Rise From the Humble

Zhu Ping'an returned to the library under red eyes, especially Yuan Wei, a bachelor's degree student in the Hanlin Academy, when he looked at Zhu Ping'an, his eyes were even redder!

Yuan Wei also saw the content of the note from Emperor Jiajing to Zhu Pingan. Sweet and sour fish is more delicious. This sentence clearly means that the poems written by Zhu Pingan were favored by Emperor Jiajing. This made Yuan Wei feel ashamed of Zhu Pingan. He felt that Zhu Pingan was a speculator. In Yuan Wei's eyes, Zhu Pingan's poetry level was too average, but it was just a coincidence!

In the past, Emperor Jiajing sent a note asking the Hanlin Academy to submit poems to the Qing Dynasty. Which time did I, Yuan Wei, not win the Sacred Heart the most? It would be fine if you, Zhu Pingan, wrote better than me, but what you wrote was what the hell! Almost everyone here writes more poetically than you!

The more he thought about it, the more Yuan Wei felt unhappy with Zhu Pingan, just like a small rooster with mixed feathers mixed in among a group of peacocks, but just such a small rooster with mixed feathers stepped on the head of the peacock and won the most beautiful prize. .

After Zhu Pingan returned to the library, he continued his great work of organizing books. There were too many books in the vast collection. The ten bookshelves he had organized were too small compared to the six-room library. The work was heavy. It's a long way to go, but Zhu Ping'an has long been mentally prepared. As the saying goes, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, so insist on taking your time.

While Zhu Pingan was sorting out the books, Emperor Jiajing, who had eaten and drank enough, regained his energy, took an "elixir" the size of a quail egg, and began to deal with the memorials handed down from the cabinet.

Emperor Jiajing did not only know how to cultivate immortality and refine alchemy. If he only knew how to cultivate immortality and refine alchemy and ignore government affairs, the Ming Dynasty might have changed hands long ago!

Emperor Jiajing just didn't go to court, and the power of the Ming Dynasty still had to be tightly held in his own hands. Emperor Jiajing fully realized this when he was young and had a "big etiquette" dispute with his courtiers.

Of course, the memorials handled by Emperor Jiajing were not original memorials, but memorials processed by the cabinet. The original memorial is first handled by the cabinet. The cabinet handles the memorial and writes down its opinions in black pen, which is also a draft. This memorial and the draft were sent by the cabinet to Emperor Jiajing. Emperor Jiajing approved the draft and wrote it with a red pen.

This cabinet voting system greatly saved the emperor's time and energy.

However, Emperor Jiajing made it easier for him. He gave the red pen marking work to the eunuch who was responsible for the ceremony, that is, his yellow companion Huang Jin.

In fact, in some aspects, Emperor Jiajing was the person who was best at being an emperor. He did not go to court but could hold the Ming Dynasty tightly, in a way that saved worry, time and effort.

Emperor Jiajing took the elixir and sat on the Bagua cushion to meditate. There was a bowl-shaped chime made of crystal clear jade beside him. There was a handle made of fine agarwood on his legs when he was sitting cross-legged. He looked at Huang Jin. nodded.

Huang Jin understood the meaning of Emperor Jiajing's look.

Therefore, Huang Jin quickly brought a stack of memorials prepared with tickets and placed them on a low table. Then he prepared the inkstone and inkstone, then knelt on the ground and saluted Emperor Jiajing.

After the salute, Huang Jin took the top memorial in his hand, opened it and read it. After reading the memorial, Huang Jin then read the draft of the cabinet vote. After reading it, Huang Jin put down the memorial and raised his ears.

caldron.

Emperor Jiajing held the agarwood handle and gently knocked on the bowl-shaped chime, and the sound of metal and stone mingling came out from the knocking.

Hearing the sound of the chime, Huang Jin understood it, dipped his red pen in red ink, and then copied the cabinet proposal again with red pen. This is how Emperor Jiajing handled political affairs. The eunuchs and eunuchs in charge of rituals who were responsible for criticizing the red pen could only write the red pen after hearing Jiajing knocking the chime.

The sound of the chime means that Emperor Jiajing agrees with the cabinet's vote. If Emperor Jiajing does not knock the chime, Huang Jin will never dare to criticize it with a red pen.

After the memorial was marked with red pen, Huang Jin read two more memorials. After Emperor Jiajing finished ringing the memorials, Huang Jin copied them one by one according to the draft.

In this way, within a period of time, five memorials have been approved. When Huang Jin picked up the sixth memorial, he glanced at it and was stunned for a moment.

"What's wrong?" asked Emperor Jiajing, who was meditating.

"Back to Your Majesty, this memorial was submitted by Dong Wei, the censor of Zhejiang. Mr. Dong requested that the sea ban be relaxed to facilitate fishing and woodcutting, and to enrich the national affairs." After Emperor Jiajing asked, Huang Jin briefly and comprehensively presented the memorial in his hand to Jiajing. Emperor stated it.

Each memorial has a few hundred words at least. Even if Huang Jin had the patience to read it word for word, Emperor Jiajing did not have the patience to listen, so Huang Jin would summarize the main idea of ​​the memorial every time. This is why Huang Jin was favored. The reason is that he can summarize the memorial most accurately in the shortest time every time.

The reason why Huang Jin was stunned when he saw this memorial was because it was too sensitive. Recently, the court has been divided into two completely opposite factions regarding the sea ban. One faction is the "relaxation faction" and they advocate opening the market. They use the commission method to collect taxes on ships and comply with the development of maritime trade; the other faction is the "strict prohibition faction". The strict prohibition faction advocates strict compliance with the maritime ban on the grounds of the rampant Japanese pirates in Zhejiang and Fujian and the pressure of coastal defense, and believes that sails are not allowed to enter the sea. Ships are the reason why Japanese pirates are prevalent. The two factions each have supporting officials in the court. Even among Yan Song's party members, there are also relaxation and strict prohibition factions, not to mention other forces in the court.

The benefits here are huge. The income of the City Shipping Company has been recorded in previous dynasties. During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, the City Shipping Company's income was several times the land tax. It can be said that money was brought in by boat.

In addition, not all of the Strict Forbidden Sect are purely maritime ban sects, and not all of them are motivated by considerations of Japanese pirates. There are also some secret interests mixed into them. If the maritime ban is strictly prohibited and the Municipal Shipping Department is not opened, then smuggling will be rampant. Some maritime smugglers will pay large sums of money to bribe local officials to ask for asylum. If the Municipal Shipping Department is opened, smuggling will be greatly affected.

These two points are just the tip of the iceberg, there are many reasons for the activities inside.

One Chi, one Yan, looks clean and clear in words, but the fight turns out to be complicated and bloody. Three years ago, Zhu Wan, the right deputy imperial censor of the Ming Dynasty, governor of Zhejiang, and admiral of the coastal defense and military affairs of Zhejiang and Fujian, is a bloody example.

Zhu Wan was an out-and-out strict prohibitionist. On the one hand, he resisted Japanese pirates, and on the other hand, he led his army to attack Shuangyu Island, a gathering place for smuggling, and captured and killed the smuggling leader Baldy Li. Even the coastal people who were trading with Fo Langji were not caught by him. Behead without mercy. It was because Zhu Wan beheaded the people who were trading with Franji that the "relaxation faction" seized the excuse and demanded Zhu Wan's removal in the name of "privately killing people without waiting for the court's approval." At that time, Emperor Jiajing issued an order to arrest Zhu Wan and bring him to Beijing for interrogation.

"I am poor, sick, and conceited, and I cannot go to court. Even if the emperor does not want to kill me, the people of Fujian and Zhejiang will definitely kill me. If I die, I will solve it myself, without needing anyone else."

After leaving such a sentence, Zhu Wan faced the sea and committed suicide by drinking poisonous wine.

There are many similar examples. Sea ban is a word that has become popular in the past two years. Huang Jin hesitated precisely because he understood the gap in it.