Ming Zhengzhi, I am Zheng Kezang

On the 24th day of the first lunar month in the [-]th year of Wucheng in Huaxia, Zheng Anyang started his tour of southern China as a prince. The route that Zheng Kezang took during the tour was exactly what Zheng Kezang had traveled in the Ming Dynasty, and the implication is far-reaching.

After Zheng Anyang left Beijing, Zheng Kezang called a group of ministers and officially announced his decision to abdicate on New Year's Eve that year.

The ministers who had heard about it for a long time, no matter whether they were sincere or false, tried to dissuade Zheng Kezang's determination, but Zheng Kezang was as stubborn as before and did not waver at all.Seeing Zheng Kezang's stubbornness, the officials had no choice but to obey, so the succession ceremony and the new king's enthronement pilgrimage began quickly.

To be honest, I don’t know if I don’t do it. I’m shocked if I do it. Compared with the ceremony of conferring Zheng Anyang as the crown prince, the preparation work for the succession of the throne is several times more arduous. The first priority is to prepare a palace for Zheng Kezang— —Since the succession ceremony and the pilgrimage to the throne of the new king have been decided to be held consecutively on New Year’s Eve and Zhengdan of the next year, it is impossible for Zheng Kezang and the queens and concubines to leave Wuchang in the New Year even if it is to show the benevolence and filial piety of the heir Go north to Tianjin, but if Zheng Kezang does not leave Fenghuangshan Ligong, Zheng Anyang's family may be forced to live in the womb of the crown prince or can only stay in Liuguo's mansion, the hidden residence. Both results will have a lot of etiquette problem, so it is necessary to build a new palace for Zheng Kezang, so that Zheng Kezang can let the big nephew come out - but Zheng Kezang is worried that Zheng Anyang will be uncomfortable if the two emperors are in the same palace, so this new The palace can only be built in places other than the Li Palace in Phoenix Mountain. In addition, Zheng Kezang will take away a considerable number of female officials, maids, and servants. Therefore, the scale of this palace complex is not small, and it must be completed in a short time. The inner court construction department was in a hurry.

Fortunately, this project was not launched on a temporary basis. In fact, as early as the 20th year of Wucheng, Zheng Kezang started to build a new palace around Taizi Lake in Hanyang. It is still possible to complete part of the main building before the grand ceremony, so that Zheng Kezang, concubines and attendants can settle in. Of course, this will require day and night work, and even some additional funds will be required for this.

Problems that can be solved with money are naturally not problems, but apart from the construction of the Supreme Emperor's Palace, there are more problems to be solved, such as the envoys watching the ceremony.It must be known that in the just-concluded crown prince canonization ceremony, all the internal and external vassals came here, and the more important ceremony of passing on the throne and the new king's enthronement pilgrimage cannot be compared.

But the problem is that the previous wave of envoys from the internal and external vassals have just returned, and they want others to send new envoys, which seems to be a bit of a toss to the other party.In addition, it is necessary to prepare a generous gift for watching the ceremony and pilgrimage, and Zheng Kezang is relatively stingy in this regard, and never puts on any celestial demeanor. In other words, after receiving the gift, he rarely gives back more than or equal to the value of the gift The rewards and money, sometimes nothing, even invoices and return fares were not reimbursed, which made the surrounding vassals deeply afraid of coming to Hajj.Under such circumstances, the Huaxia court held two grand ceremonies for two consecutive years. Will the vassal countries think that Huaxia is taking the opportunity to restrain themselves, thus affecting bilateral relations?In this regard, the governor's yamen, who felt a headache, had to hand in the contradiction.

Zheng Kezang, who received the report from the Governor's Yamen, felt that this was not a serious problem. After all, the reason why the surrounding vassal states were willing to become China's vassals was not because China could bring them so many benefits, but because they were afraid of China's force. , since fear of power but not virtue, no matter how much blackmail is, it is nothing more than the protection fee that the other party is willing to pay, so there is no need to make a fuss.It’s just that what the governor’s yamen said has some truths. It’s not good to eat too ugly, so Zheng Kezang finally decided to invite envoys from various countries and domestic and foreign vassals to watch the ceremony, and at the same time, the internal treasury, not the treasury of Duzhi Province, will allocate funds for the ceremony. Compensation to a certain extent, at least to reimburse the travel expenses for the visitors.

The invitation to watch the ceremony was also sent out, and Zheng Kezang was about to take a break, but the Rites Institute was in trouble again. [

The Institute of Rites and Systems is in charge of ceremonial affairs, and it is their business to draw up the year names. Therefore, a group of old scholars enthusiastically adopted more than a dozen year names, many of them from "University", "The Doctrine of the Mean", "Book of Changes" and so on. " and other Confucian classics, such as Jiaqing, Qianlong and the like, Zheng Kezang's eyes were straightened, so he had to categorically deny it.

The performances were rejected several times in a row, and the Academy of Rites and Systems couldn't hold it anymore, so they had to ask Zheng Kezang for instructions.Zheng Kezang felt that according to the rule of one yuan and one number, the new year name Zheng Anyang would be used for one lifetime, so the choice of others might not be in line with Zheng Anyang's mind, so he delegated power and let Zheng Anyang decide on his own.However, Zheng Anyang, who was on tour, was very humble, and repeatedly insisted that Zheng Kezang make the decision for him.After kicking Cuju a few times, Zheng Kezang became impatient, so he made a decision to set the year of his successor as Renqing, and stipulated that after December 24th in the [-]th year of Wucheng as the first year of Renqing

No matter how many problems were solved one by one, now we just waited for Zheng Anyang to return from his tour.

On September 23, Zheng Anyang, who had been watching the flowers all the way, finally returned to Wuchang.The next day, Zheng Kezang ordered the prince to supervise the country, and he retreated to the Prince Lake Palace ahead of time to start his semi-retirement.Of course, the highest power is still in the hands of Zheng Kezang. The appointment of all third-rank officials must be approved by Zheng Kezang. Even the personnel changes at the first and second divisions of the Imperial Guards have to go through Zheng Kezang. Ke Zang's approval.

On December 23, Zheng Kezang returned to Wuchang from Hanyang, marking that the Wucheng Dynasty entered the final countdown.

At noon on December [-], Zheng Kezang held a banquet for his officials and said his final farewell to the officials in Beijing. As a result, he got drunk for the first time in his life, and was not awakened from his dream by the palace officials counting the time until Xushi.

At the time of Haishi, Zheng Kezang, who had washed and changed his clothes, reappeared in front of the officials.At this time, there was the sound of crows and sparrows in the Qinzheng Hall, which could accommodate hundreds of people. Everyone was waiting with bated breath for the arrival of the historical moment. The sound hit everyone's heart.

Standing in front of the throne, overlooking the worshiping officials in front of him, Zheng Kezang sighed with emotion, and immediately signaled to the servants around him. Soon, the voice of summoning the prince spread all the way.

Zheng Anyang, who had already been waiting in the corridor outside the hall, was wrapped in a big bag and walked up the steps slowly in the wind and snow. Before entering the Hall of Qinzheng, he handed over his thick coat to the warriors outside the hall, and stepped into the warm hall with one step. Under the watchful eyes of the officials, he walked to Xumizuo step by step, kowtowed three times and bowed nine times, and knelt down in front of Zheng Kezang.

Zheng Kezang looked carefully at the son in front of him, and stretched out his hand to remove the prince's crown on his head.There was a servant nearby who read Zheng Kezang's abdication edict loudly. After the edict was read out, Zheng Kezang took the emperor's crown and put it on for Zheng Anyang.Afterwards, Zheng Kezang took out the imperial seal and handed it to Zheng Anyang. After bowing down again, Zheng Anyang stood up side by side with his father to accept the congratulations from the officials.

Amid the roar of mountains and tsunami, Zheng Kezang withdrew to the dragon chair that had just been brought up to the side and sat down, leaving the central position to Emperor Renqing.Emperor Renqing then sat down on the dragon chair in the middle, and then his servants read out his first edict, respecting Zheng Kezang as the Supreme Emperor, Chen Qianqiao as the Supreme Empress, the Crown Princess Wang as the Empress, and the eldest son and birth mother Liu as the Empress. As the imperial concubine, Zheng Andi was named King of Chu, Zheng Anmi was named King of Zhao, and the rest of the emperor's younger brothers were named county kings.

After the edict was announced, Zhongzheng Shao music sounded, Zheng Kezang got up and retreated, and Emperor Renqing led his officials to kneel and sent the Supreme Emperor to leave. At this point, the era of Wucheng has come to an end

Although the Wucheng era came to an end, Zheng Kezang's life continued for 15 years.

During the period, in the third year of Renqing, the Tibetan Khan Luobu Zangdanjin rebelled against Xia. Emperor Renqing was not good at military affairs and had to ask Zheng Kezang to return to the court to preside over it. It took two years for the Xia army to finally put down the Tibetan rebellion and take advantage of the trend. A minister of affairs was established in Tibet, and he was in charge of Tibet's military administration together with Lhasa Kashag and Shigatse; in the seventh year of Renqing, the Jungar Great Khan Tsewang Allah Butan passed away, and his son Galdan Celing succeeded to the throne, and Huaxia Jiuwulianghai and others There was a conflict over territorial ownership, and Zheng Kezang once again returned to the court to preside over military affairs. Three years later, Zhungeer was forced to cede the Khovd area on the premise of recognizing China's sovereignty over Wulianghai.

After the age of 70, Zheng Kezang gradually aged. He occasionally looked around, only to find that his wife Chen Qianqiao passed away as early as the seventh year of Renqing, and Li Guifei also passed away in the eighth year of Renqing. Feng Lianniang also passed away on the tenth year of Renqing, and Geng Tang'er, who was once in his prime, was also dying of illness. Only Fang Yuniang, the imperial concubine left by his mother Chen Zhaoniang, was still by his side, but he was also very old. [

It's not that Zheng Kezang doesn't have young concubines around him, it's just that Zheng Kezang can't find a caring person to talk to as his wives and concubines wither away one after another.Knowing that his destiny is not eternal, he can only watch the changes of the times with an insightful eye until he enters the palace of the final world.

"You came, you changed, you made it."

When Zheng Kezang was dying, a voice sounded in his ear. At this moment, he realized.Yes, he came, he changed, he did, he just didn't see the end result.

"I'm really not reconciled." Zheng Kezang murmured. "Can you give me another 50 years?" Without an answer, Zheng Kezang chuckled. "Yes, I am greedy, well, let me go"

In September of the 15th year of Renqing in China, Zheng Kezang passed away. Emperor Renqing respected him as the Taizu Emperor, and his posthumous posthumous title was Chengtian, Hongyun, Shengde, Shenwu, Zhaoye, Liji, Ren, Xiaorui, Yingduan, Yiqin, Anzhang, Wending, and Jigao.

(end of book)

Postscript: Regarding the new book, I already have an outline, but the mission is currently heavy and only a few code words are available, so it may take a month or two to earn a manuscript. Please wait patiently, during the period, "Warlord" will still be available on qq Thank you for your long-term attention.