He was the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, and she was just an ordinary palace maid, 17 years older than him. His name is Zhu Jianshen (Ming Xianzong), the eighth emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Wan Zhen'er (Wan Guifei), who was born as the only favorite palace maid in his life.
Zhu Jianshen will fall in love with Wan Zhen'er, and he has to start from 1449. At that time, Wara invaded the south, and Ming Yingzong personally led the troops to the expedition in order to show his strength, and brought the young Zhu Jianshen with him. Originally, the emperor's personal expedition was a morale-boosting thing, but the army ** appeared traitors, which led to confusion in the internal command of the Ming army, and finally the Ming army was defeated, and Ming Yingzong was also captured by Wara.
After Ming Yingzong was captured, his mother, Empress Dowager Sun, in order to stabilize the people's hearts, canonized Zhu Jianshen, who was only two years old, as the crown prince, and Zhu Qiyu, the younger brother of Ming Yingzong, was the national government. But the country cannot be without a king for a day, and the crown prince is still young, so the ministers of the court and the central government have asked the empress dowager Sun to support Zhu Qiyu to ascend the throne.
Empress Dowager Sun knew that she could not refuse the ministers' requests, so she had to comply with their wishes. On September 22, 1449, Zhu Qiyu successfully ascended the throne and was known as the "Ming Dynasty Sect". After the Ming Dynasty Zong ascended the throne, he was reused to Qian and other ministers, first blocking the invading Warat in Beijing, and then took the initiative to attack and defeated Warat many times. Seeing that he was no longer an opponent of the Ming army, Wara decided to return to Ming Yingzong to sue for peace.
In order to prevent his throne from being threatened, Daizong directly put him under house arrest in Nangong after picking up his brother, and sent people to monitor him every day, and did not allow any old ministers to visit him. Empress Dowager Sun was afraid that Daizong would also do something to the young Zhu Jianshen, so she sent Wan Zhen'er, the most trusted palace maid by her side, to take care of him.
Although taking care of the prince sounds good, this prince is too young, and his own father is still imprisoned, which is undoubtedly a waste of time for those who want to take the throne. However, Wan Zhen'er, who has no background, has no choice, so she can only put her best youth on Zhu Jianshen (Wan Zhen'er was twenty years old at this time).
For Zhu Jianshen, who is only three years old, Wan Zhen'er is not only his maid, but also his "mother". Wan Zhen'er not only takes care of his food, clothing, housing and transportation, but also coaxes him to be happy every day, so that he will not feel lonely because his parents are not around. The two have been together for a long time, and their relationship has become deeper and deeper. However, Daizong would not allow his nephew to inherit his throne in the future, and on May 20, 1452, he deposed the crown prince Zhu Jianshen as the king of Yi and replaced his own son Zhu Jianji as the crown prince. However, people are not as good as heaven, Zhu Jianji died after being the prince for more than a year, and Daizong was sad for a long time.
After Zhu Jianshen grew up**, he fell in love with Wan Zhen'er, who had always been with him. Wan Zhen'er, who has always been single, also wants to find someone to accompany her, and her feelings for Zhu Jianshen are also very deep, so the two became a couple.
After another period of time, Daizong became seriously ill, and the minister Shi Heng took the opportunity to assist Yingzong to seize the throne, which is known in history as the "change of seizing the door". After Yingzong restored the throne, Zhu Jianshen's position as the crown prince was naturally restored. Seeing that he was about to live a good life with Zhu Jianshen, Wan Zhen'er and Zhu Jianshen's affairs were discovered by Yingzong, and they were immediately scolded by Yingzong and ate a few boards.
In order not to let Zhu Jianshen ruin the royal face, Yingzong hurriedly selected several concubines for him, namely the Wu family, the Wang family and the Bai family. Later, Yingzong died of illness, and Zhu Jianshen of Ming Xianzong ascended the throne. When the new emperor ascends the throne, the most important thing is to establish a queen.
Originally, Xianzong wanted to make Wan Zhen'er the queen, but due to Wan Zhen'er's background and Yingzong's death before his death, he had to give up this plan and only set Wan Zhen'er as the concubine.
I have to say that Xianzong really likes this sister who is 17 years older than him, and he basically goes to Concubine Wan to spend the night every night, which makes Empress Wu so angry. In order to vent her anger, Empress Wu ordered someone to frame Wan Guifei and then punish her with a cane. Unexpectedly, this matter was stabbed to Xianzong, and when Xianzong heard that his sister Wan was being bullied, he was so angry that he directly ordered the abolition of Empress Wu and the establishment of Wang as the queen (Xianzong's biological mother did not let him make Wan Guifei the queen).
Later, Wan Guifei gave birth to a son for Xianzong, and Xianzong was so happy that he immediately named her the imperial concubine. Unfortunately, the child died not long after. What's even worse is that Concubine Wan at this time has come to an age where it is difficult to have children.
In order not to let herself fall out of favor in the harem, Concubine Wan began to secretly give birth to the prince of other concubines, resulting in Xianzong having no son. Fortunately, Xianzong only favored Wan Guifei, not her. By chance, Xianzong met the sweet-looking Ji, and the Ji became pregnant with his son (Zhu Youji).
In order to prevent his son from being poisoned by Wan Guifei, at that time, the Ji family, together with the deposed queen Wu and the eunuch Zhang Min and others beside Xianzong, secretly placed Zhu Youzhi in a remote place in the palace and lived for 6 years. It wasn't until this day that Xianzong sighed to Zhang Min that he was old and childless, and Zhang Min knelt down to tell Xianzong about Zhu Youji's existence.
Hearing that he also had a son, Xianzong was so happy. After confirming Zhu Youji's identity, he immediately made him the crown prince, which made Concubine Wan Guifei so angry. In order to prevent this lone seedling from being harmed by others, Xianzong's biological mother Zhou took Zhu Youzhu back to her palace to raise her.
Although Zhu Youzhu escaped the catastrophe, his biological mother and eunuch Zhang Min were not so lucky, and they were found dead in the palace not long after. Later, although Xianzong knew that this matter had nothing to do with Wan Guifei, he did not abolish Wan Guifei, and even still doted on her.
Later, Wan Guifei died of illness at the age of 58. Having lost the most important woman in his life, Xianzong was sad and said directly: "As soon as the concubine is gone, I will die soon!" And the truth is exactly as he said, a few months later, Xianzong passed away due to excessive grief.