(Portrait of Zhu Jianshen)
In the first year of Chenghua, the newly enthroned Emperor Xianzong Zhu Jianshen had not yet had time to enjoy the joy of ascending to the ninth five-year throne, and an urgent fold from a hundred miles away was sent to his hand.
When the emperor opened the fold and looked at it, his head immediately grew a lot bigger, and it turned out that the people in the area around the DaTeng Gorge in Xunzhou, Guangxi, had launched a rebellion, and the momentum was huge, and they had already attacked many state capitals and cities one after another.
Comrade Zhu Jianshen did not eat dry food, and immediately decided to send troops to quell the rebellion.
It did not take long for the army to pull out Guangxi to quell the rebellion, because the rebel forces were not most of the people in Guangxi, but only some very few ethnic minorities.
The Ming Dynasty emphasized "yi to rule yi", which meant that leaders were selected among the local ethnic minorities to manage the local people.
Toast is the leader elected by the Ming government.
Unexpectedly, the toast comrades in Xunzhou, Guangxi, were not very peaceful, and the government trusted you and gave you power, and you actually dared to rebel.
Ji Yong is one of the rebel toasts.
After the Ming army quelled the rebellion, Ji Tusi died in the rebellion, although Ji Yong died, but according to the "Great Ming Law", most of the rebel family members were to be executed, Ji Yong had a teenage daughter, because the history books did not leave her name, we temporarily called her Ji Girl.
Ji Girl was very energetic, in good shape, and had a good temperament, so she was not executed, but was abducted by the Ming army back to the Forbidden City, and after several turns, she became an ordinary palace girl in the palace.
The family was destroyed, alone, uprooted, and fell into the palace.
This is the first impression that Ji Girl left on people.
Her past fate has come to an end from this moment, and her new life is about to begin at this moment.
If you think about it another way, in fact, Ji Girl's fate is OK.
Entering the palace as a palace maid is better than killing the head, and it is better than living on the street.
But in fact, the life of being a palace maid is not good.
Gongnu is a classical word, which translates in detail to mean: the woman who serves in the palace.
To put it bluntly, the palace maid is the subordinate, the subordinate is the slave, and as a slave, in the hierarchical Forbidden City, it is necessary to work.
Laundry and cooking, pavilion sweeping, day after day, year after year.
If that's all, then maybe Lady Ji spent her whole life as an ordinary palace girl who spent her life in the vast Forbidden City.
(Forbidden City)
But a sudden change completely changed the life of Ji Girl.
Because the length was really very good-looking, Lady Ji was actually blessed by Emperor Mingxianzong Zhu Mishen.
To speak well is to be lucky, but to speak badly is to be raped by the emperor.
You may think that this is a good thing, having a relationship with the emperor, can't you transform yourself into an emperor's woman?
Theoretically, this is indeed the case, but in fact, the emperor and Ji Girl finished sleeping, patted their butts and left.
Because there are too many women in the emperor, and there are too many women in the emperor's sleep.
The emperor cannot remember every one, and the emperor cannot reward every one.
Ji Girl became the forgotten person.
She only had a dewy affair with the emperor for one night, and was immediately abandoned by the emperor.
If that's all, it doesn't matter, there are thousands of palace women in the Forbidden City, some of whom have never even seen the emperor in their entire lives, but they can have such a love affair with the emperor, and Ji Girl is already satisfied.
But the god of fate made a joke with her again.
Soon after, Ji Girl became pregnant.
At this time, there may be another audience friend asking: Isn't it a good thing to be pregnant? Pregnant with the emperor's child, then the mother is expensive and has embarked on the peak of life?
If nothing else, I would love to wrestle with these readers who have always thought that What happened to Miss Ji is lucky and a good thing.
Don't look at other people's experiences from a personal perspective.
Some people think that sleeping with the emperor and conceiving the emperor's child is a good thing, because they covet glory, and they don't care.
But do everyone covet glory? Does everyone want to climb up the Forbidden City?
not necessarily.
Because people are not the same.
I prefer to think that Miss Ji is just an ordinary, generous and honest girl, and her biggest dream is only to hope to work hard in the palace, and then have food to eat, and live a plain life.
So was blessed by the emperor. Even pregnant with the emperor's child, for her it was not the god of luck that cared for her, but a green girl who had to endure great humiliation and pain.
Moreover, from the moment Ji Maiden became pregnant with the emperor's child, she was in an extremely dangerous situation.
At that time, in the harem, Wan Guifei's family was the only one, the emperor was exclusively favored, and the entire harem was basically her decision.
As soon as she heard that there was a palace maid in the palace who was actually pregnant with a dragon species, this would make her give birth, mix a concubine, and the mother would be expensive, so she had to get it?
Wan Guifei immediately decided to send someone to an abortion for Ji Girl and strangle the child in her stomach.
(The image of Wan Guifei in the film and television drama)
The person who was sent to perform an abortion on Lady Ji was an unremarkable palace girl under Wan Guifei's hands.
To what extent is it unremarkable?
Looking through the history of The Ming Dynasty, I can't find out the age of this palace girl, whose surname is even the name, and all the impressions she has left on people are two words: palace girl.
But it was this palace girl, when she saw the Ji girl whose lower abdomen was already slightly bulging, she suddenly had a heart of compassion,
This lonely and nameless palace girl made a bold decision, and she planned to help Ji Girl keep the child.
Therefore, she not only did not give Ji Girl an abortion, but instead deceived her master when she returned to the courtesy.
She told Wan Guifei that Miss Ji did not suspect it, but only had a sarcoma in her stomach.
The record of this palace lady in history came to an abrupt end, and there was no more news.
There is no way to know what kind of person she was before, nor to know her fate in the future.
But what we can know is that she is a good person.
A good man who saved a life in a single thought.
The child was saved and secretly born.
Is a healthy baby boy.
But the paper could not contain the fire, and soon, Wan Guifei knew that Ji Girl was pregnant and gave birth to a baby boy.
So Comrade Wan Guifei sent his men again, demanding that Ji Girl be directly found and that the baby boy who had just been born be killed.
This time, Wan Guifei learned well, and she thought that the palace maid was easy to empathize with Ji Girl, and it was not very reliable, so this time she sent a eunuch.
The eunuch's name was Zhang Min.
Because Comrade Zhang Min's name is more feminine, every time I tell this history, many readers will mistakenly think that he is a woman.
But fortunately, Comrade Zhang Min has a word, a word too virtue, so we temporarily call him Zhang Taide.
Comrade Zhang Taide took the task from Wan Guifei's hand and set off, but when he arrived at Ji Girl's residence, he saw the innocent baby boy and felt pity.
This baby boy has red lips and white teeth, is young and cute, and Zhang Taide really can't get his hands on it.
Zhang Taide also decided to take a risk.
He intended to save the baby boy's life.
So he, like the palace maid before him, chose to deceive Wan Guifei.
He told Wan Guifei that the baby boy had been killed by himself.
It's a risky and mysterious thing.
Because Wan Guifei won the favor of the emperor alone, she held the power of life and death of the entire palace.
Moreover, Wan Guifei's temper was very bad, and if the people who served her were slightly negligent, their lives would be gone, not to mention Zhang Taide, who had told a big lie to Wan Guifei?
But the brave eunuch had already decided to bet his life for the baby boy's peace.
Therefore, Zhang Taide helped Ji Girl and hid the baby boy in a dark room deep in the harem.
(Zhang Tide's image in film and television dramas)
The hiding career of the baby boy began.
He could not see the light twenty-four hours a day, and could not go outside, but Ji Girl and Zhang Taide would often come to see him.
Sometimes he was brought a piece of cooked vegetable leaf, sometimes half a bun, sometimes half a piece of rock sugar.
But baby boys who grow up day by day not only need to eat and drink, but also need other nutritional supplies.
The meager salaries of Ji Girl and Zhang Taide could not afford the growth of this child.
The clever Zhang Taide soon found a person, and this person was Empress Wu.
This empress was once the emperor's legitimate wife, but because she was not in harmony with Wan Guifei, she was directly deposed by the emperor.
Empress Wu was a kind person, and after she learned of this incident, she took the initiative to take on the responsibility of taking care of the baby boy.
After that, more and more palace ladies and subordinates joined the ranks.
They have given up their own ability, rich to give money, powerful contribution, nothing, leisure time, to sing a small country song to this baby boy.
And so, a miracle happened.
The Forbidden City is hierarchical and brutal.
People stomp on people, people kill people, people eat people.
In this endless hell, a group of palace women and eunuchs living at the lowest level gambled their own lives to feed a baby boy who had nothing to do with them.
Because this kind of behavior of theirs is undoubtedly rebellious to Wan Guifei, once the matter is revealed, they will all die without a place to bury.
They don't seek fame, they don't seek profit, they want nothing else, they just hope to give their share of strength to give this poor child a chance to live.
For six years, the baby boy lived under the protection of these palace maids and eunuchs.
Together, they deceived Wan Guifei.
These palace ladies and eunuchs understood that in this long and deep palace, they were destined to live a miserable life, unless they died, they would no longer have hope, but this child was different, he was the emperor's bloodline, and his future must be more than this.
And for the sake of this child, these inferior people who were born with a low life are willing to give everything.
But as this child grows up day by day, where does his future fall?
He had never stepped out of that deep, dark room, and he didn't know what the outside world was like.
For this child, the world is a darkness.
And how long will such a day last?
Is this child going to live in this little room for the rest of his life?
(Corner of the Forbidden City)
In the eleventh year of Chenghua, everything is about to change.
Emperor Xianzong Zhu Jianshen had been in power for many years, and time slipped away from his fingers like a white colt, and Zhu Jianshen looked at himself in the mirror and had long lost the heroic appearance of his youth, and had turned into an old man with two sideburns and slight frost.
The eunuch Zhang Taide was combing the emperor's complicated and dense hair, with white hair in the black hair, and the emperor sighed repeatedly: I am very old, but I do not have a son.
Of course, the emperor was just a sigh, because the emperor had sons, but the emperor's sons either died early or were in the domain, and none of them made Zhu Jian deeply like.
Zhang Taide's hand combing his hair stopped, he knew that this moment would come sooner or later.
He was about to face the most important decision of his life.
Do you continue to hide the truth of the matter, or do you tell the emperor everything?
Zhang Taide did not hesitate, swooped down and knelt down in front of the emperor, and then said this:
"Capital offense, long live the son also." - "The Biography of Ming Shi Houfei"
Zhang Taide told the emperor that you have a son, who we have been secretly hiding in the palace, and is already six years old this year.
The emperor was overjoyed and immediately sent someone to the harem to pick up the child.
All the dust settles.
Zhang Taide was relieved.
He understood that as long as he told the emperor the truth, it meant that he had no way back.
His own deception of Wan Guifei will be made public, and Wan Guifei, who has always been vicious, will certainly not let herself go.
But Zhang Taide did not regret it, he was already satisfied.
The news that the emperor was coming to send someone to pick up the child spread throughout the harem.
Everyone was happy.
Because the children they raise finally no longer have to hide, they can finally get ahead.
The happiest of course is The Girl Ji, who is the mother of the child.
She stroked the child's face over and over again, over and over again.
Because the sun had not been seen for many years, the child was pale and had no trace of blood.
Unkempt, simply inhuman.
She knew that this might be the last time she would see herself and this child.
Because Wan Guifei, who knows the truth, will certainly not let herself go.
So she told this child in a serious voice: Live well, and your mother will always love you.
Then the child was picked up.
Mother's love is selfless and great, and family affection is immortal.
Soon after, the child was officially made crown prince, and Ji Girl was given the title of Lady Shu for her meritorious birth to the imperial heir.
But everything did not usher in a great consummation.
A few months later, Ji Girl died in the palace, the cause of death is unknown.
Zhang Taide committed suicide by swallowing gold on a cold morning, and the reason is unknown.
But it is not difficult for us to imagine that as the initiators of hiding children, Ji Girl and Zhang Taide must have been subjected to crazy retaliation from Wan Guifei.
Their deaths must have nothing to do with Wan Guifei.
This great mother worked hard to raise the child, but she did not even have a real name left in the history books.
Zhang Taide, a eunuch who sacrificed his life to protect his children, did not have any great achievements in his life, and no one will remember him after his death.
If it were not for this article, many people might not have known that such a eunuch once existed in the Ming Dynasty.
The palace ladies and eunuchs who had directly or indirectly helped the child did not deserve even the story.
We can only remember that there was such a group of people, and we don't know who this group of people are and what they are called.
They are the ones who really deserve to be remembered.
The Emperor Will, the Emperor of The Thousand Autumns, is nothing in front of this group of people.
And that's why I love history.
Just like the Ming history writer Mingyue once said: (Roughly speaking, I forgot the specific content)
Because I always believe that under the history of cruelty and ruthlessness, full of killing and conquest, and bloody slaughter, the goodness and brilliance of human nature will always exist.
It is precisely because of this goodness of human nature that this child, who was once born like a wild dog and grew up like a wild dog, finally became the crown prince step by step, and finally inherited the throne.
(Ming Xiaozong, Zhu Youfan)
This child was the ninth emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Xiaozong of Ming.
In the twenty-third year of Chenghua, Emperor Mingxianzong Zhu Jianshen died, and in the same year, Zhu Youfan changed his name to Yuan Hongzhi and ascended the throne.
This child, who pinned on everyone's dreams and hopes, has finally become a generation of supremes.
And in the future, he will lead the people of the Ming Dynasty, the Wen and Wu people, to sail the giant ship of this dynasty to a farther place.