Ming Dynasty: At the beginning, the house was ransacked and the ancestral temple was burned down.

Chapter 239: Serving as an interpreter for the emperor, Wanli: Do you know foreign languages?
June 20th, the 28th year of the Wanli reign.

In these extremely familiar 'old days', Zhu Yijun once again became nervous.

Ever since the three main halls were burned to ashes by the "nameless evil fire", Zhu Yijun never asked his servants to light more palace lanterns for more lighting.

This is also true on this special day of June 20th.

"It hasn't rained for more than half a month, right?"

Looking at the bright sunshine outside, Zhu Yijun always felt a little uneasy. He didn't know whether he was overthinking or why, but the weather made him recall the last severe drought in the capital.

During that severe drought, the short ten-mile walk from the imperial city to the Temple of Heaven not only broke the right leg of the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, but also caused this originally diligent young emperor to start a ridiculous life of no longer attending court.

Whenever he thought back to the past, Zhu Yijun always felt ashamed. Now he feels ashamed of the energetic self he was more than ten years ago.

Chen Ju, who was accompanying the emperor, saw that the emperor was depressed. On this special day, it was inevitable that the emperor was in a bad mood, so he replied comfortingly:

"Your Majesty, it has only been over half a month since it rained. I think it will rain in a few days."

Chen Ju didn't know whether his answer had any comforting effect. He only knew that the emperor, who usually didn't like to go out, suddenly said after a long silence that he wanted to take a walk around the Imperial Garden.

"Your Majesty, it's so hot, why don't we go to the Imperial Garden later?"

"No, go now."

……

Chen Ju couldn't understand why the Emperor had to go to the Imperial Garden in such hot weather.

Zhu Yijun didn't know why he suddenly wanted to go out and take a few steps. He just suddenly thought of it and did it.

It’s such a hot day, the flowers in the Imperial Garden are almost wilted by the sun.

Even though palace servants were holding ice cubes and fanning him along the way, Zhu Yijun was still sweating profusely.

After wandering around and satisfying his sudden impulse, Zhu Yijun was ready to go back.

However, on the way back, he saw a strange man.

"Why is that guy so sneaky?"

Looking at a thin and sneaky eunuch not far away, who was so flustered when he saw the imperial carriage coming that he forgot to kneel. Zhu Yijun felt that there was something wrong with this person.

Chen Ju also noticed this strange person and immediately glanced at the young eunuch next to him.

Soon, the young eunuch came back with the answer.

"Your Majesty, that person is not a eunuch in the palace. She said she was a prostitute who sneaked into the palace to collect debts from her clients."

Zhu Yijun was stunned when he heard this, and then asked, "A prostitute?"

Chen Ju saw the emperor's confusion and replied awkwardly: "Your Majesty, the eunuchs in the palace are...but..."

"Okay, stop talking." Zhu Yijun interrupted Chen Ju's hesitation to speak. He probably understood what was going on.

Although the eunuch had no sexual intercourse, he had heard of these dirty things for the sake of satisfying his eyes or something else.

After all, the custom of eating together has always existed in the palace.

Zhu Yijun did not hate the idea of ​​having a concubine as much as his ancestor Zhu Di did. More importantly, he was too lazy to care about such trivial matters.

"Go help her find the eunuch who owes her money and ask him to pay her back."

Zhu Yijun just said this and was too lazy to punish the eunuch who had sneaked out of the palace to have sex with a prostitute.

As the master of the Forbidden City, Zhu Yijun was too lazy to even say one more word:
"The defense of this imperial city is really full of loopholes right now."

……

The day of June 20th passed by uneventfully.

There was no fire, no nightmare, and Zhu Yijun didn't even dream of that familiar figure again.

When he woke up, he felt that he had finally let it go, but the still sunny sky still made him feel uneasy.

……

Time passes day by day, month by month.

July, August, September, October, November, all the way to December of the 28th year of the Wanli reign.

Since June, it has not rained in the capital for half a year.

It is December, which should be snowing heavily, but now it is so quiet. It seems as if God is asleep, and not a single drop of rain or snow falls.

This is destined to happen, another drought is coming.

This time, the drought affected not only northern Zhili, but also Shandong, Henan, and Shanxi. The barren land stretched for thousands of miles, all suffering from severe drought.

According to convention, when there was a severe drought, the one who would be scolded was the emperor.

It happened that in recent years, Emperor Wanli insisted on opening mines to make money, and the mine supervisors he sent even provoked many civil uprisings.

How could the censors miss such a great opportunity? In any case, they had to attribute the drought to "the emperor's mining, which caused the wrath of heaven and the resentment of the people."

There were more and more memorials asking Emperor Wanli to abolish the mining tax. Zhu Yijun didn't want to read them at first, but people can't help but care about what others think of them.

It would be fine if he didn't look at it, but every time he looked at it, his blood pressure would soar.

During the year-end when there had been drought for half a year, Zhu Yijun did not forget to choose a wife for his beloved son Zhu Changxun, and he chose the right one.

The candidate for Prince Fu's Consort, Zou, was still of humble origins, but she was beautiful and virtuous. Zhu Changxun was extremely satisfied after he secretly took one look at her.

Having resolved his son's lifelong event, Zhu Yijun was able to put his mind at ease. He would just wait until next year when his son reached the age of marriage to hold a grand wedding for him.

Zhu Changxun’s marriage was, after all, just a family affair; the lack of rain causing a drought was a national affair.

Zhu Yijun could only deal with his family affairs. As for the state affairs, he didn't know how to solve them, and he was unwilling to face them.

After all, once he faces it, it means that he will have to go on strike, and once he goes on strike, he will have no income.

He was the emperor, and he didn't want to have to beg his ministers to use the national treasury every time he needed money.

I don’t know if it was a coincidence, but at the beginning of December in the 28th year of the Wanli reign, a piece of news came, which was not sure whether it was good or bad.

The fifth day of the twelfth month in the twenty-eighth year of the Wanli reign.

An Italian missionary named Matteo Ricci, on the recommendation of Ma Tang, the tax inspector of Tianjin, was going to offer divine offerings to the Emperor of Ming Dynasty.

Ma Tang also submitted a memorial to Emperor Wanli, reporting that Matteo Ricci wanted to request to enter Beijing.

The Ministry of Rites requested the emperor to only give Ricci a crown and a belt on the grounds that the Atlantic Ocean was not included in the "Da Ming Hui Dian" and its authenticity was unknown, and that the items presented by Ricci were not suitable for entry into the palace.

While the Ministry of Rites rejected the gifts offered by Matteo Ricci, it also requested an order from Emperor Wanli to allow Matteo Ricci to return to China as soon as possible and not to reside in the two capitals of the north or the south.

Everyone thought that Emperor Wanli, who disliked attending court and seeing people, would agree to the Ministry of Rites' suggestion.

However, something unexpected happened.

Emperor Wanli not only rejected the Ministry of Rites' suggestion, he even personally issued an edict to allow Matteo Ricci to come to Beijing and meet him.

……

The twenty-eighth year of Wanli passed and the twenty-ninth year of Wanli arrived.

The new year seemed destined to be an unlucky year, because the Emperor fell ill at the beginning of the year.

Fortunately, the illness was not serious. I just didn't feel well and didn't sleep well.

After the emperor took some medicine from the Imperial Physician, his condition improved, but he would often wake up at night and his old teeth would often ache.

In the new year, God still refuses to rain.

If this continues, the emperor will probably issue another edict of remorse.

However, this time, issuing a confession of guilt was of no use.

What the officials wanted was not for His Majesty the Emperor to write an insincere edict of guilt, but for the Emperor to abolish the mining tax. …

The twenty-ninth year of the Wanli reign, the twenty-fourth day of the first lunar month.

Matteo Ricci arrived in the capital.

As an outsider, Matteo Ricci was naturally received by the Honglu Temple.

Fortunately, Matteo Ricci could speak Chinese, otherwise he would not have been able to find an Italian translator at the moment.

Oh, no, there still is.

……

Qianqing Palace.

"What are Yu Shenxing and Li Tingji trying to do? One is pretending to be sick, and the other is living in a dilapidated temple. Is there something wrong with their brains?"

Zhu Yijun, who was already ill, inevitably became angry when he heard that Fang Congzhe was the only one left in the cabinet.

It would have been fine if the Prime Minister Yu Shenxing had just pretended to be sick, but the Second Prime Minister Li Tingji was so crazy that he sold his property, gave money away everywhere, and then sent his wife and children back to his hometown, and went to live alone in a dilapidated temple on the outskirts of Beijing.

Zhang Cheng on the side said: "Your Majesty, Li Tingji said that if you don't approve his resignation, he will keep submitting his resignation to you in the temple until you agree..."

"Nerves!" Zhu Yijun threw his resignation letter on the table and couldn't help coughing in anger. Even though his face was red from coughing, he couldn't help but curse intermittently:

"Ahem...if you want to live here...ahhem...it's a ruined temple...just live there...ahhem..."

His Majesty the Emperor finally stopped coughing, and soon after he drank some tea to moisten his throat, he received new news.

"Your Majesty, Matteo Ricci has settled down at the Honglu Temple. He has presented a lot of new and interesting things to us. Would you like to see them?"

……

Honglu Temple.

"Young man, do you believe in the existence of God?"

Matteo Ricci looked at the handsome young man with bright features in front of him and started his first missionary work in the capital.

The reason why Matteo Ricci chose this good-looking young man to 'take the first step' was that he saw that this man kept to himself in the Honglu Temple and seemed to be excluded by others.

Often, such poor people who are ostracized are more likely to be moved by God, so Matteo Ricci chose this person.

At the same time, Zhang Chonghui was also looking at this blond, blue-eyed foreigner with a strong strange accent.

Finally, he asked, "What is God? Can he make me rich?"

Matteo Ricci had also seen the world. He had met too many people like Zhang Chonghui who had desires for God as soon as they opened their mouths. To this, he responded as he always did:

"Young man, as long as you are pious enough, God will give you everything."

"Is that so? That's good." Zhang Chonghui said lightly.

"So, kid, do you want to join us Catholics? Let me..."

"Sorry, didn't want to."

"..."

Matteo Ricci also realized that Zhang Chonghui, like many people in the Ming Dynasty, was an extremely tough nut to crack.

Matteo Ricci had already discovered that the culture of the Ming Dynasty had always been firmly controlled by Confucian scholars. If he wanted the people of the Ming Dynasty to accept Catholicism, he had to start with the literati and scholars.

In his early years, Matteo Ricci had already studied Confucian civilization. Wearing the robes of Ming Dynasty scholars, he introduced Western technologies such as mnemonics, maps, astronomy, etc. to the Ming people, in order to show the Ming people who felt superior that they were not "Western barbarians" with low culture.

however……

There is actually some effect.

However, Matteo Ricci discovered that these Ming Dynasty people seemed only interested in the Western civilization and technology he brought.

As for his God, Jesus, and Lord, whenever people in the Ming Dynasty talked about these gods, they were almost all in the same state as Zhang Chonghui, who was confused or even indifferent.

Matteo Ricci had been in the Ming Dynasty for almost twenty years, and he had seen many tough guys like Zhang Chonghui.

According to Matteo Ricci's many years of missionary experience, although hard bones are difficult to chew, as long as they are chewed, these people will become the most loyal believers of his Lord!
Just when Matteo Ricci was about to take out the world map and use "technology" to lure Zhang Chonghui into becoming interested in their Catholicism, someone arrived.

It was the eunuchs in the palace who came to deliver the message that the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty would personally meet with Matteo Ricci.

……

Qianqing Palace.

Emperor Wanli Zhu Yijun personally received this blond-haired, blue-eyed Westerner who was wearing the robes of a Ming scholar.

It is not known whether Matteo Ricci was too nervous when he met the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty for the first time, and thus uttered a few words of his native language from time to time, or whether it was because Zhu Yijun was ill and his hearing was not working well.

When Matteo Ricci introduced the three holy statues of the Three Lords, the statue of the Virgin Mary, and Catholic scriptures that he had presented to the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yijun did not understand a single word.

The two of them were talking at cross purposes. The speaker talked for a long time, and the listener asked questions for a long time because he didn't understand. Finally, Zhu Yijun couldn't stand it anymore and directly ordered someone to find an interpreter.

……

Soon, the translator arrived.

Not only Zhu Yijun knew the visitor, but also Matteo Ricci.

"You can speak Western language?"

Zhu Yijun looked at Zhang Chonghui in disbelief, feeling as if he had seen a ghost.

"Your Majesty, although I am not fluent in the missionary's native dialect, I have no problem translating it."

Zhang Chonghui made big claims, but only he himself knew whether he could really understand them.

Zhu Yijun was about to ask, "Apart from you, no one else knows how to do it?"

Before he could even ask, Zhang Chonghui had already introduced the two 'new gadgets' presented by Matteo Ricci, saying:
"Your Majesty, I have forgotten where I have seen this thing before. I remember that it seems to be... a clock? A clock that can strike itself on time to tell the time."

Matteo Ricci was immediately shocked. Not only did he stop speaking his native language, but he also spoke fluently, "Yes! This is a self-ringing clock! There is a mechanism in the middle, and it will make a "dangdang" sound every time it strikes a time! Zhang Zhubu, have you ever seen a self-ringing clock?"

Zhang Chonghui shook his head and said, "I forgot. Maybe I caught a glimpse of it by chance when I was a child, or maybe I dreamed about it."

Matteo Ricci immediately sensed a crisis, wondering if someone had brought this Western object to the Ming Dynasty before me?

In order to confirm his guess, Matteo Ricci took the initiative to ask Zhang Chonghui, "Zhang Zhubu, have you ever seen such a musical instrument?"

Following Matteo Ricci's gaze, Zhang Chonghui saw a frame about three feet long and five feet wide, with seventy-two strings, each with a pillar, and the ends exposed to the outside. It was a strange shape that looked like a cabinet but was not a cabinet.

"Never seen it." Zhang Chonghui replied truthfully.

Matteo Ricci seemed to be relieved and said, "This is called the Iron Stringed Harp. It was originally used by missionaries like us. When I was in Tianjin, the eunuch Ma Gonggong who came to introduce me to him took a liking to it on the spot. He said that Your Majesty would definitely like it, so I included this instrument in the list of tributes. I hope Your Majesty will like it."

The "forgotten" Emperor Wanli was finally remembered. Zhu Yijun was looking at this strange so-called iron-stringed harp, wondering how this thing made a sound, when he saw Matteo Ricci press it.

"clang……"

A crisp sound was heard.

"Your Majesty, may I play a song for you?"

……

It was the first time that Zhu Yijun heard such a novel "piano sound", which was crisp and pleasant.

I don’t know if it was because the sound of the piano was so beautiful and relaxing, or because Zhang Chonghui, who was standing straight beside me, looked too new in his official robe.

From time to time, Zhu Yijun's attention would be drawn to the oriole on Zhang Chonghui's green official robe.

The sound of the piano was so deafening that Zhu Yijun even had hallucinations.

In the hallucination, this is not a humble oriole, but a crane with its wings spread gracefully.

(End of this chapter)