A "widow's gate" incident in the early Song Dynasty caused the two prime ministers to "leave class"

The heroine of this incident is the widow Chai Shi, who was originally the wife of the minister Xue Weiji. After Xue Weiji's death, in addition to his widowed wife, he also had two sons (not born of chai) Xue Anshang and Xue Anmin.

The Chai family has no children and no daughters, is young, and has a bad relationship with the Xue family brothers. Xue Weiji could barely get along when he was alive, and now that her husband was dead, she would definitely be abused by the two brothers. Therefore, Chai Shi thought of remarrying. In order to marry a good family, she secretly put away Xue Weiji's property and books as a dowry.

Although chai's abacus is loud, Xue Anshang and Xue Anmin are not stupid - you are going to remarry, and you still want to take away my family's property? The two ran to Kaifeng Province to sue Chai.

Originally it was just a civil dispute, but it did not expect to evolve into the zz incident of the Great Song Dynasty.

Although Chai was a widow, she was beautiful and in good shape, and Zhang Qixian, the head of the Zhongshu Province, was willing to become a receiver.

Although Zhang Qixian was a civilian official when he was young, he fought very bravely, personally led his troops to fight against the Liao state at its peak several times, and achieved outstanding results, which were highly appreciated by Emperor Taizong of Song and Emperor Zhenzong of Song. At this time, he was more than 60 years old, and he had entered the end of his official career, waiting for the glory of his career and the return of his hometown.

Why did he take a fancy to Chai? On the one hand, of course, it is because Chai's looks good, on the other hand, Chai's rich dowry also makes him salivate. Originally, it was a good thing to have both money and wealth, but it was destroyed because it was sued by the Xue family brothers.

Kaifeng Province is very embarrassed, on this side, xue juzheng, the grandfather of the Xue family brothers, is also the prime minister, Xue Weiji is also a heavy minister, the bones are not cold, and the Xue family brothers come to Kaifeng every day to urge the progress of the lawsuit. On the other side, zhang Qixian, who is highly respected and respected, does not dare to offend on both sides. Therefore, the Kaifeng government reported the case to Song Zhenzong.

As soon as Song Zhenzong saw the case file, his head was enlarged, and this matter was related to the two prime ministers, and making a big fuss would only affect the dignity of the imperial court. So he sent someone to ask Chai privately.

This Chai clan is also the king of the pit, she said that when the prime minister of the dynasty, Xiang Minzhong, took a fancy to himself and forced marriage through the Xue family brothers, and she would rather die than obey. Xiang Minzhong, resentful of his refusal to marry him, relied on his power to buy the Xue family's mansion at a low price, and instructed Xue An to sue himself.

Two current prime ministers, Zhang Qixian and Xiang Minzhong, are jealous of a widow, and where is the face of the imperial court? And Xiang Minzhong is the newly promoted prime minister!

Song Zhenzong knew that the two brothers of the Xue family were not angry, and he had issued a special edict ordering the two not to sell the Xue family's ancestral home. Xiang Minzhong had just become prime minister when he violated the law and discipline, and Song Zhenzong was angry and quickly summoned him to inquire.

Xiang Minzhong admitted that he had bought the ancestral home of the Xue brothers at a low price, but did not force marriage to the Chai family. He swore that his wife had just died, and he had no intention of remarrying, so how could he do something unfaithful to his deceased wife?

Song Zhenzong did not want to make a big deal out of it, and planned to make peace with the mud. But Chai Shi did not do it, and she once again complained to Yu Shitai and asked the imperial court to give an explanation.

Emperor Zhenzong of Song could only give Yu Shitai full authority. After the investigation of the Imperial Observatory, the problem was bigger:

First, xiang Minzhong's low-price purchase of the Xue family's ancestral home in violation of the holy will was exposed. And the claim that he was faithful to his deceased wife is also a lie. He not only forced marriage to the Chai clan, but also asked the granddaughter of the founding hero Wang Zhenqi and the sister of Wang Chengyan, the duke of The Horse, respectively, and the two families were already "secretly agreed, but not accepted"-that is, verbally negotiated, they sent a dowry gift.

When Song Zhenzong heard this, he exploded his lungs, and Xiang Minzhong even dared to deceive the emperor, which was a major crime of deception.

Second, it was found that Zhang Qixian was not clean either. Yu Shitai's investigation found that the complaints of Chai's several complaints were written by Zhang Qixian's son Zhang Zongzhi, and it was also Zhang Zongjie's idea to let Chai report to Minzhong. Without Zhang Qixian's nod, how could his son dare to give advice to Chai? Zhang Qixian was also inseparable from this matter.

Third, Chai also found many problems. Yu Shitai's investigation found that the Chai family had secretly hidden nearly 20,000 gold and silver treasures of the Xue family.

The enraged Song Zhenzong made the following verdict:

1. Zhang Qixian was relieved of his post as prime minister and demoted to Tai Changqing (太常卿) and sub-division Xijing (西京).

Second, Xiang Minzhong "reneged on his word to Yuan, and was self-ignorant of his subjects" and was demoted to the position of Hubu Waiter.

Third, Zhang Zongzhi was demoted to Haizhou Beichai.

Fourth, Xue Anshang sold the ancestral house against the holy will, was beaten a board, and ordered the house to be redeemed.

5. The gold pearl treasures secretly hidden by the Chai clan were used to redeem the ancestral home of the Xue family brothers.

This vigorous "widow's door" came to an end, the plaintiff and the defendant were two lines of tears, and the two prime ministers actually planted on the hands of a widow, which made people cry and laugh.