Regarding the emperor's idea of building a large-scale Anle Hall, the eleven eunuchs of the inner court present definitely supported it with both hands and feet.
The vast majority of eunuchs have no children. After getting old and frail, they have no one to rely on, and their later years are very miserable.
Although there was an Anle Hall built in the imperial city, it was too small and had no freedom, so he could only be locked up in the imperial city for the rest of his life.
The royal family took the so-called leaking of secrets too seriously. When the eunuchs got old, they lived in Anletang, and the maids went to the clothes bureau when they got old. It's okay if you go to An Le Tang, but if you go to the Clothing Bureau, you have to wash your clothes until you die.
What's the use of these so-called breaking secrets? Now that Zhu Qiyu is sitting in Prince Qi's palace, he can understand clearly what the Queen Mother Sun said and what she did.
The imperial palace is just a big sieve that leaks air everywhere, so stupid emperors like the Ming Dynasty were superstitious about the Forbidden City.
It's better now in the early Ming Dynasty. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Jiajing and Tianqi gave birth to a son and died, and then another son died and another son died. These two poor bastards are still living in the imperial city. They are so beautiful that they don't want it. It's really Makes you speechless.
There is also the famous Emperor Wuzong Zhengde. He couldn't give birth to a son. He didn't think about it. He still dared to run to the Leopard Room. That place was worse than the Forbidden City.
With the tragic experiences and lessons of his predecessors and descendants, Zhu Qiyu summed up his own set of life-saving principles. The most important one is to never let any eunuchs or maids get close to him, especially not to let them come into contact with him. diet.
Based on this principle, Zhu Qiyu has made up his mind to severely suppress the number of eunuchs and maids in the imperial city to less than 3,000.
Necessary supervisory bureaus such as the Si Li Supervisor, the Royal Horse Supervisor, the Imperial Supervisor, and the Internal Official Supervisor will be retained, and the number of people will be greatly reduced.
The eunuchs and palace maids who numbered less than 3,000 were somewhat more controllable. Fifteen thousand palace maids and eunuchs, all talking a lot and having different thoughts, it is impossible to monitor them even if they want to.
If any emperor dares to guarantee that he can run the imperial city of more than 10,000 people airtight, then I can only say that there are many cows flying into the sky instead of plowing the land properly.
When everyone saw that the emperor was distracted, it was difficult to urge them. After a long while, Zhu Qiyu came back to his senses and told everyone: "You all go to the east duty room and wait while I talk to you one by one.
Ruan An will stay here first, and the others will go to the east to check in first. "
After hearing this, everyone quickly retreated.
Zhu Qiyu spent half an hour discussing the renovation of Nangong and the construction of Anle Hall with Ruan An. Ruan An was the most experienced construction talent in the inner court, and Zhu Qiyu trusted him with these two projects.
After that came Wang Cheng and Shu Liang, and Zhu Qiyu talked in detail about the issue of inserting spies into the princes' palaces. At the end of his speech, Zhu Qiyu emphasized:
“The most important thing is to take advantage of this opportunity to reward eunuchs to the kings and put some more eyes and ears in Prince Xiang’s Mansion for me to closely monitor Prince Xiang’s every move.
Among these princes, Prince Xiang is the one who disapproves of me the most. It would be best for him to be quiet. If he has any unreasonable thoughts or intends to help the Supreme Emperor to restore his power, then don't blame me for being rude. "
Wang Cheng and Shu Liang quickly replied: "Your Majesty, don't worry, I will take care of it now."
Zhu Qiyu changed his expression to a pleasant one and said to the two of them: "Wang Cheng will be in charge of the Seal of Ceremony for the time being. After Jin Ying and Xing'an return, nominally Jin Ying will be in charge of the Seal of Ceremony and Admiral Xing'an will supervise the East Factory.
But after they both come back, they will both die within a year or two.
By then you will have enough experience and you can officially take up the position. At this stage, you should learn more, see more, accumulate more connections, and recruit more confidants.
Don't be impatient or arrogant, you still have a long way to go. I regard you as my confidant, so I gave you some advice. I hope you won't disappoint me. "
The two people kowtowed quickly to show their loyalty. Zhu Qiyu waved his hand: "Go ahead and ask Lu Zhong to come in."
As soon as Lu Zhong came in, he poured beans from a bamboo bucket and told Zhu Qiyu what happened in Cining Palace last night in detail.
Gao Ping was Lu Zhong's spy in Cining Palace. In the past few days, Gao Ping secretly contacted several eunuchs who were familiar with each other and persuaded them to join the emperor.
Therefore, this time during the call, Lu Zhong had richer and more detailed information, and he became more confident in front of the emperor, and he spoke non-stop for half an hour.
Finally, Lu Zhong concluded: "Your Majesty, on the first day of the Jingtai Dynasty, the Queen Mother planned the arson incident in Fengtian Palace in order to characterize it as a natural disaster, and then spread the word to the world about your Majesty's immorality, causing anger and resentment. .
When there was a fire in the three main halls for the first time, even Taizong was hard-pressed to defend himself, and was chased by courtiers and asked to question him. Your Majesty's foundation now is not as good as that of Taizong back then, so you must be on your guard against this matter.
There are also the Prince of Soochow, the Great Khan of Oara, and the Great Khan of Tatar who are in Beijing. Your Majesty must also be cautious about their safety. "
Zhu Qiyu nodded very seriously, and then asked: "It's dry today, and there are fireworks and firecrackers in the inner court. Do you think the Cining Palace will accidentally catch fire like the Fengtian Palace?"
When Lu Zhong heard this, he suddenly started to sweat in the middle of winter. Did the emperor mean for him to order Cining Palace?
Faced with this kind of choice, wealth, life and death can all depend on a single thought.
If you make the right choice and do things well, you will enjoy endless glory and wealth.
If you make the wrong choice and mess up something, you can start your journey early.
However, the reason why Lu Zhong surrendered to the emperor early was because he wanted to gamble his life and fight for wealth. So after a brief period of shock, Lu Zhong made a choice:
"On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, during the Lantern Festival, people in the inner court will set off fireworks. If I were not careful at that time, there would be a fire in Cining Palace.
At that time, the general will be willing to die for His Majesty, and will take his cronies with him to rescue the Queen Mother and ensure that the Queen Mother is safe and sound. "
When Zhu Qiyu heard this, he smiled bitterly in his heart: This guy is trying too hard. In order to get ahead, he even dared to kill the Queen Mother.
It's no wonder that this guy in history dared to bring up the Golden Knife Case. He is really afraid of the hard, the hard is afraid of the violent, and the violent is afraid of risking his life. It's just right to use Lu Zhong, a man who doesn't care about life, to deal with the Sun family.
Zhu Qiyu now feels more and more that he is completely opposite to the employment style of Jingtai in history. Yu Qian, whom Jingtai regarded as his own father, was sent far away by himself.
Lu Zhong, Xu Youzhen and others whom Jingtai hated were increasingly favored by him.
Lu Zhong gritted his teeth to express his loyalty, but got no response from the emperor. He couldn't help but bravely glanced around, and saw that the emperor was distracted, with a wry smile on his face, and he didn't know what he was thinking. Could it be that I had made a mistake? Didn’t the emperor want to burn and kill the queen mother?
Lu Zhong's heart beat up and down, and after waiting for a long time, when his clothes were almost soaked with cold sweat, he heard Zhu Qiyu reply:
"It's normal for a fire to occur in the Cining Palace, but you must not hurt the Queen Mother, otherwise I won't be able to handle it for the time being, and then I will have to show the world your head."
When Lu Zhong heard this, he couldn't help but start wiping sweat with his sleeves.
Zhu Qiyu said with a smile: "You don't have to be so nervous. I never harm my cronies. I just say this to let you understand the pros and cons.
I won’t beat around the bush with you, lest you get the wrong idea, trick me, and endanger your own life.
What happened should be like this: On the night of the 15th day of the first lunar month, palace residents accidentally set off firecrackers and fireworks, causing fires in many palaces such as Cining Palace, Renshou Palace, and Yangxin Palace.
In the end, the fire spread and could not be put out. Cining Palace, Xian'an Palace, Renshou Palace, and Yangxin Palace were burned to the ground by the fire.
Jin Yiwei commanded the minister Lu Zhong and Gao Ping, who were on duty in the Cining Palace, risking their lives to rescue the Empress Dowager Shangsheng from danger.
Lu Zhong was promoted to the commander of Jinyiwei, and Gao Ping was promoted to general manager of Yinghua Palace.
Except for Gao Pingping, the eunuch who was responsible for putting out the fire, all the remaining eunuchs and maids in Cining Palace were killed.
Afterwards, rumors spread in the capital that the Empress Dowager Shangsheng had killed his wife with a concubine, and that she failed to educate the Supreme Emperor later, which led to the Tumubao incident and the Northern Emperor's hunt. The empress dowager of the Shangsheng Emperor was ultimately blamed for this, causing a disaster from heaven, and most of the harem was burned down. "
(End of chapter)
