"What? Li Ruolian, what did you say?"
Emperor Chongzhen had already stood up from his throne and looked blankly at Li Ruolian who was kneeling below.
"Your Majesty, the Qiantai Master said this morning that he had no son at the age of sixteen, and he wanted to take the lead in defending the country. He was worried that if anything happened, he would be sorry for his ancestors and would shake the foundation of the country. So he brought two hundred soldiers and horses. He took over the mansion where Ping Xibo's family temporarily lived, and robbed Xibo Ping's sister Wu Sanmei to return to the palace to give birth to a son for herself... now the raw rice has been cooked!"
Is there such a thing?
Chongzhen was almost petrified, standing there motionless.
Zhu Cixiang actually made such a damaging move and directly "robbed" Wu Sanmei and cooked the raw rice into cooked rice.
And he also found an upright reason!
I want Wu Sanmei to give me a son to carry on the family line...
Why are you so anxious about this? You, the prince, have three younger brothers! Even if you are killed by Li Zicheng's army, your brothers can still take over as princes. The Ming Dynasty will not be without princes!
"Your Majesty, although the prince's behavior was inappropriate, he still envisioned the great Ming Dynasty and did not lose his integrity. The prince is already sixteen years old this year. When your majesty was sixteen, he already had many concubines, but the prince was still alone. Indeed. It’s inappropriate!”
The person who defended Zhu Cixiang's act of robbing Wu Sanmei was Li Banghua, the censor of Zuodu. The old man had a white beard as white as silver and floated on his chest. He looked like a veteran minister of four dynasties with high morals and high respect.
A group of civil and military officials outside the Huangji Gate also nodded, and seemed to agree that Zhu Cihong had robbed Wu Sanmei for the sake of the Ming Dynasty... There are three types of unfilial piety, and the worst is not having an heir! Can everyone disagree?
"But, he's robbing people!" Chongzhen was so angry!
I'm not angry because my son stole a woman, but I'm angry because my son blatantly deceived me!
This is bullying!
Wu Xiang was already proposing girls, so why did he need to snatch his daughter? It's too late to see the prince throwing himself into his arms, why do you need to snatch him?
This was a collusion to put on a show, to make the rice into cooked food, and to force Emperor Chongzhen to admit the status quo. Is this not bullying the emperor? This is bullying!
Li Banghua pointed out with a serious face: "Your Majesty, the prince robs people to carry on the family line for his ancestors! Is it more important to rob people, or to carry on the family line for Emperor Taizu Gao?"
Of course, it is important to carry on the family line... On this point, the civil and military officials of the entire dynasty would have different opinions!
The previous impeachment of Wu Xiang for offering his daughter to be charming no longer exists. Now the prince has snatched Wu Xiang’s daughter in order to carry on the family line for the ancestors of the Ming Dynasty. This is an act of filial piety!
Who dares to impeach the prince because he is eager to carry on the family line? Do you want the Ming Dynasty to be wiped out? And now, what are the benefits of impeaching the prince? The prince has money and soldiers, which is the hope of the Ming Dynasty. If you want to continue to be an official of the Ming Dynasty, you must follow the prince!
Li Banghua added: "This is comparable to the story of Emperor Shenzong's filial piety and the empress dowager's approval! Now that the prince is lucky to the Wu family, there will be a certain chance that the Wu family will give birth to an heir! If an heir is born, although he is not a legitimate child, he will still be the prince's eldest son. Your Majesty’s eldest grandson… this way the Ming Dynasty will have a heir!”
Empress Dowager Xiaojing is the biological mother of Emperor Guangzong and the grandmother of Emperor Chongzhen. She was a maid in the palace of Empress Dowager Li, the mother of Emperor Wanli, and she was secretly given to her by Emperor Wanli. After tens of thousands of years of marriage, she still refused to admit it. It was not until Empress Dowager Xiaojing became pregnant that Empress Dowager Li found out the truth. The child in Empress Dowager Xiaojing's belly was Emperor Chongzhen's biological father, Emperor Guangzong Zhu Changluo.
Emperor Chongzhen's face turned blue with anger when he heard Li Banghua mention Guangzong.
In addition to his humble background, Guangzong was also a party to the dispute over the foundation of the Wanli Dynasty... Li Banghua mentioned Guangzong to remind Emperor Chongzhen not to depose the prince. The whole dynasty is full of upright gentlemen, and they all protect the foundation of the Ming Dynasty. If you want to change the prince, there is no way!
Not only could the prince not be replaced because of robbing someone to carry on the family line, but if Wu Sanmei gave birth to a son for the prince, as long as there was no legitimate son, he would be the future heir to the throne.
If the prince died in the battle to defend the Ming Dynasty and left no legitimate son, then the son Wu Sanmei bore to the prince would be the grandson of the emperor!
This is called standing up! It is stipulated in the Huangmingzu system!
"Wei Zaode, what do you think?" Chongzhen gritted his teeth and asked Wei Zaode, the great scholar of Shouxing University.
How dare Wei Zaode make any claims? He just said vaguely: "Although there is something wrong with this matter, for the sake of the Ming Dynasty, it is better, it is better..."
"Why don't you accept her as your concubine?" Chongzhen asked sharply.
When Wei Zaode heard Chongzhen's unkind tone, he had to change his words and said: "It would be better to use her as the female historian of the East Palace and order her to serve His Highness the Crown Prince..."
A female history officer is a female official. Her status is a little higher than that of a palace maid, but she is not a high-ranking female official.
"Can only be used as a palace maid!" Emperor Chongzhen seemed to be angry.
Li Banghua shook his head: "Why bother? Both the Wu family's father and brother are important ministers of the country, and his brother Wu Sangui is the reinforcement that the capital hopes for... Why bother to humiliate the Wu family with palace people?"
"I can only be a palace maid!" Chongzhen said firmly.
"Wang Cheng'en!" Then he called the eunuch Wang Cheng'en who had fallen out of favor, "Go and tell the prince that Wu cannot be a concubine and can only serve as a palace servant."
"Old slave accepts the decree." Of course Wang Chengen understood what Emperor Chongzhen meant.
This is to use Wu Sanmei's name as a bargaining chip to continue the game. However, Chongzhen had already lost a game by allowing Wu Sanmei to serve Zhu Cixiang. Not only did the drama of impeaching Wu Xiang go wrong, but it also allowed Zhu Cixiang and Wu Xiang to complete a de facto marriage.
As for status and such... when Wu Sangui's army arrives, can Chongzhen really refuse to give it to him? Not to mention the concubine, even the main concubine has to give it!
Otherwise, the troops outside Beijing belong to Wu Sangui, and the troops inside the city belong to Zhu Cixiang. If they join forces, Chongzhen will become the Supreme Emperor...
And even if Chongzhen refused to recognize Wu Sanmei as his daughter-in-law, it would not prevent Zhu Cixiang from pampering Wu Sanmei to heaven. Zhu Cihong's life depended on him, and Wu Sanmei was Zhu Cihong's palace maid, so it was only natural that she should sleep with him. When the time comes, Zhu Cihong will pamper Wu Sanmei. What can Chongzhen do?
So in this game, Emperor Chongzhen was slapped in the face by his son!
It really hurts!
What's even more hateful is that Emperor Chongzhen found that he had no way to deal with this unfilial son!
Emperor Chongzhen was an emperor who was obsessed with saving face and suffered at the hands of others. If he could be as shameless as Zhu Cixiang and could pull off all kinds of deceit and abduction, would he be where he is today? So he couldn't and didn't dare to hold a Hongmen banquet and just hosted Zhu Cihong. Now the defense of Beijing relies on Zhu Cixiang, and Wu Sangui, the life-saving straw, is Zhu Cixiang's second uncle. If he is going to do it, who will guard Beijing? Who will save? If the country finally fell, wouldn't the history books describe Chongzhen as a bastard and a third-level coward? Does he still have the nerve to say that he is not the king of subjugation?
And Zhu Cixiang is so cunning, he may not necessarily fall into the Hongmen Banquet's scheme... He doesn't live in Duanben Palace now, but has moved to Jiale Palace next to Taiye Pond. Jiale Hall is right next to the inner school field, and the inner school field is now the headquarters of the Kenan Camp, where nearly 3,000 soldiers of the Kenan Camp are stationed.
Chongzhen's Jing army would definitely not be able to defeat them. The desperadoes in Kenan camp were paid one tael of silver a day. How much money did the Jing army eunuchs receive? Even if you can survive the fight, you won’t sacrifice your life! Therefore, it is impossible to send out the Jing army to arrest Zhu Cixiang.
What Chongzhen could do now was to ask Wang Chengen to discuss with Zhu Cihong and ask for some money.
Wang Chengen's current status is also a bit special. Zhu Cihong was able to "expand" it, and he took the greatest credit. At the same time, he was loyal to Emperor Chongzhen. So he is now a bridge between Chongzhen and Zhu Cixiang.
…
When Wang Chengen rushed to Jiale Hall, Zhu Cixiang and Wu Sanmei were not there. They were having dinner with the officers and soldiers of the Nanyang Army in the inner school grounds.
Today is a good day for Zhu Cihong to steal his wife, so of course the soldiers must also be happy. So after coming out of Wu Xiang's house, Zhu Cixiang was not busy cooking the uncooked rice...Wu Sanmei's white and big rice is still raw! Because after Zhu Cihong robbed her, he was busy winning over the soldiers.
First, we prepared a delicious meal, which was white flour steamed buns with meat and a bowl of rice wine. Then he distributed "red envelopes" to everyone, not much, just one tael of silver per person. Zhu Cixiang and Wu Sanmei personally distributed it to everyone... No matter whether it was a palace maid or a female official, it was just Emperor Chongzhen and his son who were angry. To Zhu Cihong and the soldiers of Kenan Camp, Wu Sanmei is now the princess! It doesn't even have the word "side" in it.
Now that Zhu Cixiang wants to win over the Wu family, what kind of "side" should he add? The benefits should be given, right? Besides, Zhu Cixiang really liked Wu Sanmei, the "big girl". She was fair and tender, and she was also a tiger in the general family. She had been practicing martial arts and horse riding since she was a child. She would definitely not be a burden when running away later. How wonderful!
