the second, third, and fourth brothers grew up and split into several factions in the court?

"How is your injury?" The emperor looked at his son kneeling on the ground with complicated feelings.

His mother was his first wife whom he married when he was eighteen years old. She was a woman from the oldest family in the Great Zhou Dynasty and the only eldest daughter of the Duke of Zhenguo, who was the most trusted and respected by the soldiers of the Great Zhou Dynasty.

The woman who always gently advised herself to rest more and not to tire herself out, the woman who would rather be stabbed than not protect him.

The two of them had experienced the days of being framed together, and the ups and downs before ascending the throne together, until they became emperor and empress, and had their first son...

Later, as more and more women entered the palace, the light in the queen's eyes gradually dimmed.

He said everything he did was for the stability of the court. The Queen said she understood and supported whatever he did, but...

Someone impeached the Duke of Zhenguo for holding his own army, so he summoned the old Duke back to the capital. However, the old Duke disobeyed the order and wrote back saying that there were unusual movements on the border and that leaving might lead to war.

Some people in the court said that the queen's mother's family was powerful and did not take him, the emperor, seriously.

There were also rumors in the palace that the queen was jealous, but he didn't believe it.

Until a beautiful woman who had just become pregnant had a miscarriage, and she insisted that it was caused by eating the cakes given by the queen.

In order to cover up his tracks, he ordered the beauty to be killed.

However, the queen did not understand his painstaking efforts. Instead, she blamed him for killing people and for leaving them alive to find out the truth.

The two had their first big fight, and he didn't go to the Queen's palace for several months.

Until the secret news came from the front line that the old Duke Zhenguo was shot and killed by a poisoned arrow on the battlefield, he was afraid that she could not bear the blow and ordered the news to be withheld from her.

But she didn't know who leaked the news to her. She knelt outside the Zichen Palace and begged him to allow her to go home and visit her heartbroken mother.

He doesn't allow it.

The battle was fierce at that time, and even the enemy had concealed the news of the old Duke's death. If she were allowed to go home, the news would surely spread, which would be detrimental to the morale of the army.

In the end, the news was leaked, and all the clues pointed to her. She couldn't help but secretly send someone back to comfort her mother, which was discovered by the enemy spies, who then analyzed the situation.

He was furious and refused to listen to her explanation. He smashed the jade pendant in her hand and placed her under house arrest in the palace, forcing her not to leave the palace without being summoned.

At that time, he didn't even know that she had been ill for a long time, and thought that her thinness was due to their quarrel and her bad mood.

Another three months passed, until the Queen's brother, the current Duke of Zhenguo, Chu Hengsheng, defeated the enemy and expanded the western border territory by hundreds of miles. Only then did he order the ban to be lifted and allow her to leave the palace.

He went to ask her to go back to the Duke of Zhenguo's Mansion to pay her respects, but she closed the palace gate and only let someone out to say one sentence: The news was not leaked by me. It is the emperor's business if he is willing to believe in slander. I will never take the blame for this.

He was furious.

Is this something a queen should say?

Why are you acting like a shrew?

So he turned his sleeves and left.

The rumors of discord between the emperor and the empress grew more and more intense, and even the army knew about it.

Several generals wrote back from the border, asking him to treat the queen well.

He felt threatened and was very unhappy.

So he promoted Concubine Yao to Imperial Noble Concubine to help the Queen manage the affairs of the six palaces.

Unexpectedly, the Queen sent someone to hand over the account books and registers of the six palaces to the Queen Mother, saying that she was not feeling well and could not take charge of the six palaces, and asked the Queen Mother to hand them over to a capable person.

The Queen Mother called him over and gave him a lecture.

Let him not forget the Chu family's assistance to him and his son, and not forget the love he had with the queen when they were young.

The Queen Mother's words made him think a lot. Just at this time, Chu Hengsheng found out that the Queen did not send anyone back to comfort his mother. Someone did it in her name.

In other words, the queen was framed.

She had clearly wanted to explain it to him, but he put her under house arrest without a word. The jade pendant he broke was a gift from her father before she got married. It was the most beloved memory left to her by the old Duke.

Guilt filled his chest.

He wanted to go to her to explain, or even apologize.

But she locked him outside the palace and said: Your Majesty is working hard for state affairs, and I understand you. Please take care of yourself and don't be distracted by me.

At that time he was still a little unhappy, thinking that she was angry with him, and wanted to wait until she calmed down before coming to see her.

Little did she know that she was already terminally ill and extremely thin. She was afraid that he would be sad after seeing her, and that he would remember her ugliness when she was sick.

She locked the palace gates tightly, and only the two aunts she had brought with her from her mother's family were allowed into the inner hall. When the concubines in the palace came to pay their respects, she turned them away.