History can't bear to look at the complete collection

Chapter 41 Death of the Emperor 6
Three Unsolved Cases in the Harem of the Late Ming Dynasty
The "Three Ming Palace Cases" remain unsolved and have become suspicious cases in history. The so-called "Ming Palace Three Cases" are the "Pillar Attack Case", "Hong Pill Case" and "Yi Gong Case".

The "梃" in the "梃打 Case" is a wooden stick, and "梃打" means beating someone with a wooden stick. The reason why this case became a mystery in the late Ming Dynasty and was recorded in the annals of history is because the person who beat was not an ordinary person, but It is the Crown Prince, who is the eldest son of Emperor Wanli, Zhu Changluo, one of the next successors to the throne.

Zhu Changluo's mother was a famous court lady, and Emperor Wanli didn't like her, so Zhu Changluo couldn't be loved by Wanli either. Although he was older than Zhu Changxun, he should have been made a prince, but because Zhu Changxun was born to the concubine Zheng Guifei who was loved by Emperor Wanli Later, Wanli wanted to make Zhu Changxun the prince, but he was afraid of violating the ancestral system and was opposed by courtiers.Emperor Wanli was delayed for 19 years and did not establish a prince.

Under the pressure of the officials, Zhu Changluo was not established as the prince until he was 29 years old in the 1601th year of Wanli (19), but he was still in the shadows, fearing that he would be dismissed by Wanli.Zhu Changluo, who lived tremblingly in this way, experienced a "stiletto attack" on the fourth day of May in the 43rd year of Wanli (1615). This year, the prince Zhu Changluo was 33 years old.

That evening, Zhang Cha, a man from Jizhou, with a jujube stick in his hand, went straight from Donghua Gate to the inner court, wounded the eunuch guarding the gate, broke into the prince's bedroom, and was not arrested until the front hall.Later, Wanli ordered someone to try the case, but Zhang Chai confessed that it was Pang Bao and Liu Cheng, the eunuchs under Concubine Zheng, who ordered him to beat the prince.

The case immediately involved Concubine Zheng. In order to protect herself, Concubine Zheng found the crown prince Zhu Changluo, cried loudly, and begged the prince for forgiveness.Seeing that Concubine Zheng was his father's favorite concubine, Zhu Changluo didn't dare to get into the details, but he executed Zhang Chai, and the two eunuchs Pang Bao and Liu Cheng were secretly beaten to death in the inner court, so let's settle the matter hastily.Although the case has been solved, it seems to be the emperor's family matter, but it is actually a state matter, reflecting the political struggle at that time. No one can say where the person who attacked the prince came from, and whether it is really the person sent by Zheng Guifei. clear.

This matter has always been full of doubts, but waves of unrest have arisen again. After the "stiletto attack case", the "Hongwan case" occurred again.On July 48, the 1620th year of Wanli (21), Emperor Wanli died of illness.Prince Zhu Changluo finally succeeded to the throne. He changed the name of the country to Taichang, reduced taxes, amnesty the world, and reissued funds for the army. All of a sudden, the ruling and opposition parties were moved.

I thought that the new emperor would make great achievements, but I didn't expect Zhu Changluo to fall ill after only ten days since he ascended the throne.Zhu Changluo was seriously ill, and the imperial doctor diagnosed him many times, but there was no improvement.It is said that what Zhu Changluo suffered from was acute gastroenteritis, and he had diarrhea dozens of times a day. Later, Li Kezhuo, the minister of the Honglu Temple, claimed to have an elixir, and Zhu Changluo sent someone to call him to the palace.

After making a diagnosis, Li Kezhuo gave Zhu Changluo a red pill. This pill is said to be a panacea that can cure all diseases, Li Kezhuo's favorite.These words sounded a little false, but Zhu Changluo, who had taken the red pill, had indeed improved.So, in order to consolidate, in the afternoon, he took another red pill, but he died the next day.Zhu Changluo, who succeeded to the throne for a month, died inexplicably because he took two pills.

Zhu Changluo's sudden death aroused a lot of discussion between the ruling and opposition parties. Some people said that he died from eating red pills, some said that he died from overwork, and some said that he died from excessive indulgence. In short, they quarreled and quarreled for eight years, and became a The second largest harem mystery in the Ming Dynasty.

After the death of Emperor Taichang, the "moving palace case" occurred again before his bones were cold.After Zhu Changluo's death, the eldest son Zhu Youxiao succeeded to the throne when he was 16 years old.The so-called "moving the palace" means moving from one palace to another palace, which is divided into two stages, "avoiding the palace" and "moving the palace".

"Hiding the palace" is a battle between Zhu Youxiao and Xi Li for the residence in order to regain the imperial power. Zhu Changluo has two servants, "Dong Li" and "Xi Li", and Zhu Youxiao entrusts Xi Li to take care of him. In order to control Zhu Youxiao, he was required to live with him in the same palace.But Zhu Youxiao disagreed, and that's why the later theories of "avoiding the palace" and "moving the palace" came into being.

The "Three Cases of the Ming Palace" - the Stiletto Case, the Hongwan Case, and the Yigong Case involved the three generations of emperors Wanli, Taichang, and Tianqi. They were court disputes caused by court struggles. It became a matter of party struggle, causing the entire Ming court to be in a mess, and it walked into the depths of the grave step by step.

(End of this chapter)