History of Women in the Wei Dynasty

Chapter 154 Analysis of Registrar Gou
be cheated.

Clerk Gou took out a terrifying-looking clay doll covered in cracks and needle holes. Only then did Clerk Gou realize that the clay doll was a "puppet master" in witchcraft.

Ugh, this is even worse than taking the wrong toilet stick!

Clerk Gou hurriedly approached the wooden pavilion, picked up a watering can and poured water on his hands, thinking, "Let him water, he can catch the flowerpots below."

"Get out of the way, get out of the way, where are you watering my flowers?" Yuan Zhi came over and pushed the registrar aside.

Despite the commotion, the origin of such an evil object is certainly not simple. Registrar Gou asked seriously, "This archery doll looks quite old?"

“Hmm.” Governor Yuan explained, “This morning I received a reply from Xi Jian. He asked me to search a Buddhist hall in the old residence of Grand Tutor Feng Xi. I dug this up under a broken flowerpot. In addition, I dug up some wood chips in other places in the Buddhist hall. Judging from the pinholes on the wood chips, they were also wooden puppets. Wooden puppets are difficult to destroy, so we can only try to smash them and bury them in the soil.”

Clerk Gou examined the brocade pouch again, his expression even more terrified than when he had touched the clay figurine!

"If I'm not mistaken, the one who practiced Buddhism in that temple was none other than the current Empress Feng?"

Governor Yuan nodded.

Empress Feng, who had just entered the palace, was sent back to the Feng family to become a nun by Empress Dowager Wenming after contracting an epidemic. Empress Dowager Wenming then sent two other nieces into the palace to restore the relationship between the Emperor and the Feng family. At that time, who would care that there was an Empress Feng, suffering from the torment of life and death, in the cramped Buddhist hall?

Afterwards, Madam Feng survived the epidemic, but her glorious future was taken over by another concubine's daughter, Madam Feng. How could Madam Feng not hate her?
Clerk Gou asked, "What else did Officer Xi say in his letter?"

Yuan Zhi: "He said two things in total. One was that he instructed me to report to Luoyang through official documents after finding any suspicious clues in the Buddhist hall of Grand Tutor Feng's old residence. The other thing was that the nun Sengzhi asked Yuan Chuntuo, the sister of Prince Rencheng, to find Hu Guozhen's family. I estimate that Yuan Chuntuo's people have already arrived in Hengzhou."

"Prince Rencheng." The greater the pressure, the calmer Gou Zhubu became.

He took the brocade pouch, gently poured out the clay figurine, examined it, and made a preliminary judgment: "Commander Xi ordered the governor to search Grand Tutor Feng's former residence, which must mean that something has happened to Empress Feng!"

Yuan Zhi remained silent, signaling for him to continue.

“But we haven’t received any official documents from the court, which means that either the Empress’s fault is still under investigation or it cannot be publicized. But no matter which it is, the Empress’s position is probably hard to keep, and even if it is, it will be in vain.” Clerk Gou pointed to the clay figurine and analyzed step by step: “The puppeteer curses one person with one puppet. The cursed person will neither die nor be destroyed.”

"The governor just said that besides this clay figurine, there are also broken wooden figurines in the Buddhist hall, which means that the Empress cursed at least two people!"

"The deposed empress is now a nun in a temple outside the Luoyang palace. She is still alive. So the person cursed by the broken wooden puppet is definitely not the deposed empress. It is very likely that it is the Empress Dowager Wenming who expelled the empress from the palace to become a nun."

At this point, Clerk Gou sighed at the irony of life, noting that the two daughters of Grand Tutor Feng seemed destined for conflict, one always reigning supreme while the other was relegated to a life of hardship as a nun. He continued, elaborating on his speculation: "Because of Empress Dowager Wenming's passing, the Empress deeply believed in the art of puppetry and curses. Furthermore, because she was confined to the Buddhist hall and lacked access to wood, and because wooden puppets were difficult to destroy at crucial moments, she switched to using clay puppets when performing her curses." Clerk Gou then added, "Clay puppets are easily destroyed, yet the Empress did not destroy one before His Majesty took her away from the Buddhist hall. This suggests that almost all the wishes she had made during her curses had come true, but her final wish remained unfulfilled. Moreover, the person she cursed was experiencing a critical period of misfortune! For all these reasons, the Empress was reluctant to destroy the clay puppet, fearing that her curses would be in vain!"

The time when the two officials contacted Empress Feng and were taken out of the Buddhist hall by His Majesty and returned to Pingcheng Palace was precisely when Empress Feng's father, the late Grand Tutor Feng Xi, fell ill.
Feng Xi's illness kept recurring and could not be cured, and it had been going on for four years!

The registrar, Gou, uttered the darkest of guesses: "Only when Grand Tutor Feng is seriously ill will His Majesty visit the Feng residence. Only then will Empress Feng have the opportunity to reunite with His Majesty."

Therefore, this clay figurine is not cursing the deposed empress, but Grand Tutor Feng!
Empress Feng was truly vicious; she cursed two people: her aunt and her father.

Clerk Gou was terrified: "I just listened to the Classic of Filial Piety this morning."

After sighing over this, he returned to the main matter: "Commander Xi ordered the governor to search the Buddhist shrine in Grand Tutor Feng's former residence, seemingly certain that he could find such cursed objects. However, what Empress Feng did and how serious her crime was are not within Commander Xi's purview, so Commander Xi's true intention... is to link the Buddhist shrine with witchcraft, or more specifically, to make His Majesty despise the nuns who falsely claim to be gods and ghosts!"

The last deduction enlightened Yuan Zhi. "Brilliant! Even if Yuan Chun Tuo can find a flaw in the Hu family's whereabouts in Hengzhou and help Seng Zhi report this matter to the Prince of Rencheng, the Prince of Rencheng will postpone Seng Zhi's request because His Majesty is currently disgusted with nuns."

Chief Clerk Gou said, "Once things calm down, it gives Chief Officer Xi and the lieutenant a lot of time to come up with a comprehensive way to deal with Sengzhi."

"Don't mention Wei Yi to me! He doesn't do any serious work! Humph, I now understand why Wei Yi left Wei Mao in Pingcheng. That scoundrel doesn't treat his youngest son like a son at all. He can't blame his youngest son for not treating him like a father in the future."

At this moment, a military officer hurried over and presented a letter, saying, "Reporting to the governor, a letter has arrived from General Yuan of Wuchuan Town."

It was a private message.

Yuan Zhi dismissed the military officer, opened the letter tube, and read the contents of the letter. He was overjoyed: "Haha, the Rouran nobles know that Futu is dead, so they have united to cause chaos. The Rouran Khan Nagai is nowhere to be found, haha."

While pleased, Chief Clerk Gou was also troubled by the long-term turmoil within the Rouran. Now was not the time to discuss this. He asked, "I saw Xi Jiao in front of the yamen just now. Did you also investigate Chief Xi's property this morning?"

“Oh, it’s that same matter that Cui Xian came to complain about. Didn’t he say that the beggars and scoundrels in the east of the city are spreading rumors about the student Wei Yao everywhere? This not only damages Wei Yao’s reputation, but also the reputation of Kong Wenzhong and Cui Academy.” Yuan Zhi’s anger surged again. “Look at Cui Xian, he’s also a headmaster, but Cui Xian values ​​the honor and disgrace of a student as much as the honor and disgrace of the academy! But the headmaster of Wei Academy, he always lets the rumors slander his students, as if he’s blind and deaf!”

After complaining, Yuan Zhi returned to the topic: "Those scoundrels confessed the truth as soon as they were caught. They were instructed by a servant in the Xi family's flower shop. This servant was previously a servant of Xi Jian's eldest son, Xi Jiao. After making a mistake, he was punished by being sent to the flower shop to do hard labor. The key point is that when this servant instructed the beggar scoundrels to do their thing, he thought that these people would be caught, so he instructed them to lie and say that a student named Qu Rong from the Wei Academy instructed them to spread various rumors."

Chief Clerk Gou was also amused and said, "This cunning servant seems to be shrewd, but he is actually stupid. He can lure beggars and scoundrels with benefits. When the beggars and scoundrels encounter something more advantageous to themselves, they will naturally betray him without hesitation. Qu Rong? Where have I heard this name before? I remember now. When the court sent people to commend the new education magistrate, it was Qu Rong who slandered Wei Yao, which aroused all kinds of unfavorable discussions against the governor."

"If it were an ordinary servant, I could simply kill him. But this servant, hehe..."

(End of this chapter)