pre historia on Instagram: "Jiajing Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was obsessed with eternal life. His alchemists convinced him that the secret to immortality lay in the "Red Lead" the menstrual blood of virgins. But for it to work, it had to be "pure." He forced hundreds of young girls to live on a lethal diet of only mulberry leaves and rainwater. The cruelty was so extreme that in 1542, his own concubines reached a breaking point and tried to strangle him in his sleep to end the nightmare. &#x1f