Chapter 69 Ruthlessness and lack of righteousness lead to murder

Emperor Shizong of the Ming Dynasty was cruel and merciless. He beat the courtiers as soon as he came to the throne, and later dismissed Yang Tinghe, the chief assistant who supported him, as a civilian.As the chief assistant, Xia Yan once won his trust, but was dismissed because he was repeatedly dissatisfied with his respect for Taoism. Later, he listened to Yan Song's slander and killed him.Not only for ministers, but also for the harem.It can be seen very clearly from his attitude towards the queen. Ming Shizong's first queen, Chen Shi, was his original spouse.Empress Chen was pregnant, and the emperor came to visit her, but he was fascinated by the pair of jade hands of the tea-serving maid, and he couldn't stop looking at her in fascination.Of course the queen was very upset, she dropped the teacup and left.As a result, the emperor was so angry that the empress was so frightened that she had a miscarriage, and later died of it.In this way, the emperor was still furious, and refused to use the queen's standard, buried her hastily, and gave her the evil posthumous title "Mourning the Spirit".His second queen was the court lady Zhang with a pair of jade hands. In view of the tragic experience of Queen Chen, she was cautious and obedient to the emperor.But later the emperor got some fairy herb Ganoderma lucidum and insisted on letting her eat it. After taking it, she vomited so much that she almost died. The emperor even laughed at her for not being blessed.Empress Zhang couldn't bear it at last, and complained that the emperor took her to test medicine.So the emperor immediately abolished her on the charge of "disrespect and disrespect".Two years later, Mrs. Zhang died in depression, and the funeral was extremely hasty.

The emperor then appointed Concubine De Fang as empress, but Concubine Cao Duan was his favorite.In addition, he recruited concubines in order to seek more heirs.There were so many beauties in the palace that the emperor couldn't help it.At this time, Tao Zhongwen, his trusted "immortal", recommended a warlock named Liang Gaofu to him, and offered him a pill called "Xiantian Lead Pill", which is said to make people strong and immortal.As soon as the emperor ate it, the effect was extraordinary, so Longxin was overjoyed and ordered Liang Laodao to refine a large amount for him.

However, the ingredients of this "Xiantian Lead Pill" are quite unusual. It is not cinnabar sulfur or the like, but it is made from a little girl's menstrual blood, plus Chinese herbs and minerals. It is actually a kind of aphrodisiac.At that time, people said that it was "named for longevity, but it was only for secret play".But the emperor who wanted to be immortal didn't care about the old Taoist priest selling dog meat. What he pursued was this kind of state of wanting to be immortal.In order to refine a large number of "Xiantian lead pills", he began to recruit young girls from the people into the palace.During the Jiajing period, there were 1,080 maids selected four times, all of whom were girls between the ages of eight and fourteen.Wang Shizhen once wrote a poem describing the experiences of these girls: "The two horns are green and the double tendons are red, and the consonance has never been understood at all. I am a medicine for prolonging life, and I am haggard in the wind and rain of spring." A large number of folk girls left their homes and came to To the deep palace where the sun cannot be seen, it has become a tool for the emperor to refine medicine.Moreover, the menstrual blood of menarche is not said to be available. In order to collect enough alchemy raw materials, the maids are forced to take medicines that stimulate menstrual blood, which will cause great physical and mental damage to the maids at the slightest, and cause excessive blood loss or even Blood collapse, life-threatening.Later, Emperor Shizong of the Ming Dynasty believed in the heresy of Taoist priests to "harvest yin to nourish yang", and these poor girls became his "cauldron", which was devastated physically and mentally.The emperor was also very tyrannical. Even if the court ladies made a small mistake, they never forgave them and beat them severely. About 200 court ladies were beaten to death by him.Such inhuman treatment made the maids fearful and lived in fear all day long.Therefore, sixteen court ladies headed by Yang Jinying united, secretly discussed "Let's do it, it's better than dying in his hands", and decided to murder the emperor.

On the evening of October 20th in the 21st year of Jiajing (1542), Emperor Shizong of the Ming Dynasty was drunk in Concubine Cao Duan's bedroom, and fell asleep on the couch in a daze.Concubine Duan tucked the quilt up for him and went to another room to be quieter so that the emperor could sleep soundly.At this time, Yang Jinying and others who had been peeping from the side sneaked into the emperor's bedroom, first covered the emperor's face with a piece of yellow silk, then took out the rope prepared in advance, tied a knot around his neck, and ordered the companions to forcefully Pulling in two directions, there are some maids riding on the emperor and pressing down firmly.Ming Shizong woke up and struggled desperately.But Yang Jinying was flustered and tied the rope into a tight knot, which could not be tightened no matter what. The emperor resisted desperately and groaned.At this time, a court lady named Zhang Jinlian saw that the emperor hadn't died for a long time, so she felt that it was blessed by the gods, so she rushed to Queen Fang to inform her.

Empress Fang was shocked when she heard the words, she didn't even care about wearing shoes, and immediately ran to Concubine Cao Duan with disheveled hair.Yang Jinying and others didn't dare to stay any longer when they heard the commotion outside, and fled in all directions.But at this time Concubine Cao Duan's bedroom was surrounded by groups, and all these women were arrested.Empress Fang saw that the emperor on the bed was already bruised, so she hurried forward to untie the rope around his neck, and summoned the imperial physician to treat him.Many imperial doctors are afraid of being convicted and dare not use medicine.Empress Fang yelled at them, and Xu Shencai, who was sent by the Imperial Hospital, risked his death to concoct a strong medicine for the emperor to take.After a long time, the emperor finally snorted, spit out several liters of purple blood, and spit out a few words.Afterwards, Xu Shen was terrified when taking the medicine, and fell to the root of the disease. Although he received a generous reward, he fell seriously ill and died soon after.

Although the emperor was awake at this time, he was still half-drowned and half-awake, unable to speak a complete sentence for a long time.Therefore, Empress Fang issued an edict in his name to interrogate these rebellious court ladies and torture them one by one.The confessions of the maids implicated Wang Ningpin, but Empress Fang still had a selfish intention. She had long been very dissatisfied with Concubine Cao Duan's monopoly on the emperor's favor. Concubine Cao Duan was also involved.In the end, Concubine Wang Ning, Concubine Cao Duan, and all the maids and their families who participated in this incident were all executed by Ling Chi.This incident happened in the Renyin year of the lunar calendar, so it is called "Renyin Palace Change".

It took more than a month for the emperor to fully recover.From then on, he didn't dare to live in the Great Inner Palace, so he moved to Xiyuan Yongshou Palace.He has lived there ever since, and was not brought back until his death.Empress Fang saved the emperor's life and made great contributions. The emperor gave her a high reward for this, and made her father the Marquis of Taihe from Taihebo.According to the laws of the Ming Dynasty, "Juelu's private family" is illegal. It can be seen that Shizong is sincerely grateful for Fang's life-saving grace. However, as time passed, the emperor began to doubt the cause of this incident.He didn't believe that his beloved Concubine Cao Duan would participate in the murder of him, so he asked the maids around Concubine Duan to question carefully, and those court ladies said that Concubine Duan was wronged.There was gradually a gap between the emperor and Queen Fang, but after all, there was no proof, and he couldn't do anything to the queen.However, the insidious emperor would not just forget about it, he was waiting for an opportunity.

In the twenty-sixth year of Jiajing (1547), a fire broke out in Da Nei. The emperor in the west heard the eunuchs rushing to report the fire in Da Nei, but he was indifferent.Later, the eunuchs reported that the fire had reached Queen Fang's palace. He still ordered to put out the fire, but looked at the raging fire in the direction of the palace from a distance, and said to himself: "It's really not good for retribution, that person likes to hurt people." People, today is doomed." After the fire was extinguished, Empress Fang was not burned to death, but she was seriously injured and died of illness soon after.But during the period of her lingering sickness, the emperor never took a look at her.After Empress Fang's death, the jealous emperor also slowly recalled all the benefits of her life, and could not help crying and sighed: "You once saved me, but I didn't save you. I failed you." He told Queen Fang His burial place was named Yongling, and his posthumous posthumous title was Xiaolie, and the etiquette of personally determining the posthumous title was more solemn than before.Later, he also planned to place her god master in the Taimiao, but Xu Jie, a scholar of the cabinet, bluntly said that "there is no one who enters the temple first for a female queen", so he gave up.

All of the above are full of "the emperor's grace", but for Queen Fang who was dying in the fire and died in pain, what is the meaning of all this.