During the Xuande period of the Ming Dynasty, the capital was full of treasures, the envoys of all countries gathered, and the business travelers of the world gathered, and the grand occasion was no less than that of Bianjing in the Song Dynasty.

The scenery inside and outside the city is picturesque, and the four seasons are different.

It is not easy to see through the scenery of the capital. Not to mention the natural landscapes that take a lot of time to enjoy the smoke trees of Jimen, the weeping rainbow of Yuquan, the dawn of Lugou, the Jixue of Xishan, the clear wave of Taiye, the spring clouds of Qiongdao, the sunset of Jintai, the full well of Yingquan, and the cui of the ring altar, it takes a year or two to travel to the religious resorts alone. The Great Ming Dynasty, Taoism, and Confucianism pay equal attention to the three religions, inside and outside the capital gate, the temples and palaces are full of stargazing, and the morning and evening bells move far into the sky.

If you want to be familiar with the four seasons festival and the folk customs of Dong'anmen Lantern Market and Chenghuang Temple Day Market, you have to follow the local customs and savor them over the years.

What's more, the imperial capital of several dynasties, the humanities gathered, countless literati and rioters improvised, and the splendid poems and texts that lamented the scenery of the capital were vast, like a huge treasure, even if you spent your whole life, it was difficult to dig all the numbers.

More than 160 years later, the "dirty, chaotic" scene described by the Italian missionary Matteo Ricci is only a brief glimpse of the long river of history, and at best it can only be regarded as a microcosm of the decline of the country and the withering of all industries at the end of the Ming Dynasty.

At least during the Xuande period, the scenery of the capital was infinite, and all living beings were immersed in the dream of prosperity.

On the first day of the tenth year of Xuande, the flow of people in the capital is surging, the sound of firecrackers comes and goes, the smoke of incense burning in Dongyue Temple covers the sky and the sun, and the men and women of Baita Temple gather around the tower into a sea.

Thousands of households are almost closed doors, and the deep boudoir women who have to stay at home are also restless, gathering on the balcony in twos and threes, peeking at the excitement on the street.

In such a grand festival, people are all waiting for the moment when the royal car travels, and they flock to the onlookers.

At the beginning of the year, there must be members of the royal family going out to pray for blessings, and the gorgeous and magnificent guard of honor has become a beautiful scenery in Beijing.

However, until dusk, the royal car was still nowhere to be seen.

People inside the Imperial City will be surprised to find that the four gates of the majestic Forbidden City are closed, heavily guarded, and there is a strange aura of slaughter everywhere, like an isolated island out of the world.

Standing on any palace road in Miyagi, the word "Jing" will suddenly come out of my heart.

There are very few people in the palace who move, and the attendants and palace maids who occasionally hurry by all look solemn and walk lightly, for fear of making a little noise.

The huge Forbidden City is so quiet that you can listen to the embroidery needles fall to the ground.

The emperor is critically ill, and the palace is terrified!

Hundreds of civil and military officials gathered in the Fengtian Palace, anxiously waiting for the summons of the Queen Mother.

The big drama of the struggle for the right to succeed was staged in advance, and under the appearance of the gentle, elegant and courteous people of the Manchu Dynasty, there was a sword and sword shadow behind the scenes, and the undercurrent was turbulent.

The Empress Dowager Zhang retreated left and right, and sat alone in the Qingning Palace to think about and weigh. She is a woman in the deep palace, but she can't just be a woman in the deep palace, for her, willful melancholy and indulging in sorrow is an extravagant hope! Eleven years ago, she lost her father-in-law and became the queen; Ten years ago, she lost her husband and became the queen mother; Now she is about to lose her eldest son and become the empress dowager. The misfortune of several generations of relatives in exchange for the increasing respect of her position, she knows that the revered position does not belong to herself, but to the Ming Dynasty, which is used to give back and care.

When he was dying, Emperor Xuande had already instructed hundreds of officials that major affairs in the court and China must be presented to the Empress Dowager and the Empress, and the Empress Dowager should make the final decision.

Originally, there was no suspense about the succession candidate, Emperor Xuande had two young sons, the eldest son Zhu Qizhen was nine years old, and was made the crown prince a few years ago; The concubine Zhu Qiyu is younger than Zhu Qizhen, and he is born of a servant. In terms of succession, longevity, and position, it should be the crown prince who succeeds to the throne.

But last year, there was a warlock who divined the two princes, and they actually said that both of them had the air of the emperor! At present, some people in the DPRK and China are arguing on this basis, and there is a secret dispute over who will succeed to the throne.

If it is out of public spirit, it is okay to have a controversy about virtue and talent, I am afraid that someone will harbor evil intentions, and see that the prince and the second prince are young, thinking that they can live in strange goods, and they can follow the example of the ancient ministers in the future, and regard the young emperor and the young prince as puppets, and the abolition is only in a thought. The Queen Mother is a wise person, so she naturally weighs the benefits and disadvantages of this matter.

However, the warlock also said that Zhu Qiyue, the only son of Zhu Zhanyong, the king of Yue, blurted out Fan Chengda's poem when he was divining hexagrams, "The heroes of the world, Jiang Zuo's beautiful husband." Zhu Qiyue is only seven years old, shrewd and resolute, and his endowment is very different from others, and he is deeply loved by the Queen Mother, but no matter how much the succession is ranked, he can't be ranked on his head. Someone in the court privately discussed the words of the warlock, didn't that roast Zhu Qiyue on the fire!

No matter what the warlocks say, no matter how the courtiers echo it, they can't shake the Queen Mother's determination to help the prince ascend to the throne. The trouble is that the voice of the DPRK and China that "the state has a long monarch is the blessing of the society" is very high, and there are not a few people who advocate the succession of Zhu Zhandong, the king of Xiang.

The Empress Dowager Zhang had three sons and one daughter, the eldest son was Emperor Xuande; The second son, Zhu Zhanyong, the king of Yue, lived in Beijing for a long time and did not go to the mansion in Quzhou Mansion, Zhejiang Province; The third son, Zhu Zhandong, the king of Xiang, was sealed in Changsha Mansion, Huguang Province; The female princess of Jiaxing, Xuande married Jingyuan in the fifth year.

Since ancient times, the young emperor has caused the decline of the emperor's road, and the queen mother is also deeply worried about this. However, having said that, it is good to have an adult monarch in the country, but it is not forced to come, the emperor has a son, and "brother to brother" should be ranked after "father and son".

Even if you do meditation and give bows, you should be young and old. Zhu Zhanyong, the king of Yue, happened to be in order.

It's a pity that Zhu Zhanyong is a carefree king, and he is very dedicated, there is only one woman in his life, the concubine Wu, and the husband and wife are always harmonious and singing, and the poems are recited, just like a fairy couple. He has always been alienated from political affairs, and I am afraid that it will not work to catch ducks on the shelves.

Some people will say: "Your second king Yue doesn't want to be the emperor, hehe, then my third king will do it." "I thought it was natural for Zhu Zhan to succeed to the throne.

How can it be so simple? The emperor is not someone who can do it if he wants to, and who can't do it if he doesn't want to. King Yue has no intention of taking the throne, which is actually the ultimate negation of "brother to brother": the second child does not do it, and the third child cannot do it!

Otherwise, if Zhu Zhan is allowed to succeed to the throne, he will inevitably abolish the legal system of "father's position and son's inheritance" first, and then chaos the order of the young and the young, and the law will be completely lost, and the harm will be endless. Setting this precedent is tantamount to opening the door for the scourge of the wall in later generations.

Besides, since the order of the eldest and youngest can be messed up, the difference between the elders and the concubines can also be messed up, if so, her concubine Wei Wang Zhu Zhanyun is only nineteen years old, and the reputation of the virtuous king has resounded throughout the capital. In this way, there is no need to wait for the future generations, but I am afraid that the world will be in chaos now.

After many trade-offs, the Queen Mother finally made up her mind. At present, she can only ask for a leave of absence from heaven, so that she can live until the day when the young emperor becomes an adult and becomes a pro-government.

At this time, the eunuch Jin Ying, the eunuch of the ceremonial superintendent, entered the report inside: "More than ten imperial historians of the Metropolitan Procuratorate ask to see." ”

The Queen Mother frowned and said, "I guess I'm here to make noise for King Xiang, no!" When you go and preach the words of mourning, you say, 'The emperor is still here, and if you act like this, you are losing the way of being a minister, and you will make the people of the world cold!' ’”

After Jin Ying left, Hu Jixiang hurriedly entered, and Fang Xing saluted, and tears fell down. Her crying was half for the emperor and half for herself.

The life and death of the emperor is said to be a matter of social safety; To put it mildly, it determines the fate of the harem concubines.

Seven years ago, the childless queen Hu Jixiang was forced to resign from the throne and retire to Chang'an Palace, giving the title "Jingci Immortal". Because of the birth of the prince Zhu Qizhen, the noble concubine Sun was promoted to the queen and entered the middle palace.

If it weren't for the emperor's old feelings, the queen mother would always take care of her, but I was afraid that Jingci Immortal would not live until now.

Now that the emperor is critically ill, Jingci Immortal Master suddenly feels hopeless.

Seeing Hu Jixiang's pitiful appearance, the Queen Mother was moved by compassion and said softly: "What are you crying for?" The emperor is still there, and the sky can't fall! Besides, isn't there still a mourning family? He turned to a straight face and said: "You go back and tell Concubine Wu that you must abide by the palace rules in the near future and do your part." ”

At the moment when Hu Jixiang withdrew from the gate of Qingning Palace, the Queen Mother threw out a heavy sentence: "The queen must be guarded!" ”

The mood of the harem concubines soon stabilized, and the opinions of the ministers gradually converged, and everything was developing in an orderly direction in the direction expected by the queen mother.

On the third day of the new year, the Son of Heaven died, and the palace mourned. The Queen Mother only choked for a short while, then hurriedly burst into tears, endured the pain of losing her son, summoned important ministers one by one for secret talks, and summoned the royal family members in Beijing to the palace for deliberations.

Three days later, the Queen Mother led Zhu Qizhen to Fengtian Hall with confidence, and pointed at the prince and said to the civil and military officials: "The first emperor has left an edict, this is your new monarch!" ”

There are important ministers in the court and the central government, and all the officials bow to the ground.

Clan relatives, relatives, and hundreds of officials have come to the table to persuade him to advance, Zhu Qizhen wanted to resign as usual, until seven days after mourning, when everyone went to the table for the second time to persuade him, he humbly agreed, and was scheduled to take the throne at an auspicious time the next day.

Everything had settled, and the Queen Mother (no, now she was the Queen Mother) breathed a sigh of relief.

Unexpectedly, on the day of the new emperor's accession to the throne, the sky appeared a vision, the Beijing division was pouring rain, and the water was drifting. Lightning and thunder roared over the Forbidden City, and the thunder shook and collapsed, and the monarchs and ministers were terrified.

Such an untimely vision was unheard of, and even the well-informed Empress Dowager couldn't help but be frightened, and she urgently summoned the Qintian Prison to ask the good luck. The supervisor only said in a whisper, "The society is in danger," and then shook his head after asking, and there was nothing to say.

The Empress Dowager said angrily: "Now it is a prosperous age, where does the danger come from!" As soon as the words came out, he immediately realized that most of the past ups and downs happened unconsciously, so he was silent for a long time.

In the Fengtian Palace, the ministers discussed a lot, and there was a great momentum. In Qingning Palace, the Empress Dowager sat as usual, as if there had never been a strange celestial appearance.

Two hours later, Zhang Yuqing, the forty-fourth generation of the Heavenly Master of Baiyun Temple, appeared unusually in the Fengtian Temple, and dropped a sentence of "Tianxiang only warns the new monarch to be conscientious and conscientious", turned around and left, everyone was stunned for a moment, and when he looked around, he was nowhere to be found.

Baiyun Temple was built in the 26th year of the Tang Dynasty, has a long history, and was famous all over the world for the Changchun Zhenren Hill that won the appreciation of Genghis Khan. In the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Di, the ancestor of the Ming Dynasty, successively ordered the 43rd and 44th generations of Heavenly Masters of Baiyunguan to recompile the "Daozang"

Because of these origins, the civil and military officials are naturally convinced of the statement from Baiyun Temple. The turmoil has finally been calmed down.

That night, the Empress Dowager invited a mysterious guest, the traveling Aomatsu Provincial Chief.

In ancient times, there were many outstanding people in Taoism, and the subset of scripture and history was involved in everything, and all of them were familiar with piano, chess, calligraphy and painting. Qingsong Daochang is one of them, erudite and knowledgeable and like to play tricks, Xuande in the first year of his reputation for accurately predicting the rebellion of the Han king.

He was less than forty years old, but he had a detached spirit and a voice like heaven. "In "Warring States Policy", Ying Hou Fan Sui told King Qin Zhao the story of Shencong, can the Empress Dowager know about it?"

The Empress Dowager shook her head.

"Hengsi has a fierce young man, please talk to Cong Bo, saying: 'I win Cong, Cong is my god for three days; I can't win the bush, the bush traps me. 'The left hand is cast for the cong, and the right hand is for itself, and the cong is victorious, and it is from its gods. On three days, the bush went to seek it, and then returned, and on the fifth day the bush withered, and on the seventh day, the bush died. ”

The Empress Dowager asked urgently: "What do you mean by this?" ”

"Heng thought that there were gods in the jungle of that place, and a fierce boy would roll the dice with the gods, saying, 'I won, and the jungle will lend me the gods three days; The jungle wins, but it traps me. So he threw it with his left hand for the jungle. The right hand was thrown for himself, and the boy won, and the jungle lent him the gods. Three days later, the jungle sent people to fetch the spirits, but they did not get them back. Five days later, the jungle withered. Seven days later, the entire jungle was dead. ”

"The nation is like the jungle of kings; Power is like the god of the king, can it not be dangerous to lend the power of the king to others? ”

Qingsong Dao Chang paused and continued: "The Son of Heaven is young, the government comes from the ministers, the state has an artifact, the instrument is in the hands of the monarch, and the god is the lord of the minister. ”

The Empress Dowager was shocked and asked, "Is there a solution?" ”

"In the future, there should be someone to assist in the clan."

"Who!" The Empress Dowager's face was full of expectation.

Daoist Qingsong handed over a bunch of silk books and hurriedly resigned. When he went, there was no sound at all, which added a bit of weirdness to the deep palace hall.

The Empress Dowager unfolded the silk book, only to see that it read: "The turtle and snake stay, the Jiangnan Palace, the sage of Tufu, and the life of the people." She held the silk book and read it for an hour, but she was still confused.

Suddenly, the Empress Dowager exclaimed: "Qi Yue! Then he sighed and burst into tears.