Many outstanding politicians of the Ming Dynasty, or old foxes in the officialdom, showed surprising pedanticism on the issue of national reunification.

For example, the dispute over the great rituals during the Jiajing era.

The civil officials led by Emperor Jiajing and Yang Tinghe were his patriarchal father, how much title should be enjoyed, whether he could enter the Taimiao, and the regulations on temple worship and music and dance... and launched a seventeen-year struggle. In the end, Emperor Jiajing won the war in the court with perseverance and ruthless means, and for this reason he also became the name of "tyrant".

During the Wanli period, Emperor Wanli favored Concubine Zheng and wanted to establish Concubine Zheng's son Zhu Changxun instead of his eldest son Zhu Changluo, which triggered a 29-year dispute over the foundation of the country. It was not until the attack occurred that King Fu became a vassal and came to an end. He was not as ruthless as his grandfather, so he was defeated by the Donglin Party. In the end, the foundation of the country was the crown prince Zhu Changluo, who was Zhu Cilang's grandfather.

Whether it is fighting for the father or the son, it is ultimately a struggle for "national unity".

Zhu Cilang initially could not understand the stubbornness of the emperor and civil officials. Only when he could truly think about the problem from the way of thinking of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming emperor, and the Ming Dynasty scholars, could he understand the profound meaning.

Think about it, the civil servants had a bad relationship with Emperor Zhengde at the beginning, and when Jiajing first ascended the throne, they were still a good young emperor, at least not as nonsense as Emperor Zhengde.

King Xingxian himself had never offended civil officials. He was the fourth son of Emperor Xianzong and had passed away. So what if he was given the title of emperor? So what if he was more pompous when visiting the temple? So what if he had more music and dancers?

But, that's not possible!

Because under these appearances is the load-bearing wall of the Ming Empire and even the Chinese society.

This load-bearing wall is: the general principle.

On the basis of Confucianism, the country, nation and culture can be built layer by layer. If this foundation is destroyed, the values ​​of the entire society will collapse and order will be destroyed. Once order is destroyed, the rules of the game they master will be rewritten, and there is a great possibility that they will lose the power to make rules.

Once the emperor intentionally or unintentionally attacks this cornerstone, this order, and this rule, the civil servant group can only fight to the death unless they are willing to sit and wait for death.

When Dong Zhongshu presented "Countermeasures for the Selection of Virtues" to Emperor Wu of Han, Confucian scholars proposed a very tempting contract. At the same time, it was full of contracts to bind the emperors. From the emperors after Han Wu, whether virtuous kings or foolish monarchs, they had to play political games in this paper contract.

After understanding this, Zhu Cilang will know what kind of confrontational force he will face after he grasps the imperial power in the future. He must deal with this force, on the one hand, complete his career plan, and on the other hand, under the premise of social stability, introduce the opposite force into the cage.

Now the identity of the crown prince has given him enough protection, just like a tiger crossing the street, everyone shouts to beat him but no one dares to beat him. The next step is to give birth to a prince and be named the crown prince, further stabilize his position and cut off all the possibility of inheriting the ancestral temples by the vassal kings.

This requires a wedding.

In addition to the three explicit decrees that everyone knows, there are also imperial decrees sent by Empress Zhou and Empress Yi'an and Zhang. These explicit or secret decrees all point to this issue. Zhu Cilang naturally could not, and there was no need to have an unhappy relationship with the whole family on this issue, and the whole country was unhappy.

Where is his age?

According to the Ming Dynasty's customs, after the New Year, the crown prince was seventeen years old. Even if he was a child of an ordinary wealthy family, he should have a marriage at this age. If there was no bereavement or force majeure, he would definitely have to get married and have children and have children. Even if Wu Weiye passed the imperial examination one after another, he became a relative at the age of 22. Hou Fangyu also married his wife Chang early.

Among the young people in the Eastern Palace system, only Liao Xing and Chen De were both eighteen or nineteen years old and had not gotten married, but that was because their family saw that they had a broad future and in order to ensure that their wife was a good family, they did not rush to find someone to hire.

After holding a meeting for the prefects in the B-level area, Zhu Cilang did not delay any further. He galloped quickly to Nanyang to comfort the soldiers of the guerrilla battalion, and then turned around and returned to Jinan by land.

...

On December 29, the 17th year of Chongzhen, the palace in Jinan was decorated with lights and colorful flowers, and was happily preparing for the New Year. This festive atmosphere was rare after the 11th year of Chongzhen. It was a complete failure of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince to use his troops as a god and recover the land of Zhongzhou in one fell swoop.

"It's fine to be busy fighting outside on the Winter Solstice Festival, but it's about to be the Spring Festival and New Year's Day." Empress Zhou and Empress Yian and Zhang sat opposite each other, playing with a string of jade beads in their hands, and their sorrows were filled with sorrow.

Queen Zhang comforted her: "Brother Chun is working hard for the country. From his original intention, how could he not want to come back? Alas, now that the country has such a revival, it is all a loss for Brother Chun."

Queen Zhou felt a little relieved and said with a little pride: "Chun Ge'er's literature is not good, but her ability to fight the world really gains the blood of Chengzu."

"It is a good skill to be able to fight and govern the country. My Zhu family dare not have an emperor like Zhao Songqin and Hui." When Empress Zhang thought of her husband, she couldn't help but sigh: "If you can have Brother Chun, you are all protected by the spirits of the ancestors in heaven."

Queen Zhou was quite careful. Hearing Empress Zhang's grief, he thought to himself: If Empress Yi'an had a queen, it would not be her husband's turn to sit in the world, and her son would probably be the crown prince. But by chance, if there were any changes in the sky, his son would definitely send troops from Shandong and still want to conquer the world.

Queen Zhang was speechless for a moment. Queen Zhou was thinking a lot in her heart, and suddenly became quiet in the inner hall.

"Empress! Happy event!" Aunt Liu looked hurried and broke the brief tranquility of the inner hall. She stepped forward to look at the blessings of the two empresses and said happily: "The Qiansui Master has entered the city!"

"Amitabha, at least I caught up!" Empress Zhou couldn't help but stand up, walked down the desk, and said, "Have the bedroom been cleaned up? Brother Chun likes to eat flat food with mutton stuffing, has he made it?"

"Grandmaster, you're ready." Aunt Liu smiled and said, "I have run several times, and the custody is arranged properly."

Queen Zhang also stood up and said, "This child is still filial. But when it comes to preparation, it is serious to ask him to choose a concubine as soon as possible."

Zhou Hou laughed and said, "I'm afraid he will run away after the New Year, so I'll leave the person in the palace now." Zhou Hou paused and said, "It's a shame I won't let that child have a reunion with his family."

"This is nothing. After we enter the palace, we will celebrate the New Year with our family?" Empress Zhang also said quite lonely: "The water splashed by a married girl has been like this since ancient times. What's more, Brother Chun is sensible and everything is decided by us, so that girl will only feel lucky."

Queen Zhou remembered that the days she was waiting for King Xin to choose in the house of Xinwang, which was the greatest torture in her life. Especially at that time, before King Xin could fall in love with her thin and weak self, her eyes were sweeping around Concubine Tian, ​​which was really anxious and disappointing. If she hadn't been mentally prepared to return home with coins, she would probably have cried on the spot.

Zhu Cilang rejected this kind of prince and prince's choice of concubine early on, but firmly demanded that Zhou Hou and Zhang Hou choose him for him. The reason is very simple. The Crown Princess cannot be from a wealthy family and will not have any impact on political and economic aspects, so it has no impact on Zhu Cilang's career and work.

In Zhu Cilang's opinion, a person who has no impact on his career and work is just an indifferent person. Of course, it is not worth wasting time to choose a person who does not matter.

Anyway, don’t you spend your whole life with whom? If you can get a conversation, you will have more contact. If you can’t get a conversation, you will have less contact. The palace is so big, just pay the public food once a month.

"This time the girl is more pleasing to the Ning family than the one before." Empress Zhang said again: "The Ning family has actually become a thief. Fortunately, such a woman with no integrity has not married her."

"This kind of thing is God's will." Empress Zhou unconsciously thought that Ning had a great sin. At that time, there were many powerful people in Beijing. Didn't her father refuse to leave?

"It's just that the treasury is empty now, so it's probably not going to be a big wedding." Zhou Hou sighed again.

"There are still 1,000 taels of powder and silver here, so let's use it first." Queen Zhang said.
Chapter completed!