Spoiler History: Starting from the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 763 Brothers Meet
According to the system established when the Ming Dynasty was founded, there were three days off on the winter solstice, five days off on New Year's Eve, and ten days off on the Lantern Festival.

If we don’t count the one day off per month, these rest days make up almost the entire year.

And now, even the winter solstice has been crammed with official duties by His Majesty, which makes the officials of the Ming Dynasty feel that something is wrong.

At this rate, the rest days during New Year’s Eve and Lantern Festival will not have to be cut, right?

The officials, who had been waiting for a whole year but didn't get a good rest, felt a little worried.

Therefore, even when someone impeached Duke Cao for misconduct at the court meeting after the winter solstice, few people followed suit.

Moreover, the so-called impoliteness was not a big deal in the eyes of many officials.

Among the Ming Dynasty's current vassal states, only a few can pay tribute two, three, or even four times a year like the Ryukyu Kingdom.

The vast majority of vassal states still come to pay homage once a year, and the Chinese New Year is obviously the most appropriate time.

Therefore, the period around the Chinese New Year is also the busiest and most chaotic time for the Honglu Temple, an institution that is usually quiet.

The small Honglu Temple would gather all kinds of rare treasures, foreign singing girls, spices and precious items around the Chinese New Year. The fact that those houses, which were vacant most of the year, could have different styles and languages ​​in the same courtyard was itself a wonder of Yingtian Prefecture during the Chinese New Year.

Therefore, it was normal for Duke Cao to be discovered to have used an alias and established friendship with the Japanese, and it was only natural that he was impeached.

However, the court has always been a place for exchanges and collisions of opinions. Some people think that the Duke's actions are a disgrace to the state, while others think that it is not a big deal for the Duke to condescend to spy on the Japanese pirates. Some even more radical people tried to guess the emperor's intentions and reported that the Japanese envoys had lured and harmed the Duke and should be expelled. Most of these people thought of the old incident when Zhu Yuanzhang did not accept tribute from Japan last year.

But contrary to everyone's expectations - or rather, within expectations - the responses of the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty to these matters were all lukewarm. Even the responses to the two edicts before the winter solstice were all indifferent. Instead, he finally slowly brought up the old matter of the remnants of the Yuan Dynasty in the north during the court meeting.

He praised Liu Guang for his heroic deeds and Wang Lu for his bravery. Then he changed the subject and announced that he had agreed with General Xu Da to build a Great Wall in the mountains to the north of Yongping Prefecture, relying on the mountains and sea as a pass and connecting the mountains as a barrier. He would set up the Mountain and Sea Guard to cut off the invasion of the Hu Yuan and allow Hebei to recuperate.

Shanhaiwei had a total of 32 passes at the border of the ridge, the most majestic of which was named Shanhaiguan. General Xu Da was in charge of the construction of Shanhaiwei city.

It was obvious that the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was not asking for the opinions of the officials, but informing them of the Ming Dynasty's next garrison direction and countermeasures. The ministers were both happy and worried for a moment.

The good news is that the direction of national affairs does not require them to work hard to think about countermeasures, but the worry is that it seems that they are not able to put forward any opinions on national affairs.

Fortunately, they still need to supplement the details of these plans, because such an action will inevitably require a lot of civilians and soldiers. Whether to send garrison troops or recruit poor people to migrate, whether to replenish food and grass by canal or sea transportation, these things need to be discussed in detail.

However, what really made the court discussion heated up was the announcement by the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty that the New Year's Eve holiday would be changed.

The original New Year's Eve and Lantern Festival's two-day holiday was taken and combined with the Tianshou Festival and the Beginning of Spring's two-day holiday, so that all officials can have their holiday from New Year's Eve to the end of the Lantern Festival.

Although we know that in this way, the total rest time in a year remains unchanged.

Although they knew that His Majesty's move was nothing but a monkey trick, the officials who were already exhausted from working so hard on government affairs had no time to worry about it. Instead, they breathed a sigh of relief and felt genuine happiness.

That is why the Ming officials expressed their unconditional support for any request of His Majesty to build Shanhaiguan, even though they did not have the ability or power to object. After the winter solstice, it was difficult for everyone from the emperor to the common people to avoid celebrating the New Year in their daily lives.

After counting the money saved in a year, thinking about the needs of the wife and children, they would make up their minds to buy some food and dried meat, which they would not dare to even look at twice under normal circumstances. If they were more capable, they could go to the market to buy a few feet of cloth and bring it back for their wives to think about how to buy new clothes. This was the New Year for ordinary people.

The emperor had a lot of things to do, from offering sacrifices to heaven to offering sacrifices to ancestors, he had to appease the officials and reward meritorious officials, think about how to deal with envoys from vassal states, and take stock of the gains and losses in the world and make plans for the coming year early.

Although he was busy, Zhu Yuanzhang enjoyed it. His son Zhu Biao was also very busy, but since the establishment of the Eastern Palace Scholars, Biao's spirit and spirit had improved visibly. It seemed that he had saved a lot of energy, which made Zhu Yuanzhang very relieved.

As the New Year drew closer, the festive atmosphere in Yingtian Prefecture became increasingly stronger. At this critical juncture, the crews of the two ships arrived in Yingtian Prefecture almost at the same time. Before the ship owners went ashore, they had already recognized each other.

Without waiting for the ships to stop, King Qin Zhu Chong took a running start and used the bulge on the side of the ship to gain leverage. He flew through the gap between the two ships like an eagle and landed steadily on the adjacent ship.

The young man in the lead on the ship was almost overwhelmed with joy:
"Second brother!"

"The third one!"

The simple address revealed each other's identities. The two brothers exchanged a few pleasantries along the Qinhuai River. During the conversation, they inevitably recalled their past brotherhood. As they spoke, King Jin Zhu Gang almost shed tears.

Zhu Biao was the eldest among Zhu Yuanzhang's sons, so Zhu Yuanzhang devoted a lot of energy to him during the wars, and always kept him by his side to teach him by example.

His father and eldest brother were often away, so Zhu Gang, who was also born earlier, was inevitably closer to his second brother Zhu Chong, and they were even quite similar in personality.

"I thought that after my second brother and I went to guard the Ming Dynasty together two years ago, I would never see him again. I didn't expect that Dad would summon you and me at the same time."

Zhu Gang was talking about his longing for his second brother, and the King of Qin, Zhu Chong, laughed without hesitation:

"I am very curious about the cooking skills of your chef Xu Xingzu. Is he accompanying you this time?"

Zhu Gang suddenly felt a little embarrassed. During the year he was enfeoffed, he was reprimanded by his father in a letter for whipping the cook. Almost all of his brothers were afraid of their father, so the news spread quickly.

After laughing, Zhu Chong asked in a low voice:

"If the chef accompanies me, I will ask my father to give him to me. When this dog chef accompanies me to Xi'an... hehe."

The laughter was low, but the meaning was self-evident. Zhu Gang was immediately moved and shook his head.

"I didn't know that my second brother was also called back by my father... But I also heard that my father also scolded Xi'an..."

Before he finished speaking, Zhu Chong patted the side of the boat disapprovingly:

"Where can I live if I don't build a place to live? Daddy is always nitpicking. My Great Ming is the richest country in the world, so why can't we even build a house?"

(End of this chapter)