One hundred and twentieth chapters spring plate taste new
"The end of the year has passed, and the heart of spring is uneasy. Let's chat about the Baiye wine and try the five-scent plate." The poem should be at the end of the year.
Spring, the first day of the first lunar month.
Chang'an.
At Chen time, there was still a gloomy skylight outside the paper window. Four or five young people from Zhonghuangmen, with their waists hunched and hunched back, cautiously climbed up the steps of Jiaofang Hall.
Mu Shun of the small yellow gate quietly walked out of the door and waved to these middle yellow gates. Those middle yellow gates were quite afraid of Mu Shun's authority in the palace. Look at me and I look at you.
An honest man stood with his hands down.
Mu Shun nodded with satisfaction, turned around and walked back. The curtain inside was drooped, and on the right side stood a vague figure. That was the most trusted Chang Yu beside Empress Dong. Even Mu Shun would not have dared to show up.
He forced his way into the Queen's palace. He had no choice but to kneel down in front of the curtain and say, "Your Majesty, the time has come."
No words were heard, and there were longing figures inside the curtain. Chang Yu reached out and opened a corner, and the young and majestic Empress Dong and the Emperor came out hand in hand, wearing brand-new clothes and colorful shoes with embroidered patterns.
Today is Zhengdan, also known as Yuan Chun, which is the first day of the year and also the first day of the Lunar New Year in later generations.
According to the rules of the New Year, the emperor and the empress put on new clothes, tied their hair with Ge scarves, and then sat at the table to prepare for the New Year's meal.
Mu Shun and Chang Yu stood on the left and right respectively, ready. Mu Shunqing coughed and waved out.
The long-awaited Zhonghuangmen filed in. They were dressed in new clothes, holding lacquer plates in their hands, and brought out the items on the plates one by one.
At this time, the customs of celebrating the New Year were not as colorful as those of later generations. The lacquer tray placed in front of the emperor contained three lacquer bowls, all with black backgrounds and painted with a circle of slender and vermilion dragon patterns connected end to end. Among them were three lacquer bowls.
There is a raw chicken in one bowl, and a few gummies in the other bowl, which are sugars similar to maltose. Just hearing the name means they stick to your teeth.
The last bowl is the five-spicy dish that must be eaten at Zhengdan, also called the five-spicy dish. It is a dish made with five spicy ingredients: onions, garlic, leeks, weeds, and mustard.
The emperor looked at it and found that the color and presentation were nice, but the taste reminded him of the feeling he had during the Chinese New Year last year, and the tip of his tongue was numb.
"Your Majesty, please have a meal."
Empress Dong looked indifferent, glanced at the emperor, and signaled him to move the chopsticks first.
The emperor nodded calmly, picked up the raw chicken with an expressionless face, knocked it gently on the edge of the bowl, then raised his neck and swallowed the egg liquid raw. This was the way to eat it during the Zhengdan period. According to the customs of the people at that time
View point: Swallowing a raw chicken at this time can help you maintain your body and shape and cultivate your body's essence.
The taste of raw chicken was not very good. In order to suppress the nausea coming from his stomach, the emperor quickly picked up a piece of gum candy and chewed it in his mouth. After he had calmed down, he used chopsticks to eat the five spicy ingredients.
I ate all kinds of vegetables. The saying here is that on the first day of the New Year, eating five pungent vegetables in the morning can help stimulate the five zang qi in the human body, also known as the five internal organs qi. The ancients believed that the five zang qi are the cause of disease, and the five zang qi
Pungent vegetables can help generate this qi and make people less likely to get sick.
The meaning of this series of forms is good, and the pharmacology is not bad, but the taste is hard to describe.
Empress Dong seemed to like to silently observe the emperor's inner struggles, but pretended to be nonchalant on the surface. She chewed the candy in her mouth, and after swallowing it, she said something that made the emperor sad: "Your Majesty, these are all required.
Finished eating."
The emperor took a deep breath. It was so early in the morning, and even his stomach was too strong to eat these on an empty stomach. He couldn't help but sigh and said that it was a good thing there were no chili peppers in this era, otherwise eating raw garlic and chili would be a delicacy on earth.
Finally, he slowly finished the three bowls of New Year vegetables. The emperor was about to ask someone to bring him some water, but was stopped by Mu Shun. Soon, a full cup of pepper and cypress wine was brought to him.
Mu Shun seemed to have no idea why he had to add: "Your Majesty, please have a full drink."
Pepper is the star essence of Yuheng, which is believed to delay aging, and cypress is also a kind of elixir. Pepper and cypress wine is a must-have drink for Zhengdan. The meaning is greater than the intention. As the name suggests, it has the same taste as the five-spice dish.
how.
The emperor glared at Mu Shun helplessly, but could not refuse, so he had to pick up the wine cup and drink it all in a few sips.
This is a custom that has been followed for more than 400 years from the royal family to the people. Although Mu Shun knew that the emperor did not like the taste, he did not dare to suggest that the emperor change this custom. Not to mention whether the emperor would agree, just
The sensitive ministers of the foreign court would immediately criticize him verbally, and Mu Shun could not bear the risk. Although he was the closest favored eunuch around the emperor, and he also had the power to take charge of the quasi-eunuch when Jia Xu returned home,
But compared with some of his predecessors, he privately felt that it was not enough.
The reason why he was able to reach out to the outer court was because the emperor could not find a suitable person to take charge of the important Pingzhun prison for him after Jia Xu left. However, Jia Xu would come back sooner or later, and by then he would have to
Take your hand back and become a high-ranking eunuch again.
Mu Shun thought a lot about this, and also discussed it privately with Ling Li Jian, an experienced insider. The emperor is the source of power. If you want to grasp power, you must be what others need. But the emperor's ability to control his subordinates lies in his filial piety.
, after Xiaozhang, there were few in the past who did not need eunuchs to influence the affairs of the court for him. Even his relatives and the emperor did not rely too much on him. If there was no demand, he could only try to create demand. Therefore, Mu Shun knew that the emperor did not like it.
With all these red tapes, one had to pretend to be innocent and accept the emperor's resentful eyes.
"My servants respectfully wish your majesty that the queen will live longer and enjoy everlasting happiness."
The emperor then nodded and said: "Today is the first day of the festival, so there is no need to be too formal. I will give orders to Huangmen and Yeting to give the eunuchs in the palace and the maids a hundred new coins each."
After saying that, the emperor asked Xiang Changyu: "Are both Fu Guiren and Song Guiren here?"
Empress Dong's heart moved slightly, and she didn't know what she thought of. Then she thought it was impossible, so she threw it behind her.
Song Du and Fu Shou finished the five spicy dishes and Jiaobai wine in their respective palaces, and soon went to Jiaofang Hall to congratulate the emperor and queen on the New Year.
Everyone exchanged a few words, and when they saw that Princess Liu Jiang and the noble Tang family of Huaiyuan were also arriving hand in hand, the Song Dynasty hurriedly said: "Your Majesty, can we burn the bamboo?"
She had been looking forward to this New Year's event, and with this in mind, she took the occasion into consideration and used a normal address to the emperor.
The emperor nodded and said: "Everyone is here, let's start."
Mu Shun received the oral instruction at this time and immediately led a few young and smart Zhonghuangmen to burn a bonfire in the open space outside the Jiaofang Hall. When the emperor and his entourage arrived at the palace gate, Mu Shun ordered the Zhonghuangmen to count.
A bamboo pole with a thick and long green root and branches and leaves hanging from the end was stretched into the fire. After a while, the bamboo poles stretched into the bonfire made a crackling sound. These bamboo poles were stained with sulfur, and not only made a crackling sound in the air
, and also burned out a light blue flame, which contrasted with the orange-red bonfire.
"It's beautiful, it's beautiful!" The little girl liked this kind of novelty the most. Song Du couldn't help but clapped his hands and urged, "Let them put in more!"
Normally, Song Duzhi might be said to be impolite, but now Liu Jiang and others were also secretly amazed by this situation and had no time to pay attention to Song Du.
Burning firecrackers is also one of the necessary rituals during the New Year's Day. It can get rid of evil spirits and evil spirits. It was not until the birth of the New Year that this way of celebration began to be gradually replaced, but the name firecrackers was passed down.
The emperor smiled at the corner of his mouth and waved his hand to signal Mu Shun to put more bamboo poles. He was quite interested in admiring the fireworks in later generations.pn He naturally knew that this kind of earthwork was far from reaching the real military level. If he wanted to use it as a weapon, not
To make lively firecrackers, you must have refined proportions and precise purification formulas. Such experimental work cannot be accomplished with just one sentence: mononitrate, disulfide, and charcoal.
In addition, the emperor does not need it now, let alone wants to be born in advance. These are still too far away for him. What he wants in his heart is to wait until his later years to develop it, and then store the secret recipe and leave it to future generations.
When the world collapses again, maybe we can use it as a trump card to save the crisis.
Just as I was thinking about it, the sound of firecrackers gradually slowed down, and it was obvious that the fire had reached its end.
The emperor would not stand here with Song Du for a whole day. He still had his own business to do. But seeing that Song Du still had some unfinished thoughts on his face, he comforted him and said: "This thing will only look good at night. You can put it in when you go back."
Clean it up in front of the palace and let someone burn it for you to see in the evening."
"Then will His Majesty come to see us?" Song Du suddenly asked.
The emperor hesitated for a while and replied: "Yes."
After saying that, the emperor did not stay here for a long time. Under the guidance of Mu Shun, he left the pepper room and went to the Xuan room to prepare for the official ceremony of Zhengdan.
Situ Ma Rixi, Sikong Zhao Wen, Taiwei Dong Cheng and others came to the announcement room early. They first celebrated the New Year with the emperor, and then Wu Shuo, the minister's servant, presented several edicts. The emperor looked at them briefly and quickly approved them.
Yes.
This is a rule initiated by the emperor last year. The first edict of the year was issued on the first day of the new year, which not only means to celebrate the world, but also indicates the focus of governing the country this year.
Then the emperor took everyone to the Mingtang to worship the Five Emperors, climbed to the spiritual platform again, watched the clouds and things, officially changed the Yuan Dynasty to Jian'an, and granted amnesty to the world.
The emperor had an edict saying: "The spring is the beginning of the year. When it is right, it will be successful in three seasons. If there are many difficulties in the border area, the government will fail, and the people will be blamed for it. It is all my fault. I will change the Yuan Dynasty.
In order to celebrate the new year, I have a supervisor who will encourage people to follow the trend of the times, advise them to supervise the farming and mulberry trees, remove the borers and larvae, and carefully punish them, save the people, and work tirelessly to show my will."
Following the outline of the New Year's edict, there were edicts to commend and reward people. For example, the edict ordered prisoners in various counties and counties to have their sentences reduced to one level and be sent to General Duan Xuan of Liao or General Xu Rong of Ninghu.
In Yanmen, Wuyuan and other counties, his wife will accompany him, and he will be given land, houses, cattle, and seeds to support himself. He will also give three dendrobium grains to each person who is widowed, lonely, sick, and has no family members and cannot survive on his own.
After all this work was done, the official offices at all levels of the imperial court were officially on holiday. After the emperor returned to the announcement room, he breathed a sigh of relief: "At the end of the year, I can finally take a break." After saying that, he smiled again and said.
Zhao Wen, Xun You and other close attendants said: "It's just that I have to trouble you all to enter the palace and serve as usual, just in case anything goes wrong."
"Work hard all night to serve one person." Xun You quoted a sentence from the Book of Songs and said calmly: "This is the duty of ministers."
Zhao Wen then said: "Serving the king and the people, I dare not slack off."
The emperor smiled, picked up the slips on the desk, and began to talk about the political affairs that needed to be discussed and resolved in the past few days.
The first thing to discuss is the memorial submitted by Cao Cao, the general of Pingdong:
The minister was stupid and stupid, so he was pardoned, entered the military academy, and was appointed as the commander-in-chief. The minister received the favor with a heavy leaf, and did not dare to cherish his life. Therefore, the general Ge Shuaijia obeyed the fate and executed him, even though he killed the barbarians.
There is no time to overthrow. I have no time to hold on to my merits. I use falsehoods and falsehoods. I am not worthy of glory. I feel ridiculed. It is beneficial for me to keep my ancestors in the valley and get the imperial weapons given by the filial emperor. I would like to present four four-stone copper ingots and five
One stone and bronze stone, two lacquer-painted Wei pillows for the emperor, and thirty black-lacquer Wei pillows for the noble princess.
The first paragraph is Cao Cao's gratitude and humble words to the imperial court for pardoning his sins and granting him a heavy responsibility. The following is a long list of palace objects that he dedicated to the imperial court. The emperor glanced at them briefly. These things were in the palace.
Most of them are in complete condition. Occasionally there are a few small items that were lost when the capital was moved, but they are not particularly valuable.
The emperor was slightly amused and raised the memorial and said: "What does Cao Mengde mean by returning the royal objects given to his family by the filial emperor? Does he think that after the capital was moved, the imperial court was in such a state that even the royal objects were missing?"
"
Historically, Cao Cao did offer his family's royal objects to the royal family, but that was because the imperial court was displaced all the way, fleeing from Chang'an to Luoyang. The situation was precarious, resulting in the palace's royal objects disappearing. At that time, the imperial court that moved its capital to Xu County not only had imperial objects, but also poor people.
Even the gold used to cast seals for officials had to come from Cao Cao's private wealth. However, the current court was completely different from the situation in history, yet Cao Cao did the same thing, which makes people curious.
Cao Cao is not here, and if the explanation is not good, this approach will be regarded as contempt for the court. Fortunately, relying on the friendly relationship between the Xun family and Cao Cao, there are people in the court, so he is not afraid that this will be maliciously speculated: "Your Majesty has deprived
After losing the title of Marquis Fei Ting of the Cao family, they naturally can no longer keep the royal objects. It is a crime to keep them, and it is even more wrong to abandon them. They simply return them to the court to show their sincerity."
"What Gongda said is that what he gave was not only a royal gift, but also an attitude." The emperor nodded and said, and read the memorandum again about the modest words such as not sparing one's life and daring to ridicule, and thought that this was
The great hero of the generation told him that he had humbled himself and made a small memorial, and the emperor said in his heart that it was impossible to be dissatisfied. After a brief moment of pride, the emperor quickly calmed down and said: "It's a pity that I punished them both this time. I will reward them again."
Cao Cao, for fear of being suspected of favoritism, I will handle this memorial as usual."
Xun You agreed. This move was just to increase Cao Cao's favor in front of the emperor and let the emperor know Cao Cao's loyalty to the Han Dynasty. As for rewards and other things, it didn't matter.
"Cao Cao wants to attack the Taishan bandits. This is a matter within his tenure. Let him only lead the troops to do it. Food, fodder and military supplies will be supervised by the imperial court and ordered to be overseen by Tian Fen, the governor of Yanzhou." He said softly, as if he was asking the various states to do so.
He is the emperor of the whole world who bows his head and obeys orders, rather than the emperor who lives in a small corner and lives in a small court.
At this time, Tian Kai was under pressure and sent Tian Yu to persuade Lu Bu and reach an alliance with him. Although Lu Bu would not give any military support, he would not make a surprise attack from behind when Tian Kai was fighting Yuan Tan.
After ensuring the security of the rear, Tian Kai was able to mobilize all his military forces to defend Yuan Tan's attack in the Le'an area.
Cao Cao's attack on Mount Tai was said to be to open up the road from Yanzhou to Qingzhou and support Yuan Tan's stalemate war in Qingzhou. However, Xun You and others knew what the intention was. Tian Feng, Jushou and others around Yuan Shao also felt the same way.
Mirror.
If you want to support Qingzhou, you can go to the plain country along the Yellow River from Dongjun. Where do you need to go through the dangers of crossing Mount Tai and other hills?
This was a stopgap measure that Cao Cao came up with because he didn't want to start a random war and offend the court again, but he also didn't want to stand still and make Yuan Shao dissatisfied. He planned to slowly mobilize his troops in Taishan County and wait for the dispute between the court and the Yuan family.
The strength will rise and fall over time, and then rely on Yanzhou, a strategically important place, to sell itself a high price.
Cao Cao is not a powerful prince at the moment. Between the two parties, he needs to constantly assess the situation and adjust his established strategy at any time to obtain the greatest benefits for himself and his family and in-laws. The emperor understands his approach of sitting on the fence.
Whether Yuan Shao, who is generous on the outside and taboo on the inside, can tolerate Cao Cao, his long-time friend, being obedient and disobedient to him at this time is Yuan Shao's business.
Xun You knew that the emperor was giving Cao Cao a reason. If Yuan Shao was narrow-minded, angry, and fearful of Cao Cao's actions, and wanted Tian Fen to restrain Cao Cao, then Cao Cao could choose to use the imperial edict to fight back. Then Cao Cao would be
The new governor of Yanzhou also expected to break with the Yuan family directly.
Then I thought about it, the crusade against Mount Tai was not only a test of the emperor's ability, loyalty and stance towards Cao Cao, but it was also a personal test of Cao Cao's relationship with the court and Yuan Shao.
"As for Liu Bei, he is the prime minister and Tao Qian is the private prime minister. It can be said that his name is not justified." After the emperor finished talking about Cao Cao, he mentioned Liu Bei again and said: "I have never said once that the power of employing people lies with you.
At the top, ministers who are close to you on the left and right are not allowed to overstep their bounds, how about being a local state pastor? Since the death of Emperor Xiaoling and the chaos in the world, it is rare that state officials in various places do not act as officials and act as county guards. This is a transfer of power to the lower level.
As a result, everyone acted unscrupulously and divided the states and counties."
Zhao Wen and Xun You looked at each other, somewhat worried that the emperor would settle this matter, which would push neutral princes like Cao Cao and Tao Qian to the opposite side.
Xun You couldn't say these words because of his relationship with Cao Cao and others. Zhao Wen took over the topic and nodded in response: "Your Majesty also often says that Qian Gang is arbitrary, and I think so. However, I am ignorant and think that everything is wrong."
Be lenient when it is lenient, and be stern when it is strict. Since the imperial court was moved, power has fallen by the wayside, there is no master in Guandong, the world is in chaos, there are vacancies in counties and counties, and the court has no time to fill them. Therefore, it is an expedient measure for each of them to appoint vacant officials.
, but not all of them are intentional transgressions.”
The emperor smiled silently and said: "That's the truth." 11