Feng Bao walked towards the place where Empress Dowager Li lived in Qianqing Palace.
Feng Baoneng became the most powerful eunuch in the imperial court today because he relied on Empress Dowager Li's trust and was responsible for monitoring Emperor Zhu Yijun for Empress Dowager Li.
For this reason, he not only often reported Zhu Yijun in front of Empress Dowager Li, but sometimes also directly pointed out Zhu Yijun's mistakes and criticized them.
Not only was Queen Mother Li not angry about this, but she valued and trusted Feng Bao even more. She believed that Feng Bao was an upright and truly loyal eunuch, so letting Feng Bao take care of Zhu Yijun made her really feel at ease.
Feng Bao also liked him, so he would naturally look at Zhu Yijun with all his strength, and would not allow Zhu Yijun to do anything that was not in line with the benevolence of the Holy Lord.
For this reason, Empress Dowager Li had great trust in Feng Bao in history.
Even the selection of the consort of her daughter, Zhu Yijun's biological sister, was left to Feng Bao by Empress Dowager Li.
As a result, Feng Bao accepted bribes and directly chose a sick man for the princess who only wanted to marry the princess.
During the wedding ceremony, the chosen prince-in-law vomited blood and died soon after. As a result, the princess was forced to remain a widow for the rest of her life, and she remained a virgin until her death.
It can be seen that Feng Bao is greedy for money.
However, Feng Bao is not only greedy for money, but also plays for power.
If he didn't know how to play with power, he wouldn't have become one of the Iron Triangle. He wouldn't have defeated Gao Gong in a bloodless fight with Empress Dowager Li and Zhang Juzheng, and would have overseen the East Factory as the eunuch in charge of the ceremony.
You must know that as a rule, the eunuch who is the chief of etiquette and holds the seal cannot concurrently serve as the admiral of the East Factory.
For the sake of checks and balances.
It was Feng Bao who broke the precedent.
Because Feng Bao was good at playing with power, he also hoped to further consolidate his power.
The way he consolidated his power was to strengthen Queen Mother Li's trust in him and her sense of need for him. But how to strengthen it?
In Feng Bao's view, he just needs to take good care of Zhu Yijun.
Because what Empress Dowager Li valued most was whether Emperor Wanli Zhu Yijun could become a saintly king and a benevolent lord!
But if Zhu Yijun behaves like a saintly king and a benevolent lord too early, it will mean that his role and function as a guardian are of little significance.
And Feng Bao could no longer further control the emperor and suppress imperial power in the name of taking care of the queen mother.
You know, Feng Bao is now in the inner court. From the perspective of power, the only thing that can really restrict his power is the imperial power, the young emperor Zhu Yijun.
Therefore, Feng Bao had to let Zhu Yijun make mistakes from time to time, so that he could complain to Queen Mother Li to show that he was taking care of her seriously and did not condone Zhu Yijun. Also, Queen Mother Li always felt that the emperor was not fully mature yet and still needed him as a companion. Help with some inner court affairs.
You know, in the edict he wrote for Emperor Longqing, Feng Bao specifically listed himself and Zhang Juzheng as ministers of Gu Ming, in order to make Empress Dowager Li more willing to let him look after Zhu Yijun in the name of the late emperor.
Because of this, Feng Bao wanted Zhu Yijun to make mistakes from time to time, so he deliberately asked the eunuchs around Zhu Yijun to do things to induce him to have fun and neglect his studies.
Otherwise, the little eunuch around Zhu Yijun would not really be looking for trouble. Knowing that neither Empress Dowager Li nor Feng Bao liked the emperor's bad behavior, they would still try to lure the emperor into bad behavior.
Obviously, it's not the little eunuch who is stupid, but someone who is really bad.
After all, some of the deacons and eunuchs who were able to get in front of the emperor were really stupid, and they were basically the pawns of the chief eunuch.
However, in history, Wanli was indeed lured into doing some fun things by the deacons and eunuchs around him when he was older. He was also instigated to kill Feng Bao after drinking. Feng Bao thought he had received the news in advance and hid, but he also The matter was reported to Queen Mother Li the next day.
After hearing this, Queen Mother Li was very angry and threatened to go to the Ancestral Temple to cry for Zhu Yijun's dethronement.
Zhu Yijun could only kneel down and beg for mercy, and finally he was forced to issue an edict to punish himself.
And Feng Bao became more and more proud of it. In the name of taking care of Empress Dowager Li, he treated Zhu Yijun more strictly and interfered in more people and things around Zhu Yijun, so that Zhu Yijun later became afraid when he learned that Feng Bao was coming. , when being tempted by other eunuchs to do something outrageous, they would carefully ask: "What if the eldest companion finds out?"
Of course, these things haven't happened yet.
After all, it was only the first year of Wanli, and Feng Bao had just become the eunuch in charge of the ceremony. He had been busy fighting with Zhang Juzheng to defeat Gao Gong, and had no time to make a fuss about the emperor Zhu Yijun to gain the trust of Empress Dowager Li.
Now, he has just started to make a fuss about Zhu Yijun.
It happened that at this time, his advance plan for the Wei Dynasty to lure Zhu Yijun to play with crickets was effective.
Naturally, it was impossible for Feng Bao not to seize this opportunity and hurriedly came to see Queen Mother Li.
"Ancestor, the empress has gone to Ciqing Palace."
Feng Bao was generally honored as the ancestor in the palace, while outside the court he was generally addressed as the old father-in-law or the old minister.
At this time, after Feng Bao came to Queen Mother Li, the lady beside Queen Mother Li also called Feng Bao this way, and informed Queen Mother Li where she was now.
"Thank you ma'am."
Because she was an old palace maid who had served Empress Dowager Li for many years, Feng Bao also greeted her politely and respectfully, and then went to Ciqing Palace.
"Giggle! That's true for my sister to say so."
As soon as Feng Bao arrived at Ciqing Palace, he first heard Empress Dowager Li's laughter through the palace door.
However, when Queen Mother Li saw Feng Bao coming, she stopped laughing and asked, "Feng Bao, why are you here?"
After Feng Baoxian bowed, he said, "I have something important to tell you. As soon as the emperor came back from the banquet, he was seduced by a deacon and eunuch named Wei Chao to play with crickets."
When Queen Mother Li heard what Feng Bao said, she immediately frowned: "Is this possible?"
Feng Bao nodded: "How dare you lie, old slave! In the past, Xuanmiao was regarded as a rare saint in this dynasty, and he got a bad reputation as Emperor Zhi because of his love for this thing. And if the emperor really fell in love with this thing, he would not Let the empress know that it is the fault of the old slave and the people around the emperor."
"snort!"
Empress Dowager Li stood up and walked out quickly.
The maid beside Queen Mother Li hurriedly followed.
"younger sister!"
Queen Mother Chen called out, but did not call Queen Mother Li. She only glared at Feng Bao and then hurriedly followed.
Queen Mother Li came to Qianqing Palace angrily soon after.
Feng Bao also followed, with an imperceptible smile on his lips.
Queen Mother Chen looked panicked and kept shouting from behind: "Sister! Sister!"
"Fight him! Fight him quickly!"
As soon as Queen Mother Li appeared in Zhu Yijun's palace, she first heard the sound of fighting with crickets. For a moment, her eyebrows stood up and her eyes widened.
When Feng Bao saw Empress Dowager Li looking like this, he became even more proud.
"Zhu Yijun!"
Queen Mother Li shouted loudly first, then turned around and appeared on the steps outside the palace door of Zhu Yijun's bedroom. She saw King Lu playing crickets with several servants, and she became even more angry: "Okay, even his younger brother is following him." He led him astray!"
After speaking, Empress Dowager Li quickly walked up, grabbed the cricket pot from King Lu's hand, threw it on the steps, and then stepped in. As soon as she entered, she saw Zhu Yijun standing behind the imperial case, holding a pen in his right hand. He was writing, and he was reading a memorial in his left hand.
"Huh?"
Feng Bao was secretly surprised.
Empress Dowager Li also relaxed her brows and walked over. Seeing that there were many imperial notes with many words written on Zhu Yijun's imperial desk, the ink was not dry, and even the pen in her hand was still wet, so she asked: "Are you there?" do what?"
