Since the ministers are so loyal, Li Wanjiang feels very relieved. Naturally, he will not seriously chop off the heads of his beloved ministers. It is just an angry word.
After wiping away his tears and lamenting several times, he reluctantly cheered up and began to take care of state affairs.
The death of the Queen Mother is also considered a state matter, and it is the first thing to be dealt with.
This kind of thing can be said to be complicated or simple, just follow the regulations of the previous dynasties. Anyway, it has been similar in all dynasties.
Royal funerals are definitely different from folk funerals. In the folk, when a parent dies, they must observe mourning for three years without missing a day. This is not to mention the common people, and the same is true for court officials at all levels.
No matter you are a first-rank official or a low-ranking official, a general or a marshal or a small soldier, as long as your father and mother are gone, you will have to go home and observe mourning for three years. After three years, you can come back to report to the court and resume work.
Of course, the vacancy in your official position must not be vacant within three years. Someone will definitely replace it. Therefore, after many people come back, no judge will be reinstated. They can only wait for the vacancy like Chen Ziang, and it is not certain when the wait will be. .
Also, although their ranks will not be reduced, they will not be affected by the vacancy they are waiting for. For example, they were supposed to be a prefect of Jiangnan County, but ended up being vacated by Weizhou County. They were all fourth-grade prefects, but their circumstances were extraordinary. It’s a very different place, so I’m just asking you if you want to go?
I definitely don't like to go, but I have to go, because if I don't go, I will be picky, dislike the poor and love the rich, and disobey the superior management. A punishment is considered light, but in severe cases, it is possible to strip off the rank directly.
Such examples abound, so most officials are actually unwilling to abide by the system, for fear of losing their lucrative jobs and never getting back.
There are even people who have received a letter announcing the death of a family member, but pretended not to know it. What's worse, the family member is obviously still alive, but they claim to have died long ago... Similar things abound.
Anyway, there are regulations from above, and they have countermeasures. As long as they do it secretly, they can hide it from the public.
They didn't want to abide by the rules of their parents and fulfill their filial duty, but they had to be secretive and like thieves, but the emperor took advantage of the loopholes in an open and honest manner.
For example, when the Queen Mother died, the Emperor should observe mourning for three years. However, because the country cannot be without a king for a day, the Emperor cannot ignore the affairs of the government for three years. So the officials came up with a brilliant idea called "With The day changes to the month'.
To put it simply, the emperor was originally supposed to observe filial piety for three years, but after changing the concept through the word game of changing the sun to the moon, he only needed to observe filial piety for thirteen days in an open and dignified manner.
Is it fun?
Is it surprising?
Anyway, Xiao Chen thought it was quite fun, and thought to himself, isn't this just trying to hide something? In fact, you are the emperor, you can do whatever you want, who the hell dares to say anything wrong with you?
But you have to spend a lot of time and rack your brains to come up with such a ridiculous excuse, and you don’t know who you are lying to?
The emperor also had to wear mourning clothes within thirteen days, as did the civil and military ministers in the court. However, it took thirteen days for the emperor to "take off the clothes", but the ministers only needed seven days to take them off.
There is also the death of the Queen Mother. Although it is customary to announce the death to the world, the governors and governors from various places do not have to go to Beijing for funeral ceremonies. This is reasonable.
Because the Queen Mother usually has to be buried and buried within ten days. In ten days, even if she rushes for 800 miles, she will not be able to notify all the mourners. She will have to wait until the governors and generals from remote areas return. , it will take at least more than a month.
The Queen Mother's body will be infested with maggots by then. Can you afford to wait? And you can't dig out the Queen Mother and hold a funeral after they come back, right?
That's not very good either.
In fact, Li Wanjiang knew all this, but he still listened patiently to the funeral ministers' verbose remarks before agreeing to give permission.
After all the funeral arrangements have been made, the process begins.
The first item is naturally to read out the Queen Mother’s ‘will’, which is actually a suicide note...??m
The Minister of Rites read it out in person, with a cadence and distinct words. The emperor's eyes filled with tears as he listened, and he wiped his eyes frequently. The ministers' faces were solemn, and their eye circles were red. Li Wanyun, Li Shi's uncle and nephew also choked up from time to time. Overall, the scene was
Very touching.
But Xiao Chen could tell with his nose that this so-called "edict" was definitely not written by the Queen Mother herself, because the content was very high-level, and it was all about exhorting the emperor to put national affairs first and put the world first, but he didn't know
Which Hanlin did it come from?
Your Majesty, it is true that this matter can be left to me. If I were to write it, I would definitely write better and more realistically than him...
This is so damn fake!
The next step is to discuss the posthumous title of the Queen Mother. In theory, the posthumous title of the Queen Mother should be "given by God". Even the emperor is her son. Who else dares to give it a posthumous title than her?
But of course it had to be worked out through discussion between the emperor and the ministers. This is called a gift from heaven.
In fact, the earliest posthumous titles were only two characters, but later emperors wanted to give their mothers a little more glory, so the number of posthumous titles increased, and even there were more than a dozen characters...
"I believe that the Queen Mother respects the world and puts benevolence and filial piety first, so there should be a word 'benevolence'." Chen Wenqi spoke first.
"What Mr. Chen said is absolutely true. The Queen Mother is filial to her ancestors and is kind to the emperor and princes. I think the word 'kindness' should be added." Lu Jing said.
Xiao Chenxin said that the old witch was so kind, but if I wanted to, it would be more appropriate to replace it with the word 'disaster'...
The ministers spoke one after another, and in an instant they came up with a dozen lofty posthumous titles for the queen, such as Xuan Kang Dunhui, Mu Jing Tianguang, etc. Anyway, it is not wrong to just pick the best words.
But they all deliberately did not mention the word "Shengcheng". This was reserved for the Emperor. Otherwise, could it show the Emperor's filial piety?
"I thought it would be better to add the word Shengcheng. The Queen Mother deserves to be the most holy and sincere person." As expected, Li Wanjiang finally made the final decision.
So the posthumous title was Queen Shengcheng, Filial Piety, Kindness, Xuankang Huidun, Mujing, Tianguangxian...
Originally, the atmosphere of sadness was just right, and the monarch and his ministers were discussing harmoniously, but there were such ignorant people who came forward to seek death at this time!
"Your Majesty, I have this memorial!" He was talking about Xu Haiming.
"Ai Qing, what do you have to report?" Li Wanjiang didn't know what Xu Haiming wanted to report, so his face was gentle and his tone was gentle.
Xu Haiming took out the memorial, opened it, and recited it in front of the public with an expressionless face.
At the beginning, he said, "I have recently heard that my foreign relatives have exclusive power, and the local officials are all chosen according to their own wishes, but none of the officials dare to harmonize with anyone."
It can be said that he has no superior, and is extremely domineering. Just like in the court meeting of our heaven, the husband is the emperor and the one who is destined to return. However, he pretended to have authority, acted recklessly, did disrespectful things, and everyone was silent, and ordered the ministers to slap the case.
Surprise!
Li Wanjiang originally had a gentle expression, wasn't he? As soon as he heard Xu Haiming mention the word "relative", his face immediately became serious. When he heard the next words, his face also turned pale, and he clenched the handle of the dragon chair tightly with both hands, showing blue veins.
Exposed and angry.
But Xu Haiming didn't notice the emperor's rage at all. He only concentrated on reading his memorial with his head down, as if no one was watching.