In front of a large house near Pu'en Temple in Anfufang, Old Hu stopped his carriage with a shout, turned his head and whispered: "Manufacturer, we are here."
Chang Yu hummed, leaned out of the car, and saw a sign on the door of the house called Prince Consort's Mansion. There were white flags on the wall beside the door. There was no one in front of the door, and the door was closed.
After a few gentle knocks on the door, there was a creak after a while, and the door opened a crack. A servant stuck his head out and frowned: "Who are you?"
"Please inform me of my consort, Chang Yu, come and offer incense."
"My master said, no one will be seen." The servant impatiently tried to close the door, but Chang Yu stretched out his foot to block it: "Just say that if Chang Yu comes to offer incense, your master will see you!"
The servant looked at him for a few times, then turned and left.
Chang Yu clasped his hands behind his back and looked around outside the house door. He saw that Gong Yonggu was talented, popular, and deeply trusted by Chongzhen. How could he be so deserted at this time? After thinking about it, there were only two possibilities. First, Princess Le'an died of illness for many days. The person who expressed condolences had already come here, and secondly, he came to consolidate the deep love between husband and wife. After being hit by this, he declined the visitors and stayed alone to heal his wounds!
Looking up at the three characters of Prince Consort's Palace above his head, Chang Yu smiled bitterly. Ordinary people should listen to books and watch plays and talk about this kind of drama the most. He won the first prize and was selected by the emperor as the prince's consort. In the blink of an eye, he saw the Phoenix Man climbing the dragon and attaching himself to the phoenix to reach the pinnacle of life. Got it!
But is this really the case? How can outsiders know the pain involved? To put it bluntly, a prince-in-law is a man who steps in on the door upside down, but in the emperor's house. Ordinary people will be looked down upon if a man steps in on the door upside down. A prince-son-in-law in an emperor's house will also be honored by courtiers and honors. They are looked down upon by expensive people, and in many cases they are not as good as those of ordinary people.
For example, the princess and the consort did not live together after marriage. The princess in the Ming Dynasty lived in the Tenth Prince's Mansion in the east of the city, and the consort lived in the Consort's Mansion. They could not see each other often, nor could they see each other whenever they wanted. This was to prevent the princess from getting married. Being too close to the consort can achieve the purpose of preventing relatives from interfering in politics.
Moreover, even if you want to meet, you still have to go through the housekeeper.
The housekeeper is usually the maid next to the princess's biological mother. She is responsible for the daily management of the princess after marriage, and is officially called the housekeeper.
Don't underestimate the power of the head of the palace. If the consort wants to see the princess, he must get her approval. Every time he meets, he must be recorded in a record, including when he met, what he did during the meeting, and even sex. record on file.
In ancient times, women were seriously harmed by feudal etiquette. Frequently summoning their consorts was considered to be extremely lewd. Therefore, even if the princesses miss their husbands, they cannot always summon their consorts. What's more, most of the maids in charge of this matter are old women with twisted hearts and greedy natures. If they don't please and bribe them, they will be made difficult in every possible way, making it difficult for lovers to meet each other. Therefore, it is really difficult for the princess to meet her consort.
For example, during the Ming Shenzong period, Princess Shouning had a housekeeper named Liang Yingnu. The relationship between the princess and her consort was not good, so she made things difficult for her, preventing them from seeing each other, and even drove the eunuch to beat up the consort. The beating made her head bruised and bloody, and the princess was scolded when she came to try to persuade her. She even complained to the villain first. As a result, the princess complained to Ming Shenzong several times but was ignored. The angry prince-in-law simply "hanged his crown and went to Chang'an Gate". No longer a prince-in-law.
Fortunately, there was no such bloody thing between Gong Yonggu and Princess Le'an. After all, Princess Le'an was Chongzhen's sister and Zhu Cixiang's aunt, and Gong Yonggu was trusted by Chongzhen and regarded as a confidant. He was unreasonable and had no housekeeper. Dare to go too far, and the couple is surprisingly loving.
According to historical records, after the death of Princess Le'an, the royal family wanted to take away all the princess's belongings, including the golden book (marriage certificate). To consolidate the deep love between husband and wife, they cried and begged Chongzhen to take everything away and leave the marriage certificate to me. After thinking about it, Chongzhen was moved by his affection and allowed him to keep the gold book.
It's not easy to be a son-in-law. Chang Yu sighed and looked up at the sky, seeing dusk already.
At the same time, I heard the sound of footsteps, and just as I turned around, the door of the Prince Consort's Mansion creaked open, and several people walked out. The first person looked extremely haggard, with red and swollen eyes, and a sloppy beard, but it was Gong Yonggu.
"Chang, Eunuch Chang!" When Gong Yonggu saw Chang Yu, he lost control of his emotions again and couldn't help but burst into tears.
Chang Yu hurried up to meet him, supported him with both hands, and said with a sad look on his face: "My condolences, Prince Consort."
Gong Yonggu nodded vigorously, stretched out his hand to touch his tears: "Please, Mr. Chang."
"Please" Chang Yu immediately followed him into the Prince Consort's Mansion.
Today, the power of the Ming Dynasty has declined, and the relatives of the emperor who clung to it have also declined. In addition, the prince-in-law is a powerless sinecure, so Gong Yonggu's mansion is not as magnificent as ordinary people imagined, and it is not even comparable to that of the Ming Dynasty. There are some ordinary wealthy households in the capital, but Gong Yonggu is talented after all, and his mansion is elegant although not grand.
Chang Yu followed Gong Yonggu into the house in a hurry, and went straight to the back hall. There were very few servants in the house, and they were all dressed in mourning clothes. They were just a little surprised to see him. Why did a young man need to be greeted by his master in person? What was his background? .
The mourning hall is all white to the eye. There is a thick coffin in the hall. There is an incense burner and offerings in front of the coffin. There are five filial children standing on the left and right. Chang Yu knows this. Gong Yonggu and Princess Le'an's children are only the oldest. Twelve three.
He took the incense, burned it, kowtowed, and inserted it into the incense burner. Gong Yonggu asked several children to kneel down and thank Chang Yu. Chang Yu leaned over and helped them up one by one, with affection in his eyes. You must know that these children in history All the children were tied to Princess Le'an's coffin by Gong Yonggu and burned.
In the side room, the maid made tea and went out. Gong Yonggu still looked sad and talked to Chang Yu in a low voice, but he was filled with emotion. The little eunuch in front of him was unknown more than a month ago, and the impression he had on him was just that. He is very good at boxing and kicking, but since hearing his shocking dream in the Prince's Mansion, everything has changed. Now he has become the leader of Dongchang and has made great achievements against the enemy on the front line. Is it possible that this person is really Avatar……
Everything he said in the dream came true. Because of this, the prince trusted him, the queen trusted him, the emperor trusted him, and even he believed in him. This man is brave, strategic and prophetic. If you say he is Ordinary people, who would believe it!
"This is roughly what happened. Our family returned to Beijing after the imperial edict, and the thieves fled into Henan. To avoid suspicion, we couldn't intervene in the future. However, I thought that Zhou Yu Ji Ding was still guarding Taiyuan at this time, and there was a lack of food there, so we couldn't pursue him. There are no soldiers or generals in Henan, and there is no way to resist the traitor army. Not to mention the people in the Central Plains will be ravaged, but the traitor army will take advantage of the situation to enter Hebei and kill the capital!" Chang Yu sighed.
Gong Yonggu was shocked. He had heard Chang Yu say that the rebel army originally broke through Taiyuan, and then split into two groups and fought all the way to Beijing. Although the dream had changed, if the rebel army were allowed to fight from Hebei Wouldn't it still have the same consequences? The Ming Dynasty is not going to be destroyed. What's more, Liu Fangliang, the leader of the thieves in the original "dream", did go all the way north from Baoding to Beijing.
"Then..." Gong Yonggu panicked.
"Right now, the Ming Dynasty has too few capable soldiers to dare to stop the bandits. There are not many who can stop the bandits. We are not talented, so we are somewhat confident in fighting against the bandits. I just don't know what the emperor is thinking about calling me back to the capital." It was just asking questions, but it was of no use to him. The military situation is urgent and our family cannot wait, but there is nothing we can do. We have told His Highness the Crown Prince before that he should take the line of the Chief Assistant to see if he can pass a message to the Emperor. I also asked the Prince Consort to put aside his grief for the time being. The state affairs are very important. Can you give it to the Emperor..."
"State affairs are the most important thing, and we must do our duty." Gong Yonggu immediately expressed his stance. He was the person Chongzhen trusted the most. Unlike Chang Yu, although Chongzhen also trusted Chang Yu, he was wary of him, but he was very jealous of Gong Yonggu. Understand that with more than ten years of trust, there is almost no sense of defense. This is why when the thieves invaded the palace, he entrusted Gong Yonggu to him before he died.
The two of them whispered for a while. Seeing that it was already dark, Chang Yu stood up and left. Gong Yonggu knew that he still had something to do, so he didn't bother to stay, saying that he would enter the palace early tomorrow morning.
After leaving the Prince Consort's Mansion, the pedestrians on the street became sparse. In the night, he glanced at the white flag next to the door, which looked extremely scary. Chang Yu couldn't help but trembled and walked towards the carriage across the street.
When Lao Hu saw him coming, he couldn't help exhaling. Chang Yu saw that his face was pale, so he couldn't help asking: "What's wrong? Is it too cold?"
"Mr. Factory, are you really not afraid?" Old Hu couldn't help but look around: "The little old man always feels like someone is watching from the dark."
Chang Yu laughed and pointed to the towering city wall not far away: "Who dares to be so bold under the imperial city!"
"In that case, let's go back early. I feel uneasy." Lao Hu was about to turn the car around. Xi'an Gate of the Imperial City was not far to the north. It was just a cup of tea. He planned to enter the palace directly through Xi'an Gate.
"Don't go back to the palace now, let's go to Dongcheng." Chang Yu got into the carriage, lay down and squinted his eyes.
Old Hu was startled: "In case the emperor calls you..."
"Someone will come and report." Chang Yu's lazy voice came from the car.
Lao Hu stopped talking, raised his whip and drove the car towards the north.
