bookcurios Chapter 134 Past events (1)
Chapter 134 Past events (1)
In the inner court of the palace, the story of Prince Jing's mother was not very novel. It was just a common story of jealousy among the concubines. However, Prince Jing's mother was indeed a stunning beauty. Not only was she beautiful, but she also had good handwriting, so she was favored by the emperor. There was even a time when the emperor stayed in her palace every night for half a month. However, this was only limited to half a month, because there was an unwritten rule in the palace that the emperor had to stay in the queen's palace on the first and fifteenth day of every month.
On the surface, Prince Jing's mother seems to be in great glory, but in reality, she is as dangerous as oil boiling over a raging fire. Although the emperor dotes on her, he cannot always protect her in the harem. In order to compete for status and favor, the women in the palace use all kinds of insidious and cunning means, which can be said to be endless.
At first, Shangguan Wanruo didn't even need to take action personally, as those concubines who liked to stir up trouble had already taken turns to do so. Some of them deliberately spread rumors to defame the reputation of Prince Jing's mother; some spread rumors in front of the emperor to try to sow discord; and some designed traps to try to put Prince Jing's mother in trouble:
Concubine Qiao jumped into a winter lake and her child fell, and she falsely accused the mother of Prince Jing of pushing the child; Concubine Mei got a few figurines from somewhere and wrote the birth dates of the emperor and the queen on them, and then ordered the palace maids to bury them under the osmanthus tree in the palace of Prince Jing's mother, falsely accusing her mother of practicing witchcraft; Concubine Liu asked the maids around her to put her earrings into her mother's sleeves at a palace banquet, falsely accusing her mother of theft. . . . .
Faced with these endless and hard-to-defend-against-the-grave attacks, the mother of Prince Jing could only deal with them cautiously, but even so, there were still some omissions. After all, a person's energy is always limited, while the other party is deliberate and omnipresent.
As a result, Prince Jing's mother still inevitably suffered repeated punishments from the queen who was always known for her "fairness" because of these things. At these times, the emperor would occasionally rush over, but more often he was too busy to take care of her. These people seemed to have figured out the emperor's whereabouts and always chose the time when the emperor was not free to create trouble. Over time, Prince Jing's mother suffered many diseases and even her hands were severely injured, causing her to no longer be able to write words that pleased the emperor as before.
Even though the emperor was dissatisfied with the queen, he could not punish her. Firstly, the punishments imposed by the queen seemed fair and reasonable; secondly, the family behind the queen was powerful, and the emperor had to be cautious.
Since ancient times, if concubines want to gain a foothold in the harem, or even compete with the queen, they must meet the following two conditions: First, the concubine needs to be arrogant and domineering enough or have deep scheming. However, the biological mother of Prince Jing is not like this. She is even a little indifferent to fame and fortune, and she is not competitive with the world. Her good handwriting shows her literary character. Second, she needs to have a family that can compete with the queen so that she can fight in the court, or at least protect herself. Unfortunately, Prince Jing's maternal grandfather's family does not meet these conditions. It's not that they are idle and greedy for pleasure all day long, but they lack the ability to be competent for high positions, let alone the deep foundation of the aristocratic family. Therefore, even if the emperor wants to favor Prince Jing's mother and wants to grant them some high positions and generous salaries, it is difficult to speak in front of the civil and military officials in the court. Prince Jing's mother is in a difficult situation.
Something happened that forced Empress Shangguan to take action: Prince Jing's mother was pregnant.