Chapter 15: Empress Dowager Zhang with Kind Brows and Kind Eyes
Ever since he was introduced to the soft girl Wang Zhaofei, the otaku Zhu Shou has been working hard every night and working hard every day.
This made the people of the Ming Dynasty very happy. Even the Queen Mother Zhang happily ordered the young eunuch Wang Wei to come to Qianqing Palace to invite Zhu Shou and his wives to a family banquet.
Now the question arises: How to deal with the relationship between these wives?
It is said that business girls do not know the hatred of subjugating their country, and otakus do not understand the love between children. Not to mention the heartless Zhu Houzhao, even the otaku Zhu Shou has a dark eye on dealing with family problems. It is no less difficult than engaging in a political struggle with the civil service group.
Zhu Houzhao can be called the second luckiest emperor of the Ming Dynasty, especially compared with his father who went through all kinds of hardships.
Who is the first? Of course it is his cousin Emperor Jiajing. To be honest, no matter which emperor wants to compare luck index with Jiajing, it is purely asking for trouble.
Zhu Houzhao was born as the eldest son of the emperor. His father only had one wife, one brother and one sister. They all died early. No one would compete with him for the throne, and there was no need to worry about anyone coming to harm him.
When he ascended the throne, according to the laws of the Ming Dynasty, he had just reached adulthood. He did not have to worry about the discipline of Empress Dowager Zhang, nor did he need to worry about the wordiness of ministers who cared about his life.
Liu Jian and Xie Qian were kicked away by him because they took too much care.
If he had been two years younger, not to mention the empress dowager's temporary control, but even the restrictions of her life, she could have managed him from a naughty boy to an old man, just like the Wanli Emperor and the Kangxi pockmarked child in later generations.
After he ascended the throne, in August of the first year of Zhengde, he married Xia, the daughter of Xia Ru, the governor of the Central Military Governor's Mansion. Later, he named Shen the virtuous concubine and Wu the virtuous concubine.
With one queen and two concubines, from a patriarchal perspective, classmate Zhu Houzhao is already the well-deserved master of the Ming Dynasty, and no one will care about him no matter what he does.
For the young emperor who is in the rebellious stage, this is like a bird flying in the sky, a fish leaping in the sea, and flying with him when he walks. Everyone has a rebellious stage, and it is inevitable to do something outrageous.
However, this time classmate Zhu Houzhao's outrageous thing was a bit different: he actually let the newly named Concubine Wang Zhao enter the palace in front of Concubine Shen Xian.
We all know that there is no small matter in the emperor's family. In fact, there is another annotation for this sentence: there is no kindness in the emperor's family.
The lament of Emperor Chongzhen in later generations has been sung by the grassroots people who have never been emperors for generations. The meaning is: Look, when you are an emperor, it is also hard?
Concubine Shen Xian became angry immediately. According to the rules of the palace, no matter how favored Concubine Wang Zhao was, she would have to go to the end and eat the dust. Empress Xia and Concubine Wu De were also the same enemies as her.
This is a natural thing: the enemy of my enemy is my friend. The three people who were fighting to the death a few days ago suddenly changed from "The Golden Bough" to "Eight Girls Throw themselves into the River".
There is no way, why would their enemy be the vixen like Concubine Wang Zhao?
Concubine Wang Zhao is different from those old men. Gu Dao cannot give birth to children, so the three empresses have no sense of crisis at all, just like the central and foreign enterprises of later generations.
But Concubine Wang Zhao was different. If she had given birth to a son before she could, what status would the three empresses have?
You know, there are countless queens and concubines who were deposed in the Ming Dynasty.
Looking at the three empresses standing at the door, Zhu Shou felt that things were a bit tricky for the first time since time travel.
After all, ladies are not civil servants. If you rely on forceful means, you may still be punished by the Queen Mother Zhang. You must know that the Ming Dynasty ruled the world with filial piety, and it is only natural for me to discipline my sons.
If Emperor Zhengde had anyone to fear, it was Empress Dowager Zhang who never asked about political affairs. This cannot be changed. Even Zhu Shou, who traveled through time, did not dare to challenge his mother.
It was almost Shenshi, and the sun was shining warmly on the courtyard of Cining Palace. The green grass, yellow colored glaze, red palace walls, and white jade railings showed the royal style and also set off the three characters.
The empress's unique behavior...
With the support of the eunuchs, Zhu Shou stepped onto the white marble steps, walked up to the three empresses, and scolded softly: "It's just a trivial matter, why is it like this?"
The three empresses lowered their heads and said nothing, but a kind voice came from the palace gate: "Nothing is trivial in the emperor's house."
Through the vermilion palace gate, under a lush old tree, stood a woman in coarse cotton clothes. She was about thirty years old. Between her eyebrows and eyes, she looked quite similar to Zhu Houzhao. It was vaguely visible.
Show the beauty of youth.
According to Zhu Houzhao's memory, Zhu Shou understood that this was Queen Mother Zhang.
She was surrounded by dozens of eunuchs and maids, but anyone could tell with just one glance that the seemingly inconspicuous woman was the real center.
Queen Mother Zhang is not mysterious, on the contrary, she is very ordinary, even as ordinary as a peasant woman.
But it is this ordinaryness that makes her unique, because this is the palace, the most extraordinary place in the world.
For example, the first and third concubines in attendance were dressed in various brocade robes worth tens of thousands of gold, and were covered with gold, silver and jade. Even the maids around them were dressed more brilliantly than Queen Mother Zhang.
The ordinary Queen Mother Zhang, standing in the extraordinary palace, became a different kind of scenery.
Zhu Shou suddenly seemed to understand why Ming Xiaozong became the only one-wife emperor in history.
Empress Dowager Zhang is a very good wife, mother, sister and daughter, but she is not a qualified queen or empress dowager. Looking through the history books, we have never seen any examples of her educating her sons. On the contrary, we can often see her father taking advantage of her.
In Mintian, the younger brother kills people and loots goods, and the son is mischievous.
Empress Dowager Zhang was a native of Xingji, her father was Zhang Luan, and her mother was Jin. She was elected as the crown princess in the 23rd year of Chenghua (1487). In September of the same year, Crown Prince Zhu Youtang ascended the throne and became Emperor Xiaozong of the Ming Dynasty. In October of winter,
Crown Princess Zhang was made queen.
According to historical records, Xiaozong and Empress Dowager Zhang got along like common people's couples, without the style of a family of emperors. They also granted generous titles to the Zhang family, such as Zhang Luan as Duke of Chang, Empress Dowager Zhang's younger brother Zhang Heling as Hou Ninghou, and Zhang Yanling as Marquis of Shouning.
Jianchang Bo.
Whenever someone from the Zhang family broke the law, Xiaozong never punished them.
This was even more true in the Zhengde Dynasty. Zhu Houzhao laughed off the two uncles' misdeeds.
"Zhao'er, Concubine Zhao has behaved inappropriately. I have decided to suspend her salary for one year." Empress Dowager Zhang's title was very strange. She never called herself "Aijia" in front of the emperor, but said "I", and she did not call Zhu Houzhao "Zhao'er".
"Huang'er", instead call him "Zhao'er".
They don't look like a royal family, but more like private families that can be seen everywhere on the streets.
"I sincerely obey my mother's decree." It was just a fine, not a big deal, so Zhu Shou naturally complied.
"Zhao'er, are you sick?" Queen Mother Zhang stretched out her hand and touched her son's forehead. She felt her son ducking back and couldn't help but smile, "My son has really grown up."
Zhu Shou is not Zhu Houzhao. Although he has all the latter's memories, it does not mean that he can fully accept the latter's feelings.
As a time-travelling otaku, it is difficult to get close to people, especially those of his parents' generation. He can no longer remember what his parents were like in his previous life. He only remembers how the couple with no educational principles pampered him.
Therefore, when Empress Dowager Zhang extended her hand, he naturally chose to avoid it.
Although Empress Dowager Zhang is already in her thirties and somewhat fat, she has a calm demeanor and dignified behavior, somewhat like the mother of the country.
However, Zhu Shou couldn't feel the affection between mother and son. It seems that time travel is not just about killing people in all directions and knocking down girls.
How to deal with the relationship between mother and son? How to deal with the relationship between several wives?
For a heartless and naughty boy like Zhu Houzhao, these are not problems at all, because he has not thought about solving them at all. Just look at him and stay in the leopard room when he is about to die. You know this kid
There is no sense of family at all….
But Zhu Shou is different. He came from time to time, and the family views of later generations still have a certain restrictive effect on him.
"Empress Xia, Concubine Wu De, Concubine Shen Xian, the Ai family has decided to suspend your salary for half a year, do you have any objections?" Seeing that her son was shy, Empress Dowager Zhang did not care about him anymore, but looked at the three empresses and said softly.
She did not say the reason for the punishment, but directly imposed a punishment: half lighter than that of Concubine Wang Zhao.
"What the Queen Mother said is true. I have no objections." The four empresses knelt down together, not daring to have any objections.
In China, the Queen Mother has the highest power. Although she does not often use this power and often does not even leave the gate of Cining Palace, it does not mean that she has no authority.
The reason why she explained the reason for punishing Concubine Wang Zhao just now was because she was talking to the emperor, and there was no need to be so polite to the four empresses.
"Wang Wei," Queen Mother Zhang looked at a young eunuch and said slowly, "go get the ten sticks yourself."
The young eunuch quickly knelt on the ground and kowtowed repeatedly: "Thank you, Queen Mother, for your kindness."
"Queen mother... mother," Zhu Shou was not used to the strange names he and Queen Mother Zhang used. It was completely different from the royal family in his impression. "Panban has no fault, why should he be punished?"
Zhu Shou learned from Zhu Houzhao's memory that the little eunuch named Wang Wei, who was a few years older than himself, had been accompanying him to study for more than ten years. None of the other eunuchs were as considerate as this boy, so he called him
As a "companion", it can be said that he is a playmate who is closer than the Eight Tigers.
The Queen Mother was ill a few days ago. Out of filial piety, Zhu Houzhao gave the most considerate Wang Banban to the Queen Mother. It was he who came to inform him of the banquet today. He did not expect that his negligence would cause him to eat ten imperial sticks.
.
"Wang Wei, since the emperor is interceding for you, let me add two more sticks." Empress Dowager Zhang waved her hand, and immediately several burly guards rushed over and dragged Wang Wei's thin body to the Cining Palace.
Already.
From a distance, Wang Wei shouted: "Thank you, Queen Mother!"
Zhu Shou was dumbfounded and stood there blankly, forgetting to even speak.