Chapter 143: To ask for a lion’s share

Returning to the capital from Shaanxi for half a month, the emperor’s concubines were not allowed to leave the palace at will, so Su Yan casually asked.

Zhu He Lin face to see the joke of the look: “a while ago, she made a lot of noise, a moment to say that they are sick, a moment to say that the second prince is sick, the father of the emperor Hu lured over a few trips, but also to get some enchanting palace maid to serve, the father of the emperor annoyed, simply even her face is not seen. In the past two days, I heard that she came to see the father, claiming that her mother is sick to go home to her family, I do not know whether it is true or not, the father is too lazy to break with her, agreed that she went out of the palace to return to her mother’s home.”

“Where is the Second Prince?” Su Yan asked.

“It’s fine, it’s good, now in the imperial grandmother.” Zhu He Lin heart some not taste, “I go to Ci Ning Palace to ask for peace, see the royal grandmother love to hold, eight months more than twenty pounds of small fat one, she held from morning to night, also do not mind wrist pain. Listen to Cheng Sheng said, when I was a baby, she did not hold a few times.”

Su Yan also heard him say before, the empress dowager because she did not like the first empress, aversion to the house and also do not treat him, can not help but comfortably patted the prince’s arm: “relatives get along with also have to look at fate, at least the emperor like you. As for the empress dowager, you as a younger generation should do are in place, the final result of how to let nature take its course.”

Zhu Helin said with a bit of pride, “Father Emperor loves me. When I was still in my mother’s womb, my father promised my mother that if this child was a son, he would be directly crowned as the crown prince after birth.”

Su Yan was silent for a moment and said, “The Imperial Master and the former Empress must have had a good relationship.”

Zhu Hailin nodded, “I heard the old courtiers gossiping, saying that they had never seen such a long-suffering emperor. Before mother was alive, father and emperor were as honorable as guests. After the mother died, father did not favor the concubines for four or five years, and it was only after being pushed by his grandmother and courtiers that he had a pair of twin princesses with Princess Shufei. Since then, almost not close to women, town day busy with state affairs.

“More than two years ago, Imperial Grandmother forced her niece Wei into the harem. To be honest, I was quite surprised that she would give birth to a dragon heir, and I don’t know what tactics were used or if it was out of Imperial Grandmother’s will.”

Su Yan knows Jinglong emperor has two sons and three daughters, the eldest princess Zouyu is and Xianfei born, than the crown prince is two years old, has been married. The two twin princesses Zuo Jia, Zuo Xi just ten years old, is the age of innocence. The last is Wei Guifei born little prince, Dragon Boat Festival in the East Garden shock premature birth, now only eight months old, listen to Zhu He Lin’s tone is like feeding very well, white and chubby unlike a premature child.

He also knows that Emperor Jinglong honored the former Empress, which is why the throne is still vacant. The emperor is particularly fond of the crown prince, in addition to the blood relationship and temperament, probably also mixed with some components of empathy.

Indeed is a long love, in countless towards the Qin twilight Chu and even turn the face of the emperor of the heartless, seems to be particularly rare. Su Yan a moment of emotion, to that “contains the obvious beauty to send the end, floating Yu sound to Taisu” of the former Empress, I do not know whether to admire or jealousy …… wait, jealousy is what the ghost? Where to run to the inexplicable word, hurry to give it out of the door!

Su Yan swept the unknown hint of emotion out of his brain and asked the Crown Prince, “Do you suspect that the Empress Dowager was the one who pushed for the birth of the Imperial Son by Noble Consort Wei?”

Obviously there were only two people in the sedan chair, Zhu Helin still subconsciously looked around and whispered to Su Yan, “I suspect that the Empress Dowager has always harbored the idea of changing the Crown Prince’s mind.”

Suyan was surprised, “What?”

Zhu Helin’s face was serious, “Really. After the Viper assassination, I’ve been vigilant and have been paying more attention to everything. Not only did I pay more attention to Noble Consort Wei and the Wei clan, I also paid attention to my father and grandmother’s side. There is a middle-aged aunt in Ci Ning Palace, who is Cheng Sheng’s counterpart, I let Cheng Sheng talk to her and realized why the Empress Dowager didn’t like my mother back then.”

Su Yan waited for him to continue on with a patient listening stance.

“When my grandmother was still Qin Wangfei, she had an endless fight with Mo, the side consort of my grandfather. In the end, Imperial Grandmother won, and Father was named Prince of Qin, and then Emperor Taizong collapsed without an heir, and the late Grandfather succeeded his brother by posthumous edict, and then logically made Father the Crown Prince.

“And as Mo died in solitary confinement, her two sons, King Xin and King Ning, were left out in the cold for some years. Until Father Emperor ascended to the throne, he was mindful of the love of brother and sister, and gave them the honor and glory they deserved. As a result, the King of Xin, the thing of death, the good life only a few years nah is ungrateful, attempted to rise up against the rebellion, the defeat is still unrepentant, and finally by the Father Emperor to give death.”

These royal secrets, he had listened to King Yu in the Wutong Water Salon, this time he could only pretend to be listening for the first time. Su Yan gently nodded and asked, “What does this have to do with the former Empress?”

Zhu Helin said: “I heard that aunt in Ci Ning Palace say that my mother’s appearance, voice and manner of speaking are quite similar to that Mo’s. The year my mother was born coincided with Mo’s death. The year of my mother’s birth coincided with Mo’s death. The aunt heard the Empress Dowager ask the monk Jiyao in private, ‘Is the story of reincarnation true or false? Jiyao replied, ‘It is true.'”

Su Yan lost his smile, “Can the words of that flower monk Jiyao be believed? I heard that he was in Lingguang Temple, and was skinned by the jinyiwei of the Shen–Bei Zhenfu Si.”

“But at that time, he was still a great virtuous monk that everyone in the palace believed in, and he was very good at pretending to be a god. Imperial grandmother believed in Buddhism as well as Taoism, and valued his words.” Zhu Helin said in a depressed manner.

Su Yan in the bottom of her heart: the Empress Dowager suspected that the first Empress was the reincarnation of her long-standing enemy Mo, even if this suspicion is unfounded, all rely on metaphysics, but also enough to diaphragm the rest of her life.

Originally, people die, but the crown prince looks not quite like the emperor, I guess like the first empress, temperament and she does not agree, but also let the empress dislike. No wonder over the past ten years to the Prince has never been good face, but also had to let the Emperor marry her niece, I guess I think the second Prince is her real grandson, double bloodline doubled pro.

But the Empress Dowager is biased, the Prince has been the Crown Prince for more than ten years, and the Emperor favors him, as long as there is no serious misconduct, the status of the Crown Prince will be unshakeable.

The imperial master looks elegant, but is an extremely opinionated, say one master, even if filial piety, the good and bad of the empress dowager can not sway the national capital.

Su Yan shook his head and suddenly thought – what if the Empress Dowager was bent on having her way?

It is true that the crown prince is young and playful, but he is still far from being able to reach the threshold of misdemeanor, what if the empress dowager and Wei Guifei teamed up to set up a trap and had to make him tumble over this threshold?

Su Yan frowned, feeling that this hypothesis is not empty. But the problem is, there are only a thousand days to be a thief, not a thousand days to prevent a thief, when these two ladies in the harem will coldly give the crown prince a chance, it’s also enough for this heartless brat to drink a pot of water.

Zhu Hailin saw his brows getting tighter and tighter, and couldn’t help but reach out and rub his brows, laughing, “Why are you so worried about me? The more you worry, the happier I am.”

Su Yan brushed away the crown prince’s dog’s paw, “Don’t always look like you don’t have a heart, grow a little more heart! You just said, ‘Viper assassination thing’ which thing is it, how come no one told me?”

Zhu Hailin said in his mouth that it’s best for him to worry, but in reality, he didn’t want him to worry, immediately pulling away from the topic, “Hey hey, arrived at the place, quickly come down to see, the Ao Shan are arranged a large part of it.” He called off the sedan chair, hard pull Su Yan off the sedan chair, in the paved stone square in front of the noon gate jogging up.

Running close to the front, Su Yan see this “ao mountain”, the original is not a mountain, there is no turtle, but by the craftsmen to create countless large and small lanterns, laying stacked out shape, like a huge as a hill of the old wangbao …… is not, it is the old ao, the only ao, the ao, because the ancients feel that this thing is festive. The ancients felt that this thing is festive.

The entire square was covered with lanterns, and just from the skeleton of Ao Shan, one could surmise how grand and spectacular the finished product would be. The lanterns were in a thousand different shapes and colors, and when they were lit with candles, what a bright and splendid sight it would be.

Zhu He Lin joyfully introduced: “These strange flowers, firecrackers shape are carefully designed, there is no one heavy, layers stacked up, and finally there can be thirteen layers, up to several zhang, higher than the city gate it. To the Lantern Festival, Ao Shan colorful lights flashing, fireworks non-stop burning, but also bell and drum Division site music, the Palace E dance, simply beautiful.”

Crap, Daming version of the Spring Festival Gala? Niuwai …… Su Yan staggered, asked, “Is this Ao Shan Lantern Festival open to the people, or is it only for the palace to enjoy?”

“Open to all the people of the city. According to the old custom, Father will also be there with all the civil and military officials to show that the king and the people are happy together and that the New Year is full of songs and dances.”

Su Yan looked at the craftsmen moving in and out of the square and asked, “How much silver must be consumed to organize such a lantern festival?”

Zhu Hailin never thought about the silver thing, blinded, “Ah? How much silver, small master is not too clear, at least there must be tens of thousands of taels it …… maybe more than that, must be more than a hundred thousand taels ……”

Su Yan gritted his teeth, “A lantern will be more than 100,000 taels, huh? When this is the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games!”

Zhu Hailin laughed dryly: “Is it very, very expensive? But I see that it’s organized every year, and Father didn’t say that it’s extravagant and wasteful, even the most stingy Secretary of the Ministry of Revenue Xu Ruiqi didn’t say a word against it.”

“Xu Shangshu, he even gave me the horse government allocated silver, have to pay in installments! I thought how tight the Da Ming financial it, in Shaanxi also all kinds of open source and cut costs, can gouge as much as possible gouge, damn the original infrastructure project is not better than the facade project!” Su Yan was angry, whisking his sleeve to the south of the Chengtian Gate to go, to walk out of the palace front court.

Zhu Hailin realized that he had touched his explosive point, and hurriedly went up and held his arm to show his goodwill: “Hey, don’t be angry. Think about it, you don’t know how much the people of the capital like the Ao Shan Lantern Festival, when ten thousand people empty alleys, all come to enjoy the lights. The king and the people are happy, the people are happy, the weather of the great nation ah!”

Su Yan in fact also understand the importance of showing the country’s strength and inspiring the people, but just heartbroken that their financial allocations to be less.

Next time to engage in construction to engage in the project must be a lion’s share of the money, not Xu Shangshu this mouth bites tight old ao peeled off a layer of shell, he is not called Su Yan Su Qinghe!

The crown prince waved desperately towards the back, the guards carrying the sedan chair originally hid away as instructed, but now they were busy rushing up. The Crown Prince pulled Su Yan onto the sedan chair again and said, “I will send you outside Fengtian Gate and arrange another carriage for you.”

Su Yan asked with a wry smile, “Do you want to go to my house for New Year’s Eve?”

“Yes, yes, yes!” Zhu Hailin nodded furiously without hesitation.

“Dream on, stay well in the palace and guard your father, and when you’ve behaved well, you’ll be given a big bag of New Year’s money.”

Zhu Helin immediately collapsed his face and said bitterly, “Boring! Right, isn’t it time for you to go shopping for New Year’s goods, or should I accompany you?”

Su Yan looked at him in civilian clothes, he knew that he had hit the crooked idea of the white dragon fish costume again, and shook his head repeatedly, “I’m not taking you to fool around, lest I get the court cane again.”

Zhu Hailin patted his chest and made a promise: “Father won’t blame, last year’s spring vacation, I also played outside for a few days, father nagging nagging, in the end did not do anything. If you really want to be punished, I’ll take the blame for you, even if it’s a beating, I’ll take the blame for you.”

Su Yan still disagreed.

Zhu Hailin was very annoyed, pounced over to tickle him. Su Yan laughed so hard that the sedan chair almost tipped over.

In the end, he did not argue with the capricious Prince, and left the palace with him.