White snow inlaid on the red walls, broken into pieces.
This was the first snow in the West Garden since the beginning of winter this year. The red walls and golden tiles of the palace turned white overnight. After the snow, the West Garden was pure white, making the already majestic and cold West Garden even colder.
Groups of palace maids and eunuchs, under the command of the eunuchs in charge and the female officials, cleared the snow in the palace courtyards to facilitate the travel of the nobles.
The palace maids swept very carefully. They dared not even breathe, let alone whisper to each other. It felt as if they were controlling the brooms and baskets in their hands with their lives, making sure that they did not make the slightest sound.
The entire Xiyuan was very depressing.
Why? The simple reason is that the owner of Xiyuan, Emperor Jiajing, was furious this morning. Not only did he not eat breakfast, he also smashed all the bowls and plates containing his breakfast to pieces and even overturned the table.
The reason why Emperor Jiajing was so furious was not because the breakfast prepared by the imperial kitchen was not to his taste (on the contrary, today's breakfast was very successful, with good color, aroma and taste, which made Emperor Jiajing's mouth water), but because of an urgent letter of military intelligence that was sent eight hundred miles away.
At that time, Emperor Jiajing had just taken two bites of breakfast and was about to enjoy his appetite when a eunuch presented him with an urgent military intelligence report from eight hundred miles away.
Emperor Jiajing opened it and took only one look. He could not help but howled in anger. He threw the ginseng porridge that he had just praised on the table, and still angry, he swept all the bowls and plates to the ground and even overturned the table!
"Waste, waste, the Jiangnan officialdom is full of waste. You have failed my trust in you! You have failed my good intentions for you!"
The angry roar of Emperor Jiajing almost blew the roof off. How dare the palace servants offend Emperor Jiajing? They all wished they could shrink into the size of ants, crawl into the cracks in the ground, and hide from the emperor's wrath.
The young eunuch who was delivering the urgent military information of 800 miles away looked ashen, and he knelt on the ground tremblingly to plead guilty. He kowtowed like crazy, crying as he kowtowed, "I deserve to die, I deserve to die, Your Majesty, please forgive me..."
After Emperor Jiajing had vented his anger by smashing and looting things, he glanced at the young eunuch who was kneeling on the ground to apologize, and walked over with a gloomy face.
The young eunuch listened to the approaching footsteps of Emperor Jiajing as if he were listening to the footsteps of the god of death. When Emperor Jiajing stopped in front of her, her heart was dead.
"Go to Wuyi Palace and summon the ministers on duty!"
The Jiajing Emperor's scolding rang out over the young eunuch's head, and the young eunuch suddenly felt as if he had escaped death.
Soon, the young eunuch crawled backwards on his knees out of the palace, stood up and trotted all the way to Wuyi Palace to convey the imperial edict.
Soon, Yan Song, Xu Jie and several other ministers were ordered to appear before the emperor.
Seeing the messy palace, Yan Song, Xu Jie and others felt nervous. They had asked the young eunuch about the general situation on the way. Now it seemed that the emperor's rage was three times worse than they had imagined.
As cabinet ministers, they all knew what the emperor was angry about and had many eyes and ears.
The barbarians in the north were restless, but they did not cause much trouble. Instead, the Japanese invasion in the south of the Yangtze River became more and more serious. Every now and then, urgent reports of the Japanese invasion would be transmitted to the capital from the south of the Yangtze River, eight hundred miles away.
Not long ago, there happened to be an urgent report about the Japanese invasion from the south, which was sent eight hundred miles away. The emperor's wrath might be related to this report.
However, what exactly was written in this urgent message that made the emperor so angry
Although the Japanese invasion in Jiangnan is getting worse, it is still under control. Could it be that there has been a major change in the Japanese invasion in Jiangnan and it is out of control? ! Could it be that the Japanese invaded Jiangnan on a large scale? !
Yan Song, Xu Jie and others paid a solemn visit to Emperor Jiajing while urgently brainstorming for their response.
"This is an urgent letter that has just arrived over 800 miles away. Take a look at it and see how my good subjects are helping me solve my problems in Jiangnan!"
Emperor Jiajing kicked the crumpled 800-li express rifle towards Yan Song and others, sneering sarcastically.
Yan Song bent over and took two steps forward, picked up the 800-li express on the ground, unfolded it and read it carefully.
"More than one hundred Japanese pirates landed in Shangyu, Shaoxing, and attacked Kuaiji. Shaoxing prefect Liu Xi and captain Xu Ziyi led 3,000 soldiers to encircle and suppress them. The pirates broke through the encirclement, killed the returning censor Qian Jing, and plundered Yuqian and Changhua counties in Hangzhou Prefecture. They moved westward to plunder Chun'an County, and then went out of Zhejiang and entered She County, Huizhou Prefecture. The 500 officers and soldiers guarding the pass in Huizhou all collapsed and fled... Fifty-seven Japanese pirates broke into Jiangning and defeated the blocking troops in Yingtian, killing more than 400 people. The Japanese chieftain, Huang Gai in red, rode a big horse and led his people to attack the Da'ande Gate in Yingtian... Yingtian is in urgent need of help, and I hereby report it..."
Yan Song took one look and couldn't help but gasp, with cold sweat breaking out on his forehead.
No wonder His Majesty is so angry, the Japanese pirates actually invaded the capital Yingtian! The Japanese chieftain also wore red clothes and yellow umbrellas, which was an aggression and an offense to His Majesty!
Yan Song read it hastily and passed the Eight Hundred Miles to Xu Jie who was standing beside him. Xu Jie could not wait to take it and read it, and then he took a breath of cold air. No wonder the emperor was so angry. Only a hundred Japanese pirates had fought for thousands of miles, destroyed more than ten cities, killed thousands of officers and soldiers, and finally attacked Yingtian with only 57 soldiers...
After reading it, Xu Jie passed the 800-mile urgent message to the people behind him. Then, sounds of gasps came one after another.
"You have seen it, you have all seen it, these are my good subjects! Very good, very good! A mere fifty-seven Japanese pirates were able to roam the Jiangnan, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Nanzhili areas of my Ming Dynasty, and fought for thousands of miles, acting recklessly as if they were in an empty land! In the end, they even risked the world's disapproval and brazenly attacked my capital Yingtian! Jiangnan had so many subjects and so many soldiers, yet they allowed only fifty-seven Japanese pirates to attack Yingtian. Haha, very good! I want to thank these fifty-seven Japanese pirates, and I want to reward these fifty-seven Japanese pirates heavily. It was they who showed me how good the subjects of Jiangnan are!"
Emperor Jiajing walked slowly up to Yan Song and others, gritting his teeth and roaring in a sarcastic tone.
Emperor Jiajing was very angry. Fifty-seven Japanese pirates roamed thousands of miles across the Ming Dynasty and finally brazenly attacked Yingtian. The reputation of the Ming Dynasty was severely trampled under the feet of these Japanese pirates, and his face was also severely trampled under the feet of the Japanese pirates.
This feeling, this humiliation, was even worse than when the Northern Barbarians’ chieftain, Altan, came to the gates of the capital two years ago! At least, back then, the Northern Barbarians’ chieftain, Altan, led 30,000 Mongolian cavalry! And the Japanese pirates, there were only 57 of them!
How ironic, how unbelievable!
If it wasn't for the 800-mile rush, Emperor Jiajing would have even suspected that this was some audacious bastard's joke!
"Your Majesty, please calm down. We are guilty of the death penalty!"
Yan Song, Xu Jie and others quickly knelt down and apologized.
"Get up, it's not you who should die!" Emperor Jiajing had a sullen face and waved his hand coldly.