Within two days, Xu Jie created an opportunity for Zhang Juzheng to meet with the emperor alone - and ordered him to explain the government affairs of the previous dynasty to Longqing. In order to let the emperor shoulder his due responsibilities as soon as possible, the cabinet decided a few months ago that scholars would give lectures to the emperor respectively.

So everyone didn't take this seriously, but two days later, the celebrant came over and announced: 'Young Master Xu Jie, when the temple was in the world, after the Yan clan was in turmoil, he could overkill and be honest and turbid, punish corruption and ink to calm the people's livelihood, set the economic system to verify the border fee, support public opinion, reward and attract talents, and cultivate the government for a while, the official is often Zhensu, and Haiyu is called Zhiping, all of which are also powerful. Bandit Jiawudian, persuade the future? Zite advanced to Xu Jie, the doctor of Yinqing Ronglu, the young master and the young master, gave the python robe and the golden seal, allowed the Forbidden City to take advantage of the public opinion, and added two sons to the Jinyi Guard to command the affairs...... 'This is almost the highest honor that a minister can get.

Gao Gong and the others were shocked at that time, and for some reason, the Sacred Heart suddenly changed greatly.

Before they could react, Xu Jie had already come back to his senses, kowtowed and thanked him, and said stubbornly: "Your Majesty, since ancient times, there is no one superior, and it is not suitable for people and ministers." Although this official was set up at the beginning of the country, the left minister was the first to be the first meritorious person, and it was also the left pillar country. His Majesty begged to dismiss this official, and wrote it as a decree to Zhaochen Festival. ”

Everyone couldn't help but secretly admire: 'Being able to stay sober in the face of great glory, Elder Xu Ge is indeed admirable'...... But he didn't know, in fact, he thought of his teacher Xia Yan, who was the only minister in the Ming Dynasty who awarded this honorary title, and the scenery was unparalleled for a while, but it was inevitable that he would be ruined, so for this 'Shangzhu Country', Xu Jie was not sensitive.

In fact, the reason why Longqing wanted to give him the highest honor, in addition to his contribution to managing national politics, was more important to reward him for his love for himself back then. The day before yesterday, Zhang Juzheng told the emperor the story of the previous dynasty, and when he talked about the hard years of the two kings fighting for succession, Longqing sighed: "At that time, I was snubbed by my father, and all the officials thought that King Jing would come from behind, so they all avoided me, and even deliberately tried to get out of my ugly ...... in order to please King Jing" Saying that, he looked at Zhang Juzheng with emotion and said: "Thanks to your masters, you have done your best to protect me, so we can sit here today......"

"The emperor praised it falsely." Zhang Juzheng said with a straight face: "In fact, at that time, most of the lecturers in Yudi had a shallow foundation in the court, and the highest-ranking master was just the priest of the country, although he tried his best to maintain the emperor, but with only a few of us, he still couldn't deal with the first emperor, King Jing and the father and son of the Yan family." ”

"Oh?" Long Qing heard what he said and asked, "You mean, there are still people secretly helping each other?" ”

"Not bad." Zhang Juzheng nodded and said, "I can speak for Your Majesty in front of the first emperor; those who are qualified to deal with the Yan family's father and son; The only thing that could make King Jing jealous was Xu Gelao, who was the second assistant at that time. It is also he who secretly protects the emperor all year round......"

"How come I've never heard of it?" Long Qing was surprised.

"Xu Ge Lao's identity is special, he is a close minister of the first emperor, and he is regarded as a thorn in the side of the Yan family father and son, if the position is too obvious, it will not only attract the suspicion of the first emperor, but the Yan family father and son will also deal with it quickly, which will not only not help the emperor, but also harm you." Zhang Juzheng said lightly: "But there is no need to question Elder Xu Ge's heart for His Majesty...... I remember that a few years ago, the temple suddenly suspected His Majesty one day, and ordered Xu Ge, who was then the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, to become the ancestor of Renzong. "When Emperor Chengzu was determined, he was once determined to abolish the crown prince and establish the Han King Gao Xu, and the so-called 'story' refers to this.

Although he knew that the matter had passed, Long Qing was still nervous, and his heart was in his throat, it turned out that the first emperor really had the heart of abolishing the long and standing young, if no one spoke for him, I am afraid that the fate of himself and Zhu Zaizhen will be reversed. I listened to Zhang Juzheng tell the secret of the year: "Fortunately, Xu Huating calmly explained to His Majesty, saying that although Renzong is not as smart and likable as the King of Han, he is better than being lenient and benevolent, and he is more suitable to be the master of the order." Moreover, if Renzong is established, the king of Han will still exist, otherwise, Renzong will die. After hearing this, the first emperor pondered for a long time, and soon sent Hanlin to edit and repair as the official of the palace, which is the meaning of complementarity. Obviously, the first emperor had already made up his mind. After a pause, he said: "Xu Huating has a good eye for Weichen, and many important matters are discussed with me. Therefore, only the ministers know about this matter, and all the ministers do not hear about it. ”

Long Qing was silent for a long time after hearing this, and the next day, the aforementioned scene occurred.

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In the face of the honor given by the emperor, Xu Jie resolutely did not accept the title of 'Shangzhu State'.

Seeing that the elder of the country was so humble, the emperor was of course doubly happy, and did not force him to accept it again, but transferred the title of Zuozhu State, and sent the banner of 'Shuo German Elder' to Wenyuan Pavilion by hand...... The others are okay, Gao Gong is not a taste in his heart, he knows that if he conflicts with Xu Jie again now, I am afraid that the emperor will not help him again. What's more, in the eyes of the ministers, Xu Ge Lao also got the holy favor. As an emperor, he can no longer threaten Xu Jie, on the contrary, he may retaliate against him.

Many people will definitely distance themselves from themselves, and those officials will no longer have any scruples now, and they will definitely shoot at him. As soon as he thought of these bad things, Gao Gong felt bitter in his mouth, blocked in his heart, and secretly complained that his good students were too soft in his ears and heart.

In the next dozens of days to the end of the year, the cabinet began to be busy with various summaries and inventories, and there were not many places to quarrel, and the high arch was much more convergent, so although it was busy day after day, it also ushered in a rare period of peace.

Silence They also ended their observation of politics and began to share some tasks, among which Zhang Juzheng was in charge of checking the general ledger books of the household department for use at the year-end financial meeting; Chen Yiqin was in charge of studying the official assessment files sent by the Ministry of Officials, preparing to set the tone for the coming year; Shen Mo is responsible for the analysis of the accounts of the military department, also for the financial meeting at the end of the year, so that he can argue with the ministries and not be led by the nose.

Of course, it's not just busy making summaries, but also a lot of state affairs. First of all, Guangdong has investigated clearly, and behind the bloodshed, it is actually a clan fight. Because before the government cleared the acres of land, the two clans tried their best to attach their respective fields to the tax-free Xuetian and Jigutian, but the tax-free acres were limited after all, and the two clans quarreled in order to compete for a share. And because they had a long-standing grudge against each other, they became more and more intense, and finally turned into a fight, and the people of Guangdong were fierce, and more than a dozen lives were killed.

In fact, at that time, Pang Shangpeng was trying his best to persuade the big families in Guangzhou to accept a whipping method, and Qingzhang Tianmu had not yet officially begun. For that bloody case, he is at most indirectly responsible, how can he be the culprit? Facts have proved that it was right not to deal with it hastily at that time, and those Cantonese imperial historians obviously had to bear greater responsibility. However, Xu Jie, on the grounds of protecting his words, was not allowed to be pursued further; In this way, it is even more impossible to hold Pang Shangpeng responsible, but the following reminds him that he must pay attention to the method and not to intensify the contradiction.

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Shen Mo also experienced the hard work of the cabinet for the first time, because many situations were only known to the high-level, and the original cabinet had few people, so some work had to be handed over to Si Zhilang to complete, but now that the manpower has been replenished, naturally all of them have been collected, so a lot of complicated work must be done by himself. In addition, their batch of junior university scholars is a little different from the previous batch. The three of them were all relieved of their ministry affairs and entered the cabinet, but the three of them still had errands in the ministry. As a rule, if a scholar is also a minister, he should return to the ministry regularly, and the daily affairs of the ministry should be handled by Zuo Er, but important affairs should still be decided by him personally.

Chen Yiqin's side is better, there is Yang Bo in the ministry, and it doesn't matter if he goes back or not, so he just goes back every once in a while, and usually spends most of his time in the cabinet; And Shen Mo and Zhang Juzheng are not good, there is no Shangshu in the household department, Zhang Juzheng is a good power-taker, his ministry reform has just begun, even if Xu Yangzheng is staring at it, he is not at ease, he has to go back every day to stop those who are stealing and cheating.

The Ministry of Rites said that there are few things, but when it is also scored, next year will be the year of Dabi, and the two capitals and 13 provinces will open the autumn season. This is the top priority of the state apparatus of Daming, which is of great significance and has attracted much attention, and it must not be overlooked. The chief and deputy examiners, invigilators, admirals, and even scribes in each examination room must all be sent by the Ministry of Rites; The examination room of each Tribute Academy, as well as the examination conditions, also need to be inspected and closed by the Ministry of Rites...... Although the township test is only held in the autumn, because the territory of the Ming Dynasty is too vast, it will be busy from now on.

Not only to worry about the affairs of the ministry, but also not to delay the affairs of the cabinet, Shen Mo had to go from white to dark every day, often not caring about going home, and could only live in Ouchi. It wasn't until the twenty-seventh day of the lunar month that he went home five times, and because Bao'er was sick, he made two more trips.

In addition to being busy, he is pleased that his previous layout has made progress, and it seems that he has been able to harvest a batch of results:

First, according to his arrangement, Xavier organized a Francoji mission to request entry into Beijing as an envoy from Yuanyi who paid tribute to Longqing. With the care of the Ming Ministry of Rites, he naturally had the green light all the way, set off from Shanghai to Beijing, and successfully submitted the mission documents to the Ministry of Rites, and soon arrived in the hands of Shen Mo. He saw that Xavier's recital to the emperor was quite literate, but he did not show his own strengths, so he personally revised it. Therefore, Xavier's final recital is understandable and compliant.

In the song, Xavier called himself a 'minister', saying that the foreign minister admired the Chinese Celestial Empire, came from 80,000 miles away, and in order to enter Beijing, he studied Chinese in Shanghai, Beijing and other places, studied the books of Chinese sages, and enthusiastically introduced the Ming Dynasty to his compatriots. As a result, they also longed for the Heavenly Empire very much, so they formed a small mission, carrying hundreds of Western tributes, and traveled thousands of miles to Daming, hoping to be received by the emperor.

This wish is not easy to achieve, because the Longqing Emperor, who ruled by the arch, has only been to the court since he ascended the throne only a handful, and the number of meetings with foreign ministers can also be counted with his fingers. It's rare to even see your own ministers, so how can you be a foreign minister? Of course, as long as Shen Mo speaks, Longqing will definitely give him face and meet those foreigners. But Shen Mo now has a special identity, but he can't talk casually, so as not to leave people talking. So he could only secretly point out and teach them the secret weapon to impress the emperor.

The secret is hidden in the tribute. The list of tributes includes: the image of the Golden Emperor, the image of the Mother of the Golden Emperor, the gold-inlaid silver Emperor's Sutra, the pearl-inlaid cross, the pocket watch, and the music chiming clock; More than a dozen Western musical instruments such as pipe organs and long winds, as well as hundreds of books such as "The Atlas of All Nations" and "The Taixi Calendar...... They are either expensive or novel, which can be described as painstaking, which shows that their expectations for this trip have reached the point of recklessness.

This gift list, along with the tribute gifts, was handed directly to the celebrant by Shen Mo. Contrary to the self-denial and hard work of the auxiliary ministers, after the emperor did not reign early, the Longqing Emperor specialized in eating, drinking, and merrymaking, and even earned the nickname of 'Little Bee'. Of course, in addition to hard work, the emperor also likes to dabble in all kinds of novelties, so after looking at these tributes, I feel novel.

However, no matter how precious things are, the Ming Emperor is not rare, and it is just a novelty. I didn't even read those books, and in the end the emperor couldn't put it down, it was still the pocket watch...... In fact, it is the same as Shen Mo's piece, but Xavier slightly followed Shen Mo's instructions, replaced the back shell with a gold one, and engraved the words 'Longevity Without Borders', as well as bats, Qingyun and other patterns, immediately looked much more noble.

Long Qing really couldn't put it down, and played with it in his hands all day long. As a result, Li Guifei saw it and wanted to borrow it for a few days...... Although there are 3,000 beauties in the emperor's harem, Li Niangniang's mother enjoys unshakable grace by virtue of her son...... The emperor couldn't refuse, so he had to endure the pain of cutting his love for a few days. But he was afraid that she wouldn't return it, so he deliberately didn't tell her that this thing still had to be wound. As a result, Concubine Li played for a few days, and the pocket watch was stopped, and she thought that she had broken it, so she hurriedly asked the emperor for guilt, but Longqing took it, took out the key, and twisted it a few times with a calm face, and the watch hand turned ticking again.

Looking at the smug look on the emperor's face, Concubine Li knew that she had been fooled, and she looked disgusted, and Long Qing hurriedly begged for mercy: "I just have this watch, don't grab it." Otherwise, you can pick and choose the rest of the things, and take whatever you like. ”

Concubine Li continued to be coquettish and asked the emperor to accompany her to choose. Although she is the mother of the crown prince and has no honor, it is rare to be with the emperor, of course, she must seize every opportunity.

Long Qing naturally had no objection, so he asked the eunuch to move those tributes from the treasury and display them in the warm pavilion, leaving Concubine Li to choose. Women like fine things, but at this time, the craftsmanship of Europe is far less than that of the Ming Dynasty, or there would not be such a huge trade balance. So Concubine Li looked at it, and she couldn't get into it. I just saw that the woman who was holding the child was very kind, and asked for the statue of the Virgin.

The emperor saw that she only took the most worthless one, and he didn't want to go, so he urged her to pick again, and said: "It's all transported all the way over, can you pick two more?" ”

Concubine Li had no choice but to look at it again, pointing to a big square cabinet and smiling: "These Westerners are really, sending a cabinet all the way over, is it good for us to be Ming?" ”

"This is not a cabinet," Seeing that there was another opportunity to perform in front of his wife, Long Qing said very happily: "This is called a harpsichord, which is a Western musical instrument." ”

"Musical instruments?" Concubine Li was interested, and now she is also a beginner in the piano road, and it is when she can't see the world's musical instruments, so she wants to try it at that time.

"Nobody knows how to play this." As he spoke, the emperor personally lifted the cover and said, "But it's so good......" said and pressed it a few times, and the heavenly dingdong sound flowed out of those black and white keys, and immediately calmed Concubine Li, although its dignity is not beautiful, but the delicate and vivid timbre is incomparable to any Chinese musical instrument.

She played it a few times herself, after all, the instruments are the same, Concubine Li quickly figured out the tone, and could simply play some melodies, and was soon deeply attracted. However, there is still a difference in the nature of musical instruments between the East and the West, she always feels that there is a layer of window paper separating her, and she is puzzled, and she said coquettishly: "If you can't play a musical instrument alone, it's better to have a cabinet." ”

Long Qing also felt that this thing, if it was played well, it would definitely be much better than those squeaky silk bamboo sounds, so that when drinking and having fun, it would also be more interesting. Thinking about it, he said: "Those Westerners must know how to play, so let's meet them and help you ask." So he ordered the Ministry of Rites to summon foreign guests at a later date.

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Different from the emperor's child's playful reasons. The cabinet attaches great importance to this meeting with foreign envoys to pay tribute, because one of the signs of the prosperity of the dynastic state is that 'all nations come to the dynasty', and because of the decline of the national strength and the isolation of the country, except for Korea, Ryukyu and other vassal countries that have always been close to the Celestial Empire, they have cut off contacts with the vast majority of vassal states. Now there are Thai Saigon envoys who come here, which makes the ministers who have been absent for a long time feel very curious and excited, especially Xu Ge Lao, who actually ordered the Ministry of Rites to give the highest national gift.

Or silently persuaded: "There are many scenes and ceremonies, and the emperor is going to be impatient again, what should I do if I don't receive the mission again in the future?" ”

Xu Jie thought about it, the laziness of the emperor of this dynasty was simply to the point of appalling, in order to increase his interest in state affairs, it was better to keep everything simple, so he had to arrange it silently, and he didn't care anymore.

As a result, the place of meeting the foreign envoy was arranged in the emperor's favorite Xinuan Pavilion.

Partition -

The illness is like a thread, I have been sore, my mind is dizzy, and I am not very satisfied with what I barely wrote, and I am still not satisfied with it, but I can't delay it for another day, please forgive me...... Hopefully tomorrow will be fine.