In the northern part of the North China Plain, there is a small city of 800 square kilometers- Bazhou.
It is bordered by Tianjin to the east, Xiong'an New District to the west, and Langfang's subordinate counties to the north and south, which belongs to the capital economic circle, and it is also the birthplace of the Republic of China warlord Han Fuyu.
However, none of this is the story we are going to tell today.
The protagonist of today's story is named Wang Mantang, although it sounds like a masculine name with a good meaning, but in fact the protagonist is a woman, a very beautiful woman.
Related to the above text, her birthplace is also Bazhou.
01
During the reign of Daming Zhengde, there was a wang litigator in Bazhou City, who was well-known in the local area with his iron mouth and copper teeth and the pen power of reversing black and white.
The lawyer, that is, the professional lawyer in ancient times, although his status was not high, he was able to make friends with dignitaries and dignitaries, similar to the Fang Tang Mirror in "Nine Pin Sesame Officials", so he accumulated a lot of property.
Master Wang's family was very wealthy, but he had a heart disease, and he had no children and only one daughter under his knees.
Wang Litigator regarded her as a pearl in his palm, not only eating and wearing all the best, but also giving her a masculine name - Wang Mantang.
Time flies, and Wang Mantang was born as a delicate flower when he became an adult.
However, due to her father's connivance, she developed a stubborn temperament, and when she reached the age of marriage, ordinary people knew that it was difficult to reach, and it was difficult for large families to accept her deviance, and for a time no one came to the door to propose to her.
Just when the family was worried about Wang Mantang's marriage, a top marriage fell from the sky:
In 1505, Emperor Xiaozong died and his only son, Zhu Houzhao, ascended the throne.
At the age of 15, he was not yet married, and Empress Zhang ordered the officials of various prefectures to enrich the harem with beautiful people.
It was rumored everywhere in Bazhou City that if wang Mantang, who had a good appearance, entered the palace draft and one day became a concubine or even an empress, it was also possible.
The Wang family's blood boiled when they heard it, and Wang Mantang also longed for the scenery of the mother's world.
But where do they know that the so-called beauty pageant is not a concubine, but a beautiful keeper at the Royal Zoo.
Zhu Houzhao was one of the few rebellious emperors in history, and he was at the age of excessive hormone secretion, and he felt very bored with the music and lectures all day.
Like to stimulate him, he ordered people to build a palace, in addition to living in it, but also closed tigers, leopards, lions and other beasts, known as the "leopard room" to the outside world.
Originally, there were only a few old eunuchs here, but after a long time, he could not hold back his temperament, and ordered people to choose beauty to be responsible for the diet and living of these beasts.
After several times, this decree was transferred to the grass-roots officials, and it became a beauty pageant into the harem.
However, for Wang Mantang, who was running for election, this was no longer important, because she was only glanced at by the emperor and lost the election.
Although Wang Mantang in Bazhou can still be counted as a beauty, when she arrived in the capital, her posture could only be obscured among many players, and at that time, she was fifteen or sixteen years old, her figure was plain, and naturally she could not enter Zhu Houzhao's eyes, but was sent home by a quick glance.
02
Wang Mantang, who had failed, had to return to her hometown in ashes, and on the way she had a dream: an immortal told her, "A man named Zhao Wanxing will marry you, marry him, and you will be very expensive in this life!"
It may be that the queen dreamed of being hallucinating for too long, such a ridiculous dream, Wang Mantang actually believed it to be true, and told his parents.
Perhaps out of love for his daughter, the father was also convinced of this dream.
A friend of Wang's lawyers was a monk, and when he visited the Wang family one day, he heard about Wang Mantang's defeat and knew that the Wang family was unhappy, so he comforted Wang's lawyer:
"I am proficient in the art of qi, and after observing that there is purple qi on the roof of your house, there will soon be a happy event at the door."
When Wang Lishi heard about it, he was even more convinced of his daughter's dream, so he told the monk about it.
This monk was also not of the good kind, and as a disciple of the Buddha, he had a deep friendship with a Taoist monk named Duan Chang.
During a small talk, the monk told Duan Chang about Wang Mantang's dream as a joke, and this Duan Chang had heard of Wang Mantang's famous name and had a plan after learning the news.
Two days later, at dusk, a passerby from a foreign country suddenly appeared in front of Master Wang's house, who looked polite and called himself Zhao Wanxing, passing through this place only to be able to spend the night.
When Wang Lishi heard this name, he was immediately shocked, he first agreed to come down, and then told his wife and daughter that the family was particularly courteous at the thought of that dream.
The next day, at dawn, Zhao Wansheng resigned, but was left to stay longer on the grounds that the road was slippery on a rainy day.
After a few days like this, the Wang family could always find a reason to drag Zhao Wanxing.
Until the eighth day, after several days of testing, the Wang family found that Zhao Wanxing's character was superior and could speak the Tao, and indeed he had the appearance of a nobleman, so they proposed to give him their daughter Wang Mantang.
Zhao Wanxing couldn't help but be overjoyed when he heard this, but pretended to be calm, and after several resignations, he reluctantly agreed.
Speaking of this, clear-eyed people can find that the so-called Zhao Wanxing is just a pretense, he is Duan Chang disguised, and he has gone to great lengths to get Wang Mantang.
03
After marrying Ruhuajiao's wife and inheriting the property of his father-in-law's family, Duan Chang became more and more proud, he was a very ambitious person, and Wang Mantang did not blame him for deceiving him after marrying him, but encouraged him to do something big and realize his dream as soon as possible.
After some deliberation, Duan Chang began his new plan.
He entrusted his former Daoist friends to travel around and preach Wang Mantang's strange dreams everywhere.
In the era when science was not widespread, Taoist priests were the medium that could communicate with the gods on behalf of human beings, so people soon believed that Wang Mantang was born to be an empress, and his husband", Zhao Wanxing, would be the son of heaven in the future.
Based on this spread, Wang Mantang and his wife soon became the heroes of Bazhou.
During the reign of Emperor Wuzong of Ming, the government was controlled by the eunuch Liu Jin, and the people's resentment boiled under the jinyi guards.
In order to leave a way back for themselves, many squires have sponsored Wang Mantang and his wife, and the unemployed vagrants in the city are also eager to marry the couple in order to become rich in the future.
In this way, Wang Mantang and his wife also gathered a lot of people.
Seeing that the people and horses are gathering more and more, it is more and more inconvenient to act in Bazhou City.
Duan Chang (i.e., Zhao Wanxing) followed the practice of the troublemakers, dragged the people down into the mountains, built a cottage fortress and continued to expand the number of people, only to wait for the time to be ripe to raise troops and start an incident.
Because there were squires to fund the abundance of money and food, Duan Chang and his men and horses did not need to attack the city and seize the village.
In order to live the addiction, Duan Chang ordered people to build a row of palaces with thatched houses, established the cottage as a country, he proclaimed himself emperor and established a "Da Shun Ping Ding" era name, and Wang Mantang became the "Da Shun Ping Ding" empress.
In order to make the daily court life full of rituals, Duan Chang also formulated a series of dynastic political systems:
He appointed the Left and Right Ministers, the Great Generals of the Protectorate, and the courtiers of various ministries, and also stipulated that on the third, sixth, and ninth occasions, the courtiers should be accepted and discussed in a pretentious manner.
This period of time may be happy for Wang Mantang.
Because that dream finally shone into reality.
04
There is no impermeable wall under the heavens.
The news of Duan Chang's founding soon reached the capital, and although he and his men and horses had never carried out a military operation, Zhu Houzhao believed that this move must have been a rebellious criminal, so he ordered the officers and troops to go into the mountains to encircle and suppress.
Where are these rabble-rousers rivals of the imperial court?
Soon, Duan Chang, the empress dowager, and Wenwu Baiguan of the Dashun Pingding Dynasty were all captured.
When the officers and soldiers saw the thatched palace and the homemade dragon robe cloak, they not only laughed: "Just like this grass platform team, they also established themselves as emperors, are you sure that you are not joking?" ”
Although it was proved to be a farce, it was a major crime of conspiracy, and local officials did not dare to deal with it without authorization, so they escorted these people to the capital.
Zhu Houzhao also felt ridiculous after reading the entire file, and this little emperor who acted strangely moved his heart of compassion at this time, so he ordered that except for the main criminal Duan Chang who committed the crime of conspiracy to commit rebellion, he should be executed, the other vassals did not know the truth and would not be prosecuted, and Wang Mantang, the wife of the main criminal, was not enslaved in the Huanyi Bureau of the palace.
Zhu Houzhao was a good woman in his life, and he had seen tens of thousands of beauties, of course, he couldn't remember that he had a relationship with Wang Mantang a few years ago.
Suddenly, one day, Zhu Houzhao wanted to see what kind of goods this cottage queen really was, so he ordered Wang Mantang to be summoned to the leopard room for training.
Wang Mantang was a young woman over twenty years old at this time, although she had experienced hardships without reducing her beauty, Zhu Houzhao was fascinated when she saw it, and let her sleep that night.
The charming Wang Mantang made Zhu Houzhao extremely satisfied, promising her to become the empress of Daming in the future.
At this time, Wang Mantang found out that this was the real appearance of the empress, and Duan Chang had been fooling around for a few years!
Zhu Houzhao was absurd, he had been hollowed out by wine before, and the arrival of the charming Wang Mantang made it difficult for him to sustain himself, and he sang day and night.
In the first month of 1521, Zhu Houzhao was infected with wind and cold for a long time, and finally died in March, when Chinese New Year's Eve one year old.
The lustful Zhu Houzhao did not have a man and a half woman under his knees, the Ming Emperor's throne was empty, and Yang Tinghe, the head of the cabinet, had to summon his cousin Zhu Houxi, who was far away in Zhongxiang, Hubei Province, to inherit the unification, changing his era name to Jiajing, and was known as Ming Shizong.
Zhu Houxi, who had just ascended to the throne, was very contemptuous of his cousin's absurd behavior before his death, and he ordered someone to demolish the leopard house built by Zhu Houzhao.
During this period, it was found that there was a woman named Wang Mantang who claimed to be Zhu Houzhao's concubine, but her name could not be found in the roster, and further investigation found that she was originally a slave girl of the HuanYi Bureau, so he ordered someone to send her back to the Huanyi Bureau again.
Wang Mantang, who was beaten back to her original form, became the object of ridicule by everyone, and everyone in the palace at that time jokingly called her "Queen Huan".
There has been no record of her since.
This matter may really be that the girl thinks too much, Zhu Houzhao definitely did not think so much, and the emperor is not lacking at all.
References: "Wan Liye Won", "Sheng Chao Tong Shi Shi"