The sound of firecrackers bids farewell to the old year, and the clusters of fireworks bring another new year.
This is Zhu Zhen's second New Year in the Ming Dynasty. He is familiar with it once and twice, and he is no longer unfamiliar with the process of celebrating the New Year in the palace.
On New Year's Eve, we worship our ancestors and have a New Year's Eve dinner with the whole family. On the first day of the first lunar month, we get up early to burn incense and set off fireworks. We lose thousands of gold, drink the terrible pepper wine, and eat dumplings. Then we dress up and gather with a large group of brothers to go with our father.
Worship ancestors in the Ancestral Temple.
Come back from the Imperial Ancestral Temple and go to court...
On the New Year's Day in the ninth year of Hongwu's reign, hundreds of officials still congratulated each other, and all nations came to visit. But without the greetings from the folks in Fengyang and the familiar Fengyang flower drum, Boss Zhu always felt empty.
"Fortunately, there are still old brothers from my hometown who come to celebrate the New Year with us." After the court was dismissed, Zhu Yuanzhang left Li Shanchang alone and had lunch with him.
"You don't need to be so serious when you get the upper hand? You can also ask the fellow villagers to come again." Li Shanchang said with a smile.
"Oh, it still doesn't work." Boss Zhu shook his head and said, "We have thought clearly, that would actually harm them, so we should let them live a good life at home."
"That's fine." Li Shanchang nodded.
"They must be scolding us a lot, right?" Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly asked sadly.
"Haha..." Li Shanchang smiled and shook his head and said, "I have never heard of it."
"What about you? Did you scold us?" Zhu Yuanzhang asked again.
Li Shanchang took a look at Boss Zhu and saw that his eyes were downcast, unable to hide his fatigue, so he said softly:
"I had some emotions at first, but being in a higher position has its own difficulties, and being in a higher position has its considerations. As a minister, you have to accept it whether you understand it or not."
"Listen, your Uncle Li still has grievances." Zhu Yuanzhang said to the accompanying prince: "Hurry up and fill it up for Uncle Li, and we will toast him together."
The prince smiled, twisted the sleeve of his right hand with his left hand, and held the pot in his right hand to pour Li Shanchang a glass of wine.
Li Shanchang hurriedly said he didn't dare, picked up the wine glass with both hands, and drank a glass with Tianjia's father and son.
"After drinking this cup, everything will be over." Zhu Yuanzhang said with a smile.
"Okay, what the superior said is what it is." Li Shanchang quickly drank it all.
Zhu Yuanzhang watched him drink it, paused while holding the glass, and then slowly drank the wine in the glass.
Then the prince took the cup, and Zhu Yuanzhang and Li Shanchang drank and chatted for a whole afternoon. The two sides got rid of their bad feelings and reconciled as before.
At least the Korean public thinks so.
But Boss Zhu still thinks he hasn’t been paralyzed enough...
In the evening, Boss Zhu hosted a banquet for a group of old Huaixi brothers as usual. Although there were still four dishes and one soup, there were chicken, duck, and fish. It was much more normal than the meal that made the green people panic last year.
At the banquet, Boss Zhu also welcomed all comers. He got very drunk with his old brothers and sang with them those pornographic ditties he had sung in the army in his early years.
This made Li Shanchang and a group of Huaixi nobles inevitably have the illusion that the emperor was still afraid of us making trouble, and felt that Boss Zhu had given in...
Little did they know, a terrible storm was coming.
~~
After the banquet, Liu Ying and Eunuch Wu helped Boss Zhu back to Qianqing Palace to rest.
When Eunuch Wu took off the emperor's boots and took a hot towel to wipe Zhu Yuanzhang's face, he saw Boss Zhu open his eyes, his eyes as sharp as an eagle, not even half drunk.
"The Queen has prepared a bowl of sobering soup for us." Zhu Yuanzhang ordered in a deep voice.
"Yes." Eunuch Wu agreed softly and quietly closed the palace door when he exited. He knew that the emperor wanted to talk to Liu Ying alone.
"I didn't expect that when I became an emperor, I would have to have fake social activities." Boss Zhu said, rubbing his temples.
"Thank you for your hard work, Your Majesty." Liu Ying had a straight face, not knowing what a smile meant.
"Have the officials from various places been in Beijing for a while?" Zhu Yuanzhang asked in a deep voice.
"Yes." Liu Ying nodded.
"Anything gained?"
"Yes." Liu Ying reported: "There is a steady stream of reports from various groups of secret agents, but..."
"Just what?" Zhu Yuanzhang asked in a deep voice.
"It's just a mess, too much and too complicated." Liu Ying said in a muffled voice: "There is not much valuable information."
"What's the problem?" Zhu Yuanzhang asked.
"Because Mr. Han did not meet those local officials and asked them to talk directly to Prime Minister Hu. If we want to investigate them, Prime Minister Hu will inevitably be involved." Liu Ying said helplessly: "And the emperor specifically ordered that Prime Minister Hu will not be involved this time."
"That's right, nothing can happen to Hu Weiyong. If we keep him, he will be of great use." Zhu Yuanzhang said solemnly: "So we have to start elsewhere."
He knew that Mr. Han, an old fox, was deliberately trying to destroy his own army.
"It would be difficult elsewhere. During the Chinese New Year, officials are busy socializing, talking about eating, drinking and having fun. They say that women talk more about gossip than talk about serious matters. It is really difficult to find just enough evidence to convict them.
Liu Ying said depressedly:
"Furthermore, Your Majesty, please forgive me for speaking frankly. There are more than 3,000 officials from various provinces, prefectures and counties. It is impossible to verify the evidence of their crimes one by one in a short time. Even if we only investigate some people, it is beyond our current capabilities.
.”
"No, we will convict them all this time!" Zhu Yuanzhang said solemnly: "For these stubborn guys, killing chickens is useless to scare monkeys."
"This subordinate is foolish, please show me to the emperor." Liu Yingcheng said in fear.
"Yang Xian back then must have had a way..." Zhu Yuanzhang was a little disappointed. His loyal captain of the bodyguard did not seem to be intelligence material.
"This subordinate is incompetent, please punish me." Liu Ying quickly knelt down to plead guilty.
"Get up, don't be nervous, we are just talking casually. Let you be a spy, it is just to catch a duck." Zhu Yuanzhang sighed:
"Intelligence requires talent. If you're not that talented, you can't force it."
"Then my subordinates will abdicate in favor of talents..." Liu Ying has long since stopped wanting to work. With a boss like Zhu Yuanzhang, incompetence is the biggest sin.
"There is no one else available, so you have to do it first." Zhu Yuanzhang shook his head. The first thing to do in intelligence is loyalty, and the second thing is reliability. When the entire Huaixi is unavailable, there are very few suitable candidates.
"Yes." Liu Ying nodded.
"You don't have much time left." Boss Zhu said solemnly: "We must find a suitable charge and catch them all."
"yes."
~~
On the second day of the Lunar New Year, Zhu Zhen was going out of the palace to pay New Year greetings.
Concubine Hu Xian got up early to prepare New Year gifts for Lao Liu.
Today he is going to his grandpa's house, his master's house, his uncle's house, and his two brothers' houses. It is not appropriate to go empty-handed.
"Go to your uncle's house and kowtow to your grandparents on behalf of your mother. Do you remember?" Concubine Hu Xian told Lao Liu who was about to load the cow.
Although her natal family has moved to the capital, only her mother and sister-in-law can visit her in the palace during holidays.
Concubine Hu Xian wanted to meet her father, but she had no chance.
"Okay." Zhu Zhen originally wanted to say that he was a prince and would not kowtow to his relatives, but since he was celebrating the New Year, he still didn't want to make my mother angry.
