Chapter 18 Chapter Eighteen Two Mindsets

Even though people close to Concubine Zheng have hidden ghosts in their hearts, Emperor Wanli has never had the opportunity to experience the world and has no deep understanding of the dangers of the human heart, so he never thought of paying attention to it; He has "the joy of ignorance." He didn't want to pursue the question about the sunflower plate after he woke up; it was because the clever chief of the inner palace was afraid that he would be punished if he couldn't find out the answer he was looking for, so he simply diverted his attention from this point of view. Let’s start from one side—he has served as the head of the inner government for several years, and he has long been familiar with the operation of the "bureaucratic system" that belongs to the palace in the Ming Dynasty and has a world of its own. If Zhang Cheng, the eunuch in charge of ceremonies, is here, then there is no need to worry about the sky falling.

And Zhang Cheng did have the sincerity and ability to "take people's money and eliminate disasters with others". He only whispered a few words in the ear of the head of the inner government, and the problem was solved. Therefore, when Emperor Wanli woke up from the intoxicated country very comfortably and comfortably, after a few lazy stretches, the close-fitting eunuch took the opportunity to ask him for instructions. Xu Wenbi and Shen Shixing, who were in charge of building the tomb, The construction of the mausoleum is about to start, and I specially asked for an interview outside the palace, hoping to discuss all matters related to the construction of the mausoleum.

Although he was not interested in the national economy and the people's livelihood, Emperor Wanli was inexplicably excited as soon as he mentioned the mausoleum where he would live after his life ended; so he immediately made a "declaration" , Immediately after changing his robes with a fiery heart, he received Xu Wenbi and Shen Shixing in the imperial study. Since the architectural design had already been finalized, what the two of them reported to him was only the scheduled date for the official groundbreaking, the estimated total cost, the purchase of building materials, and the recruitment of civilians, etc.: "The Ministry of Industry estimates, The cost must be five million taels of silver..."

After Xu Wenbi was a famous general, he was born with a tall figure and a sonorous voice, and he spoke with confidence, so the number "five million" sounded very clear. And when it was Shen Shixing's turn to speak, his volume was the same as his figure, only half of Xu Wenbi's, and with his head lowered, his voice was even weaker: "Five million taels is my total annual income— At present, the government's inventory of silver is not enough..." There was even a slight tremor in his voice, but Emperor Wanli was in a good mood and refreshed, so he didn't pay much attention to his expression, and his mind was turning very fast. The report immediately gave key instructions: "The day of the groundbreaking will be based on what Qing and others have played, and the purchase of materials and recruitment of civilians will be handed over to the Secretary-the five million taels needed will be handed over to the Ministry of Households to raise; now The world is peaceful and the people are rich, so it’s okay to collect more taxes—but when we start construction, we need to send more people to supervise the work, and we must not be meticulous!”

Although for Shen Shixing, these instructions of Emperor Wanli were already in his expectation, but once he visited the place in person, he still couldn't help beating the drums in his heart-"tax increase" was a tricky task. After all, the matter has come to the fore. However, Emperor Wanli couldn't hear his voice at all, and he didn't care at all—he got up and went back to the palace as soon as he delivered his will. Planning the interior furnishings and booking funeral items. Thinking of this, he became even more excited and excited. As soon as he stepped into the bedroom, his left and right hands stretched out and hugged the slender waist of Concubine Zheng who was about to bow down to greet him, laughing loudly. He said: "We have to be busy again - come and clip, hurry up and help me think about how to furnish the interior of the mausoleum?"

After sitting down together on the soft couch, one of his hands was still on Concubine Zheng's waist and was rubbing, while the other hand was inserted from her skirt into the tube top, and his cheek was pressed against her lips. , with a grin in his mouth, he said: "I want someone to draw a portrait of you on the bi, just like Xi Shi in "Huan Sha Ji"..." Concubine Zheng cuddled in his arms like a little bird, and said with a coquettish smile: "No, my concubine should not be painted as Xi Shi——I love that' The allusion of "Lian Li Zhi Zhi", asking Long Live Lord to accompany his concubines to paint Tang Minghuang together..."

When she spoke, her eyes moved, her voice was lazy, the front of her chest had been pushed aside by Emperor Wanli's hand, and half of the peach red tube top inside had faded away, revealing a snow-white and smooth breast like white jade fat, which made Emperor Wanli see Her body became hot involuntarily, and before she finished speaking, her lips covered her lips, and then she also stuck her lips together. Concubine Zheng can no longer speak, and can only babble and cry intermittently, welcoming the heat of Emperor Wanli with all kinds of amorous feelings—however, the charming scenery in the deep palace can only fill the air with a radius of a few feet. Space, did not help at all to improve the sharp conflicts and hot atmosphere among the courtiers in order to increase taxes.

Another large group of people surrounded the gate of the Shenshixing mansion. Luo Yuren, who spoke rudely and aggressively, and Gu Xiancheng, who was well-educated, well-organized, and eloquent in his speech—twenty or thirty officials who opposed the tax increase gathered in the second auxiliary office. Under the leadership of Xu Guo, he once again used high-level voices to argue with Shen Shixing, insisting that tax increases should not be done. "Although building the mausoleum is a major event, it is not a top priority..." "Long live God is still young, and the future will be long; the current national use is not enough, so why not wait until the treasury is full in the future..."

"Taxes have been raised several times in the past three years, and the burden on the people is too heavy, and complaints are everywhere-if the people's complaints rise day by day, they will lose their hearts..." "A country with a thousand chariots, to be frugal and to love others is an ancient teaching..." Several people expressed their opinions one by one, putting pressure on Shen Shihang; however, this time, Shen Shihang adopted the method of "pretending to be sick" to avoid confrontation with these people; On the other hand, since he himself was born as a "scholar", he has a deep understanding of this kind of useless scholar and scholar's view-the more upright, knowledgeable, and ideal a scholar is, the less brilliant he is in politics. He is not good at performing various political operations, and even has no political scheming—so, while avoiding seeing each other, he turned light into darkness and carried out various procedures in order to complete the mission assigned by Emperor Wanli...

In this way, the mausoleum, which cost a lot of money, was started as scheduled despite the opposition of everyone, and the order to increase taxes was issued quietly, and it was also enforced amidst the opposition; The strange phenomenon of conflicts; the common people all over the country complained about the tax increase, and the lower-level officials clashed with the common people in order to implement the tax increase; Jun's Wanli Emperor, however, was playing and singing every day, and having spring nights every night, and his way of life was in conflict with his identity and responsibilities. He didn't dare to resist, but he cursed viciously in his heart...

At this time, Jianzhou Zuowei is also building a large-scale construction project. However, not only no one objected or cursed, but it was a concerted effort... With Nikanwailan's head sacrificed, Nurhachi held a simple but grand funeral for his grandfather and father, and built a cemetery. In this matter, he refused to leave anyone else alone, so he did not send any of his subordinates to work, but he himself led his four younger brothers into the mountains to cut down trees, peel off the bark, and make the coffin; Say to my brothers: "Grandfather and father, and our ancestors in each generation, will always be with us-the blood that they have continued in our bodies, and then passed on to our children and grandchildren, generation after generation, forever It won’t stop; now, we do these things with our own hands, thinking about them while doing them—without them, there would be no us! Er Niang told us that our ancestors were born of heavenly women, and they were born for peace and chaos. Those who came into the world, therefore, shouldered the inherent mission; now, grandfather and father are unable to work before they have completed their mission, and everything will be inherited by us..." The following words are what he repeats in his heart almost every day. Relying on the support of this spiritual force, he has spent more than a thousand days of hard work. Now, when these words come out of his mouth, they seem calm and full of joy. In addition to confidence and strength, it can especially resonate deep in the heart when the five brothers are planing the wooden coffin together. When the funeral was held, he repeated the passage loudly again, and holding up the incense branch in his hand, he prayed to the coffin that was about to be buried: "Now, the head of Nikanwailan, the enemy who killed you, has died. Enshrined in front of your spirits, the first stage of revenge for you has been completed; next, I will continue to carry out the second stage of the plan, and may your spirits in the sky bless all the leftists of Jianzhou who are struggling in the world Guardians!" For the second stage of the plan, he didn't say it aloud because the time was not up, but just read it secretly in his heart; Nikan Wailan was only an enemy on the surface, and the real enemy Li Chengliang was the one he had to work hard for in the future Goal—Thinking of this, he gritted his teeth again and his eyes turned red; so he suddenly shook his head and said loudly: "In the future, we still have a lot to do, and we have a long way to go. The responsibility we shoulder is heavy, and may you give us strength so that we will not shrink back even if we encounter great difficulties, let alone change our ambitions!" As he spoke, he kowtowed, and the crowd kneeling behind him also kowtowed to the coffin—in the first row behind him were the four brothers Yarhazi, Shuerhazi, Murhazi, and Bayara. In the second row, there are still very young children such as Chu Ying, Dai Shan, A Min and other nephews on their knees; although the children are small, they are all sensible, kneeling on the ground obediently, with their heads down, motionless, making the whole The atmosphere of the funeral is doubly solemn, and in such an atmosphere, everyone's heart is close to the spirit of the ancestors. After the coffin fell to the ground, Nurhachi led all the people in the cemetery to step on every inch of land with slow and dignified steps. The architecture of the cemetery is very simple, with wood as the pillars, mud grass as the wall, and thatch as the roof. , compared with ordinary cemeteries, there is nothing too special-only in terms of spiritual inheritance, it is extremely strong! The sun was shining brightly in the sky, and everything on the earth was shrouded in a layer of golden light to set off the funeral—and as soon as the funeral was over, Nurhachi seemed to be a different person suddenly, with a heavy and solemn expression on his face. It disappeared in an instant and was replaced by the dazzling Fei Yang. His purple-brown face reflected a layer of light golden light under the sun, and the exuberant and vigorous vitality radiated from the confidence in his eyes. When Fei Yang got on the horse, His whole person looks like a mighty golden god. Back in the city, he immediately held an important and decisive meeting, announcing in public: "Nikan Wai Lan has been executed, my grandfather and father have been avenged, and I have been thinking about it for several months. , can also start to implement - I returned to Jianzhou Zuowei, and raised troops to avenge my grandfather and father. It has been more than three years, and I have inherited the blessings of my ancestors. In the past three years, I have won every battle, not only The desire for revenge has been achieved, and the number of people and livestock in Jianzhou Zuowei has increased day by day, so that the old city of Hetuala is not enough to live in; therefore, we should work hard to solve this problem..." He put forward a plan to build a new city: "For long-term planning, I decided to build a new city in Feiala between the Jiaha River and Shuolijia River under Huban Hada. After the new city is completed, we will all move to live in the new city. ——However, Hetuala is the old business of our ancestors and cannot be discarded. Therefore, I also decided to rebuild Hetuala one after another after we move to the new city of Feiala and when we have spare capacity——in this way, ten years at the latest , we can come back to Hetuala, and Hetuala at that time will be a vast, strong and beautiful new city..." Hearing his announcement, E Yidu was the first to jump up excitedly, and shouted, "Great! Great! I'll take people to build a new city immediately!" Nurhachi smiled slightly and said, "It's not just you—everyone of us will do it!" He has been planning for a long time, so he has a plan in mind, and he announced the complete plan one by one: The scale of the new city must be able to accommodate the population of Zuowei in Jianzhou, which will increase gradually in the next few years. Therefore, it should be as large as possible; the city is divided into inner city and outer city. , and then spread the rafters, repeating three bases like this; the height is more than ten feet, with wooden boards as doors, crossbars as bolts, and enemy towers; in the inner city, build a three-story building with hundreds of houses... As for the person in charge of the construction, he has also made a complete plan. All the existing men in Jianzhou Zuowei are divided into two teams. One team builds the city in the morning, hunts and performs martial arts in the afternoon, and the other team hunts and performs martial arts in the morning and builds the city in the afternoon. ; The two teams take turns to replace, which not only serves fairly but also does not delay production and military training! After hearing his detailed and complete plan, everyone applauded and wished to do it right away... In this way, the construction project of Feiala New City was quickly completed under the collective wisdom and efforts of everyone, and then, the ground-breaking construction was started at a high speed, and it happened to be the same day as the start of the Wanli Emperor's Mausoleum. Shovelfuls of soil were dug up, wooden stakes were driven down one after another, and drops of sweat from the staff dripped down—everything, the two places were the same, the only difference was the mood of the staff. In Feiala, because everyone is working hard to build their own homeland, the hope and beautiful vision of the future exist in their hearts and unfold in front of their eyes, so everyone is working happily. Working hard. The workers who built the mausoleum on Dayu Mountain were laborers who were forcibly recruited from all over the country. What they wanted to build was a place for the emperor to be buried after his death. Reasonably, as long as the action is a little slow, the whip in the hands of the supervisory officials will be slammed down. The food and accommodation provided are of poor quality and quantity due to the expenses being deducted. There have been conscripts who came here because of long-distance travel, poor board and lodging, and overworked and died. All the servants dare not speak out, they can only let their miserable emotions and overworked work eat away at their bodies and lives... Although the architecture for death and the architecture for survival are in the same world, they are two completely different pictures.

---

Notes: