Rebirth of Zhu Di's son

Chapter 272 How to Preserve a Pregnant Child
a few days later.

evening.

Royal Academy.

Library pavilion, reading room.

Prince Zhu Zhanyu and his seven brothers and princes all gathered together.

Zhu Zhanyu sat alone in the first row of the reading room.

King Shen Zhu Zhanyu and others sat in the back in twos and threes.

They are waiting for the arrival of Zhu Gaoxu, Emperor Qianxi of the Ming Dynasty.

"Brother, do you know why Father summoned us here?"

The King of Yue Zhu Zhancheng touched the King of Shen Zhu Zhanqun beside him with his elbow and asked in a low voice.

Zhu Zhanjun said bluntly: "I don't know the specific situation. It may be related to the fiefdoms of the eight of us brothers."

"Since my father called my second brother (the prince) here, it should be more than just a matter of fiefdom."

Zhu Zhancheng whispered.

At this moment, Mei Wang Zhu Zhantang hurriedly walked into the reading room from the front door.

He scanned the whole place and realized that he was the last one to arrive. He couldn't help but look embarrassed. He looked left and right for a moment, planning to find a corner to sit down.

Prince Zhu Zhanyu stood up suddenly, grabbed Zhu Zhantang's left arm, and pulled him to the seat in the first row.

"How long have you been looking at it?"

After Zhu Zhantang sat down, Zhu Zhanyu raised his left hand, revealing a mechanical watch, and whispered: "My father is a punctual person, and he hates people who are not punctual. Fortunately, my father has not arrived yet. Otherwise you will be scolded again.”

"It's okay. Anyway, I won't have to be an emperor in the future. I'll just get scolded if I get scolded."

Zhu Zhantang said nonchalantly: "Second brother, it's not like I don't know. My biggest wish in my life is to build a 'super steam engine'!"

"You, you!"

Zhu Zhanyu shook his head and said.

After a while.

Kang Ping's shout rang in everyone's ears: "Your Majesty is here!"

The next moment, Zhu Gaoxu walked into the reading room, stepped onto the podium, and then sat down with a golden sword.

"My son and I have met His Majesty the Father."

Prince Zhu Zhanyu and his eight brothers quickly stood up and bowed.

"No courtesy, please sit down."

Zhu Gaoxu waved his hands slightly.

When he saw the disciples sitting down one after another, he glanced sideways at Kang Ping and ordered: "You and everyone should retreat."

"The slaves obey the order."

Kang Ping bowed and accepted the order.

Afterwards, Zhu Gaoxu looked at the people in the room and said in a low mood: "No matter the king or ministers tonight, there are only fathers and sons. As a father, I want to say something that touches my heart."

"Just at the beginning of last month, my two uncles, your two uncles, passed away. You are aware of this matter."

After a pause, he then sighed: "Life is impermanent!"

Just last month, Chu King Zhu Zhen and Shu King Zhu Chun passed away one after another.

Zhu Chun, the king of Shu in history, died on February 21, the 53st year of Yongle, at the age of [-].

After history was changed, Zhu Chun lived one more year and was 54 years old, with the posthumous title "Xian".

However, due to the premature death of the prince of Shu and other reasons, the new king of Shu has not yet been confirmed.

The King of Chu, Zhu Zhen, was not so lucky. After returning to China in April this year, he fell ill. He died early last month at the age of 61. His posthumous title was "Zhao", and he only lived more than three years longer than in history. In this month, the crown prince Zhu Mengfan succeeded to the throne.Zhu Gaoxu suddenly asked: "Do you know why the kings in the past were so short-lived?"

Prince Zhu Zhanyu said: "Dad, my son knows something about this. In addition to dying of natural causes due to illness, most emperors died of murder, such as being killed in palace coups or being killed in country subjugation. There are two reasons for premature death due to illness, First, he worked day and night for state affairs, which caused his body to become increasingly weak; second, he died of chronic poisoning by taking elixirs in pursuit of immortality."

"That's good, but I missed something."

Zhu Gaoxu first nodded in affirmation, and then added: "There is also a chronic poison that kills people invisible, namely cinnabar (mainly containing mercury sulfide), red lead (mainly containing lead tetroxide) and other substances."

"Cinnabar and red red pigment are both pigments, and they are used in everything from painting, makeup, and architecture. For example, these two things can be found on the walls of palaces and on the doors of palaces painted in vermilion. Emperors of all dynasties have long lived in a world where cinnabar and red red paint were used. If you are surrounded by an environment, you will become chronically poisoned over time.”

Since there was no mature chemical industry in ancient times, there were naturally no synthetic dyes.

Therefore, the pigments of tung paint can only be colored and water-insoluble inorganic minerals, namely red lead, cinnabar, and dyes extracted from animals and plants.

"Doctors use red red pill powder to make an ointment for external application, which can improve symptoms such as skin swelling, pain or ulceration. It is often used to treat herpes and prickly heat."

"However, this orange-red powder has a certain degree of toxicity, especially for children. In mild cases, it will cause listlessness, fatigue, and drowsiness. In mild cases, it will cause loss of appetite and abdominal distension. In severe cases, it will lead to dementia and even death."

"Doctors use cinnabar to calm the nerves, clear away heat and detoxify. It is also commonly used in children with convulsions, high fever, coma, epilepsy, sores and abscesses."

"However, this drug also has a certain degree of toxicity. It should not be taken orally for a long time or in excess, otherwise it will be poisoned. In mild cases, it may cause nausea and vomiting. In more serious cases, it may cause gum swelling, heartburn and abdominal pain. In severe cases, it may cause vomiting blood and bloody stools."

Zhu Gaoxu looked around at the disciples and said: "When the Beijing Imperial Palace was being built, I asked the craftsmen to wipe the doors and walls with warm water every day in order to reduce the content of cinnabar."

"The other one is to strictly control the eating process to prevent food from being poisoned. The current dining system of our old Zhu family's palace is a mature regulation. You can just copy this system after the founding of the vassal state."

Since the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, princes and kings have attached great importance to diet.

When the Qin Dynasty annexed the six kingdoms, established the unified Qin Dynasty, and called himself the First Emperor, the diet of successive emperors gradually formed a very complete standardized system, making it extremely difficult for ordinary people to find loopholes to poison the emperor.

Generally speaking, the regular meal system of the Ming Dynasty palace is not much different from that of previous dynasties, except for the fact that the queen personally cooks.

All the chefs, chamberlains, and maids who directly serve the emperor, concubines, princes, and grandsons in their daily lives must not only have a clean family background, but also be inspected in terms of appearance, temperament, loyalty, etc., and have been screened at all levels.

Moreover, the supply and purchase of royal ingredients are very strict. Things such as puffer fish, dead crabs, and poisonous mushrooms would hardly pass the first level of selection, let alone be sent to the royal court.

When the ingredients are delivered to the royal dining room, during the cooking process, each royal chef is responsible for one dish, and there are servants watching from the side.

Similar to the system of retaining samples in canteens in later generations, the imperial dining room would also retain a sample of the meals cooked for the Ming Emperor so that problems could be traced back to the source.

The next step is the meal delivery. Just like what was shown in later movies and TV dramas, the eunuchs and palace maids lined up in a long queue holding food boxes to deliver the royal meal to the emperor.

Usually, a silver medal is inserted on these dishes to test whether there is poison (arsenic) in the dish.

When arsenic is completely purified, it will not react with silver, but ancient purification techniques are limited, and some sulfides will always be mixed.

There would be a period of time between when the eunuchs tasted the food and when the Emperor of Ming Dynasty officially started eating. Once the taster felt something strange, the food delivery would be stopped.

In addition, in order to prevent the imperial food from being poured into chronic poisons, the Ming Emperor's eating habits needed to implement a strict confidentiality system.

Under normal circumstances, the same dish is prohibited from being served to the emperor again within half a month. The purpose is to prevent someone from poisoning it according to the taste of the Ming Emperor.

Zhu Gaoxu went through the palace meal process in his mind, and felt that there were generally no loopholes, so he continued: "As for the method of pregnancy, I have explored it together with doctors from Taiyuan Hospital and Huimin Medical Center in the past 20 years. a pattern.”

"Doctors believe that all things come into being when yin and yang are combined. The male dominates the essence and the female dominates the blood. The male and female are emotional and have spiritual intercourse with each other. Then if they do this, the yin and yang will be harmonious and the essence and blood will coagulate. This is the way to have children. The female's love has arrived, and If the male's love has not yet moved, then the female's fertilization has passed, which is called a lack of yin. If there is only a few yang and a lack of yin, it is not in the right state, which is said to be infertile."

When he said this, he emphasized: "You must remember that in medical science, the ten days after a woman's menstrual period is called the ovulation period (ovulation period), and it is easy to get pregnant during this period."

Zhu Gaoxu asked the palace female doctor to record the menstrual patterns of his concubines as early as 20 years ago, otherwise he would not have given birth to nineteen sons in 25 years.

To this end, he also specially asked the imperial doctor Jiang Yongwen (appeared in Chapter 122) to compile a "Research on Women's Fertility Period" and ordered the printing department to publish it and circulate it throughout the country, so as to contribute to the increase of the Ming Dynasty's population.

Later, he reminded everyone to pay attention to their diet and eat less "spermicidal" foods, such as soy products, celery, garlic, sunflower, etc.

"Dad, my son has a problem."

King Zhu Zhancheng of Yue raised his hand and spoke.

"Say." Zhu Gaoxu said.

Zhu Zhancheng said bluntly: "Dad, my eleventh uncle (King Zhu Chun of Shu) passed away, but the court has been slow to appoint a new king of Shu. I wonder who should inherit the throne of my eleventh uncle?"

As soon as these words came out, the eight Ming princes at the scene all pricked up their ears. After all, this matter was related to the inheritance system of the vassal throne.

(End of this chapter)