Chapter 706: Old Affairs of the Xuanyuan Kingdom (2)
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
“And then?” Shen Yijia asked.
Since he said that this status was from back then, wasn’t it different now?
You Yi said, “Back then, the late emperor suddenly had an emergency and died, leaving only the emperor and my lord.
“The emperor was older and naturally ascended the throne. However, because the previous emperor praised the aristocratic families too much, their ambitions were already huge. They actually wanted to control the emperor and make him a puppet.”
How aggrieved was the emperor who had just ascended the throne?
It was fine if he could not interfere in the affairs of the imperial court, but the aristocratic families even controlled who could enter the harem. Moreover, any concubine who wanted to serve the emperor at night had to be arranged beforehand and approved by these families.
This way, if the officials wanted their daughters to enter the palace, they had to please the aristocratic families. If they wanted their daughters to have the chance to sleep with the emperor, they also had to please the aristocratic families.
Just like that, the power of the aristocratic families grew. During those years, they could be said to have been able to call the shots in the Xuanyuan Kingdom.
However, they were still not satisfied. They felt that once the emperor became an adult, he would definitely counterattack.
They began to plan to support the grandson borne by the concubine from their family to ascend the throne and eliminate the emperor and the prince.
However, the emperor was not incompetent. On the surface, he listened to the arrangements of the aristocratic families, but he had been secretly plotting.
After knowing that they had the intention to support his youngest son to ascend the throne, he no longer resisted the women in the harem. Instead, he was especially enthusiastic and really shared the burden.
In the end, five concubines in the harem were diagnosed with good luck at the same time.
Apart from the empress from the Tang family, the five pregnant concubines happened to come from the other five family clans.
Not only was the Tang family unwilling, but the other five family clans were also unwilling. After all, there was only one throne. Since the girls in their family were also pregnant, why couldn’t the next king come from their own family?
The emperor’s move was indeed vicious. With this tactic, he made the six aristocratic families, who were originally united and could harm the two brothers at any time, fall out with each other.
However, this was not enough. The aristocratic families would react eventually. The emperor immediately did something almost cruel. He sent out Demon Guards to kill one of the pregnant concubines.
Only then did the aristocratic families explode.
The family that had lost their chips suspected the other families, while the others were worried that their daughters would be the next to be killed.
Even the Tang family did not escape suspicion. Who knew if the Tang family was jealous because their daughter was not pregnant with an heir?
However, no matter how hard they investigated, they could not find any clues.
This was actually the king’s cleverness. If he deliberately led them to investigate one or a few family clans, it would arouse suspicion.
Only by doing it cleanly and leaving no evidence would the aristocratic families not suspect him.
The aristocratic families had always been conceited. In their eyes, he was just a puppet in charge of continuing the imperial bloodline. He did not have the ability to do this.
Apart from their family clans, no one else could do it without leaving any evidence behind.
The aristocratic families fell into the king’s trap step by step and began to fight among themselves as he had intended.
First, the pregnant concubines suffered a miscarriage one after another. Even those who got pregnant later could not escape this outcome.
After a few years of fighting, only the girls from the Cui and Pei families successfully gave birth to heirs.
At that time, the aristocratic families were already at odds with each other. Not to mention that they could not continue their previous plan, the aristocratic families more or less had something on each other. In order to attack the other party’s power, they even began to let the emperor come into contact with government affairs bit by bit.
However, the emperor also knew that this was not a foolproof method.
It was said that a starving camel was still bigger than a horse. If he really continued to waste time with the aristocratic families like this, not to mention that he wouldn’t live for long, his descendants would probably follow his old path one after another.
Moreover, with the Imperial Court like this, how could the commoners live well?
He needed a breakthrough.
This breakthrough was in Xuanyuan Ce.
Song Jingchen raised his eyebrows. No wonder the Xuanyuan Kingdom could shake off Great Xia and the Wu Kingdom in just a few years.
With such a wise, decisive, and considerate king, why would the country not prosper?
“It’s common knowledge that the youngest daughter in the direct line of descent of the Yu family likes my lord.” At this point, You Yi’s expression under the mask became a little complicated. He glanced at Shen Yijia before continuing, “Previously, my lord was secretly saved by a common woman. The two of them had long developed feelings for each other. When they heard the emperor’s plan, he naturally refused, but the emperor and the empress dowager both knelt down and begged him to cooperate..”
