My father is Jiajing

The sun finally rose in the forty-fifth year of Jiajing.

Zhu Zaigui stood in the courtyard of the front hall of the palace, looking at the sun rising in the east, feeling infinite emotion in his heart.

"What is supposed to come will come."

After Zhu Zaigui sighed in his heart, he tightened the cloak he was wearing and walked out of the palace.

Today is the day when Zhu Zaigui goes to the southern suburbs to offer sacrifices to heaven on behalf of Emperor Jiajing.

The ceremonial guard that had been prepared long ago was waiting there outside Prince Yu's Mansion.

The moment Zhu Zaigui emerged from the palace, everyone bowed and said, "Greetings, Your Majesty, the Regent!"

Zhu Zaigui waved his hand and said, "Stand up."

Then Zhu Zaigui got on the carriage surrounded by eunuchs and guards.

After entering the carriage, Zhu Zaigui sat down steadily on the warm soft couch.

The ceremonial officers in charge of Prince Yu's guard of honor and the eunuchs in the palace looked at each other and sang in unison, "Arise!"

With the sound of "Arise!", the grand and majestic ceremonial procession of Prince Yu also started moving towards the Beijing Special District where the Temple of Heaven is located.

Along the way, the speed of the procession was neither fast nor slow. In less than half an hour, Zhu Zaigui's procession appeared in the square in front of the Temple of Heaven.

At this moment, all the rituals for offering sacrifices to heaven had already been prepared inside and outside the Temple of Heaven. All the officials and nobles in the capital who were qualified to participate in the rituals were lined up on the left and right.

Although no one was whispering at this time, the hearts of those present were all shaken.

You should know that since Emperor Jiajing moved to the Western Garden, there have been few ceremonies to offer sacrifices to heaven.

Sometimes, even if they wanted to offer sacrifices to the heaven, they would just send a duke to go through the formality, and it would not be so grand and solemn, with such a grand ceremony to offer sacrifices to the heaven.

Now Zhu Zaigui was specially ordered by Emperor Jiajing to go to the Temple of Heaven to preside over the ceremony of offering sacrifices to heaven, and the ceremony was used as that for the crown prince. This made everyone excited.

"Does His Majesty really want to enthrone Prince Yu?"

Although these officials and nobles have thought about such speculations and imaginations countless times.

But this time, they felt the time had come.

At the auspicious time of offering sacrifices to heaven, under the guidance of the ceremonial officer, Zhu Zaigui wore the most formal imperial robes and held a green jade tablet in his hand, and walked meticulously on the dragon path of offering sacrifices to heaven in the Temple of Heaven.

But if you look closely, you will see that Zhu Zaigui was not walking on the central Dragon Road, but on the slightly deviated auxiliary road.

But even so, this is a position that ordinary ministers and nobles who perform sacrifices on behalf of others cannot reach.

As the protagonist of this Temple of Heaven ceremony, to be honest, Zhu Zaigui was not excited at all.

This is mainly because the weather in early spring in Beijing is too cold.

Although this robe and crown looks heavy and solemn, it is actually not comfortable at all, and this kind of clothes will be blown through by the cold wind outside.

The bone-chilling feeling can be said to be extremely torturous.

Therefore, Zhu Zaigui, who was walking beside the Dragon Road, could not help but think in his heart that it was no wonder that emperors of all dynasties, except for a small group of pretentious people who liked to show off and were obsessed with such grand rituals as offering sacrifices to heaven, most of the rest of the emperors were not happy to offer sacrifices to heaven in person.

It turns out that this set of etiquette can really torture people to death.

Especially those emperors who had been spoiled since childhood and had poor health, they would hold all these sacrificial ceremonies with various names and routines from the winter solstice to the end of the first month of the lunar year without missing a single one.

It would be weird if there was nothing wrong with their bodies!

Therefore, Zhu Zaigui, who insisted on offering sacrifices to heaven in the freezing cold weather, could not help but wonder whether he should think of a way to learn from Emperor Wu of Han and carry out legitimate political reforms.

Make some changes to these cumbersome rituals.

Just like participating in some cultural and artistic evening parties as in later generations, gathering with people from all walks of life in the capital to celebrate the New Year, and then holding a New Year tea party and other entertainment activities, and by the way, regularly publishing a New Year's message that reviews the past and looks forward to the future?
It seems like this is pretty good.

If it is necessary to hold these grand ceremonies to offer sacrifices to heaven in order to prove the legitimacy of the divine authority of the monarchy, then one should think of a way to further change the procedure of the ceremonies.

Anyway, as long as I don’t have to endure the cold wind for an hour or two, everything will be fine.

Finally, under the guidance of the ritual officials, Zhu Zaigui completed a series of rituals in the Temple of Heaven and threw a memorial praising the Lord of Heaven into the large cauldron burning with blazing fire. This extremely cumbersome process of offering sacrifices to the sky was finally over.

Zhu Zaigui returned to his carriage, his hands and face were almost numb from the cold.

Meng Chong carefully took out the warm ginger soup that had been prepared in the carriage, "Your Highness, please drink some ginger soup to warm yourself up first."

Zhu Zaigui was not pretentious. He just hummed and took the ginger soup that Meng Chong handed to him with both hands, and drank half a bowl of it while it was still hot.

After feeling his body finally warmed up, Zhu Zaigui breathed a sigh of relief.

Zhu Zaigui asked, "Have Mr. Gao and the others received any letter?"

A few days after the winter solstice, Gao Gong, Hai Rui, Yan Maoqing and others left the capital and went south along the canal to Nanjing.

Counting the days, they have been working in Nanjing for more than half a month now, so it’s time for them to have some results.

Meng Chong replied, "Mr. Gao and his men sent you and the Emperor a New Year's greeting early this morning."

Zhu Zaiqi hummed, "Come over and take a look."

Meng Chong also knew that Zhu Zaigui attached great importance to Gao Gong, Hai Rui, Yan Maoqing and others in Nanjing.

He also hurriedly took out the memorials from Gao Gong and others that he had received early in the morning and handed them to Zhu Zaigui.

Zhu Zaigui looked through the memorials from Gao Gong and others and found that apart from some routine New Year greetings, there was not much truly useful information.

Therefore, Zhu Zaigui could only sigh in his heart and felt a little anxious.

Zhu Zaigui said: "Write a letter back to Mr. Gao and his friends, and let them know that they can work in Nanjing without any worries. I will always be their strong support."

Meng Chong immediately responded, "I'll remember that." Then Meng Chong added, "Feng Bao also submitted a memorial."

When Zhu Zaigui heard Feng Bao's memorial, he couldn't help but laugh and said, "Bring it here and have a look."

Meng Chong replied yes and immediately presented Feng Bao's memorial.

Zhu Zaigui took the memorial from Feng Bao and after reading a few paragraphs, he couldn't help but laugh.

"Feng Bao is doing well now. He has become friends with the wise and famous people in Nanjing, and is invited to various poetry gatherings all day long. Not bad, not bad."

Zhu Zaigui was still very positive about Feng Bao's work.

When Feng Bao was in the inner study, his articles and calligraphy were among the best.

If he were not a eunuch, he would have had the opportunity to go to the city and receive instruction from famous teachers, and perhaps even pass the imperial examination and become a Jinshi or a Hanlin.

But unfortunately, few of those who were sent to the palace to serve as eunuchs had the opportunity to study.

Most of them were children from poor families. They entered the palace because they had little hope outside and wanted to try their luck at getting rich and having a meal.

Therefore, it was a fantasy to expect a poor kid like Feng Bao, who had the talent of a scholar but had no opportunities, to get a fair chance to study and take the imperial examination.

After all, even the people in the capital and northern Zhili region who had taken advantage of the situation in recent years, their children might not have had many opportunities to study and take the imperial examinations.

Most people attended private schools for a few years to learn how to read and write. After they were able to recognize some daily characters, they left the school and no longer studied the more advanced Confucian knowledge.

After all, Confucianism, which seems to require only memorizing books and understanding the profound meaning, is still very difficult to learn in practice.

Most students can only learn what the teacher says, and they have no ability to comprehend the knowledge thoroughly. Moreover, this overly theoretical learning is like obscure knowledge like a heavenly book to ordinary people who have no talent for learning.

Therefore, not everyone who had the opportunity to learn to read and write could study and take the imperial examination.

This kind of advanced word game requires comprehension, and can only be played by geniuses with outstanding IQ.

This is not a game that anyone who knows a few words or can memorize some rote memorization can participate in.

Take the simplest example, like writing poetry.

Although poetry flourished in the Tang and Song dynasties, it is difficult for later generations to match it.

But this does not mean that later generations will not write poetry.

On the contrary, later generations are no worse than their predecessors when it comes to learning to write poetry.

But why are some people able to follow the rhythmic requirements of poetry and write a poem that is well-behaved or a masterpiece that is well-received and passed down from generation to generation?
Why can't some people even control the rhythm of the tone and can only make doggerel like "fire the cannon and blow his mother off".

And this is the difference in reading IQ.

The gap cannot be bridged simply through education and learning.

You should know that Confucius had three thousand disciples, but only seventy-two of them could be called sages!
So from these aspects we can see that studying for the imperial examinations is not something that everyone can do.

After reading Feng Bao's memorial, Zhu Zaigui said to Meng Chong, "Also tell Feng Bao to continue to maintain good relations with the scholars and celebrities in Nanjing and even Jiangnan. He is responsible for playing the good cop, so he must try his best to remain friendly."

Zhu Zaigui's arrangement of duties for Feng Bao, Gao Gong and others was full of surprises!
Gao Gong, Hai Rui, Yan Maoqing and others went to Nanjing to do things. No matter whether what they did was in line with the interests of local officials and gentry, as long as they did it, they would definitely offend people.

Therefore, in Zhu Zaigui's design, Gao Gong, Hai Rui and Yan Maoqing were the good guys, and they just had to do their job in Nanjing.

As for Feng Bao, he mingled well with the local scholars and gentry in Nanjing, making these people involuntarily feel that Feng Bao was an honest man and someone who could reach the heavens and help them to voice their grievances and uphold justice.

In this way, no matter how many things Gao Gong, Hai Rui, Yan Maoqing and others did in Nanjing, even if the local officials and gentry in Nanjing wanted to file a complaint, they would involuntarily drag Feng Bao into it.

As long as they involved Feng Bao, Zhu Zaigui would be able to learn the content and motives of their complaint more quickly.

At that time, no matter what the purpose of the disposal is, Zhu Zaigui will have time to think, so that he can handle the next things with ease.

It was not until someone blocked the matter at the door that Zhu Zaigui found out what was happening outside.

If this is the case, then things in Nanjing will be as difficult as those in the historical case of Shanghai Rui's governor Yingtian.

Even though Hai Rui put all his anger on Xu Jie, he could not withstand the gossip and the excitement of the Nanjing scholars.

Therefore, even Zhang Juzheng, who was willing to reform the ills and help the Ming Dynasty regain new vitality, had to back off and dismiss Hai Rui to avenge his shame, and watched helplessly as the Jiangnan region and the court became more alienated.

Even in the middle and late Wanli period, the eunuchs sent by Emperor Wanli to Jiangnan to collect taxes were beaten to death by the people there under the banner of justice!
It can be seen that in the late stage of the Ming Dynasty, even when the imperial power had not yet fallen into others' hands and the world was still unified, people's hearts had already been dispersed.

Not only are the demoralized people unwilling to fulfill their tax obligations, they even regard tax collectors as treacherous and evil villains, and call for their beating and killing.

Under such circumstances, there were even many later generations who imagined the possibility of a comeback for the Southern Ming Dynasty, which was simply ridiculous.

People's hearts are not united, yet they still expect to use half of the country to repair the broken old mountains and rivers. It is simply wishful thinking!
Therefore, in order to prevent the hearts of the scholars in Nanjing and even Jiangnan from continuing to slide towards the selfish, self-centered, and petty-bourgeois tone.

Zhu Zaigui had to give them some strength and let them think clearly about whether they were part of the Ming Dynasty or were termites within the Ming Dynasty.

If you are willing to continue to be a part of the Ming Dynasty, then you should shoulder your due responsibilities and continue to practice the Confucian ideal of "cultivating oneself, governing the country and pacifying the world" as your personal motto.

If one only says nice things but actually does not want to take any responsibility and always wants to go against the court in order to highlight one's own clarity and nobility.

Then don’t blame Zhu Zaigui for his fast sword.

Zhu Zaigui was not like the bastards in the future Ming Dynasty who would eat with their bowls in their hands and then throw them down to curse their mothers, complaining about the faults of the court and the Ming Dynasty.

What Zhu Zaigui had to do was to make them think carefully about the fact that they had not made any contribution to the Ming Dynasty and had not set a good example for the people.

If they do nothing, they will only stand on the moral high ground, pointing fingers at those who do things and scolding those who get things done.

Zhu Zaigui would never indulge them. He would let them know the serious consequences of talking big and only caring about their own interests!
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Ask for monthly ticket~~~(End of this chapter)