Just after the New Year, the officials in the capital had not adjusted their work status, but they were suddenly disturbed by a memorial letter from Guangxi.
At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, because the founding emperor Zhu Yuanzhang was a workaholic and because the country was new, he did not dare to slack off and worked day and night, and the ministers had no choice but to follow suit. So there were very few holidays at that time. There were only 18 holidays every year, including New Year's Day on 5 days, Winter Solstice on 3 days, and Lantern Festival on 10 days. Later, 3 days of monthly leave were added. Adding to the original 18 days, there are 50 days of leave per year.
According to the records in Volume 80 "Holidays" of the "Da Ming Huidian" compiled last year, the eighth year of Wanli, the statutory holidays for officials mainly include the three festivals of Winter Solstice, New Year's Day and Lantern Festival.
And yesterday, the Ming Dynasty version of the "Spring Festival Gala" - the Aoshan Lantern Festival just passed!
The Aoshan Lantern Festival is a giant lantern and fireworks display set up by the Ming Dynasty royal family in the palace every year during the Lantern Festival. Because its shape resembles an Ao, it is called "Aoshan Lantern Festival". Starting from the Lantern Festival in the seventh year of Yongle, this grand lantern festival has been opened with a high profile - "Listen to the subjects going to the Meridian Gate to view Aoshan Mountain for three days". The joy of the monarch and his ministers is of great significance, and it can be called the Ming Dynasty version of the "Spring Festival Gala".
Preparations usually start in December of the previous year, and various uniquely designed "wonderful flowers" and "artillery" are stacked up layer by layer, usually thirteen layers high and several feet high. On the day of the Lantern Festival, colorful lanterns of various shapes flashed on the huge "Aoshan Mountain", gorgeous fireworks continued to set off, and the palace maidens danced gracefully to the beautiful music of the Bell and Drum Division. In this era, it was completely A wonderful audio-visual enjoyment.
When a later celebrity named Tang Yin visited the capital, he witnessed the grand scene of the Aoshan Lantern Festival and wrote an excited poem: "The deep rock of the Immortal Palace is called Taixia, and the precious lanterns are high and decorated with spiritual chakras. The agarwood trees are connected with the three pearls, The branches of colorful knots are shining with flowers. The water stirs up the Gebei dragon and turns it into a staff, and the moon shines brightly and the phoenixes follow the carriage."
After three consecutive nights of partying, who among you can get into work mode so quickly? Not to mention that at the border this year, the officials in the capital still have to pay tribute...
However, there was a guy named Gao Pragmatic who refused to live in peace. As soon as the government offices resumed work, his memorial was sent to the General Affairs Department. It was a big news at the beginning of the new year - this memorial was actually called "Reporting Complaints Directly to Obey the Master" He asked his ministers to lead the chieftains of Guangxi to attack Mo Shishu of Annan.
What? In your crusade against the Annan Mo family, you still followed the Master's instructions?
However, the most amazing thing about this memorial is that it is not about following the teachings of Confucius. After all, Confucius did say "Repay grievance with straightness and repay kindness with kindness." The key is that Gao Pinggong actually explained the assassination of him and the chieftains. After that, he put forward an extremely novel proposal: he and the chieftains wanted to send troops to avenge this private revenge and asked the emperor for approval.
This will cause some controversy.
Although, "Gongyang Zhuan: The Fourth Year of Duke Zhuang" once said: "Can the ninth generation still take revenge? Even a hundred generations can do it." Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty even said that "Qi Xianggong restored the revenge of the ninth generation, and the "Spring and Autumn" was the greatest." For this reason, he launched a war of revenge against the Xiongnu, and finally sealed the wolf in Xu, and promoted the power of the Han Dynasty in the vast sea. It seems that the Han people have advocated revenge since ancient times.
But the problem is that these feuds are not personal grudges, but national grudges.
How can national hatred be compared with personal hatred?
For example, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty wanted to conquer the Xiongnu because he lost face during the siege of Bai Deng, the emperor of the Han Dynasty. Everyone thought there was no problem with this, but Wang Laoer next door ran to kill Zhang Laosan because his son was beaten by his neighbor Zhang Laosan. The third child was beaten to death, is there no problem?
You are a pragmatic and dignified person who won the first prize in six poems. You just edited the "Da Ming Huidian" last year. Don't you even understand this common sense?
However, Gao Pragmatic also has his reasons. What he said is: "The other side of Annan is a remote and desolate southern frontier, and it is also a barrier of the Celestial Empire. If it is to be conquered by a national war, this reason cannot be relied on. If the army goes on an expedition and the people's livelihood is destroyed, the Holy Emperor It must be unbearable to see. However, the Mo family went too far in bullying their ministers and even sent assassins to seek their lives, which even affected all the chieftains. Today, dozens of chieftains in western Guangxi and southern Guangxi are excited and furious.
I thought that the chieftains secured our land and the native officials secured our courtiers. However, the management of the land and the officials were hereditary, which was different from the ordinary ones. If the enmity is in our country, it should be dealt with according to the national law; if the enmity is outside our country, it can be dealt with according to the national enmity. Therefore, although Annan sent assassins to assassinate the ministers and the chieftains, although it was not a national enmity between the imperial court and the imperial court, it was actually a national enmity between the ministers and the chieftains. How could they not be restored!
However, since the ministers and the chieftains are enemies of the Mo family, the soldiers, equipment, food, grass, wages and silver needed for the expedition should not be paid by the imperial court. They can all be raised by the ministers themselves... What if the land can be swept away? Revenge for the old grudges of the past? "
Le Loi was the founding king of the Le Dynasty who launched the Lam Son Uprising and fought a hundred battles, which made Emperor Xuanzong of the Ming Dynasty feel that keeping Annam was a loss-making deal, and finally gave up.
The meaning of Gao Pingshi's mention of this point is very clear - although later Li Li still asked for a title from the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty agreed, and asked him to pay tribute every three years, and prepare two "substitute golden men" each time to believe that the Ming Dynasty died in the war. The two generals died.
But no matter what, the mighty Ming Dynasty actually had to give up the territory it had annexed. This still made the courtiers unhappy in the Ming Dynasty when the civil servants were full of self-confidence.
Gao pragmatism wants to use this mentality to lead them to think about this matter in the direction of "fighting Annan and avenging old revenge".
Therefore, this memorial is divided into three levels:
First, let's talk about righteousness. Gao Pragmatic said that he followed the teachings of Confucius and repaid grievances directly - Mo Maoqia, a street boy, dares to mess with me, so I can't fight him back? Beat him!
To be reasonable again, although the chieftains are our ministers, they are Zhili officials and Mo Maoqia is a foreign official. The feud between the chieftains and Mo Maoqia can obviously be applied to the national feud.
Finally, let’s talk about the benefits. It doesn’t cost the imperial court a single soldier, nor does it cost the imperial court a single silver or copper. I, Gao, will fight with the chieftain of Guangxi! And after the fight, you can also repay the old grudges of the past to our Ming Dynasty. Isn’t this good?
Ministers like Gao Jingshi were obviously the emperor's favorite, because as long as he raised a problem, he would not just report the problem to the emperor and let the emperor figure out what to do.
Instead, the solution was put forward along with the problem, and the solution was very easy. As the emperor, Zhu only needed to approve the words "ke", "yun", and "quasi".
For such a major matter, the emperor actually found that he only needed one word to completely solve the problem. He didn't have to worry about anything else and could just leave it all to the subordinates. How could he not feel refreshed? If they were all ministers like this, wouldn't it be a hundred times easier to be the emperor?
Therefore, while some people in the outer court were still debating whether Gao Pragmatic's statement that "the feud between the chieftain and Annan can be compared to the feud between the country" was reasonable, the chief ceremonial supervisor of the inner court had clearly let the news out - it did not cost the court a penny. You can repay old grudges from a hundred years ago. Anyone who objects has ulterior motives!
At this time, the outer court was silent for a moment.
There is no way, the Ming Dynasty has this kind of tradition, it doesn't matter if everyone quarrels about internal matters, but when it comes to external affairs, the caliber must be unified, and the unified caliber must be tough - just like later, Chongzhen really had no choice, and wanted to reconcile with his queen. Jin Yihe, in the end, just had this intention. After the incident was leaked, he had to give up his car to save his handsome man.
Even the emperor did not dare to bear the charge of being weak externally, which shows that "being strong and clear" is not a joke, it is a two-hundred-year-old tradition.
Therefore, the dispute in the outer court can only end here.
The next day, the cabinet vote was submitted to the emperor's desk, and the opinion was of course in agreement.
The emperor's reply was also very timely and the words used were very interesting: The situation is excusable and will not be repeated in the future.
In fact, Zhu Yijun really wanted to give an "accurate" reply directly, or even a "wonderful" one. However, there are some things that you can think about but cannot say directly. The emperor of the Celestial Dynasty must maintain his tone...
