Changsheng: Peak at the Beginning

Chapter 152: Legend of Zhen Huan 24

When the Sixth Prince was born, both the imperial court and the harem were filled with joy. However, after the Fucha family received the message from Lady Guaerjia, Ma Qi personally ordered the Fucha family to keep a low profile. So for a while, the idle men in the entire Fucha family no longer went out easily, and even the women no longer accepted those meaningless invitations.

The emperor was of course very satisfied with this, so after personally asking the Crown Princess Guaerjia to perform the third-day bathing ceremony for the Sixth Prince, he actually personally performed the Sixth Prince's full-month ceremony.

After a month, Hua Fei and the others have figured out a lot of things, or rather, they see things more clearly. Even if the Sixth Prince is not liked by the Emperor, it still cannot change the fact that he is the best-born prince at the moment.

However, the sick Queen in the palace could not accept this fact. Her evil hand was already ready to attack the Sixth Prince, but she was warned again by the Queen Mother.

On the second day after the full-moon ceremony, the emperor personally presented Yi Xin with the imperial concubine seal, and royal family wives and ladies of the first and second ranks were present to witness, thus completing Yi Xin's canonization ceremony.

The reason why the Queen was not called was because Yi Xin spread the news that the Queen had missing teeth. Who blamed Ulanara for not being careful enough and actually wanting to take someone's life to provide teeth for the Queen? Moreover, when the news of the Queen's damaged teeth spread, some people began to question whether the Queen was worthy of her position.

More importantly, Zhang Deshun realized that the emperor had activated the Sticking Rod Office to investigate the cause of death of Empress Chunyuan and the Second Prince, and the Fucha clan also needed to use the Ulanara clan to establish their authority.

After the Golden Award Ceremony in October, the emperor returned to the palace with a group of concubines. At this time, Yi Xin's palace had been changed to Chengqian Palace, and Yue Guiren was also moved into the side hall of Chengqian Palace with Yi Xin. Only An Changzai was left in Yanx Palace.

The Queen made no comment on this.

Concubine Hua hated Yi Xin to death, but Yi Xin not only had the same title as her, but also had the title of assistant in charge of palace power. More importantly, Yi Xin had a healthy prince, and the only favor from the emperor that she had that was slightly better than Yi Xin had to be shared with Concubine Wan, Concubine An and others.

Jingpin was extremely envious of Yixin, especially the fact that she could get pregnant with a prince right after entering the palace. She had been with the emperor for almost ten years since he moved to the palace, but she had no children and there was not even any news of pregnancy. Even Shen, her concubine in the palace, had faked a pregnancy.

The Empress stayed in the palace and Ulanara made a fool of herself, which made the Emperor very angry. But at this time he still needed the Empress to check and balance Yi Xin, so he had the Empress' teeth repaired so that the Empress could attend the New Year's Eve family dinner smoothly.

However, at this New Year's Eve banquet, the Queen made trouble again and reserved the first seats on the left and right to Concubine Qi and Yi Xin respectively, and Concubine Hua was squeezed to the bottom of Yi Xin.

Hua Fei naturally refused to do so, but she couldn't get angry in front of everyone, so she said sarcastically: "It is said that the higher the status, the later one comes. Concubine Jin walked in front of me, so why is it not the case for this seat?"

Yi Xin did take her seat earlier than Concubine Hua, but it was Jianqiu who guided her to sit there. It was useless to say anything more at this point. Yi Xin simply sat back and retorted to Concubine Hua: "Then Concubine Hua will ask the Queen. Anyway, this New Year's Eve family dinner has nothing to do with you and me."

But Concubine Hua didn't understand Yi Xin's hint, or maybe she had long been fed up with Yi Xin. Now that she had finally got hold of Yi Xin's handle, she was eager to make a scene.

Concubine Hua insisted that Yi Xin give up her position. "The Queen has been ill for a long time. Everyone knows that she is not energetic enough. Even if she is a little careless, how can we, as concubines, take advantage of her favor and bring shame to her? It is better for Concubine Jin to give up her position."

Seeing that Concubine Hua was determined to confront her, Yi Xin chuckled and said, "Go and call General Nian over. Maybe I will be frightened by General Nian's bloody battles and flee in panic from you, Concubine Hua."

Just when Concubine Hua was about to lose control, the Queen came out, holding Jianqiu's hand.

Seeing that Concubine Hua was still standing, the Queen did not ask why she did not take a seat. She just spoke and pretended to comfort Concubine Hua: "Although Concubine Hua is an old lady in the palace, after all, Concubine Qi and Concubine Jin both gave birth to princes for the Emperor..."

This explanation was reasonable. After all, the wives of the royal family thought that although the queen seemed to be promoting Yi Xin and suppressing Hua Fei, there was nothing wrong with her attitude of attaching importance to offspring.

Hua Fei was determined not to suffer this loss, and she insisted not to take a seat when the emperor arrived. When the emperor saw that Qi Fei and Jin Fei were sitting on the left and right, he immediately asked Qi Fei and Hua Fei to exchange seats, and did not touch Yi Xin at all, which made Hua Fei and Qi Fei hate Yi Xin at the same time. Yi Xin understood the emperor's intention of this trick, but she didn't care at all, and only thought about her adopted son who was named Hong Sheng when he was one month old.

Not long after the banquet started, Concubine Hua stood up with a wine glass in hand to toast the emperor. The emperor was very happy and exchanged glances with Concubine Hua, which made her almost forget the previous dispute over seating with Yi Xin.

Then Yi Xin followed the crowd and stood up to say many auspicious words. The emperor also drank a glass of wine out of respect, but he didn't say much to Yi Xin, which made Concubine Hua feel proud again, and Yi Xin's eyes hurt.

The emperor's attitude can explain a lot of things. For example, the emperor has no feelings for Yi Xin herself, but the Sixth Prince, born to Yi Xin, is the apple of his eye. Therefore, Concubine Hua's position in his heart is inferior to Yi Xin, and Concubine Qi, who gave birth to the Third Prince, is inferior to Concubine Hua. Therefore, the Third Prince is out.

Even though there are still seven iron-hat princes in the royal family, and even the late emperor did not dare to touch them easily, they could not withstand the lack of descendants. The Prince Zhuang's palace even died out directly, giving the late emperor's sixteenth prince a great advantage.

The late emperor directly adopted the Sixteenth Prince, who was second only to Prince Guo, to Prince Zhuang's Mansion, so that the Sixteenth Prince got the iron-hat prince title for nothing. All his descendants can directly inherit the prince title. As long as they don't rebel, his branch can rest assured.

As for the eight iron-hat princely palaces that were supposed to exist, the last one was probably left by the late emperor, who was going to ask the current emperor to grant it to Prince Guo. Unfortunately, the late emperor did not say it explicitly, and the current emperor just ignored it. The empress dowager also had her eyes on the title of this last iron-hat prince, and was determined to get it for her youngest son.

Therefore, even the royal family is pursuing more and greater power, and it is not just the court officials who are looking at the current princes.

Not everyone has Yi Xin's God's perspective, so Yi Xin was able to remain stable, but not many other families could. Fortunately, the emperor started to collect debts from the national treasury after the beginning of spring, otherwise someone would have written to the emperor, asking him to bring the fourth prince in the Old Summer Palace and the fifth prince in Rehe back to the palace to raise them.

The emperor directly handed the task of debt collection from the national treasury to Ma Qi, which made Ma Qi complain bitterly. However, after Ma Qi asked the Fucha family to pay back the debt, he fell ill. Anyway, he was indeed old and had set an example himself. If the emperor continued to make things difficult for him, it would be unacceptable.