I am the prince of the Ming Dynasty, I don't give up

Chapter 268 "Speaking for the People" Medal

Although the Salt War has ended, there are still many things to be concluded.

Royal Theatre.

Today the Royal Theatre was packed with more than 400 village elders sitting in the audience, while the rest of the seats were occupied by employees of the Royal Group, who were there to create an atmosphere.

Old Man Guan was among them. After the audience that day, the village elders did not return to their hometown, but Zhu Houzhao issued an order to retain them. The village elders were arranged to live in the inn in the inner city, so Old Man Guan has stayed in the capital until now.

When Grandpa Guan thought about what happened in the past few days, he felt like he was in a dream. These days were the most glorious days of his life.
The day after their audience, they heard the news: the emperor was furious at the morning court, scolded his ministers, and then ordered the Jinyiwei to arrest many salt merchants and Beijing officials.

The Jinyiwei arrested people with great fanfare, which attracted many people in the capital to watch. After learning that the people arrested were salt merchants and the officials behind them, the people in the capital cheered.

Many village elders went to the streets to watch the people being escorted by the Jinyiwei. Old Man Guan even threw a few rotten eggs on the heads of the escorted people, which made him feel very relieved.

There are quite a few people who do this. They throw rotten eggs, rotten vegetable leaves, clods of dirt and so on at these people. As long as they don't go too far, the escorting Jinyiwei don't care.

Therefore, the village elders all believed that it was the effect of their audience with the emperor and the letter to the people that he presented to him that day that the emperor really listened to their advice and eliminated the treacherous officials in the court and the salt merchants who set high salt prices.

This makes every village elder feel proud and have a sense of pride as if they have promoted the progress of history.

In the following days, the emperor sent messengers to the inn every day to greet the elders. He also arranged for tailors to come and take measurements for the elders and make two new sets of clothes and new shoes for each of them.

This made every village elder burst into tears of gratitude. Many of them were nervous before going to Beijing, but they did not expect to receive such good treatment after arriving in the capital.

Mr. Guan is quite familiar with the Royal Theatre, as this is his fourth visit to the Royal Theatre.

In order to prevent the elders from being too bored in the capital, Zhu Houxun invited them to the Royal Theatre to watch plays several times in the name of Zhu Houzhao.

Mr. Guan and the villagers all like the plays performed at the Royal Theatre.

After waiting for ten days, they finally waited until Zhu Houxun and Zhu Houzhao finished their work and had time.

So there was the medal awarding ceremony at the Royal Theatre tonight.

As the largest single building in the Ming Dynasty, the Royal Theater is not only used for various performances, but is also very suitable for holding various ceremonies. Many ceremonies have been held since it was put into use.

Some people even secretly suggested moving the morning court to the Royal Theater, because the Fengtian Hall could not accommodate so many people, and many people could only stand in the square outside the Fengtian Hall to attend the morning court.

If the weather is fine, it's fine. But if it's rainy or snowy, people standing outside will suffer. The history books once recorded that during the Zhengde Dynasty, the weather was bad during a court meeting. Zhu Houzhao saw many officials kneeling in the mud and water, so he felt sympathy and asked them to go back first. However, the officials didn't appreciate it and said that it was the etiquette and law, which made Zhu Houzhao very angry.

In this regard, the hardware conditions of the Royal Grand Theatre are much better than those of the Fengtian Hall, so such a proposal was made.

However, this proposal is destined not to be put on the table and is destined not to be passed. After all, the conservative forces in the court are still quite strong.

There were no scenery or props on the stage of the Royal Theatre today. It was covered with a red carpet and the flag of the Royal Group was hung on the curtain. There were many musicians sitting on both sides of the stage, playing relaxing melodies.

The whale oil lamps above the stage illuminated the stage as bright as day.

The village elders present were all wearing new clothes of the same style, and the employees of the Royal Group who attended the ceremony were also wearing the same uniform, allowing those who were present to feel a sense of collective power.

Then Zhu Houzhao, wearing a dragon robe, made a grand appearance. Although he had held many court meetings, this was the first time he had held a meeting of this type.

He stood in the center of the stage and began to deliver his speech. His voice echoed in the theater after being physically amplified. A thousand pairs of eyes were focused on him, giving Zhu Houzhao a novel experience.

He read a manuscript written by Zhu Houxun. He first thanked the audience, summarized recent events, and finally expressed his expectations for the future. The whole article was written in plain language, but there was no lack of exciting sentences.

So every time he finished a paragraph, the theater would burst into thunderous applause, interrupting his speech, and he soon got used to this interruption.
Grandpa Guan quickly learned to clap along, and then listened to Zhu Houzhao's speech, his eyes unconsciously moistened. He felt that Zhu Houzhao was so approachable, and his speech touched his heart.
After Zhu Houzhao finished his speech, there was prolonged applause in the theater.

Zhu Houzhao was already somewhat intoxicated by the applause of the crowd.

Next is the medal awarding ceremony. The medal is the lowest level medal in the honor medal system - the commendation medal.

Zhu Houxuan directly designed and produced this kind of medal - the Medal for Pleading for the People.

The medal is made of silver alloy. On the front of the medal is a pair of hands holding a piece of paper with densely written words. It is very beautifully made. On the back is engraved each winner's hometown, name and award date. The medal also comes with a ribbon and a pin, which can be hung around the neck or on the chest.

The music played by the musicians suddenly changed and became passionate.

A group of village elders walked up to the stage, lined up in a row, and held their chests high under the gaze of thousands of people. Grandpa Guan stood in the first row.
Zhu Houzhao walked up to him, took out a medal and hung it on Grandpa Guan's chest. He then handed Grandpa Guan a red velvet certificate with large gold-plated characters on it, and whispered, "Thank you for your hard work."

Zhu Houxuan learned all the award ceremonies of later generations, especially the certificate of honor, which had Zhu Houzhao's signature in it, but it was signed by a eunuch from the Imperial Household Department imitating Zhu Houzhao's handwriting. However, most people could not tell that the seal on the certificate was a new seal made by Zhu Houzhao at that time.

It was the first time for Old Man Guan to have close contact with the emperor. Seeing such a kind emperor, touching the medal on his chest, and thinking of recent events, his eyes immediately became red and he was extremely excited. He felt that he had not done anything, but the emperor treated him so well, which made him feel unworthy. However, he also knew that it would be very bad to refuse in front of so many people.

(End of this chapter)