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In the Qin and Han Dynasties, ministers had to sit when they went to the palace to discuss matters. In the Song Dynasty, ministers had to stand when they went to the palace to discuss matters. Now Qin Mu asks ministers to sit according to the case, which somewhat reproduces the clear style of the Qin and Han Dynasties when monarchs and ministers sat down to discuss matters.
However, the layout of the main hall of the Zhongshan Palace cannot be compared with that of the Jinluan Palace. It is inevitable that the six ministers and nine ministers will be a little crowded after sitting down. This makes the ministers' need to rebuild the palace more urgent.
The imperial court must look like a royal court. There is no place for the monarch and his ministers to discuss matters. How can we show the majesty of the imperial court and unite the people's hearts
Huang Zhenlin, who was in charge of the design of the palace city, stood up first and said: "I would like to inform the King of Qin that the planning of the palace city has been completed. I invite the King of Qin to take a look at it."
Han Zanzhou hurriedly went down to take the drawings submitted by Huang Zhenlin and sent them to Qin Mu's desk. Qin Mu looked through them a few times and said to the ministers present: "What do you think?"
Liu Meng, the commander-in-chief of the Chinese army, replied: "King Qin, we have captured so many prisoners, why don't we keep them for free? Naturally, the sooner we start construction, the better. I don't know what the palace will look like, but it will not work if the foundation is filled first." wrong."
Qin Mu nodded and turned to Liu Boquan and asked, "Liu Qing, does the household department have enough money and food?"
Liu Boquan replied with a smile on his face: "As a reminder to the King of Qin, the people donated a total of 9.28 million taels of silver in the past few days. This donation has been sealed in a separate treasury by the Ministry of Household Affairs for the purpose of building the palace. In terms of money and food, Not a problem.”
In fact, what was being built this time was just the palace city, which did not require so much money. That was why Liu Boquan was so relaxed.
Qin Mu was quite dissatisfied after hearing the specific donation amount reported by him. Nine million taels may seem like a lot, but when Zhu Yuanzhang built Jinling City in the early Ming Dynasty, Shen Wansan alone donated one-third of the city wall.
In contrast. Xu Yingjie donated two million taels in this donation, and many were donated by ordinary people. In other words, the political donations from the powerful families in the previous Ming Dynasty were not actually large.
It seems that milk needs to be squeezed again. Squeezing more is not only beneficial to growth, but also strengthens the Chinese people. Why not
Qin Mu turned to Song Yingxing, Minister of Works, and asked: "Shangshu Song, can the Ministry of Works deploy manpower?"
Song Yingxing replied: "Go back to the King of Qin. There are specialties in the crafts. The construction of palaces and cities mainly uses carpenters, bricklayers, stonemasons, etc., which will not have much impact on the mining management of Ma'anshan and the manufacturing of weapons for the army. As long as the Ministry of Household's money and food As long as the labor force is sufficient, recruiting some craftsmen from the private sector will not be a problem. "
"Okay, in that case. Let Qin Tianjian choose an auspicious day. Let's start construction as soon as possible."
"Yes, King Qin."
After the construction of the palace came to an end, Song Xiance, the minister of Dachang Temple, immediately stood up and began to "point out" about Qin Mu's harem and heirs.
In fact, Yang Shen and others began to mention this matter as early as Wuchang. Even in an ordinary wealthy family, there are many wives and concubines, which is also an important condition for ensuring many children and grandchildren.
Qin Mu has always had only one wife and two concubines. Moreover, the two concubines were from brothels, not before the founding of the country. Qin Mu accepted it, but the background of Dong and Li's wives was flawed. Even if they gave birth to children, it would not have much effect on the actual consolidation of the country.
Therefore, as soon as Song Xiance formally mentioned the matter, the ministers present talked to each other and made suggestions, asking Qin Mu to rectify the imperial court, establish an Internal Supervision Department, and have the Internal Supervision Department select nine ladies from good families to join the palace as The ninth concubine who serves the emperor.
As a normal man, honestly speaking, Qin Mu would not make much money from his woman, but now is really not the time. The Jiangbei Tatars are still watching with covetous eyes, and the surrounding areas are not at peace, and everything is waiting to be done;
At this time, I am going to draft the draft with great fanfare, which will inevitably lead to imitation. I am afraid that my ministers and generals will also be inclined to enjoy themselves, and the fate of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in future generations may not be repeated.
But his heirs are indeed too few. He only has one son, Qin Ye. To put it bluntly, medical conditions are very poor these days. Who can guarantee that the eldest son will grow up
This is exactly what the ministers are worried about. The Qin Dynasty has just established a country. If there is no successor, it will be a serious hidden danger. The ministers follow them in the hope of ennobling their wives and children and sharing the same relationship with the country. Once the Qin Dynasty is in chaos, their vested interests will be difficult to guarantee, so they are more worried than Qin Mu himself.
Considering this, Qin Mu agreed to accept concubines, but only two. And one of them, Qin Mu, had already made up his mind that he was Bian Yujing, the daughter of the Bian Di family, a doctor in the Ministry of Rites. The remaining one was selected by Han Zanzhou from a small group of people and kept a low profile as much as possible.
The ministers didn't know that Qin Mu had already chosen a candidate, but they reluctantly gave up after getting his consent to add two more concubines.
Next, Lu Daqi, the minister of the Ministry of War, said: "King Qin, Ma Yongzhen, the commander-in-chief of the left army, sent a memorial. The army and 100,000 people in Luoyang have withdrawn to Xiangyang. Please ask the court to allocate grain and grass as soon as possible to help the people. In addition, Commander-in-Chief Ma sent a memorial to the court. Li Dingguo, the commander-in-chief of the rear army in Sichuan, was ordered to send troops to Hanzhong to contain He Luohui in Guanzhong. "
"What do you think, ministers, of sending troops to Hanzhong?"
Li Yuan, the cabinet scholar, replied: "King Qin, I believe that the strategy of first south and then north should be followed in Sichuan affairs. At present, there are still two people, Sun Kewang and Liu Wenxiu, in southern Sichuan. This is an extremely unstable factor. The top priority is Let Li Dingguo cooperate with the loyal prince Qin Liangyu to use soft and hard tactics, either to pacify or to suppress them, to put down Sun Kewang and Liu Wenxiu as soon as possible to prevent them from becoming powerful in the southwest and threatening our Qin rear. "
Zhuge Min, the second assistant to the cabinet, also said: "King Qin, although Boluo has not fled yet, it is unlikely to become a serious problem. Our army no longer needs to maintain so many troops in Jiangnan. Liu Wenxiu's occupation of the Luzhou area has already caused a lot of damage to our Huguang area." Threat. Therefore, I believe that in addition to Li Dingguo and Zhongzhenhou focusing on southern Sichuan, some troops from Jiangnan need to be deployed back to Huguang and Jiangxi. As for sending troops to Hanzhong, it is not yet time."
Qin Mu then asked He Liang, Minister of the Ministry of War, "What does Minister He think?"
"As a reminder to the King of Qin, pacifying Sun Kewang and Liu Wenxiu is indeed the top priority. However, I believe that we cannot just sit back and watch He Luohui stabilize Guanzhong. He ordered Li Dingguo and Ai Nengqi to send thousands of elite troops north to Hanzhong to contain the Qing forces in Guanzhong. Ma Yongzhen has sent Ling Zhan to lead 5,000 elite troops westward from Yunyang. If Yunyang cooperates with Sichuan, it will put considerable pressure on Guanzhong. If Guanzhong is unstable, the Qing army will not be able to concentrate on attacking Xiangyang on the center line. ”
Qin Mu made a quick decision and told Hanlin scholar Gu Yanwu: "Bachelor Gu will draw up a decree for Li Dingguo according to this."
"Yes, King Qin."
Qin Mu then asked: "Scholar Gu, what's going on with your eight-part dispute now?"
Gu Yanwu bowed his arms and replied: "I am reporting to the King of Qin that the fight for the Eight-legged Partisan has become more intense now. The supporters of the Eight-part Partition and the opponents are still divided equally."
Qin Mu frowned and said: "Now Jiangnan and Huainan need a large number of officials to govern. Enke can no longer delay. Whether to continue to recruit scholars with eight-part essay, all ministers will make a decision today."
When Gu Yanwu heard this, he immediately said: "In the previous Ming Dynasty, the use of stereotyped writing to recruit scholars has produced many political talents, but overall, the harm to scholars by using stereotyped writing to recruit scholars has been greater than burning books to entrap scholars;
Today's scholars, as Ai Xueshi said, keep sermons high on their desks and buy new sharp tools in the store. They can read with their shoulders lifted and their mouths trembling. Three sentences carry the title, two sentences break the title, and he shakes his head and tail, saying that he is a senior disciple of the Holy Sect. But I don’t know what kind of article “Three Links and Four Histories” is, which dynasty the emperor of Song Dynasty and Han Dynasty were, and what’s the taste of sugarcane bagasse after chewing it again and again? He has wasted his time and spent his whole life in a coma. If he can trick the high-ranking officials, it will only be bad luck for the people and the court. Therefore, I firmly oppose the continued use of stereotyped writing to select scholars. "
Among the top officials of the Qin State, high-ranking officials from the pre-Ming Dynasty such as Lu Daqi, Lu Zhenfei, and Guo Duxian only accounted for a minority;
There are more people like Sima An, Zhuge Min, Li Yuan, Yang Shen, He Liang, Gu Junen, Song Xiance, Shao Hua, Yu Dayou, Tian Yimu, and Liu Boquan. They are all talented in themselves, but they are not as good as before. But none of them were admitted to Jinshi, including Gu Yanwu, who was not a Jinshi. It is not an exaggeration to say that they were all victims of stereotyped writing.
Therefore, among the ministers present, the majority were opposed to the continued use of stereotyped writing to recruit scholars. Qin Mu no longer hesitated and ordered Du Yinxi, the minister of the Ministry of Rites, to officially publish the results, announce to the outside world that the stereotyped writing method of recruiting scholars would be cancelled, and officially set a date of ten On January 1, the first imperial examination was held in Jiangnan Gongyuan.
***(To be continued...)
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