(Recommended reading: Whether Emperor Hongzhi only had one wife, Empress Zhang, is controversial in history. Net≯

The most commonly mentioned are the five palace people who were canonized as "ladies" during the Hongzhi period, saying that the Hongzhi Emperor also canonized five "ladies" in addition to Empress Zhang, and some people believe that this was the concubine of the Hongzhi Emperor.

However, there are historical materials to prove that in fact, these five "ladies" are only old palace maids who have served the royal people for a long time in the palace, not women privately accepted by Emperor Hongzhi.

There are also rumors that Zhu Houzhao is not born to Empress Zhang.

This matter sounds absurd, but in the "Records of Filial Piety" and "Records of Wuzong", a character named Zheng Wang is mentioned, as well as the sensational case in the seventeenth year of Hongzhi, the Zheng Wang Fallacy Case.

It is said that before Empress Zhang gave birth to her eldest son Zhu Houzhao in the fourth year of Hongzhi, there was no news in the palace, and even the Minister of Civil and Military Affairs did not know that Empress Zhang was pregnant.

In other words, Zhu Houzhao was born "suddenly", which is very unreasonable.

The emperor has no heirs, and the ministers have been admonishing the emperor all day long to recruit the harem, Zhu Youzhi has a lot of pressure on his shoulders, if the queen is pregnant, the royal family should be cautious and publicized, but he didn't expect that there was no news in advance, and it was not until after the birth of the heir that the court knew.

Since then, the news that Zhu Houzhao is not Empress Zhang's biological son has spread.

Of course, this is just a rumor, Zhu Houzhao was canonized as the crown prince less than a year after he was born, and the forbidden place of the palace is a place where right and wrong gather, no one can determine the authenticity, the rumors originally stopped at the wise, and slowly no one spread them anymore. But things are very strange, a few years later, even if Empress Zhang gave birth to her second son, the rumors still did not stop, but intensified.

The reason is that there is a person named Zheng Wang in the people, this person is just an ordinary military family of Wu Chengwei, his family is poor, and he has a daughter named Zheng Jinlian, who was sold to the palace as a palace maid at the age of twelve.

There are so many palace maids, there are not many Zheng Jinlian, and there are many less of her, and it is strange that Zheng Wang often exchanges some items with his daughter through a eunuch named Liu Shan, he sends things outside the palace in, and Zheng Jinlian lets Liu Shan take out the things in the palace and hand them over to his father and brother to sell to improve his life.

Zheng Wang would often show off the things his daughter had sent out of the palace, boasting that his daughter had actually received the emperor's favor and that the crown prince was also born to his daughter. The daughter's belongings he got were not precious things that ordinary palace maids could have.

This matter quickly reached Zhu Youji's ears, originally encountered this kind of thing, the emperor should have made an example of a hundred and completely stifled the rumors, but Zhu Youzhu was indifferent after hearing about it.

In the eyes of many people, it is clear that the emperor acquiesced in this matter.

It wasn't until the seventeenth year of Hongzhi, that is, when Zhu Youzhu felt that the limit was approaching and was about to pass on the throne to Zhu Houzhao, that he thought that this kind of rumor was likely to affect the orthodoxy of his son's throne, so he ordered people to arrest Zheng Wang, Liu Shan and others, and created the world-famous "Zheng Wang Fallacy Case".

The bizarre thing is far from over, Emperor Hongzhi did not let Yousi Yamen interrogate Zheng Wang, but personally "imperial trial", a charlatan and an old eunuch in the palace, worthy of him to go into battle in person?

The more people think that this is Emperor Hongzhi's fear that some secrets in the palace will be leaked.

The final result was that the eunuch Liu Shan was executed, and Zheng Wang, who was originally more responsible, was only convicted of the two major crimes of "evil words" and "impersonating the imperial family", and was imprisoned, and Zheng Jinlian was assigned to the Huanyi Bureau.

After Wuzong, that is, the crown prince Zhu Houzhao, succeeded to the throne, he released Zheng Wang and rewarded him with many treasures.

The end of the matter was that in the second year of Zhengde, Zheng Wang continued to insist that his daughter gave birth to the prince, and this time he could not escape the catastrophe, and was arrested again for the crime of "evil words", and then was sentenced to death with a quick knife.

Zheng Wang's death this time is regarded as Zhu Houzhao's murder, even if Zhu Houzhao doesn't do it, the Minister of Civil and Military Affairs, and Liu Jin will remind him to do so.

The most important thing for the new emperor to succeed to the throne is that the blood is pure.

The characters mentioned in the records of the two generations of emperors, in addition to the ministers of civil and military affairs, such a charlatan can be regarded as a great creation.

He is very familiar with Shen Xi, and now Wang Zhan, who is the editor of the Hanlin Academy, has recorded this incident in the history books, saying that when he was teaching the eunuch to study, he had seen someone escort a palace maid to the Huanyi Bureau, and the people in the Huanyi Bureau were all solemn when they saw this woman, which shows that this woman has a very high status in the palace.

Later, Wang Zan learned that this woman was Zheng Jinlian.

Shen Xi thought to himself, will the current poisoning case be related to the "Zheng Wang Devil Case"?

The "Zheng Wang Devil Case" case, that was four years later, and now the identity of the crown prince Zhu Houzhao is still just a folk legend, if anyone thinks that the prince is not suitable for ascending the throne, and the so-called queen heir is just a sinister seed born in a palace child, and whether this palace maid is born is the blood of the emperor's heir, it is still unknown.

Therefore, will they attack the queen and her children who have deceived the people of the world?

……

……

Since it is an unsolved case, there is no evidence, and it is not Shen Xi's turn to worry about it.

Besides, what if he came up with many doubts about the case based on later records? It is about the reputation of the queen and the crown prince, how dare he speak to outsiders?

It's better to keep your mouth shut!

Moreover, this case is extremely mysterious, if there is such a big case in the palace in the past, and the people involved in the case are prevented from being tortured, there will definitely be people who commit suicide in fear of crime, but there is no one.

Before the case was born, there were usually some signs, such as the queen suddenly felt as if she was being bitten by a mosquito in her armpit at a certain time on a certain day, but she didn't care, and this didn't happen!

Even if the palace was turned upside down, the so-called poison was not found, and some palace maids and eunuchs began to bite each other after being beaten dozens of sticks, and the final investigation was also nothing.

Shen Xi is a foreign minister, and he was not even allowed to go to the East Palace to give a lecture to the prince after the case, and this case was completely isolated from him.

Although Shen Xi was a little unhappy in his heart, he knew that now was not the time to be vindictive, and the only thing he could do was to complete the errand that Xie Qian had handed over.

The envoys of Uliangha and Franc Ji have not yet arrived in the capital, and will arrive around the end of August.

On August 19, Emperor Hongzhi would personally go to the western suburbs to check on the matter of the Franc machine gun, which was not canceled or postponed because of the queen's serious illness, which became the most important task of Shen Xi at present.

Early in the morning of the nineteenth day, as soon as the city gate was opened, Shen Xi took a carriage out of the city, all the way to the west of the city to prepare, he had to hurry up and arrange all the things demonstrated, and he needed to do everything himself.

Put all the straw men in place, and look at it from a distance, it really looks like hundreds of Tatar soldiers rushing to kill, but there are fewer cavalry among these Tatars, and it is very difficult to tie grass horses themselves.

After the straw man and grass horse are ready, there is no way to practice with live ammunition, because these straw figures used for demonstration are all disposable and will be scrapped after use.

After that, Shen Xi began to adjust the firing angle of the Franc cannon, this cannon is powerful, but if it misses, it will not cover the target, it will be boring. During this period, the accuracy of the Franc machine gun was a little poor, and Shen Xi set some methods of on-the-spot contingency to adjust the angle while the cannon was being used to cover the entire hillside.

The emperor is going to leave the palace, and the streets along the way are usually closed for martial law, which is usually more troublesome, and Shen Xi expected that Emperor Hongzhi would not arrive at the school too early.

Sure enough, it was almost noon, and the first batch of people in the palace arrived, but it was the people and horses of the Imperial Forest Army and the Jinyi Guard who were fighting in front of the station.

After noon, Luan Jia and Baiguan arrived, and although the Hongzhi Emperor brought not many people this time, he brought the cabinet scholars and the main officials of the six ministries.

Shen Xi thought to himself, if this was fired in the direction of Luanjia, the entire Ming Dynasty would have to be chaotic.

Ma Wensheng, as the secretary of the Ministry of War, personally presided over the ceremony, and he walked up to Shen Xi and asked, "Are you ready?" ”

In fact, you don't need to ask, it's clear at a glance.

In addition to the prepared Franc cannon, there are also 200 carefully selected officers and soldiers, and the established process is to fire the cannon first, and when the straw man on the mountain is almost down, the soldiers will rush up to replenish the guns and swords.

This is also a real combat application on the battlefield!

Shen Xi nodded, holding a small flag in his hand, which was specially designed by him.

Shen Xi said: "Ma Shangshu, can you hand over the order flag to Your Majesty, and Your Majesty will personally give the order?" ”

Ma Wensheng thought about it and felt that it made some sense...... Since the emperor personally came to the school to observe the scene of the artillery firing, the people were far away and there was no sense of participation, if the emperor was asked to use the order flag cloth command to decide the time of the cannon, the emperor would have a greater sense of achievement.

Look, this is my army, my artillery, where I point they fight.

Ma Wensheng took the order flag and said to Zhu Youji, and when Ma Wensheng came back, his face was a little happy, obviously very satisfied with Shen Xi's arrangement.

Shen Xi had already greeted the soldiers earlier, and the emperor's order flag was raised, which was to prepare, and to put it down was to open fire.

After two orders, Zhang Lao Wu had to shoot artillery after seeing the order.

Of course, it's just that the first cannon will act according to the emperor's order, and there will be no need to pause later, and try to speed up the artillery as much as possible under the condition of ensuring safety.

Everything is ready.

In order to prevent the emperor from being in danger, the position of Luan Jia and Baiguan was about more than a mile away from the Franc machine gun, and on the hillside opposite the artillery muzzle, the straw men were distributed between half a mile and one mile.

Standing on a high platform a few feet above the ground, the emperor could see the entire process of the cannon clearly.

"Your Majesty, you can begin."

When Ma Wensheng came back, he brought back the news that it was ready.

British Gong Zhang Mao asked with a smile: "Ma Shangshu, is there any danger here?" ”

Ma Wensheng replied with a smile: "Grandpa has been in battle for a long time, he should know what the range of artillery is......"

Zhang Mao nodded, in fact, he felt that the farthest part of the straw man was actually a mile away from the artillery It felt very unreliable, where could this Franc cannon have such a long range?

The straw men are still relatively scattered, and with Zhang Mao's long-standing understanding of artillery, artillery is used to bombard the city wall, and this exercise is of little significance.

Zhu Youji's gaze fell on Xie Qian, and said, "Why don't you come to Xie Aiqing." ”

After all, Zhu Youzhu had never been on the battlefield, this was his first time experiencing the "battle array", and holding the order flag in his hand made him a little nervous.

Xie Qian said with a smile: "Your Majesty, Ma Shangshu has already explained that you only need to raise the order flag and put it down." ”

Zhu Youji's hanging heart settled down a little, but he was not sure, raised the Ling Qi above his head, put it down again, and asked, "But so?" ”

Zhu Youzhu was originally testing once to ask if there was anything wrong, but in the eyes of the heralds, this was equivalent to giving an order.

Military orders are like mountains.

The second and third flags fell almost at the same time, and then a loud "boom" was heard in the distance, which startled Zhu Youji, who was still a little absent-minded.

The eyes of all the courtiers fell on the hillside in front of the left, and with this cannon, only half of the dozens of straw men lined up at the front of the hillside were already standing.

"Wow!"

There was an uproar in the crowd, how powerful is this artillery? Or are those straw men adulterated, not firmly rooted, and scattered when the wind blows?

Just when everyone hesitated, soon the second cannon rang out.

"Boom!"

It's a solid sound again.

This time the landing point was slightly back, and another row of straw men fell.

Then there was a continuous shelling, a pause in the middle of which was a single shot, and after twelve consecutive shots, the front finally fell silent.

However, in the next moment, the heroic Ming officers and soldiers, holding their own swords, guns and shields, shouted and rushed to the hillside, breaking the straw men standing sporadically on the hill and becoming a pile of weeds on the ground.

*************

PS: Fourth Update!

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