Chapter 311 310 Encounter at the Aoshan Lantern Festival

Through the last visit to the Yan Mansion, Wei Guangde knew that the Yan family's attitude towards him was no different from what he expected.

That is, on the surface, it remained the same, but they had secretly removed him from the list of officials that the Yan Mansion could trust.

But it was okay this way. At least on the surface, the relationship between Wei Guangde and the Yan family had not changed. If the Yan family suddenly became enthusiastic about him, Wei Guangde would be on guard.

It was better to go to the Yan Mansion every month according to the previous habit. He did so before and still does so now.

Days passed, and Wei Guangde naturally returned to the Hanlin Academy after his vacation was over. He just went to the Zhanshi Mansion and the Duchayuan every month, and he was still doing his job on both sides.

Time was approaching the end of the year. The nine important border towns naturally found some problems more or less during the inspections this year. The memorials were sent to the court, and the cabinet naturally convened the ministers to discuss before submitting the memorials and tickets to the palace.

Everything was naturally not difficult, just follow the procedures of Jizhen.

The uproar caused by Tang Shunzhi and Wei Guangde's memorials sent to the Western Garden has gradually subsided, but the storms in other military towns have just begun to brew.

On the first day of November in the 37th year of Jiajing, Wei Yuanji, the Right Secretary of the Border Depository Department, and others were impeached for the embezzlement and dereliction of duty of various border officials.

Emperor Jiajing issued an edict: In recent years, the amount of grain distributed to the border has been too much, and the grain officials have arbitrarily embezzled money, resulting in a loss of money and grain. Gao Guang, the former grain-control doctor, and Liu Chongwen, the chief official, were both dismissed from their posts and arrested in Beijing for questioning; Ma Jiude, the former Jizhou governor and deputy chief censor, and Ai Xichun, the former Baoding governor and deputy chief censor, were dismissed from their posts and placed in idleness; Ma Lian, the former grain-control official in Miyun, was demoted one level and transferred to another place; Dong Ce, Cao Lin, Wang Shouzhi, Wang Huizheng, Wang Ji, Li Qiao, Zhang Bangyan, Qiu Wei, Ji Xuan, Ji Lian, Li Yu, Zhang Feng, Hu Zhihe, and Liu Lusheng, the former grain-control doctors, were demoted two levels each; Yi Jiefu, Zhang Zishun, and Yang Yinxian, the deputy military envoys of Jizhou, were stripped of their salaries for three months each.

Wei Guangde carefully read the copy of the imperial edict and recalled the officials involved in it.

The punishment list must be correct. In those days, the corruption of officials in the Ming Dynasty was too serious. If you let the officials stand in a row and kill every other person, almost half of the corrupt officials would escape.

It is obvious that Wei Yuanji and other people in charge of the investigation were also lenient this time, and only dealt with a small part of the people. After all, it is impossible to directly sweep the entire Jizhen officialdom.

It is close to the end of the year, and naturally not many officials are willing to be sent out of the capital to work at this time. As a result, Wei Guangde, who knows the inside story, dare not go to the Censorate during this period, for fear that he will be arrested by the officials inside and arranged to go to Yansui or Ningxia Town or Gansu Town. That would be miserable.

If he disappears for a while, the people in the Censorate may naturally forget about him as an extra-staff member.

Of course, he is not actually an extra-staff member. After all, Wei Guangde still holds the badge of the Fujian Dao Censor in his hand, and is considered an official in the Censorate.

It’s just that the Fujian Dao Censor will not be easily sent out now, including the Zhejiang Dao. After all, when he goes to the local area, the Censor can basically lead the army to fight, which will naturally disperse the power of Governor Hu Zongxian. This is something that officials such as Yan Song do not want to see, and it is also something that the emperor does not want to see.

It was December, and the New Year was approaching. This was Xu Jianglan's first Spring Festival in the capital, so she was naturally curious.

She had heard about the Aoshan Lantern Festival in the capital a long time ago, and naturally she had longed for it. This time, she followed her husband Wei Guangde to the capital and finally got to see it.

When she arrived in the capital, except for the initial discomfort, everything else was fine. After all, she had relatives in the Dingguo Mansion in the capital, so Xu Jianglan quickly became familiar with the noble women in the capital.

When the Wei family began to prepare for the New Year, a large number of officials left the capital with reluctance on their faces and rushed to the border towns to investigate those who embezzled the money and grain of the military towns. In fact, they just wanted to find some unlucky people to bear the thunderous wrath from the heaven.

Were the embezzled money and grain really embezzled by the officials below?

Of course not, I'm kidding. The military pay had already started to disappear when it left the capital. Regardless of whether the money came from the Taicang Warehouse or the Changying Warehouse, the Ministry of Revenue and the Imperial Household Department had already collected the usual amount and released it. It disappeared again in the hands of government officials at all levels, layer by layer until it reached the hands of the soldiers in the garrisons.

But at this time, there must be a scapegoat to take the blame.

"Crackle, crackle."

The sound of firecrackers resounded through the streets and alleys of the capital, and children played happily on the streets.

Although the people in the northern border towns and the coastal areas of Jiangnan were still suffering from the trauma of war, the people in the capital could not feel all this. The adults had already started to go to the market to prepare for the New Year.

The three major festivals of Winter Solstice, New Year's Day and Lantern Festival were very close. With so many holidays, Wei Guangde naturally had to take Xu Jianglan to visit the houses of various families in the capital.

Xiyuan issued an edict early on. This year, the palace will celebrate the festival the same as in previous years. That is, there will be no grand court meeting on New Year's Day. Everyone will kowtow to the empty throne and that's it. As for the ladies entering the palace to pay respects to the empress, there will be no such thing.

Since the fire in the palace in the 26th year of Jiajing, which caused the death of Empress Xiaolie Fang in the fire, Emperor Jiajing no longer canonized the empress. The ladies in the capital did not have to enter the palace to pay respects to the empress. In fact, even when there was an empress, Emperor Jiajing often exempted these empty rituals.

Of course, activities such as fireworks and the Aoshan Lantern Festival will not be cancelled. After all, Emperor Jiajing also likes them very much.

Time flies into the 38th year of Jiajing. On the night of the Lantern Festival, Wei Guangde took Xu Jianglan to watch the lanterns outside Chengtian Gate.

Today, Xu Jianglan naturally dressed up as usual. In fact, Wei Guangde didn't like the cosmetics of this era, but Xu Jianglan liked them.

She went out in a gorgeous dress, but she had to wear a veil on her head, and her whole face was covered by a veil. I don't know who can see her dress up.

However, Wei Guangde had seen many noble ladies dressed like this at the Aoshan Lantern Festival in the past, surrounded by maids and old women, and naturally didn't pay much attention to it.

The "Aoshan Long Live Lantern" with tens of thousands of lanterns built into a dozen floors is undoubtedly the most eye-catching existence at the entire lantern festival. Before entering the venue, Xu Jianglan was attracted by the Ao-shaped lantern in the distance. With the singing, dancing and performance of the palace maids and musicians on Aoshan, Xu Jianglan soon fell into the sea of ​​lanterns.

Wei Guangde has seen it for several years. To be honest, he was shocked when he saw it for the first time. The shocking effect naturally decreased the second and third times. Now he doesn't feel much. He can only do his job of protecting the flowers with peace of mind, watching his wife pace in the sea of ​​lanterns and slowly moving forward with the crowd.

Soon, surrounded by servants and maids, they entered the center of the lantern festival and walked to the foot of Ao Mountain.

Zhao Hu, Li San and other guards cleared the way in front, pushing aside the people in front to grab a space for Wei Guangde and his men.

For such families, the people in the capital are also accustomed to them. Being pushed aside by these big and strong men, they can only curse in a low voice, and they can't be heard by the other party.

In the capital, there are too many such families, and ordinary people can't afford to provoke them.

At this time, the best position to watch the lanterns at the foot of Ao Mountain has been occupied by such people, and the people are lucky to stand behind them to watch the lanterns.

After Wei Guangde stood still, he looked around and saw many familiar faces.

Well, most of the people standing here are the families of officials from various government offices in the capital. Wei Guangde also smiled and kept bowing to the surroundings.

Soon, there was another noise behind him, which temporarily overshadowed the sound of drums and music from Ao Mountain.

Wei Guangde didn't need to look back to know that it should be another powerful family or a Beijing official like him who came with his family.

Although he knew what was going on, Wei Guangde still had to look back. If he knew someone, he would have to say hello to them.

Today is the first day of the Aoshan Lantern Festival, and there are naturally many people coming. It would be good to have something to talk about if you meet acquaintances when you go out the next day. This is the same for officials.

But when Wei Guangde looked back, although the guards outside the group were dressed as ordinary servants, one person inside caught Wei Guangde's attention.

Isn't that Gao Gong?

Isn't the pale face next to him Li Fang?

They guarded a young man in his twenties on the left and right. Hiss.

As for the several female relatives following behind the three of them, Wei Guangde didn't take a second look. Needless to say, he knew that they should be Princess Zhang of Yu and other concubines. Although he couldn't see their clothes clearly, they all wore veils on their heads like Xu Jianglan.

Guessing that the new group of people were Prince Yu, Wei Guangde's heart moved. He had never had the opportunity to meet this prince, and it seemed that he had come to the right place to watch the Aoshan Lantern Festival today.

In fact, when Wei Guangde came here in the past, he would choose to go on the second day of the Lantern Festival, because the flow of people on the first day was too large, and it was not convenient to move around in the crowd.

However, this year, it was Xu Jianglan who came to see the lanterns. Well, in the inner house, Xu Jianglan has always had the final say in the Wei family, and Wei Guangde has to give her three points most of the time.

She is a little bit arrogant, but for the sake of Xu Jianglan's pretty face, Wei Guangde endured it.

And today, Xu Jianglan dressed up in the afternoon, wearing a veil and jumping in front of Wei Guangde, either walking around him a few times or turning around twice in place. The veil completely covered the upper body, and only the skirt under the veil could be seen.

When the lotus steps moved, the belt and jade hem were covered by the breeze, and when she turned around in place, the skirt fluttered like a blooming flower.

Well, Wei Guangde knew that Xu Jianglan behaved like this just to see the grand occasion on the first day of the Aoshan Lantern Festival.

Unexpectedly, just because of Xu Jianglan's willfulness, he actually had the opportunity to meet Prince Yu for the first time.

In the past, Prince Yu mostly stayed in the palace and basically did not go out. This was also to avoid suspicion and cause less trouble to himself and others, but today was different.

Wei Guangde looked at the crowd behind him and signaled Zhao Hu to make room for him, while staring at that side.

The guards of Prince Yu's Palace also noticed that there was a little space here, and the position for viewing the lanterns was also good. They squeezed in with a slight deviation in the forward route.

When approaching, Wei Guangde saw Li Fang's eyes glancing at him, and he unconsciously clasped his hands and bowed to that side.

Li Fang had sharp eyes. He recognized Wei Guangde when he bowed. His smile appeared and disappeared instantly. He leaned over to the middle man and whispered something in his ear. The young man in the middle, dressed like a nobleman, naturally turned his eyes to Wei Guangde.

Wei Guangde was bowing to him with his fists clasped, and the young man also bowed to him like Wei Guangde.

Hmm?

Prince Yu bowed to me, is this appropriate?

This was the first sentence that came to Wei Guangde's mind.

Although there was no emperor in later generations, Wei Guangde was still deeply poisoned by the pigtail drama.

In fact, the Ming Dynasty and the Song Dynasty were similar. The emperor and the ministers were still very casual.

Although the emperor holds the power of life and death, whether it is the emperor of the Song Dynasty or the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, they generally choose to treat ministers with a more tolerant attitude.

Wei Guangde quickly came to his senses. Now it is the Ming Dynasty, and they, the ministers, are not the slaves of the emperor.

Then Wei Guangde raised his hand again and bowed to His Royal Highness Prince Yu.

Soon, the people of Prince Yu's Mansion squeezed to stand next to the Wei family. The women of Prince Yu's Mansion, like Xu Jianglan, were interested in watching the dancing maids on Aoshan Mountain. Only women are interested in the Aoshan Lantern Festival every year, and it is just that for men.

In the capital, there is the Jiaosifang. Officials like Wei Guangde naturally cannot do without the singing and dancing girls of the Jiaosifang to cheer up.

However, Prince Yu stood among the guards and did not move, pretending to watch the grand occasion on Aoshan Mountain with interest, while Gao Gong beside him had squeezed out of the crowd of Prince Yu's Mansion and got into the Wei family.

The guards of the Wei family saw Gao Gong and knew him well, so they did not stop him.

Gao Gong also visited Wei Guangde several times after he returned to Beijing. Although many guards did not know who he was, they knew that he had been to his home, so they made way for him.

"Mr. Gao, you are in a very elegant mood."

Wei Guangde saw Gao Gong coming over with two lanterns in his hands, so he joked.

"These are lanterns made by the craftsmen in the palace. I brought them here specifically to give to Guangde Shandai."

Gao Gong said with a smile, and as he spoke, he walked closer and handed the lantern in his hand to Wei Guangde.

In the Ming Dynasty, the Lantern Festival was also called "Shangyuan Festival", "Yuanxi Festival" or "Lantern Festival". In addition to the custom of eating glutinous rice balls, the most important activity was to watch the lanterns, that is, the so-called Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first lunar month.

According to historical records, after Zhu Yuanzhang, the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty, established the capital in Yingtian, he invited wealthy businessmen from all over the world to light lanterns for 10 days to celebrate the Lantern Festival that year.

At that time, colorful pavilions were built in Nanjing City, and tens of thousands of water lanterns were set off on the Qinhuai River, which was a spectacular sight.

Beijing is located in the north, so it naturally does not have the conditions like Yingtianfu in the south. Although there are rivers, it is not suitable for large-scale water lanterns. Therefore, the Aoshan Lantern Festival, which existed in Nanjing, was moved outside the Meridian Gate, but the scale was enlarged several times.

The Wei family came out to see the lanterns, and they were naturally prepared, but they were all common goods bought on the street, so the lanterns were naturally not as exquisite as the ones handed over by Gao Gong.

These two are revolving lanterns. The craftsmen lit candles in the lanterns and used the heat generated by the candles to create airflow to make the axle rotate.

There are paper cuts on the axle, and the candlelight projects the shadow of the paper cuts on the screen, and the image keeps moving. Because there are many pictures of ancient generals riding horses on each side of the lantern, and when the lantern rotates, it looks like several people chasing each other, so it is called revolving lanterns.