kingnovel Chapter 203 The Emperor's Death
Chapter 203 The Emperor's Death
When the women saw Long Shirui, they all ran up to him and hugged him and cried, "Your Highness, I'm so glad you're okay."
When Long Shirui looked at his women, he felt a headache for the first time. Xizhou was a long way away, and these women had fragile bodies and could not walk there at all.
After a moment's silence, he said, "I have suffered such a great disaster, I am afraid it will be difficult for me to recover in the future. If you want to leave, I can give you a letter of divorce."
The woman's crying suddenly stopped and she was stunned.
"Your Highness, don't you want us anymore?" the former Crown Princess Ling asked him, holding a little boy in her hand.
"I am no longer a prince. I have been banished to Xizhou by the new emperor. I will leave tomorrow. If I can get there safely, I can only live the life of an ordinary person. I am afraid that you will not be able to endure the hardship if you follow me."
Long Shirui looked at these women, twenty-three in total, all of them beautiful and in the prime of their lives.
Except for his principal wife and two concubines, the others were given to him by the ministers because of his previous status as the crown prince. Now that he was in trouble, he was even worse than an ordinary person, and they thought that they would not want to suffer with him.
"Your parents are both officials appointed by the imperial court. After receiving the divorce letter, you will be free and can find a good family to marry."
"Your Highness! But we can't bear to leave you!"
The women all knelt down and cried.
"Wang Yong, grind the ink!" Long Shirui said to Wang Yong and walked to a table.
"Your Highness, I will not leave you. Even if I die, I will be with you." Ling hugged her son, feeling very sad.
"I will not leave Your Highness either." The other two women also said, each holding a child in their arms.
The other women did not say a word.
Long Shirui understood and nodded, "Okay!"
In the end, only three people were left out of more than twenty women: Ling, a concubine and a beauty.
After Chu Feiyan heard about it, he also rushed over to take a look.
"Fei Yan, I'm penniless now. Can you lend me some silver so that they can use it as travel expenses?" Long Shirui looked guilty.
Chu Feiyan looked at these women. Apart from a divorce letter in their hands, they had nothing on them, and the pearl hairpins on their heads had been taken away.
"can."
She reached into her sleeve, took out some silver notes from the space, gave each of them three hundred taels of silver notes, and gave them some change for their journey.
He also ordered Li Mei to send someone to protect them back to their parents' home.
Finally, these women kowtowed to the deposed prince again and said goodbye with tears.
They knew that after this separation, they might never see each other again in this life. But they knew that only by leaving him could they survive.
"Let's go!" Long Shirui turned around, unable to bear looking at them anymore.
When Long Shijun heard the news, he also rushed to the princess's mansion to see him.
"Fifth brother, you are the only one who still remembers me." Long Shirui laughed bitterly.
"Brother, as long as people can survive, there is hope. It's just that I am powerless and can't help you." Long Shijun apologized.
"It's rare that you can come to see me under such circumstances." Long Shirui looked painful.
"You guys talk first."
Chu Feiyan took the three women of the Ling family away and let the two brothers talk.
The next day, Long Shirui left with three women and children. Chu Feiyan gave them five carriages and some items they would need on the road.
Before getting on the car, Long Shirui said to them, "Chu Feiyan, Master Imperial Master, it seems I can only repay your kindness in the next life."
"There's no need for you to report, let's go!" Chu Feiyan said lightly.
Long Shirui is not a good person either. If he were to ascend the throne, he might not necessarily treat the Chu family well.
And they helped him do all this just to fulfill Hong's promise.
The Hong family was already waiting outside the city. The entire family, young and old, men, women, and children, had just been released from prison.
When they saw Long Shirui coming out, they didn't say much and left directly, heading west along the official road.
Three days later, Long Shihua ascended the throne, named Concubine Xian as the Queen Mother, his princess consort as the Queen, and issued a general amnesty.
Those who followed him all rose with the tide.
As for the death of deposed Queen Hong, the royal family never revealed the news.
"Princess, the new emperor has rewarded so many officials, but Xiao Changchuan is not included. He is only a fourth-rank military officer." Xia An told her the news he had heard.
Chu Feiyan was reading Qiao Sheng's letter. When she heard her words, she looked up and said, "Long Shihua abandoned him a long time ago."
"It really serves them right. This family will definitely not have a good ending. After Xiao Yurong was divorced, she was also a restless person. She always complained that the food was not tasty and that she had no good clothes to wear.
Just before the New Year, Lan married her to a merchant as his second wife. I heard that the man was already in his forties, a wealthy man with many concubines in the backyard and children older than her. The merchant only liked her because Xiao Changchuan was an official appointed by the court. "Xia An talked to her while sorting out her things.
"Let's not talk about other people's affairs."
Chu Feiyan didn't want to hear about that family anymore. She thought that the medicinal herbs in the space had been collected and wanted to send some to Qiao Sheng.
The medicinal herbs she planted this time were mainly hemostatics and anesthetics, which were several times more effective than those sold on the market, and were what the border needed most.
It is already February now. We are worried that Northern Qi may send troops to invade, so we have to send them some good medicinal materials in case of emergency.
"Xia An, Qiao Sheng wrote to me and said that he wanted a batch of medicinal herbs. I have asked someone to buy them. But these herbs are very precious, and I am worried about letting someone else deliver them. How about you make this trip for me?"
"Okay." Xia An agreed without thinking.
She was the only one left around the princess, so naturally she should go.
After a few days, Xia An brought a hundred guards from the mansion and borrowed a hundred people from the Xuesha Sect from Gong Beixuan. They pulled more than twenty carts of medicinal materials and sent them to Pingling Pass.
Chu Feiyan looked at the departing team and thought that she could only help Qiao Sheng up to this point.
On the night Xia An left, the funeral bell rang out in the palace, and the emperor had passed away!
When the emperor passed away, even if they felt resentful, they had to enter the palace to mourn.
Chu Feiyan has been pregnant for more than five months, and her belly is already noticeably bulging. She put on a silver-white cloak to cover her pregnant belly and knelt with the women of the royal family to keep vigil for the retired emperor.
According to the royal ancestral system, the emperor's coffin would usually be kept for two months before being buried in the imperial mausoleum.
But the situation in the world is tense now, and even the princes in various places have not sent the obituary. It is impossible to keep the emperor's coffin here for two months, lest the Northern Qi Kingdom finds out and takes the opportunity to send troops to invade.
Therefore, Gong Beixuan suggested that the funeral be kept for only fifteen days, and Long Shihua agreed.
During this period, Chu Feiyan and Chu Wenzhao were both keeping vigil in the palace.
According to ancestral rules, the emperor's childless concubines had to be buried alive with him. However, in order to demonstrate his kindness and magnanimity, Long Shirui ordered the abolition of this rule and required those concubines who had not given birth to children to become nuns in royal temples or to guard the emperor's tombs.