The emperor had waited fifteen years for his softhearted crown prince to finally toughen up.
The prince had toughened up a little too much. He dared to call the emperor "Little Eunuch An," and when he got angry, even tried to smack him on the back of the head!
No one knew that the spineless crown prince, who used to be afraid even of servants, now had a different person living inside him.
The founding emperor, Xiao Dingshan, had become his own grandson!
After spending his whole life being treated like an ancestor, now he not only had to call his own son "Father," but also kowtow to his own memorial tablet?
The more Xiao Dingshan thought about it, the angrier he became. He decided to show no one any respect!
When the servants tried to coax him into confessing, he beat them to death. When corrupt ministers tried to threaten him with the former emperor's death-exemption medal, he melted it down. When the empress dowager rushed over to teach him the rules, he snapped, "A concubine is a concubine. Since when does she get to call herself the late emperor's wife?"
The emperor was so furious he abolished the crown prince on the spot, and the harem gleefully awaited his move out of the Eastern Palace.
But the edict continued: He would remain in the Eastern Palace and keep his usual allowance. Anyone who dared dock the deposed crown prince's food would lose their head first!
The entire court panicked. "Your Majesty, he's been deposed. How can he keep everything as before?"
They could fine him, but he had no money. They could strip him of his title, but they'd just done that. They could confiscate his property, but the Eastern Palace was so poor even the rats wouldn't stay there.
The officials discussed it for ages, yet couldn't think of anything else they could punish him with.
Xiao Dingshan lost patience. "If you can't come up with a punishment, move aside. I've got homes to ransack!"
He turned the court upside down, and yet the corrupt officials kept dwindling. He berated the entire harem, and now no one in the Eastern Palace dared bully him.
Only the emperor grew more irritable by the day. He went through three rulers, but couldn't bring himself to use even one.
What could he do? He'd carried this son for ten months and nearly died giving birth to him!
And yet the little rascal still dared to hurry him along: "Little Eunuch An, I think your throne is pretty nice. Let me sit on it for a while!"
