Chapter 1168 1259 The Ming Army's Minor Trouble
When he heard that there was no old rule, Wei Guangde laughed and said, "You can always find it by looking through the classics."
Zhang Juzheng and Zhang Siwei both nodded slightly when they heard this.
The rituals of the Ming Dynasty all refer to ancient books in an attempt to restore the old system of the Han and Tang Dynasties.
"Is this urgent? Everyone in the Ministry of Rites has been busy with post-election matters recently."
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Fang Fengshi opened his mouth and said.
Fang Fengshi suddenly mentioned the post-election matter, which was naturally the matter that attracted the most attention of the court during this period besides foreign wars.
Yes, even the wars in Southwest and Liaodong were not as important as the wedding of the young emperor Zhu Yijun.
For the officials in the capital, the war in Southwest and Liaodong was certain to be won, but they just didn’t know where the imperial court would finally get the money to deal with the aftermath.
After all, there are two key points in fighting a war, one is military rations, and the other is military pay.
Military rations, the Ming court really had no shortage of food.
The annual tens of millions of stone grain taxes are real, but it is a little more troublesome to allocate people's power for transportation.
But the military pay had to be paid in real money, which was a big deal for the court, which was short of money.
Moreover, for the emperor's wedding, the Treasury of the Ministry of Finance was opened directly, and no one dared to say anything on this important matter.
Usually when the palace issued an order asking the Ministry of Revenue to provide money to purchase various things, someone from the Ministry of Revenue and the Metropolitan Procuratorate would jump out and sing the opposite, asking the emperor to be frugal and set an example for the world.
But after the election, the whole house was completely silent, and no one came out to say anything.
The Ming Dynasty's attitude and appearance when selecting queens were completely different from previous dynasties. They paid more attention to whether women's behavior was correct and whether their appearance was attractive.
Regarding a woman’s family background, if it is too noble, it will become an obstacle to choosing a queen.
When selecting queens in the Ming Dynasty, they preferred to choose women from poor backgrounds, so that such queens could support the emperor with their virtuous and simple qualities.
This situation in the Ming Dynasty was mainly due to the terms formulated by Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang.
In fact, not only the queen, but also the choice of concubines and even the palace maids required this.
The reason why Emperor Taizu acted like this was mainly to prevent the royal power from being monopolized by his relatives, which would threaten the imperial power.
This post-election method, which is completely different from other dynasties, is indeed novel and almost eliminates the risk of relatives.
In this matter, in the first month of the fifth year of Wanli, when Emperor Wanli turned fifteen, the two empress dowagers, Empress Dowager Chen, the legitimate mother of Wanli Emperor, and Empress Dowager Li, the biological mother of Wanli Emperor, issued a decree to the Ministry of Rites to select a queen for Emperor Wanli. Just work.
This selection event was mainly held in the capital, Zhili and other regions. A total of more than 450 people entered the candidate list.
Because the Ministry of Rites was in charge, the cabinet did not intervene. After all, it was not the final step yet.
However, when Fang Fengshi suddenly mentioned this matter, Wei Guangde remembered that after giving lessons to the little emperor a few days ago, Zhu Yijun took him to a corner of the Wenhua Hall to ask about post-election matters.
Yes, Zhu Yijun is no longer an ignorant boy, he already knows the importance of the post-election period to him.
Therefore, he wanted to see the selected show girls with his own eyes before entering the final stage after the selection.
Of course, after the emperor is selected, the girl is not married blindly. According to the regulations, when the last two or three candidates are selected, the show girl must meet with the emperor to determine the candidate for the queen.
That is to say, the final choice is in the hands of the young emperor Zhu Yijun, but he is already itching to see what kind of woman the Ministry of Rites has chosen for him.
It is worth mentioning that because of the matter regarding Emperor Longqing, Feng Bao privately approached Zhang Juzheng and Wei Guangde, and the inner court was ready to send the collected books back to the Qianqing Palace.
Thinking of this, Wei Guangde asked: "Servant Fang, how far has the selection of candidates for the Ministry of Rites reached?"
"Returning to Mr. Cifu, the Ministry of Rites has screened more than 400 girls in North and South Zhili. After layers of screening, there are still more than 30 girls left. They have all arrived in the capital and are just waiting for the final selection by the inner court."
Fang Shilang opened his mouth and replied.
"After the election, it involves major national affairs, which naturally take priority over matters in Myanmar. The focus of the Ministry of Rites must still come before the election."
When Wei Guangde said this, he glanced at Zhang Juzheng first, and when he nodded, he continued: "The Ministry of Rites has already carried out the post-election matters many times. I think we already have the regulations, so just follow them.
As for the matter in the southwest, it was also decided by the empress dowagers of the two palaces, and there could be no delay.
It would be better for the Ministry of Rites to still focus on post-election matters, and let the Hanlin Academy stop what they are doing first and consult ancient books to draft ritual notes. "
Wei Guangde suggested.
The Hanlin Academy is very relaxing. As long as there is no official position in other yamen, the whole day is spent reading books and having fun.
Of course, it's not entirely true.
For example, the current task assigned to the Hanlin Academy is to compile the "Records", but in fact the request is not urgent.
It's okay to let it go.
"The Hanlin Academy is still editing the "Records", this"
Fang Fengshi was a little hesitant, but Zhang Juzheng also spoke at this time: "The loan proposal is good. The most important thing for the Ministry of Rites now is to ensure that there are no mistakes after the election and not to delay the establishment of a province in Myanmar.
Relatively speaking, the latter one is probably even more troublesome. It is a heavy workload to search for similar activity rituals from numerous ancient books.
Let’s put aside the matter of "Records" first. "
The first assistant and the second assistant had the same opinion, so Fang Fengshi could only nod and agree.
"Then I will inform Wang Xilie when I get back and let him arrange the matter."
Fang Fengshi replied.
"By the way, can beautiful women be sent to the palace? Or is the Ministry of Rites still making selections?"
Wei Guangde asked again.
The little emperor wants to see the beautiful girl. If he says it, it will be a big deal. If he keeps silent, it will be fine.
However, if the final selection of beautiful ladies is not over yet, that is, everyone is still outside the palace. If the young emperor wants to see her, Wei Guangde will not dare to be bold enough to take the young emperor out of the palace to see the beauty.
If all other conditions are met, the beautiful girls who have been screened will be sent to the Chuxiu Palace in the imperial city to live for a period of time.
During this period of time, the palace will conduct a new round of screening of these beautiful ladies, and finally a few candidates will be selected, and then the queen mothers of the two palaces will select them.
The winner will naturally be able to see the emperor.
There are many procedures and they are very strict, and Wei Guangde does not want to get involved.
If the little emperor peeks at the person he is interested in, and the person is poked out by the Ministry of Rites, he is afraid there will be trouble.
It would be better to throw it into the palace and let the little emperor see it by himself.
It will be a matter for the inner court at that time. Even if something happens, I believe Feng Bao can keep the news secret.
"Now most of the selections have been completed, and only a few show girls are still being checked by the etiquette department. Those who have been sent out in the past few days should be able to come back."
When the Ming Dynasty selected beautiful women, the first step was for local officials to select women of suitable age, and then they made preliminary selections, requiring a clean family background and dignified appearance.
In this step, the local government wants to investigate the family situation of the show girl, and no one dares to commit fraud.
Moreover, during the draft, some officials took the opportunity to select beauties for themselves. At least no one dared to do it at the moment.
The reason is very simple. As long as the requirements are met, it must be reported at all levels.
Even if it fails, there must be a good reason.
Once a person is found to be eligible but not reported, local officials will wait for a "low" rating during the inspection.
In fact, if a queen is born in a local area, it will be a great political achievement for the officials who report it.
The queen has very high requirements. If she is selected, it will naturally mean that the local officials have outstanding abilities, so talented women will appear.
At the same time, those who are close to the water, first come first, and have a good relationship with the queen's natal family. Although they cannot guarantee high-ranking officials and generous salaries, they can still say good things.
This is a relationship that leads directly to the harem. No one will interfere with this important matter unless they don't want a better career.
After being reported to the local government, they were screened at all levels, and finally the Ministry of Rites had to check the conditions of the women sent to the palace.
If it is in the capital, it is naturally simple and quick, but if it is in a remote state capital, it will take a lot of time to check back and forth.
This is also the reason why the drafts are mostly concentrated in the north and south Zhili, and the time required for verification is relatively short.
"Hurry up and send the selected beautiful girls to the palace as soon as possible. The Ministry of Etiquette will have less trouble."
Wei Guangde smiled.
"Yes, I will take Mr. Wei Ge's words back to the Ministry of Rites and urge the selection work to be completed as soon as possible."
Fang Fengshi said hurriedly.
In fact, the Ministry of Rites also hopes to complete the work as soon as possible so that they can wait for the reward. The matter is in their own yamen, and they are always worried that something will go wrong.
As long as the selection is completed and the selected beautiful girls are sent to the palace, there will be no errands for the Ministry of Etiquette.
The worst case scenario is that the girls who lose out in the end will be sent back by the Ministry of Etiquette.
During the Qing Dynasty, unsuccessful show girls usually stayed in the palace as maids-in-waiting, but the Ming Dynasty's system was the same.
In the Ming Dynasty, beautiful women who were unsuccessful in the election were usually sent home instead of staying in the palace as maids. Even these unsuccessful people could not be selected as concubines.
For example, after the election, the two or three people who finally showed their faces in front of the emperor. After the emperor selected the queen, the eliminated personnel would not be left in the palace to become concubines. Instead, they would go directly back home and be sent home by the Ministry of Rites.
However, among those who were previously unsuccessful in the palace, some will be retained as concubine candidates.
This is actually a very clever consideration, because the candidate who can make it to the last step actually meets the qualifications to become the empress of Muyi Tianxia in all aspects, but the emperor is more interested in who is more pleasing to the eye.
If the last loser is left in the palace, there is no guarantee that no one will covet the throne of the queen, which will lead to a palace battle.
Therefore, if the unsuccessful candidates are sent home directly, such incidents can be avoided.
As for those who lost the election early, they must have failed to meet the conditions for becoming a queen in many aspects, so naturally they would not covet that position.
It can only be said that many of the systems established by Zhu Yuanzhang do have merit.
In the words of Chief Assistant Zhang Juzheng, "Taizu conquered the world because he did not follow established laws."
He said "not following the established laws", praising Zhu Yuanzhang, and also subsidizing his own reforms, because many of his reforms were like this.
At this time, in Taungoo City, the capital of Myanmar, Yu Dayou was frowning slightly.
If not for other reasons, it was because after knowing that the Ming army had broken Taungoo City, the Siamese clan was ready to take back what belonged to them.
Siam sent envoys to the Ming Dynasty to tell them about the hardships of being oppressed by Burma in these years. At the same time, Siam sent people to Taungoo City to find Yu Dayou, hoping to recover the treasures that had been seized by the Ming army from his hands.
Not to mention, the golden seal of treasure awarded to Siam by the Ming Dynasty confirmed the theory that Myanmar plundered all the wealth after destroying Siam.
It's just that the thing given by the emperor was lost and he didn't report it to the Ming court afterwards. This matter can be big or small.
Therefore, Yu Dayou did not intend to return those things to Siam, but just made a record and waited for the court's order.
And now he has received news that the war in the north has ended, ending with the great victory of the Ming Dynasty, and the Burmese king Mang Yinglong and his subordinates were all captured.
Due to insufficient manpower, Yu Dayou did not send troops northward, but waited for the northern Ming army to go southward to join him.
This means that although it takes them two or three months to travel by sea, in fact, if there is no accident, they may reach Yunnan in one month by land.
Yu Dayou never thought that they were so close to the Ming Dynasty.
Not to mention him, the expressions of other naval commanders were similar. It seemed a bit unfair to go around by sea.
But he frowned today, not because he had just driven away the Siamese envoy, but because the northern Ming army had no intention of going southward to join them.
Now there are many cities controlled by the Burmese between the two parts of the Ming army.
Don't you think that the messengers sent by the Ming Dynasty can enter and exit those cities at will?
The navy is short of manpower, and it is already very difficult to occupy the south now. It is urgently needed for the northern Ming army to go south for support. Li Chengliang will not still be waiting for him to lead his troops north.
Yu Dayou thought, and suddenly shouted to the outside: "Come here. ’
He didn’t plan to wait any longer. He was going to send someone north to contact Li Chengliang and urge the Ming army to go south as soon as possible to support the navy.
Originally, the navy had no intention of capturing southern Myanmar, but only to attack the capital of Myanmar to support the northern battlefield.
However, it was found that the cities in southern Myanmar were easy to attack and there were not many troops, so the war started in the entire south.
They succeeded, but Yu Dayou was still terrified to rule so many Burmese people with such a small number of troops.
After the arrival of his personal soldiers, he immediately arranged for them to find a guide and prepare to go north to contact Li Chengliang about going south.
While Yu Dayou encountered some minor troubles, Li Chengliang in the north was also having some problems.
Although the Ming army defeated the Burmese army with great momentum and captured many Burmese leaders, and the Burmese army at Tiebiguan also chose to surrender, if more than 100,000 Burmese prisoners of war were not dealt with as soon as possible, it would actually be a time bomb for Li Chengliang, and he didn’t know when it would explode.
The total number of troops of the Ming army entering Myanmar was 160,000, and Yunnan had more than 60,000 troops, accounting for the majority.
The total number of troops in other provinces was 100,000, which was also the limit of the elite troops that the southwestern provinces could draw.
In fact, Li Chengliang had received documents from Guangxi and Guizhou, hoping to release their troops as soon as possible after defeating the enemy, on the grounds that the local chieftains showed signs of instability.
In addition, the transportation capacity greatly restricted the Ming army's continued pursuit and expansion of the occupied area, which was the main reason why his troops could not move south for a long time.
"Dad, how about I take 20,000 troops from Ava to the south and head straight to Toungoo City, first to open up the passage to the south and the navy.
Then send people west to attack Pagan City. I heard that it was the capital of the former Toungoo Dynasty, and I think there should be a lot of good things left there.
Other places will take their time, and we should stabilize the north first."
Li Rusong said.
The Ming army can only say that it has occupied most of the cities in northern Myanmar, which is actually the territory of the Xuanweisi such as Mengyang and Mengmi.
After occupying Ava, the vast central and southern Myanmar appeared before them. Due to insufficient military force, Li Chengliang was a little at a loss for the time being.