CH 56.5

The empress: "But I can't swallow this breath, why was Wei Yunzhao, a cripple dared to threaten Bengong to issue an imperial decree, Bengong doesn't want to just let him go like this."

Mr. Cao looked at her deeply, he said: "I ordered people to ask for the imperial decree, and I ordered them to enter the palace with tokens. If you want to blame someone, you can blame me. When the emperor wakes up, I will go to plead guilty. "

“Brother, you actually, you actually said such things in order to protect Wei Yunzhao?" The empress was startled, and looked at Mr. Cao with a pain in her eyes.

"Protect Wei Yunzhao?" Mr. Cao laughed, his face was full of disappointment, "If I wanted to protect Wei Yunzhao, I wouldn't go to the palace to persuade you today."

After he said this, he shook his sleeves and left. He was really annoyed by the empress' stubborn temper and thoughtlessness.

Mr. Cao went to see the crown prince, he first asked the imperial doctor about the crown prince's injury, then told the crown prince about the current situation, and finally turned to the empress, "Your Highness, the Wei family is the the empress’ heart knot, she always wants to get rid of the wei family quickly, but now is not the time to be willful. I can't persuade her, and I ask Your Highness to take care of her and not to let the empress ruin such a good situation because of her willfulness. "

The crown prince knew that the empress hated the Wei family, and wanted to let Wei Yunzhao die several times, but he didn't know the grievances between the empress and the Wei family, so he said, "Uncle, what kind of grievances are there between the empress mother and the Wei family? can uncle tell me?"

Mr. Cao didn't answer him, but said, "Don't let the empress interfere in the affairs of the court, Your Highness, please remember this."

After Mr. Cao finished speaking, he got up and left

The suspicion in the crown prince's mind was even worse, how did the Wei family offend his mother and make her hate them so much?

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After the rebellion ended, the ministers came out again, they were discussing that the country shouldn’t be without a king for a day, and they wanted the crown prince to supervise the country.

As soon as everyone reached an agreement, Emperor Changde woke up that afternoon, which was astonishing and made them wonder if this was a conspiracy to test the princes.

To test whether the second prince would rebel and to test what the crown prince and other princes would do.

Everyone planted the seeds of doubt in their hearts, but many people secretly breathed a sigh of relief. In the eyes of these people, Emperor Changde's life was more powerful to them than the crown prince's supervision of the country.

Emperor Changde's illness came and went quickly, he was cured in just a few days, but the imperial doctors never found out the cause, and finally they could only shake their heads and went back to the imperial hospital.

After Emperor Changde woke up, he knew that the empress had dealt with Jiang Jinyue. She burned Fangyue Palace, and even burned Jiang Jinyue into a charred corpse to break the curse for him.

He also knew that the second prince's rebellion failed, Concubine Su and the fourth prince were missing, and there were countless imperial guards were killed and injured, leaving only a few hundred people. He also knew that Wei Yunzhao had made great contributions from suppressing the chaos this time.

Emperor Changde was not angry at all because of this, and his reaction was flat. The first thing he did after he got well was to go to the prison to see his second son.

The second prince was arrested and all the minions around him were killed. He had no hope of escaping, so he could only be captured without a fight.

Emperor Changde asked him, "Do you regret it?"

The second prince said, "Of course I regret it. I should have killed Wei Yunzhao the first time I wanted to kill him, otherwise I wouldn't be a prisoner today."

Emperor Changde agreed with him, "You're right, we should get rid of him earlier."

"Father, the son has any doubts, the son hopes father will answer it."

Emperor Changde nodded, "You say."

The second prince: "The loyalty of the Wei family is guaranteed, they can fight, and have made great contributions to Dayue. Why did the emperor want to get rid of the Wei family? The son still doesn't understand."

Emperor Changde asked him instead, "Then why did you want to get rid of Wei Yunzhao in the first place?"

"He is too smart. The son thought he was a threat. It turns out that my hunch is right. I was finally defeated by him."

Emperor Changde patted him, "Second child, it's not that you don't understand, It’s just that you don’t expect that such a majestic emperor will be afraid of his courtiers.”

“There are too many smart people in the Wei family, and I have to guard against them, and I have to find a reason to get rid of them secretly. I can't do it in the bright side, otherwise people in the world will say that the donkey is killed when the grinding is done, and the bridge is destroyed after crossing the river, which will affect my reputation."

[卸磨杀驴 xiè mò shā lǘ: lit. to kill the donkey when the grinding is done (idiom); to get rid of sb once he has ceased to be useful]

[过河拆桥 guò hé chāi qiáo: lit. to destroy the bridge after crossing the river (idiom); fig. to abandon one's benefactor upon achieving one's goal]

"Smart?" The second prince said these two words in low voice and smiled, "But in the end Wei Su was still dead, right?"

"Yes, he was dead, but second child, you were still defeated by his son, who is just a cripple who can't even move his legs. Do you think the Wei family is worthy of my fear?" Emperor Changde asked.

The second prince was silent. He lost to Wei Yunzhao, and he also felt that this person was a threat, but he never thought that Wei Yunzhao would be so smart that even the emperor would be afraid of him.

Emperor Changde also remained silent for a while before saying, "Actually, sometimes I don't know what's going on, when I hear the word Wei Yunzhao, I only have one thought in my heart, I want him to die!"

“As the time passes, it quickly became my inner demon."

After listening to what he said, the second prince smiled wryly, "The time for the son's death finally comes." Otherwise, how could he hear what his father said from the bottom of his heart.