The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 318: The Mystery of the Demonic Book
Imperial Noble Consort Qin Lan is pregnant again, and it's another little princess.

This was indeed a big surprise for Wanli.

He really likes the little princess because she is well-behaved and cute, and she is so warm to look at.

Of course, it wasn't that he disliked the prince.

He also doted on his eldest son Zhu Changluo and second son Zhu Changxi, but he did not hold them in his arms as often as he would a little princess. In other matters, he deferred to his two sons.

Zhu Changluo wanted to learn martial arts, so he asked Li Xuancheng and Wu Yan to teach him carefully.

This kid wanted to be a general, so he ordered people to teach him military tactics instead of the Four Books and Five Classics!
Zhu Changxu was still young and liked to play, so he asked people to accompany him everywhere and let him play however he wanted.

Fortunately, the biological mothers of these two princes had no ambitions and did not think of letting their sons compete for the throne.

At this time, the harem was still warm and there was no intrigue.

However, the fact that Queen Wang had never given birth to a legitimate son was always a hidden danger.

Now that Imperial Noble Consort Qin Lan was pregnant again, he simply stayed with Queen Wang every day to help her make the baby.

As for conquering the Northern Tartars, there is no need to think about it this year.

There was no way he could save up enough money to give out military rewards.

He even had no money to expand the navy and border troops.

He could only convert as many of the existing infantry in the Nine Frontiers as possible into cavalry.

Now they produce more than 80,000 war horses a year, so it will be no problem to expand the Nine Border Cavalry to 30,000 this year.

With more cavalry, it will be easier to conquer the Northern Tartars in the future. The conquered territories can be directly guarded by the cavalry, and there is no need to waste time and effort building cities and fortresses.

The key now is to make money, and if you want to make enough money you must grab overseas business.

He was quietly preparing supplies to build a giant ocean-going ship.

The Zhejiang Party also seemed to be secretly discussing how to deal with his crazy expansion of the navy.

So, what tricks will these guys use?
In March, the weather gradually became warmer, and the belly of Imperial Noble Consort Qin Lan slowly grew bigger. Wanli was busy making a baby with Queen Wang.

The court seemed unusually calm, with nothing major happening, but in fact, there were undercurrents surging and the situation was fierce.

With Wanli's secret support, Donglin controlled the selection and appointment of officials. The Qingliu swarmed in and attacked the officials promoted by Shen Yikuan.

Shen Yikuan was naturally not polite either. If there was any problem with the clean officials, he would order his people to hold on to it and fight to the death.

However, the situation has reversed now. No matter whether it is the clean stream or the Zhejiang Party officials who are bitten, the ones who are promoted will definitely be the clean stream.

Therefore, the Qingliu party bit more and more, and the Donglin party's appeal among the Qingliu party became stronger and stronger, while the Zhejiang party bit less and less, and no one knew how much of Shen Yiquan's confidants had been bitten off.

In fact, Wanli wanted to use Qingliu and Donglin to suppress the Zhejiang Party so that the Zhejiang Party would have no time to care about him as the emperor.

Unexpectedly, even with the quarrels in the court getting so intense, someone still secretly attacked him.

Early in the morning at about noon, he was humming an unknown tune with a contented look on his face as he prepared to go to the imperial study to review memorials.

Luo Sigong was actually standing respectfully at the door of the imperial study, waiting.

After the emperor and his minister exchanged greetings, he waved his hand and ushered him into the imperial study. He sat down steadily again and then asked, "What's wrong? What happened?"

Luo Sigong quickly pulled out a book from his bosom, bowed and handed it over, and said carefully: "Your Majesty, I think there seems to be something wrong with this book."

Upon hearing this, Wanli took it and looked at it, feeling puzzled.

What could be wrong with this book?

This book, titled "Gui Fan," was written by Lü Kun, the current Shanxi Provincial Surveillance Commissioner. It describes famous heroines throughout history, aiming to provide examples for women in the boudoir. To put it bluntly, it teaches women in the boudoir to be noble ladies, chaste and heroic, and not to be resentful women in the boudoir.

Lu Kun's writing skills are quite good, and the stories he wrote are also quite attractive. It is quite good for girls to read when they are bored.

Wanli took a quick look at the characters and stories in the book, then asked, "This book is pretty good. Why do you think there's something wrong with it?"

Luo Sigong explained carefully, "Your Majesty, this book is very popular in the capital now. Officials in their families who have daughters or wives who can read and write almost all have a copy."

This is an attempt to manipulate public opinion!
The thing is, there's nothing wrong with this book.

So why did someone secretly promote this book so widely and make it so famous?
Wanli thought about it carefully, then asked, "Have you checked this Lü Kun? Is there anything wrong?"

Luo Sigong nodded repeatedly and said, "I have checked with Lu Kun. He was a Jinshi in the second year of the Wanli reign, ranked 50th in the third class, and was from Ningling County, Guide Prefecture, Henan Province. He was first appointed as the magistrate of Xiangyuan County, Lu'an Prefecture, Shanxi Province, and later the magistrate of Datong County, Datong Prefecture. Due to his outstanding political achievements, he was promoted to the Director of the Ministry of Personnel, and later to the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, the Right Counselor of the Shandong Provincial Administration Commission, and the Censor of the Shanxi Provincial Surveillance Commission.

This man had a good reputation as an official and enjoyed writing books, which were quite famous. He lived off the income from his writings, and used almost all of his official salary to help the poor.

There seems to be nothing wrong with Lu Kun. His path to promotion is quite normal. He served two terms as a seventh-rank county magistrate before being promoted to a sixth-rank official. He was promoted step by step because of his outstanding political achievements. It seems a bit fast for him to be promoted to a third-rank provincial judge after sixteen years of service, but the provincial judge is a local official and cannot be compared with the vice ministers of the six ministries.

If we have to say there is a problem, it is that this guy served as county magistrate in Shanxi for both terms. However, it cannot be said that officials who have been to Shanxi are involved with the three major families in Puzhou. When someone is sent to serve as a county magistrate, he cannot control where he goes.

As for using almost all of the salary earned as an official to help the poor people, can you say that there is something wrong with that?

It is rare in the world for an official to be able to do this. If this guy has no other source of income, there would definitely be something wrong with doing this. However, he can support himself with the income from writing books.

This further proves that there is nothing wrong with Lu Kun. If he had other improper sources of income, how could he make money by writing books to support himself?
There is nothing wrong with Lu Kun, and there is nothing wrong with the book, so what is the problem?

No, it’s the case of the evil book!

Wanli thought about it carefully for a long time and finally remembered it.

This is a famous case of the evil book in history!
The reason why he didn't react immediately was because "Gui Fan" was not a demonic book.

The name of the evil book is very strange, so strange that he can't even remember what it is called. This "Gui Fan" is definitely not a evil book, but the evil book case seems to be involved in a normal book.

The case of the evil book in history seems to be shrouded in mystery. Even who wrote the evil book and who spread it have not been found out.

In fact, someone deliberately did not check or even deliberately misled others!
In history, when the evil book case happened, Shen Yikuan was the chief minister of the cabinet, and the Zhejiang Party was at its peak in the court.

Such a simple case cannot be solved, the reason is obvious, because the Zhejiang Party is involved in the evil book case!

It is even possible that the evil book was written by the Zhejiang Party and deliberately spread everywhere!
This can be seen from the people targeted in the Demonic Book Case. The Zhejiang Party used the Demonic Book Case to implicate their political enemies Shen Li and Zhu Geng!

Shen Li and Zhu Geng were confused at the time. Doing so would not benefit them at all, and there was no need for them to spread the evil book everywhere.

If we infer that whoever benefits from it is the mastermind behind the scenes, then the evil book was written by the Zhejiang Party and was deliberately spread everywhere!
Now it seems that the Zhejiang Party wants to play the evil book case with him again.

The news that Imperial Concubine Qin Lan is pregnant must have spread.

After all, so much time has passed, and Imperial Concubine Qin Lan's belly is obviously a little bulging. Outsiders can see it at a glance, and Imperial Concubine Qin Lan did not deliberately hide it.

The Zhejiang Party has been discussing this for so long, and it is probably still trying to use the evil book to reignite the dispute over the foundation of the country, while at the same time making false accusations and attacking the Qingliu.

Lu Kun was obviously a clean official, the cleanest among the clean officials. Few of the clean officials would use all their salaries to help the poor people.

These guys used Lu Kun's book "Gui Fan" to make a fuss and publish a demonic book, and they wanted to lead the demonic book to Qingliu.

Okay, you guys play, I'll just watch you guys bite each other and won't leave, let's see what tricks you can come up with.

Wanli thought about it carefully, then said, "There will definitely be a follow-up to this matter. 'Gui Fan' isn't the main point, the follow-up is. Keep a close eye on it. If anyone uses 'Gui Fan' to make a fuss, report it immediately."

Upon hearing this, Luo Sigong quickly bowed and said, "Your humble servant understands."

(End of this chapter)