Text: Peng Zhen (Columnist for Reading History)
For Emperor Mingguangzong Zhu Changluo, he was not only the most lucky emperor, but also the most unlucky emperor. Why?
For Zhu Changluo's father, the Wanli Emperor Zhu Yijun, Zhu Changluo's birth was a mistake in itself.
When Zhu Yijun was emperor, once, he was idle in the palace, so he went around the palace, when he saw those palace women, Zhu Yijun suddenly came to sex, he flirted with a palace girl with the surname of Wang, a little youthful, where the people's clan, into the palace for a few years, etc., and when he finished these gossip, Zhu Yijun was pampered by this palace girl.
For the consequences of this pampering, Zhu Yijun probably underestimated it - this palace girl was actually pregnant. When Zhu Yijun learned about this, he felt a little nesty, the palace lady surnamed Wang looked average, and her status was low, Zhu Yijun did not want to recognize this child, and at first she did not admit that there was such a thing. However, facts speak louder than words, whether you admit it or not, first, there are historical records as evidence, and second, at that time, Zhu Yijun also sent the royal palace women's relics to testify, and the two evidence corroborated each other, and Zhu Yijun of course could not resign.
It just so happened that the empress dowager was eager for her grandson, so she called Zhu Yijun to confront her, and when the empress dowager asked the palace woman if she was pregnant, Zhu Yijun still wanted to deny it, but she could not withstand the empress dowager's warning, and Zhu Yijun finally admitted that the child in the palace girl's belly was her own.
In this way, the palace lady gave birth to Zhu Yijun's eldest son, Zhu Changluo. Since Zhu Yijun did not like this child, Zhu Changluo's future was very bleak, because Zhu Yijun favored his Concubine Zheng at that time. Soon, Concubine Zheng Guifei gave birth to two sons to Zhu Yijun in a row, although one died prematurely, but Zhu Changxun, who survived, was born with a clear eyebrow and was very much loved by Zhu Yijun. Loving Wu and Wu, Zhu Yijun and Zheng Guifei made a poisoned oath that they would train Zhu Changxun to become a generation of emperors.
With this conspiracy, when Zhu Changluo was 12 years old, Zhu Yijun still did not make a prince, nor did he let Zhu Changluo study, he wanted Zhu Changluo to become an illiterate and drag him to death. But at this time, the ministers stopped doing it, as an emperor, the establishment of a prince is the foundation of the country, if you do not establish a prince for many years, it is equivalent to a big country without a foundation. So the ministers began to go up. Even Shen Shixing, the head of the cabinet who was usually calm and self-assured, could not hold his breath, and gave Zhu Yijun a favor and let the emperor establish a prince early to reassure the hearts of the people of the world.
But the emperor had his own emperor's idea, he did not want to make a prince, but wanted to make Zhu Changxun, the son of Concubine Zheng Guifei, the crown prince, as the crown prince, however, according to the Daming Patriarchal Law, the prince should first establish a concubine, and if there is no concubine, he should make an eldest son.
In this regard, the founding emperor Zhu Yuanzhang had already set an example for his children and grandchildren. Zhu Yuanzhang, in order to pass on the throne to his concubine, even after the death of his eldest son Zhu Biao, he still firmly passed the throne to zhu Yunjiao, the eldest grandson of the concubine, and did not pass the throne to other sons.
It can be seen that the Ming Dynasty at that time, passed down from the eldest son of the concubine, was a fundamental event of the country. Zhu Yijun did not make a prince because he wanted to achieve the goal of being able to establish Zhu Changxun.
However, if Zhu Changxun was directly made crown prince, the ministers would certainly not agree, and a great storm of crown prince would break out. Zhu Yijun is a smart person, and he wants to use drag to finally achieve his goal.
Dragging it around, Shin felt that he was no longer able to convince the emperor, so he threatened to resign. However, the emperor was not intimidated by Shen Shixing's resignation, but instead approved Shen Shixing's resignation request. Immediately afterward, Zhu Yijun immediately summoned Wang Xijue and made Wang Xijue the first assistant of the cabinet.
Zhu Yijun wanted to do whatever it took to pave the way for Princess Zheng Guifei's son, Zhu Changxun.
Zhu Yijun thought very beautifully, and used the delay method to delay time, but he ignored the beliefs of the ministers, so the ministers went up one after another and asked Zhu Yijun to quickly establish a prince and not shake the foundation of the country.
In the face of the clamor of so many ministers, Zhu Yijun thought of a clever trick, he told the first assistant Wang Xijue that he had already decided on the trick of the three kings and sealing them. What is the three kings and the crown, that is, to Zhu Changluo and the other three sons to be crowned king first, is there not still an empress now, if the prince is established now, then what if the empress has a son?
In fact, this strategy is to put it bluntly, that is, to exploit the loopholes in the law, and the ultimate purpose is undoubtedly to delay time. This clever trick, even the most intelligent Wang Xijue did not expect, but he listened to it reasonably and agreed to this condition.
The next day, when the idea of Zhu Yijun's three kings and sealing them reached the ears of the ministers, some ministers immediately saw through Zhu Yijun's plot, and now that Zheng Guifei had gathered thousands of favors, Zhu Yijun did not go to the empress's palace at all, how could he give birth to a concubine? Wang Xijue listened, felt that it was reasonable, and proposed his resignation to Zhu Yijun.
In the face of the resignation of the two cabinet chiefs, Zhu Yijun was still not intimidated and still insisted on his principles. Although the ministers were helpless, there were also intelligent people, and immediately, someone proposed that now the emperor's eldest son, Zhu Changluo, was 12 years old and should come out to study.
This trick is very clear, that is, through the way of reading, let Zhu Changluo embark on the path of the crown prince. This sonata is reasonable and moderate, Zhu Yijun insisted on seeing it again, and he felt inappropriate. Therefore, Zhu Yijun had to follow the request of the ministers and let the emperor's eldest son Zhu Changluo come out to study.
As soon as Zhu Changluo came out to study, the ministers could no longer control their emotions, and they repeatedly went to the book to make the crown prince.
Zhu Yijun could no longer delay, and in the twenty-ninth year of the Wanli Calendar, Zhu Yijun finally made Zhu Changluo crown prince.
Zhu Changluo's position as crown prince was really not easy, and more than a hundred officials in the imperial court were dismissed because of this.
Although Zhu Changluo was crown prince, the emperor still did not like him. Zhu Changluo's canonization should be extremely painful for Zheng Guifei. But now that she has come to this step, it is also difficult to change Zhu Changluo's status, and one move cannot be done, so she began to use cruel moves. After many attempts in front of the emperor, it felt that Zhu Yijun really did not have any good feelings for Zhu Changluo. In this way, a conspiracy to assassinate Zhu Changluo was born.
One day in the forty-third year of the Wanli Calendar, Concubine Zheng Guifei first hid a man named Zhang Cha in the palace, this Zhang Cha was a practitioner, strong in martial arts, bold, and a good assassin. At night, Zhang Cha was released, and Zhang Cha, relying on his own kung fu, took a wooden stick, beat him when he saw it, and ran straight to the Cining Palace where the prince lived.
As the saying goes, there are people outside the people, and there is a sky outside the sky. There were high-ranking people in the palace, and at the moment when Zhang Cha was about to break into the Cining Palace, a man named Han Benyong intercepted Zhang Cha's way, and after several rounds of fighting, Zhang Cha was unable to defeat Han Benyong, and was knocked to the ground by Han Benyong and captured alive. At this time, the palace was already full of people, and people tied up Zhang Cha at once.
Such a big thing happened in the palace, and the next day, the emperor organized a special case team to thoroughly investigate the case. Although the judge secretly protected Zheng Guifei and induced Zhang Cha's mouth to coax, Zhang Cha eventually revealed his two masterminds, the two eunuchs around Zheng Guifei, Pang Bao and Liu Cheng.
In this way, Zheng Guifei was in a very awkward position, and had to cry and hang herself in front of the emperor. The emperor originally did not like Zhu Changluo, and he secretly thought, this Zhang Cha was too incompetent, why didn't he kill Zhu Changluo?
Although I thought so, after all, things were too big, and the emperor could not influence the direction of this matter, seeing Zheng Guifei crying tightly, scolding in her heart, you stinky woman, how can you be so incompetent, even a person can't do it, make such an incompetent means to harm Zhu Changluo, don't you know that there are many masters in this palace. No matter how strong a Zhang Cha was in martial arts, how could he defeat the martial arts masters in the palace.
There was no way, this emperor could only comfort Zheng Guifei and say, since the matter has already come out, you admit it or not, the criminal bites you again, simply go to Zhu Changluo and admit your mistake.
With the support of the emperor, Concubine Zheng guifei no longer worried about this matter. She thought that if she went to find Zhu Changluo herself, Zhu Changluo would definitely hate her, and with her own ability, maybe things could be messed up. Concubine Zheng Guifei was worthy of being a wise person, and immediately thought of the emperor. She did everything in her power to coax the emperor to be happy, and she said that she was afraid that Zhu Changluo would not forgive herself and wanted to invite the emperor to go with her. The emperor was being coaxed by Concubine Zheng guifei to be happy, so he agreed to this matter.
As long as the emperor agreed, Zheng Guifei was afraid that the emperor would regret it, and wanted to go to Zhu Changluo immediately, but the emperor said that he could not go over, and Jun did not joke, so he took Zheng Guifei to Zhu Changluo's palace.
There was an emperor, and although Zhu Changluo did not say anything, he hated Zheng Guifei in his heart. Zheng Guifei stepped forward, with a smiling face, and timidly said to Zhu Changluo, "Prince, Zhang Cha's thing... Before she could finish speaking, Zhu Changluo said that he had heard that Zhang Cha had a mastermind behind him.
Seeing that things were about to be messed up, Zhu Yijun was still inclined to his wife in the end, so he said to Zhu Changluo, Son, you see that your stepmother is difficult to achieve this, can't you forgive her once? Human life is at stake, let alone the crown prince?
Zhu Yijun said just like this, a big case play. Zhu Changluo saw that the emperor's father had spoken, or favored Zheng Guifei's words, and immediately echoed the words, this matter, just turn the page and forget it.
With Zhu Changluo's understanding, the special case team gave a dead hand to Two of Zheng Guifei's eunuchs, Pang Bao and Liu Cheng, as well as Zhang Cha, and Putong Bao and Liu Cheng were executed, and Zhang Cha Lingchi was executed, and this big case ended in such a hurry.
After that, Zhu Changluo carefully and slowly survived for 5 years, until the forty-eighth year of the Wanli Calendar, Zhu Yijun died of illness, and Zhu Changluo stumbled to become emperor.
After twists and turns as a prince for so many years, today he finally has the day to come out, Zhu Changluo is like a poor man, suddenly made a fortune, this bitter and vengeful prince, even did not know what his surname was.
Zheng Guifei was not idle. Without the support of Zhu Yijun, Zheng Guifei was already yesterday's yellow flower, and she also had the crime of murdering the crown prince, in order to show friendship to Zhu Changluo, she threw herself into her favor and contributed 8 beautiful women in a row.
With these 8 beautiful women, Zhu Changluo relaxed his vigilance against Zheng Guifei, but felt that his stepmother was particularly concerned about himself.
In this way, Zhu Changluo lay in the harem, eating and drinking every day, and hollowed out his originally weak body, and these 8 beautiful women became the last straw that crushed the camel.
Within a few days of Zhu Changluo becoming emperor, people fell ill, and they were particularly serious. When Concubine Zheng Guifei saw that the opportunity to please came again, she quickly sent her confidant eunuch Cui Wensheng to see the emperor. This Cui Wensheng was just a eunuch, and he had no qualifications to practice medicine at all, and it was such a person who actually became a family doctor for Zhu Changluo, and this kind of behavior was strange even to the tai doctors.
After Dr. Cui's diagnosis and treatment and care, Zhu Changluo took his medicine, and he had diarrhea more than 40 times a day, which simply leaked out his bitter bile.
Seeing that the emperor's illness had worsened, the ministers pointed out that a person who did not have a medical license actually became a family doctor for the emperor, and this was not to murder the emperor.
Although everyone saw the seriousness of the problem, it was too late, the emperor's condition was serious, the doctors were frightened, and no one dared to see the emperor anymore. To treat a seriously ill emperor, the risk is too great, and if you don't get it right, you will lose your life.
Seeing that Zhu Changluo was cold there, but there were still bold people, and a man named Li Kezhuo in the palace offered a few red pill elixirs. Zhu Changluo ate one pill, and the person suddenly became mentally strong. Just as the ministers were rejoicing, Zhu Changluo was already glowing red, and the next night, he died.
Poor Zhu Changluo, before becoming emperor, had the best luck, no matter how many people wanted to murder him, including his father Zhu Yijun, they did not succeed, and after decades of being a prince, no matter how bumpy the road he walked, he finally became the emperor and became the supreme overlord of the whole world, but things must be reversed, good luck came to an end, and obscure luck also came.
In this way, Zhu Changluo had only been emperor for less than a month, and he hurried to see his father Zhu Yijun.