Upon learning that Xu Huizu was beheaded by Emperor Jianwen, the Prince of Yan was so overjoyed that he could not even describe his feelings at the moment. Xu Huizu was his brother-in-law. For the sake of the Princess of Yan, the Prince of Yan could not fight with him. But if he did not fight with him, he would be killed. Now, Emperor Jianwen helped him solve the dilemma.
God is helping me. The morale of the Yan army was greatly boosted, and they sent troops to cut off the food and grass of the Southern Army. The Southern Army was trapped in Lingbi and lost its supplies. They decided to break out of the city by relying on their numerical advantage.
The Jinyiwei spies found out that the signal for the Southern Army to break out was three cannon shots. The Prince of Yan was cunning and ordered the Yan Army to attack with three cannon shots.
The Southern Army had not yet made preparations for a breakout, but suddenly heard three cannon shots. Thinking it was a signal to break out, they rushed to open the city gates and tried to break out, only to run into the attacking Yan Army.
The Southern Army was caught off guard and was defeated. The main force was routed. Thirty-five generals including Ping An were captured, 150 court officials were captured alive, more than 20,000 war horses were seized, and the number of Southern Army soldiers who surrendered exceeded the total number of Yan troops who had penetrated deep into the heart of the Central Plains at that time...
In the Battle of Lingbi, the Southern Army was doomed, and the Yan Army's offensive was unstoppable. They surrendered without encountering any strong resistance. The people of the Ming Dynasty were tired of the incompetent Emperor Jianwen, and voted silently with their hands, just wanting to quickly end this civil war that lasted for more than three years.
It is better to be a dog in peacetime than a man in troubled times. Ordinary people just want to live a stable life. Anyway, whoever becomes the emperor is a member of the Zhu family, so it doesn’t matter.
On the seventh day of the fifth year of the fourth year of Jianwen, the Yan army arrived in Fengyang, where the ancestral tomb of the old Zhu family was located. Prince Zhu Di of Yan paid homage to the ancestral tomb and repeatedly stated that he sent troops south to respond to the rules of Emperor Gaozu's "Huang Mausoleum Ancestor Instructions" and to "eliminate treacherous ministers" and "clear the emperor's side." Afterwards, he gave cattle, sheep, wine, meat and other things to the local tomb keepers and the elderly.
In addition to fighting wars, the Prince of Yan has been accumulating political capital for his future ascension to the throne.
Capital city.
The news of the Fengtian Hall, the grand court meeting, and the Prince of Yan's visit to the ancestral tomb has reached the capital. Wherever the Yan army goes, the saying is almost "our door is always open, and we welcome you with open arms."
This situation made Emperor Jianwen very confused: I clearly reduced the land tax in Jiangnan, and everyone said it was a good thing. If the people in the north had complaints, I could understand it, but why did even the people in Jiangnan abandon me
On the contrary, when in the north, the Southern Army was able to win several battles. Why was it that when they arrived in the south of the Yangtze River, only Xu Huizu won while the others all lost
Once the Prince of Yan arrives, he will definitely restore the ancestral system and impose heavy taxes on Jiangnan again. Why do the people of Jiangnan still open the city gates to welcome the Prince of Yan
Emperor Jianwen found that he could not understand this crazy world at all. No matter what he did, the results of the world were contrary to what he expected.
Is the world crazy, or am I crazy
Emperor Jianwen was on the verge of despair and said, "Left Commander Li Shen."
Finally here. Li Shen sighed inwardly and said, "I will be here."
In addition to being a second-rank military officer of the Ming Dynasty, he also had another identity—the relative of the Prince of Yan. His son Li Rang married the second daughter of the Prince of Yan, Princess Yongping. This was a marriage arranged by Emperor Gaozu. The son and daughter-in-law were originally in the capital, but the Prince of Yan pretended to be sick and tricked the four children and their families to the capital. As a son-in-law, Li Rang also followed his wife to "see his father-in-law off for the last time."
As a result, Li Rang was like a meat bun hitting a dog, and he never came back. He was brainwashed by the King of Yan and actually joined his father-in-law in a rebellion. He made many great contributions and became a capable general of the King of Yan.
Emperor Jianwen said: "Write a letter of persuasion to your son Li Rang. If Li Rang brings back the head of Prince Yan, I will pardon his crime of treason and will not implicate his family."
Li Shen had no choice but to write a letter home and hand it to Li Rang.
When Li Rang received the letter from home, he burst into tears and rejected his father.
Emperor Jianwen was furious and killed Li Shen's entire family, executed his three clans, killed all adult men, and exiled or made official slaves of underage men and women.
Emperor Jianwen took such drastic measures against Prince of Yan's relatives. Princess Huaiqing and Ji Gang quickly sped up the digging of the tunnel to rescue Prince of Zhou and his family.
Finally, three days after Li Shen was beheaded, the escape passage was opened.
Jinyiwei's secret agents, together with Princess Huaiqing's confidants, set out from Concubine Chengmu's tomb, successfully rescued the Zhou family, blew up the tunnel, and disappeared into the night...
Emperor Jianwen was awakened from his sleep and was shocked to hear that the Yan thieves had broken into the important Xiaoling Mausoleum and rescued the last talisman, the Zhou Wang family. Emperor Jianwen was furious:
"The important land of Xiaoling Mausoleum has turned into a vegetable garden. People can come and go as they please. How did they know that the Yan thieves entered from the mausoleum of Concubine Chengmu? It must be the work of Princess Huaiqing!"
In a rage, the Jianwen Emperor threw the cup of tea that the maid brought to refresh him. "The eldest princess Huaiqing must have been having an affair with Yan a long time ago. She has been close to the prince of Zhou since she was a child. The prince of Zhou was raised by the noble concubine Duan Jing. In order to save the prince of Zhou, she actually dug a hole in her mother's tomb and blew it up, ruining the feng shui of the Xiaoling Mausoleum! How can I tolerate such an unfaithful and unfilial person? Come, arrest the eldest princess Huaiqing immediately and imprison her in the Zongrenfu Prison!"
The imperial guards surrounded the residence of Princess Huaiqing overnight. At first, the princess refused to open the door and shouted, "I am the daughter of Emperor Gaozu! Emperor Jianwen is my nephew. You want to arrest a princess of the Ming Dynasty without any evidence. Where is justice? Now the Yan thieves have not been eliminated, but their own people have killed their own people! You are so arrogant, what is the point of bullying a woman like me? If you have the guts, go and fight the Yan thieves!"
Princess Huaiqing cursed loudly, and the imperial guards did not dare to break the door for fear of hurting the princess by mistake. However, the emperor's orders were as heavy as a mountain. If they failed to capture Princess Huaiqing by daybreak, how would they report back
Just when the stalemate was happening, the door of the princess's mansion opened, and a man walked out slowly in the morning light. He was calm and composed, as if he had expected this. The sun was rising, and the first ray of sunlight in the morning shone on his body, as if there were countless halos above his head.
He is a good-looking man. Even without the halo on his head, people can't take their eyes off him. Time is a butcher's knife for some people, but for him, it is a carving knife. Time has carved his face, his vision is far-sighted, and his temperament is extraordinary.
He is the consort of Princess Huaiqing, the Earl of Yongchun, Wang Ning. As his title suggests, Yongchun is always young.
Yongchun Earl Wang Ning raised his hands and said, "I was in contact with Yan and rescued King Zhou's family. It has nothing to do with the princess. You can take me away. The princess is innocent."
As a result, Wang Ning was imprisoned on the charge of having an affair with Yan.
After being shocked, the Ming royal family went to plead for Wang Ning. Princess Huaiqing took off her hairpin and knelt in Fengxian Hall, crying, begging Emperor Jianwen to spare her husband Wang Ning's life.
It was an extremely hot summer, and Princess Huaiqing fainted from heatstroke. Hu Shanwei ordered the palace servants to carry the princess to a side hall, placed ice plates all around her, and asked a female doctor to treat the princess.
Princess Huaiqing slowly woke up and saw Hu Shanwei by her side. She ignored her dry mouth and grabbed Hu Shanwei's hand as if it were a life-saving straw, "Save him, please save him!"
Hu Shanwei looked down at the hand of Princess Huaiqing that was holding his arm, "The Earl of Yongchun volunteered to take the blame for the princess. He..."
Hu Shanwei was overwhelmed with emotions and didn't know what to say.
Wang Ning, her first love, the first and only love of her girlhood, the man she had entrusted her life to, the man she felt was more suitable to wear moon-white than anyone else in the world - for the sake of the Northern Expedition, he had abandoned his small family, his little love, and her, faked his death to become a scout of the Ming Dynasty, and lurked in the Northern Yuan Dynasty.
Hu Shanwei's life was changed because of this because her original vision of the future was just to be a good wife and mother.
And now, this man who gave up his family and love for the sake of the world, chooses to take the blame for his wife in order to protect her and their children.
It turned out that Wang Ning had been deeply in love with Princess Huaiqing over the years. His loyalty and love for the princess had surpassed that of a monarch and his subjects. He and the princess had two sons and a grandson. In the blink of an eye, he had become a grandfather.
The person she thought would accompany her for the rest of her life turned out to be just a passer-by in her life; the lover to whom she once made a vow to be forever together turned out to be just a passer-by in the other's life.
In the end, they each had their own lovers, and their love went their separate ways. He had Huaiqing, and she had Muchun. He had two sons, and she had A Lei.
Hu Shanwei held Princess Huaiqing's hand and gently pried open her fingers that were holding his arm. "I will do my best to save the prince consort. Princess, please take care of yourself and don't anger the emperor again. Don't let the prince consort take the blame for you in vain."
Princess Huaiqing cried softly, "I was reckless. I was afraid of getting him into trouble, so I did everything without telling him. I thought that because of my status as a princess and the fact that there would be no evidence, the emperor would not do anything to me. I didn't expect... I didn't expect that the emperor would be desperate and become more and more violent. He killed Li Shen's family and sent the imperial guards to besiege the princess's mansion. The prince consort said that the emperor was crazy and might kill the princess and her entire family. He took the blame for me, so I was able to escape death. With the protection of a princess like me, the children and grandchildren can also be saved. If I die, my whole family will die."
Wang Ning's choice was always rational. Emperor Gaozu destroyed the families of so many princes-in-law and princesses, but he never took action against the blood relatives of the Zhu family. No matter whether they were grandsons or grandsons-in-law, he still gave them money and titles and raised them well.
If Princess Huaiqing was found to have an affair with Princess Yan, an ordinary emperor would not kill his own aunt to preserve his reputation, but was Emperor Jianwen an ordinary emperor
No, Emperor Jianwen's methods were always cold, immature, reckless and cold-blooded. He might really have killed Princess Huaiqing. He even killed his own aunt, so what about his uncle, cousin and nephew? He would just wipe out the whole family.
But it was different if Wang Ning took the blame. The prince consort had an affair with Yan. If he was killed, it would be difficult to attack the innocent princess - the royal family was not a straw man and would not allow Emperor Jianwen to do whatever he wanted.
Judging from the current situation, Wang Ning’s situation is very bad.
Emperor Jianwen had just sent away a group of royal family members who came to plead for mercy, and he was displeased to see Hu Shanwei coming. Emperor Gaozu had already told his successor Emperor Jianwen about the relationship between Hu Shanwei and Wang Ning as an important secret, so when Hu Shanwei came, Emperor Jianwen knew who she was for.
Emperor Jianwen did not wait for Hu Shanwei to speak, and told her the same excuse he had just given to the royal family: "Wang Ning has already pleaded guilty. The country has its own laws, and the family has its own rules. Regardless of the national laws or family rules, Wang Ning is guilty of a capital crime. I will not break the national laws and family rules just because of an uncle."
Hu Shanwei said, "Your Majesty has wronged me. I am not here to plead for Wang Ning. I was engaged to Wang Ning, but after Wang Ning became successful, she chose to marry a princess. I was also determined to be a court lady and serve the Ming court. We have long gone our separate ways and have no intersections anymore."
"I have come here today to offer advice to Your Majesty in order to ease the offensive of the Yan army. Now the Zhou prince's family has been rescued by the consort Wang Ning in collusion with the Yan thieves. This matter is a foregone conclusion and cannot be changed. Even if Your Majesty kills Wang Ning, it will be useless. It is better to use Wang Ning as a hostage and send Princess Huaiqing to negotiate with the Yan prince."
"Since the last peace talks broke down, the King of Yan has been refusing to negotiate. However, Princess Huaiqing grew up with the King of Yan's younger brother, the King of Zhou, and was raised by Concubine Duanjing. The King of Yan will definitely give Princess Huaiqing face and temporarily stop the war and negotiate. During the peace talks, Sheng Yong's troops rushed to Jiangnan to stop the Yan army."
Hu Shanwei's understanding of the kings showed that talking to them about feelings and reason was not as useful as talking about the benefits of interests.
Emperor Jianwen had to understand that a living Wang Ning was more valuable than a dead one, only then would Wang Ning have hope of survival.
Wang Ning must be alive, then Princess Huaiqing will willingly represent the Ming Dynasty to negotiate and ask Prince Yan to cease fire.
Of course, Hu Shanwei knew that the Prince of Yan would not stop his offensive, but if Princess Huaiqing went there, Wang Ning would be able to survive. Suffering some physical pain, being stripped of his title and dismissed from office, or being exiled were not a problem for someone like Wang Ning who had fought on the battlefield. As long as the Prince of Yan entered the capital, Wang Ning would be able to restore his title immediately.
After listening to this, Emperor Jianwen was silent for a long time. Finally, he agreed to Hu Shanwei's suggestion and summoned Princess Huaiqing to ask her if she was willing to go to the Yan bandit camp for peace talks.
Princess Huaiqing agreed hurriedly, "As a princess of the Ming Dynasty, I cannot bear to see the Zhu family fighting against each other. I have had this intention for a long time, but as a woman, it is not good for me to talk about politics. Now that the Yan thieves are approaching the capital, I am willing to give it a try and negotiate with my fourth brother."
At this time, Yangzhou had already opened its gates to welcome the Yan army, and even Gaoyou surrendered!
On May 22, the fourth year of Jianwen, two peace envoys sent by Emperor Jianwen, Princess Huaiqing and Princess Qingcheng, arrived at the Yan army camp.
I don’t know what went wrong with Emperor Jianwen’s brain. He demoted Princess Qingyang to Princess Qingcheng, and actually thought that this cousin would still stand on his side...
Emperor Jianwen was half crazy.
Prince Yan warmly welcomed the two sisters and treated them with courtesy. The two sides sat down to negotiate. If it weren't for the presence of Emperor Jianwen's confidants, both sides would have wanted to laugh.
Princess Huaiqing said seriously, "The Emperor said he is willing to cede land, with the Yangtze River as the boundary. The north of the river belongs to Fourth Brother, and the south of the river belongs to the court. What do you think, Fourth Brother?"
Prince of Yan Zhu Di also replied seriously: "Your Majesty would never suggest such a plan to split the Ming Dynasty. How can the country that my father fought so hard to conquer be torn apart? It must be the idea of the treacherous minister Fang Xiaoru. This treacherous minister wants to slow down our progress and wait for the troops from afar to arrive."
After talking for several days, they kept repeating the same old things and there was no progress, so the princess and the county lady returned empty-handed.
However, the peace talks did buy the court time for counterattack. On the first day of June, the Yan army planned to cross the Yangtze River from Puzikou, but Sheng Yong's army arrived and fought with the Yan army. Just when the Yan army was about to retreat, Zhu Gaoxu, the second son of Prince of Yan, brought reinforcements to rescue his father. The Yan army turned defeat into victory and successfully crossed the Yangtze River from Guazhou!
Victory was just around the corner. The Prince of Yan was overjoyed and said to the second son, Zhu Gaoxu: "You must work hard. Your eldest brother, the Crown Prince, is in poor health and often falls ill."
The Prince of Yan meant that your elder brother was in poor health, and you, as the younger brother, should share more responsibilities. However, Zhu Gaoxu had his own ideas about this...
Upon hearing the news that Sheng Yong was defeated and the Yan army had crossed the Yangtze River, Emperor Jianwen's last delaying tactic was shattered. He had originally thought that Huaiqing and Qingcheng could delay time and wait for reinforcements to defeat the Yan army, but the reinforcements failed.
The desperate Emperor Jianwen became ruthless and simply gave a pot of poisoned wine to the son-in-law Wang Ning in prison. What I can't get, you can't get either.
Just when Princess Huaiqing was about to go to the palace to ask Emperor Jianwen to fulfill his promise, she heard the tragic news that her husband had died suddenly in prison.
At the same time, Hu Shanwei in the palace heard the news and felt extremely sad. She did not expect that she would be so sad. She had no place to vent her anger and sadness. She simply dived into an ice tub full of floating ice and howled loudly. People in water cannot make any sound, and the icy water stimulated her brain so much that it seemed about to explode.
When Hu Shanwei raised her head from the icy water, her face was frozen stiff. She murmured, "I will make you pay the price of the most beautiful woman in the world."
The author has something to say: It took longer than I expected. Ah, the decisive battle and the change of dynasty can only be held tomorrow.
Tomorrow is the last day of the May Day holiday. I will send 200 red packets tonight. I wish you a smooth journey home, no traffic jams, no seats occupied by passengers, and no flight delays.