"Empress," facing Empress Zhou's question, Chongzhen smiled faintly: "This is a major national event. I have my reasons for doing this."
"But I miss the prince. Please grant my wish, Your Majesty!" Queen Zhou knelt on her knees and kowtowed to Chongzhen to beg for mercy.
Looking at Queen Zhou begging humbly, Chongzhen felt very uncomfortable.
If you put yourself in Queen Zhou's shoes, you will realize that it was really difficult.
There is a greedy father above.
He finally became less greedy for money, but unfortunately he fell ill in bed.
Although there are sons and daughters below.
But there was no one around.
The Crown Prince, Princess Kunxing and Princess Zhaoren were in Nanjing, and Prince Ding was in Liaodong.
The only Prince Yong Zhu Ci Zhao by his side was not his biological son (born to Concubine Tian).
Chongzhen knew that doing so was indeed cruel, but for the sake of what would happen after the Liao Dynasty was pacified, he had no choice but to sacrifice Queen Zhou's longing for him.
He replied coldly: "I have said that this is a matter of national importance, and the harem is not allowed to interfere in politics."
"But Your Majesty..." Queen Zhou wanted to say something.
"Okay," Chongzhen interrupted her directly, "Don't mention the prince's matter anymore."
Queen Zhou refused to give up and was willing to do anything to see her son.
She knelt on the ground and said, "Your Majesty, I am the biological mother of Princess Zhaoren. The "Great Ming Order - Household Order" stipulates that all marriages must be presided over by grandparents or parents. If there are no grandparents or parents, the other relatives will preside over the marriage."
"So according to the Great Ming Order, your majesty and I must be present at Princess Zhaoren's wedding to officiate at the ceremony."
"Your Majesty is the ruler of a country, you should set an example!"
Um?
Empress Zhou's words made Chongzhen unable to help but look up at the other party.
"The Great Ming Order" is not "The Great Ming Law".
In the 27th year of Zhizheng in the Yuan Dynasty, Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, ordered Li Shanchang and others to compile laws and decrees, which were promulgated in the first year of Hongwu.
Since the Ming Dynasty had already been established when it was promulgated, it was named "Ming Order".
There are a total of 145 regulations.
Among them, there are 71 articles in the Criminal Law, 24 articles in the Household Law, 20 articles in the Official Law, 17 articles in the Ritual Law, 11 articles in the Military Law, and 2 articles in the Works Law.
In the sixth year of Hongwu, the "Great Ming Code" was promulgated and officially implemented.
Since the criminal law part of "Da Ming Ling" was in conflict with "Da Ming Law", the criminal law in "Da Ming Ling" lost its effectiveness.
However, the remaining household orders, official orders, ritual orders, military orders and work orders are still valid.
It was based on this point that Empress Zhou questioned Chongzhen.
She knew that she could not convince Chongzhen, so she took legal action to protect her legitimate rights and interests.
Chongzhen usually considers himself to be a law-abiding person, but today he met the queen who preached the law.
He frowned and thought for a while, then found that he couldn't make excuses.
He is Princess Zhaoren's father and should officiate the wedding.
Even if he didn't officiate at the wedding, Queen Zhou should have done it.
Otherwise it is illegal!
"Hmm..." Chongzhen began to ponder.
Queen Zhou neither urged nor spoke.
He just watched quietly, giving Chongzhen enough face.
"How about this," Chongzhen chose to compromise: "Let Princess Zhaoren come to Beijing to get married."
"Prince..." Queen Zhou brought up the old matter again.
"The prince is of great use in Nanjing, so the queen should not embarrass me." Chongzhen did not reprimand her, but played the emotional card, "You are the master of the harem, you should know the difficulty of managing the harem."
"It's hard enough to manage just one harem, and I'm the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty. You can imagine how difficult it is to manage the two capitals, thirteen provinces, and all the people in the world!"
Seeing Chongzhen compromise, Empress Zhou mustered up the courage to repeat what Chongzhen had said: "Your Majesty, after Princess Zhaoren returned to Beijing, the prince will be a little lonely."
"It's okay," Chongzhen was prepared, "Princess Kunxing and her husband are both in Nanjing. With them by his side, the prince won't be lonely."
Queen Zhou opened her mouth but said nothing.
She didn't know what to say, so she just added some charcoal to the brazier in front of her.
Seeing this, the eunuchs in the yard also added some pine branches to the fire.
The flames rose and danced, especially bright in the dark night.
In the flames, Chongzhen began to think about choosing a son-in-law for Princess Zhaoren.
In the Ming Dynasty, the status of the prince consort was very low.
In order to support the princess' expenses, the prince consort's family must be wealthy.
After marrying the princess, not only the prince consort himself had to pay his respects to the princess every day.
The prince consort's parents also have to bow when they see the princess.
This is not the end yet.
When the princess is eating, the prince consort has to stand by and serve her, and he needs to apply to sleep with the princess.
The most annoying thing is that you can’t apply directly to the princess herself, you can only ask the princess’ servant to pass the message.
The servants would take the opportunity to ask for bribes from the prince consort.
This is bad enough, but worse is yet to come.
The son-in-law of the emperor has a title.
After becoming a royal consort, he could no longer take the imperial examination to become an official.
In the early and middle Ming Dynasty, the prince consort still had the opportunity to lead troops to fight. In the later period, the emperor had no military power, so the prince consort had no chance to command the army.
This is not marrying a wife, but marrying an ancestor.
so...
In the Ming Dynasty, none of the rich young men wanted to be a royal consort.
But the marriage between the prince consort and the emperor was granted by the emperor.
Whoever the emperor thinks is suitable must marry the princess.
"Who should I choose?" Chongzhen fell into deep thought.
Liaodong, Ningyuan.
Zu Dashou dragged his old body and wrote something at the desk.
After returning to Ningyuan, he wrote many letters to the generals under Wu Sangui in accordance with Chongzhen's instructions.
The content is all about chatting about family matters and trying to get close to people.
This move can not only weaken Wu Sangui's cohesion, but also intimidate Wu Sangui.
My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It’s even more exciting later!
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