Chapter 1039. Deqing Birthday (2).
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For Emperor Deqing, today is also a high-spirited day.
Therefore, when he arrived at the Taihe Palace, it can be said that he was in an excellent mood and his face was full of sass.
With the shouts of the hundred officials, Emperor Deqing laughed, and soon let everyone be exempted, and after putting on a posture, the first part of today's grand ceremony began - that is, to summarize the achievements of the court in the past year.
It is said to be a summary of political achievements, but in fact it is boasting.
Obviously, Emperor Deqing has been preparing for a long time, appearing in front of people, full of spirit, and when he boasts about himself, he can be described as gushing and talking.
The political situation in the temple is stable, and the people live and work in peace and contentment, all because of my leadership;
The reversal of the rule of officialdom, the dismissal and conviction of many corrupt officials, all because of my discernment;
The turnaround of the imperial court's finances and the open source and reduction of the treasury are also due to my wisdom and skill;
The great victory over the Mongol coalition forces on the three sides of Shaanxi and Gansu, and the recovery of the homeland in the Hetao area, were still due to my great talent.
The successive meetings of the Jianzhou Jurchens, Monan Mongolia, and North Korea proved that I was a rare generation of Ming monarchs through the ages.
Of course, Emperor Deqing's statement was more subtle, but he said it for more than a quarter of an hour, and this is what he meant.
Zhao Junchen stood in front of the hundred officials, listened to Emperor Deqing's speech at close range, and his expression was just right to show admiration and admiration, which was very much in line with Emperor Deqing's speech.
But in Zhao Junchen's heart, there is still a sense of accomplishment.
This is because Zhao Junchen found that most of the exploits that Emperor Deqing boasted of had something to do with himself - of course, these exploits were indeed inseparable from the platform and opportunities provided by Emperor Deqing, and Emperor Deqing obviously thought that his platform was the key to his great achievements, so he deliberately ignored the role of Zhao Junchen, and Zhao Junchen naturally would not stand up with Emperor Deqing at this time - but after hearing Emperor Deqing's detailed summary, Zhao Junchen found that he had traveled to this era. We have done a lot of practical things, and we are not just blindly vying for power and power, harming others and benefiting ourselves.
finally listened to Emperor Deqing's boasting, and the officials were all like Zhao Junchen's cooperation and interest, and everyone was full of admiration and love.
There are also many clever officials, at this time, they seized the opportunity and broke out their life's acting skills, hoarse and tearful, as if they witnessed the reincarnation of Yao Shun and the advent of the saint.
Under such circumstances, Zhao Junchen also took the opportunity to secretly look at the changes in Emperor Deqing's demeanor, but found that Emperor Deqing accepted the explicit sycophants of the officials as a matter of course, and did not feel anything wrong at all.
So, Zhao Junchen couldn't help frowning secretly, only feeling that Emperor Deqing's mentality had indeed changed somewhat, but it was not clear whether this change was good or bad for Zhao Junchen.
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It was hard to wait for the sycophants of the hundred officials to come to an end, and with the sound of bells, drums and silk and bamboo, this grand ceremony came to the second link, that is, the officials paid homage to Emperor Deqing to celebrate his birthday and offer birthday gifts.
Zhou Shangjing's birthday gift this year is still the same as always, just a handwritten birthday gift, without deliberately spending much thought or cost, but with Zhou Shangjing's status and prestige today, no one dares to find fault with him.
In fact, this Zhu Shou Fu's writing is excellent, and it is a very rare high-class article in recent years, and Emperor Deqing was very happy after reading this Zhu Shou Fu, and ordered someone to read it in public, but it was because Zhou Shangjing's article praised Emperor Deqing's Wencheng Wude, which can be regarded as a sycophant.
Next, Li He's birthday gift is a jade Buddha statue nearly three feet high, Cheng Yuandao's birthday gift is an ancient book annotated by Tang Taizong, Liang Fuchen still stayed in Shaanxi and Gansu to preside over the overall situation, and did not return to the capital, and also sent a golden knife as a birthday gift, which is rumored to be used by Wokotai that year.
Soon, under the attention of everyone, it was finally Zhao Junchen's turn to present his birthday.
With the eunuch Zhang De's "Young Master, Dongge University Scholar, and Zhao Junchen, the new uncle of the immortal world, came out of the queue of hundred officials, and at the same time, a little eunuch entered the Taihe Hall with the birthday gift prepared by Zhao Junchen and stood behind Zhao Junchen.
For Zhao Junchen's birthday gift this year, Emperor Deqing had high expectations, and after seeing the things held by the little eunuch, he couldn't help but be curious, and took the initiative to ask: "Zhao Aiqing, your birthday gift this year is not as big as in previous years, what is this birthday gift?" Why do you need to cover it with red silk? ”
Zhao Junchen said with a smile: "Your Majesty, the birthday gift that the minister presented this year is an auspicious one that I found by chance!" ”
Emperor Deqing's expression was stunned, and he hurriedly asked again: "Xiangrui?" Who is Xiangrui? ”
For the emperor of the monarchy, the significance of "auspicious" is too great, representing the recognition of the sky, and Emperor Deqing naturally attaches great importance to it.
Zhao Junchen didn't show off the mystery, and directly turned around and lifted the red silk.
Then, Zhao Junchen's birthday gift to Emperor Deqing was finally displayed in front of everyone.
I saw four apples placed parallel to each other on the lacquer plate!
It's not a golden eagle, it's not a jade carving, it's just an ordinary apple.
Of course, these four apples are all very large in size, and they are significantly larger than the fists of adult men, and they are extremely delicious and juicy in color, but in the end, they are just ordinary apples!
Prior to this, there were many sharp-eyed officials and nobles who had discovered that the shape of Zhao Junchen's birthday gift looked like a fruit, but everyone thought that it was just a similar shape, and then after Zhao Junchen said in public that his birthday gift was "auspicious", everyone was also looking forward to it and did not dare to underestimate it.
But no one expected that Zhao Junchen's birthday gift was really just a few ordinary apples.
Just a few apples, how can it be regarded as "auspicious from heaven"?
For a while, many officials and nobles once again had the idea of gloating, and many people couldn't wait to stand up and impeach Zhao Junchen without a monarch's father.
However, all the ministers and nobles were standing behind and on both sides of Zhao Junchen, and they couldn't see the whole picture of these apples, but Emperor Deqing sat on the dragon chair and was in front of Zhao Junchen, but he clearly saw the magic of these four apples!
After carefully observing for a while, Emperor Deqing's expression gradually became solemn, and there was a faint sense of excitement.
"Quick! Bring these fruits, I'll see them for myself!" ”
Zhang De stood beside Emperor Deqing, and also saw the unusual things about these apples, and with Emperor Deqing's order, he hurriedly ran down the imperial steps, carefully picked up Zhao Junchen's birthday gift, and sent it to Emperor Deqing.
Then, Emperor Deqing picked up one of the apples with his own hands, carefully observed and stroked it, his expression became more and more excited, and muttered: "It's not carving!" It's all natural! Sure enough, it's auspicious! It's really auspicious! ”
After being excited for a long time, Emperor Deqing finally put the apple in his hand back to its original position, and then motioned Zhang De to walk to the center of the Taihe Hall with these fruits in his hand, so that the officials and nobles could take a closer look!
And after the officials and nobles saw the whole picture of these apples with their own eyes, they also exclaimed softly and couldn't believe it!
It turned out that on these four bright red apples, there were four light white exquisite fonts, which were "Qian", "Autumn", "Ten Thousand", and "Sui"!
Just like what Emperor Deqing said, these handwriting are natural and self-emerging, and there is no trace of acquired processing at all!
On the seemingly ordinary apple, the words "Long live the thousand autumns" will appear on their own, what is this not auspicious from the sky?
For a while, many officials looked as excited as Emperor Deqing, and exclaimed again and again, "God bless Daming"!
Seeing the excited appearance of Emperor Deqing and the hundred officials and nobles, Zhao Junchen smiled secretly in his heart.
In fact, these apples are the common sticker apples of later generations, also known as art apples, which can be seen everywhere on Christmas Eve hundreds of years later.
The production process of sticking apples did not appear until the eighties of the twentieth century, which was created by a Chinese farmer, but this process is not complicated, in fact, it is the use of the principle that the formation of chlorophyll and anthocyanins of plants must have sunlight, and the use of word molds in the process of apple planting to block the sunlight and prevent the anthocyanin synthesis of the apple skin, and eventually white handwriting will emerge!
The craft is very simple, but it is more than enough to fool the emperors and courtiers of the Ming Dynasty.
Of course, this kind of process is very simple to say, but it also took Zhao Junchen a lot of time and effort, in Luochuan, which is rich in apples, requisitioned hundreds of acres of apple forests, invited dozens of experienced fruit farmers, and used various means to experiment at the same time, and finally found a feasible way, successfully harvested more than 100 apples with stickers, and picked out four apples with the largest volume and the best color from these apples as a birthday gift to Emperor Deqing.
But in any case, this birthday gift only cost Zhao Junchen a few hundred taels of silver - Zhao Junchen chose to paste apples as a birthday gift, of course, because "auspicious rui from the sky" can please Emperor Deqing, but the more important reason is to save money - Zhao Junchen has a lot of silver, but it still has to be used in a more practical place.
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When the admiration of the officials and nobles came to an end, Zhang De brought these apples back to Emperor Deqing again, and Emperor Deqing couldn't put it down, admiring and caressing again.
Then, Emperor Deqing reluctantly looked up at Zhao Junchen, his expression was still full of excitement, and asked: "What Zhao Aiqing said is right, these apples can automatically emerge with handwriting, it is definitely not human, it must be done by the sky, and it is indeed auspicious from the sky!"
Auspicious from the sky! It seems that the heavens also agree with my merits! Zhao Aiqing, you can find such auspiciousness, you have really made a great contribution, I will definitely reward you, you tell me, where did you find such auspiciousness? ”
When encountering such a time and such an occasion, it is natural to make up a story.
Fortunately, Zhao Junchen is very good at this, and he doesn't even blink his eyes when he makes things up, and the story is also wonderful.
An old man with immortal wind said that he wanted to borrow Zhao Junchen's hand to give a congratulatory gift to the pilgrim, which was a glorious and arduous task, and Zhao Junchen had to go through several tests if he wanted to accept the big task......
Zhao Junchen didn't believe him originally, but the old man showed his magical powers and turned away in a blink of an eye, and Zhao Junchen knew that he had met the immortals, so naturally he didn't dare to ignore the instructions of the immortals, and hurriedly followed the instructions of the immortals......
Zhao Junchen adhered to his loyalty, after going through many trials and tribulations, he finally found a mysterious valley, there is a towering fruit tree in the valley, and on the fruit tree are hanging four fruits with floating handwriting, but after Zhao Junchen picked the fruit and left the valley, he turned his head to see that the valley had disappeared......
Of course, this is only the outline of Zhao Junchen's story, the content of the story is much more complicated, and it also highlights Zhao Junchen's tireless and loyal loyalty who is not afraid of hardships, and the whole story has been told for nearly half an hour.
At the time of the endless nonsense, Zhao Junchen did not have any psychological burden, and he was not afraid of someone demolishing himself - in this case, questioning Zhao Junchen's story is questioning Xiangrui, and questioning Xiangrui is questioning Emperor Deqing, so no one dares to point out Zhao Junchen's story, no matter how unbelievable.
After listening to Zhao Junchen's story, Emperor Deqing couldn't help but be full of admiration and amazement, and once again praised Zhao Junchen's loyalty and intentions, and the relationship between the two seemed to have improved.
According to today's process, the time for hundreds of officials and nobles to present birthday gifts to Emperor Deqing is one hour, and Zhao Junchen alone occupies nearly half an hour, but he uses a few apples to once again take the limelight.
In the following period of time, Emperor Deqing and hundreds of officials and nobles were still admiring the magic and mystery of Zhao Junchen's birthday gifts, as well as the wonderful stories told by Zhao Junchen.
Under such circumstances, when all the ministers and nobles have presented their birthday gifts, today's birthday celebration session has finally come to an end.
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The next link is that the envoys of various countries meet the Deqing Emperor and call it "the coming of all countries".
However, when the team of envoys entered the Taihe Palace, Zhao Junchen turned his head and couldn't help but be stunned.
Not long ago, Zhao Junchen had also observed the envoys of various countries in detail outside the noon gate, and found an acquaintance - that is, Qian Tong, a Han courtier next to Xuan Ye.
However, after Zhao Junchen saw Qian Tong, he thought that Qian Tong was just an entourage of the Jianzhou Jurchen envoys, and when the envoys met Emperor Deqing, they would also be in an inconspicuous position.
After all, Qian Tong's identity is extremely sensitive, he was originally a prefect in Liaodong and a courtier of Emperor Deqing, but now he has betrayed Emperor Deqing and served Xuanye, who served the Jianzhou Jurchen, is a big traitor to Emperor Deqing, if Emperor Deqing discovers his origin, he will definitely not have any good face, and the relationship between Jianzhou Jurchen and the Ming Dynasty is also likely to be variable.
But now, when the envoys of various countries entered the Taihe Palace, Zhao Junchen found that Qian Tong was at the forefront of all the envoys, and he was actually the leader of the envoys of various countries!
In this way, it is impossible for Qian Tong to attract the attention of Emperor Deqing even if he doesn't want to!
"What are the Jianzhou Jurchens thinking? Why let Qian Tong, a traitor to the Han Chinese, be the leader of the envoys of various countries? This is simply a naked provocation! Aren't they afraid that Emperor Deqing will be angry and angry? ”
Thinking of this, Zhao Junchen couldn't help frowning, only feeling that Jianzhou Nuzhen's actions might have other plans!
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The dust is unsettled, wait and see, and cherish it.
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