On the eighth day of October in the third year of Chongzhen, Emperor Chongzhen successively received the news of the death of the British Duke Zhang Weixian and the acting king Zhu Dingwei, and in the morning of this day, he summoned all the cabinet ministers in Beijing and the Zongren Mansion to discuss matters in the Wenhua Palace.

Li Guoyan, the first assistant minister of the cabinet, Sun Chengzong, the minister and minister of military aircraft, Xu Guangqi, the minister and secretary of the Ministry of Rites, and Xu Yunzhen, the prince of the Zongren Mansion, entered the meeting on time.

Before everyone came here, they all knew that the emperor was going to discuss something with them, so everyone's mood was extremely heavy.

When everyone came to the hall, they saw that Emperor Chongzhen was already seated, and immediately saluted and worshipped.

And Emperor Chongzhen has been working with these important ministers for a long time, and he is not polite, and directly ordered the inner servants to give him a seat and tea, and then speak.

Emperor Chongzhen said: "The old prince of the British Mansion has just left me, and the news of the death of the old prince of the Datong Dynasty has come again. ”

Emperor Chongzhen finished his opening remarks, and several cabinets and important ministers also comforted the emperor a few words.

The death of the Duke of England may affect the changes in the court situation, but the death of the acting king is meaningless to them in the court situation.

Immediately afterwards, Emperor Chongzhen said to everyone: "Call a few people over today, there are a few things to discuss with the Qing and others, one is the old prince of the Dai domain and the British duke's nickname Mourning, and the other is the inheritance of the Duke of Dai and the British duke. Let's talk about it, what do you think! ”

After Emperor Chongzhen finished saying this, everyone present is you look at me, I look at you, no one speaks.

It's not that there is anything difficult about these things, but what to do about these things is all the practice and even explicit provisions of the imperial court, and there is no need for Emperor Chongzhen to lead the cabinet to discuss.

Therefore, in the eyes of Li Guoyi, the first assistant of the cabinet, and others, since the emperor wants to discuss together, I am afraid that he is not satisfied with the past practice.

Emperor Chongzhen's performance in the past three years since he succeeded to the throne, in the eyes of people like Li Guoyi, Sun Chengzong, and Xu Guangqi, of course, is much stronger than the previous Ming Emperors' promising, hard-working heart, and the results are quite large.

But in the eyes of these important ministers of the court, they also felt more and more that the young emperor in front of him wanted to change too many things, and whether he was a little too impatient and rash.

Therefore, the longer they have been with this emperor, the more these ministers feel a little scared and a little bit like walking on thin ice.

Sun Chengzong saw that the first assistant Li Guojian was unhurried and looked ahead and was silent, so he opened his mouth first and said:

"Your Majesty! The death of the old prince of the domain, the death of the British prince Zhang Weixian, is the loss of the court and the clan, but the court should be sealed, when the gift is given, there are old precedents, the Zongren Mansion and the Ministry of Rites are submitted to the cabinet, and the cabinet is dedicated to His Majesty whether it is true or not! This country is also customary! ”

After hearing Sun Chengzong's words, Emperor Chongzhen nodded and said to Xu Guangqi and Xu Yunzhen: "In this case, two Xu Aiqing, do you have any ideas at the moment?" ”

Xu Guangqi and Xu Yunzhen knew Emperor Chongzhen's thoughts.

In particular, Emperor Chongzhen personally handed over the affairs to the Zongren Mansion before, two months have passed, and no follow-up has been given yet, and the Zongren has made Xu Yunzhen's heart uneasy.

When he came today, he also deliberately brought a rough picture of the situation of the clan to the palace for Emperor Chongzhen to ask.

Seeing Emperor Chongzhen's question, Xu Yunzhen was about to get up to answer, but saw that one person had already stood up and bowed and saluted, and this person was Xu Guangqi, the minister and secretary of the Ministry of Rites.

I only heard Xu Guangqi say: "After Your Majesty's previous questioning, the Zongren Mansion has prepared documents such as the gift of the next prince of the domain, and is about to submit it to the cabinet to report to His Majesty after the Ministry of Rites has set the British official gift!" ”

Emperor Chongzhen nodded when he heard this, and said, "Since you have made preparations, let's listen to it!" ”

Xu Guangqi immediately replied: "After His Majesty asked before, the minister once ordered Feng Shikong in the Ministry of Rites to visit Datong, and it is reported that the old prince of the Dai Dynasty has a good reputation among the officials and people of Datong!"

"Especially last year, when the army surrounded Datong, the royal government took appropriate measures, quite praised by the military and the people of Datong, and the ministers of Datong patrol and town together to raise the people, rectify the city defense, pay for food, help refugees, reward soldiers, can be called moving and unvain, happy and charitable!

"Because of this, the minister specially selected a Kang character from among the ministers of the Zongren Mansion for His Majesty's reference.

"Words have a literal meaning, and there is a law! Comfort and appease the people and say health, respect and courtesy, learn well, move without vain and say health......"

Emperor Chongzhen heard Xu Guangqi say this and seemed to be endless, and immediately waved his hand to interrupt his words and said:

"Excellent! Kang word can! Let's fix the word! ”

After saying this, Emperor Chongzhen looked at Xu Guangqi and continued: "Today, the title of the British Duke will be decided together with the gift!" If the Ministry of Rites has an opinion, the ministers are all here today, so they have all said it! ”

Seeing that Emperor Chongzhen was a little impatient, Xu Guangqi immediately said: "The first British Duke has been a knight for thirty and two years, and his morality is pure, calm and conservative.

"Since the time when His Majesty sent people to the British Mansion a few days ago to inquire about illness, the ministers have consulted with all the members of the Ministry of Rites to prepare for the use of emergencies, all of which are the first British Justice, Yi'an at home and abroad, and loyalty to the country through labor, and the virtue is pure, calm and moderate, and loyal to the country, which should be appropriate!"

Emperor Chongzhen heard Xu Guangqi say this, thought about it, and felt that he couldn't find anything wrong, so he nodded, even if it was approved.

However, for the mourning of the British prince Zhang Weixian, Emperor Chongzhen would not be stingy, and after nodding and approving Xu Guangqi's nickname given to Zhang Weixian as the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, he said to everyone:

"First of all, the British public Zhang Weixian has no loss of morality, the public is loyal to the country, and the court is loyal to the country, can the secretary and others have objections?"

Xu Guangqi is also a cabinet elder who has served for a long time in the cabinet, and now he has said so much earlier, and the emperor has no intention of objecting, and the cabinet chief assistant Li Guoyi, cabinet minister Sun Chengzong, and Dingguo Gong Xu Yunzhen will naturally not object.

Therefore, as soon as the emperor's voice fell, everyone said: "The minister has no objection! ”

At this time, Emperor Chongzhen continued: "Zhang Yu, the British ancestor of the Rongguo, was posthumously presented to the King of Hejian after his death because of his contribution to Fengtianjing, and Zhang Yu's son Zhang Fu, the British Gong, also posthumously presented the King of Dingxing after his death because of his contribution to the peace of the south.

"I think that Zhang Weixian's merits, although they are not as difficult as Fengtianjing or Ping'annan, but the merits of Emperor Zuo Xian and I twice in Yi'an and China, and the work of determining the country through labor cannot be ignored!

"I want to posthumously crown him as the king of Ansu, and the others are the same as the old rules of the Ministry of Rites, what do you think?"

In the Ming Dynasty, the king of both characters was the king of the county.

Whether it is a clan or a noble, this rule is the same.

However, for the noble and military ministers, the title of the king of the county is already at the top, and they are all posthumously sealed.

Even a character like Xu Da, the king of Zhongshan, was posthumously sealed.

Now that Zhang Weixian has been posthumously crowned by the King of Ansu after his death, he can be compared to his ancestor Zhang Yu's King of Hejian and Zhang Fu's King of Dingxing, which can be regarded as a mournful honor.

As for Emperor Chongzhen's final question, of course, everyone had no objection.

Such a thing, unless Zhang Weixian had a grudge against him during his lifetime, no one would stand up against it.

After all, the deceased is the greatest, and posthumously crowning a deceased prince as the king of the county is indeed a common thing in the history of the Ming Dynasty.

Seeing that everyone had no objections, Emperor Chongzhen continued: "In this case, without further ado, all the rewards and posthumous matters will be handled by the Zongren Mansion and the Ministry of Rites as soon as possible!" ”

After saying this, Emperor Chongzhen took a deep breath, exhaled slowly, and then said to everyone:

"The affairs of the deceased are over, but the affairs of the living still have to be done. I have already set the rules for the inheritance of the meritorious lord. Unless there is a special system, and the grace is allowed to be hereditary, it will be reduced to the hereditary level, that is, the world will be reduced to one level.

"It's not that I can't bear the emperor's grace, it's really that the Ming Dynasty doesn't have so much money and food to give inexhaustible!

"Now the situation of the household department has improved, but if it weren't for the internal funds of the household department to supplement Taicang in the past three years, I am afraid that the national funds of the household department would have been empty!"

Speaking of this, Emperor Chongzhen looked at the two people present who had meritorious heroes, that is, Ningcheng Bosun Chengzong and Dingguo Duke Xu Yunzhen, and said to the two:

"Dingguo Gong and Ning Chengbo, what do you two think about this?"