Zhu Yuanzhang in the cellar

Chapter 2 His Majesty is Missing

In the winter of the twelfth year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty, a drizzle was falling in the Forbidden City in Yingtian Prefecture, the capital of the Ming Dynasty.

The sky outside was pitch black, with dark clouds rolling like sticky ink. Occasionally, a flash of thunder and lightning would streak through the void, illuminating the sky and earth, before quickly plunging into darkness again.

At three quarters past three in the morning, the Qianqing Palace was already brightly lit. The eunuchs from the Imperial Horse Department sent the emperor's carriage to the Qianqing Palace in preparation for the Hongwu Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang to go to court.

In the Ming Dynasty, court sessions were naturally not held in the house, but outside the Fengtian Gate. This was called the Changchao Yumen Ceremony, and all civil and military officials stood in the outdoor square.

According to the "Da Ming Hui Dian", during the morning court session, ministers had to get up at midnight and wait outside the Meridian Gate at about 3 a.m. When the drum sounded at the Meridian Gate tower, the ministers lined up, and the palace gate opened at about 5 a.m., and all officials entered in turn. After the emperor arrived at the Fengtian Gate, the morning court session began.

Moreover, during Zhu Yuanzhang's reign, no matter what the weather was, he was unstoppable.

This made life difficult for the ministers who attended court. They had to run and stand outside the Meridian Gate before dawn every day. If they were late or left early, given Zhu Yuanzhang's temper, they would most likely be pushed out of the Meridian Gate and die on the spot.

Today is no exception.

Although the winter rain continued and Zhu Yuanzhang had been busy with his concubine until midnight last night, Zhu Yuanzhang, who had only slept for two hours, was very energetic and got up early to attend court.

Outside, the eunuchs from the Imperial Horse Department pulled the dragon sedan to the gate of the Qianqing Palace.

There were three eunuchs standing on each side of the dragon sedan, as well as a eunuch from the Imperial Horse Department driving the carriage. In the front and back were six palace maids holding lanterns, each holding a lantern in one hand and an umbrella in the other to protect the lantern flames.

A little further out, there stood dozens of palace guards, protecting the dragon chariot.

After Zhu Yuanzhang washed and dressed, the Ming Emperor walked out of the palace wearing a yellow suit, a red cross-collared coat, and a black ceremonial crown.

The Chief Eunuch held an umbrella and escorted Zhu Yuanzhang to the carriage, and then the motorcade headed towards the Meridian Gate.

The convoy moved forward slowly, and it should have been just another normal day.

But something unexpected happened suddenly.

When the carriage had just gone less than ten feet away, a loud thunder was suddenly heard in the sky.

"Boom!"

Thunder rumbled, as if the sky was collapsing.

Immediately afterwards, Zhu Yuanzhang, who was sitting in the carriage, felt his body relax. Before he could react, the world was spinning around him, as if he had fallen into a hole.

"boom!"

The sound of a carriage crashing heavily to the ground was heard, followed by the neighing of horses and the wailing of eunuchs and palace maids.

The guards around were all stunned.

Because they saw that after a loud bang of thunder and lightning, the bricks and stones where the carriage was located suddenly burst, as if a dragon had turned over, and the ground trembled for a moment.

Then the carriage fell into a pit caused by the collapse of the ground, and the palace maids and eunuchs accompanying it also fell in, with screams coming from below.

After being shocked for two or three seconds, the guards reacted quickly and rushed to the edge of the pit shouting and yelling.

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty."

"Quick, bring a ladder, bring a ladder."

"I'll jump."

"You are crazy, what if you jump down and hit His Majesty?"

"Then what can be done?"

"It's too late to wait for the ladder. Go get the rope first."

The guards shouted in panic, and the sound startled Concubine Guo Hui who was in the enclosure outside the Qianqing Palace.

Zhu Yuanzhang had a very regular daily routine, and his sleeping time was basically scheduled between 10:12 and :, which is between p.m. and a.m.

At noon, he would pick a concubine to sleep with him at night, but the sleeping time was only two hours. After the sleeping time, the concubine could not live with him but had to sleep in the enclosure outside the bedroom.

The enclosure is just outside the side bedroom of the Qianqing Palace and is relatively close to the main gate of the Qianqing Palace.

The thunder outside had already woken her up, and then the shouts of the guards forced Concubine Guo Hui to get up from the bed. After putting on her clothes, she asked the maid, "What's going on outside?"

The maid didn't know what happened either, so she could only squat and answer, "Your Highness, I don't know what happened either. I only heard a loud noise outside, the ground shook, and then the guards' voices, as if..."

"Like what?"

"It seems that a dragon has turned over, and your majesty has fallen into the pit."

"what?"

Concubine Guo Hui was horrified and didn't care about anything else. She hurriedly wrapped her clothes tightly and ran out of the palace.

When we arrived outside the gate of the Qianqing Palace, it was pitch black outside.

The winter rain was drizzling, and the eunuchs who were holding umbrellas to protect the torches all fell down. The torches were all extinguished, and they could only rely on the lanterns hanging high on the palace gate to provide some lighting.

With the help of the faint firelight, Concubine Guo Hui saw that there was indeed a large hole with a radius of three or four meters on the ground in the square about ten meters away from the gate of the Qianqing Palace.

No one knew how deep the pit was, and the guards were looking for tools to get down.

Seeing this scene, Concubine Guo Hui felt dizzy, but soon calmed down and immediately shouted anxiously: "Quick, go to Kunning Palace to find the Queen."

Concubine Guo Hui was the daughter of Guo Zixing, and Empress Ma was Guo Zixing's adopted daughter. Zhu Yuanzhang respected Empress Ma the most and loved Concubine Guo Hui the most in the harem. The two sisters had a very deep relationship, so when something happened, he would naturally look for the Empress. The Kunning Palace where Empress Ma lived was very close to the Qianqing Palace, just behind it, with the Jiaotai Hall in between, less than 200 meters away, so the news was quickly reported to Empress Ma.

Upon learning of this, Empress Ma quickly got up from the bed, put on her clothes, and trotted over in a resolute and decisive manner, surrounded by a group of eunuchs, palace maids, and guards.

When she arrived, she saw that the guards had found the rope and tied it to the pillars on both sides of the white jade steps of the Qianqing Palace gate. Some guards were already climbing down along the rope, but she could not see the specific situation clearly.

"Your Majesty, have you found it?"

Queen Ma came hurriedly. Her face was relatively calm, but the sweat on her forehead and her rapid breathing betrayed her nervousness.

Concubine Guo Hui had already walked to the pit under the umbrella of the palace maid. When she saw Empress Ma coming, she became more confident and said quickly, "Sister, you are finally here."

"How is it now?"

"I don't know yet. I've already gone down to look for it."

"Why so slow?"

Queen Ma walked to the edge of the pit and looked inside.

There were already guards downstairs with torches in their hands. With umbrellas and torches, they were able to provide lighting.

I saw that the pit was very deep, about 13 feet, or almost four meters. At this height, if someone hits the ground head-on, it could be fatal.

Mud was splattered everywhere inside. The carriage that fell was relatively intact and sturdy, but most of it was buried under mud and rubble. In addition, it was raining, and a mud puddle soon formed. If it had been a little later, the bottom would have been submerged.

However, it was very difficult for the guards to rescue them, as they had to hold umbrellas to protect the torches.

Secondly, their first rescue target was Zhu Yuanzhang, but there were many eunuchs and palace maids who had fallen into the mud and crawled out wailing and screaming. The horses pulling the carriage were also struggling in the mud, hindering their actions.

After all, the height of four meters is not too high, and there is mud below, so everyone was just injured but not dead. It was just that when they came down, the mud covered them, and they could only barely crawl out of the mud by themselves, but they were injured and could not move.

Not only were the guards' hands not free, they also had no place to put their feet, unless they stepped over the bodies of the eunuchs and palace maids.

"How can you be so stupid? Rescue them first."

Seeing this, Empress Ma immediately shouted, "We need to clear the surrounding area so that we can dig the mud and rescue His Majesty. Don't you understand this principle?"

It’s not like we all don’t know this truth.

But no one dared not to save Zhu Yuanzhang first.

Now with Empress Ma's endorsement, they felt as if they had been pardoned, and they dragged the eunuchs and palace maids out of the fields and sent them up.

The people above pulled and the people below pushed. After about a quarter of an hour, the seven or eight palace maids and eunuchs around and the four horses were quickly pulled up.

The most troublesome ones were the horses. The injured ones were fine and just lay in the pit and neighed. Two of the uninjured ones crawled out from the mud below and kept moving back and forth in the pit.

The pit was not big to begin with, only about three or four meters in circumference. With a few horses and so many palace maids, eunuchs and guards squeezed in, there was almost no place to stand.

Now after pulling the people and livestock up, only the carriage in which Zhu Yuanzhang was sitting was left.

Concubine Guo Hui saw that the people who were pulled up were injured, some with broken legs, and wailing non-stop. She was exhausted for a moment and cried, "Sister, what should His Majesty do?"

"It's okay, it's okay. I've asked people to get hoes, shovels and buckets. We'll be able to rescue your majesty in no time."

Empress Ma comforted her, and then saw that as the rain continued to flow into the pit, the muddy water inside was almost submerged half of the carriage, so she immediately shouted, "Dig quickly."

The guards below were digging and prying with their hands, but soon they brought hoes, shovels and buckets - these things were not unavailable in the palace, but were kept in the Imperial Garden outside the Qin'an Hall, a bit far from here, and had only been delivered now.

At this moment, the mud and water had reached the guards' ankles, and half of the main body of the carriage was buried in the mud. It was very dark, and digging was very difficult. It took a long time to dig through the window on one side of the carriage.

Fortunately, we had tools to scoop up the water and finally dug up the soil underneath.

"Is there a voice from His Majesty?"

Queen Ma asked while standing on the pit. Although her face was calm, her voice was slightly trembling.

"No."

The guard commander replied.

They leaned over the car window and shouted inside: "Your Majesty? Your Majesty?"

no respond.

Seeing this, the guards also became anxious. Some of them opened the car windows, and some of them dug at the main gate of the dragon chariot.

After a while, most of the soil near the main gate of the dragon sedan was dug up, and some guards crawled in from the soil. Since Zhu Yuanzhang often read memorials while sitting on the dragon sedan, a very large dragon sedan was specially made with quite a lot of space inside.

The guard reached out for a lantern, and used the light of the lantern to shine inside. Then his pupils shrank and his whole body revealed a look of horror.

The next second he rolled and crawled out again.

"What about Your Majesty?"

Queen Ma's emotions were no longer stable and her voice became much sharper.

The guard who entered raised his head, his face full of fear, his teeth seemed to be trembling, and he said tremblingly: "Your Majesty, Your Majesty is gone."

(End of this chapter)