The Prosperous Era of Longwan

Thanks to the commotion of this year's new scholars, the imperial court immediately paid attention to the serious consequences of the Shanshan-Shaanxi earthquake. Although the relief money and food were not much, the impact on the feelings of the court officials was significant.

Wei Guangde had been in the Hanlin Academy for more than half a month, but he didn't even get a day's rest.

The holidays for officials in the Ming Dynasty were divided into two types: regular leave and personal leave. Regular leave was a legal rest day, including holidays and festivals.

The system of statutory holidays has appeared as early as the Han Dynasty. At that time, officials took one day off every five days, which was called "five days off." This example is also used.

Compared with the holiday holidays in previous dynasties, the annual holidays in the Ming Dynasty were more complete. Some festivals were fixed, such as the New Year's Day, Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival and other festivals, among which the annual holidays were from December 20th of each year to the second day of the first lunar month of the following year. On the 10th, which is the Zhengdan Festival, officials will stop working and take a month's rest.

"Ming Huidian" contains: Every year, the Zhengdan Festival begins on the first day of the Lunar New Year, and all civil and military officials have a five-day holiday. The Winter Solstice Festival begins today, with a three-day holiday. In the seventh year of Yongle, the Lantern Festival was ordered to begin on the 11th day of the first lunar month, and all officials were given a ten-day holiday.

Casual leave is when an official actively requests to take a break, which requires approval from superiors. There are two main types: casual leave and sick leave.

Regarding the provisions of sick leave or special leave, officials can take leave to return to their hometown and be allowed to stay at home for two months; if the time limit is exceeded, and the time limit is more than one year, officials will not enjoy salary benefits for five months; if the time limit reaches one Officials who are more than half a year old will be sent to the government for interrogation.

In the Jiajing Dynasty, the qualifications for officials to ask for personal leave were clearly stipulated, and they could only ask for leave "after three years of passing the examination". If it exceeded three years, they would be dismissed.

There is also a special kind of personal leave. Civil servants take leave to mourn their parents, which is Ding You.

"Ming Huidian" records: "Ding You, according to official regulations, does not allow leap twenty-seven months. Anyone who has exceeded the limit by more than two months will be sent to prison for questioning; if it is less than one month and has a disease certificate, he will be sent to prison.

The above two categories are the main official holidays, and there are two special holidays: grant leave and court leave.

The so-called "granting of leave" refers to the granting of leave with the emperor's approval. It is entirely a favor given by the emperor to officials and is not customized.

The main reason for the royal leave in the Ming Dynasty was usually the funerals of members of the royal family and ministers, and not all officials could participate. In the Ming Dynasty, the absence of court leave due to funerals made it easier for officials to rest, and it was a kind of treatment for officials, which encouraged them to adjust. On the other hand, it condenses the relationship between royal members and the emperor and officials, so that officials can better handle official affairs.

Speaking of the vacation system in the Ming Dynasty, it was because Wei Guangde, who should have had a vacation long ago, never got the opportunity to take a vacation, and the reason was the Shanshan-Shaanxi earthquake.

Emperor Jiajing felt that God had brought disaster, so he canceled the three-month holiday, hoping that all civil and military officials would work diligently and move God to take away the punishment.

In short, Emperor Jiajing had an idea that Wei Guangde would not be able to take a rest for more than two months, so he could only run to the Hanlin Academy like a horse, and the matter of moving naturally fell behind.

It had been less than half a month since the last time I met Yin Shizhen at the Ministry of Household Affairs, and I had not heard from Li Shida or the others that the Prince Yu's Mansion had received any money.

Wei Guangde was helpless about this, and he didn't know whether Yin Shizhen said anything about it when he went back. Anyway, when he had nothing to do at this time, he was either drinking and chatting with people from the Hanlin Academy or eating and drinking with his classmates. Pretty happy and happy.

"I got the news. After watching the government, I will go to Zhejiang."

At the wine table, Zeng Shengwu said a little disappointedly that his ranking in the palace examination this time was not very good, but it was decent, ranked 69th in the top three, but maybe he had points deducted in the imperial examination, and now I heard that he might be released.

"Zhejiang?"

Wei Guangde frowned slightly and said, "Brother Sansheng, do you know where it is in Zhejiang?"

"Maybe it's a county magistrate, I don't know where exactly."

Zeng Shengwu shook his head and said.

"Although there are Japanese pirates in Zhejiang, they still need capable officials to serve. Maybe Brother Sansheng's talents are favored by the adults above."

Wei Guangde could only comfort him by saying that Zeng Xingwu and Lao Kan were sent to the Ministry of Punishment to observe government affairs. Today he and Lao Kan came back to have a drink with Wei Guangde, so he might also know about this bad thing.

"I heard from the Ministry of War who were watching the government in the same year that the Xuanfu sent an early warning and the Mongolian Tatars appeared in the outer areas of the Xuanfu again, but no trace of the enemy was found in Datong. They were worried that the Tatars would be like what they did a few years ago. Raid the capital."

At this time, Wei Guangde heard Zhang Ke suddenly say, wanting to open up the topic so that Zeng Xingwu would not still be immersed in depression.

"I've also heard people say that the Tatars have often harassed the border wall in the past two years. With the lessons learned in the 29th year of Jiajing, every time a Tatar army appears, the border town must give an early warning to the capital. In fact, it doesn't need to be too much. Take it to heart.”

Lao Kan interjected and said, after all, the yamen were all concentrated. Although they were divided into six departments and other government yamen in the same year to observe the government, they still met frequently, chatted casually, and passed on some news they had heard.

While Wei Guangde and Zeng Xingwu were drinking wine, Prince Yu Zhu Zaijing also summoned the officials of his palace to drink wine in a hall in the back garden of Prince Yu's palace.

At this time, King Yu was naturally in a low mood. It had been two months since he had received the salary that the prince should have, and the palace was about to run out of food.

Don't ask why they still have money to drink when they have no money to eat. What they drink is royal wine, which is paid tribute to the palace and rewarded by various places. Naturally, they don't go to the household department, otherwise they may have to drink tea instead of wine.

It was quite aggrieved for the prince to do what he did.

At this moment, Zhu Zaijing drank one glass after another of wine. Fortunately, the alcohol content was not high. After drinking a lot of wine, he was not drunk and was still awake.

Just when he drank all the wine in the glass and couldn't wait for the eunuch waiting on the side to come up and pour the wine, he picked up the wine jug to fill it for himself, but the hand on the wine jug was pressed down by someone.

"My lord, please take care of yourself."

Gao Gong, who was sitting under King Yu, stopped King Yu who was about to get drunk and reminded him in a low voice.

"Master Gao, tell me, what are you doing to take care of yourself? Prince Gu is so aggrieved. Today you and Master Yin went to the Ministry of Finance again. I know what those villains are like even if you don't tell me. They are all laughing at Gu. , They are all laughing at me."

Below, Chen Yiqin and Yin Shizhen lowered their heads helplessly. Now Prince Yu's Mansion is really about to become a joke in the official circles of the capital.

Although most of the officials were oriented towards Prince Yu's Mansion, it did not affect their mood of watching the excitement.

The current situation is very clear. There are big figures above who want to show Prince Yu's face, but Prince Yu has nothing to do about it.

As for who made the words to embarrass King Yu, some blamed Yan Song and others blamed King Chuan Jing. Some even suspected that it was the man from Xiyuan who gave the order.

There are many rumors, but most of them are just smoke and mirrors, and you can't see the connection between them.

Relatively speaking, most people believe that Emperor Jiajing did it deliberately. Even those who didn't believe it at the beginning have already believed it to some extent by this time.

After all, the city was already in turmoil. Emperor Jiajing couldn't possibly not know about it, but he still didn't say anything, which is evident from this.

As for the matter of redressing the injustice for King Yu, only low-level officials would discuss it privately. For the dignitaries in high positions, they have never seen anything before, and they are nowhere to be seen now.

When we arrived at their location, we had more issues to consider.

They don't care who is behind it, they only care about the impact on the government and their own interests.

They have long been tempered in the officialdom and have lost their belief in forging ahead and eliminating violence. In their eyes, they only have interests, their own interests.

"Prince Yu, you have lost your composure."

Gao Gong did not lower his head like Yin Shizhen and Chen Yiqin, but still looked at Yuwang Zhu Zaijing with his head held high, his face still high in fighting spirit.

After saying this, he waved to the eunuchs behind King Yu to ask them to leave.

After everyone else had left, Gao Gongcai said to King Yu: "Heaven has given a great responsibility to this person, and he must first work hard on his will and muscles. How can King Yu lose his fighting spirit because of this? What is yours is yours. No one can take it away."

"But...it's hard to be alone."

At this time, King Yu still lamented that he and his mother had never been liked by Emperor Jiajing. In the future, when the second brother was around, he would still care about him. Unfortunately, the second brother still died before he was about to grow up.

I originally thought that I would be canonized as a prince, but after waiting for several years, I was still not liked by my father, who even refused to see him.

The mother-in-law of Emperor Yu, Zhu Zaijing, was Concubine Du Kang. She was just one of the seventy or eighty concubines in Emperor Jiajing's harem. Who could she be among them?

Although she gave birth to Prince Yu early, Concubine Du Kang still did not regard mother as superior to son because of this, and he was still not favored by Emperor Jiajing.

Although Emperor Jiajing no longer expressed any thoughts of establishing another crown prince after Prince Zhuang Jing, in Gao Gong's view, Prince Yu was the perfect candidate for crown prince. He was not the only one who had such thoughts. According to him, I know that most of the court officials have the same mentality. It is an ancestral system to establish an elder without direct descendants and cannot be changed without authorization, otherwise the consequences will be serious.

Even if King Jing is really a wise candidate for the throne, he cannot inherit the throne, otherwise it will cause turmoil in the court at best, and cause Xiao Qiang at worst.

So even today, Gao Gong still does not change his original intention. He does not believe that Emperor Jiajing will not see through this relationship and insist on going his own way.

Just looking at the tear-filled eyes of King Yu who was slightly drunk at this time, Gao Gong didn't know how to comfort him for a moment, but secretly swore in his heart that he must protect the prince.

Yes, even if Emperor Jiajing didn't say anything, since he was sent to Prince Yu's Mansion, it was the task given to him by Emperor Jiajing to fight for Prince Yu's things that should belong to him, and he had to work hard to complete it.

It's just that at this moment, he can't find a way to solve the situation, and it's useless no matter what he says.

The flower hall fell into silence, and everyone was silent.

There are some things that cannot be handled with confidence, just like the predicament they are encountering now. For the people of Prince Yu's Mansion who have no power in the court, they can only stare blankly.

"Master Gao, why don't you talk to Master Xu?"

At this time, Chen Yiqin spoke to Gao Gong.

In response, Gao Gong shook his head, "It doesn't matter what he said. Even if I went to see the Chief Assistant, he said he never ordered this matter and he didn't dare to ask."

Gao Gong was not as resolute and hateful as the people of later generations thought. At this time, Gao Gong was gentle and easy to talk to. In the court, he not only made friends with officials who were close to King Yu, but also even those who had clearly stood up to King Jing. He was also willing to make friends with the Yan family on the king's side, and was even a guest at Yan Shifan's banquet.

Well, whether he is recruiting talents for King Yu or for himself, this is what Gao Gong is doing now. He is at ease in the court and has both sides.

However, at this time, he still had no way to decipher the malicious intent that came from unknown sources.

"If Yan Song hadn't been behind this, who would have done such a thing, King Jing? He can influence the court and the household department, does he dare?"

At this time, Yin Shizhen said loudly.

"Be careful what you say when you say things that are unfounded."

Gao Gong glanced at him and glared at him fiercely.

What's the use of Yin Shizhen saying this at this time? King Yu couldn't think of it at first, but you still say that, isn't this adding more trouble?

Yin Shizhen also trembled under the high-arched eyes, and then shut up.

At this time, when everyone was helpless, Yin Shizhen couldn't help but think of the method Wei Guangde proposed at the restaurant half a month ago.

Yes, after Wei Guangde proposed to bribe Yan Shifan, Yin Shizhen returned to Prince Yu's Mansion and did not tell anyone else about it.

What kind of thing is it for a dignified prince to bribe a sycophant just to get what should belong to him?

Even though he already felt that Wei Guangde was not the person sent by Yan Shifan to ask for a bribe from him, after all, there were many people around Yan Shifan who could be used. There was no need to find such an insignificant pawn and use such a "chance encounter" method to convey the message.

He still doesn't think the problem can be solved in this way, and it will do too much harm to Prince Yu and Prince Yu's palace. How will the foreign ministers view His Highness Prince Yu in the future?

Such a serious mistake must not be made by royal officials like them. They must protect the face of His Royal Highness Prince Yu.

Yin Shizhen fell into a state of thinking at this time, and he still hoped to find a better way to break the situation.

But can he still think of a good way?

It has been more than two years since the incident happened. During this long time, they have not thought of any way to solve it. Instead, the incident has continued to ferment and has almost become a big joke throughout the city.

As Prince Yu said, he has now become a laughing stock in the mouths of others. Even those who love Prince Yu's palace, before reaching that step, anything is possible. Although they support him in their hearts, they will not show it in the slightest.

Even though he, Gao Gong, Chen Yiqin and others worked hard for this matter, contacted fellow villagers and spoke for King Yu in the same year, and put pressure on the Ministry of Revenue, it was still to no avail.

"Is this really the case?"

Unable to think of a way, Yin Shizhen was already a little discouraged and muttered inadvertently.

"What did you say?"

Yin Shizhen's words were so soft that even Chen Yiqin, who was sitting next to him, didn't hear him clearly. He only knew what he said, so he asked.

"ah?"

Being a little embarrassed by Chen Yiqin's question, Yin Shizhen wanted to deny it at first, then shook his head, but was there any other way?

The conversation between the two also attracted Gao Gong's attention. He looked over and wanted to know what they were talking about.

"Zhengfu, what can you do? You might as well just say it, good or bad."

Gao Gong opened his mouth and said to Yin Shizhen.

"this"

Yin Shizhen was in a bit of a dilemma at this time. King Yu was still here. It seemed a bit inappropriate to talk about this matter at this time.

King Yu's attention was also attracted by their conversation at this time, and he looked up at him.

"Your Highness, Mr. Gao, someone once mentioned a method to me before, but I think it's very inappropriate, so..."