Ming Jiajing: Starting from Immortality

Chapter 250: Wanshou Palace is completed, and the dragon is moving!
Just a few days.

Prime Minister Zhang Juzheng and Deputy Prime Minister Gao Gong showed their knives to each other and were extremely jealous of each other.

Hu Zongxian and Li Chunfang, cabinet ministers, looked at each other and understood each other's looks.

I hope Yuan Fu will calm down his anger now.

Once the ministers wanted to kill each other, they could no longer sit idly by.

As a cabinet minister, it is often difficult to argue about the promotion and demotion of ministers and other officials.

But if they want to execute important officials, it is either because the court has lost its moral integrity or because of fierce party struggles, and they must fight for it.

The second prime minister ridiculed Yuan Fu's disciples for being eager to repay their loyalty and good at revenge, which could barely be considered a legitimate reason.

Yu Shenxing, the Right Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate, stood up for the Prime Minister's mentor, which was a way of repaying his kindness.

Yu Shenxing is good at revenge because he has always been at odds with Mu Wenxi and Xu Fuyuan. The reason is very simple and it is related to party affiliation.

Yu Shenxing's party was affiliated with Zhang Juzheng, while Mu Wenxi and Xu Fuyuan's party was affiliated with Gao Gong.

It was obviously difficult to silence the gossips in the court and the public during this inspection, but the prime minister did not intend to silence them and just made excuses.

As long as Gao Gong is not touched, no one can say anything. It's a pity that the second prime minister will become a bachelor in the court.

Zhang Juzheng ordered Fu Yingzhen, the secretary of the cabinet, to deliver the list to Yuxi Palace.

The glorious "Gao Family" came to an end here. Gao Gong could not hide his sorrow. He thought there was nothing else to do, so he prepared to go home.

Zhang Juzheng then said, "There is one more thing. Your Majesty's Wanshou Palace and Yongshou Palace are completed."

In November of the 39th year of the Jiajing reign, a fire suddenly broke out in the Western Garden, burning down the Wanshou Palace and Yongshou Palace, where the emperor practiced Taoism and cultivated his spiritual cultivation day and night, causing countless rumors.

Forty years into the Jiajing reign, the emperor punished corrupt officials and seized unscrupulous merchants, the palace's expenditures were orderly, and everyone in the cabinet and government offices was as clear as a mirror and as transparent as water, so that the national treasury was full and the people were safe and the country was prosperous.

With the efforts of the two successive cabinets of Yan Song and Zhang Juzheng, four million taels of silver were allocated to build palaces and temples for immortal cultivation in the palace, and all of them were completed at the end of last year.

The Imperial Observatory selected an auspicious day to respectfully worship the emperor and give him a permanent residence.

It’s time to write Qingci again.

A sigh emerged in everyone's heart at the same time.

However, Zhang Juzheng's cabinet wrote Qingci less frequently. During the entire 40 years of the Jiajing reign, he did not write a single Qingci.

The congratulatory message at the emperor's birthday banquet was just a message wishing the emperor a long life. It had nothing to do with Taoism or Xuanism, and the writing style had nothing to do with Qingci.

This time, the two palaces are completed and His Majesty has moved to a new place, so we must congratulate him with a poem.

I haven't written a Qingci for more than a year. Now that I suddenly mention it, Gao Gong, who just made a mistake, and Li Chunfang, who wrote Gancao, are both worried that their hands and hearts are unfamiliar with it.

Especially Hu Zongxian, who had been away from the court for many years before entering the cabinet and becoming prime minister, and had not written Qingci for more than ten years, so he couldn't help but feel surprised.

Seeing that the ministers were all looking at him, Zhang Juzheng waved his hand and said, "Don't worry. I will summon all the officials here on the eve of the Dragon Chariot's transfer. We can just work together."

The Holy Palace is completed.

It is the most important thing in the world.

It is naturally not easy to write a Qingci congratulatory letter.

As the chief minister of the cabinet, in order to prevent mistakes, he had to summon the chief officials of the six ministries, as well as the Censorate, the Ministry of Public Security, the Supreme Court, the Hanlin Academy, the Imperial College, and the Chancellery to gather in the duty room of the cabinet in the Western Garden, and write a ci poem to praise the emperor on behalf of the subjects of the Ming Dynasty.

Although they are all talking about the same thing, each article must be written differently. How to conform to the will of heaven and satisfy the emperor's wishes requires ability. An article of four-six parallel prose is more difficult than the three essays in the imperial examination.

By then, dozens of people will gather here, refer to each other, and verify each other. As a cabinet elder, there will always be a way to write an excellent Qingci congratulatory message, and there will always be subordinates who are pursuing progress to share the worries and work of their superiors.

Of course, the university scholars present here have not reached that level yet. If they knew about this matter in advance and spent some time thinking about it, they would always be able to write it down.

"It's true." Zhang Juzheng looked at Li Chunfang and said.

"Prime Minister."

"Yi Fu, you can write a letter to inform him of this matter and ask Yi Fu to send the congratulatory message before the emperor moves." Zhang Juzheng said.

Ever since Chen Yiqin blackmailed him into writing ten handwritten letters, Zhang Juzheng was no longer willing to write anything for Chen Yiqin or the Chen family.

This family really has a great collection of books and letters. It is said that the letters that Wang Wengong (Wang Anshi) wrote to the Chen family hundreds of years ago are still carefully preserved by the Chen family.

Zhang Juzheng did not want his handwriting to be exhibited hundreds of years later, and he did not want the meaning of the letter to be misinterpreted by future generations.

Especially this kind of call on civil and military officials to present congratulatory messages to the emperor would be bad if it was misunderstood by future generations as trying to curry favor with the emperor.

Although he was trying to please the Holy Heart, it could not be passed on to future generations.

The reputation of a wise prime minister cannot be tarnished!

After the Jin Party defected and Gao Gong seized power, Zhang Juzheng, who had experienced many ups and downs, finally felt a sense of crisis. He tried his best to seize the power in the court, and he also tried hard to win the emperor's favor.

When a wise monarch is in power, whoever wins his heart will gain power.

Until this moment, the prime minister's residence was still in mourning. The death of his brother Zhang Juyi could be the military's way of showing loyalty to the emperor, or it could be the emperor's way of warning him.

According to the arrangement their mother had made for her two younger brothers, Zhang Juyi went to the military to seek military merit and be awarded a title of nobility, while Zhang Juqian went to the West on a warship to make money.

The Zhang family's hands touch the political, military, and business worlds. They are simply trying to create an unrivaled family, which obviously touches the bottom line of His Majesty.

As a result, he almost fell from power, his brother Zhang Juyi died directly, and his brother Zhang Juqian had his leg broken by him personally.

From now on, let alone getting on a ship and going out to sea, even getting into bed will be difficult.

Because of this, he almost fell out with his old father and mother, but his old parents, who realized the danger of their family, still became sick with anger because one of their sons died of hunger and cold and another was disabled, which was caused by their own hands.

The old father’s health was not very good, and his two young sons were his dearest loved ones. This time, he almost died.

Fortunately, when Zhang Juzheng broke his younger brother's leg, he invited Li Shizhen, the director of the Imperial Medical Bureau. With the help of this miracle doctor, even if the brother was at the gates of hell, he could still be brought back to the world of the living.

However, leg injuries are easy to treat, and Li Shizhen can also treat respiratory diseases, but he does not have a good way to treat heart diseases.

These days, Old Madam Zhang has been in tears all day long and has been depressed. Old Master Zhang is even worse off. He always feels weak and lies on the bed, rarely getting up.

If it weren't for Hai Rui, it's possible that the Zhang family would have been destroyed.

Therefore, Zhang Juzheng did not think about going home after his shift, and sometimes he simply slept in the duty room. This counterattack was so fierce, even reckless and breaking the rules. One of the reasons was that he wanted to relieve the pain in his heart.

After venting, Zhang Juzheng obviously felt much better.

"Yes." Li Chunfang nodded.

He doesn't have so many concerns anymore.

I don’t want to fight for power, I don’t want to be perfect, I just want to do what I want.

……

One of the Nine Ministers was dismissed, and another thirty-two court officials were dismissed.

Fifty-three court officials were transferred out of the capital.

There was a huge uproar in the government and the country, with countless overt and covert calculations.

Yang Junmin, the prefect of Quzhou Prefecture in Zhejiang Province, died.

After being stabbed several times in the back, the Jinyiwei and Dongchang jointly announced that it was suicide.

All officials in Quzhou Prefecture were dismissed from office and put on trial. The guilty were executed, and the incompetent were demoted.

The compensation for the casualties in the mining disasters in Kaihua and Dexing counties was confiscated from the homes of the executed officials.

The pension for the deceased was over a thousand taels of silver, and the compensation for the injured was over a hundred taels of silver.

The chaos in the two counties did not cause any disturbance to the government, and was regarded as public sentiment rather than civil unrest. Zhejiang Governor Wang Yongji persuaded them to return home and resume production.

All the unfinished business of last year has now come to an end.

The party collapsed, the eldest son died for his own orders, and the Minister of Personnel Yang Bo, who was over 50 years old and already knew the destiny of the country, knew that the emperor had shown mercy and gave him some respect.

Yang Bo suddenly fell ill, and the emperor sent an imperial physician to visit him. He recovered in a few days.

On the day after he recovered from his illness, Yang Bo asked for his bones to be returned home from Yuxi Palace and the cabinet, on the grounds that he was "old and weak and unable to handle the heavy work."

Throughout history, whenever an important minister of a country resigned, the monarch would always try to persuade him three times to stay, and the minister would also try to decline three times. This kind of tug-of-war expressed the affection between the monarch and his ministers.

Yang Bo was a Jinshi in the eighth year of Jiajing. He had been in the court for thirty-three years and witnessed the ups and downs of the Ming Dynasty. As a minister of this dynasty, Zhu Houcong was also willing to give an end to it.

The first time they tried to retain Yang Bo, Yuxi Palace issued an edict to the Ministry of Personnel, ordering all officials from the Ministry of Personnel to go to Yang's house to retain Yang Bo and his superiors.

However, Yang Bo was determined to leave, and with tears in his eyes he asked his servants to close the door of his mansion and refused to see his subordinates.

The second time to retain Yang Bo, Yuxi Palace issued an edict to the cabinet, ordering cabinet elder Li Chunfang to personally go to Yang Mansion to retain Yang Bo and win his loyalty for the country.

Yang Bo ordered his servants to open the main door and personally welcome the elder into the mansion. However, Yang Bo was still determined to leave. After several hours, Li Chunfang left with a sigh.

The third attempt to retain Yang Bo was made. The Yuxi Palace sent an edict to the Yang Mansion, asking the emperor to encourage Yang Bo and to continue to stay in the court with the same determination as Zhuge Wuhou, who devoted his life to the country until his death.

Yang Bo ordered his servants to open the middle door and set up an incense table. After bathing and burning incense, he prostrated himself on the ground, saying that he was incompetent and had failed the emperor's expectations. He sealed the order with tears and blood and handed over the official seal.

perhaps.

This is the only opportunity for the minister to refuse the imperial edict.

The cabinet, the six ministries, and the people of the capital, all the officials and civilians in the city were filled with sighs of admiration.

Of course, if you refuse the imperial edict at any time, you must pay a price. After three stays and three declines, the imperial edict will be issued again.

Yang Bo was allowed to resign and return home, move out of the government office on three days and leave the capital on five days. From then on, he was not allowed to enter the capital without an imperial edict.

He was served by his sons Yang Junshi and Yang Junqing.

One thousand six hundred miles west of the capital is Yang Bo’s hometown, Puzhou, Shanxi. All the prefectures and counties along the way had to sprinkle clean water on the streets and pave the roads with yellow earth to send Yang Bo back home with courtesy.

The emperor’s grace is truly immense.

This scene.

Let all the ministers feel comforted.

Starting from the Lantern Festival in the 40th year of the Jiajing reign, major changes occurred in succession in the cabinet, the six ministries and the nine ministers. Those who were promoted were certainly happy, but those who were demoted were all sad.

Whenever important officials of the Ming Dynasty thought of the deaths of Yan Song and his son Yan Shifan and the extermination of their clans, and the disappearance of Xu Jie, they would always feel sad. Even if they dared not say it, they all said in their hearts that the current emperor was an ungrateful and unrighteous monarch.

But today, seeing Yang Bo leave the imperial court, everyone can say that the current emperor is very kind.

Yang Bo returned home with his son.

Whenever they arrived at a place, after being welcomed, they would first kowtow in the direction of the capital, and continue like this until they reached their hometown.

It is talked about by people all over the world.

Those who come quickly, go quickly.

As soon as the news of the Ming Dynasty army conquering the grassland and regaining their homeland came, it immediately overshadowed everything else, spread across the world like lightning, and became the focus of everyone's discussion.

China has a history of five thousand years.

There are not many emperors and generals who truly defeated the grassland. Emperor Wu of Han Liu Che and Marquis of Guanjun Huo Qubing are one, and Emperor Taizong of Tang Li Shimin and Duke of Weiguo Li Jing are two.

The Song Dynasty is not mentioned, and the Yuan Dynasty was not the work of the Han people. Now in the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Taizu Gao expelled the Tartars and restored the Chinese clothes. We also have the current emperor who conquered the grasslands and brought the vast territory into the court.

It is a great blessing for the people, the country and the nation. The Begonia Leaf Map of China has begun to take shape.

The only shortcoming is the Northeast and Outer Northeast, where the Jianzhou Jurchen tribe is still a threat to the Ming Dynasty.

However, after a winter of fighting, the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty all missed the Central Plains, so it was not advisable to march east immediately. Moreover, the Jianzhen Jurchen tribe was not that strong and it was not worth sending out hundreds of thousands of troops. That place belonged to Liaodong Town and should be resolved by the Liaodong Town Army.

The imperial edict reached the grassland.

He ordered the Northern Expedition Marshal Wang Chonggu to return immediately, and the Vanguard General Qi Jiguang and the Guard General Yu Dayou to continue to lead their troops to stay in the grassland and wipe out the remaining rebel cavalry on the grassland. The troops from the nine towns would take turns entering the grassland for rotation, and the court wanted to establish a production and construction corps on the grassland.

At this time when mechanical power was not well developed, the role of horses was irreplaceable. The vast grassland was a natural pasture for the great country, and the imperial court could not give it up.

The former leader of the Eastern Tartar, the common ruler of the grassland, the current King of Shun'an of the Ming Dynasty, Dalaisun, and the son of the former Khan of the Northern Tartar, Altan, the prince of the Northern Tartar, the current second King of Shunyi of the Ming Dynasty, Senggelinqin, wrote a joint letter on behalf of all herdsmen to express the idea of ​​leaving the bitter and cold grassland and moving to a warm place, preferably a place that is warm all year round.

The imperial court granted its approval, and after several rounds of consultations between Yuxi Palace and the cabinet, new settlements were designated for the two million grassland herders.

From south to north, they are Lingnan Island, Penghu Island and Ryukyu Islands. If nothing else, these places are warm.

In this way, the Ryukyu people, who had submitted to the Ming Dynasty, and the grassland people newly conquered by the Ming Dynasty, will truly "exchange homes" in the next five years.

As for the grassland which covers more than two million square kilometers, even if the hundreds of thousands of people from Ryukyu were thrown in, it would not even make a ripple. In order to develop the grassland, the Ming Dynasty court planned to mobilize five million people from the Central Plains to live on the grassland within five years, multiply on the grassland, and completely transform it into the territory of China.

Even if the Ming Dynasty is destroyed and the country is ruled by different people hundreds or thousands of years later, the grassland will always be an inseparable part of China.

This is a grand undertaking, a civil and military feat that has never been accomplished by our predecessors, and it must be completed no matter how difficult it is.

The 20,000-mile straight road that the Ming Dynasty planned to build would be increased by another 5,000 miles. A great straight road would be built from the Central Plains to the grassland, spanning the east and west of the grassland.

The imperial edict ordered Sun, Senggelinqin, and the former grassland nobles to come to the capital with the triumphant army.

Although it is unlikely that the grasslands will surrender and then reconsider, the "hostage", a traditional trust that has been passed down for thousands of years, is a must.

The imperial court sent envoys to all neighboring countries to allow envoys from various countries to watch the ceremony together.

After nearly a thousand years, the scene of all nations coming to pay tribute is already before our eyes...

(End of this chapter)