Cao Shang Gong said: "She is a member of my Shang Gong Bureau. Even if she dies, she must die clearly. I will not allow anyone to frame her."
Cui Shangyi sneered, "Now you are also a clay Buddha crossing the river, unable to protect yourself, who else can you protect? I have been silent because it is useless for us to say anything! If the queen can escape and is still alive, we may still have some hope, but if the queen can't wake up, the three of us will be buried with her!"
After hearing this, Song Shanggong chanted towards the nearby Qixia Temple, "Amitabha, Amitabha, I pray to the Buddha and Bodhisattva to bless the Queen to wake up."
Cao Shang Gong swore: "I am where I am today, all thanks to the support and trust of the Queen. If the Queen passes away, I will die here without the Emperor's decision, and continue to serve the Queen in the underworld."
At this point, Concubine Cao's eyes rarely turned red: "I am so useless. I watched the assassin swing his knife towards the queen, and my mind went blank. I didn't react at all. I really want to slap my past self!"
Cui Shangyi's pretty face suddenly revealed a cruel expression, and she said, "It was Hu Shanwei who subdued the female assassin with a basket, and used his merits to atone for his crime, so she has a better chance of survival than the three of us. What if the Queen... Cao Shanggong doesn't rush to commit suicide? The three of us will shoulder the responsibility together and rescue her, and then we will die. We must leave a spark of fire to uncover the truth and avenge us in the future. We can't die in vain! I have climbed for more than ten years to get the position of Shangyi! I have devoted all my youth and given up getting married and having children. I am unwilling to do that!"
The female officials were originally selected from among hundreds of talented women, and Cui Shangyi was the best among them. She was born beautiful and spent her best years in the palace. She did not choose to get married and gave everything she had, but she died in an unclear way. Cui Shangyi was unwilling to accept this.
Outside, the three highest-ranking female officials in the palace took off their official hats and robes, anxiously waiting for Empress Ma to return from the gates of hell.
Beside the sickbed, Emperor Hongwu looked at Empress Ma, held her cold hand, and murmured:
"Zitong, Zitong, please don't abandon me. You are my first wife, my confidant, and my good wife. I command you not to die..."
Emperor Hongwu had not looked at Empress Ma carefully for a long time. He suddenly discovered that his wife's newly grown hair was almost white, with a frosty color at the roots. It was not the kind of shiny silver-white, but a frosty color stained with dust, and was grayish white.
Her eyelids drooped, covering the eyelashes on her lower eyelids, which were slightly swollen. Her face was pale, and her skin looked like she had been wearing a silk dress for a day, slightly wrinkled, and spread on her face like a white pear that had been left in a fruit bowl for too long and had lost its moisture.
She was only fifty years old! Why did she look so lifeless? She looked so strange, not like the queen who had accompanied him for most of his life.
Emperor Hongwu closed his eyes and recalled the time when he and the woman on the sickbed had just gotten married. When he opened his eyes, his beauty had turned into white hair, but his dependence on her was growing deeper and deeper.
No one grows old overnight. He just ignored her for too long. The appearance in his memory remained at a certain moment and did not change. Even when he saw her, the appearance of the past still appeared in his mind.
Young couples grow old together. Emperor Hongwu wondered why his wife suddenly grew old and faced death so immediately
No partner? What to do
Emperor Hongwu was a man who did not believe in fate. His habit was to fight back the more powerless he felt. He held her hand tightly like a madman:
"The ladies kneeling outside, Cao Shang Gong, Cui Shang Yi, and Song Shang Gong, are all women officials you personally cultivated. You know their tempers and personalities best, and you know how to use them and entrust them with important tasks. They have helped you manage palace affairs for more than ten years, and have never made any mistakes. If you go like this, I will execute them all! Go downstairs to accompany you!"
"And that Hu Shanwei, I failed to dig out her eyes last time, but this time she spent more than ten days with the assassin and didn't notice anything. She has a pair of eyes for nothing! I will never let her off this time. I will dig out her eyes and seal her alive in the tomb to bury her with you!"
"The prefect of Yingtian, the magistrate of Jiangning, the guys in the assassin's workshop, the neighbors... Die, die, all of you!"
Emperor Hongwu was furious and cursed loudly. Hundreds of lives were destroyed in his words, and even his saliva stuck to Empress Ma's face.
He never thought that Queen Ma would leave him. She was only fifty years old, how could she die
If she was dead, why should these people still be alive
Sometimes the logic of emperors is so overbearing and ruthless.
Empress Ma slowly opened her eyes and said, "Your Majesty, please do not reward or punish at will based on your personal likes and dislikes. Otherwise, what is the point of the law book "Da Gao" that you wrote and promoted?"
Emperor Hongwu was overjoyed. "Zi Tong is awake? Does the wound still hurt? Let's go back to the palace. This time I will definitely stay with Zi Tong until he recovers."
"It's just an external injury. I'm fine." Empress Ma woke up and was very weak. After a long while, she said, "I just woke up and heard the emperor talking about death and killing. I don't like to hear this. As the saying goes, there are only thieves who have been thieves for a thousand years, but no one can guard against thieves for a thousand years. When I was young, I experienced dangers that were a hundred times and a thousand times more than yesterday. Didn't I survive? If I had killed all the people who served and protected me every time, then I would have been alone. How could I be the queen?"
"After a long period of peace, I became lax, so I ran slower and was accidentally stabbed by the assassin. Before the assassination, he spread rumors to confuse the people, deliberately provoking internal strife in the harem and alienating the princes. Concubine Da Ding has been loyal to the emperor over the years, and the Princes of Qi and Tan have always been very filial to me. If the emperor suspects Concubine Da Ding, wouldn't that be exactly what the assassin wanted?"
Emperor Hongwu felt a little guilty, "I don't blame Concubine Da Ding."
Empress Ma said: "Not only should we not blame her, but we should also comfort and reward Concubine Da Ding, so that others will know that the emperor is a wise ruler who can distinguish right from wrong and give a slap in the face to those who instigated her..."
Emperor Hongwu was overjoyed to get his treasure back and he granted all of Empress Ma's requests.
The concubine Da Ding, who had taken off her hairpin and was waiting for punishment, was sent back to Xianfu Palace and given gifts such as gold, silk, jade, and ruyi. Upon hearing the news, the princes of Qi and Tan returned halfway to the palace to comfort their mother.
Cao Shanggong, Cui Shangyi, and Song Shanggong managed to escape with their lives and were handed over to the Gongzhengsi, which was in charge of the palace's criminal law.
Fan Gongzheng recorded a serious offense for negligence, fined one year's salary, and each person was beaten with fifty sticks and had to ring a bell at night for ten days.
Because they still had to serve the court, each of them was first beaten with ten boards, and the remaining forty boards were recorded in the account to be offset by merit in the future.
The bell punishment is divided into five times, twice a month.
As a result, the arrogant Cao Shanggong in the palace also had to ring the bell for punishment. Starting from the lock of the palace, Cao Shanggong held the bell, Cui Shangyi and Song Shanggong stood on the left and right sides, and according to Fan Gongzheng's request, they marched slowly. Every time they rang the bell, the three of them shouted in unison: "Peace in the world!"
From the first, second, third, fourth and even fifth watches at night, from the Qianqing Palace Gate to the Rijing Gate, and then from the Rijing Gate to the Yuehua Palace gate opposite, the route forms a huge isosceles triangle.
We walked four times a night until dawn, shouting as we walked. The route seemed particularly long. After completing the journey, we often didn't have time to close our eyes and take a nap before the next shift came and we had to ring the bell to set off again. This was a double torture of physical and mental strength.
Chen Ermei from the Shangshi Bureau brought a midnight snack and made some ginseng tea, which she gave to the three female officials of the Shang generation to replenish their strength.
The first two times she rang the bell were fine, but when it came to the last time she set out between the fourth and fifth watches, Cui Shangyi was so sleepy that she couldn't even open her eyes. "I can't do it anymore. I'm getting old. When I first entered the palace, I made a mistake and was punished to ring the bell for three nights, but I didn't feel this tired."
Lady Cao rolled her eyes weakly, "You've only been here for three nights, and I've been punished to ring the bell at least ten times."
"You are just too competitive. You like to take the lead in everything. The more you do, the more mistakes you make. The less you do, the fewer mistakes you make. If you do nothing, you make no mistakes." Song Shanggong said, "Look at me. Since I entered the palace, I have never been punished by ringing the bell."
Cui Shangyi was amused, "So you are Shang Gong, and she is Shang Gong. There is a world of difference between the two."
Song Shanggong did not consider it "shameful". "Shanggong and Shanggong are both fifth-rank female officials, earning the same salary. I have worked very carefully to achieve what I have today. I am very satisfied."
Lady Cao drank a cup of ginseng tea and picked up the copper bell. "It's time. This is the last time. Let's go. Don't miss the time."
"Peace on earth!"
It was the darkest time before dawn, and the three female officials followed the standard, marching slowly and ringing the bell for punishment, walking along a long route in the shape of an isosceles triangle.
Finally we reached the end, which is also the starting point, the Qianqing Palace Gate. The punishment for tonight is over, the sky is bright, and a new day has begun.
Cui Shangyi ignored her manners, fell down on the steps, and asked Cao Shanggong: "How is Hu Shanwei? Is she awake?"
Cao Shang Gong threw the bell aside and said, "Don't worry. Good people have short lives, while evil people live for thousands of years. She has a long life. Maybe one day we will all die, but she will still be alive."
At the same time, Zhongshan Palace.
Hu Shanwei herself was clearly motionless, but her body was moving quickly. She opened her eyes and found bamboo strips all around her, with a few books under her feet. Looking through the gaps in the bamboo strips, she found herself among the fleeing people.
The refugees all had terrified faces. In their haste, they only took what they thought were the most valuable things. Some of them had gold and silver in their arms, which they dropped while running. They knelt down to pick them up, and then were trampled to death by the crowd.
This scene seemed familiar, she found herself back to the age of six, the day when Suzhou was captured and Chang Yuchun massacred the city. Her father put her in a bookcase and fled with her mother.
My mother was eventually trampled to death by refugees. I don't seem to remember what she looked like.
Hu Shanwei stood up from the bookcase and looked at the woman his father was holding tightly. The moment their eyes met, his face turned pale.
The woman's body quickly shrank and turned black, falling off layer by layer like debris as she ran, and then only a skeleton in a dress was left.
"Dad! Let her go! She is not my mother! She is a devil!" Hu Shanwei screamed in fear and beat his father's broad shoulders with his little fists to warn him.
The father was busy running for his life and did not stop. As he ran, he reached out and forced her head into the bookcase, "Don't come out, be careful of stray arrows that might hurt you!"
As soon as she finished speaking, an arrow shot over and hit her forehead!
"ah!"
Hu Shanwei sat up suddenly in shock, and realized that it was all a dream. Her forehead was wrapped in layers of gauze. Her head didn't hurt much, but she felt like vomiting. The thrilling scene in the silkworm room flooded into her mind:
The silkworm mother assassinated Empress Ma, she overturned the frame to block the door of the silkworm room, the silkworm mother climbed into the frame, she dragged the silkworm mother's legs, the silkworm mother kicked her forehead, and the guards outside shot arrows into the silkworm room... No wonder I had that strange dream.
Haitang, who was sleeping on the footstool on duty, woke up. "Hu Siyan is awake?" She touched the back of her neck again. "Ru Siyao! Hu Siyan's fever has subsided! She's alive!"
The author has something to say: My Weibo account Mu Lan Zhou has a restored map of the Ming Dynasty Palace. Anyone interested can see the mysterious isosceles triangle route map of the bell punishment.
Congratulations to reader Huier for receiving a 100-point red envelope~
№15 Netizen: Huier Comment: "Hu Shanwei" Score: 2 Published time: 2019-01-19 19:24:17 Reviewed chapter: 89
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