Grandfather and grandson cuddled together, looking lonely.
"Grandma Huang, when you die, you go to heaven, right?" Xiao Zhu Qizhen asked with his little face raised.
"Yes, they will turn into stars, twinkling and twinkling. If Zhen'er misses his father in the future, he can look at the stars." Empress Dowager Zhang was very sad, but she didn't want her grandson to be too sad.
People, you still have to think about something.
Little Zhu Qizhen struggled: "There are so many stars, which one is the father?"
Empress Dowager Zhang said warmly: "The brightest one."
"Yeah." The little guy was a little happier.
Empress Dowager Zhang also managed a smile, but it turned out to be bitter.
…
Before dawn, the grandfather and grandson got up.
Xiao Zhu Qizhen, wearing sackcloth and mourning, followed Grandma Huang to the Qianqing Palace.
As soon as he entered the hall, he was dumbfounded. His big eyes were full of horror, his face was pale, and his little body was trembling.
Ten beautiful women with ferocious faces and twisted corpses appeared in front of him. The remaining moonlight shone on their faces, making them look white and white, which was particularly eye-catching.
"Cover it, cover it quickly..." Seeing that her grandson was frightened, Empress Dowager Zhang quickly covered his eyes and ordered the eunuch to cover him with a white cloth.
"Zhen'er, don't be afraid, don't be afraid. They are going to accompany your father." Empress Dowager Zhang patted her grandson on the back and comforted her softly.
But the little guy still couldn't stop trembling. The visual impact of the scene just now was so strong that it left a serious shadow on his heart.
Empress Dowager Zhang was both distressed and angry. She scolded the eunuch in charge, pulled her grandson out of the hall temporarily, and kept comforting her grandson.
For a long time, little Zhu Qizhen gradually recovered and said with a pale face: "Grandma, were they all tortured to death?"
Empress Dowager Zhang was speechless.
In order to preserve the integrity of the corpse, most of the concubines were hanged or drank poisonous wine. They would experience unimaginable pain before death.
After a long while, she said bitterly: "This is the rule."
"Rules?" Xiao Zhu Qizhen asked in a trembling voice, "Who made the rules?"
"...Taizu."
Xiao Zhu Qizhen nodded slowly and asked: "They didn't die voluntarily, right?"
Empress Dowager Zhang was speechless again.
Seeing this, the little guy stopped asking, feeling very depressed and sad.
It's not that he didn't know that people were killed when they were buried, but in his understanding, these concubines who were buried should have left peacefully, with a smile on their lips, and went to live happily in heaven with their father.
It's definitely not like this!
His heart was throbbing, and the cruel images in his mind lingered, making him fearful and self-blame.
It was he who gave the burial list to Grandma Huang. If it hadn't been for him...
Suddenly, he thought of something and asked: "Grandma Huang, aren't there three?"
My father wrote four and later crossed out one. He could still calculate such a simple math problem.
4-1=3√
4-1=10×
"What three?"
"It's just..." Xiao Zhu Qizhen wanted to tell the truth, but when the words reached his lips, he swallowed them again, "It's nothing."
Empress Dowager Zhang just thought her grandson was frightened and kept comforting him.
But Xiao Zhu Qizhen was thinking about what went wrong.
Grandma Huang did not open the seal, proving that she was not the one who did it. The little eunuch... probably not either, he shouldn't dare... Xiao Zhu Qizhen finally came to a conclusion that made his hair stand on end:
——Mother made it!
Once you have a suspect, it makes more sense to think about the details.
For example: Why are there more envelopes in the burial list?
For example: Why did the queen mother not teach him the envelope until the last moment?
Another example: Why did the queen mother keep urging him after giving him the list and not giving him a chance to open it and check it.
Everything suddenly became clear, but he did not feel happy after solving the problem. On the contrary, such a mother made him very scared.
At the same time, he also didn't understand why his mother would do this. They usually didn't seem to have any grudges?
He vaguely remembered that, including his mother and queen, his father had a total of thirteen concubines, and ten of them were buried in one fell swoop...
Xiao Zhu Qizhen raised his head and asked: "Grandma Huang, who were buried?"
After a pause, he felt that it was too troublesome to ask, so he changed his mind and asked, "Who has not been buried alive?"
Empress Dowager Zhang just took a rough look and replied: "Your brother's mother, Concubine Wu, the former empress Hu who has become a monk, and your mother."
"Concubines who give birth to a prince don't have to be buried, right?" Xiao Zhu Qizhen asked.
"That's right." Empress Dowager Zhang was a little surprised, "Zhen'er, why do you ask this?"
"It's nothing." The little guy shook his head and said nothing, thinking: One gave birth to a dragon son, and the other became a monk. In other words, if he could be buried alive, he would be buried alive.
When Empress Dowager Zhang was asked this question by her grandson, some of them muttered: Why did her son die in so many burials? His father only buried five concubines, and he doubled the number.
After thinking about it again, I felt relieved again: yes, my son is still young, not yet forty years old, and he is full of energy. It is understandable that he would like more women to accompany him.
Thinking of this, she became sad again, her son passed away at such a young age.
The sky has no eyes!
At this time, Mrs. Sun walked over with her waist wrapped in white silk.
Empress Dowager Zhang glanced at her and ignored her. Xiao Zhu Qizhen glanced at her and ignored her.
Ms. Sun is feeling a little angry, and her evil mother-in-law is still kind enough to ignore her. What's wrong with her son?
Mrs. Zhang must have said something to Zhen'er... Mrs. Sun took a deep breath, stepped forward and said, "Zhen'er, you have to carry the coffin all the way to Jingling. The road is long and blocked, so the queen mother brought you your favorite
Eat pastries.”
Saying that, he handed over the mini snack box.
"No, I'm not hungry." Xiao Zhu Qizhen turned his head away without looking.
Sun's hands froze in mid-air, extremely embarrassed.
"Zhen'er, please eat something..."
"No, I told you I'm not hungry anymore." The little guy's voice was a little loud and stiff.
"Then... take it with you first, and then eat it when you're hungry." Sun handed it to him.
As soon as Xiao Zhu Qizhen let go, the food box fell to the ground, and the exquisite pastries inside were scattered all over the floor.
Without even looking, he turned around and said, "Grandma Huang, let's go to the palace. My grandson wants to stay with his father again."
"Well, okay."
The grandfather and grandson walked into the inner hall together, leaving Sun alone to stand there blankly.
…
Early in the morning, Emperor Xuande held a grand ceremony, and all the ministers mourned and sent him all the way out of the capital.
Xiao Zhuqizhen supported the coffin all the way to Jingling.
It is said that he was holding the coffin all the way, but at such a long distance, not to mention a child, even a strong man could not hold on. Xiao Zhu Qizhen only got off the sedan to hold the coffin for a while, and spent most of his time in the sedan.
Pass.
He thought a lot along the way.
My father's heroic appearance kept flashing through my mind, and his past teachings reappeared.
"When you don't understand something, bury it in your heart first. When you grow up and mature, you will naturally understand it."
"Don't just look at the surface when looking at problems. Loyalty looks like traitor, and traitor looks like loyalty. The essence of things is often the opposite."
"Some people are nice to you on the surface, but in fact they are just to please you and benefit themselves; some people are against you on the surface, but they are doing it for the sake of the country and the people, and for your eternal reputation."
"Don't show everything on your face, hide it in your heart, have a balance in your heart, don't just listen to what others say."
"The emperor is not one who enjoys happiness. He must fight for his life to leave his name for eternity."
…
This journey has been so long, it seems longer than all his experiences put together from the time he can remember to now.
When he got off the sedan, he was still a child, still immature, but his small body exuded an unspeakable and inconsistent temperament.
Seeing his father's coffin buried with his own eyes, he did not mourn or cry like others, or even show any sadness.
He was very calm and watched calmly...until the coffin was finalized.
He raised his face, looked up at the blue sky, and said softly in a voice that he could only hear: "Father, just watch, I will definitely not let you down."
He looked up and stared for a long time, until the accompanying eunuch timidly reminded him, he slowly withdrew his gaze and stepped onto the sedan again.
A childish but firm voice came from the sedan: "Go back to the palace!"
"Let's drive!"
The high-pitched voice of the accompanying eunuch was filled with flattery, which spread far and wide...
…
(End of this volume)
In fact, there are still a lot of plots to be written in this volume, but I was afraid that the treasures would be too superficial, so I cut off some of the plots, otherwise there would be hundreds of chapters. In fact, Qinghong has always avoided being too superficial, and has never deliberately been too superficial, really!
After reading the comments, the biggest flaw of this volume is the suddenness of Zhu Zhanji's death, but actually...it's really sudden.
Historically, he was a very energetic person. Until a few months before his death, there was no sign of death. Although Qinghong could make him sick or something, he felt that it was very inconsistent and inconsistent with Zhu's character.
Take a look at the basic character.
There is also Sanyang, not Qinghonghei, but... they really are not the kind of majestic and upright images in movies and TV dramas, and they are not even good people. The actual records and national review are written in black and white.
The reason why Sanyang is famous is because they are the ancestors of the cabinet. Later cabinets spared no effort to praise them for political correctness, that's all.