Zhu Ping'an returned to the library under a sea of red eyes, especially the gaze of Yuan Wei, the Hanlin academician, when he looked at Zhu Ping'an with a glowing red light!
Yuan Wei also saw the content of the note that Emperor Jiajing gave to Zhu Ping'an. The sentence "Sweet and sour fish goes well with rice" clearly meant that the poems written by Zhu Ping'an were favored by Emperor Jiajing. This made Yuan Wei despise Zhu Ping'an and he felt that Zhu Ping'an was an opportunist. In Yuan Wei's eyes, Zhu Ping'an's poetry level was too mediocre and he was just taking advantage of the situation!
In the past, whenever Emperor Jiajing sent a note to the Imperial Academy asking them to present a poem or a lyric, it was always me, Yuan Wei, who won the most favor. If you, Zhu Ping'an, wrote better than me, that's fine, but what is your writing? Almost everyone here wrote more poetically than you!
The more he thought about it, the more annoyed Yuan Wei became with Zhu Ping'an. It was like a mixed-feathered little rooster had sneaked in among a group of peacocks, but this mixed-feathered little rooster had stepped on the peacocks' heads and won the award for the most beautiful spread of feathers.
After Zhu Ping'an returned to the library, he continued his task of organizing the books. There were so many books in the vast collection that the ten organized bookshelves were too small compared to the library which was the size of six rooms. The work was arduous and there was a long way to go. However, Zhu Ping'an was mentally prepared. As the saying goes, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, so he just had to take it slow.
While Zhu Ping'an was sorting the books, the Jiajing Emperor, who had eaten and drunk his fill, regained his energy and spirit. He took a "magic pill" the size of a quail egg and began to deal with the memorials received from the cabinet.
Emperor Jiajing was not only interested in cultivating immortality and refining elixirs. If he had only known how to cultivate immortality and refining elixirs and ignored state affairs, the Ming Dynasty might have changed its ruler long ago!
Emperor Jiajing simply did not attend court, but he still had to hold the power of the Ming Dynasty firmly in his own hands. This he fully realized when he was young and had a dispute with court officials over the "great etiquette".
Of course, the memorials that Emperor Jiajing handled were not the original memorials, but the memorials that had been processed by the cabinet. The original memorials were first processed by the cabinet. The cabinet processed the memorials and wrote down their opinions in black pen, which was the draft. The memorials and the draft were submitted to Emperor Jiajing by the cabinet. If Emperor Jiajing agreed with the draft, he would write comments in red pen.
This cabinet voting system greatly saved the emperor's time and energy.
However, Emperor Jiajing was more convenient. He delegated the work of writing with red pen to the eunuch of Silijian, who was his companion Huang Jin.
In fact, in some ways, Emperor Jiajing was the most capable emperor. He did not attend court but was able to keep the Ming Dynasty firmly in his hands in a way that saved time, effort and worry.
Emperor Jiajing took the elixir and sat on the Bagua mat to meditate, with a bowl-shaped chime made of crystal clear jade placed beside him. On his legs, he sat cross-legged with a handle made of fine agarwood, and he looked at Huang Jin and nodded.
Huang Jin understood the meaning of Emperor Jiajing's look.
So Huang Jin quickly brought a stack of drafted memorials and placed them on a low table. Then he prepared the red brush and inkstone, and then knelt on the ground and paid great respects to Emperor Jiajing.
After the ceremony, Huang Jin took the memorial on top, opened it and began to read it. After reading the memorial, Huang Jin then read the draft of the cabinet's proposal. After reading it, Huang Jin put the memorial down and pricked up his ears.
Emperor Jiajing held the agarwood handle and gently struck the bowl-shaped chime, and the sound of metal and stone colliding came out from the strike.
Hearing the sound of the chime, Huang Jin understood what he meant, dipped his red brush into the red ink, and then rewrote the cabinet bill with a red pen. This was how Emperor Jiajing handled government affairs. The eunuchs in charge of the Silijian who were responsible for the red pen could only write and approve after hearing Jiajing hit the chime.
The sound of a chime meant that Emperor Jiajing agreed to the cabinet's proposal. If Emperor Jiajing did not strike the chime, Huang Jin would never dare to approve it with his red brush.
After annotating this memorial with his red brush, Huang Jin read out two more memorials. After the Emperor Jiajing finished listening, he also struck the chime, and Huang Jin rewrote them one by one according to the draft with his red brush.
Just like that. Within a period of time, five memorials had been reviewed. When Huang Jin picked up the sixth memorial, he took a look at it and was stunned for a moment.
"What's wrong?" asked the meditating Emperor Jiajing.
"Your Majesty, this memorial was submitted by Dong Wei, the Censor of Zhejiang Province. Mr. Dong requests that the maritime ban be relaxed to facilitate fishermen and woodcutters and to improve national revenue." After being asked by Emperor Jiajing, Huang Jin concisely presented the memorial in his hand to Emperor Jiajing.
Each memorial contained at least several hundred words. Even if Huang Jin had the patience to read it word by word, Emperor Jiajing did not have the patience to listen. Therefore, Huang Jin would summarize the gist of the memorial every time. This was also the reason why Huang Jin was favored. He could always summarize the memorial most accurately in the shortest time.
Huang Jin was stunned when he saw this memorial because it was too sensitive. Recently, the court has been divided into two opposing factions regarding the maritime ban. One faction is the "relaxed ban faction", which advocates opening the maritime trade and collecting taxes by the commission method to accommodate the development of maritime trade; the other faction is the "strict prohibition faction". The strict prohibition faction advocates strict compliance with the maritime ban on the grounds that the Japanese pirates in Zhejiang and Fujian are rampant and the coastal defense is under pressure. Not a single sail is allowed to enter the sea, and believes that opening the maritime trade is the reason for the prevalence of Japanese pirates. The two factions each have their own supporting officials in the court. Even among Yan Song's followers, there are both the relaxed ban faction and the strict prohibition faction, not to mention other forces in the court.
There are huge profits here. The income of the Maritime Customs has been recorded in previous dynasties. During the Song and Yuan dynasties, the income of the Maritime Customs was several times that of land taxes. It can be said that the income was transported by shiploads of silver.
In addition, not all members of the strict prohibition group were pure maritime prohibitionists, and not all of them were motivated by the consideration of the Japanese pirates. There were also some hidden interests mixed in. If the maritime prohibition was strictly prohibited and the Maritime Customs Office was not open, smuggling would be rampant. Among them, some maritime merchants and smuggling groups bribed local officials with large sums of money to ask for protection. If the Maritime Customs Office was opened, smuggling would be greatly affected.
These two points are just the tip of the iceberg, there are many other reasons for the activities involved.
The words "relax" and "strict" seem clean and clear, but the struggle is complicated and bloody. Three years ago, Zhu Wan, the Right Vice-Chief Censor of the Ming Dynasty, the Governor of Zhejiang, and the Commander-in-Chief of the Zhejiang and Fujian Coastal Defense Forces, was a bloody example.
Zhu Wan was an uncompromising strict prohibitionist. On the one hand, he resisted the Japanese pirates, and on the other hand, he led his army to break through the smuggling gathering place Shuangyu Island, captured and killed the smuggling leader Li Guangtou, and mercilessly beheaded the coastal people who traded with the Portuguese. It was because Zhu Wan beheaded the people who traded with the Portuguese that the "relaxation faction" seized the excuse and demanded the removal of Zhu Wan in the name of "private execution without waiting for the court's approval." At that time, Emperor Jiajing issued an order: to arrest Zhu Wan and bring him to Beijing for interrogation.
"I am poor and ill, and I am conceited. I cannot go to court. Even if the emperor does not want to kill me, the people of Fujian and Zhejiang will definitely kill me. I will die by myself, without the help of others."
After leaving these words, Zhu Wan faced the sea and drank poison and committed suicide.
There are many similar examples. Maritime ban is a term that has caused people to turn pale in the past two years. Huang Jin hesitated because he understood the gap between them. (To be continued.)