In the long history of China, there are many emperors, all of whom have three palaces, six courts and seventy-two concubines. In fact, many emperors were far more than these women, like Sima Yan, the Emperor of Jinwu, and his harem was tens of thousands of beautiful women. However, there was also an exception to the emperor, he was Emperor Xiaozong of Ming, Zhu Youfan, the ninth emperor of the Ming Dynasty, who after taking the throne, worked hard to reverse the corrupt situation of the government during the reign of Emperor Xianzong, expelled the traitors, worked diligently in government affairs, exerted great efforts to govern, expelled the traitors in the palace, and made the Ming Dynasty rise again and appear prosperous, known in history as "Hongzhi Zhongxing". Unfortunately, he died young due to illness at the age of 36. The reason why he only has a wife is related to his tragic experience when he was a child, and some people may feel strange that he is the son of the Great Ming, and when he was a child, he was the Prince of Daming, how could he experience misery? The story also begins with Emperor Xiaozong's grandfather, Ming Yingzong.
During the reign of Emperor Mingyingzong, the Mongols invaded the territory of Daming, and Emperor Mingyingzong personally marched at the instigation of the great eunuch Wang Zhen, and as a result, the entire army at Tumu Fort was destroyed, and even Emperor Yingzong was taken prisoner. At this time, the capital was in chaos, fortunately under the auspices of the famous minister Yu Qian, it settled down, because Emperor Yingzong's son Xianzong was still young at that time, the ministers elected Emperor Yingzong's younger brother, Zhu Qiyu the Prince of Qi, to succeed him, which was Emperor Mingjing, and after Emperor Jing succeeded to the throne, because the foundation was unstable, he promised that Emperor Mingxianzong, the son of Emperor Mingyingzong, would still be the crown prince. And Emperor Jing reused Qian, and under the leadership of Yu Qian, the Ming army repelled the invasion of Wa Thorn. At that time, Ming Yingzong's mother saw that Ming Xianzong was still young, so she sent her personal servant, a girl surnamed Wan, to take care of Xianzong.
A few years after the Tumubao Incident, Emperor Mingjing, under pressure from his ministers, had no choice but to take Ming Yingzong back to China, but Emperor Jing took strict care of Yingzong and actually imprisoned Him. With the consolidation of Emperor Mingjing's position, he began to plan to replace the crown prince, under his efforts, he made his own son crown prince, and deposed Ming Xianzong's position as prince, at this time, the people who originally followed Ming Xianzong took up the burden and left, and drew a line with Ming Xianzong, because everyone knows that at this time, there is definitely no good fruit to eat with Xianzong, and it is not good to take care of his own life, only the ten thousand surnames sent by the empress dowager have always been inseparable from Ming Xianzong, and follow xianzong to take care of his daily life. And constantly comfort and encourage him, it is also under her careful care that Ming Xianzong has the courage to live, and see the truth in hardship, that is, at this time, Ming Xianzong and Wan Xianzong established sincere feelings and remained unswerving until death (although Wan Guifei was more than ten years older than Ming Xianzong).
Although Emperor Mingjing's abacus was very good, an accident still occurred, and his only son (who had been made crown prince at that time) fell ill and died! At this time, the ministers proposed to re-establish the constitutional emperor as the crown prince! This was the result that Emperor Jing would never allow it to appear, and in the process of stalemate with his ministers, Emperor Ming Jing was furious and attacked, and he fell seriously ill and could not manage the government. At this time, several ministers who were dissatisfied with Emperor Mingjing took the opportunity to plot a conspiracy to re-establish Emperor Ming Yingzong and depose Emperor Mingjing. Shortly after Emperor Mingyingzong's restoration, he sent men to kill emperor Mingjing, who was seriously ill. The regime finally returned to the hands of Emperor Ming Yingzong, who restored Emperor Mingxianzong as crown prince.
After the death of Emperor Mingyingzong, Emperor Mingxianzong successfully succeeded him and became emperor, and after he succeeded to the throne, he established wan surname as a noble concubine, which was Wan Guifei. Ming Xianzong was very fond of Wan Guifei, and after Wan Guifei gave birth to a son for her, Ming Xianzong even prepared to make this child the crown prince. Unfortunately, this child died shortly after birth, and wan guifei lost her fertility forever due to her old age. Although Ming Xianzong liked Wan Guifei very much, he was the emperor after all, and there were still many women in the palace, but the strange thing was that other concubines had never given birth to children for Ming Xianzong, what was the reason for this? It turned out that as long as she heard the news that the concubines were pregnant, Wan Guifei would send someone to force these pregnant concubines to have an abortion, but Ming Xianzong had always been kept in the dark.
One day, some people were selected from among the prisoners of war in the south, and the male castrated and sent to the palace as a eunuch, and the female was sent to the palace as a palace maid, and a girl with the surname Ji was sent to the palace to take charge of the inner treasury, that is, the emperor's private money. One day, the emperor ran to Neiku to inspect the work, and this Ji girl was responsible for the reception, and her humble attitude made Ming Xianzong extremely appreciative, so on the same day, Ming Xianzong favored this Ji girl. Soon after, Lady Ji became pregnant, and Wan Guifei, who received the news, sent her men to prepare to dispose of the child. After Wan Guifei's subordinate found Ji Girl, she coldly looked at Ji Girl's bulging belly and said, "You are just sick, so rest well." After returning to Wan Guifei, this subordinate also reported to Wan Guifei that under the protection of this kind palace girl, Ji Girl gave birth to a child smoothly, and this child was the later Ming Xiaozong Zhu Youfan.
Although Ji Girl gave birth to a child, but she was not able to support this child, at this time, other palace girls have reached out to help Ji Girl, but these palace girls themselves have no money, if there is no other assistance, this child may also die. At this time, Zhang Min, a eunuch who served Ming Xianzong at Ming Xianzong's side, learned of this news, and he took out his savings and gave them to the palace ladies to raise the child. With the help of these caring people, this unfortunate and fortunate child grew up day by day, but his father, Ming Xianzong, was never aware of his existence. Until one day, Ming Xianzong, who was already in his thirties, looked in the mirror and sighed: "I already have white hair, how come I don't have a son yet." At this time, Zhang Min happened to be serving him at Ming Xian's side, and Zhang Min hesitated whether he should tell the truth to Xianzong, because he knew that if he told the truth, he would definitely die soon, and finally Zhang Min still made his own decision: tell the truth to Ming Xianzong! Knowing the truth, Emperor Mingxianzong was overjoyed and sent someone to take Zhu Youfan into the palace. Shortly after Zhu Youfan entered the palace, Zhang Min committed suicide by swallowing gold, and shortly after Zhang Min's death, Ji Guifei also died inexplicably, and everyone knew who the murderer was, but everyone could do nothing.
At this time, Ming Xianzong's mother (empress dowager) saw that the situation was not good and quickly sent someone to take Zhu Youfan to her side. In this way, Wan Guifei was not good at attacking Zhu Youfan for a while. One day, Princess Wan Guifei invited Zhu Youfan to a banquet, and the clear-eyed people knew that this was a banquet at the Hongmen Gate, and the empress dowager quickly ordered Zhu Youfan not to eat anything after going to the banquet, saying that she had eaten enough at the empress dowager's place, and Zhu Youfan agreed and went to the banquet. When Princess Wan Guifei saw Zhu Youfan coming, she warmly invited him to dinner, and Zhu Youfan quickly responded with the words taught by her grandmother: I have eaten enough at the empress dowager's place. Wan Guifei looked at it and changed her strategy and said, "Since you have eaten enough, let's drink some soup!" Zhu Youfan listened for a moment, this empress dowager did not teach me how to say. Wan Guifei urged Zhu Youfan to drink the soup quickly, zhu Youfan of course did not dry, he came to a sentence: "I am afraid that the soup is poisonous!" Wan Guifei listened, her face changed drastically, she packed up her things like a deflated leather ball and dissolved the banquet, and the conspiracy became a conspiracy, what is the meaning!
From then on, Wan Guifei no longer cared about Ming Xianzong's private life, and Ming Xianzong took the opportunity to become more and more courageous in the vietnam war, and let several concubines give birth to children for him, which washed away his notoriety of inability to have children in one fell swoop. As Zhu Youfan grew older, Wan Guifei was worried that he would retaliate against him, so she tried to depose Zhu Youfan as crown prince. At this time, Emperor Mingxianzong already had other sons, and coupled with the fact that he loved Wan Guifei very much, he decided to listen to Wan Guifei's advice and prepare to depose Zhu Youfan as crown prince. At this moment, the news of the Taishan earthquake came! At that time, people were still very superstitious, and Ming Xianzong thought that this was a warning from heaven to him that he wanted to abolish the prince, and he thought about it, and his wife could not afford to offend the heavens, so he dispelled the idea of abolishing the prince. After Wan Guifei failed again, she completely collapsed, her body deteriorated day by day, and she died of illness soon after. After the death of Wan Guifei, Ming Xianzong was devastated and died of illness more than a year later, and Zhu Youfan succeeded to the throne smoothly, probably because of Zhu Youfan's tragic childhood experience, he only married one wife after becoming emperor, and he worked hard after his reign to promote Daming.
Author: Rainy Night Reading History
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