Changsheng: Peak at the Beginning

Chapter 155: Legend of Zhen Huan 27

The news that the emperor had sent two maids to Chengqian Palace with great fanfare soon spread throughout the harem. The queen now wished Yi Xin would die. She didn't believe that there was anyone who didn't covet the power in the palace. But since Yi Xin could control her greed, the position of a mere concubine would never satisfy her in the future. So she wished Yi Xin would die immediately.

However, Concubine Hua felt that there was a 50% chance that Yi Xin's news that she hoped to spend more time with Hong Sheng was true. After all, everyone could see how good Yi Xin was to Hong Sheng. Concubine Hua just wanted to have a child of her own more and more.

Wanpin felt that Yi Xin gave up her power in the palace because of Hong Sheng and also because she wanted to keep a low profile. She admired Yi Xin very much. After all, Yi Xin had not been favored by the emperor since she entered the palace, but her character was obvious to everyone. She envied and jealous that Yi Xin could give birth to Hong Sheng and was promoted to the position of concubine in just one year. However, she had not really seen the ups and downs of the harem, so she still retained the nobleness of a literati.

As for Concubine Duan, who had not yet made an official public appearance, she silently sent a message to the spies in Chengqian Palace, watching Yi Xin's every move more carefully.

Yi Xin cleaned out all the nails of the Queen and Concubine Hua, leaving only the nail of Concubine Duan. Of course, it was useful. After all, when the Emperor found out, even the nails of the Queen and Concubine Hua were gone, but her nail of Concubine Duan was able to escape the repeated cleanings, which shows that Concubine Duan's methods are definitely not ordinary.

When investigating the Imperial Household Department, the Emperor directly activated the Sticking Rod Department. The current head of the Sticking Rod Department is Xia Qi, who was a disciple of Zhang Qilin, the former chief steward of the Qiandi Palace.

Originally, Xia Jian had quite a bit of kung fu skills, but unfortunately after the emperor entered the palace, the stick-sticking department was left unused, so Xia Jian could only be a second-class eunuch in the Yangxin Palace, and he couldn't even curry favor with Su Peisheng's apprentice.

So this time when the emperor had important matters to instruct him, Xia Qian put all his energy into handling the matter, just wanting to show his face in front of the emperor again.

As a result, the people in the Ministry of Internal Affairs were in trouble. Xia Qi also learned from Ma Qi's previous way of collecting debts and classified the corrupt people. Those who were extremely corrupt from the beginning were put at the first, those who had been corrupt over a long period of time were put after them, those who had just started to engage in corruption were ranked third, and those who just took a little bit were put at the end.

The emperor did not expect that there was not a single corrupt person among the tens of thousands of people in the Imperial Household Department. More importantly, Xia Qian also found out that several bondservants actually attempted to contaminate the emperor's bloodline. Even his birth was an act against heaven by Uya clan. Before the current empress dowager entered the palace, Uya clan had already begun to let the good-looking girls in the clan nourish their wombs in order to develop a body that was good for childbearing. Then they would send the girls to the palace or the residences of clan members to give birth to children with Uya clan's bloodline!

The emperor was frightened by the ambition of the Baoyi family and broke out in a cold sweat. Then he thought of the women that the Empress Dowager Defei gave to his mansion when he was in the Qiandi Palace. They were either from the Baoyi family or from the Han Army Banner. Except for the two wives, there was not a single person from the Manchu Army Banner.

Back then, he could still accept the empress dowager's inconspicuous explanation. After all, the fight for the throne was extremely dangerous. But looking back now, there was not a single woman from the Manchu military flag family in the Manchu palace. Apart from practical needs, it was also possible that the empress dowager was using an open conspiracy.

This matter could not be concealed, and the emperor had no intention of hiding it for the bondservant families. He sent the confessions he had obtained directly to the royal family members. When the royal family members went back to check, they found that many mansions only had sons born to bondservant families. Others either could not give birth or gave birth to weak and sickly children. In short, the bondservants were too cunning.

The emperor originally did not intend to kill all the bannermen, but he could not help but feel insecure and wanted to wipe out all the bannermen families with names and surnames. As a result, the empress dowager's family, which had already been promoted, was spared the death penalty, but all their property was confiscated, and even the men in the family lost their jobs.

More than half of the remaining Baoyi in the Imperial Household Department were killed, but even with the loss of so many families, the remaining people were quickly replenished. In order to prevent the Baoyi from becoming powerful again through bloodline, the emperor issued an edict that women from the Baoyi banner could not be the head of a palace, and regardless of whether it was the harem or the royal family's backyard, the children born to women from the Baoyi banner would be registered under someone else's name.

In this way, the ambitions of many Baoyi families were dispelled.

Almost all of the Empress Dowager, the Empress, and Concubine Hua's staff were purged. Concubine Hua was fine, after all, no bondservants dared to cause trouble at this time, and she was able to manage the palace affairs more easily. So after a brief period of anger, she decided to recruit new staff.

The same cannot be said for the Empress Dowager and the Queen. They, the aunt and niece, were willing to stay behind the scenes, all relying on the connections they had. Now the Emperor, in a rage, cleared them all out. Even though nothing threatened them, they still felt restrained and very inconvenient. The Empress Dowager even vomited blood because of this, wasting a lot of her life.

Especially since Uya and Ulanara had almost lost all their property, they simply set their sights on the Empress Dowager and the Queen. Now, not only did they lose the family's support, they even had to support their family. Their lives began to become somewhat difficult.

The Empress Dowager was fine. After all, when the late emperor was alive, Uya made a lot of money. Even though she had spent a lot in recent years, she still had a lot of good things in her hands. If some of them flowed out, it would still be enough to support Uya and Ulanara for a while.

The Queen took all the gold, silver and shops from Queen Chunyuan. She herself also had a lot of dowry, and after running her business over the years, she had a lot of silver and money in her hands.

However, she was not as open-minded as the empress dowager. After being flattered by Ulanara, she became a little arrogant and unconsciously became like Fan Shengmei. It was not until Jianqiu reported to her that half of her private treasury had been used up in half a year that she finally came to her senses.

At this time, the harem had seen enough of the queen's jokes.

Yi Xin hosted Hong Sheng's first birthday party herself. Fu Cha's suggestion was to host one on the scale of the emperor's first birthday party, and not to argue about who was better at this time and make the emperor feel uncomfortable.

Yi Xin didn't care about these red tapes. If it wasn't for Hong Sheng's face, she would have wanted to just invite Yue Guiren and watch Hong Sheng do the one-year-old ceremony.

After more than half a year, the emperor finally understood that Yi Xin was really annoyed with the housekeeping. She said at the beginning that she would be in charge of the overall situation, but in fact she was too lazy to even do that. Usually, she let the two housekeepers discuss things with Concubine Hua on their own. She just wanted a result to compare with the old practice.

It must be said that Yi Xin's behavior did make the emperor feel at ease. After all, although he thought Hong Sheng was a good person, he was not yet ready to train him as his heir. After all, the emperor now had money, and Fu Cha had recommended many talents to him. He had a lot of things he wanted to do. Sometimes he would not enter the harem for a month or two, and even neglected Concubine Wan, focusing on the court.