Chapter 112 The Royal Driver Arrives in Person
The first day of June in the first year of Chongzhen is the day when the first batch of students of Jiangwutang opens. The opening ceremony of the pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info lecture martial arts hall is not like the opening or opening ceremony held in later generations, which made gongs and drums noisy and colorful flags were displayed.
Not only is there no such excitement, but it also looks a little solemn.
The Ming Emperor's surname is Zhu, so both the court and the army advocate red, whether it is a civil or military attaché, but if the rank is a little higher, most of the standard official uniforms are red.
And on June 1st, under a stone archway in front of the main gate of the martial arts hall, it was red.
In addition to the high-ranking officials of the imperial court who were dressed in red, the 150 middle- and lower-level military attachés who were the first batch of students of the lecture hall were also wearing standard red armor coats, standard iron helmets, and black cowhide boots, and they were full of energy and stood neatly and neatly.
Of course they were waiting for someone, and the person they were waiting for was none other than the current Holy Emperor Chongzhen.
After all, this lecture hall was established by himself, and the military attachés at all levels trained by the lecture hall will be used as the backbone of the Ming army in the future, and it is a force that he must master no matter what.
Different from the Enke Jinshi in the first year of Chongzhen, these trained military attaches are the most direct force for the revival of the Emperor Ming, and they are ready to let them go to the battlefield in the future, for the sake of the Ming Dynasty, for themselves, throw their heads and spill their blood.
Therefore, when all the preparatory work for the construction of the lecture hall was completed, and the first batch of students were all enrolled, and Sun Chengzong came to ask for instructions on the opening ceremony, Emperor Chongzhen proposed to personally attend the opening ceremony of the lecture hall and personally teach the first lesson of the lecture hall.
At that time, the cabinet ministers and ministers of military aircraft who were present at the time have found various reasons to dissuade them, some say that there is no such precedent in the history of the Ming Dynasty, some say that the emperor is easy to leave the palace and risk his life is not safe, and some say that the inner is too far away from Tongzhou and too tired, in short, there is no one who does not object.
But Emperor Chongzhen insisted on doing this, and said that he would personally go to the scene and bring a flying dragon and phoenix military flag with a vermilion background embroidered by the empress herself.
The emperor's travel is naturally not a trivial matter, a set of etiquette and music system is extremely complicated, and the task of guarding along the way is also very heavy, and the loess pavement, pedestrians avoid something, which involves a wide range, time-consuming and laborious, and very disturbing to the people. This is also an important reason why the cabinet and the military aircraft department do not want the emperor to leave the palace easily and run around.
In particular, when the emperor of the Ming Dynasty left the palace, the car he rode in was not a sedan chair carried by people, nor an ordinary chariot, but a giant four-wheeled carriage with twenty-four hangings, called Da Rou, also known as Jade Chariot.
Twenty-four hangs means that twenty-four horses are needed to pull together. Some emperors like big scenes, and they may need thirty-six hanging chariots. The four-wheeled carriage used by the Chinese emperor had a very flawed flaw, that is, the lack of front-wheel steering.
Therefore, in most cases, it is better to take the straight, otherwise it will be troublesome when you need to steer. When you encounter an obstacle, if you can't steer, you can only remove everything that stands in front of you.
Because of this, the ministers of the court and the common people in the past did not like the emperor to always go out of the palace to play, because the emperor's four-wheeled chariot was very wide, and the steering was very inconvenient, and the cost of travel was high, and it was often very disturbing to the people.
And this kind of big wheel, there is also a major flaw of the relatively cheating father, that is, there is no shock absorption.
Therefore, in order to be comfortable when the emperor traveled, the chariot road had to be paved with a thick layer of yellow sand, and in many cases, the road surface had to be re-corrected.
All this, on the surface, was to show the royal dignity, but in fact, the original purpose was just to absorb shocks, so that the emperor could sit on the chariot with less bumps and suffer less crimes.
But Emperor Chongzhen's trip, of course, will not be completely in accordance with the old rules of the past, otherwise, let alone arrange it a few days in advance, even if it is arranged a month in advance, the preparations for the emperor's trip will not be completed at all.
The chariot that Emperor Chongzhen took to travel this time was not as huge and luxurious as it was during the Wanli Emperor's time.
The most important thing is that this chariot was built by Zhu Youxiao, the Emperor of the Apocalypse, and the cars are naturally made of precious wood, and the axles, spokes, frames and wheels and other important positions are either made of stainless steel, or wrapped with a layer of wrought iron, although there is still no steering and shock absorption device, but it is relatively light, only six horses can move forward easily, and it also meets the minimum standards of the Son of Heaven driving six.
Of course, since the construction of this chariot was completed, the Emperor of the Apocalypse has been seriously ill, so naturally he has never ridden it once.
And Emperor Chongzhen, who came from later generations, was shocked on the spot when he saw this chariot for the first time.
Until the 21st century, many people are saying that there were no four-wheeled carriages in ancient China, and regard this as a sign of the ignorance and backwardness of the ancient Chinese.
After seeing this chariot, Emperor Chongzhen immediately found the official of the Taifu Temple who was in charge of the emperor's car, and after asking, he realized that the four-wheeled carriage had already existed in China, not only the emperor's royal thing, but also the folk in the Tang and Song dynasties, the four-wheeled car has been used by many people.
In the famous "Qingming Riverside Picture" in later generations, there is a scene of a four-wheeled horse-drawn carriage and a four-wheeled ox cart carrying goods on the road.
As for why in the Ming Dynasty, four-wheeled carriages were not popularized, in addition to the lack of steering and shock absorption devices, I am afraid that it has a lot to do with the road traffic conditions in ancient China.
Moreover, water transportation in ancient China was developed, and the vast majority of long-distance cargo transportation was by waterway, private freight, and the promotion of the use of four-wheeled carriages may not be so urgent.
After knowing that there have been four-wheeled carriages in China since ancient times, Emperor Chongzhen explained to them the defects of the emperor's imperial chariot when he summoned the officials of the Taifu Temple, and explained to them the principle of front-wheel steering and body shock absorption.
Emperor Chongzhen insisted on going to the martial arts hall, and took the simple six-trailer chariot built by the Emperor of the Apocalypse, one of the purposes was to let the four-wheeled carriage appear in front of the civil and military officials and the people of Beijing, once the steering and shock absorption problems of the four-wheeled carriage were solved, they could be promoted and popularized, at least in the post station system and the army, in order to solve the problem of long-distance overland transportation. After all, the carrying capacity of each four-wheeled carriage is much larger than that of a two-wheeled cart or a unicycle.
With a four-wheeled carriage similar to later generations, the renovation of official roads and post roads will become an urgent need for officials and gentry and even merchants, and then they can continue to work for relief, which can not only solve the problem of food for the displaced people, but also solve the problem of poor road traffic in the Ming Dynasty.
On June 1st, the emperor's royal car, six trailers, under the escort of the Gongwei Division, the Shangzhiwei and the officers and soldiers of the Shenji Battalion, officially set off for Tongzhou.
Of course, there is no loess paving, clean water to press dust, as for other ceremonial guards such as golden drums and ceremonial music, they can also be saved, as light as possible.
In this way, after more than two hours of trekking, calculating the time, it was nearly noon, and the emperor's imperial chariot was not far from the stone archway in front of the gate of the martial arts hall.
All kinds of bumps and hardships along the way, Emperor Chongzhen of course knew that he was bitter, but he always maintained a relaxed and smiling face, and there was a saying in later generations that described this very accurately, that is, the cannon he made an appointment with tears and had to finish it.
Seeing the emperor's car coming from afar, the civil and military officials under the stone archway of the Wutang Lecture Hall naturally knelt on the ground, and all of them said in unison: "The ministers meet Your Majesty, long live my emperor, long live, long live!" ”
Hearing the call outside, Emperor Chongzhen pushed open the window of the carriage, Wang Chengen hurriedly opened the car door outside, Cao Huachun, the master of ceremonies, Fang Zhenghua, the commander of Dongchang, Gong Yonggu, the commander of Jinyiwei, and Liu Wenbing, the commander of the Shenji Battalion and the commander-in-chief of the Five Cities Soldiers and Horses Division, hurriedly stepped forward to wait for the emperor to get out of the car, some supported the emperor, some held the car door, and some knelt on the ground to pad the emperor's feet.
Thanks to these entourage personnel who came to help, otherwise Emperor Chongzhen, who had been going all the way, had back pain and leg cramps at this time, and he might not be able to get out of this car on his own.
Emperor Chongzhen got out of the car, took advantage of the gap between others surrounding him and tidying up his clothes, adjusted his body for a short time, and then walked towards the kneeling ministers under the stone archway in front of the gate of the martial arts hall not far away.