The capital was currently in chaos.
The Jin Prince had raised a rebel army and tried to seize the throne. The crown prince was killed during the confusion caused by the rebellion, and countless died within the palace. The Jin Prince failed and was surrounded in the end, but was shot and killed by an arrow. This was the version of events that outsiders knew about. But many of them had doubts over the truth of the matter.
How could the crown prince have gotten killed by the Jin Prince when he was under heavy guard? As for the Jin Prince, who had dared to loose an arrow without receiving orders, and even ended up killing him with that one arrow?
Things were overly fishy, but those who felt it was suspicious didn't dare bring it up. Those who would dare bring it up didn't feel anything was wrong. After all, things were too chaotic at the time. Therefore, even if some felt things weren't quite right, it was only speculation without proof.
All in all, the Jin Prince's behavior was a disgrace. He took advantage of Emperor Xi's unconsciousness and along with his brother the Qi Prince, gathered an army around the capital. Along with a secret alliance within the palace, he tried to seize the throne. The crown prince was also killed during this event. The root cause of this was blamed on the Jin Prince's ambition. If he didn't have this ambition, none of this would have happened.
Something worth rejoicing over was that Emperor Xi finally woke up during this revolt. Despite his weakened body, he tidied up the aftermath. This was finding fortune in the midst of misfortune.
At the very least, their nation wouldn't be jeopardized for the moment.
Emperor Xi lost two of his sons in one go, and even though his personality had changed drastically, he still wasn't able to bear it. He had clearly planned everything out, but didn't expect that the Jin Prince was pretending to do one thing on the surface while secretly doing something else. His movements with the Qi Prince were just a distraction. His real objective had been to seize the palace in one go.
Things had happened too suddenly, and before Emperor Xi could react both his sons had lost their lives.
The crown prince's death was supposedly at the hands of someone sent by the Jin Prince during the chaos. As for the Jin Prince? Emperor Xi had ordered his men to surround him, and his orders were to capture and not kill. But someone took advantage of the chaos to shoot an arrow and the Jin Prince died on the spot.
When Emperor Xi received the news, he had spat a mouthful of blood and fainted. When he next awoke, he received news that the crown prince had previously sent troops to block the Qi Prince, and during the chaos of battle the Qi prince lost an arm.
He was even more furious at Empress Xiao and Senior Concubine Xu. These two women had gone completely insane. One had lost her only son and the other lost one son while her other one was crippled. Empress Xiao threw her dignity out the window and went directly to Senior Concubine Xu's Chunluan palace. The two of them came to blows without exchanging a single word. The majestic empress and senior concubine actually fought like a couple of commoner shrews: hair pulling, face scratching, and kicking each other's stomachs. Nothing was off limits. Only after the utmost efforts of both their personal palace maids where they separated.
Emperor Xi no longer had the time to care about these things. In his anger, his illness flared up once again. He managed to endure until the mess was somewhat cleaned up before immediately falling ill.
The court affairs were left to the two ministers to manage. Empress Xiao was still in charge of the rear palace, but Emperor Xi had already proclaimed that the Jin Prince's rebellion was unrelated to Senior Concubine Xu. She was still the senior concubine.
As for the officials who assisted in his rebellion, their possessions were seized and their entire families were imprisoned, awaiting Emperor Xi's sentencing. The Chengen Marquis didn't suffer this fate due to his relationship with Senior Concubine Xu, and was merely confined within his estate. As for the lesser families who participated, they became the mortals who suffered while the gods battled. Some forfeited their properties, some forfeited their lives.
This proved the accuracy of the saying that it wasn't easy for those without backing to earn a first class merit. A single mistake would end up harming their entire families.
The real culprits hadn't been dealt with yet, but the little fish and shrimp were already taken care of. It wasn't that the culprits couldn't be dealt with, but rather that Emperor Xi hadn't said anything yet. Even the two ministers could only do their jobs on the surface, stabilizing everything before deciding anything else.
The most important thing now was the successor to the throne since Emperor Xi looked like he wasn't going to last much longer.
He was currently extremely ill as though this event had completely used up his remaining energy. He wasn't even able to get up anymore, and if he spoke too much he would grow tired and groggy.
There weren't a lot of candidates left to choose from. Emperor Xi only had five sons who were of age. The crown prince and the Jin Prince were dead, the Qi Prince had participated in the rebellion and was also crippled. Only the Yun Prince and the Jing Prince were left.
But the Yun Prince was a coward and was also afraid of women. His reputation in the capital had never been good. As for the Jing Prince, he had been mute since he was young. The crown prince did have three sons, but unfortunately none were from his first wife, and were all from concubines.
Could it be the Grand Xi Dynasty's future emperor had to be chosen from the crown prince's underage little boys?
Empress Xiao was extremely favorable towards this idea. Her son had died, but she had no objections to having one of her grandsons ascend the throne. But there were too many officials who were against this in court. Even Minister Xu did not approve of this, let alone Senior Concubine Xu who hated her to the bones.
Everyone in the palace said that Senior Concubine Xu was truly favored. Despite her son committing such a taboo, Emperor Xi hadn't done anything to her, and hadn't even stripped her of her status. He even allowed her to come and go into the Violet Imperial Hall. Even Empress Xiao couldn't currently enter the hall for no reason.
On this day, Senior Concubine Xu came to the Violet Imperial Hall once again.
The moment she entered, she sprawled on the bedside and started crying.
She cried and wailed about many things. She lamented over the good times she and Emperor Xi had shared, over how cute their two sons were as children, over how the Jin Prince was a victim and that it was the crown prince who had wickedly taken advantage of his majesty's illness to suppress his brothers. Otherwise, the Jin Prince wouldn't have done such a disgraceful thing....
She then brought up the Qi Prince, and how he had been impetuous and got into trouble since he was young, but was still favored by his majesty. How the Qi Prince had always blindly followed the Jin Prince and how this time her younger son had been implicated by her older son. He had also been punished sufficiently since his arm was now crippled....
Having laid out so many things, Senior Concubine Xu finally approached the main topic. She hoped Emperor Xi wouldn't choose one of the crown prince's sons as the successor. She said that Empress Xiao currently hated her and the Jin Prince, and blamed them for the crown prince's death. But the dead were already dead, and the Jin Prince had paid with his own life as well. Now she only had this one son left, and couldn't allow him to fall into Empress Xiao's hands.
She then said once Emperor Xi was gone, she wasn't planning to live any longer and would accompany him in death. But she couldn't bear leaving her son the Qi Prince without his brother and without his parents....
Emperor Xi was stunned at her words. He had been feeling quite the headache at her words before, but at this moment he was rather moved. He also knew how quickly Empress Xiao had pulled herself together after this event. Her son had just died and her thoughts already wandered to having her grandson ascend the throne.
In comparison, Senior Concubine Xu's face was covered in tears every day, and she was inconsolably heartbroken. She even said she would accompany him in death....
Having been married to Empress Xiao for several decades, Emperor Xi still understood her a little better. Even if he passed away, she would still be perfectly fine as the previous empress, or perhaps even the empress dowager. As for Senior Concubine Xu, she only had him. She had two sons before, but was now only left with one crippled one.
Who was in the right and who was in the wrong in this event, Emperor Xi no longer had the energy to distinguish. He could clearly feel his energy was insufficient, and would have a splitting headache whenever he thought about it.
He patted Senior Concubine Xu's hand, tiredly closed his eyes and waved his hand for her to take her leave.
***
Everyone in the capital was focused on who would be the successor.
The Jing Duke's Xiao clan was the busiest.
The crown prince's death naturally made them completely heartbroken, but they would also be happy to see his heir ascend the throne. If their Xiao clan could have an empress dowager, they would still be the emperor's clan. Their Jing Duke's estate would still be the biggest winner.
The Xiao clan secretly instigated court officials to frequently send petitions. Of course, some were in favor and some were opposed. A group of officials headed by Minister Xu were among those who did not approve of this.
This was because the crown prince's sons were all too young. A child emperor would be easily influenced by his relatives, and there would also be the Xiao clan's empress dowager behind him. At that point, perhaps the dynasty's surname would end up being changed.
These days the court was filled with debate and arguments about this issue.
Emperor Xi was seriously ill, and the two ministers took charge of the court. But these two ministers were arguing amongst themselves as well, so the court was inevitably a mess.
At this moment, a low-ranked imperial censor from the capital's investigation bureau spoke up.
This imperial censor was called Guan Zheng, and was a relatively unknown person in the investigation bureau. But what he proposed this time shook the entire court. Guan Zheng's proposal mentioned two things. One was that the fifth prince Luo Jing's muteness had been cured long ago, and he was merely taciturn. Not many people knew about this. The second was that under his management, the Jing Province had long since transformed from a barren province to one where the commoners lived happily and peacefully. They all praised him as a great vassal prince.
Of course, there were those who asked how he knew about the situation so clearly. After investigating Guan Zheng's background, they realized that this Guan Zheng used to be the left adjutant of the Jing Province, and had only finished his posting less than two years ago.
What was previously only one choice now became two. Those who opposed a young successor all shifted their gaze upon the previously obscure location: the Jing Province.
Once they obtained more information, the voices calling for the Jing Prince started growing louder.
Empress Xiao and the Jing Duke's side started panicking once again.
But the situation didn't remain this way for long. Emperor Xi soon gave the order to summon the Jing Prince back to the capital.
The meaning of this was self-evident.
***
Although the Jing Prince left with Xiao Hua and the children, he didn't take them back to the Jing Prince Estate, but rather sent them to the capital.
The Jing Prince naturally explained the reason to Xiao Hua. Although she didn't really understand, she understood that this was something important to his highness and followed along with his arrangements.
The recently reunited family of four were once again separated.
Xiao Hua and the two children were secretly sent to the capital first while the Jing Prince returned to the estate.
The Jing Prince told Xiao Hua that she would go with the children first, and he would follow once he received the imperial edict. In reality, things weren't quite so simple.
The crown prince's death was irreversible, but compared to having a concubine's son succeed the throne, Empress Xiao and The Jing Duke's side would naturally prefer someone with the Xiao clan's blood. How could they give in so easily to this upstart who appeared out of nowhere?!
Therefore, in the days before and after the imperial edict arrived, things naturally wouldn't be peaceful.
As expected, not long after the Jing Prince returned to the estate, they played host to several waves of assassins. Some of them were caught before they managed to sneak in, some of them were caught after they snuck into the wrong place. The most serious time was when the assassin managed to sneak into the western pavilion. The Jing Prince ended up being fine, but Qian Xi who was in the eastern wing's corner house got caught up in the calamity and was killed.
In the tenth month of the thirty-fifth year of the Xi Calendar, the emperor summoned the fifth prince Luo Jing back to the capital. The next chapter of the Grand Xi Nation began.
Authors notes:
If the events in the capital were to be written about in detail, it would definitely take a lot of chapters. Therefore I'm just giving an overall summary. By extrapolating from previous events, everyone should understand what had happened. Of course, everyone can also think that this author used a trump card, and summoned a meteor from the heavens to smash the crown prince and the Jin Prince to death. Just kidding. Don't think the Emperor Xi changed his mind to the Jing Prince just because the senior concubine cried a couple of times. Although an emperor may be muddleheaded a lot of times, he definitely wouldn't be muddleheaded on this subject. A child emperor and an empress dowager surnamed Xiao, along with the Jing Duke Estate at the peak of their power. Unless Emperor Xi feels like the dynasty needed a name change, he wouldn't consider the child emperor.