This "carpenter emperor" passed away after only 23 years. Since Zhu Youxiao did not leave any descendants, he had to pass the throne to his younger brother. Before his death, Zhu Youxiao instructed his younger brother Zhu Youjian to treat his elder sister-in-law Zhang Yan well. S

The seventh year of the revelation of the Ming Dynasty, Ming Xizong Zhu Youxiao died in Qianqing Palace . The "carpenter emperor" passed away after only 23 years. Since Zhu Youxiao did not leave any descendants, he had to pass the throne to his younger brother. Before his death, Zhu Youxiao reminded his younger brother Zhu Youjian treat emperor sister-in-law Zhang Yan , So how did Zhu Youjian treat his 21-year-old emperor sister-in-law after he succeeded to the throne?

"Carpenter Emperor" Zhu Youxiao's portrait

Zhu Youjian succeeded to the throne, and was the dying of Chongzhen Emperor

Zhu Youxiao's death. Empress Zhang Yan and eunuch Wei Zhongxian have been by their side. Wei Zhongxian has been playing with power tricks since the day he entered the palace, and naturally he continued to slander. He secretly found many pregnant palace maids and wanted Zhu Youxiao to choose a child in the palace maid's belly as the next emperor. No matter who Zhu Youxiao chose at this time, it will not be up to him, Wei Zhongxian, to decide in the future.

After all, if you can establish a young master who is young and careless, you can monopolize the power. You can learn Western Han Wang Mang and Cao Cao of the Eastern Han Dynasty. When your power is huge enough, you can kick the little emperor off the throne in one fell swoop.

Wei Zhongxian in the movie and TV series

As long as Zhu Youxiao passed away, this child is a boy and a girl, and if he is not born, it is Wei Zhongxian who decides it. Queen Zhang Yan naturally knew Wei Zhongxian's trick. She had been plotted by Wei Zhongxian once, so she advised Zhu Youxiao to say: "It is unknown whether the child in the belly is a man or a woman. I am afraid that there will be variables in the future. The country cannot be without a king for a day. It is better to pass the throne directly to 官网官网."

Wei Zhongxian was naturally very dissatisfied with the queen's suggestion, but he, a servant, could not directly contradict the queen in front of the emperor.

The traitor Wei Zhongxian in the film and television drama

Zhu Youxiao listened to it, so he summoned Zhu Youjian into the palace and said to him: "My brother should be Yao and Shun."

Zhu Youjian was very frightened when he heard this, thinking that this was the emperor's brother testing whether he had the intention of usurping the rebellion, so he hurriedly said that the Taoist minister would never dare to die. But then after listening carefully, I found that my brother was serious and he was really thinking about the possibility of passing the throne to him.

Not long after Zhu Youxiao passed away, and Zhu Youjian ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor.

Zhu Youjian just succeeded to the throne and was about to clean up the mess left by his brother. At this time, the Ming Dynasty was in internal and external troubles.

Zhu Youjian's portrait

contains Wei Zhongxian's autocratic power, and the chaos is beyond the rules. A generation of eunuchs actually controlled the power of the government, and Emperor Zhu Youjian was restricted everywhere.

What is even more shocking is that Wei Zhongxian, who is ignorant of his big words, is actually a eunuch who writes on his pen. You must know that this position requires a certain amount of cultural accumulation. Zhang Yan had raised Wei Zhongxian's affairs with Zhu Youxiao many times, but Zhu Youxiao was just silent.

and There were Liaodong Later Jin forces and Jurchen eyeing them. The situation of the Ming Dynasty at this time was indeed not optimistic. Zhu Youjian's first idea after he ascended the throne was to rectify the government and eliminate Wei Yin.

Zhu Youjian is also known as Emperor Chongzhen

Tianqi The emperor entrusts

But what makes Zhu Youjian feel embarrassed is that before his brother died, he in addition to entrusting his 21-year-old sister-in-law Zhang Yan to himself:

"In the future, he will be widowed, be kind and do good deeds to the palace."

also let Zhu Youjian continue to trust and reuse Wei Zhongxian. So why was this Wei Zhongxian so reused by Zhu Youjian, even to the point of chaos in the court?

Zhu Youjian’s portrait of Zhang Yan, the emperor’s sister-in-law,

This has a lot to do with Zhu Youjian’s nurse Keshi. It turned out that Wei Zhongxian and Zhu Youxiao's nurse Keshi formed a "food food" very early. "food food" is the combination of eunuchs and palace maids. The two also had similar tastes and went further and further on the road to forming cliques and private affairs. Wei Zhongxian relied on Keshi to continuously eliminate dissidents in the court, and eventually became the powerful "9,000-year-old ".

Emperor Chongzhen Zhu Youjian believed that Wei Zhongxian must be eliminated. Therefore, while followed the teachings of the late emperor and respected and cared for the emperor's sister-in-law, he also took many targeted measures to deal with Wei Zhongxian. Considering that Wei Zhongxian has many gangs in the court, Chongzhen decided to appease Wei Zhongxian first.

Wei Zhongxian has a lot of power in the court

Zhu Youjian's reward made Wei Zhongxian suspicious. Normally, the new emperor would definitely start to cut off his gang members in order to balance his power, so why would he reward himself? But the subsequent rewards completely numbed Wei Zhongxian. Wei Zhongxian thought that Emperor Chongzhen, like his old master Zhu Youxiao, would always use him, so he gradually relaxed his vigilance.

Finally, Zhu Youjian’s layout was completed, and he had completely grasped the Jinyiwei . He also began to rally punish Wei Zhongxian's party members.

Jinyiwei played by modern people

Emperor Chongzhen followed the instructions to take care of the emperor's sister-in-law

Under Chongzhen's secret actions, Wei Zhongxian's friends were caught out one by one, and Wei Zhongxian himself eventually died under three feet of white silk. It is worth mentioning here that Chongzhen dealt with Wei Zhongxian, but in fact, also means revenge for his princess Zhang Yan -

When Zhu Youxiao was still alive, Queen Zhang Yan once had a child, but Wei Zhongxian was very afraid that Zhu Youxiao's concubine gave birth to the prince.

The Ming Dynasty concubines in the film and television dramas

Because of this, his future status will be affected. Wei Zhongxian naturally wants to hold the prince firmly in his hands, and the smart Zhang Yan will not be with him. So Wei Zhongxian and Keshi sent many confidants to take care of the queen and eventually killed Zhang Yan's child.

Later, when Yang Lian impeached Wei Zhongxian, this matter was one of the serious crimes that Yang Lian mentioned:

"It's just like being a concubine. The palace was celebrated and he had become a man, so he suddenly died. It is rumored that Zhongxian and Holy Lady HTML had a plan. Your Majesty cannot protect his son, and he was a serious crime."

Yang Lian once impeached Wei Zhongxian's twenty-four major crimes

Of course, Wei Zhongxian was already a big trouble at that time, and Chongzhen It is very likely that he was just to get rid of the traitor, so he used the reason why the emperor's sister-in-law lost his son. showed that he was revenge and taking care of the emperor's sister-in-law. But Another thing Chongzhen did after Wei Zhongxian's death, can completely show that he was really following the instructions of the late emperor and taking care of the emperor's sister-in-law Zhang Yan.

At that time, Chen Derun, the eunuch in the palace, coveted the beauty of , Queen , and entered the queen's inner room as the reason for the above report. This is a very shame to the concubines in the harem. A eunuch dared to provoke the queen.

Ancient women's inner room could not be in and out of the room at will

Chen Derun thought that this move would not be a big deal. You should know that he was also the eunuch in charge of the previous dynasty. Who would care about the queen after the death of the previous emperor? But Emperor Chongzhen really cared about it. After Zhang Yan told Chongzhen about this, Chongzhen directly demoted Chen Derun from the capital and would never use it again.

Overall, Chongzhen was indeed very good to this emperor's sister-in-law. He not only avenged the emperor's sister-in-law, but also respected her enough in the days to come. After all, most of the throne of Chongzhen was given by his sister-in-law Zhang Yan, so how could he dislike this sister-in-law?

The emperor and the harem woman in the film and television drama

Chongzhen’s sister-in-law Zhang Yan

Finally, let’s talk about Zhang Yan. The princess of Chongzhen was also the queen chosen by a thousand miles away. It is said that she has a beautiful appearance. Historical books record her appearance as:

"Slim and plump, with a face like Guanyin, eyes like autumn waves, mouth like red cherry blossoms, nose like hanging gallbladder, and fine teeth."

This led to many unofficial historical records later that Emperor Chongzhen might have had an affair with this imperial sister-in-law, but there is no evidence yet to prove that these unofficial historical records are true.

The queen Zhang Yan recorded in history is very beautiful

So what is the final outcome of Zhang Yan?

After the Ming Dynasty collapsed due to internal and external troubles, Perhaps in order to avoid insulting the imperial sister-in-law, or perhaps in order to safeguard the dignity of the royal family, Emperor Chongzhen sentenced Zhang Yan to death. In fact, except for Zhang Yan, all the imperial concubines and princesses were sentenced to death or injured by Chongzhen, and he himself was finally hung on Jingshan (called Coal Mountain at that time).

Chongzhen finally hangs himself in the coal mountain

If the Ming Dynasty was not overthrown, perhaps the queen Zhang Yan could spend the rest of her life in the palace peacefully. It’s a pity that the building is about to collapse, so how can there be a complete egg? Even Emperor Chongzhen had to die for his country in the end, let alone her, the queen left by the late emperor?