Rule the Ming Dynasty Alone

Seoul, Li Mansion.

Time flies, and the girl who was disguised as a man has become a graceful beauty, wearing a standard Korean woman's attire, with an oval face and a smile as beautiful as a peony flower.

Li Xien was wearing a set of clothes with the main theme of light red. She was holding a paintbrush in her slim hand and was copying an ink painting on white rice paper.

The rocks in "Green Smoke in Mountains and Streams" are extremely delicate in their chamfering method, and the entire landscape painting presents extremely rare artistry, which is already unique among Chinese sects.

Affected by her family status, Li Xi'en has been fond of literature since she was a child. She is proficient in music, chess, calligraphy and painting, and she loves painting even more. She is known as "the most talented woman in Seoul" in North Korea.

After such a long period of repeated copying, even if what she painted was a fake, she was able to achieve the point where the fake was the real thing, and she was truly worthy of the title of the most talented woman.

Li Xien's face was getting more and more beautiful, but when he finished the last stroke, he was only proud for a short while, and soon a touch of sadness flashed across his beautiful big eyes.

May is a time of lush vegetation, and you can see some potted plants in full bloom around the flower hall.

In this beautiful season, Li Xien raised his head and looked at the blue sky, sighing silently. Everyone has troubles, and she is no exception.

Since I have reached the age of marriage this year, more and more people are coming to propose marriage.

It's just that her heart is no longer here, and she doesn't like those so-called nobles at all, since the prodigies who claim to be talented are actually big idiots.

On the contrary, it was as if he was out of control, and his mind was always thinking about that man.

She had her own way of expressing her feelings. She changed to a piece of white rice paper, and the tip of her pen ran across the paper, and soon the outline of a man appeared.

Some people can't remember each other's appearance after being together for half their lives, while some people can remember each other forever with just one glance.

Since she met the Ming Emperor once and was given a precious painting by the Ming Emperor, her mind uncontrollably thought of the scene in the imperial study that day.

Especially among the recent paintings, there are more and more works based on the Imperial Study Room, and they even more uncontrollably paint the image of the man who is longing for him.

In a certain house in Seoul, there is a feeling called: lovesickness.

This flower hall is circular in shape and connected to two corridors in the southeast.

Just when Li Xien's painting was about to be completed, Li Shi, the military judge who had just left the court, came towards this direction, with obvious displeasure on his face.

Li Xien was too immersed in painting. When he found out that his father had returned, he was only a few meters away from her, and he was so frightened that his face suddenly turned pale.

Like all the pregnant girls in the world, there is always an unspeakable secret.

Li Xien's heart started to beat loudly. He hurriedly took the painting he had just finished on the drawing board into his hands, and then pretended to be calm and said hello: "Dad, what happened?"

Li Shi was so angry at this time that he didn't notice anything strange about his precious daughter. Thinking about the decision the court had just made, he sat down in front of the stone table in the flower hall and said, "Your Majesty, the king listens to Li Kepei's suggestion. We, North Korea, will not send troops to assist." The Ming Dynasty destroyed the Jianzhou Jurchens!"

"Dad, if we don't send troops, we won't send troops. You don't have to be so angry, or you may get sick from anger!" Li Xi'en was not interested in political affairs and seemed disapproving.

The anger on Li Shi's face did not diminish, but he snorted coldly: "I'm not angry for myself, I'm angry at those mediocre officials who can't see the situation clearly. Do you really think that the Ming Emperor is a good person?"

Since he had been on two missions to the Ming Dynasty and had contact with the Ming Emperor, he knew that the current Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was a truly wise emperor.

Based on his understanding of the Ming Emperor, Zhu Youtang was a very pragmatic person. If North Korea refuses to send troops, it will never be able to take advantage of the Ming Dynasty in the future, and it may even regard North Korea as an enemy country.

Compared with the prosperous Ming Dynasty, the increasingly corrupt North Korea has no power to fight. Once the Liao army of the Ming Dynasty goes south, Seoul will definitely not be protected, and even North Korea will be destroyed as a result.

It is a pity that the advocates of peace, headed by Zuo Yizheng Li Kepei, did not realize this at all. Instead, they were complacent about choosing peace, and even boasted that they had saved the common people.

This is not about saving the common people. It is clearly about laying mines for North Korea and hoping that Emperor Hongzhi, who just destroyed the Li Dynasty last year, will wipe out North Korea again.

Li Xien's hand held the scrap painting tightly, but he said very seriously: "I think the Ming Emperor is very good. He is a good emperor who is reasonable and generous!"

"Your father didn't say anything bad about the Ming Emperor, but he was an emperor who truly cared about all the people of the world! Now that we refuse to send troops, I can guarantee that this matter is not over. The Ming Dynasty will definitely target our North Korea after it cleans up the Jianzhou Jurchens!" Li He believed in his own judgment and seemed decisive.

Seeing that his father admired his sweetheart so much, Li Xien felt as if he had eaten honey. He smiled sweetly and said, "Dad, my daughter thinks you must have been wrong. The Emperor of Ming Dynasty would not be so unreasonable, and he would definitely not do it because of this." And hit us, North Korea!”

"You don't understand!" Li Shi realized that his daughter really didn't understand politics. He picked up the tea cup sent by the butler, saw something in Li Xi'en's hand and asked curiously: "What are you holding in your hand?"

"No, it's nothing!" Li Xien's face turned red. He hid the thing behind his back, but shook his head cutely, then turned around and ran away.

Li Shi took a sip of tea silently and looked at his daughter's leaving figure, feeling curious in his heart.

In the evening, when he told his wife about this matter, Mrs. Li looked very happy and said: "I'm so excited! I secretly saw her painting. The man she painted is indeed handsome, but I can't tell that he is a handsome man." Whose young master is this from the royal capital?"

Huh? Not the prince of the capital?

Li Shi couldn't help but frown even more tightly, seeming quite surprised.

At this time, he also belatedly realized why his precious daughter had repeatedly refused marriage, and he already had someone he liked in his heart.

The imperial capital, the Forbidden City.

This ancient city woke up in the summer morning light, and the hard-working people started busy early. Officials wearing official uniforms of various ranks poured into the Meridian Gate Square from all directions.

Since today is the eighth day of May, today is the first morning pilgrimage in May.

For senior officials, this early morning meeting has no appeal at all, but officials at the lower level are already looking forward to it, especially young officials such as Enke's Xu Hong who like this atmosphere very much.

Boom!

The weather in May was changeable. Just as everyone came to the square in front of the Meridian Gate, there was a sound of thunder in the newly lit sky.

Although it was speculated that it might rain later, no one backed down. Since you can bring rain gear to the morning pilgrimage, many people immediately sent their servants to bring some rain gear, and some people planned to go to the morning pilgrimage despite the rain.

In this day and age, there is no such thing as shrinking from the weather.

Wan An and Liu Ji stood at the front with their eyes closed, looking more and more uninterested in this formality of the morning meeting, and even yawned openly.

If there was anything important, he only needed to take the memorial to the Yangxin Hall to report and discuss it. Today's memorial in the morning was just to announce what had been decided, which was a waste of everyone's time and energy.

Since the impeachment turmoil during the Spring Festival, Wan An has now acted more and more cautiously, sighing pointedly: "Mr. Liu Ge, today's morning court may not be peaceful!"

"Reporting back to Lord Yuanfu, I also feel the same way!" Liu Ji, who has his own news channel, also expressed emotion.

Boom!

Another sound of thunder came from the sky, indicating that today was indeed not a good weather day.

After a while, the Meridian Gate door slowly opened.

Jin Wuwei, who was responsible for guarding the Meridian Gate, was walking out in an orderly manner. Chang Feng, wearing armor, stood majestically on the city platform, with several eunuchs standing next to him.

"Go to court!"

An elderly eunuch faced the civil and military officials in Meridian Square and immediately shouted at the top of his lungs.

Under the leadership of Wan An and Liu Ji, all civil and military officials from the Manchu Dynasty filed in. After arranging their clothes in front of Jinshui Bridge, they came to Fengtianmen Square together.

There are many fixed processes in the morning, and these things are actually a waste of time.

Zhu Youtang came in a jade chariot, but he could still endure the morning ceremony. After all, there were only three days in a month at most, and it was considered a good thing for him to meet all the officials once, so he sat patiently on the dragon throne.

After Shan shouted "Long Live the Mountain", it was still the Zongren Mansion who went out to report the matter.

It's just that things are going to come eventually, but no one thought it would come so quickly.

Prince Consort Wang Zeng came out and did not follow yesterday's memorial: "Your Majesty, today the Ministry of Revenue has given more than half of the rice to Zongfan Lumi. As a result, the princes have sent people to Beijing to cause trouble. I beg you to punish Li." The crime of being a minister, and restoring the old system of Xianzong!"

ah?

As soon as these words came out, all the officials couldn't help but look at each other, and the ministers were restless, and then they all looked at Li Si, the Minister of Household Affairs.

Li Si's face straightened up, and he immediately defended himself: "Prince Consort, the use of banknotes in each palace has been the practice since the Yingzong Dynasty, and the Ministry of Household Affairs is practicing the old system now. As for what you said about using banknotes to fold more than half of the rice, this is a slander against households. For example, Lieutenant Fengguo didn’t fold banknotes, so how could he fold more than half of the rice?”

"Wang Prince Consort, you are not on duty at the Ministry of Revenue, so you don't know the difficulties of the Ministry of Revenue! Nowadays, the Ministry of Revenue needs silver everywhere. The imperial court has allocated more than one million taels for river and water transportation projects this year! The Lumi of this clan is indeed Yes, there are more banknotes, but which palace does not have enough food and clothing, and the palace's wealth is not less than that of Li Min, the most greedy man in the Ming Dynasty, so why do you have to go so hard to force the Ministry of Revenue?" Wu Yu, the right minister of the Ministry of Revenue, also stood up. , defended his household department.

Zhu Youtang saw all this in his eyes. In fact, he was the mastermind behind the whole thing.

Although Zongfan Lumi has not yet reached the terrifying more than 10 million dan per year, it is already a large number. However, after some research, it was discovered that there is a lot of room for maneuver.

Although the prince's annual salary is 10,000 shi, he can discount the money at a large rate and give the already depreciated Ming Dynasty banknotes to these vassal princes.

In fact, the best solution is to directly rewrite the vassal regulations, but this will ultimately touch the cake of the entire vassal group, so it is necessary to use transitional means.

For some extremely wealthy vassal kings, the Ministry of Revenue can give them all money to let them slowly accept the fact that Lumi has become less, so as to ultimately achieve the goal of reducing Lumi.

As for whether there will be a rebellion by the feudal lord, not to mention that the original history has already proved that there is no need to worry about this, and the soldiers he raises are not vegetarians.

That's why, no matter how much trouble Wang Zeng plans to make, the household department will still hold the lantern for his nephew - as usual.

Wang Zeng seemed prepared this time, but he shook his head gently: "If your household department is here for rivers and water transportation, then that's fine. But as far as I know, your household department knows that water transportation is related to Beijing's grain security, but you promised Su Why has the 400,000 taels allocated to Baidi in the Hang section been delayed?"

this……

Li Si was speechless immediately, but looked at the emperor above.

"Wang Qing, are you asking for Lumi for the clan or are you asking for project funds for the water transport yamen?" Zhu Youtang frowned slightly, but asked directly.

Wang Zeng immediately knelt down and said with sincerity: "Your Majesty, what I serve is the Ming Dynasty! Zongfan is the cornerstone of the Ming Dynasty, and water transportation is the lifeblood of the Ming Dynasty, so neither can be abolished."

"Do you really think that I am confused? Are you concerned about when the 400,000 yuan for the project will be allocated? You also want to know the whereabouts of Zhou Nai, the governor of water transportation and the governor of rivers, right? Zhou Nai has been arrested by the Metropolitan Procuratorate. This matter was reported to me Agreed, are you all satisfied now?" Zhu Youtang looked at Wang Zeng who was kneeling on the ground and simply said that he picked the matter apart.

After Ye Qi's incident, the Metropolitan Procuratorate also focused its investigation on the Caoyun Yamen, and Zhou Nai was also a moth in the Ming Dynasty.

Zhou Nai was very careful in his work, but there was no substantial evidence to catch Zhou Nai, and he didn't even know what Zhou Nai hid the embezzled money in.

I just didn't expect that people like Wang Zeng couldn't sit still after all, and actually used Zongfan Lumi's excuse to force the Ministry of Household Affairs to allocate funds to repair the Baidi.

Liu Jian, the left minister of the Ministry of Rites, and others exchanged silent glances. Zhou Nai had really been arrested by the Metropolitan Procuratorate. He immediately knelt down and begged: "Your Majesty, if Zhou Nai makes any mistakes, he should be punished according to the law. But Zhou Nai is the official official of the imperial court." A third-grade official has been arrested and interrogated by the Metropolitan Procuratorate for no reason. I am afraid that the hearts of all the ministers in the world will be shaken! I beg Your Majesty to order the Metropolitan Procuratorate to release Zhou Nai. The court must not unjustly accuse a good minister. Zhou Nai has made indispensable contributions in managing canals and floods for so many years!"

Boom!

It was at this time that thunder came from the sky again.

But this time, it actually got real. Just as the thunder passed, raindrops like soybeans were already falling, but they soaked everyone in the square.

The Fengtianmen where Zhu Youtang is located can avoid the rain, so it has not been greatly affected, but he has already felt a faint pressure.

Without any evidence, the arrest of a civilian official will undoubtedly suddenly trigger a backlash from the civil servant group. However, the Metropolitan Procuratorate has so far found no substantive evidence of corruption.

The rain actually gave some political speculators an opportunity, but many middle- and lower-level officials suddenly responded: "The court must not unjustly accuse good ministers. Zhou Nai has made great contributions in managing canals and floods for so many years. I beg Your Majesty to order the Metropolitan Procuratorate to release Zhou Nai." !”

At this moment, an official in charge of the Tang Newspaper stumbled over in the rain, holding in his hand the Tang Newspaper that had just been delivered to the capital. He looked very anxious and shouted: "Your Majesty."