Know all about the secrets of the harem

Chapter 52 Disaster for the Country
One day in the ninth year of Wanli (1581), Shenzong went to pay his respects to the Empress Dowager, and found a girl with a pretty face among the maids serving the Empress Dowager.Soon, the palace girl of the Wang family gave birth to a son, the eldest son of the emperor Zhu Changluo (later Guangzong).In accordance with Empress Dowager Li's will, Shenzong had no choice but to confer the title of Concubine Gong to the maid of the Wang family.According to the etiquette, the mother regards the son as the most precious, and the concubine Wang Gong, who has given birth to the eldest son of the emperor, is only slightly inferior to the empress. Except for the empress, no one is qualified to be above her; and Concubine Zheng is favored by Shenzong alone , Canonization as a noble concubine, located below the queen and above the concubines, is obviously against etiquette.This is unacceptable to the court officials who have long been accustomed to the feudal orthodox etiquette, so there is a lot of discussion in the whole country, and the memorials are like snowflakes flooding the palace in the capital, which makes Shenzong very angry, fidgeting, not knowing What to do.At this moment, Concubine Zheng said from the side: Why not keep all these memorials and see what these ministers can do?As soon as Shenzong heard that his worries turned into joy, he adopted Zheng Guifei's suggestion.In this way, as time went on, there were fewer and fewer memorials, and gradually subsided, and few people mentioned this matter anymore.

Fighting for the crown prince, trying my best

But one wave is slightly flat, and another wave rises again.In a blink of an eye, Concubine Zheng was pregnant, and she gave birth to a son in the 14th year of Wanli (1586), who was the third prince Zhu Changxun.The mother is more expensive than the son, and then Zheng Guifei was promoted to Huangguifei—Huangguifei is a title second only to the queen, and her status is two levels higher than the emperor's eldest son's mother, Concubine Gong.In this way, Zheng Guifei's position in the palace became more stable, and her ambitions and selfish desires gradually expanded.In the feudal court, a woman's highest wish was nothing more than to win the favor of the emperor and become a queen, so as to honor her ancestors and make her family famous.Concubine Zheng understands that in order to achieve this goal, she must first push her son to the position of prince, and then the mother is more expensive than the son, and then she will be the queen herself; and the biggest obstacle at this time is the eldest son Zhu Changluo.

At that time, those officials in the court who insisted on the feudal orthodoxy of "where there is a heir to establish a heir, and if there is no heir, to establish an elder", they had already regarded Zhu Changluo, the eldest son of the emperor, as the future emperor.Zheng Guifei wholeheartedly wanted to make her son the crown prince, and she often encouraged Shenzong to make her son the crown prince;However, because it is not in accordance with the etiquette to set up his son, it is bound to be opposed by everyone, so Shenzong had no choice but to delay the matter of opposing the prince, waiting for the right time, which is also in line with Zheng Guifei's scheming.However, the plot of Concubine Zheng and Shenzong could not be concealed from the ministers of the court.This year, Jiang Yinglin wrote to the emperor during the matter, proposing to make Zhu Changluo, the eldest son of the emperor, the prince, in order to avoid gossip in the court.After reading Jiang Yinglin's memorial, Shenzong was immediately furious. Under the instigation of Zheng Guifei, he issued an imperial decree and issued an imperial edict, saying: "There is a distinction between the elder and the younger. Jiang Yinglin doubts the monarch and shows his integrity. He should be relegated to a remote area as a miscellaneous servant." As soon as the imperial decree was issued, Jiang Yinglin was demoted to the territory of Datong, but there was a phrase in the decree that "Establishing a crown prince has his own seniority", which actually affirmed the status of the eldest son of the emperor.Shenzong didn't notice this mistake at first, but when all the ministers asked the emperor to fulfill his promise and quickly set up a reserve according to the principle of "establishing a reserve with one's own seniority", he felt that it was such a mistake.However, since the imperial decree was issued at that time, it was irreversible. After another conspiracy with Concubine Zheng, it was decided to use the usual tricks and procrastinate.So Shenzong came forward and said to the officials that the eldest son of the emperor was only 6 years old, and he was still young, so it was not appropriate to talk about establishing a crown prince at this time.Shenzong originally thought that he would be able to get away with it, but the memorials to refute it did not decrease because of this.This is because Shenzong himself was established as the crown prince when he was 6 years old, and people naturally have to use this as an excuse to refute.At this time, there are so many people, how can Shenzong resist it.It dragged on for two or three years and couldn't make it through. In the end, Shenzong had no choice but to set a deadline by himself, and asked the chief assistant to inform the ministers that the establishment of the reserve should be discussed until the 20th year of Wanli (1592), and he asked the ministers to wait with peace of mind. Disturb the Holy One again. "If everyone can abide by it, I will register as a crown prince in the next year; if there is another incident, I will wait until the eldest son of the emperor is 15 years old before making a grand ceremony."

At this time, the eldest son of the emperor was already 11 years old, and he could not wait for a few years; but because Shenzong himself had repeatedly broken his promise, so this time he set a self-imposed deadline, there are still courtiers who are worried, lest he will forget or pretend to be deaf.Therefore, when the deadline for "the next year" approached, Zhang Youde, the head of the Ministry of Industry, couldn't bear it, so he changed his method to test it out, and asked Shangshu to order the ceremonial notes for the registration of the prince first.It's fine if there is no such comment, but as soon as this comment came out, Shenzong really seized the opportunity and said angrily: "I have already said something beforehand, if I harass, I will postpone it. Now that I am harassing again, I only have to postpone it to show the world Great letter. If you continue to harass, you will have to postpone it."

At this time, although the matter of setting up the crown prince was postponed again, Zheng Guifei saw that the situation was not good for her, so she thought about it, and came up with the theory of "waiting for the son", and asked Shenzong to announce it.In the 21st year of Wanli (1593), Shenzong said in an imperial edict to courtiers that he "wanted to treat his son".Because the eldest son was raised, all the other princes became flat-headed brothers, none of them were sons, and they didn't have any privileges to be established as heirs.However, because of the so-called "if there is a descendant, establish a descendant, and if there is no descendant, establish an elder", the reason why the eldest son of the emperor is different from other sons is precisely because he conforms to the rule of "establishing an elder without a descendant".So this statement was overturned by the courtiers before it was discussed.Seeing that this plan failed, Concubine Zheng came up with another trick in a blink of an eye, and asked Shenzong to give "three kings to seal together".

The so-called "Three Kings Conferring Together" means that before establishing the crown prince, the eldest son Zhu Changluo, the third son Zhu Changxun and another prince Zhu Changhao are all crowned kings. As long as the three are crowned kings at the same time, they are all the same.Concubine Zheng asked Shenzong to submit an edict to the cabinet ministers. After careful study, the ministers believed that this was another trap set by Concubine Zheng to restrain the eldest son of the emperor, and that it was a pavement for her next step. Let it go.And after that, the courtiers insisted that Zhu Changluo, the eldest son of the emperor, teach in advance.In the 22nd year of Wanli (1594), Shenzong held a pre-education ceremony for Zhu Changluo.

In this way, they competed with each other for countless rounds. Zhu Changluo, the eldest son of the emperor, grew up to be 20 years old in this marathon.Shenzong was exhausted by this struggle at this time, and finally in the 29th year of Wanli (1601), Zhu Changluo, the eldest son of the emperor, was registered as the crown prince, and he married him the following year.At this point, the incident of setting up the crown prince, which had been raging for more than ten years, was considered to have come to an end.Concubine Zheng finally suffered a disastrous defeat in this important round.

greedy, extravagant

Concubine Zheng is not only ambitious and wants to be a queen, but also has an insatiable greed for gold, silver and other treasures, reaching the pinnacle of perfection.After the 24th year of Wanli (1596), Shenzong sent a large number of mine supervisors and tax collectors to grant various privileges to search for gold and silver treasures everywhere.On the one hand, these notorious mine supervisors and tax collectors such as Chen Feng, Ma Tang, Liang Yong, etc. are all confidante eunuchs of Zheng Guifei. They know that Zheng Guifei is favored, and they all try their best to curry favor with her.

They squandered the money collected from various places and the tax money paid in tribute to Shenzong and Zheng Guifei.The rouge fees only used by Zheng Guifei and other concubines cost 10 taels of silver every year, while the national land tax revenue in the early years of Wanli was only 400 million taels a year.On the other hand, these eunuchs called Concubine Zheng Gui the "inner lord", and they relied on this background to search, plunder, murder and rob everywhere, and did everything.Although people from all over the country revolted, and some upright local officials went to the eunuch to demand that these eunuchs be punished, Shenzong and Concubine Zheng tried their best to excuse them and let them get away with it.

In the 29th year of Wanli (1601), after Zhu Changluo became the prince, Zhu Changxun was subsequently named the King of Fu.According to the regulations, Fu Wang Zhu Changxun should immediately take office in the feudal kingdom after he was conferred the title of feudal prince, but he has been reluctant to go for a long time.Until the 40th year of Wanli (1612), under the repeated appeals and insistence of the officials, Concubine Zheng knew that King Fu could not stay in Beijing, so she used this as an excuse to put forward various conditions in order to make a fortune.

Concubine Zheng proposed to build a mansion in Luoyang for King Fu before taking office.Seeing the general trend, Shenzong decided that King Fu had to go this time, so he had to order the court to allocate a huge sum of 28 yuan to build the mansion of King Fu for Zhu Changxun in Luoyang.However, after all the work was completed, under the connivance of Concubine Zheng, King Fu resolutely did not take office in Luoyang.With this, Concubine Zheng asked to allocate 24 hectares of Zhuangtian to King Fu.According to the regulations of the early Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, the vassal king of the Ming Dynasty, while strengthening the authoritarian centralized politics, also enshrined his [-] sons and a great-grandson as kings, called vassal kings.Some of them were granted military power, and the other part was stationed in the interior provinces.Among the kings, the northern kings are the most powerful.Except for Suilu, the allocated grassland and pastures are no more than a thousand hectares, and the land requested by Zheng Guifei to King Fu is much more than this amount.Later, due to the firm opposition of the ministers, Shenzong had no choice but to halve it.

At this point, Concubine Zheng was still not satisfied, and began to spend money preparing for her son to go to Luoyang.For example, he asked for the confiscated property of the great scholar Zhang Juzheng and Sichuan salt tax and tea tax, and asked the imperial court to give Huai salt three hundred shi so that King Fu could open a shop in Luoyang to sell salt and monopolize the right to sell salt in Luoyang.Shenzong not only agreed to these requests, but also handed over most of the treasures donated by tax collectors and miners over the years to King Fu when he was leaving.After King Fu arrived in Luoyang, he extorted violently and acted recklessly, causing turmoil in the north and south of the Yellow River, Qi, Chu, Rivers and Huaihe Rivers. Henan was famined for several years, and the people were in dire straits.And Fu Wang's treasury has millions of dollars, which exceeds that of Ouchi's warehouse.

After Concubine Zheng became favored, her family also benefited from it, and there were three generations of successors.Shenzong granted concubine Zheng's family whatever he wanted, beyond the usual system.Concubine Zheng's father, Zheng Chengxian, was rampant in the local area, arrogant and extravagant, committing crimes and crimes.However, Shenzong not only ignored him, but promoted him to be the governor and acquaintance.After Zheng Chengxian's death, his son Zheng Guotai went beyond the routine of father's death and son succession, and was granted the command envoy of the capital by Shenzong.In this regard, many officials in the court expressed opposition, and the ministers proposed: "If the concubine's family is so blessed, why should the family be favored." The lower governor is first-class, and it is not suitable to be appointed as a son.

If the imperial concubine's family is so blessed, why should the concubine's family be favored? "Obviously they suspected that Zheng Guotai's brother and sister were plotting to usurp power. Sure enough, Zheng Guotai was motivated by profit, and later he instigated eunuchs to bribe Zhang Cha in an attempt to kill the crown prince Zhu Changluo, but because he was the brother of Zheng Guifei, he was not punished and was promoted to Zuo Dudu soon after. Concubine Zheng's uncle, Zheng Cheng'en, is a villain who is used to sowing dissension and framing virtuous people. When Zheng Chengen learned that Dai Shiheng and Fan Yuheng, the magistrate of Quanjiao County, had conflicts with Lu Kun, the servant of the Ministry of Rites, and was dissatisfied with the imperial concubine's monopoly, he went to the emperor to say Dai and Fan alienated the royal family and attacked the emperor and noble concubines. They should be punished severely.

After Shenzong favored Concubine Zheng, she often didn't go to the morning court.Zheng Guifei saw that many officials in the court attacked her, and she was also afraid that Shenzong would be persuaded by these officials, which would be disadvantageous to her, so she tried her best to instigate Shenzong to meet with officials in the court as little as possible. In governing the court, he stayed with Concubine Zheng all day long, or played games with eunuchs and palace maids to have fun.Apart from caring about abolishing the old and setting up the young, they are unwilling to discuss with the ministers any other matters, such as filling vacancies of local and central officials, measures related to the national economy and the people's livelihood, even to the point where they are too lazy to ask if the palace is on fire.

(End of this chapter)