The Prosperous Era of Longwan

"One life is two, two begets three, three begets all things. The human body is hard to come by, but now it is obtained. The great road is hard to understand, but now it is clear.

The earth follows heaven, heaven follows earth, Tao follows nature, and if you don’t save this body, how will you live? "

Wei Guangde handed in his Qing Ci and was not in a hurry to leave. He had a lot of free time anyway, so he just stood aside and read the Qing Ci written by others, and listened to what others said about his work.

Well, Wei Guangde was a little disappointed.

The overall evaluation is not high, but after reading other Qingci works submitted by the Hanlin Academy, Wei Guangde feels that he is still in the middle, not at the bottom.

At this time, Wei Guangde had forgotten about his guilty conscience on the road.

It was only after he caught Yuan Wei's disdainful glance that he felt that Yuan Wei's evaluation of his Qing Ci was "nonsense."

The young eunuch collected all the Qingci from the Hanlin Academy and left. Wei Guangde couldn't stay in the courtyard any longer, so he followed the young eunuch out of the Hanlin Academy.

When Wei Guangde came out, it was almost noon, which should have been the hottest time of the day, but it was already winter after all. Wei Guangde felt chilly all over while walking outside, and he speeded up his pace unconsciously.

Although the weather is cold, the markets in the capital are as prosperous as ever, and rumors say that official salaries and rewards will be paid out on time this year, which further stimulates the prosperity of the market.

I don’t know whether it should be said that thanks to the blessing of Anda Khan, the money confiscated by the Ministry of Revenue from various places gradually arrived in the capital. The military expenses that were supposed to be used for combat were at this time, except for part of them which were withheld by Emperor Jiajing, and the rest. The arrival is just enough to supplement the salary of hundreds of officials in the capital during the New Year.

Wei Guangde has already heard that the Ministry of Household Affairs has reserved this year's salary and rewards in advance, so there will be no difficult situation like the previous years.

Therefore, although the news is spread through gossip, sometimes it is extremely true.

After strolling around, Wei Guangde went directly to the Metropolitan Procuratorate.

At this time, there was a small mountain at the junction of Zhangzhou, Fujian and Raoping, Guangdong. This place was called Hushan.

Although Hushan is not a famous mountain or river, because it is located at the junction of two provinces, with high mountains and narrow roads, it is easy to defend and difficult to attack. It has always been a battleground for military strategists.

Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Zhangzhou Prefecture has built the Baisong Pass on Hushan Mountain, and stationed an inspection department here, responsible for inspecting pedestrians, combating smuggling, and arresting thieves. This has also become an important place for Zhangzhou Prefecture to defend against enemies and bandits in the south. pass.

In the peaceful years, merchants came and went here constantly, and the trade routes were also busy. However, due to the suppression of Japanese pirates in the south of the Yangtze River in recent years, merchants were heavily taxed when doing business, so the number of caravans here was greatly reduced, and they were never what they used to be.

Even today, in Xiaoguan City on the mountain, gongs and drums were beating, firecrackers were blasting, and it was very lively.

In Guancheng, dozens of musicians wearing bright red wedding clothes lined up neatly on both sides of a high platform in the city, playing cheerful music. In the distance, a large group of strong men in different colors walked out of the Guancheng official office, surrounded by A middle-aged man wearing a black gauze winged crown and a yellow robe slowly walked towards the high platform.

Wherever the man in yellow passed, people on both sides of the street knelt on the ground and worshiped.

But among the kneeling crowd, a few men kept raising their heads and secretly looking at the group of people passing by. The coiled dragons on the yellow cedar worn by the leader were very eye-catching.

After these people passed by, the crowd did not get up for a long time, and there was still room for them to kneel down. Only those few men continued to look around.

Soon, several eyes converged on a man who looked like a businessman, but the businessman shook his head slightly, then lowered his head and blended into the crowd, and could no longer see the man.

With the businessman's example, other people no longer looked around, and started to imitate that, keeping the same movements as the people around them, and blending into the crowd.

When the man wearing a yellow coiled dragon gown walked under the high platform, the crowd following him stopped, slowly formed an orderly formation, and knelt down behind the Huangshan man.

At this moment, the festive and joyful music stopped suddenly, all the musicians knelt down on the ground, and everyone in Baisong Pass knelt down towards the high platform.

The man stood under the high platform for a long time, as if he knew that everyone behind him had already knelt down. Then he gently picked up the hem of his gown with his left hand and climbed up the stairs. His movements looked calm and solemn.

When the man stepped onto the high platform, he slowly turned around. At some point, a jade pendant appeared in the man's right hand. He raised his right hand high and shouted to the kneeling crowd below the stage: "Heaven has given me a great responsibility, and I will do it right now." For the Flying Dragon Lord."

It was a slightly yellow jade pendant. What the man showed to everyone in the audience were the four small characters "Master Feilong" engraved on the jade pendant.

Suddenly a sharp cry sounded from the audience: "Long live, long live."

This sharp voice seemed to be a signal, and everyone began to follow, shouting "Long live, long live" in unison.

The man looked at the people in the audience shouting like a tsunami, and a smile appeared on his lips unconsciously. He closed his eyes slightly, seeming to enjoy the atmosphere.

This is his, Zhang Lian's enthronement ceremony. Although it is very simple, he really did it.

From now on, he is the emperor, the emperor of Feilong Kingdom.

After a long time, Zhang Lian seemed to feel that the atmosphere was about to change. He then reached out and made a downward movement. As he moved, the shouts from the audience gradually decreased until they disappeared.

"From now on, when the Yuan Dynasty is changed to the "Calendar", I will succeed to the throne as emperor, with the title of "Feilong Renzhu" and the country's name of "Feilong"."

When Xiyuan checked in, the desk was filled with a table of Qing Ci.

These green poems were not only written by officials on duty in Xiyuan, but also were sent by officials from the Hanlin Academy and the Ministry of Rites to participate in the selection. Ten outstanding ones were to be selected and presented to Emperor Jiajing for use in the Zhai Jiao ceremony prepared by Xiyuan tomorrow.

Seated on the left and right of the duty room were Yan Song and Xu Jie respectively, and below were the ministers Li Chunfang, Yan Ne, Gao Gong and Yan Shifan.

"Let them take care of the task of selecting Qing Ci. We can just take a look at the selection soon."

At this time, Xu Jie looked at the dozens of words stacked on the desk and said to Yan Song.

"Okay, you can select ten and twenty outstanding medals, and Shaohu and I will take a look."

Yan Song nodded and replied.

At this time, Yan Song was already in his 70s and 80s. He was low on energy. The main problem was his eyesight. It was very difficult to see. He could no longer read the memorials and had to be read. Fortunately, Yan Shifan helped with the official documents.

Xu Jie is much younger than Yan Song, but he is still in his sixties. I heard that his vision is blurry now.

After the two people spoke, Yan Shifan moved to the bookcase without hesitation, picked up the Qingci on it and started to read them one by one, and then divided the Qingci he had read into two stacks, which were naturally good and bad. placed separately.

Li Chunfang, Yan Ne and others behind him had no choice but to suppress their dissatisfaction, look around and pretend not to care.

Those Qingci on the desk were pulled in front of him by Yan Shifanhua from the very beginning, and he had no intention of letting them see them. The meaning was very clear, that is, he would judge the merits, and you guys would just go through the motions later. Come on.

Gao Gong beside them also frowned slightly, intending to argue, but seeing the behavior of Li Chunfang and Yan Ne, and thinking about the two people sitting above, it was pointless to argue.

It is to judge the quality of Qingci. If there are some people on his side who are good at writing Qingci, they are really not as good as those on the opposite side.

Among the people in Prince Yu's family, Yin Shizhen can write good Qingci, but Chen Yiqin and Wei Guangde can't. Wei Guangde even said bluntly at the wine table that he couldn't write that kind of thing.

There are not many good writers of Qing Ci, so naturally they are not afraid that Yan Shifan will deliberately suppress people from Prince Yu's palace during the selection process.

In fact, those Qingci who were eventually sent to the Yongshou Palace should be those people. It is not an exaggeration to say that they were the imperial poets of Emperor Jiajing.

The Jiajing Dynasty, especially in the middle and late periods, had a very distinctive feature, that is, the term "Qing Ci Prime Minister".

If Qing Ci is written well, it will be easier to be remembered by Emperor Jiajing, and he will naturally be promoted quickly.

Look at the people in the Xiyuan duty room at this time. That person is not the one who once made Emperor Jiajing's heart happy because of his beautiful words.

Qing Ci, in the Jiajing Dynasty, was not just about writing an article, but expressing an attitude to Emperor Jiajing. Actively learning and writing Qing Ci was getting closer to the emperor and expressing one's loyalty to the emperor.

Anyway, this will make Gao Gong figure it out. If Yan Shifan wants to be proud, let him be proud. I believe that Li Chunfang and Yan Ne may not be happy in their hearts.

These two people neither defected to Yan Song nor leaned towards King Yu. They were the centrists with the largest proportion in the court. Yan Shifan's offending them actually seemed to be no harm to him.

It seems really unnecessary to force yourself forward.

At this time, Gao Gong wished in his heart that Yan Shifan would do more.

After a short time, Yan Shifan read through the pile of Qingci and selected twenty works that he thought were excellent.

Under Gao Gong's eager eyes, Yan Shifan was not as forceful as before. He directly handed over the works he selected for Yan Song and Xu Jie to choose. Instead, he stepped aside and gave up his position to Li Chunfang, Yan Ne and others. A "please" gesture.

The three of them stood behind the desk and began to look through the Qingci. However, Gao Gong soon found an unsatisfactory piece among the pile of Qingci selected by Yan Shifan. He couldn't help but frown slightly. Look at the signature - Wei Guangde.

At night, in a forest outside Baisongguan City, several strange figures met in a forest.

"Sir, this Lian actually dares to blatantly ascend the throne and proclaim himself emperor."

An impatient man had already spoken.

"I know that he is indeed bold enough to punish the nine clans for their sins. Also, I heard that Zhang Lian killed all the Zhang clan leaders when they rebelled. Can this be verified?"

The person who spoke was the man who was pretending to be a merchant during the day, and it seemed that he was also the leader of this group of people.

"It is indeed true. I have checked Raoping County government documents before. This Lian is from Xiacang, Wushi Village, Shangrao, Raoping County. He used to be a treasurer in the government office, but he colluded with the Kapok Village bandits and was discovered by his family. In order to win over, he killed the clan leader and some clan members, ran into the bandits' den and became the second in command."

"Assuming that the Zhang family still knows what's going on, the family's life can be saved."

The leader just nodded, and then asked the person next to him: "Has the matter about that jade pendant been verified?"

The person who was asked immediately clasped his fists and replied: "I found out that the jade pendant was indeed fished out from a square pond in Raoping County. At that time, it was said that there were rumors in the city that someone saw a god from the sky throwing something into the pond, and then Many people went to the pond to fish for it because of the rumors, but in the end only Zhang Lian fished out the jade pendant from the pond, and there were many people present at the time."

"Haha. It's just a charlatan's trick to deceive the ignorant people."

The leader sneered.

If you think about this kind of thing, you can understand the inside story. It's just that this thing was carved by Zhang Lian, and he hid it somewhere in the pond. He then broadcast the rumor and waited until no one found it in the pond before he showed up. Pick it up and confuse the people.

"The Raoping County Magistrate didn't even notice that he pulled out such a trick. He will have to report this matter to the Qianhu Office to investigate the magistrate's dereliction of duty."

"Then Sir, what should I do next? Should I sneak in tonight?"

As he spoke, the man stretched out his hand to wipe his neck.

"I saw it two days ago. The government office is heavily guarded, so it's difficult to attack."

At this point, the leader looked unlucky again and said: "I originally came to investigate their collusion with the Japanese pirates, but I didn't expect to see the traitor jump out and become the emperor. If the news reaches the capital, he will inevitably be reprimanded for not doing things well. Unexpectedly, If we didn’t discover it in advance, we sent out a large army to encircle and suppress them.”

"Who knows? This is a poor place."

"No, there have been many rebellions in Fujian in recent years. Many of Zhang's thieves are from Fujian. The Fuzhou Qianhu Office is derelict in its duty."

"Yes, it should be the Fujian side."

"Wait a minute, is Baisong Pass under the control of Zhangzhou Prefecture or Chaozhou Prefecture?"

When I heard my subordinates talking about the leaders of Zhang's bandits, many of whom were from Fujian, I hurriedly waved my hands to silence my subordinates. Thinking that this place was at the junction of two provinces, I forgot to find out which jurisdiction this place was under.

"This should be under the jurisdiction of Fujian Province. I haven't seen any reports of banditry in Raoping County. It should be under the jurisdiction of Zhangzhou Prefecture."

"have no idea."

Hearing that his subordinates were starting to talk nonsense again, the leader waved his hand, "Forget it, we have almost gathered the information. It doesn't matter whether Zhang Thief colludes with the Japanese pirates or not. Anyway, he is an anti-bandit. The harm is far away from the Japanese pirates." above.

After packing our things, we went back to Guangzhou overnight to report the matter. As for whether we care about it or not, that is something that Qianhu adults should consider. "

By this time, this person probably realized that their target Zhang Lian this time was indeed from Guangdong, but the location of Baisong Pass seemed to be the territory of Fujian Dusi and was not under the jurisdiction of Guangdong.

Although it is said that "the matter has nothing to do with you, just hang it up high", it still depends on what it is.

He really didn't dare to hide this rebellion.

Reporting to the capital was bound to be punished, but whether to report or not was not within the scope of his responsibilities. It was the decision of Lord Qianhu, the Imperial Guard in the capital city.

Immediately, the group of people quickly left the woods and ran down the mountain, thinking about the direction of Raoping County.