Chapter 375 Princess

Chapter 375 Princess

The faint chaos that had been brewing in the capital city finally came to an end as dawn broke.

Xie Wanniang, who hadn't slept all night, first received the good news that the guards had annihilated the enemy and cleaned up the battlefield. Then she received some news, both good and bad, about other officials' families.

It turned out that last night, it wasn't just her family and her uncle's family that were invaded by villains; there were also about ten other official families in the capital who were also targeted by villains who tried to kill them under the cover of darkness.

Fortunately, all of the dozen or so households, including their two families, had taken precautions in advance. However, some households lacked sufficient defenses, and even with prior arrangements, many servants and guards still died in the process of fighting against the villains.

The emperor was furious, though his anger stemmed more from his second and third sons.

One of these two was ambitious but lacked common sense; when cornered, he didn't think twice and immediately assembled a team to force the emperor to resign.

The other one is the mantis stalking the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind. Whatever his second brother does, he either cheers him on and adds fuel to the fire, or, like last night, uses the guise of protecting the emperor to sneak into the palace and take advantage of the situation.

The emperor had already lost much of his fatherly affection for them because of their constant turmoil. Now that his rebellious sons were plotting to force him to abdicate and seize the throne, he was even less likely to show them any mercy.

Therefore, even though the mothers of the second and third princes knelt and wept, the emperor did not change his mind.

The two princes were imprisoned, their mother was stripped of her title and banished to the cold palace, and their maternal relatives, their subordinates, and some of the military officers who had defected to them and participated in the coup were either executed or exiled.

The assassins hired by the two princes, apart from those killed on the spot, were all captured by the emperor's troops and eradicated along with their respective assassin organizations.

A brief but intense upheaval made everyone in the capital cautious and fearful, afraid that an unintentional action might bring disaster upon themselves and their families.

Fortunately, the emperor quickly composed himself. Although it was infuriating that his rebellious son was forcing him to abdicate and want him dead, it was also a good thing for him to take this opportunity to reclaim the military power that had been controlled by his son's maternal family.

It is worth mentioning that not only were the military powers held by the maternal families of the Second and Third Princes taken back, but the military powers held by the maternal families of the Fourth and Fifth Princes, as well as the two princesses, were also sensibly transferred to the emperor.

They felt that even if their daughters only gave birth to princesses, the military power would not be of much use in the future. On the contrary, it would cause the crown prince to become wary and suspicious of them after he ascended the throne.

Those whose daughters had given birth to sons were terrified that the emperor would use this as an excuse to implicate their entire family.

After all, everyone is cultivating their connections in the capital, and they can't say that no one in their own camp has a close relationship with people in the Second Prince's or Third Prince's camp.

Even if it were true that there was no such thing, couldn't the emperor have fabricated evidence?

What about in-laws, relatives, fellow villagers, or those born in the same year... If they really wanted to get involved, it wouldn't be so easy.

For the sake of their own lives, their families' lives, and their own wealth and status, these people wisely chose to grant the emperor's wish.

As for the dozen or so families who were the victims, the emperor not only sent eunuchs to comfort them, but also dismissed the commander of the Five Cities Garrison because of this incident.

Of course, this person is not entirely innocent either.

By the time the turmoil finally came to an end, the scheduled day for the crown prince's ascension to the throne had arrived.

On this day, the emperor held a grand abdication ceremony, thus completely retiring to the second line and becoming the retired emperor.

The Empress was then promoted to Empress Dowager. She and several imperial concubines and consorts chose an auspicious day to accompany the Emperor to a separate palace outside the capital to live out their retirement.

With this, the Great Wei Dynasty was completely handed over to the new emperor.

Jiang Yuan made great contributions during that turmoil and was promoted to a higher rank. In addition, he was a confidant of the Crown Prince, and from then on he became a new favorite in the capital.

It is worth mentioning that although Jiang Yuan was tricked out of the Crown Prince's palace by the eunuchs that day, he did not launch a military operation without imperial decree.

Jiang Yuan had already become suspicious of the eunuch's identity the moment he said that there was no Crown Prince's warrant.

Later, he captured the eunuch. When the Second Prince and the Third Prince were no longer in power, the eunuch had no hope and confessed honestly.

Jiang Yuan then realized that the person who had tricked him out by impersonating the Crown Prince was actually one of the Third Prince's spies planted in the Crown Prince's palace.

The reason he tricked Jiang Yuan into leaving was twofold: first, to have his men, who had been lying in ambush, kill Jiang Yuan on the only way to the military camp; and second, to take advantage of the opportunity presented by Jiang Yuan taking a large number of guards with him, so that the hired assassins could break through the Jiang family's existing defenses and kidnap Xie Wanniang and their two children.

The reason why the Third Prince went to such great lengths to kidnap the mother and her two children, even after he had already made up his mind to kill Jiang Yuan, was because he had discovered that Xie Wan Niang was running a glass workshop.

Xie Wanniang's actions over the years made the Third Prince feel that she was a magical person who could turn stones into gold.

He needed a lot of chickens that could lay golden eggs, so he set his sights on Xie Wanniang, who was very good at "raising chickens".

He believed that as long as he controlled Xie Wanniang's two children, even if Xie Wanniang was unwilling, she would still have to use him and obey his orders.

It must be said that the Third Prince's plan was quite shrewd.

Unfortunately, he underestimated Xie Wanniang, her wariness, and the martial prowess of those around her.

In the autumn of the year the Crown Prince ascended the throne, Xie Wanniang presented her recipe for making glass.

Like the retired emperor, the crown prince, who had become the new emperor, did not take the goose that lays golden eggs into his own hands, but instead handed the formula directly to the current Minister of Works.

He demanded that the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of Revenue work together to establish a glass workshop that belonged to the state and could bring substantial revenue to the national treasury as quickly as possible.

The Minister of Works was overjoyed, holding the prescription and repeatedly guaranteeing it to the Emperor.

The Minister of Revenue did not want the Ministry of Works to share the profits, since this was already a mature production formula, and their Ministry of Revenue was fully capable of operating independently without the Ministry of Works.

However, the emperor had already made his decision. He tried to persuade him, but ultimately failed because the emperor's attitude was too firm.

The Minister of Revenue was heartbroken, feeling as if a piece of his flesh had been ripped out. But the Emperor always remembered that Xie Wanniang was very supportive of the Ministry of Works' research.

In her words, instead of everyone scrambling and dividing up the same piece of pie, it would be better for everyone to work together to make more pie.

As long as there are enough and big enough pancakes, then no one will have to worry about being full.

Of course, even so, there will always be people in this world who are insatiable and, because of their insatiable greed, leave others destitute and without a way to survive.

However, this is not a problem that Xie Wanniang should solve; it is a topic that the emperor and his courtiers should consider.

Once the glass workshop was up and running as quickly as possible, Xie Wanniang strongly recommended to the emperor the three new crops that had already spread throughout Tang County—potatoes, corn, and sweet potatoes.

She continued her usual feeding-style recommendation method, listing out in detail the planting, storage, and consumption methods for potatoes, corn, and sweet potatoes. She even offered to provide a certain number of high-quality seeds or seedlings.

The new emperor naturally valued high-yield crops that could feed the people, especially since Xie Wanniang had listed so many ways to eat them, whetting people's appetites.

Thus, even though the capital was still freezing cold, the new emperor had already begun to worry about next year's agricultural matters.

The officials in the relevant departments were completely baffled, wondering why the emperor would contact them before the end of the year to discuss matters related to spring plowing.

It wasn't until the emperor produced Xie Wanniang's "High-Yield Crop Promotion Plan" that everyone suddenly realized what was going on.

Those who can stay in this department for a long time are all enthusiastic about agricultural issues, so they stopped worrying about the solar terms and instead started discussing where to use as the experimental site.

Some say it's best to plant them in the imperial estate, as it's convenient for them to observe and manage them; others say the land in the imperial estate is so fertile that planting these things would be a waste.

In front of the emperor, they began to offer their opinions all at once.

The emperor didn't seem impatient. After listening for a while, he waved his hand, signaling everyone to go back and discuss.

As for Xie Wanniang, her two consecutive great achievements elevated her status once again, and her original title of county princess was directly changed to the title of princess.

Because princesses and princes of this dynasty did not have actual fiefdoms, but instead received monthly stipends like other officials and nobles, the emperor directly adopted the name Huian bestowed upon her by the retired emperor.

As the only person who was not the emperor's daughter or sister but received the title of princess, Xie Wanniang suddenly found herself surrounded by many people who wanted to flatter and please her.

However, at the same time, many people were dissatisfied with her repeated promotions.

These people were mostly members of the royal family. Unlike Xie Wanniang, who "easily" went from an orphan to Princess Huian, their titles would decline in status with each generation.

This wasn't the most intolerable thing for them. What they found most intolerable was that their titles could only be inherited by their eldest sons, while whether their other children could obtain a title after growing up depended on whether the emperor was willing to show mercy.

Some members of the royal family felt closer to the emperor by blood, some felt they had made great contributions to the royal family and the Great Wei, and some felt that as men with the surname Yuan, they were rightfully members of the Yuan clan, and that their descendants would also carry on the Yuan bloodline.

In short, they all believed that they and their children were more deserving of titles and ranks than Xie Wanniang.

They dared not criticize the emperor, so they vented all their anger on Xie Wanniang.

Xie Wanniang hosted a banquet to thank the officials and nobles who sent congratulatory gifts because she and Jiang Yuan had been promoted one after another. Unexpectedly, a group of royal relatives came uninvited.

Because she had no positive impression of her biological father's family, Xie Wanniang never had the idea of ​​acknowledging her ancestors and returning to her roots. Even though her biological father's family had all died, she never thought of changing her mind.

It can be said that her status as a princess was entirely earned through her own merits, both big and small, and had nothing to do with whether she had half Yuan blood in her veins.

Her deep-seated disapproval of her own origins led her to subconsciously avoid any association with the Yuan clan.

Apart from the retired emperor and the new emperor, who were the rulers of the country, Xie Wanniang had no contact with anyone surnamed Yuan.

Naturally, she wouldn't invite members of the Yuan clan to a banquet at such a time.

The Yuan clan members barged into the Jiang residence without an invitation, which was frankly extremely impolite.

But they showed no remorse whatsoever. When the doorman politely asked them to show their invitations, they not only refused but also brazenly ordered their servants to beat people.

Seeing that things were not going well, the gatekeeper immediately shouted a warning and called for the guards to come over.

The guards of the Jiang family never expected that even though their two masters had already reached such a high status, there would still be some ignorant fools in the capital who dared to openly cause trouble at their door.

Unlike the guards of the royal family and relatives, these men had all killed people and seen blood. When they saw these guys barging in without saying a word and even daring to hit their people, they didn't hesitate to fight back.

Moreover, their methods were different from those of others. Those people only hit people, but they immediately dislocated people's arms and broke their legs.

If it weren't for the fact that the people standing behind, shouting and cursing, were dressed in fine clothes and their carriages bore the royal insignia, they might have even wanted to kill a few people as a warning to others.

As for those who were cursing and clearly had ill intentions, the guards of the Jiang residence said they wouldn't listen to their nonsense.

Everyone thought to themselves, "Say whatever you want. No matter how eloquently you speak, their family will never admit it."

In any case, they have seen many people trying to establish a marriage alliance with their family over the years, but none of those scheming individuals have ever succeeded.

Neither Xie Wanniang nor Jiang Yuan are the kind of people who would obediently bow their heads and submit to being manipulated simply because someone says, "I am your elder."

The closer the blood relation, the less they can accept coercion and manipulation from the other party.

People like this, who clearly have ill intentions, will definitely retaliate without hesitation.

The guards were confident and acted without hesitation.

Those members of the royal family never dreamed that they would not even look for Xie Wanniang and Jiang Yuan, but instead directly attack the attendants they brought.