After entering the first month, there is only one focus left in Beijing, that is, the wedding celebration of the Son of Heaven to be held on the 12th of next month. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 Although this is just a rumor for ordinary people, they will not be able to go to the palace to see this grand celebration, but this does not prevent everyone from eagerly discussing and longing for this matter, and everyone seems to be talking about this similar topic in the streets and alleys.

For the hundred officials of the imperial court, in addition to the fact that this celebration may bring a lot of benefits to themselves, there are also a lot of complicated affairs. Although the Ming Dynasty has now begun to go downhill, but the national strength is still there, it is still the surrounding neighboring countries of the Celestial Empire, which is the suzerainty of their pilgrimage, and now that the Son of Heaven is married, these vassal countries are naturally coming to celebrate.

Therefore, around the time of the first lunar month, envoys from small countries such as Cochin, Ryukyu, and Chaoxian came to the capital to pay tribute and celebrate. In the face of these envoys from afar, the Ming court naturally wanted to show its demeanor as a great country, not only giving back several times, more than ten times their tribute, but also entertaining these foreign envoys with the highest courtesy.

In this way, the yamen that has always been able to be regarded as Qingshui Yamen, and the Ministry of Rites and Honglu Temple, which can usually be idle, will be very busy. In fact, in addition to entertaining these envoys, the Ministry of Rites and other ceremonial yamen now have to devote their energy to the emperor's wedding celebrations, so their manpower is naturally even more stretched.

How is that good? Naturally, he was looking for helpers from other yamen in the imperial court. For this reason, many other officials of the yamen were temporarily seconded and became busy inside and outside the palace, contributing their own strength to the emperor's wedding celebration.

Fortunately, the officials of the Ming Dynasty have been studying the Four Books and the Five Classics since they came, and they are still slightly proficient in these etiquette matters, and with the guidance and help of the officials of the Ministry of Etiquette, everything can be done in an orderly manner.

In fact, not only these ordinary officials are busy, but also Yang Zhen's Jinyi Guard, who is also difficult to have time during this time. It's not that they also have to go to the palace for etiquette training, and these Han generals, another branch of the Jinyi Guard, will do it, but ask them to help maintain law and order in the capital.

Beijing is home to millions of people, and daily security work is a great responsibility, and the Shuntianfu and the Five Cities Terracotta and Horses Division and other yamen were established for this purpose. And this time, because the marriage of the Son of Heaven was very important, and there were many envoys from the vassal countries around, the imperial court naturally did not dare to ignore it, and immediately strictly ordered these public security yamen to ensure that there must be no mistakes during this period of time.

In this way, not only has the patrol force of Beijing been multiplied in the past, but also the yamen have also greeted the gangs and bastards in the city, so that they don't need to go out on the streets. Otherwise, if something goes wrong, it will be assigned to the army at the least, and at worst, his life will not be guaranteed.

In order to show the determination of the imperial court, this time they even used the brocade guards, and used the majestic and majestic Ti Riding to stop the children's night crying to deter Xiaoxiao.

In a word, the city of Beijing during this period of time was like a severe crackdown for a period of time in later generations, no one dared to commit a crime at this time, and the order of the capital was so good that it was hard to believe. Not only are petty theft and the like gone, but even the friction and fighting in the streets have completely disappeared, as if this is a new society of harmony and harmony.

Of course, all of this requires the efforts of countless people, Yang Zhen and his Jinyi guards have made a lot of efforts, every day Yang Zhen has to rush to the Zhenfu Division from dawn to sit in the town, and he can't go home until after the shift, which is so busy that he almost has no time to accompany his wife.

But after all, people can't help themselves in the court, even if they are a little dissatisfied with the superficial work of the court, Yang Zhen can still only do things according to the rules, I only hope that the day of celebration will come soon, and everyone will be relieved at that time.

And in this busyness, time flies very quickly, and in the blink of an eye, February 12 has quietly arrived.

It was a sunny day, and except for some cold accidents, it was also a good weather.

As the sun gradually moved and the eastern horizon rose, the bells and drums of the Forbidden City rang out with it. At this moment, the civil and military ministers who were lined up in front of the palace gate did not feel refreshed, and their eyes gathered on the palace gate that was about to be opened.

Different from the previous big and small court meetings, today's wedding celebration of the Son of Heaven is much more grand, the city has official ranks, large and small officials with titles, and the big and small lords are all present, just after the third watch, the Forbidden City has been crowded with officials.

Moreover, I don't know if it was due to tension or something else, this time so many people gathered here, and there was hardly much movement to hear, only a few coughs occasionally made people realize that there were many officials standing outside the palace gate.

Yang Zhen and Yang Chen's brothers were also among these ministers, walking towards the palace with the same solemn and slow steps as them, looking at the lights everywhere, making the originally solemn palace more festively arranged, Yang Zhen's face also showed a happy smile.

The relationship between him and Wanli is not just an ordinary monarch and minister, in addition to being a monarch and minister, they also have a friendship that is difficult for people to believe.

Speaking of which, this is hard to believe, after all, who in this world has eaten the bear's heart and leopard gall, and really dares to regard the emperor as a friend? Even if the emperor told you so, if you really think so, you are joking with your own life, who knows how many days later, the emperor will feel that your words and deeds that used to treat him as a friend are disrespectful to him and a bully.

But Yang Zhen, a guy with the idea that everyone will be equal in a few hundred years, obviously does not have as many concerns as most people in this era, and he also sees the loneliness of Wanli as a lonely man as the Son of Heaven, so he really regards the emperor as a friend.

Since they are friends, in addition to doing their best for him in official affairs, they will naturally care about it in private matters. Now that the emperor is finally married, Yang Zhen is naturally happy from the bottom of his heart.

It's just that as the wedding celebration continues, Yang Zhen's perception of this is a little different. After being visited by the ministers and reciting a long will, although the rhetoric was ornate, but the content was almost empty, Wanli thanked the heavens and the earth, the ancestors, and so on in the prescribed way.

Then, the gate was opened at noon, and the emperor himself rode to the outside of the Forbidden City, and welcomed the bride who had been waiting in the sedan chair outside, that is, the queen Wang from outside the palace - by the way, the queen who was about to become the mother of the whole world also had a pleasing name, called Sister Xi.

In order to prevent the situation of foreign relatives interfering in politics like the Han and Tang dynasties, thus messing up the country, the queens of the Ming Dynasty have always been from low backgrounds, and they are generally innocent scholarly women, and the queen's family is also average.

And now Wanli rode out of the noon gate, although in the drama and some literary and artistic works in later generations always mentioned what to say about the decapitation outside the noon gate, but in fact the morning gate is a symbol of the highest power of the imperial court. Not to mention pushing any prisoners out of here, even opening the noon gate is an extremely rare thing, and only when the Son of Heaven needs to open the guard of honor to enter and exit, will the main gate of this palace be opened.

In addition, there are only two things to make an exception. One of them is that in front of him, when the Son of Heaven marries the queen of the main palace, in order to show respect for her and set off the identity of his mother in the world, he will open a noon door. The second is that after the palace examination once every three years, the top three champions, Bangyan and Tanhua can enter the palace from the noon gate on the day of the Zhongjinshi, which is the supreme glory. In addition, even Zhang Juzheng, who is in power and the opposition, cannot enter and exit through the noon gate.

Seeing that the little emperor, who was only fifteen or sixteen years old, took the queen of the same age into the palace step by step according to the rules, and spoke and acted according to various etiquette like a marionette, Yang Zhen felt a little sigh in his heart: "It is said that getting married in later generations is a thing that makes people so busy that they collapse all over their bodies, but compared with this era, those are all pediatrics." And my previous marriage was complicated enough, but compared with the emperor's wedding, it was very simple. Thinking of this, he unconsciously cast his sympathetic gaze on the emperor and empress, who were still doing the procedures according to the rules.

In fact, when the emperor and empress were doing a series of complicated ceremonial things according to the rules of their ancestors or the rules and regulations given by the Ministry of Rites, the hearts of the officials below were not here. They are more concerned about what they can get from this wedding.

And this point will soon come, after some red tape, the emperor finally announced that the wedding can be successful ministers are also indispensable, in this day of universal celebration, everyone will also experience the emperor's grace, so the officials in Beijing, will be promoted to a higher level, and at the same time give food.

"Hurrah, Hooray, Hooray......" The ministers fell to their knees from the bottom of their hearts, and shouted loudly at the same time.

Just when everyone thought that this stubble was about to pass, an official in the forefront suddenly stood up from the ranks, knelt down to the emperor and said, "Your Majesty, the minister Zhang Siwei has something to do. ”

"Huh?" Not only the surrounding ministers, but even the emperor was stunned by what he said - which one was making trouble, there was no such thing in the previous ritual procedures. But since the courtier stood up, he couldn't stop him from talking, so he smiled and said, "Zhang Qing has something to say, but it doesn't hurt to say it." ”

"The minister thinks that this His Majesty's wedding is not only the work of our ministers, but also the work of the queen's biological father, Wang Zhenweigong, so the minister thinks that the lord of the country should also be rewarded and given a title, so as to show the filial piety of His Majesty and the queen!" Zhang Siwei immediately said loudly.