This year, Xiaguo had a good harvest. The whole country had no disasters. There were occasional mudslides and minor earthquakes, but they were in remote places. Except for a few unlucky bandits, no civilians were hurt. This year, the harvest was good and the treasury was full. It was precisely because of the good environment of Xiaguo that Emperor Jingren's new policy went so smoothly. Otherwise, if there was a natural disaster, the civil officials would definitely find excuses from the new policy and force Emperor Jingren to issue a self-criticism edict. If the self-criticism edict was issued, Emperor Jingren would probably not be able to implement the new policy again during his lifetime.
In this cool and refreshing autumn season, Xia Kingdom welcomed this year's autumn hunt.
According to the rules, families can be brought along for autumn hunting. Some officials not only bring their wives, but also concubines. As an emperor, Emperor Jingren wanted to bring as many as he could, since all expenses were reduced from 10 yuan to 20 yuan.
The Queen must be brought along. When selecting people, Emperor Jingren could not help but think of the Queen's heroic appearance, and felt that autumn hunting was the best match for the Queen. In previous autumn hunting years, when the Emperor was not in the palace, the Queen would stay in the palace to preside over the overall situation. Since marrying Emperor Jingren, except for the annual sacrifice to heaven and spring plowing, the Queen has never left the palace. This time, Emperor Jingren decided to bring the Queen along, and go horseback hunting with the Queen. It was really beautiful.
The four concubines also had to be brought along. In previous years, the four concubines would go along. This year, they did nothing wrong, so there was no reason not to let them go. Moreover, Emperor Jingren had neglected the harem for a long time, and he felt a little guilty about these concubines. If there was such an opportunity to go out and have fun, of course he had to bring them along.
This year, the one guarding the palace is the Queen Mother. She is too old to travel all the time and never goes on the annual autumn hunt, so she just happens to stay behind to take charge of the situation.
All civil and military officials, regardless of their rank, had to go; it was an annual event. Even if one was not good at hunting, the animals shot by one's own guards could be used as a prize and a good omen.
After everything was arranged, Emperor Jingren returned to Qifeng Palace at night and casually told the Queen about the autumn hunt, and said that he hoped the Queen could accompany him this time.
The Queen showed a rare look of surprise, and she thanked him, "Thank you, Your Majesty, for your kindness."
"Jinyi, you don't have to be polite," Emperor Jingren squeezed the Queen's hand and said with a smile, "Jinyi is very skilled. This time in the autumn hunt, we must win the first prize together and let all the officials see how excellent my Queen is."
"I will do my best to protect Your Majesty." The Queen looked down at Emperor Jingren and promised.
Emperor Jingren: “…”
His queen was good in every way, except that she refused to stand behind him and be protected by him. Instead, she liked to stand in front of him and protect him. Never mind. Yan Xu had already arranged everything. The imperial guards would definitely protect the safety of him and the queen.
Because he was going to go hunting in a few days, Emperor Jingren had a lot of government affairs to attend to these days. He was exhausted when he came to Qifeng Palace every day. He was very tired and fell asleep as soon as he touched the pillow. He had no energy to think about the little things between men and women. However, he was ready. He stayed in the temporary palace during the hunting. There were not so many rules in the palace, so he could spend some time with the queen.
Emperor Jingren didn't know how to describe this feeling. In the past, he only respected the queen. In his mind, the queen was not his first wife, but a symbol or a code name. No matter who she was, as long as she was the queen, Emperor Jingren would give her due respect. But now it was different. For him, the queen was first his wife, and then the queen. Rather than how to maintain the queen's dignity, he thought more about how to make his wife happy.
It was a strange feeling, but it made people feel comfortable. Perhaps the queen's appearance was different from the world's aesthetics, her personality was not gentle enough, and her appearance was not gorgeous enough, but the only one who could be close to Emperor Jingren's heart was the queen.
Like a young man who had just fallen in love, Emperor Jingren secretly ordered the clothing bureau to prepare many suitable clothes for the empress according to her figure, including black shorts and white robes, as well as some handy weapons, especially swords. After the empress danced with a sword that day, Emperor Jingren ordered the Jinyiwei to secretly ask for precious swords among the people at a high price, and finally forged a magic weapon for the empress before the autumn hunt.
These things had already been sent to the palace by Emperor Jingren, waiting for the Empress to discover them.
As for what Chen Taiyi said about Emperor Jingren's body not being fit for sexual intercourse, Emperor Jingren did not look for Chen Taiyi again. He still remembered Chen Taiyi's hostility towards the empress when he woke up from hitting his head, which made him decide to gradually distance himself from Chen Taiyi and promote another doctor in the Imperial Hospital, Ning Taiyi. This is an old doctor in his sixties, but because he is a doctor and takes good care of himself, he does not look old at all. During this period, Emperor Jingren changed from Chen Taiyi to Ning Taiyi when checking his pulse. Ning Taiyi said that there was nothing wrong with Emperor Jingren's body and he could have sexual intercourse as long as he did not indulge in sexual activities.
Doctor Ning's diagnosis made Emperor Jingren even more suspicious of Doctor Chen. He did not bring Doctor Chen with him on this autumn hunt, but let Doctor Ning lead the team instead.
Since Emperor Jingren woke up from a headbutt three months ago, the power distribution in the harem has completely changed. In the past, Emperor Jingren respected the empress but not intimately. At night, he preferred to go to the four concubines. Among the four concubines, he especially liked Concubine Shu. Another favorite was Concubine Lin, who was also the daughter of Grand Secretary Lin and the sister of Lin Boyuan.
Now, Emperor Jingren only favors the Empress, and the rest of the concubines are nothing but dust. Except for Concubine Shu, who had an experience where Emperor Jingren stayed in the Jiaolan Palace for a while and then left, the others could not even see Emperor Jingren. Originally, the Censorate would have intervened in such matters, for the sake of equal treatment of offspring. However, Emperor Jingren had been married for four years without having children, and with the diagnosis of Imperial Physician Chen, the Censorate did not dare to ignore the emperor's health and let him sleep with his concubine. Even if Emperor Jingren had slept with a concubine, the Censorate could have intervened, but he slept with the Empress, which was reasonable and proper, so who else could intervene
So during these three months, all women except the queen were in disgrace, and the power of the Imperial Medical Service also changed greatly, becoming very different from before.
Some people privately lamented that the queen was very capable. If she didn't take action, it would be fine. But once she did, she was favored by the emperor. It was really admirable and lamentable that she was favored by the emperor despite her appearance. Such rumors spread to the cold palace and to the ears of Su Huailing and her sworn brother Xiao Fuzi.
"I offended His Majesty, and I deserved to be banished to the cold palace, but it's different for you!" Su Huailing looked at Xiao Fuzi, who was too sick to get up, and clenched his fists, saying, "You were wronged, you didn't steal anything. I'll go and beg the Queen to tell her that you are innocent and let you leave the cold palace!"
After saying that, she ran to find a nanny in the cold palace who was very kind to her, and asked her to help take care of Xiao Fuzi. By coincidence, she ran out of the cold palace smoothly and mixed into the autumn hunting team without being discovered by anyone.
The carriage in the center of the team, which was firmly guarded by the imperial guards, belonged to Emperor Jingren. He rode in the same carriage with the empress, and the concubines were sitting in several small carriages following behind. It was not until today that Emperor Jingren saw the other concubines except Concubine Shu. The collision with his head made him forget the appearance of the concubines. Now it seemed that they were no different from the impressions he had in his memory.
Concubine De was calm and generous, with a beautiful appearance, and she looked like a lady from a noble family; Concubine Xian was cold and noble, with an elegant temperament, and was a talented woman who was well-read in poetry and books; Concubine Liang was not as good-looking as the other three concubines, but she was pretty, with a pair of lively eyes that were very charming. Concubine Lin had similarities with Grand Secretary Lin in her eyebrows and eyes, but not much like Lin Boyuan, probably because Lin Boyuan resembled his mother.
The women were different and beautiful in their own ways, but Emperor Jingren did not feel anything special when he looked at them. Instead, he turned around and saw the empress standing beside him, wearing an intricate phoenix robe, a heavy headdress, and a dignified face. He felt that the empress was really good in every way and the other concubines could not compare to her.
The emperor's carriage was not as small as others. It had everything he needed. Sitting on the big bed that was big enough for three or four people to lie down, Emperor Jingren slowly helped the queen take off her jewelry. Seeing that her scalp was being squeezed tight, he said with some heartache, "You don't have to dress so formally in the carriage. Let your hair down and relax for a while. When we're almost there, someone will help you comb it back up."
The empress, who let her hair down and looked somewhat casual, said to Emperor Jingren: "Your Majesty, too, do you need my help?"
The crown cannot be taken casually, the Queen must seek the consent of Emperor Jingren.
"Of course." Emperor Jingren nodded and raised his hand to stroke the queen's long hair, which was unexpectedly smooth.