"Who else could it be?" Mu Chun stepped on the water, staring at the ball of lightning floating in the water without blinking, and said, "It must be your father."
Since becoming a father, Mu Chun has come to understand his father-in-law a little. Admittedly, it was wrong for his father-in-law to ignore his second wife and torture Hu Shanwei in an attempt to force him into marriage. However, his father-in-law was a very responsible father during Hu Shanwei's childhood and adolescence, even better than most fathers in the world.
Especially compared with my own father, my father-in-law is simply an angel.
Although they lived in the same city, for the safety of the Hu family, Hu Shanwei could not show up to recognize him. In the huge city of Kunming, where various ethnic groups lived together, the possibility of meeting each other was almost zero. Hu Shanwei secretly visited his father several times. Hu Rong was in good health in recent years and did not look old. He was accompanied by books all day long and had an elegant temperament and a graceful demeanor. According to the secret report of Qianhu Shi, many matchmakers wanted to find a second wife for Hu Rong, but he politely refused them all.
Hu Rong's hobby was still to go to the teahouse to listen to operas. Whenever the southern opera "Pipa Ji" was performed, he would go. He handed over the bookshop to his son and daughter-in-law, and he had more free time.
Watching Mu Chun and A Lei playing in the water, Mu Chun waved at Hu Shanwei, "Come down and cool down too."
They had been in love for thirteen years and married for three years. Hu Shanwei knew her husband too well. Once he went in, it would be more than just playing in the water. She ignored him and continued to read with her head down.
This is the latest court bulletin, recording what happened in the court, including the death of Emperor Gaozu, his burial with Empress Xiaoci in the Xiaoling Mausoleum, the concubines buried with him, the crown prince's accession to the throne, and the use of the Jianwen era name starting next year.
Before Emperor Gaozu passed away, Cui Shangyi was exiled from the palace and taken to Yangzhou by Cao Shanggong. Chen Xuan had secretly reported this to Mu Chun, and Hu Shanwei felt slightly relieved.
This official report had been read over and over again, and it was already half-worn, but Hu Shanwei still read it without giving up - she was looking for the news that the Crown Princess "died of illness". According to Emperor Gaozu's usual style, since he did not let go of any concubines in the harem, he would certainly not let go of the Crown Princess of the Eastern Palace.
Hu Shanwei speculated that Emperor Hongwu would probably order the death of the Crown Princess, just like he had ordered the death of Concubine Duanjing, and then keep the death a secret. After the matter calmed down, he would report a sudden death to cover up the royal scandal.
But it didn't happen. She saw the news that the Crown Princess was named Holy Mother Empress Dowager, and then there was no follow-up. It seemed that something was wrong...
When Hu Shanwei was lost in thought, Mu Chun came ashore with A Lei in her arms. A Lei had been in the water for too long and was sleepy. She stretched out her two chubby hands to her mother and babbled. Mu Chun wiped her daughter clean, put on a small bellyband, and stuffed her into Hu Shanwei's arms. "She is hungry and tired. You can give her a few sips of milk and she will fall asleep."
Hu Shanwei suddenly woke up from his dream when he felt a heavy ball of lightning in his arms. He loosened his clothes and swallowed it like a tiger.
Mu Chun was directing the meal:
"Lift her head a little higher, be careful not to choke on her milk."
"Too high, your breasts will block her nostrils."
Hu Shanwei was annoyed and said, "Come on, come on, feed it."
Muchun didn't have this function, so she shut up. As expected, A Lei fell asleep while eating. Muchun carried her into the stroller with wheels, covered it with a mosquito net, and pushed her daughter home. Hu Shanwei held a large black cloth umbrella to block the sun for the family of three.
Halfway through the walk, Mu Chun whispered a few words to Hu Shanwei, but was punched a few times by his wife. He then became obedient and pushed the cart with one hand and took the black cloth umbrella from his wife with the other. Along the way, daisies of various colors were in full bloom, and dragonflies and butterflies were flying around. Hu Shanwei caught a butterfly, put it in his gauze bag, and waited to let it out to show his daughter when she woke up.
Kunming is like a rural village where people retreat to the mountains, pick chrysanthemums under the eastern fence, and leisurely see the southern mountains. In the Fengtian Hall in Nanjing, the ministers held a meeting, arguing with each other until their faces turned red, which was very lively.
Today's topic is still to reduce the power of the vassal kings, but in addition to the two regents Huang Zicheng and Fang Xiaoru, the six central ministries also expressed their opinions. Basically, they are divided into two factions, Huang Zicheng's opinion is to start with the Prince of Yan and Fang Xiaoru's opinion is to start with the Prince of Zhou, the Prince of Dai and other weaker vassal kings.
The Minister of War Qi Tai and the Vice Minister of Revenue Guo Ren supported Huang Zicheng's plan to depose the Prince of Yan.
Zhuo Jing, the assistant minister of the Ministry of Revenue, agreed with Fang Xiaoru's opinion and suggested that Emperor Jianwen first relocate the Prince of Yan to Nanchang inland, in order to cut off the Prince of Yan's military strength and influence in the north that he had cultivated for many years, thus removing the source of the problem.
Zhuo Jing's suggestion was quite creative, and even Huang Zicheng and others who had always advocated directly deposing the King of Yan were somewhat hesitant.
Gao Wei, the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, firmly opposed the violent reduction of the power of the vassal states. He believed that the vassal states were now strong in military power and would inevitably rise to war if the power was reduced. Although the imperial court was powerful enough to deal with the vassal kings, civil war would consume national strength and be detrimental to the country.
He also believed that the Han Dynasty's reduction of the feudal system led to the Seven Kingdoms Rebellion, which was almost out of control. He agreed with the Han Dynasty's Jia Yi's method of "if you want peace in the world, it is better to establish many feudal lords and reduce their power." He suggested issuing the "Enfeoffment Order" to enfeoff the sons of the feudal lords in a small area, with the sons of the northern feudal lords being sent to the south and the sons of the southern feudal lords being sent to the north.
This move was also very cruel, because everyone has selfish motives. According to the previous feudal inheritance system, only the crown prince could inherit the feudal state, and the other sons could only take the money and leave, and live a life of wealth and honor.
If the Enfeoffment Order was issued, each of the sons of the school would also have a piece of land. This would disintegrate the power of the vassal kings from within and cause internal fighting among the vassal kings. "Then the power of the vassal kings would be weakened without them doing anything else." Once the vassal states were weakened, the central government could take them down in one fell swoop, and it would be much easier to reduce the power of the vassal kings.
Emperor Jianwen listened to this and that and thought they all made sense... But there are thousands of methods, but if he makes a mistake in implementing the first one, he will shed tears in the future.
what to do
Emperor Jianwen weighed the pros and cons and felt that the Enfeoffment Order was the obvious method to minimize casualties, boil the frog in warm water, and disintegrate the power of the princes from within. However, this would take a long time to be effective. Now that he had just ascended the throne, he needed to firmly grasp power and establish prestige. He needed a drastic reduction of the power of the princes in order to demonstrate his orthodox status.
As for war, Emperor Jianwen did not want to fight, but he was not afraid of it either. Because the imperial court had a million troops, while the Prince of Yan had at most 100,000 troops to support him, a one-on-ten situation. Moreover, he had already succeeded to the throne smoothly, was regarded as orthodox, had the moral support, and won the hearts of the people. It could be said that he had the right time, right place, and right people. How could he be afraid of a mere vassal king
What’s more, Prince Yan’s four children are still held hostage in the capital.
Emperor Jianwen made some calculations in his mind and adopted Fang Xiaoru's suggestion. He first weakened the power of the vassal kings such as the King of Zhou and the King of Dai to make an example of them and make the King of Yan give up and surrender. If the King of Yan refused to obey and rebelled, it would be treason, and the King of Yan would be at a disadvantage both morally and in public opinion.
Emperor Jianwen then decided to adopt this method.
Three years later, Emperor Jianwen regretted it deeply, because among thousands of methods, he chose the most wrong one and underestimated his opponent. Of course, this is all a story for later.
At this time, Emperor Jianwen was full of confidence. This was the first policy of governing the country after the new monarch ascended the throne. The ministers had their own ideas and felt that it was inappropriate, and they all advised against it. However, Emperor Jianwen had an almost obsessive pursuit of monopolizing power because of the fact that Concubine Fan immediately changed sides and denied the existence of the pot of poisoned wine before Emperor Gaozu's body was cold.
He would not allow anyone to compete with him for the imperial power. If he lost the imperial power, he would lose everything. He was determined to hold on to power. The more the ministers advised him, the more offended he felt. The more he wanted to carry out the first important decree since he ascended the throne.
A series of decrees were issued and executed immediately, which allowed Emperor Jianwen to taste the joy of holding power for the first time. It turns out this is what it feels like to be a ruler, doing whatever he wants and being omnipotent.
After finishing the affairs of the court, Emperor Jianwen felt relieved. He had a rare chance to have dinner with his wife and children. The two-year-old prince still needed to be fed by a wet nurse, and Emperor Jianwen fed him a few mouthfuls himself today. He was very happy with his adorable son and his beautiful wife. After coaxing his son to sleep at night, Emperor Jianwen took Empress Ma to watch the moon.
Emperor Jianwen was quite interested and even wrote a poem. Empress Ma was not interested at all and rarely took up a poem to reply. Emperor Jianwen asked, "But did the Empress Dowager of Cining Palace embarrass you again?"
Queen Ma shook her head. "The Queen Mother has never made things difficult for me. She just has high expectations of me and is stricter than ordinary queens. As the saying goes, the deeper the love, the more severe the criticism. I am worried about Concubine Fan, who has been ill for a long time. She submitted her resignation today. I went to see her in person. Liu Siyao said that she was old and weak, and the position of Concubine Shang was busy all day long. Her body really couldn't stand it. If she caught a cold, she would fall ill. Concubine Fan has lost a lot of weight and is almost too weak to wear clothes. I had to agree to let her leave the palace to recuperate. But who will take over the position of Concubine Shang after she leaves? After much thought, there is one person who is the most suitable, but-"
"But why?" Emperor Jianwen was puzzled. "Is there any lady-in-waiting in the palace who doesn't want to be a Shang Gong? This is a rare opportunity."
Empress Ma said, "It's a pity that the person I like has already left the palace."
When Emperor Jianwen heard this, he knew who his wife was talking about: "Are you talking about Hu Shanwei and Hu Shanggong?"
"Yes." Empress Ma nodded. "Mrs. Hu is young. She became a palace maid at the age of 32. Before that, she served as a censor for ten years and a director for two years. I have read the merit book of Mrs. Hu. In her first year in the palace, she was responsible for compiling the "Record of the Admonitions of the Concubines of the Zhao and Song Dynasties". After that, she fulfilled her mission and even went to Guizhou to announce the oral instructions of Empress Xiaoci. She is really a talent. When I first entered the palace and participated in the selection, it was also prepared by Mrs. Hu. Unfortunately, this was the last major event she did, and she left the palace afterwards. Three years have passed, and Mrs. Hu is only 35 years old. She is still very young and energetic. I want to invite her back to share my worries."
Emperor Jianwen was born and raised in the palace. When he was three years old, he witnessed Hu Shanwei using a picture of a child carrying a child to wake up Emperor Hongwu from his rage and let his father, Crown Prince Zhu Biao, go. Emperor Jianwen was very clear about Hu Shanwei's various advantages.
When Empress Ma mentioned it, Emperor Jianwen praised it as a good idea. That's right, looking around the palace, the only one who could suppress the empress dowager was to ask Hu Shanwei to come back. Ordinary female officials were simply not capable of taking on this important task.
Emperor Jianwen said, "My marriage with Zi Tong was also arranged by Concubine Hu. When she left the palace, she said she wanted to go out for a walk and have a look. Now three years have passed, and she must have traveled a lot. Zi Tong has issued an imperial decree, inviting her to return to the palace and continue to be a concubine."
Empress Ma sighed, "It's easier said than done. Concubine Hu's whereabouts are erratic. After leaving the palace, she opened a private account in the Shen family's bank and asked the palace to deposit her salary in her name. She traveled everywhere and could withdraw money to spend wherever there was a Shen family bank. I asked Shen Shangyi to go to her bank to get the records of Concubine Hu's money exchange in the past three years. She has withdrawn money from all over the country, and the most recent one was in Taiyuan. In this vast sea of people, I don't know where Concubine Hu will appear next time."
In order to ensure the loyalty of the female officials and not have to consider a retreat, the female officials' salaries were lifelong. Empress Ma was very smart and knew that the fastest way to find someone was to get money. However, Hu Shanwei was too cunning and sent people to all parts of the country to collect money in order to confuse the public. In fact, he had been in Yunnan all the time.
Emperor Jianwen said: "When Concubine Hu was working in the palace, she would send half of her salary home every year to honor her father. She would also write letters home during festivals. Others may not know her whereabouts, but her father should know."
Empress Ma shook her head and said, "We sent someone to check the Hu family bookstore and found out that it had closed two and a half years ago. The shop and the small farm in the suburbs were sold at a low price. I heard from the neighbors that Hu Rong missed his hometown and returned to Jining. We have sent someone to Jining overnight to look for Hu Rong and his family."
"Two and a half years ago?" Emperor Jianwen murmured, "That was when Mao Xiang was executed by lingchi and the Jinyiwei was disbanded. Was this a coincidence or deliberate?"
It was because the Jinyiwei was disbanded and no one was following the Hu family that Hu Rong and his family were able to escape.
Emperor Gaozu fulfilled his promise to Empress Xiaoci and helped Mu Chun and Hu Shanwei get together, which was a rare good thing. In order to protect the two from being disturbed, even Emperor Jianwen was unaware of this secret, and he thought that she had gone traveling alone.
Empress Ma said coquettishly, "Since you became the emperor, you have become more suspicious. Concubine Hu is a female official and does not participate in political affairs. What does the former Jinyiwei have to do with her? Your Majesty, please help me think of a way to bring Concubine Hu back as soon as possible. I am in urgent need of someone."
What his wife wanted was also what Emperor Jianwen wanted to solve urgently. Only Hu Shanwei could calm his mother down. Emperor Jianwen said
He said, "I will send more people to Jining to look for her. Don't worry, Zi Tong. We will be able to invite Concubine Hu back within a month."
Five days later, Concubine Fan left the palace. She was carried into the carriage because she was too weak to walk.
Part of Fan Shang Gong's illness is a psychological problem. After all, she is the only one who knows that Emperor Hongwu had issued an oral decree to execute Empress Dowager Lu before his death. Now that Empress Dowager Lu is alive and well, Fan Shang Gong can't help but worry that Empress Dowager Lu will wipe out the whole family and kill people to silence them.
After all, Empress Dowager Lu was vicious and cruel, and she had a criminal record. Although Emperor Jianwen repeatedly told Empress Dowager Lu not to touch Consort Fan, Consort Fan had been in the palace for half her life and knew that she could not pin her hopes on the kindness of her superiors - especially someone as vicious as Empress Dowager Lu. If she knew that she knew this shocking secret, she would definitely try to trip her up and kill her.
Concubine Fan knew that if Empress Dowager Lu killed her, Emperor Jianwen would at most be furious, but would not do anything to her. After all, she was his biological mother. For the sake of the royal family's reputation, Emperor Jianwen would have to help cover up the scandal of Empress Dowager Lu killing her.
Lady Fan really wanted to work in the palace until she was old and enjoy her retirement at the same time, but enjoying retirement and losing one's life are two different things, although both end in death.
Therefore, Lady Fan was filled with a sense of crisis. She caught a cold on purpose at night, secretly poured out the medicine prescribed by Liu Siyan, lost her appetite, and went hungry on purpose. In just two months, she saw considerable results. When she looked in the mirror, she looked like a patient with half of her body lying in a coffin.
It is very risky for Lady Fan to escape by self-destruction at her age, but she cannot care less. She must act faster than Empress Dowager Lu. Fortunately, Empress Ma is someone who can handle things, and Empress Dowager Lu cannot reach here, so she can save her life for the time being.
Empress Ma condescended to visit her and saw that she was so thin that she was indeed unable to serve, so she immediately agreed to let her leave the palace to recuperate.
Concubine Fan thought to herself: The second Empress Ma of the Ming Dynasty is also a kind person, and she has inherited the legacy of Empress Xiaoci. Hu Shanwei had a good vision at the beginning. If I had assisted her in the palace to secure her position as the empress, it would have been an achievement. Unfortunately, I offended the Empress Dowager Lu, a person who will never let go of any grudge. I'd better follow Concubine Cao's example and run away quickly.
As soon as the carriage drove out of the palace, Lady Fan was able to sit up. She had only two pieces of fermented bean curd as a side dish and drank a clay pot of porridge. She looked nothing like the weak and feeble woman she had just been, who could not eat a single grain of rice!
In order to leave the palace, Lady Fan took risks and almost starved herself to death.
Concubine Fan boarded a passenger ship bound for Yangzhou to reunite with Concubine Cao and Concubine Cui. They agreed to grow old together and see who lives longer.
In order to save time, the ship sailed overnight. In the middle of the night, Lady Fan was awakened by a loud noise. Someone shouted, "The ship is leaking! Hurry up and get on the boat and run!"
Lady Fan got up quickly, picked up her small bag and ran out of the cabin, but she couldn't open the door because her door had been locked for some time.
The cabin was locked from the outside, and the guests outside were concentrating on seizing the boat and escaping. No one noticed something wrong with Fan Shanggong's door. The river water flowed in through the gap in the door little by little, and Fan Shanggong stopped knocking on the door and calling for help.
In the end, there is no escape.
Lady Fan retreated to her dressing table, changed into a court lady's dress, and began to put on makeup. When the river water reached her waist, she applied bright red lipstick and completed her makeup.
She came from a prominent family and had always paid attention to her appearance throughout her life. She didn't want to die in such a miserable way.
Cho Sang-Gong, Choi Sang-Yi, I'm sorry, I have to break my promise with you.
The author has something to say: Today is Qingming Festival, I wish you a happy journey, Lady Fan.