usatvline Chapter 157: Northern Qi Concubine - Death of Gao Jing＊2
Chapter 157: Northern Qi Concubine - Death of Gao Jing＊2
After a long silence, Gao Jing sat down at the table. He calmed himself and wrote a letter. After blowing it dry, he went to find his mother. He wanted to ask someone to take a letter to the empress dowager.
One can imagine the hatred and anger that Queen Dowager Wang felt when she found out that her son was mute, but her son was still alive, and now they could only bow their heads and serve each other as slaves. She even had to beg the old witch for help for her son.
That’s right, in Concubine Dowager Wang’s heart, Lou Qingxue is an old witch.
Two days later.
A eunuch in the Queen Mother's palace came to report: Concubine Wang wants to see you.
It was the Queen Mother's lunch time, so Zhou Leng had no choice but to order Concubine Wang to wait in the front hall. About two quarters of an hour later, after eating and drinking, the Queen Mother went out to meet people.
The Queen Mother turned around the screen and came out. Concubine Wang had already stood up and saluted.
After Zhou Leng sat down, he said, "Hurry up and get up. Is there something you need today?"
She used to be Wang Zhaoxun, now the Queen Mother Wang, and she had to bow her head under someone else's roof. In fact, she had sent someone to pass on the message long ago, but the people in the palace replied that the Queen Mother would not see any outsiders in the morning, so she, an outsider, had to wait until this moment to receive the message.
Princess Dowager Wang sat in the front hall for another quarter of an hour before she was able to meet the Queen Mother. Although she was full of resentment, she had to hold it in and return to her own house to let it out.
Queen Dowager Wang took out Gao Jing's letter and said with tears in her eyes:
"This is the letter from the commoner Gao Jing to the empress dowager. He accidentally ate something and injured his throat a few days ago. Now he can only write a letter to express his well-being. Your Majesty, please read it for the sake of...for the sake of his bloodline of the late emperor."
The Queen Mother's voice was already choked with sobs.
Zhou Leng looked at her calmly.
Queen Dowager Wang knelt down with tears in her eyes and said, "My Queen Mother, please read his letter. Please read it."
His tone was full of earnestness and pleading.
Caiyue behind Zhou Leng stepped forward to help Concubine Wang up, then picked up the letter and went to the Queen Mother. She first wiped the letter with a handkerchief, then picked up the letter with the handkerchief and sniffed it carefully with her nose, and then took out the letter inside and handed it to the Queen Mother.
Zhou Leng read ten lines at a glance. After finishing, she looked at Concubine Wang with tears and sadness in her eyes. After all, Concubine Wang was still a person with a motherly heart.
Zhou Leng hated Gao Jing, the criminal who had disrupted the imperial court and the harem, and she disliked his lack of ethics and moral principles. However, she thought about it and said:
"You can go back today. I will arrange what Gao Jing wants."
Wang, who was the noble concubine, couldn't help but kneel down and kowtow to Zhou Leng before getting up and leaving.
Half a month later.
Concubine Dowager Wang announced to the world that the eldest prince Gao Jing, who had been demoted to a commoner, became depressed and died. To show his deep brotherly love, the new emperor buried him with the ceremony for a prince.
However, the rumor among the people was that the late emperor asked Eunuch Cao to wait until his death to execute Gao Jing, for fear that he would cause chaos in the court.
No one knew that a new person had come to the Royal Academy. Although he was a mute, he was well-read and quite capable, so he became the account keeper of the academy.
Gao Jing's life ended, and the life of the academy manager Tan Jing began. He might be lonely for the rest of his life, or he might marry another woman, after all, he had a mother who was a concubine, so he lived a rich life, but no matter what he did, he could never be Gao Jing again.
It is common knowledge that Gao Jing is dead.
*****
After several years of hard work, Da Qi finally held its first nationwide imperial examination. This time it only tested scholars, and those who passed the examination would be registered and wait for employment.
The most important component of a court is not the officials, not the emperor, but the clerks.
Before the Great Qi Dynasty, officials were hereditary, meaning that when officials got older they would return home and their sons would take over, which would lead to the formation of complex local forces.
Now the emperor has issued a decree that all official positions will no longer be hereditary. If a position becomes vacant, it must be reported to the Ministry of Personnel, which will then select successful scholars to fill the position.
Of course, this is because the imperial examination has just been introduced. In the future, the selection of officials will be more stringent and the requirements will be higher. The most important thing is that officials cannot serve in their hometowns.
The mother and son first touched the cake of these officials. They were not as powerful as the aristocratic families and had no ability to organize a rebellion, but they were the ones who knew best that the emperor was far away and many officials were lawless and bullied the people.
The ministers in the court became busy, but after a few years, they could no longer suppress their demands for the emperor to establish a queen.
Zhou Leng specifically asked his son, who has now become a handsome guy, if he has someone he likes.
Gao Ze shook his head and denied it, claiming that he had no favorite woman in his heart. He was the emperor and had outstanding looks, and many palace maids had shown their love and seduced him since he was a child. Even the strict palace rules could not control such things, but Gao Ze had never been seduced successfully.
Some things are strange, for example, there are more ugly scumbags than affectionate handsome guys.
When Gao Ze was eighteen years old, Zhou Leng did not, like some elders, assign an experienced, older, and crude palace maid to teach the emperor the ways of sex. Instead, he found a young, beautiful, and gentle palace maid who had learned these skills, and then gave her to Gao Ze to perform the ceremony of adulthood.
After all, among the emperors, Gao Ze was considered to be relatively late in being "enlightened".
Gao Ze was not a man who was greedy for beauty, but perhaps because she was his first love, ten days later he conferred the palace maid the title of Xuanhui, making her the head of the lower concubines. In fact, this was considered a promotion for her. From then on, she was the only concubine in the palace.
****
Whether it is choosing a concubine or a queen, a beauty contest must be held first.
After a tedious screening process, it finally came to the stage of personal selection by the Empress Dowager and the Emperor.
The former queen, now Empress Dowager Anfu, who had not appeared for a long time, declined to attend the selection. She lived her life peacefully in the palace and seldom made trouble. She was very self-aware.
The actual decision makers in the harem are only Zhou Leng and the emperor.
In the tall, majestic and magnificent palace, five people in a row went in and out several times, but the Empress Dowager and the Emperor were indifferent and even expressionless.
This made all the palace maids and eunuchs in the hall dare not even breathe.
It was supposed to be a joyful talent show occasion, but the atmosphere was made extremely serious by these two people.
In fact, before the selection of the queen, Lou Yue went to the palace to meet Zhou Leng. His idea was very simple. He hoped that the Lou family could produce another queen. However, Zhou Leng refused this idea because she knew that the Lou family could not produce another queen.
The father and daughter were very unhappy about this matter.
When Gao Ze heard about this, he actually supported his mother. Having reached a corresponding position, he naturally worried about whether his position was secure. This was what it meant to do one's job.
At this moment, Zhou Leng was sitting at the top, looking at the girl standing in the middle of the hall, the biological daughter of the second uncle of the Lou family. She did not choose the other party. Gao Ze glanced at his mother and saw that his mother really had no intention of staying. Naturally, he would not choose the girl of the Lou family.