little emperor of Ming Dynasty

Chapter 1 Initial
In the tenth year of Wanli, there was a loud cry from the temporary delivery room in the Palace of Compassion, and the midwife mother-in-law smiled and took out a swaddling baby, and saluted Aunt Zhuxi who was waiting outside the door, "It's a little prince!" !"

Zhu Xi reached out to take it, and carefully looked at the wrinkled baby, with an inexplicable and strange expression on his face.

In the Compassionate Ning Palace, dim light shone down through the window lattice, looking gloomy and weird.

Zhu Xi stood aside, and Empress Dowager Li quietly looked at the two almost identical babies on the couch, before she spoke for a long time: "Is she okay? Is the emperor okay?"

Zhu Xi replied respectfully with his hands lowered, "Reporting to the Queen Mother, she...is in good health. The Emperor has been with Zhang Shoufu these few days, and has never had time to visit her."

"Very good, it's time to end it. We can't delay any longer, otherwise there will be changes." Empress Dowager Li's face flashed a stern look, "These things should not be spread, spread the words of Ai's family, and let Jin Yiwei envoy Liu Let Shouyou deal with all those people."

Zhu Xi trembled involuntarily, his face turned pale, and he replied in a low voice: "Yes."

The current lord of the country is Emperor Wanli, the No. 13 monarch of the Ming Dynasty.After the ups and downs of the previous twelve dynasties, it can be said that it was a mess when Wanli took over, and now there are more internal and external troubles.In the current Daming country, there are refugees making chaos inside, and a group of barbarian wolves waiting outside, and the Jinxiu country is already in a precarious state.

Although the outside world is chaotic, it does not prevent another world in this imperial city.Today, the inner courtyard of the palace is decorated with lanterns and festoons everywhere, and drums and music are playing loudly.

There are countless palaces and pavilions in the inner courtyard of the imperial palace, but there are only a few that are truly exquisite.In addition to the Qianqing Palace where the emperor lived, and the Kunning Palace where the empress lived, there are still six east and west palaces.

Only the concubine who is the lord of the first house is eligible to live in the East and West Six Houses.

Today is the Chuxiu Palace, the head of the West Six Palaces, hosting the wedding.

Concubine Zheng, the master of Chuxiu Palace, is not an ordinary concubine. She entered the palace in the early years of Wanli and was named Shu concubine at first, and concubine De in the later Jin Dynasty.

A few years later, she gave birth to a daughter and was promoted to imperial concubine.

Now it is even more remarkable. The third son of the emperor was born a month ago, and the emperor was very happy. Today, the imperial concubine has another emperor character on her head, that is, the precious and precious imperial concubine!
There was a strict limit on the number of concubines in the palace of the Ming Dynasty, and even the emperor could not just break the system and add rewards randomly.In addition to the empress of the main palace, there are only one imperial concubine, two imperial concubines, and four concubines who are virtuous, good, virtuous, and virtuous.

The imperial concubine's status in the palace is extremely honorable, the same position as the deputy empress, and only a small difference in honor than the empress of the main palace.Those who do not have great merits and virtues shall not be sealed.In the thirteen dynasties from the founding of the Ming Dynasty to the present, there were only one or two people who received the honor of adding an imperial concubine.

It was really not easy for this imperial concubine to come, and it caused unanimous opposition from all the officials in the previous court. However, Wanli insisted on going his own way and dismissed many officials from office. After the world was turned upside down, the emperor finally got his wish.

And the queen mother, who has always been strong, turned a blind eye to Wanli's almost perverse actions, which inevitably made the former court and the harem have different ideas.

The fruits of victory are hard-won, so it is natural to have a big celebration, so today's Chuxiu Palace is brightly lit, full of singing and dancing.

It is not surprising that there is so much hustle and bustle in front of you, it turned out that the Long Live Lord personally went to Chuxiu Palace to congratulate and congratulate his concubine.As a result, the ladies and eunuchs of Chuxiu Palace were all beaming, offering all kinds of delicacies like flowing water.

The crescent moon shines on Jiuzhou, some families are happy and some are sad.They are both members of the inner courtyard of the deep palace, and their moods and treatment are completely different.

Gently put down the scroll in his hand, and listened to the sound of silk and bamboo coming from the west, the king and queen in Kunning Palace frowned slightly.The maid Huichun, who was serving at the side, observed the words and expressions, and knew that the empress was in a bad mood, so she hurriedly stepped forward and said in a low voice: "The voice came from Chuxiu Palace, today is a good day for that seal, it is inevitable... lively more"

"Concubine Zheng, Concubine Zheng..." Concubine Zheng's complacent face appeared in front of her eyes when she came to the palace to hear the lesson today, and Queen Wang's heart was filled with anger. Deep into the palm.

"Your Majesty, be careful, your hand hurts!" Hui Chun who was waiting carefully at the side turned pale with shock.

She took a few steps to break off Queen Wang's hand, but she was horrified to find that the usually weak queen didn't know where the strength came from. No matter how hard she tried, the hand was tightly held like cast iron, with long nails He stabbed fiercely into the palm, and let the blood drip, but he didn't know what the pain was like.

The empress's abnormal performance frightened Huichun half to death, and he quickly knelt on the ground and kowtowed: "Your Majesty, calm down, it's important to take care of your phoenix's body. Even if Concubine Zheng is promoted to Imperial Concubine, she will not be able to become a queen! There can only be one in this palace." Mother of the country, that is you... listen to the persuasion of the servant girl, you have endured it for so many years, why bother to make life difficult for yourself. "

Empress Wang's face turned red, her body was shaking like chaff.

What Huichun didn't know was that at this moment, Queen Wang could barely wake up from her nearly collapsed sanity by relying on the sharp pain from her nails piercing into her palm, and finally...the tightly clenched hands loosened.

Echun breathed a sigh of relief, stepped forward a few steps, and stretched out the hands of Queen Wang, only to see that the white palm was covered with blood windingly, which looked extraordinarily coquettish and terrifying under the dim yellow light.

Ignoring the time to speak, she first wrapped her handkerchief around the Queen's hand, seeing the blood soaking the white silk handkerchief, Huichun burst into tears.

The empress's mother is in the world, if the news about her own body is spread, others will pay it back, if Zheng Guifei finds out, there will be a lot of trouble, and now it has passed the third watch, and the palace gate has been closed early, so I want to find out When the imperial physician came to make a diagnosis and treatment, he was bound to leave a file and record it, which would eventually cause future troubles to alarm people.

Huichun said in a low voice: "Your Majesty, hold on, we still have wound medicine in the palace, so I have to wrong you first."

At this moment, Queen Wang has woken up from the inexplicable resentment before, and has regained her usual calm and wisdom.

Seeing Huichun frantically opening the box to find the medicine for the wound, and then rushing forward to apply the medicine to herself, she couldn't help but wrinkled her eyebrows and sighed wryly: "Silly girl, you did the right thing, why panic... This long night in the palace is lonely and lonely, this little pain is nothing."

"Empress Wan'an, no matter how favored the Chuxiu Palace is, I can't get over your threshold. Say Potian, this noble concubine is a noble concubine after all, and the queen is a queen after all!"

"A queen is a queen after all?"

Queen Wang snorted and laughed, "You silly girl, things in the world are so simple! It's only been a few years since she has changed from a concubine to a noble concubine, and now she is an imperial concubine again. If this continues, I'm afraid that Kun Ning I don’t know about the changing of the master of the palace. Today’s matter should not be publicized, if the slightest bit of it reaches that person’s ears, there will be another dispute.”

"Your Majesty, don't worry, the servant will wake up."

Seeing Queen Wang's tired face, Huichun put down the curtain considerately, and stepped back cautiously.

Queen Wang, who closed her eyes, let out a long sigh, her head resting on the embroidered pillow, but she didn't feel sleepy at all.

It is said that the queen is a queen after all, but I have nothing to do with my knees, but the Zheng family has a son and a daughter, in comparison, God treats him too thinly!

In front of him, the Empress Dowager is protecting her. Although the Emperor only favors the Zheng family, he always has a little affection for him.Coupled with the fact that I am careful every day, not daring to make the slightest mistake, and being so cautious, I have been able to survive so far without any danger.

But in the harem, firstly, there is no emperor's favor, and secondly, there are no children around. Even if she is a queen, it may not last long. Thinking of the future, the queen shudders.

At some point, cold sweat broke out all over his body. Everyone said that the abandoned concubine had a miserable end, but who knew that the tragedy of the abandoned concubine was thousands of times worse than that of the abandoned concubine.

The Queen Wang couldn't lie down in the dark, she rolled over and sat up.

"Hui Chun, follow me to Yonghe Palace tomorrow!"

Huichun, who was serving outside the tent, was a little dizzy by the sudden order from the empress, and subconsciously let out a sigh.

The Yonghe Palace is at the end of the East Six Palaces, and it is the residence of Concubine Gong.

It's also interesting to say that Concubine Gong was originally a low-ranking maid in the Chuxiu Palace. I don't know if it was her luck or her misfortune. On that day, Emperor Wanli fell in love with him. After a few casual answers, It's lucky once the brain is hot.

But an unfortunate thing happened, the palace lady became pregnant... What was even more unfortunate was that a big white and fat son was born ten months later.

This is the emperor's first son since he came to the throne as an adult, that is to say, the eldest son of the emperor.After the incident, the emperor's performance was extremely unexpected, and he firmly refused to admit it. However, under the auspices of the empress dowager, he had no choice but to confer the title of concubine Gong to the palace lady who got on the bus first and then paid for the ticket, and was included in the Yonghe Palace in the East Sixth Palace.

During the process of Concubine Gong becoming a concubine, perhaps the emperor suffered from too much idleness. The queen mother was pressing her, the concubine Zheng was making a fuss, and all the officials were booing in the middle. He and the imperial concubine could not be offended by the emperor, so this resentment was spread on Concubine Gong and the eldest son Zhu Changluo.

As the saying goes, a wife is someone else's good, and a child is one's own strength.

But these words have become a curse in Yonghe Palace. Except that Wanli has never turned over the signboard of Yonghe Palace for several years in a row, he is even indifferent to his first son, Zhu Changluo, the eldest son of Emperor Ming.

Concubine Zheng deeply hated Concubine Gong, as a member of her own palace, for daring to climb the dragon bed behind her back. The most abominable thing was that she gave birth to the eldest son of the emperor on her own head. Being harsh, the cost of living in the Yonghe Palace is not as good as that of the palace maids with a little dignity.

Even so, Concubine Zheng would call Concubine Gong into the Chuxiu Palace in the name of listening to instructions from time to time, or beat or scold her, to express the resentment in her heart.

After a long time, the Yonghe Palace has become a joke in the inner courtyard of the palace.Some unsatisfactory concubines in the palace always use the Yonghe Palace to encourage them, and they only need to look at the Yonghe Palace to understand that they are not the most unlucky one.

The Yonghe Palace was full of gloomy clouds and mist, and a gust of wind blew the dilapidated curtains in the empty palace, making it even more desolate.

A dim yellow oil lamp was emitting pungent oily smoke. On the big bed at the south corner of the hall, Concubine Gong was holding her son Zhu Changluo's hand, tears falling like broken pearls.

On the bed, wrapped in the old yellow silk quilt, was a small child, Zhu Changluo, the eldest son of Emperor Wanli.

This year is the 14th year of Wanli, Zhu Changluo is just five years old, his face is flushed, and he is dying.

The incident happened a few days ago, the well-behaved nanny somehow went crazy and took the eldest son of the emperor to the Thousand Carp Pond in the imperial garden to watch the fish and play.It doesn't matter to watch the fish, what matters is that two people, one big and one small, fell into the water bizarrely, and the nanny screamed for their lives. Although the little prince was rescued, he was startled, frightened and choked up, and fell into a coma with a high fever.

I have been ill for several days, but no imperial doctor came to see him. Zhu Changluo is always of the royal blood. With the Queen's intervention, an imperial doctor finally came to see him these days. Plaster barren medicine stone invalid.

The imperial physician was at a loss and had no choice but to take a few random doses of medicine with the little prince, and chatted about everything.

The palace people who knew the inside story all sighed secretly, unlucky people are unlucky people, since they were not blessed to be born in the royal family, it would be a relief to leave early.

(End of this chapter)