Winter is almost over, and spring is not far away. The filial piety period of the Emperor Taishang has passed, and the city of Nanjing has returned to some of its former liveliness.

On an afternoon on the eve of the New Year's Festival, in the palace full of busyness and tension, Chen Ming, who was busy and leisurely, lived leisurely.

This year's Spring Festival, the palace is not ready to do a big event, and next year's Spring Festival is not ready to be a big event, including the Mid-Autumn Festival, the Wanshou Festival, the Thousand Autumn Festival, etc., which will not be a big event. Is it because of Chen Hui's death?

Chen Hui's death is no longer relevant to the current Chen Hanlai, and he is also Chen Ming's cheap old man. According to traditional Chinese filial piety, a three-year [27-month] period of filial piety is inevitable. During this period, no bright colors in the palace are allowed, to be precise, Chen Ming is not even allowed to eat meat and food. If he raised a child for nothing during this period and made a child come out, it would definitely be a big scandal.

The 100-day filial piety of the people is only aimed at the people, and it is aimed at the whole world. You can't let the people of the whole world eat vegetarian food for three years just because the emperor died, right?

But although the palace is not ready to do a big job, things are still very busy.

Don't let you wear red and green, that naturally has a plain dress; The entire palace, in front of the house and behind the house, is also as pure as people. It's not a fancy thing to be nice and not to be cleaned.

At this moment, in the small pavilion on the rockery of the Imperial Garden, Chen Ming was basking in the sun while carefully checking the children's homework.

Yes, among Chen Ming's sons, the older ones are already in their thirties, such as Chen Ding. But the younger sons and daughters are only in high school and junior high school.

Chen Hui and Chen Sui were respectful in front of Chen Ming, quietly waiting for Chen Ming to give an evaluation of their homework-social investigation. And Chen Ming's youngest daughter, Chen Yueyi, the princess of Danyang, who had just turned fourteen, was not far away, holding a monocular-like cylindrical thing in her hand, her eyes were on one of them, and she was watching intently.

"Danyang, stop playing with the kaleidoscope, let your father see your embroidery!" The queen likes this little girl very much, although she is not her own, but she likes her since she was a child. Now it's rare to keep a straight face and teach Danyang not to play.

As for why Princess Danyang wants to learn embroidery, this is the powerful 'historical tradition' of Chinese society. The Manchu Qing Dynasty has been in the customs for more than 100 years, which has lost a lot of the tradition of the Han family's daughters learning to be popular, especially in the families of high-ranking officials and nobles. However, after Chen Han drove out the Tartars and restored China, this tradition was picked up by the noble ministers of the new dynasty, and this custom even counterattacked the imperial palace.

Of course, Chen Ming will not force his daughter to learn to be a female celebrity, but the side hustle is an important part of the daughter's family. Compared with Qinqi calligraphy and painting, Danyang chose embroidery when she was young, so she has been working embroidery.

Danyang didn't seem to hear it, but lowered his head a little, still holding the kaleidoscope to look.

"It's okay to play more, children, play hard."

In front of his daughter, Chen Ming's attitude has always been very good. Her daughters, whether they have grown up, have given birth to children, or are still in school when they are married, in their eyes, Chen Ming has always been a good father. Hearing Chen Ming say this, Danyang stopped playing. handed the kaleidoscope to the palace maid next to him.

It's a pity that such a leisure time is short-lived, and at dinnertime, the court's major events will come up again.

"Your Majesty, Guoan has just sent news that His Royal Highness King Yu stayed in the Pang Mansion outside the city yesterday. His Royal Highness King Yu visited Wu Xueli and Wu in the morning, and the two discussed the problem of desertification in Mongolia......"

The phenomenon of one person attaining enlightenment, and the ascension of chickens and dogs to heaven is something that cannot be completely eradicated in today's China. What's more, Wu Xueli still has a certain ability, although he has been circling around in the central province all these years, his qualifications and grades are indeed enough to enter the cabinet.

He was the next Minister of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry, Forestry and Fisheries in the next cabinet, with powers in charge of agriculture, animal husbandry, forestry and river and sea fisheries. Pang Zhenkun has been in the Chen and Han dynasties for many years and has made a lot of friends, but it seems that the only hardcore supporter in the next cabinet is Wu Xueli.

Lao Pang is Chen Ming's preferred cabinet assistant, and Chen Ming naturally wants to arrange a hardcore supporter for him in the cabinet. Now that the final court push is coming, the civil officials above the third grade in the country, Pang Zhenkun and Wu Xueli, are 'at ease'.

"Desertification ...... Mongolian steppe"

Hearing these words, the corners of Chen Ming's eyes twitched. Today, the vast majority of Mongols have left the plateau where their ancestors lived, but a large number of Han Chinese have also poured into Mongolia. The interests of wool have made countless people crazy, especially after a buffer of one or two decades, the next generation of Han people have grown up in the Mongolian steppe, countless immigrants have adapted to the living environment and living environment on the grassland, the Han people's astonishing productivity has exploded, the number of sheep has increased rapidly, in the five years of Wang Huizu's tenure, the desertification of the Mongolian steppe has shown signs of rebound.

It can be said that Wang Huizu left a big mess on the issue of desertification in the Mongolian steppe for the roaring people to clean up.

As the next minister of agriculture, animal husbandry, forestry and fisheries, Wu Xueli was of the opinion of reducing the production of the Mongolian steppe, that is, reducing the number of sheep on the Mongolian steppe. But this will cause serious economic problems and will greatly reduce the domestic wool textile self-sufficiency rate. Not many people have supported him in the short term. And Wu Xueli's point of view is not liked by Chen Ming - this is too untechnical.

……

Dead.

Shen Guozhen did not sleep.

It was already twelve o'clock, and he was still sitting at his desk, reading the book in his hand under the whale oil lamp.

Shen Guozhen is not a scholar, and his reputation in China's 'Shilin' has never been called 'Confucian'. Now I've stayed up for two nights in a row, my eyes are bloodshot, red as a rabbit, and I'm very careful to browse the book in my hand, which is really abnormal.

Shen Guozhen's spirit was very concentrated, and every ten minutes, he would turn the page of the book in his hand, which was designed to regulate the qualifications and requirements for the election of members of the local advisory bureau, and the number of words was not much, only 5 chapters and 47 articles and 25,000 words. Shen Guozhen read this booklet five times over and over again.

If it weren't for the fact that this book was written by Liu Wen, Zhu Shihai and others, and was inextricably linked to the heterogeneity of the Neo-Confucian Party, Shen Guozhen would never have read such a boring book. What's so nice about this thing?

Even if he doesn't know about the future "Selection Law", will anyone in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang Provincial Advisory Bureau dare to elect the Shen family?

Shen Guozhen is the Minister of Justice, and if nothing else, he will still be the Minister of Justice in the next cabinet, in charge of the courts and the Supervisory Yuan. If you offend him, aren't you afraid that someone will quietly settle the account?

But Shen Guozhen didn't want to continue to be the Minister of Justice, he wanted to be a second assistant. The first assistant minister has no hope in his life, but he still has a glimmer of hope for the left and right second assistants.

The emperor really doesn't seem to be ready to meddle in other things in the cabinet, except for finalizing the first assistant minister as Pang Zhenkun, that is, Wu Xueli was promoted, and Shen Guozhen has not seen any clues of Chen Ming's interference so far. Of course, the number of interior ministers is regular, and the top leaders of the national security and military intelligence ministries have always taken turns to do it, and outsiders cannot interfere.

But this is enough to make the court boil.

Without the emperor's suppression, it is by means.

But you must know that Shen Guozhen is the Minister of Justice, and the police stations in various places are also under his responsibility, and the strength of the police department cannot be compared with the special intelligence department, but it is not that there is no 'investigation' ability at all. Moreover, he has strong connections in the court, and he has not been aware of the emperor's formulation of other cabinet candidates, and Shen Guozhen definitely has hope to climb one more step forward.

Xiong Bingzhang retired directly. He was not in good health, so he didn't enter the Senior Administration Yuan, so he went home directly to be raised.

This frees up a secondary position. And Pang Zhenkun succeeded in ascending to the throne again, so the two secondary assistants were vacant, if Shen Guozhen, as the old cabinet, couldn't put a little effort into it, he would be the Minister of Justice for the past five years.

Of course, Shen Guozhen wants to take the position, and she is also facing very strong competition, Xie Hu and Zheng Wen, which are also old qualifications.

Especially Xie Hu, the deputy of Lingnan in the early years, he joined the cabinet as the minister of civil affairs in the era of Liu Dezhao, and was released to Luzon as governor five years ago, and now he is back in Nanjing, and the target is inevitably not ordinary cabinet ministers. Moreover, among the eight positions of postal services, agriculture, animal husbandry, forestry and fisheries, justice, culture and education, finance, internal affairs, civil affairs, and foreign affairs, diplomacy and finance are not extravagant for ordinary people. These two positions are clearly not suitable for him. Internal affairs are the private reserve of the Military Intelligence Bureau and national security, and it is impossible for Xie Hu to take up the role.

The rest of the agriculture, animal husbandry, forestry and aquatic products belong to Wu Xueli, so if you target ordinary cabinet ministers, you can only choose from the four positions of postal, judicial, cultural, educational, and civil affairs.

This is a position in which the importance of the Minister of Home Affairs is much heavier than that of the postal service, culture and education, and the ranking is even more important than that of the judiciary. The civil affairs department of this era is not the Ministry of Civil Affairs of Chen Ming's previous life, and at the local level, the ranking of the Civil Affairs Bureau is the first among government departments. The nickname of the director of the Civil Affairs Bureau is still Xiao Tianguan, which means that it refers to the past officials, officials and officials. In a certain sense, the Civil Affairs Bureau is a small county, and the strong Civil Affairs Bureau can be searched in many aspects of government affairs, and he also serves as the head of the organization department.

And Zheng Wen is also not to be underestimated. Because Zheng Wen has Xiong Bingzhang's support behind him. And Xiong Bingzhang not only has a better face in front of the emperor, but he also has a good relationship with Wang Huizu. Zheng Wen, Xiong Bingzhang, and Wang Huizu were all from the staff of former Qing officials, and the staff or master department was very powerful in the Chen Han political arena.

In terms of official positions, qualifications and merits, Zheng Wen's weight is still a little worse, but if he has the joint promotion of the former first assistant and the right second assistant, then the winning side will be better than Shen Guozhen.

Now that they have entered the cabinet, their qualifications and merits will not be much different from each other. At this time, the importance of networking is especially important.

Shen Guozhen is now faced with a decision, should he contact the 'author' of the book he is reading?

This is also the meaning of His Royal Highness King Yu.

A copy of the "Selection Law" actually involved Liu Wen, this guy is a well-known henchman of His Majesty in the whole world. Sitting in the position of the squire of the Ministry of Culture and Education for 20 years, his position at the top level of Chen Han's political arena is not high, but his power is not small, and his weight in the court is even heavier.

His own brother Liu Wu has always stayed by Emperor Chen's side for more than 30 years, and the chief director of the chamberlain has been for several years. And the rank of the attendant's room is nominally inferior to the ministerial-level Shangshu half-level, but who would really see it that way? Liu Wu's nickname is 'Liu Yuqian'!

The appearance of Liu Wen seems to be the emperor's most direct attitude towards this "Selection Law". From a certain aspect, it also illustrates the value of the outliers of the Neo-Confucian Party.

In Shen Guozhen's eyes, the things in this world are completely divided, useful to oneself and useless to oneself.

And people, too.

Before waiting for a reply from a useful person, Shen Guozhen couldn't sleep even if she lay on the bed.

The oil in the oil lamp decreased little by little, but the news that Shen Guozhen was waiting for never heard back, and it may still be empty tonight. Finally, after reading the book in his hand again, he threw the book in his hand on the table, and lay on the bed and stared out the window.

I don't know how long it took, but the darkness outside the window was replaced by a plaster of gray......

Another day passed.