If the imperial physicians had truly diagnosed that Emperor Kangxi had lost his fertility, then his actions would have been understandable.
Any man would be unsettled to know he had become like this, let alone the emperor, the ruler of the world.
Emperor Kangxi was such a proud man; it would be strange if he hadn't been angry when he learned he was unwell.
The imperial family, however, deeply values having many children and grandchildren, and has never thought having too many children is wrong. Kangxi currently only has fewer than ten sons, which isn't considered a large number. If that's the case, then…
He yelled at the imperial physician who was taking his pulse. Years of training forced Kangxi to calm himself, and he asked in a low voice, "Is this truly the case? Is there no misdiagnosis?"
Having already been terrified by this pulse diagnosis, Physician Zhang dared not conceal anything when the Emperor asked him this question, and could only give the truth.
Kneeling on the ground tremblingly, his voice shook as he replied, "Your Majesty, it is indeed so!"
After a moment of contemplation, Kangxi had countless thoughts running through his mind. In the end, he could only comfort himself by thinking that Physician Zhang was a doctor who was skilled in external injuries and was not familiar with these internal ailments. Perhaps he had made a mistake in his diagnosis.
He could only instruct Physician Zhang to treat his leg injury first. As for that other problem, he could only wait until he returned to the capital and have the previous head of the Imperial Medical Academy examine it.
This Dr. Chen was the previous head of the Imperial Medical Academy. He was highly skilled in medicine and had always served the emperor. Since retiring a few years ago, he has stopped seeing patients.
Emperor Kangxi had already made up his mind to ask Physician Chen to come out of retirement and treat him again after returning to the capital.
During a hunting trip, the emperor was trapped in the hunting grounds due to heavy rain. Later, due to the slippery road caused by the rain, he accidentally fell off a small cliff with his horse, injuring his leg and needing to rest.
The news didn't come out until the third day after the lockdown was lifted. On that day, Emperor Kangxi was injured, so he ordered the entire hunting grounds to be sealed off, forbidding anyone from wandering around.
Three days later, perhaps after the investigation found nothing wrong and that it was purely an accident and his own bad luck, Kangxi ordered the ban to be lifted.
However, the emperor was injured and unable to move around easily, so he was unable to participate in many activities.
Left with no other choice, Kangxi would send some of his sons to participate in certain events that had to be held.
Among them, the eldest prince, Yinzhi, was the most senior and performed the best. Putting aside everything else, Emperor Kangxi was most satisfied with this son.
However, some activities lacked flavor without the Emperor's participation. It can be said that due to unforeseen circumstances, this event did not achieve the effect that Kangxi desired.
The month-long Mulan Autumn Hunt ended abruptly, but because Emperor Kangxi had injured his leg, which required a hundred days to recover, he rested for another month before setting off back to the capital.
Although he was recuperating, Emperor Kangxi was still concerned about his children's affairs. On the way back, in addition to the people who had come with him, Emperor Kangxi also brought back two Mongolian boys.
One was Urina's eldest son, Daiqin, the son of the Prince of Balin in Southern Mongolia, and the other was Bandi of the Borjigit clan, a Taiji of the Khorchin Mongols.
One is the heir apparent of a prince, and the other is a Mongol prince. Both are still young and are of similar age to the princesses in the palace. Everyone knows that these two are likely to be the future consorts of the princesses.
Upon returning to Beijing, Kangxi immediately summoned Chen, a retired physician, to treat him, but the result remained unchanged.
"Your Majesty, this is due to an external injury... that caused this... Even with all my efforts to treat you, it will take at least ten years for you to fully recover..."
With Chen Yuanpan's words filling his mind, Kangxi was unwilling to believe that he, not even thirty years old, had encountered such an accident.
As the emperor, he has three thousand concubines in his harem, yet he cannot allow any of them to conceive.
If he couldn't get his concubines pregnant for a long time, wouldn't his affair be discovered by others? Thinking of this, Kangxi felt very complicated.
But Kangxi couldn't think about that now, so he could only instruct Chen, "It's alright, you take care of yourself first, we'll talk about other things later."
In addition, he instructed Judge Chen to secretly prepare some medicine so that if anything happened, he could use it to shut some people up.
Waving for Chen Yuanpan to leave, Kangxi then instructed Liang Jiugong to carry him to Cining Palace. He explained that such a momentous event had occurred, and he needed to consult with his grandmother.
When Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang saw Emperor Kangxi coming over, she was somewhat surprised, but she quickly guessed that he probably had something to discuss with her.
"Now that you have injured your leg, you should rest and recuperate in the Qianqing Palace. If anything happens, just have your mother come to find you; you don't need to come here yourself."
Kangxi smiled and made a few perfunctory remarks, behaving as usual, before waving his hand to dismiss everyone in the hall.
After everyone in the hall left, only Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang, Emperor Kangxi, and Su Mo'er remained inside, while Liang Jiugong went outside to stand guard.
Despite having experienced so much, Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang remained calm and composed, even though Emperor Kangxi looked very serious, as if he had something important to say. She even had the peace of mind to drink some tea.
Cough cough cough! Shocked by her grandson's words, Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang felt the tea she had just tasted was too hot and couldn't help but cough twice.
"You mean, you are now..."
Kangxi suppressed his other emotions and nodded.
Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang hurriedly put down her teacup and carefully examined her grandson, hoping to discern something.
But this is indeed the truth, an unchangeable fact, and it doesn't matter whether Empress Xiaozhuang believes it or not.
Su Mo'er stood behind with her head down, utterly shocked. She simply couldn't believe that the Emperor would actually...
Indeed, she had gone through a lot, but Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang quickly calmed down and offered many solutions.
"Have you seen the imperial physician to see if you can recover? Also, have the imperial physician prescribe some false pregnancy pills. If there is no sign of pregnancy in the palace for a long time, rumors will spread. In addition, you should enter the harem less often in the future, and tell others that you need to recuperate."
Having said all that, it seemed not enough, so Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang continued, "In that case, I will send you two more palace maids, both of whom are loyal and reliable. Let them take fake pregnancy pills to deceive others."
...
Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang was not discouraged. Firstly, she had experienced a lot, and secondly, Emperor Kangxi still had nine sons. Excluding the tenth prince Yinyou, who had a leg ailment, there were still eight sons.
Moreover, the eldest prince, Yinzhi, is already fifteen years old and will soon be of marriageable age. He is intelligent, studious, gentle, and has his own ideas.
Even if Emperor Kangxi is unable to have more children and no new princes are born, it will not matter.
However, this meant that Kangxi had to pay much more attention to his few remaining sons in the palace, as it would be disastrous if anything happened to them.
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