Chapter 1080: The Crown Princess Selection, Hongniang Demoted
At night.

Su Mingzhe came to Qixia Palace and asked the Queen whether the Crown Prince should choose the Crown Princess himself or ask the Queen to help him choose.

Unexpectedly, the Queen laughed and said:

"Your Majesty, the Crown Prince has been chosen."

When Su Mingzhe heard this, he was immediately surprised:
"Oh? Whose young lady can please the prince?"

"She is He Zhenniang, the daughter of He Jingsi, the commander of the Right Thousand Bull Guards."

As Cui Yingying spoke, she remembered that the Right Thousand Oxen Guard Commander was only a small official of the fourth rank. She was afraid that the man didn't know, so she quickly explained:
"His ancestor was He Zhizhang, the top scholar in the previous dynasty."

"I have also seen this He Zhenniang. Not only is she dignified, round, and plump, she is also easy to raise. Most importantly, she has a gentle and virtuous personality, and behaves generously and appropriately... I think she is a very good child."

"Since the Queen also thinks it's good, then let's quickly decide on it for the Crown Prince!"

When Su Mingzhe heard that the woman the prince was going to marry was He Zhenniang, his expression became complicated.

He Zhenniang was a descendant of He Zhizhang, the top scholar and great poet of the Tang Dynasty.

In terms of age, he is only one year younger than the prince.

Not long after she was born, a Taoist priest came to her house to predict her fate, saying that she had an inestimable fortune.

Su Mingzhe had heard about this matter a long time ago, but he didn't take it too seriously.

During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, there were many people with extremely noble destinies, but they were all destroyed by themselves.

Now, He Zhenniang is actually valued by the prince. It seems that the prophecy about her is about to come true.

Seeing that the man had no objection, Cui Yingying smiled again:
"Your Majesty, the Crown Prince has not only chosen the Crown Princess, but also selected several concubines."

"According to the regulations, in addition to having a crown princess, the crown prince should also have two Liangdi (third rank), six Liangyuan (fourth rank), ten Chenghui (fifth rank), sixteen Zhaoxun (seventh rank), and twenty-four Fengyi (ninth rank)..."

When Su Mingzhe heard that the prince was marrying so many wives at once, he couldn't help but raise his eyebrows:
"Empress, is it inappropriate for you to arrange so many women at once? You know, since ancient times, the land of gentleness is the tomb of heroes..."

Cui Yingying sneered at the man's words and directly retorted:

"Your Majesty, there are quite a few concubines in the harem now. Your Majesty, aren't you also wise and powerful?"

Su Mingzhe's face flushed at first, and then he said coldly:

"Can that brat be compared with me?"

After Su Mingzhe unified the country, he changed the Tang Dynasty's practice of selecting concubines every three years to one every five years.

Among the people, his behavior was praised by scholars all over the world, who believed that Su Mingzhe sympathized with the people and understood their sufferings.

But for the emperor's women like Cui Yingying, they wished that the selection of concubines would be changed from every five years to every ten or even twenty years.

After all, among the maids who enter the palace through every selection, there are always a few stunning beauties.

And these stunning beauties will almost certainly be won by Su Mingzhe.

Over the past few years, many concubines have been added to the harem.

As for the more favored women like Xiao Wen and Qing Nu, they are now only visited by the emperor a few times in a month.

For this reason, the concubines in the harem often complained to the emperor.

Queen Cui Yingying naturally felt resentful, and today she took the opportunity to vent her anger.

Su Mingzhe felt that he was in the wrong and could only stiffen his neck and argue.

Cui Yingying was of a calm disposition and was unwilling to chase and fight. She directly asked her master to make the bed and prepare to serve the man to bed.

It was like punching cotton with no force point, which made Su Mingzhe very unhappy:
"It was better when Hongniang was here. Once Hongniang left, this Qixia Palace became much quieter."

When Cui Yingying heard the man talking about Hongniang, she felt a little sad.

More than ten years ago, when Hongniang was almost thirty years old, she finally became pregnant and gave birth to the 106th prince, Su Shaoqing.

At that time, Cui Yingying had just given birth to the ninety-ninth prince Su Shaowu.

The two children, who were about the same age, played and fought together all day long, and had a very good relationship. The two girls were already as close as sisters, and now their children were so close, so in the eyes of the two girls, this was naturally the best thing.

Later, when the two children were seven years old, they were arranged to move to the Xianliang Palace to live with other underage princes.

Perhaps because they no longer had their mothers to restrain them, these princes spontaneously began to form cliques and factions, and there were many fights behind the scenes.

As the legitimate prince, Su Shaowu's status is naturally superior to other princes.

When he arrived at the Xianliang Palace, a large group of princes followed him.

In this kind of admiration, Su Shaowu gradually lost himself and began to act tyrannically among a group of princes. In the end, he beat another prince so badly that he was bleeding from the head and went into shock.

Fortunately, Su Mingzhe was not an ordinary person. After receiving the report, he quickly rescued the seriously injured prince.

Although in the end, there were no serious consequences.

However, Su Mingzhe was really pissed off by these little bastards.

In order to punish these princes one by one, Su Mingzhe had all the princes of the Xianliang Hall taken to the outside of the Meridian Gate, where they were beaten with twenty boards and exposed to the sun for a day as punishment.

None of the other concubines dared to come and plead for their son, but Hongniang, relying on her relationship with the emperor and the empress, insisted on taking her son away regardless.

Su Mingzhe sent the eunuch Hu An to stop her, but Hongniang was outspoken and cursed Su Mingzhe as a tyrant and a incompetent ruler in front of everyone.

The imperial envoys who were supervising nearby were stunned. After they realized what was happening, they quickly submitted a memorial to impeach Hongniang for "great disrespect".

Su Mingzhe was helpless and could only choose to send her to the cold palace as a punishment.

Without Hongniang's company, Cui Yingying felt that her Qixia Palace was much more deserted.

The next day.

When Su Mingzhe left Qixia Palace, he thought of how the Queen had pleaded for the Crown Prince last night and how she had made all kinds of concessions. His heart softened, and he ordered the eunuch general Hu An to go to the East Palace to summon the Crown Prince to the Imperial Study, so that he could have a heart-to-heart talk with his son.

When I returned to the imperial study, I saw that Empress Wan had already arrived.

When it comes to handling government affairs, Queen Wan is more enthusiastic than Su Mingzhe.

Every day at dawn, Empress Wan would get up, wash and dress, and would definitely be in the imperial study at 1 a.m.

After handling government affairs for a day, if Su Mingzhe did not allow Empress Wan to sleep with him, Empress Wan would find the memorials reviewed by the emperor herself, open them and study and ponder them.

After nearly twenty years of living together day and night, the relationship between Empress Wan and Su Mingzhe was far deeper than that of the Queen.

"Your Majesty, are you in a bad mood? Did the prince make you angry again?"

"How do you say this?"

Su Mingzhe looked at Queen Wan with some confusion.

Queen Wan smiled and said:

"On my way here just now, I ran into the prince's eunuch rushing towards Qixia Palace. If the prince hadn't made you angry, why would he have asked the eunuch to ask the queen for help?"

"You all think too much."

Su Mingzhe said something vaguely and called Juan:

"Huan, I asked you to notify the prince to come to the imperial study. When will he arrive?"

Juan glanced at Queen Wan without leaving a trace, and then replied:
"Your Majesty, when I went to inform the Crown Prince, he had not yet washed up. According to the time calculation, he should be here soon."

As they were talking, the palace maid came in to report that the prince was waiting outside to be summoned.

"Let the prince in, all of you get out!"

Su Mingzhe drove away everyone in the imperial study, including Queen Wan.

When Queen Wan saw that she was unable to apply eye drops to the prince, she left in displeasure.

(End of this chapter)