Ming Dynasty: Traveling through the harem, Zhu Yuanzhang was dumbfounded

Chapter 57: The 9-year-old eunuch

Chapter 57: The Eunuch Claiming to be Nine Thousand Years Old
Yang Chen’s answer left both Zhu Biao and Zhu Yuanzhang dumbfounded!

Emperor Chongzhen sounds like a shrewd and capable person.

Not only did he receive recognition from the previous emperor, but he was also decisive and had the courage to become the leader of a prosperous country.

Judging from the above points in the long history, it is considered an outstanding figure for the last king to have such magnanimity.

How many emperors began to pursue pleasure after ascending the throne, but Emperor Chongzhen not only did not do so, he also set a goal for himself.

At least from what he said, this was the impression the Zhu family had of Emperor Chongzhen.

Such an emperor, no matter how you look at it, should not be the last king.

But that’s who he is.

Zhu Biao had returned to his original position at this time. He approached Yang Chen and asked him carefully.

“Yang Chen, since you said my descendant is such a king, then how did the Ming Dynasty perish in his hands?”

“That’s right. I can’t figure it out either. You have to explain it to me in detail.”

Zhu Yuanzhang quickly followed his son and added, urging Yang Chen to tell the truth.

Seeing this, Yang Chen had no choice but to answer truthfully:
“Emperor Chongzhen is indeed as I described, but he is capable, not smart.

In fact, it is not his fault, because when the Ming Dynasty was passed on to him, the situation was already like the collapse of the Great Xia Dynasty, and it was not something that one person could stop.

It is not impossible to save it, provided that he has done nothing wrong since he ascended the throne, then the Ming Dynasty may still be saved.

In order to achieve such conditions, Emperor Chongzhen must have the decisive determination to kill and the sharp eye to judge the situation.

But he only has His Majesty’s killing power. No matter who you are, if you work under him and accomplish ten things, he will reward you well.

However, if you fail to do one thing, Emperor Chongzhen will think that you are deceiving him.

To put it bluntly, he is stubborn, self-righteous, and suspicious by nature, perfectly inheriting your shortcomings, Your Majesty.

Therefore, many officials were imprisoned even though they had made contributions, and many officials who were loyal to the Ming Dynasty even died unjustly in prison. “

Yang Chen’s remarks immediately made the father and son’s mouth twitch.

Zhu Di, who was standing in the corner, couldn’t help but stand up and complain.

“Brother, I really don’t know how to evaluate Emperor Chongzhen. How could your descendants be like this?”

“Let me tell you, if this behavior were put in the future, it would be described in five words: inexperienced and playful.

It’s strange to say, if a normal person followed his example, he would have gone crazy long ago, but Emperor Chongzhen was different. He attended court diligently, worked hard to govern the country, and constantly replaced officials.

The Ming Dynasty, which had already suffered so much, finally collapsed. “

The moment the last two words appeared, Zhu Biao felt his face blushing.

Although Zhu Xiongying passed away, Zhu Yunwen inherited the throne. Logically, he naturally subconsciously believed that Emperor Chongzhen would also be his descendant.

Zhu Yuanzhang, in front of everyone, had a gloomy face and stared at his son Zhu Biao with wide eyes.

He wanted to scold the other party’s descendants for being unfilial and not doing anything right, but when he thought carefully, if he scolded Zhu Biao, wouldn’t he be scolding himself as well?

Simply discussing bloodline, the person at the top is none other than Emperor Taizu.

The most important thing was that Empress Ma had once warned him not to yell at Zhu Biao, otherwise Empress Ma would find out.

The other party would definitely take Zhu Biao away from Yingtian Prefecture and return to Fengyang to retire. Then he would really live a lonely life in the palace. The embarrassed Zhu Biao dared not face his father’s gaze, especially when Zhu Di said that, he was even more ashamed.

He glared at Zhu Di and told him to shut up.

Now he finally understood why Yang Chen made Zhu Di worried from time to time.

Why didn’t he realize before that his younger brother really liked to speak at inappropriate times?

“Ahem, that’s all about future generations. How can I, a person who has lived for more than 200 years, control it?

Yang Chen, what was Chongzhen like at the time that he received such an evaluation? Please tell us in detail. “

In order to change the subject, Zhu Biao quickly asked Yang Chen to continue talking in detail.

Otherwise he really couldn’t stand being looked at strangely.

Yang Chen understood what Zhu Biao meant, so he immediately said:
“The situation during Chongzhen’s time was very complicated. Generally speaking, when he took over, the court had already been occupied by various forces.

For example, the Donglin Party, represented by the literati in the south of the Yangtze River, consisted of many officials who were ministers of important institutions. All of them were Confucian scholars with high moral character and claimed to be honest and upright officials.

But in reality, he is a treacherous minister who eats people without leaving any bones.

There are good people, but they are too few in number. So few that good people are sometimes ostracized and wronged by them, and end up being thrown in jail.

Apart from them, the rest such as Zhejiang Party, Qi Party, Chu Party, Xuan Party, Kun Party, etc. are all parties of literati.

The other party that opposed them was the eunuch party.

The eunuch party was the only force in the court at that time that could compete with these civil servant factions. When Emperor Chongzhen just took office, the number of eunuchs represented by Wei Zhongxian reached the legendary 100,000!
One hundred thousand eunuchs, just imagine what a huge burden this is. However, this is most likely fabricated by later generations, but the number of eunuchs is definitely not small.

Otherwise, Wei Zhongxian would not be called the Nine Thousand Years Old.”

Since ancient times, scenes of eunuchs ruling the country have been common.

In order to prevent such a situation from happening in his Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang specially established various laws targeting eunuchs in the Ming Dynasty’s ancestral precepts.

The purpose is to warn future generations to be cautious in using eunuchs, and even to prohibit eunuchs from participating in government affairs.

But he never expected that his descendants would allow a eunuch to be given the title of Nine Thousand Years Old.

You know, there have been records of eunuchs in China for a long time, ever since the dynasties began to be recorded. During this long period of time, no eunuch dared to be called the Nine Thousand Years Old while the emperor was still alive.

Even for such a foolish emperor as Qin II, Zhao Gao, as the mastermind behind the scenes, only dared to be arrogant in private.

On the surface, he still maintained a humble attitude towards Qin II.

He hated eunuchs deeply, but later generations allowed eunuchs’ power to reach its peak.

“Asshole! What on earth are our descendants doing for a living? Are we just going to let the eunuchs do whatever they want? If I were here, I would be the first one to kill Wei Zhongxian!”

Zhu Yuanzhang’s angry voice resounded throughout the Wenhua Hall.

His eyes were red with anger, which was enough to show how angry he was.

“Hey! Your Majesty, you really have foresight. As I said just now, Wei Zhongxian’s power reached its peak during the reign of Emperor Chongzhen, so after Emperor Chongzhen stabilized his throne.

The first decision he made was to kill Wei Zhongxian!

Quickly kill all the people under Wei Zhongxian’s control, leaving only the eunuchs who have no say.”

(End of this chapter)