After hearing the news, Li Xianzhong was directly stunned on the spot.

The queen of Wanli, formerly known as Sister Wang Xi.

In the fifth year of Wanli (1577), at the age of fourteen, she was elected to the palace and registered as the queen.

In the ninth year of Wanli, she gave birth to the eldest daughter of the emperor, Princess Rongchang Zhu Xuanyuan.

It's a pity that Queen Wang has never been able to give birth to a dragon heir for Wanli since then, and it is precisely because of the vacancy of the concubine that there has been a fifteen-year "national capital dispute".

According to the ancestral system of the Ming Dynasty, "there is a grandson, and there is no grandson"!

It's a pity that Zhu Changluo, the eldest son of the emperor born by the palace maid, really doesn't please Wanli.

Wanli favored Concubine Zheng Guifei and wanted to make Zhu Changxun, the third son of the emperor born to Concubine Zheng, the crown prince.

Whether it is to maintain the etiquette of the Ming Dynasty or her own interests, the queen will definitely support the emperor's eldest son, Zhu Changluo, to inherit the throne.

Although no matter which prince eventually succeeds to the throne, she is the "Queen Mother".

But if Concubine Zheng Guifei's son becomes the crown prince, it is still unknown whether he, the queen, can sit until the end.

It is true that Queen Wang is a virtuous and generous queen, even in the face of Wanli's love for Concubine Zheng Guifei so much, she did not go to fight for the wind and be jealous.

But that doesn't mean she doesn't have a little political wisdom, this queen has reigned for 42 years, making her the longest-reigning queen in Chinese history.

In the twenty-fourth year of Wanli, she raised Li Guifei's two sons, Zhu Changrun, King Hui, and Zhu Changying, King Gui.

After the death of Empress Dowager Li, she became the crown prince Zhu Changluo's biggest support, and protected the crown prince in front of Wanli many times.

Although she didn't have too many opportunities to meet Wanli, she often exhorted Wanli to forgive the outspoken ministers. He also divided his own disaster relief and military salaries, thus earning himself the reputation of a "virtuous queen".

Both the people and the court have a high reputation, even if Concubine Zheng is so favored and gave birth to three sons and three daughters for Wanli, she still can't shake her throne.

Of course, the main reason is that Wanli doesn't hate Queen Wang as much as he hates the emperor's eldest son's biological mother, Concubine Wang Gong.

If the emperor is extremely fond of another concubine, usually the relationship with the empress of the middle palace must be quite bad.

However, the relationship between Wanli and Queen Wang is not like this, although it is not much affection, at least on the surface, it is passable.

The two respect each other like guests, and they can still do it.

Empress Wang won the favor of the queen mother of the two palaces, and often adjusted the awkward relationship between the two when Wanli and the Empress Dowager Li had conflicts.

And Queen Wang is likely to carry the black cauldron for Wanli.

According to the records of "Zhizhong Zhi", most of the palace maids and eunuchs around Wang Xijie were whipped with canes, and there were no less than 100 dead, and many of the officials in the close service wore torture instruments with pier locks.

But the same book also records that Wanli abused the palace maids and eunuchs, the cane punishment was too heavy, and the pier locks were worn day and night, coupled with the epidemic, which led to death in eight out of ten.

At that time, the emperor and queen lived together, and it was probably the queen who carried the black pot for Wanli.

Because once Wanli was drunk and tortured and killed several eunuchs, Empress Dowager Li was furious when she found out, claiming that she would abolish Wanli's throne and replace it with King Lu.

Frightened, Wanli hurriedly admitted his mistake and promised that he would never do it again.

Empress Dowager Li was born as a palace maid, so she is very sympathetic to slaves and maids, and she will never tolerate this kind of thing.

At that time, the Empress Dowager Li was still alive, if the queen was really so tyrannical, even if Wanli did not abolish her, it is estimated that the Empress Dowager Li would abolish her.

It's impossible to love it very much.

Moreover, Wanli originally wanted to make Zhu Changxun the crown prince, and abolishing the queen was a shortcut, and he would not let go of this opportunity.

None of them were angry with the queen because of this, if these real existences could only be the queen "for her husband".

In the twenty-ninth year of Wanli, when Emperor Wanli was critically ill, Empress Wang took care of him meticulously, which greatly moved Emperor Wanli.

Although the number of times the two have met is not much, they have always been moving around, and the Kunning Palace of Queen Wang is not a cold palace.

It is precisely because of this that after the death of Queen Wang in history, Wanli's condition became more serious.

So much so that only three months later, the Wanli Emperor himself died.

Li Xianzhong remembered that Empress Wang was supposed to die in April next year, but now it was five months ahead of schedule.

More importantly, will the Wanli Emperor also die in a few months, as in history?

Now he can mix the wind and water, all thanks to the favor of Emperor Wanli.

If His Majesty dies, once the Donglin Party comes to power, will they still have their own good fruits to eat?

Li Xianzhong said to Fan Wencheng: "Mr. Fan, now the situation in Liaodong is tense, and conscription is needed at any time, so the military households in Pingyu Fort also need to practice in peacetime, you select 5,000 young men from them, and take out 2 hours a day for military training." ”

"In a short period of time, it is necessary to master the use of firearms, as well as various military skills. I will send a hundred men from the army to assist you in training them. ”

"These people are reserve troops, so let's call them 'militia'!"

After Li Xianzhong received the news from the capital, his face changed greatly, and his intuition told Fan Wencheng that something big must have happened.

These 5,000 people are talking about a reserve army, but in fact they are private troops.

Although the previous Pingyu Guard was also a private army, it was to ensure that Pingyu Fort was not disturbed by the Tartars.

At this time, the surroundings of Pingyu Fort were all Li Xianzhong's own men and horses, and it was impossible for any Tartars to appear, but something happened in Beijing.

However, he is a smart man, so he naturally won't ask too much about this kind of thing, and said: "Uncle, rest assured, I will definitely complete the drill of the five thousand militia as soon as possible to ensure the safety of Pingyu Fort!" ”

Although he wanted to know the situation in Beijing, especially the physical condition of Emperor Wanli, it was not suitable for him to return to Beijing without an edict during this sensitive period, so he had to ask Mao Yuanyi to hurry back to the capital to inquire about the situation.

During the mourning, the heavens and the earth will definitely have to be closed, but fortunately, the spies of the Intelligence Department have already lurked in the mansions of many important personnel, and the channels of intelligence will not be cut off.

At this time, almost everyone in the Forbidden City was immersed in grief, the queen died, and Wanli's heart failure attack again.

The emperor and queen had an accident at the same time, which is really worse.

But inside the Yikun Palace, it was a different scene.

Concubine Zheng finally came out, she had been waiting for this day for more than 30 years, and Queen Wang was still ahead of her after all.

Now no one can stop himself from ascending to the throne of the queen.

Although she was happy in her heart, Zheng Guifei was still relatively rational at this time, and she did not make any too outrageous actions during this kind of funeral, so as not to be caught by those talkative officials.

However, if there is something good at the top, it will be very bad at the bottom!

But those slaves and maids in Yikun Palace couldn't bear it anymore, and they called Zheng Guifei "Queen Mother" since Cui Wensheng.

Concubine Zheng Guifei said to Cui Wensheng: "Gonggong Cui, what did the queen say in Kunning Palace before she died, have you found out?" ”

Cui Wensheng said: "Queen Qiyu, at that time, Your Majesty was only with Chang Gonggong, and our people were far away, so I couldn't hear what they said. ”

"But the crown prince was also present at the time, and according to the queen's temperament, it is estimated that there are many good things to say for the prince."

Concubine Zheng snorted coldly and said: "This slut has been against this palace all his life, and he didn't forget to make a stumbling block for this palace before he died!" Your Majesty is all right now, right? ”

Although Wanli has woken up, his complexion is not very good, and he can't move around recently, so he naturally can't come to Yikun Palace.

Although he went to the Qianqing Palace to ask for peace, His Majesty was tired without saying a few words.

But he didn't forget to recruit Cui Wensheng to soak his feet and massage the acupoints.

Cui Wensheng said: "Don't worry, Your Majesty is fine, but I'm just worried about the queen's funeral!" ”

After getting along day and night for decades, Concubine Zheng still doesn't know Wanli, and what he is worried about is probably silver.

After all, now that the treasury is empty, His Majesty is a good-looking person, even if it is for the sake of the world, the burial of the queen this time cannot be too shabby.

The household department has no money, so it is indispensable for him to subsidize some from the internal funds.

From her point of view, although she doesn't want Queen Wang to be buried in a grand manner, it is best to be buried as soon as possible.

After all, only after the funeral of the queen is completed, can he, the new queen, be canonized.

However, Wanli is not an ordinary value for silver, Wanli twenty-four years Kunning Palace fire will be the queen's treasure to burn the queen's treasure, the result of Wanli by the queen to supplement the treasure book of the head to ask the household for silver.

After getting the silver, he misappropriated it for other purposes, and did not let Shang Bao make up for the queen.

After that, he actually asked the household department for silver for the second time through this matter, but the household department naturally rejected it and asked Wanli to use his own internal money to make up for the queen.

In the end, this matter dragged on for 8 years, and it was not until the thirty-second year of Wanli that Queen Wang got her queen treasure.

If Wanli kept dragging the funeral of the queen in order to save money, Concubine Zheng couldn't stand it.

Isn't this delaying the sealing of yourself?

But it is inconvenient for her to speak on this matter, if she urges Wanli to bury the queen as soon as possible, then the hundred officials will definitely feel that they are impatient to canonize the queen.

So he had no choice but to let his baby son Fu Wang take action.

Soon King Fu wrote a book, saying that he wanted to go to Beijing in person to give the funeral of the "Queen Mother", and was willing to donate 3,000 taels of silver to help Queen Wang mourn.

At first, Wanli was a little surprised, because although Concubine Zheng no longer competed for the position of queen on the bright side, her relationship with Queen Wang was not very good.

It is rare for King Fu to be so well aware of righteousness, and his filial piety should be greatly commended.

But soon he figured out the deep meaning behind it, it must be his concubine who was worried that the queen's funeral would be delayed for a long time, affecting his queen.

Wanli has always been worried about not being able to let King Fu succeed to the throne, and now that he has this opportunity to let Concubine Ai be sealed, he will naturally not let her down again.

He also understood the meaning of King Fu's offering of silver, and in order to be able to be buried in the same cave with his beloved concubine after his death, he was still willing to make some concessions on silver.

Wanli quickly approved Fang Congzhe's list of personnel from the Ministry of Rites, and said that the 300,000 taels of silver borrowed by the Ministry of Household asked him before did not need to be returned to the internal treasury, and was directly used for the funeral of the queen and queen, in addition to the fact that he allocated 50,000 taels of silver from the internal treasury.

350,000 taels of silver at a time is definitely a big deal for Wanli, the "iron rooster".

Now the autumn grain tax in some areas has also been escorted to Taicang, and the war in Liaodong has just subsided, and there is no major war for the time being.

The household can also scrape together some silver to complete the funeral as soon as possible.

After all, the finances of the Ming Dynasty are not abundant, and the scene still has to be done, but in order to bury as soon as possible, many things are replaced by ready-made items, and they are no longer customized separately.

After all, there is still more than a month to go before the New Year, and the people can't be mourned here for the New Year.

On the first day of December in the forty-seventh year of Wanli, the queen of Wanli officially mourned, and the lord said that Xiaoduan Zhenke Zhuang Hui Renming was the queen of Tianyu Shengxian, referred to as "Queen Xiaoduan".

On the day after the funeral, hundreds of civil and military officials performed condolence gifts.

Each of the military attachés and officials in Beijing was given a piece of cloth, and they were ordered to make their own mourning clothes, which they had to wear for 27 days before they could be released.

On the morning of the fourth day, the officials in Beijing should wear plain clothes to the outside of Youshun Gate, serve mourning clothes, and after the end, they will wear plain clothes to perform "consolation gifts" for three days.

From the fourth day, the women of military attachés of the fifth rank and above and civil officials of the third rank and above covered their heads with sackcloth, removed their jewelry, washed their fat and paint, and wore linen shirts and skirts and bast shoes to go to Kunning Palace (the residence of the empress before her death) to mourn and weep.

The mourning clothes of foreign officials are the same as those of Beijing officials, and from the date of hearing the obituary, officials must wear mourning clothes in the public office, and their lives and pregnancies are the same as those of women in Beijing, all of which are removed in three days.

The people of the capital wear filial piety clothes, and their hats must be wrapped with white cloth for 27 days and three days in other places.

Since the obituary, slaughter has been banned in Beijing for 27 days and three days in other places.

Music and sacrifices were stopped throughout the country for 100 days. Those who are officials are not allowed to marry within 100 days, and ordinary people are not allowed to marry within a month.

All monasteries in the country must ring 30,000 bells around the clock.

Empress Xiaoduan's coffin was parked in Kunning Palace for 21 days and began to be funeral.

Before the funeral, the Wanli Emperor personally offered the treasure to the Taimiao, and sent officials to sacrifice to the gods such as Jinshui Bridge and Wumen.

Hundreds of officials wore mourning clothes and went to Chaoyang Gate to bid farewell to the corpse.

On the day of the funeral, the queen's corpse was placed in the imperial hall. The crown prince Zhu Changluo used Xuanxu jade to pay tribute and pay tribute.

Then Empress Xiaoduan's coffin was placed in Dingling.

Although the expenses have been greatly compressed, the funeral of Queen Xiaoduan still cost 700,000 taels.

Heaven and earth suffered heavy losses, and they closed their doors for 3 months.

Although there is no need to wear mourning clothes for the New Year, all entertainment activities are banned, and this New Year is really not a New Year's flavor.

But the civil and military officials soon felt that something was wrong, because the blessed king Zhu Changxun took the opportunity of the queen's funeral to stay in the capital for many days.

Many ministers wrote to the queen after the funeral, asking King Fu to return to the fiefdom.

But Wanli insisted that King Fu leave after the first day of the new year.

At this time, many ministers suddenly smelled something unusual.

After the death of Empress Xiaoduan, the middle palace is currently vacant.

Next, Wanli will definitely crown Zheng Guifei as the queen.

Originally, there was Queen Xiaoduan, and Concubine Zheng still had some scruples.

Now the identity of the crown prince Zhu Changluo is a little embarrassing.

At this point, the civilian official group of the Ming Dynasty is unanimous, and no matter who becomes the first assistant, the support for the crown prince Zhu Changluo will not change.

At this time, the three parties of "Qi, Chu, and Zhejiang" and the Donglin Party were all aware of the crisis.

Although it is almost impossible for Emperor Wanli and Concubine Zheng Guifei to depose the crown prince through normal channels.

But it is not ruled out that Zheng Guifei took risks directly in order to help her son ascend to the throne.

What if another "Attack Case" comes up and directly kills the crown prince?

So they wrote one after another, asking for an increase in the guards of the East Palace to protect the safety of the crown prince Zhu Changluo!

This trick can also be regarded as knocking on the mountain and shocking the tiger, warning Zheng Guifei not to mess around.

The next thing they had to do was to prevent Wanli from canonizing Concubine Zheng as empress.

However, this matter is not easy, because according to etiquette, the queen can resume the sacrifice after a hundred days of mourning.

You don't have to think about it to know that Emperor Wanli will not delay for a day, and he will definitely canonize Zheng Guifei as the queen as soon as possible.

After all, there was a precedent for Jiajing before, and only three and a half months after the death of Empress Chen of Emperor Jiajing, he canonized the new empress.

The civil officials wanted to use etiquette to reject Wanli Lihou, which obviously did not work.

Since it can't be stopped by formal means, there is only the fault of Zheng Guifei.

They believe that in the Yikun Palace, Zheng Guifei must have trespassed, but in the inner palace, they can't catch Zheng Guifei's handle, so I can't suspect that Concubine Zheng has trespassed and apply for a palace search, right?

Soon let them find the handle, and sure enough, Shang Bao Jian and Shang Yi Jian were already making the queen's phoenix crown dress and seal letter in advance.

It is almost inevitable to make these things in advance, because the production requires a lot of complex work, and three months is estimated to be not enough.

But it's certainly not okay to make these things during a state funeral.

Now that it is still within the 100-day taboo day of Queen Daxing, they are impatient to create a phoenix crown and make dresses for the new queen.

At this time, the Donglin Party began to attack, and they continued to impeach Shang Bao Jian and Shang Yi Jian for illegally manufacturing the queen's phoenix crown, dress, and the queen's treasure during the national funeral period.

And some people saw that Cui Wensheng, the steward and eunuch of Yikun Palace, frequently entered and exited these yamen, and it must have been instructed by Concubine Zheng Guifei behind him.

In the face of the impeachment of these civil officials, Wanli still kept the old rules in the middle.

But this time, the officials were no longer indifferent, and they decided to strike first.

Soon they were wearing mourning clothes and crying in front of Dong'an Gate with the tablet of Empress Xiaoduan.

The people of the capital stopped to watch.

Originally, Wanli and Zheng Guifei were preparing to canonize Zheng Guifei as the queen as soon as the hundred-day period arrived, so he notified these relevant yamen in advance to prepare.

Unexpectedly, these civil officials actually used these as a handle to take the opportunity to preemptively target Zheng Guifei.

Cui Wensheng did go to these places to check the progress in order to shoot Zheng Guifei's sycophants, and now he was arrested by those civil officials.

This is also a disaster for him!

Wanli originally didn't want to ignore them, but he didn't expect these people to make a lot of trouble.

Chang Yun said: "Emperor Qiqi is not good, the first assistant of the cabinet, Congzhe, as well as the chief officials of the six departments, the officials of the Imperial Historical Observatory and the Inspectorate have all gathered outside Dong'an Gate. ”

"Some excited officials are even about to start breaking into the palace, and the slaves and maids are worried that if they continue like this, there will be chaos!"

Originally, Wanli thought that it was just some Donglin Party's imperial history Qingliu messing around again, but he didn't expect that this time even the first auxiliary party Congzhe also joined!

It seems that it will not be possible to give them some explanation.

But Wanli is not the one who will admit mistakes.

He said: "Chang Yun, you personally bring people to those yamen to dismantle all the things made, remember not to leave any evidence." ”

These civil officials want to embarrass themselves, how can they interfere in the affairs of the inner court?

After doing all this, he directly sent the crown prince Zhu Changluo to investigate the case, and the eunuch Changyun assisted him.

Zhu Changluo was already a frightened bird at this time, he was originally afraid of Concubine Zheng, but now without the protection of Queen Wang, he was even more trembling.

He understood what Wanli meant, and Mingli was asking himself to be in charge of investigating the case to show fairness and justice.

In fact, he asked himself to help him gag the mouths of those Wenchen.

In the previous "Attack Case", Zhu Changluo didn't dare to pull Zheng Guifei, and now he has no backers in the palace, how dare he disobey Wanli's intentions.

After pretending to inspect the situation, the crown prince Zhu Changluo went directly to Dong'an Gate to inform the hundred officials of the investigation.

Seeing this crown prince appear, all the ministers were extremely excited!

They all want to leave a deep impression in front of this future great tomorrow.

After all, they did not hesitate to offend Emperor Wanli, and gambled their lives for the sake of this Ming prince.

Zhu Changluo motioned for everyone to be quiet, then cleared his throat and said, "Your loyalty has greatly touched this king. ”

"However, the palace and the eunuch Chang Gonggong inspected various workshops and found no traces of violations. As for Cui Wensheng, the steward and eunuch of Yikun Palace, appearing in those places only to get new winter clothes for Yikun Palace and repair the belongings of Concubine Zheng Gui's mother, it is not as arrogant as rumored. I hope you will not spread false rumors. ”

After finishing speaking, Zhu Changluo helped Fang Congzhe, Liu Yijing and others who were kneeling on the ground.

said: "I have told my father, this matter is all a misunderstanding, and my father also said that he will not pursue it, and please disperse." ”

These old guys are all human spirits, and at a glance, they know that Wanli has been destroyed, and it is difficult for them to interfere in the inner court.

Now Wanli has given them a step, and they have no choice but to take advantage of the situation to get off the donkey, and they can't come up with any substantive evidence if they really want to make trouble again.

Anyway, they also showed their loyalty in front of their future masters, so they had to disperse.

It is believed that after this demonstration, the Wanli Emperor will also restrain himself.

I thought that this was the end of the matter.

Unexpectedly, that night, a complete "Queen's Treasure" seal was delivered to the door of the Inspectorate.

Soon this seal letter fell into the hands of Yang Lian, the imperial historian of the Metropolitan Procuratorate.

made the people who had already calmed down fry the pot again.

This time, they had evidence in hand and directly asked Wanli to investigate strictly.

Chang Yun knew that there was a big problem this time, so he directly investigated Shang Baojian, but he killed several of Shang Baojian's stewards and eunuchs with a straight cane, and he didn't find out why.

Chang Yun saw with his own eyes that the previous "Queen's Treasure" was melted away, and the one that appeared in the Supervision Yuan could never have been created by Shang Bao.

Just when he was puzzled, the news that Emperor Wanli fainted again because he was angry came out of the Qianqing Palace.

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