I'm sure of the prosperous age of Kangxi and Qianlong!

Chapter 640 March

On February , the dragon looked up.

On March 3rd, Xuanyuan was born.

This year's Nanjing citizens, regardless of whether they are rich or poor, are more lively than in previous years.

Literati drank wine, wrote poems, and went on outings together.

The ladies of wealthy families and ordinary people's homes also have flowers in their heads or bouquets in their hands.

There is a song called "Flower Market", the words of which go like this:

There are many market flowers in the flower market. People praise the market flowers in five colors, but people come to buy the flowers without credit.

The flower-making craftsmen are extremely skillful, and the branches and leaves are blooming with spring claws. You can eat as much as you want from the flowers.

Get up early to carry flowers and go to the long street. Thousands of bundles of brocade are lined up in the street, and phoenix signs are hung high to protect the flowers.

Daughters from rich families are said to be the beauty of the country, and they can’t plant flowers for three days. Poor families have no rice and worry about cooking smoke, and their daughters do not hesitate to buy flowers.

This is about the Beijing Flower Market, which is also a grand event during the Shangsi Festival.

March 3rd is Shangsi Festival, also known as Daughter's Day.

Even ordinary people's families who are not very wealthy will spend money on this day to buy flowers for their daughters to wear.

Not only for holiday tradition and beauty, but also to pray for my daughter and a good marriage in the future.

By the way, in Japan, the common name of Girls' Day is also called "Shangsi", and its name originated from China (although it is now common among adults).

The city gates of Nanjing are rarely open around the clock today, and the neighborhoods in the city are full of flower vendors. Occasionally, people going out of the city for outings would stop to buy flowers, and many people would come into the city one after another to see the flowers on the spot.

The citizens traveling from the city were divided into several directions.

The largest number of people went to the east of the city, mainly scholars from wealthy families. They all went to Xuanwu Lake for boating. Xuanwu Lake was restricted in the former Ming Dynasty, but it has been fully opened in the new Ming Dynasty, even allowing envoys from foreign vassals to visit, and there are also projects such as the Purple Mountain Racecourse, the Royal Zoo Area, etc., which are usually open.

Of course, Xiaoling Guard still cannot enter.

The number of people going to the south of the city ranked second, and they were mainly ordinary people. The Great Baoen Temple in the south of the city has been completely opened as a royal park. Anyone can go in to offer incense, worship, and tour the temple buildings.

On weekdays, most people are busy with their livelihoods. Today is the Shangsi Festival holiday. Naturally, many people, including those busy officials and servants, also come to the temple with their families.

And because it is a rare holiday, the government has issued a special decree that you can go up to the Glazed Pagoda to have a look as long as you pay for a ticket.

For many people, this is a rare thing.

In order to prevent accidents caused by too many people, many monks from Dabaoen Temple were temporarily recruited by the government to maintain order.

There are also scattered citizens traveling, as well as some older Confucian scholars. Most of them go to the west of the city, where there is Mochou Lake next to the Qinhuai River, which is also suitable for outings.

The most important thing is that there are fewer people visiting here and it is more peaceful.

The French envoy did not come to China this year, but the British envoy and the envoys from foreign vassals in Nanyang and Southeast Asia came as usual.

"Take a look, take a look!"

"Fragrant and sweet candied haws."

"Tea eggs, tea eggs..."

After leaving the city gate, you can see vendors setting up stalls everywhere on the outskirts of the city, selling everything as far as you can see.

Idehao stayed in Bombay this year and went on several consecutive missions to China, which earned him the trust of the Governor. Now he has moved from the company to the Governor's Palace and has become the Secretary to the Governor of Bombay.

It turned out that Deputy Envoy Abraham took over Ed Howe's position and brought a group of envoys to China as usual to maintain the strategic trade alliance between China and Britain.

Having been to China several times, Abraham can already understand some simple Chinese words.

"This is the "Shangsi" (Chinese translation) festival in Ming Dynasty. It is a beautiful festival for Chinese scholars. On this day, they can speak freely and write poems." Abraham looked at those who were going on an outing together and were already on the river. The scholar who started composing poems and making music couldn't help but admired.

In his eyes, these Chinese scholars and Confucian scholars were equivalent to British liberal scholars, and the poems written by Chinese scholars were equivalent to the poems written by European scholars.

He has had in-depth exchanges with officials from Honglu Temple. The Chinese emperor was very tolerant of "scholars" most of the time, and rarely restricted the "poetry" created by "scholars."

This allowed Abraham to once again feel the kindness of the Chinese emperor from a literary perspective.

If their king could be so tolerant and kind to scholars and better to merchants and citizens, then they might not break out a revolution and overthrow the king's monarchical power.

Well, this is all nonsense, not to mention that it is impossible for the king not to interfere and oppress the merchants. Even if they really don't interfere with businessmen, the gradually expanding bourgeoisie will take the initiative to demand more power.

Feudal monarchs and emerging assets are irreconcilable contradictions.

The British envoys strolled along the Great Baoen Temple and Changgan River, and those envoys from Southeast Asia and Southeast Asia also took advantage of the festival to come out to join in the fun.

Honglu Temple does not prohibit envoys from foreign vassals from traveling during the Shangsi Festival. They only need to report to Honglu Temple in advance. And you must have a tour leader who understands Chinese, or simply hire a Chinese translator yourself.

Of course, you can also hire from Honglu Temple, but there is a fee and the price is not low.

After all, on Shangsi Festival, most officials are on holiday, and only a small number of them are on duty.

Since Mo Tianxi came to Nanjing for pilgrimage with the envoys, he has not returned to Ha Tien Town, but stayed directly in Nanjing City.

The emperor also gave him a Jiuyuhou Mansion as his residence in Nanjing, and ordered him to study in the Imperial College.

This may seem generous, but in fact it is also a political deal. Mo Jiu is still in Ha Tien Town, but Quang Nam Province has begun to send officials to take over the civil affairs.

Today, Mo Tianxi also went out for an outing in the city with several classmates from the Imperial College.

Although he is an overseas Han national, he is not unfamiliar with Han culture due to his father Mo Jiu's upbringing from an early age, and he also speaks fluent Cantonese.

"Brother Ma, hurry up. If you leave the city later, you won't have a place!"

"I heard that there is a Cuju football match in the east of the city today. I'm afraid a lot of people have gathered now!"

"That's natural. After all, there are many powerful teams here this time, and even Rising Star Qiyunshe will be there."

"Real or false, how does Brother Li know so clearly?"

"My cousin has a friend who works as a substitute in Qiyun Club, so he naturally knows."

"..."

In addition to Xuanwu Lake and Purple Mountain in the outer city east area, there is also an official Cuju football stadium.

This official is not that official, but a folk Cuju association that jointly paid for a piece of land in the east of the city to rent.

This piece of land has been transformed by several associations into a folk Cuju competition venue, which is specially used for various football clubs and teams to play games, and it is also an official game.

There are even a number of commercial banks behind the scenes that provide financial support, but the condition is that the subsidized stadiums must have conspicuous banners and logos of the commercial companies. Football clubs are even simpler, and the company names are directly printed on the team uniforms.

To put it bluntly, they are the advertising sponsors of the Ming Dynasty Edition!

Emperor Zhu only publicly supported the Cuju cause of the Ming Dynasty, but he did not expect that in just a few years, the folk Cuju associations had developed to this extent.

Several Cuju associations in Nanjing were able to join forces to solicit sponsorship, and then paid to buy land from the government.

Although it is land in the outer city, it is quite amazing. After all, this is land in Nanjing. Even if the price in the outer city is not low, it is still such a large piece of land.

Anyway, when Zhu Yijiong saw the memorial submitted by the relevant yamen, he was indeed a little confused. He didn't care about anything and just gave verbal support. Folk Cuju football could develop to this extent.

Sure enough, it’s okay for me to fuck you! (No connotation o(*￣︶￣*)o)

"Look, it's His Majesty and a few ladies driving the car." Suddenly a student from the Imperial College shouted.

The others and Mo Tianxi all looked back and saw a long procession of carriages and horses, with accompanying imperial guards on both sides to clear the way.

As the carriage approached slowly, the group of people saw that not only the emperor and his ladies were riding in the royal chariot, but also several cabinet ministers were also riding in the carriage behind.

After that, there were the ministers of various ministries, and even a few ministers and officials. These people were either riding in cars or riding horses, but few of them were riding in sedan chairs.

Nowadays, the bearers in Nanjing are experiencing a cold winter downturn in the industry.

Because of the surrender of Liaodong and Monan, even the Tamluo Island Horse Farm was cancelled, and the pressure on the imperial court's war horses was no longer so great.

More and more southwest ponies are being eliminated from the army. Not to mention other places, more and more officials in Nanjing, the imperial capital, have begun to travel by carriage.

Those who still ride in sedans today are mostly ordinary wealthy families. Those who are really rich and powerful have long chosen to follow the trend and ride in carriages.

Zhu Yijiong had nothing to do about this. He could not issue an order to stop the wealthy people from riding in carriages.

And the more you ban this kind of thing, the more enthusiastic people will be.

Some maritime merchants in coastal cities are exaggerating.

These guys just rode carriages at first, but later, for the sake of comparison and face, they went from carriages to horse-drawn carriages, like what Mo Tianxi had seen in Guangzhou Port before.

Now, it is even more outrageous. Those maritime merchants are not satisfied with even Mongolian war horses, and have begun to go to India to buy Marwar war horses through their connections.

This was the standard equipment of the imperial cavalry, almost equivalent to the smuggled arms of later generations.

However, since the imperial court relaxed the ban on war horses, Marwar horses were said to be standard equipment for the imperial cavalry, but no regulations were made. And the quantity is not large. Each maritime merchant can only get one or two horses. If there are more, no one will buy them. It's just a matter of honor.

Therefore, local officials along the coast turned a blind eye.

The emperor's and ministers' driving team left the city and went straight to Xuanwu Lake.

Not far from the lake shore, we got off the car and started walking.

There were guards following and protecting them along the way, and all the tourists and scholars on the lakeshore saluted the team.

The guards did not have the emperor's order, so they did not forcefully drive them away, but just separated the people who were watching the excitement.

After walking for a while, they chose a deserted river beach, where the emperor and his concubines had a picnic.

The maids came forward to spread blankets and tablecloths, and took out snacks and food from the food boxes and placed them on them.

The rest of the ministers were invited by the emperor and followed him around. They placed blankets and food in layers according to the order of their official positions.

Some young ministers brought their wives, sons and daughters along for the trip.

Wang Li and Liang Wenxuan are also here this time. Although they are actually no longer in charge, they still occupy the positions of first and second assistant in name and have not retired.

Zhu Yijiong smiled and asked: "Wang Qing, Liang Qing, how are you doing these days?"

"I would like to thank you for your condolences, Your Majesty. I have almost recovered from the cold that I suffered from a year ago." Wang Li said with his hand in hand.

This cold wind can be regarded as the reason for asking for resignation for the second time.

Liang Wenxuan on the side also raised his hands and said: "Thank you for your concern, Your Majesty!"

"The two ministers are getting older, so they should take care of themselves!" Zhu Yijiong said with concern, which was both concern and a hint.

Wang Li understood what he was saying, and then continued: "Since the last cold weather, I have become increasingly weak in energy. Your Majesty, please be considerate of my old age. May I retire and return to my hometown to take care of myself."

Zhu Yijiong symbolically urged him to stay: "Wang Ge is not yet seventy years old, so please encourage him."

Wang Li said: "Thank you for your consideration, Your Majesty."

This is the last time to resign. Wang Li can formally resign when he goes to court next time.

Zhu Yijiong will also ask the Ministry of Rites and the Cabinet to jointly agree on promotions so that he can retire and return home in glory.

Seeing this, Zhu Chengxun felt that the stone in his heart was not settled, but instead the pressure became heavier.

Once Chief Assistant Wang Li retires, he will naturally become the new Chief Assistant, and then all the pressure on the cabinet will be on him.

While he was thinking, several ministers in the peripheral area had already begun to face Xuanwu Lake and the scholars and tourists who were boating in the lake, reciting poems to each other.

After all, during the Shangsi festival, literati recited poems and composed poems, drank wine and had fun.

Zhu Yijiong didn't know how to write poetry, and even the rhyming of the poems had long been given back to the Chinese teacher. However, he still remembered a few poems, but the year was a bit early, and they were either Tang poems or Song poems.

In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, there was no way to be a copywriter due to this little trouble.

His prince and his second son only had some snacks, then they took a few guards and rode to the nearby football field to watch the game.

The name football came from his mouth unintentionally. Even now, although it is still commonly called Cuju, all the teams that compete seriously have been named football teams. Even the associations registered with the government are named football clubs, not football clubs. Cuju Club.

Zhu Yijiong supports the development of folk Cuju football, but he himself has little interest in football.

It's not that he doesn't like watching football, it's that the football of this era is different from that of later generations, whether it's the rules or the tricks.

Even fans of later generations may find it difficult to watch it in this era.

In this regard, Emperor Zhu did not want to interfere too much. It was because the Qing Dynasty banned Cuju in later generations of football that they began to play according to foreign rules.

As for now, it is completely unnecessary. Moreover, if this more violent football can be promoted, it can also cultivate a martial culture among the people.

After simply having a meal with the courtiers, Zhu Yijiong directly waved them away to go and have fun, while he himself leaned on the lounge chair brought by the palace maid, and just closed his eyes and took a nap by the lake.

The accompanying musicians began to play palace tunes.

When the ministers saw the emperor taking a rest, they also went to the lake for sightseeing in small groups.

Some of them just took their families and went boating on the lake.

Emperor Zhu's concubines and the princes' children were laughing and hanging out together, either going to the racecourse to ride horses or going to the zoo to see rare overseas animals.

The Yinzhou fleet brought back many rare animals from the Yinzhou continent.

On Xuanwu Lake, there are already too many boats and boats for boating on the lake.

Fortunately, the lake is big enough, with many boats but not crowded.

The tourists and people are full of smiles, flowers are blooming everywhere, and it is a prosperous scene.

　fatigue, exhaustion, kavin

　　
　
(End of this chapter)