After hearing the news, Li Xianzhong was stunned on the spot.
Queen Wang of Wanli, formerly known as Sister Wang Xi.
In the fifth year of Wanli (1577), when she was only fourteen years old, she was elected to the palace and became the queen.
In the ninth year of Wanli, the emperor's eldest daughter, Rongchang Princess Zhu Xuanyu, was born.
It was a pity that Queen Wang could not give birth to a dragon heir for Wanli since then. It was precisely because of the vacancy of a legitimate son that the fifteen-year "national dispute" occurred.
According to the ancestral system of the Ming Dynasty, "there are direct descendants, but no direct descendants"!
It's a pity that the emperor's eldest son Zhu Changluo, who was born by a palace maid, really did not please Wanli.
Wanli favored Concubine Zheng and wanted to make Zhu Changxun, the third son of the emperor, the crown prince.
Whether it is to protect the Ming Dynasty's etiquette or her own interests, Queen Wang will definitely support the emperor's eldest son Zhu Changluo to inherit the throne.
Although no matter which prince eventually succeeds to the throne, she will always be the "mother queen and queen mother".
But if Concubine Zheng's son becomes the crown prince, it is still unknown whether he, the queen, will be able to sit until the end.
It is true that Queen Wang is a virtuous and generous queen. Even when Wanli was so fond of Concubine Zheng, she did not get jealous.
But that doesn't mean she doesn't have some political wisdom. Queen Wang has reigned for 42 years, making her the longest reigning queen in Chinese history.
In the 24th year of Wanli, she raised Concubine Li's second son Hui Wang Zhu Changrun and Gui Wang Zhu Changying.
After the death of Empress Dowager Li, she became the biggest supporter of the Crown Prince Zhu Changluo, and protected the Crown Prince in front of Wanli many times.
Although she did not have many opportunities to meet Wanli, she often advised Wanli to forgive the ministers who spoke out. He also divided his own expenses for disaster relief and military pay, thus winning himself the reputation of a "virtuous queen".
Both the king and the queen had a high reputation among the people and the court. Even though Concubine Zheng was so favored and gave birth to three sons and three daughters for Wanli, she still could not shake her position.
Of course, the main reason is that Wanli does not hate Queen Wang as much as he hates Concubine Wang Gong, the biological mother of the emperor's eldest son.
If the emperor is extremely fond of another concubine, his relationship with the queen in the middle palace will usually be quite bad.
However, the relationship between Wanli and Queen Wang was not like this. Although it could not be said to be very affectionate, at least it was acceptable on the surface.
It was possible for the two of them to treat each other with respect.
Queen Wang won the favor of the Queen Mothers of the two palaces, and often reconciled the awkward relationship between Wanli and Queen Mother Li when they had conflicts.
Moreover, Queen Wang may have taken the blame for Wanli.
According to "Zi Zhong Zhi", most of the palace maids and eunuchs around Sister Wang Xi were flogged with sticks, and no less than a hundred people died. Many of the courtiers and internal officials wore piers and locks as torture instruments.
However, the same book also records that Wanli mistreated the palace maids and eunuchs, punished them with excessive sticks, and wore piers and chains day and night. Coupled with the epidemic, eight out of ten of them died.
The emperor and empress were living together at that time, so it was probably Empress Wang who took the blame for Wanli.
Because once Wanli got drunk and killed several eunuchs, Empress Dowager Li became furious when she found out and claimed that she would abolish Wanli's throne and replace him with King Lu.
Wanli was so frightened that he quickly admitted his mistake and promised that he would never do it again.
Empress Dowager Li was born as a palace maid, so she was very considerate of slaves and would never tolerate this kind of thing happening.
Empress Dowager Li was still alive at that time. If Empress Wang was really so tyrannical, even if Wanli did not depose her, Empress Dowager Li would probably depose her.
It is impossible to like it very much.
Moreover, Wanli originally wanted to make Zhu Changxun the crown prince, and deposing Queen Wang was a shortcut. He would not let go of this opportunity.
None of them were angry with Queen Wang for this. If these were true, it could only be that Queen Wang "suffered the consequences for her husband."
In the twenty-ninth year of Wanli, when Emperor Wanli was critically ill, Empress Wang took meticulous care of him, which greatly moved Emperor Wanli.
Although the two did not meet many times, they were always moving around. Queen Wang's Kunning Palace was not a cold palace.
It is precisely because of this that after the death of Queen Wang in history, Wanli's condition became more serious.
So much so that Emperor Wanli himself passed away just three months later.
Li Xianzhong remembered that Empress Wang was originally supposed to die of illness in April next year, but now it was actually five months earlier.
More importantly, will Emperor Wanli die within a few months just like in history?
Now that he is able to prosper, it all depends on the favor of Emperor Wanli.
If His Majesty dies, once the Donglin Party comes to power, will they still be able to enjoy their own good fruits?
Li Xianzhong said to Fan Wencheng: "Mr. Fan, the situation in Liaodong is tense now, and troops are needed at any time. Therefore, the military households in Pinglu Fort also need to drill. You select 5,000 young men from them and set aside 2 hours a day for military training."
"You must be proficient in the use of fire guns and various military skills in a short period of time. I will dispatch a hundred people from the army to assist you in training them."
"These people are reserve troops, let's call them 'militia'!"
After Li Xianzhong received the news from the capital, his expression changed drastically, and his intuition told Fan Wencheng that something big must have happened.
These five thousand people sound like a reserve army, but in reality they are a private army.
Although the previous Pinglu Guard was also a private army, it was to ensure that Pinglu Fort would not be attacked by the Tatars.
At this time, Pinglu Fort was surrounded by Li Xianzhong's own troops. It was impossible for Tatars to appear. It could only be that something happened in the capital.
But he was a smart man, so naturally he would not ask too much about this kind of thing, and said: "Don't worry, uncle, I will complete the training of the five thousand militiamen as soon as possible to ensure the safety of Pinglu Fort!"
Although he wanted to know the situation in the capital, especially the physical condition of Emperor Wanli, it was not appropriate for him to return to the capital without an edict during this sensitive period, so he had to ask Mao Yuanyi to quickly return to the capital to inquire about the situation.
The heaven and earth will definitely have to go out of business during the funeral, but fortunately, spies from the Intelligence Department have lurked in the residences of many important personnel, so the channels for intelligence will not be cut off.
At this time, almost everyone in the Forbidden City was immersed in grief. Queen Wang passed away, and Wanli's heart failure broke out again.
Something happened to the emperor and empress at the same time, which really made matters worse.
But inside Yikun Palace it was a different scene.
Concubine Zheng finally made it through. She had been waiting for this day for more than thirty years, and Queen Wang was finally ahead of her.
Now no one can stop herself from ascending to the throne of queen.
Although she was secretly happy in her heart, Concubine Zheng was relatively rational at this time. She did not do anything too outrageous during this kind of funeral, so as not to be caught by those talkative officials.
But if something is good at the top, it will be worse at the bottom!
But the slaves in Yikun Palace couldn't hold it any longer, and starting from Cui Wensheng, they all called Concubine Zheng "Queen's Empress".
Concubine Zheng said to Cui Wensheng: "Eunuch Cui, what exactly did Queen Wang say in Kunning Palace before her death? Have you found out?"
Cui Wensheng said: "Queen Qi, only Eunuch Chang was with your Majesty at that time. Our people were far away and we couldn't hear clearly what they said."
"But the Crown Prince was also present at the time. According to Queen Wang's temperament, she probably said a lot of good things for the Crown Prince."
Concubine Zheng snorted coldly and said: "This bitch has been against me all his life, and before he died, he did not forget to make trouble for me! Is Your Majesty okay now?"
Although Wanli has woken up, his complexion is not very good, and he has not been able to move around recently, so naturally he cannot come to Yikun Palace.
Although he went to Qianqing Palace to pay his respects, His Majesty was exhausted after not saying a few words.
But he didn't forget to recruit Cui Wensheng to soak his feet and massage his acupuncture points.
Cui Wensheng said: "Don't worry, Queen, your Majesty is fine. You are just worried about Queen Wang's funeral!"
After spending decades together day and night, Concubine Zheng still doesn't understand Wanli. What worries him is probably the money.
After all, the treasury is empty now, and His Majesty is a man of good reputation. Even if it is to show off to the world, the burial of the Queen and the Queen cannot be too shabby this time.
The Ministry of Accounts had no money and had to ask him to subsidize some from internal funds.
From her point of view, although she did not want the queen to be buried in a grand ceremony, it would be best if she could be buried as soon as possible.
After all, he, the new queen, could only be canonized after Queen Wang's funeral arrangements were completed.
However, Wanli didn't value money as much as usual. In the 24th year of Wanli's reign, the fire in Kunning Palace burned down Queen Wang's Queen's Treasure. As a result, Wanli asked the Ministry of Household Affairs for money on the pretext of replenishing the Queen's treasure book.
After getting the money, he used it for other purposes and did not let Shang Baojian make up for it to the queen.
Later, he actually used this matter to ask for money from the Ministry of Revenue for the second time. The Ministry of Revenue naturally refused and asked Wanli to use his own internal funds to pay the empress.
In the end, this matter was delayed for 8 years, and it was not until the 32nd year of Wanli that Queen Wang got her Queen's Treasure.
Concubine Zheng would not be able to bear it if Wanli kept dragging Empress Wang's funeral in order to save money.
Isn't this delaying my seal?
But it was not convenient for her to speak out about this matter. If she urged Wanli to bury Queen Wang as soon as possible, then all the officials would definitely feel that she was impatient to canonize the queen.
So he had no choice but to let his precious son King Fu take action.
Soon King Fu wrote a letter saying that he would go to Beijing in person to bury his "mother" and was willing to donate 3,000 taels of silver to help Queen Wang with her funeral.
Wanli was a little surprised at first, because although Concubine Zheng no longer competed for the position of queen, her relationship with Queen Wang was not very good.
It is rare for King Fu to understand righteousness so well, and his filial piety should be greatly commended.
But he soon figured out the deeper meaning behind it. It must be that his beloved concubine was worried that the delay in the funeral ceremony of the queen would affect his title of queen.
Wanli has always been worried about not allowing King Fu to succeed to the throne. Now that he has the opportunity to make his beloved concubine the queen, he will naturally not let her down again.
He also understood the meaning of King Fu's offering of silver. In order to be buried in the same cave as his beloved concubine after death, he was still willing to make some concessions in the silver.
Wanli quickly approved Fang Congzhe's additional list of Ministry of Rites personnel, and said that the 300,000 taels of silver he had borrowed from the Ministry of Revenue did not need to be returned to the internal fund, and would be used directly for the funeral of the Queen. In addition, he would allocate it from the internal fund. 50,000 taels of silver.
Paying out 350,000 taels of silver at a time was definitely a big deal for Wanli, the "Iron Rooster".
Now the autumn grain taxes and taxes from some areas have been escorted to Taicang. In addition, the war in Liaodong has just calmed down, and there is no major war for the time being.
The household department can also scrape together some money to complete the funeral ceremony as soon as possible.
After all, the Ming Dynasty is not financially well-off now, so the scene still needs to be done, but in order to bury it as soon as possible, many things are replaced with ready-made items instead of being customized individually.
After all, the Chinese New Year is just over a month away, and we can't let the people mourn here during the Chinese New Year.
On the first day of the twelfth lunar month in the forty-seventh year of Wanli, the Queen Wang of Wanli was officially mourned. Her posthumous title was Xiao Duan Zhen Ke Zhuang Huiren Ming Bi Tianyu Shengxian Queen, referred to as "Queen Xiao Duan".
The day after hearing the funeral, all civil and military officials performed a commemorative ceremony.
Each of the civil and military officers in Beijing and the dismissed officials were given a piece of cloth and asked to make their own mourning clothes. They had to wear them for twenty-seven days before they could be released from the clothes.
On the morning of the fourth day, officials in Beijing should wear plain clothes and go outside Youshun Gate to pay homage in mourning clothes. After that, they should wear plain clothes and perform "comfort ceremonies" for three days.
Starting from the fourth day, wives of the fifth-rank military officer or above and the third-rank civil servant or above will cover their heads with linen, remove their jewelry, wash off their fat and paint, and wear linen shirts and skirts and hemp shoes to go to Kunning Palace (the Queen's residence during her lifetime) to express condolences and cry.
The mourning attire of officials from other places is the same as that of officials in the capital. From the day of the obituary, officials must wear mourning attire in the public hall. Pregnancy is also the same as that of women in Beijing, and they are all cured within three days.
People in the capital must wear mourning clothes and their hats must be wrapped with white cloth for twenty-seven days and three days in other places.
From the day of the obituary, slaughtering was banned for twenty-seven days in the capital and three days in other places.
The whole country stopped music and worship for 100 days. Officials are not allowed to marry within a hundred days, and ordinary people are not allowed to marry within a month.
All temples in the country must ring thirty thousand bells day and night.
After Empress Xiaoduan's coffin was parked in Kunning Palace for 21 days, the funeral began.
Before the funeral, Emperor Wanli personally presented a treasure to the Ancestral Temple, and sent officials to offer sacrifices to Jinshui Bridge, Meridian Gate and other gods.
All officials wore mourning clothes and went to the Chaoyang Gate to bid farewell to Lingshu.
On the day of the funeral, the queen's coffin was placed in the palace. The crown prince Zhu Changluo used Xuanxu jade to pay homage and pay homage.
Then the coffin of Queen Xiaoduan was placed in Dingling.
Although expenses have been greatly reduced, Empress Xiaoduan's funeral still cost a huge 700,000 taels.
Heaven and Earth suffered heavy losses and closed their doors for three months.
Although there is no need to wear mourning clothes to celebrate the New Year, all entertainment activities are prohibited. This New Year really does not feel like a New Year.
But the civil and military officials soon felt something was wrong, because Prince Fu Zhu Changxun took advantage of the Queen's funeral to stay in the capital for many days.
After the queen's funeral, many ministers wrote letters asking King Fu to return to his fiefdom.
But Wanli insisted that King Fu leave after the first day of the Lunar New Year.
At this time, many ministers suddenly smelled something unusual.
After the death of Queen Xiaoduan, the central palace is currently vacant.
Next, Wanli will definitely make Concubine Zheng his queen.
Originally, Queen Xiaoduan was here, so Concubine Zheng was still wary.
Now the identity of Crown Prince Zhu Changluo is a bit embarrassing.
On this point, the civil servants of the Ming Dynasty are unanimous, and their support for Crown Prince Zhu Changluo will not change no matter who is the chief minister.
At this time, the three parties of "Qi, Chu, and Zhejiang" and the Donglin Party were all aware of the crisis.
Although it was almost impossible for Emperor Wanli and Concubine Zheng to depose the crown prince through normal channels.
But it cannot be ruled out that Concubine Zheng took risks directly in order to help her son rise to power.
What if another "Strike Case" happens and the Crown Prince is killed directly?
So they wrote letters one after another, asking for more guards in the East Palace to protect the safety of Crown Prince Zhu Changluo!
This move can be regarded as a warning to Concubine Zheng not to act recklessly.
The next thing they have to do is to prevent Wanli from canonizing Concubine Zheng as queen.
However, this matter is not easy, because according to etiquette, sacrifices can be resumed a hundred days after the queen's funeral.
You don't need to think about it to know that Emperor Wanli will not delay for a day and will definitely canonize Concubine Zheng as the queen as soon as possible.
After all, there was the precedent of Jiajing. Only three and a half months after the death of Emperor Jiajing's Queen Chen, he canonized a new queen.
The civil servants wanted to use etiquette to refuse Wanli's appointment, but it obviously didn't work.
Since it couldn't be stopped through formal methods, the only way was to find fault with Concubine Zheng.
They believed that Concubine Zheng must have committed trespassing behavior in Yikun Palace, but they couldn't catch Concubine Zheng in the inner palace. They couldn't apply for a palace search just because they suspected Concubine Zheng had trespassed, right?
They quickly found the clue. Sure enough, Shang Baojian and Shang Yijian were already making the queen's phoenix crown dress and seal in advance.
It is almost inevitable to make these things in advance, because production requires a lot of complicated processes, and three months is not estimated to be enough.
But making these things during a national mourning period is definitely not okay.
Now during the hundred days of taboo for Queen Dahang, the servants are eager to make phoenix crowns and dresses for the new queen.
At this time, the Donglin Party began to attack. They continued to write letters to impeach Shang Baojian and Shang Yijian for illegally manufacturing the Queen's crown, dress, and Queen's treasures during the national mourning period.
And some people saw Cui Wensheng, the eunuch in charge of Yikun Palace, frequently coming in and out of these yamen. Concubine Zheng must have been instigating this.
Faced with the impeachment of these civil servants, Wanli still followed the old rules of staying silent.
But this time the officials were no longer indifferent, they decided to take a preemptive strike.
Soon they were wearing mourning clothes, holding the memorial tablet of Queen Xiaoduan and crying in front of Dong'an Gate.
The people in the capital stopped to watch.
Originally, Wanli and Concubine Zheng planned to directly canonize Concubine Zheng as queen as soon as the 100-day period came, so he notified the relevant yamen in advance to prepare.
Unexpectedly, these civil servants actually used this as an excuse to preemptively target Concubine Zheng.
In order to flatter Concubine Zheng, Cui Wensheng did go to these places to check the progress, but he was caught by the civil servants.
This is considered a disaster for him!
Wanli originally didn't want to pay attention to them, but he didn't expect these people to make such a fuss.
Chang Yun said: "It's not good for the Emperor Qi. Fang Congzhe, the chief assistant of the cabinet, as well as the chief officials of the six departments, officials from the Yushitai and the Supervisory Council have all gathered outside Dong'an Gate."
"Some excited officials are even going to break into the palace. I'm worried that there will be trouble if this continues!"
Originally Wanli thought it was just some Donglin Party censor Qingliu who was causing trouble, but he didn't expect that even the chief assistant Fang Congzhe would join in this time!
It seems that it is impossible not to give them some explanation.
But Wanli is not the kind of person who admits his mistakes.
He said: "Chang Yun, please personally take people to those yamen to dismantle all the things made. Remember not to leave any evidence."
These civil servants want to embarrass themselves. How can they interfere in the affairs of the inner court?
After doing all this, he directly sent the crown prince Zhu Changluo to take charge of investigating the case, with the assistance of Chang Yun, the eunuch of the ceremonial supervisor.
Zhu Changluo was already frightened at this time. He was originally afraid of Concubine Zheng, but now that he did not have the protection of the Queen, he was even more trembling.
He understood what Wanli meant, and apparently asked him to be responsible for investigating the case to show fairness and justice.
In fact, he asked himself to help him block the mouths of those civil servants.
In the previous "String Case", Zhu Changluo did not dare to talk about Concubine Zheng. Now that he has no support in the palace, how can he dare to disobey Wanli's wishes.
After some pretense of inspection, Crown Prince Zhu Changluo went directly outside Dong'an Gate to report the investigation situation to all officials.
Seeing the appearance of the crown prince, all the ministers seemed extremely excited!
They all wanted to leave a deep impression in front of the future emperor of tomorrow.
After all, they did not hesitate to offend Emperor Wanli and risked their lives for the sake of this Ming prince.
Zhu Changluo signaled everyone to be quiet, then cleared his throat and said, "I am deeply moved by your loyalty."
"However, I, together with the eunuch Chang Gonggong, the eunuch of the palace, inspected various workshops and found no traces of violations. As for Cui Wensheng, the eunuch in charge of Yikun Palace, he only appeared in those places to collect new winter clothes for Yikun Palace. As well as repairing the belongings of Concubine Zheng, it is not an act of arrogance as rumored. I hope you will not spread rumors."
After speaking, Zhu Changluo helped Fang Congzhe, Liu Yijing and others who were kneeling on the ground.
He said: "I have informed my father that this matter is all a misunderstanding. My father also said that he will not pursue it any further. Please leave."
These old guys are all human spirits, and they can tell at a glance that Wanli's corpse has been destroyed, and it is difficult for the inner court and others to intervene.
Now that Wanli has given them a step up, they have no choice but to follow the trend. If the trouble continues, they will not be able to produce any substantive evidence.
Anyway, they had already expressed their loyalty to their future master, so they had no choice but to disperse.
I believe that after this demonstration, Emperor Wanli will also restrain himself.
I originally thought this matter would end here.
Unexpectedly, a complete "Queen's Treasure" seal was delivered to the door of the Inspectorate that night.
Soon the seal fell into the hands of Yang Lian, the imperial censor of the capital procuratorate.
This made everyone who had calmed down suddenly become upset again.
This time they had evidence in hand and directly asked Wanli to conduct a strict investigation.
Chang Yun knew that there was a big problem this time and went straight to investigate Shang Baojian. However, he killed several eunuchs in charge of Shangbaojian with a straight stick and did not find out the reason.
Chang Yun saw with his own eyes that the previous "Queen's Treasure" was melted away, so the one that appeared in the Inspectorate could never have been created by Shang Bao.
Just when he was puzzled, news came from the Qianqing Palace that Emperor Wanli fainted again because of anger.
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(End of chapter)
