Chapter One Hundred and Twenty Six: Sacrifice to Heaven
ps: Sorry, after being reminded by a book friend, I learned that the area of "Prince Su's Mansion" was calculated in wrong units. I mistakenly recorded the unit of 1oox1oo as acres. So, it should be two hectares, or thirty acres of land.
, in today’s terms, it’s 20,000 square meters, I’m very sorry.
————The following text————
Different from the fear of unpredictable ghosts and gods in Chu, the people of Wei respect heaven and earth more, and in the customs of Wei, there is also a common saying that heaven is the father and earth is the mother. This obviously means that heaven and earth are regarded as the supreme gods who nurture all living beings.
In order to show respect and reverence to these two supreme priests and goddesses, since the early days of the founding of the Wei Dynasty, two buildings specially used for worship were built in the southern suburbs and the northern suburbs, namely the Circular Qiu and the Fangqiu.
Among them, the round mounds in the southern suburbs worship the sky, while the square mounds in the northern suburbs worship the earth, which coincides with contemporary people's cognitive concept of a round sky and a square earth.
In the past few days, what Zhao Hongrun and others have been talking about as offering sacrifices to heaven, in more literal terms, actually refers to the heaven-sacrifice part of the ritual of offering sacrifices to heaven and earth.
The venue for worshiping heaven is in the circle hill in the southern suburb of Daliang.
Wan means round.
So to put it bluntly, the Circular Qiu is a circular high platform, also known as the Temple of Heaven, which is a place dedicated to hosting ceremonies to worship the heaven.
Although this Temple of Heaven is not used many times, due to its special status, not only does the Ministry of Industry renovate the building every year, but the Ministry of Rites also sends troops to garrison it to prevent anyone from coming to cause trouble and damage it.
It is no exaggeration to say that unless there is a ceremony to worship the heaven, the Wei people will not approach this place easily, so as not to disturb the Heavenly Father.
This is also true for Fangqiu in the northern suburbs, but I won’t go into details here.
On April 15, the 17th year of Hong De, the troops originally stationed here were, as usual, taken over by the Imperial Guards and the Honor Guard Army of the Ministry of Rites. The latter two armies will take over this place on this special day to worship heaven.
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The former is responsible for maintaining public order, and as for the latter, it is self-evident that it is a guard of honor deployed by etiquette.
In the early morning of that day, Emperor Wei and all officials from the court gathered in the south of the city, and then walked to the Temple of Heaven to worship.
Yes, walking.`
On this day, even those as dignified as the Emperor of Wei must walk respectfully to the Temple of Heaven. They are not allowed to ride in an imperial chariot. This shows respect for the Heavenly Father and the importance of the ritual of worshiping the Heaven.
Naturally, Zhao Hongrun was included in this large team walking from the south gate of Daliang to the Temple of Heaven.
"Hongrun, you don't look well."
Next to Zhao Hongrun, Yong Wang Hongyu looked at his eighth brother with bloodshot eyes in bewilderment.
After all, in his opinion, this eighth brother was not the kind of person who would be affected by today's heaven-sacrifice ceremony.
Sure enough, Zhao Hongrun's helpless explanation in a low voice made Yong Wang Hongyu suddenly realize it. He was also a little bit dumbfounded.
"Yesterday, my father rewarded me with a mansion. I was so excited that I didn't sleep all night."
Pulling himself together, Zhao Hongrun whispered.
This is really...
Yong Wang Hongyu smiled bitterly and shook his head, and then whispered: "Brother, I heard that it is the house in Qingping Lane, Zhengyang North Street, right?... Well, that house is a bit old, but the scale is not inferior to that of the house.
Brother’s palace, please go back and ask the Ministry of Works to repair and straighten it out.”
"Master Zuo Shilang Meng Wei started construction yesterday." Zhao Hongrun said.
So fast?
Yongwang Hongyu was stunned when he heard this, and then he smiled with relief and said: "Brother, I forgot. The relationship between the Ministry of Industry and you is very good... In the Zongfu, there is an approval document about your Prince Su's Mansion, as well as an entry and exit order for the city.
Can you leave the palace entry and exit orders to the clan guards around you?"
"Not yet. It is said that after I move to the palace, the clan government will send someone to deliver it... By the way, when the time comes, I will ask Shen Yu and the others to deliver Brother Yong's palace and city entry and exit orders. To the palace."
"There's no rush." Yong Wang Hongyu waved his hands with a smile. Then he smiled again and said: "Anyway, congratulations to you Hongrun... You live not far from my brother's palace. I will have more time to come to my brother's palace in the future." Sit down."
"That's natural."
Zhao Hongrun replied with a smile.`
It had to be said that he was really sleepy at the moment and wanted to go back immediately to catch up on his sleep. However, he also understood that if he really dared to do such a violation of rituals on such a day, I believe his father would immediately take it back. Return all previous promises and ask him to continue to stay in the palace obediently.
After all, today is an important day where no mistakes can be made.
"There are so many people..."
Turning his head and looking at both sides of the aisle, looking at the crowds of people watching, Zhao Hongrun murmured.
To be honest, the so-called corridor is just a passage cut off by the imperial guards among the common people of Daliang.
In this passage, Emperor Wei led his sons, as well as all the officials in the court, and walked to the Temple of Heaven under the watchful eyes of a flood of people on both sides.
The dense crowd made Zhao Hongrun feel like he was back to the time when he had an army of 80,000. What was incredible was that there were more than 80,000 people who came to watch the ceremony to worship the heaven today.
For those who are interested, today is an excellent opportunity to increase their prestige and reputation in the minds of the people of Daliang.
But on the other hand, if someone messes up today, it will definitely not be something that can be revealed with just a few words of scolding.
Suddenly, Zhao Hongrun saw Shen Yu and others mixed in the crowd.
It is a pity that Zhao Hongrun's team, even the clan guards, are not qualified to follow him. Anyone who can follow the team behind Emperor Wei today is either a descendant of the Ji family or a hundred officials in the court. In addition, not even princesses, Zongwei, or even concubines in the palace are eligible to participate.
However, it was previously said that Queen Wang, the mother of Prince Hongli of the East Palace, might appear in the procession to worship heaven. However, it seems that this is just an unreliable fake news.
The officials of the Ministry of Rites follow ancient etiquette. Even if they are the queen, they will still refuse if they should. To a certain extent, they are the most difficult to deal with among the six ministries.
When Zhao Hongrun was studying court etiquette, he suffered a lot at the hands of those etiquette masters, and those rigid and stubborn guys all belonged to the Ministry of Rites.
"Where is His Highness King Su? Have you seen His Highness?"
Far away, in the crowd, Yang Yanxing, who was disguised as a man, was with Princess Yulong, Mi Jiang, and Mi Rui, who were also disguised as men. Under the protection of Shen Yu and other sect guards, they were in the crowd. Being pushed around.
Yang Yanxing, the youngest, stood on tiptoes to look at Zhao Hongrun in the crowd, but it was a pity that she was too short. At only fourteen years old, she was more than one head behind the people around her, so even if she stood on tiptoes, , and could only vaguely see the team in the aisle. It was not clear where Zhao Hongrun was in the team.
Beside her, Mi Jiang frowned and looked at the crowded people around her. She always hated this kind of crowded environment. If she didn't hate staying in a high-walled palace even more, she wouldn't listen to Princess Yulong at all. The ideas of Yang Yanxing and Yang Yanxing were mixed up in a place like this.
Princess Yulong also imitated the appearance of the sheep tongue apricot. After standing on tiptoes and looking at it from a distance for a while, she finally gave up. She turned around and complained to Shen Yu, the Zongwei beside her: "Shen Yu, you can't see clearly at all."
I told you earlier...
Shen Yu showed a wry smile.
In fact, he originally proposed to take them directly to the Temple of Sacrifice to Heaven. After all, with their status, although they could not board the Temple of Sacrifice to Heaven, they could get close to the imperial guards responsible for maintaining order and find a position closest to the high altar in advance. , this is not a problem at all.
But Princess Yulong and the others insisted on going to the Temple of Heaven with Zhao Hongrun, which caused a lot of trouble for the clan guards. The ten of them were like hens guarding their chicks, protecting them all the way, but they were attacked by many people. 's eyes rolled.
"Let's go to the Temple of Sacrifice to Heaven first. It's... too crowded here."
Shen Yu whispered.
Princess Yulong and Yang Yanxing looked at each other and nodded sadly: "Okay then."
The south gate of Daliang is not far from the Temple of Heaven, only two or three miles at most. No, when Shen Yu and others protected Princess Yulong and squeezed out of the crowd again, Zhao Hongrun over there was already close to the Temple of Heaven.
At this time, I saw that under the Temple of Heaven, there was already a guard of honor under the ceremonial arrangement. To be precise, they were worshipers. I saw that these people were all handsome and handsome. They were wearing bright armor and holding long spears. They stood on the three-story high platform of the Temple of Heaven. Their movements were uniform, like sculptures, motionless, and they looked really majestic.
Of course, they only look mighty, but in fact, these people are just showmen. Their combat power is not comparable to that of the Sixth Battalion of the Junshui Camp and other garrison camps. Even the Shang Shui Army and the Yan Shui Army are enough to bully them.
But it is undeniable that the appearance of this honor guard is really good. It can be used as a facade to scare a large number of people, such as the people of Daliang who don't know what is going on.
At this time, Emperor Wei stopped at the foot of the Temple of Sacrifice to Heaven. He straightened his clothes, bowed to the sky nine times, and then stepped onto the first step.
At this time, the drums and music were playing in unison at the Temple of Heaven, and the palace musicians began to play the music. At the same time, countless people from Daliang who followed Emperor Wei and others to the Temple of Heaven also became quiet one by one, closed their mouths, and opened their eyes. Watch.
The Temple of Heaven is really very high.
It is divided into three levels of high platforms, each of which is probably less than three feet apart. It is said that the specific numerical values have special meanings, but Zhao Hongrun is not clear about this.
When they stepped onto the first level of the high platform, the guards escorting Emperor Wei and his party stopped here and retreated to both sides.
When they arrived at the second-floor high platform, most of the officials in the court also stopped. They were facing the third-floor high platform, standing bowed, without saying a word.
Only Zhao Hongrun and other princes, as well as several ministers of the Ministry of Rites who assisted in this ceremony, were qualified to follow Emperor Wei to the top of the platform.
I don’t know how much it cost to make this thing...
Standing on the highest platform, Zhao Hongrun looked around. Even though this platform was simply made of white stones, God knows how much it would cost to neatly stack a high altar with stones that are four to five feet long and about three feet wide and high. How much manpower and material resources.
Huh?
While looking around, Zhao Hongrun suddenly felt someone looking at him and turned around to look, but now beside the East Palace Prince Hongli, there was a strange young man looking at him. When Zhao Hongrun noticed the other person, the man turned towards him. Zhao Hongrun smiled slightly.
"Who is that?" Zhao Hongrun asked Yong Wang Hongyu beside him in a low voice.
"Luo Yao...the sacrificial inscription that will be recited in the East Palace later was written by this person."
Yong Wang Hongyu smiled slightly and lowered his voice to explain. (To be continued.)