On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, the emperor decided to return to power in Qinzheng Hall next year, which was changed to the first year of Tai'an, and the constitution and imperial calendar of the first year of Tai'an were issued.
Free grain and grain for next year.
From that day on, the emperor moved out of the Forbidden Palace and lived directly in this mountain-based Xiangshan Palace. However, until this time, there were still many people in the government and the public who did not believe that the emperor would really abdicate and thought that he would abdicate.
As the Supreme Emperor, he will still have great power.
But in fact, after Zhu Yihai issued an edict to return to power next year, he took the initiative to move into the palace, and also moved out his concubines and children, directly vacating the Forbidden Palace for the prince.
Although the prince asked the emperor to stay in the Forbidden Palace, Zhu Yihai still came out. Not only did he move out, but he also directly handed over the military and political affairs of the court to the prince. He stopped handling the approval of the memorial and the memorial.
After Zhu Yihai handed over all the power, he found a rare moment of peace and quiet.
Even my body is getting better.
Xiangshan Palace, with its undulating hills and luxuriant forests, is part of the Xishan Mountain System in Beijing. Its main peak, Xianglu Peak, is commonly known as Ghost Viewing Sorrow. It has a broad view and overlooks the Beijing-Tianjin Plain to the east.
The inner wall is close to the foothills and is where the main buildings of the Xingying Imperial Garden are gathered. In recent years, the royal family has spent a lot of money to build various types of buildings, such as palaces, halls, pavilions, gardens and courtyards, etc., all based on it.
The mountain has become an embellishment of the natural scenery.
The outer city of the palace occupies a very large area, has few buildings, and is dominated by mountain and forest landscapes. It is a quiet garden area. The terrain here is open and high, and you can have a clear view of the scenery inside and outside the garden.
Zhu Yihai likes the clear snow in Xishan the most. It clears up after snow and the scenery is unique.
In addition to the inner and outer walls, there are other walls, mainly the Jianxinzhai built during the Jiajing period. The courtyard is surrounded by a semicircular pool with a winding corridor, which is a garden within a garden. The mountain behind the Zhaizhai is rugged, and the halls are built along the mountain, surrounded by pines and cypresses.
It is surrounded by greenery and has an elegant environment.
Putting down the heavy burden on his shoulders and handing over government affairs, Zhu Yihai rarely saw foreign ministers. He hiked mountains every day, did Tai Chi, occasionally did archery, rode a horse, and carried a blunderbuss to shoot a few shots. He had more time to spend with his son and daughter.
them.
Seven or eight-year-old Ning Wang and the others are now following Zhu Yihai every day. Their father can tell them wonderful stories that they would not normally hear, and he can also take them to ride horses, hunt birds, and even climb mountains and have barbecues.
Relaxing time always passes quickly.
In the blink of an eye, it was already the New Year, and Zhu Yihai spent his New Year's Eve at the Xiangshan Palace. The prince also came early with his family from the East Palace, and even the King of Han, who was enfeoffed from abroad, rushed back from the Qinghai fiefdom.
There were no outsiders, just Zhu Yihai's family, and he didn't even invite the emperor's uncle, King Zhu Yujian of the Tang Dynasty. What he told everyone was that on New Year's Eve, they would all reunite at home and have a lively New Year.
The reunion dinner was very lively.
He asked everyone to cook a dish.
The young princes and princesses were assisted by their mother, who also made dumplings with his children and grandchildren.
We started getting busy at noon, and when it was almost dark, this very special New Year's Eve dinner was finally completed.
Zhu Yihai's forty-eight sons, thirty-four daughters, and five adopted daughters and princesses are all here. Among the children, the crown prince, the King of Han, the eldest princess, and the five princesses are all married, and so are the children of the prince and the King of Han.
Each of us can already fill a table.
The eldest princess married the Marquis of Min'an and Zhou Yanchang, the governor of Longyamen. They got married just before winter, and they have already married now. The fifth princess married Marquis Chengyi, the second son of Liu Kongzhao, the Duke of Cheng, and the governor of Luzon Linggayan.
Liu Xiangxi also got married this winter.
The princes and princesses sat at several tables. Except for the Prince Hanwang and the eldest princess and the fifth princess, the rest were only eight or nine years old and the youngest was only two or three years old. Fortunately, none of the concubines could become pregnant again in the past two years, otherwise they might have exceeded 100.
.
There are too many concubines. Today, only the high-ranking concubines with the Imperial Concubine, Nine Concubines, Nine Concubines, and Nine Jieyu can have seats in the palace. The rest of the lower-level beauties and nobles are always waiting, unless they give birth to a prince.
Only the princess has a seat, otherwise she can only be arranged on the flowing water mat at the entrance of the palace. Even many Mongolian Jurchens and other barbarian beauties can only stand and wait inside and outside the palace, and can only take turns to eat on the flowing water mat.
"Why are there so many people?"
Zhu Yihai was a little stunned when he saw this scene, which was like a thousand banquets. These more than eighty children were enough, but as a result, his concubines and beauties were waiting for more.
Before the banquet started, people lined up to come up and say hello.
Except for the deposed Empress Zhang, who is still living in a palace in Tokyo to practice cultivation, the rest are all here, and they are all famous and well-known. At least they are always in agreement, not counting those palace people and so on.
Looking at the long queues of women in imperial attire waiting for guests, he didn't feel a bit embarrassed anymore. They were all young enough.
Over the years, in order to consolidate power and unite all forces, we even later appeased the Mongolian Jurchens and the chieftains in the southwest, and later tried to win over the Korean Liuqiu, etc. The result was constant marriages and wars, and many rebellious officials and traitors rebelled against the generals.
As well as the Jianlu, Jurchen, Mongolian, etc. who were defeated, many women were finally sent to the palace.
This made the emperor's inner court team grow larger and larger. However, he was often away from home and had no chance to have a grand family reunion scene like today. He really didn't notice that there were so many people.
Now the scene of a hall full of people and people queuing up to pay their respects is indeed a bit shocking.
He even found that many of them had no impression at all, and the imperial concubines Chen, Ruan, Huang Fei and other concubines helped introduce them.
Some of them could still make some impression after they talked about it, but most of them really had not received any blessing at all since they entered the palace, and some even just asked the emperor for greetings without even speaking to them.
The worst among them are those who were brought into the palace as captives because of the defeat of their country, tribe, or family. Because they were beautiful or had a higher status, for various reasons, they finally got a low-level title and were trapped in the palace.
.
The situation of those women who come through marriage is generally a little better. At least when they first come here, they can always get a brief blessing. This is also the emperor's basic courtesy for marriages, but it is very difficult to get favor afterward.
Disaster.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Only a very small number of Mongolian and Jurchen women, such as Heshuote's Anu, can get the emperor's regular favor. Among other women from foreign vassals, only Korean Liuqiu
Because the princesses from Annan were also from the Chinese cultural circle, there were no transportation barriers, and their personalities were gentler, so they won some favor from the emperor.
"Is it really more than a thousand people?"
Concubine Chen Huang nodded to the emperor. There were already more than a thousand people. There were hundreds of women from various Mongolian tribes. You must know that in the past few years of the Ming Dynasty, there have been close to twenty Mongolian Khans who have been canonized, and then there are
Each of the deputy khans also served as governors, and there were at least six to more than a dozen governors under them, who were enthroned as commanders of Nuoyan or Huitaiji.
These high-ranking Khans, Jinong, Nuoyan, and Huitaiji, served as the Protector-General, Deputy Protector-General, Governor-General, Deputy Governor-General, and also held titles such as Dukes, Marquises, and Counts of the Ming Dynasty. To show their sincerity, the Ming Dynasty directly requested marriage and marriage between the two parties.
, these high-ranking Mongolian princes and leaders are all vying to send women to the emperor's palace.
Nowadays, Mongolia sends thousands of women to the Ming Dynasty every year for marriage. Some of them enter the emperor's palace, and more are given to ministers and generals in marriage. Similarly, a large number of women from the Ming Dynasty are also married to various Mongolian tribes. Most of these women are royal orphans.
War and famine orphans were adopted by the hospital, and some were raised and educated. Some of them entered the palace and became maids. After serving for five or six years, they were given marriages to meritorious soldiers, or they were given marriages and relatives to foreign vassals.
The effect of this kind of marriage is still very strong, and it is very close to the relationship between clan and vassal.
But after all, there is only one emperor. Those khan kings all hope that their daughters can enter the palace to serve the emperor, so that they can become the emperor's father-in-law. Moreover, if the daughters of other khan kings marry the emperor, are their own daughters inferior to others?
Are people from your own tribe just waiting?
Zhu Yihai originally didn't want to admit so many people into the palace. There were so many that he couldn't even recognize them all, and there were many daughters and granddaughters of Mongolian princes. To be honest, they were not very beautiful. Even the daughters of the leaders of the prairie tribes had different cultural and customs.
They are all different. Many of the women sent by the chiefs to marry him thought they were very beautiful, but they did not meet Zhu Yihai's aesthetics. They were either too strong or something else. It was not that the grassland did not grow well enough to suit his aesthetics, but the prince's daughter was the only one.
How many of them are there that Zhu Yihai likes?
But Zhu Yihai's refusal would make them feel very humiliated and they would make a fuss with the emperor. They had no choice but to accept it, or they would favor one over the other.
But the problem is that many tribal princes are not satisfied with giving one as a gift, so they make arrangements to send another one every two years.
Anyway, now Mongolian women account for one-third of the emperor's palace. Fortunately, some of them came to Mobei, some came from Monan, some came from Moxi, and some were Horqin and others who were the last to join, and some were originally married to Jurchens from Mongolia.
, and then were sent to the palace of the Ming Emperor. These Mongolian women were not monolithic, and even had many contradictions with each other.
Even if they are both members of the Mosi Oirat Alliance, Junggar's may be at odds with Turgut, Huite's may be at odds with Durbot, and even if they are both Heshuote's, they may be at odds with Heshuo now.
There is a lot of internal strife, and these cousins, aunts, nieces, etc. have conflicts.
Fortunately, Zhu Yihai didn't have to face them. These palace fights were usually managed by Concubine Chen and Concubine Ruan, together with their nine concubines and concubines.
Today's emperor has no interest in beauties. Seeing so many young women, he feels a little guilty.
I opened my mouth to ask those who had never given birth to children to leave, but I swallowed my words. In this era, it is impossible to say such words, otherwise it will shock the world.
Even if the emperor dies at a young age, it is impossible for these young emperor women to remarry. Being able to avoid being buried is the greatest favor of the royal family.
Usually they find a place to live in solitude in the name of becoming a monk.
It's really inhumane.
He could only remind himself that he would inform the new emperor tomorrow not to send people to his palace in the future, and not to send people to his palace after the vassal's marriage. Even in the future, too many people cannot enter the emperor's palace like this, even if
The number of marriages must also be limited. It would be unethical and a waste of resources to have thousands of people.
Once a harem woman obtains a title, even the lowest-ranking Chang Zai agrees to it, she is still a woman of the emperor, and will never be rewarded to a courtier, unless she is a palace maid with no title.
Because of this discovery, Zhu Yihai was even a little unhappy at the New Year's Eve reunion dinner.
After the meal, he specially summoned the eunuch and asked him to arrange for someone to send New Year's gifts to the deposed Empress Jing'an in Tokyo. He also asked Prince Ning to write a letter to his biological mother and prepare a New Year's gift, "If she is willing to come,
Beijing, I will arrange for someone to pick her up so that she and Prince Ning can be reunited as mother and son."
The new emperor will ascend the throne tomorrow, and the rights and wrongs of the past have become a thing of the past. Although the two of them have no feelings, he also knows in his heart that he owes him something.
When explaining this, the prince always stood on the emperor's side.
"Hongjia, tomorrow you will ascend the throne and become the emperor. I will completely hand over the entire country to you. I will abdicate and become the Supreme Emperor. From now on, you will have the final say in this world. I will not interfere in your government affairs.
Prince Ning has been brought up by you personally in the past few years. He is very filial. What is even more rare is that he is good at reading and is very talented in calligraphy and painting. He will learn and develop in this area in the future, and there is no need to waste it in other areas.
time.
But after you ascend the throne, you will be even busier. King Ning is getting older and it is no longer convenient for him to stay in the palace, so he should live with me in the Xiangshan Palace. It would be better if his mother can come back. When he is sixteen years old, he will send her to him.
He officially went to Yongning to become a vassal, and the fiefdom was also drawn up by me. Like the King of Han, he also established a county as a fief and then supervised a prefecture..."
The prince has been very good to Prince Ning, his ninth younger brother, in the past few years. He has taken him by his side to teach him personally. However, the prince is also smart. Although Prince Ning is young, he deliberately only teaches the prince calligraphy, painting, music and other literary and artistic things.
If they don’t teach, they don’t even teach classics and history, let alone the art of war and tactics.
Up to now, Prince Ning has indeed been inspired to develop a good talent in literature and art. Zhu Yihai has actually seen this for a long time, but he did not stop him. Instead, he praised him.
It would actually be good if Prince Ning became an artistically accomplished person like Huizong of the Song Dynasty or the Empress of the Southern Tang Dynasty. In this way, he would not threaten the new emperor, and he would be safer without threats.
Although Zhu Yihai originally chose the eldest son to inherit, he did not want the brothers to fight each other because of this. Therefore, after making his choice before, he immediately took cruel measures, deposed Xiao Zhang, and killed Zhang's elder brother, uncle, etc.
The relatives took the opportunity to deal with it, demoted him to Yunnan and Guizhou, and named the ninth prince Prince Ning. He had already made a decision to send the prince to Yongning in the far north.
All this is to avoid future troubles.
If a prince wants to seize the throne, or even compete for the throne, he needs a strong power group, and since he was cut off from all foreign aid as soon as he was born, who will speculate on him again?
"If Queen Ning's mother is willing to come back, you must treat them well and take good care of them in the future."
The prince nodded and promised his father that he would honor Master Jing'an and be friendly to his brother Ning Wang and others.
"Okay, it's getting late, so you should hurry back to the palace. Tomorrow is your big day, and you have to get up early."
"My son, I will come personally to greet my father tomorrow morning."
"You don't need to come to greet you. You don't have the time. I will go there by myself then. Don't worry, I have abdicated, but I will definitely go to attend your enthronement ceremony tomorrow."
He patted his son on the shoulder and said, "I bear the destiny of Haotian, and I was appointed in the face of danger to restore the country and the country. My mission is completed, and my era is over. From now on, you will inherit the rule and revive the Ming Dynasty.
The name Tai'an means the peace of the country and the people of the country. I also hope that you can take over the Ming Dynasty and truly achieve the peace of the country and the people."
"Let me say a few final words. If you want the country to be strong and prosperous, you must first make the people stable and prosperous. Before you govern the country and make any big decisions, you must first ask yourself whether this decision can make the country rich and strong, and the country is rich.
The prerequisite for prosperity is whether it can make the people stable and prosperous.
Whether an empire can have a long-lasting national destiny does not depend on how many soldiers it has, how advanced the warships are, or how sharp the cannons are, but how the people at the bottom of the empire are doing, and whether they can be protected. They are the shortcomings of the big bucket of the empire.
Otherwise, the empire will have millions of armors, huge ships and cannons, but if the countless people at the bottom cannot eat enough, then the empire will come to an end."
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"The country is the people, and the people are the country. To defeat the country and defend the country is to protect the hearts of the people. Our foundation lies in the people, not just the princes, nobles, senior officials and gentry. If you only lean towards them when making decisions in governing the country, then the country will be
We can’t go far.”
"You will be the emperor tomorrow. The emperor must coordinate the interests of all strata. Scholars, peasants, industry and commerce, princes, nobles, bureaucrats, and the common people must be taken care of and distributed well. Although the people at the bottom seem to have the least say, they will use their hands.
Use your feet to express your stance. The national crisis since Chongzhen has not passed for long."
The prince was deeply taught.
"My son is young, and I will ask my father to continue to take charge of the direction of the court from now on."
Zhu Yihai waved his hand, "Since I have ascended the throne and returned to power, I will step aside. If I am nostalgic for power, why should I abdicate? If I have no experience, I should learn more and think twice before doing anything. Nowadays, these ministers in the central cabinet and the Prime Minister's Office in the court,
They are all very capable, so you should listen to their suggestions.
They will only serve one term next year, so you can let them serve another term. After six years, you will have accumulated some experience. At that time, you can choose ministers who you appreciate more and are more talented to join the cabinet, join the Prime Minister's Office, or even
It is the governor, governor of a place, etc.
"Don't worry, you are still young. Listen more, watch more, and learn more. The last piece of advice is to remember to exercise more. Your body is your capital. I am thirty-six, but my body is completely broken. No matter how ambitious I am, it is too late.
."
"I hope you can live to be seventy or eighty years old. If you can reign for fifty or sixty years, I believe the world can truly be peaceful and peaceful."
If there were no wars or famines, and there were good harvests year after year, and people worked for three years, they would be able to accumulate enough food for the next year. After nine years of good harvests, they could have enough food for the next three years. This is called Deng, which means a bumper harvest.
If the good years can last for eighteen years, there will be six years of surplus food. This is called peace, which means peace and stability.
If we can have a good harvest for twenty-seven years and accumulate a surplus of food for nine years, that is peace.
If you want peace, you must have twenty-seven years of stability and good harvests. This was not easy in ancient China, so there were very few prosperous times in history, and most of them were about governance.
The famous ones are the rule of Wenjing, the prosperous age of Zhaoxuan, the prosperous age of Mingzhang, the rule of Kaihuang and the rule of Zhenguan, the prosperous age of Kaiyuan, the prosperous rule of Renzong, the rule of Yongle Renxuan...
Most of them refer to governance, rather than prosperity. Governance means that the country is stable and the officials govern the Ming Dynasty, but the people of the country are not yet rich. Only the prosperity is the era when the country is truly prosperous and the people are prosperous, but there are very few in history.
Zhu Yihai hoped that he would rebuild the Ming Dynasty and that after Hongjia succeeded to the throne, he could truly usher in the prosperous age of the Ming Dynasty.
What he left to the prince was the unification of the whole world, a population of more than 200 million, a treasury surplus of 300 million, and 200 million royal internal funds.
These are the foundation for Ming Dynasty to take off and move towards a prosperous age. As long as the prince can develop steadily, the prosperous age will eventually come!
"I can't see the day when the prosperous age will be peaceful, but I hope that when you pass the throne to Zhenye in the future, it will be a better prosperous age!"
