mtl008 In Chapter 46, Lu Yuxi revealed a rare, indescribable expression.
In Chapter 46, Lu Yuxi revealed a rare, indescribable expression.
Bai Qiongzhu smiled and said, "It's alright. If you can't handle it, the Empress Dowager will naturally step in to help you clean up the mess."
Lu Tingsong clapped his hands and ran to Lin Shiming's side, hugging his leg.
"Uncle is amazing!"
"Oh, my eldest son!" Lin Shiming exclaimed with delight, picking up Lu Tingsong and giving him a kiss. "How is it? Isn't your uncle more imposing than your royal uncle today?"
Lu Tingsong giggled as he was kissed, his face flushed with joy.
"Uncle is the most dignified! Tingsong likes Uncle the most!"
Lin Shiming was even happier to hear this. He was about to give this thoughtful "fur coat" another good kiss when two tall figures suddenly entered the hall one after the other.
"Lu Tingsong, you're something else! At noon you said you loved your grandfather the most, and by evening you've become your good uncle?"
"Tingsong doesn't know, doesn't know!"
Lu Tingsong covered his face with his chubby little hands in embarrassment and tried to burrow into Lin Shiming's arms. But it was no use. He was easily lifted out by Lu Yuxi, who came in from behind, and handed over to Emperor Longyun.
"You little brat, you've got two faces!"
Emperor Longyun lightly patted Lu Tingsong's bottom, and Lu Tingsong immediately pouted and pretended to cry.
"Grandma! Grandpa hit me! Waaaaah!"
"Alright, alright, how old are you, still arguing with a child!" Bai Qiongzhu stepped forward and took the child from Emperor Longyun's arms, openly displaying double standards, "Tingsong, don't cry, Grandma will beat him for you!"
Emperor Longyun: "... ..."
Emperor Longyun: I want to cry now too!
*
Having finally gathered together today, the family of five had dinner together at Fengyi Palace.
After the meal, thanks to Lin Shiming's hard work in handling a lot of government affairs for Emperor Longyun, Emperor Longyun was able to relax and play chess and chat with Bai Qiongzhu.
Lin Shiming and Lu Yuxi, the couple, were expelled from Fengyi Palace by Emperor Longyun for being "insensitive".
Emperor Longyun: Feels great!
At the entrance of Fengyi Palace, Lu Yuxi and Lin Shiming, who had been driven out, looked at each other in bewilderment.
After a long silence, Lu Yuxi shook her head helplessly, "Never mind, let's go back to the East Palace."
These past two days, Lin Shiming has been sitting and reviewing memorials all day long, and he has rarely had time to stand up and walk around. Now that he has the opportunity, he directly pulled Lu Yuxi to walk back to the East Palace, take a stroll, and chat for a while.
The weather has been nice these past few days; you can see a sky full of stars whenever you look up.
The two strolled forward, and Lin Shiming took a deep breath of the natural air.
“I used to think that no one wanted to be a concubine, and that nine times out of ten they were forced into it. So I always felt sorry for the women in the harem and didn’t want to touch them unless absolutely necessary. Until today, when you asked me to give Shen Wanyi a warning, I learned from the Empress Dowager that they were all there voluntarily.”
Lu Yuxi smiled calmly and took Lin Shiming's hand. "Although the concubines of the royal family are still concubines, their status and living conditions are far superior to those of other women in the inner quarters. Even the lowest rank, the Noble Consort, is one rank higher than the highest-ranking First-Rank Imperial Lady of the previous dynasty."
"Moreover, if they can give birth to children, they will be the mothers of princes and princesses in the future, which is very prestigious. If they are even luckier, it is not impossible for them to sit on the throne of the Holy Mother Empress Dowager."
"Although the imperial family of our dynasty has a stable and superior position and centralized imperial power, it has not reached the point where the emperor had to consider the family background of his concubines to favor them and dared not deal with them arbitrarily, but for them, entering the harem can still influence the emperor's decisions to a certain extent and enhance their own and their family's status."
"With profit at stake, who cares if someone is a concubine?"
Lin Shiming remained silent. There are gains and losses in everything. Shen Wanyi and the others wanted to gain the honor and benefits of the emperor's or prince's maternal family, so they gave up their freedom and were willing to become concubines who were inferior to others.
The allure of imperial wealth is irresistible to many. Even now, with Emperor Longyun at forty, most families of decent means would not send their daughters to the palace, yet there are still quite a few sixteen or seventeen-year-old girls from ordinary backgrounds willing to become imperial concubines.
If you want something, you have to pay the price. It's not a matter of right or wrong; it's all about choices.
"Then what about Father? And why did Father take so many concubines?"
Lu Yuxi smiled and said, "The royal family, like other aristocratic families, needs a clan. To have many descendants is something an emperor must do."
Lin Shiming understood in a moment's thought. In ancient times, families were the basic unit of society, and only blood ties were reliable. Therefore, if the imperial family wanted to consolidate its position, it needed a sufficient number of people it could trust and rely on; these were the imperial clan. And for the emperor's branch to always maintain its dominance within the imperial clan, the emperor needed a sufficient number of offspring.
Otherwise, the royal family would have almost perished, or at best, the imperial family would have been overrun.
"Moreover, taking concubines can balance the power of the Empress Dowager's family and the Emperor's maternal family."
"It is conceivable that if an emperor has only one empress, then when a new emperor ascends the throne, the power of the empress dowager's family will be unprecedented. They will control the new emperor's harem and seriously affect the rule of the imperial family."
It's understandable. Just like the current Empress Dowager Qin, a childless stepmother who could force Emperor Longyun and Crown Prince Huamin to such a state, if she had a son, then after a hundred years, the royal family might have to change their surname to Qin.
Lin Shiming sighed. He understood that monogamy was the only truly reasonable and equal practice in modern times, but the first consideration of ancient emperors was to maintain their rule. Therefore, they would naturally choose methods that would help balance external forces. This was a difference in era, position, and ideology, and it was difficult to change.
But, "Then shouldn't we consider vying for the throne?"
Lu Yuxi squeezed Lin Shiming's hand, playing with it. "I don't know if previous dynasties considered this, but Father Emperor did. He couldn't have only Mother as his concubine, so when choosing consorts, he selected..."
Lu Yuxi thought for a while before coming up with a word.
"His aptitude is mediocre. This is what your ancestor said: a child's intelligence is mostly inherited from the mother. By choosing people this way, Father can ensure that the empress and other princes are less capable, thus alleviating the struggle for the throne. Moreover, it doesn't matter if the other princes are not smart; by marrying them a sufficiently intelligent princess, the third generation, who will not have to participate in the struggle for the throne, will still have enough ability."
The only downside is that when these not-so-bright concubines and their sons are not so clever, they can drive Emperor Longyun crazy.
However, it cannot be denied that this is a very clever method, which, while ensuring the abilities of future generations, resolves the conflict of succession as much as possible.
Lin Shiming's eyes widened in astonishment. "Father, are you so farsighted?"
"What do you think?" Lu Yuxi chuckled and pinched Lin Shiming's nose again.
Lin Shiming, embarrassed and annoyed, slapped his hand away. After a brief period of playful bickering on Lin Shiming's part, the two continued walking back.
Lu Yuxi smiled and continued to explain to him, "However, despite his years of scheming, Father Emperor was still betrayed by Empress Dowager Qin. There was nothing we could do; our dynasty only stipulated that blood relatives within three generations could not marry, but we overlooked the issue of Empress Dowager Mother and an emperor born out of wedlock."
"Ah! What should we do?"
"Don't worry, Father has a plan. I bet he has already written an imperial edict on 'the emperor's harem cannot have members of the empress dowager's clan,' and is just waiting for the right opportunity to issue it."
Lin Shiming was astonished. Such thoroughness in identifying and correcting omissions made him willing to call Emperor Longyun the most meticulous emperor in ancient times.
Luckily, he was on Emperor Longyun's side, otherwise I'd be counting the money for him even if he sold me out! Humph, emperors are all heartless!
However, the one next to me is not bad. Lin Shiming is smug, and Lu Yuxi is upright and honest. They don't look like they would bully me!
Seeing that Lin Shiming remained silent for a long time, Lu Yuxi waved her hand in front of his eyes, "What are you thinking about?"
Lin Shiming was smug. "You're different from Father and my fox-like brother. You definitely wouldn't trick me!"
Lu Yuxi rarely showed an indescribable expression.
"What's wrong? Did I say something wrong?"
"...No, that's right." Lu Yuxi nodded reluctantly against her will, then quickly changed the subject, "I was thinking about tomorrow."
Lin Shiming's attention was easily diverted, as expected. "What's up tomorrow?"
"Father has already recalled the Governor-General of the Southern Region. Tomorrow morning at court, it will probably be revealed that Prince An embezzled taxes from the Southern Region."
Emperor Longyun's purge of Prince An's faction is about to officially begin.