When she was young, she was first a princess of a vassal state, then an empress, and became the empress dowager at the age of thirty. She was in charge of government affairs behind the scenes, and had been busy with all kinds of affairs. The empress dowager had long been accustomed to going to bed early and getting up late. It was only in recent years that the emperor's methods became a little more flexible, and only occasionally he would be simple and rough. She just completely ignored the affairs of the court, and finally moved her bedtime forward from the midnight to the evening.
However, she was in her early sixties and was always alert, so the night watchmen in the palace often avoided Qingning Palace. In summer and autumn, some people even caught the singing insects in Qingning Palace specifically to let her sleep well.
But on this day, Yuquan had to urgently wake up the empress dowager in the middle of the night and convey the news that had just come from the Qianqing Palace.
The empress dowager who was helped up still felt a little dizzy. She reached out to take a cup of warm water from Yuquan and drank a few sips to calm herself down. Then she frowned and asked, "Did the emperor really remove three of the four people who held the seal and pen in the Imperial Household Department? Not only was Lu Chan demoted, but he was also caned, and he even sent Chu Kuan to the Ciqing Palace to serve as a scribe?"
"yes."
The Queen Mother put down the teacup, and then put on a dress with Yuquan's help, and then leaned on a large pillow, gently rubbing her temples while listening to Li Shanggong, who was brought in by Yuquan, telling her about the incident in the Palace of Heavenly Purity. When she learned that Chu Kuan did not make any excuses and did not rely on their past friendship and merits to plead for mercy, she sighed.
And when Li Shanggong said that the imperial attendant and Lu Chan were sent to the Criminal Department together, and the emperor's original words were twenty strokes of the cane and lifelong hard labor, she sighed and said, "He ignored Liu Feng's kindness for so many years and beat him to death, and even found no body and didn't even investigate. But now he is so lenient to the imperial attendant... This is not normal."
No one knows a child better than his mother, so Yuquan naturally believed the Queen Mother's judgment. But she also knew that the Queen Mother didn't want to hear her opinion, so she didn't agree or object, but just gently pulled the quilt higher for the Queen Mother.
"Chu Kuan has only been the seal holder for less than a year... I thought that with his age, qualifications and achievements, he would be able to work until old age." The Queen Mother sighed softly, then frowned in confusion, "How could the emperor be so arbitrary to demote him without any evidence? It's as if he has determined that it was Chu Kuan who did it... Li Shiniang, Chu Kuan really didn't beg for mercy, nor did he say he wanted to come to see me?"
Li Shang Gong quickly shook her head and said, "Empress Dowager, after leaving the Qianqing Palace, Eunuch Chu returned to the Zhifang. I heard that he also told the new seal holder, that is, the eunuch Qian who was promoted by you, the Empress Dowager, that from now on he will serve in the Ciqing Palace, and the Zhifang in the Outer Imperial City will not be needed. When the time comes, it will be returned to the Silijian, and others will be able to use it."
"The new seal holder of the Imperial Household Department... is Qian Ren?" The Queen Mother asked in disbelief. Seeing Li Shanggong nodding repeatedly, she covered her forehead with her hands this time. It was indeed Qian Ren whom she promoted, but that was because he was honest and loyal, and there was no discrepancy when replacing old and new treasures in a certain warehouse. At that time, she had just been crowned as the Queen, so she promoted him to Fengyu.
As a result, 20 years later, he was still Fengyu. She occasionally saw him being bullied by his juniors, so she told the emperor about it and promoted him to Suitang. Later, the emperor probably remembered this person and promoted him to Bingbi a few years later.