After the rebellion was successful, I realized that this place was the Red Mansion

Chapter 45 Overnight Stay at the Qianqing Palace

On the night that Prince Qian entered the capital, the gates of the Qianqing Palace were wide open and brightly lit.

After Chu Yan finished his business, he walked in from Qianqing Gate. He had not yet ascended the throne, so he did not use a sedan chair.

There is an imperial road in the square in front of the Qianqing Palace, paved with blue sandstone slabs and slightly raised from the ground to show the emperor's nobility.

Therefore, Chu Yan walked on the imperial road, and eunuchs such as Xia Shouzhong walked on the ground on both sides of the road, which truly made people understand why the emperor was so lonely.

At this moment, Chu Yan was the only one on the road.

At the end of the Imperial Road, in front of the main hall of the Qianqing Palace, more than twenty concubines knelt, from Empress Zhang, the mother of a country, to Princess Qinghe, who was a princess of noble birth, to Jia Yuanchun, the second of the Twelve Beauties of Jinling. When he entered the Qianqing Gate, they all knelt to greet him.

Nearly a hundred palace maids and eunuchs were kneeling in the corridor of the Qianqing Palace, waiting to serve him the meal.

Chu Yan walked up the steps and stood in front of Empress Zhang and others, looking at their graceful figures wrapped in luxurious dresses after they knelt down.

After two thousand years of development of the feudal dynasty, the emperor's authority reached its peak.

"Everyone, get up."

Chu Yan ordered them to reach out and pull up the kneeling Empress Zhang and Jia Yuanchun, and then helped Princess Qinghe up as well. Seeing her blushing and uneasy face, he smiled and took her hand and walked into the Qianqing Palace.

Qinghe stumbled and followed.

Jia Yuanchun, Concubine Wu, Concubine Zhou and other young concubines followed in order, with different expressions. Some concubines who saw Chu Yan for the first time secretly looked up at him, but when they saw the tall and majestic back of Prince Qian, they lowered their heads in fear.

Empress Zhang had a solemn and dignified face with no expression. She stood there, watching him holding Qinghe's hand and entering the palace. She also watched the many concubines who originally belonged to her husband, Emperor Yongning, follow them in one after another.

"Empress, you...?" Xia Shouzhong came over and asked.

"Oh, thunder, lightning, rain and dew, are all the grace of the king."

Empress Zhang had an indifferent expression, lowered her head, and slowly walked into the Qianqing Palace.

She had seen that Prince Qian allowed the old concubine and the queen mother not to move, first gave them rewards, and then ordered them to come and sing and dance for him, suppressing their arrogance as concubines in the palace in the past, and letting them know that he, Prince Qian, controlled their life and death.

Even now.

King Qian ordered them to come here tonight, and personally helped them up, still using the same method.

She could see through King Qian's methods, but Qinghe might not be able to. With the combination of threats and intimidation, Qinghe was afraid that within three to five days, he would subdue her and serve her obediently in his bed.

But what can she do?
Empress Zhang laughed at herself in her heart, thinking that perhaps, like Qinghe, if she had surrendered earlier, she would have been able to live a peaceful life. When he got tired of her, she would have been able to have peace and quiet.

She walked in.

Inside the main hall, Chu Yan sat at a small, makeshift table. Two maids brought him a food box from outside the palace and served it to him.

Qinghe stood beside him and saw that he only ate a bowl of pearl millet porridge and four side dishes tonight. The maid poured him a glass of wine, and nothing else.

He did not eat the palace food.

His personal guards did not enter the Qianqing Palace, but were standing guard outside the door. If a group of eunuchs joined forces to capture him, they might be able to catch him.

But Qinghe knew that no one in the palace was loyal to the Shun Dynasty. Even if Prince Qian was killed, the soldiers outside would still come in to kill the palace maids, eunuchs, and even concubines. The palace would be burned down, and even the entire capital would be looted by his subordinates.

"let's start."

Chu Yan instructed, picking up his chopsticks to eat the food and taking a sip of wine.

Qinghe was closest to him and saw that although he didn't look tired, he looked a little exhausted.

He entered the city in the morning, captured her royal brother, subdued the concubines in the harem, and stabilized the situation in the capital. He did a lot of things in one day and only had time to rest now.

Empress Zhang was the last one to come in, but he ignored her.

"Your Majesty."

Jia Yuanchun stepped forward and asked softly, "What kind of music and dance would the king like to hear?"

She was forcing herself to remain calm. Since the Queen Mother did not step forward, she was the only one who had to step forward.

"What are they?" Chu Yan asked.

"Eternal Spring," "Thousand Years of Spring," "Lotus Picking Dance"...

Jia Yuanchun listed some of them. "The first two are festive and lively pieces, with acrobatics in between. The Lotus Picking Dance is a dance in which twenty-four dancers imitate the gestures and movements of the lotus-picking women from the south of the Yangtze River. The concubines might find it difficult to dance with such charm..."

All the young concubines looked at her. Concubine Zhou laughed and said, "Can't Concubine Xian De see that? Prince Qian wants the beautiful concubines in the harem to sing and dance to entertain him. How can ordinary dancers compare to the concubines?"

She was showing off her status and currying favor with King Qian.

Chu Yan smiled and said, "You don't need any professional dance. Just pick something simple and you'll be rewarded no matter how well you do it."

"Thank you, Your Majesty, for your reward!" Concubine Zhou was overjoyed, and Concubine Wu and others also hurried to express their gratitude.

Some of the other concubines thanked the emperor readily, while others hesitated, repeatedly glancing at Empress Zhang. Jia Yuanchun thought for a moment, then looked at Chu Yan and said, "How about we perform a Pipa Dance for the king?"

Chu Yan said "hmm".

Then the dancers from the Music Bureau came up with pipa specially used for dancing and distributed them to the concubines. Empress Zhang also accepted one and held it in her hand, her expression still cold.

But she was the protagonist tonight, so she had to step forward with the pipa in her hand, stand five steps in front of Chu Yan, and cover her face with the pipa.

Chu Yan raised his eyebrows, thinking that she was showing resistance in this way, but soon saw that the two most slender dancers in the Ye Ting Palace were also covering their faces with their pipa, and then he realized that this was the starting movement of the dance.

Well, Empress Zhang had also seen this "Pipa Dance" and remembered how it opened.

Or maybe she was cramming in the afternoon.

However, Empress Zhang was wearing a silver-white silk pleated skirt with buttons on her white neck. The dress wrapped her tightly, which was completely different from the seductive appearance of the two dancers who were wearing half-sleeves, long skirts with waists, and light gauze covering their navels.

But Chu Yan was satisfied instead.

What we want is the queen's dignity and majesty!
"I play the zither for the king."

Jia Yuanchun knelt aside, stretched out her hands, and began to pluck the strings of the zither on the low table.

"Ding."

When the first sound of the pipa rang out, the pretty faces of two dancers from the Ye Ting Palace appeared from behind the pipa and smiled happily at Chu Yan.

The other concubines, including Empress Zhang, were a little slow to react, their movements sparse and clumsy. Empress Zhang still had a cold, bright and dignified face, which made Chu Yan laugh. Seeing that her face had turned black, he smiled again and said, "Good, you dance well... Don't worry about me, just dance!"

At this moment, Empress Zhang could no longer conceal the expression on her face. She was filled with shame and anger, and she almost wanted to smash the pipa to the ground!

But she knew that if she did so, Chu Yan would definitely find a way to humiliate her again until she surrendered!
Qinghe hesitated for a moment, then came behind Chu Yan, stretched out her soft, white jade hands, and began to massage his shoulders. Seeing that the emperor's sister-in-law was still in the same state, she couldn't help but say, "Your Majesty, please forgive me and your sister-in-law..."

"Only once."

Chu Yan said calmly, "I know you are not good at singing and dancing. Even if I ask you to learn, you won't be able to do it."

Qinghe didn't dare to speak again.

Prince Qian was deliberately humiliating them and also humiliating the royal family of Shun Dynasty.

Chu Yan ate his midnight snack leisurely, enjoying the dancing and music performed by a group of concubines for him. Jia Yuanchun's piano skills were indeed quite good, no wonder she and the other three sisters were known as the masters of music, chess, calligraphy and painting.

While eating, I suddenly heard crying.

Chu Yan raised his hand, stopped them, called the weeping concubine over, and asked her, "Why are you crying?"

The atmosphere in the hall suddenly became extremely depressing, and all the palace maids and eunuchs lowered their heads.

The concubine trembled and knelt on the ground: "I, I deserve to die... I thought of the emperor and my brothers and sisters-in-law from my mother's family. Please forgive me, Prince Qian!"

Qinghe's heart was in her throat. She recognized this concubine. She was the daughter of Marquis Ninghai and had been in the palace for only a year.

Chu Yan nodded and said, "Shall I send you to Wangjiang Tower to accompany him?"

"No, no, please spare my life, King Qian! I don't want to be imprisoned for the rest of my life..."

"Get up."

Chu Yan said, looking at them: "Everyone who came to dance today will be moved to the Cining Palace and live with the Empress Dowager and the old concubines. When the court situation stabilizes in the future, you will be arranged to leave the palace."

Although some of these young concubines were good-looking, most of them were brought into the palace by Emperor Yongning for political purposes, and Chu Yan did not think much of them.

The concubine kowtowed and left, crying.

The rest continued to dance.

Qinghe's heart slowly settled down, and he massaged his shoulders seriously.

Chu Yan finished his midnight snack and told them, "Noble Concubine Zhou and Noble Concubine Wu stay, and the rest of you go back and rest."

The concubines looked at each other, and finally looked at the Queen.

Empress Zhang looked at him deeply and wanted to kneel down to express her gratitude, but Chu Yan stopped her and asked them to go back.

When everyone was about to leave, Chu Yan suddenly said, "The two lead dancers should stay too."

Empress Zhang turned around suddenly, with a strange expression on her face. After a while, she said, "Your Majesty is so brave!"

Chu Yan smiled and said, "You will know in the future."

These words made Empress Zhang blush. She raised her sleeves to cover her face and took the unmarried Qinghe away.

(End of this chapter)