Raising a wife? The mistress of the Hou family divorced and remarried her younger uncle

Chapter 209 Imperial Power
In addition to Imperial Physician Fang, Imperial Physician Xu also participated in the treatment of Su Qingwan. Both of them were masters of the Imperial Medical Bureau and were specially sent by Prime Minister Lu to treat Su Qingwan.

The sword wound on Su Qingwan's chest was extremely deep, the flesh turned outward at the wound, blood gushed out, staining the ground beneath her red. Due to excessive blood loss, her face was as pale as paper, her breath was weak, her injuries were extremely dangerous, and her situation was critical.

Prime Minister Lu and Prince Kang controlled the overall situation in the previous dynasty, and the 20,000 soldiers of the Imperial Guard and the Imperial City Guard were all under his control. He sent his confidants to sneak into the homes of civil and military officials like ghosts and take care of their families one by one, especially the families of military generals, who were the focus of surveillance.

The eldest princess was also trapped in the palace. She was originally anxious to find Su Qingwan to discuss countermeasures, but when she heard the bad news that Su Qingwan was seriously injured, it was like a heavy hammer hitting her. She felt a black screen in front of her eyes and almost lost her balance.

"What an idiot!" The eldest princess gritted her teeth and cursed Concubine Lu in a low voice, her voice full of anger and annoyance.

She knew in her heart that if anything happened to Su Qingwan, Yan'er would surely die.

How could Concubine Lu be so stupid as to hurt Su Qingwan? The emperor had always indulged Su Qingwan, and even privately promised to redress Huainan's injustice, and was willing to issue an edict of guilt, in exchange for Su Qingwan's promise and cooperation.

During this time, Su Qingwan tried her best to take care of the emperor's health, and everything was going in a good direction. But Concubine Lu naively thought that torture could make Su Qingwan surrender, which was extremely foolish. This impulsive act was likely to drag everyone into an abyss of no return.

"Use the best medicinal herbs and make sure to save the princess." The eldest princess was extremely anxious. Her voice trembled as she gave orders to the imperial doctors, her eyes full of expectation and anxiety.

Doctor Fang looked embarrassed, frowning, and said helplessly: "Your Highness, the princess's injuries are too severe. Excessive blood loss has caused her qi and blood to be deficient, and her internal organs have been damaged. Now her life is hanging by a thread, and it is very unlikely that she will survive. Your Highness needs to be mentally prepared."

When the princess heard this, she stood there in shock, feeling dizzy. She never expected that the coup would come so fast, that Concubine Lu would dare to poison the emperor, and that the clan would take such a risk and try to hold the emperor hostage to control the princes. This was an extremely crazy move, and the entire court was instantly plunged into unprecedented chaos and crisis.

The princess knew the plan of the emperor and the king of the southwest. Su Qingwan did not deceive her. The two sides had indeed reached an alliance. Yan'er was young and the emperor had a short life. In order to create a stable imperial power environment for Yan'er, the clans could only be suppressed in the shortest possible time, and Yan'er must not be left with a powerful foreign relative.

The Emperor summoned the King of Southwest to the capital, intending to join forces with him to suppress the clan power. However, Southwest was determined to redress the injustice done to the King of Huainan, which touched the Emperor's sore spot, causing the plan to be shelved halfway.

The emperor changed his mind and was instigated by her to launch a palace coup. The journey was full of twists and turns, and he almost forgot his original intention. Fortunately, after the confrontation between the King of Southwest and the emperor, they understood each other tacitly and knew who was the real enemy.

After all, the King of Southwest’s surname is Li!
Even if he seized the throne, he would still have to engage in an invisible battle with the clans. It would be better for him to join forces with the emperor and use the emperor's hand to cut off the threat posed to the imperial power by the clans for hundreds of years.

Who would have thought that this old fox, Prime Minister Lu, would take such a risky move and poison the emperor. He must have seen through the emperor's plot and took the initiative to gain the upper hand in this power game.

Xiaowu...Did you plan all this?
You are deliberately provoking Prime Minister Lu to force him to make a choice and fight to the death. If you don't choose imperial power, you can only choose the southwest, and the southwest is not short of the support of the clans.

Prime Minister Lu had no choice but to choose the imperial power and gamble everything on it. If he lost, his entire clan would be exterminated; if he won, the Lu family would be guaranteed to prosper for generations.

The Grand Council had enormous power during wartime, far exceeding that of the cabinet. It was able to allocate military supplies for hundreds of thousands of troops, and could also meet the emperor directly, bypassing the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Revenue. It could even take over the Ministry of Revenue when the war was critical.

After the Xilin Peace Talks, the status of the Grand Council declined. The Southwest rebelled, and hundreds of thousands of troops broke away from the control of the court and were led by the King of the Southwest. The Princess could only transfer troops from Jiangnan, but Jiangnan was the sphere of influence of the clans.

The most supportive of the emperor, the Earl of Anping, was sent to Zhongzhou, and the princess was isolated and helpless. She could only send people out of the city to mobilize troops from Gaolan County, where the Jingji Guard was stationed, only a day's journey from the capital. The Jingji Guard was directly under the jurisdiction of the emperor and obeyed the dispatch of the Military Affairs Office.

However, what was shocking was that several corpses were brought to the front of the palace, and they were the generals sent by the princess to Gaolan to mobilize troops.

Their bodies were lying on the ground in a mess, their deaths were tragic, and the blood on their wounds had dried up and coagulated into dark red patches. Seeing this, the eldest princess was so angry that she was shaking all over, her eyes were red, and she angrily questioned Prime Minister Lu: "Lord, this is the general I sent to Gaolan to dispatch the Jingji Guard. What do you mean by this?"

Prime Minister Lu looked calm and responded slowly, "Your Highness, something unexpected happened in the palace. If the army goes to the capital, it may cause riots. Gaolan has 60,000 troops stationed there. How can they explain to the people if they rush into the capital? Where should the army be stationed? How long will they stay? Who will command them? The people will surely be terrified. To avoid causing chaos, the capital guards should stay where they are. Three days later, the prince will ascend the throne. When the situation stabilizes, I will summon General Liu to the capital to report on his work."

Prime Minister Lu was not afraid of the eldest princess. Firstly, the eldest princess was his daughter-in-law. Secondly, the main power of the Military Affairs Council relied on the southwestern army and the generals in the capital. Now that the southwest was in rebellion, the generals in the capital might be controlled, and the eldest princess was trapped in the capital, so there was naturally nothing to be afraid of.

The princess suppressed her anger, took a deep breath and said, "The cause of the emperor's death is unknown and has not yet been determined. Now it all depends on your and Concubine Lu's one-sided statements. If Xiaojiu really wanted to kill the emperor, she would have done it long ago. She has been helping the emperor recuperate for some time, and the antidote for Yan'er is in her hands. If she dies, and Yan'er is poisoned and there is no antidote, what are you going to do?"

Prime Minister Lu said coldly: "If anything happens to Yan'er, it is fate, no one else can be blamed. There are so many talented people in the royal family, and with so many good children, we can always choose a suitable successor."

When the princess heard this, she was furious and shouted, "Ridiculous!"

She wanted to argue with Prime Minister Lu, but was stopped by the prince consort. The prince consort looked solemn and said in a deep voice: "Your Highness, please don't say anything more. Father has made up his mind. There is no point in saying more."

Prime Minister Lu had already left with Prince Kang and others. These old princes of the royal family had no real power on weekdays, but when the palace changed, their importance as members of the royal family of the Li family became apparent. Now, Prime Minister Lu had used various means to win them over and made them his pawns to control the situation.

The princess glared at her husband and said word by word: "The real traitor is your Lu family!"

Upon hearing this, the prince consort's face flashed with displeasure, and he responded coldly: "Princess, don't forget that Nian Qing is also a member of the Lu family. You have married into the Lu family, and you follow the chicken and the dog!"

The princess did not show any weakness and said in a resounding voice: "I am the princess of Dayuan. I am a member of the royal family in life and a ghost of the royal family in death. You are just a consort. Don't use the Three Bonds and Five Constant Virtues to threaten me. We are monarch and subject first, and husband and wife second!"

The princess' words were like a sharp blade, mercilessly slapping the prince consort in the face. The prince consort hated the princess's condescending attitude the most, and when she refuted him like this, his anger suddenly rose.

He sneered and said, "Your Highness, you have been as arrogant and aloof as ever for ten years. You married me to win over the clan, but you never treated me sincerely, were unwilling to live in the Lu family, and never visited the Lu family during festivals. In your eyes, the Lu family was just a tool for you to stabilize the government. After Nianqing was born, you sent him away from Beijing despite our family's opposition, and raised him to recognize only his mother and not his father. Nianqing also learned from you that he was first a monarch and a minister, and then a father and a son. You have alienated the blood of the Lu family for more than ten years. Now my father is in charge of the government, and the overall situation has been determined. You should open your eyes and see that this is no longer the world of your Li family!"

The princess felt angry and hurt when she heard the prince consort's words. She slapped him hard and cursed loudly, "You are such an ambitious person. We will not allow outsiders to interfere in our Li family's kingdom. We will wait for the army of the prince from the southwest to reach the imperial city and see how arrogant you can be then!"