Ming Jiajing: Starting from Immortality

Chapter 84 King Jing was attacked and the treasure ship exploded!
Zhang Juzheng's cabinet submitted two imperial edicts in succession.

Yuxi Palace has approved it.

immediately.

The imperial edict for the six thousand new officials to return their donated land and the imperial edict for the national selection of concubines were sent to the two capitals and thirteen provinces.

All of a sudden.

The court was shocked!

The public was in uproar!

However, the court and the people have different focuses. There are not many stupid people among the court officials, and they are extremely sensitive to their own interests. Once the door to returning the donated land is opened, the pockets of the Ming Dynasty officials will be greatly thinner.

However, the few words "follow the ancestral system of Emperor Taizu Gao" blocked all avenues for the court officials to resist.

The first to be affected were the six thousand new officials. They had originally been prepared to happily wait for the official document from the Ministry of Personnel to take office, but when the imperial edict came, they felt colder than having a basin of cold water poured over their heads in winter.

"If you don't return the land, you will resign from your post." This forced the 6,000 new officials into a dead end, forcing them to choose between the two options.

Facts have proved that the temptation of power to people is far greater than money and land. All 6,000 scholars newly selected as officials in the court chose to return the land to the people.

As soon as the land donation was returned, the official document from the Ministry of Personnel was issued and he could take up the post immediately.

Human beings exist in groups. When there are role models in a group, there will be more people following suit.

The return of the five million acres of donated land was much smoother than the Yuxi Palace and the Cabinet had imagined.

But in order to prevent the new officials from playing tricks, the cabinet petitioned Yuxi Palace and ordered the Jinyiwei to conduct a secret investigation. They actually found out a few people who wanted to hide the land. The cabinet then made another petition and not only stripped these people of their official positions, but also stripped them of their honors.

Without fame and honor, they would be just ordinary people, and there would be no more land donations. Then, the donated lands were returned to the people.

In short.

Choosing to be an official is like signing a pledge that the land of the common people must be returned. If not, then your reputation will be stripped away and then the land will be forcibly returned.

This set of "blocking both ends" tactics made the six thousand new court officials almost lost their way.

Originally, this selection of officials to enter the court was praised in official circles as the "List of Favored Officials", but gradually, it was rumored to be the "List of Fat Pigs".

The cabinet is the butcher!
The new officials wanted to slap themselves in the face for their joy when they received the cabinet's draft order to serve as officials. When they thought of their gratitude to the cabinet's chief minister Zhang Juzheng and the cabinet's second minister Gao Gong, they felt so angry that their teeth were itching. They thought that they had been given official positions as gifts from heaven and had two more prime ministers and mentors.

Master and apprentice are like father and son. The new officials were really prepared to treat Zhang Juzheng and Gao Gong as their own fathers. Unexpectedly, their "real fathers" treated them like pigs and slaughtered them.

Being sold!

And help people count money!
After suffering such a great humiliation, the new officials started their official careers with a lot of resentment towards Zhang Juzheng and Gao Gong.

Gao Gong wanted to cry but had no tears.

Officials and scholars all over the world are scolding the cabinet for being inhumane, but this matter really has nothing to do with him!

Li Chunfang, a cabinet minister who was affected, sent a letter back to Nanzhili, asking his clansmen to sell their land as soon as possible and turn a deaf ear to the criticism.

The cabinet minister Chen Yiqun collected those letters that cursed him, and also asked for some letters that cursed Zhang Juzheng, Gao Gong and Li Chunfang. He carefully sealed them and transported them back to the family. These things will be useful treasures hundreds of years later.

If there were a few literary masters and civil and military officials who left their names in history, its value would be even higher.

A few curses are nothing but a little wind and frost!

The atmosphere among the people is even more lively.

It has been twenty-eight years since the last national selection of concubines. If the emperor was in poor health, he would have been replaced several times.

This is an opportunity that only comes once in decades to change the fate of the family.

All families with daughters of marriageable age went to the local prefectural and county government offices to inquire about the details. Families with better-looking daughters even asked what they should pay attention to when they became the father-in-law of the emperor.

However, the national selection of concubines was no joke, and the imperial edict had strict restrictions on identity, family background, appearance, etc. It would be good if a county could produce one or two beautiful girls.

The people's excitement was not so much about who would be chosen as a concubine. After all, the people had heard about the hardships and coldness in the harem.

The emperor is alone and old, how can he come to visit?

When ordinary people let their daughters participate in the beauty pageant, it was mostly to let the daughters of marriageable age to show off in a grand way and attract matchmakers to come to ask for marriage. Only at this time can we really see the grand scene of "a daughter from one family is sought after by hundreds of families".

The people may not be smart enough, but they are definitely not stupid. They know that they should marry a good wife and marry into a good family.

Across the country, the number of marriages has reached the highest level in the past sixty years.

The sound of firecrackers at a wedding is more lively than that at the Chinese New Year.

Ordinary people happily marry their daughters and get married, but people’s joys and sorrows are not the same.

Prince Yu's Mansion.

From top to bottom, there was not a single laugh.

The palace maids and eunuchs all had solemn faces and walked in a hurry. Even if they met someone they knew, they didn't dare to talk to them.

The depressing atmosphere made people in the palace breathless.

Prince Yu Zhu Zaihou smashed a lot of things, almost everything in the bedroom that could be moved.

The cabinet submitted a petition for the selection of a concubine, and Yuxi Palace approved it, which was like a slap in Prince Yu's face.

Although the emperor and the ministers did not say it explicitly, their dissatisfaction with Prince Yu in Beijing was made clear.

If Prince Yu in Beijing was not incompetent, why would the cabinet go to such great lengths to select a concubine and a new queen for the emperor?

Princess Li silently picked up the broken leaves on the ground, her mind full of rumors from both the court and the public.

"Prince Yu, you don't look like a monarch!"

The jade hand, as delicate as a scallion, touched a broken porcelain piece and was instantly cut, blood flowing out, and pain and powerlessness surged into the heart at the same time.

After Prince Jing entered the capital and reopened his palace, it was hard to tell how long Prince Yu's palace, which had been devastated by the storm, could last.

Upon learning the "bad news" that his father was selecting a concubine nationwide, Prince Jing Zhu Zaizhen also quickened his pace to go to Beijing.

Jingu, North Wharf.

"Remove the parachute!"

Dozens of large silk-edged umbrellas were quickly flipped over and removed, allowing the scorching sunlight to cast onto the dazzling red and purple.

There were only two people standing at the front of the dock.

One of them was Cui Xian, the prefect of Jinguwei, who was wearing official uniform and hat. The word "withdraw the umbrella" just now came from him.

Standing next to him was Zhang De, the eunuch who guarded Jingu. These were the two towering mountains of Jingu, the nearest ferry crossing to the capital.

Behind them were more than a dozen rows of officials from various government offices in Tianjin and Gu.

Looking around, you will see pheasants, golden cicadas, clouds, phoenixes, and brocade ribbons. The vision is filled with many noble colors such as green, red, and purple, which is dazzling.

Further out, there was a grand procession made up of large banners, pennants, yellow fans, and golden pumpkins, as well as guards, music troupes, dancing troupes, carriage drivers, and so on, densely surrounding the palace in three layers inside and outside.

There was not even a single spot to stay at the huge North Pier.

Most of the officials in the entire Jingu officialdom are now gathered here.

These officials, who usually had to drink "clean the streets" when they went out, were now huddled together, shoulder to shoulder, and did not move at all no matter how thick and hot their court robes were.

Amid the magnificent elegant music, everyone bowed their heads, stood in silence, held their breath, and looked eagerly at the huge treasure ship sail that was gradually approaching in the distance.

The treasure ship became clearer and clearer. The entire ship was thirty meters long, painted black and red all over, with a pointed bottom and a wide top, thick masts and wide sails. Everyone couldn't help but sigh that this was a real treasure ship.

There was only a flat floor between the two masts, but there was a four-story building with carved railings.

The roof is hip and gabled, the corners have flying eaves, and the layers of fish-scale tiles sparkle in the sun.

Some officials who knew about ships subconsciously curled their lips. If the ship was stranded on the sea, it would be overturned by the waves in less than half a day and could only run on the canal.

Prince Jing built such a ship just to go to the capital. It’s really...amazing?
In front of countless people, the treasure ship exploded on the surface of the canal, and a scorching heat wave hit them.

(End of this chapter)