The first thousand and twenty seventh chapter temptation
On October 17, the 25th year of the Chongzhen Emperor's reign, in the Qianqing Palace, Zhu Youjian sat behind a table filled with memorials, expressionlessly crumpled a piece of paper on the table into a ball, and threw it into a porcelain vase ten feet away. .
The ball of waste paper missed the opening of the porcelain bottle, hit the outer wall of the porcelain bottle, and bounced to the ground.
Wang Chengen rushed over at a trot, picked up the waste paper ball, and ran back and handed it to Zhu Youjian's hands.
Zhu Youjian looked at the "waste paper", suddenly opened the "waste paper" and began to read the words on the waste paper.
Where is the waste paper? It was clearly a memorial sent to Zhu Youjian by the governor of Huguang. Like the other memorials densely packed on the table, this memorial also sadly advised the emperor not to abolish the imperial examination.
"The imperial examination system is closely related to the safety of the country. If it is changed, the whole body will be affected. The emperor is wise and must not change it easily."
Zhu Youjian looked at it, feeling helpless, and slapped the crumpled memorial on the table.
Then Zhu Youjian sat silently on the chair and never spoke.
Wang Chengen stood nearby, not daring to speak.
The Qianqing Palace was silent like this, as if waiting for something.
In fact, Zhu Youjian has not gone to court for twenty days. Ever since Cui Changwu read Li Zhi's memorial, Zhu Youjian has been hiding in the Qianqing Palace, seeming to be busy processing the memorial and avoiding Cui Changwu. It's like waiting for the world's reaction, more like escaping from reality.
In short, Zhu Youjian has been silent and preoccupied for the past twenty days.
In these twenty days, the entire Ming Dynasty was in a state of chaos. After learning about Li Zhi's request to abolish the imperial examination, civil and military officials and gentry figures from all over the country reported to the emperor one after another, quoting various scriptures to explain the importance of the imperial examination to the country, and elaborating on the importance of the imperial examination. Sex, shows that the imperial examination can never be abolished.
Li Zhi's dozen words caused a violent chain reaction throughout the Ming Dynasty.
There were so many memorials that Zhu Youjian didn't even have time to read them all.
However, those memorials were just a few sentences, and Zhu Youjian knew what was written on them even without reading them. So later on, he was too lazy to read the memorials one by one.
He simply looked at the name of the person who presented the memorial and put it aside.
Zhu Youjian closed his eyes.
For a long time, the silence of the Qianqing Palace was finally broken by the sound of footsteps coming from outside the palace. Wang Dehua ran into the Qianqing Palace on his soap boots.
"Your Majesty, more than two thousand civil servants from the capital have gathered at Xizhimen, kowtowed and petitioned."
Zhu Youjian opened his eyes and looked at Wang Dehua.
Wang Dehua knelt in front of Zhu Youjian, kowtowed, and got up. Seeing that the emperor did not ask Wang Dehua for details, Wang Chengen couldn't help but ask: "What do the officials in the capital ask for?"
Wang Dehua cupped his hands and said: "The officials in the capital unanimously opposed the memorial of King Qi and kowtowed in front of Xizhimen to support the imperial examination, saying that Confucianism cannot be abandoned and the imperial examination cannot be abolished."
Zhu Youjian looked at the gate of Qianqing Palace expressionlessly and said nothing.
Wang Dehua said: "Your Majesty, the civil servants have said that although the King of Qi has 100,000 tiger warriors, the Ming Dynasty is not weak. The Ming Dynasty still has 200,000 border troops and a million guard troops. If the King of Qi uses force to force the emperor, the emperor can Break the cauldron and sink the boat, mobilize all the armies of the world to fight against the King of Qi."
When Wang Chengen heard this, he looked at Zhu Youjian.
Zhu Youjian sneered when he heard this.
"Two hundred thousand border troops and one million guard posts? I'm afraid they won't be able to withstand even a quarter of an hour in front of the Huben Army."
Seeing the emperor's expression, Wang Chengen couldn't help but smile awkwardly, echoing the emperor's ridicule.
Zhu Youjian irritably grabbed a memorial on the table, crumpled it into a ball, and threw it towards a porcelain bottle further away.
The waste paper still didn't hit the mouth of the porcelain bottle.
Wang Dehua looked at the emperor's actions, raised his head and asked: "Your Majesty, more than two thousand officials from the capital are kneeling there! All the elders and nine ministers are here, but all they can see is a black gauze hat! Your Majesty, don't you go and take a look?"
Zhu Youjian shook his head.
Wang Dehua and Wang Chengen looked at each other, very surprised.
Zhu Youjian stood up, walked to the porcelain bottle, picked up the paper ball that he had thrown away, opened it and looked at it.
"I don't know what they are going to say even if I don't go to Xizhimen... It's really the same and nothing new."
After Zhu Youjian finished reading the memorial, he crumpled the memorial into a ball angrily and threw it into the porcelain vase.
Wang Chengen raised his hands and said: "Your Majesty, it has been twenty days since King Qi's memorial was submitted. I have to give an answer no matter what. It is not an option to delay it like this."
Zhu Youjian opened the glass window of Qianqing Palace and let the cold wind blow in from the window.
Shivering in the cold wind, Zhu Youjian said: "Wang Chengen, go to Tianjin and try out King Qi's tone."
"Let's see what King Qi means. Is he really determined to force me to abolish the imperial examination, or is he just saying it casually?"
Wang Chengen cupped his hands and said, "I will prepare now."
Zhu Youjian added: "We must find out the trump card of the King of Qi. How many troops the King of Qi has in Tianjin now. Find out how the King of Qi will react if I am not willing to abolish the imperial examination. We must find out all kinds of things."
Wang Chengen respectfully replied: "My servant accepts the order."
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On October 21st, Wang Chengen was riding a carriage on the asphalt ground in the western suburbs of Fanjiazhuang, with some uneasiness that could not be concealed on his face.
When Wang Chengen arrived in Tianjin this time, Li Zhi did not receive him immediately. Instead, he asked Wang Chengen to go to the countryside to inspect the Huben Army. However, the Huben Army had not yet been seen. He first saw the asphalt road in Fanjiazhuang.
This black asphalt road gave Wang Chengen a great shock. Compared with cement roads, asphalt roads are more elastic, making people sitting on the carriage feel flatter and more comfortable.
And if we compare asphalt roads with stone roads, they are even more like heaven and earth. Asphalt roads have no bulges or joints. They are dozens of miles of natural roads and are far thousands of times smoother than stone roads.
Outside of Fanjiazhuang, Wang Chengen has never seen such a road.
Every time he comes to Tianjin, Wang Chengen is always shocked. However, Wang Chengen cannot reveal the shock in his heart because he represents the emperor and the emperor of the Ming Dynasty. He must not make a fuss and lose face.
However, the purpose of coming to Fanjiazhuang is not to experience the asphalt road. The first priority is to understand King Qi's trump card.
Wang Chengen raised his hands and asked Gao Ligong, the acting governor of Tianjin Town who received him: "Governor Gao, how many troops are stationed in Tianjin by the Huben Army now?"
Gao Ligong raised his hand and said: "My lord, now our Tiger Army has expanded to 250,000 people. Twenty thousand of them are stationed in North Korea, thirty thousand are stationed in Japan, and there are twenty thousand in Luzon and Mindanao in Luzon Province. There are 20,000 people in Nanjing, an additional 60,000 people are stationed in Indochina, and the remaining 100,000 people are all stationed in Fanjiazhuang."
When Wang Chengen heard the figure of one hundred thousand, his eyes widened and he was so shocked that he was speechless.
One hundred thousand tiger troops, what is this concept?
At the beginning, more than 40,000 tiger soldiers were able to sweep the Manchu Qing Liting outside the pass, but with 100,000 tiger soldiers, even two imperial courts could not defeat them.
Wang Chengen couldn't help but tremble.
Gao Ligong looked at Wang Chengen's reaction and asked: "The noble man looks bad, how about it?"
Wang Chengen quickly said: "Don't worry, governor. You have been in the Forbidden City for a long time. It will be fine if you get some more air."
