Chapter 162: The Empress Dowager's Resoluteness

The words of the imperial doctor can only be listened to at a discount.

The Empress Dowager's body survived the winter, but after the beginning of spring, she did not see any better, and her body had a feeling of deterioration.

Especially in the twilight of spring, the old man is lying on the bed, easily unable to move, and the strange smell spreads. It's not just a matter of having a lot of people.

After all, no matter how many maids there are, they don't dare to work more for the empress dowager.

Zhu Qizhen lives next door to the Empress Dowager at the moment, and when the Empress Dowager sleeps, she reviews and reads the folds, and the early dynasty is also exempted, and the number of meetings with ministers is also many times less.

That is, within half a month, Yang Pu was summoned several times to report on all parties.

Overall, it's still a big drought.

The spring drought in Hebei has struck again.

However, under the strong leadership of Zhu Qizhen, more than 10 million taels of silver were smashed into Hebei. Yu Qian worked hard for several years. The construction of the Hebei water conservancy system has not yet been completed, but on the whole, it has been able to exert great results.

At least even during the spring drought, under the effect of various rivers and wells, a considerable part of the fields only reduced yields, and could not reach the point of no harvest.

Although taxes are exempted as usual. But Zhu Qizhen was also very happy in his heart.

With Zhou Chen's efforts, the salt tax in the first quarter of the seventh year of orthodoxy exceeded that of last year, reaching nearly two million taels.

Looking at the salt tax, within this year and next year, it will be able to meet Zhu Qizhen's expectations. In addition, there are more than 10 million taels of inventory in the inner transportation warehouse.

As for other things, it's not a big deal.

even made Zhu Qizhen have a feeling that in fact, he didn't do anything, and the Ming court would still operate with its own inertia.

Ask King Xiang also came to the capital after a long journey.

When Zhu Qizhen saw King Xiang, he was also a little sad in his heart.

King Xiang, the uncle Wang, was regarded as a political opponent by Zhu Qizhen from the beginning. And King Xiang also meets this condition, he has always been personable and has an outstanding temperament.

But now there is a feeling of being weak, and the whole person is dusty, not to mention losing weight. His eyes were bloodshot and his eyes were full of worry.

Seeing this, Zhu Qizhen said, "Uncle Wang, let's go and see Niangniang." ”

King Xiang also didn't care about being rude. With a little stumbling, he walked into the queen mother's room.

saw the Empress Dowager lying on the bed, and even only had a brocade quilt. The whole person seems to be trapped in cotton, and the Queen Mother is even thinner than King Xiang.

A lot of food is out of the way.

You can only use some liquid foods such as minced meat. Even if Zhu Qizhen asked the imperial chef to change the way to make soup for the Empress Dowager, the Empress Dowager's appetite weakened day by day.

Concubine Hu Xian has secretly cried several times.

No matter how heroic you are, before the temporary, its

There is really no dignity at all.

The Empress Dowager is like that.

Seeing this, King Xiang held back and remained silent. But tears flowed uncontrollably. Zhu Qizhen has never seen the Empress Dowager when she was young.

But King Xiang has seen it.

During the Yongle period, the Han king was powerful. Emperor Taizong hesitated about the prince. All kinds of personnel look down on people, and his father, Emperor Renzong, is a gentle and benevolent character, and many things are the Empress Dowager's appearance, and even made trouble in front of Emperor Taizong several times.

This is also the reason why Emperor Taizong likes this daughter-in-law more than his son, the Empress Dowager's cool temperament is more like Emperor Taizong than Emperor Renzong.

Therefore, the mother in King Xiang's mind has always had a strong aura, no matter when, as long as the mother is there, no one except Emperor Taizong can suppress her.

I had never seen my mother so weak. It's even more sad from it. I couldn't help crying.

The Empress Dowager seemed to hear something, opened her eyes, and said in a weak voice: "Is it the third child?" ”

King Xiang knelt in front of the Empress Dowager's bed, grabbed the Empress Dowager's hand like a dry wood, put it on his face, and said, "The child is here." ”

The Empress Dowager's eyes burst into a bright gaze and said, "Good, good, good." ”

For a while, the Empress Dowager seemed to have lost her ability to organize her language, and she could only speak a good word.

King Xiang babbled about a lot of things, such as the situation in Luchuan, how Fang Ying was good at fighting, his son, how he led the army to suppress bandits and broke Mengyang.

King Xiang's words are full of the tradition of reporting good news but not bad news.

If you just listen to what King Xiang said, he seems to have been rampant for thousands of miles, including countless places.

Normally, the Empress Dowager's lies of this magnitude can be seen through at a glance, but now she looks at her son with a smile, the only son who is still alive in this world.

Just watching.

Or maybe she can't do anything else.

King Xiang stayed in front of the Queen Mother for a whole day, and all the things around the Queen Mother were handled by King Xiang. Although King Xiang has been golden since he was born, he has never served others. Not familiar with this kind of thing. But I kept doing it.

It's just that in the evening, the Empress Dowager suddenly said: "You go, go back to Luchuan." ”

King Xiang said: "Mother, I want to accompany you again, and Your Majesty is also approved." ”

The Empress Dowager said: "Your Majesty's permission is Your Majesty's business, whether I approve it or not, it is my business, the vassal king's entry into Beijing has always been a rule, and there has never been a mother who is seriously ill and can go back to Beijing to serve the sick." You are a vassal king, but an uncle of the king, and you should set an example for the world, how can you do this? ”

King Xiang heard this and said, "Mother." ”

The Empress Dowager was lying on the bed, and two lines of tears remained in the corners of her eyes

。

How can a mother not love her son, and the Empress Dowager also knows that he has a body and bones, and he can't last long, because of this, the Empress Dowager tried her best to let King Xiang leave immediately.

The Empress Dowager was also right.

After the Jing disaster, the restrictions of the Ming Dynasty on the vassal king became more and more severe, not to mention that the mother was sick, even if the father died, it was impossible for the vassal king outside to come to the funeral.

Of course, the political prestige of the Empress Dowager was willful once when she was dying, and there was nothing.

But the Empress Dowager knows better. Death rests, but the living suffer.

Not to mention, the Empress Dowager is still worried about the Golden Book of King Xiang. The mistake of a thought back then buried a deep-seated crisis for the youngest son.

Although Zhu Qizhen showed no concern in front of the Empress Dowager, the Empress Dowager did not believe a word.

Because he knew too well what the creature the emperor was. The cunning of any emperor has gone deep into the bone marrow, although Zhu Qizhen is still too immature, but he has already entered the door.

For such an emperor, the Empress Dowager can rest assured that she will entrust the country, but the more this is the case, the more she is worried that the emperor will make a move against King Xiang, or even if she doesn't have to make a move, she just needs to hint at it.

I don't know how many people are willing to do things for the emperor.

Therefore, King Xiang must not be in Beijing, the farther away the better, and placing King Xiang in Luchuan may not be the way for this mother to protect her son.

The Empress Dowager said: "There is one more thing, I want you to swear. ”

King Xiang said: "Mother, you say." ”

"I want you to swear that after you go back, in this life and this life, you will never step into the Ming Dynasty, and you will be born in Luchuan in the future, and you will be buried in Luchuan when you die."

The queen mother's implication is that even her funeral does not need him to come.

When King Xiang heard this, it was like a thunderbolt on a sunny day, and he choked up and said, "Mother, are you so disgusted with your son? ”

The Empress Dowager closed her eyes and said, "You don't swear." ”

King Xiang knelt on the ground, bent his finger to the sky, and said, "I, Zhu Zhandong, after returning to Luchuan, will not return to the country in this life and this life." ”

Even if the Empress Dowager closed her eyes, she couldn't hold back her tears, and strings slipped from the corners of her eyes to her ears. She secretly said in her heart: "Third child, don't blame the mother, you are better alive than anything else." ”

The Empress Dowager asked King Xiang to make this oath, not because she hated King Xiang, but to protect King Xiang.

With this oath, after the Empress Dowager went, Zhu Qizhen had no reason to summon King Xiang into Beijing, but if he did not summon King Xiang into Beijing and kill King Xiang in Luchuan, it might cause a rebellion.

The Empress Dowager knew that Zhu Qizhen would never do such a thing after weighing the pros and cons. This is the last effort made by the Empress Dowager in order to let King Xiang survive after his death.

A mother is a mother even before she is temporary.