I want to be emperor

Chapter 754
December 28th, [-]th year of Chengshun, New Year's Eve.

The city of Jinling is already filled with a sea of ​​Spring Festival.

In this festive day, even the majestic palace of the Great Chu Empire is full of the atmosphere of the Spring Festival.

In particular, the various buildings in the harem also posted couplets and hung red lanterns one after another.

And many ministers also entered the palace in the morning, preparing to attend the annual Spring Festival state banquet in the front hall.

From the time of Funiu Mountain, Luo Zhixue would hold a Spring Festival state banquet on the day of Lunar New Year's Eve, entertaining some important ministers. Today, the Spring Festival state banquet has evolved into a more formal and ceremonial occasion in the Great Chu Empire.

Whether or not he can participate in the state banquet during the Spring Festival has become a criterion for measuring the actual power and status of a courtier.

According to the usual practice, except for important ministers and dignitaries who are not in Jinling City due to business, vacation, visiting relatives, etc., or who are unable to walk due to physical reasons, other important ministers who are qualified to be in Jinling City will receive an invitation letter from the royal family. Take the female relatives to attend the Spring Festival state banquet.

The courtiers went to the front hall and Luo Zhixue to attend the state banquet, while the courtiers' family members went to the harem to attend the banquet hosted by the queen.

The specific candidates to attend mainly include ministers of affairs, co-organizers and other important ministers who are on duty in the imperial study.

The next best are the ministers of the various ministries who failed to enter the imperial study, the censor of the right capital who actually acted as the agent for the affairs of the Inspectorate, and the Zuo Shilang of the affairs of the various ministries.

An active-duty general in the military who was unable to enter the imperial study, and a lieutenant general who actually acts as an agent for a certain department.

The director of the Imperial Academy Secretariat and two deputy directors.

Heads of various departments of the Royal Institute of Technology and heads of key scientific research institutions and other scientists.

The above are permanent current employees.

Secondly, there are non-serving dignitaries, including retired ministers and retired military generals.

As for the nobles, the three high-level nobles, the earl, the marquis, and the duke, can also participate.

The above-mentioned types of people are basically regular people who participate in the Spring Festival state banquet every year.

In addition, according to the situation, some non-fixed personnel will be invited to participate, mainly courtiers who have made outstanding achievements in the past few years, including frontline soldiers, heads of government-run enterprises, scientists who have not been able to obtain Earl or higher for the time being, and have great influence among the people. And positive private entrepreneurs and gentry; typical people in some prominent industries, such as workers, ordinary technicians, policemen, etc.

For these relatively ordinary groups, attending the Spring Festival state banquet is not a proof of power, but a proof of work achievements over the past few years.

Because the people participating in the state banquet are relatively prominent, and the political significance is huge, the annual Spring Festival state banquet is also becoming more and more formal.

In the early years, it was actually just a small national model banquet similar to a private banquet, but today, it has become a large-scale banquet with hundreds of participants.

These hundreds of people were talking about a group of elders in the front hall, not counting the female family members who went to the harem to attend the queen's banquet. According to the rules, every courtier who came to the meeting could bring a female family member into the palace to attend the Spring Festival state banquet.

Most of them are wives. Of course, you can also bring your daughter or granddaughter, or even your mother or sister and other immediate family members. Anyway, there is only one quota. As long as it is a direct female family member, you can bring whoever you want, and the royal family will not care about you. .

A Spring Festival state banquet started in the morning and ended in the afternoon.

As for the evening...it was the New Year's Eve dinner time, Luo Zhixue himself would not accompany a group of courtiers to have the New Year's Eve dinner, and those courtiers probably would not want to be working on this special day...

That's right, coming to the Spring Festival state banquet is also considered work for these courtiers.

When the Spring Festival state banquet is over, it means that the one-year work is officially over, and then enters the five-day Spring Festival holiday.

During the holidays, except for the staff on duty, the rest of the yamen go home to reunite with their families for the New Year. Thanks to the rapid development of steam ships and trains in the Great Chu Empire, many officials working in other places will choose to celebrate the New Year during the New Year. Take trains, ships and other means of transportation to return to their hometown for the New Year.

And because some officials are far away from home, they often save vacations in advance and use them intensively in order to rush home before the end of the year.

After all, the official government of the Great Chu Empire didn't start their holiday until the New Year's Eve... If the distance was a little far, the officials couldn't make it back in one day.

Because of taking the train or ship home for the New Year in a concentrated time, the existing railway and ship transportation network of the Great Chu Empire will be full every year during the Spring Festival...the supply of train tickets or ship tickets is in short supply.

This also made Luo Zhixue feel a little bit emotional. After more than [-] years of hard work, he finally made the Spring Festival Festival appear in China in the [-]th century...

It's not easy!

Why do you say that the Spring Festival travel is not easy?
Because the premise of the Spring Festival travel is not a holiday, let alone the hometown sentiment of the Chinese people, paying more attention to family values, etc... These are just objective situations, not the conditions of the Spring Festival travel.

The prerequisite for Spring Festival travel is convenient transportation!
Specifically, it is manifested in the railway network, shipping network, and of course the passenger carriage as the terminal transportation.

There are no railways or ships here, and it's useless to give you a few days off... It's just a few days, and you can't get there by traditional means of transportation.

Only by relying on railways and ships can people travel hundreds or even thousands of kilometers in a short period of time.

With this premise, people can go home and have a look during this limited few days of vacation.

So, don't think that the Spring Festival travel is easy... The things behind this thing are not simple at all. The Great Chu Empire, which was able to do this, has actually reached the middle and late stages of the first industrial revolution.

To put it in simpler terms: Without a high-pressure steam engine, you can't expect to see the Spring Festival travel...

However, those who can go back to their hometown for the New Year naturally do not include those important officials of the empire.

Although one year's work is over after the Spring Festival state banquet, the important ministers don't have any holidays... Although they can enjoy the five-day Spring Festival holiday in name, it is actually impossible.

Even if it's New Year's Day, you have to be busy!

Because Luo Zhixue, the emperor, was going to the Temple of Heaven to worship the heavens on the first day of the Lunar New Year... This sacrifice to the heavens was not a matter of the emperor alone, but a very important event of the empire, so a group of important ministers had to accompany him.

After the heaven sacrifice, Luo Zhixue took a vacation by himself...

In theory, those important ministers can also arrange rotations and then take turns to rest for a few days, but in fact these important ministers are also busy people.

They also need to host some condolences, visits, banquets and other activities of various departments under them during the Spring Festival... they are also very busy.

At the same time, the military and political affairs of the Great Chu Empire will not stop due to the arrival of the Spring Festival. Every day, a large number of memorial reports from other places will be sent to Jinling City, including those from the northwest frontier, the Indian Peninsula, and North America. , and those in the hinterland of the country are indispensable.

These reports were basically issued years ago, and they have been on the road for several days or even a month or two.

Some of the more important affairs, such as military affairs, must be dealt with as soon as possible, which requires a certain number of on-duty personnel in the imperial study room at all times.

The Royal Study Room of the Great Chu Empire is open 360 days a year, 24 hours a day, all year round.

According to the regulations, no matter at any time, there must be a minister of counselor on duty in the imperial study.

Therefore, it is actually very tiring to be the Minister of Counseling and Co-organizer in the Great Chu Empire... because there are only nine ministers of affairs in total, and these nine ministers of affairs are arranged in turn, and each person is on duty for twelve hours, basically every four and a half days.

This is just on duty in the imperial study room. In fact, each minister of counselors is still in charge of a lot of things at hand, and they still have a lot of work waiting for them to do.

If the Ministers of Counseling were not too busy, Luo Zhixue would not have set up a co-organizer under the Minister of Counseling... just to share some workload with the Ministers of Counseling, so that they would not be exhausted!

Luo Zhixue felt that if several ministers were exhausted, outsiders and future generations would not be able to criticize him for treating his ministers harshly!
But then again, Luo Zhixue didn't want these ministers to be so busy. A few years ago, he thought about adding two more ministers to increase the number of ministers from nine to 11, but his tone As soon as it was revealed through a certain courtier, this courtier was criticized by the ministers... What does this mean? It shows that the ministers would rather nine people work in turns than eleven people!
busy?
What does this mean?It represents power.

How can you participate in the core decision-making of the empire if you are not on duty in the imperial study room?
It doesn't take care of a lot of business, how do you ensure your power?
If one of these two is missing, the minister of counselors will not be happy.

People are busy, but they are willing...even very happy.

Luo Zhixue looked at it, well, anyway, I am not the one who is tired, you guys like to work around the clock, so let's continue like this.

While the important ministers outside were still busy with their feet on the ground, Luo Zhixue had officially entered the holiday period after finishing the ceremony of worshiping heaven on the first day of the new year.

In the morning, I don't get up at six or seven o'clock as usual, but sleep in until eight o'clock or even nine o'clock.

After waking up, if there is no urgent military affairs ahead, he will not go to the front hall to deal with government affairs, but will accompany a group of harem concubines and children.

The queen and many concubines in the harem count on spending more time with His Majesty and enjoying the warmth of the family during the Spring Festival all year round.

Even at lunch, Luo Zhixue would not eat alone as usual, but would accompany the queen or other concubines to eat.

After lunch, I took time to go to the front hall, listen to the briefings of the ministers on duty or the co-organizing ministers, and deal with some more urgent matters. It didn't take a lot of time, and it was over in about an hour.

Then continue to go back to the harem to live their own little days.

Listen to a ditty, watch a dance or something, or simply read a book by yourself, and be in a daze...

At night, depending on the situation, one or more signs were turned over to appease the many concubines in the harem.

So leisurely until the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, Luo Zhixue held the first imperial morning meeting after the new year, and summoned the ministers of counselors and co-organizers.

Then review some memorials.

But the overall pace of work will not be very fast, after all, he is the emperor... not the minister of affairs!
Luo Zhixue at the beginning of the uprising was very busy. He wished to turn 24 hours into 48 hours a day. He held meetings, received courtiers, or reviewed countless reports all day long.

However, after he worked out the system of counselors and the secretariat of the Imperial Academy, and as the political structure of the Great Chu Empire gradually matured, and many affairs were governed by rules, Luo Zhixue's work intensity also increased. It gradually decreased.

After all, in the early years, when the empire was first established, many things, even seemingly small things, often had a great impact, requiring Luo Zhixue to make decisions in person.

But now, there are various rules and regulations, and many affairs can be handled according to the rules and regulations. What needs to be handled by Luo Zhixue himself is often some big and important things, or things that the ministers of counselors do not have a unified opinion on.

Up to now, although Luo Zhixue said that it is impossible to take a real rest every three days and not deal with government affairs at all, the time spent on handling government affairs every day is basically limited to normal working hours.

Otherwise, Luo Zhixue would have been exhausted...

Besides, he is busy with government affairs every day, so he has no time for personal time, no time for pleasure, what is he trying so hard to become the emperor of the world?

To die of exhaustion?

So from the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, although Luo Zhixue officially handled government affairs, he was actually not too busy, and he still had a lot of time to spend with the concubines in the harem.

In this way until the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, Luo Zhixue's work intensity returned to the usual working hours.

And on the [-]th day of the first lunar month, a great court meeting was held!

Unlike the grand court gatherings in the past dynasties that were held on the first day of the first lunar month, Luo Zhixue was not interested in holding any grand court gatherings on the first day of the new year... Anyway, the Spring Festival state banquet, which has similar political significance, is on the [-]th of the new year. It's meaningless to engage in such a big scene for two days,

Therefore, the great court of the Great Chu Empire will be on the sixteenth day of the first lunar month!

The Great Court Meeting, in the Great Chu Empire, is not actually an occasion for dealing with government affairs, but a political etiquette occasion.

On this day, officials from the third rank and above, brigadier generals, nobles above baron, clan and other dignitaries in the capital can participate.

At the same time, there are also external personnel such as the monarch or special envoy of the dependent country, foreign monarch or special.

So the number of participants is very large!

Moreover, the whole ceremony was very complicated. The courtiers had to arrive at the gate of the palace before it was dark, and then, under the guidance and arrangement of the officials of the Ministry of Etiquette and Education, they entered Chengtian Hall one after another.

The Imperial Palace of the Great Chu Empire was rebuilt on the site of the Nanjing Imperial Palace in the former Ming Dynasty, expanded and widened. Its core buildings still retain the traditional style, such as the Three Great Halls.

The Chengtian Hall is also the core and most important hall of the Great Chu Empire's palace. It is located in the center of the central axis of the entire palace and will only be used when major events are held.

Its political role is similar to that of the Fengtian Hall in the Nanjing Imperial Palace in the Ming Dynasty and the Huangji Hall in the Youzhou Imperial Palace, both of which are the most important buildings in the entire imperial palace.

The place where the Great Court Meeting will be held is in Chengtian Palace.

However, the courtiers can't actually enter Chengtian Palace to participate in the Great Court Meeting, because there are too many people, and the number of courtiers that can be accommodated in the hall is limited.

Therefore, Luo Zhixue actually sat at the gate of Chengtian Hall during the Great Court Meeting...

Standing under the eaves is a group of important officials of the empire, and then the other officials follow the steps and line up in descending order according to their rank...

In fact, most of the courtiers can only stand in the square outside!

Therefore, when the court meeting is held, if the weather is fine, it will be fine, but if it rains and snows, most of the courtiers will actually suffer.

And this is also one of the motivations for many mid-level officials to work hard to climb up.

The purpose is to be able to stand under the eaves of Chengtian Palace and participate in the Great Court Meeting one day sooner, so as not to be exposed to wind and rain.

(End of this chapter)