The emperor has always been very particular and never sleeps elsewhere in the palace. Even if the dragon bed in Cangchen Palace is not made to his liking, he dislikes it very much.
Not to mention sleeping in the crowded little bed in the west wing of Tingliyuan?
Not to mention, the emperor did not like the concubines to approach him in the past and was very impatient with them. Except for showing off in front of the Queen Mother, it was difficult for the concubines to approach him.
And Lihua broke the emperor's conventions one by one, not only letting the emperor take the initiative to approach, but also making the emperor try his best to please, which Zhang Defa thought was incredible.
I didn’t expect that there would be something even more incredible.
For the sake of Pear Blossom, the emperor condescended to lean on the little bed that was not elegant. Uncharacteristically, he let Pear Blossom hug him, patiently fanned him, and allowed him to sleep soundly.
Every aspect has exceeded Zhang Defa’s knowledge and is simply unimaginable!
No wonder Zhang Defa was shocked, he had not seen the emperor and Lihua get along many times.
The most shocking time was the time when he saw the emperor twisting Lihua's hair.
That time alone shocked Zhang Defa to the point of thunder and made him realize what a big mistake he had made. After that, he worked hard on his big mistake and finally made up for it.
But compared to this time, that time was completely insignificant.
He has never seen an emperor be so intimate with a concubine, with a gentle look on her face, as if she were a treasure.
In the past, the emperor was kind to Lihua, such as personally choosing ornaments and jewelry, writing letters, etc. In Zhang Defa's view, this was just a normal behavior of the emperor toward a favorite concubine, and it was a hobby in his spare time.
But this time it is obviously different.
For the first time in Zhang Defa's life, he saw the emperor tolerate all the things that were usually intolerable, and coaxed Lihua to sleep soundly.
Use a fan to wipe Wu Meiren's sweat, and use gentle movements, letting Wu Meiren sleep unsteadily, and you are afraid that she will be uncomfortable in her sleep. Isn't that coaxing?
We also carried the memorial to Tingliyuan, which was also the first time we met Zhang Defa.
But compared to seeing the emperor coaxing Lihua to sleep, and what I saw during the court meeting today, bringing the memorial to Tingliyuan is nothing.
Speaking of today's court meeting, it was the first thing that shocked Zhang Defa in a hundred years.
The emperor, who had served as a model worker for thousands of years, announced on the spot that he was retiring from the court because of Xiao Shunzi's arrival, leaving behind a palace full of frightened courtiers.
Zhang Defa was stunned at the time and could only stay to clean up the stall and deal with emergencies with an unpredictable expression.
It’s also my fault that the courtiers themselves didn’t live up to their expectations.
At that time, the court meeting had just ended, and the courtiers were anxiously waiting to see who would be kicked out of the court meeting today, and they did not dare to show their anger.
There are no particularly important events at the recent meeting. As we have prepared well for the summer flood season this year, people have been dispatched to flood control areas in previous years, and the news from various places is quite good.
It stands to reason that the courtiers should feel more at ease. After all, there is nothing major, at least nothing that makes the emperor angry.
But the courtiers really had no idea, because several ministers from the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Household had a fight before the meeting, which caused a lot of noise.
As expected, the number of people who were forked out during this court meeting was particularly spectacular!
Whether they are dead or not, these people are all ministers who have something to report.
The matter they discussed was neither big nor small nor urgent, but it involved a dispute between the two departments, and the quarrel was so intense that the quarrel was at a stalemate for several days.
Thanks to the countdown sign, the work efficiency of various ministries is unprecedented, and courtiers are involved in each other.
A minister of the Ministry of Industry suddenly discovered that in the official kiln under his jurisdiction, the quality of the porcelain distributed to the private sector had risen to a higher level, and at the same time the quantity had increased a lot.
Since ancient times, porcelain produced in official kilns has been mainly supplied to the palace.
In previous dynasties, all porcelain of poor quality produced in official kilns would be destroyed, but a certain stingy emperor in this dynasty thought it was a waste, and he was so imaginative that he sold these porcelains to the people for the first time.
The porcelain produced in official kilns is incomparable to that of private kilns. Even if the porcelain seems to be of poor quality in the palace, it is rare and top-grade among the people.
This emperor is stingy, but he knows how to manage finances and govern the country.
He doesn't want to get a bad reputation as an official competing with the people for profit, but he also wants to make money clearly, and it's best to gain a good reputation.
So the emperor thought of a trick, and specifically stated that the selling price should be set very high, and at the same time sell in limited quantities, and then let people specially select the upper class, and spread the news that the porcelain from the imperial kiln used by the emperor was leaked.
Sure enough, rich people heard the news and came to pursue it. They were all proud to have porcelain fired in official kilns at home.
Some wealthy families even go to great lengths to snatch back a set of porcelain just to make a dowry for their daughters.
Under such orders from the emperor, the leeks of the big merchants, big landowners and rich people were harvested one after another, and the common people could live their lives how they wanted.
The porcelain flowing out of the official kilns did not have any impact on the private kilns.
The ministers at the time were strongly opposed to it.
How could an emperor do such a thing? It would be a shame to lose one's status. He would not be known as a money-grubbing person for eternity, which would have extremely negative effects on future generations.
At this moment, the emperor waved his hand again and announced that 50% of the silver earned would be put into the national treasury to be used for water conservancy construction and disaster relief to save the people.
Upon seeing this, the ministers turned off the lights one after another. It can generate revenue for the national treasury without harming the interests of the people. The rich are begging to come and buy it. Hello, me, everyone, why not do it.
So they all changed their words and said that the emperor is wise, allowing the porcelain that should be destroyed to play a greater role, and actually doing practical things for the people. He is truly a wise emperor through the ages.
As for the other 50% of the silver entering the emperor's private treasury, the ministers chose to pretend to be blind and had no objection at all.
In this way, the tradition of official kilns has been passed down to this day.
But the minister of the Ministry of Industry discovered something was wrong. If the product was in bad condition, it could be sold to the public. How could it be sold to the public if the product was in good condition?
Moreover, the number had increased so much that if there were not enough in the palace, ten heads would not be enough for him to cut off, so he began to investigate the matter.
Coincidentally, when a minister of the Ministry of Revenue was settling accounts, he suddenly discovered that the treasury's porcelain revenue had increased several times. He felt that something was fishy and began to investigate.
The two parties investigated the same matter at the same time, and after repeated investigations, they found that the failure rate of ceramics fired by official kilns in the latest quarter had dropped significantly, and the output had increased significantly. Therefore, the appearance and quantity of porcelain flowing to the private sector increased accordingly.
The ministers of the two ministries were overjoyed, and they keenly realized that the time had come to make meritorious deeds. They scrambled to take the credit for their own ministries, and they started fighting.
They quarreled at the court meeting at first, but the emperor did not listen to them at all. He only asked lightly: "Why do the porcelains of the official kilns increase so much? Do you know any of your beloved ministers?"
The two ministers suddenly became silent. During the investigation, they knew that the other party was also investigating, and they were afraid of being beaten first, so they rushed to show their merits without doing much to find out the situation.
Moreover, in their opinion, if the output of official kilns has increased, it must be that the craftsmen who fired the porcelain are skilled. What else could be the reason?
But the emperor refuted it on the spot: "Is it possible that the skills of craftsmen suddenly became better? Then why did they remain unchanged in the past and hide their clumsiness?"