Ming Jiajing: Starting from Immortality

Chapter 225 The Northern Tartars surrendered and the imperial seal was passed down!
The news that former Minister of War Nie Bao had died after encountering bandits outside the capital quickly spread throughout the capital area.

The emperor was furious, and Zhang Yuangong, the commander-in-chief of the Five Cities Military Division, was held accountable and dismissed on the spot. Lou Nan, the commander-in-chief of the Central City Military Division, took over the post of commander-in-chief and cooperated with the Embroidered Uniform Guard and Shuntian Prefecture to eliminate bandits in the capital.

To express his condolences, the emperor specially ordered Nie Bao to be reinstated, granted nine altars for sacrifice, bestowed the posthumous title of "Zhenxiang", posthumously awarded him the title of Shao Bao, and allowed him to be included in the Yuzhang Neo-Confucian Temple, the Ji'an Luzhou Loyalty Temple, and one of the Qingyuan Five Sages.

The utmost honor.

Granting sacrifices to nine altars was the highest honor funeral treatment for deceased ministers in the Ming Dynasty, and was only given to officials who had made significant contributions to the Ming Dynasty or had extremely prominent positions.

Such courtesy perfectly reflects the emperor's recognition of Nie Bao's achievements during his lifetime.

The government and the public were shocked.

But Nie Bao could no longer see it.

The remains and sacrifices were transported back home, but what surprised countless people was that Xu Jie, who went to Beijing with Nie Bao, never showed up from beginning to end.

The Confucian scholars in the capital sent out people to look for him.

But those who are in high positions and have great power more or less know that Xu Jie is missing.

No one went to look for him, not even Zhang Juzheng. Everyone knew that disappearance was a good thing. If they really tried to find him, they would probably find a corpse.

As the chief minister of the cabinet, Zhang Juzheng showed unimaginable strength. After sending the remains of his master out of the capital, he returned to the cabinet to govern the country and seemed unaffected.

But this could not escape the eyes of the ministers working in the same office. The prime minister was gifted and could do two things at once, but today, he could not even focus on one thing and he approved military and national affairs at will.

Hu Zongxian could not help but take the memorial and put it in front of Yuan Fu again, reminding him: "Yuan Fu, this is the letter of surrender from the Northern Tartars."

Northern barbarians.

It is the right wing of the grassland, the Tatar Altan tribe, and the Shunyi King tribe enthroned by the Ming Dynasty.

Wang Chonggu led an army of 100,000 into the grassland. The former leader of the Eastern Tartar, now the King of Shun'an of the Ming Dynasty, Dalaisun, integrated 30,000 elite cavalry on the left wing of the grassland to act as vanguards.

One hundred thousand Ming troops and thirty thousand elite cavalry from the grasslands rushed toward the northern barbarians. It was expected that they would arrive at the place where the traitors once gathered on New Year's Day.

The sudden surrender of the Eastern Tartars to the Ming Dynasty caught the Northern Tartars off guard. What made Altan Khan even more terrified was that the Ming Dynasty directly declared war.

At the moment the grassland is covered with snow and wind, and it will take some time for the northern barbarians to prepare for war. Therefore, at the suggestion of Shen Weijing, a traitor trained by the Ming Dynasty, Altan formally presented a letter of surrender to the Ming Dynasty.

However, unlike the Eastern Tartars who surrendered sincerely and requested to be annexed by the Central Plains, the Northern Tartar Altan played a delaying tactic. He submitted a letter of surrender asking the Ming Dynasty to stop attacking the right wing of the grassland. Secretly, he was mobilizing troops and actively preparing for war.

Unfortunately, the plan was too crude and could be seen through at a glance without the need for intelligence from the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

Therefore, the emperor did not even convene the cabinet to discuss whether to accept the surrender of the Northern Barbarians. Instead, he asked the Imperial Household Department to pass the letter to the cabinet to take a look and find out the situation.

Next, draft a reply letter to the Northern Tartars. Since Altan Khan is playing a delaying tactic, the Ming Dynasty will play a stabilizing tactic.

On the one hand, he expressed his acceptance of the surrender of the Northern Tartars, and on the other hand, he ordered Wang Chonggu, Qi Jiguang, Yu Dayou and the elite cavalry of Sun Yat-sen to speed up their march and attack the west of the grassland.

The reply to the letter has to be written personally by the chief minister of the cabinet and cannot be put aside.

Zhang Juzheng came back to his senses, and then he picked up the letter of surrender from the Northern Barbarians, and read it carefully. After memorizing every word in his mind, he wrote a reply letter, called Liu Tai, the secretary of the cabinet, to send it to the Yuxi Palace to stamp it with the seal, and then sent an envoy to deliver it to the Northern Barbarians.

After finishing writing the reply to the letter, Zhang Juzheng unknowingly lost his mind again and the government affairs fell into chaos. Gao Gong, Hu Zongxian and Li Chunfang looked at each other and simply took over all the government affairs.

They also sent someone to the Imperial Hospital to invite Li Shizhen to take a look. The genius doctor diagnosed that the cause of the disease was in the heart, not in the outside world, and that there was no prescription. The three ministers felt relieved again.

In the end, Gao Gong and Li Chunfang temporarily left the Government Affairs Hall, leaving Hu Zongxian, the experienced man, to meet Zhang Juzheng alone.

Hu Zongxian stood up and poured a cup of tea for Zhang Juzheng, then placed it on the table in the central hall. He deliberately raised his voice and said, "Prime Minister, do you have the intention to retire and return home?"

Heart disease also requires heart medicine.

Zhang Juzheng's change is exactly the same as he was before. He was willing to risk his life to save his mentor's life.

The only difference is that his mentor Yan Song was executed immediately, while Zhang Juzheng's mentor disappeared due to the joint efforts of Nie Bao and Zhang Juzheng's master and grandson.

In Hu Zongxian's view, Zhang Juzheng was lucky. No one knew whether his mentor was alive or dead, so no one would accuse Zhang Juzheng of being unfilial, let alone disloyal.

Regardless of whether this was the emperor's intention or not, it gave respect to Zhang Juzheng, Xu Jie, and Nie Bao.

The most important thing in life is to be content.

If Zhang Juzheng still wanted more, as a colleague, Hu Zongxian could only persuade Zhang Juzheng to resign and return home as soon as possible.

Sure enough, when the words "retire and return home" came out, Zhang Juzheng was startled and all his attention was immediately focused.

The person is gone, and no amount of sighing means anything. What he should do is to do his job well and fulfill his ambitions.

The rest will be left to time. Life is only a few decades long. I will leave the next twenty years to the court and the Ming Dynasty. Twenty years later, I will erect a monument and write an inscription for my master and mentor to make sure that their trip to this world was not in vain. As a disciple, this is the most I can do.

"Ruzhen, thank you so much!" Zhang Juzheng solemnly expressed his gratitude to Hu Zongxian, and then took a letter sent from the grassland.

It was written by Shen Weijing, asking his mentor, that is, asking Zhang Juzheng to mediate and suspend the war between the Ming Dynasty and the Northern Tartars. For this, Shen Weijing, Altan Khan and the Northern Tartars are willing to offer a great gift.

The jade seal of the country.

The name of the gift instantly entered Zhang Juzheng's field of vision, and Zhang Juzheng's pupils shrank wildly.

"I'm going to see the emperor." Zhang Juzheng stood up and walked towards Yuxi Palace.

The contrast between the before and after made Hu Zongxian slightly stunned. He then sighed, "Power is the best medicine for the heart," and asked someone to find Gao Gong and Li Chunfang to come back.

Yuan Fu recovered, but went back to the palace. He still needed the three of them to help with government affairs.

As for the matter of the imperial seal, Hu Zongxian also saw it, but wisely pretended not to see it. Over the past few hundred years, news about the imperial seal has appeared from time to time, causing quite a stir, but upon verification, they were all fabricated and forged fakes.

In Hu Zongxian's view, the gifts from Altan Khan and Shen Weijing were just a ploy to stop the Ming army's northern expedition and were not credible.

Gao Gong and Li Chunfang, who returned to the Government Affairs Hall, thought the same thing. After hearing this, they smiled and devoted themselves to government affairs.

……

In the 19th year of King Zheng of Qin, Qin defeated Zhao and obtained the Heshi Bi.

After unifying the world, Ying Zheng named himself the First Emperor and ordered his prime minister Li Si to take the Heshi Bi and carve the imperial seal in small seal script. On the front side was engraved eight insect-and-bird seal script characters "Received the Mandate from Heaven, May You Live Long and Prosper", which were carved by jade craftsman Sun Shou.

Since then, this jade seal has become a token of the orthodox emperors of China.

However, the Qin Dynasty was short-lived. Although it lasted for three generations, it perished in the second. In the winter of the first year of Qin Ziying's reign, Liu Bang, the Duke of Pei, led his army to Bashang. Ziying knelt down and presented the jade seal to the left of the Xianyang Road. That marked the end of the Qin Dynasty.

When Emperor Gaozu killed Xiang Ji and ascended the throne, he wore the jade seal and passed it down from generation to generation. It was called the Seal of the Han Dynasty. The jade seal then became a token of the Han emperor.

At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, the foreign relative Wang Mang usurped power. At that time, the child Liu Ying was still young, and the seal was hidden in the Empress Dowager's place in Changle Palace.

Wang Mang sent his cousin Wang Shun to ask for it. The empress dowager was angry and cursed him, and threw the seal to the ground, breaking one corner of it.

Wang Mang ordered his craftsmen to repair it with gold. When Wang Mang's army was defeated and he was killed, Gong Bin, the lieutenant of the imperial guards, got the imperial seal and rushed to Wan to present it to Emperor Gengshi Liu Xuan.

In the third year of Emperor Gengshi Liu Xuan's reign, the Red Eyebrow Army killed Liu Xuan and enthroned Liu Penzi, and the national seal was transferred to Liu Penzi.

Later, Liu Penzi was defeated in Yiyang and handed over the imperial seal to Emperor Guangwu of Han, Liu Xiu.

In the late Eastern Han Dynasty, eunuchs were in power. In the sixth year of Zhongping reign of Emperor Ling of Han, He entered the palace and killed the eunuchs. Duan Gui fled with the emperor, and the jade seal disappeared.

During the reign of Emperor Xian of Han, the treacherous prime minister Dong Zhuo rebelled, and Sun Jian led his army to attack Luoyang.

At noon one day, the soldiers saw colorful clouds coming out of a well in the Zhen Palace in the south of the city. They ordered people into the well and found a small box tied around the neck of the palace maid who had committed suicide by jumping into the well. Inside the box was the imperial seal. Sun Jian was overjoyed and hid it secretly with his wife, Wu.

Later, Yuan Shu arrested Wu and seized the seal.

After Yuan Shu died, Xu Qiu, the governor of Jingzhou, brought the seal to Xuchang. At that time, Cao Cao held Emperor Xian hostage and ordered the princes to surrender. At this point, the imperial seal returned to the Han Dynasty.

However, the Han Dynasty's luck eventually came to an end. In the first year of Yankang reign of Emperor Xian of Han, Emperor Xian was forced to "abdicate", and Cao Pi established the Wei Dynasty and changed the reign title to Huangchu.

He ordered someone to carve the characters "The Great Wei Received the Han Dynasty's Seal" on the shoulder of the imperial seal to prove that he did not "usurp the Han Dynasty", which was actually an attempt to cover up the truth.

In the second year of Xianxi reign of Cao Huan, Emperor Yuan of Wei, Sima Yan followed suit and proclaimed himself Emperor Wu of Jin. He changed the era name to Taishi and returned the imperial seal to Jin.

In the fifth year of Yongjia in the Jin Dynasty, Liu Cong of the Former Zhao captured Sima Chi, the Emperor Huai of Jin, and the seal was returned to the Former Zhao.

Nineteen years later, Shi Le of Later Zhao conquered Former Zhao and obtained the seal. He was even more ingenious and engraved "Tianming Shishi" on the right side.

Twenty years later, the throne was passed to Ran Wei.

Later, Ran Wei begged for help from the Eastern Jin army, and the imperial seal was cheated away by the Jin generals, who then sent it to the capital Jian overnight with three hundred elite cavalry. Thus, the imperial seal returned to the pocket of Sima family of the Jin Dynasty.

During the Southern Dynasties, the imperial seal went through four generations of succession, namely Song, Qi, Liang and Chen. When the Sui Dynasty unified China, the imperial seal was also brought into the Sui Palace.

In March of the 14th year of Daye, Emperor Yang Guang of Sui was in Jiangdu, and the Sui Dynasty fell.

Empress Xiao fled to the Turkic Khanate in northern Mongolia with Emperor Yang of Sui's grandson Yang Zhengdao and the imperial seal. This was the first time that the imperial seal was lost outside of China.

In the fourth year of Zhenguan, Li Jing led his army to attack the Turks. In the same year, Empress Xiao and Yang Zhengdao, grandson of Emperor Yang of Sui, betrayed the Turks and returned to the Central Plains. The jade seal was returned to Li Tang.

At the end of the Tang Dynasty, the world was in chaos and heroes emerged everywhere. In the fourth year of Tianyou period of the Tang Dynasty, Zhu Quanzhong deposed Emperor Ai of the Tang Dynasty, seized the imperial seal, and established the Later Liang Dynasty.

Sixteen years later, Li Cunxu destroyed Later Liang and established Later Tang, and the imperial seal was transferred to Later Tang.

In the intercalary month of the 43rd year of Qingtai in the Later Tang Dynasty, the last emperor of the Later Tang Dynasty, Li Congke, his entire family and the Empress Dowager Cao, burned themselves to death in the Xuanwu Tower, and the imperial seal disappeared.

Throughout the Song Dynasty, there are two things that have been criticized: one is that the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun were never recovered, and the other is that the emperors of the Song Dynasty never obtained the imperial seal, and they were all "blank slate emperors."

In the 31st year of the Yuan Dynasty, Kublai Khan passed away. The "Imperial Seal" suddenly appeared in Dadu and was sold in the market. It was purchased by someone ordered by the powerful minister Bayan and then passed to the Yuan court.

In the 28th year of Zhizheng in the Yuan Dynasty, Emperor Taizu Gao proclaimed himself emperor in Jiankang, named himself Daming, and changed the era name to Hongwu.

Then, the Yuan court launched a northern expedition, abandoning the Central Plains and heading north to continue its expansion across the vast northern border.

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Taizu sent Xu Da to the northern desert to pursue the remnant Yuan forces that had fled far away. His main purpose was to obtain the imperial seal, but he ultimately returned empty-handed.

Therefore, the imperial seal became one of the three major regrets of Emperor Taizu Gao.

Finding the imperial seal not only represents the orthodoxy of the Chinese nation, but also makes up for the regrets of Emperor Taizu Gao, who died two hundred years ago, and commemorates our ancestors, which is of great significance.

In the letter, Shen Weijing described the appearance of the great gift he was going to give to Zhang Juzheng, namely the imperial seal.

The He Shi Bi has a jade body and gold horns. One shoulder is engraved with "The Great Wei received the jade seal from the Han Dynasty" and the other shoulder is engraved with "The Great Jin received the jade seal from the Wei Dynasty". The right side is engraved with "Tian Ming Shi Shi", which is very similar to the real imperial seal. It is very likely that this is the imperial seal that the Yuan court took away from the Central Plains.

Ok Hee Palace.

Zhang Juzheng respectfully explained the great gifts presented to him by Shen Weijing, Altan and Tatar.

However, Zhu Houcong sat on the futon without any reaction, with his eyes closed and his breathing steady and orderly, as if he was asleep.

Zhang Juzheng knelt on the ground, and the hall fell into an eerie silence.

After an unknown amount of time, Zhu Houcong picked up the gong and struck the bronze gong. The sound was neither crisp nor dull, and it made people feel neither comfortable nor depressed.

understood!
This is the answer given by His Majesty.

Zhang Juzheng raised his head and moved his lips. Since there was nothing else to do, he could only choose to leave.

Today it was the turn of Lü Fang, the eunuch in charge of the Imperial Household Department, to be on duty at Yuxi Palace. Seeing that Zhang Juzheng was not in good condition, he personally escorted him out of Yuxi Palace and, under the eaves, asked the eunuchs to bring the sedan chair over.

When getting on the sedan chair, Zhang Juzheng couldn't move his feet. Looking at Lu Fang, he hesitated again and again. Lu Fang was not in a hurry. Instead, he stood in the snow with Zhang Juzheng with a gentle smile.

"Eunuch Lu."

"Mr. Ge."

The way Zhang Juzheng and Lu Fang addressed each other made the young eunuchs nearby lower their heads, bend their waists a little more, and tacitly "close" their ears.

Somehow, all the young eunuchs' alarm bells started ringing in their hearts. When they saw Zhang Juzheng and Lu Fang's posture of taking action, it was as if they were Yan Song and Lu Fang.

"I have a lot of questions in my mind, but it seems that the only person I can consult is Eunuch Lu."

"I am not worthy of your advice. I am just a little older than you, but I have lived a little longer in vain. If you have anything to say, please speak up."

"'Imperial Seal', doesn't His Majesty like it?"

"Of course no one would dislike the imperial seal, but there are so many fakes in the world. How can you think that the jade seal from the grassland must be real?"

"Eunuch Lu means that the emperor knows that this imperial seal is a fake?"

"My Lord, some things are true or false, and it doesn't matter. What's important is that some people pretend to be clever and try to figure out the emperor's intentions, causing his dissatisfaction. After these people realize this, they want to please the emperor and quell his anger. This is certainly feasible, but the difficulties involved have to be overcome by these people. Am I right, my Lord?" Lu Fang said meaningfully.

A thing that has been passed down for two thousand years, no one can decide whether it is true or false.

Isn't it a joke that jade is burned by fire?
Were the emperors of the Song Dynasty really so unworthy of their positions that there wasn't even any news about the imperial seal?

Throughout the dynasties, the Song Dynasty had the most forgeries of the imperial seal. Guess where those exquisitely crafted forgeries of the imperial seal came from?

Who will verify the authenticity?
In order to buy time for the war, Shen Weijing sent the imperial seal to the Ming Dynasty. It could be fake or real.

It all depends on who will guarantee the seal.

The emperor's anger will grow or die depending on whether the imperial seal is real or fake.

Zhang Juzheng understood.

(End of this chapter)