Chapter 394: Analysis of Tobacco and Production (2)
On the first day of March in the seventeenth year of Hongzhi, the Empress Dowager passed away.
The Empress Dowager Zhou, the noble concubine of Yingzong, the biological mother of Xianzong, the current grandmother, a native of Changping, was named the imperial concubine in the first year of Tianshun. Xianzong ascended the throne and was honored as the empress dowager. Now that she is enthroned, she is honored as the empress dowager.
After the death of Emperor Yingzong, the Zhou family relied on the fact that she was the biological mother of Xianzong to exclude Queen Qian of Yingzong and wanted to be the queen mother. This caused criticism from the government and the public, and even caused the Wenhua clan to cry and remonstrate. Her reputation in the Qing Dynasty was really not good.
Nice to hear.
But after all, it has been a long time. More than forty years have passed. What the world remembers more about the Empress Dowager is that she protected and raised the current emperor when the late emperor only doted on Concubine Wan Gui.
Even Emperor Hongzhi felt grateful and grateful for his grandmother. Over the years, he treated Empress Zhang's natal family favorably, but he did not forget the Zhou family where Empress Dowager Jiaen lived. In the capital, the only relatives who could rival the Zhang family were the Zhou family.
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The Empress Dowager has already reached the age of 70 this year. She passed away at this time, which can be regarded as a happy mourning among the people. But the Tian family is the Tian family after all. When the national mourning occurs, there will be many things, and the inner and outer courts will move together.
What's even worse is that it doesn't matter if the Empress Dowager dies, but if the Emperor falls ill, it will be a major event for both the government and the public.
The Empress Dowager did not die suddenly. She began to linger on her sick bed in the twelfth month of last year.
According to the principle of filial piety, it was natural for Empress Zhang to accompany the Queen Mother to serve the Empress Dowager, but no one in the palace knew that the Empress Dowager despised the Queen the most. Even when the Empress Dowager was still strong, she and Empress Zhang, the granddaughter-in-law, were somewhat different.
If you don't see the phoenix, you won't even bother to take a look unless it's necessary to determine the province or the new year.
Although the Empress Dowager was old, she fell ill for no reason in the twelfth lunar month of last year. Before the old lady fell ill, she had a verbal dispute with Empress Zhang about the prince's future selection of concubines.
People are prone to paranoia as they age, let alone when they are ill.
The Empress Dowager did not wrong herself. Every time Empress Zhang went to attend to her illness, she never saw her.
On one side was the loving and caring original wife, and on the other was the loving and righteous grandmother. The emperor was caught in the middle, and he was in a dilemma.
However, in order to hide the dispute between Empress Zhang and the Empress Dowager and avoid attracting criticism, the emperor let the empress fall ill and took the prince to the Empress Dowager's palace to attend to the illness.
With her grandson and her beloved great-grandson in front of her, the Empress Dowager was in a good mood and her illness was mostly recovered. At the New Year's Eve banquet, she could already sit up and happily accepted the kneeling tributes of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
.As for the emperor's younger brother Rong Wang, who was not ennobled and became a vassal, the Empress Dowager did not forget to give the emperor a few words to ask him to choose a concubine and join the vassal as soon as he reached the age, so as to avoid troubles in the palace for a long time.
Emperor Hongzhi listened respectfully and planned to send an envoy to select concubines after the first month of the lunar month to select concubines for Prince Rong who had not yet joined the vassal.
These young royal brothers grew up one after another and became feudal lords one after another. Only the youngest King Rong and King Shen were left in the imperial city. As a result, King Shen died in July last year and was excommunicated without any sons.
I thought that the Empress Dowager had recovered, but unexpectedly, just after the first month of the lunar month, the Empress Dowager who had been recovering from illness fell down again.
This time it was coming with force, and even the judge at Taiyuan Hospital gently reminded them to prepare in advance.
Emperor Hongzhi's parents were not close, and the one he respected and loved the most was his grandmother. He couldn't bear to see his flesh and blood parting. In the past half month, he just held on for a while and stayed with the Empress Dowager, waiting until the Empress Dowager
After dying, he also fell down.
In the eyes of the world, compared with the inconspicuous Emperor Chenghua before him, Emperor Hongzhi lived a frugal life, was diligent in government affairs, and treated civil and military officials with more love and respect. Apart from his slight lack of preference for the Zhang family, he was considered a benevolent king.
In fact, due to the ups and downs in his childhood, Emperor Hongzhi's temperament was more cowardly than benevolent. He restrained himself and rarely had disputes with officials because he was afraid that there would be tense situations between the emperor and his ministers.
He was raised in the inner court when he was a child, and he relied entirely on Zhou, his biological grandmother. He only feared the arrogant and domineering Concubine Wan Gui, and did not even dare to hate her. When he became the prince, he could only avoid Concubine Wan Gui's provocations.
Outsiders said that the emperor and the empress had a deep love, but only Emperor Hongzhi himself knew that in addition to the love between husband and wife, he also relied on his wife as the backbone of his heart.
It was just that as he ascended the throne for a long time and the government and the opposition were settled, Emperor Hongzhi no longer had the initial trepidation. He relied less on the Empress Dowager who raised him and his wife who had accompanied him through thick and thin.
There are some things that he gives because he is willing to give them, but if he does not give them, he cannot see others forcing him to do so.
The Zhou family is the natal family of the Empress Dowager. With the help of the Empress Dowager, the Zhou family brothers, a marquis and an uncle, have dominated the two dynasties. They have been prosperous for too long, and even in front of the emperor, they will act like uncles.
It doesn't matter how prosperous the Zhang family is, that's what the emperor is willing to give. Rather than letting those veteran royal relatives take advantage of their status to dominate and prosper, he would rather support the Zhang family, which has no foundation, to feel at ease.
Regarding the confrontation between the two palaces over the years, after mediation failed, Emperor Hongzhi turned a blind eye and allowed them to make trouble.
When the Empress Dowager passed away, Emperor Hongzhi felt sad and remembered his grandmother's kindness. Feeling guilty, he couldn't help but anger the Empress.
In front of the coffin of the Empress Dowager, Empress Zhang burst into tears and cried so hard that her whole body trembled.
This old godly woman had been living against her for more than ten years, and she refused to live in peace even when she was dying. When she got sick a year ago, she refused to let her take care of her. When she fell ill next year, she didn't even look at her.
Even though Empress Zhang was full of dissatisfaction, she still understood the principle of filial piety, and she was worried these days. Because of the illness of the Empress Dowager, she even negotiated with the emperor to avoid congratulating her on the Thousand-Autumn Festival.
Before the emperor could make up his mind, the Empress Dowager got the news and spoke. She only said that the palace had been deserted for a long time, and it didn't matter if it was lively for a day, she could not avoid congratulations.
The emperor naturally agreed, and as a result, yesterday during the Qianqiu Festival, his wife came to the palace to congratulate her, and various palaces also paid tribute to Qianqiu. The imperial city was bustling for a whole day.
Who would have thought that in just one day, the Empress Dowager would pass away.
Compared with the liveliness of the previous day, this old pious woman has been labeled as "unfilial" in front of the world.
Empress Zhang didn't need to think carefully to understand the stakes. If the prince hadn't been there, it would have been impossible for the imperial censor Zhezi to remonstrate with her about her "unfilial piety" and to depose the queen.
Civil servants have always been very arrogant and wary of concubines and relatives. In the more than ten years since she was in the middle palace, Empress Zhang has not been criticized, but she has never been so angry and worried. This is because she knows that her backer is
Husband, no matter what others say, as long as the emperor is on her side, she will be invincible.
But in the past two years, in order to teach the prince, there has been a rift between the husband and wife. Now that the empress dowager is so instigating, Empress Zhang is not sure...
For the people in the capital, national mourning means wearing plain clothes, prohibiting marriage and slaughtering animals; for officials and officials, it involves much more.
Those who are qualified to enter the palace to pay homage must enter the palace early and late. Those who are not qualified to enter the palace must also offer sacrifices in the morning and evening in the yamen. Those with high-level imperial edicts also need to enter the palace to mourn and offer sacrifices.
When the death knell rings, the national mourning begins.
As early as Shen Cang was promoted to Minister of the Ministry of Punishment, he asked for an imperial edict for the Xu family. The matter of entering the palace to cry and offer sacrifices was unavoidable.
Shen Cang and Xu went out early and came back late, so Shen Rui divided his mind and took care of the inside and outside. He was happy but also a little worried.
Fortunately, the Empress Dowager left at the right time. Shen Cang had already received the news. Two censors from Li Ge's old family were inquiring about the Shen family. They said they were not far away from the time of the attack. Although the Shen family was not I'm afraid of right and wrong, but this is a family matter, and if it really comes to the court, it will be embarrassing and troublesome.
Nowadays, both the government and the public are focusing on the national mourning. It is indeed a good thing for the Shen family to not care about this for a while.
What Shen Rui was worried about was that the national mourning was so stressful that Shen Cang's body was not strong. Fortunately, he only had to go to the palace to cry for three days, and after three days he could remain in plain clothes until the twenty-seventh day. As for the men and women without official positions, they had to wear plain clothes for thirteen days. day
Shen Rui is also worried about how Brother Shou is doing now.
When they got along with each other before, although Brother Shou rarely mentioned his family, he occasionally mentioned his great-grandmother with admiration. Shen Rui also had a vivid impression of this empress dowager who was criticized in later history books.
After Shen Jue's funeral, Shou Ge came out of the palace specially to set up a sacrificial tent following folk customs. If he hadn't been sincere, he wouldn't have done this. Even during the relationship, Shen Rui took advantage of and clung to the future emperor. I'm suspicious of him, but my heart is full of flesh, and after two years of getting along, I feel a bit sincere about it.
It's just that the situation between Shen Rui and Brother Shou is different. Brother Shou can sneak out of the palace, but he can't sneak into the palace, so he can only worry secretly.
No matter how many misdeeds the Empress Dowager had during her lifetime, death is the most important thing, and now all that is left is mourning and glory after death.
The entire national mourning ceremony was in accordance with the standards of the direct empress, and all the civil and military officials in Beijing tensed up.
Although March is the mid-spring season, the weather in the north is cold, and the weather is cold again. Young ministers have nothing to do, and the elderly are encouraging and supporting them. No one dares to ask for leave. Even Liu Jian, the chief minister who is over 70 years old, has a day. Don't miss the opportunity to offer sacrifices. No matter how difficult it is for others, you have to endure it.
When the sacrifice was over on the third day, many old ministers were helped down by others.
Although Shen Cang didn't use anyone to help him, he slowed down and the cold sweat on his forehead never stopped.
Shen Rui seized the time and led people to wait outside the gate of the imperial city.
Seeing Shen Cang's face filled with despair, Shen Rui couldn't help being frightened, and hurriedly stepped forward to help him.
Shen Cang shook his head and said: "It's okay, I'm just a little tired after standing for a long time, just take a rest..."
After helping Shen Cang get into the sedan chair, Shen Rui followed on horseback, and the father and son returned to Renshoufang.
By the time they got off the sedan, Shen Cang's expression had softened a lot, and Shen Rui felt relieved.
In the evening, go to the room.
The room was full of the smell of medicinal soup. There was a wooden basin under the couch near the window, which was dark inside. Shen Cang was sitting on the couch with his eyes closed, and there was no color on his face.
Mrs. Xu said with red eyes: "Master, please ask for leave..."