I open a history tutorial class in Daming

Chapter 125 The Lu Family's Plot
If everyone just felt that something was slightly wrong with the Lu family at the beginning, now they have vaguely sensed the specific problem.

smallpox……

This is something that everyone, from the emperor to the refugees, regardless of gender, age or status, is terrified of.

Many doctors have tried to find a way to completely eliminate or prevent the disease, but none has been found.

Generally speaking, if one person in a village got smallpox, it meant that the entire village was about to fall, because ordinary people could only rely on experience to prevent it, such as covering their mouths and noses, but doctors required everyone to burn clothes that might have problems, which was something ordinary people could never do.

It’s not that they don’t know how to do this, it’s just that the cost to them is too high, and everyone has a sense of luck.

How much money does an average person have to save to buy a nice set of clothes?

Among ordinary people, clothes are mostly worn by fathers and sons, or by older sisters and younger sisters. The poorer ones can only afford one or two sets of clothes, which are worn by those who go out, and the rest of the people... well.

Zhu Yuanzhang climbed out of that class and certainly knew what kind of life the common people lived. Even though he was now the emperor, it was difficult for him to change the fate of everyone.

He took a deep breath:
"We had smallpox."

Zhu Biao and Queen Ma looked at him in shock and said in unison:

"How come we didn't know?!"

The main reason is that people with smallpox can be recognized at a glance, because they all have pockmarks on their faces, which are marks left after the outbreak and will accompany them for life. Zhu Yuanzhang not only did not have any on his face, but Empress Ma, as his bedmate, naturally knew that he did not have any of these on his body, only old knife wounds.

Zhu Yuanzhang glanced at the two of them and thought that his wife and son had never experienced a hard life, and this kind of thing was a little beyond their understanding.

He explained:

“Not everyone who gets acne will have scars.”

"But for acne to not leave scars, two conditions are required. For example, when I was a child, there was a family in the village that had acne, but no one knew it was smallpox because the symptoms were much milder than those of smallpox, and they didn't have a persistent high fever, so no one thought much of it. My parents even said that I could go to their house more often to play."

"Later, I learned that smallpox can be severe or mild. The one my family got was the milder kind, so I recovered in less than half a month after I got it, and I don't have to worry about getting smallpox again in my life."

"Plus, it's not easy for children to get scars, so it's not noticeable now."

Queen Ma was thoughtful.

She looked at her husband, then at the somewhat frightened Mao Xiang, and frowned slightly:

"Leaving scars is another matter..."

"If, as you said, the animals raised by the Lu family were all infected with a mild form of smallpox, then they are being very kind, right?"

This is the question in everyone's mind.

Lu family, what exactly are you planning to do by keeping those people with acne?

Let these people eat for free?
As for finding workers, it would be too expensive to spend an entire farm just to support those patients and then let them work after they recover. It is totally unreasonable.

Zhu Yuanzhang narrowed his eyes and waved his hand:
"That's enough for now. Mao Xiang, wait outside. If Song Shen has any instructions later, go and do it directly."

Mao Xiang: ...follow Song Shen’s instructions?
That’s okay.

Looking at the current situation, even His Majesty is eager to ask Song Shen for advice directly. He is just a small commander of the Yiluansi and has to follow Song Shen's orders, which is nothing.

…………

Kunning Palace, main hall.

Song Shen didn't have any entertainment activities. He just ate cakes and drank tea, and he was almost full.

Pastries themselves are just dry things, but if they get some water in their stomachs, they will expand just like compressed biscuits. No wonder the wealthy people in ancient times could feel full by eating pastries in the morning and evening. With this way of eating, even people with big appetites will not go hungry.

I was eating a piece of osmanthus cake when I heard a noise outside the door.

A group of people came in.

The familiar voice of Queen Ma came, and she first ordered:

"Please clean up here and give Ziwei some tea and cakes..."

Before she could finish, Song Shen quickly stopped her:

"Your Majesty, I don't need to eat any other cakes. These are all I need."

Queen Ma then relented and seemed to wave her hand to signal others to go down first, so the group of people left again in a mighty manner.

Song Shen let out a long breath.

If she asked someone to bring her cakes again, she would be unable to eat them if she wanted to. But if she didn't want to eat them, she would feel that these were gifts from the queen and she would not want to refuse her. She was really in a dilemma.

After waiting for Empress Ma to sit down, Song Shencai asked:

"Empress, in such a short time, have you figured out something?"

Others may not know, but he knows it very well.

There is a time function in the upper right corner of the system panel. It only took Queen Ma about half an hour from going out to coming back. What can be found out in such a short time?
Empress Tajima nodded calmly:

"Yes, I found some."

Song Shen:

"what???"

It only took half an hour to search the Lu family. This is too awesome!

“But it’s not found out now.”

Queen Ma took a deep breath and then explained:
"Because the Crown Prince's concubine fell down for no apparent reason and caused the Emperor's grandson to miscarry, the Yiluansi had already conducted a thorough investigation. I just asked someone to find out what they investigated specifically. They have already gone to the Eastern Palace."

"Let me tell you first, there is one thing that seems quite strange now."

"The father of the Crown Prince's concubine, Lu, is the current Minister of Rites, Lu Ben. The Lu family has a farm in the suburbs of Beijing. They often provide porridge to help refugees and have saved many girls infected with smallpox in the farm."

"This seems like a good deed, but I feel something is not right after hearing it."

"What do you think?"

Song Shen scratched his head.

"What is pox?"

Queen Ma was a little surprised that he didn't know this, but she didn't say much, just explained:
"It is a disease. Blisters appear all over the body and the fever persists. The disease is very severe. If you are unlucky, you will die in ten days or half a month. Even if you are lucky, after the disease recovers, you will be left with pockmarks on your face and body, like flowers scattered by a fairy. That's why people call it smallpox."

Song Shen:!!!
What the hell!

smallpox?!
He once heard from the elders in his family that people born around the 1980s would get the smallpox vaccine, but he was born in the 1990s, and the vaccine he got was the BCG vaccine, which did not prevent smallpox, because when Song Shen was born, the smallpox virus had been completely eradicated worldwide.

In other words, this was a disease he had only heard of but had never seen.

But even if he had never seen it, Song Shen knew how harmful a highly contagious disease like smallpox was.

Forget about everything else. In the Qing Dynasty alone, Emperor Shunzhi died of smallpox. Later, Emperor Kangxi was pushed to the throne at a young age because he had smallpox when he was a child and would never be infected with the smallpox virus again. Everyone is equal in the face of smallpox. Not to mention the dignitaries, even the emperor and the princes must die.

This disease, which is so terrible to people, is actually kept in the Lu family’s farm?
He is not afraid of killing all the people in Yingtianfu!!!
Looking at Song Shen's suddenly changed expression, Queen Ma guessed that he knew something about this.

So she asked again:

"Ziwei, you can speak frankly about whatever you think. Don't worry, the people in the hall have been cleared out. There are no outsiders here."

Song Shen's mind was in a mess.

He had guessed many possibilities before, perhaps a chronic poison, perhaps murder, and finally thought of infectious diseases. It seemed that infectious diseases were the most likely possibility.

Even if Lu wanted to harm Zhu Xiongying in order for Zhu Yunwen to become the eldest son, she had to take into account the status and position of Empress Ma. If she died, even if the murderer could not be found out, the court would be in chaos. No one would be able to stop Zhu Yuanzhang from killing people again, and her family might even be implicated. Therefore, Lu was unlikely to want to kill Empress Ma.

I don't think anyone has the courage to do this.

And smallpox...

Smallpox is a good avenue.

The death of children was very common in ancient times, but it was rare for princes and grandchildren of the emperor. Given their status, it was unlikely for anything to happen to them unless they had a congenital disease or some serious illness that was untreatable in ancient times.

Zhu Biao was the most stable crown prince held by Zhu Yuanzhang, and Zhu Xiongying was Zhu Biao's eldest son. His dignity was a hundred times more noble than that of ordinary princes and grandsons of the emperor.

Such a child, died inexplicably at the age of seven, and died at the same time as Empress Ma who had been taking care of him...

If it was any other reason, that would be nonsense, but if it was smallpox, which has no cure even in modern times, that would be too normal.

Song Shen recalled some things he had read before. It said that when Empress Ma was on the verge of death, she only saw Zhu Yuanzhang and turned away everyone and the imperial doctors. The reason was that he knew she was beyond help. If he allowed the imperial doctors to treat her, they would be punished or even beheaded afterwards, so he simply did not treat her.

If it was smallpox, then Empress Ma did this not only to avoid the imperial physician being beheaded, but also to prevent smallpox from continuing to spread in the palace.

He suddenly raised his head and asked:

"Empress, has His Majesty ever had smallpox?"

Queen Ma was even more shocked than he was:

"How did you know?!"

Even she only found out about it a quarter of an hour ago!

But Song Shen just murmured to himself:
"That's right... everything is correct..."

Zhu Yuanzhang had smallpox and had antibodies, so he was not afraid of being infected and it was impossible for him to be infected.

That's why Queen Ma was willing to see him.

The thing he had heard might not be groundless, but because the reasons for the death of Empress Ma and Zhu Xiongying were concealed, it sounded like Empress Ma was still considering the imperial physician before her death and did not want anyone to be buried with her.

Queen Ma was a little anxious.

What's the point of just saying it's right or correct? You should explain it clearly!

"Ziwei, what did you think of?"

She asked eagerly:
"I've told you, if you have anything to say, just speak up. I'll take responsibility for it and cover you up!"

Behind the screen.

Zhu Yuanzhang and his son Zhu Biao were also extremely anxious, and their ears pricked up higher than anyone else, fearing that they might miss even the slightest bit!

a long time.

Song Shen sighed:

"If I were to guess, it would be a little shocking."

"But you insist on listening..."

Queen Ma slapped the armrest of her chair:
"Yes, I insisted on questioning you!"

After hearing her words, Song Shen felt relieved and said directly:
"I believe that the smallpox patients raised by the Lu family are prepared to be sent to the palace in the future."

"If nothing unexpected happens, the fetus that Lu miscarried is a boy, right?"

"The Crown Princess looks safe and sound now, but once the boy is born, Lu will do everything she can to make her die. I have calculated that by the end of next year, the Crown Princess will give birth to another grandson. Maybe she will have a difficult birth, or maybe someone will do something to her during the confinement period. In short, before and after childbirth is the weakest time for a woman, so even if she dies, there will be nothing to say."

"After the Crown Princess passed away, Lu, who had a son, was the best candidate to be the first wife. Her family was not as powerful as the Chang family, but she was the Minister of Rites after all, so she was not a bad person, so it was reasonable."

"In this way, the fetus has changed from a concubine's son to the legitimate second son."

"As long as the eldest son is eliminated, he will become the new eldest grandson of the Eastern Palace."

"But I saw that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince was healthy last time and lived in the palace. If he got sick, he would be looked after by numerous doctors. Even if he lost his mother, he would still be looked after by your grandmother. How can we get rid of him?"

"At this time, the smallpox patients in the village come in handy."

"You just said that all the smallpox patients in the Lu family's manor are girls. If I'm not mistaken, the girls are not very old, right?"

Even though Empress Ma had seen so many evil tricks, she couldn't help but feel a little panicked at this moment.

She had never thought that someone could be so cruel as to use smallpox, a deadly poison, as a raft and even dare to bring it into the palace...

But how can I bring this thing into the palace?
Isn't Lu afraid that harming others will bring harm to himself? !

"No, that's right... People from the Yiluansi said that the oldest one is only in his teens, and the youngest is only a few years old. They are all little girls."

Empress Ma rarely spoke without stuttering.

Song Shen nodded as expected:
"That's even more correct."

"As far as I know, there are two types of smallpox, smallpox major and smallpox minor. It's hard to tell the difference. You just need to know that smallpox minor has a lower mortality rate, and the scars and other symptoms are relatively less severe."

"People who have had smallpox and survived will have resistance after recovery and will never be infected again in their lifetime."

"I guess she kept those girls with smallpox because she wanted to wait until they recovered to learn etiquette, and then send them to the East Palace to be maids when the time was right."

"Once Lu becomes the Crown Princess, she will start planning to get rid of the Emperor's eldest grandson."

"Smallpox can be transmitted in many ways, through talking, touching, or even just throwing the patient's clothes on the bed, which can infect people. It is quite dangerous."

"She and her child were being closely guarded by a group of palace maids who had been infected with smallpox, so there would naturally be no problem."

"The defenseless eldest grandson of the emperor and you... are different."

Song Shen paused and said:

"If you don't believe me, you can find a weak-looking baby boy and bring him to her. Tell her that her child was born prematurely and is not dead. Then observe her reaction in secret."

(End of this chapter)