"Little Lizi, Your Majesty hasn't come out yet."

Wei Zhongxian asked the little eunuch who was standing outside the Nuanchun Pavilion with a relaxed face.

"Qi Qi Ancestor, Your Majesty has stayed from noon until now, and he has not ordered me to wait."

The little eunuch replied respectfully to Wei Zhongxian.

After Wei Zhongxian heard the little eunuch's words, he knocked lightly on the door. "Your Majesty's old slave Wei Zhongxian asks to see"?

After waiting for a few minutes, I saw that there was no sound in the house, so I couldn't help but speak again.

Seeing this, Wei Zhongxian couldn't help frowning lightly and snorted.

Gently pushing open the door, Wei Zhongxian walked towards the Warm Spring Pavilion. It's just that the Warm Spring Pavilion is extremely empty, and there is no Zhu Youxiao at all.

"Your Majesty"? Wei Zhongxian's voice couldn't help but get louder.

After transforming the entire Warm Spring Pavilion, Zhu Youxiao was not found, and Wei Zhongxian suddenly felt a sense of worry in his heart. walked out of the Nuanchun Pavilion quickly, and asked the two little eunuchs in charge of guarding the door with a panicked face.

"Where has Your Majesty gone".

When the two little eunuchs heard Wei Zhongxian's panicked tone, they were also frightened one by one, and they fell to their knees.

"Ancestor spare your life, we have really been waiting here, and Your Majesty has never come out."

"Come on, grab these two little things for me and take them to the East Factory for torture."

Wei Zhongxian couldn't help but be angry and screamed.

Several strong eunuchs directly pressed the two little eunuchs guarding the door, and the two little eunuchs were so frightened that they immediately peed their pants.

In December of the eighteenth year of Yongle, in order to suppress the political opposition, Zhu Di, the ancestor of the Ming Dynasty, decided to set up a new official office called "Dongzhi Factory", referred to as "Dongchang", and ordered the favored eunuch to serve as the leader. The establishment of the East Factory also has the intention of monitoring Jinyiwei. The deeper background to the establishment of Dongchang was the strengthening of centralized power in the Ming Dynasty. At first, it was directly under the command of Ming Chengzu, and later the control was transferred to the hands of eunuchs, whose power was above Jinyiwei.

In the first month of the spring of the thirteenth year of Chenghua, Ming Xianzong added the West Factory and used the eunuch Wang Zhi as the commander. Its power as a member exceeds that of the East Factory, and the scope of activities extends from Beijing to all over the country. At the time of Xianzong, the "West Factory" was re-established. This institution "does not have the right to assassinate adultery, but also has the right to inspect the Chinese and foreign countries, and the official school of the East Factory can also be inspected." Later, although it was "discouraged" by the cabinet scholars, it was "reinstated in the west factory" during the time of Emperor Wuzong, forming a situation of "confrontation between the two factories" in the east and west. What's more, a "specialist factory" was set up in a few days, with the eunuch "Liu Jin bowing to himself", and the east factory and the west factory were all under supervision, "the soldiers came out in all directions, and the world was in an uproar".

In the late Ming Dynasty, class contradictions, national contradictions, and internal contradictions within the ruling group became increasingly intensified, and the imperial power of feudal autocracy faced a serious crisis. Wei Zhongxian selected eunuchs who knew martial arts in the palace to form an armed team of 10,000 people as wings; The officials who were mainly recruited from the Luoqi, Chu and Zhejiang parties were used as pawns of their righteous sons, and they were called "eunuch parties". Wenchen has Cui Chengxiu and other "five tigers", military generals such as Tian Ergeng and other "five biao", as well as "ten children", "forty grandchildren", etc., "from the cabinet, the six ministries to the governor and governor of the four directions, and put the dead party in place." Criticize the red with his pen, master the government and politics, from the first assistant to the hundred bureaucrats, he was arbitrarily promoted and slashed; He held military power, and could appoint and dismiss governors and ministers at will; He also held great economic power, and sent his cronies to the eunuch governor Jingshi and Tongzhou warehouse, the governor of the Cao Canal Road, and sent tax supervisors to search for people's wealth. "The internal and external power belongs to the loyal and virtuous". Going out to fight, like the emperor, everywhere he passed, the scholars and doctors knelt on the side of the road and shouted nine thousand years old. Eunuchs and shameless officials also compete to build shrines for him in various places, a shrine costs tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, after the ancestral hall is completed, the local officials want to enjoy the spring and autumn sacrifices, and the officials and people who do not worship in the shrine will die. When Wei Zhongxian was in power, the factory guards were even more arrogant.

In the third year of Xizong's Apocalypse, he appointed himself as the commander of Dongchang; The governor of Jinyiwei is his godson Tian Ergeng. The factory guards colluded, set up unjust prisons, brutalized dissident officials, extorted money, and tyrannized the people. "Folk puppets, or touching the loyal and virtuous, were captured, and even skinned and tongued, and the killings were innumerable, and the road was eye-catching."

"History of the Ming Dynasty: The Biography of Wei Zhongxian" records that once four civilians in the capital drank at night in a secret room, one of them was drunk and hot, and scolded Wei Zhongxian, and the other three did not dare to speak out. Before the scolder could finish speaking, several people suddenly rushed in, arrested four people to meet Wei Zhongxian, and Wei ordered the scolder to be skinned on the spot, and the other three were rewarded and put back. The survivors were so frightened that they were on the verge of madness.

Dongchang is an existence that makes the entire Ming Dynasty cry, and everyone who has entered Dongchang has never come out alive, whether it is a member of the court or an ordinary person.

It can be said that as long as you enter the East Factory, you will have stepped into the ghost gate, and there is no chance of survival.

The two little eunuchs were forcibly dragged away, and the cries in their mouths faded away.

"You hurry up and tell Wang Tiqian, let him mobilize the internal officials, and hurry up to find Your Majesty. If he can't find His Majesty, then he will apologize with death."

"By the way, there is also a Jinyi guard to command Tian Ergeng to surround the entire palace, and the news of the emperor's disappearance is not allowed to flow out of the palace, if you dare to flow out......"

Wei Zhongxian paused for a moment and then hurriedly added, but his face revealed ruthlessness.

The little eunuch beside him also knew that the matter was important, so he didn't dare to slack off in the slightest, and hurriedly ran towards Zai.

Suddenly, the entire palace was brightly lit and full of people.

Zhang Yan, who had dinner in the Changchun Palace, looked at the little eunuch running around and frowned.

"Xiao'e, you go out and ask what's going on outside."

Zhang Yan turned her head suspiciously and ordered her personal maid.

After a while, Xiao'e returned to Changchun Palace and looked at Zhang Yan with a guilty face.

"Niangniang, Xiao'e is useless, I asked those officials, but they didn't speak."

Zhang Yan was even more panicked when she heard Xiao'e's words, you must know that Xiao'e is her personal maid, which represents the queen. The internal official knew it but kept silent, something big must have happened.

"The queen mother, the master of ceremonies Wei Gonggong asks to see."

The little eunuch of Changchun Palace ran in front of Zhang Yan and hurriedly spoke.

"Wei Zhongxian, what is he doing here"?

For this miscarriage of Wei Zhongxian, Zhang Yan has never forgiven this person in her heart, although now Zhu Youxiao values the other party very much.

"Let him in."

Zhang Yan instructed the little eunuch to spread the news that he was sitting upright on a chair and quietly waiting for Wei Zhongxian's arrival.

"Old slave Wei Zhongxian, see Queen Mother".

After Wei Zhongxian came in, he made a big salute to Zhang Yan, but his eyes kept looking around, Zhang Yan saw Wei Zhongxian's performance in his eyes, and couldn't help but ask Wei Zhongxian.

"What is the matter with Gonggong Wei coming to the palace?"

Wei Zhongxian didn't see Zhu Youxiao, and he suddenly felt even more desperate in his heart.

"Empress Qiqi, at this time, it is rumored that an assassin in the palace wants to assassinate His Majesty, but has been blocked by the guards, and is now hiding in the palace, and the old slave came to arrest the assassin at the behest of His Majesty."

When Zhang Yan heard Wei Zhongxian say that Zhu Youxiao had encountered an assassin's assassination, she immediately panicked.

"How is Your Majesty"?

Wei Zhongxian looked down at Zhang Yan with an unchanged expression, "Your Majesty is blessed by the gods and is safe and sound."

Zhang Yan suddenly breathed a sigh of relief, and her face gradually recovered.

Zhang Yan opened her mouth and stopped Wei Zhongxian, who wanted to leave, "Stop."

Originally, when he heard that Zhu Youxiao was assassinated, he panicked and didn't think about it carefully. After hearing that Zhu Youxiao was safe and sound, Zhang Yan realized that something was wrong.

"Wei Zhongxian, you honestly tell this palace, what happened"?

Wei Zhongxian, who originally wanted to leave, was stopped by Zhang Yan, Zhang Yan didn't want to see Wei Zhongxian, and Wei Zhongxian never wanted to see Zhang Yan. If it weren't for the fact that the emperor's disappearance was too important, and he wanted to confirm whether the emperor was in Changchun Palace, Wei Zhongxian would definitely not come to the queen's residence in this life.

When he saw Zhang Yan's stern interrogation, he suddenly felt shocked, knowing that Zhang Yan had discovered that something was wrong.

I was also hesitating in my heart, whether to tell Zhang Yan the news of the emperor's disappearance. In the end, after thinking about it, Wei Zhongxian decided to tell Zhang Yan the news of the emperor's disappearance.

After all, now that the open fire in the Forbidden City is in charge, a discerning person can know that something big is going on at a glance. Especially those concubines of the emperor in the palace, they definitely don't dare to be as unscrupulous as before. can only tell Zhang Yan the truth of the matter, and let Zhang Yan stabilize the harem.

"And when they all retreat, no one is allowed to step into the palace half a step without the order of my father-in-law, and those who violate it will be killed on the spot."

At the same time, he motioned to Zhang Yan and asked Zhang Yan to call the idle people in Changchun Palace.

When Zhang Yan saw Wei Zhongxian taking things so solemnly, she felt that the matter was definitely not a trivial matter. After calling all the internal officials down, only Xiao'e was left.

Wei Zhongxian glanced at Xiao'e and stood there quietly without speaking.

Zhang Yan's tone was flat, "Xiao'e is my personal maid ......."

"Queen Mother, this matter is important."

Zhang Yan saw that Wei Zhongxian was so oily and salty, so she could only call the maid Xiao'e down.

"Okay, the person is done, tell the story".

Wei Zhongxian looked around for a year, walked up to Zhang Yan and whispered.

"Your Majesty is missing".