In the middle of the night, I woke up and sat up in a panic, but my heart was beating as fast as during the day. Still thinking about what kind of nightmare I had, an unusual chaotic sound poured in from the window like a tide.

The voice was like a copper kettle boiling water, and it would be boiling but not boiling. Carefully distinguished, this movement can be divided into several parts, there is the noise of many people in the distance, there are also the sound of footsteps outside the wall, and occasionally the sound of galloping horses' hooves......

The sound of horses' hooves? I was immediately alarmed. This is the harem, and even the sedan chair cannot be entered on weekdays, and it is strictly forbidden to ride a horse through it.

I quickly got up in my clothes, put on a leather belt on my head, opened the door and went straight to the attic door, opened it slightly, and looked out.

There is a fire shaking in the direction of the Funing Hall in the east, and some people shout and shout, the sound is chaotic, far away, and the hearing is not clear, and the eunuchs wearing different colors of clothes pass in front of me from time to time, all carry knives and sticks, and there are Da Jue riding horses, hurriedly galloping towards the Funing Palace. Occasionally, I heard a conversation between two or three people, as if saying that "the queen urged the two provinces to know" and so on.

Behind me, there were also people in the pavilion who rushed to the courtyard, and even Miao Shuyi took the sleepy-eyed princess out, and asked me with a pale face What was going on, I bowed my head and said I didn't know, Yifeng Pavilion raised the official Wang Wuzi immediately walked quickly to the door, and poked his head to see.

At this time, a close attendant of the Funing Palace galloped over, shouting all the way: "The queen's dictation: all ladies should not come out of the closed pavilion, and the eunuchs in the pavilion are armed and guarded, and they are not allowed to open the pavilion door without permission!" ”

When Wang Wuzi heard this, he quickly ordered the attendants in the pavilion to find equipment to guard the courtyard, and then ordered me to take two small yellow doors to the Funing Palace: "One to listen to the news, and the other to ...... If there is an accident, be sure to participate in the palace of the official guard, and strive to protect the emperor and queen. ”

I promised, and ran to the Funing Hall with the small yellow door, and the two wings of the Yifeng Pavilion door were closed, and then closed.

As soon as he arrived in front of the Funing Palace, he bumped into Mr. Zhang Maoze, who had already arrived. He dismounted and hurried toward the temple. I immediately hurried to follow and asked him, "Mr. Zhang, what's wrong?" ”

His expression was solemn, and he didn't stop, and replied simply: "Some officials from the Chongzheng Palace have crossed the Yanhe Hall and entered the ban, and they are now behind the Funing Palace. ”

The emperor's personal servants and officials are not allowed to enter the forbidden place, let alone at night. Listening to this meaning, it seems that he is conspiring against the official and trying to do wrong. The Yanhe Hall is located in the north of the Funing Palace, that is, after the current sleeping hall, so these thieves are now separated from the emperor by a wall.

"How many are there?" I asked Mr. Zhang.

"It is not yet known," he said. ”

I followed him into the palace, and saw the emperor sitting in the throne, all dressed neatly, but the queen did not wear a crown, only tied her hair in a bun at will, although the style was simple, but it was still not messy. Some of the governors and guards who arrived first stood in the hall, and some looked outside the hall, probably because they didn't know the number of thieves, they didn't dare to act rashly for the time being, and only guarded the back doors on both sides leading to the Yanhe Hall and kept a close watch.

When the queen saw Mr. Zhang come in, her originally tightly locked brows eased for a moment, and she immediately ordered the door of the main hall to be locked, and then looked at Mr. Zhang, her lips moved, and she was about to say something to him, when she suddenly heard a woman's scream behind the hall, and the voice was extremely poignant.

When I heard it today, I was shocked. And the voice kept coming, crying bitterly, one stronger than the other, and then he turned his head and asked the servant next to him, He Chengyong: "Is the thief starting to hurt people?" ”

He Chengyong walked outside the hall to take a look, and came back and said: "Don't worry, the official family, it's just that the palace people in the nearby pavilion are beating her adopted daughter." ”

The queen immediately took the case and reprimanded angrily: "The thief has killed people in His Royal Highness, and you dare to speak falsely here and deceive the king!" ”

He Chengyong was terrified and immediately knelt down to apologize. The queen ignored him no more, but instructed Mr. Zhang: "Pingfu, you take someone to find some buckets and basins and containers, fill them with water, the more the better." ”

Mr. Zhang did not ask the reason, but immediately agreed, motioned me to go out with him, and ordered the attendants behind him to accompany him, and then called on everyone outside the hall to find containers, fill them with water, and put them under the eaves of the wall one by one.

I looked at the red light of the torch that kept shaking behind the palace and suddenly realized that the queen was afraid of thieves arson.

Sure enough, after a while, the thieves began to set fire to the door of the palace, igniting the curtain under the eaves of the corridor between the Yanhe Hall and the Funing Palace, and the flames spread all the way to the outer edge of the Funing Palace.

After the fire was extinguished, the smoke inside and outside the hall was filled, and everyone ran one after another to clean up the aftermath, but outside the main gate of the main hall seemed to be another group of people, vigorously slamming the door, and it was noisy.

The people in the hall looked at each other and changed color, only suspecting that the thieves went around to the main gate, and at this time, a coquettish voice came from outside the door: "Official, the concubine is here, please open the door!" ”

Everyone can hear that it is Zhang Meiren's voice. Jinshang's expression was soothing, and he immediately ordered someone to open the door and let her in.

Zhang Meiren brought a group of eunuchs inside, and after arriving in the palace, she stepped forward, threw herself on Jinshang's knees, and cried: "The concubine is late to escort her, please forgive the official family." ”

Jinshang put his hands around her, and Wen Yan asked her, "What are you doing here?" It's dangerous here, didn't the queen tell you to close the court? ”

Zhang Meiren choked back tears, and Yin Yin said: "If the official family is in danger, how dare the concubines close the cabinet and steal their lives?" When the official family is in trouble, the concubine will never sit idly by, but ask for life and death to accompany her, please let the official family wait for me. ”

Hearing this, he was very emotional, and he wiped away her tears for Zhang Meiren, and asked her to sit down beside her, one left and one right with the queen, as if they were juxtaposed.

Zhang Meiren glanced at the queen quite comfortably, and then ordered the eunuchs she brought to guard outside the palace. The queen didn't care, and only asked Ren Shouzhong nearby: "The thieves don't come to attack the door, and the number should not be much." Can you send some attendants to the back of the palace to deal with the thieves? ”

Ren Shouzhong's face was embarrassed, and he said: "But now there are only dozens of servants in the Funing Palace, and the thieves are personal officials, and there are soldiers in their hands, if they are numerous, I am afraid that they will be ......."

"Niangniang," at this time, Mr. Zhang stepped forward and said, "I am willing to go." ”

The queen was noncommittal, and slightly hooked the corners of her lips at him with a gloomy expression, but the cool expression only flashed, she sat upright again, ordered the maid next to her to take a pair of scissors, raised her hand, turned to the palace attendant, and said solemnly: "If you are willing to go to capture the thief first, and come and let me cut my hair." Tomorrow the thief will reward him with the hair you have cut now. ”

The attendants looked left and right, still a little hesitant. I walked over silently, knelt down in front of the queen, bowed my head and took off my head.

After a brief pause, the queen untied my headband and cut off a lock of hair.

The two little yellow men who came with me also came to kneel down one after another, and asked the queen to cut her hair, and more and more eunuchs followed suit, and finally almost all the young and middle-aged servants in the palace had already cut their inventions.

The queen looked at Mr. Zhang again and said to the attendant who had cut her hair: "You go with Zhang Mao, and everything is at his disposal." ”

Everyone agreed in unison, Mr. Zhang bid farewell to the queen, led the crowd out, walked to the door, and turned around and asked the queen: "Those thieves, do they all have to be captured alive?" ”

The queen said: "If they are captured, they will stay alive, and if they resist stubbornly, they will be killed!" ”

When I heard the words "don't talk about killing", I couldn't help but be slightly startled, and looked at her sideways. And the queen's thin lips pursed lightly, her eyes were condensed, and her attitude was resolute. That look made my heart sink in my heart. Su Ri saw the queen, but felt that she was kind and kind, kind and noble, and she was really the daughter of the state. Looking at her behavior and attitude now, I think that she is from a general, and she gives orders with both the calm and calm of a general, and her cold face and resoluteness.

Mr. Zhang first divided a group of people to go around to the Chongzheng Hall and the Yingying Hall behind the Yanhe Palace, guarded the exit, and then took us to the side of the small door leading to the Yanhe Palace, and listened to the door for a long time without seeing any movement, so he ordered people to climb the wall to watch, and heard the reply that there was no thief, so he carefully opened the door.

There was indeed no thief in the courtyard outside the door, only a palace man who had half of his arm cut off fainted to the ground. Mr. Zhang asked the palace people to be carried away, and then looked at the Yanhe Palace, and said, "The thieves may be hiding in it." ”

The doors and windows of the Yanhe Hall were closed, and it looked dark inside, and there was no sound, but the atmosphere was very strange, as if it implied that there was a danger lurking in it, revealing a bit of inexplicable horror. The crowd stopped and stopped going.

Mr. Zhang lowered his eyes and groaned, and then looked back and asked a waiter in the Funing Palace: "Are there any fireworks for fireworks on the lanterns on the mountain shed in front of the Funing Palace last month?" ”

The chamberlain replied, "There should be more, I'll go find it." ”

He quickly found a lot of fireworks, and Mr. Zhang divided them into several subordinates, and ordered them to sneak under the windows of the Yanhe Palace, light the fireworks, puncture the window screens, and throw the smokey fireworks into the room. Soon, sparse expletives and coughs came from within.

Mr. Zhang was relieved when he heard this: "There are not many people. He immediately strode over with a knife and kicked the door open.

What followed was not a vicious battle. It's ridiculous to say that there were only four thieves among them, and they were covered in alcohol, as if they were drunk. Because Mr. Zhang went in first, he was suddenly besieged by them, and his left shoulder was stabbed by a thief's halberd. Fortunately, we followed closely, and there were many more of them, so the chaotic fight did not last long, and in the end only one thief took advantage of the chaos to escape, and the other three were killed on the spot by several sword-wielding eunuchs.

During this period, Mr. Zhang did not loudly remind him to keep a living mouth, but at that time, everyone's nervousness seemed to have an opportunity to vent in an instant, and he caught the thief and just killed him vigorously, and did not listen to what Mr. Zhang said, and in the end, the corpses of the three people were blurred and their bodies were incomplete.

After that, the eunuchs carefully identified and recalled that the three people who were killed were the official Yan Xiu, Guo Kui, and Sun Li of the Chongzheng Palace, and the one who escaped was named Wang Sheng. Zhang Xiansheng searched out all the things that the three people had brought and took them back to the emperor.

Among these items is a woman's bandeau with a delicately embroidered work that does not look like a shop made, and in which a page of letters is hidden. The queen was furious after reading it, and immediately called the name of a maid: "Shuangyu!" ”

The woman named Shuangyu was originally an insider who served the queen closely, but at this moment, her face was already pale, and she knelt on the ground like a prostration, and cried at the queen's feet: "Niangniang spare my life, I don't know anything......"

"You wrote this letter, and you made an appointment with the thieves to meet when, when, and where." The queen threw the letter in front of her and said coldly: "Have you been secretly communicating with him for a long time?" Don't know anything? ”

Shuangyu shook her head desperately and said, "I really don't know...... The slave maid should die, she met Yan Xiu when she passed through the Chongzheng Hall a few years ago, and she was confused for a while, and she was seduced by him...... But I really don't think he'd do such a thing now...... I really didn't know anything about it......"

"You really deserve to die," the queen's tone was now gradually softened, but the tone was not soft, "Even if you don't know about Yan Xiu's rebellion, fornicating with the guards is a serious crime, and you should be punished according to the law." ”

Shuangyu was frightened, kowtowed to the queen until her head was bleeding, and begged the queen for forgiveness, but the queen still sat solemnly and stared ahead, not looking at her at all.

Zhang Meiren on the side looked at it and chuckled: "Shuangyu, the queen is not as soft-hearted as the official family, and kowtowing is useless." ”

This reminded Shuangyu, and she hurriedly turned to the present, begging him to spare his life. Seeing that she was crying so hard that it rained a lot, she couldn't bear it, so she said to the queen: "For the sake of her serving you for many years, let her be spared this time." ”

The queen didn't answer, got up and entered, and came back after a while, she had changed into her clothes, wearing a crown of nine dragons and four phoenixes, dressed up as a solemn court, and then bowed up and down to the present: "The insider Yuan Shuangyu fornicated with the guards, defiled the palace and forbade it, and should be punished according to the law." Please ask Your Majesty to execute the Yuan family in accordance with the palace rules. ”

"Even so, the rules and regulations are determined by people after all, and they can be slightly adapted. Shuangyuyuan was very cautious, he had not heard of it for many years after entering the palace, but now he only committed this crime in a moment of confusion. It is better to beat it with a court rod instead, which is enough to punish. ”

The queen bowed her head and said no: "It is impossible to clear the forbidden court." ”

Jinshang smiled as much as he could, got up to help her, and tried to persuade her with kind words: "The queen, please take a seat, this matter must be considered in the long run......"

The queen was not touched by him, retreated slightly, and said: "Yuan's crime is clear, and there is no grievance, and now everyone has seen it, if Your Majesty forgives her and sets this precedent, it will be difficult to control the people of the Six Palaces in the future." I hope that Your Majesty will put the overall situation first, make a decision immediately, and order death. ”

As soon as Shuangyu heard the "death", the wail was even worse, and he walked a few steps forward to pull the jacket of his shirt, trembling and crying and pleading: "Your Majesty save the slave family......"

Jinshang sighed, and asked the queen to sit again, to discuss with her slowly, the queen insisted on standing solemnly in front of Jinshang, neither sitting nor making a sound.

Jinshang couldn't help but be a little annoyed, pointed at the queen coldly with Shuangyu, and said: "She has served you for many years, and you have raised a cat and dog, so far you have some feelings?" Why is there no tolerance for her, and you are determined to do so? ”

The queen bowed slightly, and replied clearly word for word: "Your Majesty, it is precisely because she has been by the concubine's side for many years that she still does such things, and the concubine cannot forgive her." ”

Now silent, the queen did not speak again, one sat and one stands, so the two sides quietly confronted each other. Others didn't dare to interject, and in the end, even Shuangyu didn't dare to cry anymore, only knelt in front of Jinshang with a sluggish expression, and the people in the hall were as quiet and dark as the dolls on the lanterns in the mountain shed after the Shangyuan Festival, silent, motionless.

I don't know if it was a stalemate for one or two hours, until dawn broke, and the morning light gradually brightened the interior of the hall, He Chengyong gently leaned to Jinshang's side, bowed down and reminded: "Your Majesty, it's early morning time." ”

Jinshang got up slowly, and finally compromised with the queen: "Okay, Shuangyu is at your disposal." After speaking, he flicked his sleeves out, and walked towards the place of sight without even changing his court clothes.

The queen turned around and sent her off, and when she didn't see her figure today, she ordered Ren Shouzhong: "Drag Yuan Shuangyu down and punish him in the East Garden." ”