The Mushroom Emperor & His Empress General

Chapter 13

I dedicate this chapter to the first person to comment @user00477692 and the first person to vote @Fujoshi_Su and to the first person to add it to their reading list @Khodgdon Also to all those that are reading and adding to reading list. Thanks for joining me on this ride. Enjoy.

After their lessons, Zhen Shi asked the Emperor  to take a stroll around the entire palace with him, that he wanted to get to know more about all the daily activities happening in the palace.

He wanted Emperor Peng Qi to go with him but was flatly rejected, according to Peng Qi, he will rather visit his sister princess Yong than waste his time on irrelevant matters.

The Empress general did not force him and took some of his own servants along as he went about from the kitchen to the laundry, the military quarters and to the slave quarters, he was amazed as he discovered a lot of things.

He found out that the quality of food served to the slaves were very poor and they only eats a plate per day, the sick once were usually abandoned in a lonely room till they die and they are thrown away in the bush or fed to the Empress Dowager's lions.

The military quarters were also not decent, there he met some of his brothers that he trained with when he joined the military, they were very happy to reunite with him again, some of them were already married with kids and their conditions were not good.

He felt very sad, how can a nation be this rich and treat their military so poorly? Why request for more army and slaves if you can't take care of them?

By the time he returned, the Emperor was still not yet back from the visit to his sister, he was still with her playing mahjong game till night, he kept losing money to his sister so he didn't want to give up till he lost everything he had on him before he stopped.

The Empress general after the palace tour vowed to himself to make sure the Emperor becomes not only serious with his studies but improve the lives of the citizens, in fact he became more determined than ever.

That night the news of the Empress's brother who moved into the palace and also the Empress's palace tour was reported to Empress Dowager, this sent her into panic as she doesn't understand the Empress's intentions .

She summons her minister of rite and they both discussed this extensively.

Next day was the Dowager Wu Yue's usual sacrifices, messages were sent to all the consorts, concubines and the Empress to make sure to be in attendance.

This particular sacrifice was different because usually only Empress Dowager ,her son and the minister of rites use to be in attendance but today they were all asked to be at the foot of the mountains at exactly 3pm In the afternoon.

An Eagle bird and a black cat were slaughtered and poured into a cup with the water from the foot of the mountain, the consorts were horrified, they have never witnessed anything like this before.

Zhen Shi has witnessed similar sacrifices severally in the past when Peng Qi became the crowned prince but has never participated in them, as at then it was the mountain lion that was been slaughtered.

Although that very sacrifices still continues but only the Emperor, his mother and the minister of rights participated, this was the first rituals that involved the whole royal family.

The eagle blood mixed with black cat's blood was passed around, first the minister of rites drank ,then he passed it to the Empress dowager Wu Yue, then the Emperor, next is Zhen Shi and then to Xue Ling, then slowly to the rest of the consorts and concubines who were physically terrified, they were all disgusted but under the deadly watch of Empress Dowager, no one dared vomit or refuse.