in2ebook Chapter 260 Zhao Zhen, Missing His Son
Chapter 260 Zhao Zhen, Missing His Son
Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty
Zhu Gaochi had several servings of oysters on his table, and he was preparing to enjoy them after finishing his official duties!
But to his surprise, his dad, Judy, took everything! He even had the audacity to say it was for dieting!
Zhu Gaochi's vision went black; he had been abstaining from alcohol for so long!
I finally got to eat some meat, but Dad took it all away!
Ugh, I'm so annoyed, but he won't say anything!
I'll go to Zhanji's place to pick some up later! I remember he doesn't like these kinds of foods!
Zhu Zhanji: ? ? ? When did you say that!
……
Eating boundary line —
Studio.
"Let's talk about some gossip about Emperor Renzong of Song. Besides having a particularly good temper, he also really wanted to have a son, and many people know this."
Emperor Zhao Zhen, the greatest benevolent ruler of all time: ...
"It is a very serious problem for an emperor to have no son. It means that his future position will have to be given to an adopted son. So Emperor Renzong of Song was actually quite anxious."
"But the more he thought about it, the more his sons came knocking on his door!"
Emperor Zhao Kuangyin of the Song Dynasty: ? ? ? What's going on...?
According to the "Continuation of the Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government," in the second year of the Huangyou reign, a physician named Leng Qing claimed to be Emperor Renzong's child, and that his mother had been favored by the emperor in the inner palace and gave birth to him.
Leng Qing: Do you still remember that woman from the Yeting Palace?
Emperor Renzong of Song, Zhao Zhen: ...? ? ? ...
"As soon as this news came out, the gossip instincts of the Song people exploded, and the news instantly soared to the top of the list. It might even be the headline in their newspapers!"
"So, is this really true!?"
"First of all, Leng Qing is being widely publicized among the people. After attracting attention, he was arrested and interrogated. The person interrogating him was Qian Mingyi, but this man was even more thin-skinned than Leng Qing. He was frightened by a single sentence from Qian Mingyi!"
“You’re a prince and I’m a prince, how dare you make me kneel?” In the end, Leng Qing didn’t kneel. Qian Mingyi didn’t know if it was true or not, so he put Leng Qing under guard.
"When Emperor Renzong heard this news, he was mostly excited, after all, Zhao Zhen was really going crazy missing his son at this time!"
"The information we found also shows that Leng Qing's mother, Lady Wang, was indeed favored by Emperor Zhao Zhen, but she later left the palace. It's just unknown whether she gave birth to Leng Qing."
"Therefore, Zhao Zhen sent Zhao Gai and Bao Zheng to investigate the matter."
A spoiled young man from the Song Dynasty: There are two possibilities: either it's a prince, or it's not!
A Ming Dynasty soldier: You're talking nonsense!
A skilled farmer in the Tang Dynasty: It seems there were problems with the Zhao family's descendants later on!
A Qing Dynasty official said: "Didn't Miss Lin say that the wall was smeared with cinnabar, which is why she has difficulty having children?"
A bystander from the Han Dynasty: Horrible…
……
"In the following two years, the investigation was quite thorough. It was found that Wang was indeed favored by the emperor. After that, she left the palace and married a commoner surnamed Leng. However, her first child was a daughter, and her second child was a son."
"If she is really related to the emperor, then she is a daughter, not a prince."
"This Leng Qing was both highly skilled and daring. The whole Song Dynasty knew that Emperor Renzong was going crazy with worry for his son, but he boasted that he was his son. In the end, he didn't have a good ending, after all, he was trying to confuse the royal bloodline."
Emperor Zhao Kuangyin of the Song Dynasty: Be more careful!
The greatest benevolent ruler of all time (sighs): The founding emperor is right!
A bystander in the Ming Dynasty: They already know, so they're trying to scam people! Hahahaha! How outrageous!
In another timeline, Emperor Renzong of Song, Zhao Zhen, sighed, feeling heartbroken at the thought of this matter!
He never imagined that anyone would be so audacious as to deceive the royal family!
……
In the live broadcast room.
"Let's also talk about Emperor Renzong's daughter, Princess Fukang. Actually, for Emperor Renzong, few of his children, regardless of gender, survived to adulthood."
"No matter how you look at it, it's still pretty scary, but the princesses of the Zhao family all had tragic endings."
"Perhaps it was related to a regulation in the Song Dynasty at that time. In order to prevent the power of court officials from becoming too great, the husbands of princesses were usually officials with nominal or low-ranking positions."
“The son-in-law of the princess has a low rank and cannot be promoted or participate in court affairs, so people who want to make great achievements generally do not want to become a son-in-law.”
"But sometimes there's nothing you can do. If the emperor bestows a marriage upon you, can you refuse? Perhaps that's why the prince consorts take concubines as they please, unlike the princesses of the early Tang Dynasty."
"Take Princess Bao'an, the younger sister of Emperor Shenzong, for example. It is said that when she was ill, her husband Wang Shen was having an affair with a group of concubines. What's worse, those concubines even spoke rudely to the princess."
Princess Taiping of the Tang Dynasty: ...Wow, Song Dynasty princesses are so "tolerant"!? They've even danced right in front of us!!!
Emperor Shenzong of Song, Zhao Xu: ...! ?
A burly bystander from the Han Dynasty: Go ahead and beat him up!
"When Emperor Renzong first ascended the throne, he did not rule personally, but Empress Dowager Liu E acted as regent, which was a common practice in the Song Dynasty."
"His children have always been a source of anxiety for him. As a result, Princess Fukang, who grew up from a child to an adult, was greatly favored by Emperor Renzong. She was pampered in the first half of her life but suffered a tragic fate in the second half."
"If his younger brother hadn't died young, perhaps things wouldn't have turned out this way. However, most princesses in the Song Dynasty died young, but compared to the princesses during the Jingkang Incident, they were still considered lucky."
Emperor Zhao Kuangyin of the Song Dynasty (spitting blood in anger): ...
"One theory is that the Zhao family has a hereditary disease, but Princess Qingshou, as Fukang's half-sister, lived a very long life, which shows that the hereditary disease in the Zhao family is not due to a single cause."
"By the way, Princess Qingshou lived until after the Jingkang Incident, thus witnessing the demise of the Northern Song Dynasty, from the reign of Emperor Renzong to the reign of Emperor Huizong. Doesn't this mean that none of the emperors of the Northern Song Dynasty lived long lives?"
Emperor Zhao Zhen, the greatest benevolent ruler of all time: ...
Emperor Shenzong of Song, Zhao Xu: ...
A bystander in the Ming Dynasty commented: "They're all dying in their twenties or thirties, no wonder the dynasty changes so quickly!"
A Tang Dynasty official: It seems that premature death is a hereditary condition!!!
The Song Dynasty emperors in another timeline broke down; they couldn't get over their problem of dying young, could they?
But Princess Qingshou lived for so long, doesn't that mean the Zhao family isn't incapable of longevity?
Besides, Emperor Huizong of Song lived to be over fifty! That's not impossible!?
……
"Now, let's talk about the first half of Princess Fukang's life. As a daughter, Princess Fukang was very filial. For example, when Emperor Renzong was sick, the little princess prayed barefoot, hoping that her father would get well."
"After Fukang grew up, Emperor Renzong wanted to confer a title upon her, making her the Princess of Yan. However, this move was met with objections from the officials of the Northern Song Dynasty, who believed that it was inappropriate to confer a title upon only Princess Fukang, since no other princesses had been conferred such a title."
"However, Emperor Renzong was in a state of 'you say your thing, I'll do mine,' so the investiture ceremony was still held as scheduled."
"But after coming of age, the princess was to be married. However, the Li family that Emperor Renzong chose for Fukang involved an old matter."
"The prototype of the folk tale 'The Prince Replaced by a Civet Cat' is Emperor Renzong. He regretted that he could not recognize his birth mother, Consort Li, before she passed away, so he tried to make amends to the Li family as much as he could."
"Besides giving money and official positions, Emperor Renzong thought of arranging a marriage within the royal family. So when Fukang was nine years old, Emperor Renzong arranged for Li Wei, the son of the princess's birth mother's younger brother, to be the princess's husband."
"By the way, they are not cousins. Li Wei is Emperor Renzong's cousin and Fukang's uncle. Fukang was also the first princess in the Song Dynasty to marry into a powerful family. Before her, most princesses married military officers and nobles."
"Perhaps Emperor Renzong also felt that Fukang could not possibly be too sad because of his maternal uncle's family, but in fact, Fukang's later marriage was not good, which was largely due to Emperor Renzong's arranged marriage."
Emperor Zhao Zhen, the greatest benevolent ruler of all time: !!!
An official from the Qin Dynasty said: Out of a sense of compensation, he married his daughter to his uncle's son, but the marriage ended in unhappiness.
A bystander from the Ming Dynasty exclaimed: "Holy crap, what a generational connection! The last woman to marry my uncle's child was Su Ba Niang!"
The optimist Su Dongpo: ...
A farming expert from the Ming Dynasty: Even if we want compensation, can't we get something else in return?!
……
"Soon after, Fukang grew up and married in August of the second year of the Jiayou era, just one month after she had been officially appointed to a high position."
"But Emperor Renzong truly didn't know that he was doing it to glorify the Li family, or that he genuinely loved his daughter. In any case, the wedding was very grand, and the dowry was extremely generous."
"It is clear that Emperor Renzong himself was very happy to facilitate this marriage, but the History of Song records that he was ugly and simple-minded, which Fukang did not like. Simply put, he was a looks-obsessed person."
"Perhaps she herself didn't want this consort at all, but Emperor Renzong arranged it all. However, Fukang didn't like Li Wei's appearance, so it was difficult for him to continue the relationship. Therefore, the later changes in their marriage were normal."
"Thus, in the fifth year of the Jiayou era, Fukang and the eunuch Liang Huaiji were drinking under the moon when they were discovered by Li Wei's mother, Lady Yang."
"The historical records say that she spied on him, and a conflict arose between them. In the end, the princess got angry and hit her mother-in-law. Afterwards, perhaps feeling that she could not stay any longer, the incident of knocking on the palace gate at night occurred that night."
"To be honest, if you really don't like someone just because of their appearance, it's really hard to get along with them. But Emperor Renzong was really determined. However, the incident of knocking on the palace gate at night turned into a matter of state. The princess's eunuchs were all replaced from head to toe, and Li Wei was also fined copper."
"But Emperor Renzong did not expect that Fukang would hate Li Wei so much. He originally wanted the two of them to live a good life, but Fukang committed suicide and set fires one after another, so Emperor Renzong had no choice but to transfer Liang Huaiji back to the princess's side."
"As we live more than a thousand years later, we don't know what the princess went through back then, or whether she truly loved Liang Huaiji. But judging from her several attempts to commit suicide, she was extremely disgusted with this marriage, and the root cause was Emperor Renzong's arbitral arrangement!" (To be continued)