The Rise of Ming Dynasty 1646

Chapter 163 The Enthronement Ceremony
After the court was over, Empress Zeng returned to Ciqing Palace with the prince, a group of eunuchs and maids.Huang Mingjun personally led the sergeants under his command to act as the forbidden army to gather at the Ciqing Palace, and Liu Ruolin's imperial battalion was driven to the periphery.

Zhu Yu'ao led a group of courtiers to prepare for the national funeral and the enthronement of the new monarch.

Afterwards, the obituary of Longwu's death spread all over the world, and music, weddings, and ceremonies were stopped for a hundred days.The entire Tianxing Mansion was completely blank, and the whole country mourned.Officials at all levels fasted and slept in the government office, while several banquets were held in the palace, and they cried and laid down day and night, which would last until more than ten days later.

Early the next morning, Huang Mingjun received an urgent report from the soldiers, saying that Wang Yinghua and nearly 3000 troops from Cao Hongzu's troops had arrived more than ten miles outside Tianxing Mansion.

Empress Zeng was worried that Wang Yinghua was the Tang king's confidant, and the emperor's enthronement ceremony was about to be held at a critical moment, so she ordered Cao Hongzu to camp outside the city, and ordered Huang Mingjun to lead his troops to garrison the various gates of Tianxing Mansion, in case someone captured Cao Hongzu's troops. Put it in the city.

But this time, in order to hold the funeral for the late emperor before Zhu Yu'ao, she only brought hundreds of cavalry to Tianxing mansion in a hurry, including the soldiers and horses sent back to prevent officials from fleeing, there were only 800 soldiers in total.

Empress Zeng was also quite courageous, so she sent all 800 people to defend the city, leaving only dozens of guards by her side.She has to cry and sacrifice in several banquet halls in the past few days, so there is no need to worry about someone trying to harm her.

It wasn't until three days later that Longwu's funeral ceremony was completed that Huang Mingjun's brigade brought the real prince to Tianxing Mansion.

The next day, the new emperor ascended the throne.

Wang Yinghua first led the officials of the Ministry of Rites to pay homage to the Tiandi Ancestral Temple.At the most auspicious time, the bells and drums of the entire palace rang together. Empress Zeng, dressed in modest clothes and holding the little prince in her arms, walked up to Fengtian Gate and began to pray.

At the same time, the sound of the whip sounded, and all civil and military officials knelt outside Fengtian Gate, bowing five times and knocking three times in the direction of the prince.

After waiting for a cutscene, Empress Zeng and the crown prince went down the Fengtian Gate, walked to the front of Fengtian Hall, and sat on the dragon chair.All the officials filed in and stood on both sides of the royal road. After a while, Pang Tianshou took out the succession edict and began to read it loudly.

"I am only ordered by Tianming to rule Huayi and rank among Yuxi, and the succession of sages...

"It is in accordance with the edict that on May [-], only the ancestors of heaven and earth, Sheji, that is, the emperor's throne, will be enshrined in the Hongyou of the ancestor's examination, and the eternal picture of the Ming Dynasty...

"However, at the beginning of Lin Yu's reign, it is appropriate to have the title issued by Huan. Next year will be the first year of the Taizheng. He will amnesty the world and start reforming with the people. All cooperation matters will be listed later."

The entire enthronement ceremony was as simple as possible, and everything that could be saved was saved, and even the musicians sent by Jiaoshifang were not allowed to participate. Even so, the lengthy ceremony still made the little emperor so hungry that he couldn't help crying.

At the end of the ceremony, all the courtiers left, and the Empress Dowager Zeng and the little emperor returned to Ciqing Palace immediately.

Another two hours later, Huang Daozhou came with a group of important ministers wrapped in a white cloth gauze hat and dressed in plain clothes.

Empress Dowager Zeng saw Huang Daozhou, Lu Zhenfei, Huang Mingjun, He Kai, Zhu Jizuo and others gathered together, she knew that she had something to discuss with her, so she handed the new king over to the wet nurse, and turned away from the left and right sides, then said: "My son first In succession to the great position, you need to worry about the community more."

Lu Zhenfei and Huang Daozhou glanced at each other, and took the lead in cupping their hands, and said straight to the point: "I'm here for the safety of the Ming Dynasty."

Empress Dowager Zeng nodded, except for Yang Tinglin who was in Jiangxi, these people in front of her were almost the entire team of the little emperor in the court, and she was very pleased that they could take the initiative to come to plan for the emperor.

Apparently, several people had discussed it before, and now Lu Zhenfei spoke for them all, "Although the current emperor has inherited the great power, the situation in the court is still not stable."

Empress Dowager Zeng nodded again, and also said straightforwardly, "The king of Tang has supervised the country for a long time. Although he went to supervise the country and changed to assist the king this time, his authority should not be reduced slightly. It is not a long-term solution for the royal family to govern. .”

Huang Daozhou, Lu Zhenfei and the others did not expect the queen mother to speak so bluntly, which meant that they would try to bring down the king of Tang.

All the ministers looked at each other again, and immediately knelt down on the ground at the same time, lowering their voices and said: "Minister, please follow Yi's order, and do your best."

After Empress Dowager Zeng asked them to stand up, Lu Zhenfei said again: "The current situation in the DPRK and China, the cabinet has Mr. Huang Ge sitting in charge, plus me waiting for several people." He glanced around, and at this time several people in the room They are all cabinet bachelors, "at least they will not fall behind.

"Among the six ministries, the most important official ministries and household ministries are the people of Tang Wang, and the Ritual Ministry who has the right to take office is also Wang Yinghua as the minister. In this way, it is not difficult to order the cabinet, but if we want to implement it, I'm afraid It's not that easy.

"In addition, the commander of the five cities and the imperial camp were also appointed by the king of Tang. Although there are not many troops at the moment, if the imperial camp is expanded in time, the military power of the entire Tianxing Mansion will be in his hands."

Zhu Jizuo added: "There is also the Metropolitan Procuratorate. More than [-]% of the censors are from the Tang Palace. These officials are even more difficult to deal with than the officials of the six ministries."

The Empress Dowager Zeng had anticipated this for a long time, and immediately looked around the crowd and asked, "Do you have a good plan, my lords?"

Lu Zhenfei bowed his head and said: "Going back to the Queen Mother, I think that we should use the strategy of one to eliminate the other, and slowly figure it out."

Before he could continue talking, he heard Pang Tianshou and the outsider said: "Report to the Empress Dowager, Jiang Zhengxi Jiang Zongbing asks to see you."

"Jiang Zhengxi?" The Empress Dowager Zeng was a little surprised. Although Jiang Zhengxi was considered one of her people, his level was clearly not high enough to attend the current meeting.

She hesitated for a moment, but still said to Pang Tianshou, "Let him in."

When Jiang Zhengxi entered the room, he saluted in a hurry, then took out a pond newspaper and handed it to Huang Daozhou who was beside him, and then said excitedly: "Quzhou great victory! I stopped this pond newspaper just after arriving at Tianxing Mansion, because The matter is of great importance, so we have to report it directly to the Queen Mother."

Huang Daozhou hastily unfolded the pond newspaper, and after reading the first few lines, he was moved: "Sure enough, a great victory! Taking advantage of the emptiness of Quzhou's captive army, the troops of King Chen sent a surprise army to the north of Xianxia Pass, and took Quzhou out of their wits three days ago! Although they won the head Not much, but tens of thousands of stones of grain and grass hoarded by the Jianlu in Quzhou were seized, as well as hundreds of carts of baggage, banners and other things."

"Chen Wang is really a talented general!" Huang Mingjun praised highly after hearing the words, "First take Xianxia Pass, and then go to Quzhou City, so Boluo will lose all support, even if he wants to transport grain to Fujian from Shanguan on the west side, there is no food to send. Already!"

Huang Daozhou continued to read down: "In addition, King Chen also instigated Fang Guo'an, which had surrendered to captives. When the city of Quzhou fell, Fang Guo'an rebelled against righteousness and returned to Daming. He led 2 troops under his command in Shaoxing The government captured and killed captives and false officials. There are only less than [-] captives in the Middle East of Zhejiang, and they are scattered in several cities. There is absolutely no soldier who can defeat them."

He presented the Tang newspaper to Empress Dowager Zeng, and said pleasantly, "Empress Dowager, Fang Guoan may have taken Shaoxing by now. With his army, if nothing happens, Zhejiang will be restored in at least a month!"

"Now we only need to eliminate the captive army of Boluo, and Jiangnan will be returned to Daming." Lu Zhenfei was also full of joy, and suddenly, he clapped his hands and smiled, "My strategy of eliminating one another is just right. Take advantage of King Chen's great victory!"

(End of this chapter)