The lucky girl in the village has a good way of making money.

First, the cabinet jointly requested the emperor to choose a crown prince. Without a crown prince, the country would be unstable.

Afterwards, the Minister of Revenue and a group of ministers requested that the Prince of Zhao be made the Crown Prince on the grounds that the eldest son should be made the Crown Prince.

The Minister of Works and a group of ministers requested that the seventh prince be made the crown prince on the grounds of appointing a virtuous person.

The seventh prince, Zhao Qi, was fifteen years old and was the son of Concubine An. Although his mother's family was not prominent, it was also a scholarly family. Moreover, the seventh prince was extremely intelligent, respectful, and had a mild temper. He was truly worthy of the word virtuous.

But no matter whether it was the Minister of Revenue or the Minister of Works, they were all scolded by the emperor. The emperor even got angry with several ministers, either demoting them or sending them to reflect on their mistakes behind closed doors.

The emperor was furious and all his ministers knew that he was still thinking about the former crown prince. At this moment, whoever asked to establish a crown prince would be punished.

The matter calmed down for the time being.

In a blink of an eye, it is New Year's Eve of the 26th year in Ruikang.

Since the Song and Lu families had all gone back to Bingzhou, Shi Liu simply asked her eldest and second brothers to come over and celebrate New Year's Eve together.

The elders and children are not here, so it’s less lively and just a bit deserted.

After the new year, in February, the voices calling for the appointment of a crown prince were heard again in the court.

This time, the emperor did not lose his temper and curse at anyone.

For the sake of the country, a crown prince must be established.

After all, the emperor is already fifty-six years old this year, which is not young at all.

Seeing that the emperor had acquiesced, all the ministers became excited. They sent memorials to the emperor's desk one after another requesting the establishment of a crown prince, and they argued endlessly during the morning court session.

As to whether to establish the eldest son or the most capable one, those who supported Prince Zhao and the Seventh Prince were equally matched in the court.

Of course, there are also some people who remain neutral and do not take sides with anyone, such as the Marquis of Jing'an and Prince Yu.

In order to gain the support of Prince Yu, Prince Zhao spent a huge amount of money and bought top-quality pearls from the east at a high price and brought them back as gifts for Prince Yu's wife. Everyone knows that Prince Yu loves his wife dearly, and he is happier to please the princess than to please himself.

Just when King Zhao thought he was sure to win.

In April, the Empress Dowager suddenly took the seventeenth prince under her name.

It was because the seventeenth prince's biological mother, Concubine Liu, accidentally fell into the Imperial Lake while trying to save the Empress, and was already dead when she was rescued.

The Queen Mother was grateful to Concubine Liu for saving her life, and considering that the Seventeenth Prince was still young, she brought him to her side and raised him personally.

Now the situation becomes complicated.

Whether it is the eldest son or the most capable one, it is based on the fact that the empress has no children and no legitimate son.

But according to the ancestral rules, establishing the legitimate son is above all else.

Now that the Empress has raised the Seventeenth Prince under her own name, the Seventeenth Prince is recorded in the Imperial Book of Edicts as the legitimate son of the Empress.

In May, a minister submitted a memorial requesting that the empress's legitimate son be made the crown prince.

Zhao Wang's faction naturally opposed it on the grounds that the seventeenth prince was too young.

The Seventh Prince's faction remained silent for the time being.

The quarrel went on for another half a month, and in June, the emperor issued an imperial decree.

The ancestral rules state that the crown prince should be the legitimate son.

Therefore, the seventeenth prince, who was only three years old, was officially named the crown prince.

The Zhao Wang party, which had been arguing fiercely in the court, had no choice but to give up.

Upon learning that the seventeenth prince was named crown prince, Shi Liu was also saddened.

Same person has different destinies. What is fate? This is fate.

If he had not been raised by the queen, the title of crown prince would never have been established for a three-year-old child like him, as there were many princes who were ten years old or older than him.

Especially Prince Zhao, his son is one year older than the seventeenth prince.

But she had no right to care who the crown prince would be. The important thing was that he was finally appointed. Now everything was stable and she didn't have to worry about unrest in the capital.

Thinking about their family members who were sent back due to the unclear situation last year, Li Rongzhang and his brothers who had traveled entered the academy in the state capital to continue their studies. It would not be convenient for them to run back to the capital at this time.

Shi Liu prepared to send someone back to bring Lu, Song and others over.

But Fan Jin said there was no rush. He was in the Hanlin Academy every day. What's more, Zhou Bingwen was now the son-in-law of the Minister of Rites. He could always get a feel for some wind directions and undercurrents.

Upon hearing this, Shi Liu put the matter aside for the time being.

Sure enough, something went wrong at the Mid-Autumn Palace Banquet in August.

The young prince slipped and fell down the stairs, leaving a deep cut on his forehead. The imperial physician diagnosed that he might be left with a scar.

The queen was furious and beat to death all the eunuchs and palace maids who served the prince.

Unfortunately, after a month of treatment, the prince still had an obvious scar that could not be removed.

Afterwards, the Zhao Wang party started to stir up trouble again, and on the grounds that the crown prince could not be disgraced, they petitioned the emperor to depose the crown prince and replace him with the eldest son.

The emperor kept it in his pocket and did not send it out.

In the winter month, urgent military information from southern Xinjiang was sent to Beijing, with 300,000 troops from the Jin Kingdom approaching Suling Pass.

The whole court was shocked.

Since the reign of the late emperor, our dynasty has signed a friendly document with the Kingdom of Jin. For so many years, there has been no trouble. But the Kingdom of Jin sent troops without a word. Did they tear up the document signed by the two countries? Yes, the Emperor Cheng of the Kingdom of Jin who signed a friendly alliance with the late emperor is no longer in power. Now the one in power is his grandson, who has always been aggressive. They thought that this day would come sooner or later, but they didn't expect it to come so early.

When foreign enemies invaded, all matters concerning the crown prince had to be put aside. The emperor immediately issued an edict, appointing Bai Xing as the marshal of the southern expedition, and ordered him to send 200,000 soldiers to southern Xinjiang that day.

With the invasion of foreign enemies, people all over the country were in panic. They prayed every day that the soldiers of the Great Jin Dynasty would be victorious and defeat the Jin army.

On the New Year's Eve of the 27th year of Ruikang, due to the war in southern Xinjiang, the entire capital city was a little deserted, without the singing and dancing of previous years.

Even the Spring Examination after the New Year does not seem to attract as much attention as in previous years.

In April of the 28th year of Ruikang, victory was won in southern Xinjiang. The soldiers of the Great Jin Dynasty defeated the Jin army and forced it to retreat to the city of Silicon.

When the good news reached them, the people were filled with joy and excitement.

In June, good news came back again, and the Jin Kingdom sent envoys to negotiate peace.

There was also endless debate in the court about whether to make peace or go to war.

But the emperor was ill, so naturally we had to make peace. Therefore, the emperor issued an edict, ordering the Minister of Rites and several other ministers to go to southern Xinjiang to negotiate peace with the Jin Kingdom. It was the Jin Kingdom that took the initiative to negotiate peace, so naturally we had to take the opportunity to seek more conditions that were favorable to our Great Jin. We also had to let the Jin Kingdom know that it was not that our Great Jin would not fight, but that we came to negotiate peace because of your sincerity in negotiating peace and because of your country's emperor Cheng.

Since then, the war that had lasted for half a year finally came to an end.

The external threat was resolved, and voices in the court about deposing the crown prince were heard again.

Unfortunately, the emperor has not been able to get up since his illness. Even for the morning court, he only summoned Prime Minister Xie and a few cabinet ministers to handle state affairs, and only these ministers appeared.

In September, Jin and Jin formally negotiated peace. Jin signed a document promising not to invade again for 20 years and sent a princess as a marriage partner.

The foreign invasion was also completely settled.

In October, the emperor was critically ill and summoned Prime Minister Xie and Prince Yu to the dragon bed. He changed the edict, deposed the crown prince, named the seventeenth prince as Prince Shou, and appointed the seventh prince Zhao Qi as the crown prince.

That night, the death knell rang in the palace.

Emperor Ruikang died at the age of fifty-seven.

The whole country is in mourning, and the people are not allowed to get married for a year.

At this time, Shi Liu and Fan Jin had already arrived in Jinzhou.

As soon as the results of the palace examination came out in April, Fan Jin and other scholars who had passed the previous spring examination and came to study were officially dismissed, which was equivalent to graduating.

It also makes room for the newly promoted scholars.

The Shujishi who were released from the academy were either sent to the six ministries or demoted.

Fan Jin and Shi Liu just wanted to leave the capital as soon as possible, so they used the little connections they had at the Jing'an Marquis's Mansion and spent a large sum of money. Therefore, Fan Jin's letter of appointment was obtained the fastest.

He was demoted to serve as the county magistrate of Rong County, Jiyang Prefecture, Jinzhou.

Rong County is a medium-sized county, neither good nor bad. Most importantly, it is far from the capital, but only about ten days' journey from my hometown, Daming Prefecture.

When the appointment letter was received, the emperor happened to be ill, so Shi Liu and Fan Jin quickly packed up their things and set off immediately.

Of course, people were left to look after the houses and shops in the capital. As for Li Rongzhong and Li Rongyu, who had been in the capital for two years and had already put the Weifeng Express Station on the right track, they also had a manager sent to take over. The two brothers took Lin and his group and left with Shi Liu and his group.

Fan Jin went to Jinzhou to be an official, and the Li Rongzong brothers went to Jinzhou to continue working as Weifeng Express Postmen.

On the way back, they passed Daming Prefecture and Shi Liu and Fan Jin stayed at home for a few days to meet their relatives and friends whom they had not seen for a long time, and then continued to Jinzhou.

After they are settled in Jinzhou, we will bring Lu and the others over.

Just as Fan Jin entered Rong County, handed over the documents, and officially took office, he received the news that the emperor had passed away and the seventh prince was appointed crown prince and would ascend the throne on a certain day.

After looking at Shi Liu, they both sighed.

It was thought that the seventeenth prince was the chosen one by God, but in the end, an accident happened just two months after he became the crown prince.

After many twists and turns, the final crown prince turned out to be the seventh prince.

The Seventh Prince is also good, at least he has a gentle temperament, much better than Prince Zhao.

Rong County was neither big nor small, with six towns and four thousand households under its jurisdiction. Fan Jin became busy as soon as he took office, and it was not until the eve of the New Year that he became familiar with the affairs of Rong County.

Fan Jin and Shi Liu spent this New Year's Eve alone.

As soon as the New Year was over, Shi Liu immediately sent someone back to Daming Prefecture to pick up Lu and others.

At the same time, I also learned the follow-up of the events in the capital.

The King of Zhao launched a coup on the eve of the crown prince's coronation ceremony.

That night, there was a raging fire above the palace, which lasted until dawn.

Prince Zhao was beheaded in front of the Zhengde Hall, and all his family members were demoted to commoners and imprisoned in the imperial mausoleum, never to be allowed to leave.

The new emperor ascended the throne, issued a general amnesty, changed the country's name to Yuande, canonized his wife as the Empress Dowager, honored his stepmother as the Empress Dowager, and honored his biological mother as the Holy Mother Empress Dowager.

He then made all his younger brothers kings, either keeping them in the capital or sending them to their fiefdoms.

All the princesses and sisters were honored and rewarded.

In addition, Marquis Jing'an was conferred the title of Duke Jing'an.

Since then, the two-year turbulent issue of the crown prince has finally come to an end.

(End of this chapter)