West Garden, Yuxi Palace.

At night, the West Garden is full of lights.

A while ago, when the chief military officer of Datong reported a great victory, many lanterns were set up in the palace to celebrate. Nowadays, the lanterns have not been removed, red, green and green, and it looks quite festive.

Even the eunuchs on duty here were all happy.

When ordinary people mention the emperor's residence, the first thing that comes to mind is the Forbidden City. It was only there that the center of the Ming Empire.

In fact, the so-called Forbidden City is just a place where the concubines often lived, and from the Zhengde year, the emperor lived in the West Garden on the west side of the Forbidden City most of the time. This is a royal garden, next to the vast Yuyuan Pond, the scenery is particularly beautiful.

Emperor Zhengde once built a lot of construction here, and it was quite neatly organized.

There are mountains and rivers, trees and flowers, especially in the hot summer, when the breeze blows through the lake, making people feel refreshed.

In the Forbidden City, due to security needs, flowers and trees cannot be planted, lest the assassins hide and be exposed to the sun for a day, which is as hot as a steamer. As long as the emperor is not a masochist, he will not spend the night in a place like the Forbidden City that is so hot that it can turn people into baked cakes.

That is, from that time, whether it was Zhengde or the current Emperor Jiajing, whether it was office or rest, ten out of twelve months a year lived here.

Because of this, the celebrant and the cabinet have set up duty rooms here.

This conventional rule has not changed since then, from the Ming to the Qing Dynasty to the modern era, and Xiyuan has become Zhongnanhai.

Yuxi Palace is the residence of Emperor Jiajing, and there is a gray-haired eunuch standing at the entrance of the palace. This person looks old, and he can't tell his age, but looking at the official clothes on his body, and then looking at the calm and calm momentum exuded by him, it is actually Huang Jin, the eunuch who holds the seal of the celebrant and the eunuch.

On a hot day, the doors and windows of the emperor's practice house were closed, and no one dared to enter without his words.

The whole palace looked dark and gloomy.

Huang Jin has been waiting here for an afternoon, but there is no wind in this afternoon, the minister of the Ming Empire looked at the backwater in the distance that was as flat as a mirror and reflected slightly in the light, sweat couldn't help oozing out of the vest, and soon the official robe on his body was soaked.

Even the fold in his hand was dripping with a few drops of sweat.

He remained in this standing position, his gaze falling on his toes, like a clay sculpture of wood.

A little eunuch quietly walked up, shouted "godfather", scooped up his long sleeves and wanted to fan Huang Jin.

Huang Jin slowly raised his head and glanced at him gloomily and majestically.

The little eunuch's face turned pale, and he hurriedly retreated silently.

The palace was quieter, and the sound of knowing was heard in the distance, which made people even more upset.

The sunset has set in the west, look at this brilliant sunset today, and tomorrow will be another sunny day. But Huang Jin's heart was so heavy that it seemed to put a scale, and even the air seemed stagnant and stuffy, like a precursor to the storm.

There is no sourness and no pain on the body.

Huang Jin suddenly felt a little lonely in his heart: They are all old, long live the lord, I, Huang Jin, and the members of the court are all old and have low energy. Just like this Ming Dynasty, it is dazzling on the surface, but it looks dull at the root. Perhaps, it is really time for the old and the new to alternate, and Long Live Lord seems to have the same thoughts. The predecessors have completely blocked the road of the descendants, and I don't know how many outstanding people who are behind are clamoring for the old people to make way.

What will it be like in a few years?

But his mind was a little confused.

…… Behind him, there was a rush of footsteps, Huang Jin looked up, but saw a bright red chamberlain robe walking over, holding a large stack of documents in his hand.

This person is the second ranked in the inner house, the chief eunuch of the ceremonial supervisor and the eunuch of the East Factory, Chen Hong.

Chen Hong is ten years younger than Huang Jin, and when he is in the prime of life, he has been in charge of the East Investigation Factory for a long time.

Walking to the emperor's house, Chen Hong was about to open his mouth, but Huang Jin hurriedly waved his head at him.

It's a pity that it's too late, and a melodious sound of a clear fish chime came.

Huang Jin hurriedly glanced at Chen Hong, and the two pushed open the door and walked in lightly.

As soon as they entered the house, they were greeted by a wave of heat, which made their ears buzz, 100,000 pores opened at the same time, and sweat gushed out like a spring.

Although he was wearing thick-soled official boots, he could still feel a stream of heat coming up from the gold bricks under his feet.

This house is as hot as a stove.

There was no light in the room, it was dark, and in the center was a veil in which a man sit.

"Long live my emperor!" Huang Jin and Chen Hong knelt down at the same time and kowtowed.

"Get up!" Emperor Jiajing's voice sounded a little hoarse.

"Hooray, hooray, hooray." The two great eunuchs got up at the same time.

Chen Hong went to light the lamp, while Huang Jin rolled up the veil.

The lamp was turned on, shining on Emperor Jiajing's cyan face, which looked like there was no trace of blood.

On a hot day, Emperor Jiajing was still wearing a thick Songjiang cotton preaching robe, and there was not a drop of sweat on his forehead.

Huang Jin wanted to reach out to help, but Emperor Jiajing stood up suddenly, walked to a chair, and sat down: "Huang Jin, Chen Hong, you seem to be very hot." ”

Huang Jin handed over the fold in his hand: "Long live the master's cultivation seems to have improved a lot, and he has already cultivated to the body of a half-immortal, and he has long been invasive." Congratulations to Your Majesty, congratulations to Your Majesty. The old slave ** mortal fetus, this winter and summer, but it is particularly difficult. This fold is very important, and the minister does not dare to deal with it rashly, and asks His Majesty to make a clear judgment. ”

He smiled bitterly in his heart, this long-lived grandfather was a notoriously difficult servant, not to mention his strange surname, and had many quirks. For example, on such a hot day, he has to wear cotton clothes, close the door, and make the house the same as the drying room. But in the middle of winter, the door was wide open, and he was wearing only a thin robe.

Long Live Lord has been cultivating wholeheartedly in the past two years, and he doesn't care much about political affairs. But whenever the six scholars of the cabinet and the four eunuchs of the celebrant were summoned, several of them were old and infirm, and they would always get seriously ill.

For example, when the Mongolian Emperor arrived in the capital last month, Emperor Jiajing sent Yan Ge Lao and Xu Jie to come here to ask for advice. Yan Song is okay, all eighty people came, but his body was like iron. However, Xu Ge was sweating profusely from the heat, went out to see the wind, and is still lying in bed.

"What's the important fold, it's said that the four seas have been leveled recently, and it's not a big deal, you just have to approve the red yourself." There was a hint of tiredness on the emperor's face.

The so-called red approval is that after the emperor received the excerpt from the courtiers, he dipped the brush in cinnabar and wrote down the handling opinions on the chapter.

But there are thousands of officials in the world, and the folds sent over are piled up like a hill. Manpower was sometimes poor, and the emperor only had a pair of eyes, and he couldn't see at all.

Moreover, many officials of the Ming Dynasty are very bad, and when they write excerpts, they like to play with rhetoric, and an excerpt of more than 1,000 words is deliberately written in a foggy manner, and at the end, they will replace what they have played, which does not make people feel impetuous. More than 1,000 words are pretty good, but when you encounter the kind of excerpt that is like a god in the pen, you can't put it away as soon as you write it, and you look at it for half an hour, but it turns out to be a please Ann excerpt, and you even have the heart to kill.

In order to save time and improve administrative efficiency, the Ming Dynasty made a very complete political system.

When officials make excerpts, they need to first go from the folds to the ministries and departments, and then the ministries and departments will be handed over to the cabinet first. The six scholars of the cabinet first read through it, wrote down the handling opinions, and classified them according to their priorities, and handed them over to the four chief eunuchs of the celebrant for review.

After the four great eunuchs read the cabinet's handling opinions, they wrote down the review opinions on behalf of the emperor and returned them to the cabinet for disposal, which is the so-called approval of red.

In fact, the right of the celebrant to approve the red originally belonged to the emperor, and when it came to important folds, the eunuchs did not dare to be arbitrary, so they had to send it to the emperor.

This is the case with this excerpt in Huang Jin's hand.

Hearing the emperor's words, Huang Jin said softly: "Long live Lord, you really want to see this excerpt." ”

"What's the matter, the left and right are just singing praises of virtue, retribution of success, praise of saints, and what new tricks can be played?" Jiajing's face showed a mean expression: "Those officials, when the Mongols hit under the city wall, they were all silent, and when it came to the strategy of retreating from the enemy, they didn't know anything. Now that they have won the battle, they have all come out to steal the limelight and whitewash the peaceful and prosperous times. didn't know that the inside of the Ming Dynasty was empty. The situation of the dynasty was mistaken again and again, first there were Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Japanese robbers, and now the Mongols hit under their noses. Internal and external troubles arise at the same time, the sin lies in the cabinet, and the sin lies in the group of mediocre officials who are working on my hands. ”

The emperor's words framed all the courtiers. Huang Jin and Chen Hong's bodies were shocked, and they suddenly felt in their hearts for no reason that the personnel of this court might really be moved. I don't know how many upstarts will soar into the sky in the future, and how many old people will return to the mountains and forests from now on.

"Shengming has no Son of Heaven, but His Majesty can't help but look at this excerpt." Before Huang Jin could speak, Chen Hong suddenly interjected.

Being preempted by him, Huang Jin frowned unknowingly, but he still stood respectfully in front of the emperor with his body bent.

He and Chen Hong, as well as the other two eunuchs of the celebrant and the other two eunuchs of the pen, all saw it at noon, and they knew that it was a big matter, so they discussed it, and they did not dare to delay, so they asked Huang Jin to face the saint with the excerpt first, and the others went separately to understand the specific situation.

"Oh, tell me, why can't you not watch it." The emperor sat upright on the chair, put his hands on the dantian position, and his eyes drooped.

Chen Hongdao: "Back to the words of the Long Live Lord, this is the excerpt of Lu Bing, the commander of the Zuodu Governor Jinyi's pro-army, impeaching the chief military officer of Datong, Qiu Luan, who lost his division and lost his land, killed the good and risked the merits, bullied the king, and begged to behead the enemy Luan to correct the hearts of the people and the country." ”

Jiajing raised his eyes suddenly, and his eyes emitted green light, like a beast lurking in the darkness.

(To be continued)