On December 31 of the first year of Honghua in the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Zhu Honghua sat happily on the dragon chair and rubbed his hands excitedly.

He kept saying how to hold his first New Year's celebration: "I have to have the biggest and biggest celebration." The chair must be made of yew wood, and rubber should be padded underneath so that it will not make a noise when moved. Pork must be stewed to rotten, but braised pork should not be stewed. Chopsticks should be ivory, not silver, silver is too heavy! I'm going to eat braised pork with sugar, but I have to put more salt in the meatballs. The chair should not be one color, but should be colorful, so that it will be lively. The chefs in the restaurants in Xi'an County are good, and they got them into the palace. Their women are not bad either, haha......"

He spoke on the dragon chair, and the Internal Affairs Office, the Household Department, the Rite Department, the Sacrificial Temple, and the Guanglu Temple below each held a small notebook.

The emperor spoke upside down, and the group of people below scribbled and changed, scratching their heads in a hurry.

Liu Xingchao, the chief manager, and Li Guozhong, the prime minister, have been closing their eyes and recuperating, and they have not moved.

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When the emperor had said almost enough, a man stood forward, an old man in his sixties, wearing glasses, very thin but very energetic - the head of the royal treasury.

He said: "Your Majesty, the treasury is tight at the moment, and it is difficult to come up with this money. Besides, at present, he is still filial piety for the emperor, so don't spend more money! ”

Jin Woo-kwang, the head of the household department, said to him: "What kind of treasury is tight? Didn't you say last time that the treasury is full, enough for the world to meet for ten years? ”

The minister looked at him and said, "That was half a year ago!" The funeral cost a sum of money, it took a sum of money to suppress Zhao Zhenglong before, and then it took a lot of money to expedition to Hebei, it took another sum to change the surname of the royal family, it took a sum to decorate the palace, and it took a sum to build a new palace, not to mention the mansion of the prince and Li Hongsi, which is still being built. ”

Jin Yuguang, Minister of Households: "What does the imperial court do with you, the Finance Bureau?" You won't figure it out, huh? ”

"There are only two ways to do this – raise taxes or borrow from the local government," the minister said. But neither is possible. If the tax is raised, it is not in line with the ancestral motto of the Ming Dynasty to 'never raise taxes', and the people have been peaceful for a long time, and they will definitely oppose it. Borrowing from the Jiangnan Chamber of Commerce is not good for the reputation of the royal family, because they are illegal. Besides, the interest rate is too high to be cost-effective! ”

The emperor slapped the armrest of the dragon chair angrily: "What can't you do!" Am I in charge or you have the final say! First, give me a tax increase! Second, confiscate the money of the Chamber of Commerce for me and copy them for me! ”

The Jiangnan Chamber of Commerce is an organization of the Jiangnan provinces. Civilians in the Ming Dynasty were forbidden to move and do business, but the scholars could. These wealthy businessmen formed a chamber of commerce, headquartered in Lingnan and covering the provinces of Jiangnan. Their money far outweighed the royal family, and even their bank's notes were more reputable than the royal bank's cheques – although this was theoretically illegal, as the Ming King James Law stipulated that there was only one bank, the Royal Bank.

The Jiangnan Chamber of Commerce is an extremely powerful organization, and even the inner court does not provoke them.

Of course, the emperor's subordinates did not raid the chamber of commerce's house this time, because the chamber of commerce only took out a small sum of their money and sent the emperor away.

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At this time, the head of the Zongren Mansion stepped forward and said: "Today is still the period of filial piety, and the palace is still decorated for mourning, what should Your Majesty do?" ”

Emperor: "What filial piety!" I am the emperor, I have the final say. Remove it all! ”

So the palace immediately took action, replacing all the plain decorations with bright ones.

Later, the emperor was not satisfied, he liked the red and green.

So we continued to change to all kinds of colorful decorations, colorful lights illuminated everything, and the whole palace looked like a big peacock in heat.

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It was just dark in the evening, and everyone was there.

The governors and overseers of each province, the ministers, governors, and governors of the inner court and the outer courts, and the heads of the major noble clans were all present.

The city of Chang'an was under martial law, and the forbidden army in the palace area was surrounded by water.

The first floor, the second floor, and the third floor of the palace were held at the same time, and for the glorious effect, all the auxiliary buildings and all the lamps and lanterns of the main building of the palace were turned on, and the searchlights on the ground shot into the sky to the Milky Way, and the entire Great Chang'an District became a city that never sleeps! I can't see the stars clearly.

The electricity was generated by the Royal Power Plant (Building IV). Even if the royal family has a lot of money, it must use gasoline to generate electricity! This gasoline burns too much, right?!

The scale of this celebration far exceeded the wedding of Dongfang Mingyue.

There were only one or two hundred people on the first floor of the palace that day, and today there are hundreds of people on each floor.

The wedding banquet that day was very orderly, the lighting was very emotional, and the utensils and dishes had their own meanings, but today it was the opposite. Colorful lights overhead, and a circle of buffets is set around the main hall, filled with big fish, meat, and various liquors.

People are chatting in the middle, and there are often exaggerated shouts and laughter, which is no different from the daughter-in-law in the outside village!

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I met Dongfang Chengping, Dongfang Yongbai Zhu Mengzi and his wife, Dongfang Mingyue Li Hongsi and his wife.

I actually saw Dongfang Xing, Dongfang Tian, Dongfang Qi, Dongfang Liang, and a few other people from the Dongfang family who were not familiar with me.

Dongfang Chengping looked at me and said, "I really didn't expect that you have now become the highest-ranking Oriental in the palace." ”

Yes, the world is unpredictable, Dongfang Chengping bet the treasure on Li Yongfu, he thought that the inner court overwhelmed the outer court, but the result was that the inner court and the outer court were finished together, and the new inner court and the new outer court rose.

Dongfang Yongbai and his wife, Dongfang Mingyue and his wife also greeted me.

Dongfang Mingyue walked up to me and said, "Thank you for saving my palace maid." Saving someone's life is better than creating a seventh-level floating slaughter. ”

I said, "Unfortunately, I'm not religious." Besides, I've got one less person to save. ”

She said, "Yes, I thought they were all dead, and I cried for days." ”

Me: "How's going on with your family?" ”

Her: "Don't talk about it anymore!" Don't mention it to me! We are very good, and my husband loves me very much. ”

She smiled and said, "Thank you, I'm fine, you take care too." ”

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Although I don't think much of the emperor's taste, his New Year's celebration is quite lively.

A large number of artists have come to the palace, monkeys, jugglers, chest crushers, clowns, cross talkers, singers, and of course, many of them are women in the green building.

When these people came to the palace, Liu Xingchao, the head of the inner court, had a face as black as Bao Gong, and he held a saber tightly in his hand, which made the eunuch who reported tremble. But Liu Xingchao didn't say anything in the end, so these hundreds of artists and Youling were brought in.

These people began to eat and drink at seven o'clock in the evening, and when they were full, they pulled, and when they were finished, they continued to eat; When you get drunk, you go to sleep, and when you wake up, you continue to drink.

It's almost twelve o'clock, the emperor has to hold a welcome ceremony, and everyone has to go to the third floor. Those who do not have status can only stay on the first and second floors, and officials above the fourth rank can go to the third floor to welcome the emperor together.

There is a large screen on the north side of the third floor, and on the screen is a snow-capped mountain under the sun, which is the sacred mountain, and it is said that humans came down from the sacred mountain. In front of the screen there is a long table full of tributes, including various fruits, dried fruits, snacks, dishes, liquor.

Next to the screen is a woman in white, that is the Holy Sect Saintess (of course, it is also a palace maid pretending).

The "Holy Maiden" handed the emperor a cup of "holy water".

The emperor poured the "holy water" onto the long table.

The hundreds of officials below knelt down at the same time and shouted: "Long live the emperor, long live, long live." ”

Orientation ends.

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At this time, it happened to be 0:00 a.m. on January 1, the second year of Daming Honghua.

Here's how to continue eating and drinking.

Many eunuchs set up tables and cushions, and this time it was not a buffet, but a fixed place.

Emperor Zhu Honghua sat on the dragon chair, and Empress Li Fangnan sat on the slightly smaller dragon chair.

In the following two columns, the first on the right is Liu Xingchao, the head of the inner court, the first on the left is Li Guozhong, the head of the outer court, and the second is Guo Dingguo, the deputy prime minister, the prince's father-in-law.

At this time, the prince Zhu Hongfeng came over.

It stands to reason that the prince basically doesn't come to the palace, such as the former prince Zhu Zhaoding, I almost never saw him. If he came here, the prince would be almost third, and his ranking would not be higher than that of the head of the inner court and the prime minister.

Wang Ye Zhu Hongfeng walked over in a daze.

He obviously wanted to sit in the first position to the right of the number one position, but that was the position of the head of the inner court. Zhu Hongfeng stared at Liu Xingchao, the head of the inner court, and Liu Xingchao ignored him at all. Liu Xingchao was picking up vegetables and drinking while looking at the singer dancing in front of him.

The prince couldn't do anything about him, so he trembled and went to the first position on the left, which was the territory of Prime Minister Li Guozhong.

The prince said, "Get out of the way, I'm going to sit there." ”

Li Guozhong frowned and said, "No big, no small, no rules!" ”

The status of the prime minister was originally in front of the prince, and now the prime minister is the queen's father, how can he be afraid of the prince.

The prince shouted, "What did you say? ”

The prime minister ignored him either.

The prince stared at the red eyes, and shouted to the deputy prime minister next to the prime minister, that is, his father-in-law Guo Dingguo: "Go away, I want to sit!" ”

Everyone looked at him in amazement, and some of them couldn't bear to look at him anymore and turned their heads away.

Vice Prime Minister Guo Dingguo got up in embarrassment, so the Minister of Criminal Affairs and the Minister of Industry behind him all moved their positions back.

The prince sat on his father-in-law's cushion.

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Those artists in Xi'an County and Chang'an County are really good, the men are ridiculously ugly, and the women are so beautiful that they drool, although their performances are meaningless, everyone laughs.

The prince Zhu Hongfeng went up again at this time, he drunkenly imitated those dancing girls, like a clown, everyone laughed even more happily, even the prince himself laughed.

Then the prince hugged a dancing girl and began to kiss her.

The dancers struggled to run, and they fell to the ground together.

The prince began to tear her clothes, and in a few moments they were torn naked.

The Emperor laughed.

Then the prince began to bully the dancing girl.

The Emperor smiled even more.

The head of the inner court got up and left directly.

The prime minister got up and walked straight away.

Everyone turned their backs and didn't look at it.