Chapter 17 Chapter Seventeen

For the Ming Dynasty, Jianzhou Zuowei's tribute was too small a matter - Jianzhou Zuowei, with a population of less than 2,000, is still too small compared to the size of the smallest county in the country. It’s small—so, when official documents came, they were processed according to the usual practice. A few papers went out after going through several units such as the Ministry of Households and the Ministry of Officials; none of the officials in the Manchu Dynasty thought this matter was still It needs to be rethought and studied again, and no one thinks that this matter has the slightest importance; only the petty official who handles the file, because of the nature of his work, copied this matter word by word into the record for future revision. The materials at the time of the "Record"; after copying, there will be no impression in my mind, let alone the Shoufu Shen Shixing who manages every opportunity, or even the Emperor Wanli who ignores every opportunity.

Shen Shixing's situation is getting more and more difficult. In order to establish a reserve, suspend the early court, and Jingyan, etc., more and more people are "dissatisfied" with the way the ministers in the court have handled his "hometown wish" ;In addition to the already turbulent political strife, the object of the struggle, and the secondary assistant Xu Guo, who has always been regarded as an imaginary enemy by him and covets the throne of his chief assistant, there is a new force that is gradually taking shape. Strong enough to have a significant influence, but he, who has been in the political arena for a long time, has a very keen "political nose" despite his superficial wishful thinking. Although this emerging force has not yet created a climate, his keen sense The political nose has already smelled it.

Those are the two forces headed by Gu Xiancheng and Luo Yuren. Luo Yuren is a madman, with a straight and aggressive temper, and his head is full of the political ideals of the ancient sages and sages recorded in the classics, the various deeds of the ancient wise kings and sages, and the beauty of the prosperous ages of the past dynasties His dissatisfaction with the current world is strong and he will blurt out major attacks at any time; his attitude is arrogant, his words are sharp, and his momentum is domineering, and he has already put life and death aside. Jing has begun to win the sympathy of some people. Several people often get together to severely criticize the current situation, and faintly form a small group.

Gu Xiancheng’s development is similar to Luo Yuren’s but slightly different—although Gu Xiancheng’s political ideals and dissatisfaction with the status quo are consistent with Luo Yuren’s, but because of their different personalities, they express themselves in different ways Different; Gu Xiancheng's appearance is gentle and elegant, his thinking is meticulous and rigorous, and his knowledge is profound. When he speaks, he always quotes the classics and discusses the past and the present in a clear manner; therefore, he is even more popular, especially for the younger generation who are new to the world. There are a large number of mid-level and lower-level officials whose officialdom and inner ideals have not been swallowed up by reality. Everyone likes to listen to his commentary on current affairs from an academic point of view. Therefore, the number of people who automatically gather around him is increasing day by day. formed a small group.

All kinds of situations, in the eyes of the seasoned Shen Shixing, the back is even more hunched - of course he is clear in his heart, these new forces are all directed at himself - even more faintly in his heart He felt a sense of fear. The leaders of the two emerging forces are young people, as young as the rising sun, as vigorous as the first green shoots, full of vitality, and this alone has brought him invisible The pressure and threats of the emperor——between the Emperor Wanli and the ministers of the Manchu Dynasty, he had no idea of ​​making progress or doing anything, and only wanted to be able to maintain his official position safely without being forced to step down; however, these young people But as if he was unwilling to fulfill him, he wanted to drive him out of power!

"A group of ignorant kids..." He couldn't help sighing from the bottom of his heart: "If you read too much, you only know the allusions of Han Wenjing and Tang Zhenguan; if you can't touch the heart of Lord Wanli of the Ming Dynasty, thinking about it is useless!" Gu Xiancheng repeated and expected the "Wanli Reign" over and over again, so why didn't it appear in other people's hearts?And why isn't it the ideal he once embraced?As early as 14 years ago, when the Wanli Emperor took over the throne, who among the civil and military ministers of the Manchu Dynasty, and even the 100 million people in the whole country were not satisfied with the arrival of the "Wanli Rule"?In particular, Zhang Juzheng, the former grand master, dedicated his whole life, and what he did was not the four words "the rule of Wanli"?What is the result?It's just a disaster for descendants!

It has been four years since Zhang Juzheng passed away. In the past four years, the words "Wanli Zhizhi" have become just an old dream in my heart! All Zhang Juzheng's painstaking efforts were in vain. Emperor Wanli, who had received a complete and strict imperial education, grew up, but he had no concept of "governing the country and loving the people" in his heart; what he loved was wine and beauties, and what he yearned for was freedom He completely ignored the turmoil caused by his waywardness in the court! "Ugh……" After thinking about it, Shen Shixing's sigh dragged on longer, and a new worry came to his heart along with this sigh.

That will be an incident that will cause objections and turmoil among the ministers in the court after Emperor Wanli stopped the early court, the banquet, and the establishment of the reserve. Since the mausoleum of Emperor Wanli is about to start, the treasury is not enough for use. It is bound to increase the taxes of the people again! Compared with the "one-whip tax law" when Zhang Juzheng was alive, the burden on the people has been much heavier—from the "golden flowers and silver" levied for the wedding of Emperor Wanli to the several times after Zhang Juzheng's death. The emperor's younger brother Lu Wang's wedding, the birth of the prince and other reasons have increased taxes several times, and the people have begun to complain. He really can't imagine what the increase in taxes for the construction of the mausoleum this time will attract. What a backlash and consequences!

However, even though he had such hidden worries in his heart, he had no plans to report to Emperor Wanli, or to report to Emperor Wanli. Anyway, no matter what he did, it would be futile. Increasing taxes was something that had to be done. Raise concerns in advance , It will only make Emperor Wanli lose his temper, why not deal with it when it comes to a head! Because of this, Emperor Wanli never even imagined that the exquisite and gorgeous life he advocated came from the burden of the people; every penny he squandered and every penny he enjoyed was architectural On top of the pain of the people paying taxes...

He lives every day to his own satisfaction: Concubine Zheng is as beautiful as a celestial being, the newborn Chang Xun is fat and cute, the bottle is full of wine, singing and dancing are constantly in front of him, there is no bad word in his ears, and there is no fear in his heart. worry. However, he is not a confused and stupid person; on the contrary, his extraordinary high IQ often shows impressive intelligence and finesse in other aspects of "non-state affairs"; The lacquer wares that were newly manufactured and brought to the palace were presented in front of him for him to play with one by one; he was very fond of these exquisitely crafted handicrafts, and suddenly his heart moved, so he ordered the eunuchs to open the warehouse , took a few samples of lacquerware from the warehouse and came out to appreciate them in detail.

The manufacturing method of lacquerware is to apply a layer of lacquer on the top of the blank, put it in the shade room, and then apply another layer of lacquer after the lacquer dries. After repeated thirty-six layers, the lacquer itself has been pushed out. It is very time-consuming and labor-intensive to make, and engraving on lacquer requires extremely skilled craftsmanship, so the finished product The works are exquisite and elegant, and they are too beautiful to behold—embracing Concubine Zheng, facing each piece of lacquerware that he couldn't put it down, Emperor Wanli couldn't help admiring repeatedly: "Ingenious workmanship, really ingenious workmanship!" Concubine Zheng smiled and said, "It's all because of the prosperity and happiness of my Ming Dynasty that I can raise such skillful craftsmen!" Hearing this, Emperor Wanli felt even happier: "Well said, well said! Since ancient times, only the prosperous age can produce skillful craftsmen. Looking at these pieces of lacquerware, it shows that our Ming Dynasty was extremely prosperous!" As he spoke, he picked up a red peony round box from the Yongle Dynasty, and while playing with it, he said to Concubine Zheng: "This color of red is thick but not bright, it has a restrained beauty, and it looks warm and moist." Not pricking sleep, as far as the color is concerned, it is already top grade; the five blooming peonies carved on it are elegant in posture, you see, the interlacing of these buds, branches and leaves, the layout is so detailed, complete, and elegant— —The twists, veins, and textures of the leaves are carved like real objects..." As he spoke gracefully, Concubine Zheng nodded her head frequently and occasionally gave a few compliments; however, when Emperor Wanli picked up a red-picked okra dish from the Xuande Dynasty and played with it for a while, he suddenly He stopped talking, and after a while, a look of suspicion appeared in his eyes. The color of this large sunflower plate is like ripe jujubes. The carved pattern is a bunch of okra flowers, with unfolded flowers, sparse branches and leaves, and tight buds, showing the beauty of elegance and beauty; From that point of view, it is already the pinnacle of work; however, Emperor Wanli said to Concubine Zheng after thinking for a while: "It's strange, what's wrong with the inscription on this plate? Look, it seems that there has been scratched here. It looks like it has been polished, the broken lines on both sides of these words are not continuous, and the words seem to be a little higher..." Hearing what he said, Concubine Zheng quickly moved her eyes to take a closer look; she felt the same when she saw it, the bottom of the big plate was engraved with the words "Daming Xuande Year System", filled with gold in regular script, but it was exactly as Emperor Wanli said looks very wrong. "What's going on here?" She asked, tilting her head. However, Emperor Wanli did not answer her. Instead, he went to look at the bottom of several other lacquerware one by one. I thought it was something from the Yongle Dynasty, and the color, knife technique, shape, and pattern all looked like it was from the Yongle Dynasty, but when I turned the bottom, it was engraved with Xuande—if I compared the signature again, it would be even more wrong; you see , other Xuande Dynasty lacquerware inscriptions are divided into two lines, three lines in the center, or horizontal scripts in the middle of the top, only this plate has six characters in a line, which is the same as that of the Yongle Dynasty!" Concubine Zheng followed his fingers to look carefully, and unconsciously let out a voice of surprise: "What's going on? Why is it like this?" Emperor Wanli sneered and said, "What's going on, but even I, the emperor, don't know!" As he said that, he suddenly felt bored and unhappy, so he sent a message to the chief manager of the inner mansion, ordering him: "There is something wrong with this plate, you should go and find out for me immediately, if you can't find out the reason in three days, I will punish you for your crime!" The head of the inner palace obediently kowtowed several times and retreated. However, Emperor Wanli was disappointed by this incident, so he was no longer interested in appreciating lacquerware, so he simply asked the eunuchs to move all the things into the warehouse. Pass wine and food to drink to relieve boredom. However, Concubine Zheng witnessed the performance of his "son of heaven and sage" who "perceived the details", but she couldn't help but secretly pay attention and raised her vigilance a lot. She told herself that Emperor Wanli's high IQ cannot be ignored, and no matter what she wants to do secretly in the future, she must be more careful and not take it lightly, otherwise it will be easy for Emperor Wanli to find out—especially what she has done to Chang Xun. s hard work. This precautionary effort began when Chang Xun's little hands could grasp things: she ordered someone to secretly use honey to make a jade seal, and let Chang Xun catch it in his mouth and eat it, so that Chang Xun developed the habit of "grasping". He has the habit of grabbing the jade seal as soon as he takes a shot among many things; in this way, on the day when he "grasps the week", he can grab the jade seal that symbolizes the national seal and the throne without any mistakes and without hesitation. In this way, everyone, including Emperor Wanli, will believe that Chang Xun is the "true son of destiny", and God has already destined Chang Xun to take over the throne in the future—she has heard , Chang Luo only grabbed a small ball to play with, so there is no need to say more about who is God's will. And she is very sure of the training method imposed on Chang Xun. It has only been implemented for two months. He grabbed the jade seal out of his belongings and stuffed it into his mouth. "As long as you don't let Long Live find out, you will be safe..."

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