Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

The looming war clouds in Liaodong did not affect the peace and prosperity in the capital.

In fact, not many people knew about the war in Liaodong. Even most officials in the court were unaware of it.

After the Privy Council became independent, most court officials lost their say in military affairs.

All actions of the Privy Council were reported internally according to the level of secrecy. Only the Privy Councilors and the staff knew the complete Jisi Plan.

There was even less news in the newspapers, as if nothing had happened.

It can be said that the confidentiality work was done very well this time.

Even if the Jianlu bribed officials to serve as spies, it would be difficult for them to obtain complete information.

All they knew was that the emperor was holding a grand review in the west of Beijing, and that the review was still going on after the emperor returned to Beijing.

The most lively things in Beijing right now are the upcoming music festival and the calligraphy and painting exhibition that has been held in conjunction with the spring auction.

While focusing on military affairs, Zhu Youjian did not relax at all in civil administration.

The drama festival held last year was upgraded to a music festival as a grand event hosted by Yuefu.

The winners of this music festival will also be invited to the palace to participate in the Queen's Thousand Years Festival performance.

Awards will also be given and particularly outstanding works will be included in the Yuefu.

Because of this, this music festival attracted a lot of people.

Opera troupes and musicians from all over the Ming Dynasty flocked to the capital.

Those musicians who had just been promoted to civilian households were grateful to the current emperor and expressed their support with practical actions.

The wealthy families and scholars of the Ming Dynasty who had free time also came to Beijing.

As a result, the bustle in the capital was no less than when the imperial examination was held last year.

Zhu Youjian's goal was initially achieved -

The auction, which started last year, has gradually gained influence among the wealthy groups in the Ming Dynasty.

The perfect auction process and royally recognized certificates have attracted some wealthy people who want to buy a few items to show off.

Zhu Youjian also needed to sell the things in the internal warehouses such as the stolen goods and fines warehouse and convert them into actual property.

In order to subsidize the expenses of the inner court and overcome the difficult period of the division of the inner and outer treasuries.

So he took the opportunity of the Queen's Centenary Festival to upgrade the drama festival to a music festival, attracting wealthy people from the Ming Dynasty and letting them give money voluntarily.

To this end, he also prepared a batch of silver dollars, and asked the banks of the Imperial Household Department and the money houses and silver shops in the capital to issue silver notes to facilitate the auction.

At the same time, we were testing the issuance of silver dollar notes to see how people would accept them.

Officials from the Ministry of Revenue and financial industry personnel in the capital all attached great importance to this matter.

The Jinyiwei even went all out to maintain order at the music festival.
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It was under such circumstances that Chen Zilong, a student from Songjiang Prefecture, came to the capital.

Last year, he was granted the status of Imperial College student by the emperor, and his father was also granted a title.

It was only because I was in mourning at that time that I did not come to the capital.

After the mourning period was over, his grandmother arranged for him to get married in the twelfth lunar month.

It was not until February that he set out for Beijing.

As a scholar, Chen Zilong had no reputation in the capital.

But he was a famous talent in Jiangnan. In the seventh year of Tianqi, he participated in a social gathering organized by Zhang Pu, Zhang Cai and others.

Ai Nanying, a member of Yingshe and one of the four talented scholars of Linchuan, wanted to make trouble with Zhang Pu and Zhang Cai, but was intercepted by Chen Zilong and debated with him on literary theory for several days.

Later, at a gathering in Wang Shizhen's Yanyuan, he beat Ai Nanying because of a disagreement and expelled him from Yingshe.

At the beginning of this year, Chen Zilong and his friends Xia Yunyi, Du Linzheng, Xu Fuyuan and others organized several societies in Songjiang. Relying on his outstanding talent, he became one of the seven sons of the society.

Because of this, he was noticed by Zhu Youjian, who was paying attention to the trends of Jiangnan literati. Through Zhang Pu and Xu Fuyuan, he was invited to the capital.

Prevent these literary societies from becoming too powerful in Jiangnan and becoming political parties in the future.

So when Chen Zilong came to Beijing, he was greeted by Zhang Pu and others. Cao Huachun, the eunuch who supervised Ming Pao, also came to observe this famous talent.

"Brother Renzhong, why are you here so late?"

"You should have come to Beijing after you left your mourning period last year!"

Complaining that Chen Zilong came too late, Zhang Pu felt that Ming Pao would be more prosperous if Chen Zilong was there.

At the same time, he also showed his closeness to Chen Zilong and thanked him for maintaining his reputation in Jiangnan.

Chen Zilong was also very happy to see Zhang Pu, and smiled bitterly at his complaints:

"My grandmother is over sixty years old and is urging my foolish brother to get married."

"Besides, my wife turned nineteen last year, so we really can't afford to delay."

If she hadn't gotten married at nineteen, she would have been twenty this year, and would have been considered an old maid.

In addition, Chen Zilong's grandmother was old and his stepmother was ill, so they urgently needed someone to manage the household. So after the mourning period was over, they arranged for Chen Zilong to marry Zhang.

Chen Zilong was a man of high character, and he did not care about his family's production. Now, all the family affairs were taken care of by Zhang.

If not for this, Chen Zilong would not have been able to go to Beijing with peace of mind, leaving his grandmother and stepmother behind.

Not everyone knows these trivial matters at home, and Chen Zilong is unwilling to elaborate.
"So that you may know, I have changed my name to Wozi."

"From now on, you can call me Wozi instead of Renzhong."

He talked about his change of characters and informed everyone one by one.

This made Zhang Pu smile and say:
"I remember your name was Chen Jie, but later you changed it to Zilong."

“Now that the characters have been changed, the name has become even more complicated.”

"No wonder the emperor ordered that people should be addressed by their given names, and if they have the same name, a new character should be added."

"From now on, I will call you Brother Chen. There is no need to remember so many names." This made everyone laugh and reminded them of the order issued by the emperor when he first ascended the throne.

At first they thought it was too straightforward, but now they are gradually getting used to it.

It is indeed more convenient to call someone by their name or courtesy name directly, without having to think of so many messy names.

They are used to this as they write for newspapers. Otherwise, if the writing is too complicated, readers will have doubts.

Chen Zilong also laughed at Zhang Pu's joke.

He didn't think there was anything wrong with changing his name, so he changed it if he wanted to.

He even wanted to choose a few more font sizes to represent different moods.

However, the current emperor wanted to keep things simple, and his friends had adapted to this. He decided to use the word "Wozi" for a while longer and then decide whether to change it.

Thinking of this, he heard Zhang Pu introduce:

"This is Eunuch Cao from the inner court. He is the inner court propaganda committee member and is specifically responsible for newspapers, public opinion and other industries."

"Moreover, he was the former prince who held the seal of the Imperial Household Department and was persecuted by the eunuch party just like us."

This is the statement most often used by Zhang Pu, and it is also the reason why Cao Huachun is recognized by literati.

When Wang An was in power, he was quite close to the Donglin Party and other civil servants. Later, he was killed by Wei Zhongxian and others, which made many literati feel sorry.

As a subordinate of Wang An, Cao Huachun naturally benefited from Wang An's influence and had close relations with many scholars.

Because of this, he was appointed by the emperor as the propaganda committee member of the Imperial Assets Commission's Industrial Committee, specifically responsible for the public opinion industry.

Cao Huachun already knew how to deal with men of letters. After a few words to the slightly uncomfortable Chen Zilong, he gained his approval.

Then he followed the emperor's instructions and said to Chen Zilong:

"Your Majesty has heard that Mr. Chen is from Songjiang, and is from the same hometown as Xu Xueshi."

"So I arranged for our family to introduce you to Xu Xueshi as your teacher."

This was the treatment Zhang Pu had received before, and it was something Chen Zilong had not expected.

He really didn't expect that as soon as he entered the capital, the emperor would arrange for him to become Xu Guangqi's disciple.

Who is this Grand Secretary Xu Guangqi? How could Chen Zilong, who was also in Songjiang, not know him?

Even his father might not have the opportunity to become his disciple.

Thinking of his declining family business and Xu Guangqi's status as a university scholar, Chen Zilong's nose was sore and he was even more grateful for the emperor's care. He bowed to Cao Huachun and said:

"Your Majesty is so kind to me, and I am deeply grateful to you."

"I will strive to study hard and live up to the kindness of His Majesty."

According to Cao Huachun's arrangement, he prepared to choose an auspicious day to go to Xu Guangqi's house to become his disciple.

With the identities of fellow townsmen and the emperor's decree, Chen Zilong's becoming his disciple was a sure thing.

From then on, he was not only an ordinary Taixue student, but also a disciple of the Grand Secretary, and his identity was completely different from before.

This made those who followed Zhang Pu to greet him extremely envious.

Who wouldn't want to have a great scholar as his teacher?

Unfortunately, not everyone has the opportunity to let the emperor arrange it himself.

However, Zhu Youjian was actually just going with the flow, because in history, when Chen Zilong was in the capital, he became Xu Guangqi's disciple.

Later, he obtained the manuscript of "Complete Book of Agricultural Administration", which enabled this great work to be published.

Zhu Youjian didn't want him and Zhang Pu and others to set up the Fushe Society, so he planned to give this job to him and let him edit books.

Because of this, on the way to the Imperial College, Cao Huachun invited Chen Zilong to ride in the same car with him.

Chen Zilong hesitated for a moment and finally agreed.

This made Cao Huachun nod secretly and said to him:
"I heard that Mr. Chen is good at selecting and compiling contemporary articles?"

Chen Zilong said calmly:

"It's just the articles selected by the publishing house. They haven't been printed yet."

Cao Huachun didn't care what the specifics were. He just followed the emperor's instructions and continued:

"Xu Xueshi has a book called 'Complete Book of Agricultural Administration'. He wrote a draft when he was unemployed, but he never finished compiling it."

"Now he is so busy that he has no energy to compile."

"The Emperor wants you to preside over and edit this book."

Chen Zilong was even more flattered. He didn't know why the emperor valued him so much and asked him to edit the "Complete Book of Agricultural Administration".

This made him, who was naturally heroic, a little panicked, and he said:
“Although the students used to work in the fields at home, they are not well versed in agricultural policies.”

"I am responsible for editing this book, and I am afraid there will be mistakes."

Cao Huachun smiled and said to him:
"Don't worry too much. We have other disciples of Master Xu to help."

"The Sino-Agricultural Ministry and the Imperial Guard will also send people to verify the technologies in the book and assign confidentiality levels to those technologies."

"What Mr. Chen actually compiled was an agricultural book that could be publicly distributed and provide guidance on agricultural policy."

"In fact, it should be called a 'Simple Book of Agricultural Administration', which only describes common techniques and how to grow new crops."

This gave Chen Zilong some confidence and he realized that it was not difficult to compile such a book.

As long as he puts his heart into it, he can compile it.

Once the book is published, he will gain great fame and be praised by people all over the world.

Therefore, he accepted this task with some excitement, intending to do his best to compile the book. (End of this chapter)