Xiangye

Chapter 206 Zhu Qiyu ([-])

Beijing, Qianqing Palace.

"When the sky gets one, it becomes clear; when the earth gets one, it calms; when the gods get one, it becomes spiritual; when the valley gets one, it becomes full, and all things grow when one gets it; when princes get one, they feel that the world is righteous."

This is a famous sentence in Lao Tzu's "Tao Te Ching", which means: Throughout the ages, whoever obtains the oneness of the Tao, the sky obtains the oneness and becomes clear; the earth obtains the oneness and becomes tranquil; And grow; Hou Wang got one and became the leader of the world.

This is also the origin of the name of the Qianqing Palace in the Forbidden City.

That's right, Hou Wang Deyi thought that the world was righteous.Qianqing Palace is the living quarters of the Ming Emperor and also his office.

……

Last year, during the Tumu Fort change, the Supreme Emperor was captured, and the Xuan and Da prefectures, where the war passed, were all flat land.The two countries fought wars, and hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses came from Shanxi to Beijing, and the blood flowed. The field army of the Ming Empire and those noble officials who had been in charge of the army for decades in Jingnan were all destroyed in one day.

After winning an unprecedented victory, Grand Master Wala headed straight for Beijing with his victorious army, threatening to win the capital of the Ming Empire.

The Ming Dynasty seems to have reached the autumn of life and death, and it seems that it can no longer support it.

However, with Yu Qian and other loyal people assisting King Zhu Qiyu to supervise the country and stick to Beijing, the hearts of the army and the people are determined.At this moment, the strong national power accumulated by the Ming Dynasty for nearly a hundred years finally showed its strength.With the support of Yu Qian, first there were high walls and strong cities to consume Oara's vigor, and then Jier severely injured the enemy in the field.

Seeing that the war was unfavorable, the Qin Wang Ming troops from all walks of life came one after another. Knowing that things could not be done, they had to lead the army back to the north with the captured orthodox emperor Zhu Qizhen.

The war between the Ming Dynasty and Wala finally came to an end, and Zhu Qiyu, the king of Yi, was supported by the ministers to ascend the throne and proclaim himself emperor, and changed his Yuan Jingtai to Emperor Jingtai the following year.

The battle between the Ming Dynasty and Oirat mainly took place in the northern part of Shanxi and the Gyeonggi area.The so-called bandits pass like a comb, and soldiers pass like a grate.After this military disaster in the Beijing area, there were more than a hundred people, and thousands of people died. After walking out of the city for half a day, I didn't see many people, and I don't know how many years it will take to recover.

However, unlike the desolation outside the city, the scene in Beijing is quite different.

Almost a year has passed since the war. Thanks to the dredging of the Grand Canal when Emperor Chengzu moved his capital, materials and wealth from the affluent areas in the south of the Yangtze River were continuously imported along this lifeline of water transportation. Prosperity.

Now it was night, not only the lights and shadows in the Forbidden City were brilliant, but the entire capital was also a sea of ​​lights, as bright as the Milky Way in the sky.

According to the research of historical materials by later generations of modern people, the population of Beijing in the mid-Ming Dynasty was more than [-], and the floating population even exceeded one million.What is the concept of a million people? In an agricultural society, to maintain the operation of a city with such a huge population, one does not know what astronomical amount of materials and what a terrifying mobilization ability is required.Especially government agencies that are well functioning and have strong mobilization capabilities. This is probably the reason why the army was first and last retreated to the grassland.

For the prairie nomads and fishermen and hunters in the north, the Ming Dynasty was a giant.Every time they go to Nanqin, they just want to grab it and leave, and they don't think that they are opponents of the same magnitude in their hearts.

Even during the Chongzhen period of the Ming Dynasty, Qing Taizong Huang Taiji, who had already occupied the entire Liaodong, would send envoys from time to time to negotiate peace with Emperor Chongzhen even if he defeated the Guanning Army on the battlefield.There is no thought of completely eradicating the Ming Dynasty and sweeping the world.

This was still the case at the end of the Ming Dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty was on the rise during the Jingtai period, so I didn't even dare to think about this issue.There were only a few people in Wala, and the Ming Dynasty at this time had a population of hundreds of millions. Thinking about it makes people's scalp tingle.

After capturing the orthodox emperor Zhu Qizhen, he only regarded him as a treasure that could blackmail the Ming Dynasty. Not only did he start to impose extremely harsh conditions, he even held the unlucky emperor in front of the army to force the Ming army to open the city. surrender.

This move was really bad. At the beginning, Ming Dynasty was very passive and suffered a lot.

However, after Jingtai Emperor Zhu Qiyu ascended the throne and respected the orthodox emperor as the Supreme Emperor, the Wala people couldn't do it anymore.

In the past year, no matter what kind of conditions were dismissed first, and I will let your Supreme Emperor back if you say what you want, the Ming Dynasty always refused: My Ming Dynasty is not the Northern Song Dynasty, and I never compromise on the threats of the enemy.

When Emperor Jingtai ascended the throne and entered the Forbidden City and moved to the Qianqing Palace, the so-called new dynasty and new atmosphere, some officials reported that the palace houses have been flooded several times since the Yongle Year and have not been repaired. The Ministry of Households can allocate some money maintain.However, after Emperor Jingtai saw the excerpt, he smiled and kept it silent.

In fact, strictly speaking, Zhu Qiyu's position is not too upright, and there is a Supreme Emperor outside, so it is inevitable that he feels a little guilty.It is better not to do such a large-scale construction project, so as not to give people the bad impression that the emperor is greedy for enjoyment.

However, he was not in good health and suffered a severe deficiency, so the palace still replaced the doors and windows of the Qianqing Palace with new ones, so as not to let the cold wind blow into the palace through the cracks in the windows and make the Long Live Lord suffer from the wind and cold.

There is a sea of ​​lights inside and outside the palace. Since they also returned to the north first, the war has subsided. It is foreseeable that for a long time in the future, there will be no possibility for the Wala people to go south to invade the invaders. They have already robbed A large amount of property will be enough for the Wala Ministry to spend in the next few years.Moreover, they also suffered considerable losses in the defense of Beijing. ——Peace has come, the lights in this city make people look, there is a feeling of peace and prosperity in a trance.

Unlike the hustle and bustle in the city, the palace seemed extremely quiet.His Majesty the Emperor is weak and can't hear the noise.Therefore, the eunuchs also walked on tiptoe, with their mouths tightly shut, for fear that the sound of venting their anger would be too loud and disturb the master.Only the copper crane and the copper tortoise on the terrace outside the main hall still have their mouths open. The tortoise and the crane are prolonging their lives, and Emperor Jingtai is not in good health. It is auspicious to live here.

At this time, a middle-aged eunuch in a red palace costume rushed over, and the sound of footsteps echoed crisply in the huge space in front of the hall.

The two eunuchs rushed to meet them, waved their hands vigorously, and said in a low voice: "My ancestor, you old man, please take it easy."

Those who can be called ancestors in the palace are usually the stewards of the Thirteen Supervisors.

The middle-aged eunuch who came was born extremely slender, with a body of 1.7 meters ten, he looked like he could not exceed a hundred catties, and the cheekbones on his cheeks were also raised.However, this person is different from those thin people, but he has red lips, white teeth, clear eyebrows, and a dignified appearance.Only a pair of eyes looked a bit cloudy, emitting two bright lights from time to time.

That's right, this person is Wu Yin, the Chief Supervisor of Rituals, and also the Eunuch of the East Police Factory.

According to the political system in the mid-Ming Dynasty, if the ministers have memorials, they must first submit them to the cabinet for review.After reviewing by the cabinet elders, if they feel that there is no problem, they will write what is roughly said in the booklet and the cabinet's suggestions on a yellow note and hand it over to the Supervisor of Rituals. This yellow note is called: ticket.

After the bills and memorials are sent to the Supervisor of Rituals, the eunuchs of the Supervisor of Rituals will use cinnabar to instruct the final handling opinion on the draft after asking the emperor for instructions, which is called: approval of red.

In this process, the director of ceremonies plays only a secretarial role in sending and receiving.

In such a huge Ming Dynasty, there was no idea how many government affairs there were every day, and the number of bills sent by the cabinet was also unknown.The emperor didn't bother to look at the unimportant ones, and let the supervisor of ceremonies approve the reds himself.

Therefore, after the mid-Ming Dynasty, the authority of the Ceremony Supervisor increased day by day, and gradually became a decision-making organ.

The Chief Eunuch Bingbi, as the name suggests, is the person in charge of criticizing the red, ranking second in the prison, second only to the eunuch Zhangyin.He is also in charge of a spy agency like the East Factory, which is really a high position and weight.

However, after the change of the Tumu Fortress, all the honorable relatives in charge of the army disappeared on the battlefield.Without checks and balances, the civil servants group dominates and has completely suppressed the supervisor of rituals.As a result, the supervisor of ceremonies corrected his attitude and became the emperor's communication room again.As for the secret service agency of Dongchang, even Ma Shun, the commander of Jinyiwei, was beaten to death by the civil servants, so what are you eunuchs?

Therefore, Wu Yin's title sounds scary, but in fact, he doesn't have much power in this historical period.In fact, the power of the eunuchs in the palace comes from the emperor. When the emperor uses you, you are one level higher than the official.When you are not needed, in the mouth of a gentleman, you are a eunuch.

During the year when the new emperor ascended the throne, Long Live Lord didn't seem to trust the eunuchs much.

Wu Yin is a native of Yinzhou, Zhejiang. Yinzhou is an ancient place name, and it was merged into Ningbo City in later generations, and it is one of the districts.When he was eight years old, because his family was too poor to survive, he entered the palace and became a eunuch.And because he was handsome and smart, he went to the inner school to study.After more than 30 years in the palace, there is no improvement.

Fortunately, last year the Supreme Emperor was captured by the Wala people, and Emperor Jingtai ascended the throne.All the old people in the palace were sent to Changping and Nanjing to guard the tombs. There was a real shortage of people, so he and a group of unsuccessful servants were exceptionally promoted and used.

All of a sudden, he became the Chief Bingbi of the Rites Supervisor and concurrently in charge of the East Factory. This was a scene he never dreamed of.Unfortunately, the times have changed. These two institutions are different from the high-ranking ones in the past. They have been reduced to the Qingshui Yamen, which makes him very disappointed.

However, fortunately, he can still enter and leave the palace freely, and he may show his face in front of Long Live Lord from time to time. As long as he can get acquainted in front of His Majesty, there will always be a time for prosperity.As for the position, it doesn't really matter.The powers of the servants are all bestowed by the emperor. If the emperor trusts you, you will be under one person and above ten thousand people.Otherwise, it is a waiter.

Nowadays, the eunuchs in the palace are very unsatisfactory, but Shen Gui, the chief inspector of ceremonies, is very powerful. Even the elders and ministers of the outer court will politely call "Eunuch Shen" when they see him. Without him You don't even want to see the face of Long Live Lord.The reason is simple, Eunuch Shen is the old man of Emperor Long Qian.Even if he didn't hold any position in the palace, isn't he still No.1 in the palace?
Seeing the two eunuchs shaking their hands constantly, Wu Yin glanced at the dark Qianqing Palace, and asked: "Long Live Lord is inside, who is waiting in front of you?"

An eunuch replied: "If you go back to Eunuch Wu, your majesty is in the room, and Eunuch Shen is waiting on you!"

"It's good to be here." Wu Yin nodded, and was about to pick up the steps.

Another eunuch stopped him, and said with a small smile, "Eunuch Wu, Yu Shangshu is in the hall to make an edict, you can't go in now."

"Yu Shangshu, which Yu Shangshu?"

"Going back to Eunuch Wu, there is no other Shangshu Yu in the world. It is naturally the Shangshu of the Ministry of War and Yu Qianyu, the imperial envoy of the Metropolitan Procuratorate."

Wu Yin was taken aback, the man with a strong personality immediately appeared in front of his eyes, and he felt a little apprehensive: "It's late at night, what is Yu Butang doing in the palace?"

The eunuch's voice was even lower: "I heard that it seems that something important happened to the governor of Shaanxi Province. Long Yan was furious and summoned Yu Shangshu overnight to discuss this matter. Eunuch Wu, according to my younger brother, this matter is very important." It's not too small to think about it, or you wait in the side hall first. When Long Live Lord finishes talking, if there is still time, we will report."

(End of this chapter)