Chapter 100 Elegy sings to lose my emperor forever
Update time:2012-12-07
In the spacious palace, white cloths are hung on the doors and windows with colorful paintings and double-crossed four-bowl water chestnuts, giving the originally gorgeous decorative cloth a layer of sad tones. Inside, kneeling are ten or twenty young women, dressed in mourning clothes. Her eyes were filled with tears. The cry was like an elegy, echoing in the palace for a long time.
These women were all titled concubines of the Hongxi Dynasty, and they did not give birth to any children for the Zhu family. Now that the emperor has passed away, they must be buried as martyrs according to the laws and regulations. Being buried alive does not mean being buried alive. They hang themselves first and then have the palace people wash them. They dressed up neatly and continued to serve the late emperor underground. They were carefully selected for their appearance and figure. Not only did they have a beautiful face, they were stripped naked and examined all over their bodies when they were selected. Even so. Some of the concubines have never had the chance to touch the emperor, so naturally they cannot give birth to children. Failure to compete for the emperor's favor during his lifetime is the price; and some concubines who are lucky enough to give birth to princes and princesses will be able to survive, even in the future. Being lonelier and no longer having to worry about being plotted and falling out of favor, maybe being able to live quietly is also a reward.
Some eunuchs were moving stools and busy hanging white silk ribbons on the beams. After tying them, they had to pull hard to ensure that the person could be hanged. The eunuch supervising the scene was Haitao. Having served Prince Zhu Zhanji in the East Palace, and having experience in handling matters as a Supervisor of Ceremonies, there is vague news that he will be promoted to Supervisor of Ceremonies Bingbi this time. There may be more than 100,000 eunuchs in the world, and for the Supervisor of Ceremonies Bingbi The eunuchs called him the second ancestor, the second highest eunuch, so the eunuchs working around him were all respectful and behaved. If Haitao asked someone, he would probably answer on his knees.
After all, he is the second child... The eunuch boss's unofficial choice seems to be Wang Gou'er. Haitao is a little dissatisfied with this. In terms of age and seniority, Haitao is older than Wang Gou'er. His hair is silver-white, with almost no black hair; Besides, Haitao thought that he had served the prince in the East Palace and was closer to Zhu Zhanji, so he really couldn't figure out why Wang Gouer wanted to overpower him.
But he won't show it. Being a eunuch in the palace is sometimes more sinister than officialdom. You can't show your face in everything and easily make grudges with others.
He walked around the palace for a while and saw that the concubines were already standing on the stools. Some of them had their necks wrapped in buckles with tears on their faces. Most of them had their eyes closed in despair. Haitao felt a little agitated. He waved his hand impatiently and said, "Okay, just take the stool away."
The eunuchs hurriedly bent down and moved some stools away. The women's bodies were immediately suspended in the air, and there was a numbing sound in the palace. Hanging is not an easy way to die, it is better than a quick knife. Beheading is much more painful, but the delicious food leaves a whole body. They must accompany the emperor on the ground when they die, and they cannot be accompanied by female ghosts with severed heads. The faces of the concubines are distorted, and their beautiful faces are gone. It became ferocious; their legs kicked around at first, making a mess on their skirts. After a while, they straightened up and then twitched in the air, just like the chicken's legs were twitching when its neck was cut when it was killed for meat. .Then the person suffocates to death, and the muscles all over his body can no longer tense up, and he will become incontinent. Anyway, this scene of incense and beauty is very barbaric.
Suddenly there was a "boom", and a woman jumped down from the stool, holding up her long skirt and trying to run away. Upon seeing this, Haitao shouted: "Hurry and catch her!"
There was a guard at the door, and several eunuchs immediately gathered around, grabbed her arm, and escorted her back. The woman plopped down and knelt in front of Hai Tao: "Eunuch Hai, please let me live, I don't want to."
Die!"
"Get up, get up, you are the master, we are slaves, what are you talking about while kneeling?!" Haitao glared, but there was no humble expression on his face as a slave, he was just gesticulating and telling his eunuchs to help him.
When she got up, he said again, "Mrs. Wang, don't you want to be loyal to the late emperor and go down to accompany the late emperor? You went down to enjoy the blessings when you were buried in the imperial mausoleum. You can get over this now by gritting your teeth and enduring it."
Beauty Wang cried: "Why don't Eunuch Hai go down and serve the late emperor?"
A coldness flashed across Haitao's face, he looked around and said, "Here comes someone, tie up Beauty Wang's hands and feet, and then 'invite' her to come up."
Wang Meiren struggled desperately and said: "I'm pregnant, don't kill me!"
The eunuch holding the rope advised: "Don't worry about it anymore. Others have already hung it up. Just like Eunuch Hai said, it will be fine in a while."
Haitao suddenly raised his hand and said: "Slow down."
The eunuch who just spoke hurriedly bent down and said: "She must have said this out of desperation. If she is really pregnant, why did she say it now?"
However, Haitao kept an eye on it: this is the truth, but if one day in the future one day is unlucky and someone reveals the matter and claims that he killed a concubine who was pregnant with a dragon child, how many witnesses can be found at the scene?
How can I tell clearly when the time comes? Is it necessary to dig up the late emperor's tomb to conduct an autopsy? Besides, how can the body be examined if it is already a skeleton?
"Wang Meiren will stay here first and find someone to find out where the concubines will sleep in the past year, and then find an imperial doctor to give her a look." Haitao said. He didn't mind the trouble, because there was still time before the late emperor was buried.
.
The matter here was almost settled, and Haitao hurried to Qianqing Palace to report back.
He is usually very careful, for fear of others plotting against him; because he plots against someone more than once. Just like a liar who deceives others many times, it will be difficult to trust others in the future, and he will feel that everyone can deceive him, even his parents.
Relatives.
Walking onto the overpass of Qianqing Palace, Haitao met Prince Zhu Zhanji in a warm pavilion, and found that Wang Gouer was also waiting nearby. Haitao knelt down and bowed, and then said that the affairs of the harem were settled, and only Wang Meiren was there
She said that she was pregnant and could not complete it until she got tested.
Sure enough, Zhu Zhanji said as soon as he heard this: "If you were really pregnant with the late emperor's dragon vein, how could you tell her now?"
Haitao replied: "My servant also thinks the same as His Highness, but I feel that the situation is too serious and I dare not make any arbitrary decisions, so I have to be more cautious."
Zhu Zhanji nodded and didn't take it seriously. Seeing that he and Wang Gou'er seemed to be having a good conversation, Haitao might have asked him to retreat. Haitao then said hurriedly: "I have one more thing, slave."
"Say." Zhu Zhanji said.
Haitao bowed and said: "Yesterday, His Highness asked about an official from the foreign court named Zhang Ning. Later, I remembered that I had seen an impeachment report on him in the Supervisor of Ceremonies. It was from the beginning of this year. At that time, Zhang Ning was the head of the Ministry of Household Affairs.
He impeached him for concealing his life experience. His surname was not Zhang originally, but he was adopted by the Zhang family when he was an infant. Zhang Ning was born in the 35th year of Hongwu (the fourth year of Jianwen). Emperor Hongxi died before the project to restore the Jianwen reign was completed.
), a native of Nanjing. Therefore, those who impeached him believed that he had an unknown background and should not be an official."
Sure enough, Zhu Zhanji's attention was attracted as soon as he heard this, and he asked a few more questions, leaving Wang Gou'er aside and just talking to Haitao. Wang Gou'er looked a little unhappy and said to himself: It's other people's business.
What nonsense are you doing, harming people for no reason?
"Go find the fold and bring it over to me for a look." Zhu Zhanji ordered.
When Zhu Zhanji heard about Zhang Ning, he still wanted to find out, because Zhang Ning was one of the people he planned to promote. Zhu Zhanji was about to ascend the throne and become the new emperor, and thought that he could not just reuse the old people from the previous dynasty.
You also need to discover and promote a group of new officials to join your own circle of power, which can not only bring fresh blood but also create some checks and balances.
He was particularly fond of Zhang Ning. Although he had known this young official for a short time, Zhang Ning's wit and knowledge left a deep impression on him. As well as his unremitting persistence for eight days and nights, he believed that Zhang Ning was
A person with patience and perseverance. In the new era of developing national strength, talents of this quality are needed, who have political opinions and can endure and persevere to form stable and beneficial national policies. Therefore, Zhu Zhanji’s original plan was to gradually promote the process
, further test and train this person to see if he can become a new batch of talent reserves for the empire.
But the current situation makes him a little sad. On the one hand, he cherishes his talents, but on the other hand, he still cares about Zhang Ning's background, especially because he may be related to Jianwen's legacy.
Zhu Zhanji is different from his father Zhu Gaochi. He has no prejudice against his grandfather, Emperor Yongle. It can be said that his relationship with his grandfather is much deeper than the relationship between father and son. I think Zhu Zhanji was only a few years old when Taizong took him with him during the Northern Expedition.
By his side, he taught him where to camp and under what circumstances to march, and taught him how to handle bows, horses, and archers. He even let him be by his side when his grandfather read memorials under the lamp, and taught him how to govern the country from time to time. Grandpa hoped that he would become a man of literary ability.
A wise king capable of martial arts would hand over his empire to such a grandson.
Zhu Zhanji had a very deep affection for Taizong, so he would not deliberately overturn Taizong's policies. Emperor Hongxi was very kind to his people, but some of his practices were not conducive to the monarchy, so Zhu Zhanji did not intend to complete all his father's policies.
Legacy, such as overturning the case for Jianwen Dynasty.
He didn't want to continue the large-scale persecution of Jianwen's remaining ministers, but he knew in his heart that he could not redress their injustice; not only that, he was still worried about his grandfather's death, because he heard Hu Ying mention something when he was in Nanjing:
I thought it was strange that my grandfather passed away.
Because of these two reasons, his feelings for his grandfather and the mysterious case in the last years of Yongle, he did not have a good impression of Jianwen Yichen. If Zhang Ning's life experience is really related to Jianwen Yichen, even if he is serving the court loyally now, Zhu Zhanji will not
If you can't get over your own personal feelings, you can't use this person.
After all, people have emotions, likes and dislikes, and even a wise emperor, like the great Emperor Yongle, is bound to be vulgar. Zhu Zhanji realized this.
When the eunuch Haitao brought the book, Zhu Zhanji began to read it. After a while, he raised his head and said, "Go and send a message to Hu Ying to come to Qianqing Palace to meet him."
"I obey the order," Haitao said hurriedly. It seems that this thing was not done in vain, at least it catered to the prince's likes and dislikes.
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