HBWnovel Chapter 488: The Imperial Concubine is Pure and Elegant (238)
Chapter 488: The Imperial Concubine is Pure and Elegant (238)
Chapter 488: The Imperial Concubine Is Pure and Elegant (Two Hundred and Thirty-Eight)
Emperor Ping refused to believe it. He had paid such a heavy price, and yet this woman from Xicheng was still alive! It would have been fine if she hadn't died, but she was planning to rebel against his regime?
"How could this woman from Xicheng not be dead? Where did Crown Prince Qi Yu come from? Not long after his mother died, the Nian family was massacred. The emperor ordered Qi Yu to go to the imperial mausoleum to pray for his mother. Wasn't he hunted down by assassins sent by the concubines and died outside the palace? Someone must be impersonating Qi Yu! It must be fake! Hurry and investigate! Find out!"
"Yes, I will go right away."
Emperor Ping paced back and forth in his nightgown, throwing things in anger. Unable to sleep that night, he went to court at dawn. Listening to the ambiguous words of the courtiers, he was so angry at these old foxes that he wanted to draw his sword.
But no matter what Emperor Ping's mood was, the existence of the rebel army was like a thorn that had pierced deeply into his heart.
In recent years, there have always been some people in Qi who have risen up in rebellion. Emperor Ping has never taken these mobs seriously, and these mobs will eventually accept the amnesty of the court. However, it was unexpected that the leader of this massive uprising claimed to be the former Crown Prince Qi Yu, and assisting him was the Princess Xicheng who was said to have been burned to death in the palace.
Princess Xicheng testified that the leader was her brother, who rescued her from the palace to prevent her from being defiled by her beastly uncle. She threatened to pull the dog emperor who killed the king and usurped the throne off the throne and return peace to the people.
Qi Yu's face, which resembled the old emperor, also made the old ministers who held the portrait of the rebel leader murmur in their hearts. The emperor's incompetence and brutality reminded them of the late crown prince Qi Yu. They remembered that the reason why the deceased old emperor was able to succeed to the throne smoothly was mainly because the old emperor's father valued Queen Nian and her son Qi Yu very much.
Before his death, the late emperor personally wrote an imperial edict, passing the throne to his eldest son and appointing his grandson Qi Yu as the crown prince.
Now they are having a hard time under Emperor Ping, and the national treasury has become Emperor Ping's private treasury. These old ministers are reminded of Qi Yu's intelligence. The little prince is so young but he is valued by his royal grandfather. If he is trained well, he will be the wise ruler that the Great Qi should have!
Unfortunately, they stood by and watched, and the prince's whereabouts became unknown. After the old emperor's death, they also looked for the prince, but unfortunately they could not find him. They supported the young emperor to ascend the throne, but were forced to abdicate by Emperor Ping. They originally thought Qi Yu was dead, but they didn't expect him to be still alive.
This made these old ministers have different ideas. It seemed that the former Crown Prince Qi Yu was more qualified to inherit the throne than the current King Ping!
When Emperor Ping forced the emperor to abdicate, he claimed that his father had passed the throne to him, not his brother. The old ministers knew this was just nonsense, a facade. He forged the imperial edict to make his attempt at abdication look more convincing. The leader of the rebels, Qi Yu, was an outstanding commander of troops and a good ruler. Within a month, the rebels captured three cities, reformed the rules, and reduced exploitation of the people, sparking widespread discussion among the people.
The titles of the former Crown Prince and Princess Xicheng are very useful and have different meanings to court officials, the people, and even Emperor Ping.
Emperor Ping could not stand by and watch the rebels, under the name of the former crown prince, attack the imperial capital, so he sent his two favorite princes to the capital, promising a generous reward if they could defeat the rebels and capture Qi Yu alive. However, faced with a formidable enemy, the two princes became careless and guarded against each other, leading to their deaths on the battlefield.
This news dealt a heavy blow to Emperor Ping's self-confidence. Besides being sad, frightened and angry, he was also worried that his throne would be in danger. He stopped fighting on the border and took the lead in withdrawing his 300,000 troops, preparing to encircle and suppress the rebels.
However, the State of Ji received the news too late and was still fighting with the Liang army without knowing that the State of Qi had withdrawn its troops.
After Qi withdrew its troops, the Ji family army, which had been fighting against the Qi army, immediately went to reinforce the army of the mighty general Lin Dingyuan. The Ji and Lin armies attacked from both sides, causing heavy losses to the Ji army.