Beijing, Qianqing Palace.

Emperor Chongzhen was walking back and forth angrily and in fear. His son Zhu Cihuan was sick, and he had just gone to see it. But the child actually told him: "The Nine Lotus Bodhisattva has appeared, and her old man said that her father is not good to the outside world, and he will kill all his sons." ”

Isn't this a curse for him to cut off his children and grandchildren?! This 'Nine Lotus Bodhisattva' is none other than the Empress Dowager Li, the mother of Emperor Wanli. Empress Dowager Li believed in Buddhism, and after her death, Wanli forged a scripture to officially make Empress Dowager Li a 'Nine Lotus Bodhisattva', and placed the bronze statue of Empress Dowager Li in Mount Tai, and Bixia Yuanjun accepted people's worship together.

Coincidentally, Li Guorui, Marquis of Wuqing, is the grandson of Empress Dowager Li. After Li Guorui received Chongzhen's holy decree, he was naturally unwilling to pay. So I talked to someone about it, and there was a way. Take out all the things in the house, beds, ornaments, porcelain, jade, cutlery, whatever you have, and go to the street to set up a stall. Let everyone see, although he is the Marquis of Wu Qing, he really doesn't have so much money, and he has to use his family to pay it back.

Now Chongzhen is angry, isn't this slapping him in the face?! So he directly took away Li Guorui's title of Marquis of Wuqing. This Li Guorui is also timid, and he was scared to death. Now it's okay, Li Guorui didn't have a title, and the family was even more scared, so he obediently took the silver and scraped together 200,000 taels to hand it over to Chongzhen, which was regarded as complying with the will.

But the strange thing is that not long after this Li Guorui died, his grandmother appeared and cursed Chongzhen to cut off his children and grandchildren. It's so infuriating, it's too scary. Angry, this curse is too harsh; What is frightening is that people's grandmothers stand up for their own grandchildren, but they also say the past, as if they have really appeared.

"Pass on Imperial Doctor Li!" Chongzhen commanded loudly.

After he had dealt with a few letters, Imperial Physician Li finally arrived.

"Your Majesty." Imperial Physician Li knelt down and saluted.

After Chongzhen asked Imperial Doctor Li to get up, he asked, "Li Qing, how is the emperor's condition?" ”

Imperial Physician Li was a little surprised, and he didn't know what was wrong with the emperor. He only reported it yesterday, and the hospital also has detailed records, so why should he ask? But he still replied respectfully: "Your Majesty, the fifth prince just occasionally feels the cold, and the minister is already below, so there is no big problem." After taking a few medicines, you should be cured. ”

Imperial Physician Li can say this, which means that Zhu Cihuan's illness is indeed not worth mentioning. The habit of the imperial physician is to say that if the illness is cured, they will have merit. If it is not cured, then they also have a shirk. The doctors are also of high grade, and since they entered the hospital, they are no longer simple doctors, but have also become officials, and they are still quite skilled in this kind of merit.

Chongzhen finally put his mind at ease and ordered: "Li Qing, you have to be careful, you can't let the emperor's illness recur!" ”

Imperial Physician Li bowed down and said, "The ministers must do their best to cure the illness of the five princes as soon as possible." ”

After Chongzhen asked Imperial Doctor Li to go down, he put his mind at ease. He finally strengthened his determination to continue to collect money from his relatives, this money came easily, and a Marquis of Wuqing got 200,000 taels. There are so many noble relatives in Beijing, and if each family has 100,000 taels, it is easy to gather millions of taels of military salaries.

At night, Zhu Cihuan's dormitory.

Several palace maids were together, carefully arranged. Some people make noises outside the door and under the bed, some people decorate ghosts with white cloths, and some people are responsible for extinguishing candles.

They were assigned by the prince's nurse to do things, and when they were done, they would be rewarded with a white tael of silver. They haven't been paid for three months, and their meals cost money. If you don't give the moon salary, how can they live as palace maids who are not heads?

Besides, since the prince's nurses don't care about the prince's life or death, they have no obligations as palace maids. And the prince will also die, but coincidentally, now that the prince is sick, even if he dies, there can be a reasonable explanation, and there is not much risk.

As to who the nurses were appointed, they didn't care, as long as they could get the money. As for saying that the nurse regretted it afterwards, it was impossible, there were so many of them, as long as it was exposed, everyone would die together.

Late at night, the palace maids under the bed and outside the door began to make a ghost cry of "woo", and they also scratched the door twice from time to time, making a faint sound.

Five-year-old Zhu Cihuan was finally woken up by this strange voice. As soon as he opened his eyes, he saw that the nurse was not around, so he sat up and looked for the nurse's whereabouts.

Suddenly, all the candles in the dormitory were extinguished, and the dormitory became pitch black. Before Zhu Cihuan could scream, a white ghost suddenly appeared and let out a strange scream.

Last night, the nurse not only told him the story of the 'Nine Lotus Bodhisattva', but also told him a lot of ghost stories. The appearance instantly reminded him of the ghost story he had heard, and he screamed in horror before fainting.

The palace maids came out and quickly restored the layout of the palace. They quickly returned to their posts as if nothing had happened. The nurse appeared, helped Zhu Cihuan make the bed, and slept together.

After a while, the little eunuch who was on duty outside the palace came in and asked in a low voice, "Palace people, is something wrong?" ”

The nurse calmly replied in the door: "It's okay, it's just that I'm just surprised, you continue to be on duty." ”

"Yes." The little eunuch agreed, and then withdrew from the hall.

The next day, when Imperial Physician Li came to check Zhu Cihuan's pulse again, he was horrified to find that the prince's pulse was weak, the high fever did not go away, and the medicine stone was ineffective. Imperial Physician Li didn't dare to delay, and immediately reported it to Chongzhen.

Chongzhen was also frightened, and immediately asked the doctors from the Tai Hospital to come for consultation. Originally, if it was one person, it would be possible to give the next prescription a cure, but when a group of people came, no one would be responsible. So none of the imperial doctors dared to go down, so they discussed with each other a tepid prescription, which could neither cure the disease nor do bad things. In general, it is the same meaning, hang your life first, and then ask for more blessings.

Naturally, Zhu Cihuan, the fifth son of the emperor, died two days later. After that, the rumors inside and outside the palace began to spread, saying that the emperor was not good to his relatives and was condemned by the 'Nine Lotus Bodhisattva'.

The most panicked person was Emperor Chongzhen, but he heard his son say with his own ears that it was the 'Nine Lotus Bodhisattva' who condemned him. So he immediately named Li Guorui's son the Marquis of Wuqing, and returned the 200,000 taels of silver he wanted intact. Moreover, he opened a Buddhist hall by himself, and he wanted to worship the Buddha sincerely, especially to worship his great-grandmother Empress Dowager Li, the 'Nine Lotus Bodhisattva', in order to reduce his guilt. He still has three sons, and they can't all be cursed.

At the same time, the relatives of Beijing began to celebrate with their crowns, and they finally did not have to pay the emperor.

And the civil officials have also become very relaxed, since the nobles don't have to pay, then they naturally don't have to pay. Although even if they paid money, it was only a few months' worth of money, only a few dozen or a few hundred taels of silver, but if they couldn't pay it, who would want to throw the silver out?