Chapter 45: The Southern Tour

Forty-three years of orthodoxy, spring in March.

The entire city of Beijing was under martial law.

Because Zhu Qizhen is going to tour south.

Dozens of generals and generals led by Zhu Yi led the 100,000 troops selected by the Beijing camp to accompany them, and the civil officials were headed by Qiu Jun, a university scholar, and the six departments were accompanied by squires, and there were more than 1,000 civil and military officials.

It can be said that Zhu Qizhen took half of the administrative center to the south.

It was huge.

The gongs and drums are noisy, and the ceremonial music is ringing in unison.

And on top of a tall tower, an old man in his fifties was concentrating on a long scroll, carefully proofing.

This person is Shen Zhou.

He is the most famous painter in the world.

It is also one of the edicts to be issued in Zhu Qizhen's palace.

In fact, Zhu Qizhen is not very interested in painting, but he has a father who loves calligraphy and painting, and even Zhu Qizhen's edict system is developed from Emperor Xuanzong's system of treating court painters.

Although Zhu Qizhen is not too interested in court painters, many key moments still need to be recorded by court painters.

For example, when Zhu Qizhen ascended the throne, when he was a prisoner, and so on. Now when I was touring south, it was even more indispensable.

This Shen Zhou may not be known to many people, but his disciple is very famous, Tang Bohu, one of the four great talents in Jiangnan, Wen Zhengming is either his student or influenced by him.

He is a pivotal figure in the history of painting.

At this moment, with the help of many disciples, Shen Zhou wrote boldly in the long scroll several meters long, and almost instantly, he used ink to depict most of the situation in Beijing City.

The scenery taken by Wen Zhengming is that Zhu Qizhen rode a white horse, surrounded by countless brocade guards, and under the swagger of the front and rear flags, he walked out of the main gate of the Forbidden City, directly south through the Xuanwu Gate, and walked to a section outside the city.

The mile-long street scene with countless soldiers guarding on both sides, and I don't know how many people are watching outside, and so on. are all presented in the painting.

However, such a picture scroll cannot be completed in an instant.

Shen Zhou now just has an ink block to outline the general situation, and uses an almost sketch method to record the current situation. Of course, there is a lot of detail and color filling in it.

If this southern tour map is completed, Shen Zhou will have to take a long time. And when I think of His Majesty's southern tour this time, it is estimated that he will have to paint it in the palace painting academy.

This picture of the southern tour is just the first of this group of pictures, and I don't know how many pictures will be spent later, Shen Zhou, who is in his fifties, secretly complained in his heart, and said secretly: "I really shouldn't listen to my mother, what should I do." It's really life-threatening. ”

Shen Zhou's family is actually not bad, his father and brother are both officials of the imperial court. The family is illustrious, he is above painting,

It was also famous, and was even praised as the first in Jiangnan at that time. and even the first in the world.

But he didn't like to read the Four Books and the Five Classics, and he didn't test for fame. There has been no fame. Therefore, the emperor waited for the edict to summon Shen Zhou.

Shen Zhou's mother has done a lot of work, Shen Zhou is a dutiful son, and Shen Zhou has no choice but to agree.

Only then did Shen Zhou welcome his mother to Beijing. He began his career as a court painter.

It's just the work of a court painter, and when he is idle, Zhu Qizhen generally doesn't want to paint anything, of course, there is a painting that has been drawn, that is, a detailed map of the Ming Dynasty's territory.

Before the Ming Dynasty, the map was drawn by the court painter, but Zhu Qizhen had already handed over this matter to Qin Tianjian. Calculate latitude and longitude mathematically to draw a map.

Although the maps drawn by Qin Tianjian are not as good as those drawn by later generations, they are still much better than those drawn by court painters.

The Ministry of Rites means that His Majesty's situation along the way must be drawn.

How many copies of the southern tour map there were, even Shen Zhou didn't know.

The court painting academy of the Orthodox Dynasty has too many fewer people than the court painting academy of the Xuande Dynasty, even if Shen Zhou has so many disciples, he may not be able to get busy.

Shen Zhou had a feeling that in the next few years, or even ten years, he would have to spend his energy on the southern tour.

"Hey, half a life is going to be in it." Shen Zhou sighed in his heart.

Shen Zhou's distress, Zhu Qizhen didn't know.

At this moment, he got out of the Jingshi, dismounted, and climbed on the jade chariot.

This jade chariot is specially custom-made. It is possible to travel on the gallop road.

There are dozens of horses pulling in front and behind, and it is basically a walking residence.

For this southern tour, the imperial court spent nearly three million dollars.

It's not that Zhu Qizhen wants to be extravagant and wasteful. Now this time Zhu Qizhen went south, he originally had the intention of showing off his might, and the mobilization of the army was indispensable.

The mobilization of 100,000 troops would have consumed a lot, not to mention the honor guard of the emperor's travel.

Even three million taels may not be enough.

Zhu Qizhen was prepared to follow the practice of the emperor of the Han Dynasty to go on patrol, and exempt the place where he passed from paying taxes for one year, which was the practice of the emperor of the Han Dynasty to travel, and it was not that the Manchu emperor went on patrol, which would make the local gentry donate.

It's just that this is a lot of expenses, but it won't directly appear in the court expenses.

Many civil officials opposed the emperor's tours, sometimes from the financial side alone, which was too costly.

On the travel route, Zhu Qizhen's land route is also unanimously approved by everyone, even Zhu Qizhen has no way to oppose it.

The sea route will never be used by the emperor, and as for the canal, if there is no gallop road, but it is still possible. But at the end of the day, there is still a risk of falling overboard.

So Chidao was the only option.

Although the gallop is on the road all the way straight. In about a month, you can reach the opposite side of the Yangtze River in Nanjing.

It's just that this speed is the speed of a light car, and Zhu Qizhen, as the emperor, has no way to act like this. Therefore, although there is a gallop, the speed of Zhu Qizhen is still very slow, and it is estimated that it will take two or three months to walk from Beijing to Nanjing.

And Zhu Qizhen was on the southern tour, and the music between the Beijing division and the local government also flew to Zhu Qizhen one after another, so Zhu Qizhen was still reviewing the music in the car most of the time.

Most of the things. The left-behind cabinet headed by Han Yong can all be handled, most of them are reports, and Zhu Qizhen only needs to approve one to know.

At that time, there were two things that made Zhu Qizhen pay some attention.

The first thing, that is, the so-called Ye Shizi Rebellion in Chuzhou, has been pacified.

After Zhu Qizhen announced his southern tour, he put a lot of pressure on Mao Rui. When the emperor arrived in Nanjing, the chaos in Chuzhou had not yet been calmed down.

Mao Rui himself couldn't believe what impression he would leave on the emperor. So although Ye Shizi has been hiding in the mountains of Chuzhou, Mao Rui has been chasing after him, never counting casualties, and finally beheaded Ye Shizi in February this year.

It's finally settled.

Zhu Qizhen didn't pay much attention to this.

Over the years, Zhu Qizhen still has more trust in the combat effectiveness of the Ming army, but what he cares about is what is behind it.

For example, the fact that slave labor is used in various factories.

Another thing was reported by the governor of Sichuan, and the Tusi in Sichuan was in trouble again.

However, Zhang Zhan, the commander-in-chief of the Sichuan Metropolitan Command, has already sent troops.

Zhu Qizhen is used to the chaos of the Southwest Toast, and he will always come out to make trouble every once in a while. The army that has been rectified by Zhu Qizhen is much more capable of fighting than before.

Therefore, most of the time, such things can be settled at the end of the year.

If there is a condition, it will be further reformed and returned to the stream. If there are no conditions, change to Han toast.

There is nothing in the world, there is never a big thing, and this kind of small thing is never nothing.

More is the large and small disasters in various places, many places because of last year's drought, and now they are in a time of scarcity, Zhu Qi Town has been exempted from one or two million stone grain tax.

However, on the whole, Zhu Qizhen's handling of affairs has been greatly reduced. Zhu Qizhen naturally refused to stay in the car all the time, surrounded by thousands of troops.

What can we hear and see in this way?

Zhu Qizhen has always known that his biggest shortcoming is that he doesn't understand and doesn't understand Daming's feelings. So when he can take a look at the real situation in Daming, he will not give up.

With Zhu Qizhen's current authority, what does he want to do, who dares to stop it, and can he stop it?