Chapter 15 third quarter

Back in the central palace, the queen was still in pain, and she was still crying.Concubine Yi, who followed to the central palace, looked exceptionally strong. Although her eyes were red, she spoke and acted the same as usual. As soon as she entered the queen's bedroom, she told the maid Shuangxi: "I am here to serve the queen, you go outside Stay and go! Don't come in if you have nothing to do." Shuangxi is the Queen's confidant, but she also admires Concubine Yi for being able to make up her mind in everything, not being as honest and useless as the Queen. At this moment, she knew that there was a confidential and important matter to discuss, so she immediately replied: "The servant is watching from the outside, no one will come in."

"By the way!" Concubine Yi praised her for her wit and savvy: "Be careful when you work on errands! You will benefit in the future." As soon as Shuangxi left, Concubine Yi closed the door herself, twisted a hot towel, and handed it to the queen. The distraught queen had a lot to discuss with Concubine Yi, but her heart was full of things, big and small. , countless pending events, but I don't know where to start?He wiped away his tears and stared blankly for a long time, the more he thought about it, the more frightened he became, and the more he thought about it, the more annoyed he became, and suddenly he beat the dressing table again, and began to cry, while crying, he said, "How did you make it like this?"

"Queen, queen!" Concubine Yi supported her arm and said, "This is not something that can be done by crying. Crying alone can mess up people's hearts! You make up your mind first, and then we will take it slowly. Discuss how to do it." "What's my idea?" The queen cried, wiping her tears, "It's not what they say, but what we listen to." "No!" Concubine Yi said resolutely, "The empress must not have such thoughts. Authority must not be transferred downwards, this is the family law of the ancestors. " Speaking of this big topic, the queen couldn't help but stop her grief, "I don't understand." She asked, "It's 'praise government affairs' again, and it's the minister of military affairs. They want to make the decision, what should we say to them? what?"

"Take the identity of the emperor. The emperor personally presides over the affairs of state, regardless of the age of the emperor, the emperor has to say it." "Ah!" The queen seemed to understand, but for a moment she was still at a loss as to what to do by surprise, "I was thinking that in the future, there must be rules. In everything, we sisters and children can control everything. It depends , how do you manage it?" "The empress finally understands. Let's ask the six-eyed son-in-law to ask." "Also." So Concubine Yi taught the queen a lot of things, and at the same time sent someone to the Jingshifang to summon the six-headed son-in-law, saying that she had a lot to ask about the emperor.This was originally against the system, but due to the special circumstances and the urgent situation, Jing Shougu had to obey Yi's orders, and Sushun and his group dared not stop them.

Concubine Yi deliberately avoided it, and only the empress summoned Jingshou alone, knelt down to rest, and the empress said very politely: "Six forehead son-in-law, get up and talk!" "Yes." Jing Shou stood up, with his hands hanging down and his head bowed. "How is the Ministry of Internal Affairs doing?" This naturally refers to the funeral of the emperor. "Su Liu is busy!" Jing Shou replied, "The boards for the Golden Chamber arrived two days earlier. I heard that the rest of the things are also in place." "There is one more important thing," the queen asked again: "Where is the Dharani quilt?"

The Dharani quilt is a must-have item in the golden cabinet. It is an old thing of the pro-vassal, and it is decorated with the code of the final order. There are also special Dharani quilts.This is paid tribute by the living Buddha of Tibet. Generally, white silk is used to print golden Sanskrit scriptures, while the imperial ones are made of yellow satin woven with gold and five-color Sanskrit characters.Of course, "The Ministry of Internal Affairs has prepared it respectfully for a long time." Jing Shou replied. "Oh!" The queen paused for a moment, and changed the topic to ask: "Who is in charge of the government affairs these days?"

"It's still on the military plane." Jing Shou said slowly, "I heard that there are many important business matters that cannot be handled under pressure." "why?" "Of course it's because the emperor can't read the memorial." "What about in the future?" The queen turned sharply and asked the key point, "Have you eight people made a charter for handling things?" "It is not yet possible to speak of that. Besides, there is nothing conventional to refer to." "I remember that Lord Kangxi took the throne at the age of eight. What was the rule at that time?"

"At that time, Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang was in charge of the house, but Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang didn't take much care of the country's affairs." Concubine Yi had already decided on these answers, so the empress who had been educated immediately asked: "Then who cares?" "It's the four assistant ministers." "The four?" While thinking about it, Jing Shou replied: "Sony, Sukesaha, Yebilong Aobai." "and after?" "Later?" Jing Shou was stunned for a moment, "Later, of course, Lord Kangxi was in charge."

"I mean after Lord Kangxi came to power." The queen added, "What about the four assistant ministers?" This question scared the taciturn Jing Shou into a fright. Obviously, the empress used the story of Kangxi's execution of Oboi as a warning.But now, if there is Oboi, it is Sushun, so what does it have to do with me?I don't know how the honorary title of Minister Gu Ming fell to me?Looking at the situation, there will be many right and wrong in the future, so it is better to argue as soon as possible. Thinking of this, he immediately knelt down and met with his crown uncovered: "Empress Shengming! I have received the grace of the country, and I have been entrusted by the emperor. I feel that my talents are shallow and I can't handle the important task, but I really dare not say anything at that time. Now I am looking forward to praying day and night. Yes, it is the blessing of the ancestors, which can make the emperor's illness turn out of danger, and become stronger day by day, and the words of this fateful minister will be put on hold from now on, and never need to be mentioned again." As he said, he thought of Sushun's domineering, and at the same time thought of the empress. Mentioning the implication of the past events of the Kangxi Dynasty, the more I thought about it, the more frightened I became, sweating profusely, and hurriedly said the most honest words: "What is the material of the minister? The queen must understand. They put ducks on the shelves, and the minister is really helpless! But If the minister can be effective, he will die. I am afraid, I am afraid that the effect will not be effective."

These words are really incoherent.The queen couldn't laugh or cry, and she didn't know how to deal with it, because it was not in Concubine Yi's estimation.It's just Jing Shou's uselessness, even the honest and honest queen feels pitiful and ridiculous. Jing Shou was still kneeling on the ground and did not dare to get up, but the queen was speechless. Seeing that there was going to be a stalemate, Concubine Yi, who was hiding behind the screen, had to show her head.She came out coquettishly, saluted the queen first, and then ordered on her own: "Six-foreheaded son-in-law, please get up!"

When Jing Shou saw Concubine Yi appearing, he felt a little relieved.Concubine Yi is a formidable person, but she also understands things. She must understand that he is in a difficult situation and is loyal in heart, so she stood up, greeted Concubine Yi, and stepped aside, planning to come back when she had questions. Make a confession. "The sixth son-in-law is one of his own, and his arms must not be bent outward." Yi Guifei said this to the queen, but it also implied that Jingshou should not forget that he is a close relative of Jiaofang, and that in terms of relationship, he is better than Sushun and their distant relatives. The clan is much closer. Jing Shou naturally understood what she meant, and quickly replied with his hands down: "Guifei Yi sees it clearly, this sentence could not be more clear, it is exactly what Jing Shou meant." "Okay!" Concubine Yi praised, and then said: "But I have to ask the six foreheads, after you go down, they will ask: The queen summoned you, what did you say? How can you tell them?" "Let's just say, let's just say that the empress is inquiring about the emperor's 'major event', how is the preparation going?" "That's right. Just stay like this, and you don't need to say anything else. I know you can't compete with them alone, so don't talk nonsense to them. If there's anything you need, just find a way to communicate first." Here, Concubine Yi paused for a moment, and then asked solemnly: "Do you understand?" Jing Shou thought for a while, and understood what Concubine Yi meant to tell him not to worry about it, so he replied fearfully: "Understood, understood!" "It's good to understand." Concubine Yi turned her face upwards and asked: "If the queen has nothing else to say, let the six foreheads go down!" "Yeah!" The queen thought for a while and said, "There is one thing that is important. Once the 'big event' happens, it must be messy inside and out. The elder brother is outside, so I'm afraid they won't be able to take care of it. Please worry about it. Bar!" This is an errand that Jing Shou can handle, and he happily replied: "Empress and Concubine Yi, please rest assured! Jing Shou will take care of you carefully." When Jing Shou retreated, the Empress and Concubine Yi smiled wryly at each other. They originally hoped to take Jing Shou as a right-hand man, but they didn't expect him to be such a useless wretch. "Thanks to your dexterity, don't ask him to intervene, otherwise, there must be more than enough bad things!" The queen shook her head and sighed: "Oh, it's difficult!" "Queen, calm down first. Everything is up to me." That being said, Concubine Yi really doesn't know how to avoid losing power?Back in his own palace, he leaned on the railing and meditated, not knowing the shadow of the sun past noon.Suddenly, Jin Huan, the little eunuch next to the emperor, hurried in, stood in the yard, and announced loudly: "Long live God urgently summons Concubine Yi!" Hurry up! I'm afraid that Lord Long Live has something urgent to say." "Oh!" Concubine Yi was surprised and delighted, and asked, "How is Long Live?" "People are good at the moment. I'm afraid..." Jin Huan hesitated to speak, "I dare not speak." Concubine Yi knows that the emperor is "returning to the light" at this moment.The opportunity was extremely precious, so I dared not neglect it, and immediately rushed to Yanbo Zhishuang Palace. The imperial ministers were all outside the palace, standing far away, seeing the situation, they could tell that the queen was in Dongnuange.The little eunuch opened the curtain, and at a glance, the queen was indeed kneeling in front of the imperial couch. Concubine Yi entered the door, and immediately knelt behind the queen. "This is for you!" The emperor said weakly, stretched out a trembling hand, and handed a small Shu brocade pouch to the queen.Concubine Yi knew that it was a small rectangular jade seal handed down from the Qianlong Dynasty, often worn by the emperor, with the word "Yu Shang" engraved in Yangwen on it. The queen took it with both hands, and said, holding back tears, "Thank you, the emperor." "Where's Laner?" "Here." The empress leaned her body to one side, pouted to Concubine Yi, motioned her to agree, and at the same time knelt in front of her. "Lan'er is here!" Concubine Yi stood up, holding the prayer mat in her hand, knelt in front, caressing the imperial couch with both hands, lowered her head, her nose was buzzing. The emperor turned his face slowly, looked at her, and looked away again. Suddenly, there was a strange and complicated expression in his absent-minded eyes. It was a combination of recalling the past and sighing in front of the present. , for grudges? "Ah!" The emperor's voice was not only low, but also seemed to be hoarse, "I don't know what to say to you." Hearing these words, Concubine Yi burst into tears. There was grievance in her crying, as if she was saying that the emperor still held prejudices against her until today, and the time to defend her was up. This grievance would never be possible. Dissipate and stretch. At this moment, the emperor reached out and groped under the pillow, trembling and weak, unable to touch anything for a long time.So, the queen stood up, bowed her head to the pillow, and asked in a low voice: "What does the emperor want?" "The Cherry Blossom of 'Tongdaotang'" The queen reached under the pillow, and as soon as she touched it, it came out and was handed over to the emperor. He pinched it and stuffed it back into the queen's hand. "To Lan'er!" At this moment, Concubine Yi's cry, which had just been low, suddenly rose again, as if she had been in the cold palace for many years, and suddenly heard a decree calling for luck, excited with sorrow and joy, thousands of emotions, all turned into tears!I also thought of the moment of being forgiven and respected after several years of humiliation, but this moment is the last moment. afterlife.When I think about it now, it's really sad that I cried a lot beside the pillow of the royal couch. Crying like this, the empress was so sad that she could hardly bear it any longer. She stamped her feet and said anxiously: "Don't cry, can you? Quickly take the seal and kowtow to the emperor!" "Yes!" Concubine Yi wiped her tears, took the one-inch-square Hanyu seal with the three characters "Tongdaotang" in Yin script from the queen's hands, and kowtowed to the emperor on the ground. "Get up, Lan'er!" the emperor said again, "I have something to say." "Yes!" Concubine Yi knelt up straight, looking at the emperor with a sad face. "I have only one sentence, to respect the queen." "I will keep it in my heart." Concubine Yi said again: "I will definitely obey the order." "Okay! You go down first!" This is something to say to the queen.Concubine Yi was extremely concerned about this, but she absolutely couldn't linger and eavesdrop, so she had to retreat step by step.When she got out of Dongnuang Pavilion, she saw Sushun and Jingshou, the group of imperial ministers in the distant corridor. She suddenly thought that the jade seal bestowed by the emperor was just for demonstration, so she purposely stood in a brightly lit place, respectfully Holding the square seal to his chest.This is a rather solemn and rare gesture, and she believes that it will definitely attract Sushun's attention. After standing like this for a while, the queen also retreated with red eyes, and the eunuchs and maids from the two palaces surrounded them one after another, and surrounded them back to the middle palace. Concubine Yi thought of an urgent procedure, and immediately called the chief eunuch in the Queen's Palace to come up. "I have something to tell you, you heard it clearly!" Concubine Yi said solemnly to the chief eunuch in the Queen's Palace, "Just now the emperor summoned the queen and me, and personally bestowed two jade seals, and the queen got the 'Imperial Reward' seal, What I got is "Tongdaotang" Ying. You can ask the eunuch Ma Ye, the leader of Yanbo Zhishuang Palace, if he knows about this? If not, you can tell him this paragraph first and tell him to "remember" files'!" Every word and deed of the emperor was recorded by the chief eunuch, and handed over to the respect room for storage, called "diary files". , the eunuch must witness it with his own eyes, and there is a real basis before he can write.At that time, the emperor summoned Ci Yin, and there were only two young eunuchs in Dongnuan Pavilion. Concubine Yi was afraid that they would not understand the importance of this matter, so she did not tell Ma Ye, so she missed it, so she made a special inspection. Then, Concubine Yi bid farewell to the queen and returned to her palace to rest.The melancholy and depression I had been feeling for so many days was relieved a lot at this time, all because of this square seal. This square seal belongs entirely to the emperor.Since Qianlong's "Five Dynasties, Five Blessings and Five Virtues Hall".Emperors of all dynasties, like literati and refined scholars, liked to take the name of a study as an alias.Jiaqing is "Jidetang", Daoguang is "Shendetang", and the dying emperor is "Tongdaotang". There are two Tongdao halls, one is behind the Xianfu Palace in the "West Six Palaces", and the other is in the "Jiuzhou Qingyan" in Yuanmingyuan.On the morning of the eighth day of August last year, the emperor left Beijing in a hurry after having breakfast in the Tongdao Hall of the Old Summer Palace.Unexpectedly, after the farewell, the Old Summer Palace was under fire, and the emperor could not return to the capital! This is just a matter of one year, who would have thought that the changes in this year would be so great!Concubine Yi thought to herself, a year ago, she would never have imagined that she would become the Queen Mother so soon, but such a thing would happen!Is it God's will? She is someone who always looks forward.Since it is God's will, it cannot be disappointed.So I was full of energy and wanted to write a good article on the jade seal bestowed by the emperor. "Comrade, fellow!" She muttered like this, and she naturally thought of an idiom: like-minded.Doesn't that mean you and the queen?The two empress dowagers work together to raise the young master and manage state affairs! good!The meaning of the seal given by the emperor is exactly that.This also shows that the emperor regards her as honorable as the empress.Thinking of this, Concubine Yi felt deeply comforted, and immediately thought of trying to make the empress, Minister Gu Ming and princes understand the deep meaning of the emperor. But there is no chance in front of him, not only the empress is not in the mood to listen to her, but all the ministers, princes and nobles, according to the imperial doctor's report, said that the emperor can die at any time, so they all stay in Yanbo Zhishuang hall, full of energy, Watching the change of the emperor, who cares what reward she got? The night was like water, people were tired and sleepy, suddenly the chief eunuch Ma Ye rushed out from the East Nuan Pavilion, shouting in panic: "The crown prince, the crown prince!" This is for the crown prince to die.Wake up the crown prince who was sleeping in Zhang Wenliang's arms in robes and gowns, and rushed to the East Nuan Pavilion, the emperor was already "phlegm"! The princes and ministers all knelt down on the ground, and the crown prince bowed down in front of the imperial couch.Seeing that there was no sound for a long time, Sushun lit a benzoin, put it under the emperor's nostrils, and tried to see if he was still breathing? The stick of incense was still a straight line of smoke, and there was no sign of the influence of the breath. Su reached for the emperor's chest by the way, and it was already cold when he touched it. In and out of the hall, up and down, they had already immersed themselves in miserable emotions, and had been preparing for a long time. Sushun cried, like firing a trumpet, and immediately responded in unison, crying loudly—— But the crown prince was so frightened that he cried. A state-owned funeral is like a "heaven collapses and the earth collapses", so you don't have to worry about mourning. The way you cry is like "jumping" like mourning concubine, or jumping, or lying on the ground without getting up, with your eyes closed, and you can't breathe for a long time Come on, then muster up your strength and burst out crying!The more earth-shattering it is, the more loyal it is.In this way, we cried all the way from Yanbo Zhishuang Palace, inside to the concubine's bedroom, outside to the palace gate and court room, and the other courtyard left the palace thirty-six. The crying made the fish at the bottom of the pond scurry, and the birds on the branches flew high.The only exception was Concubine Li. She didn't cry, she sat in front of the window without saying a word, staring straight at the fading moon in the distance. The waning moon was still there, and all the palaces and places where people lived were lit with candles. The Yanbo Zhishuang Hall and the adjacent Danbo Jingcheng Hall were even more brightly lit.The crying of the princes and ministers had stopped, and Gu Ming's eight ministers especially needed to mourn for important matters. They found an empty room behind the Yanbo Zhishuang Hall and temporarily used it as a place for cardinals to issue orders. Almost all the officers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the chief eunuchs of the respect room and other important places, including Xiao Anzi, have arrived, quietly waiting for orders in the corridor, or inquiring about news, looking from a distance, only to see Sushun alone There, gesticulating and giving orders. The first errand sent Jing Shou, "Six foreheads!" Sushun said, "Please escort the crown prince, no, no, now he is the emperor! Follow the holy driver to see the queen mother. The moment to ascend the emperor Daxing , report to the Empress Dowager about the funeral etiquette, and wait for the discussion to be finalized, and then proceed to Chen Zou." Jing Shou, whose eyes were swollen from crying, nodded, stood up without saying a word, and went about his own business. "Where is the chief eunuch in the respect room?" When Sushun asked this question, someone immediately passed the message: "Chen Shengwen is passed on from Su Zhongtang!" "Chen Shengwen is here!" He promised loudly, lifted the curtain and entered the room, asked for Ann first, stood with hands down, and looked at Sushun. "Pick tassels everywhere immediately!" Whenever there is a national funeral, the first thing to do is to take off the red tassels on the big hat. Chen Shengwen replied: "Go back to Su Zhongtang, it has been passed on." "Okay!" Sushun continued, "From today on, the queen is called the empress dowager, and the crown prince is called the emperor." "Yes!" Chen Shengwen hesitated for a moment, feeling that he had to ask something, "Please tell Su Zhongtang, is Concubine Yi called Concubine Yigui?" "Of course!" Sushun answered very simply, as if his question was superfluous.