Succession War

At the Lunar New Year’s Eve in the 3rd year of JIAQING Era, QIANLONG as usual writes calligraphy with words of blessings at the Yangxin Hall and bestows it upon his son JIAQING. He also tells JIAQING to write something for HESHEN, to which JIAQING dares not to oppose. At HESHEN’s Villa, the representative of East India Company finally has an opportunity to meet up with HESHEN, the “Vice Emperor”. HESHEN is attacked by a mystery man at night, and he is certain that General ZHANGJIA AGUI is behind this. So, he leads his troops to arrest that person, and they end up having a big fight. When QIANLONG goes out to enjoy the snowy view, the cape he wears spontaneously catches on fire all by itself! HESHEN claims it’s very unusual. With himself being attacked and the cape catching on fire all by itself, he believes that they are intended targets.

Feeling perturbed, HESHEN rushes to the palace and learns that QIANLONG coughed up blood; whereas QIANLONG pretends nothing happened, instead, he wants HESHEN to go out with him as promised. At the first Day of the Lunar New Year, all the court officials are gathering inside of the Yangxin Hall as well as outside. When QIANLONG announces the imperial decree, he suddenly passes out. Worrying that QIANLONG’s days are numbered, PRINCE YONGXUAN wants HESHEN to help him usurp the throne immediately, but HESHEN refuses, claiming the time is not yet ripe. ZHU GUI returns to the capital to make an audience with JIAQING, and even discusses with LIU YONG and JI XIAOLAN about how to deal with HESHEN. Once again, QIANLONG leaves the palace, and HESHEN arranges for a Tibetan doctor to attend to him, only to find out that he suffers from a rare poisoning!

With PRINCE YONGXUAN purchasing a large amount of firearms and hiding them in his residence in the capital, JIAQING has HESHEN’s son FENGSHEN-YINDE lead the troops on a raid to his residence. The situation is becoming more volatile, fortunately, HESHEN shows up in the nick of time and calms things down. Out of the blue, HESHEN’s crony FUCHANG’AN, whom QIANLONG has regarded highly, is sent by QIANLONG to station in Gansu. He can’t help feeling resentful, so HESHEN tries to comfort him. HESHEN gets help from DOUKOU, the owner of Mi House, successfully bringing a blind fortune teller back to the palace. It turns out that QIANLONG met the blind fortune teller during his inspection tour, and he wants the blind fortune teller to divine the future for him again. At night, HESHEN is summoned back the palace. To his surprise, QIANLONG prepares a coffin for him.