For any emperor, filling the harem with beauties is inevitable. After all, the Master has said that there is also a color appetite. Virtuous as Emperor Shun, there is inevitably Empress E by her side. Of course, in the torrent of history, there will occasionally be one or two maverick emperors, such as Emperor Xiaozong of the Ming Dynasty.

He reigned for 18 years and died at the age of 36. Zhu Youzhang, who is known as Xiaozong, is the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, no, he is the only emperor who advocates monogamy and practices it in historical records. He only married one Empress Zhang in his life, never accepted palace maids, nor did he seal concubines and beauties, and he had no choice but to live with the queen every day, living the same husband and wife life as ordinary people, and he was really a rare figure among the Ming Emperors.

Even Zhu Youzhen, who has a soul of the afterlife living in his body, although he is in favor of monogamy from the heart, he has no intention of practicing this concept. In addition to the one concubine and two concubines in the hidden mansion, after ascending the throne, six or seven people were accepted one after another, but there were only five concubines who really had titles.

Although it can't be compared with Emperor Xiaozong's dedication, compared with other emperors, it is already a rare self-denial. It's just that Chongzhen's restraint in beauty is not appreciated by civil officials in foreign dynasties.

For these ministers, Emperor Chongzhen is obviously too capable compared to his father and brother, and his control over foreign dynasties is also stronger than that of Emperor Shenzong, which is obviously due to the emperor's excess energy and the lack of beauties in the palace. What made these civil officials feel even more entangled was that although the eunuchs in the inner court began to restrain their actions of interfering in foreign affairs, the incidents of interfering in foreign affairs in the palace did not go away.

It's just that this time it was no longer the eunuchs who represented the emperor, but the concubines of the harem. They also interfere in foreign affairs in a clever way, interfering only in matters such as medical care, public health, disaster relief and the protection of the rights and interests of women and children. In the eyes of the imperial court, these affairs were thankless and had to be constantly wasted in them, and there were not many civil officials to resist them. On the contrary, some officials feel that it is not a good thing to be able to use this to consume part of the financial resources of the inner treasury.

However, these public affairs that seem to be a waste of silver taels are increasingly erecting a positive image for the royal family in the hearts of the people, making the people increasingly regard the court and the royal family as two independent images, and such a view has been formed in the hearts of many people, the reason why the Ming Dynasty has been suffering from natural and man-made disasters for many years is mainly due to the incompetence and corruption of the imperial court and local officials controlled by civil officials and gentry.

If they could be as kind and kind as the ladies around the emperor, and focus on the people at the bottom, how could state affairs become so bad? Of course, this kind of psychology of the people is not completely spontaneous.

The Social Investigation Department and the Daming Times have also spent a lot of effort on the psychological guidance of the people. And these experiences that guide the development of people's psychological changes come from large-scale social psychological experiments carried out by the Ministry of Social Research in Japan. At least some Ming officials have begun to believe that the emergence of any new type of learning is to summarize and integrate theories from social activities, and finally guide human beings to use them in social practice.

However, for several concubines in the harem, they don't need to study such a profound theory, as long as they use this theory. It's just that there are still differences between people, and among these concubines, there are only about three people who can understand the emperor's intentions the most, including the queen, Concubine Chun, and Concubine Zhuang.

It's just that except for Concubine Chun, the queen and Concubine Zhuang didn't put their minds on these matters. Zhou Yufeng is limited by her own image and is unwilling to go beyond the traditional power of the queen. Hai Lanzhu, on the other hand, is limited by her Mongolian identity, and knows that her over-activity will only attract the jealousy of civil officials in foreign dynasties.

So for the authority to control these extra-palace affairs, it is basically a competition between Yuan Zhaorong and Tian Xiuying. But when public health and disaster relief affairs began to arouse the favor of the people, especially when the two also involved a lot of money, Zhou Yufeng naturally could no longer turn a blind eye to the management power of these affairs, and she could not tolerate these powers falling into the hands of Tian Xiuying. Therefore, the harem, which was originally quite peaceful, has gradually begun to have some slanting wind and drizzle.

It's just that some contradictory harem concubines gradually appeared, but because of an incident promulgated by the emperor after the Lantern Festival in the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, they quickly united, and came to Chongzhen's side to intercede and say that Xiang came.

It was the first time Zhu Youzhen had seen the women of the harem appear in front of him so united. In the past, even if they participated in some unimportant celebrations, these women would have to quarrel over who stood beside them.

In the noise of these concubines, Zhu Youzhen finally knew why he couldn't reason with his woman, and how did the allusion that a woman is equivalent to 500 ducks come up.

When Zhu Youzhen, who had a splitting headache, had to use his power as an emperor and forcibly sent all the concubines except the queen out of Xiyuan Jingshe, his office was quiet.

After drinking a big sip of tea to moisten his throat, and after relieving his dry mouth first, Zhu Youzhen asked Zhou Yufeng a little angrily: "I just let the two children go to military school, what did they stimulate, and they all came over to quarrel with me." You are in charge of the six palaces, you don't stop them from doing stupid things, and you come with them to protest with me, what are you thinking? ”

The queen looked at Zhu Youzhen very aggrieved and said, "Your Majesty, why is Cihong one of the two?" He was two years younger than Cizhao. Even if His Majesty doesn't wait to see Cihong, there is no reason for him to suffer in the army. Since the founding of the country, there has been a generation of emperors who will send their young sons to the army to suffer, which is not a system. ”

Zhu Youzhen's eyes stared at Zhou Yufeng for a long time, and then he calmly replied: "I let them go to the military academy, not to suffer in the army..."

Zhou Yufeng did not avoid the emperor's attention, and replied coldly: "Your Majesty can guarantee that your child will not go to the army after finishing military school?" Besides, the rules of the military academy are strict now, and when the families of the lords and nobles come to visit the concubines in the palace, when is it not for their own sons and nephews, the rules of the military academy are too strict. The concubine still remembers that Your Majesty, you personally punished the prince of Qianguo who was forcibly dropped out of the army officer school, and even the whip was discounted.

Your Majesty's iron heart, how can the concubines not know. Even if His Majesty wants Ci Hong to go to the military academy, he will have to wait until he is as old as Ci Zhao, otherwise the concubine will not agree to it. ”

Zhu Youzhen was speechless for a while, he coughed lightly and said, "It's not a bad thing to learn some rules in a military school. And after they finish the military school, it is only natural for them to go to the army for a spin.

As my sons, they have been protected too much since they were children, opening their mouths for food and stretching out their hands for clothes, and they don't know anything about the reality of this world. I should have kept them away from the palace and learned the rules, but I couldn't bear it. But..."

Speaking of this, Zhu Youzhen stopped talking, sneered twice, and then changed the topic and said: "Although you are the Empress of the Ming Dynasty, you have also suffered from the people's suffering since you were a child, and I have never hidden it from you about how the people outside the palace have lived these years.

Just from the mouths of the disaster relief workers, you should also know that when the famine was at its worst in the first two years, there were human tragedies such as mothers eating children and husbands eating wives in the disaster areas..."

"Your Majesty." The queen hurriedly interrupted Chongzhen's words, Zhu Youzhen looked up, and saw Zhou Yufeng's face turned pale, obviously unwilling to hear these too tragic stories again.

Zhu Youzhen then got up and walked in front of the queen, patted her back gently, and picked up his cup and sent it to the queen to reassure: "Drink some water, and it won't be uncomfortable to suppress the nausea feeling..."

After feeling from the palm of his hand that his trembling body began to stabilize, Zhu You lowered his voice and said softly in the queen's ear: "Cihong and Cizhao are also my sons, can my father still harm them." Believe me, it is good for them to let them go to military schools. No matter what they want to do in the future, they must at least learn how to get along with other people, and their compatriots in the army are always more reliable than those who study. ”

Snuggled in Chongzhen's arms, Zhou Yufeng's expression was finally much better than just now, although she was not satisfied with Chongzhen's statement, but she didn't want to spoil the atmosphere of getting along with the emperor now, so she said vaguely: "Why does Your Majesty despise scholars so much, you must know that the ministers of the court and the central government who serve Your Majesty are all scholars. Even Xia Yunyi, who is regarded by His Majesty as the future first assistant, is also a scholar. ”

Zhu Youzhen said disapprerovingly: "Don't the queen know: every time you slaughter dogs, you are mostly a scholar. Their loyalty was never to me, but to the emperor who sat on the dragon chair. I am in my place today, and they are available to me. How many will be loyal to me when someone will replace me?

The emperor is not expensive because of his name, but because of his power. Not everyone can become a real emperor by sitting on the dragon chair. I have seen such a story, saying that Emperor Taizu cleaned up the heroes of the founding of the country that day, and the crown prince Zhu Biao once interceded for those heroes, and Taizu threw the thorny battle full of thorns in front of the prince and asked him to pick it up, but the prince did not dare to pick it up. Taizu then said to the prince: These heroes are thorns in thorns, stabs can hurt others, but also hurt yourself, since you are afraid that these thorns will hurt yourself, then I will remove these thorns, and take over the power safely, isn't it?

Whether this story is true or not, I can't say for sure. But there's a sentence in the story that I think is true. Imperial power is a thorny battle full of thorns, not only to whip your enemies, but also to hurt yourself. If you don't have the will to hold on to thorny battles, don't expect power.

If Ci Hong and Ci Zhao feel burdened even to go to the military academy, I'm afraid I can only let them leave the palace in the future to be ordinary people..."

Under Chongzhen's appeasement, coaxing and a little deterrence, Zhou Yufeng finally gave up his plan to fall to the bottom with Chongzhen and keep his son by his side.

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