In the last years of the Ming Dynasty, mysterious cases appeared frequently. In ancient times, the royal family generally established the eldest son born to the empress as the crown prince, which was a continuation of the primogeniture system. However, during the Wanli period, the dynasty was desolate, and the way of handling affairs was different from that of the previous dynasty.
During the Wanli period, the empress had no children, and the court shouted that the elder Zhu Changluo was crown prince, but Zhu Changluo's mother had a low status, and he was the oldest as a son. According to the primogeniture system, Zhu Changluo should have successfully inherited the throne, but he had no background, and the favored Zheng Guifei frequently said long and short things to the emperor.
Concubine Zheng wanted to make her son Zhu Changxun crown prince, and the Wanli Emperor favored Zhu Changqun, which was justified as the eldest son. However, the Wanli Emperor faced pressure from his courtiers, and the succession of the crown prince was delayed. After a few years, the Wanli Emperor could not withstand the pressure of hundreds of officials, followed the rules set by his ancestors, and canonized Zhu Changluo as the crown prince. However, in order to allow her son to ascend the throne, Zheng Guifei made a request to Zhu Changluo, forbidding him to leave the capital in an attempt to find an opportunity to frame Zhu Changluo.
The court was calm on the surface, but the appearance of a man shattered the tranquility. On the fourth day of May 1615, a man broke into the palace and knocked down the old eunuch guarding the door with a wooden stick, in an attempt to enter the prince's palace to commit murder. Fortunately, Zhu Changluo closed the door in time and avoided a disaster. Later, guards and eunuchs subdued the perpetrator, who was the Assassin.
When interrogating the Assassins at first, he reversed his words in an attempt to pretend to be a fool in order to muddle through. The preliminary trial found him a fool. However, the emperor was dissatisfied with the outcome of this trial and ordered the interrogation to continue, but the result was diametrically opposite, finding that the Assassin had been wronged and had been deceived into entering the palace by mistake. This aroused the suspicion of many officials, who believed that there was a hidden truth behind the assassin case, pointing the finger at Zheng Guifei.
It is speculated that Zheng Guifei manipulated the incident with the intention of usurping Zhu Changluo's crown prince status. The Assassin Zhang Cha remained in prison. Under the coercion and lure of the Criminal Department, Zhang Cha finally told the truth and revealed the truth of the conspiracy behind the scenes. It turned out that Zhang Cha was introduced to the capital, promising a field for him to carry out his mission, and at the same time promising to save him afterwards. So, there was that scene of the shooting of the prince's residence. The Criminal Department immediately reported the results of the interrogation to the emperor. The emperor noticed that something was wrong and ordered the officials to interrogate Zhang Cha again to absolve him of his guilt and let him expose the mastermind behind the scenes.
In the end, Zhang Cha exposed the eunuchs Pang Bao and Liu Cheng under Zheng Guifei. However, the problem arises, these two eunuchs are not high-status, and there must be other people behind the scenes. It was rumored in the imperial court that Concubine Zheng wanted to murder the crown prince to facilitate the succession of her son Zhu Changxun. However, although these rumors are widely circulated, they cannot be confirmed by human and physical evidence. Feeling frightened and uneasy, Concubine Zheng pleaded with the Wanli Emperor. In the end, the Wanli Emperor asked Zheng Guifei to personally apologize to the crown prince, and the crown prince Zhu Changluo also forgave Zheng Guifei.
The main perpetrators were executed, the eunuch Pang Bao was secretly executed, and the case of the attack finally came to an end. It is no longer possible to verify whether the attack case is related to Zheng Guifei and whether there are other hidden truths. Although there is no conclusive evidence, I believe that there is an inextricable link between the attack case and Zheng Guifei.
#历史开讲#