Haitang told his brother Haijiao what Wu Qiong revealed in his letter.

Haijiao has accepted the conjecture that "Emperor Deguang still has a prince alive", and now that he heard that Mrs. Gui's words and deeds have further confirmed this, his mood is quite calm.

He said to his little sister Haitang: "Regardless of whether there is really such a prince hidden in Cining Palace, Emperor Deguang's attitude is already obvious, he will only support the Eighth Prince to become a prince, and would rather be that concubine does not exist." As long as outsiders do not know about this matter, there will be no major changes in the situation between the DPRK and China. Empress Dowager Zhou should know this. If she thinks that the Zhou family needs to know, she doesn't need us to talk too much, she will also tell Zhen Guogong. Since she didn't mention it, it would be better to treat it as if there was no such thing. We don't have to go on any more to get the attention of others. ”

Haitang thought about it, so he nodded and said, "Actually, I really don't need this prince to appear now...... If the prince of King Ji cannot return to the sect for one day, it will be impossible for him to be canonized as the prince one day. On the bright side, the only one in the royal family who has the qualifications to succeed to the throne is the eighth prince. If there is one more prince from Empress Wu now, it will split the people who originally supported the eighth prince, which will not be beneficial to the smooth change of the throne, and in the end, only the Sun family will benefit. ”

"In the previous life, the emperor always concealed the news of this prince from the world, so he must have taken this into account, right?" Haijiao sighed, "I really didn't expect that Emperor Deguang had eight sons, but in addition to the six princes born by Concubine Sun Guifei, there are only eight princes born to Concubine Xu Xian, who can make him think so well in every way, even at the expense of the interests of other princes." In the past, when their cousins and uncles talked about Emperor Deguang's ruthlessness towards the third prince and the fifth prince, they were always heartbroken, complaining that he should not favor the son of Sun Guifei too much; But now, we should be glad that he is an eccentric person, and he can be ruthless enough for his unfavored son. ”

If Emperor Deguang also loved his other sons, now the eighth prince would have to face the competition between the successor Prince Ji and the prince who had been hidden for many years. One of these two people has the support of the favored concubines and ministers, and the other has the reputation of the middle palace, and against them, the eighth prince really doesn't have much chance of winning.

Once there is a mess of three sons competing for the throne in the royal family, God knows what bad consequences will it lead to? The civil strife of the Hu people is the best example of this.

Speaking of this, Haitang was quite puzzled by one thing: "My brother just said that Emperor Deguang had eight sons...... Is there really only eight? Is this little prince from Queen Wu already counted? ”

Haijiao was stunned, recalling the situation of the princes under the knee of Emperor Deguang: the eldest prince and the second prince died early; The third prince was the eldest son of Empress Wu, and died in the fire of Kunning Palace with Empress Wu; The fourth prince was born by Lu Zhaorong, who succeeded him as the prince of Ji a few years ago, and is now seeking to return to his ancestors; The fifth prince was born to Concubine Liu Shu, and his death was unknown, suspected to have been killed by Concubine Sun Guifei, Concubine Liu wanted to avenge her grievances but was thrown into the cold palace, and even her mother's family was implicated; The sixth prince is the son of Sun Guifei, who was almost canonized as the prince, but died inexplicably in the hands of Empress Wu's old servant Pomegranate.

Concubine Xu Xian gave birth to the eighth prince. Before him, there was also a little-known Seventh Prince. There is not much news about the Seven Princes from the outside world. Haijiao guessed that he was probably from the palace and died earlier than the six princes, so after the death of the six princes, the courtiers would be troubled by the emperor's lack of heirs to inherit the throne, and considered letting the prince of Ji return to the throne until the emperor gave birth to the eighth prince.

But a real prince, even if his biological mother is lowly and he died early, no one should know. If it weren't for the fact that the prince born to Concubine Xu Xian was called the Eighth Prince, I am afraid that the world would not know that there are seven princes in the palace!

If the Seventh Prince is the youngest son of Empress Wu, everything makes sense. He is younger than the Sixth Prince, older than the Eighth Prince, and is ranked seventh. His existence is not known to the world, but the emperor is aware of it, so it is said that the youngest son ranks eighth.

Hai Jiao said his thoughts with some hesitation, and then made up his mind: "Since his age and ranking are right, he should be the prince." Although the emperor refused to announce his news, he included him in the prince's preface, and accepted him as a concubine, obviously considering his future life, but it was not completely ruthless......

In the past two days, he tried his best to recall the gossip he had heard in his previous life, and he never remembered the rumors about the prince, but he remembered another thing: he was once ordered to spy on an official of the Ministry of Industry, and overheard the other party privately telling his wife that when the Empress Dowager Zhou was preparing to be buried in the imperial mausoleum, the emperor had ordered them to temporarily dig a small burial chamber next to the main tomb, so that a coffin could be arranged for burial. At that time, in order to rush the work, they were lazy and did not dig another burial chamber, but just stuffed the coffin into the main burial chamber casually.

Since the emperor was not in good health and did not personally visit the mausoleum, no one knew about the small actions they made. Unexpectedly, he escaped the catastrophe at that time, and when the new monarch ascended the throne, there was a new pavilion elder who investigated the matter. This official of the Ministry of Industry intends to destroy all the evidence left behind in those years, and then silence all those who know about it, so that the cabinet must not know what he has committed.

Since Jin Yiwei knows the secret of this official, he will naturally not have a good end, but it is impossible for the queen mother's mausoleum, which has been laid down from the tomb door stone, to be reopened, so the coffin that was buried with him has not been removed, and he is still accompanied by the queen mother in the tomb.

After the case was made public, there was gossip that the coffin was buried by a prince, and the costumes, funeral goods and coffin were arranged according to the prince's specifications. Some people say that it was the son of the Empress Dowager Zhou who died in her early years, but the crown prince of the first emperor dynasty was buried in the cemetery of the first emperor more than forty years ago. Some people say that it is actually the Seventh Prince, who was raised by the Queen Mother since childhood, so he will be buried next to the Queen Mother.

Soon after this statement came out, other major events happened in the DPRK and China, and no one paid attention to the news of the Queen Mother's mausoleum again, and Haijiao never knew who was lying in the coffin.

Looking back now, he feels that everything is in the right place: "The one who is buried in the mausoleum of the Queen Mother should be this prince, right?" He happened to be seven, and he died early before he was crowned king, and he was not known to the world, so he could only be buried quietly, but the dignity that a prince should have. The emperor was not mean to him. ”

Haitang frowned: "In this way, he will only live until the Queen Mother dies and is buried in the cemetery?" Isn't that two years away? How did he die? Sick and dead? Or was he killed by the Sun family? ”

"I don't know." Haijiao spread his hands, "Anyway, there is also a lot of gossip about the cause of the Queen Mother's death. Although she was seriously ill at that time, she was not yet dying, so the emperor would rest assured that she would go on patrol. Unexpectedly, only a few days after the holy driver left Beijing, the news of the death of the queen mother came out of the palace, and the holy driver had to return in a hurry.

"The imperial court said that the queen mother was caused by an old disease caused by bad weather, and her condition suddenly worsened, and the medicine was ineffective. There is also gossip that she was angry with Sun Guifei. Later, the Sun family fell, and the Empress Dowager Xu also accused Sun Guifei of killing the Empress Dowager. It's just that there is no evidence, and several years have passed, and even the cabinet has not taken it seriously, only that the Empress Dowager Xu is going to fall into the well and plant more crimes on Sun Guifei. ”

Haijiao didn't believe that there was a problem with the cause of the Queen Mother's death, because there was no need for Sun Guifei to poison the Queen Mother at that time. But now that he knows the existence of the prince, he is not so sure.

If Sun Guifei knew about the existence of the prince and knew why the pomegranate flower wanted to poison the six princes, in order to take revenge, she killed the prince and solved the queen mother by the way, it is possible. It's just that after he is reborn, he will never find the answer.

Unless in this life, Concubine Sun Guifei discovered the secret of Cining Palace again, and once again had murderous intentions.

(End of chapter)