In the tenth year of Tianwu, in the beginning of spring, Zhu Cihong personally led hundreds of civil and military officials to take advantage of the field ceremony to the first agricultural altar outside the Zhengyang Gate.

Sacrificing the first farmer is a kind of ritual system in feudal society, and the emperors of the past dynasties have to perform the cultivation ceremony every year, and personally sacrifice the first agricultural altar to show that they attach importance to the development of agriculture.

Around the temple of the first agricultural altar is a piece of cultivated land, there are 1,700 acres of land, of which 200 acres are for the altar households to grow grains and vegetables for the needs of sacrifice.

As soon as the morning dawned, the solemn and solemn Xiannong Altar suddenly became lively, and tens of thousands of people, including the emperor, the prince, the hundred officials, the peasant households, and the forbidden army, stopped on the road next to the cultivated land, and it was a familiar scene of a big leader inspecting.

It was not the first time Zhu Cihong had done this kind of thing, he skillfully led the ox to the ground, put on the plow, and motioned to Prince Zhu and His Majesty to come over to watch the ceremony.

Everything was ready, only to hear the shouts of the celebrant and eunuch: "Your Majesty ploughs pro-ploughing!" ”

In the silence of the audience, Zhang Guowei, the head of the household department, said some nice words loudly, and Yin Xia Yunyi of Tianfu Mansion presented a bullwhip.

Zhu Cihong rolled up his sleeves, took the bullwhip and waved, and began to drive the ox to plow the ground.

In the past, the emperor ploughed the plough himself, and needed to be equipped with two old petunias and two farmers to support the plow.

This time it was different, Zhu Cihong changed the usual routine and let the crown prince Zhu and His Majesty morning glory, and the second prince Zhu and the plow.

This cow is very fat, at first glance it is specially prepared by the Ministry of Rites, it runs forward hard, the coulter passes, the gray soil is like a rolling wave extending forward, Zhu Cihong almost didn't catch up, the prince and the second prince are also trotting all the way.

Later, Yin Xia Yunyi of Yingtianfu Mansion was holding a green box, and the household servant was responsible for sowing seeds (Zhang Guowei, the head of the household department, was old, and he couldn't sow anymore), and a piece of monarchs and ministers worked together.

In the sound of drums and songs, under the guidance and escort of the Ministry of Rites, Taichang Temple, and the Imperial Forest Army, Zhu Cihong drove the ploughing cattle back and forth three times and completed the "three pushes and three returns" pro-ploughing ceremony.

In the past, the emperor's personal cultivation was just a ceremony, and many of them were just passing the scene.

Because many emperors don't know how to plough the land, they have to go to the cultivated land in front of Fengze Garden in Xiyuan (now Zhongnanhai) to practice before ploughing, so as not to be rusty and laugh when ploughing.

Zhu Cihong was different, he went directly on the road without drills, held the plough himself, and ploughed an acre of land in one go, just like a real farmer.

He stopped from time to time to check, and instructed the Tobe waiter behind him not to intervene crookedly, and the Tobe waiter was so nervous that he was sweating profusely.

At the end, not only were the two ministers who accompanied the cultivators tired, but the crown prince and the second prince squatted directly on the ground panting.

"Long live Your Majesty!"

"Hooray! Hooray! ”

In the midst of the chaos, Zhu Cihong walked to the prince's side with a calm face and scolded: "Stand up! ”

Zhu Hema and Zhu Heqi were startled, got up quickly, and stood aside with a cower.

The surrounding civil and military ministers were silent, and even the farmers who were chanting long live found themselves unusually silent.

Zhu Cihong looked at the uneasy prince and reprimanded: "As the prince of the Ming Dynasty, as an example for all the people in the world, what do you have to be tired of?" ”

He pointed to the second prince Zhu Heqi and said: "Look at where you are sitting, below is the potato that has just been planted, can you still grow it if you destroy him!" ”

"What is Social Affairs? Land and grain together are the country, and to waste food is to blaspheme the sacred! ”

The crown prince and the prince Mao Xiang stood aside, and was just about to persuade each other, saying a few words about the prince's youth, and swallowed it back alive.

Zhu Cihong continued to scold: "The people take food as the sky, if there is no food, the people are hungry, and they will cut off the emperor's head as a rice bowl!" Do you want my head to be cut? Want your own head to be cut? ”

The crown prince shrunk his neck and said weakly: "Father...... The emperor was wrong. ”

"Tell me, what's wrong?"

The prince said: "The emperor has just trampled on the society, which is not done by the king, as a king, he should take the people as his ......."

Zhu Cihong nodded slightly, quite satisfied with the prince's answer, he then looked at the second prince Zhu Heqi and scolded: "What about you? ”

Zhu Heyuan raised his little head and said: "The emperor knows his mistake, and he is willing to learn from Cao Cao to cut his hair and act as the head to thank the world!" ”

The children's consciousness is very high, Zhu Cihong is very satisfied in his heart, but he still has a straight face, and said: "The body is skinny, and the parents who accept it, you are not worthy of making your own decisions, so stay aside!" ”

"Yes!"

The crown prince and the second prince answered, and ran to the road in a gray manner.

After educating the two little cubs, Zhu Cihong regained his calm demeanor, but the eyes of several old ministers behind him were covered with tears, and they were moved one by one.

It seems that the next Ming Emperor should also be a good emperor who loves the people like a son!

After ploughing, Zhu Cihong hurried back to the palace again and started a new busy.

Looking at the transcripts, when he saw the transcripts from Shaanxi Governor Zhang Tongchang, he couldn't help frowning.

This is Zhang Tongchang's resignation, and it is also the ninth resignation letter handed in this year.

Zhang Tongchang is the great-grandson of Zhang Juzheng, and he is also loyal, and he had excellent political achievements when he served as the governor of Sichuan, and Zhu Cihong didn't understand what he wanted to do when he blindly resigned.

Zhang Tongchang wrote a lot of reasons in the notebook, such as people who are too old to do anything, and for example, last year's flood in Shaanxi, which caused the Wei River to burst its embankment, resulting in tens of thousands of victims, and now he is to take the blame and resign.

Zhu Cihong obviously did not believe these nonsense, according to the information he received, during the flood in Shaanxi last year, Zhang Tongchang personally led people to the embankment to fill in the river, and according to his physical fitness, there was no problem in working for another five or six years.

Fourteen years after Chongzhen, the natural disasters that plagued the Ming Dynasty for many years changed, and the originally arid rainfall in the north increased, turning into a flood in the north and drought in the south.

In recent years, there have been floods in Beizhili, Shandong and other places.

The Wei River, the largest tributary of the Yellow River, has irrigated the fertile land of the Qinchuan River for 800 miles for thousands of years.

In late July last year, heavy rain occurred in the western part of Guanzhong that lasted for half a month, and the amount of precipitation was five or six times that of normal years.

According to Zhang Tongchang's report, the torrential rain and floods brought great disasters to the banks of the Wei River, which runs through the 800-mile Qinchuan River, flooding 300,000 mu of land, flooding 1 million mu of farmland, collapsing 200,000 houses, drowning 500,000 livestock and poultry, and rotting and deteriorating newly planted crops of corn, potatoes, cotton, and other autumn crops.

Fortunately, Shaanxi was governed like an iron bucket by the former governor Sun Chuanting, and the officials performed their duties, and there were few casualties among the people.

Under the leadership of Zhang Tongchang, the governor of Shaanxi, officials from various prefectures actively responded to the disaster, including one county magistrate and two county officials who died heroically in the flood fight.

At present, the disaster relief work in Shaanxi has ended at the end of last year, and the imperial court has not blamed Zhang Tongchang, why did he suddenly resign?

According to his political sense for many years, Zhu Cihong always felt that something was wrong, because a few years ago, he also received resignation letters from several prefects in Shaanxi.

At this moment, Zhu Cihong came up with the idea of inspecting the northwest.

In the Chongzhen Dynasty, Shaanxi suffered disasters all the year round, and basically did not have a good year, which also created the conditions for Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong and other thieves to sweep through Shaanxi.

Zhu Cihong had already planned to go to Shaanxi to see in person, but he had no chance because of his work, and this time he decided to go out for a walk and inspect the spring ploughing along the way.