King Temuer of Shunyi left the Wuying Hall and met up with his attendants and interpreters. He followed Zhang Juzheng and several other courtiers out of the Xihua Gate. The group passed through a corridor sandwiched between tall red walls and arrived at the Political Affairs Hall. .
The political hall, which was converted from some palaces in Xiyuan, is not as solemn as the Forbidden City. There are rockery ponds and many official houses hidden among the vegetation. Due to the cold weather, the trees and flowers have lost their leaves, but the ones above have not yet melted. The thick snow adds a sparse character to this place, the center of operations of the empire.
Zhang Juzheng led King Shunyi for a while, pointed to a large open space covered with snow in front of him and introduced: "King Shunyi, please look, this is Xiyuan Nanhai. Now it is frozen. Go south from that stone bridge." , are all political affairs halls - from ancient times to the present, my emperor was the first to change the Linyuan palace as a place for political administration." As he said this, he cupped his hands in the direction of Qianqing Palace, with a look of respect that was beyond words.
Temuer did not dare to walk in front of Zhang Juzheng and was half a body behind him. At this time, he was stunned by the beautiful scenery in front of him. He thought to himself that compared with the inner city of Guihua City, it was like fireflies and the bright moon. The words are just praise.
Zhang Juzheng smiled and said: "I once heard that when the old prince and Mrs. Zhongshun built Guihua City, they imitated the shape of Dadu in the Yuan Dynasty. Is this true?"
King Zhongshun's foot slipped, and if the interpreter beside him had not caught him with quick eyesight and quick hands, he almost fell over. Zhang Juzheng turned sideways, looked directly at King Shunyi and asked with a smile: "Is it flashing? Your Majesty, you should be more careful."
King Shunyi kept saying that it was okay, but he started to sweat in the cold north wind, and felt a chill on his back. Fortunately, he had a good waist after many years of military service, otherwise Zhang Juzheng would have frightened him with these two questions. Peed.
After that, Zhang Juzheng chatted with him warmly and asked him whether there would be white disasters on the grassland this year? He also asked him about the size of his tribe, the number of livestock, how many people controlled strings, etc. King Shunyi was like pouring beans from a bamboo tube along the way. They didn't even dare to look up at the Prime Minister.
Zhang Juzheng's office was in a courtyard. The main room was five rooms wide, and the east and west wing rooms surrounded a courtyard. There were several big trees with all their leaves in the middle of the courtyard. When King Shunyi recovered from his shock, he saw that all the houses in front of him looked like the Forbidden City. Usually, the windows are made of glass, which makes me envious.
When everyone entered the living room, Zhang Juzheng asked King Shunyi to sit in the east, and the two sat in awe-inspiring manner. King Shunyi had already forgotten most of the Han etiquette he had learned before, so he did not refuse and sat upright on the official hat chair. Although he sat upright, but He didn't dare to look directly at Zhang Juzheng, he lowered his head as if counting ants.
Zhang Juzheng picked up the tea bowl, blew the hot air gently, and signaled King Shunyi and everyone to drink tea. When King Shunyi picked up the tea bowl, Zhang Juzheng pointed to the man wearing Mongolian robes standing next to him and asked: "This is the interpreter brought by the prince. ?Are they Han Chinese?"
The man first translated Zhang Juzheng's words into Mongolian, and when King Shunyi nodded, he introduced himself: "Back to the Prime Minister, after the villain is Han, my late father was originally a Han guard who followed Zhongjin Hatun. He is proficient in Chinese and knows Chinese characters, so he will serve the prince this time."
Zhang Juzheng smiled and nodded when he heard this, pointed to a pile of newspapers on the table next to King Shunyi and said: "This is a newspaper from the capital. Have you ever heard of it?"
King Shunyi replied: "I heard that, because I don't know Chinese characters, I have had people read a few of them in the past few days."
Zhang Juzheng chuckled and said: "Let your interpreter take a look. This is the idea given to the court in the capital newspaper after the Zasaktu of the Chahar tribe was massacred. It is about how to solve the border troubles in the north. The prince can let him
I’ll translate it for you.”
Hearing this, Temur had a look of confusion on his face, and asked his interpreter to read the contents of these old newspapers to him in Mongolian. The interpreter picked up the newspaper and used red pen when he saw anything that needed his translation.
Mark it out.
He had just read a page when his hands began to tremble uncontrollably, his face turned pale, his lips trembled, and his whole body was soon dripping with sweat.
King Shunyi asked strangely: "What is written in this newspaper?"
The interpreter said in a trembling voice: "This newspaper says that in order to eliminate the empire's border dangers, it is recommended that the imperial court use the method of reducing the number of troops."
"What is Ding reduction?"
"Using the old law of the Jin Kingdom, the population reproduction number of each tribe is determined, and the population is reduced once every three years. For example, our Tumote tribe has set a number of 70,000, and those who exceed it will be killed. For example, the Chahar tribe does not listen to the king's instructions.
All of them must be wiped out, and no remnants will be left..." He flipped through the other newspapers and continued: "These ones say the same thing - this one says that troops such as Tumut and others
If there is any suspicion of evil, they will all be killed..."
When King Shunyi heard about these inhumane policies, his face turned pale at first, and then a burning anger arose in his heart, and all the blood in his body seemed to rush to his face.
He pushed his chest hard on the chair, and the aura of the Lord of the Prairie suddenly burst out from him. He stared at Zhang Juzheng with red eyes. He clenched his fist with his right hand and was about to punch the table hard, but he met Zhang Juzheng's gaze -
- As biting as the cold wind outside, his heart trembled again, but he lowered his fist.
He slowly stood up from his chair and said loudly: "Although the Mongols are no match for the imperial weapons, soldiers and horses, they will not sit still and wait to be killed. If the imperial court wants to kill us, our Borjijin family may not have only one iron wood."
real!"
These words were so loud that the ears of everyone in the reception room were buzzing. Although the interpreter was pale, he still translated King Shunyi's words and even imitated his tone.
Wang Chonggu and other court officials who followed Zhang Juzheng saw that he was rude and were about to scold him, but they saw Zhang Juzheng sitting there drinking tea slowly, so they held back.
Zhang Juzheng was sipping tea. The whole room could only hear the heavy breathing of King Shunyi and the sound of drinking tea. The suppressed King Shunyi's heart was beating wildly like it was about to explode. After waiting for a while, he saw that Zhang Juzheng did not respond, and was about to continue.
As he was talking, he saw Zhang Juzheng put down his tea bowl, and waved his hand, motioning for him to sit down.
King Shunyi sat down angrily, still staring, wanting to see what Zhang Juzheng said. At this time, he was already determined to die, and had already given up the behavior of being a man with his tail between his legs when he entered the capital. It was as if he had changed his mind.
The individual is average, with flesh bulging out from his face and murderous aura overflowing.
If Zhang Juzheng hadn't seen him, he smiled and said: "What was said in the newspaper is just the words of the common people. How could the imperial court not know that the Jin Kingdom's method of reducing the number of members was harmful to nature and harmed justice? A country of benevolence and righteousness cannot do such an unjust thing - if
If the imperial court intends to do this, why does the emperor need to summon you today?"
After hearing this, King Shunyi's face softened a little, and the fierce light in his eyes immediately disappeared. He relaxed a little, knowing that Zhang Juzheng had something to say, so he sat there quietly and listened.
Zhang Juzheng asked again: "My lord, do you know the situation of the world today?" Before King Shunyi could answer, he instructed the secretary next to him: "Open the curtain and let your lord see the complete picture of Kun and all the kingdoms!"
Hearing this, the Secretary of the Political Affairs Hall who was waiting beside him opened the green curtain behind Zhang Juzheng's case, revealing the map of the world. Zhang Juzheng stood up and waved: "Your Majesty, come and take a look."
When King Shunyi got up and followed him to the bottom of the map, Zhang Juzheng picked up a smooth and straight wooden stick handed to him by Zhongshu and pointed at it: "Your Majesty, please look - this is the place where our dynasty lives, and the royal collection The Geographical Institute of the Academy calls it Zhongzhou.”
King Shunyi rubbed his eyes, pointed to the neatly arranged row of mahjong-like patterns in the middle of the map and said, "Is this the side wall?" Zhang Juzheng said, "Exactly. This small circle here is Guihua City. This is where the prince comes from."
King Shunyi first murmured: "It turns out that Guihua City is so close to the capital." After a pause, he then said: "It's not close, it's thousands of miles away. It looks close on this picture." Zhang Juzheng laughed and gave a thumbs up. : "Your Majesty is smart. The distance between the naturalized city wall and the capital city wall is 875 miles. When compared on the map, the distance is only three finger widths."
The accurate figures reported by Zhang Juzheng casually contained a huge amount of information, which made King Shunyi's heart skip a beat, and he became secretly terrified.
Zhang Juzheng pointed the wooden stick to the north of the map and said: "Your Majesty, please look at this mountain - this is the Beidi Mountains, which is rarely visited by people in China. I heard that it stretches more than 4,000 miles from north to south, with Europe to the west and Zhongzhou to the east. Europeans call the Beidi Mountains the Ural Mountains."
King Shunyi was dumbfounded, never expecting that there was such a vast land in the northern part of the grassland. Zhang Juzheng saw him stunned and smiled and said: "The prince just said that the Borzhijin family may not have only one Genghis Khan, but he didn't know that the Borzhijin family used to occupy How big is the land—"
Pointing to the west with a wooden stick: "Back then, Batu's army used Bangkok's vicious tactics and returning artillery to march westward, directly over the Beidi Mountains, and then into the continent of Europe. You should also have heard that the capital Some people from the West came here, and they are the Europeans. In the past, these lands belonged to the Borjijin family."
As Zhang Juzheng spoke, he used a wooden stick to draw a large circle on the map that stunned King Shunyi. While his bloodline was furious, he also felt a little ashamed and helpless - as if he had soiled the bloodline of the Golden Family.
Seeing his excitement, Zhang Juzheng sneered: "The so-called Hu people have no luck for a hundred years, and the land of prosperous culture and education cannot be ruled with a horsewhip. The great Yuan Dynasty in the Central Plains of Dingding was uprooted by Taizu of our dynasty, and Chengzu conquered the grassland several times. In the past two Where are the Yuan Dynasty and the Golden Horde that are thousands of miles away now?"
King Shunyi blushed, bowed and whispered: "Although Temur admires Genghis Khan's achievements, he has no ambition to become a king and an ancestor. Now he can have a land with rich water and grass to herd horses and survive, which is enough."
Zhang Juzheng continued to sneer: "Now that the Han people in our country totaled 16,7 million in the ninth year of Wanli, how many people are there in the grassland tribes now? Are there many Han people? The new army also has the advantage of firearms and cavalry. Is it okay to shoot?"
After hearing what the interpreter said, King Shunyi was sweating profusely and said in a low voice: "Yes, yes. The survival of our clan depends on the benevolence of Khan Tian. I and others must never dare to have any wrong thoughts."
Seeing that he was completely honest, Zhang Juzheng patted his shoulder again to express his comfort. He took the teacup handed by Zhongshu next to him and took a sip of water. He tapped the map hard with a wooden stick. Tu Qiongdagger said: "Your Majesty thinks
, everything from the east of Beidi Mountain to the sea outside Beishan, and the north to the sea of Beiming, should all belong to China's inherent land."
"Therefore, the emperor will gather the Mongolian tribes in Jehol next year, entrust the kings, divide the pastures, and form a Han-Mongolian coalition to conquer this land that is larger than China in the northern expedition!"