Ming Jiajing: Starting from Immortality

Chapter 331 The imperial concubine gave birth to a son, double happiness!
Ming Dynasty, capital.

The five cabinet elders, Gao Gong, Hu Zongxian, Li Chunfang, Hai Rui and Zhu Heng, met the emperor in the Forbidden City.

Just like the last time a major event occurred in Europe, when the Kingdom of France offered an audience with the Spanish Empire, several months later, Imperial Concubine Xiao was about to give birth.

As the matter concerned the heir to the throne, the emperor returned to the Forbidden City, but within the court, the attention paid to him was obviously not as great as that to the empress's childbirth.

There is only one step between the empress and the imperial concubine, but their situations are completely different.

The empress is the emperor's wife and the head of the harem. Her status is equal to that of the emperor in the previous dynasty, and she is the mother of the country.

The Imperial Noble Consort was the one with the highest status among the emperor's concubines, higher than other concubines but always lower than the empress.

The empress is the emperor's legitimate wife, and the princes she gave birth to are legitimate princes. In the orthodox succession system of "establishing the legitimate son rather than a concubine's son, and establishing the eldest son rather than the most talented one", she has an absolute advantage.

The Imperial Noble Consort is the highest rank among the emperor's concubines, equivalent to the Vice Queen. But that is only an equivalent. The princes born to her and the princes born to other concubines are all illegitimate, and their status is always lower than that of the legitimate princes.

The Queen commands the harem and manages all its affairs, while the Imperial Noble Consort can only manage the harem on behalf of the Queen only when the Queen is absent or inconvenient.

Just like before, the queen was late in pregnancy, so all the affairs of the harem, big and small, were temporarily handed over to Imperial Noble Consort Shen.

In terms of clothing, the empress, like the emperor, could wear bright yellow clothing, and her crown was inlaid with 320 pearls. However, the imperial concubine could only wear golden clothing, and her crown was inlaid with no more than 192 pearls.

The Empress' annual salary was one thousand taels, and the Imperial Noble Consort's annual salary was eight hundred taels.

The death of an empress is called "beng" and her funeral specifications are the same as those of the emperor. She can be buried together with the emperor in the imperial palace. The death of an imperial concubine is called "hong" and her funeral specifications are lower than those of the empress. She is often buried in the concubine's garden tomb.

The two deceased empresses, the Emperor's original wives, Empress Xiaojiesu Chen and Empress Xiaolie Fang, are buried in the auspicious soil of Yongling.

If the current queen had not been deposed, she would have been buried in the auspicious soil of Yongling Mausoleum, but Imperial Noble Consort Xiao would most likely be buried in the Concubine Garden Tomb.

In addition, the most special aspect of the empress is that she can receive congratulations from all officials together with the emperor, and has the empress's seal which is almost the same as the imperial seal. Although Emperor Taizu Gao stipulated that "the harem should not interfere in politics", the empress has the legal power to handle government affairs alone. The edict issued by the emperor is the imperial decree, while the edict issued by the empress is the imperial decree.

But the Imperial Concubine did not have any of this power.

Therefore, the civil and military officials had a lukewarm reaction to Noble Consort Xiao's childbirth. Even if a prince was born, he would be a bastard's son.

Before this, eight legitimate and illegitimate princes had been born in the Ming Dynasty. The only ones left were two illegitimate princes, namely, the deposed Prince Yu Zhu Zaihou and the Prince Jing Zhu Zaizhen.

In terms of whether he was legitimate or illegitimate, the prince born to Imperial Noble Consort Xiao was a illegitimate prince. In terms of seniority, not to mention the deposed Prince Yu, Prince Jing was still active in the southern part of the Ming Dynasty.

She was neither the eldest nor the legitimate daughter, and it was unknown whether she was virtuous or not. Both Imperial Noble Consort Xiao and the Empress were daughters of common people. When the Empress gave birth, countless people inside and outside the court tried to curry favor with her. If it weren't for the big mistake made by the Emperor's father-in-law and his brother-in-law, even if the Empress gave birth to Princess Taiping, a marquis of the Ming Dynasty would have been born.

But when Imperial Noble Consort Xiao gave birth, there was no sign of anyone from the imperial court to the local governments trying to curry favor with the Xiao family.

Speaking of reality, there is probably no officialdom in this world more realistic than this.

When people leave, the tea gets cold. In the officialdom, sometimes the tea gets cold before people even leave.

The delivery of Imperial Noble Consort Xiao was much smoother than that of the Empress. While the ministers were still walking in the Forbidden City, they heard the eunuchs and palace maids shouting in praise, "Imperial Consort Xiao has given birth to a dragon son."

The ministers couldn't help but pause for a moment, feeling happy but also a little complicated.

No matter what, the Ming Dynasty has one more prince. When the emperor passes away in the future, the throne will not have to be chosen between Fei Yu Wang and Jing Wang. There will be one more choice.

What’s complicated is that it would have been great if the long-awaited legitimate son had been born a few months ago.

"Prince Fu, you can leave the capital and go to your fiefdom now," Hai Rui said.

Gao, Hu, Li and Zhu were all stunned. They almost forgot that after Prince Jing Zhu Zaizhen was first exiled and Prince Yu Zhu Zaihou was deposed and exiled, their son, Zhu Yijun, who was also the emperor's grandson, was forced to stay in the capital in case of any emergency.

She initially lived in Hai Rui's mansion, and after being crowned king, she moved back to the former Prince Yu's mansion, now Prince Fu's mansion. Hai Rui and Concubine Li agreed that their children would become in-laws.

In the blink of an eye, Prince Fu Zhu Yijun was almost four years old. He was a precocious child in the royal family and was said to be a smart child.

When Imperial Noble Consort Xiao gave birth to a child, everyone was in a complicated and no one was paying attention. Hai Rui was the first to think of his prince son-in-law.

The capital city is a cage, at least that's the case for Prince Fu Zhu Yijun. If he can jump out early, he can live one more day.

Gao Gong walked in the front, but his voice could be heard by Zhu Heng at the end. He said, "It is not necessary to rush the matter of Concubine Xiao giving birth to Prince Fu and leaving the capital to take up his fiefdom, right?"

As a traditional civil official, Gao Gong's idea was very simple. The more sons and grandsons of the emperor in Beijing, the better. On the one hand, the inheritance of the country would be assured. On the other hand, the fight for the throne has always been beneficial to the head of the civil officials. He could play both sides and take advantage of the situation.

This sinister intention was not hard to imagine. Hai Rui immediately retorted, "A few years ago, Yuanfu was the mainstay of Prince Yu's palace. Later, because of Yan Song and Xu Jie, he broke off his friendship with the former Prince Yu Zhu Zaihou and joined forces with the former cabinet chief minister Zhang Juzheng to overthrow Yan and Xu. As a result, the former Prince Yu was desperate and went astray. The farce of the son forcing his father to leave the palace was staged. Prince Yu was deposed and expelled, and Prince Fu stayed in Beijing for several years as the head of the country. Could it be that Yuanfu, remembering the old friendship, wants to help the emperor's grandson ascend to the throne?"

Heart-piercing words.

Not to mention that Prince Fu had no possibility of inheriting the throne, even if he was made the crown prince, Gao Gong in the court and Zhang Juzheng in the opposition would be restless day and night. After all, Zhu Zaihou's failure in forcing the emperor to abdicate and his being deposed and exiled were also a result of the efforts of these two pillars of the country.

Prince Fu had lived in the Hai family since shortly after he was born. He was influenced by Hai's mother and taught by Hai Rui. Despite his young age, the words "king and father" had already been deeply rooted in his heart.

"There is no ruler or father in the world who is not wrong" is the most common saying of Yan Song, Xu Jie, Zhang Juzheng, and Gao Gong, especially Yan Song's cabinet. But it is said, but it may not be true.

Hai Rui believed that "kings and fathers can also make mistakes", but his words came from the bottom of his heart and were sincere and filial.

If Prince Fu Zhu Yijun becomes the crown prince and then the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, he will certainly welcome back the deposed Prince Yu and honor him as the emperor emeritus. At that time, if a counterattack is launched, he and Zhang Juzheng will surely be killed without a burial place.

It is absolutely impossible to assist the emperor's grandson to ascend to the throne!
He was unwilling to help someone get to the top, but he kept him in Beijing. If he continued to talk, the word "shameless" would be engraved on his head. Gao Gong closed his mouth silently.

Hu Zongxian, Li Chunfang and Zhu Heng kept an eye on the whole process and were not interested in the infighting among their colleagues or royal affairs.

Cining Palace, we’ve arrived.

There is a long and narrow square running east-west in front of the gate, with Yongkang Left Gate and Yongkang Right Gate at the two ends, and Changxin Gate on the south side.

The Cining Gate is located on the north side of the square, with a high platform corridor inside that connects to the main hall, the Cining Palace.

There are corridors on the east and west sides of the courtyard, which turn south to connect with the Cining Gate and go north to the east and west side rooms of the rear bedroom (i.e. the Great Buddha Hall).

In the palace, there were often sounds of chanting scriptures and worshiping Buddha to dispel the loneliness in the hearts of the concubines. Imperial Noble Consort Xiao lived here simply as a believer in Buddhism.

The common people were forbidden to enter the mountain gate, but in the palace, Taoism and Buddhism coexisted, and no one dared to say anything. There was a door in the middle of the east and west wings of the front yard, the east one was called Huiyin Left Gate, and the west one was called Huiyin Right Gate.

The main hall, Cining Palace, is in the center, with corridors in front and back and a double-eaved hip roof covered with yellow glazed tiles.

It is seven rooms wide, and the five rooms in the middle each have four double-intersecting four-bowl diamond-shaped lattice doors.

There is a brick wall between the two ends, each with four double-intersecting four-bowl diamond-shaped lattice windows.

There is a moon-shaped platform in front of the hall, with three steps on the front and one step on each side. There are four gilded bronze incense burners on the platform. There are checkpoints on the east and west sides, each with a hanging flower door leading to the backyard.

This palace was built in the 15th year of Jiajing's reign on the site of the former Renshou Palace, and was constructed by removing the Dashan Hall.

After the national selection of concubines, Imperial Noble Consort Xiao lived here, while another Imperial Noble Consort Wang, who was of the same sequence, moved into Ciqing Palace, which was renamed Qingning Palace.

The red walls and green tiles are truly magnificent.

Huang Jin, the eunuch in charge of the Imperial Household Department and the commander-in-chief of the Eastern Depot, led the five ministers into the Great Buddha Hall.

The couplet on the Great Buddha Hall reads "Life is never as perfect as you wish, just try to be half-hearted about everything."

This is the same couplet as that on the Lingyin Temple in Hangzhou. It seems that the temple that Noble Consort Xiao admired was Lingyin Temple.

Before the arrival of His Majesty, the ministers looked at the Tathagata in the Great Buddha Hall with great interest, looking kind and solemn.

"Ruxian (Hai Rui's pen name), left Nanping and started in Hangzhou. In your spare time, have you ever visited Lingyin Temple?" Li Chunfang looked at Hai Rui and asked.

In his Journey to the West, which is filled with battles between Taoism and Buddhism, it is inevitable that he would be interested in this thousand-year-old temple.

After the revision of Journey to the West was completed, Li Chunfang and his disciple Wu Cheng'en wanted to write another book of strange stories, whether for collection or as a legend.

After suffering the loss of Journey to the West, Li Chunfang did not plan to write about the background of the current dynasty. He planned to write about the past, ignoring the Yuan Dynasty and focusing on the Song Dynasty.

After seeing this couplet and thinking of Lingyin Temple, Li Chunfang had many more ideas in his mind.

This temple, which was first built in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, has a history of more than 1,200 years and is a famous Buddhist site.

According to legend, when the Indian monk Huili came here, he believed that Feilai Peak was the place where "immortals hid", so he built a temple facing the mountain and named it "Lingyin".

Later, Emperor Wu of Liang in the Southern Dynasties granted land for expansion. In the Fifth Dynasty, King Qian Liu of Wuyue ordered Master Yongming Yanshou to rebuild and develop the temple, and named it Lingyin New Temple.

By the Jiading period of Emperor Ningzong of the Song Dynasty, Lingyin Temple had become famous throughout the country and was known as one of the "Five Mountains" of Zen Buddhism in the south of the Yangtze River.

There seems to be a lot of room for ideas to be turned into a book.

"No." Hai Rui shook his head.

When he was in Hangzhou Prefecture, whether he was the magistrate of Chun'an County or the prefect of the state, he was always busy with government affairs, and even took the emperor's sword to kill people. Although he knew that there were some dirty things in the temple, it was not the place for him to take action.

Hai's wife was escorted down there by the Embroidered Uniform Guards. Not long after she started burning incense and praying to Buddha, she became pregnant. This was Hai Rui's son. Hai Rui did not believe in ghosts or gods, but his wife and mother were respectful to him. They planned to pay their respects to him again when Hai Rui retired or resigned from office and passed through Jiangnan.

Li Chunfang sighed and said, "It's boring."

People like Hai Rui, apart from the emperor and his father, are also the common people. Not only are they arrogant, they are totally insolent.

If Hai Rui were in the previous imperial court, he would never have been able to ascend to a high position, let alone enter the cabinet and become a prime minister. Even if he was promoted, he would be discarded after being used.

As an official, you should be humble and modest.

However, he could not say out loud what he was secretly complaining about. Hai Rui was far superior to him in terms of eloquence and ability. If he really wanted to debate in front of the Buddha, he would only bring humiliation upon himself.

After this little episode, Zhu Houcong comforted Concubine Xiao to sleep, saw the prince, and then came to the Great Buddha Hall.

The five ministers all raised their heads at the same time, looked into the emperor's eyes, and said happily, "Congratulations to His Majesty on the birth of a son. May God bless the Ming Dynasty!"

Welcoming the wedding as usual.

Zhu Houcong nodded and ordered: "After the cabinet returns, draft a king's title and a noble title and present them to the palace."

Hear the words.

The cabinet ministers were shocked.

There is no need to guess, you know that the title is given to Concubine Xiao's father. A daughter born by the Queen can be worthy of a marquis, and a son born by the Imperial Noble Concubine can at least be worthy of an earl.

A mere earldom that cannot be inherited means nothing to the cabinet and the court, so they just confer it.

But if I'm not mistaken, the title of king was given to the little prince. He was made a king as soon as he was born. This has no precedent in this dynasty, and if we trace it back, it can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty.

The title of king represented thirty thousand taels of silver with snowflake pattern a year, which was nothing. What it represented was the imperial favor, which made the ministers of the cabinet and the six ministries and nine departments frightened. Someone had to keep the stove hot again at the father of Imperial Noble Consort Xiao.

"The minister obeys the order!"

Gao Gong took the lead in receiving the order.

Within a year, he had a daughter and a son. Zhu Houcong was delighted. When he looked at the cabinet ministers, for the first time he did not feel hostile towards them. He asked, "What does the cabinet want to see you about?"

"Your Majesty, news has come from the South Asian subcontinent: a great victory in the battle of Rajputana!"

Gao Gong immediately reported it to the emperor, and for the first time used a battle to clearly indicate the Ming Dynasty's foreign wars.

Gao Gong continued, "Your Majesty, the old king Chonggu led more than 200,000 naval soldiers to fight against the 800,000 elite troops led by the new Mughal emperor Kusro in a vast area centered on the border between Malwa and Rajputana.

In this battle, the Peacock Legion of the Mughal Empire, the Royal Guards, and six other legions totaling more than 350,000 people were completely wiped out. The Mughal Empire's army fled on a large scale, and complete defeat was inevitable..."

To a certain extent, the organized army of the Mughal Empire was not even as good as the Ashes Army. A large number of Brahmin Kshatriya officers were mixed in the army. In order to survive, they took the lead in fleeing. What was originally just the failure of one army or one place directly led to the failure of the entire army.

"So far, the elite corps of the Mughal army in Rajputana has been almost completely lost, and the vast area north of the middle and lower reaches of the Ganges has been captured by the army led by the old king Chonggu. The Mughal capital of Delhi is under direct threat from our navy. Kusro fled back to the capital, but the rule of the Mughal Empire is increasingly falling apart. Countless Brahmans and Kshatriya nobles have fled the capital. The Mughal Empire, which belonged to the Babur Dynasty, is about to end..."

(End of this chapter)