The feudal officials in other provinces spread rumors to each other that the current Emperor Guangde was timid, incompetent and indecisive, and that he was the same kind of person as Zhu Youjian, the emperor of the previous Ming Dynasty. Valor and illustrious military exploits.
The Supreme Emperor was reluctant to delegate power at first because he was worried that his son would control the empire.
Behind this rumor is questioning Emperor Guangde's ability to govern.
Another rumor directly questioned the legitimacy of Liu Kan's rule.
According to an old eunuch (who has been killed) from Kaifeng Mansion (Empress Zhang's hometown), Liu Kan is not actually the flesh and blood of the Supreme Emperor at all.
Twenty-eight years ago, Zhang Yan, who was still in her prime, ignored her parents' orders and had a tryst with a son of an official in Kaifeng Prefecture, and she became pregnant with this bastard. Kang Yingqian, who was deeply resentful, didn't know about it and thought he had picked up the baby and spent 8,000 taels on it. The beautiful and fragrant Empress Zhang was bought back to Liaodong and dedicated to the Supreme Emperor. Before the explosion of Wang Gong Factory, the Supreme Emperor was basically not a womanizer, and he had no children with his concubines. Zhang Yan only had sex with the Supreme Emperor once at the Daming Lake in Wendeng County, and she actually became pregnant with a dragon. It is unreasonable both emotionally and rationally.
The rumors are described with both nose and eyes. The narrator knows all the secrets of the palace in the early years of Wu Ding. He can even tell the secrets about Kang Yingqian's fake surrender to Li Chuang and Qiao Yiqi being deceived by the palace maid. Taken together, the credibility is quite high.
In addition, this man also had the jade bracelet worn by Zhang Yan, so people judged that he was probably one of the young eunuchs who served Queen Zhang back then.
When Liu Xingzuo sent people to arrest the old eunuch, he found that the old eunuch had already died in his apartment, and his body was hung on a rope, pretending to be hanged...
Emperor Guangde was extremely angry at these rumors, but he had no choice but to conduct a thorough investigation with great fanfare.
Doing that would only make the rumors spread wider and become a certainty.
This is somewhat similar to the story of Emperor Qianlong's pursuit of the "Zeng Jing Case", "Soul Calling Case", and "Fake Manuscript Case" that happened in another time and space.
Regarding these three stories, Mr. Meng Wuyue heard about them from parallel time and space. Before understanding the mental journey of Emperor Guangde today, it is necessary to briefly describe these three cases. Due to space limitations, here we only explain the soul-calling case. .
In the thirty-third year of Qianlong's reign (1768), the soul-calling case led by Mr. Shiquan was part of the Manchu Literary Prison.
This originally illusory civil case was finally turned into a major top-down movement in front of the suspicious Emperor Qianlong.
As the saying goes, when the wind blows above, a prairie fire will start below.
The more than a dozen provinces that were implicated were in chaos, and the Manchu and Qing bureaucracies were reshuffled. All officials who the emperor disliked must be dealt with.
In the 32nd year of Qianlong's reign, the Dongmen City Bridge in Deqing County, Zhejiang Province collapsed. The county magistrate ordered the bridge to be repaired. Wu Dongming, a stonemason from Renhe County next door, received the task.
The next year, Wu Dongming and his disciples began to build the bridge. After working for two months, Wu Dongming found that there was no food. So, he returned to his hometown in Renhe County to purchase food. When he returned to his hometown, a man named Shen Shiliang asked him for help.
Shen Shiliang has been bullied by his two nephews for a long time. However, he cannot be beaten or scolded. Then, I thought of the method of calling the soul. Stick paper charms with the names of living people on the top of wooden piles. When the hammer hits the pile, it is equivalent to beating the soul of the living person. If you knock too much, the person's soul will be shaken away.
Shen Shiliang asked Wu Dongming to put paper charms with his two nephews written on them on the bridge piles.
Wu Dongming knew the power of soul-calling and was worried about being involved. Although he was a stonemason, he also knew the power of the Manchu Literary Prison, so he directly reported the matter to Baozheng, and then together they sent Shen Shiliang to the county government.
The county magistrate beat Shen Shiliang with a board, put a shackle on him, and then put an end to the matter.
However, rumors spread like wildfire that stonemason Wu Dongming could summon spirits.
All rumors have promoters behind them, but the main promoter of this rumor is the official. The reason is also very simple. As things develop, soul-calling has some connection with pigtail cutting.
The braided hairstyle of the Han people has always been one of the issues that the Manchu rulers were most concerned about.
So the Military Aircraft Department sent a court letter to Zhejiang Province, reprimanding: Zhejiang Province
People build bridges and create monsters? I heard that they even cut people's hair and stole their clothes and put them on the bridge piles, in order to get tired of winning. Investigate carefully. If you find out, you must deal with it again. What was originally a paper talisman to write a person's name on has now become a braid cutting.
Hearing rumors that a bridge base was being built in Zhejiang, he secretly cut off his hair, clothes and other items and used them to cushion the bridge piles, thinking that he would be tired of winning. The letter was sent to the governors of Zhejiang and Shandong, and they were ordered to conduct a close inspection. If such a thing happened, they would be severely punished and severely punished.
The document was sent out on June 12th. Subsequently, Shandong Province took action. Why is Shandong taking action? Because this imperial letter was also copied to other governors, that is, "it is addressed to the governors of Zhejiang and Shandong."
On June 16, Shandong Governor Funihan reported that two braid-cutting cases had been discovered in the province, namely the Cai Tingzhang case and the Jin Guanzi case. But these two people are both minions, real monsters. One is Monk Wu Yuan from Zhejiang, and the other is Monk Jade from Anhui.
On June 23, Fang Guancheng, the governor of Zhili, also reported that two people had their hair braids cut off in Jingzhou, which borders Shandong.
It's not a big deal to get a paper charm, write a name, and then curse it.
However, it must be a big deal to cut off people's braids.
The Manchus had an order to shave their hair, and when it came to hair, they had to be sensitive.
The location pointed to is still the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions. This place has always been the stronghold of anti-Qing forces.
When the Qing Dynasty was founded, intellectuals and common people in Jiangnan often caused troubles.
The event is sensitive, the location is sensitive, and the key is that it is also time sensitive. At this time, the Qing Dynasty was at war with Burma, and the war was stalemate.
Therefore, all this must be related to politics.
The most unlucky one is Zhejiang Province.
First of all, Zhejiang did not report the information. The imperial court sent a letter, but Zhejiang did not take any action; secondly, the masterminds behind the cases in Shandong and other places all rushed to Zhejiang.
Why are you all heading to Zhejiang?
There aren't that many bad people trying to harm Zhejiang, the main reason is that the feudal officials from all over the country want to blame it.
The old man Shiquan said that there must be a case of cutting off pigtails to summon souls, so there must be one; the old man said that it must be strictly investigated, so it must be strictly investigated, and it must be found out; but the culprit is not here, it is all in Zhejiang, let Zhejiang investigate.
······
In the end, after tossing through more than a dozen provinces, the soul-calling case went unsolved after more than a year. In this inexplicable movement, Old Man Shiquan dealt with a total of 68 county magistrates, 22 prefects, and 14 provinces. Taiwan, thirty-two inspectors, twenty-nine chief envoys, twenty-six governors and fourteen governors.
Why did the soul calling case turn into a big movement?
The most fundamental reason is the lack of confidence of the Manchu rulers.
Relying on the virtues of wild boar skin, they robbed the Han people of their country, so they were particularly aware of the crisis.
His eyes returned to the Daqi Dynasty.
At the beginning, Liu Zhaosun relied on force to seize the throne of the Ming Dynasty. He did not win the country properly and was extremely unconfident in his bones.
Emperor Guangde was despised by his father since he was a child, so he naturally had little self-confidence.
The emperor's lack of confidence caused tension in the interpersonal relationships between the monarch and his ministers, which then spread to the entire people. The nerves of the military and civilians were tense.
In the past few months when Emperor Guangde was determined to disarm, the entire people of Nanjing knew the details of the new emperor's life experience, and the rumors became increasingly evil.
Anyone with a discerning eye can see that this is someone deliberately smearing Liu Kan behind his back. They are preparing to obliterate the legitimacy of Liu Kan's succession based on his identity and bloodline, and then subvert the rule of Emperor Guangde.
As the saying goes, a tiger father has no dog sons. Although Liu Kan was not as brave and good at fighting as the Supreme Emperor, he was invincible.
After all, he led his troops to Shandong and suppressed the resurgent White Lotus Sect.
To put it simply, Emperor Guangde did not know anything about military matters. In his bones, the warlike blood of the Supreme Emperor still flowed more or less.
Even without this "Qing Jun side", Emperor Guangde would have declared war on the spreaders of rumors, trying to subvert the forces behind Da Qi.
~~~~
At noon, Liu Kan, surrounded by 3,000 imperial guardsmen, wearing armor and carrying a sword at his waist, arrived at the North Gate Tongtian Gate.
All over the city
With shouts of long live, tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians raised their heads and looked at the young and vigorous new emperor.
Seeing the emperor, all the grievances disappeared with the wind?
A large-scale rebellion ended like this?
Of course it won't be that simple.
Tongtian Gate was densely packed with people. Soldiers and civilians waved small black flags. Some people shouted long live the mountain, while others shouted Qingjun side. The scene was chaotic.
Liu Xingzuo stepped forward and reported:
"Your Majesty, we found out that the dead old eunuch's name was Cao Tianxing. He was not from Cining Palace at all, but was the horse supervisor who fed horses. He stole the bracelet while taking advantage of the explosion in Wang Gong Factory."
"Two months ago, a Taoist priest came to Cao Tianxing and gave him a thousand taels of silver and asked him to conspire with a storyteller from Tianjin Wei to write a story saying that Your Majesty is not the biological flesh and blood of the Supreme Emperor..."
"Taoist?" Liu Kan asked with great interest.
"Things are getting more and more interesting."
Liu Xingzuo said angrily:
"I personally tortured the storyteller for three days and three nights, but I couldn't find anything else to say. He only knew that he was a Taoist priest. Your Majesty, the Taoist priest must be dissatisfied with Daqi's abolition of Taoism and the destruction of Buddha, so he did such a treasonous and unethical thing!"
"I suggest that the dead eunuch be dug out of the grave, his bones crushed and his ashes thrown away. That storyteller should be executed in Ling Chi! With Nanjing as the center, arrest a group of Taoist priests and torture them severely. We are not afraid that we will not be able to find out their mastermind!"
Liu Kan shook his head and said:
"That seems cowardly to me, but there is no need for it. This matter ends here. The storyteller will be locked up first and cannot be allowed to die. When this storm is over, I will let him give a speech across the country and tell people the truth."
Liu Xingzuo:......
Liu Kan waved away the crowd, looked at the roaring soldiers and civilians in front of him, took the trumpet handed over by the guard, and prepared to shout.
Kang Jingxiu stepped forward and said: "Your Majesty, these soldiers and civilians were beguiled by rumors and just burned down the villa of Uncle Guo outside the city. Uncle Guo's two concubines were burned to death by this mob..."
Intelligence chief Liu Xingzuo carefully introduced it to the emperor.
"Among the soldiers who were bewitched, there were Imperial Guards, Gyeonggi Guards, and some people from Pu Gang. The common people were all the village chiefs and armor chiefs around Nanjing. I heard that Your Majesty wants to abolish the "Land Acre System". These People were afraid that they would not have food to eat in the future, so they started to make noises.”
Angry faces appeared in the field of vision.
"Did other regiments participate in the mutiny?"
"Back to Your Majesty, there are a few Mongolian soldiers in the 14th Corps making noises, and most of the other corps chiefs are still watching."
"Wait and see?" Emperor Guangde weighed these two words carefully and repeated them twice.
"These people are waiting for me to die."
A general hurriedly came up from under the city wall. When he looked carefully, he was none other than Deng Changxiong, the commander of the Second Corps.
The frowning Emperor Guangde showed joy.
