Because there was really no choice, the Qianlong Emperor passed the throne to Emperor Yan and there were not many princes for Hongli to choose at that time, in a word, "the short one picks the tallest child" - pure helplessness. And the Qianlong Emperor's favor for Emperor Ling's concubine Wei Jiashi was true, but there was no direct causal relationship between the Crown Prince and this.
Although in the established impression of many people, the Qianlong Emperor was mercurial, in fact, the concubines in the Qianlong harem were only 4 more than his workaholic father, the Yongzheng Emperor. Hongli's concubines bore him a total of 17 princes.
Although Hongli's sons are not few, it is very embarrassing that 7 of the 17 princes died in infancy and did not live to adulthood at all, and 4 of the remaining 10 sons died young, and when the Qianlong Emperor finally prepared to become crown prince, there were only 6 surviving sons left.
Feudal society pays attention to "establishing a concubine and establishing a long", and the core of the inheritance system of the eldest son is "to establish a concubine with a long age, not to be virtuous, and to establish a son to be expensive is not to be long". Initially, the Qianlong Emperor prepared to make the crown prince born to the Fucha clan after the consort, but the sons of Empress Fucha died very early. After Empress Fucha was promoted, Qianlong had prepared to appoint Yongzhang, the third son of the emperor, but Yongzhang died; yongqi, the fifth son of the emperor, was prepared to be crowned, and as a result, Yongqi died again. The successive blows made Qianlong not think about Li Chu for a long time.
By the time the Qianlong Emperor set up the reserve again, the Hongli calendar at that time was already dying of old age. At that time, 2 of the 6 sons born to Hongli were passed on to the clan side branch, and only 4 people could succeed to the throne: Yongxuan, Yongxuan, Yongyan, and Yongxuan. The first two were both born to Emperor Shujia's noble concubine Jin Jia, and the latter two were born to Emperor Ling's noble concubine Wei Jia.
Although "the mother is precious by the child", there is also the saying that the son is precious by the mother. Emperor Shujia's concubine died as early as the twentieth year of Qianlong, and the Yongxuan brothers, one disabled and one slamming, were not suitable for the crown prince.
After Emperor Chun succeeded Empress Nalashi from being deposed, Concubine Wei Jia became the true administrator of the harem at that time. Qianlong's move was naturally also intended to appoint his son as a reserve, after all, Wei Jia gave birth to 6 children for Qianlong. At that time, Yongxuan was young, and Qianlong, who really had no choice, deserved to appoint Yongyan as the crown prince.
It is worth mentioning that following Empress Nala's son, the twelfth prince Yong Xuan, Qianlong had never moved the heart of Li Chu, which was a huge contrast with Empress Fucha's birth soon after Qianlong discussed chu. Yong Xuan was unloved for many years, and was even more lost after his mother was deposed, and his title of Baylor was posthumously awarded after Yong Yan ascended the throne. However, Wei Jia, who was born in the Three Banners of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, was eventually buried with a ceremony lower than the empress but higher than the imperial concubine, and posthumously crowned empress.