Emperor Zhengde

Chapter 236: Life in the Inner Court
Warm spring has arrived, and the imperial garden is filled with the aroma of milk.

Zhu Houzhao's wife, the current Empress Xia of the Ming Dynasty, is taking bottles of yogurt in glass bottles out of the freezer.

Ice is made by using the principle that calcium nitrate cools water when it is dissolved.

The Ming Dynasty was now able to produce nitric acid, and even had a special government-run nitric acid factory, so it was not difficult to produce calcium nitrate.

The purpose of using calcium nitrate to make ice storage is to provide a low-temperature storage environment for yogurt.

The yogurt was made by the Queen herself. It was fermented from a group of symbiotic bacteria, namely Lactobacillus and Streptococcus thermophilus, isolated by plate streaking, and then mixed with fresh fruits such as strawberries. It is the nutritious cheese that has been consumed in the Ming Dynasty court and has been officially promoted to the public.

The Han people have always eaten grains, and their spleen and stomach cannot tolerate heavy fish and meat. The emergence of yogurt can greatly improve the Han people's digestion ability and nutrient absorption.

Empress Xia gave the yogurt to the little prince Zhu Zailei and said, "Go to school after you finish eating. Don't fail in arithmetic again and make your father angry."

"Thank you, mother, but mother, the equation is really difficult."

Prince Zhu Zaile said this with a pout, and couldn't help but glance at Zhu Houzhao in the room, fearing that Zhu Houzhao would hear him.

“No matter how difficult it is, you have to learn!”

Empress Xia said as she walked into the palace with a bottle of yogurt. After instructing the maids to send the little prince Zhu Zailei to the palace school, she walked towards where Zhu Houzhao was resting. However, just as she was about to call His Majesty, Empress Xia heard the eunuch Gu Dayong from the Western Factory replying to Emperor Zhu Houzhao:

"Your Majesty, there are many slanders against the Empress among the people nowadays. They say that because the Empress is not virtuous and has long feet, they are jealous of the women in the world who bind their feet. Therefore, they slander your Majesty and order the world to ban foot binding. Even Lu Zhaoji, the former Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, slandered the Empress as unvirtuous. Your Majesty, you don't understand."

"These people are still not honest after resigning from their posts. The West Factory will continue to keep an eye on them. If they have committed any crime, they must be exposed!"

After Zhu Houzhao said this, he asked Gu Dayong to leave.

Queen Xia couldn't help but frowned slightly, walked in and asked:
"Your Majesty, can you tell me what it means to be a virtuous queen?"

Although she was the empress, Xia Xiang'er had entered the palace at the age of fourteen, but had never experienced the ups and downs of the outside world. Zhu Houzhao also gave her enough tolerance and freedom, and did not impose the etiquette of this era on her, so that she, who was originally a good lady, gradually forgot to pay attention to the reputation of the empress. So now when she heard Gu Dayong say that people outside said that she was not a virtuous empress, her simple and peaceful heart began to feel a little insecure, so she had to ask a question.

"The Queen who has been salted," Zhu Houzhao said with a smile, and asked Queen Xia to sit next to him.

Today, Empress Xia is 24 years old and has been with Zhu Houzhao for ten years. She has grown from a shy and silent young girl to a charming and mature young woman. When she sits beside Zhu Houzhao, she shows her mature charm in front of him, and her face is slightly angry and her eyebrows are frowned. It is obvious that Zhu Houzhao's answer makes her feel that His Majesty did not answer her seriously, but she dare not be angry with Zhu Houzhao, so she can only put aside her doubts about the Empress's virtue for the time being, and hand the yogurt to Zhu Houzhao, smiling like a flower and saying: "Your Majesty, please enjoy!"

Zhu Houzhao had just finished breakfast and it was spring, so after taking the yogurt, he said, "I want to try a different way of eating it," and then whispered to Empress Xia.

Queen Xia blushed slightly and said timidly, "Your Majesty, this is even less virtuous!"

"Between you and me as husband and wife, sweetness is the best taste, no matter how salty or sweet other people say it is," Zhu Houzhao said with a smile and winked at the female official, who understood and closed the doors and windows.

……

After leaving the inner court, Zhu Houzhao was still licking his lips, only to smell the taste of yogurt, even mixed with a hint of strawberry fragrance and woman's body odor. No matter how the outside world viewed himself and his queen, in Zhu Houzhao's view, whether his queen was satisfied or not, and whether she was virtuous or not was something only he knew. It was none of the business of those civil servants and literati. They required their wives to be chaste and polite, and required their concubines to be unrestrained enough. As a result, either his wife would kill the concubine with etiquette, or he would be easily influenced by the concubine's slander and divorce his virtuous wife. In either case, there would only be discord between husband and wife, and unrest in the harem.

But Zhu Houzhao could not allow the literati and scholars to slander himself and the queen behind their backs so unscrupulously. Zhu Houzhao felt that he had to let the literati and scholars feel the feeling of being slandered and viciously evaluated.

Therefore, Zhu Houzhao summoned Tang Bohu again and asked him to organize people to comment on the scholars and officials in the world today and try to expose their ugly faces.

As long as they are rulers, few are clean. The emperor may not dare to act recklessly because he is the master of the world and is easily watched by others, but officials, especially literati and scholars who have always loved romantic life, will only become more dirty and unbearable.

Therefore, Zhu Houzhao believed that it would not be difficult for Tang Bohu and others to discredit these literati and scholars.

Zhu Houzhao not only wanted Tang Bohu and others to manipulate public opinion to expose the ugly faces of these literati and scholars and discredit them, but he also wanted to make the most truthful evaluation of these people's character in official historical materials.

"Lin Hanlin, how is the 'Records of Jinshi in the reign of Emperor Xiaozong' that I asked you to compile?'"

On this day, Zhu Houzhao summoned Lin Kui, a lecturer in the Hanlin Academy, and asked him.

Lin Kui replied, "Your Majesty, 80% of the compilation has been completed and it will be completed next year."

"Just read out a few names of Jinshi for me," Zhu Houzhao ordered.

Lin Kui received the order and began to read: "Yu Tai, ranked 114th in the third place of the imperial examination in the 15th year of the Hongzhi reign, was a fellow Jinshi, a native of Wuxi, South Zhili, with the courtesy name Guochang and the pseudonym Zhengzhai. He first served as a censor in the household department, and later served as a councilor in Shandong. After returning, he built a garden in the south of the city and lived in seclusion in Fangzhou, where he died ten years later. He was good at painting and liked poetry. There is a collection of Fangzhou Manxing."

"Wait! I remember very clearly that Yu Tai was dismissed and sent back home because he was implicated in a corruption case. At that time, the performance evaluation system was implemented for the first time. The 300,000 taels of relief silver that was originally allocated to Shandong to purchase grain due to the famine in Huaiyang only bought back 100,000 shi, and even half of it was sand and stone. The left and right governors were all beheaded, and Yu Tai was also dismissed and sent back home. Three years later, evidence of embezzlement of relief silver that year was found in his mansion, and he was detained and executed again.

Why didn't you record the bad morals of such a corrupt official, and only recorded that he built a private garden at home, left a collection of poems, and lived in seclusion in Suzhou? If people in the future read this, wouldn't they think that Yu Tai was a romantic and elegant scholar who didn't want to be corrupted, so he just returned to his hometown to live in seclusion, and even made outstanding contributions to the architectural history of our China? ! "

Zhu Houzhao asked very seriously.

"Your Majesty, please calm down. History has always been recorded like this. Right and wrong, merits and demerits are only left for future generations to judge. But for the sake of our dynasty's reputation, basically all the scholars and officials of our dynasty record their merits and virtues, and not their cunning, so as to prevent the scholars of future generations from despising our dynasty. Moreover, Mr. Lu (Lu Zhaoji), who was in charge of the Hanlin Academy, also specifically instructed that since Yu Tai is his nephew, his corruption should not be recorded. I think that officials have never impeached each other for corruption, so naturally there is no need to record his corruption," replied Hanlin Lin Kui.

"Ridiculous! The monarch's daily life is recorded truthfully, so why are the affairs of civil officials not recorded truthfully? Isn't this intentionally misleading future generations? I am not afraid of how future generations will view our dynasty. If our dynasty is full of loyal ministers and good generals, why did it fall?

Can we blame the emperor for this? How can the emperor alone cause the decline of the world? Give me a true record! There must not be any mistakes! All civil officials who have committed corruption, seized people's land, and killed soldiers and civilians must be recorded for me, and the court must comment on them. It must be detailed. Otherwise, people in the future will think that I am too cruel and that all civil officials are moral gentlemen. How could they not know that it was these corrupt officials who were too cruel to the people that forced the emperor to be cruel! "

As Zhu Houzhao spoke, he noticed the text on Yu Tai's record again. He remembered that Lin Hanlin had mentioned Lu Zhaoji just now, so he snorted coldly:
"It's Lu Zhaoji again! If he is his nephew, then we must keep a good record of the corruption case in Shandong that year. Write clearly in the records of his nephew Yu Tai how his nephew participated in colluding with officials from Shandong and Huaiyang to embezzle the people's money. Don't let any corrupt official be mistaken as a good official by future generations. Let them be infamous forever! Use this to warn people of the present. I have always thought that you are an upright and honest person, and the historical events you record will not be biased, but I didn't expect that you would only remember the good and not the evil. I am very disappointed! I will let the Ministry of Personnel demote you by one level. Next time, if you listen to the words of other dignitaries and change the official historical materials without authorization, I will punish you severely!"

"I obey the decree! I obey the decree!"

Hanlin Lin Kui did not expect that the Majesty would be so dissatisfied with the list of Jinshi that he was responsible for compiling, and even scolded him. Naturally, he was a little frightened and responded quickly twice.

Zhu Houzhao knew that Lin Kui was honest, cowardly, and very rule-abiding. Therefore, he could understand Lin Kui's behavior of recording the deeds of civil servants according to tradition, so he did not want to punish him severely. However, he still reprimanded him. At the same time, Zhu Houzhao could not help but remember that Lin Kui was also the recorder of his daily life, so he could not help but ask: "How do you record my daily life? Read to me what you wrote today."

"According to the order!"

Lin Kui responded and began to read: "On Bingyin day, the emperor was too sleepy to get up. The eldest prince also did not get up after paying his respects. The empress presented the emperor with newly made yogurt and met the supervisor of the Western Factory. The supervisor came out at that time. The emperor teased the empress in the warm room and said that the yogurt smelled good and she smelled even better..."

"Enough!" Zhu Houzhao shouted.

Although Zhu Houzhao did not like people recording his and the queen's private life in this way, the author still took the risk of offending the emperor and chose this title.
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(End of this chapter)