Changsheng: Peak at the Beginning

After the New Year, the emperor's health gradually deteriorated. He had to summon the imperial physician to check his pulse almost every three to five days, and even missed court meetings from time to time. More and more people gathered around Crown Prince Zhao Zongquan, but Zhao Zongquan was frightened by the fact that his father had been taken into the palace for adoption three times and abandoned three times. After seeing his father leave in anger, he thought that he must be given a proper status to comfort his father's spirit in heaven.

Shi Ying, who could be the prince's tutor to Zhao Zongquan's son, was of course only regarded by Zhao Zongquan as a surveillance person sent by the government. Therefore, he did not appear to be close to Shi Ying, but was actually very distant from her.

And who is Shi Ying? He was the prince of the Kongsang Empire at first, but he did not have time to obtain the title of crown prince. Later, he became the youngest and most promising priest in Jiuyi Mountain. After taking off his divine robe, he became the regent of the Kongsang Empire. Later, he ascended to become an immortal and served as the right-hand man of the Emperor of Heaven for many years.

Now that he has been reincarnated, he has retained his own memories, so he feels sorry that the emperor's kindness has been completely wasted. Of course, he looks down on Zhao Zongquan and thinks that Zhao Zongquan is not as good as his son Zhao Ceying.

In order to save himself trouble, Shi Ying did not play any tricks at all. He just said twice in front of the emperor that Zhao Zongquan was old and had lost his enterprising spirit. He could not compare with Zhao Ceying, a young man who had unlimited possibilities for the future.

Who is the Guan family? When he succeeded to the throne, he was determined to conquer the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun. However, due to the issue of offspring over the years, he lost several opportunities to conquer the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun.

Of course, he did not give up on Zhao Zongquan just based on Shi Ying's one-sided words, but the results of his tests and investigations showed that Zhao Zongquan could only be a king who maintained the status quo, and there was no possibility of taking back the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun under his leadership.

Therefore, as his health deteriorated, the emperor finally made up his mind to depose Zhao Zongquan from the position of crown prince. At the advice of the empress, Zhao Zongquan's eldest son Zhao Ceying was adopted as the son of Zhao Xi, the Prince of E who died at the age of seven. Zhao Ceying was also canonized as the crown prince, completely cutting off the way for Zhao Ceying to confer a noble title on Zhao Zongquan after he ascended the throne.

Of course there were many opponents to this matter in the court. After all, Zhao Zongquan had not done anything yet. They believed that the emperor could not depose the prince without reason. However, the emperor first expressed his guilt towards the late emperor for not being able to recover the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, and then said that Zhao Zongquan had no ambition to make progress. So he chose a crown prince who was willing to recover the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun.

Then Changbai and Changfeng said that Zhao Ceying was originally the son of Zhao Zongquan. The emperor adopted the crown prince, but the family was still in Zhao Zongquan's hands. If Zhao Zongquan was really successful, the emperor should be happy and happy that his son had such a bright future.

What else could Zhao Zongquan do? Not to mention that he was already a deposed crown prince, he was still the crown prince. Did he still have the right to speak on such matters?

In this way, Zhao Ceying was no longer the son of Zhao Zongquan and Shen Congying, but the son of the emperor's eldest son who died at the age of seven, the emperor's grandson in terms of etiquette, the crown prince now, and the future emperor.

For Shi Ying, who planned this major event, his biggest feeling was that Zhao Ceying was more educated than Zhao Zongquan.

For Shen Congying, the former deposed Crown Princess and now the Princess of Heng, the current wealth is the most secure. After all, her family background is not high, and even in Yuzhou, she is not from a big family. She was able to marry Zhao Zongquan because of her face that Zhao Zongquan liked. She lives a good life because of the mutual support between the couple over the years.

But even so, Zhao Zongquan had several concubines, and Shen Congying had defeated many of them. Now, there was a new Liu who was Zhao Zongquan's new love, and Shen Congying had no idea where to start.

Now, her son is not her son in name, but her son has a better future. In the future, the benefits that will not be bestowed on his biological father will be enjoyed by her, his biological mother, without any hindrance. In the future, the Shen family will no longer have to go to Zhao Ceying to get benefits without being feared by Zhao Zongquan.

Just like that, less than two months after little Yuanxiao's first birthday, the emperor finally couldn't support him anymore. Before his death, he entrusted his son to seven or eight important officials of the court, including Shi Ying and Duke Yingguo. This was because Shi Ying had a good relationship with Zhao Ceying, and the emperor had also found a girl named Zhang Guifen from Duke Yingguo's family for Zhao Ceying.

Even though Zhang Guifen and her childhood sweetheart, the young general of the Zheng family, had already had a tacit understanding and the two families had even exchanged engagement letters, the emperor had not heard of the marriage yet, so he directly issued an edict.

The Duke of Yingguo and his family had never thought of letting their daughter enter the palace to seek wealth and glory. However, at this time, the Duke of Yingguo was the best among the nobles and an invisible leader. In order to pave the way for his successor, the emperor naturally had to treat the girl of the Zhang family unfairly. Fortunately, Empress Cao was also of noble birth, and she was very happy to teach her granddaughter-in-law Zhang Guifen. When the emperor died and Zhao Ceying succeeded to the throne, the transfer of power in the palace also seemed very smooth.

As a result, the previous dynasty praised the empress dowager and the queen a lot, and felt that it was a wise move for the late emperor to depose the crown prince and enthronize the crown prince.

Because of the additional imperial edict of adoption, even if Zhao Ceying wanted to give Zhao Zongquan an honorific title and give his step-grandfather an honorific title, he did not dare to act rashly, because he himself inherited the throne after being adopted. If he wanted to posthumously honor his biological grandfather, no civil or military official in the court would agree.

Seeing that the new emperor was clear-headed, Shi Ying suggested that the new emperor hold an imperial examination of special merit. Anyway, this year's imperial examination was only one year earlier than the normal imperial examination, so he could curry favor with the new emperor, and all the civil and military officials in the court were happy to do so.

Qi Heng ranked 23rd on the second-class list of the special examination, which made Princess Pingning, who had originally agreed to go to the Sheng family to propose marriage, couldn't help but change her mind again.

Qi Heng hated Princess Pingning's behavior so much that he told his father directly and asked an official matchmaker to propose to Minglan. At that time, Gu Tingye had just returned to the capital to take up his post. Although Zhu Manniang was no longer with him, she took away his two children. His whole mind was on those two children, so he was not in a hurry to propose marriage.

So Minglan knelt in the ancestral hall for three days as a price, and finally made Sheng Hong give in and agree to her marriage with Qi Heng.

It was just because Rulan's marriage had not been finalized yet, so the two families only exchanged the engagement letter privately.

As for Rulan, she was drafted by Molan to help manage two fleets in the past two years, and she also managed two weaving workshops in Jiangnan. Molan and Shi Ying had introduced many scholars to her before, but she was devoted to her career and couldn't bear to be distracted, so her marriage was delayed.

Now that Minglan's marriage has been confirmed, she can't continue to live a carefree life. From the candidates given to her by Shi Ying, she chooses a man named Zhang Zhe from Meishan.

"He is the youngest son in the family. His elder brother is already married. The brothers have a very good relationship and are interested in settling in the capital."

"In addition, my fourth brother-in-law is optimistic about Zhang Zhe's character and talent. The customs in his hometown are relatively open, and they don't even mind the eldest lady of the family going out to work, which is just right for my current situation."

What Rulan liked most was the relaxed attitude of the women in Shu. Plus, Zhang Zhe was not bad looking and treated her well, so she was extremely willing.