Chapter 2: Huzhongtianman (Part 2)
"Wai En is here, where's grandma?"
Children always grow fast, changing every day. In addition, he was well taken care of in the palace. Not only was the four-year-old Zhu Youhuan fat and white, but he also became smart earlier than ordinary children. Anyone who saw him liked him very much.
Huai En saluted and stood up, looking at Zhu Youhuan, who was holding hands with the nanny, and said with a smile: "Your Highness is missing His Majesty."
Zhu Youhuan had three buns on his head, tied tightly with silver-red hair, and the ends of the hairband were dotted with a few pearls. He paired it with a goose yellow shirt and a clear water skirt, looking cute and well-behaved.
Zhu Youhuan said seriously, "Yes, I miss grandma so much. She doesn't let me play with the slingshot, so I hide here with her. Every few days I go to the Palace of Heavenly Purity to play, so she can't keep an eye on me! But... it's too far from the East Palace to her, so I can't come every day."
Although her tone was very obedient, her words revealed a sense of cleverness and cunning. Coupled with her appearance of a little adult, even the nanny next to her couldn't help but chuckle.
Although she is young, she knows very well who can control others in the palace.
The Crown Prince and the Crown Princess have always been cautious and serve the Emperor attentively. Even Concubine Zhou, who orders the Crown Prince and the Crown Princess around, never dares to raise her voice when meeting the Emperor.
Although Zhu Youhuan was young, he walked back and forth in front of these giant Buddhas every day. Naturally, he quickly realized that his grandmother was the most powerful one.
Zhu Youhuan poked his head out curiously and asked, "Banban, who's in there?"
Huai En smiled and said, "It's the cabinet ministers who come to report on recent government affairs."
Since the tenth year of the Yuanguang reign, the first ministers Zeng Heling and Chen Xun had both passed away. Yu Qian now took over as first minister, Xu Yun as second, and Shang Lu soon followed. To fill the vacancies in the cabinet, the emperor summoned Han Guilan and Song Cuilian to the cabinet, marking the beginning of the practice of female officials serving in the cabinet.
As the cabinet was filled, the emperor summoned his ministers more frequently than before.
Firstly, the ratio of male to female officials had begun to decrease since then, which inevitably led to friction between officials on both sides. Consequently, matters were inevitably passed around, requiring not only active coordination from the cabinet but also timely feedback from the emperor. Secondly, officials from the Pengzhou Foreign Prefecture had recently returned to the Ming mainland. They not only had to report to the emperor on their work but also had to assign a host of tasks, such as revising documents. The busy government affairs required the active handling of the cabinet, the six ministries, and the Maritime Affairs Bureau.
Zhu Youhuan shook his body and muttered, "Is it possible that I can't play with the slingshot today..."
As they spoke, someone had already left. It was the cabinet ministers. Since they were discussing official business, they were all dressed in bright red silk uniforms, embellished with patches depicting cranes, pheasants, and peacocks. They wore black gauze hats and ivory plaques around their waists, with men wearing the left plaque and women the right plaque for easy distinction.
Seeing Zhu Youhuan waiting at the door, everyone bowed to him.
"I pay my respects to His Royal Highness the Grandson."
It was the first time that Zhu Youhuan met these ministers, and he didn't know how to avoid the formalities. Instead, he broke free from the nanny's hand and circled around these ministers, looking curious.
The nanny was just a palace servant, so of course she couldn't say anything. The only person here who was qualified to speak was Huai En, but he also said nothing and did not remind Zhu Youhuan.
The emperor came out and said with a smile, "Why, are you all staying at my doorstep? Why are you blocking the way here instead of getting up?"
As soon as Zhu Youhuan saw his grandmother come out, he immediately left the group of ministers behind, stepped forward, hugged the emperor's legs, and asked, "Grandmother, where is my baby?"
The emperor reached out and picked her up, holding her in his arms. He smiled and said, "I've told them to take care of everything. Why do you only think about your baby all day long and not your grandmother?"
Zhu Youhuan said confidently, "Huan'er was worried about grandma and was afraid that she wouldn't eat on time, so he just stayed in the house and talked with them."
The "they" she was referring to were naturally the cabinet ministers in front of her.
Yu Qian and Xu Yun both looked away in embarrassment. Shang Lu had lectured to the Crown Prince and had met this emperor's grandson before. He had long known that she was the treasure of the Emperor, the Crown Prince and the Crown Princess, so he did not think that Zhu Youhuan's words were "shocking".
As for Han Guilan and Song Cuilian, since it was more convenient for female officials to move around the palace, they were more familiar with Zhu Youhuan. Especially Han Guilan, after she had enlightened Zhu Youhuan's father and aunt, she also became Zhu Youhuan's nanny, so they could be said to be "old acquaintances". Therefore, the two of them just pursed their lips and lowered their heads, obviously trying to suppress their smiles.
The emperor was amused by her childish words and said, "You are such a good granddaughter, grandma. Come on, grandma will take you to see some fun things." After that, she was the first to walk out of the hall, and just waved her hand casually, signaling everyone in the cabinet to leave.
Zhu Youhuan lay on the emperor's shoulder, watching the ministers bow respectfully to the emperor's back, then turned around and said to the emperor: "Grandmother, I want to play this too."
The emperor hummed, his tone rising slightly, and asked, "What do you want to play?"
Zhu Youhuan imitated the emperor's previous behavior, raised his hand calmly, then burst into laughter, hugged the emperor's neck intimately and said: "Huan'er wants to play this."
The emperor showed a rare look of confusion, but Huai En, who was following beside him, said, "Your Highness is imitating the way Your Majesty just dismissed others."
The emperor suddenly understood and couldn't help laughing, "So Huan'er wants to learn this. You will naturally learn it when you grow up."
Zhu Youhuan's eyes flickered, full of longing for the future, and he asked, "Really?"
"Of course it's true," the emperor said seriously. "If you study hard and learn to ride and shoot, grandmother will give you this official position."
Although Zhu Youhuan didn't understand why, but thinking about what happened just now, he nodded and said, "Okay, Grandma, you can't cheat!"
The emperor smiled and said, "Your Majesty, do not joke."
Zhu Youhuan then remembered something and asked, "Where is Grandma taking Huan'er?"
"Let's go to Xiyuan."
The emperor often went to the Western Garden to exercise his body through horse riding and shooting. He not only had bows and arrows, but also muskets that were constantly being improved by the Academy of Sciences. For this purpose, the emperor specially built a shooting range dedicated to muskets in the Western Garden. From the large-caliber Yuanguang cannon and Xuanwei cannon to the small-caliber and lighter matchlock guns, there were corresponding targets.
Zhu Youhuan had never seen a firearm before. He walked up to each one, touched it curiously, and asked, "What is this?"
The gun was not filled with bullets or gunpowder, so it was very safe, so the emperor did not stop it.
"Your Highness, this is a matchlock cannon."
"Fire, rope, cannon?" Zhu Youhuan chewed on these words and asked in confusion, "What is a matchlock cannon?"
The emperor waved his hand, and a servant beside him brought a long tube with an insulated wooden handle, a rear sight for aiming, and a flint for lighting the fuse.
This matchlock cannon was improved upon the original musket. The original manual ignition was replaced by mechanical ignition, and the original manual filling of gunpowder was replaced by paper shell bullets that were pre-packaged according to the amount.
In this way, soldiers do not need to carry a fire source with them, which indirectly avoids accidentally igniting gunpowder and burning or injuring soldiers.
"This is called a matchlock gun." The emperor signaled the nanny to take Zhu Youhuan away. He then loaded the gun with paper shells and shouted, "Huan'er, cover your ears. This is quite a noise."
Zhu Youhuan also knew that he had to cover his ears when setting off firecrackers, so he immediately did as he was told and raised his hands to cover his ears.
The emperor pulled the trigger of the matchlock, the flint rubbed against each other to produce fire, igniting the match. The paper shell bullet filled in the barrel reacted, and the bullet immediately flew out of the barrel and headed straight for the target seventy steps away, hitting the bull's eye accurately.
Zhu Youhuan vaguely heard a sound and put down her hand in a daze. Seeing the target that had been shot through, she raised her hand to rub her eyes and couldn't help but scream.
Zhu Youhuan quickly ran to the emperor and said excitedly, "That's amazing! I want to learn this too!"
The emperor was amused by her and said, "Later, grandma will teach you herself... Hey, don't touch this, the barrel is hot. When you learn it, grandma will take you hunting. We'll kill a big bear and make a fur coat for your great-grandmother."
"good--"
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