Chapter 59: Diligent Administration of the Hall of Mental Cultivation
The Hall of Nourishing Heart.
In spring, the sun shines brightly.
Shenshi has almost passed, and the sun is still shining brightly on the top of the wide yellow glazed tiles in the main hall of Yangxin Hall, which makes people unable to open their eyes.
Although the spring days in the capital often return to cold, the earth dragons in the main hall have stopped for more than a month. With the yang energy generated during the day, the hall is already warm, and there is no need for earth dragons to provide heating.
Yin set his emperor's throne in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, and hung a plaque with the imperial inscription "Zhong Zheng Ren He" on it. He always reminded himself that the emperor should be moderate, upright, benevolent and harmonious.
At this time, he put down Zhu Pi's imperial pen and finally sighed tiredly and contentedly.
Su Peisheng looked on the side eagerly and sighed inwardly.
He thought from the bottom of his heart: If the emperor falls down one day, he must have exhausted himself!
Look at the memorial on the Dragon Case! When Emperor Kangxi was there, as long as it was a memorial that he had approved, distributed it after approval, it would be fine. It would never be taken back.
But in the hands of the current emperor, after the ministers had finished reading the memorials, he actually had to take them all back for safekeeping, and read the replies by the way.
This is incredible, it is equivalent to doubling the original workload!
Aren’t you looking for trouble for yourself?
Su Peisheng thought: The emperor probably thought that this would prevent ministers from copying and rewriting, and prevent someone from committing treason.
However, if someone really has this intention, then no one can guard against it.
The action of "withdrawing the memorial" can only reduce risks, but cannot avoid or eliminate them.
But Su Peisheng understood that the emperor had always been thoughtful and suspicious. Even if it was a trivial matter, as long as it could reduce the risk by one point, he would take the trouble to do it and take precautions.
Again, why is the emperor so tired?
Because he criticized memorials, his comments were often longer than the memorials.
Sometimes when Su Peisheng was giving him a pat on the back, he glanced over and felt that the emperor might have regarded reviewing memorials as a kind of pleasure.
Because every memorial that passed through his hands would be written with a long comment. The comment was longer than the memorial itself. At a glance, it was a bright red area, which was shocking.
If there was only one memorial, he could just write a comment like this. But when hundreds of memorials were sent in one after another, and each one was written like this, it would be too much!
No wonder there were four large inkstones placed on the imperial desk, and there were two little eunuchs serving the pen and ink. They rotated left and right, and only a slight sound of crunching was heard, but their movements did not dare to stop for a moment.
.
In addition, Su Peisheng also observed: The emperor especially likes to correct typos! As long as he sees a minister writing typos in the memorial, he will circle it next to correct it, and he will not let any one go...
Su Peisheng lived in the Qing Dynasty. He didn't know that there was a word called "obsessive-compulsive disorder". If he had known, he would have given this word to the fourth master without hesitation.
…
"What time is it?" Yin asked Su Peisheng with his eyes closed.
As soon as Su Peisheng woke up, he glanced at the Western self-ringing clock in the southeast corner of the main hall, made some calculations in his mind, and quietly replied: "It's almost midnight when I return to the emperor..." He meant to remind the emperor that he should use
It’s dinner.
Dinner in the palace is usually served at three or four o'clock in the afternoon. At this time, the sun is setting, and it is not yet time?
Yin said "Huh" and did not answer. He opened his eyes again, lowered his head and grabbed the memorial in front of him in his hand. He pondered for a long time and tapped the table with his knuckles.
Yin looked at it for a while, then slapped the memorial on the table gracefully, as if he had made up his mind, his brows became happy, and then he said casually: "Bring me the meal list!".
This is the first step in the emperor's meal: serving the meal order.
The atmosphere in the Yangxin Hall suddenly became relaxed.
While Su Peisheng agreed, he ordered the meal list to be brought up. The eunuch in charge of the imperial kitchen had been waiting, and at this time he trotted up with his waist bent, raised his hands, and handed the bright yellow imperial meal menu to Su Peisheng.
Su Peisheng took it, glanced at it quickly, and turned around to present it to Yin. The meal list read: "One item of bird's nest, fire-smoked fat shredded chicken, one item of Gao Hengjin crispy chicken, one item of crystal elbow, one item of sugar-fried fresh crab, one item of fire-smoked shrimp."
A dish of smoked cabbage, jam...", after forty dishes, there is nothing new.
After each dish, the name of the specific eunuch serving the meal is specified in small letters, and which dish is served with which tableware.
At the end of the meal list, the place where the meal is served is recorded according to the rules: Yangxin Hall.
Yin read it at a glance, and after reading about 70% to 80%, he nodded.
Su Peisheng turned around, clapped his palms, and said in a long voice to the eunuch guarding His Highness: "Pass the meal!" The eunuch immediately turned around, and the eunuch who was opposite the Yangxin Gate also sang the same song: "Pass the meal!
"
Just like that, it was passed on one after another, and soon it was delivered to the imperial dining room.
Dozens of eunuchs who were responsible for dining were immediately dispatched.
They carried four dining tables, large and small, and lined up in two groups. In a mighty manner, they brought the hot imperial meals covered with bowls from the imperial dining room into the Yangxin Hall.
In fact, when an exquisite royal meal is finally served to the table, it contains more than just the hard work of the eunuch who serves it.
To be precise, every link from the selection, purchase, transportation, storage, washing, cutting, and processing of ingredients requires dedicated people and specialized organizations to take charge.
The advantage of this is that if there are any problems in the diet of the emperor and concubines, the root cause can be traced.
Like the previous Ming Dynasty, the Qing court also established many food-related institutions, which were mainly divided into four categories.
The first type is the organization responsible for leading the meals used in the emperor's mausoleum; the second type is the organization responsible for the banquets and sacrificial meals accompanying the capital Shengjing, which is affiliated to the Shengjing House of Internal Affairs; the third type is responsible for the imperial sacrifices, part of the imperial court
The banquet belongs to the Ministry of Household Affairs, the Ministry of Rites, Taichang Temple, and Guang Temple.
But the above three categories are either offering sacrifices to heaven or offering sacrifices to ancestors who have passed away.
Only the fourth type of institution can truly solve the daily meal problems of the emperor and royal family members.
This fourth category of institutions is under the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Although there are many dining rooms in the Forbidden City, there are only two that are qualified to serve the emperor specifically. One is outside Jingyun Gate, and the other is the "Yangxin Hall Imperial Kitchen" known throughout the Forbidden City.
It is actually a small independent courtyard located directly south of the Yangxin Hall. It has two chefs, two assistant chefs, 27 chefs, 57 Sanqi cooks, and 30 husband servants.
Wait, the total number of people has exceeded 200. Not to mention there are also water-carrying eunuchs and watch eunuchs.
At this moment, the meals held in the hands of the eunuchs were delivered like flowing water from the imperial dining room of the Yangxin Hall, also known as the "Ouchi Imperial Dining Room".
Yin watched the imperial dishes being placed on the table one after another, and took his thoughts away from political affairs. He glanced outside the palace. The last ray of the setting sun shone on the gold brick floor in front of the palace, making it dark and bright.
This day's situation is about to pass.
He thought of something, raised his head and asked Su Peisheng carefully: "Have you completed the matter I sent you to Jingyang Palace?"