The night is already deep, but the midsummer heat has not weakened, making it still difficult to sleep peacefully.
No one knows how many people in the world have insomnia, but there must be one person named Zhu Yaoyu.
She is the eldest princess Yongning of the Ming Dynasty. She has a noble status and a wealth of wealth. In the eyes of outsiders, she is always surrounded by wealth and glory, and happiness always surrounds her.
However, the fact is that apart from these wealth and glory, Her Royal Highness the Princess feels that she has almost nothing.
The person you like doesn't like her, or even if you like her a little bit, it's far from the point where you would give up everything for her.
Perhaps, what men always think about is only power, only career, and only the world.
The world?
Haha... The world of women is actually nothing more than "he".
"Fourth Princess, are you asleep?" A familiar female voice came from outside the door.
Princess Yongning suddenly sat up from the bamboo recliner she was leaning on and replied, "No, is it Xiao He?"
"It's my slave, the Fourth Princess, and there is news from the Governor of Huang Factory."
Princess Yongning immediately stood up, trotted to the door, opened the door for her, glanced behind her, and asked, "Where are the people in my palace?"
Xiao He smiled and said, "They know what the servants are here for and who sent them, so of course they all went to sleep."
Princess Yongning understood, nodded, and said, "Come in and talk." Xiao He stepped in.
After the fall of Chen Hong, the inner court had not yet appointed the Chief of Ceremonies to be the palm sealer, but everyone knew that there were only two people who could do this palm seal, either Chen Ju or Huang Mengyu.
He was originally the admiral of Dongchang, and now he still has the opportunity to become the eunuch of the palm seal. At this time, naturally no one in Princess Yongning's palace would dare not to give Huang Mengyu face.
Xiaohe entered the room and immediately took out a folded Xue Tao note from his body and carefully handed it to Princess Yongning.
Princess Yongning took the Xue Tao note and suddenly asked without raising her head, "What's written on it?"
Xiaohe was stunned for a moment, "This slave is illiterate."
The vigilance in Princess Yongning's eyes disappeared slightly, she nodded, stopped talking, opened the letter and read it.
After reading it carefully and repeatedly, Princess Yongning's eyes suddenly became confused. She sighed, sat back weakly on the bamboo couch, closed her eyes, and didn't know what she was thinking.
Xiaohe didn't rush him and waited quietly. After a while, he heard Princess Yongning ask, "Liang Bang...is the consort himself involved?"
"He believes Chong Xi's theory very firmly. Governor Huang said that Dongchang has interrogated this in detail many times and is sure of it." Xiao He replied.
"Then, what did he say? I mean... what did Jian Xinzhai say?" When the word "Jian Xinzhai" was mentioned, Princess Yongning, who had her eyes closed, seemed to move her eyelashes.
Xiaohe said calmly, "Jian Xinzhai said that he deserves to die."
"He is going to Liaodong. What will happen to the Liang family?"
Xiao He smiled slightly, "Don't worry, fourth princess. Jian Xinzhai said that within a month, the Liang family will fall and all the properties will be torn to pieces."
Princess Yongning said, "I'm afraid the emperor won't watch the Liang family starve to death on the streets and embarrass the Tian family, right?"
Xiao He nodded and said calmly, "Of course the emperor will give you some money, but Factory Supervisor Huang said... If the Liang family can't look away and seek death themselves, the emperor won't say anything."
"Oh?" Princess Yongning's tone was a little cold, "Are you seeking death?"
Xiao He smiled and said, "Yes, I am seeking death... Of course, Factory Supervisor Huang also said that Liang's consort has been extremely frightened in recent days and his condition has become more serious. He may be ahead of the rest of the Liang family."
Princess Yongning opened her eyes, frowned and said, "Is this because he is so ill? Factory Supervisor Huang didn't... didn't..."
Xiao He bowed slightly and said, "Don't worry, fourth princess, no matter what, he has already held the title of Prince Consort, and the factory supervisor will not do anything to him."
Princess Yongning breathed a sigh of relief and suddenly said, "Don't tell the factory supervisor about my problem just now... No, you ask the factory supervisor not to tell Jian Xinzhai."
"Yes, the Fourth Princess." Xiao He looked well-trained and didn't even ask a single word.
Princess Yongning nodded and said happily, "You are very good. Supervisor Huang Factory is also very effective in handling things. When the matter is resolved, I will reward you."
"Thank you, Fourth Princess." Xiao He smiled slightly, "But I'm afraid I won't be able to accept this servant... not even from Governor Huang."
"Why?" Princess Yongning was a little surprised.
"Jian Xinzhai has already given the reward and stated that Her Royal Highness the Princess' money is for other purposes."
Princess Yongning was startled for a moment, then suddenly sighed again, her tone becoming desolate again, "Sometimes, I really don't know what he is thinking about."
"Who can see through the mind of the man who meets Xinzhai?" Xiao He smiled and said, "However, he is still very concerned about the princess's affairs. I heard from the factory director Huang that on the day of the wedding, the man who met Xinzhai One even wanted to mobilize cavalrymen from outside the city to enter the city and interfere with the wedding ceremony. The frightened Factory Superintendent Huang repeatedly tried to dissuade her, so there was no big fuss."
Princess Yongning immediately sat up straight and asked quickly, "Is this true?"
"Seriously, Factory Supervisor Huang is still terrified when he mentions this matter."
Princess Yongning suddenly stood up, rubbed her hands together a few times as if they had nowhere to rest, and asked, "Did he say anything else?"
"Uh..." Xiaohe thought about it carefully and said hesitantly, "It seems that they also talked about some old stories about Princess Deqing and Princess Yongchun, but the factory supervisor didn't go into details. The slave doesn't know much about it."
Princess Yongning had complicated eyes and a wry smile on her face, feeling sad from the bottom of her heart.
Maybe, he just pities me...
It turns out that Princess Deqing and Princess Yongchun were also two poor people under the eunuch's arranged marriage.
The outsourcing of the selection of consorts did not start with Chen Hong. The eunuchs in the palace had long taken over this business.
Among them, the marriage of Princess Deqing was arranged by Li Guang, the internal official at the time. Although Eunuch Li had the same name as the famous general of the Han Dynasty, he was obviously not comparable at all.
For him, there are no technical requirements for how to choose a prince-in-law, and there are no quantitative standards, so the only criterion is money.
At that time, a wealthy man named Yuan Xiang spent a lot of money to bribe Eunuch Li, and he became the consort, which was equivalent to selling the princess.
The amazing thing is that the eunuch was not responsible for the princess's marriage, but the emperor was not responsible for the princess's marriage and did not inquire about it in detail.
Fortunately, the emperor was not responsible, and the eunuchs were not responsible, but the officials of the imperial court dared to take responsibility. Seeing that good things for Yuan Xiang and the princess were about to come true, some officials wrote a letter to expose Li Guang's tricks, saying that the prince-in-law was paid to do it. "The wedding is about to happen, and it's for the officials to report the matter."
Xiaozong Zhu Youtang finally woke up this time. Hearing that the eunuch was so irresponsible to the royal daughter, he became angry and issued an imperial edict ordering a new consort.
But what's even more amazing is that according to ordinary people's understanding, Li Guang has committed the crime of deceiving the emperor, so it should be a matter of losing his head, right? However, Li Guang committed such a serious crime and was fine. He just dealt with Xiao Jing, a lower-status eunuch. Li Guang, the culprit, was safe and sound.
You must know that this Princess Deqing is also an eldest princess herself, and is the sister of Emperor Xiaozong. It can only be said that although Emperor Xiaozong worked hard to govern, he was equally indifferent to his sister's marriage.
Princess Deqing had a near-miss, and finally married a happy man. And Princess Yongchun, Xiaozong's daughter, is even worse.
After Xiaozong's death, Princess Yongchun was still young. After her brother's Zhengde reign, and then during Sejong's Jiajing six years, Princess Yongchun reached the age to get married.
Shizong was quite responsible at the time and personally selected a husband-in-law named Chen Zhao for his cousin. Chen Zhao was ranked third on the candidate list at the time.
However, minister Yu Demin submitted a memorial and revealed that Chen Zhao's family had a history of hereditary disease, and that Chen Zhao's mother was not the original wife of the Chen family, but a concubine who remarried to the Chen family, with a low status.
Immediately afterwards, another minister defended Yu Demin and said that he was talking nonsense. Then the father-in-law said that the father-in-law was right, and the mother-in-law said that the mother-in-law was right, and it made a big fuss.
In this situation of being at a loss what to do, for the sake of his cousin's happiness, Jiajing had to use the elimination method. No matter what he was like, it might not work anyway, so he would first remove Chen Zhao from the list and then choose again.
At this time, two more candidates surfaced, one was Xie Zhao and the other was Gao Gao Yuan.
Xie Zhao looks passable, and Gao Gao Yuanze is a handsome boy.
As we all know, Emperor Jiajing did not play by the rules. He asked Princess Yongchun to secretly take a look at the appearance of the two of them. The result was undeniable. Of course, Her Royal Highness fell in love with the handsome boy.
However, the Empress Dowager intervened in the matter. She may have felt that the handsome boy was unreliable or Xie Zhao was mature, so she appointed Xie Zhao as her consort.
What was the result? On the wedding night, when he took off his hat, he found that the prince-in-law was an "extremely smart" man who couldn't even style his hair properly.
Princess Yongchun was thinking about that tall and handsome boy, and of course she was not satisfied with what she saw in front of her.
In the end, this incident spread to the people, and a nursery rhyme called "Ten Funny" was produced, one of which sang, "The prince-in-law will be rewarded in another life."
Of course, this is a kind of discrimination. Although Xie Zhao's consort lacks some grace, his character is actually good and he is quite blessed. According to "Wanli Yehuobian", he has been "rich for forty years" .
As for whether Princess Yongchun is happy or not, well...at least she must be dissatisfied in her heart.
Since "the one from Jian Xinzhai" mentioned Princess Deqing and Princess Yongchun, there was no need to think too much. He must have been comparing Princess Yongning with them.
Princess Yongning felt sad in her heart, but she didn't know who should be blamed for this. Chen Hong certainly deserved his death, and the Liang family deserved to die as they clearly deceived the emperor, but they were all easy to deal with, but...
Maybe this is life.
Princess Yongning thought crazily, if I had not met him at the Buddhist temple, would I still be like this now?
I may be the unluckiest princess in the Ming Dynasty...
In fact, she was not wrong in thinking so, but in fact, she was not the end of the Ming Dynasty's unlucky princesses in terms of marriage. There was at least one other princess in the original history, Zhu Yijun's seventh daughter, Princess Shouning.
"Wanli Yehuobian" records the story of Princess Shouning and her husband Ran Xingrang, which is also a tragedy.
It is said that on a moonlit night, when Princess Shouning announced her husband to meet Jun Ran Xingrang, she forgot to report the formalities to the housekeeper Liang Yingnu. The housekeeper was drinking with the eunuch Zhao Jinchao at the time. When she heard the news that the princess and her husband had met privately without permission, she immediately rushed into the princess's room, pulled out the consort Ran Xingrang, and beat her violently.
The princess was eager to protect her husband and came out to persuade him, but she was also scolded by the housekeeper. Princess Shouning was "so sad and angry that she didn't want to live" and planned to go to the palace the next day to complain to her mother and concubine. As a result, the villain Liang Yingnu filed the complaint first, and she complained in an exaggerated manner.
By the time Princess Shouning actually went to appeal the next day, the situation had already been decided, and there was no chance for her to turn around. Her mother was already "very angry" and refused to see the princess. I really can't understand why these imperial concubines believe in what outsiders say all day long, but don't even give a chance to explain to their own flesh and blood.
This road was impassable, and Prince Consort Ran Xingrang was well prepared. He wrote a letter of appeal and prepared to go to court to complain, and go directly to Zhu Yijun.
The naive prince-in-law never thought that the eunuch named Zhao Jinchao, who was drinking with the housekeeper, had already laid an ambush on the road. As soon as the prince-in-law appeared, dozens of thugs rushed out and dragged Ran Xingrang to the inner court. After a violent beating, the prince's clothes were in ruins and his flesh and blood were in a mess.
Ran Xingrang ran out of Chang'an Gate in embarrassment. What was the result? His bearers had also been dispersed by the eunuchs. Without a sedan bearer, the prince-in-law had no choice but to walk back to the mansion with disheveled hair and bare feet.
The young couple were about to appeal to their father, Emperor Zhu Yijun, but they lost the best strategic opportunity and became passive every step of the way - the next day, the emperor's imperial edict came down, and the consort took off his jade robe and reflected on the three things. months without giving any opportunity for explanation - "no more."
As for Zhao Yingnu, the evil housekeeper, they only dealt with the other arrangements, while the eunuch who beat the person was not dealt with at all.
In fact, it is difficult to say whether Zhu Yijun issued this imperial edict himself after knowing it.
In addition, this Ran Xingrang was really unlucky and was later killed by Li Zicheng.
However, history sometimes has such inertia. In the original history, Princess Yongning's marriage was arranged by Feng Bao and received full support from Zhang Juzheng. Empress Dowager Li was confused by the two of them, which resulted in the tragedy of Princess Yongning.
This time there was no Feng Bao, no Zhang Juzheng, but Liang Bangrui still appeared, still bribed the eunuch of the palm print, and still became the consort...
The only difference is that the former may have made Zhu Yijun even more dissatisfied with Zhang Juzheng and Feng Bao, and became the motivation for Zhu Yijun to pursue and "criticize" Zhang Juzheng after Zhang Juzheng's death. Incidentally, he also had to deal with Feng Bao.
Later generations wondered why Feng Bao was so favored by Empress Dowager Li, and why Empress Dowager Li only asked casually and didn't mention it again after Zhu Yijun moved him. In fact, it is very likely that Princess Yongning was also the reason.
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Thanks to the book friend "Jiangling153624" for the reward, thank you! Today, two updates are combined into one, and the word count is still guaranteed. I want to talk about "Da Ming Yuan Fu" with more like-minded people, follow "Youdu Literature" on WeChat, talk about life, and find close friends~
