"Master Zhu, do you have anything else to do? If not, why don't we go together?" Feng Bao invited, as if he had something to say to Zhu Ping'an.
"How dare you disobey my order?" Zhu Ping'an smiled slightly, then extended his hand to invite her. "Eunuch Feng, please."
"Please come in, Lord Xiao Zhu." Feng Bao also extended his hand.
After the courtesy, Zhu Ping'an and Feng Bao walked out of the Ministry of Justice together. When passing the duty room, Zhu Ping'an heard a warm farewell as if he were meeting his father. He turned around and saw the official in charge of registration who had been enthusiastic at first but then cold when he entered the room. He was smiling brightly, bending over like a pug, and enthusiastically farewelling him with a smug look... Feng Bao.
"Eunuch Feng, please walk slowly... Eunuch, please walk slowly, be careful on the steps..."
The official in charge of registration was enthusiastic and attentive in seeing off the young eunuch Feng Bao, and was even more friendly to him than meeting his own father. This eunuch Feng came from the palace, and Minister He had just gone out to greet him. If he could curry favor with this eunuch Feng and give him some gifts, wouldn't he be able to get a job as an official himself
I grass
Be careful with the steps... .
This sound is really ear-piercing.
It was also the first time that Zhu Ping'an had seen someone so shamelessly humble.
The official in charge of registration warmly saw Feng Bao off, but Zhu Ping'an, who went out with Feng Bao, was ignored. The registration official didn't even bother to greet Zhu Ping'an, as if Zhu Ping'an had disappeared.
Praising the powerful and looking down on the weak, that's just how the world is, there's nothing worth worrying about.
Seeing this, Zhu Ping'an smiled indifferently, and walked out of the Ministry of Justice together with Feng Bao. Then he looked back at the couplet on the door, which read "Powerful ministers shall not come in or go out based on gratitude or grudges, and the emperor shall not take his joy or anger as the basis of importance", and felt it was inexplicably ironic.
The distance from the Ministry of Justice to the Western Garden is not far. Passing the Hanlin Academy, it takes a while to reach the Western Garden. Zhu Ping'an and Feng Bao seemed to have a tacit understanding. They walked very slowly. It took them five or six times longer than usual to walk this distance together. A Hanlin official and an inner court eunuch, who were of similar age, walked on the official road at the foot of the palace, chatting and laughing.
If Zhu Yuanzhang saw this scene, he would probably have killed both of them. Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang prohibited eunuchs from interfering in government affairs, and even tightened the restrictions on foreign officials to make friends with eunuchs in the palace, fearing that ministers and eunuchs would collude with each other, influence the Ming court, and endanger the country.
However, although there is now an iron plate hanging on the palace gate that reads "Eunuchs are not allowed to interfere in state affairs, those who violate this will be beheaded", the entire Ming Dynasty has ignored the iron rule set by Taizu.
"I don't mean to say that you are a little anxious in this memorial, Lord Zhu."
The first topic was Zhu Ping'an's petition, and Feng Bao looked at Zhu Ping'an and reminded him.
"Really? I think it's too late. If we had arrived earlier, those villagers wouldn't have been killed by their own people." Zhu Ping'an shook his head and sighed softly.
"My little Lord Zhu, do you know that the emperor got very angry when he saw the memorial? I heard it through the door. Later, when I was cleaning up, I found that the emperor drank half a bowl less of breakfast." Feng Bao said with great distress.
"I have disturbed the emperor's health, so I deserve to die." Zhu Ping'an apologized.
"What's the point of dying a thousand times? Dying once is enough." Feng Bao didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He carefully looked around and then whispered mysteriously, "But you can't die even if you want to."
"Oh?" Zhu Ping'an's expression changed.
Feng Bao carefully looked around again, and seeing that there was no one around, he approached Zhu Ping'an and whispered two words, "Fu Zhan."
Support Zhan
Zhu Ping'an was a little confused. Fuzhan was Emperor Jiajing's unique way of communicating with gods. In modern terms, it was feudal superstition, a thing that could not be more mysterious. There was no credible basis at all. Yet Emperor Jiajing enjoyed doing it all his life.
The divination of Emperor Jiajing was roughly like this: a large sand table, two racks, two large tree branches, two young eunuchs, and a Taoist priest. The Taoist priest burned the words of Emperor Jiajing to the gods, and then the two young eunuchs, like they were having a seizure, pressed their fingertips on the tree branches and drew randomly.
Well, the ghostly drawings on the sand table are the answer from the gods. As for whether the ghostly drawings on the sand table look like words or not, it doesn’t matter, the Emperor Jiajing and the Taoist priests will figure out the explanation.
Zhu Pingan thought that no modern person would believe this, but Emperor Jiajing enjoyed it. Emperor Jiajing was definitely one of the smartest people in the Ming Dynasty, but at this time he was like a fool.
Immortal cultivation and alchemy
This is one of the fatal flaws of Emperor Jiajing.
But what does the fortune telling have to do with him? Could it be that the ghostly talismans that appeared in the fortune telling on the day he submitted the memorial have something to do with him? Although judging from Feng Bao's expression, the result of the fortune telling was favorable to him, Zhu Ping'an still felt that it was too ridiculous.
"During the routine divination on the morning of the day you submitted your memorial, Master Tao interpreted it as 'a loyal minister is submitting a memorial today.' As luck would have it, your memorial, Sir Zhu, arrived on His Majesty's desk not long after the divination was performed. When Xiao Dezi was presenting the memorial to His Majesty in a hurry, he slipped and messed up the memorials sent by the Cabinet. He picked them up and put them in order himself, and it happened that your memorial, Sir Zhu, was placed on the top of the pile." Looking at Zhu Ping'an's ignorant look, Feng Bao couldn't help feeling a sense of accomplishment and whispered in Zhu Ping'an's ear.
"oh... ... "
So that's how it is. Zhu Pingan nodded.
The divination was done early in the morning, and the answer given was "A loyal minister will submit a memorial today", and then coincidentally the memorial was submitted.
I guess this is where Tao Zhongwen's cleverness comes from. Is there a loyal minister making a memorial today? There must have been hundreds of officials making memorials in the Ming Empire that day. Among the hundreds of officials, there must have been a loyal minister. Anyway, I didn't name who it was.
This is an open-ended riddle, which is absolutely correct. No one can say that Tao Zhongwen is wrong.
As for the fact that the cabinet's memorial was submitted after the emperor's divination was completed, it was probably not a coincidence. The time for the cabinet to submit memorials was fixed every day. Tao Zhongwen had been with Emperor Jiajing for so long, he must have been particularly clear about the time.
Therefore, as long as we control the time of Fuzhan a little bit, we can achieve this "coincidence".
In fact, originally this Fuzhan had nothing to do with him. There was a huge pile of memorials submitted to Emperor Jiajing by the cabinet. Who knew which memorial the "zhichen" mentioned in the Fuzhan was.
However, the real coincidence occurred at this time.
The eunuch named Xiao Dezi who delivered the memorials was clumsy. Maybe he slipped, or his hands were shaking, or maybe he was ambushed by someone while competing for favor with the emperor. In any case, when he delivered the memorials to the desk of Emperor Jiajing, the pile of memorials fell onto the desk, or maybe they fell to the ground. Anyway, the order was messed up, and then Xiao Dezi put them in order again himself.
Then, by coincidence, his own memorial appeared first.
Such a series of coincidences
Perhaps in the eyes of Emperor Jiajing, this was God's will, and the first memorial was the loyal minister referred to in the immortal's reply.
A loyal minister!
Can a direct minister be killed
Is a ruler who cannot tolerate his loyal ministers a wise ruler