Chapter 8 Chapter 8 Heart Knot

With Zhang Juzheng's former supervisor, more than half of the ministers in the court have already deeply realized the power of "Tianwei", and began to study hard to be an official with "good physique and emperor's heart" to adapt to the living environment In the middle of the fierce power struggle; the remaining half adopted the "hometown wish" attitude of being wise and safe to maintain their fame and fortune. Although the few people under his command are loyal, insightful, and have backbone, they suffer from low positions and can't play a big role. In this way, Emperor Wanli began to taste the "being emperor" of being completely arbitrary and no one persuaded him. "The taste of...

Therefore, when he mentioned to his courtiers that he would continue the plan to build the mausoleum proposed by Zhang Siwei, Shen Shixing, the first minister, began to express his strong approval, and there was no voice of opposition from the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty. In the palace, the Empress Dowager Cisheng also nodded her approval for this matter - the construction of the mausoleum is a serious matter, and most of the mausoleums of the emperors of the past were built before they were alive. It is inconvenient for her to express objection to such a serious matter; During the ten years when Zhang Juzheng was prime minister, this dynasty has reached the level of prosperity and power, the people are happy, the treasury is full, and the country has enough financial resources to pre-build a palace for Emperor Wanli to live in after his death. Only twenty-three years old.

However, Emperor Wanli and Concubine Zheng De were really excited and excited that the plan to build the mausoleum would soon be realized. Going to the field to detect and calculate—everything, every detail, Emperor Wanli handled it personally with great interest—just in terms of attitude, it is completely different from his carelessness and yawning when he was in charge of state affairs. Farewell! Because of the mausoleums of the emperors in this dynasty, apart from Taizu who established his capital in Nanjing at that time, Xiaoling Mausoleum was located in Nanjing. Except for the mausoleum, the rest of the mausoleums of the emperors are located in Changping County, not far from Beijing; from the Changling Mausoleum of Cheng Zu, each mausoleum is luxuriously and exquisitely built, majestic and magnificent, and a large number of people are buried in the mausoleum. Rare treasures - looking through the materials of the emperor's mausoleum in previous dynasties, Emperor Wanli's fingers trembled slightly with excitement; in order to be with his ancestors, his mausoleum had no choice but to be located in Changping, but, except Everything except the location can be built exactly as he wants!

He thought about the regret that he just wanted to build a stage in this palace where he lived before, but he couldn't realize it, and now he can get compensation immediately—whether he wants to change this royal building that has been passed down from generation to generation It's impossible, but, to build a brand new mausoleum, all the planning can be done as you like: "That's my 'underground palace', everything is up to me!" He was psychologically repressed when he was a child, which made him pay special attention to "being sovereign" now. Once he can get it, he will be more excited and happy; so, every day, he happily discusses with Concubine Zheng Defei about the "underground palace" where he will live after death. The style, shape, decoration, and objects to be buried with him; on the one hand, he announced that the painter would come into the palace to draw the specific shape of the ideal mausoleum for him, and he would repeat it every few days because he had new ideas. Added additions and revisions...

In this way, the sketch of the mausoleum has been drawn for a long time and has not yet been finalized, and the next step of the work has been postponed all the way. However, Emperor Wanli's imagination and desire for creation have been greatly satisfied in this process, and his mood It was surprisingly good, and he didn't care about repeatedly modifying the sketches and delaying the progress; he just felt happy in his heart, and now the shortcomings in the past began to be filled one by one. During the entire process of building the mausoleum, the only thing that troubled him was Concubine Zheng De—the heart of a woman, the needle in the sea, even though he was the most expensive emperor in the world, he couldn't figure it out; Concubine Zheng De, who thought about this and helped him think of a lot of ideas, lost interest in building the mausoleum within a few days.

She was no longer excited, enthusiastic, and lazy, listless, and reacted indifferently as if she couldn't even speak; when she forced her to come to her side, she also furrowed her brows lightly and remained silent. Rushui's eyes were obviously filled with loneliness, even tears; she refused to say anything when asked her, and her diet was reduced; she was getting thinner and thinner day by day. Emperor Wanli looked at her, of course he was very distressed, but he couldn't guess why she was unhappy, so he couldn't prescribe the right medicine, and he could only feel anxious.

On the third day, he came up with an idea in a hurry: he called Zhang Cheng, who had always been the most considerate, to his side, dismissed the other eunuchs and maids, and questioned him carefully. "From your point of view, what has Madam Zheng been unhappy about these past few days?" Zhang Cheng was more or less "a bystander". He tilted his head, thought for a while, and said to Emperor Wanli: "In my servant's opinion, Madam Zheng may feel a little sour because Madam Zhang gave birth to the second son of the emperor... ..." "Oh—for this!" Emperor Wanli smiled with relief: "It's a trivial matter! There are so many concubines in the harem, who wants to have a child, how can I stop it? You can choose for me. Give her something, and say something nice to her—what is other people’s children? She is what I care most about; besides, as long as she lives up to her expectations, is she afraid that she will have fewer children than others?”

After hearing a few words, Zhang Cheng squinted his eyes and couldn't stop laughing. He kowtowed and said, "Your maidservant complies with the order", and then withdrew and went out to be a lobbyist. Who would have known that it took him a long time to come back, and when he returned to Emperor Wanli, his face was full of mystery. So, Emperor Wanli once again walked away from the left and right, and talked to him alone. "Damn this servant, I failed to complete what Long Live God ordered..." After Zhang Cheng knelt down on the ground with a "boom", he preemptively admitted his mistake, and kept kowtow while talking: "Madam Zheng refuses to be rewarded, The jewels brought by the servants were all brought back intact! Moreover—the servants should be damned, the servants guessed wrongly what Zheng Niangniang was thinking, Zheng Niangniang said that the second son of the emperor was born well, and she looked at the white and fat little girl. Baby, I like it very much..."

Hearing what he said, Emperor Wanli involuntarily sighed: "Oh—then why is she unhappy?" "Slave——slave, I have found some clues..." Zhang Cheng knelt down on the ground, but raised his head, secretly observing Emperor Wanli's reaction. Emperor Wanli said in a voice full of emotion: "Quickly say..." Zhang Cheng lowered his head and lowered his eyes and said: "My servant waited on Mrs. Zheng to speak, knelt for a long time, but Mrs. Zheng refused to say anything at first, so my servant had to tell her desperately how much Long Live God loves her. Seeing that she had lost weight, she was so anxious that she even slowed down the construction of the mausoleum, and said that Long Live God put her first in his heart, and he would not be happy if he didn't see her for a long time; It caused Zheng Niangniang to say a word..."

"What was she talking about?" "Zheng Niangniang said..." Zhang Cheng watched Emperor Wanli's expression and reaction again, and answered cautiously: "After brewing a hundred flowers into honey, who will work hard for whom..." "what……" When Zhang Cheng said this, Emperor Wanli immediately understood Concubine Zheng De's worries and the reasons for her unhappiness, which also put him in a dilemma, and he immediately became irritable. It turns out that according to the system of this dynasty, there can only be one empress who is buried with the emperor in the imperial mausoleum. Those who are named "concubine", even if they are named the highest-ranking imperial concubine, even if they were in the imperial harem during their lifetime, they will be the queen after death. It can only be buried in the imperial concubine's garden, and cannot enter the emperor's mausoleum to be buried with the emperor; what Concubine Zheng De said to Zhang Cheng, of course, refers to this issue. It was someone else who accompanied Emperor Wanli to the funeral, so she had to be buried alone in the concubine's garden alone?

"Unless she becomes the queen..." Emperor Wanli murmured unconsciously as he thought about it, but what followed was a long sigh: "I can't make up my mind about this matter." It's..." The empress has already been established, and it is as difficult as going up to the blue sky to replace Concubine Zheng De as the empress—although there have been precedents in this dynasty that abolished the established empress and established a new empress, but the empress must have acted immorally It can be said to be abolished; the current king and queen are honest and dignified, and they are even more favored by the Empress Dowager. If the empress is to be abolished, firstly, there is no reason; Cause an uproar that is not easy to settle! What's more, even if the queen is abolished and a new one is established, Concubine Zheng De is not qualified to be the new queen. She has not yet given birth and cannot "mother is more valuable than a child"; Concubine Wang Gong who has never given love and affection... Repeatedly thinking about these annoying things, Emperor Wanli became annoyed one by one; although it was just a "little housework", it annoyed him so much that he couldn't think of a solution, which made him distressed Unbearable, he only got temporary anesthesia and escape after ordering someone to bring wine, getting drunk himself, and sleeping for a day and a night.

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