Tianliangyuan

Chapter 482 Ending

Emperor Yong'an's face had turned gloomy.

He said that his body was suddenly not as good as before, and he often felt tired lately.

So it turns out they were drugged?

Emperor Yong'an glanced at the jade bottle on the table, pulled out the stopper, and brought it close to smell it. He immediately felt refreshed.

More importantly, Emperor Yong'an could smell the sweet aroma of that auspicious melon from back then!

Emperor Yong'an was naturally superstitious, and when he thought about what Xu Zhaozhao had said, he immediately thought that this was a miraculous medicine bestowed by heaven.

Perhaps he was too anxious, because he didn't care about anything and swallowed one pill directly.

The imperial physician standing nearby was terrified.

Fortunately, after a few breaths, Emperor Yong'an was still unharmed, and his complexion seemed to be slowly improving.

"Come here and let me take your pulse."

The imperial physician examined the patient very carefully and was overjoyed: "Your Majesty, the toxicity is weakening."

That evening, the Crown Prince and Crown Princess were holding a banquet in the East Palace when Zheng Tuo and Fang Liang led a troop of Imperial Guards and stormed in. With a single order, the Crown Prince was taken away, and the entire East Palace was sealed off.

Meanwhile, Xie Zheng and Xu Junfeng led their men to seal off the entire palace. Empress Qu was punished by imperial decree and subsequently imprisoned in the Cold Palace.

After news of the Crown Prince's arrest spread, the capital city indeed took action. Fortunately, Xie Zheng and Xu Junfeng held the Taiji Palace, and Xie Xiaolin, Xu Han, Fang Dazhuang, Cui Shu, and others cooperated to successfully capture the Crown Prince's nearly 6,000 private soldiers.

That night, the sounds of fighting filled the area outside the palace, while inside, the peace was eerily tranquil.

Those Taoist priests were all arrested. After Emperor Yong'an personally interrogated them, no evidence was left behind. Instead, he directly arranged for them to be killed.

Emperor Yong'an was heartbroken.

Should we tell future generations that it was his own son who wanted him dead?

The removal of the crown prince is enough to cause turmoil in the court.

Qu Shiji never expected the Crown Prince to be so audacious, but now that the plot has failed, no one believes him when he claims he was unaware of the situation.

Fortunately, His Majesty still cherishes old friendships.

Emperor Yong'an did not depose the empress; however, the imperial seal was taken back, and she was imprisoned in the inner palace.

Qu Shiji was also temporarily suspended from his duties pending investigation.

A month later, the matter of the crown prince's rebellion finally subsided.

Dozens of officials were implicated, with some being dismissed and sent back to their hometowns, while others lost their heads.

At this point, the other princes naturally became restless.

However, it is impossible for Emperor Yong'an to re-establish a crown prince so quickly.

Moreover, from the perspective of etiquette and law, he valued the legitimate son more.

Li Guang has been following Xu Zhaozhao for the past few years and has been well taught by her. His health has also improved, and he is now proficient in both literature and martial arts, which pleases Emperor Yong'an the most.

Emperor Yong'an thought that his life had been saved by Xu Zhaozhao. As an emperor, even though he knew that Xu Zhaozhao was a lucky star, he could not help but reward her.

With a wave of his hand, Emperor Yong'an bestowed upon Xu Zhaozhao the title of Princess Anle, increasing her fief to two thousand households. In addition, a large number of items reserved for the royal family were sent to the Duke of Huguo's mansion in a continuous stream.

Xu Zhaozhao's fief was in Lantian County, so some people also called her Princess Lantian.

Emperor Yong'an directly ordered the Ministry of Works to continue supervising the construction of the Princess's Mansion in Lantian County.

Lantian County originally had a county magistrate's mansion, but after Xu Zhaozhao was granted the title of princess, no further expansion was carried out.

This time it's different.

Now that Xu Zhaozhao has become a princess, she naturally needs a mansion of equal stature to be worthy of her.

Therefore, the Ministry of Works directly acquired more land, effectively doubling the size of the original county magistrate's residence.

A year later, Li Guang led his troops to Nanzhao with swords.

Xie Zheng and Cui Shu followed him closely, and in less than half a year, they successfully made Nanzhao submit and become their vassal.

Nanzhao had previously been a vassal state of Daxing, paying tribute to it.

It's only in recent years that they've become so ambitious that they've started thinking about moving north, hoping to acquire more land and wealth.

However, they were defeated by Li Guang in a single battle.

In the words of Minister Gu, this battle wiped out ten years' worth of tax revenue for Nanzhao.

Once the official letter was signed, Nanzhao became more obedient than ever before.

The following year, Li Guang got married to a woman from the Wang family of Taiyuan. The month after the wedding, Li Guang was made crown prince, and Wang was made crown princess.

When Emperor Yong'an saw that Li Guang had finally become a father, he was relieved, but he also truly felt that his time was up.

He had also been on the battlefield when he was young, and he had many hidden injuries.

Over the years, I have been able to continue living this long thanks to Xu Zhaozhao's longevity wine.

On his deathbed, Emperor Yong'an summoned Xu Zhaozhao.

At this point, Emperor Yong'an was speechless.

Xu Zhaozhao understood his intentions and tearfully assured him, "Don't worry, as long as I'm here, the Great Xing Dynasty will surely prosper, and Your Highness the Crown Prince will become an excellent emperor."

Emperor Yong'an then loosened his grip and never opened his eyes again.

As Xu Zhaozhao wept bitterly, the chief eunuch presented her with a small box in front of everyone.

"Your Highness, His Majesty instructed me to give this to you."

Inside the box, besides a sword belonging to the emperor, there was also an imperial edict.

Everyone held their breath, extremely worried that this imperial edict would have an impact on the court.

To everyone's surprise, His Majesty's decree was to have Xu Zhaozhao keep a close watch on the Crown Prince, allowing her to exercise the rights of an elder sister.

At this point, everyone understood that in His Majesty's heart, besides the Crown Prince, the person with the highest status was Princess Anle.

With the ascension of the new emperor, the court underwent another major reshuffle.

The first thing the new emperor did after ascending the throne was not to appoint an empress, but to personally issue an edict to confer upon Xu Zhaozhao the title of Princess Anle.

This is what Xu Zhaozhao deserves.

Empress Qu, still in the cold palace, hoped that her son could save her. Unfortunately, Emperor Yong'an had already issued an edict to execute her before his death, and she was buried in the imperial mausoleum.

Emperor Yong'an has completely eliminated the possibility of the Qu family making a strong comeback!

A year later, Empress Wang plotted to frame Consort Gui because she was jealous that Consort Gui had given birth to a prince, but Consort Gui was rescued by Xie Jingyan and Xie Jingsi, who were playing in the palace.

The new emperor was furious and immediately deposed the empress.

Throughout her life, Xu Zhaozhao never used the sword bestowed upon her by Emperor Yong'an, because she knew that Li Guang was an emperor, and if she were to use that sword to teach him a lesson even once, the bond between her and her brother would be completely broken.

Therefore, Xu Zhaozhao always adopted a conciliatory approach towards him.

Until his death, Li Guang was grateful to Xu Zhaozhao, because he received true family affection from her and learned that a true sister teaches and protects her younger brother in the same way.

After Xie Zheng passed away, Xu Zhaozhao was unwilling to live alone any longer.

By this time, she already had five generations under one roof. Without Xie Zheng's company, and with all the relatives she cared about most having passed away, she no longer had the motivation to live.

Xu Zhaozhao passed away three days after Xie Zheng's death.

The couple was buried together. Before his death, Li Guang issued an imperial edict ordering them to be buried in the imperial mausoleum.

Xu Zhaozhao felt as if she had a very long dream, and when she woke up, she found that she was holding a book in her hand.

So, was her experience in Daxing really just a dream?