Douhuaer in Zhongcui Palace was actually quite embarrassed. On the one hand, Empress Zhou asked her to be responsible for the expenses of the harem. On the other hand, it was the extravagant and extravagant of some concubines.

This newly-cannoned Concubine Miao was particularly famous. She used milk not to drink it, but to take a bath.

In this era, it is not like the modern era that raising cows, and the milk is inexhaustible. The milk used by Concubine Miao to bathe is derived from scalpers or buffaloes. Scalpers are the primary productive force in agriculture.

The government prohibits slaughtering scalpers, and killing cattle is a serious crime. Only scalpers who die of illness and old age can be sold, and scalpers who die of illness and old age need to report to the government. Even the government will send people to investigate the cause of the scalpers' death. Is it really dead from illness or you deliberately killed them for profit.

There are not many people raising scalpers in the suburbs of Beijing, and even fewer people produce milk. It will cost a huge amount of money to get enough milk to provide Miao Guifei's bathing.

This is naturally intolerable to the Queen of Zhou, who has always been known for her diligence and thrift.

Because the harem expenses were too large, Empress Zhou finally found out the case. Douhua dared not hide it and reported the matter. Empress Zhou was furious and took the palace servants to Jingren Palace angrily.

The queen is the lord of the six palaces, and the emperor has the final say, and the harem is decided by the queen. Therefore, when facing the uninvited and angry Empress Zhou, Concubine Miao was a little scared after all.

She hurriedly stood up and greeted her: "I wish you to pay homage to the Queen, and the Queen is blessed with great blessings."

Queen Zhou did not give face, and even kicked open the palace gate despite the queen's majesty and rushed in angrily.

Concubine Miao was shocked and knew that something was wrong, so she had to hurry up and follow behind tremblingly.

The bath room on the side of the bedroom occupied half of the pear blossom bucket, and half-human high milk was floating on it. Some aromatherapy petals were sprinkled on it.

On the shelf next to them, two maids were serving each other. They were all equipped with soft towels, aromatherapy, rouge boxes, pink eyebrow pencils, earrings, pearls, jade, gold hairpins and accessories.

The most conspicuous one is hanging on another wooden stand, a beautifully decorated and luxurious brocade embroidery robe. It was a gilded phoenix-winged purple gold robe sent from Jiangning. It is said to be worth a lot of money, worth tens of thousands of taels of silver.

Looking at the milk in most of the wooden barrel, Queen Zhou was furious. She stretched out her hand gently and looked at the water temperature of the milk. The temperature was just right, and it was obviously just hot. Queen Zhou was about to be late, and Concubine Miao was already bathing in the milk tank.

Concubine Miao knew that she had caused a big disaster, so she naturally knew that Emperor Chongzhen and Empress Zhou were both simple people. Even Zhang Yan, the Empress Yi'an of the late emperor, was known for her diligence and thrift.

But he was enjoying extravagantly in this Jingren Palace. Before Empress Zhou could speak, Concubine Miao was so scared that she knelt down: "Empress, I am sorry for the crime."

"You still know that you are guilty," Queen Zhou looked at her with a sneer, and then pointed to the bucket of milk: "You know, how much silver did the bucket of milk you bathed in? Two hundred taels, two hundred taels of silver."

Concubine Miao lowered her head and did not dare to say anything more. Empress Zhou pointed to the brocade clothes on the shelf: "Who gave you the courage to let Jiangning weaving privately? Concubine Miao, you are really brave. I heard that before you were promoted to Concubine, I had already asked the admiral weaving eunuchs to present such a robe to you. You know, how much did it cost to Daming just for this piece of clothing!"

Concubine Miao cried, and changed her pitiful look when she knew her mistake. She knelt on the ground and pulled Queen Zhou's sleeve: "I'm wrong, Empress, I know my mistake, please spare me."

"Douhua'er!" Queen Zhou shouted angrily.

Douhuaer stood up timidly from behind the crowd. She seemed not afraid to touch the murderous gaze of Concubine Miao kneeling on the ground. She only dared to lower her head, as if a child who had done something wrong.

"You said, how much has Jingren Palace spent in these days? "

Queen Zhou's angrily shouted, which made Douhuaer tremble. She trembled and said in a low voice: "Come back, the Queen's words, Jingren Palace will use the expenses of the harem in this month, 10,000 silver and 17,000 taels of silver."

"Ten thousand taels, you can hear it clearly. You Jingren Palace spent ten thousand taels in less than a month." Empress Zhou pointed at Concubine Miao's forehead angrily and scolded: "The country has become like this, and Master Long dares not be extravagant for one day. Even the underwear that Wansui wore was covered with patches sewn by the palace. You, a little concubine, are so bold. Do you not want to live anymore?"

"I know that I am wrong, so I ask the Queen to help me. Don't tell the Queen about this. I will pay back the money. I will ask my father to make up all the money in the palace. I just want the Queen to be kind, don't tell the Queen about this. I am willing to listen to the Queen for the rest of my life and ask the Queen for help." Concubine Miao cried with the pear blossoms and cried in tears.

Her father is a wealthy businessman in the capital, so it is not difficult to settle the matter with money. Although a concubine needs to spend money to fill the deficit in the harem, this matter sounds like royal stinginess.

But Empress Zhou knew that the Ming Dynasty is now suffering from internal and external troubles, and the expenses in the palace have been reduced again and again. Concubine Miao is so extravagant, if Chongzhen finds out, he will definitely not be happy. But when she sees her crying like this, Empress Zhou will inevitably be soft-hearted.

"Okay, I will forgive you this time. If you dare to embezzle the money for harem firewood, charcoal, and powder next time, don't blame me for being rude."

Concubine Miao kept kowtowing and was very happy: "Thank you for your kindness, thank you for your kindness."

Concubine Miao was afraid. She knew that once Chongzhen knew about this, her favor in the harem would be gone. The emperor was frugal and disliked the most was extravagance and waste.

Queen Zhou no longer paid attention to her, but said to Douhua on the side: "Douhua, if all the concubines in the harem cost more than 100 taels, they must report to this palace."

Douhuaer hurriedly bowed: "I will obey my decree."

In fact, Empress Zhou didn't think so much. She felt that Douhua'er told her that Concubine Miao had privately obtained the resources for the harem of firewood and charcoal, and she just came over to clean up Concubine Miao.

But Empress Zhou never thought about how great a disaster this would bring to a maid. Douhuaer knew that she would be hated by Concubine Miao from now on. In such a deceitful place in the harem, it was very easy for Concubine Miao to kill a palace maid.

So Douhuaer was extremely trembling and afraid, but if she didn't tell Empress Zhou, Empress Zhou would not let her go in the future. Being a palace maid, especially a palace maid in power, is actually very difficult.

Sure enough, Concubine Miao did not dare to make rash efforts at Empress Zhou. But the eyes of Douhua'er were full of resentment.
Chapter completed!