HCB Chapter 382 Music Score
Chapter 382 Music Score
Finally, after a fierce struggle, the Queen Mother and Longkodo succeeded. Originally, the Queen Mother wanted to support the Fourteenth Prince to ascend the throne, but unexpectedly, the late Emperor had a trick up his sleeve. He had already made a will and issued an imperial decree to make Yongzheng the emperor, making the Queen Mother and Longkodo's schemes a bunch of bubbles and jokes.
However, after the current emperor ascended the throne, the queen mother still became the most honorable woman in the palace. She held great power and ruled the country from behind the curtain for several years. Although the son who ascended the throne was not the one she liked, she still had wealth and glory. Those who once laughed at her and abandoned her could only bow down before her and fawn on her tremblingly. After the queen mother ascended the throne, she immediately governed the court with an iron fist, which made the court solemn.
In a very short period of time, she not only consolidated her position and established her prestige, but also successfully changed the entire court structure.
According to the Empress Dowager, the current emperor's current situation was due to the contributions of both the Empress Dowager and Longkodo. However, the emperor knew clearly that even if the Empress Dowager and Longkodo had not done evil, the throne would have been passed to him without bias. They did this only to seek personal gain, and when they failed to gain any personal gain, they had no choice but to do him a favor, so the emperor was not grateful.
The conflict between the emperor and the empress dowager intensified, and An Lingrong smelled the smell of gunpowder again. The emperor took the opportunity of visiting the empress dowager at Shoukang Palace to make another request to her. As for Longkodo, the emperor hoped that the empress dowager could stand on his side and consider the interests of the overall situation. The emperor told the empress dowager that sooner or later, for the sake of the Qing Dynasty, he would get rid of Longkodo. The reason why he kept delaying was just to calm the empress dowager's heart, but the empress dowager was inconsistent. She had clearly figured it out the night before, but she couldn't do it the next day. She began to regret with the emperor, and was always struggling in contradiction. Finally, in order to stabilize the emperor's emotions, the empress dowager actually made a request. Although Longkodo had resigned from his official position, if the emperor was still not at ease, he could imprison Longkodo forever in exchange for the emperor's peace of mind.
The emperor lacked maternal love since childhood and was an insecure person. In his opinion, even if Longkodo was imprisoned forever, he would not feel at ease. Leaving Longkodo behind would be like a time bomb, which could lead to even greater disasters if not handled with care.
Seeing that the emperor had made up his mind, the empress dowager had a disagreement with the emperor over the matter of Longkodo. The empress dowager started to make trouble again. She secretly contacted some court ministers who were loyal to her and launched a literary inquisition without informing the emperor in advance. The literary inquisition seemed to be fierce and powerful, but it was controlled and promoted by the empress dowager's careful planning and secret arrangement from the beginning.
Many people simply made rude remarks, and their private remarks that were suspected of slandering the court and undermining the foundation of the country were heard and submitted to the palace in the form of memorials. However, the empress dowager actually intercepted some of the memorials privately, and without reporting them to the emperor, she privately investigated and dealt with the suspects, and severely punished them. Some of the punishments were severed, with some having their hands and feet cut off, and some were whipped to death. It was a horrible sight, and the emperor was caught off guard.
Then, what the emperor did not expect was that the empress dowager actually directed her spearhead at Concubine Li - An Lingrong. Now the two most favored concubines in the palace by the emperor are An Lingrong and Concubine Duan. Concubine Duan has a strong family background and is supported by powerful underworld forces. The last time the empress dowager wanted to kill Concubine Duan, after the plan failed, the empress dowager herself felt guilty and let Concubine Duan off, so she shifted all her attention to An Lingrong.
An Lingrong is not only well-versed in pharmaceuticals, but also has her own unique insights into music after long-term research. In her spare time, she even compiled a palace music score. After spending a lot of effort, she finally completed the score. However, she did not expect that this music score would bring her endless disasters.
This music score was not only loved by many concubines in the harem, but also by Prince Guo and Prince Qinghe. Although the music was signed with the name of a court band, many people had participated in its production, including Zhen Huan and Shen Meiyu. They conceived and composed the music together. Then, after the empress dowager launched a new round of literary inquisition, the music score was taken out and analyzed word by word. Some of the words in it were regarded as disrespectful to the court and the emperor.
At the beginning, the writing of this music score was approved by the emperor. In order to make a song perfect, An Lingrong, Zhen Huan, Shen Meizhuang and others worked tirelessly, repeatedly polishing every word, striving to make it perfect. The emperor also had high standards and high requirements for them, and required that this music score be passed down from generation to generation as a popular music score, in order to show the unique charm of court music and the cultural heritage of the Qing Dynasty.
But now, this music score was in the court, and it was criticized by hundreds of officials, which made the emperor very angry. The emperor was furious and ordered all civil and military officials in the court to keep their mouths shut. Anyone who dared to criticize this palace music score would be openly opposing the emperor and openly provoking the emperor.
Then, wasn't this literary inquisition initiated by the Empress Dowager? The Emperor was the Empress Dowager's biological son, so they were like-minded, weren't they? The officials outside didn't know what was going on and thought the Emperor was being inexplicable. Under the Emperor's strict requirements, the matter was temporarily settled.
So, some opportunists stood up and said that the composer of the palace music score was a very talented person, and the emperor should bring him forward and entrust him with important tasks. Because the name of the band was signed on the music score, it was better to have less trouble than more. The emperor just wanted to settle the matter as soon as possible, so why would he bring up An Lingrong and others and let the officials talk about it again? !
The emperor didn't want to pay any attention to those old guys in the court, and even less to the old guy in his own palace. As long as the emperor didn't get angry, didn't pursue the matter, and didn't make any changes to the music score, things would calm down.
The emperor was extremely clever, and things turned out just as he had expected. After a series of disturbances, the music score was not destroyed but was preserved, and An Lingrong was not implicated. As for other people implicated in the literary inquisition, some were imprisoned and some were fined. It was all the work of the empress dowager.
For a time, the palace was shaken and in a panic. Except for An Lingrong, all the other musicians who had compiled several music scores were not spared and were all implicated. They were ruthlessly thrown into the dungeon, and without the empress dowager's order, they would not be able to come back to life.
The matter seemed absurd. The emperor's request was that as long as the empress dowager did not touch An Lingrong and touched other unrelated people, the emperor would cooperate with her. If the empress dowager touched An Lingrong, the emperor would make the empress dowager lose face and lose face.