Chapter 516 - 526: How to Fail?
The favored concubine ascended to power, and her two sons were deeply loved by the late Emperor. The Crown Prince’s position was precarious, but thankfully, he managed to remain vigilant until the Emperor’s passing and then ascended the throne smoothly.
However, even after his enthronement, his position didn’t seem to be secure. At that time in Beijing, four-tenths of the military force was under the control of Prince Three, who could be said to have power equal to the Emperor’s. The only thing Prince Three lost to the Emperor was the sequence of their ages.
The Emperor was well aware of this and constantly sought to weaken Prince Three’s power, whether his rebellion stemmed from an unwillingness to accept his earlier loss of the throne, or from being forced by the Emperor to save himself, or perhaps both, only they themselves might know.
Prince Three and Prince Five were full brothers, and while the late Emperor was alive, they looked down on the powerless Crown Prince and would not bother to compete with him. They believed that the Crown Prince’s downfall was only a matter of time, and the late Emperor on multiple occasions had the intention to depose the Crown Prince, choosing to establish one of these brothers as the Crown Prince instead.
So, on the surface, they presented a united front, but in reality, the two brothers were in constant covert conflict.
They competed for the affection of the Emperor and Empress and for the support of their external family, among other things...
No one expected, however, that the Emperor would pass away so suddenly, dying abruptly.
The Crown Prince, who had always been looked down upon for only indulging in pleasure and having no real power, still occupied the legitimate position of the Crown Prince.
The sudden death of the late Emperor and the succession of the Crown Prince were as natural as the Heavenly Scripture mandates!
The underground struggles between Prince Three and Prince Five gradually surfaced. It was rumored within the court that although Prince Three and Prince Five were full brothers, their discord had reached a point where either you die or I die. So, Prince Three’s failure in the rebellion was, to a large extent, due to Prince Five.