The opening is a bowl, the ending is a rope, this is the Ming Dynasty.
The Son of Heaven guards the gate of the country, and the king dies; there is no peace, no indemnity, no cession of land, and no tribute, this is the Ming Dynasty.
Zhilong Tang Song, far away from the Han Tang, which is also the Ming Dynasty.
The "four major cases of the Early Ming Dynasty" began in Huanghuang, and the "three major cases at the end of the Ming Dynasty" ended hastily, which was still the Ming Dynasty.
From this point of view, the Ming Dynasty is really a magical dynasty.
Today, we introduce three shocking mysteries that occurred in the late Ming Dynasty, spanning the three generations of Wanli, Taichang and Tianqi, in just four years, namely the three major cases of the strife, the red pill and the transfer of the palace.
The reason why it is called a mystery case is because these three cases have been repeated several times, but they all ended in a hasty end.
So, what is the historical truth of these three mysteries? Why are they called a sign of the decline of the Ming Dynasty? How did they influence the historical direction of the Ming Dynasty?
The first major case at the end of the Ming Dynasty: the case of the attack
The dispute between wives and concubines has existed since ancient times, and in the Forbidden City in the late Ming Dynasty, this struggle has risen to a new height.
The harem of the late Ming Dynasty tells you that the competition between the concubines is not a big deal, and the dispute between the crown princes, partisanships, and even human nature caused by the harem struggle is the biggest attraction.
First of all, let's talk about the causes of these three major cases - the attack case.
The beginning is naturally an unconventional dispute between queen concubines. During the reign of the Wanli Emperor (Emperor Mingshenzong), Concubine Zheng guifei was quite favored. This is also common for emperors, after all, in ancient times, which emperor has not had a favorite concubine?
But things are bad because of this grand favor, or how can there be a word called "pampering and arrogance"? After being favored, Princess Zheng Guifei is not only obsessed with the Jun'en in front of her, she also has to make plans for her future, how can she ensure that she can have long-term glory and wealth? Nature is that his own son can sit on the throne of the ten thousand.
However, at this time, the Wanli Emperor still had the emperor's eldest son Zhu Changluo under his knees, and if it was about the orderly growth and young age, there was little hope that Zhu Changxun, the son of Concubine Zheng Guifei, would be made crown prince.
Although there was an ancestral precept of "establishing an heir to establish a long", under the influence of the pillow wind, the Wanli Emperor also had the idea of making Chang Xun the crown prince, but this move was unanimously opposed by the courtiers, and they wrote to the emperor to request that the emperor's eldest son Zhu Changluo be made crown prince.
As a result, because the Donglin Party's support for Zhu Changluo was so strong, the Wanli Emperor had no choice but to respond to the request of his ministers to make Zhu Changluo crown prince and send his young son to the fiefdom of Luoyang, away from the political center of the Forbidden City.
Zhu Changluo stills
The dispute over the crown prince is over for the time being.
However, on the fourth day of the first month of May in the forty-third year of the Wanli Calendar (1615), a madman named Zhang Cha broke into Zhu Changluo's palace. It is strange to say that it is said that "if you want to do a good job, you must first use it", and if you want to assassinate the prince of a dynasty, can you not have a weapon in your hand? But this old brother did not take the usual road, and directly carried a jujube tree and broke in in a daze.
As a result, it is conceivable that in the three-step and one-step palace, the assassination plan of the mad man Zhang Cha ended in failure. At stake, Zhu Changluo did not dare to delay and hurriedly gave the matter to his father, the Wanli Emperor.
When the Wanli Emperor heard this, he assassinated the Crown Prince, which was a big deal and could not be sloppy, so he ordered the Punishment Department to interrogate the assassin Zhang Cha.
However, the results of the interrogations were astonishing.
To say that this is bad, we don't know if he is really crazy or fake crazy, in short, in the process of interrogation, his answer is upside down and vague.
When he was first interrogated why he wanted to break into the palace, he only said that it was for the purpose of "eating fasting and asking for a seal", and under the detailed interrogation of the Punishment Department, he learned that the cause was that Zhang Cha had a dispute with someone, and he felt that he had been wronged, so he planned to go to the DPRK to beat the drum and sound the injustice.
Unexpectedly, Zhang Cha met two men on the road, and when they heard Zhang Cha's plan, they lied to him that if they wanted to enter the palace, they needed credentials. Of course, this rule is dead, people are alive, as long as you hold a wooden stick, even if you have no credentials, you can enter the palace to seek justice.
Therefore, Zhang Cha believed it, so there was a scene that happened in the Ciqing Palace.
Although the crown prince Zhu Changluo was safe and sound, Zhang Cha injured the gatekeeper when he broke into the palace. Therefore, according to the Law of Daming, Zhang Cha's move belonged to the wounding of people in front of the temple, and it was considered the crime of beheading.
For the Ministry of Punishment, this is a simple madman who mistakenly broke into the palace door, as long as he was beheaded and shown to the public to make an example.
But Wang Zhiyu, the chief of the prison, does not think so, is it really a simple madman's redress?
Not necessarily.
First of all, since he is a madman, how can he know that he will enter the palace to seek redress when he encounters injustice?
Secondly, what was the identity of the two men who met each other, and what was the motivation for telling Zhang Cha that he could enter the palace with a wooden stick to seek revenge?
Again, how could a person who entered the palace for the first time so coincidentally find the Ciqing Palace where the prince lived in the palace lined with large and small halls?
Finally, the officials who had previously tried the case were all Zhejiang nationals, and Zheng Guifei was closely related to Fang Congzhe, the leader of the Zhejiang Party at the time, and the fairness of the interrogation results was questioned.
Therefore, Wang Zhiyu concluded that there was another hidden plot in this matter, and the matter was indeed as Wang Zhiyu expected, and under the coercion and inducement of Wang Zhiyu with the threat of "real Zhao and rice, if not invited, he starved to death", Zhang Cha finally told the truth.
It turned out that Zhang Cha was just an ordinary person who relied on chopping wood and hunting for a living, and a month ago, after he went to Jeju to sell the firewood and prey in his hand, he went to the casino on a whim.
Gambling on this kind of thing, as we all know, nine times out of ten lose, and Zhang Cha is naturally not spared, and he lost the money earned by hard work hunting and chopping wood.
Just when Zhang Cha was desperate, a eunuch approached him and said that he could give him the opportunity to make money, so Zhang Cha followed the eunuch to the capital. The eunuch took him to another old man, and after he had drunk enough to eat, the old man asked him to go to a place to fight and kill, and said, "Bumping into one and beating one, especially the yellow-robed person (Crown Prince Zhu Changluo) is a traitor, I want to beat him to death, kill me I can save you", and then gave him a wooden stick, took him outside the Ciqing Palace, and let him rush in to kill people.
As a result, the case of a madman holding a stick and mistakenly breaking into the palace door became a murder case of assassinating the crown prince, and the ministers were not calm, if the crown prince had an accident, then the vested beneficiary of the greatest interests was Zhu Changxun, the king of Fu, and the mastermind behind this matter must be inseparable from his birth mother, Zheng Guifei.
After a thorough investigation, the identities of the two fathers-in-law in Zhang Cha's mouth also surfaced, and it was The eunuchs Pang Bao and Liu Cheng under Zheng Guifei.
As a result, He Shijin, Wang Zhi, Zhang Wenta, and other ministers wrote letters one after another condemning foreign relative Zheng Guotai for harboring evil intentions and disturbing the imperial program.
This made Zheng Guifei panic greatly, and hurriedly cried and cried in front of the Wanli Emperor, asking the emperor to be the master for her, the Wanli Emperor had a headache, but still gave Zheng Guifei a chance to personally explain to the prince.
This old father had to protect Concubine Zheng Guifei, and Zhu Changluo, as a son, could only obey his father's wishes, because neither the emperor nor the crown prince was willing to investigate the matter deeply, and the assassination incident could be discussed as a mad adulterer, and the prisoner Zhang Cha was sentenced to ling chi.
According to the "First Dialing Zhi Shi", Zhang Cha said before his death: "Conspiring to do things, failing things, pushing me to death alone, and many officials did not ask about it." ”
Shortly thereafter, the Criminal Investigation Department, dali temple, and the Inspectorate of Supervision interrogated Pang Bao and Liu Cheng five times, but because the main witness Zhang Cha was no longer there, Pang Bao and Liu Cheng both denied that they were related to the case.
On June 1 of the same year, in order to avoid further twists and turns in the matter, Emperor Myeongshinzong secretly ordered the execution of Pang Bao and Liu Cheng, and deposed the presiding magistrate Wang Zhimi.
Yushi Liu Guangfu thought that Shenzong's move was too hasty, and protested in public in the imperial class, and Shenzong Longyan was furious and immediately ordered Jinyi Wei to put the staff on the staff.
When the courtiers saw this situation, even if they had doubts, they did not dare to show it, besides, the prince did not pursue it, and they still went forward to make a lot of effort, thinking that their lives were too long?
As a result, the sensational attack on the Forbidden City was hastily destroyed, and because the people involved in the case were wiped out, even if someone wanted to investigate, it was impossible to investigate.
Resources:
The Book of Stone
The End of the Chronicle of the Ming Dynasty
"First Dialing the Beginning"
The next issue: The Beginning of the Decline of the Ming Dynasty: The Red Pill Case of the Three Outstanding Cases of the Late Ming Dynasty
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