The old people's fear of danger made the emperor obviously feel bad. Although the next New Year's celebration activities are still lively, they can no longer stimulate the relaxation in the hearts of everyone in the temple before.

Although some of the honorable people in the hall regretted the cowering in front of the emperor just now, it was the merchants sitting on the other side, who originally had a sense of awe for these honorable people, but now they began to slowly fade.

When the bell rings to represent the coming of the new year, the New Year's celebration in the temple is hastily ended. After just resting for an hour or two, Chongzhen was woken up by Wang Chengen and other chamberlains to prepare for today's court meeting.

Compared with last year, although the number of officials attending this year's court meeting is smaller, the order is much better than last year's. And Chongzhen, who has experienced the etiquette of a New Year's Day court, is no longer the puppet man who was tied up and manipulated.

When accepting the congratulations of the ministers, he could easily say two words of praise and comfort to these courtiers. This made the original atmosphere of the court meeting a little more lively.

On a day like today, even the troubled Donglin Party people can only force a smile to congratulate the New Year, and dare not use those bad things to spoil Chongzhen's mood, which makes Chongzhen spend a rare comfortable time in the court.

However, when he returned to the harem and accepted the congratulations of several concubines, a small accident occurred. Isabella, the Portuguese noblewoman who was placed in the palace by him, did not appear, so Zhu Youzhen couldn't help but ask the queen sitting next to him.

Zhou Yufeng, who originally seemed to be in a good mood, suddenly replied with some surprise: "In what capacity does Your Majesty plan to ask Isabella to congratulate you, it is not someone else who came to congratulate Your Majesty on the New Year today." ”

The queen's rhetorical question couldn't help but make Chongzhen speechless for a while. And Yuan Zhaorong and Tian Xiuying, who were standing not far from the two, obviously also heard the conversation between the two, although Yuan Zhaorong's expression remained unchanged, his body straightened up a little unconsciously, as if he wanted to hear Chongzhen's thoughts on Isabella.

And Tian Xiuying, who has always been favored by Chongzhen, was not so calm, she immediately complained to Chongzhen quite dissatisfied: "Your Majesty brings people into the palace, you always have to give people an identity, how can an outsider in this Forbidden City be borrowed for a long time?" If His Majesty has no intention of her, it is better to send her to be placed outside the palace.

If His Majesty is worried that she will not be taken care of outside the palace because she has no relatives in the capital, it is better to leave her to the care of the concubine's father, stay for a while, and then find her a matching husband.

It's better than staying in the palace now, and letting people talk behind their backs and guess His Majesty's intentions..."

Although he was dissatisfied with Tian Xiuying's interference in the conversation between herself and Chongzhen, Zhou Yufeng still recognized what Tian Xiuying said. Although she also knew that a foreign girl like Isabella, even if she was accepted by Chongzhen, it would be impossible for her to shake her status, but thinking of this kind of ending, she was still a little uncomfortable in her heart.

If it weren't for Chongzhen's ability to maintain autonomy in women after he ascended the throne, except for the three of them and Isabella, none of them would have been close to other women in the palace. Zhou Yufeng really couldn't believe that nothing had happened between Chongzhen and Isabella.

However, if there is this opportunity to determine Isabella's identity and let her move out of the palace to live, both the queen and Concubine Tian are happy to see it.

Regarding the reaction of the three concubines, Zhu Youzhen was also a little speechless. In fact, not long after taking Isabella into the palace, he also felt that things seemed to be a little more managed.

However, now that she is moving out of the palace, it is obviously even more inappropriate. To say that he was not impressed by Isabella's beauty would be to deceive himself. But if he was fascinated by Isabella's beauty and couldn't help himself, that would not be the case.

Chongzhen's thoughts about Isabella are half on herself, and more than half are for the Kingdom of Portugal's overseas colonies. As a declining colonial empire, the Portuguese could eat the dividends of the Age of Discovery for two or three hundred years.

Although the overseas colonies of the Kingdom of Portugal have been shrinking since Portugal was annexed by Spain, the colonies in the Americas, Africa, and Asia alone are worth most of Europe.

Zhu Youzhen does not covet Portuguese Brazil because it is too far away. But there was a great deal of interest in Portuguese colonies in the Strait of Malacca, India and Africa.

These colonial ports not only built a safe route to Europe, but more importantly, opened up access to the Indian mainland. Even Bombay and Calcutta, which were most important during the British colonial era, are now under Portuguese control.

If the Ming wanted to go to the seas and compete with European colonizers for rights in the oceans, what could be more convenient than to accept the legacy of a declining colonial empire.

Zhu Youzhen did not expect to be able to acquire Portuguese territory in Europe, and even the colonies in the Americas and Africa could give up, but the Portuguese colonies in India and Southeast Asia were obviously interests that the Ming could not give up. That was why he was forcing the Macau delegation to recognize Isabella as the heir to the Portuguese throne and to pledge allegiance to her.

With Isabella, he could openly receive the Portuguese colonies, as long as the Ming sea power could reach the perimeter of these colonies. What the Ming needed was a limited Portuguese war of restoration, not a challenge to the existing maritime order that would trigger a naval war in which the European colonial powers united against the Ming.

After being silent for a while, Zhu Youzhen smiled and said: "Today is New Year's Day, let's not talk about these troublesome things, Isabella's matter, after the New Year, I will give you a conclusion..."

Although Chongzhen's answer was not very satisfactory to the three concubines, being able to get such an answer was also a good answer for the three of them. Regardless of whether Chongzhen is a concubine or not, this worrying matter that has been in the hearts of the three of them can finally be solved, and they don't have to worry about how to treat this Portuguese noblewoman all day long.

The three concubines were also unwilling to ruin the rare time to get together with the emperor because of a trivial matter, so they quickly shifted the topic to other places according to Chongzhen's wishes, so that the atmosphere in the room was enlivened again.

Accepting the congratulatory gifts of several concubines, Zhu Youzhen took the three of them to congratulate several concubines in the palace on their New Year's happiness, and then went to Renshou Palace to meet the imperial sister-in-law Zhang. After going around in circles, when I returned to the harem, the sky was already a little dark.

Although Zhu Youzhen, who had been busy all day, was a little sleepy, he still supported himself to talk and play games with the three concubines for a while before returning to the dormitory to rest.

For Daming officials, the seal on Chinese New Year's Eve, the opening of the seal on the third day of the new year, and the 4-day spring break are rules handed down from the Jiajing Dynasty. However, in the second year of Chongzhen, although the time of sealing and opening remained the same, the annual leave was adjusted by Chongzhen.

In addition to the Military Department, the Ministry of Industry, and the General Staff, the other departments took early leave on the 27th and 28th. Starting from the third day of the Lunar New Year, all ministries arranged for officials above Langzhong to be on duty in batches, and they were only on duty for half a day in the morning, and it was not until after the ninth day of the Lunar New Year that they officially opened their offices and resumed normal working hours.

As a result, the originally compact 4-day annual leave has been extended to 9-12 days. Huang Liji was originally worried that taking such a long annual leave would affect the normal operation of the imperial court, but in fact, what he was worried about did not happen, but those middle- and lower-level officials wanted to reunite with their families for a few more days, for fear of being recalled during the holiday, which automatically improved the efficiency of work.

Seeing the smooth passage of this spring break, Huang Liji couldn't help but start thinking about Chongzhen's suggestion to change the current ten-day holiday to seven-day holiday. Before the first year of Chongzhen, except for a few important festivals every year, officials were generally not allowed to rest. The long working days have made lower-level officials always have an attitude of putting off political affairs.

This kind of lazy government sentiment born of slackness is obviously not conducive to the administrative efficiency of the imperial court. If the time is divided into a number of days and a paragraph, it has the effect of a psychological suggestion to these officials. Forcing them to end some of the government affairs before they go on vacation, which should have ended.

Last year, the implementation of a ten-day holiday, in Huang Liji's view, at least the implementation of the central government was good. If the vacation time can be set to seven days off, it seems that it can once again improve the efficiency of officials.

Moreover, after the implementation of the new leave system, the Ministry of Officials has also successfully abolished some of the old inappropriate clauses, such as the time when officials took long leave in the past was also counted in the seniority, but now the qualifications of this part of the officials are completely eliminated.

It also stipulates that if an official takes leave within six months, he or she shall be reinstated to his or her original post or reinstated to an official position equivalent to his or her original post. Those who have been on leave for more than one year, but within 18 months, shall be demoted by half a grade and shall not be allowed to serve as the head of the department. If the leave exceeds 18 months, the official resume will be counted from the new beginning.

These new leave clauses are tantamount to essentially negating the unspoken rules of officialdom of keeping filial piety for three years. In Huang Liji's view, this is also Chongzhen's counterattack to the fact that he wanted to shorten the leave time of filial piety officials in the middle of the year, which was rejected by everyone. Although the new leave clause was released, it quickly caused many officials to protest, but Chongzhen mercilessly rejected the protests of these officials on the grounds that the law of the country is the law of the country and cannot be abolished for personal reasons.

And the emperor also publicly explained this vacation policy in the Daming Times, saying that this policy was not a denial of filial piety, and the imperial court had no intention of interfering in the affairs of filial piety. It's just that since ancient times, loyalty and filial piety can't be both, and the government affairs of the court are all related to the lives of the people in the world.

In addition, true filial piety should be taken care of when parents and elders are alive, rather than holding funerals after death and guarding the elders' graves for three years. Such an act is not felt by the dead, but by bystanders. It's not so much filial piety as it is showmanship.

The imperial court reformed the holiday system to allow officials to spend more time with their families at home, thinking that they would be filial piety during their lifetime. I didn't want to spend more time with my parents before I was alive, but I grabbed the system for three years and didn't let go, which is what I have in my heart.

Due to Chongzhen's insistence and refutation of officials' criticism, the new leave system finally began to be implemented one after another. Although in Huang Liji's view, Chongzhen personally went into battle to debate with those officials in the newspaper, which was really a bit unstable. However, he also had to admit that it was Chongzhen's unstable behavior that made the opposition much less.