"As the queen who dominates the Sixth Palace and is the mother of the world, you should know what propriety means!"

Jingtai Emperor Zhu Qiyu said this sentence word for word, the anger in his tone had been suppressed to the extreme.

In the past three years, Empress Wang has been opposing Yi Chu, secretly aiding Empress Qian and the two emperor nephews Zhu Jianshen and Zhu Jianqing. Jingtai Emperor Zhu Qiyu has chosen to let them go.

The reason is that regardless of his status as an emperor, Zhu Qiyu is not a cold-blooded person. Now that the biggest threat to the emperor is dead, he has no intention of killing the emperor's wife and nephew.

You must know that the struggle for imperial power is doomed to life and death. Let alone Zhu Jianshen still has the status of crown prince, even if he is not, as long as he is the son of Ming Yingzong Zhu Qizhen, there will always be a threat to Zhu Qiyu's line.

Far away, there was the Xuanwu Sect Incident, and Li Shimin showed no mercy to his brothers and nephews. Nearby, Zhu Di was in trouble. In addition to pursuing and killing Zhu Yunzhen, he actually wiped out all the descendants of his eldest brother, Zhu Biao, and almost cut off his bloodline.

However, Zhu Qiyu allowed the emperor's sister-in-law and the emperor's nephew to stay in the Forbidden City well, without any "death of illness", "violent death", "madness" or other unexpected situations. In history, after Ming Xianzong Zhu Jianshen came to the throne, he did not take advantage of the opportunity to smear and criticize.

His own imperial uncle gave Emperor Jingtai a relatively fair conclusion.

The description of "for eight years, protecting both palaces" in "Records of Xianzong" may be a summary of the complex emotions of Zhu Jianshen and Zhu Qiyu, the uncle and nephew. No matter whether there is still family affection or not, no matter how many twists and turns have occurred, at least these eight

Over the years, Emperor Jingtai managed to protect both palaces.

"I am the queen who is the mother of the world, and I should set an example for the etiquette, law and ethics of the world. Your Majesty once promised in front of your mother and all the civil and military officials that you will only act as an agent of the government, and will return to the throne of the crown prince a hundred years later."

"Now that the prince has no fault, why should he be deposed?"

Empress Wang spoke righteously and had no fear of Zhu Qiyu's anger. As a woman, she adhered to the etiquette and ethics in her heart just like a civil servant.

But having said that, although Empress Wang's attitude has a certain basis in etiquette and law, because of her status, she is so firmly opposed to Yi Chu, which is somewhat untenable both emotionally and rationally. Among ancient queens, it is better to say that it is called "Qi Chu".

"Woman", to put it bluntly, is "weird".

In terms of love, she is the first wife of Emperor Jingtai Zhu Qiyu, and the couple should stand on the same front. If we follow Empress Wang's logic, then Zhu Di was in the wrong position since the calamity of Jingtai. At that time, Empress Xu, the daughter of Xu Da, Prince Jing of Zhongshan, was

You should immediately report your husband for treason.

At least compared to Zhu Di's obvious plan to seize the throne, Jingtai Emperor Zhu Qiyu's accession procedure included the appointment of his aunt, the emperor's brother's imperial edict on the throne, and three concessions in front of hundreds of officials.

Now it is nothing more than a matter of "breaking the contract", intending to ignore the promise made when he ascended the throne and make Zhu Jianshen the crown prince to inherit the throne.

According to Yu Li, women in ancient times paid attention to the three obediences and the four virtues. After getting married, the wife acted as the guide for her husband. Empress Wang ran counter to her husband, who was the emperor. This not only violated the righteousness of the monarch and his ministers, but also violated the ethics of the rule. It also had a big problem.

In the end, even from a selfish point of view, if Zhu Jianshen ascends the throne as emperor in the future, her unrelated aunt will be just an outsider after all. On the contrary, if Yi Chu succeeds and Zhu Jianji ascends the throne, it doesn't matter whether he is a biological child or not under the ancient rules of etiquette.

The status of the aunt's mother is much higher than that of the biological mother. She is the empress dowager.

It can only be said that Queen Wang has an extreme personality, and she acts completely according to her inner thoughts, and does not even care about interests and the overall situation. Historically, she opposed the Yingzong after the restoration, and did not allow her two daughters to get married, etc., which can be inferred from her character flaws.

Looking at the determination on Empress Wang's face, Zhu Qiyu, who was already worried about the condition of the prince Zhu Jianji, became even more angry and flushed for a moment.

He raised his arm tremblingly and pointed at Queen Wang, ready to say something. However, when Zhu Qiyu opened his mouth, a bright red blood spurted out, splattering on the gorgeous phoenix robe, making it extremely dazzling.

At this moment, Queen Wang looked at her husband and was completely confused. The reason why she said these words was partly due to personality factors. She believed that she was following the etiquette, laws and traditions and upholding justice. On the other hand, she was venting her hatred towards Jingtai Emperor Zhu Qiyu.

, dissatisfaction with the recent period of addiction to elixirs and soliciting folk prostitutes.

It's just that Queen Wang never expected that her husband would vomit blood under the impact of angry emotions, and his health would be so bad!

"Your Majesty! Your Majesty!"

For a moment, the house was filled with shouts, and the palace maids and eunuchs frantically summoned the imperial doctors to come and rescue the emperor. If the emperor and the emperor's eldest son fell ill at the same time, the news would spread and the world would be in turmoil!

Of course, Shen Yichen didn't know what happened in the harem. After a day's work in the cabinet, he returned to the mansion as usual, enjoying the rare peaceful time before Wangshuo's court meeting.

But it didn't take long for Zhu Yi to come over. Shen Yichen walked out of the courtyard with understanding and asked, "Eldest Young Master, what's the matter?"

"The Fifth Army Governor's Office has notified Yu Shaobao of the Ministry of War today, and then transferred the Liaodong Governor's soldiers and horses to the capital to change defenses in accordance with the squad army rotation system. I specifically told the messenger to inform Li Da and others to go as soon as possible.

Jing, the large force can arrive later."

"On the first day of the second lunar month, they will definitely rush to the capital before you go to Shuke to pay your clan salary."

After hearing Zhu Yi's announcement, Shen Yichen cupped his hands and thanked him: "The eldest son acts like a thunderbolt, so I would like to express my gratitude here."

Shen Yichen originally just said a polite word, but unexpectedly Zhu Yi shook her head after hearing it and said: "The reason why I am so anxious is not that I am worried about any problems that may arise in your appointment, but that the atmosphere in the palace today is unusual. Your Majesty

Maybe the eldest son of the emperor is acting strangely."

"what happened?"

Shen Yichen quickly asked. No one in the world knew better than him about the final fate of Jingtai Emperor Zhu Qiyu and the emperor's eldest son Zhu Jianji. He was very worried that the butterfly effect of history would change drastically.

"I don't know. In the past few years, His Majesty has reused the eunuch Dongchang, and it has been difficult for foreign officials to find out about palace affairs. I am telling you this just to make you mentally prepared and nip it in the bud."

After hearing Zhu Yi's words, Shen Yichen's face became more solemn, and he nodded and said, "I understand."

The conversation between the two ended abruptly here. Apart from the exchange of important matters, neither party had any heart-to-heart thoughts or interests. As if to confirm Zhu Yi's conjecture, in the next few days at court, the palace regarded His Majesty as resting.

For this reason, the holding of the court meeting was suspended.

In the early Zhengtong Dynasty, if the emperor was absent from the morning court for several consecutive days, he would inevitably be reprimanded by the Empress Dowager Zhang and warned by the "Three Yangs". In the late Zhengtong Dynasty, the emperor's absence from the morning court began to happen frequently, and civil and military officials

Also happy to see its success.

In the early days of Jingtai Emperor Zhu Qiyu's accession to the throne, he went to court almost every day and worked hard to govern. In the past year, due to alchemy and prostitution outside the palace, he began to miss the morning court frequently. Officials gradually got used to the emperor's style. Regarding the rumors coming out of the palace,

The news was not taken seriously.

But Shen Yichen had been reminded by Zhu Yi, so a few days later, he couldn't help but applied for an interview on the grounds of discussing government affairs. As expected, he was blocked by Xing'an, the eunuch of the Chief of Ceremonies.

The emperor was working day and night on the memorials and did not see his foreign ministers for the time being.

At this point, Shen Yichen's ominous premonition became stronger and stronger, and at the same time he couldn't believe that things would be such a coincidence. After finishing his duty in the cabinet that day, he immediately found Zhao Hongjie and wanted to inquire about Jin Yiwei.

What exactly happened in the palace.

The two met quietly in a private room of the Capital Tea House. Shen Yichen didn't exchange too many greetings and asked straight to the point: "Hongjie, has something happened in the palace recently? Is there any news from Jin Yiwei?

"

"You mean His Majesty won't be in court for a long time?"

"Um."

Shen Yichen nodded. He had not yet reached the stage of gaining power. Historically, reforms initiated by ministers, such as Wang Anshi's reform and Zhang Juzheng's reform, had achieved the level of absolute control.

Before this, nothing unexpected could happen to Jingtai Emperor Zhu Qiyu. Even though the other party had many checks and balances, he was still a king who dared to delegate power and deserved allegiance!

"After we last met, Wang Cheng, the eunuch in charge of the internal affairs office, summoned a large number of Dongchang fans to the palace. I heard that it was to investigate the harem incident. Originally, it is difficult to judge whether this kind of palace matter is big or small.

, in the end, Xiangbei, didn’t you ask me to keep an eye on Cao Jixiang, the eunuch in charge of the imperial horse?”

"Only one day later, he sent additional troops and horses from Tengxiang's Four Guards to all major palace gates. This is unusual. I speculate that something big happened in the palace."

"To get to the point, what exactly did you find out?"

Shen Yichen became a little anxious. After all, he had a historical God's perspective and knew more things, so he was even more worried.

"Two things were found. One was that the emperor's eldest son fell ill in bed. I heard that it was related to playing in the imperial garden. Your Majesty felt that there was a hidden secret behind this matter, so he ordered Wang Cheng's Dongchang fan to investigate."

"In addition, Cao Jixiang's actions were only found to be related to the disagreement between the emperor and the empress."

After listening to Zhao Hongjie's words, Shen Yichen felt a little surprised. What he was most worried about was whether Zhu Qiyu had physical problems, and the second was whether the emperor's eldest son Zhu Jianji would die early.

According to history, Zhu Jianji died not long after he was established as crown prince after the success of Yi Chu. As for how he died, there are no detailed records in the history books, and it is generally believed that he died of illness.

After all, given the medical conditions in ancient times, the Ming emperors themselves all died young, and it was normal for children to die young. But the timing was too coincidental, and several emperors died in mysterious circumstances in the history of the Ming Dynasty.

As a result, this incident has aroused a lot of suspicion and has become an unresolved mystery.

If the incident in the palace had nothing to do with Jingtai Emperor Zhu Qiyu, then how could Cao Jixiang ask Cao Jixiang to mobilize the four guards of Tengxiang and mobilize troops? Such an operation is not trivial. If it was just the emperor and the empress who were at odds, was it necessary to go to this step?

Shen Yichen always felt that there was something illogical, but he could not tell Zhao Hongjie any speculation about the emperor's longevity, so he could only ask: "Why do the emperors and empresses disagree?"

"It may have something to do with the recent rumors about Yi Chu. The queen has always been opposed to deposing the prince without any fault, and in the long run it has touched His Majesty's objections."

"I heard from the gossip that His Majesty may depose the Queen. You said that Cao Jixiang mobilized troops to defend in advance. Could this be related to this?"

】

Abandoned?

After hearing this, Shen Yichen's face looked like she couldn't laugh or cry. Yi Chu hadn't finished deposing the crown prince yet, and ended up giving birth to another deposed queen?

Regarding the history of Emperor Jingtai's abdication, Shen Yichen was relatively clear about the fact that Empress Wang had long been opposed to the feud between Yi Chu and his wife, and in addition, they did not give birth to a legitimate son, only two daughters.

So at the same time that Zhu Qiyu announced Yi Chu, he deposed Empress Wang with an edict and made Concubine Hang, the biological mother of the emperor's eldest son Zhu Jianji, his queen. From then on, the eldest son of the concubine became the legitimate eldest son, and he had a legal advantage over Zhu Jianshen, the son of Emperor Yingzong of the Ming Dynasty.

.

If Emperor Jingtai Zhu Qiyu wanted to depose the queen at this time, Shen Yichen thought about it carefully, and it was indeed possible that Cao Jixiang would be ordered to mobilize the four guards of Tengxiang to stabilize the situation in the palace.

The reason is that Queen Wang's origin is different from that of the previous queens of the Ming Dynasty.

In order to prevent his relatives from intervening in politics, Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang of the Ming Dynasty tried his best to choose a woman from a small family rather than an existing aristocratic family when choosing the queen. For example, the father of the Empress Dowager Zhang, Zhang Qi, was only a fifth-rank Beijing scholar.

Wei Zhenfu, with the help of his daughter, he finally became the commander of Jingwei, and after his death, he was granted the posthumous title of Peng Chengbo.

The Empress Dowager Sun of Xuanzong of the Ming Dynasty, and her father Sun Zhong, the uncle of Huichang, was initially just the chief registrar of Yongcheng County, and could be called a low-ranking official.

Queen Qian, the first wife of Emperor Yingzong of the Ming Dynasty, had a relatively high background. Her family was a family of Jingnan heroes. Her father, Qian Gui, inherited the ancestral military position and commanded Qian affairs in the capital by virtue of his military exploits.

However, Empress Qian's father and two brothers were all martyred along with Zhu Qizhen in the Battle of Tumubao, and the entire family was wiped out. Not to mention any relatives intervening in politics, even the relatives themselves were gone.

The only exception is Queen Wang. She also comes from a distinguished family. Her grandfather is Wang Quanshi, the commander of Jinwu, and her father Wang Ying is the commander of the Zhongcheng Army and Horses Division. Although these official positions are not high, they are not as good as those in the Fifth Army Governor's Mansion.

But they are all important positions in the Forbidden City and the capital's army!

In the initial coup to seize the throne, Jingtai Emperor Zhu Qiyu was almost captured by the palace guards. With the lessons learned from the past, it made sense to mobilize the four Tengxiang guards under the control of the imperial horse supervisor to strengthen the defense.

It's just that Shen Yichen always felt that something was wrong. Is such a big move really just to prevent the deposed queen from causing turmoil in the government and the opposition?

"Hongjie, Li Da and the others should be arriving in Beijing tomorrow. As a civil servant, I cannot openly have too much contact with border generals. You can greet them on your behalf when the time comes."

"In addition, repeat the worries I mentioned to Li Da exactly as they are, so that they can be prepared in advance for anything to happen."

Seeing that Shen Yichen still looked solemn, Zhao Hongjie did not dare to take it lightly and nodded: "Don't worry, I will take care of it."

"Well, fortunately, the Fujian Guards and other troops have not left the capital. If there is any change, we will be able to deal with it."
Chapter completed!