Zhu Youxiao suddenly remembered something and turned to the eunuch, "Please invite Master Sun and Master Yuan to attend the noon court."
The two famous officials of the late Ming Dynasty, Sun Chengzong and Yuan Keli, were the ones that Tianqi could call his "teacher" without giving his name.
Sun Chengzong's official position was the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites, assisting in the management of the Zhanshi Mansion. At the same time, as the Left Minister of the Imperial Household, Sun Chengzong was also responsible for teaching the Tianqi Emperor, also known as the "Lecture on the Classics."
Yuan Keli served as the acting Minister of Public Administration and became the imperial tutor of Emperor Tianqi.
In the first year of the Tianqi reign (1621), the Eastern Tartars attacked Liaodong, and Shenyang and Liaoyang fell successively. Yuan Yingtai, the governor of Liaodong, committed suicide.
Subsequently, the censor Fang Zhenru requested that Sun Chengzong replace Cui Jingrong as the Minister of War. The ministers in the court also believed that Sun Chengzong was knowledgeable about military affairs and recommended Sun Chengzong as an additional assistant minister in the Ministry of War to be in charge of Liaodong's defense.
However, Emperor Tianqi did not want Sun Chengzong to leave the lecture hall, and he disagreed twice.
As for Yuan Keli, although his reputation was not as great as Sun Chengzong, Zhu Youxiao knew that his teacher was quite awesome.
Now, Zhu Youxiao invited Sun Chengzong and Yuan Keli to attend the court meeting, which was intended to make the teachers familiar with border affairs and to entrust them with important tasks.
First, Zhu Youxiao targeted the current Minister of War Zhang Heming.
Zhang Heming was largely responsible for Wang Huazhen's capture of Guangning. If he hadn't placed his utmost trust in the mediocre Wang Huazhen and constantly hindered Xiong Tingbi, the Battle of Guangning might not have been a disastrous defeat.
Zhu Youxiao arranged everything, stroked his forehead and thought for a while, then ordered Wang Tigan: "Make a list of all the Liaodong officials and generals. I want to see it tonight."
"I obey your order." Wang Tigan saw that there was still work to do and knew that the emperor still needed him, so his anger in the morning subsided.
Zhu Youxiao snorted and knocked again: "Remember, you are my slave."
Wang Tigan was stunned for a moment, then quickly knelt down and kowtowed, "Your Majesty, I will always remember your teachings and will never dare to..."
"Alright, get back to work!" Zhu Youxiao waved his hand impatiently, "Let me be quiet for a while."
"Yes, yes." Wang Tigan kowtowed again before getting up to do his errand.
Checks and balances are essential. Even if it means using Wei Zhonggou to bite others, he cannot let one family dominate. The one who will be in charge of the harem will be the newly appointed Empress Zhang Yan, not Wei Zhonggou and Keshi.
Therefore, the eunuchs and maids in the harem cannot all be subjugated by Wei Zhonggou and ordered around at will. As for Keshi, Zhu Youxiao had also made up his mind to find an opportunity to send her out of the palace.
Zhu Youxiao leaned back in his chair, his eyes half open and half closed, thinking about his life. He had finally become the emperor, so he had to enjoy himself. He couldn't just live for seven years.
You must never take a boat. Stay away from rivers, lakes, seas, or even small bubbles of water.
As long as he doesn't die young, it should be no problem for him to serve as emperor for decades, right?
Well, now I only have three concubines, how can that be enough? With my vigorous masculinity, I can at least keep a different one for a month, that would be wonderful!
Amidst his wild thoughts, Zhu Youxiao didn't know when he fell into a drowsy, half-asleep state.
…………
Wei Zhongxian nominally went to convey the imperial eunuch, but after running away, he handed the task over to a trusted eunuch. He hurried to Xian'an Palace and met his old lover Keshi.
Keshi usually lived in Xian'an Palace. She would arrive at the emperor's bedroom at dawn every day, wait for the emperor to get up, and then stay with him until dark before returning to her residence. Her daily busy life was to prepare the emperor's food.
In the early Ming Dynasty, the emperor honestly ate the food prepared by the Guanglu Temple, so the Guanglu Temple was a lucrative position.
The Ming Hui Dian records that every year 100,000 livestock were sent to the Guanglu Temple: 50,000 in the first half of the year and 50,000 in the second half of the year.
There were more than 100,000 livestock, specifically, nearly 20,000 pigs and nearly 40,000 chickens. Of course, the palace could not eat so many things, so the rest went into the pockets of the officials of the Guanglu Temple.
However, the "imperial meals" prepared by the Guanglu Temple for the emperor did not contain any exotic delicacies from land and sea. They were just big fish and meat, which were cooked and boiled with lots of seasonings.
Many people are familiar with the food made in this way. Yes, it is the legendary cafeteria dish.
Among the people, there is also a legend that the food cooked in Guanglu Temple is unpalatable.
"Wanli Yewaibian" records the "four unreliable things in Beijing" that were popular in Beijing at that time: articles from the Hanlin Academy, swords and guns from the Wukusi, tea and soup from the Guanglu Temple, and prescriptions from the Imperial Medical Bureau.
Among them, "Guanglu Temple Tea and Soup" was honored to be on the list, which shows how unpalatable the food in Guanglu Temple was.
Even the people were complaining so enthusiastically about the food in Guanglu Temple, how could the emperor tolerate the Guanglu Temple's increasingly deteriorating cooking skills?
In addition, starting with Emperor Jiajing, the emperors of the Ming Dynasty were reluctant to attend court and stayed in the deep palace every day. Therefore, in the late Ming Dynasty, the emperor's meals were generally prepared by the eunuchs.
Do you find it a bit strange that the eunuchs in the Imperial Household Department and the Eastern Depot are so versatile that they can even cook?
Of course, the eunuchs from the Eastern Depot were not asked to cook the meals themselves. The ones who were truly responsible for preparing the imperial meals were the chefs under the eunuchs.
The eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty held great power, but had no intention of leaving their wealth to their descendants, so they had to spend large sums of money on satisfying their appetites.
Therefore, the eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty were obsessed with food. It was said that "whenever they sat together to eat... they ate together to get full, gnawing on food and gnawing on bones... they arranged fruits, drank tea and sat for a long time, or even competed for excellence".
Moreover, their tastes are very picky and cannot be satisfied by ordinary chefs.
Because of this, the imperial meals prepared by the eunuchs were more in line with the emperor's wishes. So these trusted eunuchs took charge of the emperor's meals.
During the Jiajing period, people from the Silijian were generally in charge of cooking. By the late Wanli period, there was no one left in the Silijian, so the Wanli Emperor's meals were prepared by the eunuchs in charge of the Qianqing Palace.
In addition to cooking, the palace also had institutions such as the "Imperial Wine Room", "Sweets Room", and "Wine, Vinegar and Noodle Bureau", all of which were run by eunuchs.
The food made by these departments was well-known throughout the court and the public. For example, the pickled cucumber and eggplant from the Imperial Wine Room and the silk nest and tiger eye candy from the Sweets Room were both mouth-watering delicacies.
During the reign of Emperor Tianqi, the food in the palace was taken care of by several eunuchs, including Wang Tigan, Wei Zhongxian, and Li Yongzhen, who took turns to take care of it. Together with Keshi, who had been the same for many years, there were four families in total.
Every household had hundreds of kitchen servants outside the palace, who prepared meals and brewed wine, vinegar, sauce, and other items.
In the Qianqing Palace, each family had dozens of attendants in red clothes, as well as eunuchs in charge of the soup department, meat department, vegetarian department, snack department, dry dish department, hand box department, cold soup department, water food department, and feeding department, all of whom were under the command of Keshi.
The meals prepared by the Imperial Household under the supervision of Keshi were called "Laotai's Meals," and the Emperor Tianqi was very satisfied with them. He was particularly fond of the "dragon eggs" cooked by Keshi himself and was "full of praise."
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