After the whole family was swept away, I lay down flat

Chapter 1090 Reputation
Haitang didn't understand Concubine Zhang Gong's thoughts.

In the past, there were people who exposed the true background of Empress Dowager Xu. When the late emperor was alive, Sun Ge Lao used Jin Wu to fight a lawsuit in front of the emperor. But at that time, Jin Jiashu cleverly "exposed" Jin Wu's "lie", and the witnesses from his hometown in Zunhua Prefecture also "proved" that Empress Dowager Xu looked very different from the original wife of Jin Juren as described by Jin Wu, and the whole matter was concluded under the auspices of the late emperor. Now, even if Concubine Zhang Gong brings up the old matter again, what can she do?
With the late emperor's words, all the evidence, and the fact that the Empress Dowager Xu's biological son is on the throne, how easy is it to overturn the case?! Concubine Zhang Gong has no sons, and her family is in decline. Why does she think she can do what even Lord Sun couldn't do when he was in power? Even if she spread the news widely, how many people would be willing to follow her and make a fuss instead of dismissing the whole thing as making a fuss out of nothing?
Neither the royal family nor the court officials are fools. Now that the new monarch's position is stable, the royal family has become much more honest after the failed coup in Prince Ji's mansion. Even if Concubine Zhang Gong can produce some strong evidence to prove that Queen Mother Xu was a second-married concubine, it will not shake the new monarch's position. The new monarch's qualification to inherit the throne has been recognized by the late emperor, the Empress Dowager, the royal family, and the cabinet officials. As long as he is the blood of the late emperor, even if there are some minor problems with the identity of his biological mother, it will not shake this point. And as long as the owner of the throne is still the new monarch, any accusation against the new monarch's biological mother will be meaningless. If Concubine Zhang Gong insists on making trouble, it will not do her any good.

Moreover, Haitang did not think that Concubine Zhang Gong could produce any strong evidence. The Sun family had the powerful weapon of Jinwu in their hands, but they did not bring down Concubine Xu Xian. What about Concubine Zhang Gong, whose family was in decline and who had lived in the deep palace for a long time?

Haitang stared at Concubine Zhang Gong carefully for a few times and found that although she seemed to be saying harsh words to her, her eyes were actually looking in the direction of the main hall.

Who is she looking at? Queen Mother Xu?
Yes, if Concubine Zhang Gong really wanted to cause trouble, there was no need to alert Empress Dowager Xu so early. What if she wanted to silence her? She now lived in Shoukang Palace, and Empress Dowager Xu was the owner of Shoukang Palace. It would be easy for her to do something to the concubine who lived with her. Concubine Zhang Gong summoned her niece to the palace to accompany her under the pretext of being sick. If she died of illness now, it would not arouse suspicion from the outside world?
Perhaps, the real purpose of Concubine Zhang Gong was to threaten Empress Dowager Xu? She wanted to hint that she knew the latter's secret. She didn't want to ruin Empress Dowager Xu's reputation or shake the new emperor's throne. She just wanted to... get some benefits from this, such as making her niece a member of the new emperor's harem...

Haitang sneered in her heart.

No matter what purpose Concubine Zhang Gong had in bringing up her cousin Fang, she took the initiative to provoke her family, so it was no wonder that she was being rude. If she really tolerated her this time, maybe she really thought that the Hai family was just a small family that was easy to bully and could be manipulated by her!

Thinking of this, Haitang frowned and looked at Concubine Zhang Gong. She didn't care where the other party's eyes were, and just said to herself: "Your Majesty, what you said is wrong! The soldiers and families at the border don't care about widows keeping their chastity. As long as they don't abandon their deceased husband's flesh and blood relatives, the border town has always encouraged widows to remarry. Otherwise, there are more men than women on the border. After a war, there will be casualties, but there will be no new population to replenish. In the future, no one will join the army and no one will farm. How can we defend the country? When everyone dies out, won't we have to hand over the beautiful rivers and mountains of Da Chu to the enemy?! Your Majesty has been in the deep palace for a long time, and your family has always lived in the prosperous capital. You probably don't know the hardships of the border. In order to defend the country and stabilize the country, the court and the border army know the importance of the matter, and they will not disregard the reputation of women and say that widows should die if they remarry."

This was just short of pointing directly at Concubine Zhang Gong's nose and saying that she didn't know the seriousness of the matter. She immediately turned her gaze back to Haitang, her face flushed with anger: "Are you blaming me?! Are women from the frontier not supposed to be chaste?! It's right for women to remarry after their husbands die?!"

Haitang did not respond to her question, but continued: "Frontier women can naturally choose whether to remarry, just as the rules recognized by the world, the first marriage is decided by parents, and the second marriage is decided by oneself. Many women feel that life is worry-free, so they focus on raising the children left by their late husbands, serving their parents-in-law and elders, and do not plan to remarry. But in the world, how can everything go as planned? If the whole family is about to starve to death, or there are other unavoidable reasons, the widow needs to remarry to win a way out, then it is no one's fault.

"Just like Madam Yu who remarried to save her parents-in-law and children, or like my aunt who was forced to remarry to protect her husband's family's inheritance. The Queen Mother praised them not because they had remarried, but because they sacrificed their personal reputation for the greater good, and they were meritorious officials of their families. However, there are many ignorant and unreasonable vulgar people in the world. When they hear that a woman remarried, they often speak ill of her and do not care about her merits at all. The Queen Mother should be speaking up for them."

Concubine Zhang Gong sneered: "What kind of merits are you talking about... It's nothing but despising the poor and loving the rich! She couldn't bear the hard life, so she married a rich man under the banner of so-called justice..."

Haitang interrupted her, "My aunt was widowed at a young age. She has a rich family and a son who will inherit the family business. Her family members are kind and no one makes things difficult for her. She is the only one who manages the family business and everything goes smoothly. She has never thought of remarrying anyone. However, there is a rich man in the same village who is rich but unkind. He covets her beauty and the wealth of my family. He colluded with the government and tried to swallow up my family's ancestral property. He also wanted to frame innocent family members and force the family to give in. If my aunt only cared about her own reputation, she would have quietly left with the only child of her husband's family, leaving the family business and family behind. But her family members knelt in front of her and begged for help, and her deceased parents-in-law had once raised her. She didn't want to disappoint her parents-in-law, nor did she want to watch her husband's family's century-old foundation be ruined by others, so she reluctantly married.

"After that, she never forgot her original intention and had been secretly protecting her husband's bloodline, so that my cousin could grow up safely and study for the imperial examinations, and my family members could live and work in peace in my hometown. In the end, the evil man who forced her to marry was exposed and punished by the court. My aunt also divorced and escaped in time, and presented the evidence of her enemy's crime, avenging the day she was forced to marry. May I ask, Queen Dowager, do you think that my aunt did something wrong? Shouldn't she sacrifice herself to protect her husband's children, family business and family members, or shouldn't she provide the evidence of her second husband's family's crime to the government for this hatred?"

Concubine Zhang Gong was speechless and could only say, "Anyway, she shouldn't remarry! A woman's reputation is the most important thing. I don't believe that she has no other choice but to remarry!"

Haitang nodded, "I see. The Zhang family is indeed a family of patriarchs. The education they give their daughters is truly extraordinary. The daughters of the Zhang family value their reputation the most. After getting married, they must put their own reputation first. As for whether their husband's family is prosperous or declining, whether the family business falls into the hands of others, whether the bloodline is cut off, whether the family members are safe... these are all minor matters. As long as the daughters of the Zhang family are still famous, what else matters? Is this what the Concubine Dowager means?"

Although Concubine Zhang Gong thought this was a bit strange, it sounded reasonable. She was about to nod her head when Zhang Yanfeng's face changed and she screamed, "My Lady Concubine!"