Text/Kingdom Building
During the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, there was a severe drought in Pingyangfu County, Shanxi. Although the government has provided symbolic relief, this is only a drop in the bucket for many ordinary people who are in deep trouble. Therefore, in order to survive, these ordinary people who were affected by the disaster had to leave their hometowns and flee to other places.
There is a family of croppers, whose family is called Li Wei, who works as a farmer when he is busy, works as a mason in his spare time, and feeds a family of five. After suffering from the drought, Li Wei had no choice but to drag his family north and fled to the city of Beijing. After Li Wei settled down his family, his pocket was empty, and he could not support the family at all by himself as a mason. At this time, the third son of the Jiajing Emperor, the Yu King's Mansion, was recruiting a lady, and Li Wei was fierce and sent his eldest daughter Li Caifeng, who was only 14 years old, to the Yu King's mansion to be a maid. But he did not want the helpless act of the mason to bring nearly a hundred years of glory and wealth to the Li family.
The Jiajing Emperor was originally a foreign king, and Emperor Mingwuzong died young and had no heirs, so at the suggestion of his ministers, Zhu Houxi, who was the King of Xingxian, was made emperor, which was the Ming Emperor Jiajing. The Jiajing Emperor reigned for 46 years and had 8 sons, but only 4 survived to adulthood. Of the 4 sons who survived to adulthood, 3 died before the Jiajing Emperor, leaving only Yu Wang, the only seedling. However, what is surprising is that King Yu not only has a weak personality, but also has no heirs at the age of nearly 30, which has become a heart disease of the Ming royal family.
After Li Caifeng, the daughter of the mason Li Wei, entered the Yu King's Mansion, she was assigned to be a close servant to Princess Chen. At this time, Princess Chen had never been pregnant after giving birth to a daughter, and was distressed by the lack of children. By chance, Yu Wang was fortunate to have a young servant, Li Caifeng. It was also fortunate that this little girl was lucky, and immediately became pregnant, and 10 months later gave birth to a son for King Yu, named Zhu Yijun, later Ming Shenzong (two years later gave birth to a second son for King Yu, Zhu Yijun, later King Lu). The Jiajing Emperor, who had not been in the dynasty for more than ten years, heard that he had an imperial grandson, and gave Li Caifeng's mother's 100,000 silks at one time, so that Li Wei's dilapidated house could not be stacked at all. Li Caifeng's mother, by virtue of her son Gui, was crowned as a concubine of the Yu King, and Li Weichen's daughter and grandson Guang were given the title of commander of the capital and bid farewell to the life of a mason.
Perhaps after Li Wei became the commander of the capital, it was reasonable to say that Feng Lu was enough for their family to live a good life. However, Li Wei cried out for poverty every day, and when he had time, he went to the Yu King's mansion, nominally to visit his daughter and grandson, but in fact to ask for a reward from the Yu King. At that time, Yu Wang was engaged in a fierce political struggle with the father and son of the first assistant Yan Song, and if there was time for Li Weila's family, it was nothing more than asking the steward to send some property to Li Wei. Li Wei's habit of asking his son-in-law for money continued until his death, so much so that the loyal and honest Ming Muzong got goosebumps when he heard that Wu Qingbo (i.e., Li Wei) had come to see him.
After Emperor Muzong ascended the throne as emperor, according to the official system of the Ming Dynasty, Li Wei, the abbot of the state, was crowned wuqing bo. Wu Qingbo is the number one foreign relative in the world, and those imperial relatives and state relatives naturally want to come to the palace to visit, who makes you highly respected! However, Li Wei was very afraid that his relatives would come to the palace as guests, because he would spend a lot of hospitality. So this miserly ghost ingeniously let the craftsman make some fruits with wax, which are usually placed on the table at home, and only when relatives and friends visit, they place a real fruit at the top of the fake fruit plate. In the face of such hospitality, what guest would stutter uninterestingly! Li Wei also built the garden in the mansion himself in order to save the craftsmen's wages. When he heard that the potted flowers in the mansion were bought by his son Li Gao for five or two silver pots, he picked up a wooden stick and chased after his son to make Li Gao return. Li Gao did not retreat, using the flower pot as a cover, Li Wei was reluctant to break the five or two silver pots of flowers, pointed at Li Gao and cursed, causing the servants to laugh.
After Emperor Mingzong Zhu Yijun ascended the throne, Li Caifeng was honored as empress dowager, and Zhang Siwei, a attendant of the ceremonial department, patted Li Wei's ass and said that Wu Qingbo should be crowned the Marquis of Wuqing. Li Wei didn't know anything about the difference between Bo and Hou, but he heard that Hou's Feng Lu was much taller than Bo, and his eyes were as wide as brass bells, so he waited for Zhang Siwei's good news. As a result, Libu reported that Li Wei was crowned marquis of Wuqing by the Imperial Court, but was suppressed by the first assistant Zhang Juzheng, on the grounds that according to the official system of the Ming Dynasty, the highest abbot could only be crowned as an uncle. Zhang Juzheng's political ally, the Grand Eunuch Feng Bao, advised Zhang Juzheng that appointing Li Wei as marquis of Wuqing was nothing more than spending a few thousand taels of silver a year, but it could reduce a political enemy (at this time, Zhang Juzheng was pursuing the policy of pepper and wood folding, which was criticized by many officials), and Zhang Juzheng did not listen. Li Wei deeply hated Zhang Juzheng and joined the camp of overthrowing Zhang Juzheng even more intensely.
In the eighth year of the Wanli Calendar, Wu Qingbo Li Wei obtained a large contract for the processing of 200,000 sets of cotton jackets by Wang Chongguang, the governor of Jizhou, through connections. Wang Chongguang did not dare to be sloppy, and allocated 200,000 taels of silver to Li Wei in the contract amount. As a result, Li Wei transferred the garment contract to a jiangnan profiteer at a low price of 50,000 taels of silver, and he himself fell on the benefits of 150,000 taels of silver. The profiteer cut corners and made cotton jackets from moldy cotton. As a result, when the cotton jackets were transported to the front line for the army to wear, they could not withstand the cold, and a heavy snow froze 19 soldiers. After the incident, the imperial court traced the head of Wu Qingbo Li Wei, although after Empress Li's deliberate arrangement, the blame was transferred to the head of the adulterous businessman. However, Empress Li, who had always been wise, still warned her father in the form of an edict not to engage in any more activities with the people to seize profits, and punished him for more than half a year. Li Weiping was the most greedy in his life, and he was scolded and did not tighten, and the fine would cost him his life. He did not dare to look for Empress Li's obscurity, and naturally recorded this account on the head of zhang Juzheng, the first assistant.
After Zhang Juzheng's death in the tenth year of the Wanli Dynasty, emperor Mingshenzong, under the guidance of Wu Qingbo and others, carried out a cruel liquidation of Zhang Juzheng and his family. Li Wei also received his coveted marquisate of Wuqing.
In 1585, the thirteenth year of the Wanli Calendar, Li Wei, the greedy and miserly Marquis of Wuqing, died at the age of 58. Under the protection of the Wanli Emperor, many of the Li family served as governors until the fall of the Ming Dynasty.