The Imperial Age with the Resurgence of Han Style

Chapter 164 Imperial Power

November 1727, 11, Nanjing.

A cold autumn rain that lasted for several days suddenly brought the bustling city of Nanjing into the early winter. The drizzle and the rising mist plunged the entire city into a hazy and psychedelic scene.

Countless people are looking for a living in the cold wind and rain, and stocking up on necessary supplies for the coming winter.

At this time, the gentry's house in the capital ushered in a good harvest, and the housekeeper and tenants delivered a large amount of silver coins and items in accordance with regulations.

Deer, deer, roe deer, porcupine and bear paws from Liaodong, pheasants and rabbits from Huainan, deer tendons, sea cucumbers and hazelnuts from North Korea, rice from Changzhou, roasted charcoal from Taiping Prefecture, silk satin and fine cotton from Jiangnan... , providing daily meals, festive banquets, etc. to the entire family of the wealthy gentry.

Under the many complicated etiquette, they not only follow the traditional etiquette, but also follow their own opinions due to their different generations. The young lady from a wealthy family would reward the maids with some delicacies, and would even roast some sweet potatoes and stew some chestnuts herself in order to pursue a bit of wild fun.

At noon, there was a lot of noise in the courtyard of Hou Kang Wenrui's house in Changxing. The maids and women gathered together to discuss how to make a stewed egg with salt sprouts, which was requested by the ladies in the house.

The chef in the house first takes the Longjing tea tips that were harvested after the Qingming Rain and soaks them in warm water. Then he removes the tea stems and leaves only the young tea leaves. After grinding them finely, he puts them into a white jade porcelain bowl, breaks in the eggs, and pours in water. After mixing thoroughly, put it in a basket made of green bamboo and steam slowly over low heat. During this period, people cannot leave the stove. They have to check it constantly and choose the right moment to stop the fire. Otherwise, the stewed eggs will be too old or too tender and will not achieve the best flavor, which will make the lady angry.

Finally, grind sesame oil, fine salt, balsamic vinegar, and green garlic to prepare the toppings, put it on a small plate and set it aside. The golden stewed eggs reveal the green flavor of Longjing tea leaves.

From such a simple stewed egg, we can see the wealth and luxury of the Changxing Marquis Mansion. The owners pay great attention to the exquisite style and unique flavor of the food. The food here is a real enjoyment on the tip of the tongue.

However, at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, while the hosts were eating desserts, drinking tea, and chatting away, a group of fully armed Royal Guards suddenly surrounded the entire Hou Mansion. Surrounded by more than ten imperial guards, the eunuchs broke into the hall with the emperor's edict.

"His Majesty issued an edict: The Queen Mother is seriously ill and the country is in mourning. She stopped singing and banqueting to comfort the Holy One. However, the Marquis of Changxing indulged in pleasure and desecrated the royal family. His actions deceived the king and wasted the sacred mandate. ... On the other hand, the Marquis of Changxing was appointed as the official. The governor of Shanling has neglected his duties, abused his power for personal gain, formed cliques and neglected his duties, left his body in a state of neglect, and disrespected the ancestral temple and the country. His actions are punishable. With this edict, the Marquis of Changxing and Hemen are given to die in apology, and all the property in the house will be transferred to the national treasury... Imperial decree!"

"Your Majesty, I have been wronged!" Changxing Hou Kang Wenrui immediately collapsed to the ground and cried loudly, "I want to enter the palace to meet the king, and I want to see the queen mother. ... I have been wronged!"

"Marquis Changxing, please save yourself some dignity." The eunuch who announced the decree said coldly: "Your Majesty is busy with state affairs, how can he have time for you to see him!"

"I... you are wronged!" Kang Wenrui knelt on the ground and continued to say sadly: "Did your Majesty obtain the Queen Mother's permission when he issued the decree?"

"Marquis Changxing, are you seeking death?" When the eunuch heard this, his expression immediately changed.

"The Queen Mother..., the Queen Mother is already..., the Queen Mother has passed away?" Kang Wenrui suddenly understood, "Yes, if the Queen Mother is still here, how dare Your Majesty do this?"

"Please go on your way, Marquis Changxing!" The eunuch was afraid that Kang Wenrui would say some nonsense again and put them in unpredictable danger.

"Haha..." Kang Wenrui smiled sinisterly, "I regret that I didn't listen to the Queen Mother's words and went to Qi for refuge early. Is it true that Your Majesty can't tolerate my family? If we really want to talk about kinship and alienation, I It’s the Queen Mother…”

"Stop his mouth!" The eunuch waved his hand and shouted sternly at the imperial army behind him: "Stop everyone's mouths! ...Send them on their way!"

As soon as he finished speaking, a dozen Forbidden Army soldiers rushed over like wolves and tigers, and pushed the Changxing Hou family who was kneeling on the ground to the ground. They intertwined their hands, directly removed the chin, and used a cloth to choke their mouths. Make it say half a sentence.

"Your Majesty has told us to keep everyone's body intact." The eunuch had sweat on his forehead and couldn't help but reach out to wipe it away. "Drag everyone to the inner chamber and give them a decent appearance."

"Yes, Inspector."

The soldiers of the Forbidden Army roughly dragged the crying family of Marquis Changxing towards the inner house. During the dragging process, some vulgar soldiers also touched some beautiful female family members, causing repeated screams.

"All the property in the house has been sealed, and no one can touch it in vain." The eunuch who announced the decree said harshly: "No wonder our family didn't remind you that everything here must be charged into the royal treasury. If anyone's hands and feet are not It is light to be clean and exiled for ten thousand miles. Your Majesty is furious. Not only will your lives be at risk, but your family will also be harmed!"

"Yes, Supervisor!" Upon hearing this, the soldiers of the Forbidden Army and the officials and scribes who inspected and registered the property of the Marquis of Changxing immediately tightened their scalps and said in a loud voice.

"You guys, come with our family to the house and study of Marquis Changxing, and bring back some confidential documents that should not be leaked to the palace."

"Yes, Inspector."

The eunuch took a long breath and looked extremely serious.

This trip is not easy to do!
-

At one hour, in the majestic Wuying Hall of the Forbidden City, more than a dozen oil lamps were lit, and the refreshing sandalwood fragrance rose faintly. Under the illumination of beams of light, the gauze curtains in the hall were graceful and there were many figures.

Eunuch Wang Degui, the leader of the inner court deacons, entered the palace quietly. Several young eunuchs waiting at the door saw him and immediately bowed and saluted, but did not dare to say a word for fear of disturbing His Majesty inside.

Wang Degui looked inside, then turned to look at a handsome young eunuch standing beside the courtyard pillar.

The little eunuch had a wry smile on his face and shook his head slightly.

"Who is outside the palace?" A majestic and low voice came from inside.

"Your Majesty, I am here to greet you, Wang Degui." Wang Degui promised, quickly walked in, and knelt down at the door.

"What's the matter?" Qianyuan Emperor Sun Hongxiang gently closed the memorial in his hand, raised his head and looked at the door.

"Back to Your Majesty, Zhang Chengyong has finished his errands and issued an order outside the palace gate." Wang Degui lowered his head and said softly.

"Oh, has the mess been cleaned up?"

"Zhang Chengyong didn't dare to be independent and brought everything back..."

"Huh?... This guy brought something back, is he going to hand it over to me?"

"..." When Wang Degui heard this, his scalp tightened and he didn't know how to answer. Then he kowtowed heavily and lay on the ground, not daring to make a sound.

"Humph!" Emperor Qianyuan snorted coldly, and the air in the entire hall suddenly became tense and solemn.

"Let Zhang Chengyong burn everything that cannot be seen, and then go to Qixia Mountain to supervise the construction of Zhaoling."

"Yes, Your Majesty." Wang Degui breathed a sigh of relief in his heart. Zhang Chengyong's future was gone, but his life was saved after all.

I want to share my worries with you, how can I hold this degree firmly?

"Get up, there is no stove in this hall, don't let your old bones get cold."

"Thank you for your grace."

"What time is it?"

"At three o'clock in the hour." Wang Degui replied: "Your Majesty, do you need to pass on the meal?"

"Well, after you said that, I'm really a little hungry." Emperor Qianyuan nodded, "Pass the meal around."

"Pass the meal!" Wang Degui showed a smile on his face.

Since Your Majesty wants to eat, the unpleasantness just now must be over. In this way, the entire inner court can relax for a while.

As an edict to pass on the meal was issued, it passed through the various palace doors and reached the imperial dining room. More than a dozen neatly dressed eunuchs immediately placed the meals, which were kept warm at all times, on three dining tables and carried them straight to Wuying Hall.

Later, various snacks including bird's nest stewed with rock sugar, stir-fried pork with autumn bamboo shoots, shredded duck nest and duck, stir-fried chicken in hot pot, evergreen stewed meat, bamboo roll steamed buns, etc. , a total of more than thirty dishes were placed on the dining table.

Each of the few serving eunuchs took a small delicate plate, carefully put a little on each dish, quickly swallowed it, then bowed and stepped aside, standing still.

Wang Degui carefully wiped the tableware and dishes several times with cotton towels, and then placed them one by one in front of Emperor Qianyuan, waiting for his majesty to eat. "I heard that Emperor Taiping of Qi only had three or five dishes for his daily meal, but is it true?" After taking two bites, Emperor Qianyuan raised his chopsticks and asked suddenly.

"Your Majesty, the words of the people of Qi may not necessarily be true." Wang Degui's eyelids twitched a few times, and he quickly bowed and responded: "Even if their Emperor Taiping wants to seek fame and reputation to show his frugality, as a monarch of a big country, how can he be like an ordinary farmer?" A meal, just a few dishes?”

"Can an ordinary peasant family have three meals a day?" Emperor Qianyuan looked at the three dining tables filled with dishes in front of him and sighed, "I am afraid that most of the people in Da Qin do not have three full meals. During the great disaster years, there will be even more people who starve to death everywhere. miserable scene."

"His Majesty……"

"That's all." Emperor Qianyuan shook his head, raised his chopsticks and continued eating, "In a moment, you will hand over the post-typhoon relief package in Yizhou (today's Taiwan) to the Ministry of Household Affairs, and order it to be processed urgently without delay. "

"Yes, Your Majesty." Wang Degui praised from the bottom of his heart: "Your Majesty is kind and sage. He always cares about the people and the common people. He is really a blessing to our great Qin Dynasty!"

"Wang Degui, your flattery is getting worse and worse." Emperor Qianyuan said jokingly.

"Your Majesty, what I said was from the bottom of my heart, and I never meant to flatter you."

"Come on. Now you start calling yourself an old slave again. Do you want to show your friendship with me?"

"Old slave...I don't dare."

"His Majesty……"

As he was talking, a young eunuch from outside the palace hurried in, knelt on the ground, and reported: "Your Majesty, the eunuch of Feilong Palace has come to report that the Queen Mother is awake."

"Huh?" Emperor Qianyuan threw the chopsticks in his hands on the dining table and stood up suddenly, "Is the Queen Mother's condition going to be... well?"

"Your Majesty..." The young eunuch had a look of fear on his face, "The eunuch who reported the news said that the Queen Mother is afraid that she will be reborn...if she is a thousand years old..."

After saying that, he knelt on the ground and kowtowed vigorously.

"Go to Feilong Hall." Emperor Qianyuan raised his feet and walked towards the outside of the hall.

"Your Majesty, take up the Feilong Palace!" Wang Degui shouted loudly, then took two steps and followed Emperor Qianyuan step by step.

Feilong Hall is nine rooms wide. There is a heavenly palace wall at the base of the hall, with a Buddhist niche inside and an inner garden at the back. Since Emperor Qianyuan came to power, the Queen Mother moved her residence here. In the following ten years, the royal family expanded the palace many times, added many landscapes, planted many flowers and trees, and connected all the surrounding palaces and gardens, creating an extremely luxurious and comfortable palace.

Since March of this year, when the spring was warm and then cold, the Queen Mother accidentally caught wind and cold and could not lie down. Despite careful treatment and conditioning by many imperial doctors, his body failed to fully recover.

In July, the Queen Mother's condition suddenly worsened and she fainted several times and fell unconscious. The palace doctors tried their best, including acupuncture, massage, and feeding several thousand-year-old ginseng roots, and finally stabilized the Queen Mother's condition and regained some consciousness. However, the illness was difficult to get rid of, and she lost the ability to move. She was always miserable. She could not take care of herself whether it was eating or excreting, and she had to be cared for by the palace maids.

Everyone knows that the Queen Mother, who has a long life of seventy-eight years, may have reached the end of her life and her time has come. Everyone inside and outside the court felt sad about this, and they all sighed silently in their hearts, an era was coming to an end.

Speaking of the Queen Mother, both her supporters and her opponents can't help but praise "Yao and Shun among women".

During the Xinyou Palace Incident, if the empress dowager from Qi had not made strategic plans and united with many old and new ministers to smash the rebellion of King Yi in one fell swoop and established the thirteen-year-old Emperor Qianyuan on the throne, Maybe I, Da Qin, look like a different person now.

Because the emperor was young, the empress dowager took over as regent, which began five years of ruling the world together with the officials of the Qin Dynasty.

During the Queen Mother's regency, she exercised self-discipline, integrity, and fairness in dealing with affairs. She employed a large number of capable ministers and wise officials with outstanding abilities, which made the entire court more clear and clear, and eliminated the chaos and corruption in the Chengde period.

If the Queen Mother only has political skills and can overwhelm the ministers, she can only maintain the political situation of the Qin Dynasty from collapse, so that she can pass the five years smoothly and transfer power to the pro-government Emperor Qianyuan.

But the Queen Mother was very clever in governing the country and started a period of vigorous new policy reforms in the Qin State.

She first established Denglai and Songjiang as so-called "economic innovation zones" and listed them as direct administrative offices of the imperial court. She implemented economic and governance methods different from those of the Qin Dynasty, introduced various industrial production and manufacturing from Qi, encouraged industry and commerce, and vigorously expanded foreign trade. .

She also opened a new school under the Imperial Academy, recruiting students and scholars to study "Qi Guo miscellaneous studies" and learn all kinds of "wonderful and obscene" weapons.

What's more, in addition to the annual imperial examinations, there is also a new academic examination, which does not use the Four Books and Five Classics as a model, but assesses various miscellaneous subjects. Once a certain subject "passes", they will be awarded the ninth grade Gongxuelang and join the Ministry of Work. , Ministry of Household Affairs, Ministry of Punishment, as well as government-run workshops and mines, just like the manufacturing department of the former Song Dynasty, select all kinds of special talents.

In terms of military affairs, he followed the model of Qi and established a military preparation school in Nanjing to train new types of officers.

In the 1704nd year of Qianyuan (), Qi merchants in Dengzhou wanted to invest in building a railway, which caused endless discussions and objections inside and outside the court.

However, the Queen Mother, who had returned power to Emperor Qianyuan at that time, made a rare intervention and persuaded Emperor Qianyuan to allow Qi merchants to build the railway and provide various preferential conditions.

Daqin's first railway, with the strong intervention of the Queen Mother, was successfully completed and opened to traffic in less than two years.

Everyone has personally witnessed the benefits brought by the railway. It not only accelerates the efficiency of the exchange of people and materials in various places, but also exerts a positive effect on the central government's effective control of local areas.

While everyone cheered, they also admired the Queen Mother's far-reaching vision.

Just as the Qin State was preparing to make full efforts to launch a climax of railway construction in the country after the Jiangnan Railway was completed and opened to traffic, it was embarrassingly discovered that the money in the treasury could not support the court to build too many railways.

The Junggar War, the immigration from Liaodong to the border, the quelling of chaos in Qinghai, the wooing and favoring of Uzbekistan, the reform of the southwest region, and the natural disasters that broke out from time to time, all kept the Qin Dynasty's finances on the verge of collapse.

It seems that it is really unsustainable to build a large-scale railway like Qi State.

The Queen Mother once again proposed to Emperor Qianyuan that the railway management rights in some areas could be liberalized, similar to the model of the railway built by Qi State in Shandong, and the introduction of private merchant capital. For railway construction in remote areas but with extremely high strategic value, loans can be obtained from the State of Qi to build roads.

As a result, Daqin's railway construction began to develop rapidly. Over the past 20 years, the cumulative mileage has reached more than 1,400 kilometers, which has greatly improved the transportation conditions in some areas within the territory.

It can be said that during the more than ten years during which the Queen Mother served as regent and assisted the government (after Emperor Qianyuan took charge, the Queen Mother continued to assist the government for nearly ten years), through reforms and innovations, she vigorously promoted the New Deal and promoted a large number of promising officials, which laid the foundation for the great Qin Dynasty. A solid foundation thus provided abundant financial resources and strong industrial support for expelling the Qing barbarians, repeatedly defeating the Junggars, and subduing the Uzang.

However, time has relentlessly pushed people to age, and the empress dowager of Qin, who was benevolent, wise and enlightened, was already critically ill, causing the entire royal family to fall into grief, and all the officials in the court also expressed their condolences.

At a quarter of an hour, the Queen Mother woke up from her drowsiness. After drinking a small sip of ginseng soup, she felt a little energetic and ordered someone to summon the emperor to see her.

"The emperor...killed Marquis Changxing today?" Queen Mother Qi Ziyi looked pale and angry, but her tone was extremely stern and asked: "Why...you did this!"

That is your half-brother after all!

"I don't want what happened in the former Qin Dynasty to happen again in my country." Emperor Qianyuan first turned his head and glared at the eunuchs and maids standing around, then leaned down, lowered his voice, and said word by word.

"Does the emperor think I am... Zhao Ji?" Queen Mother Qi Ziyi's face was full of pain.

"..." Emperor Qianyuan remained indifferent.

"After all, this Great Qin has not become... the Great Qin in my heart." Queen Mother Qi Ziyi shed a string of tears from the corners of her eyes, "This Great Qin is not like the... Qi State that gave birth to me."

"Mother, given time, our Great Qin will definitely surpass Qi." Emperor Qianyuan frowned and said firmly.

"Has the emperor always thought... of challenging Qi?" Queen Mother Qi Ziyi turned her head slightly, looked at the smug Emperor Qianyuan, and sighed, "You... can't do it."

(End of this chapter)