The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 470 Song Yingxing

Dongfang Zhu has been feeling uneasy these days, always suspicious and frightened.

It wasn't because the eunuch, who had followed the Mino Guards and the Archbishop in slaughtering and plundering innocent officials and civilians, feared retribution for his actions, but rather because something had happened in the Qi harem. Dongfang Zhu, caught in the middle of it, was unable to escape and felt an increasing sense of impending danger.

Contrary to everyone's expectations, after Emperor Wuding Liu Zhaosun returned to Liaodong and defeated the anti-Qi alliance, he showed obvious alienation towards Empress Dowager Cisi.

In Liu Zhaosun, there is no trace of the joy and excitement of "a short separation is better than a new marriage", but instead there is an inexplicable sense of alienation and loneliness.

Later historians analyzed Emperor Taizu's actions during this period from various perspectives and explored Emperor Wuding's fickle psychology.

It could be that the retired emperor was dissatisfied with the arbitrary rule of powerful ministers such as Kang Yingqian, or it could be that the pillow talk from Chen Yuanyuan and Daphne worked.

In short, after the emperor defeated all his enemies and eliminated the threat to Shenyang, his feelings for the queen clearly faded, and he gradually became estranged from the little emperor.

Dongfang Zhu could no longer remember how long it had been since the emperor had asked the empress dowager to sleep with him.

In early August, the young emperor caught a fever and was bedridden. The retired emperor, contrary to his usual behavior, did not go to visit him, but continued to busy himself with his military and national affairs.

After a busy day, the emperor returned to his bedroom and drank with Amber, Azalea and Daphne until dawn, partying and having fun.

As one of the few men in the palace, Eunuch Dongfang not only assisted the retired emperor in reviewing memorials, but was also responsible for recording Taizu's daily life.

Dongfang Zhu followed the Empress Dowager like a tail, recording every word and action of the Emperor Dowager in great detail.

Which concubine does the emperor sleep with at night?

What does the emperor eat every day?
The Emperor's oral instructions to his ministers...

Everything must be recorded and documented for easy reference later.

Which empress or concubine the retired emperor sleeps with every night is the focus of the father-in-law's work. This concerns the royal bloodline, so he has to be extra careful.

Dongfang Zhu had long heard of the cruelty of the palace struggles, and the brutality of Emperor Wuding was obvious to all. The eunuch did not dare to be negligent in the slightest.

There were rumors in the palace that the retired emperor was extremely dissatisfied with Kang Yingqian's party and intended to depose the young emperor and establish another one.

Suddenly, the palace was in turmoil, and everyone was on edge. Dongfang Zhu traveled back and forth between Yongfu Palace and Linzhi Palace every day, running between the retired emperor and the empress dowager. If anything were to happen in the palace, as the middleman between the emperor and the empress, Dongfang Zhu would undoubtedly bear the brunt of the consequences.

~~~~~
Like Dongfang Zhu, many high-ranking officials of the Great Qi Empire were also in a state of constant anxiety.

Since the Great Purge, everyone has been walking on thin ice.

Kang Yingqian and Qiao Yiqi were imprisoned one after another, and Sun Chuanting and Wang Huazhen were also affected, so that old ministers such as Xu Guangqi used the excuse of old age and illness to not dare to attend the court in the morning.

The retired emperor was furious and used Xu Guangqi as a typical example of lazy and chaotic governance. After a series of criticisms, the 61-year-old Xu Guangqi suffered a stroke and became paralyzed the day after being imprisoned, and almost died in prison.

If this is the case with the big civil servants, let alone the small fry below them.

In this brutal purge, Liu Zhaosun dismissed one-third of the officials at all levels of Qi State, from the six ministries to the prefects and county magistrates in Liaodong and Shandong, from the military to the civil affairs. Those implicated completely lost their political lives and had no possibility of making a comeback.

A large number of talented people who emerged around the first year of Wuding were promoted out of turn and began to occupy important positions in the empire.

Policies such as "transforming the barbarians into Xia" and "taking the main road" had less impact on these emerging forces, and these people were more effective in implementing the new policies, so they were more favored by Emperor Wuding.

On the third day of August, when the purge was nearing its end, the emperor summoned Song Yingxing to Yongfu Palace.

Song Yingxing was implicated in the rebellion of his brother Song Yingsheng and was squeezed out of the core power layer of Kaiyuan during the Taichang period. His power plummeted and various factions avoided the Song family as much as possible. Yang Hao wanted to promote Song Yingxing during his lifetime. Kang Yinggan and Yang Hao were sworn enemies and both hated to kill each other, so Song Yingxing did not deal well with Kang Yinggan.

Later, Song Yingxing was exiled to Qinghe, where he lived a hard life for two years in a small town bordering the Jiannu.

Good fortune and misfortune go hand in hand. I don't know if it was because the emperor had forgotten about him, but this purge did not affect Song Zhizhou much. Song Yingxing was really lucky.

Liu Zhaosun looked at Song Yingxing carefully. After not seeing him for a few years, Song Yingxing looked much older, with gray hair and wrinkles on his face. He didn't look like a man in his forties at all.

"I heard that you found a fragment of this scroll near Wanggongchang?"

Song Yingxing originally thought that the emperor summoned him to discuss some military and national affairs, but he did not expect to ask about this matter. He hurriedly said:
"Your Majesty, it's not me, it's a soldier who brought it to Qinghe from Northern Zhili."

(End of this chapter)