"How is the Queen's health?" Inside Kunning Palace, Chongzhen asked the imperial physician who had just examined the Queen's pulse.
She is the only female physician in the Imperial Medical Bureau. Although her medical skills are not very high, they are a hundred times better than those of the palace maids in the Imperial Pharmacy.
The female doctor was about to salute, but Chongzhen interrupted her: "No need to be polite, let's be brief."
"The queen must have fainted due to overwork and worry, coupled with insufficient Qi and blood. From the current situation, it doesn't look serious, but she needs to rest after waking up."
"How long will it take for him to wake up?"
"He may wake up at any time! This is the prescription I wrote. It needs to be reviewed by the court judge. If there is no problem, it will be sent directly to the imperial pharmacy."
Chongzhen nodded and said, "Wang Chengen, allocate 500 taels of silver from the treasury to the Imperial Hospital as this month's performance bonus."
"Thank you, Your Majesty!" Several imperial doctors bowed in gratitude.
After the imperial doctors left, Chongzhen sat in front of the queen's bed and began to think.
The Queen is most likely ill from exhaustion.
As sales of fine salt increase, production becomes a problem.
Queen Zhou was the kind of person who did everything herself. In order to increase the sales of fine salt, she watched the harem making fine salt day and night.
Problems will definitely arise over time.
We have to find someone the queen can trust.
After thinking for a while, Chongzhen ordered: "Please ask Empress Yi'an (Chongzhen's sister-in-law) to come to Kunning Palace."
A quarter of an hour later, Empress Yi'an came to Kunning Palace to meet with Chongzhen.
Empress Yi'an, Zhang Yan, whose courtesy name was Zu'e and nickname was Baozhu, was from Xiangfu, Henan.
Zhang Yan was famous for her beauty, with a face like Guanyin, eyes like autumn waves, mouth like red cherry, nose like hanging gallbladder, and white and clean teeth. She was called one of the five great queens in ancient times by later generations.
The last time Chongzhen met Zhang Yan was before Li Zicheng besieged the city. Several months later, Zhang Yan had lost some weight.
It seems that the Forbidden City is very exhausting.
Chongzhen did not dare to act rashly. He ordered someone to give Empress Yi'an a seat and then went straight to the point: "Sister-in-law, I have something I would like to ask for your help."
"Your Majesty, please speak. I have nothing to do and was just about to ask Your Majesty to give me some work." Zhang Yan smiled gently, with a great temperament.
Chongzhen was not polite and said directly: "Two things. The first thing is that I plan to temporarily hand over the production of fine salt to the emperor's sister-in-law, and let the emperor's sister-in-law help Queen Zhou manage the harem."
Chongzhen had his concerns about doing this.
Queen Zhou was the mistress of the harem and had the final say over all matters, big or small.
If these powers were given to other concubines during her illness, the harem would likely be in chaos.
Because it involves the struggle for power and favor.
Some people, once they have tasted power, can no longer escape its temptation.
Empress Zhang Yi'an was different. The word "competing for favor" did not exist in her dictionary.
Not only was she Chongzhen's sister-in-law, she also had experience in managing the harem.
Zhang Yan had already known about Empress Zhou's situation, so when Chongzhen proposed to let her make fine salt and manage the harem, she did not hesitate at all: "As long as Your Majesty trusts me, it's fine."
"She is trustworthy. Throughout the entire harem, only the Empress Dowager can be 100% trusted!" Chongzhen said seriously.
What Chongzhen said was true. If it weren't for Zhang Yan, Chongzhen would not have been able to ascend the throne so easily.
"I obey your order. I wonder what your Majesty's second request is."
"Please send a message to Taikang Hou, asking him to reduce the rent of the farm tenants. If he disagrees, I can..." (Zhang Yan's father, Zhang Guoji, was named Taikang Bo, and later promoted to Hou for donating money.)
"I obey your order." Zhang Yan agreed without waiting for Chongzhen to finish his words.
She was the widow of the previous emperor, and Chongzhen was the ruler of a country.
The emperor finally opened his mouth and made a request. If we don’t help now, when will we help?
"Then I'll have to trouble my sister-in-law!" Chongzhen bowed to Zhang Yan, then stood up and left.
Queen Zhou was not seriously ill, and he had more important things to do and could not waste time here.
The five fronts of the Ming Dynasty!
In Xuanfu Town, there is Yan Yingyuan; outside the capital, there are Liu Wenyao, Ba Keyong, and Wu Sangui; in Daming Prefecture, there is Huang Degong; and in the Sichuan and Shu area, there is Qin Liangyu.
It’s him in the capital!
Others are fighting external wars, but he is fighting internal wars.
Fight with the nobles and fight with the civil officials!
In history, these noble officials and civil officials of the Ming Dynasty had one characteristic: they were amateurs in external fights, but experts in internal fights!
Internal enemies are much more difficult to deal with than external enemies!
The air in the imperial prison smelled extremely bad.
The sun was shining brightly outside, but it was extremely dark in here, and the dim candlelight left mottled shadows on the wall.
The humid air was mixed with the smell of blood, the sourness of sweat, the stench of urine and various unknown smells.
It makes people sick to hear it.
Chongzhen sat in the chair, listening carefully to the sounds coming from the cell next door.
"Sir Xue, do you know why you were put in prison?" asked Wang Zhixin, the governor of the Eastern Depot.
"You betrayed me!" Xue Lian said directly without hiding anything.
"Betray? Hahaha!" Wang Zhixin laughed unscrupulously, "I am His Majesty's man. It is natural for me to be loyal to His Majesty. Don't you even understand this? You want to get rid of me with just a few tens of thousands of taels of silver? Is it possible?"
Xue Lian also smiled coldly: "Wang Zhixin, you are too greedy! Being too greedy is not a good thing."
"Don't worry about that, Marquis Yangwu! Now, why did you massacre innocent people?"
"I am the Marquis of the Ming Dynasty. I treat the people like straw dogs. I can kill them whenever I want!" Xue Lian replied arrogantly.
Wang Zhixin reached out and picked up a pair of clamps from the table next to him, and ordered someone to put them on Xue Lian, "Master Xue, don't save your strength when you cry out in pain later."
Xue Lian was a little panicked, but not too panicked: "Wang... Wang Zhixin, you are so bold! I am the Marquis of the Ming Dynasty. You cannot torture me without the order of your majesty."
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