If only three or five eunuchs wanted to rebel, it wouldn't be a problem to suppress them with the fierce methods of Queen Mother Sun who has been in charge of the harem for so many years.
But the problem now is that all his cronies are in panic all the time, for fear that the emperor will start a purge if he disagrees.
If a leader cannot protect his subordinates, the people's hearts will inevitably disperse.
Jin Ying was the general manager of the Cining Palace, the most powerful eunuch in the inner court, and the biggest confidant of the Empress Dowager Sun. She was not saved and was driven to the south to fight in the war by the emperor. Whether she could come back alive was a question.
Xing'an was a close confidant of the emperor, the admiral of Dongchang, and the number two figure in the inner court. He was not saved. When he was supervising the army, he suffered a great defeat. The emperor deprived him of the power of supervising the East Factory and sent him to fight in the south.
There were also all the palace officials in the Qianqing Palace who could not be saved and were collectively executed by the emperor.
If you can't even protect your own cronies, how can anyone trust you? Therefore, in the past few days, Queen Mother Sun's prestige in the palace has been greatly reduced, and the well-connected eunuchs and maids have begun to flatter Wang Cheng, Shu Liang, Zhang Yong, and Wang Qin.
The former personal eunuchs under Zhu Qiyu, at such a young age, have transformed into godfathers to a large group of people.
It's embarrassing to think about it, but fortunately Zhu Qiyu didn't care much, so he just let Wang Cheng and others mess around. Anyway, what Zhu Qiyu really relied on was the secret hand deployed in the inner court.
If we just stick to the above-board method of playing in the open and the enemy in the dark, we will not be able to defend against the Emperor's faction anyway.
The best way is to have light and dark on our side, complement each other with virtuality and reality, and combine light and darkness; build a plank road when it is time to build a plank road, and save Chencang when it is time to do so.
For example, Wang Zhen's former confidants Mao Gui and Wang Changsui were beaten to death by angry ministers during the Fengtianmen court meeting. The two were almost sent away by the ministers. It was Zhu Qiyu who was still supervising the country at the time who took care of them. People are brought back from the gate of hell.
Later, these two people were renamed Zhang An and Zhang Xing by Zhu Qiyu and placed in the Xixin Division to burn firewood. At that time, Zhang Yongcai had just taken charge of the Xixin Division. The two people changed their identities and recognized Zhang Yong's name, becoming Zhang Yong's first godson.
The teenage godfather led his twenty-year-old godson around, and Zhu Qiyu was speechless. But the eunuchs in the inner court are used to it: following the leader's influence, worshiping those who are superior and suppressing those who are inferior. This is the normal behavior of the inner court.
As long as you are powerful, being young is not a problem at all.
After the Supreme Emperor returned to Beijing, Zhang An and Zhang Xinghui, as Wang Zhen's former confidants, actively "leaked" information about the emperor's family to the Supreme Emperor and the Shangsheng Empress Dowager, eventually instigating a mutiny by the Supreme Emperor's faction.
This is the script that Zhu Qiyu arranged for the Emperor's Faction long ago.
Zhu Qiyu didn't say anything in Cining Palace, he just leaned on the back of his chair and thought about his thoughts. The concubine has been chatting with King Soochow. Queen Zhou and Mrs. Hang were listening to the two of them talking, laughing and joining in the fun.
Empress Dowager Sun sat there awkwardly, having nothing to say to the emperor and nothing to talk about with the King of Soochow.
Queen Qian was still lying in bed unable to get up. The only people who could talk to Queen Mother Sun now were Concubine Wan Chen and Concubine Wang.
The Wang family was extremely dissatisfied with the emperor's recent actions. Needless to say, Empress Hu's resettlement was a matter of course. Wang was a member of the Empress Dowager Sun, so she must have been full of resentment.
That's all. The Wuding Hou Mansion's recognition of a girl is even more outrageous. The majestic emperor actually went to kowtow to the Marquis of Wu Ding in person. This was a naked show of affection, showing the doting of Princess Qi to the world without any concealment.
Mrs. Wang felt extremely insulted. She was the first wife and the first wife, and the emperor was just a prince when they got married, but she did not want to kowtow to her father. Comparing the two, the gap is really huge.
Therefore, Wang asked Zhu Qiyu, both to stand up for the Empress Dowager Sun and to relieve her own anger: "Your Majesty, I have been going to the palace almost every day to pay respects to the Empress Dowager recently, but why have I never met Princess Qi once? Could it be that Qi Hasn’t the princess entered the palace recently?”
'I'?
Zhu Qiyu almost frowned when he heard this. What does this 'I' mean? Except for the queen mother and concubine, no one dared to call themselves 'I' in front of the emperor.
Sure enough, this Wang family is very consistent with the description in history, and does not regard Jingtai as the emperor. Even though the throne has been decided, the Wang family still regards Jingtai as the prince of the country. This is also the reason why she opposes changing the crown prince.
Although Zhu Qiyu supports equality between men and women in his heart, in life he likes beautiful women to be humble and docile in front of him. Zhu Qiyu doesn't expect Wang to be a slave or a prostitute like Lin Xiangyu, but you can call yourself a concubine at least.
Now the Wang family was "euphemistically and implicitly" accusing Lin Xiangyu of never entering the palace to greet the Empress Dowager. Just when Zhu Qiyu put his hand on his forehead and thought about how to refute, the empress could no longer hold back and retorted fiercely:
“My daughter-in-law is too young, her body hasn’t grown yet, and there are people everywhere who want to harm her, so I don’t let her go out.
She is only acting under my orders. If you want to break the rules, just come to me, this old immortal.
The Supreme Emperor already has a legitimate son, but my son does not yet. So please don't bother my daughter-in-law. She still has to take good care of her body so that she can give birth to my legitimate son as soon as possible.
As for the greetings, Princess Xi is responsible for greeting your mother-in-law, and Princess Qi is responsible for greeting her mother-in-law. You two have your own division of labor. In this way, neither mother-in-law's house is deserted, isn't it just right? "
The concubine's words expressed many meanings, which made Wang's blood boil and her face flushed.
Wang had no way to openly reply to the concubine, and Wang was somewhat unjust about this matter. She only said that Princess Qi did not enter the palace to pay her respects to the Queen Mother, but she herself did not go to pay her respects to the concubine.
The concubine took advantage of this to taunt Wang: You only regard the queen mother as your mother-in-law, and you ignore me, the emperor's biological mother, and yet you have the nerve to talk to me about the rules.
In addition, the concubine's words were not true, she only regarded Princess Qi as her legitimate wife, and only wanted Princess Qi to give birth to her legitimate grandson. She unabashedly regarded the Wang family as an outsider and had no intention of expecting the Wang family to have children. It really made Mr. Wang very angry.
Of the people present, the only one who could reply to the concubine was the Queen Mother. Just when Empress Dowager Sun was about to speak, Zhu Qiyu spoke first, but he changed the topic:
"Your Majesty, the weather in the northwest is getting colder and colder. All the daily necessities that I sent to my eldest brother were thrown away in Datong by the traitor Ye Xian.
I kept thinking about it and always wanted to send the things over again, but unfortunately I hit them too hard first, resulting in only 30,000 defeated soldiers left, running around like bereaved dogs.
Now it is too difficult to find Ye Xian's camp and send envoys there.
Moreover, according to the intelligence received by the Ministry of War, they have already fled three thousand miles away from Datong. Therefore, even if they can find the camp first and send an envoy there with daily necessities, they will have to walk for more than a month.
The more I think about it, the more worried I am. My eldest brother is alone and has no one to look after him. There is an eunuch named Xi Ning next to me, but he is still a Jurchen and hates our Ming Dynasty. Why! "
After saying that, Zhu Qiyu sighed heavily.
When Zhu Qizhen was mentioned, Queen Mother Sun's attention was indeed attracted, and she quickly asked with concern: "What should we do? Since the emperor has already beaten him to only 30,000 remnants of defeated soldiers, and they are running around everywhere, what about the imperial court?" Can we send envoys to propose a ceasefire and peace talks, and order the Emperor to be sent back first?"
"Strike and peace talks?"
Zhu Qiyu was extremely surprised and asked curiously: "How can there be any reason for the victorious party to take the initiative to ask for peace talks? Let's talk about the Tumubao Incident. Half a million soldiers of our Ming army died in the battle, and countless ministers and nobles were killed and injured.
Is initiating peace talks worthy of the deaths of these innocent soldiers?
Although as a younger brother, I hope that my eldest brother can come back safely more than anyone else. However, as the emperor of tomorrow, I must first eradicate the grassroots and avenge the national humiliation. I also ask the Queen Mother for your forgiveness. "
When Empress Dowager Sun heard this, she was quite surprised and asked: "Then are you going to watch the Emperor die?"
(End of chapter)
