As we all know, the longest reigning emperor of the Ming Dynasty was the famous Wanli Emperor, and many people know about the Wanli Emperor Zhu Yijun because of Mr. Huang Renyu's "Fifteen Years of wanli". So do you know which emperor of the Ming Dynasty reigned the shortest time? He was the son of Wanli, Zhu Changluo of the MingGuang Sect.
The Wanli Emperor reigned for a total of forty-eight years, but his son Zhu Changluo, who only served as emperor for thirty days, died suddenly at the age of 39, becoming the shortest-reigning emperor in the entire Ming Dynasty.
Zhu Changluo died violently within thirty days of his ascension to the throne, and the government and the opposition were shaken, which also led to a major mystery in the history of the Ming Dynasty - the Red Pill Case.
Emperor of the Ming Dynasty
The origin of the red pill case is because Zhu Changluo's death is not unrelated to a red pill offered by Li Kezhuo, an official of the Hongxu Temple, and why did this mysterious "red pill" cause Zhu Changluo to suddenly die violently? What is the so-called red pill?
Some people say that Zhu Changluo was the saddest emperor in the history of the Ming Dynasty, not only because he was only the emperor for thirty days, but more importantly, because he stayed in the position of prince for nineteen years. Of course, as we mentioned earlier, the Wanli Emperor reigned for forty-eight years, and the crown prince generally had to wait until the death of his father, which was normal.
However, Zhu Changluo, the prince, deserved to be very uncomfortable, not like ordinary people imagine, the prince is the stars arching the moon, one person below ten thousand people. When Zhu Changluo was the prince, he could be described as "a man with his tail between his legs".
Why? Because the Wanli Emperor was not at all satisfied with this son, he could even be described as disgusted. Zhu Changluo's birth was just an accident for Wanli.
In 1581 AD, the Wanli Emperor went to the Cining Palace to visit his mother Empress Li, the empress dowager was not there at the time, a palace maid surnamed Wang took over, Wanli was only 18 years old at the time, flesh and blood, seeing that the palace girl in front of him seemed to look very good, Se Lingzhi fainted, and fortunately blessed this girl on the spot.
Generally speaking, the palace maid who was fortunate to be blessed by the emperor was likely to be assigned a name, but Wanli found out afterwards that this palace girl was not his favorite type, so he quickly forgot about it. Soon after, Lady Wang was pregnant, and Empress Li discovered this matter and went to find Wanli, who at first did not want to admit it, but because this kind of thing would be recorded by the eunuch, she finally denied it but had to admit it.
Although Wan Li was reluctant, Empress Li was very happy, because she had long been looking forward to holding her little grandson. Soon after, the palace lady gave birth to a boy, this child, that is, Zhu Changluo.
Therefore, Zhu Changluo's birth was just an accident for Wanli, he did not like Zhu Changluo's mother, so he was also more resistant to Zhu Changluo, but in any case, Zhu Changluo was his eldest son, which was an ironclad fact.
The identity of the eldest son of the emperor, as everyone knows, if there is no accident, is the future heir to the throne, but Zhu Changluo, the eldest son of the emperor, is very embarrassed. First of all, Wanli did not like this son, and secondly, Wanli was very fond of Zheng Guifei and promised Zheng Guifei that zhu Changxun, whom she had born, would be crown prince, which also triggered a fifteen-year-long "dispute over the foundation of the country".
The chancellor and the empress dowager demanded that the eldest son Zhu Changluo be made crown prince according to the ancestral system, but Wanli and Zheng Guifei wanted to bypass the constraints of the etiquette law and make Zhu Changxun crown prince, and this "dispute over the foundation of the country" finally ended with the Wanli compromise, and in 1601, the 19-year-old Zhu Changluo was officially made crown prince.
However, even if he became the prince, Zhu Changluo's life was still not very good, in the face of the indifferent Wanli, Zhu Changluo always had a feeling of being on the verge of the abyss and walking on thin ice, afraid that if there was a slight difference, he would be deposed by Wanli as the prince. At the same time, Zheng Guifei has always been eyeing him and has never died.
In 1615, Zhu Changluo also underwent an assassination campaign against him, and various evidence suggested that this was a conspiracy secretly instructed by Concubine Zheng Guifei to attempt to take the concubine, but because of Wanli's protection, things were best not resolved. Therefore, Zhu Changluo, the prince, should not only be extremely depressed, but also worry about it all day long.
This oppressive life finally ended in 1620, and in July of that year, Wanli died, and Zhu Changluo, who had survived the crown prince's throne for nineteen years, finally ascended to the throne.
Perhaps it was suppressed for too long, and Zhu Changluo, who had ascended to the throne, finally had a feeling that he could be completely released, and he decided to let go of himself. Zheng Guifei, who had already made a success or failure, also hurriedly and intellectually presented eight women of national color tianxiang, Zhu Changluo smiled happily, and then sang and sang tirelessly night after that, until ten days later, the new emperor who was originally alive and well was sick.
The emperor was ill, and should have summoned the imperial doctor to come for treatment, but strangely, Zhu Changluo only called a eunuch named Cui Wensheng, and this person, originally Zheng Guifei's internal attendant, that is, Zheng Guifei's close associate, Cui Wensheng, as the eunuch in charge of the imperial pharmacy, prescribed Zhu Changluo a "tongli medicine", that is, laxatives, and Zhu Changluo vomited up and down diarrhea for a whole night after eating it, almost dehydrated.
The next day, Zhu Changluo, who was still conscious, realized that he might have an accident, so he summoned the crown prince and the cabinet ministers to explain the aftermath, and after the explanation, he felt that he could still rescue it, at this time, another Hongxu Temple official named Li Kezhuo came to present it with a red pill, saying that it was a panacea that had the effect of reviving the dead.
The terminally ill Zhu Changluo ignored the dissuasion, insisted on the dead horse as a live horse doctor, after tentatively taking a Pill, he felt as if he had improved, so he ate another pill, and at night, Zhu Changluo was sometimes hot and sometimes cold to shiver, and after several repetitions, he finally died violently.
So what exactly are these two red pills that Li Ke has offered? We know that there was a famous alchemy emperor in the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Houxi, that is, Wanli's grandfather, the Jiajing Emperor, who was superstitious and advocated Taoism, and wanted to refine the elixir of immortality all day long.
This Dan medicine, mainly made of a mixture of various heavy metals and drugs, the medicinal properties of the violent side effects are very large, Li Kejin dedicated to Zhu Changluo's red pill, it is this mysterious Dan pill with no safety to speak of, and this Dan pill and Zhu Changluo's previous use of Tongli medicinal properties are the opposite, resulting in Zhu Changluo's body ice and fire double heaven, just like Zhang Wujie, who was in the palm of the Xuan Meditation God, Zhu Changluo, who was already dying, suffered from the double torture of ice and fire!
This new emperor, who had suffered for twenty years on the crown prince's throne, spent his addiction to the emperor for coveting pleasures, and finally became extremely happy and sad, and died violently just thirty days after he ascended the throne, the only thing left was this controversial Ming history mystery case - the Red Pill Case.