Whether Emperor Hongzhi only had Empress Zhang’s wife has been controversial in history.

The most common mention is the five palace ladies who were canonized as "Madam" during the Hongzhi period. It is said that Emperor Hongzhi, in addition to Empress Zhang, also canonized five "Madams". Some people believe that these are Emperor Hongzhi's concubines.

But historical data prove that these five "lady" are just old palace maids who served the royal people for a long time in the palace, rather than women whom Emperor Hongzhi privately accepted.

There are also rumors that Zhu Houzhao is not Queen Zhang's biological son.

This matter sounds absurd, but in "The Records of Emperor Xiaozong" and "The Records of Emperor Wuzong", a person named Zheng Wang, as well as a sensational case in the 17th year of Hongzhi, and the Zheng Wang's evil words case.

It is said that before Empress Zhang gave birth to her eldest son Zhu Houzhao in the fourth year of Hongzhi, there was no news in the palace, and even Minister Wu did not know that Empress Zhang was pregnant.

In other words, Zhu Houzhao was born "suddenly", which is very unreasonable.

The emperor had no descendants, and the ministers always advised the emperor to accept the harem. Zhu Youzhang was under great pressure on his shoulders. If the queen was pregnant, the royal family should treat it carefully and publicly publicly, but he did not expect that there was no news in advance. It was not until after the child was born that the court learned about it.

Since then, news that Zhu Houzhao is not Queen Zhang’s biological child has spread like wildfire.

Of course, this is just a rumor. Zhu Houzhao was crowned as the crown prince less than a year after she was born. The forbidden area of ​​the palace was a place where right and wrong gathered. No one could determine the authenticity. Originally, the rumors stopped at the wise man, but slowly no one spread them again. But the matter was very strange. A few years later, even if Queen Zhang gave birth to her next son, the rumors still did not stop, but instead became more and more intense.

The reason is that there is a man named Zheng Wang among the people. This person is just an ordinary military household in Wuchengwei. He is from a poor family. He has a daughter named Zheng Jinlian. When he was twelve years old, he was transferred to the palace to be a palace maid.

There are so many palace maids, not many Zheng Jinlian, not many less, not many less, not many. Qi Qi was in Zheng Wang through an eunuch named Liu Shan, who often communicated with his daughter. He sent things outside the palace in, and Zheng Jinlian brought things out of the palace out and handed them out to his father and brother to improve their lives.

Zheng Wang often shows off with the things his daughter gave out of the palace, boasting that his daughter had actually received the emperor's favor and that the prince was born to his daughter. The things he got from his daughter were not precious things that ordinary palace maids could possess.

This incident quickly reached Zhu Youzhang. When he encountered such a thing, the emperor should have killed one person and killed the rumors completely. However, Zhu Youzhang was indifferent when he heard about this incident.

In the eyes of many people, it is clearly the emperor who agreed to this matter.

It was not until the 17th year of Hongzhi, when Zhu Youzhang felt that the deadline was approaching and was about to pass the throne to Zhu Houzhao that he realized that this kind of rumor might affect the orthodox throne of his son, so he ordered people to capture Zheng Wang, Liu Shan and others, and create the world-famous "Zheng Wang Yaoyan Case".

The bizarre thing is far from over. Emperor Hongzhi did not ask the officials to interrogate Zheng Wang, but personally "inspection". A scammer and an old eunuch in the palace are worthy of his own efforts?

It became increasingly felt that Emperor Hongzhi was afraid that there would be some secrets in the palace to be leaked.

The final result was that the eunuch Liu Shan was executed, and Zheng Wang, who was originally more guilty, was convicted of two major crimes: "speech" and "impering the royal relative", and was imprisoned. Zheng Jinlian was sent to the Clothes Washing Bureau.

After Wuzong, who was crown prince Zhu Houzhao ascended the throne, he released Zheng Wang and rewarded him with many treasures.

The ending of the matter was in the second year of Zhengde. Zheng Wang continued to insist that his daughter gave birth to the prince. This time he failed to escape the disaster. He was arrested again for "speech crime", and then sentenced to death by cutting the mess quickly.

Zheng Wang's death this time was regarded as Zhu Houzhao's murder to silence people. Even if Zhu Houzhao didn't do this, Minister Wu and Liu Jin would remind him to do this.

The most important thing for the new emperor to succeed to the throne is the pure bloodline.

In addition to Minister Wu, a character mentioned in the records of both generations of emperors is very lucky to be included in the book.

He is very familiar with Chen Xi. Wang Zan, who is now a compilation of the Hanlin Academy, once recorded this in history books, saying that when he was studying at the eunuch of the Sili Supervisor, he had seen someone escort a palace maid to the Washing Clothes Bureau. When the people from the Washing Clothes Bureau saw this girl, they were all solemn, which showed that this woman had a very high status in the palace.

Later, Wang Zan learned that this woman was Zheng Jinlian.

Chen Xi thought to himself, will the current poisoning case be related to the "Zheng Wang Yaoyan Case"?

The "Zheng Wang Yaoyan Case" case happened four years later. Now, the identity of the crown prince Zhu Houzhao is still just a folk legend. If someone thinks that the crown prince is not suitable for ascending the throne, and the so-called descendants of the queen are just evil seeds born from a palace maid, and it is still unknown whether the palace maid is born of the imperial heir bloodline.

Therefore, will you attack the queen and her children who deceived the world?

...

...

Since it is a unsolved case, it is to investigate without evidence, and it is not the turn of Chen Xi to worry about it.

Besides, even if he came up with many suspicious points in the case based on later records? It is related to the reputation of the queen and the prince, how dare he speak to outsiders?

It's better to keep silent!

Moreover, this case is extremely mysterious. In the past, if such a big case occurred in the palace, the person involved would prevent severe torture and questioning, and there would definitely be someone who committed suicide for fear of guilt, but none of them ended up.

Before the case occurs, there are usually some signs, such as the queen suddenly felt like she was bitten by a mosquito at a certain hour on a certain day, but she didn't care, and there was nothing!

Even if the palace was turned upside down, the so-called poison was not found. The palace maids and eunuchs began to bite each other after being beaten dozens of sticks, and finally they were verified that they were false.

Chen Xi was a foreign minister and was not even allowed to go to the East Palace to give lectures to the prince after the incident. The case was completely isolated from him. Although Chen Xi felt a little unhappy, he knew that now was not the time to fight, and the only thing he could do was to complete the errand that Xie Qian had assigned.

The envoys of Urianha and Flangji have not arrived in the capital yet and will arrive around late August.

On August 19th, Emperor Hongzhi would personally go to the Xijiao School to check the Folang machine cannon. It did not cancel or postpone the queen's serious illness, which became the most important task in Chenxi at present.

Early in the morning of the 19th, Chen Xi had just opened the city gate and left the city in a carriage and went all the way to the schoolyard in the west to prepare. He had to hurry up and arrange all the demonstrations, and he had to do everything himself.

When all the straw men were placed, they looked like hundreds of Tatar soldiers rushing over from a distance. However, there were fewer cavalry among these Tatars, and it was very difficult to set up horses. The people from the Governor's Office of the Five Army just randomly pricked a few out and symbolically meant it was all over.

After preparing the straw man and the grass horse, there is no way to practice the cannon with live ammunition, because these straw man used for demonstration are all disposable and will be scrapped after using them.

After that, Chen Xi began to adjust the firing angle of the Folang machine cannon. The power of this cannon is great, but it would be boring if it is misfired and cannot cover the target. The Folang machine cannon during this period was a bit inferior. Chen Xi set some on-site response methods, and tried to adjust the angle while firing the cannon and cover the entire hillside.

The emperor wanted to leave the palace, and the streets along the way were to seal off roads and martial law, which was usually troublesome. Chen Xi thought that Emperor Hongzhi would not arrive too early when he arrived at the school.

As expected, it was almost noon, and the first batch of talents in the palace arrived, but they were the Imperial Guards and the Jinyiwei who were standing in front.

After noon, the imperial carriage and all officials arrived. Although Emperor Hongzhi brought not many people this time, he brought all the Grand Secretary of the Cabinet and the main officials of the six ministries.

Chen Xi thought to himself that if he fired a shot in the direction of the imperial carriage, the entire Ming Dynasty would have to be in chaos.

As the Minister of War, Ma Sheng personally presided over the ritual viewing ceremony. He walked closer and asked Chen Xi: "Are you ready?"

Actually, there is no need to ask, it is clear at a glance.

In addition to the prepared Folang machine cannon, there are also 200 carefully selected officers and soldiers. The established process is to fire the cannon first, and when the straw men on the mountain are almost knocked down, the soldiers will rush up to make up for the break.

This is also a practical application on the battlefield!

Chen Xi nodded, holding a small flag in his hand, which he designed specifically.

Chen Xidao: "Shishangshu, can you hand over the banner to Your Majesty and your Majesty personally give the order?"

Ma Sheng thought about it and felt that there was some truth... Since the emperor came to the school ground to observe the scene when the cannon was fired, people were far apart and had no sense of participation. If the emperor was asked to issue instructions using the flag and decide the time for the cannon to be fired, the emperor would feel more accomplished.

Look, this is my army, my artillery, wherever I point to them, they will fight.

Ma Sheng took the flag and told Zhu Youzhang that when Ma Sheng came back, he had a little joy on his face, and was obviously very satisfied with Chen Xi's arrangement.

Chen Xi had already greeted the soldiers earlier, and raised the emperor's flag to prepare, and put it down and fire the cannon.

After two orders, Zhang Laowu had to fire cannons after seeing the order.

Of course, the first shot will act according to the emperor's flag order, so there is no need to pause afterwards. While ensuring safety, try to speed up the shot.

Everything is ready.

The schoolyard is a valley surrounded by mountains on three sides, with a radius of three or four miles. In order to prevent the emperor from being in danger, the location of the imperial carriage and the officials was about one mile away from the Folang machine cannon. On the hillside opposite the cannon muzzle, the grass man was distributed between half a mile and one mile.

The place where the imperial carriage is located is a high platform. Standing on a platform several meters above the ground, the emperor can see clearly the entire process of firing cannons.

"Your Majesty, you can start."

When Ma Sheng comes back, he brings back the ready news.

British Duke Zhang Mao asked with a smile: "Shangshu Ma, is there any danger here?"

Ma Sheng replied with a smile: "Mr. Master has experienced a long battle formation and should know the range of the artillery..."

Zhang Mao nodded. In fact, he felt that it was unreliable that the farthest distance from the cannon of the Grassman was actually one mile away from the cannon. How could this Folang machine cannon have such a long range?

The straw men were relatively scattered. Zhang Mao had always understood artillery, which was used to bombard the city walls, and this exercise was not of great significance.

Zhu Youting's eyes fell on Xie Qian and said, "Why would Xie Aiqing come?"

After all, Zhu Youzhan had never been to the battlefield. This was his first time to experience the "battle formation". Holding the flag in his hand made him a little nervous.

Xie Qian smiled and said, "Your Majesty, Secretary Ma has explained that you only need to raise the flag and then put it down."

Zhu Youting's heart calmed down a little, but he was not sure, so he raised the flag above his head, put it down, and asked, "But that's it?"

Zhu Youzhe originally tried to ask if there was any mistake, but in the eyes of the messenger, this was equivalent to ordering.

Military orders are like mountains.

The second and third flags fell almost at the same time, and then a loud "boom" sound came from afar, which scared Zhu Youzhang, who was still absent-minded.

All the courtiers' eyes fell on the hillside in front of the left. With the launch of this cannon, only half of the dozens of straw men arranged in front of the hillside were standing.

"Wow!"

There was a noise in the crowd. Is the power of this cannon so great? Or is it the kind of grass men who are mixed with fakes, and they are not firmly tied and dispersed as soon as the wind blows?

Just as everyone hesitated, a second cannon sound soon came.

"boom!"

Another solid sound.

This time the landing point was slightly behind, and another row of straw men fell down.

Then there were continuous shellings, and after a pause in the middle, one shot was made. After firing twelve shots in succession, the front finally became quiet.

But the next moment, the brave Ming officers and soldiers, holding their swords and shields, rushed towards the hillside with shouts, and picked up the scattered grass men standing on the top of the hill, becoming a pile of weeds on the ground.

************:The fourth update!

This chapter is the first chapter of the new leader’s “Forty Degrees**”. Thank you for your generosity!
Chapter completed!