Chapter 14 Chapter Fourteen
The choice facing Shi Shihang may be the most difficult decision he has ever made in his life...
On that day, Emperor Wanli, who had not met his ministers face-to-face for five or six days, suddenly sent an eunuch to him and announced that he would meet him in Wenhua Palace in private; Not only was his spirit refreshed, but the heat in his heart also increased by two points; he guessed that Emperor Wanli must have thought of some problem because he hadn't gone to court for a few days, so he came to call him for consultation; In relief, the pace of the feet was also accelerated.
Who knows, when he got to Emperor Wanli, he realized that the facts were far from what he had imagined.
Emperor Wanli not only didn't ask him anything about state affairs at all, he didn't even bother to say anything, but just gave him a simple order: "I feel unwell after getting up in the morning these few days. I have been recuperating for a few days. I haven't seen improvement yet, so I need to rest for a long time; I can't attend the morning court, Jingyan, and daily lectures, so you can think of a way for me to stop it!"
These words were like a thunderbolt from the blue, which made Shen Shixing dizzy, almost unable to stand still, and even more muffled and unable to say anything.
However, the original intention of Emperor Wanli calling him to see him was an order rather than a "discussion". He didn't ask him to answer anything at all, and he was speechless and didn't attract the attention of Emperor Wanli. He didn't even have room to speak; after giving the order, he immediately got up and left, and the accompanying eunuchs also left like a gust of wind, leaving only a dead silence to accompany Shen Shixing.
Shen Shixing, who was over half a century old, short in stature and wrinkled on his face, was left alone in the vast, tall, resplendent, ornately decorated Wenhua Pavilion, which was empty and empty. He looked uncoordinated and insignificant. ; and when he walked down the steps alone and walked out of the palace gate, with his back facing the majestic and majestic Ming Palace complex, the whole person looked more like "just a small black spot"... …
Every step he took was heavy, and his hunched and hunched back seemed to be bent by the pressure on his shoulders—he knew better than anyone else that just now, Emperor Wanli was speaking to him When he was in bed, his face was rosy, his voice was loud, he was full of energy, and he walked vigorously, not like "being unwell" at all; "being unwell" was just an excuse. Banquet and day talk about these things he doesn't want to attend, so that he can have more time to eat, drink and have fun in the harem, and fool around with the concubines!
As the chief assistant, what he has to do for the emperor is to draft an imperial decree on behalf of the emperor, writing out the meaning of the emperor's desire to stay idle and not to work in words that are too high-sounding and irresistible, and tell the officials; Communicate and guide, lest someone write a letter to object and cause Longxin's displeasure!
"Eternal sinner, eternal sinner!"
When he got into the sedan chair, he kept murmuring in his heart; when he got home, he even changed his official uniform and went straight into the study without raising his head, deep in thought without saying a word.
Also, for a split second, a thought flashed in his mind, wanting to invite the second assistant Xu Guo and the third assistant Wang Xijue to discuss this matter together, but this idea flashed and then disappeared - he knew very well what he wanted to do. The key to the problem is not to find someone to discuss; Emperor Wanli has made up his mind, and there is no room for negotiation. The problem he faces is his own position, what kind of attitude he will use to face this things, and even what role I want to play on the stage of history.
There are only two choices in front of us. One is to follow the wishes of Emperor Wanli and try to stop the early dynasty, Jingyan, and daily lectures. If we continue on this path, we can keep our current fame and status, but we will be "eternal sinners" in the future. ; The second is to hang on the crown and ask to go, to gain a virtuous name and praise others.
And even though it was such a simple and neat "choose one", he still couldn't make a choice for a long time, and the inner struggle disappeared bit by bit with time, not only failed to alleviate, but worsened until late at night, The pain of mental contradictions made him unable to sleep peacefully.
There are some inextricable knots, unreasonable hemp, and a bunch of messy things that are entangled in my mind over and over again-it is only natural for the emperor to go to court, and it is only natural for the emperor to go to court. The system under him is the homework of re-education pursued by every generation of emperors; he clearly remembers that the founder of the country, Emperor Gao, was still diligent in attending sutra banquets until he was seventy years old, and the absurdity of Emperor Wuzong never gave orders to stop—— He also remembers every sage book and every volume of history he has read since he was enlightened at the age of six. He can recite the principles of governing the country and the world explained in each book, and he also remembers every famous official in history. The deeds of the virtuous prime minister; he also saw more clearly the crossroads he was standing in front of him!
"The subjugation of many foolish kings all began with neglect of political affairs..."
After thinking about it, he couldn't help letting out a silent sigh from the deepest part of his heart, and then struggled again: "The morning court and the sutra feast have been stopped—this is something that hasn't happened since the founding of the country!"
After all, he is an educated person. No matter how "wishful" he was in the past, when he encountered such an important event, he still had a "battle between heaven and man" in his heart; thinking about his own fame, he also thought about Emperor Wanli After stopping the morning court, Jingyan, and daily lectures, all the possible impacts would cause him to break out in a cold sweat—he felt that even if he could not change Emperor Wanli's intention to stop the early court, Jingyan, he could not help him handle it. In this matter, you should immediately resign from your current position and return to your hometown to preserve your reputation.
However, as soon as he changed his mind, he immediately estimated the actual gains and losses-resigning from the current position of chief assistant and returning to his hometown, he would immediately lose his current status, power and income; The system support of the court is not a large number, but the real power held by the position of chief assistant makes the "filial piety" from various private channels and connections across the country reach as high as hundreds or thousands of times the official salary. It was Li Chengliang from Liaodong, who gave Lilly worth more than 50,000 to 60,000 taels of silver every year-once he resigned and returned to his hometown, all these incomes would be wiped out!
What's more, the fate of "violating the emperor's heart" is so tragic that it will bring disaster to the descendants-the example of Zhang Juzheng, the former grand master, is clearly in front of him-thinking of this, Shen Shixing shuddered involuntarily, turning pale His head could no longer rest on his pillow, so he simply put on his clothes and sat down with the lamp on.
Before dawn, he shook his head and recited a poem...
Master Wang didn't play Kang Jujie, who has a long life as a farmer?Dagon is ashamed of his job and has nothing to fill, but he should return the old Fu to the field!
I have chanted it several times, and I feel quite satisfied, especially the strong desire to "retire from the old age and return to the hometown" revealed in the poem, which allows him to fully demonstrate the high moral character in his character and express the integrity of his life as a man of the dynasty. The helplessness and sorrow in the heart of the scholar and the chief minister of the cabinet also made the struggle and pain in his heart diverge-after the poem was recited, the struggle and pain in his heart disappeared.
He intends to send this poem to his friends to express his opinion to them, and to leave some evidence for future history, proving that he was helpless when handling matters such as stopping the early dynasty for Emperor Wanli. Becoming a "sinner through the ages" is a last resort.
Next, of course, as the chief assistant, he will carry out the orders given by Emperor Wanli...
Of course, Emperor Wanli didn't know about Shen Shixing's complicated mentality at all, and secondly, he couldn't even think about it—he was less than half of Shen Shihang's age, and his mind was still in a pure and consistent state, so he couldn't understand it. The heart is deep and complicated, and he has never thought about the possible consequences of his own willfulness; he just wants to live purely and enjoy life happily.
The happiest thing in life is that Concubine Zheng De is pregnant. Although it is inconvenient for Concubine Zheng De to go to bed after pregnancy, and she must stop recreational activities such as drinking, but in terms of life taste and art appreciation, it is still enough to provide His satisfaction in many aspects; coupled with the two people's common and eager anticipation of the birth of the child, doubled his psychological satisfaction. After stopping the morning court and sutra feast, he also had more time to spend Enjoy all these good feelings.
Therefore, a few days later, he posed another problem to Shen Shixing: "I want to make Concubine De a noble concubine..."
The "upgrade" of Concubine Zheng De was originally not a big deal, but Shen Shixing spent several days in a difficult situation before it was settled properly; it turned out that the status of "Concubine De" was the same as that of "Concubine Gong" who was the birth mother of the emperor's eldest son. At the "concubine" level, Concubine Zheng De was pregnant and was promoted to "Noble Concubine" before she gave birth, while Concubine Gong had given birth to the eldest son of the emperor, but was not enfeoffed. This aroused objections from courtiers. However, who knows, Emperor Wanli insisted on refusing to confer the title of Concubine Wang Gong, and instead of going to court, he only issued an order to Shen Shixing to make him handle the matter satisfactorily.
Shen Shixing, who had already made a choice at the crossroads of his life, encountered this incident, and there was no longer any struggle between heaven and man in his heart; knowing that it would bring bad sequelae, he also pretended not to know "Following the imperial decree" accomplished the task according to Emperor Wanli's wishes; only in the dead of night, when he occasionally thought of this matter, would he secretly pray: "I hope Concubine Zheng will give birth to a princess..."
Familiar with classics and history, he certainly remembered the story of "Prince Shensheng" of the Jin State in the Spring and Autumn Period, and of course he hoped that the tragedy would not repeat itself in this dynasty—unfortunately, his wish was exactly the opposite of the reality.
Just after the New Year's Day of the second year, when the people all over the country were still immersed in the joyful atmosphere of the New Year, the good news came from the palace that Emperor Wanli ordered the whole world to celebrate: Concubine Zheng Guifei gave birth to a boy.
In the eager expectation of his parents, this boy came to the world from the will of heaven and earth. His whole body was flushed, and he burst into tears as soon as he was born.
However, this bitter cry was overjoyed in the ears of the people surrounding him, everyone was excited and cheered in unison: "Congratulations, you are a prince!"
Concubine Zheng, who had been tortured by the pain of childbirth, was weak and nearly unconscious. In a state of semi-consciousness, when she heard this sound, a smile appeared on the corner of her mouth, and then she fell asleep peacefully with a smile on her face.
Emperor Wanli, who received the good news from the eunuch, jumped up happily from his chair. Immediately afterwards, Shen Shihang's work came again, and Concubine Zheng was promoted again, and was named "Huang Guifei".
The newborn prince is named Chang Xun. Like all babies, he has a pure and innocent face and a soul like a white paper; however, he is different from every baby in the country in one thing—he His birth brought great suspicion and anxiety to the ministers in the court, and even produced many sharp remarks.
Since the status of the imperial concubine is second only to the empress and is the highest level among "concubines", Emperor Wanli canonized Zheng as the imperial concubine.For the eldest son of the emperor, the birth mother, Wang, still stays in the title of "Concubine Gong"; moreover, the eldest son of the emperor, Chang Luo, is already five years old, and Emperor Wanli has not registered him as the crown prince for a long time. The emperor's selfish preferences and Zheng Guifei's obvious intentions all showed that the Wanli emperor was very likely to violate the etiquette and law and appoint the third son as the crown prince!
However, in this dynasty, which pays special attention to etiquette and system, this is something that must never happen. Therefore, the ministers wrote letters one after another. One wrote that Wang Gongfei should be registered as the imperial concubine, and the other wrote that the eldest son of the emperor should be registered immediately. Luo is the crown prince, and the third voice is that in the current dynasty, where the principle is to establish a long-term son, the prince who should be harvested will be crowned king first, so that the queen will have a son-in-law. The sealed memorial flew in front of Emperor Wanli like a snowflake, making him dizzy; in the end, he simply didn't read a single word, and only told Shen Shixing: "Try to tell them not to write it—— It's nonsense, I'm impatient to watch! Go and send them away for me, and tell them that they don't care which concubine I love or which son I love!"
Next, he ordered the eunuch to take all the memorials about Li Chu and hand them over to Shen Shixing, and asked him to approve them on his behalf, but he didn't know that Shen Shixing, who was the chief assistant, had already done this in the court. Suffering from the pressure, the ministers accused him of failing to seek a reserve from Emperor Wanli, and that he was negligent in his duties-sandwiched between the two parties, Shen Shixing became a Zhu Bajie who was not a human being inside and outside; The mission could not be accomplished, which made him extremely painful.
But fortunately, he has already made a decision on his principles and positions in his heart, and there is no need to struggle any more. Moreover, he has been an official for many years, and he also has a set of ways to deal with "difficulties"-just hold the court as the reserve. When there was a conflict between the matter and Emperor Wanli, he assigned himself a mission, which was to inspect the mausoleum for Emperor Wanli that had been prepared to start construction on the ground.
But his departure did not mean that Emperor Wanli had to personally review the lengthy memorials of the ministers—there were many eunuchs holding pens in the palace, and it was not difficult at all to approve the memorials on behalf of them!
In this way, everyone got what they deserved—although the ministers were arguing and arguing in the court, and the memorials from the left and the right were full of eloquence, and they were free to say anything, but Emperor Wanli neither went to court nor read the memorials. He enjoyed the days when his ears were quiet, his eyes were out of sight and his heart was out of his mind. Sitting next to his beloved concubine and son, he was intoxicated in the sweetness of love and family affection.
Since Concubine Zheng gave birth, her appearance is as gorgeous as a peach and plum in the past, and she has added three points of plumpness, making her look more mature and charming, with a variety of styles; on the contrary, her mind is also more mature than before. Sensible, but also better at calculating.
She already knows that she should extend her attention and tentacles to the court and the people outside the palace. She knows that the reactions and opinions of the ministers and the people will still affect the people in the palace to some extent, just like this time. Although Emperor Wanli ignored the matter of establishing a reserve, she has already felt a little pressure from the ups and downs outside; she has learned to use reason to control her words and deeds, so that her wishes can be fulfilled smoothly, so she not only does not urge Emperor Wanli Fulfilling the promise she had made to her before, "If you give birth to a prince, you can try to seal the queen", instead, she politely persuaded Emperor Wanli, who was sometimes disturbed by the ministers' comments: "Chang Xun was just born, long live What does the Lord want to seal him? There will be plenty of time in the future, so why rush it? People in the court talk too much, so it is inevitable that they will talk too much. Lord Long Live is 'the adults don't care about the faults of the villains', so why leave those unpleasant words in the Are you sullen in your heart? As they say about this and that, don’t the concubines just pretend they don’t know? If you really want to get angry with them and make yourself angry, it’s not worth it! Actually, the concubine I just wish I could serve the Lord Long Live more, and I am already satisfied..."
She has understood the truth of "things are smooth when things are slow", but Emperor Wanli was very moved by these words. He felt that she was general and sensible, so he felt a little more love for her in his heart, and doubled Of course, Concubine Zheng’s words were not entirely insincere, based on her understanding of the reality, she did plan to “take it slowly”, and she was sure of winning—for one thing, Queen Wang has been ill recently, Secondly, the second son of the emperor died not long ago; she knew very well in her heart that as long as the queen was not alive, or the eldest son of the emperor died like the second son of the emperor, she and Chang Xun, who was born to her, would be able to ascend the throne as she wished. The throne of the queen and the crown prince; and the possibility of these two happenings is very high, she believes that she can wait for that day to come...
However, occasionally, when Emperor Wanli was not in front of her eyes, and she hugged Chang Xun alone for fun, she would faintly feel a faint sense of sadness in her heart: just because her husband is the emperor, he is a wife and a son. You have to use all means to fight for status. Compared with ordinary small families and households in the folk, the friendship between husband and wife, father and son does not contain status and interests, but there is sincerity...
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