Legend of Concubine's Daughter Minglan-Part Two

C209. Before and After the Feast (7)

Minglan had heard the stories of Empress Jing An from Old Madam Sheng constantly.

Empress Jing An came from a noble family. She was beautiful and smart, with a talent of writing poems at the age of three and drawing paintings at the age of five. Her poems were extremely magnificent (They were all Tang Poems and Song jambic verse). She became a princess's wife at fifteen and was conferred the title of empress at twenty. Old Madam Sheng had met Empress Jing An in the imperial palace when she was a little girl. However, Empress Jing An died two years later, at the young age of thirty-seven.

"Why did she pass away at such a young age?" Little Minglan asked.

"Because she shouldn't have become an empress." Old Madam Sheng had cherished the memory of Empress Jing An in despondent mood, "Her characters were as pure as the snow lotus on the mountain. Someone said she trusted others so easily, but she was only being sincere. Someone said she knew nothing about schemes, but she only disdained to play those tricks. However, a dirty place like the imperial palace would only pollute her! Hum! Those evil women thought they won! But at last, they all ended up in miserable deaths!"

That was the only time Minglan ever saw her grandmother showing intense hatred on her face.

The official line had claimed that an evil concubine had driven a wedge between the emperor and the empress. After that, Empress Jing An had been addicted into making mirrors. She buried herself in that all day in a small workshop she had opened in the imperial palace. Ever since then, she had kept herself aloof from the affairs of the imperial family and stopped seeing the emperor.

"Making mirrors?" Minglan was surprised.

"That's right." Old Madam Sheng grinned, "Empress Jing An claimed that she found a formula in an ancient book for creating glass mirrors which were hundred times better than the bronze mirrors. She was brilliant. It only took one or two years for her works to take shape, unfortunately..." Old Madam Sheng had put on a gloomy face as saying that. Minglan didn't dare to ask anything. But she knew that Empress Jing An must have deceased before she could make the glass mirror.

"She said that the thing she regretted the most was being famous for her intelligence at a young age." Old Madam Sheng sobbed out those words in a grief, "She was burdened by her fame!"

Momo Kong had said that Empress Jing An had ordered someone to burn all of her poems and drawings before her death. So not a single piece of her work had been left behind. The followings were the exclusive disclosure from Momo Kong.

After Emperor Wu knew about Empress Jing An's death, he completely lost his sense and refused to believe that Empress Jing An died of an illness. He then caught all the physicians in the Imperial Hospital and ordered them to perform an autopsy. Anyone who couldn't find the cause of death would be sentenced to death. Then after nine of the physicians were killed, the tenth physician finally found poison residue inside of Empress Jing An's corpse. He also deducted that it was a kind of slow poison and Empress Jing An might have been poisoned for over three years.

In the Phoenix Elegance Palace, Emperor Wu sat beside Empress Jing An's dead body for a whole day and night. Only after a few days, the heroic and wise Emperor Wu suddenly became grumpy and oversensitive, turning into a completely different person who trusted no one. Not only did he do a thorough investigation in the Imperial Palace, which brought deaths to over thousands of imperial concubines and maids, he also sentenced lots of officials and tortured them in the interrogations.

The Imperial Noble Consort was convicted of death, as well as all the people in her family clans. Consort Shu and Consort Li were forced suicide along with their fathers and brothers. The people in their family clans were deprived of their titles of nobility. Consort Zhuang was thrown to the Punishment Department where she was tortured cruelly to death. Then the people of her family clan were also put to death... Nearly all the Imperial Consorts or Concubines above three-class were punished. The unlucky ones of them even got their families killed. Consort Xian was the only one surviving among the Four Imperial Consorts. However, she was killed by her own fear after a few years. Lady of Bright Deportment Wang was the only one who escaped the sentence among the Nine Imperial Concubines. But she was in a confused state of mind afterwards. In brief, half of the women in the Imperial Palace were killed.