Ming Xizong succeeded to the throne and changed the Yuan Tianqi, and the politics became more corrupt and dark during his reign. In the early days of Ming Xizong, a large number of Donglin Party members were used, which intensified the Donglin Party dispute, and Ming Xizong lost patience with the government as a result, and Wei Zhongxian took the opportunity to intervene in politics and win over the Qichu and Zhejiang Parties, known as the Eunuch Party.

The eunuch party grasped the government and government, Wei Zhongxian arbitrarily exercised power, and his minions were all over the country, and he vigorously attacked the Donglin Party, using the attack case, the red pill case, and the palace transfer case as the excuse, instigated the party henchmen to forge the "Donglin Party Point General Record" and report it to the imperial court, and Ming Xizong issued an edict to burn down the national academy. A large number of Donglin Party members were imprisoned and even executed, and the chaos of the government during the Apocalypse led to the intensification of internal and external troubles.

Speaking of the Ming Dynasty, not only did it set a lot of historical precedents, but there were also a lot of strange things, especially the three murders that occurred in the palace in the late Ming Dynasty and the early years shocked the government and the public, and each murder involved the crown prince or even the emperor. The three murders are connected before and after, the interpersonal relationships are intricate, and the confusing political struggle is like a palace fighting conspiracy suspense series.

The murder case, a bloody case caused by a madman. During the reign of Emperor Wanli of Mingshenzong, because the queen had no children, the courtiers advocated that Zhu Changluo, the eldest son of the emperor born to the queen of the palace, be the crown prince, and the queen mother and queen also supported Zhu Changluo.

Zhu Changluo's biological mother Wang was originally a palace maid beside Wanli's mother, Empress Dowager Li, and one day was fortunate to be pregnant by Wanli, the queen mother found out that the palace maid was pregnant, so she asked Emperor Wanli, Emperor Wanli began not to admit it, and the queen mother said to him: "I am already old, and now there is no grandson, if this palace maid will give birth to a boy in the future, it will be the blessing of the ancestors and Sheji." Only then did Emperor Wanli admit it.

Later, the Wang family gave birth to Zhu Changluo, at that time, it happened that the university scholar Zhang Juzheng died, and the Wanli Emperor monopolized the power, he put the Wang family into the cold palace, and even his son could not see each other, and the Wang family became depressed and blind. Before he died, Zhu Changluo was allowed to visit his biological mother, and Wang took Zhu Changluo's hand and said, "My son has grown up like this, why should I hate to die." ”

Since Emperor Wanli doesn't like Wang, he naturally doesn't like Zhu Changluo, Emperor Wanli's favorite is the imperial concubine Zheng, and he has always wanted to make Zhu Changxun, who was born to Zheng Guifei, the crown prince. At first, Emperor Wanli continued to delay, until the emperor's eldest son was ten years old, because you were undecided, and could not enter school. Although Emperor Wanli punished some ministers who supported the emperor's eldest son, the Donglin Party also supported the emperor's eldest son, making the support for the emperor's eldest son the crown prince powerful.

When Zhu Changluo was twenty years old, Emperor Wanli had no choice but to set up Zhu Changluo as the crown prince and Zhu Changxun as the blessed king. After Zhu Changluo got married, he moved to Ciqing Palace to live, Ciqing Palace is nominally the prince's bedroom, but in fact it is not as good as the general palace in the palace, not only dilapidated, but also very poorly defended, Emperor Wanli only sent a few old and weak soldiers to defend, there are few eunuchs and palace maids, only Zhu Changluo has a few personal guards, this situation and Zhu Changxun live in the palace, it is a world of difference, it seems that he is the real crown prince.

In this case, the case of the striking finally occurred in Ciqing Palace, and the striking was to beat people with wooden sticks, because the person who hit was not an ordinary person, but the crown prince, so it became a case.

One day in the forty-third year of Wanli, a man broke into Ciqing Palace with a jujube wood and injured the guards guarding the door, and then the man was caught under the eaves of the front hall and sent to the Donghua Gate guards to command and detain Ciqing Palace, which is the palace where the crown prince Zhu Changluo lived.

The next day, the crown prince informed the emperor of the incident, and the emperor ordered the relevant authorities to interrogate him strictly. Liu Yanyuan, the imperial history of the city patrol, said: "This prisoner's name is Zhang Cha, this person speaks a little incoherently, acts crazy, and looks a little cunning on the outside. ”

Zhang Cha's invasion of Ciqing Palace shocked many ministers in the court, and many people believed that Zheng Guifei and her younger brother Zheng Guotai colluded to frame the crown prince Zhu Changluo.

After review, it was said that Zhang Cha's hard-earned firewood and grass were burned by others, and he went crazy because of anger, and went to Beijing to complain about his grievances, and he met two men who tricked him into holding a jujube wood and entered the palace from Donghua Gate to Ciqing Palace, because the chief judge was Liu Yanyuan's fellow villager, this conclusion was not convincing.

Finally, the person in charge of the criminal department took advantage of the opportunity to send prison food to secretly interrogate Zhang Cha, and he told the story, someone promised to give him a few acres of land after the matter was completed, take him into the palace, and give him a jujube wood, so that he could beat people when he saw them, regardless of all the consequences, Zhang Cha also confessed, and the eunuchs Pang Bao and Liu Cheng told him that if he hit the crown prince, he would be able to worry about food and clothing in the future.

Pang Bao and Liu CD are Zheng Guifei's people, this matter involves Zheng Guifei, the truth is gradually revealed, the concubine asked the crown prince to open the net, and Emperor Wanli also urged the prince to say in front of the ministers that he would not pursue the matter again, and the prince was also afraid of implicating the concubine, so he obeyed his father's will and hurriedly learned about the matter. Emperor Wanli later executed Zhang Cha, Pang Bao, and Liu Chenglingchi, and no longer involved anyone else, and since all three were executed, the case could not be investigated.

The striking case is the first of the three strange cases, and there are many suspicious points. Second, even if this case was really instigated by Concubine Zheng Guifei, why didn't he use a more covert way to let Pang Bao and Liu Cheng handle this matter, obviously there were no three hundred taels of silver here; and why did Emperor Wanli hastily execute Zhang Cha and the other three, did he know the truth of the matter, and in addition, when trying this case, did those confessions be falsified?

After experiencing this case, Zheng Guifei's power declined, and Emperor Wanli had to give up the idea of making Zhu Changxun the crown prince, which made Zhu Changluo's position more stable.

The Red Pill case, a murder case with no evidence. Zhu Changluo was not cared for by his father when he was a child, his spirit was depressed, and the experience of canonizing the prince was extremely bumpy, and he often had to guard against the framing of others, which made Zhu Changluo's timid and cowardly character develop.

When Emperor Wanli was seriously ill, Zhu Changluo took Zhu Youxiao to visit, but the eunuch guarding the door prevented him from entering, Zhu Changluo did not dare to fight, and waited at the door from morning to night.

Zhu Changluo did not lead the army to fight on the battlefield in his life, nor did he help his father govern the government, nor did he have the education to study the scriptures hard, he almost never went out of the city gate, he was depressed and depressed for a long time, and often used wine to fill the emptiness and loneliness in his heart.

At this time, Zhu Changluo became the emperor, Zheng Guifei was afraid that Zhu Changluo would retaliate against herself, so she selected eight beauties to give to Zhu Changluo, Zhu Changluo was on the throne for less than ten days, and began to get sick, some people think that Zhu Changluo was in a happy mood after ascending the throne, and overindulged, Zhu Changluo's symptoms were dizziness, weakness, and he couldn't even walk.

At this time, the doctor who treated Zhu Changluo was called Cui Wensheng, he was originally an internal medicine doctor in the palace of Concubine Zheng Guifei, he didn't know what the reason was, and diagnosed Zhu Changluo's condition as a deficiency of kidney fire and needed to relieve fire, so he prescribed Zhu Changluo a dose of laxative-rhubarb.

After Zhu Changluo took the medicine, he went to the toilet more than a dozen times overnight, and his stomach was stretched until both legs were weak. At this time, the ministers fiercely attacked Cui Wensheng, they thought that there must be a conspiracy, and then Zhu Changluo ordered Cui Wensheng to be driven out of the palace.

At this time, Zhu Changluo was already sick and went to the doctor, and an official named Li Kezhuo said that there was an elixir, and the ministers were deeply suspicious of this and said that they should not be credulous, but Zhu Changluo still asked Li Kezhuo to immediately offer the elixir. The elixir sent by Li Kezhuo was a red pill, and after Zhu Changluo took one, he felt better, and wanted to eat something, and the ministers were very happy, thinking that the elixir really worked.

At this time, Zhu Changluo ordered Li Kezhuo to offer another elixir, and he had to take another one, at this time the ministers strongly objected, but Zhu Changluo insisted on taking another one, Zhu Changluo felt that there was nothing wrong, but he didn't expect to die at dawn the next day.

The violent death of Zhu Changluo shocked the government and the opposition, and people accused Cui Wensheng of deliberately making laxatives for him to eat, hurting Zhu Changluo's vitality, and accusing Li Kezhuo of colluding with eunuchs and deliberately offering poisonous elixirs. Zhu Changluo was originally weak, so he should have taken an excessive dose of laxatives, which aggravated the degree of weakness, and then took an excessive dose of tonics, which his body couldn't bear and led to death. However, the case was not investigated at the time, so the case of the emperor's sudden death ended hastily, so the Red Pill case became one of the court's mysteries.

In the case of moving the palace, women are prohibited from participating in politics. When the Red Pill case has not yet been clarified, another major case has occurred to move the palace.

When Zhu Changluo was seriously ill, Li Xuanzhi accompanied him to live in the Ganqing Palace, and soon won Zhu Changluo's favor, his status in the palace rose rapidly, and raised Zhu Changluo's son Zhu Youxiao, so Li Xuanzhi almost mastered the power of the harem, she tried her best to help herself on the throne of the queen through the power of Zheng Guifei, and Zheng Guifei wanted to use the opportunity of Li Xuanzhi to speak conveniently in front of the emperor to help her realize her dream of being the queen mother.

After Zhu Changluo's death, Li Xuanzhi still lived in the Ganqing Palace and was reluctant to move out, and took Zhu Youxiao with him, asking for the title of empress, and some ministers suspected that she was trying to listen to the government, and did not agree to her request, urging her to move out of the Ganqing Palace as soon as possible.

After Zhu Changluo's death, Li Xuanzhi asked his eunuchs to close the palace gate and not allow them to enter, which caused more dissatisfaction among the ministers, Yang Lian and other courtiers went straight to the Ganqing Palace, asking to see Zhu Youxiao to discuss the accession to the throne, but was blocked by the eunuchs, at this time Yang Lian shouted: "What do you slaves want to do? We were summoned by the emperor, and now that the emperor has died, do you want to rebel?"

Only then did the eunuchs get out of the way, and Li Xuanzhi hid Zhu Youxiao and didn't let him out. Liu Yibang asked, "Where is the prince going?"

The eunuchs couldn't answer, and at this time, the prince accompanied the eunuch Wang An into the room and said, "The prince will come back when he goes out." ”

Only then did Zhu Youxiao come out, but Li Xuanzhi immediately regretted it. At this time, Yang Lian stepped forward to drink the eunuchs, and the ministers embraced Zhu Youxiao to come to the Wenhua Hall to accept the worship of the ministers, in order to protect Zhu Youxiao's safety, the ministers arranged him to live in the palace, and Wang An was responsible for the safety.

Li Xuanzhi's purpose of holding Zhu Youxiao hostage failed, and the ministers wrote to ask her to move out of the Ganqing Palace, because Zhu Youxiao must return to the Ganqing Palace to ascend the throne, as the day of Zhu Youxiao's accession to the throne is getting closer and closer, Li Xuanzhi still has no signs of moving, Yang Lian and the ministers asked Fang Congzhe to urge Li Xuanzhi, Fang Congzhe thought that it was nothing late.

Yang Lian said: "Yesterday the crown prince lived in the palace, but tomorrow he became the son of heaven, do you still have to live in the palace to avoid the palace people? Even if the queen mother is still there, her husband has to obey her son when she dies. ”

The other ministers were also very loud, and Li Xuanzhi was helpless, and finally moved out of the Ganqing Palace to the place where the palace maids were old. From then on, it was impossible for her to make a difference politically, and the palace transfer case ended with Li Xuanzhi moving out of the Ganqing Palace.

Li Xuanzhi's request for the queen was not realized, and the desire to be the queen mother to control the government was also frustrated, and it is impossible to know whether she was instructed by Zheng Guifei in the Ganqing Palace, but the intention is obvious, that is, to control Zhu Youxiao to manipulate the entire court, although Li Xuanzhi moved the palace, but the matter did not end there.

Zhu Youxiao was still illiterate when he ascended the throne, he liked to do some carpenter work, he had never read, and he needed someone to guide his behavior, the Donglin Party drove Li Xuanzhi away, and there was no one in the harem, Wei Zhongxian and his henchmen took advantage of the situation to control the harem, and then control Zhu Youxiao.

After Wei Zhongxian gained power, he reassessed these three cases and placed all the charges on the heads of the Donglin Party members, so as to retaliate against them. The Ming Dynasty regime, which had already gone downhill, inevitably declined in this brutal struggle.