The maid's road to success

After An Zizhong and An Wenniang were the only ones left in the room, An Wenniang spoke to An Zizhong in a low voice.

"I got the account book, but the situation is more dangerous than we expected. Lord Cheng En doesn't want to be a corrupt official. I'm afraid he wants to be the master of the world."

An Zizhong didn't seem surprised and let An Wenniang continue.

"I haven't finished reading it, but it records that a large number of weapons, armor, and soldiers' cotton clothes were sent to a secret place by Duke Cheng'en. Duke Cheng'en would have an inexplicable expenditure every year, a huge amount of silver. What do you think he would do with all this?"

An Zizhong looked at An Wen Niang with pride. He didn't expect that the quiet and gentle An Wen Niang in the past, who only cared about serving the old lady and living a peaceful life, would also start to plot these things.

"I have always suspected that Duke Cheng'en has evil ambitions. The Duke Cheng'en's mansion was already in decline. Since the last Duke Cheng'en, he has been constantly approaching the center of power and has sent many girls to the harem. When the current Queen Mother was a concubine, I don't know how many cruel things she did. Their lineage later acted very viciously and used very ruthless means, fighting for power regardless of any consequences."

An Zizhong looked around and continued talking after seeing that no one was eavesdropping.

"Besides, the emperor has damaged the foundation, and the princes in the harem will not live long. I'm afraid that this country will still be fought over by the Fourth Prince and the Sixth Prince in the future. There are still a few old princes in the current royal family, and the Empress Dowager and the Queen Mother in the harem are competing with each other, so it is impossible to confuse the royal bloodline. If the throne is taken away by the Fourth Prince and the Sixth Prince, then Duke Cheng'en will definitely not agree, so he will definitely take some action. The most likely thing is that Duke Cheng'en himself will become the emperor, so that they will not have done so much in vain and spend so much effort, and can truly guarantee the dignity of Duke Cheng'en's lineage for thousands of generations."

What An Zizhong did not say is that perhaps Duke Cheng'en had the intention to usurp the throne a long time ago. Grandfather and father both said that Duke Cheng'en had been a very ambitious man since he was a teenager. They led Duke Cheng'en to rise step by step and supported their daughter to become the queen. His thoughts and plans were outstanding. However, the second prince was the empress dowager's biological son and of royal blood. It was natural for him to inherit the throne. Moreover, the empress dowager would certainly prefer her son to become the emperor and herself to become the most honorable empress dowager. If Duke Cheng'en became the emperor, she would be a princess. The empress dowager could tell which was more important. Besides, without the empress dowager's help in the harem, Duke Cheng'en could not realize his wish.

When An Zizhong learned that Lord Cheng'en had made such a big fuss over an account book, he knew that the things recorded in the account book were probably not just the embezzled money, but something that would surely bring ruin to Lord Cheng'en's family.

With Duke Cheng'en's current status, corruption alone will not affect his foundation. He will only be fined, fined, or demoted. In the worst case, he will be deprived of the positions of several officials in his family. The Queen Mother is Duke Cheng'en's biological daughter, and the Emperor is his grandson. It is unlikely that they will send Duke Cheng'en to hell for corruption.

Therefore, there is only one possibility that would cause the Emperor to deal with Duke Cheng'en regardless of his life or death, and that is that Duke Cheng'en wanted to plot against the Emperor, who had just sat on the throne for a few years. This is not something that can be easily revealed. Not to mention whether the Emperor and the Queen Mother would really be cruel enough to execute Duke Cheng'en, the Fourth Prince and the Sixth Prince who were watching covetously from the sidelines would be able to eat him alive.

An Zizhong heard someone approaching and whispered to An Wenniang.

"Be careful. I'll find a chance to check the account book."

Then he stood up straight and pretended to chat with An Wen Niang. An Wen Niang sat for a while and then left. When An Zi Zhong was just thinking about whether he should have someone keep a close eye on Duke Cheng En, the Grand Princess sent someone to call him to the Princess's Mansion.

"I heard your sister came to see you?"

There was a hint of murderous intent in An Zizhong's eyes, but he quickly concealed his emotions and said helplessly.

"The little girl came back from performing a ritual today. On the way, she was offended by someone from the Wolf and Tiger Gang. She came to me to complain, feeling wronged. I asked her to go back. The situation in Kyoto is unstable at this time, and I can't ask someone to punish that group of people for such a small matter."

The Grand Princess had been running the business in Kyoto for so many years, so she naturally knew about the behavior of Duke Cheng'en. She was just worried about not being able to find a reason to make a fuss about it, and then someone handed her a reason. Duke Cheng'en had been looking for something, and although he didn't say what it was, her spies in the Ministry of Justice reported that there should be an account book about Duke Cheng'en's selling of official positions. She inquired for a long time, but had no results. Duke Cheng'en's mansion was like an iron pipe and could not find out anything.

She has been fighting in the vortex of power for so many years. Whenever there is something that she has no clue about, the best way is to make it bigger and more confusing. This is the best opportunity to get clues from it.

"Mrs. Wen is your biological sister and a member of the Grand Princess's Mansion. How could she be bullied by a gang of hooligans? Go find Manager Liu and ask him to take people to teach the Wolf and Tiger Gang a lesson. Don't be blind and fail to see that some people should be respected. Who do they think they are?"

An Zizhong pretended to be grateful and chatted with the Grand Princess about other things for a while, then carefully retreated. He didn't expect that the Grand Princess was still on guard against him. She didn't mention anything about Duke Cheng'en to him, and she clearly wanted to use him and An Wenniang to expose the fact that Duke Cheng'en had searched the account books, and she also wanted to cover it up.

While the Fourth Prince and the Grand Princess were busy exposing Lord Cheng'en's past, there had been signs of unrest within the palace recently.

While An Wenniang was still wondering when An Zizhong would come to look at the account books and how he would come, news suddenly came from the palace.

Xishan Black Eagle did send two very beautiful women into the palace, but most of them were given money and gifts by people arranged by An Zizhong and An Wenniang, including the fragrance pills that An Yun had developed before and the slimming medicinal diet that he had been researching recently, all in order to help the two gain a foothold in the palace.

Fortunately, they worked hard and helped to gain a place in the palace, and one of them has now become a noble lady.

But the bad thing is that there are too many women in the harem. They compete with each other for beauty in public, and scheme against each other to murder in private. After all, they have no strong family background to support them, and most of the time they have a hard time making ends meet. So there is rarely any news coming out of the palace. This time, it was a girl from Xishan who worked as a maid in the palace. She brought out the secret letter by hiding it in her wound.

"The emperor is seriously ill, and the queen mother wants to adopt a son."

After reading these few simple words, An Wenniang realized why Duke Cheng'en and the Grand Princess had such a big reaction recently. Logically, Duke Cheng'en had been planning for many years, and now was not the best time to rebel. After all, the Emperor was his grandson, and there were also the Fourth Prince and the Sixth Prince who were eyeing him covetously in the court. Each of them was a tough nut to crack. Wasn't he afraid of making things difficult for others?

There were more than one people who had coveted the Huaiyuan Marquis Mansion, but only Duke Cheng'en did it. Not only because of the assistance of the Empress Dowager, but a big part of the reason was that Duke Cheng'en himself was a very powerful person. The Huaiyuan Marquis Mansion and the Cheng'en Duke Mansion were once very prosperous families in Kyoto, but Duke Cheng'en possessed the viciousness and decisiveness that the Huaiyuan Marquis did not have, which made the Huaiyuan Marquis Mansion become a stepping stone for Duke Cheng'en.

Since Lord Cheng'en was able to lead his impoverished family to become the number one family in the State of Chen, he must be a very powerful person with first-rate means, talents, and strategies. How could he have embezzled money and hoarded weapons in the past two years, allowing the spies hiding among him to collect so much evidence?

Although Duke Cheng'en is not young anymore, he is still in good health and can easily hold on for another ten years. Why is he suddenly so anxious? Isn't he afraid of being scolded by the world, or is it that the throne they worked so hard to vacate has been taken by someone else?

This is not the style of Duke Cheng'en, so the only possibility is that the emperor's body cannot hold on for much longer, and the current empress dowager is unwilling to hand over the supreme throne to Duke Cheng'en. Although no one knows why, the two sides probably cannot reach a consensus.

Duke Cheng'en is worried that the emperor will suddenly pass away because of the lack of strength. None of the two princes in the harem are fit to be emperor, and they may not even live as long as the emperor. Will they be able to deal with the Fourth Prince and the Sixth Prince by then?

If these two were allowed to get there first, with the royal bloodline and the support of considerable forces, it would not be easy for Duke Cheng'en to seize the throne.

Therefore, Duke Cheng'en has been busy accumulating his own strength in the past few years, hoping to accumulate enough power before the emperor's death, so as to change the dynasty before the fourth and sixth princes can react, and completely make Duke Cheng'en the ruler of the world.

But An Wenniang didn't understand that the Empress Dowager only had the Emperor and Duke Cheng'en to rely on. Instead of letting the Fourth Prince and the Sixth Prince seize power after the Emperor's death, wouldn't it be best for her to cooperate with her biological father and enjoy the worship of all the people in the world?

An Wenniang's doubts were answered when An Zizhong came secretly at night.

An Zizhong looked at the account book in An Wenniang's hand. The more he looked, the more murderous intent appeared in his eyes. Even An Zizhong did not expect that Lord Cheng'en would be so bold.

"Brother, what are you going to do with this account book?"

An Wenniang had dismissed the maids in the yard long ago. Now the whole yard was very quiet, and the sound of An Zizhong turning pages of a book was very abrupt.

"Take out the one with only the record of selling official positions and send it to the Sixth Prince. See if the Sixth Prince can make good use of this opportunity and fight his way back from the fiefdom."

To the Sixth Prince? An Wenniang thought that An Zizhong would send the account book directly to the emperor or let everyone in the world know the contents. Why would he give it to the Sixth Prince? Isn't this helping the Sixth Prince?

"The Sixth Prince is weak now, and the Fourth Prince is doing well in Kyoto. I'm afraid he will never have a chance to turn things around, and we won't have room to maneuver by then, so these two must keep fighting. It's best if they are evenly matched. The more they fight and bite each other, the more muddy the water in Kyoto will be. Lord Cheng'en will not just watch them grow bigger, but will definitely get involved, and then we will reap the benefits."

The more An Wenniang listened, the more confused she became. Isn't our real purpose to seek revenge? Why let the three of them fight? Is this to increase the power struggle among the three of them, or is it for revenge?

"Niang Wen, do you know what the outcome of their fight will be?"

An Wenniang shook her head. She felt dizzy now. What on earth was An Zizhong going to do?

"I want the three of them to gradually weaken each other's power in the struggle. We need to replace them with our own people, so that they will have to agree to re-examine the case of Huaiyuan Marquis Mansion when it is most critical for me."

An Wenniang seemed to understand something, but most of their people were students who had just passed the imperial examinations, and they were all low-ranking officials, and there were not many of them. Even if these people really had powerful official positions that were vacant, could they snatch them away?

"Our people are all young students, and their official positions are too low."

An Zizhong shook his head and looked at An Wenniang with bright eyes.

"It's not them. They are the old people from our mansion. You forgot the list that the ancestor gave me. I have observed it for a long time and have contacted many of them. They have not had a good experience in Huaiyuan Marquis Mansion in recent years, but as long as they can snatch the real vacancies from those people, they can take over."

An Wenniang nodded and then asked again.

"Then how do you know that the emperor will agree? Although the fisherman will benefit from the quarrel between the snipe and the clam, why would the emperor let the people we want to send take over those tasks?"

An Zizhong raised the account book in his hand.

"Of course, the emperor will not trust anyone. In order to keep his position, he will definitely not give those key positions to people from these three factions. But the court is so small that there are not many people the royalists can use. Apart from the royalists and neutrals, there are not many people the emperor can use either."

An Wenniang nodded, and finally understood what An Zizhong wanted to do. She hesitated for a moment, but still asked the question that she had been unable to figure out during the day.

"Since Duke Cheng'en has always had evil ambitions to usurp the throne, the Queen Mother must have known about it. Without the Emperor, the princes are useless. The Queen Mother chose Duke Cheng'en to take the throne so that she could continue to maintain her dignity and power. Why would she rather find an heir from the royal family than plot with Duke Cheng'en?"

An Zizhong's eyes were full of mockery. An Wenniang would definitely not understand. If he didn't know some of the past secrets, she would definitely not understand.

"In fact, the Queen Mother and the Prince of Cheng'en are not siblings from the same mother. The Queen Mother's biological mother is the cousin of the Prince of Cheng'en. The two grew up together and secretly fell in love with each other. However, in order to advance the family, the old Prince of Cheng'en forced the Prince of Cheng'en to marry a noblewoman from an aristocratic family. After the Prince of Cheng'en had the Prince of Cheng'en, he met the Queen Mother's biological mother. The two of them fell in love and gave birth to the Queen Mother. In order to give his daughter a good birth, the Prince of Cheng'en brought the child back to the mansion. It happened that the child of the Duke's wife died at birth at that time, so they said to the outside world that the Queen Mother was that girl, but in fact she was not."

"After the Duke's wife found out, she took people to find the Queen Mother's biological mother, dragged her out in the snow and beat her with a stick, but she didn't survive. So the relationship between Duke Cheng'en and the Duke's wife has been bad ever since. The Queen Mother didn't know about it when she was young, but later an old maid told her, and her relationship with the Duke's wife and the Duke's son became strained. However, at that time, she had just entered the palace and had to rely on her family's help, so they didn't break up."

"It wasn't until she gave birth to the Emperor and later became the Empress that she and the Duke's wife fell out. In addition, the Queen Mother and the Crown Prince's wife had a bad relationship. When Duke Cheng'en won the throne, the next Emperor would be the Duke's Crown Prince, and the Crown Prince's wife would be the Empress. The Duke's wife would naturally become the Queen Mother. She couldn't bear to see those people have an easy life, so she selected an heir and supported him to ascend the throne so that the Queen Mother could continue to enjoy the honor of being the mother of the country, and even rule the country from behind the curtain, holding all the power in her own hands."

An Wen Niang didn't expect that there would be such an exciting thing. No wonder the Queen Mother was unwilling to help Duke Cheng En seize the throne.