On the twelfth day of March in the sixth year of Wanli, when the people in the capital were just feeling the warm spring breeze, Zhu Yijun took Zhuang Jingjia, who was slightly pregnant, to the suburbs of Beijing to worship the ancestors and perform the land ceremony.
During this trip, Zhu Yijun finally realized his dream when he was frozen by the horse chariot when he left the palace for the first time. After years of research and development, with the efforts of steel plants and scientific researchers, the government finally made a four-wheeled carriage.
Four-wheeled carriages existed in the Song Dynasty in China, with a carrying capacity of more than fifty stones. However, due to poor road conditions, its applicability is far less extensive than that of a two-wheeled carriage, and skilled craftsmen lack the motivation to improve it. As a result, until the 1950s after the founding of the People's Republic of China, four-wheeled carriages in rural areas of China were still unable to turn.
Inspired by Zhu Yijun, the steering problem of the four-wheeled carriage was quickly solved. The shaft and the two front wheels were made together, and the rear car was connected with a rotating shaft suspension.
The hardest part is shock absorption. After testing, it was found that if the new four-wheeled carriage wanted to meet the targets designed by Zhu Yijun, it must reach a speed of more than thirty miles per hour. And at such a speed, using only cowhide straps as suspension and "futu" shock absorbers on the wheel axles can't be said to be comfortable.
Zhu Yijun certainly knows that the core lies in the spring, and the core of making the spring lies in the material. Materials science in this era is basically similar to metaphysics. Anyway, it means constant experimentation. In the end, materials that are close to the ideal can always be obtained, and the facts are not as expected by Zhu Yijun.
To Zhu Yijun's surprise, after research by the Institute of Physics of the Institute of Physics, he finally discovered "Hooke's Law", and this space-time was named "Wang Yu's Law". After research, researcher Wang Yu discovered that the elastic force of the spring is directly proportional to the deformation of the spring. With such a short conclusion, Wang Yu's name will be remembered in history, and his salary will be doubled.
With the shock absorber and steering mechanism, the manufacture of a four-wheel carriage is a matter of course. As a result, the Ming Dynasty's luxurious carriages were born in the fifth year of Wanli. They quickly became popular in the capital and spread rapidly to the outside world.
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Wanli's five-year reform also gave Zhu Yijun the name to reform the emperor's driving. The large and small horse chariots and chariots were not very warm, so Zhu Yijun proposed reforms. Without the great cause of reform, the ministers who maintained the authority of the emperor's ritual system might have to risk their lives with Zhu Yijun.
Finally, with the joint efforts of the Ministry of Rites and the Inner Palace, the emperor's four-wheeled carriage was finally finalized: the emperor's four-wheel carriage could not be changed, but there was no restriction on how many more the emperor wanted. The carriages used by princes and courtiers can only have four horses at most - using five horses would be considered disobedient.
As for the decoration of the carriage, the imaginative officials of the Ministry of Etiquette found many ways to make it conform to ancient etiquette and keep warm at the same time - they also formulated the decoration style and driving etiquette of the emperor's carriage.
All in all, during this trip in March of the sixth year of Wanli, the emperor and the empress took a comfortable carriage to their destination, the "Xiannong Altar" three kilometers southwest of Zhengyang Gate.
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Xiannong Altar was called Shanchuan Altar in the fourth year of Wanli, and was renamed in the fourth year of Wanli. Zhu Yijun didn't understand why the Ministry of Rites wanted to change its name, but he had no need to object to commemorating Shennong.
In addition to the main hall for worshiping Shennong, Xiannong Altar also has several magnificent palace rooms for the emperor to change his clothes and rest. In front of the main hall, there is a farming viewing platform. In front of the farming viewing platform is the venue where Zhu Yijun will perform, with a total of one acre and seven points of cultivated land.
Originally, this land was only one-third of an acre, which is the origin of the saying "one-third of an acre". The so-called "one-third of an acre" refers to the thirteen provinces in the world. Each province is represented by one point here, which shows that the emperor's All the land in the world has been plowed.
However, after the development of Northeast China, one-third of an acre could no longer represent the seventeen provinces. Therefore, upon the proposal of the Ministry of Rites and Zhu Yijun's approval, the cultivated land owned by the emperor Tian Li became one-third of an acre.
Zhu Yijun was happy to see this. He felt from the bottom of his heart that this form was very good. The size of the land should have become a variable and a standard for assessing the quality of the emperor in the future.
The emergence of Zhuang Jingjia's ancestral ritual is also a change in the ritual system. According to etiquette, the queen does not participate in the home field ceremony - this is the gift of the emperor. The Queen personally presided over the ceremony called "Silkworm Kissing Ceremony", which was held at the silkworm altar at the east end of Taiye Pond in Xiyuan, accompanied by her married woman.
But Zhu Yijun still took the slightly pregnant Zhuang Jingjia to participate, and asked the Ministry of Rites to arrange some scenes for Zhuang Jingjia. The Ministry of Rites had no choice but to push the plow three times and return it three times. The queen, accompanied by her concubine (Mrs. Zhang Juzheng and the British princess), followed the emperor and symbolically sprinkled three handfuls of seeds. This became a ritual.
The queen's public appearance at the Jitian ceremony naturally blew a new trend in the empire. Zhu Yijun did not explain this, but used a silent political statement to tell the world: the bad rule of not allowing women to appear in public was not advocated by the royal family.
It is worth mentioning that this is the first Tiantian ceremony that Zhu Yijun has participated in, because an emperor who does not get married does not have this political activity. When the two got married last year, the wedding ceremony had already passed.
The queen who participated in the Tiantian Ceremony and revealed her pregnancy also sent a clear signal to the world that the emperor was about to have a heir, and a stable imperial line was a happy event worth celebrating for the people of the world - at least, the emperor's eldest son When you are born, maybe there will be a wave of amnesty. Even if the emperor's eldest daughter is born, it proves that the emperor is a man with normal fertility. As long as he is healthy, why don't the princes have children together?
After completing the birth ceremony, the empress returned in a luxurious eight-horse carriage, which could be regarded as another live advertisement for the four-wheeled carriage in the capital.
Zhu Yijun returned to the palace and issued an edict to encourage farmers in the sixth year of Wanli. It said just one sentence: "Tell the people: The soil is moist now, so you must take advantage of the opportunity to cultivate and don't be lazy."
This type of edict has been issued almost every month since the sixth year of Wanli, and has been issued until the winter month. For example, the edict in April goes like this: "Every time I tell the people: It is better to work diligently in agriculture at the right time, and not to be lazy." In May, "Every time I tell the people: Now that the seedlings are in full bloom, they must take the opportunity to hoe. You have to be lazy." During this period, there were also edicts to encourage farmers in the summer, and they were all one sentence - until November: "Tell the people every time: Farm work has been completed, everyone must take care of themselves and save money."
With this edict, local officials have a legal basis when they persuade farmers. Farmers who are lazy at home and leave their fields uncultivated will be guilty of a crime: in serious cases, they disobey the edict.
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Time soon entered May, and the hot capital became lively: Taizu divided the world and Chengzu reduced vassals. All the princes and princes who could never enter Beijing were ordered to come to Beijing to participate in the imperial vassal meeting.
Thirty-two princes and hundreds of county princes participated in the sect-vassal conference. The rest of the generals and below were not qualified to participate in the sect-vassal conference. They could only pray at home that the head of the family could protect their interests.
The edict summoning them for a meeting was issued after the New Year. Within a few months, Zhang Juzheng and Zhu Yijun studied repeatedly and finally finalized the overall clan reform.
This reform, which involves the personal interests of the royal family, not only requires a strong central government, but also needs to provide an alternative to those whose interests have been harmed. Otherwise, Zhu Yijun will lose points politically, and it is very easy for the clan to jump over the wall. It's easy to be taken advantage of.
Starting from the second half of the fifth year of Wanli, local newspapers and public opinion have broken down and analyzed the financial problems of the Ming Dynasty clan, and proposed numerous solutions to the clan's future, especially the problem of poor clans.
After the kings gathered in the capital, everyone communicated and found that the imperial court's policy was already clear: the upper level of the clan would be divided and disintegrated, the middle level and above would be demoted by exchanging shares for titles, and the lower level would liberate the clan and make a living on their own after a few years of subsidies. . ——No one could resist the upright conspiracy. They said they were having a meeting and just came to Beijing to hear an announcement.
