The trick Hai Rui gave the emperor was brilliant.

Because in North China, where there are almost no water conservancy projects, such a long winter-spring drought will lead to widespread famine. If disaster relief is not timely, it will also cause unrest in the capital and eventually evolve into a serious political incident.

In fact, the Ministry of Rites had already performed the Great Rain Festival according to the old system. On the Gengwu day of the second month, the Great Rain Festival was held. On the Dingchou day of the third month, the Great Rain Festival was held again. On the Bingwu day of the fourth month, the Great Rain Festival was held again, but it still did not rain.

Now that Emperor Wanli has decided to go to the Temple of Heaven to pray for rain, officials can no longer stay at home and relax, otherwise they would be morally guilty. How can the saints ignore the suffering of the people? They should be more active than the emperor.

In addition, the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Examination had completed the examination of the four young masters Zhang and naturally found no problems. The Ministry of Personnel was also the same. The results of the joint examination with the Ministry of Examination were satisfactory, and there was no problem with the ability and morality of the four young masters Zhang.

Therefore, starting from Zhao Shouzheng, all the Grand Secretaries, Shangshu, Shilang and Du Yushi submitted memorials to express their gratitude to the emperor for retaining them. They said that they would return to work and prepare for the emperor's rain-praying ceremony.

After returning to the government office, the ministers led their respective departments to submit petitions to apologize, saying that the drought in the capital was the fault of the ministers, not the emperor. All officials in the capital fasted during the rain-praying period to share the worries of the emperor and his father.

In a blink of an eye, the relationship between the emperor and his ministers that was about to break down was greatly eased, and the Ming court seemed to have returned to normal overnight...

The day before the rain-praying ceremony, the Taichang Temple reported that all the ceremonies were ready. After fasting for seven days in the Wuying Hall, Emperor Wanli wore a green robe and went to the Fengxian Hall to inform his ancestors.

The officials of the Taichang Temple presented a congratulatory tablet, and the emperor personally wrote his name "Minister Zhu Yijun" on it. The Taichang Minister then placed it in the southern suburbs shrine for enshrinement.

The next day was the day of the rain-praying ceremony. Before dawn, Beijing was already busy. Shuntianfu cleaned the streets, the Ministry of Rites set up an altar every mile, and a large group of imperial guards left the barracks and lined up on the road leading to the Temple of Heaven from Huangji Gate.

However, in order to show that the emperor loves his people, the palace specially issued an edict that there is no need to "eliminate the way" this time.

Cleaning the streets is a security measure when the emperor goes on tour. The so-called "cleaning the streets" not only means cleaning the streets literally, but also means controlling the hooligans and the unruly people who may file complaints to the emperor in the streets in advance.

"Clearing the road" means ordering all shops along the way to close and pedestrians not to go out on the street. This time, only the street was cleaned without clearing the road, which was really a great favor from the emperor, so that the people could have the honor of seeing the emperor's face.

At dawn, everything was ready. Wanli arrived at Huangji Gate.

The palace gate slowly opened, and the Han general and the eunuchs who accompanied him formed a long square, leading the emperor on foot to the Daming Gate.

Almost all the civil and military officials in the capital had already lined up outside the Daming Gate.

Outside the Daming Gate on Tian Street, there were two thousand civil officials on the left, and two thousand military officials on the right, all lined up in a single row, facing each other symmetrically. It was a magnificent sight.

Moreover, the emperor, eunuchs, and civil and military officials all wore the same blue cloth robe with black edges, and the gold, silver and jade belts around their waists were all replaced with ox horn belts.

As for the procession and the band, they were all cancelled, leaving only two dragon flags and two round fans leading the way. It was extremely simple, showing the sincerity of the prayer for rain.

What shocked the people of the capital even more was that after the team set out in a mighty manner, they discovered that Wanli was actually walking!

All the civil and military officials saw that their emperor, the little fat man with a round face, was walking towards the Temple of Heaven step by step with a very pious expression.

This scene deeply moved the people. They knelt on the ground and shouted "Long live the emperor!", and many people even cried.

~~

In fact, two days in advance, the factory guards, together with Shuntian Prefecture and Daxing County, had already taken control of all the shops on Qipan Street and Zhengyangmen Street.

The people who knelt and cried while watching the ceremony on the street were all played by Jinyiwei, officers and soldiers from the three camps, and their families. This ensured the absolute safety of the emperor.

However, it cannot...

Across the street to the west of Tianjie are Langfang Toutiao and Langfang Ertiao in Dashilan... In this most prosperous place in the capital, four- or five-story restaurants can be found everywhere.

On the top floor of one of the five-story restaurants, there were several special operations staff members... agents for short, looking through binoculars across the street at the huge crowd of terrorists on Zhengyangmen Street, trying to find Emperor Wanli.

Today, the emperor, his ministers, and the eunuchs are all wearing the same clothes, so it's really fucking hard to find them.

Fortunately, after the sun came out, the eunuch diligently held an umbrella for the emperor, which helped them lock on to Emperor Wanli.

Looking at the round-faced man with a mustache who finally appeared in the camera, one of them couldn't help but whispered, "It turns out that the emperor looks so ordinary, without any characteristics at all. No wonder the painting is always wrong."

Having said that, he stared at Wanli's face and quickly sketched on paper with a pencil. There were two other portrait artists from the Special Operations Department working with him.

The Special Operations Department had several versions of the portrait of Emperor Wanli, but each portrait looked exactly the same, and even the officials who had seen the emperor could not agree on one.

So they came here specially today to see what the emperor looks like.

There was also a sniper team that was responsible for assessing the security around the emperor. Although there was a lot of information on this, it was nothing like seeing it with your own eyes.

"How is it?" asked the team leader in a low voice.

"Security is non-existent." The sniper's hand was using a telescope, which was a sight equipped on a sniper rifle.

Usually among a thousand Wanli rifles, there will be a top rifle that can reach a thousand-meter accuracy. This kind of rifle is called a sniper rifle and is owned by dedicated top shooters.

"The distance now is 220 meters, no wind, guaranteed to kill with one shot!" The sniper's sight was firmly fixed on Wanli's round face.

"At this distance, I can hit him even with my eyes closed." The assistant shooter said calmly: "What a pity..."

Unfortunately, there is no gun under the sight...

"What a pity! The emperor is going to pray for rain for the people. How can he be shot at this time? No one in the world will agree to this." The team leader snorted and whispered, "Don't be careless. Observe the emperor's security carefully. This is first-hand information! Maybe it will be used one day!"

~~

Meanwhile, Emperor Wanli didn't know that he had almost tasted Kennedy's happiness. He was in a very good mood.

At this moment, the sun was rising, and the people of the capital were looking up at him in large numbers. Four thousand civil and military officials were following him, making him finally feel clearly that he was the master of the world.

Wanli was tense, trying his best to suppress his inner excitement. He felt his whole body was full of strength and he actually walked to the Temple of Heaven, ten miles away from the Forbidden City, in one breath.

After all, the emperor was young and full of energy. But most of the civil officials were weak, and some were old. After the sun came out, the weather gradually became hotter. They followed behind breathlessly, and the team became longer and longer. The emperor had already arrived in front of the Zhaoheng Gate of the Temple of Heaven, but the team behind was still at Zhushikou.

Officials from the Ministry of Rites and the Honglu Temple had already set up tents outside the Zuo Lingxing Gate and respectfully invited the emperor to come in and rest.

After all the accompanying civil officials were in place, the Minister of Rites Shen Li requested the emperor to enter the Temple of Heaven.

The rain-praying ceremony was held at the Circular Mound built by his grandfather. It is a three-story blue glazed circular altar, also known as the Altar of Heaven.

Wanli was led by the Dianzan official to kneel on the lowest stone steps of the concentric circle, burn incense three times, and kowtow to the sky four times.

Civil and military officials lined up outside the south wall of Huanqiu. When the emperor knelt down, the ceremonial officer announced the message at Zhaoheng Gate, and all officials, led by Zhao Shouzheng, knelt down in the same manner.

Afterwards, the ceremonial officer sang the song of offering silk and performing the first offering ceremony. The emperor came before the gods, offered silk, offered wine, read the prayer, the emperor knelt, and all officials knelt after chanting the praises. After reading the prayer, they prostrated themselves and stood up…

In short, after the long and solemn ceremony, it was almost noon.

After the ceremony, the guide led the emperor to the tent to rest, and Wanli summoned Zhao Shouzheng and other cabinet ministers to a meeting.

This was also the first time that the Grand Secretaries and ministers had seen the Emperor's face since New Year's Day, and many of them shed tears of excitement.

It was indeed not awkward at all for the king and his subjects to meet again in this way.

Of course, no one could chat in the Temple of Heaven, so Wanli followed the rehearsal and ordered the eunuch Zhang Hong to read the imperial edict to all the ministers:

"Although the severe drought is caused by my lack of virtue, it is also because some officials in the world are corrupt, break the law, exploit and harm the common people, and are unwilling to care for the people, which has violated the harmony of nature. In the future, I will order this department to select and appoint officials with caution..." and so on.

Zhao Shouzheng, on behalf of all officials, replied: "Your Majesty prays for the people without any hesitation. Heaven will surely be moved by your thoughts. This is all due to our poor performance of our duties. The officials in the country are truly unable to appreciate the Majesty's kindness. We will discuss with the relevant departments and reprimand them."

Wanli said: "It will be published together with the other imperial edicts of the previous day, so that the whole world will know about it."

He also ordered the Ministry of Revenue to exempt the areas severely hit by drought for one year. Zhao Shouzheng then took the lead in calling out to the emperor for mercy, hoping that God would send down a blessing!

At this point, today's ceremony has come to an end, and all the ministers bid farewell to the emperor.

Wanli said to Zhao Shouzheng: "The Prime Minister sent me off."

Zhao Shouzheng was flattered and quickly stood up, following Wanli and accompanying the emperor out of the tent.

"The Prime Minister has been wronged recently." Wanli looked straight ahead and said softly.

"Your Majesty, you are too kind." Zhao Shouzheng was ashamed and bowed his head, saying, "I was incompetent in my work, which led to the chaos in the government. It was the drought that caused your Majesty to suffer so much. I really deserve to die and should take the blame..."

"Hey, don't mention the past anymore." Wanli interrupted him, turned around and smiled at Zhao Shouzheng, saying: "Mr. Zhao, you are very good, I can't do without you. You are the only one who can be the prime minister, there is no other choice, don't mention retirement before you are seventy years old."

"This, I am incompetent and do not dare to stay in the position of prime minister for long. I can only devote myself to repay Your Majesty!" Zhao Shouzheng's heart was warm and tears were about to fall. He felt that the old Zhu family had hope of continuing...

"Having a prime minister like you is a blessing from God. I know it in my heart. It is hard to explain. Only heaven and earth can bear witness to it." Wanli nodded with a smile and said to Zhao Shouzheng, "You will slowly understand it in the future."

Zhao Shouzheng thanked him again and asked the emperor to get on the imperial sedan chair and return to the palace.

Wanli waved his hand and insisted on walking back with his ministers despite the dissuasion.

The ministers were so moved that they cried. Oh my god, now they have to walk back...

It's noon now, the sun is so strong...