Chapter 139 Unexplained Worry

Obviously, no one can ask where this "America" ​​came from. Therefore, after carefully listening to the emperor's oral instructions, everyone could only remember the key points in their hearts, and then prostrate themselves again to respect the emperor's instructions.

At this point, the face-to-face communication between the emperor and his important ministers, which took place once every few months, came to an end. Fei Xuan Zhenjun walked straight in without looking back; the ministers bowed their heads and held their breath, standing solemnly to see him off. Only after the emperor's shadow disappeared behind the screen were they called by the palace servants to leave the inner hall one by one.

In the past, when important ministers came home to rest after an audience with the emperor, they were greeted and entertained by eunuchs such as Li Zaifang and Huang Shanggang. But now Huang and Li have lost the qualification to walk in front of the emperor, so Princess Sishan has to take over and send everyone out with a whisk in hand. Originally, this kind of private time was a good time for the Cabinet and the Imperial Household Department to communicate with each other. Even if they couldn't accomplish anything big, they could still inquire about the emperor's mood in private. But no one present was familiar with Princess Sishan, and they didn't know how to get in touch with her, so they followed the princess for a long time. It was still Elder Yan who bit the bullet and broke the deadlock:

"I wonder how His Majesty is doing?"

Princess Sishan was silent for a long time, as if she had just organized her words with difficulty to deal with this situation that she was not familiar with:

"Your Majesty was slightly ill a month ago, but he is no longer in serious condition. He has been taking good care of himself recently and will be back to normal soon."

After a round of exchanges, the ministers' customary greetings were over. But Old Man Yan Ge was very experienced and instinctively noticed some strange signs:

"Is His Majesty recuperating? But the Western Garden has not summoned the imperial physician recently."

Princess Sishan was stunned again, and replied stiffly:

"Your Majesty's order, no need - no need to summon the imperial physician. The palace uses prescriptions from Southeast Asia, which are very different from the medicines in China. The imperial physician doesn't even understand the climate and constitution of Southeast Asia, so how can he understand the meaning of tonics..."

Mr. Yan:? ? ! !

Well, there is no need to make any guesses now. After all, Princess Sishan is too young and too naive. Her scheming level cannot be compared with that of the great eunuchs of the past. After saying two sentences, she lost control of her mouth and actually revealed the truth. The so-called "no need to summon the imperial physician" could mean -

Elder Yan's voice became shrill: "Your Majesty, did you prescribe the tonic for yourself?"

What is this? "After learning medicine and achieving some success, will you create your own prescription"?

Well, now medicine has not yet progressed to the vast, profound and mysterious level it will be in the future. The basic theories still rely heavily on common sense and even metaphysics, and the professional threshold is actually quite weak. Scholars who have the time and the interest to study medical books for a few years can basically prescribe medicine to deal with daily headaches and fevers; most of the time, the medicine will not kill people. However, judging from the past experience of the current emperor, all the medical knowledge he possesses probably comes from Taoist scriptures, from alchemists, and from years of elixir live experiments; so the value of this knowledge is probably quite -

Elder Yan's expression turned subtle.

It wasn't just Lord Yan who had a subtle look on his face. Among the important officials present, anyone who realized the princess's implication had a strange expression on his face. Out of normal human conscience and the loyalty of Confucian scholars, the ministers struggled in their hearts. They wanted to speak out and point out the emperor's absurd behavior to the public in order to nip it in the bud and avoid future harm. However, in addition to loyalty and conscience, there was a deep-rooted fear and dread in their hearts. They dared not speak rashly and offend the emperor's decades of accumulated prestige. The two states of mind battled against each other, and it was difficult to decide; when the winner was almost decided, he had already been sent out of the palace gate, and he no longer had the time to speak calmly.

At this point, seeing the palace gate right before their eyes, everyone felt a little relieved, finally no longer having to face the futile struggle of their conscience. So the important ministers bowed and said goodbye, asking the princess to convey their sincere greetings to the emperor, and then hurried away.

·

According to the usual practice, the emperor would arrange for his ministers to do the same. After entering the palace to meet the emperor and listen to his instructions, the ministers would return to their homes to "think about national affairs" and have a drink or two of good wine to relax and relieve the depression caused by being tortured by Lao Deng. But ever since the damn Prince Mu, the Prince of Duke Mu, took charge of the confidential affairs, the peaceful and tranquil days of paradise in the past are gone forever. After several painful practices, Lord Yan, Lord Xu and others have fully realized the sad reality of the moment - you can certainly follow the old rules and go home to relax comfortably, but the prince will most likely take over and unceremoniously take away all the important documents of the cabinet, leaving the old ministers to sit at home in a daze and become vases with profound core background.

A gentleman cannot live without power for a day, and he cannot tolerate a junior taking advantage of him. At this point, no matter how reluctant we are, we have no choice but to roll up.

Now that the Foreign Affairs Office has been newly established, the division of labor within the center has also been adjusted. Yan, Xu and others continued to work in the cabinet and preside over the country's major affairs, while Prince Mu led a group of temporary workers into the small compartment next to the cabinet to guide the work of the Foreign Affairs Office as usual and implement detailed matters.

In terms of division of labor, those in charge of major affairs in the cabinet can certainly chat and laugh, and live a leisurely life; but the Foreign Affairs Office, which is responsible for specific trivial matters, is like a busy beast, and cannot relax for a moment. People working in the External Affairs Office have long formed a habit of spreading out paper and grinding ink, drafting official documents, and checking account books as soon as they enter the office. They don't even have time to exchange pleasantries or chat. But today... Today, Zhang Taiyue stood in front of the table, unfolded a memorial, but suddenly hesitated for a moment.

"Your Majesty, is he really taking the tonic from Southeast Asia now?"

No one dared to answer this question, which was almost a soliloquy, but the prince who walked in leisurely replied:

"This is natural, otherwise where would the blood swallows we use daily come from?"

After saying this, he smiled again.

"There's agarwood, ambergris, blood swallows, and Western ginseng. Your Majesty lives deep in the palace, and seems to like these foreign tonics very much... If these things get out, I'm afraid there will be people who will say that the country is fighting against the Spanish not for any righteous cause, but just for the rare medicines from Southeast Asia."

As soon as these words were spoken, the small External Affairs Office immediately became quiet, and not even the sound of breathing could be heard. It seems that what Prince Mu said was just a joke, but how many truths in the world are told half-truthfully and half-falsely in jokes? At least - at least based on Master Feixuan's usual performance, if you really say that he went crazy in Spain just to try out the effects of Southeast Asian medicine in the art of immortality for a change of taste, then it is actually - actually quite convincing.

In the world, the truth is always the most lethal, and everyone actually understands this.

The awkward silence lasted for a moment, and then Elder Yan Xiaoge managed to say:

"There's no need to speculate..."

"Yes, why speculate?" The prince said calmly: "No matter what the motive is, Spain is an irreconcilable and powerful enemy, and there will be a war. Since war is inevitable, we just need to prepare for it honestly. There is no need to worry too much about good and evil."

This is outright pragmatism and unabashed utilitarianism, which completely abandons moral standards in pursuit of practical interests. Perhaps Young Lord Yan was accustomed to this kind of attitude, and he just nodded happily when he heard it; but the two Confucian scholars Zhang Taiyue and Gao Suqing frowned repeatedly, as if they found it very irritating. It's a pity that there is a hierarchy between superiors and subordinates, and a temporary worker like me cannot openly argue in front of important officials of the central government. After thinking about it, I had no choice but to sit down and honestly read the pile of documents in front of me.

Yan Donglou and Gao Suqing each had their own duties. After finishing their important tasks, they would return to their respective yamen to do their work. Only the youngest, Zhang Taiyue, was left on duty, waiting to be called by the cabinet at any time. This is probably a form of seniority bullying in the officialdom, a means for senior officials to bully the younger ones. But Zhang Hanlin had just arrived, and he just kept his head down and worked overtime without pay, and never complained; but today, after two colleagues had left one after another, he was silent for a long time, and suddenly called out to the Prince of Mu who was reading memorials.

"Did you mean what the prince said before?"

The prince put down the memorial and turned to look at him, but his face was hidden in the shadows and it was impossible to tell his true colors:

"What does Taiyue mean?"

"...What I mean is," Zhang Taiyue hesitated for a moment, and spoke in a low voice, "In recent years, His Majesty has been searching for treasures and herbs in Southeast Asia, and has been deploying troops everywhere. His desire for material things is becoming more and more intense. If this continues, I'm afraid, I'm afraid..."

Even in front of a trusted sponsor, Zhang Taiyue did not dare to reveal all his thoughts. Even so, the implied meaning between the half-hidden and half-revealed words is obvious. There is no fool who can serve in the center. Even if the True Lord conceals it no matter how well and cleverly, Zhang Taiyue can still keenly perceive the emperor's fierce and burning desire that is growing day by day, his unbridled greed and obsession, and his strange mentality distorted and mutated by power - each and every one of these things really does not seem like a good omen for prosperity; the clues are so vague and the foreshadowing is so far away that even a smart person can't help but feel terrified.

Why did Zhang Taiyue specifically mention the precious tonic medicine from Southeast Asia? You know, in the past, when King Zhou only used a pair of ivory chopsticks, Jizi would burst into tears and say that the ancestors of the Shang Dynasty could no longer eat blood; but now the palace has become so extravagant and corrupt that they use agarwood and ambergris to fumigate the walls, and spend money and enjoy themselves without restraint. You can even smell the smell of the country's demise.

If future generations mourn for them but do not learn from them, they will also cause future generations to mourn for future generations. Any Confucian scholar who is well versed in classics and history should be able to immediately perceive the true foreshadowing behind this chaos.

However, this is also where Mr. Zhang’s confusion lies. Lord Feixuan's extravagance has reached the extreme. Judging from what we have seen and heard today, it is not surprising that he could be attributed to any king who has lost his country. But he carefully checked the files of the Foreign Affairs Office and even repeatedly observed the morale of the people in the capital, and he really couldn't see any signs of decline and corruption. It could even be called prosperous and peaceful - everyone could eat enough and most of them had jobs; the lower-level laborers toiled for months and were given mung beans and salt in the summer, and firewood and hot soup in the winter; if you say that this is the end of the world, then all the great Confucian scholars from the Han Dynasty to the Song Dynasty would take turns spitting at you and would call you a shameless Versailles.

The intuition that arrogance and extravagance would lead to the country's destruction conflicted with the reality of prosperity and development, making the extremely intelligent Zhang Taiyue a little dazed, so he hesitated for a long time and actually took the risk of asking aloud - normally speaking, an official of his level was not qualified to discuss state affairs, and he would not have dared to open his mouth if he had not been in front of the prince.

And the prince did not disappoint him. Although he was also silent for a moment, he actually laughed softly in the shadows.

"…It's really smart. How can a person be so farsighted?"

"What?"

"Nothing." The prince said calmly: "In fact, Taiyue has no reason to worry. Everyone working in the Foreign Affairs Office should know the details of the court's military preparations. No matter what, as long as the advantage of firearms is still there and the navy training can keep up, we can always beat the Spaniards. After defeating the Western powers, the national strength will certainly reach its peak..."

Zhang Taiyue instinctively wanted to nod, but suddenly hesitated - perhaps it was due to some kind of literal intuition of a test-taker. When he heard the word "极盛", his heart would always skip a beat and he would inexplicably feel something strange.

With thousands of years of experience in compiling history books, writers would not easily use such unwieldy rhetoric as "peak" or "full prosperity"; the sun is at its zenith and then wanes, and when it reaches its peak it will go downhill; the day when a country reaches its "peak" is actually the time when the dragon will regret its rise, decline will come, and the future will be bleak.

Therefore, the best expectation for the country is not "peak prosperity" but "endless prosperity"; the country should be like the sun rising at seven or eight o'clock, always enterprising, always striving, always full of vigor and vitality, and always full of hope. The palace in the Han Dynasty was called "Weiyang Palace", which is what it means. On the contrary, Du Gongbu wrote in his poem "Remembering the heyday of Kaiyuan", and not long after the heyday of Kaiyuan, the drums of Yuyang came shaking the earth!

The words used by scholars are very subtle and meticulous, and not a single word can be mistaken; if the person talking to him is a Jinshi who passed the imperial examinations twice, Zhang Taiyue can hear the sarcasm in the other person from just one word. But now…now…

——Considering the prince’s usual cultural level, this should just be... just a coincidence, right?

Zhang Taiyue was stunned for a moment and did not answer. The prince spoke again without caring about anything:

"Besides, Wang Jinggong's poem says 'I wish to be a frivolous boy of Wuling, born in the Zhenguan and Kaiyuan eras'. Now is the Kaiyuan era, everything is just right, why should Taiyue think so much."

Zhang Taiyue suddenly bulged his eyes

·

A few days after obtaining the emperor's approval, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs finally received memorials from the nine frontiers. Qi Yuanjing reported the training results of the border troops after adopting firearms, and agreed to test the "machine gun" weapon pioneered by the Mu Guogong Mansion on the battlefield - an extremely sophisticated mechanical firearm that can spit out eighty simple small rockets within one minute after pressing the switch. Judging from the results of the on-site inspection by the External Affairs Office, if the Feixuan Zhenjun in the past was like a call from the God of Death, then the lethality of this thing is basically like the King of Hell visiting.

As a regular duty officer, Zhang Taiyue read the memorial conscientiously, compared the content with the previous experimental results, then looked up and drew a small circle, and put it in the "proposed approval" box. He counted the documents in the box again and felt a little relieved.

To be honest, although the conversations with Prince Mu in the past few days were basically incomprehensible and of no help at all, the authority of the prince still has some effect. At least Zhang Taiyue has been checking the files repeatedly in the past few days and he had to admit that he was worrying too much and that his so-called intuition had no basis at all.

Judging from the reports from various places, the weather has been good in recent years, and the taxes and labor service have been greatly reduced, so there will be no problem with farming; several cases of rebellion have been severely dealt with, and the descendants of the emperor are terrified, and the royal family is also very well behaved; after the installation of new weapons, the military strength of the nine borders has greatly increased, and foreign threats have almost been eliminated; even the financial crisis that has plagued the country for hundreds of years has automatically collapsed with the development of coastal trade and has disappeared...

Peasant uprisings, rebellion by royal family members, invasion by foreign enemies, usurpation of the throne by powerful ministers, disorderly politics by eunuchs, defection of border troops - after only a few years of the New Deal, all the factors that had led to the demise of a nation throughout history seemed to have been suppressed and no longer posed any threat; based on past experience, Da'an had never been so stable, so peaceful, so comfortable; everything was so good.

...Yes, everything is so good, but why is it that the vague worry and fear always lingers in my heart?