Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1455 Centrifugation
As the New Year approached, news that Baidi City in Hanzhong was threatened by war finally reached Chengdu.

However, compared with the turmoil caused by the incident in the palace the day before, this was nothing, because the court meetings had been suspended for three days.

Empress Guo had her forehead wrapped in several layers of fine linen, but the linen still looked dark brown from dried blood, which was quite scary.

She held her head and asked the maid who had come back from getting the news, "How is His Majesty?"

The maid said anxiously, "The imperial physician said that he is still not fully conscious. I'm afraid it will take a few days for him to get better."

After hearing this, Empress Guo looked even more worried. Although she was worried, she couldn't wait because Cao Pi had gone insane a few days ago and even hit Empress Guo on the head with a vase. The chaos caused by all this had not yet subsided.

The cause of the incident was that Cao Ren was resentful of being targeted by Cao Pi the day before, so he said some inappropriate words, but the words reached Cao Pi's ears, so Cao Pi summoned Cao Ren privately for questioning.

At first, Cao Ren was quite patient, but as Cao Pi's words became harsh, the usually low-key Cao Ren could no longer hold back his anger and said a few sarcastic remarks about Cao Pi, including implying that Cao Hong's death was also forced by Cao Pi.

This made Cao Pi very angry, and he directly ordered Cao Ren to be locked up. Mrs. Bian rushed over to plead for mercy, but Cao Pi was unmoved and did not give Mrs. Bian any face at all. He said that Cao Ren was involved in military affairs, and still put Cao Ren in prison.

Mrs. Bian was now ashamed, but she found Queen Guo. Mrs. Bian believed that Cao Pi's recent evil deeds were all due to Queen Guo's whispering. At the same time, Mrs. Bian threatened Queen Guo fiercely, saying that if anything happened to Cao Ren, Mrs. Bian would use the power of the empress dowager to depose Queen Guo, making her end miserable.

At that time, Empress Guo was teaching Cao Xun how to write, and was scolded by Madam Bian for no reason. Naturally, she was puzzled. After she learned the situation, she said, "I was unaware of what Your Majesty did."

"Moreover, your Majesty has been in a bad mood recently, often getting angry for no reason, and even I have been blamed for many things."

Madam Bian scolded, "As the empress, if the emperor behaves badly, shouldn't you take the responsibility of admonishing him?"

"Anyone who is dumb can do this. Who can't become the queen?"

Seeing that Madam Bian's words were threatening, Empress Guo had no choice but to respond, "Your Majesty is right. I will go to see Your Majesty now."

As she walked out of the room, she was secretly complaining, thinking that he was worthy of being born in a brothel, he was really good at talking, His Majesty is your child, you brought him up, you shaped his character, now you can't do anything about it, so you blame me?
Empress Guo was also in a very bad mood. Cao Pi's temper had visibly worsened recently. At first, Empress Guo thought it was a symptom of withdrawal from the Wu Shi San, but later she found that Cao Pi's temper was getting worse and worse, to the point that sometimes he was not even very sober.

Originally, Cao Pi's attitude towards Empress Guo was relatively gentle and appreciative, but now, whenever Empress Guo spoke to give advice, she was always interrupted impatiently by Cao Pi. Just now, Empress Guo told Madam Bian the truth, but Madam Bian didn't believe it at all.

When Empress Guo walked all the way to Cao Pi's bedroom, before she reached the door, she heard the ridiculous sounds of several people playing inside the room. She knew what was going on after listening briefly, and immediately walked in despite the palace maids' attempts to stop her.

As a result, the scene in the room made Empress Guo furious. Cao Pi and several concubines were exercising naked. The key point was that the air was filled with the familiar smell of Wu Shi San, which Empress Guo hated very much.

At this time, the people on the bed were already unconscious and didn't even know that Empress Guo had come in. Seeing this, Empress Guo became even more angry. She called the eunuch and asked, "Where did the Five Stone Powder come from?"

The eunuch was trembling and couldn't speak clearly. When Empress Guo saw this, she had the concubines brought over for questioning, but they were all comatose and couldn't speak clearly.

When Empress Guo saw this, she immediately transferred eunuchs from other places and arrested all the people present. The eunuchs and concubines were severely punished with twenty strokes of the cane on the spot.

The concubine's screams reached Cao Pi's ears, making him slightly more awake. He opened his eyes and looked at the people who were being beaten, and shouted, "What's going on?"

"Who hit me?"

Empress Guo saw this and said, "Your Majesty, it was I who ordered the beating."

"They have deceived Your Majesty into taking medicine. I think that after they have been caned, they should be thrown into the imperial prison and interrogated strictly to find out whether they were sent by the enemy country to assassinate the king!"

Cao Pi heard this and said, "The Queen is overreacting. These are my trusted men. How could they be spies? Tell them to stop fighting."

Empress Guo said: "No, they have seduced your majesty into evil ways, they should be severely punished!"

Cao Pi felt annoyed for no reason after hearing this. He then picked up a large piece of maltose beside him and stuffed it into his mouth. He chewed it a few times and swallowed it. He said, "The Queen is overthinking. This is all my idea and has nothing to do with them. Stop it."

Empress Guo asked, "Then where did your Majesty's Five Stone Powder come from?"

Cao Ren was even more displeased after hearing this, "Why, is the Queen being too controlling?"

"Who has the final say in this palace?"

Empress Guo bit her lip and said, "Just now, the Queen Mother came to me and said that Your Majesty has imprisoned Marquis Chen. This move is equivalent to angering the Cao clan. I hope Your Majesty will think twice before acting."

"Your Majesty's recent actions have caused a lot of dissatisfaction among the government and the public. If this is the case."

When Cao Pi heard this, he could no longer suppress his anger. He grabbed the vase at hand and threw it at Empress Guo. With a bang, the vase hit Empress Guo's forehead and exploded into hundreds of pieces. Empress Guo's body swayed for a while. Although she managed to stand, a stream of blood had already flowed down her cheek, covering her eyes with blood red.

She stood there in a daze for a moment, letting the blood flow down and soak her palace clothes. Cao Pi on the other side did not expect that he would beat her so hard. He sobered up a lot for a while, but because of his face, he could not speak. He stuffed a handful of candy into his mouth and said, "You can leave."

Empress Guo lowered her head slightly and backed away. When her back foot touched the threshold, she heard a plop and Cao Pi fell to the ground with his body twitching.

Everyone was horrified at this. Empress Guo immediately asked the eunuch to call the imperial physician to treat him, and at the same time had Cao Pi carried to the bed.

After a flurry of activity, several imperial doctors rushed over. Seeing that Empress Guo's face was covered in blood, they hurried over to check. Empress Guo said, "You blind man, didn't you see the state of Your Majesty?"

"Go see His Majesty first!"

Several imperial doctors then hurried to the bedside. After a check, they all looked grim. While they were treating him, they said, "Your Majesty is not in good condition."

Someone said: "When the late emperor was alive, there were also cases of fainting, but that was a few years before the late emperor passed away. How could Your Majesty have such a fainting now?"

Empress Guo was startled, "Didn't the late emperor have a headache?"

"Why did you faint?"

Several doctors were feeding Cao Pi salt water. When they heard this, they replied, "Your Majesty's symptoms seem to be similar to those of the late emperor. You should pay attention to your diet and not overeat. Did your Majesty eat anything?"

Empress Guo saw the candy on the table and said thoughtfully, "The late emperor also liked to eat candy?"

Someone said: "Yes, I have advised Your Majesty to eat less candied fruit, but Your Majesty did not listen."

Empress Guo became annoyed and scolded, "Useless people, if you know it, why don't you tell me? What's your intention?"

Several doctors knelt down and begged for mercy. Empress Guo said, "Forget it this time. Your Majesty fainted. What happened? Is there any way to treat it?"

A doctor stammered, "Fainting means the disease may be very serious, but sugar has only become popular in recent years, and only the rich can afford it. There is no relevant record in medical books. We can only use salt water and sugar water to relieve the symptoms."

Queen Guo frowned and asked, "Sugar water?"

"If it's caused by eating sugar, why do you need to drink sugar water?"

The doctors said, "We don't know either. This is all based on our experience of treating the late emperor for many years."

After hearing this, Empress Guo became more and more upset, but there was nothing she could do and she could only let the doctor treat him. After Cao Pi's condition improved and he fell into a deep sleep, Empress Guo allowed the doctor to apply medicine and bandage her wounds.

At that time, Madam Bian also rushed over after hearing the news. She was shocked to see Cao Pi's appearance. She wanted to scold Empress Guo, but when she saw her appearance, she just let Empress Guo go back to rest.

After Empress Guo returned to her room, she waited for two days. She only heard that Cao Pi had regained consciousness, but his condition was not very good. Madam Bian asked the doctors to keep an eye on him and take care of him, but she never summoned Empress Guo. Empress Guo could only wait patiently.

Within a few days, Cao Pi's study was filled with memorials from officials. Empress Guo could not use Cao Pi's seal and could only look through them first. However, she learned that Jin and Hannan continued to join forces to attack Wei, and the situation was not optimistic.

Sima Yi in Hanzhong and Xiahou Dun in Baidi City sent letters at the same time, suggesting that the defense line be abandoned and retreated in the coming year. Empress Guo thought to herself that if this continued, how much territory would Wei have left to retreat?

She had originally thought that since it was winter now and the Jin army in Hannan was unlikely to fight in the cold winter, she thought that after a few days Cao Pi's anger would subside and the matter would be over. However, the next day, she received news that Cao Pi was critically ill.

It was almost the Spring Festival, and everyone in Chengdu, from top to bottom, was welcoming the New Year with joy, completely unaware that a major change was taking place in the palace.

When Empress Guo hurried to Cao Pi's house, she found that the guards had blocked the gate. Her heart sank immediately, knowing that this was most likely an order from Cao Pi himself. It seemed that things were really bad!
When she entered the room, she found several doctors still surrounding Cao Pi's bed, treating him with injections and medicine. Cao Pi was lying on the bed with a livid face, his eyes closed, and his body twitching occasionally.

When Empress Guo saw this, she panicked and asked, "What's going on?"

Several doctors had beads of sweat on their heads and stammered, "I can't be sure, but this was the scene before the late emperor died."

Empress Guo was at a loss for a moment, but she heard Madam Bian's voice behind her, "What are you doing here?"

"Come to see how my son died?"

After hearing this, Empress Guo could no longer suppress her anger and turned around and said, "Your Majesty has more than one son, but I only have one husband!"

(End of this chapter)