The emperor visited the Eastern Capital on the night of the 20th, stayed away from court for one day on the 21st, and held the Jiahui Festival on the 22nd.
There are three types of national dynasty meetings: the big dynasty meeting, the lunar dynasty meeting and the regular dynasty meeting.
At the beginning, there were only two days of the Great Court Meeting, the Yuan Day and the Winter Solstice, and the scale was very large: "On the first day of the year, the grand display is in the Taiji Hall, the emperor wears his crown, displays the joy of hanging in the palace, displays the treasures and jade of the past dynasties, and prepares the emperor's chariot.
Battle. The two queens and hundreds of officials, envoys to the court, relatives of the emperor, and other relatives will accompany the throne in court uniforms."
The etiquette of the Winter Solstice court meeting is similar to that of Yuan Day. The only difference is that on this day the emperor wears a crown.
The furnishings of the imperial gathering are also of a high level, such as the "Palace Hanging Music", which is only used on the highest level occasions, that is, many bells are hung in the palace; such as the five chariots on the chariot that the emperor rides when he enters the palace, and the highest level of ceremonial guard "
"Huang Huizhan" etc.
The so-called Jiahui Festival is today’s birthday, March 22nd.
The first person to hold a birthday party was Xuanzong. He named the fifth day of August the Qianqiu Festival, and later renamed it the Tianchang Festival. Later emperors followed suit, and Suzong set his own birthday (the third day of the ninth month) as the Tiancheng Diping Festival.
, Daizong set October 13th as Tianxing Festival...
Actually, because this kind of festival is too annoying, the officials are not very willing to participate, so starting from Emperor Daizong, it is no longer compulsory to hold large court gatherings in such festivals. Generally, monks and Taoists are invited to chant sutras and pray for blessings. Today I will talk about
It is actually relatively rare for a large court gathering to be held on Jiahui Festival.
When Shao Shude received the news, he was inspecting the Luoshui River in Yanshi County. This is the confluence of Yishui and Luoshui. The Cao Canal is also in this river, so it is very important. The servants are busy under the command of the craftsmen, installing
Gate.
"If the saint wants to hold a court meeting, let's hold it." Shao Shude waved his hand and said nonchalantly: "The bells are out, the ceremony is incomplete, and the court is embarrassed. It is simply unreasonable."
Shao Shude doesn't have a good opinion of the emperor now, feeling that he is too troublesome. Thinking of all the bizarre behaviors he had in history, for example, after organizing 100,000 new troops, the first thing he did was to trouble Li Keyong and wanted to take back Hedong.
.Li Maozhen and Wang Xingyu bullied the saints. After Li Keyong defeated them, they actually did not allow them to completely wipe out Li Maozhen's Fengxiang Army. After Keyong retreated, Li Maozhen, who had recovered his breath, almost broke up the court.
He didn't have a clear mind, he didn't know who was one of his own and which was the enemy, he didn't know his priorities, he was impatient and irritable, and he didn't take responsibility, and he killed several prime ministers who took the blame for him.
Cheating!
"Your Highness, during the great court meeting, all civil and military officials must participate. During the regular court time, military attachés in Beijing who are above the fifth rank must attend four court gatherings per month, and those above the third rank must attend seven court gatherings per month." Li Yixian said: "Jiahui.
It is required to participate in the festival and the imperial dynasty."
"Well..." Shao Shude pondered for a moment and said, "Then let's participate."
After saying that, he looked at Zhao Keyu, the capital water supervisor who was following him, and said: "Not all the officials from Chang'an have followed. There are some vacancies, so let our people fill them. Even if there are people coming from Chang'an behind, they will not come here."
He has taken his position. You can take up the post of Water Supervisor of the Capital City."
This is actually the magpie's nest Jiuzhan. First, formally appoint some of your own people to important positions, and replace the original officials in a legitimate manner. When the time is right, you can directly and seamlessly switch, which is convenient and fast.
"Thank you for your kindness, Your Highness." Zhao Keyu was also interesting. He became the Water Supervisor of the Tang Dynasty, but he thanked Shao Shude.
"Do a good job. I am very satisfied with the idea you proposed this time." Shao Shude said.
Zhao Keyu had just returned from Tang and Deng and excitedly proposed a plan to cross Fangchengkou: repair the ship lock.
To put it bluntly, it’s not complicated. Dig as much as you should on the Tangbai River, and stop when it reaches the water. This section is about a hundred miles long, and the channel of the ancient Bai River is used, which is the limit of the two excavations in the early Northern Song Dynasty.
Location. Then build a ship lock here, and slowly raise the ship by storing water, which takes about twenty meters, and then sail directly into the Shitang River in the Wanye Corridor, connecting the water system on the western Henan Plain.
The core point is to raise the ship by storing water instead of digging the river channel.
This idea has actually been around for a long time. Ship locks are also called steep gates. When the Ling Canal was being built during the Xiantong period, 18 steep gates were built to raise the water level to facilitate navigation over mountains and ridges for ships.
There are similar projects abroad.
In 1662, Colbert, the successor of Cardinal Mazarin, built the Languedoc Canal for King Louis XIV of France. The purpose of this river was to connect the waterways in the interior of France to the Mediterranean to facilitate foreign trade.
The difficulty of the project is that the canal needs to cross the peak, which is not easy.
Starting in November of that year, the Canal Committee began to conduct continuous demonstrations, and then dug a small-scale canal on another mountain top for experiments. It took a long time, and lasted for fifteen years. Tens of thousands of workers worked hard every year, and finally built the canal.
One hundred locks allow Toulouse to directly connect to the Mediterranean Sea.
The most difficult part of the project is the section from Toulouse to Garonne. The canal rises 206 feet to the top of the mountain, then sails 3 miles on the top of the mountain, and then descends 620 feet to the Mediterranean Sea. In terms of difficulty, it is much more than Fangchengkou. In fact, later generations of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project
, didn't bother to repair the ship locks, and directly excavated the Fangcheng entrance to let the canal pass through.
The ship lock of the cross-ridge canal is only part of the difficulty. Another big difficulty is how to store water. That is, after the ship enters the lock gate, the gate is closed, and you need to release water from above to continuously raise the water level so that the ship can smoothly sail into the river section on the top of the mountain.
There is no doubt that this requires a lot of water.
The French method is to build an artificial lake on the top of the mountain, divert water from other places to store water in the lake, and reduce the number of navigations. That is, let the ships pass through the lock together, lift it up, and then release the water after passing through, so as to minimize the loss of water.
.
The method proposed by Zhao Keyu is also based on this idea. It is not difficult to build a ship lock. The difficult thing is how to store water. This requires on-site inspection to see if it meets the conditions.
Anyway, this is a long-term project. Please spend more time to prove it. Don’t be like Zhao Eryi. When he dug to the entrance of Fangcheng, he found that the terrain in front was getting higher and it was difficult to pass. The French built a total of 26 ship locks in order to cross the top of the mountain.
The cost of raising the water level step by step and then lowering it step by step is very high.
Fangchengkou may not need to build so many ship locks, but the cost will certainly not be small. Shao Shude decided to give it a try, but not now. He will first conduct demonstrations.
After Zhao Keyu left with satisfaction, Li Yanling came again.
"Your Highness, the matter of the court meeting..." Li Yanling said with an angry look on his face, "Prime Minister Zhu Pu heard that I was in charge of the affairs of Sinong Temple, so he ordered me to prepare the food needed for the court meeting. He heard that a banquet was going to be given.
I will also reward hundreds of officials."
Sinong Temple has various warehouses and many gardens under its jurisdiction. It has slaves cultivating the land and has a considerable output. Therefore, it is responsible for the supply of court meetings and sacrifices: "Every court meeting, sacrifices, supplies required by the emperor, and all official materials will be led by the temple."
Department, the things stored in the prison are used for his work."
It's not wrong for Zhu Pu to find Li Yanling, the de facto minister of agriculture. But - why are they so confident?
"Your Highness, this dog - this emperor is too ignorant." The more Li Yanling spoke, the angrier he became.
Get up. Only now do I understand how right it was for His Highness to not want to get involved in the affairs of Chang'an. Alas!"
Shao Shude also had a headache after hearing this. Was he too polite?
It's nothing more than giving banquets. The saints of the country and the dynasty all like to give banquets. Everyone sits together, eats and drinks, and then the mountains shout long live, and then they receive some rewards and go home.
This system originated in the Taizong period. At that time, the country was new, the income was not abundant, and the salaries of officials were also small. Therefore, Taizong often held banquets and invited civil and military officials to the banquets. At the banquets, many property rewards were given, and bonuses were distributed in disguise, and everyone was happy.
Where did the money come from today? Rewards, to put it lightly!
"Has Shang Lin Ling found a successor?" Shao Shude asked.
"I found it. Cheng Yi, the second son of Caizhou Chengshi Jun, was originally a warehouse governor in Shaanxi Province. I asked him to come over and serve as the Shanglin Order." Li Yanling replied.
Sinong Temple is somewhat similar to a collection of grain reserves, State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, general offices, guest houses and the like in later generations. It has several large warehouses to manage. At the same time, there are fields, pastures and orchards in the forbidden gardens of the east and west capitals, and in the palace grounds.
There are also gardens. During court meetings and sacrifices, they have to provide self-produced grain, meat, fruits and vegetables, and they also distribute part of the officials' grain and salary.
The Shanglin Bureau is its subordinate agency, which mainly manages the agricultural output of the Forbidden Gardens of the Two Capitals in preparation for sacrifices and court needs. The Shangshi Bureau also provides materials for the daily food presented to the emperor. In addition, it stores food in the cellar in winter.
Ice, use slowly after mid-spring.
"Cheng Yi will take some stored winter vegetables from the garden of Shendu Garden to breed geese, ducks, chickens and pigs, and provide them as appropriate. It is the first time for a saint to hold a big court meeting, so let him go." Shao Shude said.
Having said that, I am definitely unhappy.
Shao Shude was not sure whether the conflicts between puppet emperors and powerful ministers in history were accumulated little by little from these small things.
In the beginning, the powerful ministers were all tolerant, right? In the end, the little emperor kicked his nose in his face, the conflict intensified, and he couldn't bear it anymore?
"Yes." Li Yanling responded, and then talked about another thing: "Guangcheng Tang came to report that he wanted to build a warm house and plant fruits in the middle of winter."
The warm house is actually the greenhouse cultivation of later generations. Wang Jianyou's poem says: "The inner garden is divided into warm soup and water, and the melons have been put in in mid-February."
Its essence is to use hot spring water to increase the temperature of the greenhouse and grow off-season vegetables and fruits, so the palace will have fresh fruits and vegetables to eat in the middle of the second month of the lunar calendar.
The emperor's enjoyment is so luxurious! Shao Shude sighed secretly and said: "That's right."
Li Yanling responded and was about to leave when he was stopped by Shao Shude again.
"Every pasture is now under the control of Sinong Temple. Let me ask, how many stallions are there?" Shao Shude asked.
"Two hundred and thirty-six horses." Li Yanling said with all his treasures.
Yinchuan Ranch has been breeding new horse breeds. Basically, every time a batch is produced, if the results are found to be unsatisfactory, they are immediately eliminated and only a few stallions are retained for continued breeding.
"I came from Dunhuang to report that there were Hu merchants carrying sweat horses eastward, but they were robbed by the Gaochang Uighurs. You and others will do the math and see if there is any other route." Shao Shude said: "Among the existing horses, there are good horses.
The bloodline is too thin and difficult to cultivate, so we must deal with it as soon as possible.”
"As ordered." Li Yanling responded.
After Lao Li left, Shao Shude did not intend to delay and began to return to Luoyang.
According to the regulations, the governor of a feudal town cannot leave the territory without permission. Therefore, he can be in Lingzhou, Hezhongfu, or Bianzhou without any problem, but he cannot be in Luoyang.
But Shao Shude is too lazy to care. I just go to Luoyang, what can I do?
When we arrived at Jirunyi, Taichang Qing Guo Fu and Taichang Qing Chen Yishen came hand in hand.
"Is it about the court meeting again?" Shao Shude asked helplessly.
"Exactly." Guo Fu replied: "The saint sent Zhao Guo's wife Chong Yan to convey the edict, and ordered all the bells to be chimed and hung in Hanyuan Hall. Taizhu, Fengli Lang, Xielu Lang, Yue Zheng and others were all ready.
Zhao Wen, Wu Wulang and hundreds of people..."
"The saint also sent the Jin Dynasty's wife Yang Kezheng to pass the decree, ordering five chariots and horses to be prepared, and the horses to be as beautiful as the chariots, and leading the drivers to pre-train." Chen Yishen also came up to complain: "Xiao Xiang thought that everything was in ruins and was waiting to be revived.
It is not easy to arrange things, so I advise the saint to make everything simple. The saint refuses, saying that this is the first court meeting after Xingdongdu, and he wants to announce the change of Yuan Dynasty and amnesty to the world, so he wants to make it more grand."
"The five chariots are chariots, right? Taipu Temple has them, right?" Shao Shude asked.
"It took a year to get it all ready." Chen Yishen complained bitterly: "It took a lot of effort. Your Highness, this is prepared for your ascension to the throne."
"The saint is going to hold a big court meeting, so these chariots should be used by the saint first." Shao Shude waved his hand and said impatiently.
Li Yixian's expression changed, and he keenly sensed Shao Shude's mood swings.
"That's all." Shao Shude took a deep breath and said, "I'm also going to prepare to attend tomorrow's court meeting. Xiao Yu and Er Pei are incompetent, and they can't control this situation. The court meeting, hehe, that's fine. Some things have to be done first.
Once and for all, if you don’t learn a lesson, you won’t know where the boundary is.”
It was already late March, and he might go on an expedition at any time. Whether he went south to attack Yang Xingmi or went north to attack Hebei, they were all victories that must be achieved before proclaiming himself emperor, and he did not want to be distracted.
The emperor has taken over, but it will be troublesome if he is always behind the scenes. Shao Shude even regrets letting King Ji die in the first place. Will he be more obedient?