Empress Chen has been very busy recently.
Seeing that it is entering June, the weather is getting hotter and hotter, and it is time to use ice.
Ice is used everywhere in such a big Forbidden City. Naturally, the master of which palace is beautiful, and the master of which palace has a prominent status, and the master of which palace is the most important.
The Kunning Palace and the Jingren Palace are indispensable. Although they all have quotas, the Ministry of Internal Affairs generally does not care about this. It is more tight than enough. There are also Ci Ning Palace, Ning Shou Palace, Nansan Institute and Princess Courtyard. These places cannot be ignored.
The rest are the East Six Palaces and the other five palaces, and there must be concubines with princes and princesses. As for other places, it is up to discretion.
What is discretion
For example, Concubine Gao Gui and Concubine Zhou Xian, these two have been in the palace for a long time. Although they are now the emperor and the courtiers, they will inevitably gradually become lonely, but the centipede is dead but not stiff. So satisfy as much as you can.
But other concubines are not so good, even some are too noble who are not even concubines, and they can’t even be named at the House of Internal Affairs. Occasionally, there are fewer things in the division, and things are different, that’s perfectly normal thing.
It’s not that they were all deducted by the eunuchs below. Just like this ice bar, there is enough ice for a year. Some years are hot, and some years are not so hot. Naturally, the amount of ice used is different. The rules in the palace are on the surface, except for the emperor, everyone's quota is fixed, and some people use it openly, and it is inevitable that they will exceed it.
What should I do if I use too much? Naturally take other supplements, until the end things will be missing, and if there are some unimportant parts missing, you can send less or not. The servants who take care of this matter must at least ensure that the important masters above use ice. If the Ministry of Internal Affairs can still take it out, it will be a joke if the things you want are not available.
Originally, the amount of ice in the distribution of low-level concubines is very small, let alone such low-level concubines who are too noble, so some people's distribution of ice has been deducted.
I don't know what caused the trouble, but a few noble people came to Kunning Palace to find Empress Chen.
These too noble people are not stupid. They look young but are about the same size as Empress Chen, but they pretend to be big by using their status to suppress Empress Chen. If she wants to give an explanation, some people will sing the red face, and naturally some will sing the bad face. It's just chaos.
"...Empress, I am still your concubine mother. Even if we are humble, the Supreme Emperor is still here. The Supreme Emperor is still here now. If you treat us like this, you won't be afraid of being stabbed in the back by the courtiers?"
"Sister Tian, why do you say that? It is inevitable for the empress to be negligent when she first ascends the throne."
"Those servants of the Ministry of Internal Affairs just see people order dishes, and people go to cool the tea. The emperor hasn't left yet. We will be cold. Let's drag them out and bury them tomorrow."
"Sister Han, how can you say that? If it doesn't work, let's go to the Empress Dowager to find the Empress Dowager. I don't believe that there is no reason for this huge Forbidden City!"
Empress Chen's temples were exploding in pain, but she had to take a deep breath to suppress the urge to get angry, and smiled: "How can you be too noble to say that, I really don't know about this matter, if not, you too noble Go back first, I'll ask someone to bring someone from the Ministry of Internal Affairs to ask?"
"Who knows if you sent us back on purpose, turned around and forgot about it. It's not that we made things difficult for the empress, but the empress should also be considerate of us. It's really not easy to see the empress."
"That's right, empress, don't blame our sisters for making such a fuss, it's because the empress's threshold is too high, we can't get in if we don't make trouble!"
Empress Chen suppressed her anger: "Don't worry, my nobles, this palace will definitely not neglect this matter. Let me take a step back and say that you are too noble here, so you can't see this palace. Isn't there still the empress dowager, my palace?" How could it be possible to bring the matter to the Empress Dowager and the Empress Dowager, disturbing the cleanliness of the two old people."
Hearing this, the few standing below were dressed in extremely plain clothes, but there were delicate women mixed in the plain clothes, looked at each other in blank dismay, and finally agreed.
After sending the man away, Fu Chun came back and looked at Empress Chen's darkly angry face, and didn't dare to speak.
"Go and call Wang Donglai!"
…
"yes."
Not long after, Wang Donglai was called.
He was in his forties, with a slender figure, probably because he had been a eunuch for a long time, and he was used to bowing his head and bending over. The part from the neck to the back of the shoulders was always not straight, which made people look quite uncomfortable.
In fact, after staying in the palace for a long time, you will know that most of the eunuchs who have stayed in the palace for a long time are like this. This is a common problem.
Empress Chen didn't say much, and repeated what the other concubines had just said: "What the hell is going on? Why didn't you report it? If you hadn't stopped me, why would they have made such a fuss in Kunning Palace today? "
Wang Donglai said with a look of grievance: "Your Majesty, I really don't blame the servants for this matter. You said that since you entered the Kunning Palace, how many people wanted to come to be close to you. You have a noble status, so there must be no one in the palace who wants to see you. The slaves reported it, the lady didn't have to do anything all day long, she just took care of seeing people. And the slaves really didn't remember that these noble people had been here, so the slaves went down and asked those little bastards to see who they were Forgot to report the incident, the servants will not spare them."
What he said is not unreasonable, even if a certain official is promoted, countless people will come to flatter him, let alone the dignified queen. If everyone saw each other, the slaves would report everything in detail, and Empress Chen would not have to do anything every day, just see and listen to people's reports.
So at this time, the general eunuch in charge and the eunuch in charge of the door are the most important, at least they must be prudent, and they must be their own confidantes, otherwise something may happen at some point, but the master is completely kept in the dark inside.
Empress Chen is also very dissatisfied with Wang Donglai. This dissatisfaction is not only because she feels that Wang Donglai is a little perfunctory to her, but also because Wang Donglai is not her person.
The Jide Hall is different from the Kunning Palace, and the Crown Princess and the Queen are also different. The bigger the Kunning Palace, the more important the position of the Queen, and there will inevitably be a problem of insufficient manpower.
Originally, what year was the chief eunuch next to the concubine, but now what year is following Zong Duo at the South Third Institute, so Empress Chen is now surrounded by a tight manpower, except for Fu Chun and a few maids and nuns who have been with her for a long time. People are assigned by the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Empress Chen knew very well that Wang Donglai was perfunctory, but she couldn't get angry now.
"Okay, you go down, if this kind of thing happens again in the future, you go to the Department of Punishment to get the board yourself."
Wang Donglai obediently went down.
After the people left, there were only his own people left in the hall, Fu Chun worriedly said: "Your Majesty, it won't work like this, who knows what mistakes they can make, and I will let your empress come to an end at that time."
"How could I not know about this, but now you have someone better to replace Wang Donglai?"
Fuchun stopped talking, it was easy to replace Wang Donglai, but there are so many eunuchs in Kunning Palace, these people can't do it if they don't obey, they have to gather everyone together to treat the symptoms and the root cause.
"Leave this in advance, and you will go to the Ministry of Internal Affairs in person later..."
While talking here, someone came in to report.
"My lady, the person in the respect room asks to see you."
I remembered that the green head card of the respect room had already been hung up. Maybe the people in the respect room took the history book and asked her to use it? In other words, His Majesty flipped the cards last night. Whose brand was it? Could it be Su again
These were just some random thoughts of Empress Chen, and after a while, the people from the respect room came in, and as soon as they got close, they threw themselves on the ground and knelt down.
"My lady, help me!"
On the other side, just as Wang Donglai stepped out of the palace gate, a long-faced eunuch approached from the side.
"Director Wang, the empress did not make things difficult for you, did she?"
Wang Donglai glanced at him and said with a sneer, "What can she do to me?"
"Little, little, I'm worried about you." The long-faced eunuch laughed along with him.
"Okay, let's pretend our family doesn't know what you're thinking?" Wang Donglai patted him on the head and straightened his waist: "It's nothing."
The long-faced eunuch nodded, and said again: "Then it's okay to go on like this? What if the Empress gets angry and replaces us all? After all, this Kunning Palace is a good place to go now, and many people want to squeeze in after breaking their heads." He talked and laughed, but there was worry in his words.
"...Change? Where do you change? If you change again, it's not someone from the Ministry of Internal Affairs. We are all from the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Don't you know what kind of people there are? I know this place is good, so I will be tempted to not let us The empress understands that no one in the court is not good at handling things. Can she reuse you? The only way is to mess up for a while, and the chaos is so bad that we have tasted the pain, and then we will make the chaos right, so that we will be reused and relied on, otherwise we will not be as good as those few court ladies .”
Wang Donglai winked in the hall, and those court ladies naturally pointed to Fuchun and the others.
The long-faced eunuch also understood what Wang Dong said, so he didn't say anything else, but he was worried. After all, it took a lot of effort and money for them to be assigned to Kunning Palace from various places. If they mess up...
"Okay, let's go on your errands. Our family knows about this matter. Don't our queen empress know that it will still be the same if you change a group of people, why don't you gather the existing ones? Wait, the benefits will come soon, the empress empress not only It won’t change us, but it will be kind to the people below to win people’s hearts.”
In this huge Forbidden City, the masters are studying how to fight against the same masters every day, so what are the slaves studying? Naturally, it is to study the masters.
So these slaves don't say they can handle the thoughts of these masters 100%, they always have 70% or 80%. Who wants to be a slave? Who wants to kneel when they see people? Who doesn't want to climb up and be a slave to a slave
But how to act, how to climb, that also pays attention to the method.
"When our family gets reused, we won't forget to support you..."
Before he finished speaking, there was a noise in the hall, which sounded like the sound of a teacup hitting the ground.
The two exchanged a look.
The long-faced eunuch said: "Is it because the Long Live Lord lifted the green card yesterday?"
Wang Donglai thought about it in his heart, and said, "I'm afraid it's more than that."
At this time, he still didn't know that Emperor Jianping planned to withdraw from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but he had to say that his words came true.
In the palace, Empress Chen was both angry and sad, and full of anger and grief throbbed in her chest, eager to pour out.
Just now when she heard what the person in the respect room said, she subconsciously thought of the person from Jingren Palace.
After all, she has been favored by only one person for more than two years. Originally, His Majesty only went to other people's places. Since Zhong Liangyuan became pregnant with the fifth prince, he has never been lucky with other people.
Many times Empress Chen is unwilling to think deeply about this issue. She is a queen, and she has the eldest son, so she doesn't need to be pampered, but what does he want to do by withdrawing the respect room
This challenged her bottom line.
Empress Chen was so angry that her forehead ached and her hands shook.
Fu Chun was shocked, and scolded: "If you don't get out, you will be angry with the empress, and I will take your life when the time comes!"
The eunuchs in the respect room are not afraid of these words. After all, who can stay in the respect room is not an old fritter who has been rolling around in the palace for many years. If he gets angry like this, there will be few masters left in the palace. Seeing that his goal had been achieved, he didn't insist any longer, and hurriedly pretended to be submissive, and retreated.
Fuchun wanted to persuade Empress Chen, but she didn't know how to persuade her.
At this time, Wang Donglai's figure flashed outside the door, and she hurriedly said: "Madam, don't worry, who knows whether the people in the respect room are telling the truth or lies, and you also know your majesty's temper, there is no reason How could His Majesty get so angry, that servant must have concealed something, this servant asked Wang Donglai."
After being moved out of the East Palace for more than a month, Fuchun also felt that the East Palace was really different from the palace. In the past, the empress was enough to rely on a few of them, but now it is not enough at all. Use what's in front of you.
When Wang Donglai heard his name, he hurried in.
"Miss Fuchun, what do you call our family?"
"My lady, what's the matter? But the eunuch Chen in the respect room said something unpleasant, and this servant made people block that kid in the Kunning Palace, and give the lady a lesson first to vent her anger." He said, He rolled up his sleeves and walked out.
At this moment, Empress Chen also regained her strength, and hurriedly stopped her and said, "It's not proper to make a scene."
"Slave, isn't that also..." Wang Donglai laughed along with him, showing a somewhat simple and honest look.
…
Fu Chun glanced at Empress Chen, and after getting her promise, he gave a general account of the matter reported by the respect room.
Wang Donglai thought for a while and said, "Your Majesty, please don't think that the servant's words are disrespectful. Let the servant say that the words of the people in the respect room are probably exaggerated. This group of grandchildren and servants know that they usually like to show off their power and rely on themselves. When working in the respect room, the ladies in each palace have to give some face. There are five people and six people. Although the servants don't know the specific situation, they can only guess if they have done something to offend His Majesty, and His Majesty will be furious. Next, we will withdraw the respect room.
"This group of grandchildren saw that the trouble was big, and when it happened, they hurried to find you... Take the blame, if you take care of this matter, His Majesty doesn't want to embarrass you, it must be big and small. Their errands If you keep it, you don't have to be afraid of anything.
"But let me tell you, my lady, you must not stand out at this time. You think His Majesty is angry and wants to withdraw from the respect room. If you come out at this time and say that you can't withdraw, isn't this obviously a fight with His Majesty? Who is in this palace?" The biggest one, of course, is His Majesty, as well as the Empress Dowager, the Empress Dowager, and the Empress Dowager, and of course you, Your Majesty, but why should you anger His Majesty because of this matter, it's not worth it."
Wang Donglai's analysis was correct, and he even took a different approach to the link that Empress Chen would never think of, and she didn't want to think about it.
But Wang Donglai didn't know the situation of the East Palace in the past, such as Concubine Su was the only favorite, and Emperor Jianping killed the King of Chu because of Concubine Su.
Everyone in the East Palace knew about the former, even if people in the palace didn't know, they gradually knew about it now, while Empress Chen of the latter didn't dare to say anything, including Fu Chun.
It was because of the addition of these bits and pieces that Empress Chen became so angry, and even faintly panicked, but these were inexplicable after all, and Empress Chen did not intend to explain it clearly to a slave.
"Then what do you mean?"
"The slave doesn't have any other ideas, just thinking that maybe it's more appropriate for the Empress to intervene in this matter?"
This idea was related to Empress Chen's. In this case, she didn't want to confront Emperor Jianping, so she could only ask Empress Dowager Fu for help.
After Wang Dong came down, Empress Chen pondered, "This person can be used."
Fu Chun said: "The servant knows, the servant will let people stare at him first."
Empress Chen sat for a while, and after she had figured out what to say, she went to Ningshou Palace on her shoulders.
It is said that there were tears on the queen's face, and her expression was faintly lonely.
It was because of this that the matter reached Pan'er's ears.
When she heard this, Pan'er was feeding the fish in the courtyard.
Now this fish pond is commonly used in the courtyards of mother and child, and there is also one in Jingren Palace, which is in the corner facing the southeast corner. The size of the square is two feet, rockery waterfalls, small bridges and flowing water. Although everything is done delicately, it is very delicate.
The waterwheel drives the water, flows down, and makes the sound of water, which makes people feel happy.
There are a few small goldfishes in the pond. It is not enough to raise koi in this kind of place, and goldfish are just right, so the Ministry of Internal Affairs specially collected several species that look the most beautiful, such as Chaotian, such as butterfly tail and phoenix tail.
Pan'er likes butterfly tails and phoenix tails the most, the tails are especially beautiful when swimming.
However, the people from the Ministry of Internal Affairs said that if you want to raise the fish well, you need to feed more live food, so there is a special eunuch in Jingren Palace who is responsible for feeding these goldfish at ordinary times, and Pan'er will come to feed them when there is nothing to do.
"The people in the Respect Room are really courageous. His Majesty said that the Respect Room would be withdrawn, but they ran to the Kunning Palace, pointing to the fact that the trouble was not big enough."
Feng Haidao: "They are also afraid of losing their errands, so they will take the risk to ask the empress. Who told the empress to take care of this matter at the beginning, and now it's not good to let go and ignore face."
Previously, Pan'er heard the people below, so she called Feng Hai. If anyone in Jingren Palace has the best news, Feng Hai is none other than Feng Hai.
Pan'er also felt that it was a foresight to accept Feng Hai at the beginning. She didn't think so when she was in the East Palace, but thought that he was prudent and flexible. After coming to the palace, Feng Haili did a lot of things inside and out, which made Pan'er even more impressed by the value of this man.
For example, the servants of Kunning Palace are doing... things behind the scenes, Jingren Palace does not have it at all, because from the first day when the master came in, all the servants assigned by the Ministry of Internal Affairs were beaten, not only by Feng Hai , and Xiao Dezi can now stand on his own.
In addition, Qianqing Palace only needs to invite Concubine Su Gui to accompany her every day. The whole palace is watching the movement, who dares to be free and come to this bad luck? Besides, there are Feng Hai's Xiaodezi Cattail Baishu and Aunt Qing, and it's not their turn to come forward.
Even if there were any small thoughts, they all stopped.
In fact, all the wits in the palace understand it, but it is useless for her to understand it, and the people below must also understand it, so that the newcomers can be restrained in every way.
That's why she thinks Feng Hai is easy to use, because he can take care of many things without her talking.
"It's not a good idea for the Empress to ask the Empress Dowager." No matter how much she said, she couldn't explain to Feng Hai clearly about Emperor Jianping's hidden thoughts.
Seeing that the master was unwilling to say more, Feng Hai didn't say anything else. He was afraid that this matter would affect the master, but seeing that the Qianqing Palace had not called the master over, he guessed that His Majesty might not want to affect the master either.
His Majesty has this kind of heart for his master, what else do they have to be afraid of in Jingren Palace, just wait and see the show.
"Recently let them go out less and stay in the palace if they have nothing to do, so as not to go out and cause trouble."
"Yes. The servant will give orders and explain to Xiao Dezi."
Pan'er smiled but said nothing, and glanced at Xiao Dezi who was standing not far away and looked this way from time to time. They used to be buddies, but now they are top and bottom, but Xiao Dezi is a little younger, and he still needs to hone his skills for a few years.
She wiped off the residue on her hands, took a veil from Cattail and wiped it off, then went into the hall.
From a distance, Xiao Dezi saw that Feng Hai hadn't followed, so he came over quickly.
"Master..."
Fortunately, he is not a palace lady, it's time for a palace lady to beat Pan'er's legs and shoulders.
"What's the matter? What else do you want to say?"
"without."
What Xiao Dezi could say, dare to say, said that Feng Hai's grandson had robbed his master of the position of the most eminent eunuch. You said that he has gone to wait on the second prince and the third prince, and why don't he go to the master's side if he has nothing to do.
"Okay, learn more from Brother Feng, he will go back to Nansan School sooner or later."
Upon hearing this, Xiao Dezi's eyes lit up immediately.
Cattail kicked him out, saying: "There is no need to dislike him!"
Pan'er smiled, but she was thinking that Empress Chen went to Empress Dowager Fu's place, would Empress Dowager care
In Ningshou Palace, Empress Dowager Fu had a very headache.
But it's not easy to get angry, after all, this is the first time that Empress Chen has shown such a weak state in front of her.
As she spoke, tears came out. It was the first time that Empress Dowager Fu saw such a strong daughter-in-law.
"I don't even know what's going on. Why don't you go back first, Empress, and talk about him when I see the emperor? But the emperor is also busy these days. There is a flood in Henan, and the incompetence of local officials has caused refugees to spread everywhere. Coming to the capital of Gyeonggi, there are refugees in even the prefectures. No wonder he got angry. He definitely didn't go after you, the queen.
"My son, I'm still clear. It's not like I won't take my anger out on anything. The same is true for the people in the respect room. Something happened to the court. Now the emperor is not looking for a reprimand. Now Longyan is furious and knows that he is wrong, Nianqiu, the people in the respect room have to take care of it."
Nian Qiu hurriedly said: "Yes, this servant will send a message to the Ministry of Internal Affairs later."
Empress Dowager Fu cast her eyes on Empress Chen again, and said, "Okay, you can go back first, and ask the emperor when he comes to the palace."
Empress Chen could only stand up, saluted Empress Dowager Fu, and then withdrew.
After the people left, Empress Dowager Fu said to Nianqiu: "Sometimes I don't understand. The two are obviously husband and wife. It is reasonable to say that they are the people who understand each other's personality best, but she always hits the gun every time. In terms of Clever, she is really not as good as that Concubine Su."
It's really difficult for Nianqiu to say this, I can only say that the people in the respect room are not things, and they actually encouraged the queen to hit the cannon at this time. …
But this just reflects Empress Chen's predicament. As a queen, I don't say that I have to be comprehensive, at least I have to understand the movements of the biggest person in the palace, the emperor, such as whether something happened in the court recently, how your majesty is feeling, etc. wait.
Empress Dowager Fu could point out the reason, but Empress Chen was ignorant, which just showed that her back position was not secure at all.
It is easy to be a queen, but it is difficult to secure a back seat. No one knows this truth better than Empress Dowager Fu, who was once a queen.