After paying his respects to the three big men of the cabinet, Zhu Ping'an followed Li Chunfang to pay his respects to several senior officials of the Sizhi Cabinet in turn, and then got acquainted with other officials of the Sizhi Cabinet. It was not until about ten o'clock in the morning that he finally settled down.
Zhu Ping'an was assigned to the office room of Li Chunfang and others. In addition to Li Chunfang, there were three other officials in the room, making a total of five people including Zhu Ping'an.
This room is mainly responsible for clerical matters, such as drafting documents and imperial edicts, submitting imperial edicts, sorting memorials, etc.
On the first day, Zhu Ping'an, the newly appointed Si Zhilang of the Cabinet, was in Wuyi Palace, just like he did when he went to the court for internship as a senior in college. He consulted, watched, and learned from Li Chunfang and others how to handle memorials, upload and issue documents, and so on.
Oh, and running errands.
The cabinet was equivalent to the political center of the Ming Dynasty. Many instructions were issued from here to the Six Ministries, the Censorate, the Dali Temple, the Censorate and other institutions. In ancient times, there were no telephones, faxes, emails, etc., so instructions could only be conveyed manually.
Zhu Ping'an ran two errands today.
One leg was to go to the Imperial Clan Court to convey the documents of the Emperor Jiajing's imperial edicts to reward the princes. Because the princes donated silver to help with military expenses, among them: Dai Wang Zhu Tingzhai donated 5,000 taels of silver, Ru Wang Zhu Yougu donated 3,000 taels of silver, De Wang Zhu Zai donated 1,000 taels of silver and eight war horses, Hui Wang Zhu Zai (Tulun) donated 1,000 taels of silver, and Ninghua Wangfu Fuguo Zhongwei donated 1,000 taels of silver to help with border expenses, Emperor Jiajing was pleased to reward the princes who donated silver.
The other leg was to the Ministry of Justice to review the case files of Yang's murder case, a death penalty review case.
my country can be said to be the country that is most cautious about the death penalty. For example, in the Ming Dynasty, any death penalty case will go through layers of review by prefectures, counties, prefectures, provinces, and the Ministry of Justice, and finally have to be approved by Emperor Jiajing before the death penalty can be carried out.
Now the Yang murder case came to the attention of Emperor Jiajing. Of course, Emperor Jiajing's affairs were the affairs of the Cabinet, so the case was transferred to the Cabinet.
Without investigation, there is no right to speak, so Zhu Ping'an was sent to the Ministry of Justice to review the file materials.
When he arrived at the Ministry of Justice, Zhu Pingan was confused when he saw the nearly ten kilograms of case files. Fortunately, a person in charge of the Ministry of Justice asked the police to help Zhu Pingan to the gate of Xiyuan. However, Zhu Pingan had to rely on himself to walk through the gate of Xiyuan.
By the time Zhu Ping'an arrived at Wuyi Hall with the ten-pound file, his back was already sweating profusely and his hands were sore and weak.
After delivering the files to the designated office room, Zhu Ping'an returned to his seat, picked up the teacup, and gulped down a cup of herbal tea. Feeling the herbal tea flowing in his throat and stomach, he felt like he was reborn.
"Haha, Zihou must be exhausted." Li Chunfang asked with a smile.
"It's okay, it's okay." Zhu Ping'an replied, panting.
"Haha, it's better to be young. I just went to the Censorate and now my legs are almost broken. Here, this is for you. This is one of the few benefits we have." Li Chunfang joked with a smile, then handed Zhu Ping'an a folding fan.
"Thank you, Lord Li." Zhu Ping'an's eyes lit up when he saw the folding fan. After thanking Li Chunfang, he took the fan without hesitation, opened it, and fanned it gently twice. A cool breeze followed, making him feel much cooler.
After a while, Zhu Ping'an calmed down and tried to sort out the memorials while asking Li Chunfang for advice.
Mongolian Khan Altan Khan invaded Datong again, and his subordinates Baduer and Xinai attacked Xinxingbao in Liaodong. Military reports were sent everywhere. The Ministry of Households and Workers reported the amount of silver used for military pay in various border areas, and reported that the silver in the treasury was in short supply, and requested an increase in taxes. Severe famine occurred in Xuanfu and Datong, and people had nothing to eat, but had to eat people. The Ministry of War submitted a petition requesting to borrow the silver for military pay to provide relief.
The pirate Wang Zhi sent his chieftains Xu Hai, Chen Dong, Xiao Xian, Ma Ye and others to lure more than 10,000 Japanese pirates, and sailed more than 1,000 ships to land in Zhoushan, Xiangshan County and other places in Zhejiang. They looted Taizhou, Wenzhou, Ningbo and Shaoxing, captured cities and fortresses, killed and kidnapped residents, and caused unrest in eastern Zhejiang. Jiangnan and Jiangbei were in danger at the same time...
To sum up, there are three main problems in the memorial: one is the northern barbarians, one is the southern Japanese, and the other is lack of money.
The Ming Dynasty is really facing internal and external troubles. Zhu Ping'an looked at the memorial and couldn't help but frowned...
In the afternoon in the capital city, the sun hanging in the sky seemed to be on fire, baking the heaven and earth. The water placed outside the yard was scalding hot, the ground was almost smoking, there was not a breath of wind, and it was so hot that people could hardly breathe.
After lunch, Li Shu, the mistress of Tingyuxuan, had a bowl of homemade ice cream. She then asked someone to go to the ice cellar to get a few basins of ice and placed them in the bedroom to cool down the heat. She also gave a basin each to Baozi, the little maid, and Qin'er and several other older maids.
With the ice basin for cooling, the temperature in the room is several degrees lower than outside. Although it is scorching outside, it is cool and comfortable inside.
Take a nap in the afternoon.
The little maidservant Baozi was on duty in the master bedroom suite. While the young lady was taking a nap, she took off her outer clothes, put on only her inner shirt, and closed her eyes for a while on the couch.
Because she had been on duty in the suite last night and had insomnia, she fell asleep peacefully as soon as she closed her eyes.
I don’t know how long I slept.
By the time the little maid Baozi woke up rubbing her eyes, the sun was almost setting outside and the sunlight was not so strong anymore.
Oh no, how could I oversleep? Is the young lady up yet? I had an appointment with the second young lady and the others to appreciate the lotus today.
The chubby little maid hurriedly grabbed a handful of her sleep-messy hair and sat up from the couch, extremely anxious.
Just at this time, a little girl came in with a basin of ice in the living room. Seeing that Baozi, the little maid, had woken up, she giggled, "Sister Huaer, you are finally awake. Just now, the young lady saw that you were sleeping soundly, so she didn't ask anyone to wake you up and took Sister Qiner to the back garden to appreciate the lotus. The young lady loves you so much that she asked us not to wake you up and let you sleep a little longer. She specially gave you half a day off."
ah
When the chubby little maid heard this, she couldn't close her mouth immediately. She felt sweet in her heart when she thought about how good the young lady was to her.
Just then, there was a sound of footsteps in the living room. The footsteps sounded a little disorderly, as if the steps were erratic and unstable.
Then I smelled a strong smell of alcohol.
Then Zhu Ping'an was seen burping, with a blue gauze scented leaf crown on his head, and walking in with unsteady steps.
"Son-in-law, you're back so early today. Miss and the second miss went to the back garden to admire the lotus and haven't come back yet."
The chubby little maid subconsciously pulled up the thin blanket to cover her neck. She was only wearing an undershirt at this time, and her little face was flushed with embarrassment.
"Um… "
Zhu Ping'an nodded and walked towards the master bedroom. However, he stumbled after taking only two steps and almost bumped into the door.
The little maid Baozi then realized that her son-in-law had drunk too much. His face was red and he reeked of alcohol.
"Master, be careful... Zhuier, go to the kitchen and bring you a bowl of hangover soup." The little maid Baozi didn't care about what she was wearing. She hurriedly got down from the couch and supported Zhu Ping'an, fearing that Zhu Ping'an would be hurt or fall. At the same time, she asked the little maid Zhuier to go to the kitchen to bring him a bowl of hangover soup.
"No, thanks, I'm not drunk. Just help me to the bedroom and lie down for a while." Zhu Ping'an shook his head and waved his hand with a big tongue.