Clan House

In Jingren Palace, Concubine Wen Gui has recently become obsessed with embroidery, and confidently set up an embroidery frame in the bedroom, planning to embroider four screens.

Song Jingshi was sitting opposite, looking at the flowers and birds, chatting with his mother and concubine nonchalantly.She has been busy recently, and occasionally enters the palace to inquire about cases.Naturally, she would not tell Concubine Mu about these things, and the other party only thought that she was coming back to visit.

Concubine Wen Gui has lived in the harem for a long time, and her status is second only to the empress dowager. Now that she is old, she does not need to serve the emperor, and her life is very leisurely.Her skin is fair, much fairer and tenderer than the daughter in front of her. In recent years, there have been some fine lines around her eyes, which added a bit of charm to her tranquil face.Although the pair of sons and daughters are not often around, they are raising the fifth princess right now, so they are not lonely.

Song Jingshi saw his mother threading the needle up and down, the silk thread was getting shorter and shorter, he aimed at the silk thread of the same color, and split it like his mother usually did.Her fingers were rougher than those of ordinary women, and the silk threads were shaved to fluff.She licked her lips subconsciously, and replaced her index finger with a relatively smooth little finger.

Concubine Wen Gui hid the end of the thread, looked up and saw her daughter's cautious appearance, her face sank, and she slapped Song Jingshi's serious hand away.

Song Jingshi hadn't spoken yet, when he suddenly heard a heart-piercing cry, followed by a non-stop roar, which woke up the five princesses who were taking a nap in the inner room.The nannies and maids were flustered for a while, Concubine Wen Gui withdrew the needle, and greeted the princess into her arms to comfort her.

Song Jingshi waited all morning, and finally heard some noises, and hurriedly sent the maid out to check.Qiaoyue, who was next to Concubine Wen Gui, took care of the errand, but Jin Wang stopped him and ordered Rong Jin, whom he had brought, to go with him.

After a while, Qiaoyue and Rong Jin came back, and Concubine Wen Gui first asked the nanny to take the princess back to her room before allowing the two to speak.

"Returning to your highness, it's the Palace of Compassion and Ning who is dealing with the palace people." Qiaoyue replied, "The servant girl and Miss Rongjin inquired about it, and said that the servant girl on duty at night was walking around at night, which shocked the empress dowager. The empress gave three Ten sticks, hit hard, died before the end, and now the person has been carried out of the palace."

Concubine Wen Gui rubbed the sun with her fingers up, obviously this was not the first time she had heard these things. "The Empress Dowager has been feeling unwell recently, and the whole palace is not safe. You will go out of the palace and go back to the mansion, and tell the public that there is something wrong in the previous court. Don't go to your imperial grandmother to be an eyesore."

"Yes, my son wants to ask my mother and concubine something." Song Jingshi glanced at Qiaoyue, saw the concubine waving her hand, and the court lady led all the palace people back out knowingly.

"Mother and concubine, have you ever noticed how long the Compassionate Palace has been like this?" Song Jingshi asked.

"Grace of Compassion, I haven't had a safe life since you went to war. I heard that the female officer in charge, Su Wen, is ill. The people below her don't like the Empress Dowager and are often punished." Concubine Wen Gui sighed, "Why do you inquire about this?" , don’t get close to the Empress Dowager’s eyes.”

"My son knows, didn't my father ask my son to investigate the case, and found out some extraordinary things." Song Jingxin lowered his voice and asked, "There used to be an Aunt Peining by my grandmother's side. Do my concubine remember it?"

"Naturally I remember that I used to serve the Queen Mother when I was in the East Palace, and then I got a sudden illness and passed away." Concubine Wen Gui squeezed her sleeves unconsciously, and asked, "What's going on, the case of the Crown Princess may be related to the Queen Mother's case. related?"

"Don't interrupt, think about it," Song Jingshi said, "Then when did Peining die?"

"What year? How do you remember this moment... However, I remember that shortly after your grandfather fell ill, Concubine Xiao Gui disappeared in the palace. At that time, the East Palace was in a hurry because of your grandfather's illness. She was the crown princess at that time, but Peining, who was the most powerful by her side, was nowhere to be seen, and the concubine mother asked at that time, so she knew she was gone."

"It's the 45th year of Ningde." Song Jingshi said.

In the 45th year of Ningde [1], Prince Song Xu, who had always been in good health, suddenly fell ill and was bedridden.No one in the imperial hospital could diagnose the prince's illness, and a lot of precious medicinal materials were prescribed, and they were boiled into soup and fed to the prince, but they couldn't be poured into it.The eunuchs and maids who served did not dare to pour medicine on the prince indiscriminately. Every time they tried a little, they quietly poured it out if it didn't work.

The little maid lazily poured the medicine dregs into the garden, and within a few days, the precious flowers and trees of the crown princess were watered to death.Seeing that the palace people were busy, the little maid secretly shoveled up the seedlings, intending to bury them and destroy the corpses, but she dug out something terrible.

Seeing the wooden man, the Crown Princess immediately ordered a search of the palace, and of course a lot of things were found.She didn't have time to find out the reason, so she first invited experts from outside the palace to judge that the prince had been tricked into winning.

Emperor Yingzong never liked to pretend to be gods and ghosts, but at that time, seeing the princess's eyes were red from crying, and all the imperial doctors were helpless to deal with the prince's illness, so they let the woman torment.Like the later concubine Zhou, this Taoist also used the technique of countering the curse.In a few days, the prince woke up, but Concubine Xiao Gui of Yanxi Palace passed out like the prince before.

The news about Ya Sheng had spread in the palace, but Concubine Xiao Gui fell ill at this time, and everyone in the palace couldn't help but feel guilty.The steward ordered the palace servants to conceal the illness, and quietly invited a familiar imperial physician to ask for a pulse.But the Palace of Yanxi Palace had raised the Seventh Prince after all, so they couldn't avoid contact with the palace. Besides, the lord of the first palace was unconscious, and only one eunuch in charge couldn't be the backbone.

It was rumored in the palace that Concubine Xiao Gui cursed the crown prince, but Yingzong did not believe such nonsense. This concubine gave birth to the most favored seventh prince, and was still favored by the emperor.The crown princess seemed to be crazy, and she was not afraid of contradicting the emperor, so she took off her hairpin and knelt down with plain face and begged Yingzong to give her husband an explanation.Yingzong also didn't want the prince to be wronged, so he gently persuaded the princess that ghosts and spirits should not be believed, and at the same time asked people to find evidence.Unexpectedly, this investigation really found the source in Concubine Xiao's bedroom.

If the clan is involved, the case will be transferred to the clan government.Hu Ting, the general manager of Yanxi Palace, was afraid of being tortured, so he recruited them all, crying and howling.He was instructed by Concubine Xiao Gui to kill the Crown Prince with a wooden mantra, in order to pave the way for the Seventh Prince.After the incident, Concubine Xiao was unconscious due to the anti-curse technique. He was worried that the matter would be exposed, so he blocked the news of Concubine's illness, but unexpectedly, the news still leaked out.According to Hu Ting's confession, the Clan's House confirmed that it was true and the evidence was conclusive.

Even though the seventh prince had moved to the queen's palace, Yingzong still intended to protect his biological mother.But Concubine Xiao Gui didn't have so much time to wait, and died of a serious illness before the case was concluded.The faction of the princess and concubine is still unwilling to settle the matter, because of Hu Ting's confession, the relics from the previous dynasty also flew to the emperor's desk like snowflakes, this is the pressure exerted by the Gu family.

Yingzong had struggled, but the Si people had passed away, and the forces of all parties urgently needed a balance, so in the end they let the Xiao clan sink.

In the 45th year of Ningde, the imperial concubine Xiao's family poisoned the prince and failed.Because the person was deceased at the time of the incident, his concubine position was abolished and he was demoted to a common man.The emperor's seventh son Yi was handed over to the middle palace to be raised, and the king of Chu still remained on the throne.

In the Beihai Palace, Emperor Xuanqing retreated to the left and right, not even Weiyan who was inseparable all day long, leaving Song Jingshi alone by his side.

King Jin has already found out the case, so the matter is serious, he didn't tell anyone, and went straight to the Beihai Palace with personal and material evidence.She is loyal to Junfu, which is the main reason why she has been highly valued in recent years.

"It is true that Weiyu is guilty. I have been taught by Taoist Weiyan recently, and I also know that I was deceived by that guy in the past. The crown princess is still crowned as usual, and his father and brother are also consoling. The crown prince has been wronged. After returning, On my behalf, go to the East Palace more often, and when I return to the palace, we father and son will have a good reunion." Emperor Xuanqing carefully read the notebook handed over by Song Jingshi, detailing Weiyu's many crimes and the whole story of committing the crime.Before that, he had a long conversation with Weiyan, and his attitude towards Weiyu naturally changed a lot. "The rest of the clan and courtiers who have been persecuted by Weiyu, check it out according to your list, and each will be appeased."

However, the Son of Heaven also had some doubts, how could Taoist Weiyu be related to a witchcraft case ten years ago. "Now it seems that the methods of the two witchcraft cases are exactly the same, and it does seem to be related. But how old were you at that time, how did you find out so many details?" Emperor Xuanqing was not a suspicious person, but Because of Weiyu's loss just now, and the unexpected things happened recently, she has some doubts about her parents and children.

"Father," Song Jingshi didn't realize it, but snorted childishly, "Your servant is being used!"

Emperor Xuanqing raised his eyebrows: "How do you say that?"

"Father, the sons and ministers went out to fight, so they didn't know the situation in Beijing. It's just that I have exchanged letters with my family in the past year, and I learned that my sister-in-law has taken care of the royal family. I am also grateful for the friendship of the emperor's sister-in-law. This time I came back and heard that the emperor's sister-in-law was seriously ill. , there were bad rumors again, and I thought in my heart that there might be some misunderstanding. But it was too late for my minister to check the facts, so my sister-in-law went. That day, the emperor's uncle killed Weiyu, and my son was really shocked, and then the emperor told the The matter was handed over to the son-in-law, so the son-in-law wanted to find out the matter and try to be fair. The Weiyu is dead, and the son-in-law thought it would take some effort, but he never thought..." Song Jingshi glanced at the emperor, and frowned. She pursed her lips, "I never thought that the investigation process would be extremely smooth, except for the fact that the emperor's wife took a little effort, the other evidence came easily, as if it was brought before my eyes."

"You mean, someone secretly collected Weiyu's criminal evidence?"

"you do not say!"

"Who is it, and what kind of hatred do you have with Weiyu?"

"Who else is there, King Chu!" Song Jingshi opened the file and pushed forward angrily, "Look at this, isn't Xiao Shi his biological mother! After putting so much effort into it, he invited the Taimiao and called his clan and courtiers, just to reverse the case for his own family!"

Song Jingshi had done enough drama, but Emperor Xuanqing was not so easy to get the bait, he clicked on the content of the dossier: "You said that Weiyu was the Taoist that the Empress Dowager found to treat the emperor's illness, which is a bit far-fetched. Before that, Weiyu had never entered the palace, how could he poison his father? He had no grievances with Concubine Xiao, so what motive did he have for poisoning the crown prince and framing a noble concubine? This is what the King of Chu told you ? I don’t think his evidence is convincing.”

"Father, forgive me," Song Jingshi knelt down, "It's not a secret that Weiyu entered the palace back then. I have asked the officials of the East Palace before, and I have indeed seen him. But the old case involves the elders, and I dare not say it." Don’t dare to write. Father, if you don’t want to tell the king of Chu to enter, listen to his explanation in person.”

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[1] 45 years of Ningde: In the last few years of Emperor Ningde's reign, Song Yi was three years old