Ming Dynasty: A mere unruly commoner is rebelling against the heaven?

Chapter 312 The first troublemaker in Ming Dynasty is born!

"I...I don't have much impression of her. There are so many maids in Jingren Palace, and I don't know every one of them..."

Chen Yuanyuan lowered her head, her eyes somewhat evasive, and her hands unconsciously clasped across her chest.

Zhu Youtang stared at Chen Yuanyuan for a while, then turned his gaze to Gu Hengbo's face: "What about you? What do you think about Qinghe's death?"

A trace of panic flashed across Gu Hengbo's face. She quickly knelt down and lowered her head, her voice trembling a little: "Your servant... Your servant..."

Zhu Youtang just sat there, not saying anything, his expression normal.

But for some reason, Gu Hengbo just couldn't bring himself to say anything deceiving.

Zhu Youtang did not urge her, but just sat there quietly, waiting for a reply.

The next moment, it was Chen Yuanyuan who stood up from her seat and knelt in front of Zhu Youtang.

"Your Majesty, I am guilty!"

"Qing He, it is...it is this person that I want to kill..."

Zhu Youtang was not surprised to hear Chen Yuanyuan's words. In fact, he had expected it.

The death of a maid was nothing in Zhu Youtang's mind, but what he needed to know was what had happened that made Chen Yuanyuan decide to kill her!
Zhu Youtang looked at the two people kneeling in front of him and had no intention of letting them get up.

"She is a maid, and you have no grudge against her in the past or in the present. Why did you kill her?"

"If she didn't serve well, she could have just replaced her with someone else. Why take her life?"

"Because...because..."

Chen Yuanyuan raised her head, her face was already wet with tears.

"Qing He, she colluded with officials from outside the court without authorization!"

Upon hearing that Qinghe's death actually involved collusion between internal and external forces, Zhu Youtang narrowed his eyes slightly.

Afterwards, Chen Yuanyuan told Zhu Youtang everything that had happened before, in detail.

He told Zhu Youtang everything, including what Qinghe had said to him that day and where Qinghe had got the news.

"I know your majesty very well that you hate collusion between the inside and the outside, but I am afraid that your majesty will suspect that Jingren Palace is also involved."

"So... that's why I resorted to this desperate measure, trying to keep this matter secret."

"Your Majesty, please forgive me. If you want to punish me, please only punish me. Hengbo was only following my orders. She is innocent."

After hearing this, Zhu Youtang was a little surprised.

Unexpectedly, he cleared out all the spies in the palace, but there were still so many people with rebellious intentions among the officials in the outer court.

The most important thing is that just ten taels of silver can impress a maid and let her pass the news outside the palace into the palace.

He still hasn't done a good job of isolating the people inside and outside the palace.

But now, Zhu Youtang is most concerned about another thing.

Zhu Youtang looked at Chen Yuanyuan's face and said calmly, "Concubine Ning, what are you going to do now?"

Chen Yuanyuan asked in confusion: "Ah? What should I do?"

"I have done something wrong. Your Majesty will punish me whatever I want. Besides that, what else can I do?"

Zhu Youtang raised his eyebrows: "Aren't you going to plead for Zhang Wenshao?"

Chen Yuanyuan lowered her head and said, "The harem cannot interfere in the affairs of the imperial court. I dare not say anything."

After Chen Yuanyuan finished speaking, the room fell into silence for a moment.

And this period of silence was the most difficult time for Chen Yuanyuan.

One second seems as long as a century.

Finally, Zhu Youtang stood up, walked to Chen Yuanyuan and stretched out his hands.

"Very good, I will take care of this matter, you get up first."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Chen Yuanyuan reached out, held Zhu Youtang's hands, and stood up.

This seemingly tense event passed so calmly.

That night, Zhu Youtang wrote back to Gao Shun.

A few days later, Gao Shun received Zhu Youtang's handwritten letter.

When I opened it, there was only one word inside: kill.

Gao Shun closed the letter and immediately ordered: "Go, send some people to behead Zhang Wenshao and his family."

"Yes, my lord!"

Gao Shun's adjutant showed no surprise at this order.

In Suzhou, many people died, so one more is not a big deal.

When a whole team of soldiers from the Xianzhen Camp walked into the villa where Zhang Wenshao was.

Soon a painful wail was heard in the yard, and when the screams died down, the yard returned to peace.

In the city of Suzhou, only one official died, a fake relative of the emperor who tried to collude with the palace.

……

After that, the purge movement in Jiangnan was carried out unimpeded throughout the region.

Without the unified command of Nanjing, various parts of Jiangnan were unable to organize an effective counterattack.

In just two months, Gao Shun's army had cleared the three areas of Jiangnan.

All the landlords and gentry who should be killed were killed.

The land that should be distributed to the people was also distributed.

All that remained was to wait for the team led by Wang Yan and Yang Jizong to survey the farmland in the south of the Yangtze River.

Time slowly passed through midsummer and arrived at early autumn.

And during these two months, a major event happened in the palace.

……

Forbidden City, Xianfu Palace.

Tonight, the Xianfu Palace is brightly lit.

A large number of palace maids and eunuchs were moving around in the Xianfu Palace with nervous expressions. Some of them were carrying hot water, and some were holding clean silk.

Upon closer inspection, some of the hot water was filled with blood.

As for the serious-looking palace maids and eunuchs, besides nervousness, there was also a hint of joy and anticipation on their faces.

At this busy time, Zhu Youtang also sat on the dragon throne and drove to Xianfu Palace.

As soon as the dragon chariot stopped, Zhu Youtang hurriedly got off the chariot and walked into the Xianfu Palace impatiently.

When they saw Zhu Youtang, all the palace maids and eunuchs in the courtyard would kneel down and pay their respects to him.

"Slave, I greet your Majesty."

Zhu Youtang waved his hand, interrupting their salute.

"Okay, get up, and go do your own things."

Zhu Youtang arrived beside the Jiangyun Palace, where many imperial doctors from the Imperial Medical Bureau were already gathered.

At the same time, Zhang Wan'er's cries of pain could be heard from the Jiangyun Palace from time to time.

If there is any accident inside, they can provide timely rescue.

"What's going on inside now?"

Zhu Youtang looked extremely anxious, his eyes fixed on the tightly closed door. Fu Dahai, who was waiting outside, quickly replied, "Your Majesty, the midwife has gone in, and the mother and child are both fine. But Your Majesty needs to wait a little longer."

Zhu Youtang's eyebrows were filled with worry: "Didn't the Imperial Hospital say that I have to wait until next month to give birth?"

"How could it become so sudden? Is it dangerous?"

In the crowd, Doctor Tian, ​​who had been in charge of Zhang Wan'er, took two steps forward with obvious nervousness on his face.

"Your Majesty, this delivery date is just a rough estimate. It is normal to be earlier or later. Your Majesty does not need to worry too much."

Zhu Youtang nodded and said no more, but his brows were still frowned.

Fu Dahai said quickly, "Your Majesty, we are waiting here. Your Majesty can take a rest nearby."

"As soon as there is any movement, we will report it to His Majesty immediately."

Zhu Youtang stood outside the door for a while before saying, "Okay."

Afterwards, Zhu Youtang sat down on a stone chair in the courtyard of Xianfu Palace and waited patiently.

The palace maids and eunuchs who came and went were in a hurry, but fortunately no accidents happened.

Half an hour later, as a loud baby cry was heard in the room, everyone in the Xianfu Palace looked relieved.

Zhu Youtang stood up excitedly and walked quickly towards the Jiangyun Palace.

Just then, an elderly midwife walked out of the Jiangyun Palace holding a swaddled baby.

When she saw Zhu Youtang wearing the dragon robe, she immediately knelt down before him and raised the baby in her hands high above her head.

"Congratulations, Your Majesty, on the birth of your prince!"

"Prince?!"

Zhu Youtang stretched out his hand and gently took the swaddled baby from the midwife's hands.

What he didn't notice was that his hands were shaking slightly due to excitement.

After holding his own child, Zhu Youtang looked at the baby in his arms.

The baby had a wrinkled face, his eyes were not open, his mouth was wide open, and he was crying with all his might.

Zhu Youtang reached out his hand, pushed aside the expensive and soft silk on the baby's body, and discovered that his first heir was indeed a prince.

Immediately afterwards, everyone in Xianfu Palace knelt down and shouted loud congratulations: "Congratulations, Your Majesty, on the birth of your prince!"

Zhu Youtang laughed joyfully: "Okay, okay, I will reward everyone present here, huge rewards!"

After hearing Zhu Youtang's words, everyone present cheered from the bottom of their hearts.

Zhu Youtang hugged the baby tightly in his arms and walked quickly into the Jiangyun Palace.

On the bed, Zhang Wan'er, with a pale face, saw Zhu Youtang and the baby in his arms, and a smile appeared on her face.

"Your Majesty, our child..."

"Shufei, it's a prince, take a look."

Zhu Youtang walked over quickly and placed the prince in his hand in front of Zhang Wan'er.

Zhang Wan'er looked at the prince crying loudly in her arms, and the smile on her face deepened.

After she stretched out her hand and teased him for a while, tears suddenly flowed from her eyes.

The difficulty of ten months of pregnancy, the joy of being a mother for the first time, and most importantly, the child she gave birth to was a prince.

All these efforts have paid off.

Zhu Youtang held the child in his arms. He already had an idea about his name.

After Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang established his rule over the country, he gave each of his princes a set of twenty-character generation names.

The generation names of the fourth brother Zhu Di's lineage are Gaozhan Qi Jianyou, Houzai Yi Changyou.

And according to the order of the five elements of gold, wood, water, fire and earth, the corresponding five elements radicals should be added to the last character.

Zhu Di himself has a wood radical, so according to the order of wood giving birth to fire, his son’s name should be a fire radical.

The name of Emperor Renzong was Zhu Gaochi.

The Zhu family's naming rules lasted strictly for two hundred and seventy-six years during the Daming period.

Except for Zhu Yuanzhang's eldest son and grandson Zhu Xiongying, who was born too early and did not catch up with this rule.

All other descendants were named according to this rule.

It is worth mentioning that it was for this reason that in the late Ming Dynasty, many descendants of the Zhu family could not find corresponding characters with five elements radicals, so they simply created their own characters.

Especially those descendants of the Zhu family whose turn it was to take a name with a gold radical, simply added a gold radical to commonly used characters in daily life to force the name to conform to this standard.

In the end, a lot of rare characters were created, such as "radium", "chromium", "niobium", "sodium", "cobalt", "palladium", "samarium", "zinc", "polonium", "titanium", etc.

In modern times, when scientist Xu Shou was translating the periodic table of elements, these Chinese characters with metal radicals in the genealogy of the Ming Dynasty royal family came in handy.

He used a large number of these rare characters with the "gold" radical as the translations of chemical elements, making the translation of these characters more in line with the cultural and phonetic characteristics of Chinese characters.

This can be considered as a small contribution made by the descendants of the Ming Dynasty to the development of later generations.

In Zhu Youtang's lineage, his father Zhu Jianshen was of the water element, and water gives birth to wood, so he was named Zhu Youtang.

Wood produces fire, so his sons should be named Hou, which has the radical "fire".

"Just call him Zhu Houzhao."

Zhu Youtang said so.

Many people are confused about Zhu Houzhao's name. Obviously, the word "Zhao" does not carry the character "popularity", so why is he still called this?
In fact, according to the records in Zhu Houzhao's enthronement edict, Zhu Houzhao's name was originally written as Zhu Hou.

The character "照" (zhao) does not have four dots at the bottom, but a character "火" (fire).

However, in the evolution of Chinese characters, the character for fire was simplified into a character with four dots on the bottom.

By the same token, the character "Xu" in the name of Zhu Di's second son, Zhu Gaoxu, was also a fire character in the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Youtang gave Zhu Houzhao a name on the spot, which made Zhang Wan'er extremely happy and she expressed her gratitude again and again.

"Thank you, Your Majesty, for the name Zhu Houzhao. It's a really good name."

Everyone in the field also had a smiling face.

However, the female official in charge of recording the palace history quickly knelt down and reminded in a low voice.

"Your Majesty, the prince is not even a hundred days old yet. Would it be inappropriate to rashly give him a name?"

Because the infant mortality rate was very high in ancient times, a baby would generally be officially given a name and included in the family tree only after he or she was 100 days old.

Zhu Youtang himself didn't have his own name until he was five or six years old.

It is very rare for someone like Zhu Houzhao to be given a name right after birth.

As the female official's words came out, the joyful atmosphere in the Jiangyun Palace suddenly stagnated.

Zhang Wan'er glared at the female official hatefully, her face full of dissatisfaction.

Isn't the female official saying that her prince might die young?
How can you talk like that?
But Zhu Youtang didn't care, he knew that this was just the duty of a female official.

Zhu Youtang just lowered his head and teased Zhu Houzhao in his arms with a faint smile on his face, but his words made everyone present feel cold in their hearts.

"No, my prince will not die young."

"If my prince dies young, all the children of officials in the capital will be buried with him."

This shocked everyone present.

The female official no longer hesitated and wrote down Zhu Houzhao's name in the daily records.

Just like that, the first stubborn leader of the Ming Dynasty was born!

(End of this chapter)