On the tenth day of July in the twenty-eighth year of Kangxi's reign, Queen Tong Jia passed away. This was unprecedented. She only served as queen for one day.
The news reached the Qianqing Gate, and the civil and military officials of the entire court were in mourning. The emperor decided to stay away from the court for five days. All civil and military officials below the king, as well as princesses, concubines and the second-rank wives of the Eight Banners and above, all gathered to mourn and held robes for Queen Daxing for twenty-seven days. day.
After leaving the Qianqing Gate, Xuan Ye had to go to Ningshou Palace to comfort the Queen Mother before heading to Chengqian Palace. However, halfway through, the Queen Mother sent someone to inform her, asking the Emperor to take care of herself and not to worry about the Queen Mother, so that everything can be done in order to ensure the Queen's funeral. For the most important.
When Xuan Ye walked to Chengqian Palace again, the concubines of the Sixth Palace and the princesses and brothers had gathered together and cried bitterly. He frowned and glanced at Concubine Rong, calling Concubine Rong and saying: "They are all gone. Chengqian Palace needs to be clean."
Concubine Rong agreed with tears, and Xuan Ye called Eunuch Liang again and said: "Go to Changchun Garden to take the prince back." But after he said the words, his brows trembled and he said, "That's all, he has contracted the cold, and the queen will not be so kind. He came here sick and asked the prince to recover quickly."
Eunuch Liang listened blankly. When did the prince catch the cold? How come he didn't know?
Xuan Ye stepped into the palace door and saw the queen lying peacefully on the bed, sleeping no differently from the previous few days. However, in the past few days, he could still hope that his cousin would wake up. From now on, she will never wake up again. .
Looking around the palace, only Qing Lian and several palace maids close to her were lying on the ground in plain clothes and crying. Lan Qi stood there in front of the half-open window. The sunlight fell from behind her, coating her slender body with a layer of golden light.
"Where is Yinzhen?" Xuan Ye asked.
"The fourth elder brother cried so sadly that he had a nosebleed. The imperial doctor took him to his room for treatment. He will be here soon." Lan Qi said calmly, "Sister Tong Bin fainted and has been sent back to Chuxiu Palace and Chengqian Palace. I'm too busy, otherwise it would be better to leave her here, but maybe she will come back when she wakes up later. I also ask the emperor to be considerate to sister Tong Bin in the past few days and let her give her a final gift to her own sister."
The person in front of him was so calm. Xuan Ye remembered that when Queen Niu Hulu disappeared, she cried and fainted directly in Kunning Palace. Of course, it was also because she was pregnant with the fourth elder brother at that time, but this time she seemed to be really not that good. Sad. When I entered the door, I saw the piano outside the door, and Eunuch Liang came all the way to describe the queen's last days to him. He said that Concubine De was sitting and playing the piano, and the fourth brother was studying inside. When it was comfortable and peaceful, Empress Tong suddenly lost her voice. After weeping bitterly, the people below realized that the queen was dead.
Xuan Ye wanted to ask yesterday if the person playing the piano in the room was Lan Qi, but she remembered that she said she would never play the piano again, so she never asked. He had three queens, and all three of them died young, and besides accompanying his wife, he After walking through the last part of life, Lan Qi was the one who stayed with others during their last moments.
"What about you?" Xuan Ye's heart was filled with confusion. For a long time, Xuan Ye only asked these two words.
"I must cheer up and prepare the most decent funeral ceremony for the Queen." Lan Qi raised her head slightly, her calm expression full of perseverance and courage, "Your Majesty, this is also your wish."
Xuan Ye's heart felt inexplicably hot, and he nodded and said, "I will leave everything to you."
While he was talking, Xiao Hezi helped his fourth brother to come over. The child had already been put on a mask, and his nose was stuffed with cotton to stop bleeding and a fire-reducing plaster was applied on it. He looked very embarrassed. At this moment, the fourth brother was not as serious as usual, and he was not as serious as usual. The character of surrendering is completely different from the excellent Huang Age in the study. At this moment, he is just a child who has lost his adoptive mother who loved him deeply.
But when Xuan Ye saw his son like this, he frowned. Before he could salute and stand up, he scolded him in a deep voice: "Your mother-in-law has been dressing up and grooming neatly and dignifiedly every day since she fell ill. How have you ever been in such a mess? Are you like this?"
If you cry in front of her, she will despise you even if she knows in heaven."
The fourth elder brother looked up at his father with tears in his eyes. He couldn't see his father's angry face in his blurred eyes. He kept crying and couldn't stop the tears in his eyes. It seemed that a lifetime of sadness would melt into today. Lan Qi stood aside.
Her heart ached, but as father and son faced each other, she could neither intervene nor intervene.
"Huang Ama..." The child choked with tears and tried to speak, "I read a story to Huang's mother, her favorite story about the monkey."
Xuan Ye said coldly: "What is the principle of cultivating oneself, harmonizing one's family, governing the country, and bringing peace to the world?"
Yinzhen cried and shook his head: "I told her not to listen." But he immediately raised his head and said, "But I remember it, Huang Ama, I remember it all."
Xuan Ye reached out and brought Yinzhen to him. When he lost his mother, he was younger than Yinzhen, but as an emperor, he couldn't cry like this in front of others. Most of his sons were older than when he ascended the throne.
, he always felt that children should be sensible and strong, but children are still children after all. The Queen's words before her death made him heartbroken.
"You have to be well so that your mother-in-law can rest assured. What's the use of crying?" Xuan Ye wiped away his son's tears with his own hands. In front of his eyes, the fourth elder brother, in addition to his ignorance as a child, also had Yin Zuo gone.
He chased the coffin that was to be sent out of the palace. He had never been so weak and helpless. He knew that Yinzhen was a child who valued love and justice.
"There are still a lot of things to do, and no one has time to take care of you when you cry." Xuan Ye turned cold again, pushed the child in his arms in front of Lan Qi, and told Yinzhen, "Follow your mother-in-law and see how she does it.
The queen is taking care of the funeral affairs, and doing what you can do is also considered as fulfilling your filial piety."
Lan Qi stretched out her hand cautiously. She had always been too sensitive and cautious towards Yinzhen. She was so cautious because she was afraid of losing her. Now the child completely belongs to her again, but it is only what she sees. She understands that after ten years of raising him,
Well, it will be engraved in his heart forever.
What warmed her heart was that Yinzhen did not refuse. After being held by her mother, she followed her for a few steps. Lan Qi said to Xuan Ye that she would take her fourth brother to clean up. Xuan Ye nodded and said nothing.
, looking at the backs of mother and son leaving one after another, looking back at the peaceful face of the person who will never wake up again, and remembering the last words his cousin asked him, he lied, but his cousin knew clearly,
Still laughing: "Even if you lie to me, I will take it seriously."
When he lost his first wife, he thought it was the greatest pain he had ever experienced in life outside of family ties. Apart from the royal grandmother, he would probably never be defeated by any pain in the future. When Queen Niu Hulu passed away, his sadness ended with regret for life, but his cousin
After leaving, his heartache was unspeakable, but he couldn't cry and didn't want to cry. Others only thought he was calm or even ruthless. Only he knew the pain in his heart.
The other person didn't cry either. It wasn't the sluggish tearlessness of the past after the sixth elder brother left, nor the grief of the Empress Dowager who was about to seek death after her death. She faced everything calmly and energetically, and there was no one in the Chengqian Palace.
Everything was random or inappropriate, and her delicate body seemed to be the most powerful support at the moment. Xuan Ye felt at ease when he walked into the hall and saw her for the first time.
But this peace of mind can easily turn into dependence, and in Xuan Ye's heart, he has indeed relied on that person for a long time.
After that day, the funeral of Empress Dahang was held in an orderly and solemn manner. On the tenth day of the lunar month, Empress Dahang stopped in the Zi Palace of the Qian Palace. Three days later, the emperor personally sent her off and moved her to the Xiang Hall outside Chaoyang Gate. After that, several sacrifices were held. , all came in person with all the princes. On July 26th, Tong Guowei, the father of Queen Daxing, was awarded first-class merit, and was granted the imperial edict, hereditary. In September, Prince Yabu of Heshuo Jian and Prince Eza of Duoluoxin County were ordered. , with the treasure in the book, the posthumous title of Empress Daxing was given, and her posthumous title was Empress Xiaoyi. In October, Empress Xiaoyi’s Zi Palace was in the underground palace of Feng'an. The holy driver came to drink libation in person, and all the civil and military ministers from the prince to the prince accompanied him to salute.
Early autumn in July, late autumn in October, and March passed by in a blink of an eye. The funeral of Queen Xiaoyi seemed to be different from any previous funeral. Whether it was the two queens Hesheli or Niu Hulu, or the Empress Dowager, this time The funeral was so orderly that it made people feel as if nothing major happened at all. Naturally, the people who took care of all the details in the harem and the harem must have contributed a lot.
On the birthday of the fourth elder brother at the end of October, the Yonghe Palace suddenly announced that the imperial doctor, Concubine De, could not bear the hard work and finally fell ill. At this time, the fourth elder brother had resumed his studies in the study. In the next few days, he would visit Yonghe Palace every morning before going out. After school, I went to Yonghe Palace to say hello. The mother is kind and the son is filial. Outsiders see that the affection between mother and son is no worse than that of the adoptive mother and son in the past. It seems that the embarrassing days have passed naturally. But everyone also sees it. Here, the fourth elder brother is still living in Chengqian Palace and has not returned to Yonghe Palace.
In July and August, it can be said that it is for the sake of the adoptive mother, but in the following days, except for important events such as memorial ceremonies and burials, the daily life in the palace is the same as before. The elder brothers cannot neglect their studies, but the fourth elder brother is not allowed to neglect his studies. After that, he still lived alone in Chengqian Palace, where there were no concubines. Except for the prince, there was no elder brother who guarded a palace alone.
Speaking of the prince, during the funeral of Empress Xiaoyi, the prince was nowhere to be seen from beginning to end. During every big ceremony, the eldest elder brother read the memorial in his capacity as the eldest son of the emperor. Even the fourth elder brother did not take the turn. The prince said that he was in Chang. He was recuperating in Wuyi Zhai in Chunyuan, but no one except the emperor could visit him. No one knew how the prince was doing there.
Since July, the emperor has appointed the eldest brother for all major matters. The eldest brother is also up to the mark, and everything is done smoothly without any glitches. Everyone knows that the Pearl Palace must be assisting and guiding behind the scenes, and Suo'etu was appointed four days after the queen's death. He successfully signed the "Treaty of Nerchinsk" with Tsarist Russia, but the emperor kept him there for many reasons to continue to deal with the aftermath. It is said that he will not be able to return to Beijing until early November.
In the past three or four months, the Hesheli clan had been completely exhausted. The prince lived in Changchun Garden to study, and no one saw what happened to him. However, the eldest brother grew up by leaps and bounds, which made people look at him with admiration.
The sadness of Queen Xiaoyi's death gradually faded away, and the palace returned to its previous calm. However, everyone was a little tired after the important event, and it was not suitable for entertainment and celebration during the mourning period. The atmosphere in the palace was just as tired as a breath of relief, up and down. They all have no energy.
It seems that the only thing that is alive is the rumors about several elder brothers, and the strange relationship between mother and son in Yonghe Palace. Many people are looking forward to someone to open this layer of paper so that people can see clearly how Concubine De and her fourth elder brother are now. What happened.