Chapter 605 Chapter 604 Urgent Summon

Beijing, the School Record Office.

This place has always been deserted, because except for the morning and evening roll calls and the time when the court was dismissed, there were usually no people coming here.

But today, a sedan chair carried by four people ran quickly from a corner of the street, and there were several people dressed as clerks beside the sedan chair, all of whom were running out of breath.

They were all running like this, not to mention the sedan chair bearers.

Although they made a living by carrying the sedan chair all the way here, the four sedan bearers were also exhausted when they arrived at the place. However, the person in the sedan chair had not left yet, so they had to stand aside reluctantly, which was very hard.

Finally, someone ran to the sedan chair, whispered a few words to the sedan chair, and then lifted the curtain of the sedan chair, and a person in a crimson official robe came out of the sedan chair.

"Go in."

After the man got off the sedan chair, he only whispered a sentence, and then walked into the School Record Office first.

At this time, the officers on both sides of the gate of the School Record Office stood straight, and they didn't relax until the official walked in.

"Why is Lord Li here?"

"I don't know. I'm afraid it's about urging for manuscripts again."

The person who came was Li Chunfang, the second assistant of the cabinet. He rushed to the Proofreading Office from Xiyuan and naturally came with an official business.

Soon, the ten branching officials in the Proofreading Office received the news.

"These two books have been read, no problem. These two books have not been read, put them here first."

After receiving the news from Lu Bu, Wei Guangde immediately sorted the basic manuscripts on the desk, picked out the manuscripts that had been read and handed them to Lu Bu, asking him to hand them in first.

As for the remaining two books, Wei Guangde knew that he couldn't finish reading them in a short time, so he went to the front to see Lord Li and find out the situation.

When Wei Guangde arrived at the front, most of the branching officials had already arrived. Everyone was sitting at the bottom, Li Chunfang was sitting on the upper left, and the right seat was empty.

"Have all the proofread manuscripts been handed in?"

Li Chunfang asked directly when she saw Wei Guangde coming in.

"Someone has been sent to deliver it."

"How many books have been completed today?"

"Two books, and there are still two books to be read."

Wei Guangde bowed and answered.

"Sit down, and we will talk about it after the statistics are counted."

Li Chunfang waved his hand to Wei Guangde to sit down. Wei Guangde bowed to the other branch officials, and then walked to the front and sat on the right side of the first row.

Soon, Zhang Juzheng also came over, and the conversation was still the same, and then he sat opposite Wei Guangde.

"Everyone is here. I am here today, and I believe everyone has some guesses."

Li Chunfang said after seeing everyone was here: 'That's right, His Majesty is concerned about the progress of copying the "Yongle Encyclopedia", so he sent me to take a look. '

Wei Guangde and Zhang Juzheng looked at each other, and they all understood.

In fact, at this point, how could they, the branch officials, not know the emperor's thoughts.

Even if they didn't know at the beginning, they more or less guessed one or two this year.

Soon, a clerk came in quickly, whispered a few words in Li Chunfang's ear, and then handed a note to him.

"There are more than 11,000 volumes of the classics, more than 7,000 volumes have been completed, and the remaining 4,000 volumes, how long will it take?"

Li Chunfang seemed to be asking, but his eyes were looking outside the house in a daze.

Wei Guangde knew that with the current speed of copying and proofreading books in the Proofreading Office, it would take at least one year to complete the 4,000 volumes of manuscripts, and two years to complete them all.

But Li Chunfang didn't ask him any questions, so he was happy to pretend to be dumb.

"We need to speed up. If there are not enough copyists, we will continue to recruit and ask the Ministry of Rites to cooperate."

Li Chunfang said this, his eyes were already looking at Zhang Juzheng, "Uncle, you and Shandai are in charge here. I need to speed up the copying speed now. One year, I will only give you one year to complete the copying of the remaining 4,000 books."

When he heard Li Chunfang calling his name, Wei Guangde immediately sat up straight. After Li Chunfang finished speaking, he and Zhang Juzheng had already stood up and bowed and replied, "Yes."

"Pass the message down, after the matter is completed, all the inspections will be the best, and your majesty will also have a generous reward."

When Li Chunfang left, he also made a wish to everyone.

Whether the officials are fully tested or inspected, the comments are all the best. For them, they can get the qualification for faster promotion. For officials who have no one to take care of them, how long will they have to wait for seniority.

But with these merits, competent evaluations are enough for them to be promoted to official positions. Even if they can get priority when official positions are tight, it is also a generous reward.

As for the so-called reward, it was just some silver coins minted by the palace, which was actually not as effective as a lucrative job.

Li Chunfang came and went in a hurry, and soon rushed back to the West Garden.

In Yongshou Palace, Emperor Jiajing's body and spirit had recovered a little, although he was still leaning on the dragon couch.

After listening to Li Chunfang's report, Emperor Jiajing frowned, "There are still 4,000 volumes to be completed, how come there are still so many?"

Li Chunfang knew that in the first two years of copying, the court had limited resources and only completed more than a thousand volumes each year. It was only last year and this year that the progress increased sharply, otherwise how could so many volumes be copied.

But even so, the emperor's tone was too slow.

"I have asked them to speed up the copying and strive to complete the copying of the grand ceremony within one year."

Li Chunfang knew that he should take over the conversation, and he could only say this.

"You go and get busy, and you should visit the Proofreading Office from time to time."

Emperor Jiajing just said, and then took the note handed over by Li Chunfang from Huang Jin.

After Li Chunfang exited the palace, Emperor Jiajing lowered his head and glanced at the content on the note. It recorded the total number of copies of the canon and the progress of each branch officer.

Naturally, Wei Guangde ranked first with more than a thousand volumes, followed closely by Zhang Juzheng, who proofread more than 800 volumes, and the other branch officials had around 600 or 700 volumes. The gap was obvious.

"It's the person I personally appointed, so it's considerate to use him."

Emperor Jiajing suddenly said something meaningless. Others might not understand the reason, but Huang Jin, who had been following Emperor Jiajing, suddenly understood it.

When it comes to hand-picked appointments, the two most famous in the current dynasty are Li Chunfang and Wei Guangde.

Li Chunfang was given by God, and Wei Guangde was rewarded by the emperor.

Who among the current cabinet members is Emperor Jiajing most at ease with?

Of course it was Li Chunfang. He was cautious from beginning to end and never overstepped.

As for Xu Jie, the first assistant, perhaps many people have heard a story, that is, Emperor Jiajing once rebuked Xu Jie as a villain and even made a vow to "never hire him".

Well, this was because Xu Jie had gone back on his word in front of the emperor, which made the young and energetic emperor resent this for a long time, and even sent him to another place to add insult to injury.

It's just that he was lucky, and he came back after going round and round.

Today, when he saw that Wei Guangde was working the hardest among the branch officials, Emperor Jiajing could not help but feel this way in his heart.

Folks often ridicule Yuan Wei, Li Chunfang and others as "qingci prime ministers". In fact, all four of the current cabinet are such experts.

No one is willing to share the emperor's worries, and no one can do their best to govern this huge country for him.

This is the current mood of Emperor Jiajing, who is quite satisfied with the current court officials.

"Your Majesty has a keen eye and knows pearls. These are all taken for granted."

Huang Jin gave Emperor Jiajing a dragon's fart at this time, which made the emperor feel much happier.

"It is said that Zi is really indecisive, but such a person is stable and handles things smoothly without making mistakes."

Emperor Jiajing smiled.

As for the other one, he didn't say that it was for his son and he would not give him another promotion.

"What is Prince Yu doing now?"

Emperor Jiajing suddenly asked again.

"Back to Your Majesty, Your Highness has been praying for Your Majesty at your residence these days when you have free time. You are really filial. I learned that Your Majesty was in poor health a few days ago and it is said that he doesn't want to eat or drink."

Huang Jinxiao smiled, her wrinkled old face looking like a blooming chrysanthemum.

"Hmm."

In response, Emperor Jiajing just chuckled twice, "That child's name is Zhu Yijun, right? How old is he?"

"Your Majesty has a very good memory. The prince's name is Zhu Yijun. It was you who named him. He is three years old this year."

Huang Jin said cheerfully. Seeing that Emperor Jiajing was in good spirits at this moment, he asked tentatively: "Your Majesty, would you like me to invite my little brother to come to the palace and let your Majesty have a look?"

Little brother, of course I am talking about Zhu Yijun, the third son of King Yu. Emperor Jiajing has not visited him since he was born. He is really scared.

To be honest, Emperor Jiajing doesn't even know if it was because he peeked on the tower during the Aoshan Lantern Festival that his eldest grandson disappeared inexplicably.

Speaking of which, Emperor Jiajing was also very miserable. His father died when he was very young, and his own sons also died one after another not long after they were born.

Especially after being granted the title of crown prince twice, both princes died quickly, which really scared Emperor Jiajing half to death.

You know, how did he get the throne? Wasn't it because his cousin, Emperor Zhengde, Zhu Houzhao, had no heir?

The motto "Two dragons never meet" seems to be nonsense to others, but if it really happens to you, who dares not to believe these ghosts and gods.

What's more, this was still in the Ming Dynasty, when the theory of ghosts and gods was prevalent. There was no atheism in this era.

"If you think about it carefully, my life is actually very good."

At some point, Emperor Jiajing suddenly laughed and said seemingly casually.

Huang Jin heard this, but was surprised in his heart because he understood the meaning of Emperor Jiajing's words.

Perhaps, this is because he and I have been with the emperor for a long time, and their thinking channels are almost the same.

Speaking of which, starting from the first emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang in the Ming Dynasty, there seemed to be few emperors who died with grandchildren.

Many people may not believe it, but it is the truth.

All in all, the only people who had grandsons during the reign of the Ming Dynasty were Zhu Di and the current emperor. As for other emperors, they have never seen what their grandson looked like.

Of course, the exception was Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor, who lived long enough to see his great-grandson.

Perhaps it was because of this that the Zhu family's luck was exhausted.

As for who Zhu Yuanzhang saw his great-grandson, it was naturally Zhu Wenkui, the eldest son of the emperor's grandson Zhu Yunwen.

Zhu Yuanzhang was the longest-lived emperor of the Ming Dynasty, but during his lifetime, he only saw the birth of this great-grandson.

Other emperors, Emperor Jianwen, could not be considered emperors. The eldest son was only seven years old when he died, so it was naturally impossible to see his grandson.

After that came Emperor Renzong Zhao Zhu Gaochi and Emperor Xuanzong Zhang Zhu Zhanji. Naturally, they were not seen when they died. Among them, the crown prince Zhu Qizhen was only nine years old when Zhu Zhanji died. This was the later Emperor Yingzong.

Emperor Yingzong Rui Zhu Qizhen and his brother Emperor Jing Zhu Qiyu also had the same fate. The subsequent Emperor Xianzong Chun Zhu Jianshen died in the 23rd year of Chenghua. It was said that he had the opportunity to see his grandson, but unfortunately, his eldest son, Emperor Xiaozong Zhu Youtang, had his first son in the 4th year of Hongzhi, five years after Emperor Xianzong's death.

Emperor Xiaozong Jing Zhu Youtang had only two sons in total. The second son, Zhu Houwei, who was posthumously named Prince Wei, died at the age of 3. The eldest son was the famous Emperor Wuzong Zhu Houzhao, who was the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty to die without an heir. Therefore, Emperor Xiaozong certainly could not see his grandchildren.

So, at this moment, Emperor Jiajing thought that he was the only one after Taizu and Chengzu, and he couldn't help but feel complacent. These two had made great military achievements.

One was the founding emperor, and the other was, cough cough

In fact, although the emperors of the Ming Dynasty did not say it, they certainly knew in their hearts that it was snatched from their nephews.

But of course they would not think that there was anything wrong with what Zhu Di did.

You know, if it weren't for this ancestor, they might have lived a worse life than their relatives who were kept in the palace.

The news that Emperor Jiajing's health had improved came from Li Chunfang who had returned to Wuyi Palace, which made several cabinet ministers feel relieved, and the news naturally spread outside the palace very quickly.

However, the emperor's health was said to have been up and down during this period, so the ministers still realized that the matter might not be over, and they kept this caution, and did not forget about it and return to their original life because of the news that Emperor Jiajing's health had improved.

And Wei Guangde had no intention of drinking and enjoying himself at this moment, because Li Chunfang had put more pressure on them, the branch officials.

After Li Chunfang returned to the cabinet, he discussed with Xu Jie, Guo Pu and others, and directly gave a note to Gao Yi, the Minister of Rites, and naturally continued to select people who were good at writing to fill the school.

The number of copyists continued to increase, while there were only ten branch officials, which naturally made Wei Guangde and his branch officials very busy. They had no time to enjoy themselves.

In the following days, various rumors filled the court. Sometimes it was said that Emperor Jiajing was in good health, and sometimes it was said that the emperor fell ill again and was bedridden.

It was not until the East Factory sent a few low-level officials under the order of Chen Hong, the factory master, that the officials in Beijing calmed down, and time quietly entered the December of the 45th year of Jiajing.

For more than a month, Wei Guangde and other branch officials gave up their rest days on their own initiative. They went to the duty room on time every day to start work. That is, they could sit down and chat for a while at lunch time, talking about interesting things in the officialdom, and then they had to work again until the court was dismissed.

On the afternoon of the 13th, it was almost time for the court to be dismissed. Wei Guangde finally finished proofreading the five manuscripts of the Grand Classics sent today. Two of them had several omissions and needed to be copied and re-included.

In response, Wei Guangde used a cinnabar pen to mark the omissions one by one.

"You can return home on time today."

Wei Guangde stood up and stretched, and he was in a good mood after finishing his work.

"Master, the palace urgently summons you."

At this time, Lu Bu quickly walked into the room and whispered in his ear.