Chapter 653: The Emperor Vomits Blood
The little princess was so frightened that she screamed and shouted, "The emperor is vomiting blood, please help me."
The nanny beside her was very familiar with the royal struggles. Seeing that the emperor could no longer speak, she quickly covered her master's mouth and told him to calm down, saying that something big had happened and that controlling the emperor was the most important thing.
The little imperial concubine woke up, slapped her mouth immediately and asked for the emperor to be helped to the couch to rest quickly, and ordered the maid to call the imperial physician for treatment.
She asked again: Where is the attendant outside?
The young servant who was delivering the message outside had been so frightened that he had disappeared long ago.
This girl was someone close to the Queen. When she heard the loud shouting in the palace, she knew something had happened to the Emperor. But the young imperial concubine blocked the news and did not report it. That was unacceptable, so she ran to the Queen's bedroom.
The little princess was panicked and asked nervously what to do, what to do?
The maids around her said that since she had already done it, she had to go all the way, and advised her to quickly gather her family to deal with the situation.
This woman had been locked up in the palace and had thought about it thousands of times. She had already prepared a plan and immediately arranged for her attendants to go out of the palace to call for help.
On the other side, the young attendants used all their means to report and make concessions, and finally came to the Queen's bedroom to tell her that the Emperor had vomited blood, was in poor health and could not speak, and was stunned when he was controlled by the Imperial Concubine.
She had spent the whole night thinking about how to save her son and daughter-in-law, which made her feel dizzy and exhausted. After hearing the report from the attendant, she immediately became alert and became a completely different person. She asked the attendant in a stern voice, asking him not to panic and to report in detail.
After the young attendant told him the whole story of taking the military intelligence to the West Palace, he said anxiously: Go and bring the emperor back quickly. If the emperor is caught by the young imperial concubine and he issues an edict at will, it will be disastrous.
The queen shuddered in surprise. Yes, there have been many strange things in the change of dynasties throughout history. There was once a concubine in the harem who captured the dead emperor and arbitrarily issued an edict to cut out dissidents. She had to keep the emperor in her own hands.
However, the queen had just been given the cold shoulder by the young emperor yesterday, and her son and daughter-in-law had not yet been cleared of the charges of treason and viciousness. How could she dare to rashly go to the mistress's bedroom and disturb the emperor?
What if the emperor is still conscious? Wouldn’t that be a crime of offending the majesty of heaven without being summoned?
Seeing the queen standing there motionless, the young attendant walked around anxiously, nagging the queen to make a quick decision. If it was too late, the emperor might die, and the palace would be flooded with blood.
The queen was shocked again. If the emperor really fell ill, or even couldn't speak, and was controlled by the mistress, she might hold him hostage and command the palace. Then she, as the queen, would be in real danger.
It would be better to take the risk of breaking into the West Palace and taking back the emperor, and perhaps saving Xiao Linzi and his wife.
The queen took the risk and called all the palace attendants and the imperial guards on guard to walk towards the mistress's bedroom.
Over there, the young imperial concubine had already stepped up her guard and prohibited anyone from entering or leaving. When the empress's procession arrived, she stopped them and refused to see them, saying that the emperor had given a verbal order: no one should be seen.
This stopped the queen, and the mistress really used this trick, and the slogan of the fake emperor spread throughout the palace.
The young attendant reported to the queen in front of everyone: The imperial concubine is lying, the emperor is clearly in trouble. The servant was reporting urgent military information outside the palace, and clearly heard the emperor screaming, and the imperial concubine shouted in panic that the emperor was vomiting blood. The emperor must have been harmed by the imperial concubine, wuwu, wuwu.
The young attendant was so anxious that he burst into tears.
But his statement was very important, as it directly made the mistress a criminal suspect.
The little imperial concubine screamed in panic: Nonsense, you dog slave is talking nonsense, you are looking for death. The emperor is just unwell and needs to rest. The imperial physician has examined the emperor's pulse and found that he is fine.
When the Queen heard that the mistress had summoned the imperial physician to treat the Emperor, she confirmed the news reported by the young attendant, and she became really anxious. She yelled: How dare you! Even she, the Queen, cannot visit the Emperor? You are rebelling.
The imperial guards on both sides also realized that the emperor was in danger, and immediately went up to open the palace gate for the queen.
The queen walked in and saw the emperor lying on the couch with an expressionless face. He did not respond when she called him. She could not help crying and asked the little princess why she lied.
The emperor was clearly unconscious. What kind of magic did the vicious woman use to harm the emperor?
The queen was relentless and stood up and slapped the little imperial concubine in the face, asking her to tell the truth.
Of course the young imperial concubine did not dare to admit that it was she who fed the emperor the powerful kidney-tonifying pills that caused the disaster. She argued that the emperor was able to speak just now, so how did she know that he could not speak now?
Now that the empress had evidence, she calmed down the ministers and concubines present, and immediately ordered her attendants to carry the emperor to her own bedroom so that she could personally guard and treat the emperor.
The young imperial concubine refused to accept this, because this mute emperor possessed supreme power. Once he entered the queen's bedroom, it would be like the queen was giving orders.
If the Queen held a grudge against her for scheming to win favor and forged an imperial edict to give her a cup of poisoned wine, wouldn't she have died immediately?
The fellow immediately stopped her and shouted that the emperor had ordered him to recuperate in her bedroom and not go anywhere else.
The Empress and the Second Imperial Concubine were determined not to do it, because they knew that it was the Young Imperial Concubine who was fighting for the dying Emperor. The Young Imperial Concubine had the support of the Gao and Chai families. Once the Young Imperial Concubine controlled the Emperor, she would control the entire court, and they would be like fish on the chopping board for others to eat as they pleased. They had to snatch the Emperor away.
At the critical moment, the Queen used her privilege of ruling the harem and ordered the Imperial Guards to protect her without any further explanation. Anyone who dared to stop her would be killed.
Just as the Queen brought the Emperor back to the palace, people from the Gao and Chai families arrived outside the palace. It was a close call.
The people from the Gao and Chai families were outside shouting for the imperial guards to open the gate to see the emperor, while the people of the little imperial concubine were inside shouting and making a big fuss, slandering the empress for wanting to kill the little emperor.
This caused the entire palace to be noisy.
The queen cried as she watched the emperor, who was still warm and looked like a dead person. A group of maids and servants surrounded her and they just kept sobbing and crying, but there was nothing they could do.
The young attendant squeezed forward to persuade the Queen to calm down. The Emperor was seriously ill, and the palace was depending on the Queen.
The Queen then sat down on the chair, thinking of her son and daughter-in-law who were still in the prison, and asked the Imperial Guards to go to the prison to bring out the Prince of Zhennan and his wife so that they could take charge of the situation.
However, the commander of the Imperial Guards thought that was inappropriate. They had already made clear their inquiries and found out that the emperor became so angry that he vomited blood and fainted after a fight broke out between the imperial guards outside the city and the soldiers of Shanchan Prefecture who supported the Prince of Zhennan and the soldiers guarding the imperial capital.
It is obviously inappropriate to release Prince Zhennan at this time.
The Queen was anxious and asked her attendants what to do. The Imperial Guards discovered that the heads of the Gao and Chai families were following them with their own soldiers.
The commander of the Imperial Guards assured the Queen that they would not dare to act recklessly. There were two thousand Imperial Guards in the palace, and they were sworn to protect the Emperor and the Queen. The only thing they were afraid of was that these people would spread rumors and cause trouble outside the palace, and make officials and generals who did not know the truth side with them.
The Queen thought quickly and asked the commander of the Imperial Guards to go out and pass on a message to the most important ministers to ride in a basket into the palace to meet the Emperor. Because there were rebels everywhere at the moment, the palace gates could not be opened at will. The Imperial Guards had to ensure the safety of the palace first, and the ministers could only enter the palace in a basket.
The commander of the Imperial Guards felt that this was a sufficient reason. Besides, both the Gao and Chai families brought their own private soldiers. What if they wanted to attack the palace? Wouldn't opening the gate be inviting a wolf into the house?
At the gate outside the palace, the Gao and Chai families received the Queen's oral order: all ministers were required to enter the palace in baskets. They were worried that something might happen in the palace and they might not come back, so they were unwilling to do so.
These were old hands who played with power, and they were all afraid of being trapped in a cage after entering, so they made excuses and discussed to retreat.
The Imperial Guards had iron trumpets imitating the ones used by the New Song Dynasty, shouting at important officials to obey orders and come to the emperor in a hanging basket. Refusing would be considered treason.
As soon as the hat was thrown out, the generals and ministers named Chen immediately walked to the hanging basket at the city gate and stepped in. The basket was immediately pulled up, and as the basket rose and fell, ministers on both sides entered the palace one after another.
When the Gao family saw that everyone in the queen's family had gone in, they didn't dare to stay outside alone and be charged with treason, so they followed them in to visit the emperor.
The East Palace was full of ministers standing. After everyone had seen the emperor, the empress reported how the emperor was injured. With the testimony of the imperial guards and eunuchs, the young imperial concubine was unable to escape the blame and was detained first. The Gao family was also implicated and could not say anything. However, the status of the Chen family, which was a descendant of the empress, was greatly improved.
The emperor became a speechless puppet. The incident happened too suddenly. The queen proposed to send her eldest son Duan Xiaolin and his wife into the palace to confine them to prevent accidents, and ordered the general of the Chen family to go out of the city to lead the troops to quell the rebellion.
The Gao family and the Chai family disagreed. They were worried that if the military power was handed over to the Queen's family, and the Queen had the living dead emperor in her hands, then she would be in power and they would become lambs to be slaughtered.
The queen said righteously: The soldiers outside the city are all soldiers of Dali State, they are not wrong, what we should do is to go out of the city to appease them, stabilize the army and defend the country, not kill each other. The queen was worried that once the Gao family went out, they would provoke the imperial army to kill the palace soldiers, which would be dangerous, and Dali State would fall into chaos again.
The head of the Chen family knew the queen's worries, and said in a deep voice that the best way at the moment was to let the Prince of Zhennan and his wife go out to solicit amnesty. The prestige of the Prince of Zhennan was extremely high. As long as the rebels outside the city saw that the Prince of Zhennan was safe and sound, they would stop fighting and avoid killing, and it would be much easier for us to clean up the mess.
However, the Gao and Chai families firmly disagreed.
At this time, the Imperial Guards came in with Duan Xiaolin and his wife. Hearing that these people were still arguing endlessly even though they were in a critical situation, he laughed in anger and shouted to stop arguing. He said he would not go anywhere and would stay in the palace to serve his father.
When the queen saw that her son was safe and sound, she felt relieved and called her ministers to the court to discuss matters.
Duan Xiaolin looked at his father who looked like a dead man and sat beside him crying. He held the little emperor's hand and told him about the court's shortcomings, blaming their Duan family for harming the people in this area.
Zhao Sihan was anxiously standing behind. Seeing the maid bringing a golden basin of hot water, she went up and wiped the little emperor's face and hands with a hot towel. She inadvertently felt the little emperor's facial muscles twitch and was surprised to find that the little emperor was not unconscious. After carefully washing the emperor, she helped Duan Xiaolin to rest outside the hall.
