Chapter 423 The Divine Doctor Made a Misdiagnosis; They're All Quack Doctors
Zhao Xuan waved his hand casually, "It's nothing, it's all trivial. The child is more important."
His gaze fell on Hua Murong's face, and seeing him looking down in thought, he thought to himself that something was wrong. Could it be that there was something wrong with the child again?
"Divine Physician, how is the child in the Imperial Concubine's womb?"
"Your Majesty, please forgive my incompetence; I was unable to detect the pregnancy pulse of the Imperial Concubine."
"No pregnancy pulse? How could this be? The Imperial Concubine is already more than a month pregnant. Several imperial physicians have said so. There can't be any mistake. Could it be that the divine physician has made a mistake?" Zhao Xuan would rather the divine physician be senile and make a mistake than believe that Yun Jiaoyue was not pregnant.
Upon hearing this, Hua Murong's face showed displeasure. She casually cupped her hands in greeting, turned slightly to the side, and then said:
"Your Majesty, I have examined the body three times and have not been able to detect the pregnancy pulse. Even if I were to examine it again, I still would not be able to detect the pregnancy pulse. Please forgive my incompetence and ask someone more capable to help me."
After saying that, he picked up his medicine box and was about to leave.
Zhao Xuan pleaded, "Divine Physician, please wait. It's not that I don't trust you, but several imperial physicians have said that the Consort is pregnant. They check her pulse every day. If she is not pregnant, why do they say she is? Surely they can't all be wrong."
Yun Jiaoyue looked unconvinced and shook her head, retorting, "The imperial physician is not wrong; it must be the divine physician who has made a mistake. I can feel the child's presence. Mother and child are connected at heart. Your Majesty, if you don't believe me, touch it; the child is in my belly."
Ignoring the presence of outsiders, she pulled Zhao Xuan's hand and placed it on her stomach.
Zhao Xuan had initially suspected that she was deliberately saying she was pregnant in order to win favor, but judging from her expression, she didn't seem to be faking it. Could something have gone wrong?
Did the imperial physician make a mistake, or did the divine physician make a mistake?
Hua Murong took the pulse three times and was certain that he was right; the imperial physician must have lied.
As for why the imperial physician lied, he didn't know.
Don't they know that deceiving the emperor is a capital offense?
Zhao Xuan refused to let Hua Murong leave and ordered someone to offer him a seat. He was determined to find out what had happened today.
"Then Your Majesty, please invite the imperial physician over to discuss this with me." Hua Murong lifted his robe and sat down. Since he had some free time today, he was also curious as to why the imperial physician would risk his head to lie. What benefit would it bring them?
What is fake can never become real, and what is real can never become fake.
The palace maid who had been sent to find the imperial physicians ran out of breath, took a deep breath, and strode into the hall. "Your Majesty, something terrible has happened! The imperial physicians who were specifically tasked with taking the pulse of the Imperial Concubine are all gone."
Zhao Xuan frowned deeply. "What do you mean by 'gone'?"
Did he die or escape?
The eunuch replied, "The Imperial Physician Li and several other imperial physicians took sick leave the day before yesterday and have not been to the Imperial Medical Bureau for the past few days. So I took the liberty of calling over a few other imperial physicians. May I summon them to examine the Imperial Concubine's pulse?"
"Bring them in. Also, have the Imperial Guards go to the homes of those imperial physicians and bring them to the palace. I want to interrogate them personally."
The father-in-law bowed and withdrew, saying, "Yes!"
The imperial physicians came in and took each patient's pulse, and all said it was not a pregnancy pulse.
Yun Jiaoyue's eyes widened suddenly, her last glimmer of hope shattered.
She refused to believe it was a misdiagnosis and pointed at the imperial physicians angrily, "You can't diagnose the pregnancy pulse, it's because you're incompetent, you're all quacks, a bunch of quacks! Your Majesty, I don't want them to diagnose my pulse, I want Physician Li, go and summon Physician Li to the palace so he can diagnose my pregnancy pulse."
She's obsessed with not having a pregnancy pulse; it's the imperial physician's fault. A different imperial physician could create a pregnancy pulse.
He lunged forward, grabbed Zhao Xuan's arm, and shook him.
Although Zhao Xuan also wanted a prince, he remained rational. "Yue'er, calm down. Physician Li is claiming illness and not coming to the palace. There's clearly something wrong with him."
Do you know why Physician Li and his companions lied?
Physician Chen dared to say, "Your Majesty, I am not sure why they would lie, but based on my understanding of Physician Li, I dare to make a guess."
"explain!"
"The Imperial Concubine is determined to give birth to a prince for the Emperor, but she has not conceived in three years. In particular, in the last three months, the Imperial Concubine has punished four or five imperial physicians."
Because Physician Lu stole medicinal herbs from the Imperial Medical Bureau, the Empress imprisoned him and others. For some unknown reason, he suddenly died in prison. Out of consideration for our past as colleagues, we went to pay our respects. His family said that Physician Lu was covered in wounds and had been severely tortured before his death.
The imperial physician Xie's apprentice had an affair with a palace maid, who became pregnant. The imperial concubine ordered the maid to be flogged, resulting in the deaths of both the maid and her unborn child.
Imperial Physician Xie was dragged away and given thirty strokes of the cane by the Imperial Concubine for negligence. He did not survive and died.
Also beaten were several imperial physicians, including Physician Wang and Physician Dou, who were treating the Imperial Concubine. They were beaten without cause. Physician Dou was old and suffered from severe injuries, which led to him catching a cold and dying. Physician Wang was left disabled and has not been able to get out of bed to this day.
Therefore, I suspect they lied out of fear of being punished by the Imperial Concubine.
Imperial physicians were officials outside the palace and were strictly forbidden from having illicit relationships with the women of the inner palace; causing chaos within the palace was a capital offense.
Officials in the Imperial Medical Bureau, to which the imperial physicians belonged, were held responsible for negligence. The punishment was usually a salary deduction, and the most serious offense was demotion. This was the first time someone had been beaten to death with a cane.
The medicinal herbs in the palace were expensive and plentiful, and if a little was missing, no one would notice. So some imperial physicians had ulterior motives and would steal some scraps to sell outside the palace to earn extra money.
Many people have done this, everyone knows it, but no one dares to go too far, and no one reports it, thus cutting off their own source of income.
Stealing medicinal herbs is wrong, but it doesn't warrant death. Instead, torture him to death!
Physician Chen risked offending Yun Jiaoyue by standing up to expose her, and he had no intention of continuing to be a physician.
He befriended the Xiao family during his exile, but was disliked by Yun Jiaoyue. He was not given important positions in the Imperial Hospital, and his medical skills could not be put to use. He wanted to leave the palace and open his own clinic to help more people and realize his own value.
This lousy imperial physician is better off not being one.
Yun Jiaoyue's face was gloomy. "They made mistakes, can't I punish them? They are incompetent, can't I punish them? I did nothing wrong."
She didn't punish people without reason; she found their faults and just punished them severely.
The punishments are severe or lenient; she is a concubine, and she has the final say. Who dares to say she is wrong?
Zhao Xuan also felt it wasn't a big mistake, just that the punishment was a bit too harsh.
Physician Chen sighed inwardly. Yes, to the nobles in the palace, the lives of imperial physicians were as insignificant as ants. Their lives and the fate of their families could be decided by a single, casual remark from the nobles.
They studied medicine for decades, with the ultimate goal of becoming imperial physicians and bringing glory to their family.
Only after becoming a royal physician did he realize that this job was not easy. It would have been better to be a barefoot doctor outside or open a clinic to treat ordinary people.
Yun Jiaoyue planned to quietly deal with Physician Chen after today's incident.
He courted his own death; she has no reason to blame him.
Su Wan'er's voice came from the doorway, "Divine Physician, why are you still here? I've been waiting for you for a long time in Rouyi Palace with your little apprentice."
"So Your Majesty is here too. It was I who was anxious to recover my health as soon as possible so that I could give birth to a prince for Your Majesty."
"You've put your heart into it," Zhao Xuan said dismissively.
Because Yun Jiaoyue was upset that she wasn't pregnant, and then heard that she also needed to take care of her health before she could get pregnant, he lost hope in her.
Let's hold a selection of women as soon as possible, and then select another batch to enter the palace. I don't believe that none of them will be able to give birth.
He has never done anything immoral in his life, so surely God won't let him die without an heir.
Consort Zhang and three other concubines entered, weeping, “Your Majesty, Your Majesty, you must do justice for us! Our son died unjustly!”
"What happened? Wasn't your child killed by a cat?"
From then on, he forbade the keeping of cats and all kinds of pets in the palace.
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