Emperor Chongzhen has always resolutely opposed the interference of his relatives, and knew that Zhou Kui was for the interests of their gang, not only did not listen to persuasion, but became more severe, he issued an edict to cut off Li Guorui's marquis, and ordered the internal officials and yamen to recover it on time. Li Guorui was angry and frightened, got a serious illness, and died like this.

When the matter came to this point, there were some uneven discussions in the court. Whether it is a court official or a eunuch, they all know that the emperor is going to attack himself after breaking through the threshold of noble relatives, so they are unanimously sympathetic to Li Guorui's misfortune in public opinion.

In order to protect the interests of the group, some people led by Zhou Kui secretly colluded with palace maids and eunuchs to carry out a conspiracy to resist the emperor, and the target of the attack was Emperor Chongzhen's five-year-old son.

Emperor Chongzhen's empress, Empress Zhou, she was a typical lady image of that era, who knew etiquette, guarded women's ways, and was also good at dealing with housework disputes. After becoming the queen of the world, she lived in Kunning Palace, which symbolizes the highest status of women in the world, and was in charge of the internal affairs of the palace. It should be said that she is Emperor Chongzhen's virtuous helper.

Of course, Emperor Chongzhen has a deep relationship with Empress Zhou, but the most favored is Tian Guifei. Concubine Tian behaves elegantly and versatilely, usually silent, there seems to be a faint sorrow that cannot be erased, but when she enters the skill field, she is alive and well, she knows everything about piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, and she is omnipotent in juju riding. Her character patriarchal bell and king are said to have reached the realm of energy, and Danqing splashing ink is also quite famous. The most outstanding thing is her attainments in music, she plays a good flute, and playing the piano is one of her skills. It should be said that it is both talented and beautiful.

It is particularly worth mentioning that Tian Guifei's father, Tian Hongyu, later organized a thousand-person Jiangnan famous prostitute purchasing group, among which he purchased a masterpiece - Chen Yuanyuan. Of course. That's for another time.

There is another one, that is, Concubine Yuan, who entered the Xindi at the same time as Concubine Tian.

Historical legend: Emperor Chongzhen is not a woman, but this is not necessarily the case. He also had nearly a hundred concubines. However, he was very nostalgic for the old, so among his many wives and concubines, he always only paid attention to the first and second concubines who shared his suffering. And like most Ming Dynasty emperors, Emperor Chongzhen attached great importance to family affection, so this family was still quite harmonious.

And the fifth son of the emperor, who was only five years old, was born to the concubine Tian because he was a young son, so Emperor Chongzhen loved him very much. But when Emperor Chongzhen was fighting with his relatives in order to urge donations, the fifth son of the emperor fell ill. It seems to be dysentery, and it is very dangerous. And the nobles outside the palace heard about this situation and decided to use this child to deter the emperor.

So the nobles bought off the eunuchs and palace maids in the palace, and pretended to be gods and ghosts around the fifth son of the emperor. They asked an old lady to dress up in a strange way and mysteriously say to the sick child, "I am the Nine Lotus Bodhisattva." The emperor treats his relatives with little affection and will not change it. Let all his sons die! I said it several times.

The fifth son of the emperor is a child. In extreme fright, of course, he remembered everything the old lady said, and when Emperor Chongzhen came to visit, he told him exactly as it was.

Emperor Chongzhen was shocked when he heard this. It turns out that the so-called Nine Lotus Bodhisattva is a kind of title for Guanyin Bodhisattva sitting on the lotus throne in the palace, and the biological mother of Emperor Wanli, Empress Dowager Li, once enshrined a statue of a monk in the palace, which is said to have some good luck. After the death of the Empress Dowager Li, it was rumored in the harem that the Empress Dowager was the reincarnation of the Nine Lotus Bodhisattva. This statement is known from top to bottom. In fact, this is like calling the Empress Dowager Cixi "Lafayette". Anyway, the courts of the Ming and Qing dynasties were the same.

And Li Guorui is the maiden nephew of the Empress Dowager Li, and the undead soul of the old Empress Dowager came to seek justice from the prince for the benefit of her mother's family, which makes people have to believe it.

Unfortunately, the original plan of the relatives may have been to end here. But the fifth son of the emperor was very ill, and he was frightened again, and died within a few days. And those who participated in that conspiracy took the opportunity to spread rumors and describe the arrival of the Nine Lotus Bodhisattva vividly.

To tell the truth, Emperor Chongzhen met this kind of relative, which was simply "good luck". There is no one willing to contribute to this Ming Dynasty.

And the people of the Ming Dynasty were very superstitious, and Emperor Chongzhen was no exception. He was so sad about the loss of his beloved son that he immediately busied himself with mending his life, so that bad luck would not befall several other beloved sons. So Emperor Chongzhen gave Li Guorui a pension, and returned the title of Marquis of Wuqing to the Li family, of course he didn't dare to ask for the 400,000 taels of silver.

Therefore, the donation of noble relatives ended in vain. Even Emperor Chongzhen believed that it was the Shoufu Xue Guoguan's initiative to exploit the nobles that was the main reason for the death of his beloved son, and since then in his heart, he has secretly made a note on Xue Guoguan. to settle accounts in the autumn in the future. This Xue Guoguan is also unlucky enough.

Since you can't think of it, let's continue to drink water to quench your thirst! So after going around in a circle, the burden was still borne by the people. At this time, Yang Sichang, an auxiliary minister and secretary of the military department, only cared about the salary of the soldiers and did not care about anything else, and in order to strengthen the training of the border guards, he once again proposed to increase the dispatch. Anyway, the matter of military salaries is a matter of household books, and he doesn't have to worry about it.

At this time, someone put forward a rationalization proposal. Yang Dezheng, deputy commander-in-chief, pointed out: In order to deal with the peasant army that is fighting on a mobile basis, the local armed forces also need to be strengthened, and all prefectures, prefectures, and counties should train hundreds to thousands of militiamen, which in turn requires a large amount of money. This suggestion is not bad and in line with the actual situation, but doesn't it make the finances of the imperial court even worse?

However, at this time, Emperor Chongzhen was already broken and broken. He thinks that in short, it is necessary to add more, less is more, more is more, it is better to add all at once. So with a stroke of his pen, he agreed to add all the expenses for training border soldiers and militia to the people, so that the total amount reached more than 7.3 million taels, which was called "training salary."

In this way, the total amount of additional distribution during the Chongzhen period has reached more than 16.9 million per year, which has exceeded the original positive tax of 15.3 million. As a result, there is another political proverb among the people: "Chongzhen Chongzhen, re-levy every year." ”

Moreover, the people are not only facing heavy levies, but also the exploitation and faction of local officials, so the situation of the people's poor livelihood is getting worse and worse. As for the millions of elite border soldiers and militia that should be trained on paper? It's just looking at the numbers on the paper and having fun.

But speaking of which, I actually admire the Ming Dynasty court and Emperor Chongzhen's discipline. The principle of "the sanctity of private property" is already too deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and even in such a crisis, Emperor Chongzhen only dared to choose to donate, not to rob openly. You must know that in ancient and modern times, when any country at home and abroad is in danger of annihilation, none of them will be soft on the rich. (To be continued......)