It was exactly one hour when Eunuch Li returned to Fengxian Hall.
Following behind him were several Black Dragon Guards, as well as Wang Fuquan, the eunuch in charge of the Eastern Palace, who was escorted by the Black Dragon Guards.
"Your Majesty, I have brought the eunuch in charge of the Eastern Palace."
Eunuch Li stepped forward and saw a food box on the emperor's desk.
Where did it come from?
Never mind, the most important thing is to find out who forged the imperial edict.
He frowned slightly, a hint of suspicion flickering in his eyes, but he didn't voice it. "Your Majesty, I have already checked with the Eastern Palace and the Ministry of Personnel. As usual, today's memorial was personally taken from the Ministry of Personnel by Wang Fuquan, the head eunuch of the Eastern Palace, and then brought back to the Eastern Palace."
"The guards in the palace didn't see anything unusual along the way."
While Eunuch Li was reporting to the emperor, he was secretly thinking in his heart.
That's strange.
He is now solely responsible for preparing all the emperor's meals.
But he clearly remembered that when he was ordered to leave Fengxian Palace, he did not order the imperial kitchen to send any food.
So, who sent this carved food box?
The ladies in the harem?
That's impossible. The old emperor was suspicious. When the late queen was alive, he would only eat in her palace.
Since the death of the Queen, Eunuch Li has been responsible for the Emperor's food and daily life.
He knew that the emperor was always afraid of being poisoned by the concubines in the harem and would never eat any food sent by the concubines.
You have to know that the emperor was cruel and bloodthirsty. More than 80% of the concubines in the harem had their fathers and brothers killed by the emperor.
Therefore, even if the concubines sent some food, the emperor would never let them be placed on his table.
Especially after the King of Qin was poisoned by several maids in his own palace, the emperor became even less trusting of the women in the harem.
Looking at the food box on the table, although Eunuch Li had many questions in his mind, seeing that the emperor's face was ashen, he was about to ask a question, but he held it back.
"Wang Fuquan!"
"The servant is here."
"I'm here to ask you, are these memorials you plan to send to the Crown Prince for his review today?"
The Emperor of Daxia narrowed his eyes and looked at Wang Fuquan who was kneeling in front of the desk, and asked in a cold voice.
Wang Fuquan knelt tremblingly in front of the table and looked into the box.
That’s right, those memorials also had traces of being sealed with wax at the Ministry of Personnel when Wang Fuquan handed them over.
"To reply to your Majesty, that's right!"
"Wang Fuquan! You are so brave!"
The emperor suddenly raised his voice an octave and shouted harshly.
Wang Fuquan was so frightened that he trembled all over and fell to his knees, "Your Majesty!"
"When you got the memorials from the Ministry of Personnel, did you count them? How many copies were there in total?"
"When I received them from the Ministry of Personnel, I indeed counted the wrong number. There are a total of 48 memorials." Wang Fuquan's voice trembled violently.
"Count for me again!"
The emperor was so angry that he swept all the memorials on the table to the ground.
Wang Fuquan answered yes and hurriedly picked up the memorials on the ground one by one, counting them as he picked them up and putting them into the wooden box he carried every day.
Everything that happened after he received the memorial from the Ministry of Personnel today flashed through his mind.
As usual, he followed the order of the Crown Prince to go to the Ministry of Personnel to collect the memorials from all officials that day. When handing them over, he carefully counted them and found that there were indeed forty-eight memorials.
But now, the memorials he counted had one extra one!
Forty-nine copies!
Fine beads of sweat were already oozing out of Wang Fuquan's forehead.
After receiving the memorial, he returned to the Eastern Palace from the Ministry of Personnel as usual.
The only difference was that when he first entered the Eastern Palace, he met Cui, the Crown Princess's personal nanny.
Cui said that the Crown Princess had fallen seriously ill and she wanted to ask the imperial physician to treat her, but it happened that the Crown Prince had just gone to Fengxian Hall for an urgent matter.
Cui couldn't get the token of the Crown Prince, and the guards of the Eastern Palace would not let her leave the Eastern Palace, so Cui asked Wang Fuquan to help her go to the Imperial Hospital and ask Doctor Sun to treat the empress.
The reason why Wang Fuquan was able to become the eunuch in charge of the Eastern Palace was really due to Cui's recommendation, because after hearing this, he readily agreed to help run a trip to the Imperial Hospital.
But when he looked at the heavy box of memorials in his hand, he thought that making a round trip to the Imperial Hospital was really too much for him, and some hesitation appeared on his face.
He originally wanted to send the memorial to the Crown Prince in his study first, and then go to help Cui.
But Cui seemed to see through Wang Fuquan's thoughts. She said anxiously, "Eunuch Wang, the Crown Princess treated you well in the past."
"Besides, the Crown Prince is not in the East Palace right now. You can leave your things here and I'll help you look after them. You can go on this trip for me. It won't delay your work, and it will also help the Crown Princess remember your kindness."
"Besides, with the Emperor in such a state now, the Crown Princess has only been confined, but her position has not been stripped..."
When Wang Fuquan heard this, he knew that Cui was hinting to him that the Crown Princess would soon sit on the throne of the Empress Dowager.
The Crown Princess is still young, and the Empress Dowager will definitely be in charge of the affairs of the six palaces in the future.
If Wang Fuquan offended the future empress dowager at this time, he would probably die without knowing how.
Now, by just wasting a little bit of my time, I can win a favor from the future empress dowager, which is naturally extremely worthwhile.
Without much hesitation, Wang Fuquan handed the wooden box containing the memorial to Cui, asking her to stay where she was and not go anywhere until he went to the Imperial Hospital to call the imperial physician and came back to return it to her.
Cui nodded hurriedly.
When Wang Fuquan brought Doctor Sun back to the East Palace, Cui was still standing in the corridor with the wooden box in her hand, waiting for him.
......
"After counting so many times, have you figured out how many there are?" the emperor suddenly asked in a cold voice.
Wang Fuquan shuddered, knowing that Cui must have tampered with the wooden box while he was in the Imperial Hospital.
But he didn't know that this extra memorial was actually the emperor's will forged by Lu.
"Your Majesty, there are forty-nine copies here..." Wang Fuquan whispered, "Perhaps I miscounted them when I handed them over to the Ministry of Personnel."
On one side is the current old emperor, and on the other side is the future empress dowager.
Wang Fuquan couldn't afford to offend anyone, so he could only take the blame on himself. After all, it was just a memorial.
At worst, the Crown Princess has been imprisoned for too long and wants to take the opportunity to slip in a memorial requesting the Crown Prince to lift her confinement, so that her own son can release her with legitimate reasons.
If you do this originally, there is a high probability that nothing will go wrong.
For six years, the old emperor had not inquired about the affairs of the harem. Even the affairs of the court were mostly left to the Crown Prince to handle.
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