wear it lord god

Chapter 2678 Being an Empress Isn't Easy 24
An emperor cannot be childless; if his ministers found out, there would be an uproar. Therefore, Liu Cheng's idea was nipped in the bud.

With so many concubines and so many new ones arriving, Liu Cheng's body could handle it, but the Ministry of Revenue couldn't!

The Minister of Revenue submitted a memorial to the emperor, stating that the budget from the palace would double the expenditures of previous years, and asked whether the emperor would approve it. If approved, either the national treasury would be empty, or some funds would be deducted from military pay or flood control funds.

Everyone knows why the palace's budget has increased so much.

There's no need to summon the Imperial Household Department to inquire; this budget was only given because we'll be frugal from now on. The money spent on Chuxiu Palace alone is more than this.

Cui Zhaoyi's father lost weight trying to supplement his daughter's income, and the price doubled if you asked him for a favor.

Liu Cheng's face burned with pain, and his heart burned with pain as well.

After court, he instructed the imperial physicians to prepare more contraceptive soup. Whenever a concubine had been summoned to the emperor's bedchamber, they should be asked whether he wanted to keep the pregnancy. If not, they should be given a bowl, supposedly for conditioning the body.

Add some safflower or similar ingredients to the herbal decoction, trying to avoid harming the body and preventing pregnancy.

The thought of thirty or fifty children, seventy or eighty, or even over a hundred coming at the wrong time is too terrifying to bear!

Just then, someone came to announce the good news: "Your Majesty, great news...she is pregnant..."

Upon hearing that she was pregnant, Liu Cheng's eyebrows twitched: "Why are you in such a panic? Pregnancy in the palace is not a very common thing."

The messenger knelt down and said, "The Crown Prince's principal wife is pregnant!"

Liu Cheng was stunned for a long time. Was he about to become a grandfather?
The scene will be even more beautiful when my grandson and son are born together next year.

Thinking back to when he was the Crown Prince, his Crown Princess was pregnant, and the Empress Dowager and a group of people were sending people to his Crown Prince's residence. Now that his Crown Princess is pregnant, and the Crown Prince's residence only has two concubines, it's bound to make all sides eager to make their move.

By then, there will be a lot of children in the palace and a lot of children in the Crown Prince's residence, and the reputation of the father and son as lecherous will be confirmed.

So Liu Cheng quickly summoned the Crown Prince and said earnestly, "I heard that the Crown Prince's principal wife is pregnant, which is a good thing, but the Crown Prince should prioritize the country and not be too greedy for beauty."

The Crown Prince was completely confused. Shouldn't the Crown Princess be happily rewarded for being pregnant? Why was he saying all this?
He said, "Yes, Your Majesty, I understand," but in his heart he was thinking, "And you're talking about me? What are these thirty new people who just entered the palace?"
Upon learning this, Xi Ning couldn't help but sigh at how fast children were growing up. Even though the Crown Princess was a year older than the Crown Prince, she was only seventeen.

In the previous storyline, Princess Jiahe, the original owner of this body, also died at the age of seventeen, along with her unborn child. This time, she's determined to postpone having children until she's eighteen.

Or we could choose a young general who guards the southern border, the kind who comes back once a year, to facilitate healthy births.

The Empress issued an imperial decree ordering the Crown Princess to reside in Chuxiu Palace to prepare for childbirth.

Now, Chuxiu Palace is so good, it's practically a top-tier maternal and child health hospital plus a VIP postpartum care center.

To reassure the Crown Princess's family, the Grand Tutor's Mansion, they allowed her to bring two trusted individuals with her. As expected, the Crown Princess chose her wet nurse who had accompanied her during her dowry and her personal maid who had been with her since childhood.

In the autumn, the empress proposed to select candidates for the emperor, and Liu Cheng's eyelids twitched.

He held the Empress's hand tightly: "My wise Empress, there are already enough people in the palace. Selecting concubines is a waste of resources and manpower. Two selections are enough. There is no need to select any more."

Xi Ning feigned a gentle and dignified demeanor: "Your Majesty, I was just worried that you would have no one to serve you."

"Seventy or eighty, I can't even recognize them all anymore. That's enough, really enough." Even if Liu Cheng wanted women, the Ministry of Revenue would object, the ministers would object, and the people would definitely object.

Xining then feigned difficulty: "Your Majesty's concern is also for the sake of your offspring. It seems that in the past six months, only seven concubines have become pregnant. I feel that Your Majesty is probably not satisfied with the new concubines. Perhaps Your Majesty was not pleased with the batch of concubines last year after they gave birth."

"That's not true!" Liu Cheng immediately denied it. "I'm just too busy with state affairs to have any time for matters of the bedchamber." Would they dare to have more children? If all the babies were born successfully, the number of princes and princesses would be close to fifty.

"Oh, is that so? Then Your Majesty, please take good care of your health and, when you have time, take good care of the ladies in the palace, and try to show your favor to everyone."

"Very well, thank you for your hard work, Your Majesty!" Liu Cheng said with a chorus of praise and quickly dismissed the Empress.

He also ensured that everyone received his due share. Now that there were so many more people in the palace, Zhang Shanzhong would ask where everyone would rest each night.

The women all seemed to want to tear him apart the moment they saw him. No matter how much tonic he was given, he felt his kidneys couldn't take it anymore.

She couldn't stand Zhang Shanzhong, whom she had always served.

Inside the study, Vice Minister Xiao of the Ministry of War knelt below: "Your Majesty, there is a secret report: the Duke of Zhenguo is hoarding troops and intends to rebel."

Liu Cheng watched coldly. This was Consort Xiao's father, who had originally been appointed Minister, but Consort Xiao's mistake had ruined his chances. Consort Xiao had just been released from confinement and was already thinking of sharing the emperor's burdens, hoping to regain the position of Minister, or even a higher one.

"What countermeasures do you have, my dear minister?"

The Duke of Zhenguo guards the northern frontier and currently commands an army of 200,000. What was once an ally has now become a thorn in his side, a nuisance he must remove as soon as possible.

Overthrow the Duke of Zhenguo, promote a few more people, and divide the troops.

Those who are promoted will naturally be grateful and loyal. With troops dispersed, they can rest easy.

But uprooting them is easier said than done.

Minister Xiao revealed his long-planned scheme: to summon the Duke of Zhenguo and his heir back to the capital, then seize control of the entire Duke of Zhenguo's mansion and convict them of colluding with foreign powers, reselling military equipment and provisions, embezzling military funds, and attempting rebellion.

Liu Cheng remained outwardly calm, but inwardly he had already rolled his eyes several times: "What you say is absolutely right, my dear minister. The Duke of Zhenguo has been loyal and virtuous for generations, and his reputation is universally acknowledged. The Empress has also borne me three sons and two daughters and has devoted herself to me wholeheartedly. Without real evidence, how can we silence the public's opinions?"

With his own grandson already the crown prince, who would dare to rebel? The idea of ​​colluding with foreign powers is utter nonsense. The Duke of Zhenguo's family has fought against the Tartars for three generations. If I kill your Chanyu's son today, you'll kill my son tomorrow; we've been locked in a life-or-death struggle for a long time.

Vice Minister Xiao responded, "What if the Empress makes a mistake and is deposed, and the Duke of Zhenguo feels indignant on behalf of his beloved daughter?"

Liu Cheng looked at Minister Xiao as if he were a fool: "The Empress is diligent and conscientious, without any faults. Without the Empress, you want your daughter to be the Empress?"

Minister Xiao was so frightened that he prostrated himself on the ground, large beads of sweat rolling down his forehead: "But many imperial heirs have died young before..."

"That was before!" Liu Cheng almost wanted to punch this guy out of the car.

The Empress had said long ago that he had been preoccupied with state affairs and had no interest in women. Now there were seventy or eighty concubines and more than forty princes and princesses in the palace.

They died young before, so why don't they die young now? They're still dying young, my foot!

"We'll discuss this later," he said, dismissing the useless old man. He shouldn't try to plot anything more until he came up with a better solution.

In the past, if the Empress hadn't allowed him to take concubines, and with so few children, he could have simply killed them. But now... no matter how many women or children he has, they don't fight over them or cause any trouble, so it's actually a little hard to let them go.

If the empress is removed, in order to eliminate any future troubles, her children must also be ruthlessly eliminated.

The Crown Prince is intelligent and virtuous, and his wife is pregnant; he will soon have a legitimate grandson. The Duke of Zhenguo isn't truly plotting a rebellion, so how could he possibly bring himself to do it?