Bringing the Railway to Daming

Chapter 356: Old Zhu: This Jiajing is really lucky [Please subscribe]

Liu Kuan recalled carefully and said, "It was around the end of the Jiajing reign. Because his biological mother passed away, Zhu Houcong decided to tour the south and return to his hometown of Anlu to bury his parents together."

"Soon after setting off, fires broke out in both of his planned palaces, rendering them uninhabitable. Later, when he arrived at the Weihui Palace, he was also caught in a fire and nearly burned to death. Fortunately, his childhood friend, Lu Bing, then commander of the Imperial Guard, risked his life to rescue him."

"After this, Zhu Houcong seemed to have suffered a great blow and began to neglect his duties. He also became superstitious about Taoism, practicing Taoism and taking elixirs."

"A few years later, the famous 'Renyin Palace Incident' occurred. Under the instigation of two concubines, more than a dozen palace maids took advantage of Zhu Houcong's sleep, put a yellow silk rope around his neck, and pulled hard, attempting to strangle him to death."

"what?!"

"How could a palace maid be so bold?"

"What do palace guards do for a living?!"

For a moment, Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Biao and Zhu Di were all shocked.

Because in their cognition, it was too bizarre that a dignified emperor could be assassinated by a group of palace maids by strangling him. Normally speaking, it was impossible for this to happen.

Seeing the three people so shocked, Liu Kuan felt quite happy.

At this time, Old Zhu asked again: "I remember you said that the Jiajing Emperor reigned for more than forty years. If so, he should be fine this time, right? How did he escape this disaster?"

Liu Kuan said, "Your Majesty, please be patient. Let me explain. Perhaps because they were too hasty and panicky, the palace maids tied the yellow silk that bound Zhu Houcong into a knot. Therefore, even though there were more than a dozen of them and they all tried their best, they still failed to kill Zhu Houcong."

"Afterwards, they took out hairpins and other objects and stabbed Zhu Houcong, but they failed to hit the vital parts."

"One of the timid palace maids, seeing that Zhu Houcong could never be killed, thought that Zhu Houcong had a destiny and was protected by gods. She became frightened and went to report to Empress Fang."

"Empress Fang arrived with her men, arrested the palace maids, and urgently summoned the imperial physician, who saved Zhu Houcong's life. Afterwards, the two concubines and a dozen palace maids who had participated in the rebellion were all executed by slow slicing."

After listening to Liu Kuan's story, Zhu Di couldn't help but ask, "Where are the guards? Aren't there any guards near the emperor's bedroom? And how did a dozen palace maids get into the emperor's bedroom carrying yellow silk, hairpins, and other items?"

Liu Kuan said, "Your Highness, Prince of Yan, I have told you everything I know about the course of events. As for the many doubts Your Highness has raised, I believe one possibility is that the two concubines bribed the guards and provided convenience to the palace servants."

"Secondly, the Ming Dynasty court has actually had many loopholes since the time of Your Highness. In history, there were guards and generals who colluded with palace ladies and poisoned Your Highness in the name of Zhu Gaosui."

Hearing this, Zhu Di looked embarrassed and then felt a chill on his head.

He mechanically turned his head to look at Zhu Yuanzhang.

As expected, Zhu Yuanzhang snorted, "Fourth Brother, you rose to power through the Jingnan Rebellion and prided yourself on your civil and military prowess, but in the end, you can't even control the palace!"

Although Zhu Di felt it was unfair to be lectured for the historical events Liu Kuan had mentioned, he still adjusted his attitude and said, "It was my fault. I will definitely learn from this and keep a good control over my retainers and palace maids after I take up my fiefdom, so that no one can take advantage of me."

Zhu Yuanzhang snorted again before looking at Liu Kuan and asking, "Why did those two concubines and a dozen palace maids want to kill Zhu Houcong?"

"There are several versions of this story in later generations, but the most widely accepted one is that the Jiajing Emperor was suspicious, violent, and moody, often punishing palace maids, with hundreds of them being beaten to death. The palace maids, unable to tolerate this, launched the Renyin Palace Rebellion."

"There's also a widely circulated unofficial historical account: It claims that after becoming a Taoist, Emperor Jiajing sought immortality and often collected the menstrual blood of palace maids to use in his elixir. He even forced them to take drugs that stimulated menstruation, causing many to experience hemorrhage or even die." "The palace maids were fed up with their patience, and so a dozen of them banded together to plot the assassination of Emperor Jiajing."

"In addition, some people believe that it was some of the policies of the Jiajing Emperor at the time that affected the interests of the gentry, so they spent several years planting pawns in the palace to assassinate Jiajing."

After hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Biao and Zhu Di were all speechless for a moment.

Because in their view, all three reasons could be true.

For example, wasn’t Zhu Chong poisoned to death by three old women because he abused his servants and slaves?
As for using the menstrual blood of palace ladies to make elixirs - in history, there were many kings who did more extreme things than this in order to pursue immortality. If Jiajing was obsessed with practicing Taoism and taking elixirs, it is possible that he did such a thing.

The gentry group's planning of murders to protect their interests also has a certain logic and may even be the closest to the truth.

While the three of them were pondering these things, Liu Kuan continued, "After this assassination attempt, Jiajing believed that it was his sincerity in practicing Taoism that saved his life. He became even more obsessed with practicing Taoism and at the same time, more suspicious of his ministers both inside and outside the court."

"In order to better control the court and more conveniently make money for himself, he promoted the treacherous minister Yan Song and indulged Yan's father and son for 10 to 20 years."

"During the past twenty years, the Ming Dynasty has rapidly deteriorated. Local people are living in dire straits. Mongolian invaders have invaded the north, Japanese pirates have invaded the southeastern coast, and internal factional strife is rampant."

"It was also thanks to the fact that Jiajing was naturally intelligent and not completely muddleheaded that he dealt with Yan Song and his son in the last few years of his reign, promoted a group of civil officials such as Xu Jie, Gao Gong, and Zhang Juzheng, and appointed a group of military generals such as Qi Jiguang and Yu Dayou. This is why the Ming Dynasty did not enter its final days during the Jiajing period."

"As for how Jiajing died, I mentioned this before when discussing the life spans of Ming emperors throughout history. He originally lived a long life, but due to years of taking elixirs, he accumulated a deep reservoir of elixir poison. Therefore, at the age of sixty, the elixir poison flared up, and no medicine could cure it, and he died."

At this point, Liu Kuan had basically told everything he knew about Jiajing.

After Zhu, Zhu Biao, and Zhu Di absorbed the information for a while, he said, "By the way, I have a TV series about the later years of Emperor Jiajing called 'The Ming Dynasty 1566'. If Your Majesty is interested, I can upload it to the tablet and show it to Your Majesty."

Old Zhu became interested and said, "Okay, then hurry up so that Old Four can come and see it."

Then he sighed, "Zhu Houcong was indeed a smart man, but unfortunately he was weak-willed. He neglected state affairs soon after taking the throne, and after suffering a few setbacks, he became addicted to evil ways. What a pity."

Zhu Di, who was standing by, blushed when he heard this.

Although Zhu Yuanzhang did not call his name this time, he knew that Zhu Yuanzhang was calling him.

Afterwards, Zhu Yuanzhang asked Liu Kuan some other questions about Jiajing before letting him go.

However, when Liu Kuan was leaving the side hall, he was stopped by Zhu Di.

"Brother-in-law, take care. I have something to ask you."

Liu Kuan immediately returned to the west wing hall - if he wanted to talk about some secrets, this wing hall was indeed a good place.

Zhu Di asked, "My brother-in-law, what do you think I should do after I establish a vassal state in India?"

　Second update.

　　Good night~
　　
　
(End of this chapter)