I was compiling the daily records during the Wanli reign

March 18th, near noon.

A notice proving that Shen Nian had not abused his power for personal gain or accepted bribes was posted outside Zhengyang Gate.

With witnesses and physical evidence, all of which can prove Shen Nian's innocence.

He also paid for the books.

Although the reason for Zhao Shizhen's entry into the Ministry of War is only stated in eight characters, "He was authorized to manufacture firearms without authorization," it is enough to prove that Zhao Shizhen did not enter the position against regulations.

The reason that he was skilled in manufacturing firearms is the least likely to be fabricated.

Those who had slandered Shen Nian were all ashamed and made self-criticisms after seeing the notice.

Xu Liang, a supervising secretary of the Ministry of War, was flogged fifty times for "buying and selling intelligence and slandering cabinet ministers." Although he was not dismissed, his future career looked bleak.

Zheng Dian, the chief official of the Court of State Ceremonial, who was the culprit in spreading rumors, was flogged fifty times, dismissed from his post on the spot, and then expelled from the capital, never to be employed again.

After this incident, Shen Nian's position in the cabinet became more secure, and the censors also became more restrained, with their fear of the young Wanli Emperor increasing significantly.

at the same time.

Shen Nian also figured out which officials resented him or opposed the new policies, and he would be more cautious when dealing with these officials in the future.

……

On March 24th, the weather gradually warmed up.

Around noon, the cabinet was on duty.

Just as Shen Nian was about to get up and go outside for a walk, Wang Jia, a secretary in the Imperial Secretariat, suddenly walked into the room and reported to Shen Nian that Emperor Wanli had ordered a eunuch to deliver the imperial meal, one portion for each of the five Grand Secretaries.

Shen Nian was taken aback.

"Is today a special day? Why has His Majesty bestowed a meal upon us?"

"This humble official does not know!" Wang Jia shook his head.

Immediately, Shen Nian straightened her clothes, walked to the front hall of the inner cabinet to express her gratitude, and received the imperial meal.

After the five cabinet ministers finished expressing their gratitude and receiving their meals,

Zhang Juzheng looked at Fang Ping, the eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial, and asked, "Fang, could His Majesty explain why he bestowed imperial meals upon us?"

At present, the nineteen-year-old eunuch Fang Ping is already a clerk of the seventh rank in the Directorate of Ceremonial. If he goes any further, he can become a court eunuch.

He enjoyed the utmost trust from the young Wanli Emperor and was practically the next Feng Bao.

Yin Zhengmao, Shen Shixing, Shen Nian, and Wang Xijue all looked at Fang Ping with suspicion.

Fang Ping first bowed to the five people, then smiled and said, "In response to Grand Secretary Zhang's question, His Majesty said it was because he was in a good mood today!"

After saying this, Fang Ping led his men away.

Yin Zhengmao opened the food box and exclaimed in surprise, "Wow! A roast goose, a pot of mutton tripe soup, and desserts and flatbreads! We're in for a treat today!"

Generally, roast goose dishes were only served during major festivals, such as the Mid-Autumn Festival and the Emperor's birthday, when Emperor Wanli (the young Wanli Emperor) bestowed them upon the emperor.

The others opened their food boxes and found that each contained a large roast goose.

Zhang Juzheng frowned slightly and said, "His Majesty's reward is unjustified and excessively extravagant. When we express our gratitude tomorrow morning, we must remind His Majesty to be frugal."

Upon hearing this, Yin Zhengmao and the other three bowed in greeting.

A ruler must be clear about rewards and punishments, but the young Wanli Emperor rewarded his subjects generously because he was "happy," which is clearly not the way of a wise ruler.

As cabinet ministers, the five of them were obliged to submit a memorial to remind him.

Shen Nian murmured to herself, "Has His Majesty caused trouble again?"

Immediately afterwards, the five cabinet ministers each carried their food boxes back to their rooms, where the imperial meal would serve as their lunch.

Of course, we couldn't finish it all, so we had to pack it up and take it home to enjoy with our family.

Eating imperial cuisine is a great honor for an official, but for the five Grand Secretaries, it has become commonplace.

……

Half an hour later.

After eating and drinking his fill, Shen Nian sat down at the table and began to handle official business.

Not long after he had been busy, Wang Jia, a drafter of imperial edicts, came to report again: Someone from the palace has come again, bestowing upon the five Grand Secretaries an imperial edict.

After a while.

The five Grand Secretaries gathered again in the front hall, each with a wooden box containing calligraphy written by the young Wanli Emperor.

After expressing their gratitude, the five people opened the wooden boxes and unrolled the scrolls.

The calligraphy bestowed upon Zhang Juzheng by the young Wanli Emperor was: "Yuanfu Laizhong"; the calligraphy bestowed upon Yin Zhengmao was: "Tongxin Jiafu".

The calligraphy bestowed upon Shen Shixing is: dignified and elegant; the calligraphy bestowed upon Shen Nian is: praising the important affairs of state; the calligraphy bestowed upon Wang Xijue is: upright and honest.

The four-character description of "Little Wanli" felt very fitting to the five Grand Secretaries.

But receiving the gift without any reason, and being rewarded twice in a row, made all five of them feel strange.

Zhang Juzheng stroked his beard, his expression turning serious.

Emperor Wanli was fond of calligraphy, and his studies were often affected by his calligraphy practice. Zhang Juzheng repeatedly used Li Yu and Emperor Huizong of Song as counterexamples to advise him against it.

Unexpectedly, after a period of silence, the young Wanli Emperor bestowed upon the five Grand Secretaries calligraphy works without any apparent reason.

Doing so is clearly too willful.

Receiving a reward without merit will lead to impeachment by censors.

Immediately afterwards, Zhang Juzheng carried the wooden box back to his duty room. The next day, he would definitely give the young Wanli Emperor a thorough and earnest lecture.

At that moment, Shen Nian felt that something was wrong.

The young Wanli Emperor sent him both imperial meals and imperial letters in a single day, without any reason. Such willful and reckless behavior could not possibly have gone unnoticed by the five Grand Secretaries who would "admonish" him.

"It can't be a generous reward without a reason, so what could it be?" Shen Nian murmured.

……

It was nearing dusk, just before the end of the day for the government offices to close.

Fang Ping, the eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial, came to the Cabinet office again, this time bestowing three bottles of imperial wine upon each of the five Grand Secretaries. Again, without any apparent reason.

He was granted imperial food at noon, imperial calligraphy in the afternoon, and imperial wine at dusk.

Even during the Lunar New Year, there wasn't such a grand spectacle.

Shen Nian sensed something was amiss and was preparing to go to the Forbidden City to investigate when Zhang Juzheng ordered someone to summon him to the council hall on the second floor.

……

After a while.

The five cabinet ministers gathered in the council chamber on the second floor.

Zhang Juzheng, who was usually expressionless and very serious, now had a bright smile on his face.

He tried to be serious, but he couldn't suppress the corners of his mouth.

This made the other four cabinet ministers even more curious about what Zhang Juzheng wanted to say.

Zhang Juzheng looked at the four men and said, "I have found the reason why His Majesty has been so generous to us today!"

After saying that, Zhang Juzheng leaned forward and lowered his voice, saying, "This morning, three imperial physicians from the Imperial Hospital reported to the two empress dowagers that Empress Wang's pulse seemed to indicate a pregnancy, but we still need to observe her carefully."

Hear this.

Yin Zhengmao, Shen Shixing, Shen Nian, and Wang Xijue also became excited.

The imperial physicians dared not speak recklessly without absolute certainty, and even if they were absolutely certain, they would still "take a step back" when speaking.

Their assertion that "there seems to be a happy omen, but we still need to wait and see" suggests that Empress Wang must be pregnant.

If Empress Wang gives birth to a prince, he will be the eldest son of the legitimate wife.

The eldest son of the legitimate wife holds a particularly high position. As long as he doesn't make any major mistakes or become too mediocre, the future throne will belong to him.

This is a great thing for the Ming Dynasty.

Shen Nian vaguely remembered that Empress Wang seemed to have given birth to a daughter, but he had changed the course of history and might have triggered a butterfly effect, causing the latter to give birth to a son directly.

Empress Wang is pregnant.

After that, the two empress dowagers stopped urging the young Wanli Emperor and stopped making threatening statements such as "Depose the young Wanli Emperor and let the Prince of Lu succeed to the throne."

The young Wanli Emperor also proved to the world that he was a normal man.

Furthermore, the fact that the emperor had no heir meant that all the civil and military officials were also guilty, and this would give rise to various intractable problems.

Now, officials are no longer under pressure.

This event was of paramount importance to the stability of the harem, the court, the throne of the young Wanli Emperor, and the expansion of imperial power.

Emperor Wanli (the young emperor) bestowed three gifts upon five cabinet ministers in a single day.

The purpose was to get the five cabinet ministers to discover the matter on their own initiative.

The matter of the Empress's pregnancy is not yet fully confirmed, so the young Wanli Emperor cannot speak of it.

However, the eighteen-year-old Wanli Emperor was at an age where he couldn't keep secrets and really wanted people to know, so he used this method.

Zhang Juzheng stroked his beard and said with emotion, "It is expected that the imperial heir will be born by the end of this year. If it is a prince, then this old man can retire in peace!"

Shen Shixing joked, "I'm afraid His Majesty won't allow the Grand Secretary to retire. Even if he does, the two Empress Dowagers still want him to serve as the tutor of the princes!"

Zhang Juzheng quickly waved his hand.

"With you all, the court has enough! Enough!"

Shen Nian and the other three could all see that Zhang Juzheng genuinely wanted to retire from officialdom.

After chatting for a while, the five began to jointly draft a memorial thanking the young Wanli Emperor for his generous reward, and subtly congratulated him.

……

Less than two days.

The officials in the capital gradually learned of the Empress's pregnancy, and they were all excited.

Some proactive officials have already written congratulatory memorials, which will be submitted immediately upon the official announcement by the royal family.

……

Following this, the imperial physicians of the Imperial Hospital examined Empress Wang's pulse almost every day, and then held meetings in the evenings to discuss when it would be safest to announce Empress Wang's pregnancy.

Their workload is approaching that of the Six Departments.

Until the tenth day of the fourth month.

The Imperial Medical Academy officially announced that Empress Wang was pregnant with the emperor's child and that her health was perfectly normal.

Officials submitted congratulatory memorials one after another.

The people on the street were very happy when they learned about this.

The birth of an heir signifies that the court will subsequently reduce taxes and corvée labor, decrease punishments, and implement a series of policies that benefit the people.

soon.

Under the arrangement of the Ministry of Rites, the young Wanli Emperor led all officials in offering sacrifices to the suburban temples and the altars of the gods of the land and grain.

Afterwards, Emperor Wanli and the two empress dowagers issued decrees to increase the offerings and ceremonial regalia for Empress Wang, significantly improving her clothing, daily diet, and travel privileges.

In addition, Empress Wang's paternal family was rewarded with a great deal of land, gold, silver and silk. Her father, Earl of Yongnian Wang Wei, was further promoted to the rank of Assistant Commander-in-Chief of the Second Rank, which was a prestigious position but no real power.

……

On April 13th, at the regular court session.

On behalf of the cabinet, Zhang Juzheng proposed to reduce the academic burden on the young Wanli Emperor, increase his practice time for reviewing memorials and making decisions on important military and political affairs, and in addition, to order the heads of the six ministries to report on their respective internal affairs to the young Wanli Emperor at the beginning and middle of each month, accompanied by two cabinet ministers.

This proposal was seconded by all the officials in the court.

This means that in the days to come, the young Wanli Emperor will become a decision-maker rather than a nodding sympathizer in the court. It means that he will gradually take control of the highest decision-making power, the highest personnel power, all military command power, and the power to personally issue edicts and reward or punish his subjects.

The young Wanli Emperor was so excited that he burst into tears, feeling that he was finally about to overcome his ordeal.

The Empress's pregnancy with the Emperor's child prompted the cabinet to relinquish power, bringing the young Wanli Emperor one step closer to assuming personal rule. (End of Chapter)