My father is Jiajing

The situation indeed turned out to be just as the Jiajing Emperor and Zhu Zaigui had expected, with the proactive actions and collusion of cabinet members Gao Gong, Zhao Zhenji, Hu Zongxian and Guo Pu.

The heads of the major government offices in the capital all began to write memorials to persuade Zhu Zaigui to ascend the throne and to relieve the worries of the emperor and his father.

These memorials to the emperor were written with great emotion and were extremely moving. It seemed that if Zhu Zaigui did not accept the advice to become emperor at this time, he would be unfilial to Emperor Jiajing.

Following the lead of these senior officials, more than 2,000 officials at all levels in the capital also began to submit memorials.

However, the circumstances of these people's memorials depend on the situation. Beijing officials with important rank and position are qualified to submit memorials individually. Generally, rank and position are not that important, and they can just submit a memorial of persuasion jointly with their own government office or department in a large memorial.

In short, everyone must have a share!
If you don’t submit a petition or sign a joint letter, then you are not a social person!

Therefore, at one time, the Ministry of Public Security was flooded with petitions for the throne like snowflakes.

The Ministry of Public Administration looked at so many memorials for the emperor's accession to the throne and happily categorized and reviewed them roughly. Then they were sent to the Wenhua Palace, even skipping the procedures of the Cabinet and the Imperial Household Department.

Meng Chong and other servants in the Eastern Palace looked at the mountain of petitions for the throne and cried with joy. They had been waiting for this moment for many years and finally the dawn of hope came.

At the same time, a group of court ladies and ladies with imperial titles also gathered at the Eastern Palace. They gathered at this time to pay their respects and congratulate Crown Princess Chen.

You have to know that the crown prince's ascension to the throne is not just a matter for the men in the outer court, the women in the harem will also rise in status.

Therefore, all the ladies of noble birth in the capital, as well as those ladies who were officially canonized by the imperial court, all came to the Eastern Palace.

For a moment, the scene was really lively.

It really is in line with what Lao Tzu said: The world is bustling with people, all for the sake of profit; the world is bustling with people, all for the sake of profit.

Anyway, these people are a vivid portrayal of this.

Princess Jing was also among them at the moment. Her status was much higher than that of ordinary court ladies and ladies of noble honor.

At this moment, she was sitting on the left side of Crown Princess Chen, and the seats they sat in were one level higher than those of other ladies of honor.

Princess Jing sat respectfully on the chair and congratulated Crown Princess Chen: "Congratulations, sister. Congratulations, sister."

Chen looked at the respectful and polite Princess Jing. Although she couldn't hide the smile on her face, there was always an imperceptible vigilance hidden in the depths of her eyes.

Although Chen did not know anything about the relationship between Princess Jing and Zhu Zaigui, as a woman, she could still sense that Princess Jing treated Zhu Zaigui differently.

Therefore, deep down in Chen's heart, her vigilance towards Princess Jing could be said to have reached its limit.

He was afraid that one day Princess Jing would take advantage of the situation and cause chaos in the Crown Prince's harem.

But unfortunately, Chen didn't know that not only had Princess Jing been having an affair with Zhu Zaigui for a long time, but even the current Prince Jing, Zhu Yizhong, was Zhu Zaigui's child!

It can be seen that some secrets are really hidden to the extreme, so that even the closest people cannot understand the secrets.

Chen smiled and responded, "You are too polite, sister. How is the prince these days? The prince has allowed the children to have winter vacation these days, so they don't have to come to the palace for classes. I really miss you."

Chen turned the topic to Zhu Yi Zhong. Although this guy was young, Prince Jing and Princess Jing had been bringing him to Prince Yu's Mansion and the current Eastern Palace since he began to speak.

It can be said that Zhu Yi Zhong was a child who grew up under Chen's care.

And because Chen had no children of her own, she cared about and loved her children much more than ordinary women.

Therefore, no matter how wary she was of Princess Jing, she still liked Prince Jing's son Zhu Yi Zhong very much.

Princess Jing smiled and said, "Thank you for your concern, sister. Zhong'er has been taken care of by his father these days. He is spoiled by him. Sometimes, even when he goes on official business, he is taken with him. As his mother, I don't see him very often."

Chen couldn't help but smile with envy when she heard this. In her memory, although Zhu Zaigui also doted on children, he never took Zhu Yi, Zhu Yijun or anyone else to his official places.

From this we can see that when it comes to pampering his children, King Jing is really much more attentive than Zhu Zaigui.

But this seems understandable. After all, over the years, King Jing only had one child, Zhu Yi Zhong, unlike Zhu Zaigui, who had four or five sons and six or seven daughters.

Almost every woman in Zhu Zaigui's harem had a child.

Therefore, when seeing Zhu Zaigui's children thriving, Chen, as the former mistress of the royal palace and now the Eastern Palace, was also proud of it.

Because these concubines and maids in the harem were all able to give birth to children, this just shows that she was a generous, kind, and virtuous woman who managed the harem well.

Even though she still has no children, it will not affect her status at all.

Therefore, it can be seen from this that Zhu Zaigui was very clear-headed when dealing with the women in his harem.

No one is neglected or ignored just because someone has children or someone doesn't.

In order to consolidate Chen's status as the mistress in the harem, Zhu Zaigui not only stayed at Chen's house the most, but also often emphasized Chen's status in the palace and now in the East Palace.

Therefore, even if there were some women in Zhu Zaigui's harem who thought they had children and could compete for favors, they did not dare to act rashly in front of Chen.

Otherwise the consequences will be very serious.

And this situation is actually the status quo most of the time in traditional history.

Even if some emperors did not love the empress and favored certain concubines, they were almost unanimous in maintaining the empress's status and dignity.

Therefore, it is almost impossible to have a harem infighting drama like "The Legend of Zhen Huan".

If such a situation really happened, it would be because the emperor's head was rusty, he put his focus in the wrong place, and took the lead in breaking the rules.

Otherwise, most women in the harem are very obedient. Even if they may only receive the emperor's favor once in their lifetime, they would never dare to do those extraordinary tricks in the harem to curry favor.

You have to know that the emperor has no shortage of women. How could he be so affectionate and have a special liking for a certain woman as portrayed in novels and TV dramas?
After all, not every woman can be as lucky as Aunt Wan of Emperor Xianzong and Empress Zhang of Emperor Xiaozong.

There are special historical reasons why these two women were favored in the harem. They both stayed by Emperor Xianzong and Emperor Xiaozong's side when they were the most lonely and in need of care and support.

That’s why he received unlimited honor and favor later on! However, the emperor’s unlimited honor and favor were poisonous, and not everyone could bear it.

Take Aunt Wan for example. Because of her old age and the special favor of Emperor Xianzong, she was hated by everyone in the inner palace and the outer court.

The women in the inner palace felt that this old woman had captured the emperor's soul, and apart from her, no other woman in the harem had a chance to be favored by the emperor.

People outside the court believed that the emperor's favoritism towards an old woman who couldn't even raise a child was irresponsible to the country.

Therefore, the outer court was also very dissatisfied with the fact that Emperor Xianzong favored Aunt Wan.

They were afraid that Emperor Xianzong would devote all his energy to Aunt Wan, leading to the extinction of the royal heir and causing a political crisis.

After all, these ministers are all important officials at the core of the imperial court. If Emperor Xianzong dies without an heir, and a vassal prince succeeds him, there is a high probability that these people will be forced to retire by the emperor and his ministers.

Therefore, whether for the sake of the country or for the sake of their own power and status to be stably passed on to the next generation of emperors, the ministers of the Xianzong Dynasty spared no effort to encourage Xianzong to look more at other concubines in the harem and stop being infatuated with just one flower.

And the fact was good in the end. After Aunt Wan lost several sons that she could not support, Emperor Xianzong had to compromise with the advice of officials and began to favor other women in the harem.

Therefore, in the last few years of Emperor Xianzong's reign, his offspring continued to grow, making outstanding contributions to the continuation of the Ming Dynasty's royal heirs.

The most prominent among them is Emperor Jiajing’s father, Prince Xingxian Zhu Youluo.

It was precisely because of the emergence of Zhu Youju's lineage that there was no problem of finding a reliable close relative heir after the lineage of Emperor Xiaozong and Emperor Wuzong became extinct.

Of course, if we don't look for Zhu Youlang's lineage, Xianzong's branch still has many sons. Excluding those who died young, there are at least five or six still alive.

It can be seen how important it is to have many sons for the ancient political system which relies on blood inheritance!
If one wants to have many offspring, in addition to being in good health, the most important thing is not to be monogamous, not to be affectionate, and to be able to protect and maintain order in the harem. This is the hard truth.

Therefore, it is understandable that Zhu Zaigui maintained the status of the Chen family.

Zhu Zaigui would never think that someone is better just because they have children.

After all, Zhu Zaigui had no shortage of women. As long as he had no shortage of women, how could he lack children?
Therefore, in such a situation, if some women cannot understand the reality and think that they can do whatever they want just because they have a child, Zhu Zaigui can let her know in every minute why the flowers are so red!
It can be seen that once a powerful man has an indifferent attitude towards feelings between men and women, there will be almost no trouble in his harem.

It's just like the Nine Dragon Battle for Succession during the Qing Dynasty.

Because Kang Mazi was in good health and had many sons, all of his sons became tools for him to check and balance power.

In order to maintain his authority, Kang Mazi even used his other sons and made the prince, whom he had personally trained, go crazy.

And things like this are not isolated cases in history.

Many emperors who had a strong desire for power, had many sons, and lived long lives have almost all done this kind of thing.

For example, Liu Qi, the chess master of the Han Dynasty, and his beloved little pig Emperor Wu of Han, both of them treated their sons as tools of power to play with, and had no fatherly heart at all.

There was also the wise and powerful Emperor Taizong of Tang, Li Shimin, who created the Xuanwu Gate Law of Succession. He was also concerned that the power of the crown prince would increasingly affect his status and power, so he used Li Tai as a political tool to kill the crown prince whom he had cultivated for 10 to 20 years.

From this we can see that these emperors with many sons are truly cruel, selfish and heartless.

Under such circumstances and mentality, do you still expect such a high-ranking and powerful person to love and care for his son?
Unless you are the only child!
Otherwise, they are all tools!

Zhu Zaigui now has almost the same mentality, but he has not realized it yet and still thinks he is a rational and caring father.

Little did he know that his different attitudes towards Zhu Yi and Zhu Yijun had already affected the future of these two children.

If Zhu Zaigui cannot properly handle the relationship between Zhu Yi and Zhu Yijun in the future, and cannot handle the way of future power succession, sooner or later these two will have to teach Zhu Zaigui a vivid lesson of "the royal family is ruthless"!
But now is not the time to consider these things. Right now the entire capital is concerned about only one thing!

That is the major event that the prince is about to ascend the throne and the emperor is about to abdicate!
This is a major event that is enough to attract all eyes and attention, whether for the parties involved such as the prince and the emperor, or for the officials in the capital, and the people in the capital who are watching the fun!
Zhu Zaigui returned late from Wanshou Palace and arrived at the Wenhua Hall, where he looked at the memorials for the emperor's accession that had piled up like a mountain.

Zhu Zaigui's mood was also filled with joy.

When Meng Chong and the others saw the prince coming back, they immediately bowed to Zhu Zaigui excitedly and said, "Your servants pay their respects to the prince."

Zhu Zaiqi waved his hand, "Everyone, get up."

"Thank you, Prince."

Zhu Zaigui took back the pile of petitions for the emperor's succession and said to Meng Chong, "Find someone to take all these petitions away and return them. Tell them that I am not worthy of such an important task, and ask them to stop persuading me to become the emperor."

When Meng Chong heard what Zhu Zaigui said, he was also stunned. He never expected that even at this point, his master would still refuse.
"Prince, this..."

Zhu Zaiqi waved his hand again to stop him, "Do as I say."

Meng Chong had no choice but to have the mountain-like memorial of persuasion moved away.

Zhu Zaigui looked at the memorial of persuasion to ascend the throne that was moved away, and the corners of his mouth couldn't help but rise slightly again, with a smile on his face, as if everything was under control.

Meng Chong brought his men and moved all these memorials to the Tongzhengsi.

The officials in the Ministry of Public Administration were also greatly surprised when they saw Meng Chong bringing back all the memorials persuading the emperor to ascend the throne.

"What's wrong, father-in-law?"

The officials of the Tongzhengsi nervously surrounded Meng Chong. Meng Chong looked at them and sighed, "The prince said that I am not worthy of this important task, so he asked you to stop trying to persuade me to come in."

As a result, when the officials of the Ministry of Public Security heard this, they were immediately furious.

"How can this be possible? The crown prince ascends the throne, which is a filial duty for Your Majesty! How can we not persuade him to ascend the throne?"

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Ask for monthly ticket~~(End of this chapter)