Selling wife for fame? Kick out the scumbag and marry the new emperor to enjoy the harem of favors

Chapter 92 She is just a concubine
Chengming Hall.

Zhao Xingjin sat aside and listened to Concubine Wei talk about her grievances, and he was also overwhelmed.

"The Empress's punishment of you this time is indeed rather harsh. I will send someone to Weiyang Palace to inform the Empress later. The salary fine will be reduced to just one month. You will only have to copy the palace rules for that month. After all, you contradicted the Empress in front of all the concubines that day. If you do not punish her at all, it will damage the Empress's prestige and will be detrimental to her management of the six palaces in the future."

Originally, Zhao Xingjin had been planning to deal with this matter after hearing about it from Xie Jiu, but he was upset by Concubine Yi yesterday afternoon and didn't even have a good lunch. In the afternoon, he was busy reviewing memorials, and before he finished, the incident of Sun Baolin being knocked down by the Fourth Prince happened.

With such a delay, how could he take care of Concubine Wei?

At the morning court today, people arranged by Xie Mingshen reported that Liang Shangshu of the Ministry of Rites allowed his son to commit a crime. After Zhao Xingjin dealt with it, before he had time to tell Xie Jiu about it, Concubine Wei came, and Zhao Xingjin was confused.

"Your Majesty, I do not harbor any resentment towards the Empress's punishment. I simply feel that she has become increasingly arbitrary. I believe that as the head of the Imperial Palace, you should be virtuous and magnanimous, exercising both leniency and strictness. However, the Empress's actions are simply provoking discord among the concubines in the harem, causing discord within. This is truly inappropriate!"

Concubine Wei looked like an imperial censor giving advice, kneeling upright with a determined look in her eyes.

Zhao Xingjin frowned. "Your words are not without reason, but the Queen's actions are governed by me and the Queen Mother. You said this in front of me, so please forgive me this time. If you do it again, I will punish you for criticizing the Queen."

Hearing this, Concubine Wei's eyes suddenly widened. She looked up at Zhao Xingjin, leaning forward slightly, as if she wanted to say something.

But seeing that Zhao Xingjin's face looked a little gloomy, he pursed his lips and finally held it back.

"The concubine knows."

"I'm glad to know. If you have nothing else to do, go back." Zhao Xingjin waved his hand.

But Concubine Wei immediately said, "Your Majesty, I have something else to ask."

"Speak." Zhao Xingjin didn't raise his eyes.

"I see that the concubines in the harem are not getting along well, mostly because of the unequal favors they receive. To maintain harmony in the harem, I implore the Emperor to summon the concubines to his bedchamber according to the old rules."

Concubine Wei looked very serious.

The old system she mentioned refers to the fact that the empress would serve the emperor on the first day of the lunar month, and then in the first half of the month, the concubines would serve the emperor in bed according to their rank from low to high.

For example, the lowest rank in the harem is the eighth-rank concubine, and above them are Baolin, Cairen, Meiren, Jieyushi, Pin, Fei, and Queen. Excluding the Queen, there are seven ranks left, and concubines of each rank can get two days of sleeping with the emperor.

For example, on the second and third days of the first lunar month, if the emperor wanted concubines to sleep with him, he could only choose them from among the concubines. On the fourth and fifth days, he could only choose them from among the concubines in the Imperial Academy, and so on.

In this way, when it is the fifteenth day, the Queen will sleep with the emperor again. In the second half of the month, the emperor will sleep with the emperor in order of rank, starting from the highest concubine and ending with the lowest-ranking court lady.

The old system was indeed relatively fair. Even if the emperor wanted to favor someone, he could only allow that person to sleep with him four times a month at most.

Besides, the emperor would not have the energy to summon concubines to sleep with him every day, so the possibility of favoring her would be further reduced. If the mood and time just happened to be right, there wouldn't be many chances of her being favored.

However, this old system was too strict, and basically no emperor followed it. This was also a tacit understanding in everyone's mind, and even many concubines did not know this rule.

In fact, Concubine Wei also learned about the palace rules when she was familiar with them before entering the palace. After entering the palace, she found that Zhao Xingjin did not follow the rules, and she felt that something was wrong.

The matter brought up now was something that Concubine Wei had been thinking about for a long time.

She felt that as long as Zhao Xingjin could abide by this rule, there would be less fighting among the concubines in the harem, and there would be peace.

Another thing is that her family will no longer urge her to try hard to win favor and conceive a royal heir as soon as possible.

Yes, Concubine Wei had been feeling irritable for the past two days. Just as Liu Baolin had guessed, the letter from her mother's family had made her unhappy. But now, she was asking Zhao Xingjin to follow the old system, which was undoubtedly a restriction on Zhao Xingjin. These words made Zhao Xingjin's eyes darken even more.

However, Concubine Wei seemed not to notice and continued talking.

"Furthermore, the concubines serving the Emperor should be carefully selected from those with good moral character, dignity and virtue. People like Concubine Xie and Zhou Baolin should not be summoned into the palace so easily."

"The old system? Do you know that this is the Dajing Dynasty? I am the founding emperor of Dajing. You want me to follow the old system. Which dynasty's old system are you talking about? Are you asking me to do things according to the rules of the previous dynasty?!"

Zhao Xingjin found it difficult to suppress his inner irritation, and finally interrupted her.

Concubine Wei was stunned for a moment, then immediately shook her head, "That's not what I meant. I just wanted to say that emperors of all dynasties have followed this rule when sleeping with their wives, and Your Majesty should follow it too."

"When it comes to me, I am the rule!" Zhao Xingjin shouted in a deep voice.

Then he stood up and walked to Concubine Wei, his eyes stern but with a hint of warning.

"Wei, you are my concubine, not the Imperial Censor, nor the Empress. There are things you shouldn't say, so just keep your mouth shut. For the sake of your father and your honesty, I will not argue with you today. From now on, you should be more sensible. You have been in the palace for quite some time."

This was the first time that Zhao Xingjin spoke harshly to her, which made Wei Jieyu stunned for a moment and she felt fear for the first time.

In the past, she had expressed her opinions in front of Zhao Xingjin many times, and Zhao Xingjin just responded lightly without scolding her. This made Wei Jieyu a little in awe of Zhao Xingjin from the beginning, and she became more outspoken.

But she didn't expect that Zhao Xingjin was actually angry with her this time. Although there was no substantial punishment, the warning in his tone and the stern look made Wei Jieyu shudder in her heart. She suddenly realized that Zhao Xingjin was the king, and she was not an unkillable censor.

She was just a concubine, just Zhao Xingjin's concubine.

"Your Majesty, please forgive me. I will remember this." Concubine Wei immediately lowered her head and responded.

Although she was unwilling and felt that she had said nothing wrong, she finally knew that she had to bow her head.

"Okay, you can go back." Zhao Xingjin waved his hand.

half an hour.

After Yang Zhian sent Concubine Wei away, he returned to the palace and poured a cup of tea and brought it up.

"Your Majesty, please take a rest."

"Let Concubine Xie come to see me." Zhao Xingjin raised his hand and rubbed his eyebrows.

Yang Zhian nodded and immediately went out to tell Qingdong to run errands.

But unfortunately, Xie Jiu thought that Zhao Xingjin wanted to meet Concubine Wei, so he was not free in the morning, so he did not stay in Ninghua Palace, but went to Changle Palace to teach Princess Wenxi first.

I couldn't see anyone for the time being, so I could only wait for Xie Jiu to finish his work at Changle Palace.

It was clearly a job he arranged, but now Zhao Xingjin felt it was inconvenient. Xie Jiu had to take half a day every day to see Wen Xi, and he couldn't summon Xie Jiu at any time if he wanted to see him.

Let’s choose another master for Wenxi, Zhao Xingjin thought to himself.

So he sent Qingdong to Changle Palace to pass on the message, asking Xie Jiu to come and serve lunch.