Although the emperor's bedroom is the Qianqing Palace, after 23 years of Wanli, the emperor lives in Yikun Palace for most of the time.

After returning from Diaoyutai, Wanli and Zheng Guifei lay on a bamboo chair to rest. The weather has turned cooler, and the bamboo chairs are covered with cushions, and in a few days, the bamboo chairs will be put away.

In the last decade, the weather has been somewhat unusual, with temperatures falling earlier and longer than in earlier years, which has led to crop failures in some places.

Fortunately, the scope of influence is not large, and the court's relief is timely, and there is no trouble. But in the long run, there is no guarantee that there will be no large-scale famine. After all, no one knows if this bad weather will end here, or if it will continue.

The Cabinet's opinion on this is that where the fire starts, the water is extinguished. Meaning, where there is famine, there will be relief. Wherever there is rebellion among the outcasts, they will be suppressed.

Wanli was worried about this, and the common people understood the truth, but he didn't understand why his ministers didn't understand. Where the fire is extinguished, it seems to be the right medicine, but if the fire is everywhere, which one must be extinguished.

What about the land of one province and the land of two provinces and the land of three provinces?

It's just that Wanli can't tell his courtiers about his worries, because the world is still peaceful at the moment, and small-scale famine and poor harvest exist in every dynasty and generation, so he can't make a big deal out of it and scold his courtiers for not fulfilling their responsibilities. If he really did this, it would seem that he was very unreasonable as an emperor.

On the desk are the fruits of Lingnan Shanggong, among which bananas are Wanli's favorite food. Both the palace and the inner eunuch were sent out by Concubine Zheng, and she knew that when her husband was alone with her, she didn't like outsiders on the side, even if it was a slave or maid of her cronies.

Usually, Dongchang will present a large amount of information to the palace every day, including about courtiers, about civil prices, about border military affairs, vassal affairs, and some about criminal cases.

After the current emperor ascended the throne, he launched three major expeditions, among which the factory guards contributed a lot, especially the battle to aid Korea and resist the Japanese, a large number of factory guards were active in Korea, and made great contributions to the victory of the war.

Therefore, although the foreign dynasty has a lot of dissatisfaction with the factory guard, Wanli has always been expanding the establishment of the factory guard, and there is no intention of weakening it.

A large amount of the money required for this came from the mine supervisors and tax envoys sent to various places. As soon as there were many factory guards, there were many "freshly dressed and angry horses" in various places, which naturally frightened the local officials and gentry. A few days ago, there were businessmen and people in various places focusing on riots, and on the surface, they were aimed at the mine supervisor and tax envoy, but there was no intention of facing the factory guards behind them.

The embankment of thousands of miles was destroyed in the anthill, and Wanli knew that if the mine tax made him back down, he would retreat step by step. The Outer Dynasty will inevitably take advantage of the situation to weaken the factory guard again until the Emperor has no means to do so.

Wanli is by no means an emperor who is willing to be trapped in the deep palace and become a puppet, so he made his attitude tough to the cabinet - he threatened Shoufu Ye Xianggao with a hunger strike and must severely punish the mob.

However, this sounds like the greatest sorrow of being an emperor.

To deal with his own courtiers, he can only use hunger strikes, how Wanli, the emperor, is not a taste, he himself knows, the people around him know, and his courtiers also know.

There is no way, except for those slaves and maids and factory guards sent in various places, the dignified emperor has no strength to mobilize at all.

Xun Qi's side has long been abolished. The border general was there, and the fight with the foreign dynasty was hot.

The foreign dynasties, whether it is Donglin, Qi, Chuzhe, Kunxuan and other parties, all regard them as enemies when they fight for the party, but they all adopt the same attitude when dealing with the emperor together, and they have a tacit understanding with each other.

Even if the three parties of Qi, Chu, and Zhejiang have recently shown a decline under the suppression of Donglin, some officials of the three parties want to move closer to the emperor in order to balance Donglin. Overall, however, these officials are still few and underwhelming.

This is also the reason why Wanli has put off the matter of adding cabinet ministers again and again, he does not want to see the appearance of a cabinet that even his own emperor cannot influence and interfere with.

The Donglin Party, these years, is too strong. is so strong that Wanli is also deeply jealous.

After the secret delivery of Dongchang was sent to the palace, the eunuch of Dongchang was responsible for filing and closing it, and selected the most important information to play with the emperor. On the Jinyi guard's side, the envoys were regularly entered into the palace by the commanders.

Sometimes, it is possible that the factory and the guard present the same matter to the emperor, which enables the emperor to confirm the truth of the matter from two intelligence channels, so that he does not have to listen to and believe in favor of foreign courts.

The eunuch of the commander of Dongchang was both the master of the ceremonial palm seal Chen Ju, and with his identity, it was impossible for him to enter the palace for the little person information that the concubine wanted to see.

He entered the palace mainly for two major events, one was Li Sancai's entry into the cabinet, and the other was the matter of Liaodong Jianzhou Wei. The reason why I brought that secret letter was just to show favor to the concubine.

Chen Ju said that Nurhachi, the leader of the right guard of Jianzhou in eastern Liaodong, had the intention of making trouble, and after his younger brother Shuerhachi, the head of the left guard of Jianzhou, entered Beijing to pay tribute, Nurhachi had always complained, and sent troops to hunt down and kill more than 100 people of Shuerhaqi. In order to corroborate his intelligence, Chen Ju told Wanli the nursery rhymes that had been circulating in Beijing before.

In view of the fact that the imperial court had just won over Shulhaqi in order to balance his brother, if Shuerhaqi was killed, then the efforts of the imperial court would be in vain, and the abandonment of the six forts of Kuandian would become worthless, so Chen Ju thought that when he ordered the Liaodong side to enter the border, he would send troops to protect Shulhaqi if necessary, and even exterminate Nurhachi.

Wanli was amused by the secret letter from Tongzhou at that time, and he was in a good mood, and he had always been concerned about the border affairs of Liaodong, so he asked Chen Ju to issue an order to Li Chengliang in his name, so that he could wait for the opportunity to deal with it, and he must not let the Jianzhou family dominate.

In Wanli's original words, Jianzhou is the tail of his Li Chengliang's hand, and if Jianzhou is in chaos, I will ask him Li Chengliang.

Chen Ju led the order, but there was one thing that he didn't dare to play, because he felt ridiculous when he heard it, so he didn't dare to play it randomly.

The matter was found out by Jinyiwei's people in Liaodong, and the main people in the East Factory were the people transferred by Jinyiwei, so Chen Ju had his own way to learn about it, and he knew it before Jinyiwei instructed Si Luo Sigong.

This incident is to say that Li Chengliang intends to raise troops to supervise Jianzhou and Ye He and other troops to invade Korea, and follow Li Chenggui's old example and establish himself as the king of Korea.

If this is true, it is really sensational.

Chen Ju knew that the emperor trusted Li Chengliang very much, and he was even more important to Li Chengliang's son Li Rusong back then, and he was relieved to boldly hand over Liaodong to the Li family to guard, so if he passed on this wind to the emperor without real evidence, he was likely to be angrily reprimanded, so he wisely kept silent.

However, he also kept an eye on it, and after returning home, he ordered to strengthen the surveillance of Liaodong. After all, there is only one word difference between Lee Sung-liang and Lee Sung-gye, and their ancestors have also lived in North Korea for several generations.

Knowing people and knowing faces, Chen Ju had no way to ask Li Chengliang for verification in person, so he could only find a way to prove whether it was a rumor or something real.

"Asked Cathay to go to Jiangnan, it was to find a celebrity to compile a book, and he would be better to get a living treasure back." Wanli peeled a banana, but instead of eating it, he shook it a few times in front of Zheng Guifei, which made Zheng Guifei scorn him.

"That little guy is really interesting, the factory guard eagle dog, the road lackey, it sounds like a good match. However, the words are not coarse, they are all officials of the imperial court, why do you come to the eagle dog. I'm just annoying those people, all of them can't be tall, as if others are not as good as them, how do you say that? Wanli scratched his head and didn't think about it for a while.

Concubine Zheng Guifei laughed and said, "Your Majesty, do you want to say that they are born from the same root, so why be in a hurry to fry each other?" ”

"Well, that's the case, right? They are all officials of the imperial court, what are they fighting for? Wanli laughed, then his face sank, and he said indignantly: "What the little guy said is interesting, but it is unreasonable. How did he know that it was true that the factory guard was my eagle dog, but Kedao was not my lackey. If they were all my lackeys, why would I have been nesting in the palace for so many years, and why would I be so sad to call my concubine. ”

Concubine Zheng sighed, grabbed Wanli's arm, and said softly: "Your Majesty treats the courtiers as eagle dogs and lackeys, and if you spread it, you will be scolded again." ”

"I'm used to it."

Wanli smiled bitterly, it was really a bitter smile, he was really used to being scolded. At first, when he was angry, he ordered the dismissal of officials, the beating of the board, and exile, but later, he simply ignored them. In this way, it is out of sight and out of mind.

Concubine Zheng felt a little cold, so she wanted to call the palace people to fetch a thin quilt, but Liu Cheng, the chamberlain, came in and said that Wang Tiqian had returned from Hebei and was waiting outside the palace.

So fast?

Zheng Guifei was a little surprised and asked Liu Cheng: "People brought it?" ”

Liu Chengdao: "I brought it, and I waited outside the hall." ”

Concubine Zheng nodded, looked back at her husband and smiled: "Said that the living treasure is here, the little guy is here." ”

Wanli stretched his waist very happily and said: "You, Dong Qichang's painting doesn't know how precious it is, I have to be cheeky even if I want to beg for it, it's good for you to just give it to the little guy, I don't know what the little guy wrote on it." ”

"Didn't Your Majesty say that Cathay Pacific has made a living treasure?" Concubine Zheng Guifei covered her teeth and laughed, "Living treasure, it's also a treasure, it's rare to meet such an interesting little guy, the concubine can think about it." ”

"Becoming a treasure, a living treasure is also a treasure. Come, let me see what this living treasure is inscribed on. Wanli beckoned to Liu Chengyi, and Liu Cheng hurriedly stepped forward respectfully and handed the scroll in his hand to Wanli.

"If it's ruined, what does Concubine Ai say to do with him?" Wanli Yili opened the scroll and said with a smile: "It's really not good, just castrate this kid and leave it with the concubine." ”

"Your Majesty is becoming less and less of an emperor now."

Zheng Guifei was anxious to see what the little guy had asked for in her mother's portrait, so she helped her husband open the scroll, and the couple looked to the right at the same time.

I saw that there were two sentences on the top and bottom - "Golden nest, silver nest, not as good as grass nest; Heaven and earth are not as good as mothers. ”

"How much did my brother-in-law take this living treasure and ask him to pat his sister's ass like this?"