Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 2334: Lucky Nanjing (I)

The imperial decree for the promotion had been issued. According to the Ming custom, as long as it was not an "excessive reward", officials generally did not have to and would not refuse. The reason why Gao Youshi refused the title of Marquis of Nanning last time was because the emperor wanted to confer the title on him as a civil official, and this was indeed a rare thing.

This time was different. His status as a civil official was already solid. This was just a simple promotion, even if it was to the highest title of duke, he did not have to decline. Therefore, Gao Youshi calmly chose to accept the decree and thank the emperor.

However, the matter did not end here. The real focus of this edict was to explain the reasons for promoting Gao Youshi to a higher title, and it did not explain what happened after "promoting Gao Youshi to the title of Duke of Jingguo". Therefore, all the officials present knew that there would be another imperial edict to clarify other important matters.

What is it? This requires talking about the title system of the Ming Dynasty.

The titles of nobility in the Ming Dynasty were divided into two categories according to status: one was the titles of royal family members, and the other was the titles of meritorious officials and relatives of the emperor.

The titles of the royal family are more complicated. According to the degree of closeness, they are divided into prince (including the crown prince and the crown grandson), county prince (including the crown prince and the eldest grandson), general guarding the country, general supporting the country, general serving the country, lieutenant guarding the country, lieutenant supporting the country, lieutenant serving the country, etc. However, since the titles of the royal family are not related to the current event, I will not introduce them in detail this time, and mainly talk about the titles of meritorious officials and relatives.

The titles of meritorious officials and their relatives by marriage were relatively simple, with only three levels: duke, marquis and earl. However, it also had a slightly complicated side, that is, the titles of meritorious officials were divided into four levels.

According to the Ming Dynasty system, a person must have made contributions to the country or made significant military achievements to be conferred a title. The title must be conferred by imperial decree.

The titles of nobility in the Ming Dynasty were originally the same as those in previous dynasties, and were roughly divided into duke, marquis, earl, viscount and baron. But later, in order to reflect the rarity and nobility of the titles, the viscount and baron were removed, leaving only the duke, marquis and earl levels.

The reason why Gao Youshi was conferred the title of Marquis of Nanning was quite shocking was, firstly, because he was a civil official, which was rare except in the founding period, and secondly, because he skipped the level of earl and went straight to a marquis. Even though his merits were indeed worthy of the marquis at that time, it was extremely rare and inevitably surprised people.

The next point is: meritorious officials will be given iron certificates, which must indicate their basic identity and title. The so-called identity mainly distinguishes between civil officials and military officials. The iron certificates for military officials usually read "XXXX Xuanli Wuchen", while those for civil officials read "XXXX Shouzheng Wenchen".

The title must also be written on the iron certificate, and the titles are divided into four levels: the first class is for the heroes who followed Zhu Yuanzhang to start the army and found the country, and they are called "Founding the Country and Assisting the Fortune"; the second class is for those who have made contributions to Zhu Di in quelling the rebellion, and they are called "Fengtian Jingnan Tuicheng"; the third and fourth classes are called "Fengtian Yiyun Tuicheng" and "Fengtian Yiwei Tuicheng" respectively.

As for whether one can inherit the title, it depends on whether one has the "Royal Certificate", which is the hereditary certificate issued by the court. There are two copies of the Royal Certificate, one for the meritorious official (the person who is granted the title), and the other is archived in the inner court.

If a meritorious official died and his descendants wanted to inherit the title, they had to take out the imperial edict, and then the Ministry of Personnel would be responsible for checking and examining his merits and demerits to decide whether to inherit the title or remove it.

As for the titles of relatives by marriage, they were hereditary at first, but in the early years of the Jiajing period, Emperor Jiajing abolished the system of hereditary titles for relatives by marriage - unless the emperor had the grace to do so.

  Let's talk about Gao Youshi. Originally, all the officials knew that he would most likely be promoted to a higher rank this time, and they were already desensitized to this, and they were not willing to make trouble for themselves on this matter - the emperor has already said that, and you still jumped out to complain, are you really going to give up your life just for the title of a so-called loyal minister?

Don’t think of “being loyal and daring to remonstrate” as something so noble. There are prerequisites for everyone’s “being loyal and daring to remonstrate”: firstly, the emperor usually would not kill people for remonstrance, and if you were really killed, it was just bad luck - for example, if you did this in the Jiajing dynasty, there were indeed some people who were beaten to death in the court, but after Jiajing really did this, didn’t the ministers become much more honest?

You know, even for Hai Rui, Jiajing was almost dying when he submitted the "Memorial on Public Security". His temper was much better than before, but Hai Rui was still prepared to die.

Secondly, even if the adviser is demoted, he can often be brought back by his colleagues from the same faction. It is just a matter of how long the hardship lasts. It is actually a very profitable business to be willing to endure a little hardship and gain a reputation as a loyal minister, so some people are willing to do it. But there is a clear premise here: you can get it back.

What is the current situation of the imperial court? Gao Youshi's power is stable, the practical school is becoming increasingly powerful, and after Zhao Zhigao gave in, the last big boss of the mind school, Shen Yikuan, could only "avoid it if you can't afford to offend", and ran to Nanjing to prepare for the emperor's visit. Who is strong and who is weak should be clearly stated?

At this moment, everyone suddenly realized another thing, that is, why the emperor suddenly brought up Fang Congzhe's memorial in Qufu a few days ago and slapped the Xinxue School in the face without any warning.

Now the case has been solved. It turns out that what the emperor meant by doing this was to send a message to the officials of the School of Mind: You members of the School of Mind should be careful recently, and don't sing a different tune when I promote Yuan Fu to a higher rank. Otherwise, just wait and see whether I will beat you to death.

After understanding this, the Xinxue School was indeed unusually low-key, and no one stood up to oppose Gao Youshi's promotion. However, everyone continued to wait and see on one thing: the third or fourth rank?

In other words, is the "prefix" of Gao Youshi's title of Duke Jingguo "Fengtian Yiyun Tuicheng" or "Fengtian Yiwei Tuicheng"?

According to everyone's general understanding, since "Founding the Country, Assisting the Run, and Being Sincere" and "Fengtian Jingnan, and Being Sincere" are historical relics that have "expired", the only difference between the two characters that can actually distinguish the status is the difference between "Yiyun" and "Yiwei". Gao Youshi is not even forty years old now, in order to avoid any great achievements in the future...

Well, here it mainly means that if the emperor dies before him, and he, as the prime minister, leads the ministers to support the crown prince to succeed to the throne and continues to lead the government, then the new emperor will most likely continue to reward him - if he "Yiyun" now, the new emperor will have too little room for maneuver in the future. Therefore, the officials estimated that this time it should be "Yiwei".

However, another imperial edict that followed broke this stereotype, because the emperor clearly stated in the edict that Gao Youshi's title was "Duke of Jingguo, a loyal and upright civil official who is in the service of Heaven and Earth."

This is great, he is really the only civil official duke since Li Shanchang. Although he can't get the out-of-print "Founding the Country and Assisting the Run" or "Fengtian Jingnan Tuicheng", he is the best in the world after all, what else is there to be dissatisfied with?

Seeing Gao Youshi accept the order and express his gratitude again, the officials of the School of Mind felt really bitter. Many of them cursed secretly: Wait and see how you will regret it in the future!

Some even harbored resentment in their hearts: If the emperor passes away, you won’t be worth any reward, and the new emperor will make you pay sooner or later!

However, these complaints were just complaints in the heart, who dared to speak them out loud? Seeing that the big thing was going smoothly, Zhu Yijun smiled and announced the oral order: Let's go back to the palace.

The most important event during the journey south, the Fengshan Ceremony, came to a successful conclusion.

The emperor only rested for a while in the palace, and set out again the next morning, continuing southward. After returning to Yanzhou, he passed through Xuzhou, Huai'an, and Yangzhou, and entered the Yangtze River. He first arrived at Zhenjiang on the other side of the river to inspect the navy, and then used the navy to escort the emperor's dragon boat fleet upstream to Nanjing.

Naturally, many things happened during this period. For example, the emperor and his entourage visited an important industrial park in Jinghua in Xuzhou, held a North-South Salt Merchants Conference in Huai'an, inspected a large commercial market in Yangzhou and toured the Slender West Lake.

In short, the entire itinerary was arranged with a moderate degree of flexibility and many problems were solved on the ground. The spirit that Gao Youshi had widely publicized before the trip south, "Your Majesty is doing this for the welfare of the people," was effectively implemented. Those who had originally wanted to criticize the trip south as a "waste of national strength" and "exhaustion of the region" were unable to start, and had to hold back the words that were already on the tip of their tongues. I don't know if they will get sick from holding it back.

It is worth mentioning the "fleet review" held in Zhenjiang. For this review, not only were all the elite naval forces in the southern part of the Ming Dynasty mobilized, but a squadron from Beijing was also recruited to fill the appearance - it was called a recruitment, but in fact Gao Youshi took the initiative to dispatch, but this point did not need to be explained to the public. On that day, a grand fleet review began on the surface of the Yangtze River in Zhenjiang. The imperial boat on which the emperor rode slowly sailed into the waters of Zhenjiang and began to review the Jiangnan navy "stationed here".

The sky was blue, the sun was shining, the river breeze was gentle, and the waves were sparkling, adding a touch of magnificence to the naval review.

The waters of Zhenjiang have always been an important base for the Jiangnan Navy. Today, the flags are flying and the drums are beating. The navy's ships have long been lined up on the river, and from a high vantage point, they look like neat battle formations, majestic and magnificent. On the ships, soldiers wearing armor and holding weapons stand in their respective positions, waiting for the emperor's inspection.

With the long blast of the horn and the sound of drums, the fleet review officially began. First, the honor guard fleet slowly sailed by, and the soldiers on the boats held colorful flags and waved them in unison to the rhythm of the drums. The colorful flags fluttered in the wind, like a series of gorgeous rainbows spreading on the river.

Next, the main battleships were displayed. Well-equipped warships, like fortresses on the water, slowly sailed past the imperial boat. For the sake of military appearance, the so-called "main battleships" this time were actually the warship fleet mobilized by Jinghua. The leading flagship was a battleship of the same class as the "Dongchang", and it was matched with six cruisers.

The "soldiers" of the seven main warships changed out of Jinghua's own somewhat overly low-key brown uniforms and put on the brightly colored mandarin duck battle robes of the Ming army. Each of them was in high spirits, with determined eyes. The weapons in their hands shone coldly in the sun, demonstrating the mighty military power of the "Ming Navy".

Of course, for the sake of scale, after this batch of top-level main forces, the real main forces of the Ming Navy also followed in a line. This time the scale was not limited to just seven ships. There were more than 40 large ships participating in the review. Although each ship was smaller than the warships of Jinghua, they won in large numbers, especially since this was on the river instead of the sea. It was no exaggeration to say that they blocked the river.

Behind the main battleships were the fast and flexible reconnaissance ships and messenger ships, which shuttled across the river, demonstrating the navy's mobility and flexibility. The soldiers on the ships were agile and skilled in operation, demonstrating the navy's good training level and combat readiness.

Well... this is actually nonsense. How bad can the elite troops mobilized from the navies of all the southern provinces be? You have to know that since Gao Youshi came to power, the court has never lacked their salaries, so there must be some effect, right?

As the fleet review progressed, the atmosphere on the river became more and more heated. The sound of drums, horns, and the shouts of soldiers intertwined to form a majestic symphony that echoed over Zhenjiang City and this section of the Yangtze River.

  Emperor Wanli Zhu Yijun stood at the bow of the imperial boat, his eyes were sharp, his expression was solemn but he couldn't hide his excitement. As expected, every man doesn't like to see big ships and big guns, and if it is a fleet that covers the sky and the sea, it would be even better!

He looked at this powerful navy that belonged to him, and his heart was filled with pride and satisfaction. He had seen the Dongchang in Tianjin, but had never seen the large fleet in Jinghua, so after seeing "his own navy", he could not help but turn his head and ask Gao Youshi who was standing beside him: "What do you think of this Jiangnan navy, Lord Jingguo?"

"The army is in great shape." Gao Youshi replied with a smile, "I heard that one in ten or twelve of them are strong. This shows that if our Great Ming navy joins forces to attack, no one in the world will be able to stop us."

Zhu Yijun was overjoyed and laughed, "Duke Jingguo commanded the Korean naval battle. Since you said so, I think even if you boast a little, it should be pretty close."

Gao Youshi smiled and said, "I have reported the truth and have not exaggerated." Zhu Yijun nodded with satisfaction and turned his head to glance at the envoys from various countries following behind him. Naturally, the envoys from various countries did not dare to neglect them and praised loudly in unison, expressing their extreme admiration for the unparalleled strength of the Ming Dynasty navy.

Zhu Yijun was very satisfied, this was exactly the effect he wanted. It was important for him to feel good, but he was the emperor after all, and the key was to make the vassal states feel fearful, which was the emperor's political goal.

Actually, what he didn't know was that Gao Youshi's "report based on facts" was actually very problematic. The latter played a trick here: the so-called "the warships withdrawn this time are only one-tenth or twelveth of the navy in all the Jiangnan provinces." This is true, but it refers to "one-tenth or twelveth in number", but did not mention the difference between large ships and small ships.

  In other words, this "one or two tenths" almost includes the main warships of the navies of the southern provinces of the Ming Dynasty. The warships left behind in various places are almost all small boats of a smaller size or even several sizes smaller... However, Gao Youshi was not afraid of being blamed by the emperor afterwards. After all, the key now was to intimidate the vassal states. He said this to cooperate with the emperor. What was wrong with that?

Even if we take a step back, although the strength of the Ming Navy is a bit exaggerated, Jinghua's two-ocean fleet is not exaggerated! As long as Gao Youshi remains loyal, why can't the strength of the two-ocean fleet be included in the broad sense of the "Ming Navy"? When aiding Korea to fight against the Japanese, didn't Jinghua's fleet take the initiative to join the expedition?

At the end of the fleet review, there was a spectacular salvo from the fleet. Following the order of Geng Dingfang, the right assistant censor of the Nanjing Metropolitan Procuratorate, all the cannons on the warships fired at the same time. The sound of the cannons shook the sky, and huge waves were raised on the river, like thousands of horses galloping, with great momentum. At this moment, the entire waters of Zhenjiang were shaken by this powerful force.

The fleet review ended successfully amid cheers. Zhu Yijun spoke highly of the navy's performance and commended them for their loyalty and bravery. The fleet review in Zhenjiang demonstrated the great strength of the Ming navy, and made the vassal states more aware of the power of the Ming dynasty, thus achieving the fundamental purpose of the fleet review.

After the fleet review, the fleet sailed up the Yangtze River towards Nanjing, the final destination. The atmosphere in and around Nanjing became more solemn and festive as the scheduled time for the emperor's arrival approached. The emperor chose to travel by water, not only because of its convenience and comfort, but also because it could best showcase the grandeur and splendor of the Ming court.

When the emperor's fleet gradually appeared on the surface of the Yangtze River in Nanjing, the spectacular scene was enough to make everyone who witnessed it excited. The fleet consisted of hundreds of gorgeously decorated ships of various sizes, and the largest one in the middle was the emperor's new imperial boat after he arrived on the Yangtze River. This ship was originally a sailing battleship owned by Jinghua. This time, it was temporarily requisitioned and renovated in order to save court expenses. The Ministry of Revenue only reimbursed Jinghua for the renovation fee.

The hull of the ship was beautifully carved with dragon patterns, and a huge bright yellow flag was hung on the mast, fluttering in the wind. The bow of the imperial boat was raised high, like a giant dragon with its head held high, and the stern was carved with rolling waves, symbolizing that the Ming Dynasty would continue like the river. The dozens of huge black cannons on both sides of the ship were a concrete display of its powerful might.

The imperial boat was surrounded by escort ships decorated with colorful flags and ribbons, which lined up in neat formations on the river to protect the safety of the imperial boat. The fleet sailed across the river, stirring up layers of waves, like white dragons tumbling in the river.

When the fleet slowly approached the dock of Nanjing, the shore was already crowded with people. Led by Shen Yiquan, the six ministries of Nanjing and local officials had already set up a huge ceremonial guard on the shore to welcome the emperor's arrival. The ceremonial guard consisted of thousands of soldiers, wearing bright armor, holding spears and flags, and arranged in a neat square formation, extending from the dock to the city of Nanjing.

In fact, the Nanjing defenders had a large number of firearms, but Shen Yikuan still felt that spears looked more powerful. Therefore, under his order, the Nanjing Minister of War and the Nanjing garrison officials had to replace the rifles and bayonets of the ceremonial guards with spears.

At the front of the honor guard was a team of soldiers holding golden gourds and axes. They were the guards assigned to the emperor by the Nanjing Palace, representing the supremacy of the imperial power. Following closely behind were rows of musicians holding various musical instruments, who played solemn music, creating a solemn and festive atmosphere for the emperor's arrival.

At the center of the pier, there was a huge incense table with various offerings on it and smoke curling around, symbolizing respect and blessings for the emperor. On both sides of the incense table were two rows of warriors holding halberds... I don't know where these halberds were found. Anyway, their halberds were hung with colorful ribbons, fluttering in the wind, adding a bit of festive joy.

As the imperial boat slowly approached the shore, Shen Yiguan led the officials of Nanjing to kneel down and said loudly: "Your Highness Shen Yiguan, the Grand Secretary of Wenhua Palace, leads the officials of the six departments of Nanjing to welcome the emperor! Long live the emperor, long live the emperor, long live the emperor!"

Zhu Yijun stood on the side of the ship, watching the scene with a smile, nodding slightly, but did not give any other instructions. When the cheers ended, he wore a convenient Wubian dragon robe, walked down the gangway under the guidance of Gao Youshi and the support of Chen Ju, and then waved his hand to signal the officials to stand up.

He glanced at the guard of honor on the shore, and was quite satisfied with Shen Yi's careful preparation. At this time, the emperor slowly said, "Lord Shen, all the nobles in Nanjing, please stand up. My trip to the south was smooth, and I am very pleased to see the officials and people of Nanjing happy and the military excited. All these are inseparable from your diligence and loyalty, and I am very pleased."

  These were just polite words, and everyone was used to them. Shen Yikuan once again took the lead in shouting: "Thank you, Your Majesty, for your praise!" Then, he slowly stood up and began to introduce the three major officials of Nanjing and the officials of the six ministries of Nanjing to the emperor one by one. After a long time, when all the procedures were completed, he led the emperor's carriage slowly to Nanjing City.
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