The Spring Festival of the twelfth year of Hongzhi.
Zhu Youtang was very happy to have a banquet at the Meridian Gate. When he came back, the sky had darkened, and he was ready to go to Kunning Palace to spend a good time with Queen Zhang in the spirit of wine.
"The medicine Bingkuan gave me before was really effective. It's better than Li Guang's, gentler, and it's always in my mind."
Zhu Youtang recently exercised in the sun, drank milk tea, ate eggs, chewed stick bones, and a series of protein and calcium supplements, and his physical fitness recovered a lot. Zhang Zhou added some powerful ingredients that he could not use before. Then he felt like he was young again.
Xiao Jing followed beside him, subconsciously helping him when crossing the steps.
"No, I'll go by myself."
Zhu Youtang is now more confident as a man and feels that he has the conditions to take off.
Xiao Jing said: "Your Majesty, there will be a grand ceremony tomorrow..."
"I remember, you don't have to talk about it all the time." Zhu Youtang raised his head and took a breath of air. He thought he was going to be carried into Kunning Palace on a Luan chariot as before, but he only paused for a moment. Afterwards, Youyou sighed, "As Bingkuan said, the air is very fresh. Where is Bingkuan?"
Xiao Jing also didn't expect that Zhu Youtang would think of Zhang Zhou at this time.
Xiao Jing said cautiously: "Your Majesty, Mr. Zhang went to Xishan years ago and has not returned yet."
"Going to Xishan?"
Zhu Youtang didn't understand it for a while.
Xiao Jing said: "Your Majesty, didn't he say that he was going to open a coal mine in Xishan? I don't know what he thinks. I haven't come back to spend time with my family for years."
"The same goes for Bingkuan. He said that he had to prepare for the exam and had no time to enter the palace, but he went to Xishan to open a coal mine. He should be able to find it, right?"
"Mr. Zhang is good at calculating heavenly secrets, and he can figure this out after all."
"Yes, yes."
"By the way, Your Majesty, before Mr. Zhang left, he also predicted three things for the next year, saying that they are all likely to happen in the near future. They will be in conjunction with the great sacrifice tomorrow. All the predictions were reported to the Qianqing Palace."
When Zhu Youtang heard this, he looked unhappy and said, "Why don't you report this to me first?"
Xiao Jing said with a bitter face: "It has just been submitted. However, only the first sentence of the prophecy given by Mr. Zhang was annotated. It seems that there will be earthquakes in Shaanxi, Ningxia and other places in February. As for the third sentence, He didn’t say anything about the second and third things, and he also made it clear that he would not do such things again in the future, and he couldn’t predict many things.”
"what for?"
Xiao Jing said: "It seems that it may involve disputes between nobles, and God will give a warning. Because it has not happened specifically, so... he did not say it clearly..."
"How can this Bingkuan learn to play riddles?"
Zhu Youtang smiled bitterly.
This doesn't seem to fit in with Zhang Zhou's previous straightforward character.
Xiao Jingxin said, before Zhang Zhou said that there was going to be an earthquake in Henan, Your Majesty, you were so looking forward to it, and when it came true, you were so happy, as if you were being helped by a god.
Feelings Now Zhang Zhou predicts an earthquake. You should not be surprised. You just want to know what he predicts next...
Sure enough, even His Majesty's appetite is gradually increasing.
"Your Majesty, maybe, some things are not certain yet. After all, Mr. Zhang said that when things happen, you have to look for signs."
"Yes. Okay, as long as he is here, I can rest assured. I will go to the Palace of Fine Arts."
"Your Majesty, isn't it Kunning Palace?"
Xiao Jing realized that he had made a mistake after he said it.
If the emperor wants to go to the Jiaotai Palace, then he must obey the emperor.
Who told the Empress Dowager to say in her dream that the late Emperor gave her a warning in the Jiaotai Hall? If it was because the emperor took Kunning Palace as his family that he had no heirs...
Where is the logic in this kind of thing?
Superstitious?
…
…
Zhang Zhou can no longer be like before, always wanting to make a prophecy or something for the emperor. Now he only gives it when the emperor comes to ask for it, and sometimes he even half-covers it.
After all, this was the emperor's expectation for him.
To put it bluntly, he could neither overcount nor count out, just to whet the emperor's appetite.
This reflects the importance of passing the Jinshi examination.
If you pass the Jinshi exam, you no longer need to rely on these crooked things. You can gain the emperor's trust in the right way and become a good minister of the country. However, if you fail to pass the Jinshi exam and have to accept the emperor's dismissal, then this kind of thing may happen more often in the future. .
If Zhang Zhou had relied on his status as a Jinshi to gain favor, he would have been just an official in the Eastern Palace at most, and would not have been able to obtain the favor he has today.
If you want to change the times, you have to take a path that others have not taken, rely on your own knowledge of historical events to gain the emperor's trust, and at the same time ask the emperor to cooperate with you to complete some things, such as opening mines and mobilizing craftsmen, etc. This is no better than him. Is the imperial examination on the right path smoother?
Do you have to stay in the court for several years or even more than ten years, and then wait until your status improves?
Zhang Zhou was afraid that he couldn't bear it.
Knowing the events that may happen in future history is also a necessary knowledge reserve for time travellers. There is an emperor who believes in Taoism and metaphysics, and makes use of these things. As long as Zhang Zhou is not evil, he does not care what the civil servants will think. he.
It is good to leave a name in history for the integrity of civil servants, but obviously this path is not suitable for time travellers, because any time traveler is deviant and likes to do things that are not tolerated by the world of scholars.
They were all breaking the rules, Zhang Zhou just felt that he had to be more thorough.
…
…
The next day is the big sacrifice.
The ten-day holiday for the Shangyuan Festival has not come yet, and they still have to go to court these days. For Zhu Youtang, even if he is sick, he will participate in such court meetings.
But Zhu Youtang did not appear at the Meridian Gate on time that day.
The ministers are talking about it.
The three members of the cabinet separately called Ma Wensheng, the Minister of War, aside.
"Negative picture, northwest report, saying that the Xuanfu and Datong fronts will have military arrangements one after another at the end of the year. As the Minister of War, you should be aware of this, right?"
There is no airtight wall in this world.
Wang Yue's trip to the northwest was a very secret matter, and only a handful of people in the court knew about it.
But as Wang Yue arrived in the northwest, he was eager to fight, and there would always be some internal movements. Liu Jian would also pay attention to the reports in the northwest, and naturally discovered unusual signs.
Ma Wensheng shook his head and said he couldn't say anything.
If Ma Wensheng expressed surprise or inquired in turn, Liu Jian might have thought that there was no such thing and that he was suffering from a psychotic episode.
But looking at Ma Wensheng's face, it was clear that he knew but refused to say anything.
Li Dongyang on the side asked: "Is it Wang Weining?"
Ma Wensheng looked at him sideways, but again didn't mention a word.
The emperor only said that I was not allowed to tell others, but he did not specify how I should respond when others ask me. I didn't admit it. I can't blame me for leaking this matter, right? Please show me the evidence!
This almost acquiescence approach also made the three cabinet members look bad.
Liu Jiandao: "What is your Majesty going to do? The northwest has just calmed down, and the war is about to start again?"
Xie Qian said with a smile on the side: "Your Majesty will not let Wang Weining send troops, right? It's just a little arrangement, Mr. Liu Ge, don't worry too much."
This was all a deliberate attempt to test Ma Wensheng's attitude.
Ma Wensheng still had the same attitude of "I know everything, but I just don't say anything" and listened to the three cabinet members discussing it among themselves.
"Your Majesty is here!"
Just as he was talking, the emperor came.
Zhu Youtang also came on foot. Perhaps because he was used to walking on his own now, he came a little late.
The court meeting that day also officially began.
…
…
The court meeting was uneventful.
But after the court meeting, Liu Jian took the initiative to ask for instructions to meet with the emperor alone to make a statement.
All the ministers left the palace first and waited to go to the Temple of Heaven and Earth in the southern suburbs. Only Liu Jian stayed at the Meridian Gate for the time being.
"...Your Majesty, the reports from the Xuan Mansion and Datong Office indicate that troops and horses have recently been mobilized and are moving towards Piantou Pass and other places. In addition, the 30,000 taels of silver coins allocated by the Ministry of Revenue two years ago were originally used for propaganda purposes. The repairs of the earthen castles around the town seem to have been misappropriated..."
Liu Jian's feedback from Ma Wensheng is almost certain that this is the case.
But he still had to make it clear to the emperor from a "professional" perspective that he had noticed the incident through some signs and that it was not someone else's intention to leak it.
After hearing this, Zhu Youtang didn't have much emotional change. He smiled and said, "Don't worry, Mr. Liu Ge. Wang Weining has been using troops in the northwest for many years. He will have a sense of proportion."
Liu Jiandao: "But Your Majesty, the northwest is peaceful now, why do you want to cause trouble?"
Zhu Youtang was a little unhappy when he heard this.
Speak carefully, I am still willing to discuss with you Mr. Liu Ge, but I don’t know why I want to hide it from you?
That's because you always like to use some big principles to silence me. Once it comes to military affairs, you want to persuade me to emphasize agriculture and mulberry trees and despise corvee. You talk about emphasizing culture and government but despising military preparations. You also say that the people of Ming Dynasty live and work in peace and contentment. The northwest border defense naturally followed...
Isn’t this wishful thinking on the part of your civil servants?
Dai Yi smiled and reminded: "Mr. Liu Ge, you are worrying too much. Your Majesty is just asking Wang Weining to defend in the northwest for fear of Tatar invasion."
Liu Jiandao: "Your Majesty, if the northwest fortress is fully constructed and the patrols and dispatching are also in progress, why should we worry about this?"
Zhu Youtang frowned and said: "Mr. Liu Ge, do you think I am worried about the sky in vain?"
Of course Liu Jian would not say that. He continued: "Your Majesty, mobilize troops and horses from the original defense towns and gather them in one place. This will lead to insufficient defense and reinforcements everywhere, which is the root cause of the crisis in the northwest frontier."
In fact, Liu Jian didn't understand it either.
You, Wang Yue, just go to the northwest and gather the troops from all over the place in one place. What does this mean?
You also said that you, an old boy, don’t want to go to the grassland?
Zhu Youtang said: "If there are signs that the Tatars may plunder Piantou Pass and other places before February, what do you think of Mr. Liu Ge?"
Liu Jian naturally would not believe this kind of thing. He said: "Your Majesty, even if the Tatars have this plan, they will choose another place to attack the border after they find out about our deployment of soldiers and horses on the Ming border. Each of the nine borders The defense here should not be achieved by lowering the defenses of the surrounding border towns. Your Majesty, please give it more thought."
Zhu Youtang frowned and asked Dai Yi, "After Wang Weining arrived in the northwest, did he massively mobilize troops from Xuanfu and Datong?"
The emperor was very angry. He had agreed that Wang Yue would go to the northwest and rely on himself. How could Liu Jian notice him because of the mobilization of troops?
Dai Yi also looked puzzled and said: "Your Majesty, the current situation is that except for the soldiers and horses taken from the Beijing Camp, the Wang Junmen has not transferred soldiers and horses from Juyong, Zijin, Xuanfu, and Datong. Besides, ...You didn’t give him the authority to mobilize troops from these places!”
(End of chapter)
