It was snowing heavily outside, but it was warm as spring in the east warm room of the Qianqing Palace.

In the autumn of this year, heating was finally installed in the twenty-seven rooms of the Qianqing Palace, and the emperor no longer attended court early in the morning.

Emperor Longqing had just gotten up at around noon. He sat in front of the mirror yawning and asked Chen Hong to comb his hair.

The Emperor Longqing in the mirror looked thinner than he was more than half a year ago, with slightly dark circles under his eyes, and he looked like he was overworked.

"Wansui, how was the fruit last night?" Chen Hong asked with a smile as he combed his hair.

"Well, not bad." Longqing said with a proud look: "I wanted to win the second prize, but I didn't expect to win the third prize. I am really proud of it."

"That's good, that's good." Chen Hong was also very happy.

"You have made a contribution this time. How do you want me to reward you?"

"This is what an old slave should do..."

After combing his hair, Longqing stood up with the help of Chen Hong and went downstairs to Zhongzheng Renhe Hall for breakfast.

When the emperor sat down at the imperial table, the palace maids served him a rather frugal breakfast.

There are only twelve kinds of pasta desserts: eight-treasure steamed buns, stuffed buns, steamed rolls, sugar-filled biscuits, sesame biscuits, milk skin biscuits, crackers, ganoderma lucidum cakes, date cakes, white Sanzi, sugar Sanzi, and sesame elephant eyes.

There were only four meat dishes, four vegetable dishes and four soups. Compared with his father and uncle who would have hundreds of dishes in one meal, it was definitely extremely frugal.

The only luxury was a plate of donkey intestines.

Emperor Longqing loved to eat donkey intestines, but when he learned that a live donkey had to be killed every time he ate them, he could not bear to eat them often. He ordered the imperial kitchen to bring a donkey every ten days. As he ate them less often, he naturally cherished them more. Whenever a donkey was killed, he would have donkey intestines for three meals.

There are all kinds of ways to eat them, such as braised donkey intestines, donkey intestines cooked with radish, five-spice braised donkey intestines, braised donkey intestines, and tofu donkey intestine soup.

However, the donkey intestines that are just slaughtered in the morning are the freshest, and Your Majesty usually likes to eat them as sashimi.

Longqing took a piece of fresh and hot intestine with chopsticks, sniffed it, and praised: "Hmm, it tastes like this."

"That's right." Meng Chong, the head of the imperial kitchen, hurriedly took credit and said, "I washed it myself."

"That's right. The people in Guanglu Temple just don't understand. This thing can't be washed too clean, otherwise it will lose its flavor." Longqing dipped the honey in the shallow dish and brought it to his mouth, savoring the rich but not greasy taste that filled his mouth with fragrance, intoxicated with it.

"It's really like 'I'd rather give up my mother and children than my donkey's intestines'."

"Besides, donkey intestines are good for men, and eating them raw is a top-notch tonic." Meng Chong smiled flatteringly. He knew that the emperor cared most about that kind of ability, so how could he let Chen Hong have all the credit?

"Well, you should eat more." Upon hearing this, the emperor felt that the meat in his mouth tasted even better.

"Your Majesty is rich, so if you like it, you can eat it often. There is no need to eat it only once every ten days." Meng Chong suggested.

"Uh... forget it." Long Qing hesitated for a moment, shook his head and said, "It's too greasy to eat too much."

In fact, it was because he was poor. For him to eat an egg, the imperial kitchen would cost five taels of silver. To kill a donkey, it would cost a full one thousand taels of silver! Who could afford this?

Longqing was enjoying donkey intestine sashimi when the young eunuch outside came to report that Zhang Xianggong wanted to see him for something important.

"Please come in." Emperor Longqing nodded.

Normally, the East Warm Pavilion was the emperor's living quarters, and outsiders were not allowed to enter without permission. But Emperor Longqing didn't want to go to the Imperial Study Room because it was cold, so he always called the ministers in to talk.

Soon, Zhang Xianggong with his long flowing beard came into the warm room. After paying his respects, the emperor took a seat and had someone serve him a bowl of hot soup.

"Master Zhang, drink a bowl and warm yourself up."

"Thank you, Your Majesty." Zhang Juzheng took the shiny, elegant, and thin porcelain bowl with both hands. When he was about to drink, he found that it was actually a yin-yang porcelain. There was an exquisite pattern on the wall of the bowl, and the man and woman on the swing were vivid and lifelike.

Seeing this, Bu Gu’s old face turned red and he almost choked on the milk.

"What's wrong, Master Zhang? Are you not used to drinking it? How about changing it to milk?" Long Qing asked with concern.

"I'm used to it. I just choked by accident." Zhang Juzheng smiled to cover up. At this critical moment, he couldn't make the emperor unhappy. So he picked up the bowl and drank again as if nothing had happened.

While drinking, he looked at the warm room and saw that under the plaque "Working hard all night", next to the desk neatly piled with memorials and documents, there was an antique shelf. On it were displayed various cups, plates, bowls and cups, each of which was extremely delicate and beautiful.

Moreover, each of them was painted with an indescribable picture, which made Zhang Xianggong not know where to put his eyes. A picture appeared in front of him, where the emperor was playing with the evil-averting porcelain while flipping through the cabinet's bills, and he immediately felt that he was being defiled.

Longqing was also a little nervous, as the shelf had only been in place for two days... Previously, the emperor would admire the porcelain behind closed doors, secretly with his beloved concubine. If he put it outside, he would be scolded by his concubines.

But if this set of "Jin Ping Mei" peripherals that I spent a lot of money to buy can only be hidden in a dark room and cannot be displayed openly for myself to see at any time, what is the difference between it and walking in the night in gorgeous clothes?

Finally, the day before yesterday, the princess went to Jiangnan for the winter, and no one cared about him anymore. Longqing quickly put out his beloved evil-repelling porcelain, wiped it himself every day, played with it from time to time, and felt very happy.

Emperor Longqing did not ask Zhang Juzheng, who was always serious, to have fun with him, as long as he did not spoil his fun. He quickly changed the subject and asked, "Master Zhang, you came so early, is there something urgent?"

Zhang Juzheng then remembered what he came here for, and felt ashamed, thinking that he really lacked self-control and forgot his business as soon as he was stimulated.

He quickly put down the porcelain bowl, took out a handkerchief to wipe his mouth, then handed over the memorial with both hands and reported in a deep voice about Lin Run's misfortune.

Emperor Longqing was also shocked when he heard this, and dropped his chopsticks. "There were so many people in the governor's office, why were all the others safe, and only the governor and his entourage were burned to death?"

"Lin Run is not dead yet..." Zhang Juzheng reminded quietly, and then said: "There are many suspicious points in this case. We should immediately arrange the most capable people to calm people's hearts and quell rumors. At the same time, we should conduct open and secret investigations to find out the truth as soon as possible!"

"Yes." Long Qing nodded, and after a long pause with a gloomy look on his face, he finally said, "Master Zhang is one of the people I trust the most. I will tell you the truth. Lin Ruoyu, the governor of Yingtian, was arranged by Master Gao."

"Oh?" Zhang Juzheng showed a mixture of gratitude and shock. "What does Mr. Gao mean?"

"Master Gao has always wanted to solve the court's financial difficulties by lifting the ban on sea trade." Long Qing said slowly: "Master Zhang was also present during the wrestling match last year, so there is no need for me to say more."

Zhang Juzheng nodded. At that time, the anti-Japanese war was victorious, and Fujian Governor Tu Zemin requested to open the Maritime Customs and change private traders to public traders, that is, to turn smugglers into legal merchants.

He also argued that this move would benefit the country and the people. Not only would it alleviate the people's suffering and eliminate the Japanese invasion, but it would also allow the court to collect an additional one million taels of tax revenue each year.

P.S. Longqing loves to eat donkey intestines. I’m not making this up, he’s an old Beijinger.