After the banquet was over, there was still a lingering sound. When all the ministers saw that the emperor was talented and intelligent, and his thoughts and questions were close to the truth, they all touched their foreheads and praised him, saying that the emperor had won the man.
Those who were thoughtful could not help but carefully ponder the opinions revealed by the emperor's words, secretly looking for a cheap opportunity to suit his liking.
Zhang Juzheng, the chief minister of the cabinet, returned to the cabinet signing room and thought for a long time but couldn't figure it out. It is said that the emperor was receiving guidance from others, but it doesn't look like it, because the emperor's later interjections should not be directed by anyone. However, he only said a few words, but he was thoughtful and thoughtful. It seems that he has understood the book clearly.
In this palace, the emperor's words and deeds are all under the eyes of Feng Bao, his imperial master and his great companion. When will the emperor's sacred knowledge become more advanced?
As a scholar-bureaucrat, it was a good thing that the emperor had become sensible early on, and Zhang Juzheng could only feel happy; but as a powerful minister who wanted to launch major plans, it was a pressure for the emperor to become sensible early on. If the emperor has his own ideas, his governance will inevitably add possible resistance.
Zhang Juzheng struggled for a while, then thought of the recent 'Minister Wang case', and felt a headache. So he called people close to him and asked him to make an appointment with Feng Bao to go to the Prime Minister's Mansion for a secret talk at night.
Zhu Yijun here is still in the excitement of participating in a major political event. However, he has many years of experience as a civil servant and has a relatively deep background in the city, so he is not overjoyed.
Returning to the harem, serving Queen Mother Li as usual. The emperor's performance at the sutra feast had been reported by the God of Ears. Empress Dowager Li was overjoyed when she heard about it. She rewarded the emperor's attendants generously and encouraged the emperor.
Seeing that she looked very happy, Zhu Yijun took the opportunity to say: "Mother, the emperor has made great progress in his studies recently. He figured it out all by himself, but no one discussed the reason. Mr. Zhang, Mr. Shen, Mr. Lu and others taught him very strictly. , there are many official duties, and the emperor dare not bother him with his homework.——"
Seeing that there was no change in Empress Dowager Li's face, she asked boldly: "Can you choose some young men with both morals and academics who are slightly older than the emperor's son from the home of nobles and important ministers to study with me? After hard work, the emperor's son It can also make some progress.”
After hearing this, Empress Dowager Li changed her expression and said: "The emperor wants to study, and I shouldn't have stopped him. But now you are the emperor, and you have Hanlin as a well-educated scholar, Mr. Zhang as a good politician, and Feng Bao in the palace. These people are not enough for you." For communication and study? Get some young men to be your classmates. How will the emperor use them in the future? Don't you understand the principle of 'near is not inferior'? Please don't allow it!"
After hearing what Empress Dowager Li said, Zhu Yijun, apart from being slightly disappointed, had a more intuitive understanding of the "political iron triangle" of the Wanli period.
At this time, the supreme power of the empire was not in the hands of the emperor, but through the mutual trust of the iron triangle of the Queen Mother, Feng Bao, and Zhang Juzheng. Among them, Queen Mother Li was the grantor of the highest power and was at the top of the triangle. However, because she had no ability to govern, she fully authorized Zhang Juzheng and Feng Bao. Zhang Juzheng, as the chief minister of the cabinet, handled the political affairs of the foreign court. Feng Bao, as the chief ceremonial officer, handled the affairs of the inner court. At the same time, as the emperor's secretary, he endorsed Zhang Juzheng's political affairs.
This famous triangular relationship in history is unbreakable. From the fact that Empress Dowager Li just named these two people, it can be seen that she trusts them. It was not until Zhang Juzheng passed away and the emperor came to power that the iron triangle fell apart, and the consequences of the fall apart were besides Empress Dowager Li lived deep in the harem and no longer interfered in state affairs. However, the other two ended up dead. Zhang Juzheng was almost whipped to death, while Feng Bao was expelled from the palace and died miserably - which directly led to the complete failure of Zhang Juzheng's reforms.
Zhu Yijun often studied the history of the Ming Dynasty in later generations and deeply felt sorry for Zhang Juzheng. He believed that Zhang Juzheng was a rare virtuous minister in thousands of years. This man almost single-handedly pulled the Ming Dynasty back from the edge of the cliff, but his boycott of imperial power led to the failure of the reform.
Later generations of historians said that "the Ming Dynasty actually died in Wanli". In fact, it means that Wanli counterattacked after Zhang Juzheng's death. He poured water on his children and abolished all Zhang Juzheng's reform achievements, which made the Ming government completely weak and easily defeated by the Manchus. Seize the country.
At this moment, Zhu Yijun is the fourth person standing outside the iron triangle of power. According to normal history, he will inevitably have a power struggle with this iron triangle - it is not really a struggle, but just patiently waiting for it to naturally break. During this period, I accumulated a lot of resentment. If I were to be myself, I might be able to avoid the tragedy of the death of the people and the government. But life is short. I obviously already have the soul of an adult, but I still have to wait ten years for Zhang Juzheng to die of illness? !
Seeing that Empress Dowager Li did not agree to accompany her, Zhu Yijun pretended to be unhappy. Empress Dowager Li felt a little disgusted, but patiently comforted her: "Don't be upset, Emperor. It's not feasible for the Emperor to accompany him to study. Since we have free time, we two ladies will go to Xiyuan to play." Zhu Yijun was afraid that she would be careless, so he pretended to be happy. .
After the mother and son had a conversation, the palace lady Peng and others arrived with their younger brother Prince Lu Zhu Yili, his younger sister Princess Shouyang Zhu Yao'e, Princess Yongning Zhu Yaoying, and Princess Ruian Zhu Yaoyuan. Zhu Yixuan is the second son of Empress Dowager Li. He is five years old now and was granted the title of King Lu when he was two years old.
These children and Zhu Yijun were all born to the same mother. Zhu Yaoyuan was considered a posthumous daughter. She was still in her infancy and was held by her wet nurse.
Because she could only be a wealthy prince for the rest of her life, Empress Dowager Li did not impose strict demands on Prince Lu, but instead pampered him more. King Lu has an eldest brother and two sisters. He is not yet old enough to study. Although he is taught by the palace ladies who teach etiquette, no one seriously controls him. Therefore, his nature is not lost, he is lively and restless, and he is completely different from his brothers. people.
After the ceremony, Empress Dowager Li started to play tricks on her. Empress Dowager Li also smiled, touched his back with her hands, and asked him how his breakfast and lunch went. Zhu Yili replied a few words and suddenly asked: "Mother, my sister is still drinking milk. How come my sisters and I don't have milk to eat?"
Queen Mother Li was stunned for a moment, then smiled and said: "You have grown up, how can you get human milk? If you want to drink milk, let Shangshan Supervisor bring in some milk later, and you can eat it when it is hot."
King Lu refused to listen and clamored to eat human milk like his sister. Zhu Yijun laughed secretly at the sidelines and thought that King Lu was worthy of being the number one "King of Dislikes" in the world. He was full of tricks at a young age.
Nai smiled and said: "Don't be upset, brother. This human milk is only suitable for young children. When you grow up, eating human milk will make you neither tall nor strong. Do you want to grow taller and stronger? Do you want to gain strength?" "
All children want to grow up faster. I heard that eating human milk will not make you grow taller. Zhu Yiliu asked Zhu Yijun what he should eat to grow taller and stronger. Zhu Yijun pondered for a moment and said: "The queen just said that cow's milk is the strongest among livestock." , eating milk will give you strength and strengthen your body - I will drink it with my brother from now on, okay?"
Then he looked at Queen Mother Li and asked, "Mother, do you think this is possible?"
Empress Dowager Li did not fail to listen to the matter of a bowl of milk, and immediately ordered to give the emperor and King Lu a pound of milk every day. The two princesses also asked for it, and Queen Mother Li also agreed.
Zhu Yijun didn't know whether people in the Ming Dynasty regarded milk as a regular meal and even asked for it when meeting the princesses, only to find out that there was indeed no milk in the palace.
While he was talking, he looked at Princess Yongning carefully and saw that she was not tall in stature, but she was indeed a beauty between her eyebrows and eyes, and he couldn't help but secretly hate Feng Bao.
From later generations, he learned that when Yongning became the master, Feng Bao accepted bribes and actually betrothed Yongning to a frail tuberculosis ghost. The prince-in-law vomited blood and fell into a coma during the wedding. Yongning became a widow two months after their marriage, and died of depression within a few years. He died unaccompanied, which can be said to be extremely tragic. ——Feng Baozhi’s domineering attitude is evident.
Now that he knows about this, Zhu Yijun will naturally prevent this tragedy from happening again.
From this, he secretly thought about the iron triangle trio - Empress Dowager Li had filial piety and could not disobey her wishes. Moreover, Empress Dowager Li was a woman in the palace, worshiped Buddha with integrity, and did not have the ambitions of Wu Zetian. She delegated power to Zhang Juzheng just because she was the most economical. It’s just the heart;
Zhang Juzheng, a great reformer, was about to be put to great use, but his domineering power had to be restrained - only Feng Bao was the weakest, relying only on the favor of Empress Dowager Li, so knocking him out by himself would have little impact on national affairs.
Once Feng Bao left, Zhang Juzheng could only rely on his "precocious wisdom" to carry out reform plans. He could slowly instill the governance concepts of future generations into Zhang Juzheng, so that this old empire would be full of energy and vitality.
After thinking about it carefully for a while, I felt more and more that the plan was feasible. Zhu Yijun calmed down and spent some time in the Queen Mother's bedroom before retiring to the palace.
Empress Dowager Li said: "The emperor is tired of the feast today, so he should go to bed early." She looked like she wanted to say something, but thought about it but didn't say anything. She just ordered an old eunuch named Yin beside the emperor named Yin Xiang, and the waiters. If the emperor's maid Xu, the eunuch Zhang Cheng, etc. have to wait for the emperor to go to bed on time.
Fearing that Zhang Cheng was young and unstable, Queen Mother Li gave Eunuch Yin a few harsh words before letting him go back.
Eunuch Yin, palace maid Xu, and eunuch Zhang Cheng waited on Zhu Yijun and walked back to the palace. Before they arrived, they saw eunuch Feng Bao, the eunuch in charge of etiquette, and eunuchs Zhang Hong and Zhang Jing waiting outside the palace gate. Seeing the emperor arriving, he was busy paying homage. Zhu Yijun adjusted his mood and said with a smile: "Is the companion here?"
Feng Bao always had a friendly smile on his fat, round face, and a bunch of words of praise came out of his mouth, praising the emperor's performance at the sutra banquet to no end. Zhu Yijun listened to a few words and took the lead in entering the hall without commenting. When Feng Bao saw this, confusion appeared on his face. He lightly dusted his python robe and entered the palace with Zhang Hong and Zhang Jing.
When he entered the hall, Zhu Yijun was startled when he saw a pile of inscriptions approved by the Director of Ceremonies on the table. Said: "Aren't these all the ones you have approved? What are you using them for?" Feng Bao smiled and said: "Returning to the emperor, I saw that the emperor spoke in detail at the sutra banquet, and the sacred knowledge is getting new day by day, and I am determined to let the emperor First, we need to familiarize ourselves with government affairs, so Empress Dowager Bingming, from today onwards, will be approving the emperor in Qianqing Palace - this is also an idea to let the emperor familiarize himself with state affairs as soon as possible."
Zhu Yijun's heart moved and he said with a smile: "I just came from the Queen Mother's Palace, and the Queen Mother did not say anything like this."
Feng Bao was also stunned. Today he saw the emperor speaking in a coherent manner at the sutra banquet, and his few words revealed relatively mature thoughts. He was not only happy but also fearful of losing power. Last year, he had just teamed up with Zhang Juzheng to bring down the former chief minister Gao Gong and became the chief minister of etiquette as Gu Ming. In less than half a year, he was already intoxicated with peak power.
Seeing that the emperor was so smart today, he couldn't help but fall into a dilemma like Zhang Juzheng. Although he received a complete education in his inner study since childhood, he did not have the palace of Zhang Juzheng, nor the ethics of a scholar-official. He only focused on his own power.
After pondering for a long time after the dispersion of the dynasty, Feng Bao came up with the idea of "giving first if you want to take something first", which was to let the little emperor see how the government affairs were done - based on his understanding of the emperor, when the emperor knew After realizing that approving memorials is such a hard thing, he may not be able to persist for a long time. In the end, the power of approving red papers will still return to his hands.
Once the rule is established, it is possible for the emperor to fully delegate power to him when he reaches adulthood, so that he can sit back and relax. Therefore, he enthusiastically proposed to the Empress Dowager Ming that he wanted to be approved in the Qianqing Palace. Although the Empress Dowager felt that it was a little early, maternal love was still a bit blind, and she could not help but have some expectations in her heart, so she agreed.
Feng Bao didn't know that this "Panhong Psychological Shadow Plan" was exactly what Zhu Yijun had in mind, nor did he expect that the Queen Mother did not give instructions to the Emperor. Seeing that he was stunned, Zhu Yijun said to the little eunuch Zhang Cheng next to him: "Go to the Queen Mother and ask her if she has such arrangements today? If you ask clearly, please answer." Zhang Cheng responded.
Why did Zhu Yijun do this? Zhu Yijun just saw the Queen Mother hesitate to speak in the Queen Mother's palace. He didn't understand it at the time, but now he suddenly understood the intention of the Queen Mother's move - just like Feng Bao, it was to test himself. And he used Zhang Cheng to show that he did not dare to act arbitrarily. He would only take action after reporting everything to the Queen Mother, just like asking for milk in the Queen Mother's palace just now - although the matter was small, he had no intention of acting alone. (PS: In the future, there will be as little verbal analysis as possible. If there is a suspicion of using words together, readers are asked to analyze the psychological activities of the characters by themselves)
