During the Wanli years, in order to select a suitable imperial prince, the Wanli Emperor ("Mingshenzong" Zhu Yijun) also struggled, and after fifteen years of long waiting, the eldest son of the Wanli Emperor, Zhu Changluo, finally became the crown prince.
However, one day in 1615, someone suddenly broke into the heavily guarded Forbidden City and prepared to beat the crown prince to death with a large wooden stick.
This is one of the famous "Three Cases of the Late Ming Dynasty": the Hammer Attack Case.
The strong man broke into the Crown Prince's East Palace and wanted to beat Zhu Changluo to death
On the evening of the fourth day of the fifth lunar month in the forty-third year of the Wanli calendar (1615 AD), a strong man carrying a jujube stick came to the gate of the Ciqing Palace in the Forbidden City, and broke into it without saying a word.
Seeing this situation, the eunuch guarding the door hurriedly stepped forward to block it, but unexpectedly, the strong man brandished the jujube stick in his hand, split his head and covered his face, and beat him indiscriminately, knocking the two eunuchs to the ground on the spot.
Then, the strong man broke into the palace with a wooden stick and went straight to the prince's place of residence.
At this time, the eunuchs in charge of guarding the prince rushed to hear the news and immediately surrounded the strong man, and because he was outnumbered, the strong man was eventually captured alive.
After interrogation, the strong man finally confessed: someone instructed him to break into the palace to assassinate the prince.
For such a big matter, the trial personnel did not dare to snub for a moment, so they immediately reported the case to the Wanli Emperor.
When he learned that someone was going to assassinate the crown prince, the Wanli Emperor was furious and immediately ordered a strict investigation to find out the initiator behind the case.
So, who was so bold and dared to send someone to assassinate the prince of the dynasty?
If we want to figure out this case, we have to start with the court infighting in the Mingshen Sect period to compete for the position of crown prince...
Wanli favors Concubine Zheng De, Ai Wu and Wu Pet Fu Wang
In the sixth year of Wanli, Wang was canonized as empress by the Wanli Emperor, but after three years, the empress did not give birth, and it was not until the ninth year of Wanli that she finally gave birth to the eldest daughter of the emperor.
At that time, Zhang Ju, the head of the cabinet, was in power, and when he saw that Empress Wang could not give birth to a boy, he immediately went to the people to select ladies with good morality and good family backgrounds for the Wanli Emperor, and wanted them to enter the palace to serve the emperor, so that a boy could be born as soon as possible.
Just when Zhang Juzheng was choosing young girls everywhere in the people, something happened in the palace...
One day, the Wanli Emperor came to the Cining Palace of his biological mother Empress Dowager Li, but coincidentally, Empress Dowager Li happened to leave at that time, and at this time, a palace maid surnamed Wang brought a basin of water and prepared to serve the Wanli Emperor to wash his hands.
On a whim, Emperor Wanli actually visited the palace queen in his mother's palace, and gave her a pair of jewelry before leaving.
Soon after, the palace maid found out she was pregnant.
When she learned that the palace maid beside her was pregnant, she was also surprised, and after asking carefully, she knew that the owner was her son Wanli Emperor.
Therefore, Empress Dowager Li called Emperor Wanli to her and asked him when this happened.
At that time, Emperor Wanli was quite embarrassed, after all, he took advantage of his mother's absence to be a palace maid by his mother's side, so he refused to admit it.
Seeing that her son denied it, Empress Dowager Li immediately ordered the eunuch to bring the emperor's "Notes on Internal Living".
[Note] - Inner living Note: refers to the emperor's life in the imperial palace. What the emperor did every day, the eunuchs who followed him would record one by one, including who the emperor had lucky, whether it was a palace maid or a concubine, all of them had detailed records.
Seeing that his mother took the "Inner Living Note" over, the Wanli Emperor had to admit it.
Unexpectedly, Empress Dowager Li was not only not angry, but also very happy, she said to Wanli Emperor: "Now that I am old, I have never had a grandson, if this palace queen clan can give birth to a son, it will definitely be a blessing for our Ming Dynasty!" ”
In fact, the reason why the Wanli Emperor was cunning at that time and refused to admit that he was lucky with the Wang family was partly because the status of the palace maid was very low, and he looked down on the palace maid in his heart, and on the other hand, because he was favoring a concubine surnamed Zheng, that is, "Concubine De".
And this concubine Zheng De was one of the nine concubines selected by Zhang Juzheng to help Wanli Emperor enter the inner palace.
Of course, it is not a bad thing that Wanli Emperor likes Concubine Zheng De, and the two were still in love at that time, and every day was like glue.
It was precisely because the relationship between the Wanli Emperor and Concubine Zheng De was particularly good at that time, so the Wanli Emperor was very unhappy about the pregnancy of the palace queen.
The reason is also very simple, Emperor Wanli is afraid that Concubine Zheng De will not be happy.
However, unable to resist the persuasion of his mother Empress Dowager Li, Emperor Wanli had no choice but to make the queen of the palace "Concubine Gong".
This happened in June of the tenth year of Wanli, and two months later, Concubine Wang Gong really gave birth to a baby boy, and this baby boy was Zhu Changluo, the eldest son of the Wanli Emperor.
I have to say that the Wanli Emperor is also quite strange, whether it is Empress Wang, who gave birth to the eldest daughter of the emperor, or Concubine Wang Gong, who gave birth to the eldest son of the emperor, he can't look at anyone, but he likes that Concubine Zheng De.
Therefore, soon after, the Wanli Emperor made Concubine Zheng De "Concubine De".
Since then, Concubine Zheng, who has always been favored, gave birth to a man and a girl, but the boy she gave birth to soon died.
On the fifth day of the first lunar month of the fourteenth year of Wanli, Concubine Zheng Defei gave birth to a son to the Wanli Emperor, and this son was Zhu Changxun, the famous "Fu King" of the Wanli dynasty.
Hundreds of officials of the imperial court fought for the "national foundation", and the Wanli Emperor "dragged the word"
Seeing that Concubine Zheng De had given birth to a son, the Wanli Emperor was very happy, so he immediately ordered Hubu to allocate 150,000 taels of silver from the treasury and hold a large-scale celebration in the country.
It was precisely because of the unusual behavior of the Wanli Emperor that the ministers unanimously agreed that this matter was very inappropriate: after all, who could be made crown prince for the son born to Concubine Wang Gong and Concubine Zheng De was now a question!
At the beginning, after Zhu Changluo was born, the entire palace was silent, but as soon as Zhu Changxun was born, the Wanli Emperor personally allocated silver and held celebrations.
The ministers must be thinking: Is the status of the eldest son not comparable to that of a small prince? So which one will the Wanli Emperor appoint as the crown prince?
Therefore, this involves a very serious problem - the dispute between the state and the capital.
The ministers of the DPRK were also divided into two factions, arguing and disagreeing for many years.
In fact, since the fourteenth year of Wanli, many ministers have tactfully reminded Wanli Emperor to make Zhu Changluo, the eldest son of the emperor, crown prince, but the ministers' suggestions have been rejected by Wanli Emperor under various pretexts.
It is not difficult to guess that the Wanli Emperor already has a candidate for the crown prince in his heart, and he just wants to make Zhu Changxun, the son of the sweetheart Princess Zheng Defei, the prince.
However, if he did, it would be equivalent to a waste of growth.
Everyone should know that in ancient feudal dynasties, "abolition of the elder and the young" was often the source of national turmoil.
Therefore, many ministers wrote one after another, hoping that the Wanli Emperor could quickly determine the position of the crown prince.
But no matter how much the ministers were neglected and advised, the Wanli Emperor always ignored them, and sometimes he was angry, and he would send those ministers who annoyed him to the frontier to fill the army.
Finally, the matter of establishing the crown prince made Empress Dowager Li unable to sit still...
One day, Empress Dowager Li asked Emperor Wanli: "I heard that the ministers all strongly demanded that the eldest son of the emperor be made crown prince, why didn't you agree?" ”
At that time, Emperor Wanli muttered and replied, "The son of the people of this capital!" (He's the son of a palace girl!) ）
Hearing Emperor Wanli say this, Empress Dowager Li was furious: "Don't forget, you are also the son of Duren!" ”
Seeing his mother make such a big fire, the Wanli Emperor was also frightened, and immediately knelt down and apologized to his mother.
The reason why Empress Dowager Li was so angry was because she herself was indeed a palace maid, and when she was pregnant, Emperor Wanli's father, Emperor Longqing, was only a prince (King Yu) at that time.
It can be seen that the Wanli Emperor's biological mother Empress Dowager Li was not even a formal palace maid at that time, but just an envoy girl in the royal palace, and it was precisely because she later gave birth to the emperor's eldest son Zhu Yijun that she was made a noble concubine.
If, according to the Wanli Emperor, the son of a palace girl cannot be a prince, then wasn't the Wanli Emperor himself not qualified to be a prince in the first place? Since he is not qualified to be a prince, it is even more impossible to be an emperor!
Therefore, under the severe reprimand of his mother Empress Dowager Li, Emperor Wanli finally did not dare to rashly make Zheng Defei's son crown prince.
However, for the establishment of the crown prince, the Wanli Emperor still dragged on, and never refused to make Zhu Changluo, the son born to Concubine Gong, the crown prince.
Until the eighteenth year of Wanli, the eldest son of the emperor, Zhu Changluo, was already 9 years old, and the ministers began to go up one after another, suggesting that Zhu Changluo be given a "departure ceremony".
【Note】——Exit ceremony: It is a etiquette for ancient royal children to receive the official education of the crown prince, and it is also the first step to becoming a prince.
Unexpectedly, the Wanli Emperor still used his "dragging technique", saying that it would not be too late to hold the ceremony when Zhu Changluo was 10 years old the following year.
As a result, it was not until the eldest son of the emperor, Zhu Changluo, was 13 years old that the Wanli Emperor reluctantly agreed to let Zhu Changluo hold an exit ceremony.
At this time, although Zhu Changluo was not officially made crown prince, he also took a difficult first step towards the position of crown prince, because this kind of exit ceremony can only be enjoyed by the crown prince.
Until the 29th year of Wanli, the Wanli Emperor still dragged on, and he refused to officially edict his eldest son Zhu Changluo as the crown prince.
At that time, the cabinet ministers also bitterly persuaded, unable to resist the pressure from the courtiers and the general trend, the Wanli Emperor finally had to compromise, so on October 15, the 29th year of Wanli, he issued an edict: Zhu Changluo, the eldest son of the emperor, was appointed crown prince.
This year, Zhu Changluo was 19 years old.
From the beginning of the fourth year of Wanli, the cabinet scholars proposed for the first time to make Zhu Changluo the crown prince, and it was not until October 15, the 29th year of Wanli that the Wanli Emperor agreed to establish Zhu Changluo as the crown prince, which dragged on for fifteen years, which shows that Zhu Changluo's road to the crown prince is also long and arduous!
The following year, Crown Prince Zhu Changluo held a wedding; Four years later, Wang Cairen in the imperial womb gave birth to his first son, and this child was the future "Emperor of the Apocalypse" Zhu Youxiao.
The unfavored crown prince does not have a high level of security
The birth of the eldest grandson of the Wanli Emperor made the dynasty celebrate at that time, and at the same time made the status of Crown Prince Zhu Changluo more stable.
Although he was appointed crown prince, the security work around Zhu Changluo has always been very weak, and there are not many full-time guards around him, and this situation provides the possibility of the future "Gang Attack Case"...
On the evening of the fourth day of the fifth month of the forty-third year of Wanli, a strong man carrying a jujube stick broke into the Ciqing Palace, where the prince lived.
At the first door, no one stopped him when he came in, and when he reached the second door, only two old eunuchs stood there guarding the door, and the two old eunuchs looked at the strong man's face, and just about to open his mouth to ask questions, he was knocked to the ground by the strong man.
Fortunately, the eunuchs in charge of guarding the prince heard that the movement was wrong, and hurriedly ran over, and finally joined forces to throw the strong man to the ground and arrest him.
After preliminary interrogation, the strong man confessed that his name was Zhang Cha, and he was instructed to break into the palace with the aim of assassinating the crown prince.
At that time, the interrogators suddenly found that Zhang Cha's gaze was a little dull, and his spirit seemed to have some problems, so he quickly reported the case.
When Emperor Wanli learned of this, he was angry and ordered that Zhang Cha be immediately handed over to the Three Laws Department for interrogation.
After the trial, the Three Laws Division was ready to sentence Zhang Cha to death on the charge of "crazy palace breaking".
Obviously, isn't such a judgment a big thing to a small one? Since it is said that he is crazy to break into the palace, then there will definitely be no instigator behind it, and the motive is unknown!
However, one of them, the head of the criminal department named Wang Zhiyu, felt that something was strange, so he observed Zhang Cha from a distance, and he found that Zhang Cha's spirit was actually quite normal.
At that time, the prison was opening a meal, Wang Zhiyu suddenly interrogated Zhang Cha, at first Zhang Cha refused to speak, Wang Zhiyu frightened him: "If you refuse to honestly explain, we will not give you food, let you slowly starve to death!" ”
Hearing Wang Zhiyu say this, Zhang Cha was afraid, so he quickly said that he wanted to confess.
Therefore, Wang Zhiyu asked all the miscellaneous people around him to retreat, and Zhang Cha explained truthfully...
Zhang Cha confessed that he was a native of Jixian and had been living without a livelihood since his father's death, and one day an old man who did not know his name and had no beard found him and asked him to do something for him, after which he could give him a few acres of land and some silver.
Therefore, Zhang Cha followed this old man to a large mansion in the capital.
After eating and drinking, another husband gave Zhang a jujube stick and said to him: "I'll take you to a place in a while, and when you get there, you will see one kill the other... Rest assured, we will definitely rescue you in the end and give you all the silver in the field! ”
As a result, Zhang Cha was led to the Ciqing Palace, and was eventually caught in an assassination attempt.
Zheng Guifei was involved, and Wanli father and son went into battle
The next day, when Zhang Wenda, the right attendant of the Criminal Department, interrogated Zhang Cha again, Zhang Cha went on to explain some more...
Zhang Cha said that the eunuch who had promised him land and silver was called Pang Bao, and the eunuch who later served him food and drink and gave him a jujube stick was called Liu Cheng.
In this way, the spearhead suddenly pointed at Zheng Guifei...
Because, Pang Bao and Liu Cheng are the trusted eunuchs in Zheng Guifei's palace!
After Zhang Cha's confession was spread, public opinion throughout the imperial court was in an uproar, and everyone unanimously suspected that Zheng Guifei was the mastermind behind this "attack case".
Faced with the pressure of public opinion at that time, Zheng Guifei came to the Wanli Emperor to cry, insisting that she was not the mastermind behind the assassination of the crown prince.
At that time, the Wanli Emperor looked at his beloved concubine and looked very embarrassed, so he suggested to Zheng Guifei: "Now, you still go to the crown prince to intercede first, and now you can't do anything!" ”
In desperation, Concubine Zheng had to come to Zhu Changluo and intercede, hoping that the prince could raise his noble hand.
Zhu Changluo thought that Concubine Zheng was a favored concubine in front of the emperor and could not be offended, so he also wanted to settle the matter, so he immediately went to ask Emperor Wanli to clarify right and wrong in front of all the ministers and close the case as soon as possible.
Therefore, the Wanli Emperor summoned the ministers of culture and martial arts in the Ciqing Hall and said to them: "Recently, a mad man broke into the palace and hurt people, which caused rumors inside and outside the imperial court to circulate, I love the crown prince very much, and the prince is also very filial to me, so don't mention this matter in the future!" ”
Therefore, Emperor Wanli decided to put Zhang Cha, Pang Bao, and Liu Chengdu to death, and the others should not be questioned again, so as not to harm the innocent.
In fact, the "innocent" in the mouth of the Wanli Emperor actually refers to his heart and liver treasure Zheng Guifei.
Soon, Zhang Cha was executed, but the crown prince Zhu Changluo was still very discerning, and he immediately went to the Qianqing Palace to meet the Wanli Emperor and said to his father: "Since Zhang Cha is a madman, then his confession must not be a basis, so we cannot sentence Pang Bao and Liu Cheng to death." ”
When the Wanli Emperor heard this, he thought that the crown prince was quite sensible, so he instructed the interrogators to treat Pang Bao and Liu Cheng leniently on the grounds of "framing the enemy" according to the prince's edict.
In other words: Zheng Guifei has nothing to do with this case!
After the case was publicly announced, the Wanli Emperor was afraid of the trouble, and immediately instructed his close eunuchs to secretly kill Pang Bao and Liu Cheng in prison, and then destroy the corpses.
Speaking of which, the question arises: Is the mastermind behind the "Strike Case" Zheng Guifei?
In fact, judging from Zheng Guifei's IQ at that time, it should not be her.
And the real mastermind is likely to be Pang Bao and Liu Cheng, two eunuchs, perhaps they are just to please their master Zheng Guifei, so they planned this assassination case on their own.
But what is the reason, we future generations can probably only rely on speculation!
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