Chapter 606 605 The Last Night
"Master, the palace is calling urgently."
At this time, Lu Bu quickly walked into the room and whispered in his ear.
"Did something happen?"
Wei Guangde looked at Lu Bu and asked casually.
"No, the messenger just asked you to go there as soon as possible. It seems to be in a hurry."
Lu Bu replied hurriedly.
"You go outside and ask my carriage to wait for me at the gate."
Wei Guangde heard that the palace was in a hurry, so naturally he would not neglect it and immediately ordered Lu to preach.
Afterwards, he checked that the manuscript was not in the wrong place, then got up and walked out.
Lu Bu was already very aware of Wei Guangde's habit of placing manuscripts, so he was not worried about making mistakes.
When we arrived at the gate, the carriage was already parked there, so naturally the guard in front of the gate wouldn't ask too many questions.
Here, the branch officer is the biggest official, and Wei Guangde's right to speak here is only second to Zhang Juzheng, and he is considered the second in command. The officers all shout "Sir" when they see him.
"Go back and put the manuscripts away, and send them to the library if they are due."
When Wei Guangde got into the carriage, he ordered Lu Preacher, then got into the carriage, started the carriage, and drove towards Prince Yu's Mansion.
When the carriage arrived at the side gate of Prince Yu's Mansion, Wei Guangde got off the carriage and found that there were twice as many guards standing in front of the Prince's Mansion today than usual.
"What's going on? Who arranged it?"
After calling the captain of the guard in front of the door, Wei Guangde asked.
"Master Wei, it was Eunuch Li who gave the order."
Wei Guangde rolled his eyes when he heard this, knowing that he was inseparable from Ji Zhao, but this was not possible. There were many people coming and going around the palace, and he didn't know which palace's spy he was.
Such anomalies in the palace will definitely be discovered immediately.
Thinking of this, Wei Guangde immediately ordered the captain: "The extra manpower should retreat inside and remain as usual."
"this"
The captain of the guard was a little hesitant. After all, this was Li Fang's order. They should actually listen to Li Fang's command rather than the orders of palace officials like Wei Guangde.
"Do as you say. I'll go in and talk to Eunuch Li about this now."
Wei Guangde said softly, then seeing that the man was still hesitant, he continued to speak: "If Eunuch Li pursues the matter, you can blame me and say that I forcibly ordered you to do this."
"All right."
The captain reluctantly agreed. When Wei Guangde stepped into the palace, he had already asked four guards to follow him in and hide behind the side door.
Just a moment after entering the door, the doorman came to greet him. After a few words, Wei Guangde followed him into the palace.
After walking through the hall and courtyard, we soon arrived at the door of a secluded courtyard.
It is quiet because it is located in the leftmost courtyard in front of the palace, but there are many servants guarding the courtyard gate and surrounding areas.
After Wei Guangde entered, he soon saw King Yu and Li Fang in the main room.
At this moment, Wei Guangde was still curious, but he only called him but did not see Yin Shizhen and others.
"Your Highness."
Wei Guangde stepped forward and saluted King Yu.
"Good loans come quickly, no need to be polite."
King Yu stood up and stretched out his hand to support him.
Wei Guangde also stood up, and then looked at Prince Yu and Li Fang with a puzzled look.
"Let Li Fang tell you the news coming out of the palace."
King Yu hesitated to speak, and then ordered Li Fang to introduce the situation.
"This afternoon, His Majesty suddenly fainted briefly. Although he quickly regained consciousness, he was still in a very bad state of mind and was constantly sweating."
Li Fang said this, glanced at King Yu who was sitting in the seat, and then at Wei Guangde, and then continued: "According to the imperial doctor summoned from the mansion, this is a symptom of erysipelas."
Long-term use of elixirs cultivated by Taoist priests will cause serious poisoning reactions, because those elixirs contain arsenic, mercury, realgar, cinnabar and other ingredients.
Emperor Jiajing began to take a large amount of various elixirs in his middle age, and the accumulation of erysipelas in his body was actually quite serious.
The imperial doctors had already discovered this during their diagnosis and treatment a few years ago, but the extent was so severe that no medicine could save them, and they did not even dare to speak out.
Naturally, Li Fang learned these inside stories from the imperial doctor through some means, and they have been kept secret from the outside world.
As he got older, he took more pills, and his health deteriorated. Even though he had reduced his pill intake in the past two years, it still didn't help.
Wei Guangde just frowned when he heard this. The dangers of taking pills will break out sooner or later. It's just a matter of time.
Only this time, it seemed that King Yu had obtained a more accurate situation, so he urgently summoned himself.
Thinking of this, Wei Guangde raised his hands and said to King Yu: "But what did the imperial doctor say?"
"According to the imperial doctor's understanding of the situation, the emperor's erysipelas outbreak was extremely violent. He fainted first, and then broke out in cold sweat. This was caused by the leakage of yang energy, I'm afraid."
Li Fang replied from the side.
"Who is the imperial doctor? Is he still in the mansion?"
Wei Guangde immediately asked.
"Here, we arranged a separate courtyard for him to live temporarily."
Li Fang hurriedly said, "As for who he is?"
Having said this, Li Fang glanced at King Yu who was sitting in the seat, and when King Yu nodded, he said, "It's Xu Changling, the medical officer of Taiyuan Hospital."
"Xu Changling?"
Wei Guangde frowned slightly. He didn't know this person and had never heard of him. After all, he was young and strong, so naturally he didn't need an imperial doctor at all.
"Xu Changling is the son of Xu Shen, the former Minister of Rites and the Crown Prince's Taibao. He has excellent medical skills."
King Yu opened his mouth and explained that he could see that Wei Guangde had never heard of this name before, and then he said to Li Fang: "Introduce Mr. Xu to Shandai."
Li Fangchong bowed slightly to Prince Yu, then turned to Wei Guangde and said, "You know what happened in the Qing Palace in the 21st year of Jiajing. The person who diagnosed and treated the emperor at that time was Mr. Xu Shenxu."
"Twenty-one years? Changes in Renyin Palace"
Wei Guangde reacted immediately.
There are many rumors about that incident, but most of them are unreliable because many of the statements are contradictory to each other, making it difficult for people to get a glimpse of the truth of that night.
Wei Guangde looked at Li Fang and knew that they must know many things that the outside world didn't know, and they might even have ignored many unknown secrets. Even though King Yu was still young at that time, it was unclear whether Li Fang was in the palace or not.
Sure enough, what Li Fang said next surprised Wei Guangde, and even felt it was ridiculous.
"When the incident broke out that night, the palace maid Yang Jinying and others conspired to kill the emperor by hanging with brocade and silk. According to the palace people who followed the empress in at the time, the emperor had already died."
"ah?"
When Wei Guangde heard Li Fang's words, his hair stood on end.
"Are you sure you are dead?"
Wei Guangde asked hurriedly.
"It's not death from exhaustion, it's just exhaustion."
Li Fang explained hurriedly and glanced at King Yu secretly.
"Forehead?"
Wei Guangde was speechless for a moment, and he didn't understand the difference between "Qi Jue" and "Qi Jue Death".
"At that time, the empress immediately ordered the palace gates to be sealed, and she invited Xu Shen, a miracle doctor from Tai Hospital, to come into the palace to diagnose and treat His Majesty. After seeing His Majesty's condition, Xu Shen quickly prepared peach kernels, safflower, rhubarb and other strong medicines. After making a sound, several liters of purple blood disappeared, and he was able to speak. He recovered after several doses.
I once heard your Majesty say that the Emperor was really scary that night, he was covered in blood, the whole dragon bed was covered with blood, and he thought he would not survive."
Following Li Fang's narration, Wei Guangde roughly restored the situation that night.
In the final analysis, it was an assassination attempt by the palace maids. After Emperor Jiajing visited Concubine Duan of Yikun Palace and fell asleep, sixteen palace maids including Yang Yuxiang, Suchuan Yao, Yang Jinying, and Xing Cuilian wanted to kill Emperor Jiajing, so they used Huang Ling He strangled his neck and pricked his neck with hairpins and hairpins.
There must have been blood flowing out at that time. After Emperor Jiajing died, these 13- and 14-year-old palace maids thought they could not be saved when they saw the mess on the bed, so they started to escape.
According to what Wei Guangde thought at this time, these palace maids had no detailed plan in advance, and they were panicked and frightened. Therefore, although Emperor Jiajing's body was stained with blood due to being stabbed by the hairpin, it was not considered a fatal injury.
Due to the suddenness of the incident and the fact that he was attacked in his sleep, Emperor Jiajing probably fainted from fright, but it was not necessarily true that he was strangled to death.
Perhaps it was just because his breathing was so weak that he could not hear it, so the palace people mistakenly thought that he was out of breath.
However, this Xu Shen was very courageous. He actually dared to use strong medicine on Emperor Jiajing, without thinking that if a dose of medicine failed to save him, he would probably die.
He took the medicine at Chenshi and woke up at no time. It is estimated that those five or six hours frightened Xu Shen half to death, and the seconds seemed like years.
"No wonder, this man is so courageous and has superb medical skills. It is reasonable for your Majesty to reward the Minister of Rites and the Crown Prince."
After listening to Li Fang's narration, Wei Guangde roughly knew Xu Shen's medical skills, and naturally had a certain degree of confidence in his son's medical skills.
It wasn't bad at the time.
Moreover, Xu Shen had treated His Majesty at that time and should have a better understanding of the Emperor's body.
There are some things that Xu Shen may not tell others, but his son should be able to tell them. From this, Xu Changling has some basis for inferring that Emperor Jiajing will not live long.
"Your Highness is thinking about the palace?"
Wei Guangde asked in a low voice.
"We sent people earlier to contact Mr. Gao, but they were stopped. Now Cheng Guo Gong Zhu Xizhong and his brother Zhu Xixiao have arrived in Xiyuan and are responsible for the duties of palace guards."
Li Fang said again in a playful voice.
"Your Highness, there is no need to worry. No matter Mr. Xu Ge, Mr. Gao Ge, or the Cheng Guogong family, they are loyal to the royal family and will never make any mistakes."
Wei Guangde sighed in his heart. It was because he couldn't contact Gao Gong that King Yu felt unsure. He was looking for comfort from himself.
High arch, high arch, you are really troublesome.
Wei Guangde was jealous of Gao Gong's unshakable position in King Yu's heart, but there was nothing he could do about it.
At the very least, no matter what, he couldn't fall out with Gao Gongming. He didn't have Zhang Juzheng's conditions and had a teacher who was the first assistant.
"Well, what should I do now?"
King Yu asked in a daze.
"Your Highness, just pray for His Majesty and don't do anything else."
Wei Guangde replied, but then he thought of the imperial physician named Xu Changling, and hurriedly added: "Xu Changling also needs to stay in the palace. He must not be allowed to leave the palace until the dust settles."
Speaking of this, Wei Guangde suddenly had doubts in his mind, so he asked Li Fang: "Since you can't get in touch with the palace, how did you get this information?"
"The news came out before the palace was banned, but no news came out after that."
Li Fang's answer was simple.
Wei Guangde wanted to beat his head because he didn't even think of such a simple answer.
"Shandai, please stay in the palace tonight. If anything happens, I can discuss it with you."
At this time, King Yu suddenly said to Wei Guangde.
It seemed that the inability to contact Gao Gong made King Yu feel a little confused.
In fact, from Wei Guangde's point of view, it doesn't matter, as long as you do your best.
The current situation is different from previous years, and there is no King Jing to compete for the throne. He is an emperor who is certain.
But since King Yu said so, Wei Guangde naturally couldn't refuse.
Li Fang had already arranged a room for him to receive news, but Wei Guangde just asked his coachman to go back and deliver a message home.
Judging from the judgment given by Xu Changling, Emperor Jiajing seems to have just happened in the past few days, but it will not delay many things, including the school registration office.
Once Emperor Jiajing dies, it will inevitably affect the progress of copying books in the school library, not only because of the national mourning, but also because of the "Yongle Dadian" requested by Emperor Jiajing.
Wei Guangde felt his head was a bit heavy, and thought he could wait another year and a half, but he didn't expect it to come so soon.
When leaving, Wei Guangde suddenly remembered what happened in front of the palace gate, so he cupped his hands to Li Fang and said, "Eunuch Li, when I entered the palace earlier, I saw that the number of guards outside the palace gate had doubled."
"Yes, it's just my order."
Li Fang was a little surprised that Wei Guangde would talk about this, so she replied.
"The current situation is special. It is best for the palace to keep things as usual, so when I came in, I asked the guards at the door to return to their usual appearance."
Wei Guangde then told Li Fang about the matter, "Now the imperial palace is guarded by Duke Cheng's line, and the imperial guards are in charge both inside and outside the capital. The capital camp is also led by Wang Bengu, the minister who was just appointed by His Majesty. There shouldn't be any trouble." , there is no need to use all the grass and trees as soldiers.
If someone discovered it, they might say something about the palace. "
"Been taught a lesson."
Li Fang nodded to Wei Guangde.
"Eunuch Li is concerned about causing chaos. He is worried that there will be chaos in the city and someone will take the opportunity to harm His Highness. This is because Eunuch Li is loyal to His Highness."
Wei Guangde gave Li Fang a top hat when he opened his mouth, and beautiful words came right out of his mouth.
"Li Fang, do as Shandai said. All the manpower added before will be withdrawn. Just do as usual."
King Yu also spoke at this time.
Late at night, Wei Guangde did not sleep, but sat at his desk thinking about something.
If Emperor Jiajing goes at this time, he will be in trouble. The court and the palace will definitely intensify their efforts to copy books.
Zhang Juzheng, with Xu Jie here, will probably arrange other errands for him at this time.
After all, the purpose of copying books in the school library was for Emperor Jiajing to see, for the purpose of promotion, not to pass on culture by revising books.
Wei Guangde's moral character is not that noble.
When King Yu ascended the throne, it was time to arrange errands for these old ministers.
But, who will take care of him?
Looking for an official position from King Yu?
If Wei Guangde can't do it, King Yu may not agree. There is a high probability that he will comfort him and let him complete the copying of "Yongle Dadian" and grant him an official title after the wish is completed.
In ancient times, when filial piety was emphasized, King Yu would definitely fulfill Emperor Jiajing's last wish.
At this time, in the Yongshou Palace in Xiyuan, Emperor Jiajing's body had been wet with cold sweat, and there was still no relief after several doses of medicine from the imperial doctor.
"Huang Jin, please arrange to return to Qianqing Palace immediately."
"Your Majesty."