Chapter 816 905 Double Potion

"Pah"

The sound of a tea bowl breaking rang out in the room, followed by a "clattering" sound.

Outside the door, Zhang Ji and several servants stood with their hands down, not daring to speak.

After a long time, the noise in the room finally stopped, and Zhang Ji dared to look inside the room, only to see Wei Guangde sitting on the armchair, "grunting" and still breathing heavily.

Zhang Ji knew what Wei Guangde was angry about, and after the court report was delivered today, Zhang Ji felt that something was going to happen.

Sure enough, when the court report was handed to Wei Guangde, he started to curse angrily, and then he threw things and overturned the bookshelf.

Wei Guangde was really angry, because when he saw the latest court report, he did not see Gao Gong continuing to punish Xu Jie, and then the Beijing officials staged the scene of the reverse arch again under the instigation of Xu Jie and Zhang Juzheng, but the court issued an order to withdraw the patrol navy to their respective provinces and strictly guard the important seaports in each province.

Not only did he dismantle the Nanyang Navy that he had expected, but the Navy Admiral and Guangxi General Yu Dayou was also dismissed and sent home to wait for his orders.

Wei Guangde thought that Gao Gong would only focus on the civil service group, but he did not expect Gao Gong to reach out to the Ministry of War.

"Zhang Ji."

"Master."

Hearing Wei Guangde calling him, Zhang Ji rolled into the house and knelt directly in the house.

"Why are you kneeling? Get up."

Wei Guangde was very angry at the moment and felt that everything he saw was unpleasant.

"Yes."

After Zhang Ji stood up, Wei Guangde said to him: "Send someone to Fujian to send a letter immediately, and all the merchant ships that have not set sail should stop first. There may be changes in the coastal areas.

If there are too many backlogs of goods on hand that are difficult to handle, send them to Yuegang, and you can always get some money out."

"Yes, Master, I will arrange someone to send the letter over now."

Zhang Ji hurriedly agreed and was about to go out.

"Wait, remember to tell them to be honest recently. If something happens, no one can protect them."

"Yes, yes, I will send someone to notify them immediately."

Zhang Ji said hurriedly, and seeing that Wei Guangde did not say anything else, he hurried out of the house.

Wei Guangde naturally could not help but intervene in such a major event as the opening of the sea by the Ming Dynasty. There were real interests involved.

The qualifications for less than 100 merchant ships to go to sea were said to be allocated to Fujian merchants, but ten of them fell into the hands of the Chamber of Commerce that was connected with Wei Guangde, and the route these ships took was naturally not the East and West Oceans allowed by the court, but the route of Japan.

During this period, because Japan was rich in gold and silver, the main route for Western merchants who traveled thousands of miles to East Asia to do business was from Southeast Asia to Japan, and they would also collect goods from the Ming Dynasty in the middle.

The route that really made them money was actually to go to Japan, trade the goods on the ship, and exchange them for precious metals such as gold, silver and copper.

When the Ming Dynasty opened the sea, it repeatedly prohibited merchant ships from doing business with Japan. However, the actual situation was that most merchant ships could only go to Japan after going out to sea, except for the Southeast Asian route. The ship's pilot said that they were going to Korea for trade.

The Ming Dynasty Navy had nearly a thousand large and small warships cruising the sea day and night around Fujian. These merchant ships could not reach their destinations by just drawing a line on the map. They all had standard routes.

This involved not only meteorological conditions, but also hydrology, routes to avoid reefs, etc.

You should know that the sea vessels departing from Yuegang all had a pilot, and the time for leaving the port and returning was calculated.

The distance of the Japanese route was much longer than that of Korea, so the ship needed to make full use of the influence of wind direction and ocean currents to reach the destination within the planned time to complete the transaction.

Japan was not like Korea. There, gold, silver and some local specialties were used to trade Ming goods, while Japan directly traded gold, silver and brass.

In addition, Japan is rich in sulfur, which is also a scarce commodity in the Ming Dynasty, mainly used to make gunpowder.

Although the Ming Dynasty produces sulfur domestically, the output is not large and cannot meet its own needs.

Among the restricted commodities of the Ming Dynasty's foreign trade, in addition to the copper and pig iron that are in short supply in the country, there is also saltpeter, which is also a weapon for the Ming Dynasty to control some foreign countries including Korea.

The difference is obvious. As long as merchants can trade with the Japanese, they will never choose to do business with Korea.

Why did Wei Guangde concentrate the Ming Dynasty's navy in the south on the coast of Fujian? Naturally, he also had his own plans.

The fleet is placed here, which is very convenient for going south and north, especially to block some merchant ships that compete with him for business.

Now Gao Gong is obviously going to intervene in the coastal navy, Wei Guangde has to take some precautions to avoid being caught.

Although those merchant ships have nothing to do with him in name, they can't stand further investigation.

It is naturally best not to cause trouble.

However, through this incident, Wei Guangde also realized that even if he wrote to those friends and asked them to be cautious, it seemed useless.

They directly took you down by reporting the matter to the censor. At least you will be suspended from your position during the investigation. If there is no evidence after the investigation, then wait for the Ministry of Personnel or the Ministry of War to make other arrangements.

Once you lose your official position in the Ming Dynasty, it will be difficult to get it back.

In fact, this is why Wei Guangde was angry. He felt that Gao Gong was not particular about achieving his goal. He even used such despicable tricks. It was really hard to guard against.

He didn't want to write to Ma Fang and others now. It was useless. It would be useless for them to take you down just by talking.

Wei Guangde was angry at home. In the Forbidden City thousands of miles to the north, Emperor Longqing was also angry. However, he was not angry about Wei Guangde's little thing, but complained that the various "conditioning" medicines prepared by the Imperial Hospital were becoming less and less useful.

These medicines were prepared by secret recipes collected by the Imperial Hospital from various places and contributed by alchemists. The effect was very obvious in the past few years, but Emperor Longqing felt more and more powerless when doing things recently.

Perhaps because the ministers were too capable, Emperor Longqing thought he was not smarter than them, so he chose to delegate power and let the people below handle the affairs. He was only responsible for making the final decision.

Of course, it is still necessary to properly control the power in the court. It is not good for one family to dominate, which is easy to make mistakes.

It is precisely because the power to handle court affairs was successively delegated to Xu Jie, Li Chunfang and Gao Gong that Emperor Longqing had a very comfortable life in the harem in recent years.

The very capable elders could handle the court affairs perfectly, so he could spend his time and energy in the harem and enjoy life to the fullest.

Moreover, for Emperor Longqing, he wanted to put all the beauties in the world into the harem for his enjoyment. For this reason, he did not hesitate to have conflicts with the cabinet many times because of the selection of palace ladies. There was really nothing to do.

Every time under his strong demands, the cabinet had to compromise, at most delaying for some time, but always satisfying his needs.

However, this also brought a serious problem, that is, as an emperor, he felt more and more exhausted. After all, it was an ordinary person's body, and it was impossible to be inexhaustible all the time.

Emperor Longqing gradually felt powerless, but he could not refuse the temptation, and felt that this was a huge blow to the emperor's self-esteem, so he felt upset.

However, in ancient feudal society, the most lacking was the ministers who knew how to speculate. Whether it was the eunuchs in the inner court or the officials in the outer court, they knew the emperor's needs in this regard, so these eunuchs and ministers contacted the doctors and alchemists who specialized in this, and presented secret recipes or aphrodisiacs to the emperor in order to obtain the emperor's reward.

In the past two years, Emperor Longqing has been completely dependent on these medicines. He has been deeply involved in them and cannot extricate himself.

But recently, it seems that these originally effective medicines seem to be getting worse and worse.

"Meng Chong."

"I am here."

"Inform the Imperial Hospital to give me double the medicine starting today."

"I obey your order."

The eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty, especially the eunuchs like Meng Chong, can actually call themselves ministers in front of the emperor.

But in fact, all eunuchs like to call themselves servants in front of the emperor, as if this makes them seem closer.

Perhaps this is also a habit they developed when they were eunuchs.

Emperor Longqing wanted double the medicine to cheer him up. Meng Chong knew that it would definitely not be good to use it this way, but if he dissuaded or opposed it, the consequence would inevitably cause dissatisfaction with the emperor.

At this time, Meng Chong's status was not as high as the outer court thought. In fact, facing Chen Hong, who was eyeing his position with the support of Gao Gong, he did not have the courage to refuse the emperor's order.

"Go get it now, and bring it to me as soon as you get it. Who's going to come to me today?"

With nothing to do, Emperor Longqing has made up his mind. Since there is no better medicine, he will eat more. What he is thinking about is who should be arranged to accompany him to the Qianqing Palace to enjoy himself today.

Meng Chong hurriedly left the Qianqing Palace and went to the Imperial Hospital. On the way, he met Feng Bao who was wandering around the palace with the crown prince Zhu Yijun.

The crown prince was present, and even Meng Chong, the seal holder of the Silijian, hurriedly knelt down to pay his respects to the crown prince.

Zhu Yijun didn't think much about it, so he asked Meng Chong to get up, and then took people to leave, but Feng Bao fell behind at this time and asked with concern: "What happened to eunuch Meng? Why are you in such a hurry?"

"Your Majesty asked me to go to the Imperial Hospital to get medicine."

Meng Chong didn't think much about it and said casually.

"Your Majesty is not feeling well?"

When Feng Bao heard that he was going to get medicine for Emperor Longqing, his first reaction was that the emperor was ill.

After all, he relied on his youth and bet on the prince, so when he heard that the emperor wanted to take medicine, he was happy at the first moment.

"Hey, it's that kind of medicine."

Meng Chong said without thinking too much.

"Oh, don't the Imperial Hospital usually prepare it and send it? Why do you want Eunuch Meng to go and get it today? Just send a eunuch."

Feng Bao heard that the emperor wanted medicine to help him, and he lost interest and bowed to say goodbye.

In the palace, it was common for the emperor to use such medicine, so he didn't feel strange.

"I don't know if the purchased medicinal materials are not effective or what. His Majesty has said that the medicine is not satisfactory recently. Starting today, he asked the Imperial Hospital to double the amount. He also recruited two talents to serve him. He asked me to go to the Imperial Hospital to urge the medicine. I'll go first."

As he said, Meng Chong walked towards the Imperial Hospital without looking back. Feng Bao still bowed to Meng Chong's back.

The medicinal materials purchased in the palace are not effective?

Feng Bao was thinking, but Meng Chong had already walked away. He seemed to feel something, but he didn't have time to think about it, so he chased in the direction where the prince left.

Gao Gong, the chief minister of the Ming Dynasty, certainly didn't know what happened in the palace, otherwise he might realize that it was not good, and would give up the way of accommodating Emperor Longqing in every way before, and try his best to dissuade the emperor from taking large doses of medicine.

Medicine is three-point poison. Emperor Longqing took medicine every day, and they took this kind of medicine. How could it not hurt his body?

Perhaps, finding a medicine to strengthen the body and nourish the essence of the Emperor Longqing at this time could save his life, but Gao Gong didn't know about these things.

At least, Emperor Longqing still looked vigorous to outsiders, and he didn't seem to realize that he had taken an overdose of drugs.

And now the Crown Prince Zhu Yijun, who only knew how to have fun, was even less aware of anything. He only knew what his father told him during the Chinese New Year, that he was already ten years old and would soon go out to study.

Going out to study, so scary.

In the future, the people who can manage him, in addition to his father, must also be teachers.

In the future, he must get up before dawn to read and practice calligraphy. Every day, he must not only listen to the teacher's lectures, but also complete the homework assigned by the teacher.

Although the Crown Prince Zhu Yijun did not go out to study, Feng Bao came from the inner school hall, so he naturally knew the rules about the Crown Prince's study in the ancestral system.

After knowing that he was going to start studying, Zhu Yijun asked Feng Bao what it was like to go out to study, so the Crown Prince was scared by studying.

But he also knew that this was his father's order, and he, as a son, could not object, so he could only seize the last time to have fun.

After studying, there would be no time for playing.

As the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang fought on the battlefield and fought in the south and the north throughout his life. He went through untold hardships to conquer the vast country.

He knew that "starting a business" was difficult, and "keeping a business" was even more difficult, so he attached great importance to the education of the princes. He combined the experience of the previous dynasty and created a unique way of educating his children.

After all, the prince is the "foundation of the country" and will "inherit the throne of heaven" in the future.

Therefore, his education is a major event related to the country and the people, and the selection of teachers for the prince is also very cautious.

As the saying goes, teaching by example, only when the teacher is highly respected can the prince learn his good character by osmosis.

Only old Confucian scholars who have a deep study of orthodox Confucian education are qualified to be selected.

At the same time, they were not only responsible for teaching the prince's talents and knowledge, but also for cultivating his talents in governing the country.

So after several generations of development, the cabinet ministers became the first choice for the prince's teachers, because they came from the Hanlin Academy, assisted in the cabinet, and had experience in governing the country.

In addition, Zhu Yuanzhang also stipulated that the prince needed to be separated from the upbringing and education of concubines and eunuchs after reaching a certain age. He first established the Zhanshiyuan in the second year of Hongwu, and then added Zuochunfang, Youchunfang and Sijingju.

At that time, the four institutions jointly tutored the prince, and later they all belonged to the Zhanshi Mansion.

However, the system of educating the prince in the Ming Dynasty was not established until the reign of Emperor Yingzong of the Ming Dynasty, that is, "the daily lecture ceremony, after the morning court retreated, the crown prince went out of the cabinet and took the seat, without the need for guards and other officials, but only the attendants and lecturers, and performed the kowtow ceremony."

At that time, the prince was arranged to study the Four Books and Five Classics and historical classics in the morning, and practice riding and shooting in the afternoon.

In fact, this system was first used by Emperor Yingzong of Ming. Although this system was issued by imperial decree, it was determined after consultation among the cabinet ministers at that time.

Emperor Yingzong was only ten years old at that time and had no right to object.