Chapter 3 Chapter Three
The new batch of weapons and armors were completed on schedule, and they were quite satisfied after trial use. With the addition of this batch of equipment, Nurhachi's chances of winning by attacking Longdun and Samzhan and avenging Ha Sihu increased by three points. , Therefore, he is more active in training troops, drawing up attack plans, and deciding on the date of dispatching troops.
However, in the court of the Ming Dynasty, something crueler than war was going on, which was to punish the dead Zhang Juzheng...
After the heavy New Year's Day congratulatory ceremony, Emperor Wanli seemed to have survived a catastrophe, and the days after that became easier, and it seemed to be the first beautiful spring in his life.
Due to Zhang Juzheng's death, most of his political measures were "the death of the people and the rest of the government", and the principle of saving the cost of the palace that he had always insisted on, of course, was completely overturned by the Wanli Emperor; Therefore, the resplendent palace originally composed of yellow glazed tiles, white jade railings, painted pillars and carved beams was decorated with all kinds of delicate, novel, colorful and beautiful lanterns. Going to Ao Mountain, fireworks, Qionghua Yushu, rare birds and animals; accompanied by Concubine Zheng De, he spent the most luxurious, most extravagant, most enjoyable and happiest Lantern Festival in his life, and he didn't care at all about how hard it was to let the household department The 200,000 "golden flowers and silver" allocated each year, in addition to the normal expenses in the palace, cost him nine-tenths of it in one Lantern Festival night.
After the Lantern Festival, it was supposed to be the time when all work and rest began to return to normal, but his mood was still in the joy of the holiday, so he ordered an eunuch to announce to the officials that the annual leave would be extended for another half month until the beginning of February Started to govern again and again.
Anyway, Zhang Juzheng was dead and Feng Bao was expelled. Firstly, the Empress Dowager Cisheng said that "everything is good enough to have a grandson"; It turned out that she thought that Emperor Wanli had already become a father; that was an adult, and she could rest assured that he would no longer be under tight and man-marking control-in short, he is now absolutely free.
Therefore, even though he resumed his normal work and rest from the first day of February and started to go to court, his mood has been on vacation-although he has been emperor for more than ten years, all political affairs in the past were handled by Zhang Juzheng. He has already developed the habit of "don't care about everything", and even often sits on the dragon chair, facing the ministers' reports one by one, he simply "listens but does not hear" and wanders around the world-now that the early dynasty system has not been abolished , he had no choice but to continue to go to court like a puppet, but he always ordered the eunuchs to hint to the officials to shorten the time of the morning court as much as possible; The emperor handles it himself!
Of course, the real reason why he wants to shorten the early court time as much as possible is not that the country is so good that it does not need to be governed, but because he wants to stay in the harem and enjoy the fun of life from the bottom of his heart—his concubine Zheng Rouyun has already been secretly married. A web of tenderness was woven in his heart, trapping him deeply and unable to extricate himself.
On this day, he drove back to the palace less than half an hour after going to court, ate some delicate and delicious snacks, and bought some fresh fruits, and then he took Concubine Zheng De to the imperial garden to enjoy the flowers.
In March, the spring is peaceful and the flowers are in full bloom. Of course, the imperial garden in the "emperor's home" presents a beautiful scenery under the dual effects of weather and man-made; all kinds of flowers compete for beauty, attracting bees and butterflies. , the treetops are fresh green, the grass is tender, and a few couples of mandarin ducks swim leisurely in the flowing water under the small bridge, which makes the reflection in the water sway and rippling from time to time, like a broken dream of water; Sent bursts of flowers and tender green willows; coupled with the lazy and leisurely atmosphere exuded by the slightly warm climate, Emperor Wanli was so intoxicated that he almost fell asleep on the ground, dreaming with this comfortable spring scene idea.
Surrounded by such beautiful scenery, Concubine Zheng De's heart was also filled with joy. On a whim, she sang softly...
The day is long, the willows are green and golden, the rain has just passed, the peach and apricot blossoms are fragrant, and the flower seller evokes the situation of Huaichun.Butterflies compete for new greenery, swallows talk about carving beams, and they light up the small fan, and they have to go to the flowing water bridge to enjoy it.
Her voice is soft and melodious, and she sings such a small song that is like a whisper, with a delicate and lingering feeling, sweet and charming, very beautiful; especially to the ears of Emperor Wanli, who has never appreciated the beauty of music, it is no different. Immediately, he clapped his hands and said loudly: "It's so good! It's so good! I've never heard such a good song, and I don't know that you can sing!"
His voice sounded as if he was surprised and delighted, and he asked, "What's the name of this song? It sounds so good!"
While pestering Concubine Zheng De again, she said: "Sing one more—I love it so much!"
Concubine Zheng De smiled coquettishly and said: "Where can my concubine know how to sing? It's just humming casually! The concubine was born in a merchant, and her family is not bad. How could she send her daughter to learn singing? This song is just something I listened to when I was young." The female musicians bought at home sang it, and secretly hummed along—in fact, this song is not a great famous song, it’s just a folk song sung in the south of the Yangtze River!”
On the one hand, he couldn't resist the repeated pestering of Emperor Wanli, so he had to clear his throat, and sang another song softly...
Hsinchu is leaning on the vermilion fence, the breeze is lovely, and Xiangji is near the north window, which is commonly known as Youzhai; Chiba pomegranates and lotuses are in competition; The voice is also, laughing and picking the jasmine!
At the end of the song, Emperor Wanli applauded again and again; but this time, before he finished applauding and speaking, Concubine Zheng De rushed to say: "My concubine can't sing well, please don't laugh at me—Long Live Lord wants to hear it." The song, in fact, couldn't be simpler; there is a group of female musicians in the concubine's family, there are more than 20 girls who can sing, and ten accompanying musicians; let alone such a small song, the whole legend They can't be bothered! Whatever Long Live Lord wants to hear, just get up and sit in the concubine's house, and I promise you will listen to it for three days and three nights!"
Hearing what she said, Emperor Wanli was elated at first, but when he heard the next few sentences, his face became troubled. After pondering for a while, he said in a low voice: "No, no, I'm going out of the palace to listen to the song at your house, empress dowager The first one will not agree!"
Concubine Zheng De didn't even think about it, she said to him: "Then tell them to come to the palace to sing! They sometimes go to other people's homes to sing, some relatives and friends who don't have female music at home, come when there is a festive event Borrowing the girls' music from my concubine's family to sing, my concubine's father always generously agrees..."
Having said that, Emperor Wanli became happy again: "Great! Then let them enter the palace to sing!"
Concubine Zheng De clapped her hands and said with a coquettish smile: "Long Live Lord, you only need to send someone to the concubine's home to say, and the concubine's father will make good preparations and send them into the palace right away! Now, even the concubine will be happy! "
However, as soon as she finished speaking, she immediately discovered the key to the difficulty of implementing this idea: "There is no stage in the palace, where can the female singers sing?"
As soon as she reminded her, Emperor Wanli also realized that there is no place in the palace where legends can be sung, but after thinking about it for a while, he immediately came up with an idea: "It doesn't matter..." He comforted Concubine Zheng De and said, "There is no place now, I don't think so. You can order people to build it immediately, and it will be ready soon; I want to build a big house with a stage inside, the bigger the better, I can invite two empress dowagers to listen to the music together, if the officials in the court are dedicated Those who work for me, I will also reward him to listen to the music—we can’t always borrow female music from your family, I’ll organize a class in the palace myself!”
His conception of this matter became concrete, and he talked endlessly, and the sketch of the imaginary "theater" floated in front of his eyes...
Concubine Zheng De told him: "The theater of the concubine's house is built on the pool, and the sound of the silk and bamboo orchestra comes out from the water, which is very pleasant; there are two large rooms behind the stage, which are used by the female musicians to put on makeup and change clothes. , the entire wall is covered with mirrors; in front of the stage is the place to watch the theater, which is as big as the hall, and can hold more than 20 tables of banquets..."
What she said made Emperor Wanli's imagination more concrete and his heart more alive, so he suddenly slapped his thigh, made a sound that almost shocked himself, and said loudly: "Okay, just cover it like this." ——I will order someone to do it immediately!"
As he spoke, he immediately called Zhang Cheng, who had replaced Feng Bao as the supervisor of ceremonies, and told him the big plan, and ordered him to proceed immediately.
However, after Zhang Cheng heard his plan, he immediately looked embarrassed and hesitated for a while, and finally he mustered up the courage to say in a low voice, "Long live, I want to dig a hole in the palace." A big pool, a big theater, and a group of women’s music can’t be done without millions of taels of silver—where do you ask your servants to get the silver to do things?”
With one sentence, he aligned Emperor Wanli's ideals with reality. Emperor Wanli couldn't answer, he opened his mouth wide but couldn't make a sound, and the expression on his face immediately became depressed; Sighing, shaking his head again and again.
Seeing his appearance, Zhang Cheng suddenly had many complicated thoughts in his heart. He felt that Emperor Wanli's appearance was a bit ridiculous and pitiful, and he also felt that he should help Emperor Wanli fulfill this wish—this is an opportunity, if If this matter can be done well, it will be of great help to his status; therefore, when he resigned from Emperor Wanli, he had already thought of more than a dozen ways to make money in his mind.
However, things in the world are unsatisfactory in all likelihood. Before Zhang Cheng's money-making plan has been put into action, the Empress Dowager Cisheng has already known about this whimsical plan of Emperor Wanli; of course, she is It was impossible to agree to this plan, so she went to find Emperor Wanli, gave him a harsh meal, and forbade him to carry out this plan; , she made a flexible concession - if Emperor Wanli only occasionally sent a few female musicians from Concubine Zheng De's mother's family into the palace to sing some ditties, she could barely accept it.
Despite such flexibility and relaxation, Emperor Wanli's mood was obviously depressed; after all, what he thought was the most perfect ideal had been forced to abort, and he certainly felt unhappy, which also caused him to have a kind of depression. So, for three days in a row, he said that he was unwell and could not go to court early.
Regarding his childish behavior of pretending to be ill to hide from him when he was unhappy, Zhang Cheng couldn't help but laugh in his heart when he saw it, and he immediately thought of several ways to resolve it; first of all, he Sent the little eunuch out of the palace, found a bookstore, and bought all the books about poetry, songs, operas and legends, so that Emperor Wanli could have a dry addiction first; There was a word from the family that they were asked to prepare to perform in the palace as soon as possible; then, they joined forces with Concubine Zheng De to persuade them patiently with nice words...
On the fourth day, Emperor Wanli finally agreed to go to court; who knows, as soon as he went to court this day, he immediately faced another major event that caused his emotions to fluctuate like a storm.
On this day, the censor Yang Keli made a memorial, listing all kinds of crimes committed by the former grand master Zhang Juzheng. The most important one is that Zhang Juzheng once charged him with personal grievances during the Jiajing period, and framed the then king of Liao for rebellion. Liao King Xian㸅 was abolished as a commoner; and attached is Xian㸅's wife's defense of injustice, which clearly accuses Zhang Juzheng of framing Xian㸅. No less than ten million.
When he saw this memorial for the first time, Emperor Wanli couldn't believe it, but with a second thought, he overturned his first intuition - the iron evidence in front of him was so overwhelming that he couldn't help but believe it, even though he always believed in it. Zhang Juzheng has a deep-rooted view of "too much integrity"...
For a moment, he was stunned, not knowing how to deal with this matter; but after thinking about it again, a terrible thought swallowed all his consciousness: "All the property of Liao Wangxian is worth more than ten million. Engulfed by Zhang Juzheng..."
He suddenly became excited. The last time when Feng Bao's property was confiscated, boxes of gold, silver, jewelry, antiques and curiosities appeared in front of him. It came back to his mind once and for all; the memory was still fresh, and he knew the taste - he couldn't help muttering to himself: "Chasing home - copying his home - thousands, thousands, all belong to me It's..."
As he spoke, his whole body trembled subconsciously; then, several discontinuous images floated in front of his eyes: yellow gold, glistening white silver, blood-red agate, emerald green, round pearls, warm Meiyu—compared to Zhang Juzheng's unsmiling voice, deep and sharp eyesight, and even the "Illustrations of the Emperor's Supervisor" he compiled and drawn himself, he made the former defeat the latter without much effort.
One day in April, he officially decreed that Zhang Juzheng's home should be copied, and Zhang Juzheng's property was not registered. Zhang Juzheng's mansion in the capital, a group went to copy Zhang Juzheng's hometown in Jiangling.
However, while he was thinking about Zhang Juzheng's property worth tens of millions, he never expected that his idea of just making money would cause the tragedy of many deaths...
The edict, before Zhang Cheng and Qiu Xiao had time to reach Jiangling, the magistrates of Jiangling had already gone to Zhang's residence to register the population "with chicken feathers as arrows", and sealed the door as if they were facing a big enemy to prevent anyone from entering. Escaping or transporting out belongings; so Zhang Juzheng's family members who stayed in his hometown could only hide in the empty room and wait. When Zhang Cheng and Qiu Xiao arrived in Jiangling and opened the sealed door of Zhang's mansion, more than a dozen people were already alive. starving.
Then, Zhang Cheng, Qiu Xiao and others began to check the property left by Zhang Juzheng, but the result was disappointing—the most precious "property" of Zhang Juzheng was just a few rooms of books, and a few calligraphy and paintings; The power is all over the world, and several sons are also officials in the court, but the money accumulated, even brothers, nephews and nephews have been searched, and there are only ten thousand taels of gold and more than one hundred thousand taels of platinum. In terms of financial resources, he is better than ordinary people Not as good as a middle-level businessman!
However, Zhang Cheng, who is "good at the emperor's heart", certainly knows that if such a result is reported, Emperor Wanli will not only be dissatisfied, but also lose his temper. Of course, he cannot close the case here; Zhang Juzheng, the powerful man in the world, would be so clean and honest; so he arrested Zhang Jingxiu, the eldest son of Zhang Juzheng who was in charge of the Ministry of Rites, tortured him severely, and forced Zhang Jingxiu to find out where other belongings were stored...
Notes:
Notes: