Hibiscus Tent: The Prime Minister’s palm is reborn

In the west hall of Taiji Palace, candlelight makes the palace sparkle, and the soft light blurs the edges and corners of the solemn palace, bringing a rare tranquility and comfort.

The layout and decoration of the hall were not much different from what she had seen before.

Liang Qian walked step by step into the depths of the inner hall.

For a moment, she almost thought Gao Qian would come out from behind the heavy curtains, or suddenly stand behind her and call her.

Liang Qian finally stopped in front of the white wall. The display racks no longer displayed white bone carvings, but real musical instruments and utensils...

As for the bone carvings, she had ordered that each item be buried in its own grave.

She looked in silence for a moment, then continued walking inside.

At the deepest part, there were several large boxes, packed full.

Liang Qian walked a few steps closer, bent down, picked up the items inside, and examined them carefully one by one.

There are many calligraphy and paintings, music scores composed by Gao Qian in the past, and even a lot of her handwriting can be found in them.

If I remember correctly, it was written when she was still in the Grand Tutor's Mansion.

At that time, in addition to conveying to him true and false news about Lu Xiu, what she thought about most was how to enter the palace as soon as possible and kill him.

Therefore, in order to please him, she put a lot of effort into calligraphy, painting and composing music.

Who would have thought that after he really entered the palace, not only did he fail to kill him right away, but the thing he did most with him was playing chess.

Liang Qian looked at everything but didn't find anything special.

The palace maid bowed her head and said, "We have packed these items long ago and are just waiting for the Queen Mother to inspect them before we can deal with them."

"Since it was made by the late emperor during his lifetime, it can only be used as a burial object."

Liang Qian had just put the music score in her hand back into the wooden box when a palace servant hurriedly ran in from outside.

"Queen, this is bad."

Before she could speak, Jinlan scolded, "Why are you so flustered? You are so jumpy and you really have no manners."

The palace maid turned pale, bit her lip, and knelt down in fear and trepidation, her tone still anxious.

"Queen Mother, it's the Master, the Master...you, you better go and take a look."

Liang Qian's eyes flashed, and she did not linger any longer. She turned around and went to the side hall of Hanguang Palace.

The lights in the side hall were brightly on. There were many people gathered around the bed. When they saw the empress dowager, they immediately stepped aside and knelt on both sides.

Gao Yang was lying on the bed with his eyes closed, spitting blood in a coma.

The chief imperial physician did not even bother to perform the greetings as he and two other imperial physicians were busy trying to stop Gao Yang's bleeding.

Liang Qian lowered her voice: "Why is it more serious than a few days ago?"

Without waiting for their answer, she pushed the people aside and went forward to check the patient's pulse herself.

Give the patient acupuncture first, then take the patient's pulse after the patient calms down.

After struggling for a while, Liang Qian was sweating all over.

Seeing that Gao Yang was fine and sleeping peacefully, she turned around and faced the people kneeling on the ground.

The imperial physician ordered the medical records and prescriptions to be presented.

She took the pages and examined them. She had studied the changes in the medicine with the imperial physician and there was no problem.

Suddenly, he paused for a moment and asked, "Besides adding a new herb, why is the amount of licorice also increased by one qian?"

The imperial physician replied, "Your Majesty has been suffering from palpitations and shortness of breath for the past two days, accompanied by a cough. I have added an extra coin to relieve the cough and asthma."

Liang Qian nodded slightly and asked, "Who prepared the medicine?"

Another imperial physician and eunuch came forward.

In order to prevent someone from tampering with the medicine, she ordered the eunuchs of Hanguang Palace and the imperial doctors of the Imperial Medical Bureau to prepare the medicine together and supervise each other.

Liang Qian asked: "How is this different from the usual way of decocting medicine? Is there any difference?"

They both shook their heads.

Liang Qian pursed her lips and glanced at them.

He then turned to the palace maid who was in charge and asked for the menu.

Liang Qian watched very seriously, and the inner hall full of people kneeling was completely silent.

After reading it once, she closed the menu and remained silent for a while.

Although the people kneeling below had their heads down, they all secretly glanced at the face of the person sitting on the edge of the bed.

The longer the Queen Mother remained silent, the longer they waited in fear.

After a while, Liang Qian raised her head, her eyes slightly curved, and pointed at a few points with her fingers: "Drag them out and beat them to death."

The people who were called out were stunned and immediately kowtowed and begged for mercy.

Liang Qian put down the menu in her hand, stood up and walked to them. At a glance, she saw the imperial physician, eunuchs, and palace maids.

"Injustice? What injustice is this?"

She frowned and looked over coldly: "The ingredients of this medicine have changed, the dosage has also changed, but the length of time you boil the medicine has not changed. When I asked you, he shook his head as a eunuch, but you, a royal doctor, dared to shake your head."

The imperial physician was speechless and his face turned pale.

The eunuch secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Liang Qian looked at him with a smile: "How should this medicine be boiled and how long should it be boiled? Didn't the imperial physician tell me?"

The eunuch froze.

The imperial physician replied, "The method of decocting medicine varies not only from medicine to medicine, but even for the same medicine, the method of decoction will be slightly adjusted in different seasons."

Liang Huan nodded.

He then looked at the other palace servants and eunuchs: "The medicine has changed, but the menu has not changed. It is still the same as before, and the food that should be avoided is served..."

Liang Qian didn't want to say more, and waved her hand: "Drag them all out and beat them to death."

Before anyone could cry or whine, someone stepped forward to tie the person up and gag him.

Soon, they were all dragged out of the hall.

The rest of the people all lay on the ground, not daring to make a single breath.

Liang Qian looked at them quietly for a while, and then sent everyone away, leaving only the imperial physician and Jinlan.

She sat back on the edge of the couch in silence, but the imperial physician took the initiative to speak a few words to comfort her.

"The poisoning of the Lord is not serious, and the root of the body has not been damaged. If he rests quietly during this period of time, he will not be affected in the future, and will definitely not become like the previous emperor..."

Liang Qian nodded slightly. She knew Gao Yang's condition very well and told him to pay more attention to it.

When the imperial physician was about to leave, Liang Qian called him again.

"It's really not the Empress Dowager's doing?"

On the day Gao Yang fainted, Liang Qian checked his pulse and found that he was not suffering from any common illness, but had fainted due to accidentally ingesting poisonous herbs.

The imperial physician lowered his eyes and knelt on the ground, his attitude was very sincere: "To be honest with you, Your Majesty, the Grand Empress Dowager did not wrongly accuse Consort Xue. Consort Xue did want to use someone else to assassinate the late emperor, and the Grand Empress Dowager accidentally saw through it, but-"

Liang Qian stared at him: "It's just that she chose to play along with him."

The imperial physician bowed deeply and said, "Yes."

Liang Qian shook her head and smiled: "It is true that I overthrew Xue Zhaoyi, but I also missed the opportunity to detoxify her. Or, I misjudged the toxicity of the drug."

The imperial physician said, "That is indeed the case."

After the imperial physician left, the inner hall returned to silence.

Liang Qian turned her gaze to Gao Yang who was sleeping soundly on the bed, but her questions were directed to Jin Lan.

"What do you think?"

Jinlan lowered her head and spoke in a steady tone, "It's easy to dodge an open attack, but it's hard to guard against an arrow from the dark. There are so many people in the harem, even if the Queen Mother screens them again, I'm afraid it will still be hard to guard against."

Liang Qian pursed her lips: "Do you think what happened today was not an accident?"

Jinlan said truthfully: "The Queen Mother has no children, only the Lord."

Liang Qian let out a faint sigh, how could she not know?

Once Gao Yang died, there would be no one to succeed him, and only those who stretched their necks and waited would have the opportunity to sit in a high position.

After settling Gao Yang, Liang Qian walked towards the ice cellar in the palace in the cool night breeze.

In the deep ice cellar, there were naked people and depressed people standing in front of the coffin.

Spices and herbs were neatly arranged in the coffin.

They have not yet rested and are still bathing the corpses.

Note 1 Naked people, depressed people: people responsible for small burials