[Note: Zhu Yijun's age was written incorrectly in the front, and it has been revised]

Wang Xingping didn't expect that the first news that Zhang Magpie brought him was the death of the emperor, and the fact was just as he said, the cabinet ministers who entered the palace late at night did not slow down the pace of Zhu Yijun's departure, and the emperor of the Ming Dynasty finally failed to wait for his fifty-seventh longevity festival.

On July 21, the 48th year of Wanli (1620 in the Western calendar), on August 18, 3691 in the holy calendar of the Third Empire of the Great Song Dynasty, the supreme ruler of the Ming Empire, who was only 56 years old, stopped breathing after suffering from years of illness.

Although the Ministry of Rites did not ring the bell and announce the drums, the entire capital was still infected with a solemn atmosphere after the funeral the next day.

Zhu Changluo went to Fengxian Hall as the crown prince to pay tribute to Emperor Bintian, and then all the regulations of the empire were laid out under the control of the Ministry of Rites.

All the civil and military officials in Beijing who were of good grade changed into white cloth collars, black horn belts and soap boots, and went to Sishan Gate to cry one after another, and then rested at their respective yamen.

For seven days starting from the 24th, the officials in Beijing had to wear their own clothes (note: the chopping is the heaviest mourning dress in the 'five clothes', made of the thickest raw linen, and the broken parts are exposed and not edged, indicating that they are not decorated to mourn), and they still have to cry outside the Sishan Gate every day. Obviously, there are also people who respond to the story, so the Ministry of Rites deliberately stipulates the number of times to raise lamentations in accordance with the imperial court etiquette, and you need to cry out loud fifteen times a day before counting.

It was also on the 24th that the palaces and temples inside and outside the capital began to ring the bell of prayer, and it was necessary to ring enough 30,000 pestles.

As early as two days ago, Wang Xingping had changed into a plain hemp pair of shoes that he had just purchased, and wrapped a headscarf with a white cloth. As a new Guozi prisoner in the capital, he never thought that he would complete the registration with such an image.

Like the official mourning, all the people who were elected in Beijing, the Jinshi, and the Guozi prisoners also had to go to the Shuntianfu Dynasty to cry, but they were not as strict as the Ministry of Rites required officials to be, and as long as they did not make obvious inappropriate moves, no one would bother with this idle matter.

As for the other officials and monks, Taoist Fangxiang, military and civilian people, etc., although the imperial court did not have strict requirements, but whether they were sincere or dressed up to go to the yamen to cry for the emperor is not a few, it is not yet the winter season, the entire capital is already vast white, according to the etiquette system, these people also have to wear plain clothes for 13 days.

Fortunately, the emperor's longevity palace has already been completed, and this situation only needs to last until the twenty-seventh day is full, and with the news of the funeral in various places, the entire Ming Dynasty will also fall into a sad mood.

On the 25th day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, the civil and military officials, the military and the people, the elderly, etc., were persuaded to enter, and they entered again the next day, and then entered again the next day. After the passing of the three resignations and three concessions, Qin Tianjian finally decided on the first day of the eighth month.

After three consecutive days of ceremonial drills, the crown prince finally officially ascended the throne at noon on the first day of the eighth month.

Early in the morning, the official only told the Temple of Heaven, the Temple, and the Sheji not to be expressed, and Zhu Changluo was in accordance with the ritual system to serve the Emperor Daxing and the Empress Xiaoyi a few times before the feast, and then put on the robe and crown on behalf of the imperial power and performed five bows and three bows, which was officially enthroned in the Wenhua Hall under the support of the civil and military ministers, and then the officials of the Honglu Temple and the Ministry of Rites held the edict from the noon gate to the Chengtian Gate to announce to the world, announcing that the Ming Empire finally had a new ruler.

The new emperor did three major things immediately after he ascended the throne.

The first is to abolish the mining tax, although the tax supervision sent by Zhu Yijun to various Guanqu mines in the last years of Wanli has been restricted, but it has not really been abolished. I am afraid that this matter is also the last edict of Emperor Daxing, which is to buy good ministers and give some internal officials who are loyal to the royal family a way out. The issuance of the edict was naturally jubilant for the government and the opposition, but in Wang Xingping's opinion, this was not a good idea.

In the past, although the mine supervisor and tax supervisor used the power in his hands to exploit the locality, he finally collected real money for the emperor, so the internal money was not only in deficit. Even though most of the tax money is probably in the pockets of the eunuchs, it has always accumulated a lot for the inner treasury, so wouldn't the civil officials take the opportunity to gather if they were presiding over it? It may be true that some people are motivated by public intentions, but more often than not, they are just trying to block people's money and money, such as killing their parents, and there are not a few people who know that there are not a few people who have the idea of vacancy after these tax supervisors retire.

Zhu Yijun may indeed not like Zhu Changluo, the eldest son of the emperor who came unexpectedly, but when he is dying, he always has to think about his ancestor Sheji, maybe in his opinion, this kind of imperial mental trick can help his son to quickly get the empire back on track, and he has been fighting with the ministers for half his life, and in the end he still doesn't want his descendants to be the same as himself.

The second is to pay Liaodong, the emperor only promised to add another 300,000 taels of silver to Liaodong before the big trip, and as soon as the emperor died, Zhu Changluo waved his pen and promised to send two million taels of silver to the front line in Liaodong, and there were two conditions, one is to specially allocate 5,000 taels of freight along the way, and then there is to ask all departments not to enter the warehouse without authorization and divert it for other use, and the silver will be issued as soon as it arrives at the front line. The news of this news will undoubtedly greatly boost the morale of the troops on the front line.

Of course, this is also a disdainful thing in Wang Xingping's opinion, two million taels of silver is not a decimal number, if the Heavenly Family can be so generous before, how can there be erosion in the back. Now that it has become such a situation, I still have to find a reason for the new emperor to ascend the throne, and I don't know if it was Zhu Changluo's reasoning or Zhu Yijun's deliberate arrangement before his death.

But in Wang Xingping's opinion, if he was a front-line sergeant, he might not have much thought of using his life when he saw such news, but would only have the idea of getting by, and after taking the silver, he would shout a few long live, and then what should he do is still the same. What's more, Wang Xingping didn't believe that with the strict orders of the new emperor alone, those magistrates would not dare to start from the middle, and just a civil and military discord would allow many people to take advantage of the loopholes.

The third thing is to make up for the backlog of official appointments over the years as soon as possible, especially the officials in the center and Liaodong, who have added a lot on the basis of the previous ones, anyway, it seems that all the things that can be used have been approved under the advice of the courtiers to supplement the cabinet's proposal, and in a few days, the government seems to have improved, of course, it just seems that all kinds of political affairs seem to be lively, but there are not many measures that can actually be used.

Clear-eyed people like Wang Xingping naturally think that it is better to wade in muddy waters, otherwise it will not be beautiful if you are accidentally recommended by a master to go to Liaodong.

During the funeral, the officials were a lot more idle, and Tian Shengjin took time to meet Wang Xingping.

The two of them met in plain clothes in this autumn courtyard, and Wang Xingping also specially brought a box of moon cakes brought by Wantong, which made him more compatible with the crowd of people who came to give gifts during the Mid-Autumn Festival on the streets of Beijing.

"When does Tiancheng plan to leave?"

Tian Shengjin rubbed his hands and asked with a smile. He is now serving as Shaoqing in the Taifu Temple, and he is a colleague with Wang Zunde. Wang Xingping came to Beijing, in addition to Xu Guangqi, he naturally had to pay a visit to him, and today he happened to talk about leading the new military camp south to suppress bandits, so there were some arrangements that needed Tian Shengjin's help.

"Originally, it was not appropriate to use troops during the national mourning, but now it is an eventful time, and Xingping only has expediency."

"Can you be sure of this crackdown?"

"Where can we talk about the danger of the soldiers, but it is just to achieve the strength of the soldiers, and presumably some ringing horses will not be able to make much waves."

In fact, how can he be so big, he has already carefully touched the nearly 100-mile section between Renqiu and Xiongxian through Fu Xiaofei earlier, with Baiyangdian and Wuguandian as the center, the total number of ringing horses gathered in the middle is three or four thousand, the largest of which is the group of Guotianfeng, it is said that the total number is nearly 1,000, and the owner of the nest behind it is the Li family of Yanzhou, one of the eight surnames of Renqiu, and the opponent of the Li family has also been contacted.

"What a strong soldier, Tiancheng is going to learn from Tang Taizong."

"Mr. said with a smile, I want Mr. Ruiyang (note: Tian Shengzhi) to help me fight the bandits."

"Third brother, I should repair a book for your convenience." Tian Shengjin didn't see it either.

"Then thank you for your kindness." With that, he got up and saluted.

…………

Wang Xingping went out of the city and went south on the third day of the eighth month, when the entire Beijing division was still immersed in the huge contrast between the new emperor's accession to the throne and the Daxing Emperor Bintian, but he only explained a few words to Li Kezhuo and hurriedly went on the road.

He didn't say much to Master Li, but just said that when the East Palace suddenly ascended to the throne, it was inevitable that he would be tempted by someone with a heart, and he must be cautious about offering medicine, and don't do that thankless thing. Looking at the current situation, the civil officials are busy liquidating dissidents, many officials of the Wanli Dynasty who have been convicted of the words and mining taxes have been reactivated, and the old auxiliary leaves to Gao also have a call for recovery, with the help of Wang An, the Donglin Party people are very good in the inner court and the outer court for a while, so that most of the people who are busy redistributing power will not spend their minds on him, an old man who has no foundation, for the time being, let him relax his heart and not be too careful.

He naturally got Fu Xiaofei's reminder in his heart that the concubines in the harem would make some moves, especially the concubine Zheng who had the opportunity to become the crown prince, no matter whether the Zheng family was really vicious or just to tie up with the new emperor, but the risks must not be investigated, and he vaguely told his uncle what he thought, and the intelligence collection was handed over to Zhang Bingfang to worry about, and then he no longer cared about the affairs of the capital.

Two days later, the 300 new troops that had been reorganized had joined Wang Xingping outside Gu'an County.

After receiving the news sent by Wang Xingping in advance, the selected sergeants drove all the way along the Weihe River to the Triangle Lake under the leadership of Ding Yi, and then from there along the Lugou River to the northwest to Gu'an County.

Although Tian Sheng Zhitian also did not let Wang Xingping's team enter the city according to the usual practice, but with the previous friendship and the eldest brother's explanation, he should take care of it, especially the grain and grass supply county, and he was not stingy, Wang Xingping naturally knew about Entu Bao, and had privately promised that if he could make a contribution this time, he would definitely count it as a share of Master Tian.

It was day and night, Tian Shengzhi came to the camp outside the city again, and Wang Xingping thanked him.

"Yelangying went out to the sentinel near Juzhou City a few days ago, and the Tianfeng did have a lot to do with the Li family, and the place where they are now entrenched is the original Guzhou Ruined City (Guju County)." As soon as Fang entered the account, Wang Xingping talked about the situation ahead for Tian Shengzhi.

Juzhou was a state city in the first year, and later the Hongwu Northern Expedition had gathered a large army here, but then this city was abandoned and merged into Renqiu, and gradually became a nest of Xiangma over time.

After Tian Shengzhi entered the camp, he was secretly surprised by the layout of this camp, and when he heard Wang Xingping say it, he couldn't help but be curious, "How did you outsiders find out?" ”

"It's the news from Ren Qiubian's family." Wang Xingping did not intend to hide it.

"Oh? Do the two of them have a grudge on weekdays? ”

"It's all a recent vendetta."

Now Wang Xingping can be regarded as having confessed to Tian Shengzhi, so he can be confident, that is, the Bian family, who is also one of the eight surnames of Ren Qiu, has recently found him.

The Bian family recently opened a new cloth shop in Renqiu County, and the goods are mainly from Tianjin's 'Luzon cloth', or 'Australian cloth', and the supply of the family is the Wantong Tianjin Branch, in which the Bian family has made a lot of profits.

The Li family's cloth shop in Renqiu City has been operating for a longer time, and they are the Songjiang cloth merchants in Renqiu all the year round, and the two naturally have a lot of discord.

This time, the Bian family tasted the sweetness and bought a large quantity from Fu Xiaofei, but the fleet of goods was robbed by Xiangma near Maoerdu just after Baoding. Under the investigation of the Bian family, they naturally already knew that the owner of the nest behind the ringing horse under the banner of the heavenly wind was undoubtedly the Li family, and naturally heard from the proprietor Fu that there were officials and soldiers who were coming to suppress the bandits, so they rushed up, it seemed that they not only wanted to borrow Wang Xingping's hand to get angry, but also wanted to give the Li family a good look.

Wang Xingping drank a cup of hot tea, and a person entered, "Su Yi came just in time, come and see Tian Daling." ”

The person who came was dressed as a scholar, and when he heard Wang Xingping's introduction, he hurriedly saluted Tian Shengzhi, "Student Bian Dashou has seen the county honor. ”

[References]

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4, "Wanli Ye Ed" Shen Defu

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6, "Chronicles of the Middle" Liu Ruoyu

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