Chapter 345 Chapter 344: Emperor Xianzong Zhu Jianshen

On August 15th in the fourteenth year of Zhengtong (AD 1449), after the "Civil Change" occurred, the Empress Dowager Zhang of the Ming Dynasty ordered Yingzong's half-brother Zhu Qiyu to supervise the country, the prime minister of state affairs, and Zhu Jianshen, the eldest son of Yingzong, as the prime minister. The crown prince is in the East Palace.This year, Zhu Jianshen was only two years old. In the first year of Jingtai (1450 A.D.), the humiliated Yingzong survived and was sent back to Beijing. At this time, Zhu Qiyu had been the emperor for almost a year under the support of his courtiers, and his reign was changed to Jingtai. .Zhu Qiyu cherished the power he had and refused to give it up. He sent Yingzong to the South Palace for confinement. Therefore, Zhu Jianshen did not live in the East Palace for too long. In the third year of Jingtai, his crown prince was abolished and renamed King Yi. Zhu Qiyu made his son Zhu Jianji the crown prince.

At such a young age, Zhu Jianshen could only play games every day, and he treated it as child's play whether he was the crown prince or not.Although he is no longer the crown prince, he still received the title of King Yi from his uncle's kindness to not harm him, and he still lived a prosperous life with no worries about food and clothing.In the harem, there are two people closest to him, one is his mother Zhou Guifei, and the other is Queen Wang who was abolished by Zhu Qiyu because she opposed the abolition of Zhu Jianshen's crown prince status.Queen Wang and Concubine Zhou have the same temperament and have always had a good relationship.The Wang family loved Zhu Jianshen very much, and often walked around with Concubine Zhou without avoiding the public, which was reprimanded by Zhu Qiyu.Therefore, Zhu Jianshen respected her very much.

On the night of the 16th day of the first lunar month in the eighth year of Jingtai, a dramatic "Change of Seizing the Door" took place.Yingzong Zhu Qizhen regained the throne of the emperor.With the restoration of his father, Zhu Jianshen also had a bright future, and soon regained his status as the prince.After the restoration of Yingzong, Zhu Qiyu died of illness soon. The vengeful Yingzong ordered all his concubines to be buried for him, and the list drawn up by his eunuchs also included Wang.After Zhu Jianshen heard about it, he immediately found his father and told the reason why Wang was demoted, and Yingzong agreed with Kuanyou.Zhu Jianshen also asked his father to allow Wang to leave the palace and live in the old mansion, and take his private savings with him.After that, Zhu Jianshen often accompanied his mother to visit Mrs. Gu, and invited Mrs. Wang into the palace to talk about family affairs, and his relationship remained the same as before.

On the twenty-sixth day of the first lunar month in the eighth year of Tianshun (AD 1464), 18-year-old Zhu Jianshen ascended the throne as Emperor Xianzong, and the second year was the first year of Chenghua (AD 1465). In terms of governing the government, his initial impression was that of a vigorous young man.In order to maintain stability, Emperor Xianzong continued to appoint a large number of veteran ministers trusted by his father. He especially regarded Li Xian as a capable assistant minister. Slight improvement. Xianzong knew that the most impressive thing about the new King's Landing Dynasty was whether he could let go of his personal love.He swung the sharp knife at Dianxi eunuch Wang Lun first.Wang Lun was Xianzong's favorite internal official when he was the crown prince. Before Xianzong came to the throne, some officials in the court expected that Wang Lun would be of great use in the future, so they tried their best to flatter him. Very bad influence.After Xianzong ascended the throne, according to Li Xian's suggestion, Wang Lun was immediately arrested and imprisoned, and sent to Nanjing to serve hard labor.Yu Qian, the former minister of the Ministry of War, once supported the crisis after the defeat of civil engineering and defeated the Oirat army under the capital. Later, he was framed and his head was beheaded by Yingzong.When Xianzong was still the prince, he heard that this was an unjust case. In order to calm the resentment of the government and the public, he did not hide his father and ordered Yu Qian to be vindicated.The few things he did after he succeeded to the throne are still popular.

When Xianzong succeeded to the throne, there were three cabinet ministers at the beginning, and they were Li Xian, Chen Wen, and Peng Shi in order of rank.In particular, Li Xian has the demeanor of a prime minister. As a scholar and official minister, he has a general understanding of politics.With the support of Emperor Xianzong, Li Xianjing hand-picked a group of officials who were loyal to the imperial court, and at the same time reprimanded more than 4,000 speculators who took the title of "seizing the door".Chen Wen and Peng Shi also assisted with all their heart.Emperor Xianzong was deeply grateful for this, and specially bestowed a generous salary to show his appreciation.In the first year of Chenghua (1465), there was a severe drought in the south. In the Jingxiang area at the junction of Huguang, Henan, Shaanxi, and Sichuan, the refugees could not bear the hardship of taxation and labor, and rebelled.After receiving the report, Emperor Xianzong ordered Li Zhen, governor of Huguang, to be the commander-in-chief, and Bai Gui, Shangshu of the Ministry of Industry, supervised military affairs and led the army to conquer.The officers and soldiers were well-equipped and outnumbered. After fighting for a year, the refugees were scattered, and Emperor Xianzong heard the news of victory as he wished.As the new emperor at the beginning of his ascension to the throne, Emperor Xianzong paid more attention to the Jingxiang war. He appointed military generals, reviewed the worship memorials, and sent his confidant eunuchs to the front to supervise the army, which took a lot of effort.However, one wave was not smooth, and another wave was prosperous. The Yao people in Dayengxia in Guangxi rose up.The cabinet ministers discussed quickly, Li Xian advocated the conquest, and Emperor Xianzong agreed to this.After the imperial decree came out, Han Yong, the censor of Youqian capital, ordered 160,000 troops and horses to kill Guangxi.The battle started at the beginning of December. There were winding mountains and many caves in the Datang Gorge area. Han and Yong attacked together, and the Yao people resisted desperately. Both sides suffered heavy casualties.About a month or so later, the Yao people were defeated, and the area around Datang Gorge fell.Afterwards, Han Yong ordered his soldiers to cut off the green vines in the gorge, renamed the cane gorge "Duanteng gorge", and set up a monument of meritorious service.When the good news arrived in the capital, it was just the first heavy snowfall, and Emperor Xianzong came back from enjoying the snow.He issued a decree to reward and promote Han Yong, and let him serve as the right deputy capital censor and admiral of Guangxi military affairs.

Later, Emperor Xianzong suppressed the people's uprising in the Jingxiang mountain area and sent troops to repel the continuous attacks of northern Mongolia on the Northwest Hetao area.Therefore, the ruling and opposition parties greatly praised Xianzong. In the fourth year when Xianzong became the prince for the second time, a woman named Wan Zhen'er appeared beside him.Wan Zhen'er was a maid in the Empress Dowager Sun's palace. Because of her father's crimes, she was confiscated into the palace when she was four years old, and she was quite beautiful when she grew up.Empress Dowager Sun loved her for her intelligence and diligence, so she was summoned to the Renshou Palace and asked her to be in charge of clothes and jewelry.Zhu Jianshen often went to the Empress Dowager Sun's place, and Wan Zhen'er gradually became familiar with him, and then developed into intimacy.After Queen Mother Sun died, Zhu Jianshen asked his mother to let Wan Zhen'er, who was 17 years older than him, enter the East Palace to serve him, and the two soon became inseparable.After Xianzong ascended the throne, as usual, he had to register as a queen.Empress Dowager Qian and Empress Dowager Zhou chose Wu, so Emperor Xianzong got married in July of the eighth year of Tianshun.After getting married, you have to choose a concubine.Xianzong did not forget Wan Zhen'er, and mentioned this person to his mother, and the Queen Mother agreed to make her a concubine.Out of jealousy of Empress Wu, Wan Zhen'er was disrespectful to her words.Empress Wu couldn't bear it, and when the two quarreled until language could not solve the problem, Empress Wu ordered the maid to hold the staff and beat Concubine Wan Gui.After Xianzong knew about it, he reported to the two empress dowagers the next day, saying that Wu's temper was too bad and his behavior was frivolous, so Yi must be abolished.The empress dowagers disagreed at first, and the cabinet ministers also urged him to give up this idea, but he firmly refused to listen.As a result, Empress Wu was handed back the treasure book, demoted to the cold palace, and chose another princess as the queen.At this time, Empress Wu was in the main palace for only 32 days.After Empress Wu was abolished, Concubine Wan Gui became more confident, while Empress Wang was calm in nature and retreated in everything, she was only a queen in name.Xianzong's love for Concubine Wan Gui gave the eunuchs in the palace a weather vane. They took refuge in Concubine Wan Gui's family one after another, devoting their brains to presenting beautiful pearls and treasures to her, and under the guise of the Holy Majesty's will, went to the people to search and buy them, harassing the people.In return, Concubine Wan Gui responded to these eunuchs' requests, enabling them to rise to the top and have the opportunity to intervene in the government, forming a great influence.Some "guardian officials" in various provinces are also superior to the governor and chief military officer because of someone in the court.Xianzong heard about it at this time, but he didn't care. In order to make Concubine Wan Gui agree, he could listen to her no matter what she did.

Out of hedonism, Xianzong's interest in court affairs was greatly reduced, and the vitality when he first came to Danchi quickly disappeared.Under the influence of Concubine Wan Gui, he spent a lot of money recklessly, built a large number of temples and palaces, carefully accompanied Concubine Wan Gui to worship Buddha and practice alchemy, enjoy singing and dancing, and play various games to pass the time.The early court has become a burden, and it is canceled at every turn. Even if it is promoted to the court, it is just a show, and the ceremony is completed and then retreated. Most of the performances are thrown to the eunuchs for approval.When the ministers heard and witnessed the changes in Xianzong, they were heartbroken, and some of them went to Shushu one after another to persuade him to work hard to govern.Peng Shi said sharply: "Concubine Wan Gui has passed the childbearing period and has many problems, so she should not be favored exclusively. I hope that your majesty will share the favor with all the concubines." Xianzong ignored this.Because Concubine Wan Gui ran rampant in the sixth palace, the prince whom Xianzong yearned for day and night was never born.In the seventh year of Chenghua (1470 A.D.), Concubine Bai Xian gave birth to a son who was established as the crown prince, but was killed by Concubine Wan Gui before he was one year old.It wasn't until the eleventh year of Chenghua that the eunuch Zhang Min told him that a maid from Guangxi, Mrs. Ji, had given birth to a son for him and was hiding in the Anle Hall of the harem.After the matter became clear, Shang Ren, the chief minister of the cabinet, and others suggested that the prince should be handed over to the Empress Dowager Zhou to be raised by the Empress Dowager Zhou in order to save the prince from the murderous hands of Concubine Wan Gui, and he was immediately registered as the prince.This is a very correct suggestion. After Xianzong followed suit, he not only saved the life of the prince, but also made Concubine Wan Gui feel that the method of obstinate favor had been seen through. Give birth to several princes to compete with the prince for favor.As a result, Xianzong added 11 more sons.

Xianzong not only favored concubine Wan Gui in the court, which made the harem restless, but at almost the same time, he also reused eunuch Wang Zhi, making all courtiers feel insecure.At first, Wang Zhi was only Concubine Wan Gui's servant. Because of his treacherous nature, he was able to cater to the concubine's wishes, especially to collect money to please her.Xianzong didn't have a deep impression of Wang Zhi at the beginning, but after a period of time, Wang became a figure that Xianzong could not leave for a moment. In the twelfth year of Chenghua, something happened in the palace that made Xianzong extremely disturbed. A man named Li Zilong was put into the palace privately by the eunuchs, plotting to do something wrong.Afterwards, for the sake of safety, Emperor Xianzong ordered Wang Zhiyi to wear makeup, and often took the school captain to go out to inquire about news.Wang Zhi is very dedicated to this, and reports everything in the streets and alleys.This not only won the trust of Emperor Xianzong, but Emperor Xianzong ordered the establishment of Xichang when he was happy, and was supervised by Wang Zhi, whose power greatly surpassed that of the original Dongchang and Jinyiwei.

With the support of Emperor Xianzong, Wang Zhi's position has become more and more consolidated. Since then, he has formed a party for personal gain, and has repeatedly created appalling injustices. Later, when the ministers and ministers of the court met him, they would divert themselves as if they were avoiding the plague. No one dared to provoke him. Right and wrong.Once, Xiang Zhong, Minister of the Ministry of War, was humiliated face to face by Wang Zhi because he did not give way to Wang Zhi on the road.Wang Zhi's misbehavior made the political atmosphere extremely tense and aroused the opposition of all the ministers. The letters of the university scholar Shang Ren and Shangshu Xiangzhong led to the dismissal of Xichang in May of the thirteenth year of Chenghua.However, Xianzong's treatment of Wang Zhi was very lenient, and he was only asked to return to the Yumajian to resume his old career, which disappointed the officials.

Although Xianzong was forced to cancel the Xichang, he still couldn't forget Wang Zhi, and Wang Zhi's revenge against Shang Ren and others came very quickly.Not long after, Xianzong received Wang Zhi's report of slandering Shang Ren, saying that he had appointed bad people in the court. Then, the censor Dai Jin attacked Shang Ren because he did not promote Shang Ren in time. , and touted Wang Zhi's impartiality and suggested restoring the West Factory.When Xianzong saw that someone proposed to restore the West Factory, he was in the middle of his arms, so he followed the trend and opened the West Factory again to restore Wang Zhiguan to his original post.Seeing that the West Factory had been restored again, and the governor could not do anything, Shang Ren asked to be resigned.Xianzong was also happy for him to leave, and approved his resignation in the month when the West Factory was restored.After Wang Zhi was reinstated, he immediately instructed Xichang to falsely accuse Xiang Zhong of committing crimes.Following Wang Zhi's suggestion, Emperor Xianzong ordered the three justices and Jin Yiwei to conduct a joint trial.The officials who participated in the joint trial were very clear about what Xianzong meant. Although they could not find any evidence, they still convicted Xiang Zhong and demoted him to the people.As far as implicated, dozens of officials such as Jiuqing were dismissed at one time.

After the Xichang incident, Emperor Xianzong trusted Wang Zhi even more. He followed Wang Zhi's suggestion and promoted Wang Yue, who was in charge of the three sides, to Minister of the Ministry of War, and Chen Yue, the general of Bian, to be the censor of the right capital and governor of Liaodong.Wang Yue is a frontier general who has made military exploits, but his character is not very high. He has a close relationship with Wang Zhi, and he finally got unlucky because of this.The same is true for Chen Yue. After doing many bad things with Wang Zhi, he didn't end well. The ministers never gave up admonishing Xianzong's behavior of conniving Wang Zhi's rampage in the palace. Many people reminded Xianzong from the side with his disrespectful behavior towards Wang Zhi, so that Xianzong gradually understood. In the autumn of the fifteenth year of Chenghua (AD 1479), Emperor Xianzong ordered Wang Zhi to inspect the frontier out of concern for border affairs.When the border officials learned that Wang Zhi was patrolling the border, they were afraid of being blamed, so they tried their best to please him. Along the way for hundreds of miles, the furnishings and supplies were astonishingly extravagant.Ma Wensheng, the servant of the Ministry of War, was ordered to guard Liaodong. He was very dissatisfied with Wang Zhi's actions and showed no respect to Wang Zhi.As a result, Wang Zhi accused Ma Wensheng of disturbing the border and demoted him to the border town.Qin Gong, the governor of Henan, was very dissatisfied with this, and secretly reported this crime to Xianzong. Although Xianzong didn't quite believe it, he also had opinions on Wang Zhi. In the autumn of the seventeenth year of Chenghua, Wang Zhi had been patrolling the border for two full years.Just when Wang Zhi was looking forward to returning to Beijing, Emperor Xianzong repeatedly refused his invitation and only called back the officials who followed him.This is a signal to alienate Wang Zhi.Seeing this situation, the censors and censors took the opportunity to go to the shuffle one after another, exposing Wang Zhi's secrets in the palace and many illegal acts of colluding with foreign ministers one by one, and asked for the withdrawal of Xichang. A letter was written to support these remarks, and the governor of Datong, Guo Tong, wrote another letter thousands of miles away, exposing the quarrel between Wang Zhi and the general Xu Ning, which might cause delays in side affairs.Xianzong then ordered Wang Zhi to be called back, but instead of letting him enter Beijing, he was sent to Nanjing Yumajian, and then Xichang was revoked.Soon, Xianzong dismissed Wang Zhi's officials, expelled Wang Zhi's cronies Wang Yue, Chen Yue and others according to Wan'an's suggestion, and called back Ma Wensheng, the former servant of the Ministry of War, to be the censor of Zuodu and governor of Liaodong.This move of Xianzong greatly encouraged all civil and military officials, thinking that the Holy Majesty was finally influenced, and thus full of confidence in the government. Originally, after the blow to Wang Zhi's forces, the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty rejoiced, and Xianzong had a chance to revive the court.But who knows that Xianzong not only did not cheer up at this time, but also indulged in two things.One is to seek Taoism and make alchemy, so as to prolong his life. Originally, there were already some altars in the palace for worshiping immortality, but he was still not satisfied with this, and often had people build and renovate them.Alchemy has also reached the point of fascination, and I would rather sleep and forget food for it.Then there is the sideburns with the concubines, indulging in the bed all day long.The eunuch Liang Fang saw that Emperor Xianzong was so obsessed with crooked ways, so he recommended a monk named Jixiao to him.Ji Xiao has a lot of research on the art of the house, constantly instructing Xianzong, and made some aphrodisiacs for his use.Xianzong acted according to Jixiao's instructions, and it was very effective, so he left Jixiao in the capital and built Dayongchang Temple in Xishi, which cost hundreds of thousands of taels of silver.From then on, the six ministers and the ministers of science, science and Taoism of Jiuqing hardly saw him. Even the cabinet bachelor was summoned several times a year. At this time, Xianzong was occasionally interested in court affairs, which was the appointment of officials.According to the ancestral system, the emperor's appointment of ministers must be promoted by the court, and the promotion of minor officials must be selected by the Ministry of Officials, and each yamen has a certain number of posts.Regardless of these, Emperor Xianzong let the eunuch pass orders to appoint people as officials at will, regardless of their background and qualifications.Most of the appointees are quack warlocks, monks, Taoist priests, fan monks, actors, and labor officials.These officials are all unqualified personnel, so they are called "Chuanfeng officials", with a total of more than 3,000 people. In the 20th year of Chenghua (AD 1484), in order to free Xianzong from Liang Fang and Jixiao's control, Lin Jun, a member of the Criminal Ministry, wrote a letter full of resentment, demanding that Xianzong take Liang Fang and Jixiao to justice.Xianzong was very angry and ordered Lin Jun to be arrested and imprisoned.Huai En, the eunuch of Li, expressed deep sympathy for Lin Jun, and asked Xianzong to release him.Xianzong was furious, lifted the Duan inkstone on the table, threw it at Huai En vigorously, and then yelled: "How dare you help Lin Jun slander me!" He didn't dare to convict Lin Jun, but just demoted him to use.Lin Jun's courage to speak out about Shangshu greatly encouraged the speech officials in the court, so soon another action of Shangshu was triggered. On New Year's Day in the 21st year of Chenghua (AD 1485), Emperor Xianzong had just finished lunch after receiving congratulations and retired from the court, when suddenly a thunderbolt exploded in the clear sky.After a night of restlessness, Emperor Xianzong asked his ministers about the missing things in the early court.Li Jun immediately made a statement to the Ministry of Officials, counting six aspects of the current malpractice, and his tone was extremely sad.After hearing this, Emperor Xianzong couldn't help being moved, and issued an edict to dismiss Ji Xiao, who had been appointed as a national teacher, as a civilian, and dismissed more than 500 people who had been appointed as officials.Some officials and censors were overjoyed to see that Li Jun's entry was effective, and they also went to Shu.Unexpectedly, Xianzong was able to correct some shortcomings, not out of voluntary. He didn't want to read these memorabilia at all. Come down and look for opportunities to transfer or dismiss them one by one. In the 23rd year of Chenghua, Emperor Xianzong finally broke away from the control of Concubine Wan Gui.This woman died of liver disease after ruling Xianzong for 23 years. After the death of Concubine Wan Gui, Emperor Xianzong thought of her various benefits, especially a relationship when she was young, and shed tears.He ordered that all the funerals should be handled according to the queen's treatment, and he stopped court for seven days, giving Wan Guifei the title of glory. In August of this year, Emperor Xianzong contracted a serious illness and could not afford it. He soon ended his life of mediocrity. He died at the age of 41 and was buried in Maoling at the foot of Tianshou Mountain in Changping County, Beijing. The temple name is Xianzong. Zong.