The news of Annan's victory in quelling the rebellion was sent to Beijing by fast horse, but the monarchs and ministers of the court were not happy at this time. Because just a few days ago, there was an unprecedented earthquake in Kyoto, followed by several aftershocks.

According to the Zhang Heng geodynamic instrument recorded and copied by the classics, Qin Tianjian failed to predict the earthquake at all. After the earthquake in Kyoto, a large number of houses collapsed, and the city was in panic and chaos, and countless people died without knowing it. The capital of the Ming Dynasty, which was becoming more and more peaceful, suddenly suffered a heavy blow.

At the suggestion of his ministers, Zhu Gaoxu was forced to publicly admit that he had recently neglected rituals and sacrifices, and promised to follow the rules, fear God, be strict with officials, and eliminate maladministration, etc., in order to appease God's anger.

Although Zhu Gaoxu has a clear conscience, he feels that he has done his best to be the emperor, but he has no way and cannot change the concept of the world at once. The logical relationship is that God is closely related to the emperors of the world, and when a disaster occurs, God is punishing the immorality of the world. That is to say, heaven grants the monarch's power, so the human monarch must be responsible to heaven.

After Zhu Gaoxu assumed unwarranted responsibility, he decided to win back the hearts of the people in Beijing in a more practical way.

Many armies appeared in the castle, carrying shovels, hoes, and other tools, and soldiers rushed to the hardest-hit areas in droves. Zhu Gaoxu ordered them to do their best to dig out the living people from under the rubble.

Only emperors like Taizu Taizong and Zhu Gaoxu, who had enough prestige in the army, dared to do this without any scruples. Otherwise, natural disasters may be followed by man-made disasters.

At the same time, military tents and warm fabrics were sent to various parts of the city and distributed to the displaced people. The ships of the Chaohu Navy Division brought a large amount of grain from the Taicang warehouse east of the Beijing Division, and set up porridge shops in the city to provide free meals for the people.

According to Zhu Gaoxu's own concept, the earthquake was only caused by geological activities, and neither man nor God had no way to avoid it. The only thing to be thankful for in this earthquake is time, the disaster occurred in winter, much better than summer. Otherwise, the summer weather is hot and rainy, and the drainage facilities in the city are damaged, coupled with the dense population, it is easy to cause a plague epidemic.

In natural and man-made disasters, the most unfortunate people are always the poor and poor people who have difficulty in making ends meet. For example, the area south of Sanshan Street in the inner city is densely populated, with simple houses, crowded and narrow streets, and a large number of people live in very small places; This time those people were destroyed. It turned out that Zhu Gaoxu felt that it was like an urban village, and it was also the place where Qi Taike, the secretary of the military department, rented it when he was taking the exam.

Zhu Gaoxu came here with his guards, and he immediately saw the scene that he couldn't bear to look at. Almost all the houses had collapsed, and the remaining ruins looked as if they had been hit by an air raid, leaving the entire area in ruins.

What hasn't changed for twenty or thirty years has ceased to exist overnight.

The surviving people lived in tents provided by the camp and wailed. Many Ming soldiers are still digging in the ruins, and there is dust everywhere. However, most of the exhumations were corpses, and there were not many living people left.

When Zhu Gaoxu arrived, the nearby officials, soldiers, and servants knelt on the ground one after another, and some people also bowed down when they saw this. Only a little girl sat on the ground, crying at the corpses that lay there.

"Flat, it's all exempt." Zhu Gaoxu waved his hand, he jumped off the horse, walked to the little girl covered in mud, and picked her up. He turned his head to see

Qi Tai, the secretary of the Ministry of War, said: "Call the officials of Shangyuan County to check the family, register their names, and find their close relatives, so as to handle the funeral affairs of the victims and raise this child." ”

Qi Tai clenched his fists and said, "The minister's order." ”

Zhu Gaoxu handed the child over, and then left the place, continuing to look at the surrounding situation.

After a while, he couldn't help but turn his head again and glance at the family on the ground. Duan Xuehat, the concubine beside her, accompanied her with a sword, and she also followed Zhu Gaoxu's gaze.

Zhu Gaoxu couldn't help but say in a deep voice: "If there is indeed a spirit in the sky, it will be too cruel to the world." ”

Duan Xue looked at Zhu Gaoxu silently and did not respond.

The group did not enter the ruins area, but only watched from a nearby road. After a while, there was a sound of horses' hooves behind him, and Ru Yu, the secretary of the Ministry of Works, also came on horseback.

After the meeting of the monarch and the minister, Ru Yu reported what he had seen and heard in other places.

Ru Yu said on the street: "The minister thinks that the Jingshi is rich in goods, and the first thing for the imperial court is not to open a warehouse for disaster relief; Rather, they repaired the ruined aqueducts in the ground, and the drains in various places. The government should also be urged to set up temporary latrines and order the servants who transport the sewage to return to duty. The hospital should sell low-cost drugs to prevent the outbreak of epidemics. ”

After hearing this, Zhu Gaoxu praised Ru Yu, and said on the spot: "I now order Ru Butang to be fully responsible for the repair of facilities in the city, and do a good job of the above suggestions. ”

He then turned back to the eunuch Wang Gui and said, "You go to see Xia Yuanji, and pass on my meaning, so that Xia Yuanji should be treated generously by Ru Yu in the allocation of money and grain." ”

Ru Yu and Wang Gui bowed together: "Obey the order." ”

Zhu Gaoxu personally inspected the city for a long time, and at noon, he led the crowd back to the palace for lunch.

In the imperial city, there are also some palaces that were damaged in the earthquake, but fortunately, there are many houses in the imperial city, and the problem is not big. The largest building in the imperial city, the Fengtian Temple, was damaged again, and this hall always seemed to be poorly repaired; The Fengtian Temple was burned down once in the fourth year of Jianwen, and it was just a few years after it was repaired, and now the roof has been shattered.

Fortunately, Zhu Gaoxu was not active in Fengtian Palace, he came to the Rouyi Palace, and let Duan Xuehe accompany him to lunch, so he stayed here and began to look through the recent recitals.

A copy of Xie Jin's recital was placed in front of Zhu Gaoxu. Zhu Gaoxu looked at it, and his face gradually showed anger.

Wang Gui, the eunuch who was standing on the side, cautiously reminded: "The emperor is angry, this recital is not the title book of the Hanlin Academy, but the one written by Xie Jin himself. If he talks nonsense, the emperor just throws it away, don't worry about him. ”

Zhu Gaoxu ignored it and continued to open the entire article folded and read it carefully.

Xie Jin's remarks have always lacked a bit of proportion, and this time is no exception. He bluntly said in his notebook that the recent earthquake was caused by the court's reckless military force, disobedience to the ancestral system, and arbitrary and reckless behavior, which caused the wrath of heaven; And exhort the emperor to reform himself as soon as possible!

Originally, Zhu Gaoxu felt that the "earthquake and heavenly anger" was empty, and he was very innocent when he was scolded because of this, so it was good to relieve Jin, and took the opportunity to kick his nose and face and scold Zhu Gaoxu bitterly. Zhu Gaoxu was of course angry when he saw it.

Wang Gui suggested throwing away the concerto, that is, to leave it in the middle and not send it.

This kind of personal remarks can indeed be thrown into the latrine! Because according to the administrative system of the imperial court, the inscriptions of the various yamen that have passed through the general government envoys must first be kept in duplicate and transcribed, and then sent to the imperial palace, and that kind of recital cannot prevent it from being made public; The transcript of Xie Jin's private remarks was directly submitted to the palace, and the palace decided on the handling method first, and no one knew even if it was thrown away.

But Zhu Gaoxu was annoyed, but he did not faint. He quickly realized that Xie Jin's remarks were not completely out of proportion.

Although Xie Jin is particularly bold, the article is also written presumptuously; But why didn't Xie Jin say that the reason for Tianfu's anger was that Zhu Gaoxu's private life was chaotic, or that he was suspected of killing his own brother? And just say that they are reckless and do not abide by the ancestral system?

Zhu Gaoxu took a deep breath and said to Wang Gui: "Xie Jin's performance is not just his personal opinion. ”

Wang Gui said in a deep voice: "The emperor's intentions, is there anyone in the court who is willing to form a party with Xie Jin?" ”

Zhu Gaoxu shook his head: "You don't have to form a party for personal gain, people will have the same political views. ”

After saying that, after pondering for a while the two propositions put forward by Xie Jin, it is easy to guess: the so-called reckless military force is almost a matter that most civil servants are not very satisfied with; The imperial court pays attention to military expansion, which will inevitably tilt resources, and will continue to improve the voice and status of military generals in the court.

Not abiding by the ancestral system is also a reason for some ministers to resist. For example, the addition of some new yamen, and the decree on military salaries and pensions, all increased the expenditure of the state treasury very much, and at least the people in the household department were not very satisfied. Zhu Gaoxu's unusual concept of governance may also give the ministers an uncertain sense of strangeness.

A while ago, Zhu Gaoxu did all kinds of things very smoothly, after all, the imperial power is the highest power, and no one strongly objected. But it is only now that the undesirable side effects slowly appeared.

The world's inefficiency is low, there is a lag period for many things, and officials will wait for opportunities. The recent earthquake finally gave them a reason to persuade the emperor to "get lost".

"Take it to the Cabinet for processing." Zhu Gaoxu pondered for a while, and suddenly spoke. He then grabbed a stack of pieces and put them on it, and said to Wang Gui, "These are all sent to Wuying Palace." ”

Wang Gui was stunned for a moment, and hurriedly replied: "The slave and maid obey the order, and this will be sent over for the emperor." ”

During the period of Taizu Taizong, the cabinet was only an advisory body for some civil officials to advise the emperor and check and fill in the gaps; In particular, Taizu did not trust the bureaucrats at all, he laid out all the rules with his own hands, and took the decision-making power into his own hands. However, the current cabinet has a certain amount of real power.

At present, the cabinet is still different from the power abolished by Taizu, and the cabinet plus the treasure department is a decision-making body; Moreover, the emperor's decision-making is greater than the power of the second government of the "Wuying Palace". Therefore, the pattern of the imperial court at this time, the degree of centralization of power, still far exceeded the pattern of "internal and external compatibility" and "separation of power between monarchs" in the Han and Tang dynasties.

The cabinet and the treasure office are only responsible to the emperor in name, and they are probably also very hot when they get this chapter of scolding the emperor. However, as soon as the concert is sent to the cabinet and many people participate, it will inevitably be made public.

Zhu Gaoxu said in his heart: It can't be blocked, at least not in me, and the contradictions should be transferred and differentiated; It's a game that I shouldn't face alone.

.。 Writing Chinese Network M.