Ying Tianfu. Taiping Fang.

It's nearly midnight, but Taipingfang, the oldest powerful community in Beijing, is still brightly lit. Bright street lamps illuminated the wizened old branches, forming a strange pattern of teeth and claws on the ground.

The Huang Mansion, which was close to the city wall, fell into a panic today because of the sudden vomiting of blood by the master of the house.

Huang Xuan, who just graduated from the Institute of Science and Technology this year, had a party with his classmates in the evening and drank a little wine. I couldn't take care of it for a while, so I started my family's car and drove towards the Royal Hospital outside Donghua Gate like a lightning speed.

Mother kept crying beside her, which made Huang Xuan a little irritable. But when he turned his head to look at his grandfather, who was lying on his grandmother's lap in the back seat, with gray hair and a thin body, his heart calmed down.

Once upon a time, this grandfather, who had always been like a mountain in his impression, turned out to be so weak.

The car stopped at the door of the emergency room, and before he got out of the car, Huang Xuan began to shout loudly: "Come on!" ”

The people who could drive the car were not ordinary people, and two doctors and two nurses quickly greeted them.

When they saw that it was Huang Yuan, who had resigned as speaker the year before last due to physical reasons, they immediately carried the person into the stretcher car as quickly as possible and sent him to the emergency room.

"Xuan'er, your father is not here, and your younger brothers and sisters are young, how can this be good?"

The old lady's eyes were retracted from the rescue room, she glanced at her daughter-in-law, and said dissatisfiedly: "What's the panic, your father is not dead yet." When you lose your breath, it's never too late for you to cry again. ”

Huang Xuan knew that his mother had been delicate and unassertive since she was a child, so he patted her mother's arm to show comfort. I came to my grandmother's side again and hugged my grandmother's body like when I was a child. "Grandma, grandpa will be fine."

Yun Niang squeezed out a smile, and then faded again. "Who has not died since ancient times? Your grandfather has worked hard all his life and has no regrets until he dies, he has been in poor health in recent years, and death may be a relief. ”

Huang Xuan's tears fell immediately, and he was angry and didn't want to pay attention to his grandmother, but he felt that it was wrong, so he wiped his tears and said loudly: "Grandpa won't die!" ”

Their movements also alarmed many patients and doctors in the hospital, and they heard acquaintances say that it was Princess Dongping and her family, and others did not dare to come and disturb.

At this time, an old man in a red robe walked over under the protection of the guards. After a distance, he asked, "Mrs. Sister-in-law, I saw your car enter the hospital just now, is it the Speaker's body ......?"

"Commander Lao has bothered your lordship, Qianjiu is an old problem. Hopefully he'll make it through this......"

When the crying Princess Dongping saw the old man, it was as if she had found the backbone. Wiping his tears, he shouted "uncle", and said in a rambling voice: "Shen Zhi was sent to the Ottomans by his father, and I don't know what a few small European countries are fighting for, so what else do you want me to send people to do." He himself got up again and said that he was going to Huangshan to see the snow, and when he was old, he couldn't stay in the capital every day. Now that the family is like this, Yuang and they are still young, and there is not even a person in charge of affairs in the family. ”

The old man said with a straight face: "What are you talking about, you are forty-three years old this year, and you are still like a child, it is better to ask for others than for yourself, you should support this family, instead of counting on others." ”

However, he obviously also knew that the Dongping princess in front of him had a weak personality, so he sighed and said: "Don't worry, the speaker's protégés are all over the world, and no one will care." ”

"Then can you send a telegram to your father and tell him about the family?"

"There is no telegraph line in Huangshan, but I will have people send a telegram to the ...... in Huizhou."

The old man didn't say the rest, but everyone understood. Although the emperor has been with the seriously ill Huang Yuan monarch and minister for nearly fifty years, he is a monarch after all, and he may not necessarily change his itinerary for Huang Yuan.

The old man glanced at Huang Xuan, whose eyes were red, and smelled the smell of wine on his body. "Yu Ang, you are not allowed to drink and drive in the future, if you let Your Majesty know, you will definitely be beaten again."

"As long as grandpa is fine, I am willing to play twenty boards."

Two brocade guards in flying fish suits came over and said in a low voice: "Lord Commander, it is suspected that the North Korean Xiaozuo has been caught, they resisted fiercely, and one of our people was injured." ”

The old man's face was angry, and he said, "Break one of their legs first, and then interrogate." ”

After the two brocade guards left, the old man hugged his fists and said to the old lady: "Sister-in-law, I won't stay longer if I am on official business." However, the speaker sent the guards last year, and I will leave two guards first, and I can also do the rough work for you. ”

The old lady whispered thank you, and did not refuse his kindness. Since Huang Yuan retired last year, he drove all the guards of the imperial court back, and now there are only a few people in the family who have been with him all his life, as well as the palace maids who married Princess Dongping, and there are few who can do things outside.

Seeing the old man leaving, Huang Xuan couldn't help but say, "My aunt is really majestic......

The old lady was afraid that he would think too much, so she shook her head and said, "You only see his majestic side, but you don't want to think about his life...... You have a soft personality, don't want to learn from him in this life. When your emperor comes back, let him arrange you to go to the research institute as an errand, that is the errand of the glorious ancestor. ”

Huang Yuan nodded, although he sometimes had some envy of the power of his aunt who was the commander of the Jinyi Guard, but he never thought of going to the Jinyi Guard.

His favorite thing is to be in the lab and do those interesting experiments. What's more, the treatment of a first-class researcher of the Xiamaqiao Research Institute is now comparable to that of a fifth-grade official, and if he becomes a royal-level expert, he will be on the same level as a second-rank officer.

Although there is only one royal-level expert Ma Di in the entire Ming Dynasty, Ma Di's reputation in the entire Ming Dynasty is definitely louder than his grandfather, the former prime minister and speaker.

Whether it is in Dongzhou or Nanzhou, Madi will be popular with countless people wherever he goes. Even the princes of the royal family had to be careful in front of him.

In the entire Ming Dynasty, except for the emperor's ancestor, there is only one Lan Guifei who can compete with Ma Di.

However, Lan Guifei is the reincarnation of Doumu Niangniang, the Holy Mother of the Truth Sect, the president of the Ming Royal Academy of Sciences, and the favorite concubine of the emperor's grandfather.

Huang Xuan has little interest in physics, and his favorite is chemistry, so he admires the titular grandmother the most.

It's a pity that since she was not in good health a few years ago, she went to her fiefdom Lanfei Island. It is more than 10,000 kilometers away from Daming, and it is not so easy to see her.

Huang Xuan originally planned to take a global trip after graduating this year, but his grandfather was not in good health, and he didn't dare to go out.

Otherwise, he must go to Lanfei Island. It is the most beautiful island in the world that the emperor's grandfather personally sealed, and everyone who has been there thinks it is worthy of the name.

He wanted to meet that miraculous grandmother, and wanted to know what kind of ability she had obtained to invent thousands of chemical application products in just a few decades.

On the other side of the corridor, a group of people came over, they were the younger brothers and sisters who were sent by the groom, and they were all crying because they were worried about the grandfather in the rescue room.

The return of the five mountains does not look at the mountain, and the return of the Yellow Mountain does not look at the mountain.

Huangshan, known as the strange show in the world, was canonized as the imperial mountain by Zhu Zhanji in the eighth year of orthodoxy.

Since then, Huangshan has become a resort for royal vacations. However, in previous years, he came over in the summer every year, and this summer, Zhu Zhanji went to the extreme west, which took three months, and after coming back, the weather was also cooler, and he did not come to Huangshan.

At the end of November, it was snowing on Huangshan. Zhu Zhanji has seen the Huangshan Mountain many times in summer, but he has not seen the Huangshan Mountain after the snowfall, so on a whim, he ran over with the guards.

And the Huangshan Mountain in winter did not disappoint him, the Huangshan pine covered by heavy snow, the sea of clouds swirling in the mountains, and the Huangshan stone showing warm colors under the warm sun, all presented different summer beauty.

The Royal Palace is located in the hot spring under the Ziyun Peak, and it is a special pleasure to soak in the hot spring on a snowy winter night.

Zhu Zhanji is sixty-five years old this year, but because of his long-term martial arts training, his health is no worse than that of a man in his prime.

Since Yongle got married in the thirteenth year, in the past 47 years, Zhu Zhanji has chosen concubines for his sons many times, and the palace maids have been added or removed many times.

But it was only in the twentieth year of orthodoxy, and most of his concubines were over forty-five years old and could not sleep in the waiting, so they chose ten concubines for themselves at the urging of the ministers.

Last year, I chose ten more escorts to pass some time on weekdays.

Due to the long age difference between the concubines, there are clear levels and hierarchies, but there are not too many worries.

That is, in September this year, Queen Sun Xian died, and some concubines had some thoughts. Zhu Zhanji came back from the extreme west, cut through the chaos with a quick knife, and directly said that he would not be a queen in the future, cutting off everyone's thoughts.

This time he came to Huangshan with the ten newly selected concubines last year, this is not that Zhu Zhanji likes the new and hates the old, the youngest of the concubines in front of him is also about forty years old, where can they compare to these young girls who are not yet twenty years old.

Moreover, this time, Zheng Hong, the governor of the Western Regions in Samarkand, chose a stunning Persian beauty, which Zhu Zhanji liked very much, and in the past few months, she has been pampered several times more times than others, and she is also a little inseparable.

Although he has many concubines, his reputation among the people is still very good. He likes the new and never gets tired of the old, he is benevolent to every concubine, and never messes with the court.

Outside the hot spring room, Li Liang's trembling voice came. "Your Majesty, a telegram from the capital has come from Huizhou Mansion, and Lord Huang Qianjiu is about to die."

Hearing Liu Wan's voice, the two concubines who were originally leaning on his arms also put away their smiles and sat up straight.

Zhu Zhanji sighed and said, "Tell me to go down, get up early tomorrow to prepare, and after I finish watching the sunrise, I will leave for Beijing." ”

Over the years, the courtiers who followed him at the beginning went before him one by one, and now they are older than him, and only a few people such as Li Liang and Yang Zhangde can still be seen.

However, the courtiers who have risen in recent years have also emerged in an endless stream, and today's Ming Dynasty is still full of flowers.

No, the current Ming Dynasty is far more brilliant than it was a few decades ago.

Today's Ming Dynasty is even more prosperous than Europe at the beginning of the 20th century, and in terms of technology, industry, and agriculture, today's Ming Dynasty surpasses Europe before the First World War.

However, Daming is not without hidden worries, and hidden worries are hidden in this blossoming flower.

The strength of the Ming Dynasty is based on his domination of the world, as long as he lives, no one, any country, can bring disaster to the Ming Dynasty.

However, he is now sixty-five years old. After him, there is no one who can stabilize the world.

Originally, he had been cultivating the crown prince Zhu Qizhen, but Zhu Qizhen was only forty-five years old this year, and his health was not very good, and now he can only recuperate in the capital.

As a last resort, he can only shift his energy to his eldest grandson Zhu Jianshen now.

Zhu Jianshen was born in the twelfth year of orthodoxy and is twenty-nine years old this year. He is the eldest son of Zhu Qizhen, the grandson of the emperor, he is generous and elegant, with a gentle personality, but he is also a prosperous king.

But when he was born, a group of imperial uncles were all divided into Dongzhou. Zhu Zhanji knew that his sons, after arriving in Dongzhou, were like prisoners who were letting go of the wind, and all their originally suppressed nature burst out.

Over the years, because of their own suppression and their small population, no major conflicts have broken out, but there have been many open and secret battles in private.

They are like this among their brothers, can they be expected to submit to this nephew?

After getting up from the hot spring and putting on his clothes, Zhu Zhanji had already decided to carefully cultivate this grandson while his energy was still there.

It's a big deal, let's do another god-making movement to make Zhu Jianshen into a new generation of Ming monarchs.

sent two concubines, leaving only Li Liang in the room.

Li Liang is seventy years old this year, and he has a long life in the inner servant. Ten years ago, he stepped down from the post of chief eunuch and concentrated on serving by Zhu Zhanji's side.

But his body also visibly declined, Zhu Zhanji only wore a cotton robe in the room, he was wrapped in three layers inside and three layers outside, and there was a fire next to the brazier.

"How many attendants are there in the palace now?"

Li Liang recalled, tears fell and said: "If you don't count the old men who are guarding the capital and the imperial tomb, there are less than six hundred people left who are still in the palace and on errands everywhere. ”

Zhu Zhanji couldn't help but laugh and said, "What's the matter, you're still sad?" ”

Li Liang sighed: "When Lord Yongle was still there, there were tens of thousands of people in charge of the army, procurement, tax supervision, mine supervision, and those who served in the palace, and now there are less than two thousand left, so how can the old slave not be sad!" ”

Zhu Zhanji said: "Abolishing eunuchs and using only female officials has proved that it is also desirable. Although women are not as strong as men, they are more attentive than eunuchs in serving people. ”

"But those prison soldiers, procurement, tax supervisors, all use civilian officials, isn't Your Majesty afraid that it will become a disaster in the future?"

Zhu Zhanji shook his head and said, "The key is the system. Now that the civil administration and the military and government are separated, and whoever can only manage the affairs for which he is responsible, there will be no powerful ministers who lean towards the government and the opposition. ”

"Then Your Majesty shouldn't have brought out a prime minister in thirty years."

Zhu Zhanji knew what Li Liang was worried about, speaking of which, this loyal old eunuch was a real person who was selfless and always thought about Zhu Zhanji.

He smiled: "You have also been engaged in politics all your life, but you still haven't understood the meaning behind the separation of powers." ”

Li Liang said unconvinced: "The old slave doesn't understand, but he also knows that whether it is legal power, political power, military power, or imperial power, it is controlled by people. How can Your Majesty ensure that these parties will not be connected in tandem in the future and directly affect the imperial power? Now that His Majesty is eloquent and strategic, he will naturally not worry, but what if there is a time when the lord is weak and the minister is strong in the future? ”

This sentence reached Zhu Zhanji's heart, and this was also a point he had been worried about.

Nowadays there are no parties, and the imperial power is like a party.

And the imperial court has now been divided into three by Zhu Zhanji, the Criminal Department, the Metropolitan Procuratorate, Jinyiwei, Dali Temple, and various local judges, all of which belong to supervision and law enforcement agencies.

The Ministry of War, the Governor's Office of the Five Armed Forces, the Navy, and the Local Guard Office were all assigned to the Ministry of Defense by him. The highest authority of the Ministry of Defense is the General Staff, of which the Emperor himself is chief.

The Ministry of Officials, the Ministry of Rites, the Ministry of Households, and the Ministry of Industry were split into the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Resources, and Zhu Zhanji established a Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and these six departments formed a new six departments.

Originally, these departments did not govern each other, but in the 30th year of orthodoxy, Zhu Zhanji set up a position of prime minister above the six ministries, completely breaking the balance.

In order to balance the situation, Zhu Zhanji set up a formal parliament, whose members are composed of retired ministers and advanced people from various localities, who are responsible for legislation. The Speaker of the Diet was also promoted to Minister of First Rank.

And that's not all, because the law enforcement agencies cannot be lower in rank than the Speaker and the Prime Minister, otherwise it will be difficult to enforce the law.

Therefore, he set up a legal affairs department in the law enforcement department and set up a secretary-general, and the secretary-general is also at the same level, but he cannot directly govern the following agencies, but is only responsible for coordination.

Because the law enforcement powers of the Criminal Department, the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and the Jinyiwei cannot be controlled in the hands of one person.

In addition, Zhu Zhanji established an internal affairs office, which was responsible for managing the world's wealth for the royal family, replacing the previous eunuchs.

They not only helped the royal family manage the world's commerce, but also gradually took over the Royal Commercial Bank and the Advisory Department, which belonged to the royal family's private wealth and eyes and ears, which could not be lost at any time.

Although the Minister of the Interior is only a second-class official, he is independent of the imperial court and is not under the control of anyone, only the imperial family.

The New Sixth Ministries have the most power and may seem to have the most power, but they are under the supervision of both the Ministry of Justice and the Parliament.

In this, really speaking, the power of the prime minister is actually lower than that of the speaker.

The parliament meets once every six months, and there are small meetings almost every day, and the original six sections are assigned to the parliament, so that they have veto power over any decisions made by the six departments.

Basically, the current parliament assumes the responsibilities of the future US Senate and House of Representatives.

Of these, only the Ministry of Defense is transcendent and only subject to the jurisdiction of the royal family.

Even the salaries of soldiers from all over the country were changed from the development bank that originally belonged to the Ministry of Household to the commercial bank directly managed by the royal family, in order to prevent civilian officials from having the opportunity to curb military generals.

The redistribution of power, the establishment of three new ministers and the reduction of eunuchs, which is equivalent to weakening the imperial power. So this point is also unacceptable to Li Liang.

But in fact, there are very few trivial matters that still disturb Zhu Zhanji, and those procedural matters, including some trivial matters, are handled within various departments.

Zhu Zhanji demanded that at the two court meetings every month, all departments should file the affairs handled by each department for verification.

At present, it seems that there is a balance everywhere and mutual containment. But Li Liang's worries are not unreasonable, that is, the extension of all rights is through people, and when the lord is weak and the minister is strong, it is inevitable that people's minds will not change.

But Zhu Zhanji has no choice about this, what he can do is to establish stable rules, and then strengthen the education of the royal family and strengthen the connection between the royal family and military power.

After listening to Li Liang's heartfelt words, Zhu Zhanji nodded and said: "At the very least, there will not be a faint monarch, which will ruin the continuation of my great cause for thousands of years." ”

Li Liang sighed and stopped persuading. Depending on where you sit, you will naturally have different issues to consider.

He was a chamberlain who had the interests of the royal family in mind all his life. But Zhu Zhanji is different, he not only has to consider the interests of the imperial family, but also the long-term continuation of the country.

Now, almost the whole world is ruled by the descendants of the Zhu family, which is similar to the situation of Genghis Khan's descendants two hundred years ago.

Those Mengyuan people, good at war, negligent governance, less than a hundred years, the power was greatly damaged, less than two hundred years, the once huge empire disappeared.

Of course, there is no opponent who can compete with the Ming Dynasty now, but in terms of governance, it has never been possible to rely on unilateral strong suppression.

Balance is the most important thing at all times, especially after him.

What's more, the current Daming is not restless. Because of the great strides in civilization, although Zhu Zhanji tried his best to curb it, some techniques were unconsciously learned.

In the twenty-third year of orthodoxy, the old marshals Zheng Neng and Tang Sayer occupied the area of Ukraine in later generations and expelled the Ulugh Beg to the territory of Europe.

But there they found that they had refined molten iron by improving the high-temperature air chamber.

The most important thing for muskets is steelmaking technology, as for processing technology, because the Ming Dynasty has been developing for 30 years, whether it is a waterwheel or a steam engine, the processing technology has matured.

By refining the machining process, those people were able to polish the barrel very easily. Since then, the technology has expanded rapidly.

The West is now flooded with muskets, and the firepower of the Ming soldiers has no absolute superiority.

In the twenty-ninth year of orthodoxy, a coalition of Western countries attacked Ukraine. Zheng Neng was bent on occupying the granary of Ukraine, but in the end he died heroically.

After that, the Ming soldiers could only retreat to the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea.

And Tang Sayer's local army, which also lost a large area of land on the west bank of the Volga, is now stationed on the east bank of the Volga River and confronts the other side.

Although the opponent has a large number of people and a large number of muskets, there is not enough gunpowder and no explosives, and the attack is weak, and the two sides are now evenly divided.

Zhu Zhanji has long been prepared for the phenomenon of the reverse science and technology tree, and if the technology of the Ming Dynasty wants to be popularized, it will be inevitable for the other party to learn from it.

So he personally went to the far west, the purpose was to cheer up his own immigrants, and then see if the situation continued to climb the science and technology tree and suppress the other party again.

Daming's internal and external troubles are not obvious, but there are already signs. If he dies suddenly, Da Ming is destined to be in chaos for a while.

Now that you understand, it's time to take precautions.