Chen Wei put down the notebook in her hand and asked Cai Ping to find out the news immediately.
The next day, Cai Ping told Chen Wei the news she had obtained. It turned out that the bureaucrats in Yunzhou had been plundering the people's wealth and money and had embezzled most of the relief grain and cotton and linen distributed by the court.
In addition, miscellaneous taxes and levies also increased.
The people could not get relief food and faced heavy taxes. In anger, they rose up and burned the county government's granary.
"The emperor has sent people to Yunzhou overnight to appease the people, distribute winter food, and severely punish corrupt officials." Cai Ping rolled her eyes and told Chen Wei in a low voice, "Master, it is said that the emperor sent people to surround Duke Lu's mansion and took away five or six men of the Lu family."
The Lu family is the largest family in Yunzhou, owning large tracts of land and commercial ports in Yunzhou.
Without Duke Lu's instructions, officials in various parts of Yunzhou would never dare to openly embezzle the people's winter grain.
Shen Wei took a sip of hot tea: "Greed is like a snake swallowing an elephant."
The Tantai family and the Xie family fell one after another. Any aristocratic family with a bit of brains realized that the emperor was suppressing the aristocratic families, and they would choose to keep a low profile or surrender voluntarily.
However, Duke Lu was unwilling to give up his interests and continued to squeeze money from the people.
You dug your own grave. You deserve it.
...
Li Yuanjing sent two trusted generals from the Ministry of War to lead 5,000 troops to Yunzhou to pacify and suppress the rebellion. In less than ten days, the smoke of gunpowder in Yunzhou's cold winter dissipated.
The officials involved in the case were put in heavy shackles, locked in prison cars, and taken to Yanjing for trial in front of hundreds of thousands of people.
The people braved the wind and snow, holding stones and throwing them angrily at the prison van, killing at least ten corrupt officials.
The wind and snow in Yunzhou continued, with no sign of stopping.
That day, Chen Wei was reading a storybook in the warm room when Cai Ping walked in on the snow and exclaimed, "Master, the concubine of Changxin Palace accidentally fell down and is about to give birth."
Shen Wei looked slightly stunned.
She jumped off the couch and said, "Bring me my cloak and go to Changxin Palace to have a look."
The snow started falling again.
When Shen Wei arrived at Changxin Palace, she smelled a strong smell of blood and heard Lu Xuan's screams in the room.
The fetus in Lu Xuan's belly was not yet full-term and she suffered a difficult labor and was unable to give birth the whole night. Fortunately, there was a female doctor in the Women's Medical Department who was good at delivering babies. After some operation by the female doctor, the baby was finally born safely at dawn.
She's a little princess.
Shen Wei went to the swaddling clothes and took a look. The child was thin and small, with a red body. One could almost see the beating internal organs through the thin skin.
The baby was just born and didn't even cry.
The female doctor wiped the sweat from her forehead and told Shen Wei tactfully: "Replying to Concubine Chen, based on my many years of experience in diagnosis and treatment, I'm afraid this child will have a hard time surviving."
Shen Wei looked at the female doctor in front of her, she was about thirty years old and had an ordinary appearance. Shen Wei asked, "What's your name?"
The female doctor replied respectfully, "I am Gao Chunhua. I used to work as a pharmacist at the Jimin Clinic in Yanjing. Thanks to the grace of Your Majesty, I was able to enter the palace to work as a female doctor."
Shen Wei wrote down the person's name and told her, "Doctor Gao, please take good care of the child. It would be great if he could live one more day."
Shen Wei and Lu Xuan are sworn enemies, but the child is innocent after all.
The female doctor received the order and took good care of the child born by Concubine Shu.
Unfortunately, the child was too weak and died in the cold winter less than three days after birth.
Unfortunately, the child died, and Lu Xuan became even weaker. She was bedridden and relied on medicine to stay alive.
She became depressed and her health completely broke down.
Shen Wei went to visit once.
Lu Xuan had lost a lot of weight and was lying at the head of the bed, looking sickly. Her complexion was sallow and her eyes were slightly bulging. She had lost all of her former stunning beauty.
"Why did Concubine Shu fall down in the snow?" Shen Wei called the palace servants from Changxin Palace to ask.
The palace maid answered truthfully: "When Concubine Shu learned about the incident in Yunzhou, she was shocked and frightened. She wanted to go to the emperor to plead for the Lu family, but she stepped on the snow and accidentally fell."
Shen Wei understood.
When Yunzhou Rebellion broke out, Li Yuanjing was furious and took the opportunity to resign from the top to the bottom of the Yunzhou officials, replacing them with new officials who had passed the imperial examinations in the spring. As for the Lu family's mansion, it was severely reprimanded, and many male members of the Lu family's side branches were imprisoned one after another.
Lu Xuan probably knew that the Lu family was going to fall, so she became distracted and fell, causing her child to die prematurely.
...
This winter was exceptionally cold, and Changxin Palace was shrouded in frost and snow all day long.
Lu Xuan leaned against the head of the bed, looking at the snowflakes falling outside the window, tears rolling down her cheeks.
The room was burning with plum blossom charcoal, and it was warm as spring. Chen Wei did not withhold the winter charcoal from any palace, and Changxin Palace was no exception.
"Master, please drink some medicine." The palace maid Xiaoqi held the medicine bowl with a distressed look on her face.
Lu Xuan asked blankly: "Has the emperor been here?"
Xiaoqi lowered his head and said, "The emperor is busy with state affairs. When the emperor is free, he will definitely come to visit the master."
Lu Xuan closed her eyes. She had shed so many tears in recent days that her eyelids hurt so much that she could hardly open them.
The emperor did not come when she was pregnant and gave birth prematurely; the emperor did not come when her child died; now that she is dying of illness, the emperor probably won't even take a second look.
The Yunzhou incident gave the emperor an opportunity to regulate Yunzhou and the Lu family.
Her heart was filled with intense pain.
Lu Xuan was very sad and unwilling to accept it: "Father is confused. The Tantai family and the Xie family are precedents, but he still doesn't repent."
She hated that she was not a man.
If she were a man, she would be able to take over the power of Duke Lu's Mansion, protect the Lu family from wind and rain, and would never do such stupid things as squeezing the people's money.
But she was a girl, and despite her talent, she could not take the imperial examination. She was proficient in music, chess, calligraphy and painting only to please men, and could only use her beauty and body to exchange for the emperor's favor.
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