Two events occurred in the early dynasty on the seventh day of the first lunar month, forming an interesting contrast that made the hundred officials talk about it in private.

The first is Liu Ji's resignation.

Zhu Yuanzhang asked the ceremonial official to read out the edict he personally drafted on the spot, quoting Liu Ji's resignation, probably the content of which was to thank this hero for his filial piety and be allowed to return to his hometown.

At the same time, Liu Ji resigned from the post of imperial historian and Taishi Ling, and the second grade of the good doctor was promoted to the first grade of the Ronglu doctor, rewarded 1,000 taels of silver, 10 horses of colored satin, and gave 10 acres of land.

None of this is unusual.

It was after everyone talked about it.

At the same time, the edict posthumously presented Liu Ji's father Liu Yao as the prince of Yongjia County, and posthumously presented Liu Ji's mother Fu Shi as the wife of Yongjia County.

Liu Ji's ancestral home is Qingtian, which used to belong to Yongjia County.

The layman looks lively.

However, there are few laymen who can ascend to the Ming Dynasty.

On the afternoon of the sixth day of the first lunar month, His Majesty the Emperor asked the Ministry of Rites to discuss the reward for Liu Ji's resignation and the posthumous gift to his parents.

Bounties aren't a big problem.

When an official retires from old age, he generally resigns from his main position, adds a level of dismissal, and then has rewards such as money and land, or can continue to receive money.

The key is the posthumous gift to Liu Ji's parents.

Liu Ji's parents have passed away, according to Liu Ji's official position in the second rank of the imperial history, and there is no title, according to the old practice of the ancient system, his father can posthumously present the same level or the next level of grace to the Wen Prose official, such as Liu Ji got today from the first grade of Ronglu doctor.

The mother was named 'Madame'.

In the old system of the Song Dynasty, the mother and wife of the first-grade and second-grade officials could be named 'Mrs.', the third-grade was 'lady', the fourth-grade was 'Gongren', and so on.

His Majesty the Emperor, who had just ascended the throne recently, once again played his cards out of common sense, and unexpectedly posthumously presented Liu Ji's father as 'Yongjia County Prince', and Liu Ji's mother Fu Shi as 'Yongjia County Lady'.

This......

How else can it be?

You must know that Liu Jike doesn't have any title!

Traditionally, only ministers who have a knighthood themselves can be posthumously awarded a knighthood of the same rank or higher by their parents.

Think about it again in recent days.

Liu Ji made Zhu Yuanzhang so angry that he brushed his sleeves on the spot on Chinese New Year's Eve a year ago, and then it was rumored that the superior had a heart disease because of this.

After that, everyone wanted to wait for the fourth day of the first month to see the excitement, but they didn't expect that on the fourth day of the first month, on the day Zhu Yuanzhang ascended the throne, the sky was clear, the stars were bright, and the sun was bright.

Good luck!

Lively did not see.

Then, His Majesty the Emperor obviously pretended to forget the events of Chinese New Year's Eve a year ago, but Liu Ji did not forget, although he did not chase after the killing of Cui Ji and others, but stubbornly chose to resign.

With the ministers' understanding of Lao Zhu, it is strange that this time it is not like thunder.

Again, everyone guessed wrong.

However, it is roughly conceivable that it should be the queen who has always been the most eloquent here to help.

The end result is this somewhat nondescript posthumous gift.

Even if it is just an honorary title without any hereditary rights, everyone understands the subtext of His Majesty the Emperor: You Liu Ji insist on resigning, which is equivalent to giving up at least one marquis!

No one doubts this.

After all, according to Liu Ji's achievements over the years, it is not too much to be a duke like Li Shanchang. But this ...... Dacai is an absolute talent, that is, his personality is too stubborn, so that Li Shanchang is already the high-ranking Duke of Xuanguo, but Liu Ji has not even fished for the lowest level of knighthood.

I have to say that the whole thing, everyone on the sidelines, even Liu Ji's political enemies, really can't understand it.

What the hell do you think?

The hereditary recklessness that others can't ask for, is it just like a piece of paper?!

Another thing that contrasts is Fang Guozhen's audience.

With a letter of begging with mournful words, of course, Lao Zhu thought about the overall situation, and Fang Guozhen was saved from death. At the beginning of the lunar month, this warlord of eastern Zhejiang dragged on the road for a month, and finally arrived in Jinling.

After a good performance, Zhu Yuanzhang rewarded Fang Guozhen with a mansion and lived in Jinling, without giving any official title.

It's no different from solitary confinement.

However, compared to Zhang Shicheng, this is already a good result.

Liu Ji and Fang Guozhen, at first glance, the two seem to have nothing to do with each other, but they actually have a deep relationship.

Fang Guozhen raised troops in eastern Zhejiang that year, and the Yuan court ordered Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces to send troops to fight, including a marshal of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, named Liu Ji.

After the Yuan court's crusade against Fang Guozhen was frustrated, it adopted a policy of appeasement, and both the top and bottom advocated appeasement, only Liu Ji thought that Fang Guozhen was capricious and insisted that it should be exterminated. Fang Guozhen also tried to bribe Liu Ji because of this, hoping that he would change his attitude, but Liu Ji refused to resign.

Fang Guozhen was finally surrendered, and Liu Ji was angry and resigned again.

Why do you say 'again'?

Because from Liu Ji's entrance examination to Jinshi, from Gao'an County Cheng to the deputy promotion of Confucianism in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, to the Marshal's Mansion of Jiangsu and Zhejiang Province, and even other official positions awarded by the Yuan Court later, according to Liu Ji's own words, 'too jealous', 'impatient with complicated tools', is really not suitable for officialdom, so Lord Liu is either resigning in his life, or on the way to resign.

No, on the seventh day of the first month of the first year of Hongwu, he resigned again!

Back Lake.

In the mansion on Huxin Island, Zhu Yuan didn't know about the recent series of excitement because of him.

Because of the killing of Cui Ji, the head of the household department, and others, Zhu Yuan has been planning to make himself more low-key recently.

After the fourth day of the first lunar month, the mansion is closed as much as possible.

After confirming the identities of Zhao Xu and Zuo Qi, such as pens and pencils, which are small objects in later generations, Zhu Yuan does not plan to take out any of them. has taught the sketches and punctuation of the four women around him, and he has also clearly asked that it can only be limited to the inner house, and the books that have been ordered and proofread are not allowed to be taken out, and the practice of sketching on weekdays can only be carried out in the inner house.

Zhu Yuan's daily life is also extremely simple.

In addition to three meals and sleep on time, he reads books occasionally and writes a few pages of manuscripts on the way of 'production' every day.

Occasionally, you may leave the inner house and take a walk in the garden.

The range of activities is also very small, first, he doesn't have that physical strength, and he hasn't been to the two-story study building on the south side of the garden until now, and second, if he can, he actually doesn't even want to go out for a walk, and insists on leaving the inner house, just to let Zhao Xu and the two take a look at themselves, so as not to show up for too long, so that they still think that something is wrong with the little official, and then go to inform Lao Zhu.

In short, as a 'butterfly' that has crossed over, in order to avoid the history recorded in the Book of Heaven from being changed, Zhu Yuan pursues to no longer disturb the outside world as much as possible.

And so on until the ninth day of the first month.

After lunch, the craftsman, who had been busy for many days, delivered a batch of pens with the highest degree of completion.

Ten in total.

or silver-plated, or black lacquer, or carved moire, or decorated with jade...... All of them are works of art.

Zhu Yuan was not surprised at all.

Think about the ancient Chinese craftsmen, who could make a tricky ivory carving set of balls, and could depict the picturesque rivers and mountains on a grain of rice, what are these?

It's just that it can't be mass-produced.

In contrast, the charcoal made by the craftsmen is still in the most simple state, with no lacquer and no engraving. If the difference is based on the different ratio of graphite and clay, the hardness of the refill is different, and the writing color is dark and shallow.

If you don't distinguish carefully, the difference is not much.

This is also Zhu Yuan's request.

No more tricks.

Otherwise, Zhu Yuan actually wanted to try to make colored pencils at first.

Ten fountain pens, Zhu Yuan picked a black and red relatively simple two, with ten charcoal, and a set of four-piece measuring rulers commonly used by students later, steel, in the ruler, inch, divided into units, although exquisite, but in the craftsman is the easiest of the three stationery to make, it is simply not worth mentioning.

After all the preparations, Zhu Yuan called Zhao Xu and asked him to send him to the Imperial City in the east of the city, which was very close to Houhu.