Why did Emperor Yongle suddenly decide to recall Hu Shanwei in Dongchang Street in the middle of the night
Because he saw the iron tablet on East Chang Street, which read "Eunuchs are not allowed to interfere in government affairs, and those who do will be beheaded."
This is a new iron stele, which was recast in the 31st year of Hongwu by Hu Shanwei in order to "spread rumors."
Hu Shanwei took advantage of the fact that the ground in the harem had sunk and it had been raining for days, which had softened the foundation of the iron stele and caused it to fall over. It could have been saved, but she ordered her confidants to swing up a sledgehammer, and the precarious foundation suddenly sank into a bottomless pit, burying the iron stele.
Ji Gang outside the palace cast an identical iron stele and secretly placed it in the Prince of Xiang's Mansion, where the whole family burned themselves to death in protest against Li Jinglong's false accusation of counterfeiting banknotes. The iron stele incident caused a lot of discussion inside and outside the court, saying that Emperor Jianwen had just ascended the throne and had already reduced the power of the vassal and forced his uncles to die, violating the ancestral system, causing the coffin of Emperor Gaozu to collapse. The collapsed iron stele appeared at the site of the Prince of Xiang's Mansion thousands of miles away, which was Emperor Gaozu's display of divine power, warning Emperor Jianwen not to listen to slander and massacre his uncles.
Since it was Huang Zicheng, Fang Xiaoru and other ministers who suggested reducing the power of the princes, Emperor Yongle later found the excuse of "clearing the court" to fire the first shot of the Jingnan Campaign.
This incident shows Hu Shanwei's control over the harem. Emperor Jianwen invited her back to the harem, restored her position as Shang Gong, and assisted Empress Ma in managing the harem. As soon as she came back, Empress Dowager Lu, who had been causing trouble all the time, immediately became obedient. Hu Shanwei used a little trick to make Empress Dowager Lu believe in her...
Having such a person in the harem is like a guardian angel. With her taking care of the harem, Queen Xiao Ma seems dispensable.
Since it's the same whether there's a queen or not, I don't need to appoint another queen.
Empress Xu sacrificed too much for the Yongle Dynasty.
Her health, her respected brother and her favorite brother, the Duke of Wei being stripped of his title, and the entanglement every time the Yan army and her brother Xu Huizu fought during the Jingnan Campaign. It can be said that during the four-year Jingnan Campaign, Empress Xu suffered both physical and mental torture, and she had to cover it all up and stay in the rear.
My queen, besides you, who else is qualified to stand shoulder to shoulder with me
In addition to emotional reasons, Emperor Yongle was unwilling to see any woman replace Empress Xu. He was also wary of internal struggles within the royal family.
Once a new principle is established, countless new contradictions will be created.
First of all, the new queen had family and powerful vassals behind her, who formed cliques and factions in the court to disrupt government.
Secondly, if the new empress gave birth to a prince, it would be the legitimate son. Emperor Yongle already had three adult sons with Empress Xu, so he didn’t have to worry about his younger brother. Emperor Yongle was in his prime, and he could live long enough to see the son born by the successor empress grow up. By then… the aging emperor, the energetic successor empress, the adult young son, and the powerful original princes in the court were simply a Shura field.
Anyway, the historical records show that this type of palace was full of life-and-death struggles and brothers killing each other, without exception. Emperor Yongle did not want to repeat the same mistake.
Also, there are the concubines in the harem... Almost every concubine was taken in for political reasons, and Emperor Yongle was not fond of beautiful women, so none of these concubines had ever been pregnant. Even so, the value behind them should not be underestimated. When it comes to Emperor Yongle's plans for the future of the Ming Dynasty, it is impossible for them to be promoted to the harem.
Therefore, the new queen had to be brought in from outside, and how could a teenage girl understand Emperor Yongle’s plans for the harem
Emperor Yongle thus gave up his plan to appoint a successor. Without a queen, who would have the ability to find someone to control the harem for him
If there is a person...
When Emperor Yongle saw the iron monument on East Chang Street, he immediately thought of Hu Shanwei's past "great achievements". Who else but her could control the harem according to his wishes, had both ability and qualifications, and could do the job with or without a queen
Emperor Yongle then asked eunuch Sanbao to go and invite Hu Shanwei. Eunuch Sanbao and Hu Shanwei had been friends since their youth and had shared hardships. Sanbao knew it would be very difficult for Hu Shanwei to escape unscathed. He went to Yunnan twice to pick him up and saw that Hu Shanwei was very satisfied with his secluded life and was probably unwilling to return to the palace.
Eunuch Sanbao tried to persuade him, "Mu Chun has already gone with the army to Annan, and only Consort Hu and her daughter are at home. Consort Hu's daughter A Lei is only nine years old, and I'm afraid Consort Hu can't bear to leave her daughter behind."
The implication is that the children will be separated. Even if Consort Hu enters the palace, she will not be able to work with peace of mind. Even the Emperor knows that the children cannot find a stepmother, let alone Consort Hu, the mother.
Emperor Yongle waved his hand and said, "This is easy. We need Hu Shanwei and her daughter to return to the capital together. We can raise the little girl in the palace. I will treat her like a princess."
Eunuch Sanbao advised again, "What should we do if Mu Chun comes back from the battle and cannot see his wife and daughter?"
The couple were separated for a long time, and Hu Shanggong had no intention of working.
It would have been absolutely impossible for a eunuch to refute the emperor's words twice in the Hongwu or Jianwen dynasties. He would have been beheaded long ago.
But starting from the Yongle period, Emperor Hongwu's attitude towards eunuchs changed. The Prince of Yan's Mansion had a group of smart and capable eunuchs who understood practical matters. Their work scope covered the fields of diplomacy, water conservancy and even war, and they achieved results in each field.
Eunuch Sanbao gained the trust of Emperor Yongle because he was introduced by Zen Master Daoyan. Later, in the Jingnan Campaign, eunuch Sanbao fought bravely in the battlefield. He made great contributions in the Battle of Zhengcunba when Emperor Yongle led 80,000 Yan troops to rescue the imperiled city of Beiping and fought with Li Jinglong's 500,000 Southern troops. Therefore, Emperor Yongle gave Ma Sanbao the surname "Zheng" and the name "Zheng He" to commemorate this great victory, which shows his trust in Eunuch Sanbao.
It can be seen that Emperor Yongle liked to use capable people who could help him rather than mediocre people who only knew how to nod and agree. Therefore, eunuch Sanbao dared to refute Emperor Yongle's orders twice in a row, not to involve Hu Shanwei, who had finally gotten a peaceful life.
Emperor Yongle said, "After the Annan campaign is over, Mu Chun will come to the capital. I have important things for him to do. I am now eager to recruit talented people. Mu Chun and Lady Hu are both in their forties, in their prime, and it is the best time to do business. It would be a waste to retire to the mountains and use their talents to plant chrysanthemums on a few graves."
When the expedition to Annan was mentioned, the Yongle Emperor, whose night was as cold as water, suddenly became furious. "I have long issued an order that they must pacify Annan before February. Now the time has come, and there is still no victory report. The first military expedition since I ascended the throne has been so unsuccessful... I will not sleep today. I have ordered the ministers to discuss overnight how to quickly conquer Annan."
Eunuch Sanbao said, "It's the middle of the night, and the palace gates are closed. The emperor needs to write a letter and get the key from the key lady before the palace gates can be opened. After completing the procedures, it will be almost four o'clock in the morning, and the ministers will also be able to attend the court. It won't be long. However, there are several Grand Secretaries of Wenyuan Pavilion on duty in the palace. Why not call them to discuss first?"
Wenyuan Pavilion was a secretarial agency located inside the imperial palace, established during the Yongle reign. It was the only agency that could stay in the palace and work at night.
The main reason was that during the reign of Emperor Jianwen, Emperor Jianwen blindly believed in Fang Xiaoru, a great Confucian scholar from Jiangnan, a big name in the literary and art circles, and the first public intellectual of the Ming Dynasty. He listened to and believed Fang Xiaoru, believed the public intellectuals, became an idiot, and lost his country.
The Yongle Emperor was extremely busy as he held all the power. He urgently needed his own team of secretaries to handle the mountains of official documents, classify and screen the memorials, and draft various replies based on the emperor's opinions.
Emperor Yongle learned from his nephew's lesson. With the exception of Yao Guangxiao, the Zen Master Daoyan who made the greatest contribution in the Jingnan Campaign, he no longer employed Confucian scholars who were not successful candidates in the imperial examinations in civil service positions around him. This was especially true for the Wenyuan Pavilion, which had five to seven grand secretaries at once to pool ideas and avoid blindly following one side of the story.
Therefore, Emperor Yongle selected great scholars with excellent writing skills and real talents and knowledge from the Hanlin Academy to form a royal secretary team. Each of them was an official from the imperial examination system, who passed the imperial examination based on their own abilities and then stayed in the Hanlin Academy to study.
At first, some officials opposed it, saying that Emperor Yongle only looked at the imperial examination results and did not care about real talent or ideological and moral character, which was too extreme.
Emperor Yongle retorted: "The female officials in my harem who are in charge of food and daily life were admitted based on their own abilities. If my right-hand men can't even pass the imperial examination, how can they serve me in the palace?"
Emperor Yongle made the final decision, stipulating that the Grand Secretary of Wenyuan Pavilion must be a Jinshi, preferably one who had been selected into the Hanlin Academy. There must not be another Fang Xiaoru who brought disaster to the country.
From then on, civil servants in the Ming Dynasty, regardless of gender, had to pass an examination first.
Currently, there are seven young Grand Secretaries of Wenyuan Pavilion, including Xie Jin, Hu Guang, Yang Rong, and Yang Shiqi, who have little experience in politics.
Emperor Yongle thought, even a small thing still has meat. Anyway, he couldn't sleep because of the empress's illness and the war situation in Annan, so he might as well ask them what they thought. He would have a clear idea when he discussed it with the ministers at four o'clock in the morning.
Emperor Yongle said, "Ask them to go to the study to discuss it."
Eunuch Sanbao responded: "I will go to Wenyuan Pavilion to invite the Grand Secretary."
Emperor Yongle was in a bad mood tonight. When he heard the word "wen", he thought of Emperor Jianwen who lost his country in a battle. He said with a straight face: "Don't say this word anymore in the future. It's too fancy. Since it is an official organization within the palace, just call it the cabinet."
That’s right. Inside the imperial palace, apart from the Wenyuan Pavilion, there were no officials from other departments on duty. The Cabinet was the Wenyuan Pavilion, so this name became widely circulated, and the Grand Secretary of the Wenyuan Pavilion was changed to the Grand Secretary of the Cabinet, which was simple and clear.
Emperor Yongle held a meeting overnight, and eunuch Sanbao rushed to Yunnan to invite Hu Shanwei to come out of retirement when the palace gates were opened before dawn. Mu Chun, far away in Annan, was fighting a group of elephants in Fuliang River.
Annan is much more difficult to fight than expected. We thought the war would be over in three months, but it is still a bitter fight.
Muchun had fought with Luchuan many times before and was familiar with the situation and was fully armed.
Mu Chun had the most experience, so the Grand Marshal of this southern expedition, General Zhu Neng, arranged for him to specifically attack the enemy's elephant armored unit.
Muchun gave the order confidently:
"Riflemen, aim at the elephant's eye! This is its only weak spot. Shooting anywhere else will do no good!"
"Archers, only shoot the slaves on the elephant's back. One slave is worth ten taels of silver. If you shoot ten, you will have enough money to buy a house and marry a fat wife. If you don't have money, you can only marry an ugly woman with pockmarks all over her face."
"Shenjiying, where's your new Portuguese cannon from the gunpowder factory? Push it out to me!"
"Did you see the warship on the river bank? It must be the ship Hu Jiti used to escape. Aim at it and fire a cannon at it!"
Boom!
A big flower bloomed in the middle of the river, water splashed everywhere, fish and shrimps were fried with skin and meat, and a koi carp jumped over the dragon gate and landed on Muchun's helmet, with its innocent big mouth, black smoke coming out, and looking up at the starry sky at a 45-degree angle.
Mu Chun threw the fish off his head, put his hands on his hips and cursed:
"Where are you bombing? Bombing there! You're bombing in the middle of the river, have you never eaten fish in your eight lifetimes? Come on, I'm going to give them a fucking blast myself, and then see how I deal with these bastards..."
Less than ten years later, Mu Chun has gone from being a walking Wuzhong erotic song to a walking trash bag of swear words, and he is becoming more and more rogue.
In March of the fifth year of Yongle, in the Battle of Fuliang River, the southern expeditionary army won a great victory and killed tens of thousands of people including the Annan general Hu She. "The river water turned red" and the corpses of elephants and people even blocked the river.
Because the retreating ship was blown up by Muchun, the King of Annan, Hu Jiti, escaped on a small boat. However, the main force of the Hu Dynasty was completely defeated, and victory was at hand.
On May 11, Mu Sheng and General Zhang Fu chased Hu Jiti to Qiluokou, Nanzhou. As the saying goes, when a tree falls, everyone pushes it; when a drum is broken, everyone beats it. Wu Ruqing, a local official of Annan, arrested all the nephews and nephews of the Hu family, tied them up and sent them to the Ming army camp. From then on, the Ming army swept Annan.
After hearing the good news, Emperor Hongwu still did not dare to take it lightly and ordered the restoration of the ancient name of Annan - Jiaozhi. He also ordered Mu Sheng and Zhang Fu to continue to stay in the newly expanded territory of the Ming Dynasty. According to the regional planning of the Ming Dynasty, the three agencies of the Chengxuanzhengsi, the Tixinganchasi, and the Duzhisi were set up to govern Jiaozhi. The territory was subdivided, and prefectures, states, counties and other agencies were established, and Ming officials were arranged to govern Jiaozhi.
Mu Sheng made arrangements one by one, and finally asked Mu Chun to escort the Hu father and son to the capital to be punished.
Mu Chun immediately refused, "Clearing Ping'an and capturing Hu Jiti alive, the purpose of my trip has been achieved. Now I just want to go home and take care of my wife and children."
Mu Sheng looked at his elder brother with sympathy, "I know that you miss home very much, so I arranged this task for you. In April, your elder sister-in-law and A Lei were taken to the capital by the eunuch Sanbao. Now it is May, so they should have arrived. It is a good opportunity for you to go on this long trip and reunite with your elder sister-in-law and daughter."
After hearing this, Muchun was speechless. He walked out of the tent and began to howl at the moon like a groundhog: "Ah!"
Capital city, imperial palace.
Since May, Empress Xu's condition has become more serious. Everyone knows that Empress Xu will not last much longer.
Hu Shanwei packed up his daughter A Lei and took her away. When he arrived in the capital, he refused to enter the palace and said to the eunuch Sanbao: "I want to go to the Xiaoling Mausoleum to burn incense for Empress Xiaoci."
It is difficult to disobey the emperor's order, but she cannot just enter the palace like this. She has to make three rules with Emperor Yongle in advance. If she is asked to contribute her remaining energy to the Zhu family, she has conditions.
Xiaoling Mausoleum is her home ground. Several major turning points in her life occurred here. She had the confidence to make requests to the emperor in this place.
The author has something to say: The harem structure and concubines' deeds during the Yongle Dynasty are quite bizarre and bloody, let me tell you slowly (gossip).
Good night, babies~ Thank you to the little angels who cast the tyrant votes or irrigated the nutrient solution for me~
Thanks to the little angel who cast [mines]: Xia~Taoyuan 1;
Thanks to the little angel who irrigated [nutrient solution]:
20 bottles for Uncle Library; 10 bottles for Yoyo and Xin; 6 bottles for Passing All Exams; 5 bottles for Longbao, Chen Xiaobai, and Liuliameng; 1 bottle for Wunengxingren, Xixi in the Book Chase, Tianyi Youlan, Qianqianmm, Yang Yanxi Dada Penyu, Xiaoxiao, and Qiongju;
Thank you very much for your support, I will continue to work hard!