The Prosperous Era of Longwan

Beijing, School Records Hall.

This place has always been deserted, because except for people coming in and out at midnight and after office hours in the morning and evening, no one usually comes here.

But just today, a sedan with four people came running quickly from a corner of the street. Next to the sedan were several people dressed as scribes, all of them running out of breath.

This is true for all those who run away, let alone those who carry the sedan chair.

Although they make a living from this, they carried the sedan all the way here. After arriving at the place, the four bearers were also very tired. However, the people in the sedan had not left yet, so they had to stand aside reluctantly, which was very hard.

Finally, someone ran to the sedan, whispered a few words into the sedan, and then raised the curtain of the sedan, and a man in crimson official robes got out of the sedan.

"go in."

After the man got off the sedan, he just whispered one sentence and then walked into the school recording hall first.

At this time, the guards stood upright on both sides of the gate of the school registration hall, and they did not relax until the officials walked in.

"Why is Mr. Li Ge here?"

"I don't know. I'm afraid it's another matter of urging me to write a manuscript."

The person who came was none other than Li Chunfang, the Second Assistant to the Cabinet. Naturally, he came from Xiyuan to the school record office on official business.

Soon, all ten branch officials in the school record office received the news.

"I have read these two books, and there is no problem. I have not finished these two books, so I will put them here first."

After receiving the news from Lu Bu, Wei Guangde immediately sorted the basic manuscripts on his desk, picked out the manuscripts he had already favored, and gave them to Lu Bu, asking him to deliver them first.

As for the remaining two books, Wei Guangde knew that he wouldn't be able to finish them in a while, so he had better go to the front to meet Mr. Li Ge to find out the situation.

When Wei Guangde arrived at the front, most of the branch officials had already arrived. Everyone was sitting at the bottom. Li Chunfang was sitting in the upper left seat, and the right seat was empty.

"Have you handed in all the proofread manuscripts?"

Li Chunfang saw Wei Guangde coming in and asked directly.

"Sent someone to deliver it."

"How many books have been completed today?"

"Two books, and there are two more that I haven't finished yet."

Wei Guangde bowed and answered.

"Sit down and wait for the statistics over there."

Li Chunfang waved to Wei Guangde to sit down. Wei Guangde bowed his hands to several other branch officials before walking to the front and sitting on the right side of the first row.

Soon, Zhang Juzheng also rushed over, still having the same conversation, and then sat opposite Wei Guangde.

"Everyone is here. I am here today. I think everyone must have made some guesses."

After Li Chunfang saw everyone gathered, he said, "Yes, His Majesty is concerned about the progress of copying the "Yongle Dadian", so he sent me to take a look." ’

Wei Guangde and Zhang Juzheng looked at each other and made up their minds.

In fact, at this point, they, the branch officials, still don’t know the emperor’s thoughts.

Even if I didn’t know it at the beginning, I have more or less guessed it this year.

Not long after, a clerk came in quickly from outside, whispered a few words in Li Chunfang's ear, and then handed a note into his hand.

"There are more than 11,000 volumes of the canon. How long will it take to complete more than 7,000 volumes and leave 4,000 volumes?"

Li Chunfang seemed to be asking, but her eyes were looking outside the room blankly.

With four thousand volumes of manuscripts, Wei Guangde knew that at the current speed of copying and proofreading in the archives, it would take one year at the earliest, and two years to complete them all.

However, Li Chunfang didn't ask him anything, and he happily pretended to be mute.

"The speed needs to be accelerated. If there are not enough scribes, we will continue to recruit and let the Ministry of Rites cooperate."

When Li Chunfang said this, her eyes were already looking at Zhang Juzheng, "Uncle, you and Shandai are in charge here. I need to increase the speed of copying books now. I only give you one year to complete the copying of the remaining four thousand books." .”

Hearing Li Chunfang call his name, Wei Guangde immediately sat up straight. After Li Chunfang finished speaking, he and Zhang Juzheng had already stood up, bowed and replied, "Yes."

"If you pass on the word, everyone will inspect it after it is completed. In addition, Your Majesty will also give you a heavy reward."

When Li Chunfang left, she made a wish to everyone.

Regardless of whether officials have passed the examination or have been inspected, the evaluation will be the best. For them, it can make them eligible for promotion faster. For officials who have no one to look after them, they will have to wait until how long they will be ranked according to their seniority.

But with these merits and competent evaluation, they can be promoted to official positions. Even if the official position is tight, they will be given priority, which is considered a generous reward.

As for the so-called heavy reward, it is just a gift of silver coins cast in the palace. In fact, the effect is not as cost-effective as sharing a lucrative job.

Li Chunfang came and went in a hurry, and quickly rushed back to Xiyuan.

In the Yongshou Palace, Emperor Jiajing's body and spirit have recovered a little now, although he is still leaning on the dragon couch.

After hearing Li Chunfang's report, Emperor Jiajing frowned, "There are still four thousand volumes unfinished, why are there so many?"

Li Chunfang knew clearly that in the first two years of copying, the government invested limited resources, and only completed more than a thousand volumes each year. It was only last year and this year that the progress suddenly improved. Otherwise, how could so many copies be copied.

But even so, the emperor's tone seemed too slow.

"I have asked them to speed up the transcription and strive to complete the transcription of the ceremony within one year."

Li Chunfang knew he should answer the question, so that was all he could say.

"Go and do your work. You have to visit the school registration hall from time to time."

Emperor Jiajing just said, and then took the note handed over by Li Chunfang from Huang Jin's hand.

After Li Chunfang exited the palace, Emperor Jiajing lowered his head and glanced at the content on the note. It recorded the total number of copies of the canon and the progress of each branch officer.

Naturally, Wei Guangde ranked first with more than 1,000 volumes, followed closely by Zhang Juzheng, who proofread more than 800 volumes, and the other branch officials had around 600 or 700 volumes. The gap was obvious.

"It's the person I personally appointed, so it's considerate to use him."

Emperor Jiajing suddenly said something meaningless. Others might not understand the reason, but Huang Jin, who had been following Emperor Jiajing, suddenly understood it.

When it comes to hand-picked appointments, the two most famous in the current dynasty are Li Chunfang and Wei Guangde.

Li Chunfang was given by God, and Wei Guangde was rewarded by the emperor.

Who among the current cabinet members is Emperor Jiajing most at ease with?

Of course it was Li Chunfang. He was cautious from beginning to end and never overstepped.

As for Xu Jie, the first assistant, perhaps many people have heard a story, that is, Emperor Jiajing once rebuked Xu Jie as a villain and even made a vow to "never hire him".

Well, this was because Xu Jie had gone back on his word in front of the emperor, which made the young and energetic emperor resent this for a long time, and even sent him to another place to add insult to injury.

It's just that he was lucky, and he came back after going round and round.

Today, when he saw that Wei Guangde was working the hardest among the branch officials, Emperor Jiajing could not help but feel this way in his heart.

Folks often ridicule Yuan Wei, Li Chunfang and others as "qingci prime ministers". In fact, all four of the current cabinet are such experts.

No one is willing to share the emperor's worries, and no one can do their best to govern this huge country for him.

This is the current mood of Emperor Jiajing, who is quite satisfied with the current court officials.

"Your Majesty has a keen eye and knows pearls. These are all taken for granted."

Huang Jin gave Emperor Jiajing a dragon's fart at this time, which made the emperor feel much happier.

"It is said that Zi is really indecisive, but such a person is stable and handles things smoothly without making mistakes."

Emperor Jiajing smiled.

As for the other one, he didn't say that it was for his son and he would not give him another promotion.

"What is Prince Yu doing now?"

Emperor Jiajing suddenly asked again.

"Back to Your Majesty, Your Majesty has been praying for Your Majesty at your residence these days when you have free time. You are really filial. I learned that Your Majesty was in poor health a few days ago and it is said that he doesn't want to eat or drink."

Huang Jinxiao smiled, her wrinkled old face looking like a blooming chrysanthemum.

"Hmm."

In response, Emperor Jiajing just chuckled twice, "That child's name is Zhu Yijun, right? How old is he?"

"Your Majesty has a very good memory. The prince's name is Zhu Yijun. It was you who named him. He is three years old this year."

Huang Jin said cheerfully. Seeing that Emperor Jiajing was in good spirits at this moment, he asked tentatively: "Your Majesty, would you like me to invite my little brother to come to the palace and let your Majesty have a look?"

Little brother, of course I am talking about Zhu Yijun, the third son of King Yu. Emperor Jiajing has not visited him since he was born. He is really scared.

To be honest, Emperor Jiajing doesn't even know if it was because he peeked on the tower during the Aoshan Lantern Festival that his eldest grandson disappeared inexplicably.

Speaking of which, Emperor Jiajing was also very miserable. His father died when he was very young, and his own sons also died one after another not long after they were born.

Especially after being granted the title of crown prince twice, both princes died quickly, which really scared Emperor Jiajing half to death.

You know, how did he get the throne? Wasn't it because his cousin, Emperor Zhengde, Zhu Houzhao, had no heir?

The motto "Two dragons never meet" seems to be nonsense to others, but if it really happens to you, who dares not to believe these ghosts and gods.

What's more, this was still in the Ming Dynasty, when the theory of ghosts and gods was prevalent. There was no atheism in this era.

"If you think about it carefully, my life is actually very good."

At some point, Emperor Jiajing suddenly laughed and said seemingly casually.

Huang Jin heard this, but was surprised in his heart because he understood the meaning of Emperor Jiajing's words.

Perhaps, this is because he and I have been with the emperor for a long time, and their thinking channels are almost the same.

Speaking of which, starting from the first emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang in the Ming Dynasty, there seemed to be few emperors who died with grandchildren.

Many people may not believe it, but this is the truth.

All in all, the only people who had grandsons during the reign of the Ming Dynasty were Zhu Di and the current emperor. As for other emperors, they have never seen what their grandson looked like.

Of course, the exception was Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor, who lived long enough to see his great-grandson.

Perhaps, it was because of this that the Zhu family's luck was exhausted.

As for who Zhu Yuanzhang saw his great-grandson, it was naturally Zhu Wenkui, the eldest son of the emperor's grandson Zhu Yunwen.

Zhu Yuanzhang was the longest-lived emperor among all the emperors of the Ming Dynasty, but during his lifetime, he only saw the birth of this great-grandson.

Other emperors, Emperor Jianwen, could not be considered emperors. The eldest son was only seven years old when he died, so it was naturally impossible to see his grandson.

After that came Emperor Renzong Zhao Zhu Gaochi and Emperor Xuanzong Zhang Zhu Zhanji. Naturally, they were not seen when they died. Among them, the crown prince Zhu Qizhen was only nine years old when Zhu Zhanji died. This was the later Emperor Yingzong.

The Yingzong Rui Emperor Zhu Qizhen and his brother Jing Emperor Zhu Qiyu also had the same fate. The subsequent Xianzong Chun Emperor Zhu Jianshen died in the 23rd year of Chenghua. It was supposed that he would have a chance to meet his grandson, but unfortunately things happened. His eldest son, Xiaozong Zhu Youtang, had his first son only in the fourth year of Hongzhi, which was five years after Xianzong's death.

Xiaozong Jing Emperor Zhu Youtang only had two sons in total. The second son, Zhu Houwei, who was posthumously named King of Wei, died at the age of 3. The eldest son was the famous Wuzong Zhu Houzhao, who was the first emperor in the Ming Dynasty to have no heirs. Therefore, of course Xiaozong could not see his own son. grandchildren.

Therefore, Emperor Jiajing couldn't help but feel a little complacent when he thought that he was second only to Taizu and Chengzu. These two men had great military exploits.

One is the founding emperor, and the other is, ahem

In fact, although the emperors of the Ming Dynasty did not say it, they certainly knew that it was snatched from their nephews.

But of course they didn't think there was anything wrong with what Zhu Di did.

You know, if it weren't for this ancestor, their lives might not be as good as those relatives who were imprisoned in the palace.

The news that Emperor Jiajing's health was improving came from Li Chunfang who had returned to Wuyi Hall, which made several ministers in the cabinet heave a sigh of relief. The news naturally spread outside the palace very quickly.

However, during this period, the emperor's health was said to have been going up and down, so the ministers still realized that the matter was not over yet, so they remained cautious and did not forget about it just because it was reported that Emperor Jiajing's health was improving. , restore the original living conditions.

And Wei Guangde didn't have the heart to drink and have fun at the moment. In fact, Li Chunfang's official pressure on these branch campuses was getting worse.

After Li Chunfang returned to the cabinet, after discussing with Xu Jie, Guo Pu and others, he directly wrote a note to Gao Yi, the Minister of Rites, and naturally continued to select people who were good at writing to fill the school records library.

The number of copycats continues to increase, but there have always been only ten branch officers. Naturally, Wei Guangde and other branch officers are very busy, and they have no time to enjoy themselves.

In the next few days, various rumors continued to flood the court. Sometimes it was said that Emperor Jiajing was in good health, and sometimes it was said that the emperor fell ill again and was bedridden.

It was not until Dongchang Fanzi punished several low-level officials on the order of the factory official Chen Hong that the officials in the capital finally calmed down and time quietly entered December of the forty-fifth year of Jiajing.

For more than a month, Wei Guangde and other branch officers voluntarily gave up their holidays and entered the check-in room at midnight every day to start work. That is to say, during lunch, everyone could sit down and chat for a while, and talk about interesting things in the officialdom. , and then have to be busy until the office is dismissed.

On the afternoon of the 13th, when he was almost at Sanya, Wei Guangde finally finished proofreading the five Dadian manuscripts sent today. Two of them had some omissions and needed to be copied and re-edited.

In this regard, Wei Guangde used a cinnabar pen to mark out the mistakes one by one.

"You can return home on time today."

Wei Guangde stood up and stretched. He was naturally in a good mood after finishing his work.

"Master, the palace is calling urgently."

At this time, Lu Bu quickly walked into the room and whispered in his ear.