Ming Dynasty: Ask Zhu Yuanzhang to abdicate at the beginning

Chapter 313: Hot Discussion and Preparation, the beginning of a new journey for Ming Dynasty!
The New Year is here as expected.

Because of the death of the previous emperor, this year's Spring Festival is relatively quiet.

At least that's the case in Jinling City.

After all, it is a national mourning.

Although Zhu Yunhuan had issued an edict, allowing all his subjects to cry for only three days, everything would return to normal.

But there are still many people who voluntarily observe the funeral.

Nanjing is different from other places, with many powerful officials.

Officials naturally tried their best to express their grief in front of outsiders.

Regardless of whether the new emperor really cares or not, at least by doing this he won't be attacked by others and won't make mistakes.

There are many people in Jinling City who eat royal meals.

With the influence of these people, as well as their dependent relatives, friends, and neighbors... the city will naturally not be overjoyed by the New Year.

Of course, there are still some people who don't care much about these.

Sporadic sounds of firecrackers were heard on the streets.

There will be no shortage of relatives and friends to visit during the Spring Festival.

While everyone was gathered together, they were also discussing the new emperor's ascension to the throne and the changes in the court.

"This year, a new emperor will ascend the throne, and the world will change drastically!"

"The new emperor has made many achievements when he was the crown prince. Once he ascends the throne, good days for us ordinary people will really come."

"I'm sure everyone has heard of the nursery rhyme 'The King of Wu is established, the world prospers, the world is settled from now on, and there will be peace for 800 years'? Wasn't the new emperor the King of Wu in the beginning?"

"Everyone has heard it. Two days ago, my child was singing it when he was playing with the kids next door."

"It seems that this nursery rhyme is really coming true."

"We ordinary people finally have hope!"

"Don't be too happy, everyone. There are rumors that the new emperor killed the previous emperor so that he could take power and ascend the throne. If that's true, then the new emperor is unfilial!"

"There are all kinds of rumors. Some say the late emperor was not killed but imprisoned in the harem. Who knows if it's true or not?"

"That's right. I've heard something even more outrageous. It's said that the late emperor was not imprisoned, but lived in the harem voluntarily. He lied to the outside world that he had passed away just to pass the throne to the new emperor and see if anyone dared to object!"

"In my opinion, these rumors are not credible. Maybe some traitors are spreading rumors to slander the new emperor."

"That makes sense. How did the new emperor govern before? Isn't the life of our people getting better and better? Everyone can see it! If we don't support such an emperor, who else can we support?"

"Yes, look at the cement roads in the city now. They are much easier to walk on than the old gravel and sand roads, right? Especially on rainy days."

"Not only that, now the wages for working outside have more than doubled, but the price of food has not increased by a penny. For the same day's work, you can now buy twice as much food as before."

"Yes, my big fat boy is finally full. He didn't have such a good life before."

"No one should believe those slanderous words against the new emperor, and don't spread them."

"If you ask me, even if it's true, so what? Didn't Emperor Taizong of Tang launch the Xuanwu Gate Incident, kill his own brother, and force his father to give in? But Emperor Taizong of Tang is a famous emperor throughout history."

"Yes, yes, yes. As long as it is good for us ordinary people and can make us ordinary people live a good life, we ordinary people will support whoever it is. Who cares about other things?"

……

Zhu Yunhuan's strategy soon began to work.

As rumors about him imprisoning and killing the old emperor spread more and more, new versions continued to emerge.

Ordinary people finally changed from treating it as a strange story and talking about it with great relish in the beginning to thinking it was unreliable, boring and fake news!
With all kinds of different news flying around, even the people who spread the news were confused.

Which one is true?

How can we verify the authenticity of this?

In the end, no matter what the news is, most people think it is fake.

The dirty water thrown at Zhu Yunhuan became clear just like that.

But his purpose of releasing the news and drawing the attention of opponents to this point has been successfully achieved.

Almost at the same time, news about his wedding began to spread.

"I heard that Gu Panjun is just the daughter of an ordinary commoner, but she wants to be made queen overnight?"

"She is so beautiful, so pretty that she can make fishes sink to the bottom of their bodies and geese fall to the ground, and the moon hide in shame on flowers."

"The queen is supposed to be the mother of the country, not just be beautiful."

"Yes, why did they make a daughter of a small family the queen? There are so many daughters of nobles and meritorious officials in our dynasty, but they didn't marry them."

"What do you know? The new emperor made her the empress instead of the daughter of a noble minister, precisely to prevent the interference of foreign relatives in politics. It is not a good thing for the empress's family to be too powerful."

"That's right. I heard that Queen Gu is smart, well-educated and well-mannered. Why not make her the queen?"

"It's not like the emperor hasn't married daughters of nobles and meritorious officials. Isn't the one he's marrying this time the daughter of the late Prince of Zhongshan? She's going to be made a royal concubine!"

"That's right. You women, stop thinking about this all the time. It's said that Queen Gu was born into a commoner family, but that's only relative to the nobles and wealthy. Compared to ordinary people like us, she's the daughter of a wealthy family and she's not poor at all."

"Of course. If you are not a wealthy family, how can you let a girl study from a young age?"

"What do you think, how did the new emperor fall in love with Queen Gu?"

"I'm also very curious about this. If anyone knows, please tell me."

……

Compared with the secret stories of palace struggles with swords and sabers, and grandfathers and grandchildren killing each other, ordinary people are actually more interested in this kind of "love" story.

After all, it is mainly men who are interested in the former, while women generally have little interest.

The latter is popular with both men and women.

Men want to hear some "sexy" stories.

And women, since ancient times, have loved the story of the prince falling in love with Cinderella.

Just like the women of later generations, their favorite TV novel plot is always that a domineering president falls in love with me.

Human nature remains the same, as it has been since ancient times.

The new emperor is going to marry a commoner woman as his queen, and the gossip fire among the women has already started to burn fiercely.

"I heard that Queen Gu went to set up a stall in the West Market. Because of her outstanding appearance, she caused a sensation and was noticed by His Majesty the Emperor. He went there in person and fell in love with her at first sight."

"Everyone knows about this. When Queen Gu set up a stall in the West Market, it caused quite a stir."

"Oh, if I had known earlier, I would have set up a stall in the West Market."

"Hahaha, you want the Emperor to like you? Are you as beautiful as Queen Gu?"

"She's not ugly at all!"

"You should pee and look in the mirror first."

"What? You dare to say that I'm ugly? I'm not done with you!"

"stop fighting!"

"Why is Queen Gu so beautiful?"

"Could it be a fox spirit in disguise?"

"Don't say this casually. If it gets out, you'll lose your head."

"The new emperor is the true dragon emperor appointed by heaven. If she is really a vixen, he will suppress her as soon as he sees her. How could she be crowned as queen? I heard that Queen Gu is a goddess descended from heaven."

"Yes, yes, yes, I have heard that too. According to legend, Queen Gu is the ninth daughter of the Queen Mother."

"Didn't they say that the Queen Mother only has seven daughters?"

"Look at what you said. Does that mean the Queen Mother will not be able to have children in the future?"

"That's right. If the Queen Mother wants to have a child, isn't that easy? Just tell the Bodhisattva Guanyin, the Goddess of Childbirth, and she will definitely get pregnant."

"But I always feel like something is wrong. Your Majesty is the Son of Heaven, and Queen Gu is the Daughter of Heaven, and the daughter of the Queen Mother. Doesn't that mean they are brother and sister? How can they get married?"

"Things in heaven are all managed by the gods. How can we mortals understand them? In short, the Emperor of Heaven saw that Your Majesty had no wife, so he sent a celestial maiden down to earth and betrothed her to Your Majesty as your wife. Your Majesty made her the queen after receiving the Emperor of Heaven's will, do you understand?"...

The people of the Ming Dynasty do not have any atheistic ideas.

As the story was passed on, it gradually became about gods, ghosts and monsters.

Of course, this was also due to the secret push by Yao Guangxiao's Intelligence Department.

Creating the mystery of Gu Panjun's identity can also dispel the vicious rumors against Zhu Yunhuan.

This was also the inspiration he got from Zhu Yunhuan's reply.

Release more and more confusing news to divert people's attention.

This strategy was very successful.

Gradually, no one continued to spread the rumor that Zhu Yunhuan murdered his grandfather and seized the throne.

However, overnight, many young girls setting up stalls in the West Market of Jinling City appeared.

Each one was dressed up beautifully, vying with each other for beauty.

Countless people went to see it.

Obviously, these people were stimulated by Gu Panjun's story.

They followed suit, hoping they could get lucky and be noticed by the new emperor.

It is definitely impossible to be a queen, but being a concubine is not bad either.

If all else fails, you can seduce high-ranking officials or sons of noble families, and you will never have to worry about food and drink for the rest of your life.

Because of this, countless strange and bizarre "love stories" have been triggered in the West Market.

For example, a certain rich young man seduced her and then abandoned her, which made the affectionate woman heartbroken and shed tears in West Market.

For example, a scholar pretended to be a noble son and deceived many young girls.

For example, two sons of nobles both fell in love with a beautiful girl in Xishi, and they became jealous of each other and started fighting.

……

All of these are different.

These are all things for later.

In addition to these various bizarre stories and gossips, people who care about court affairs have also keenly discovered that the "Da Ming Daily" has been reporting on the invasion of the Ming border by the three Jurchen tribes for many consecutive days.

"How hateful! The crops that had just been planted were destroyed by the Jurchen cavalry!"

"The three Jurchen tribes have blatantly invaded the border of the Ming Dynasty and committed numerous crimes!"

"Violating my border, invading my territory, killing my border residents, opposing the Ming Dynasty, bullying others too much!"

"The three Jurchen tribes are militaristic and instigating war against the Ming Dynasty!"

"Strongly protest against the three Jurchen tribes' invasion of our Ming territory!"

"Let's see how far the three Jurchen tribes will go in invading the Ming Dynasty!"

……

Reports are coming out one after another.

Many reports even included drawings, although they were in black and white like the text.

But the pictures have a stronger impact.

The picture shows the scene of Jurchen cavalry wreaking havoc.

Just looking at it makes people angry.

To be honest, these are not made up stories, they are real facts.

Especially after the Northern Yuan tribes surrendered to the Ming Dynasty.

You should know that before this, the three Jurchen tribes had many disputes with the tribes of the Northern Yuan Dynasty.

Both sides fought without mercy.

Naturally, we can collect a lot of similar information.

Even invasions of the Great Wall defense line in the northeast of the Ming Dynasty were not uncommon.

However, the Ming Dynasty court was not willing to provoke a war in the past, so it naturally tried to make big things small and small things disappear.

Although they would send troops to retaliate, they would not tell the common people about these things.

The numerous reports in the Ming Daily quickly attracted the attention of countless people.

"Damn it! The people from the three Jurchen tribes are so despicable that they wantonly invaded the border of the Ming Dynasty?"

"The northern barbarians have always been like this, and this is not the first day!"

"Are we, the people of the Ming Dynasty, going to allow them to oppress us and allow our borders to be invaded at will?"

"Otherwise, why would successive dynasties build the Great Wall? Wasn't it to prevent their invasion?"

"Which year in the almanac are you talking about? When the new emperor was still the crown prince, he had already issued an order that the Great Wall would never be repaired in the future."

"The Northern Yuan Dynasty was pacified by our Ming Dynasty army. The imperial court should have sent troops to destroy the three Jurchen tribes."

"Well said! These reports really make me angry. Our Ming Dynasty is the Celestial Empire, should we be bullied by the three small Jurchen tribes?"

"Don't just talk, I've already signed up to join the new army. I hope I can be selected. I want to go to the front line to kill the barbarians."

"Well, judging from the extensive reports in the newspapers, the imperial court should be preparing to go to war against the three Jurchen tribes."

"That makes sense! Does the imperial court really want to go to war against the three Jurchen tribes?"

"Didn't the imperial court say it was going to send a large army out to sea? Why is it going to war against the three Jurchen tribes again?"

"They are two different things. The ones going out to sea are the navy, and the ones going to the battle against the Jurchens are the army. They are irrelevant."

"If we start the war at the same time, can the Ming Dynasty's national strength sustain it?"

"Just three Jurchen tribes. My Ming Dynasty army can wipe them out in a snap. Why worry about this?"

"That's right. Even the Northern Yuan cavalry couldn't stop our Ming army. What are the three Jurchen tribes?"

"Fight, and you must fight hard. If I don't teach the three Jurchen tribes a lesson, I will not be able to calm down."

"Blood debt must be paid with blood! Those who dare to kill our Ming people and invade our Ming borders must be punished."

"I heard that His Majesty will review the army on the day of his accession to the throne and declare war on the three Jurchen tribes at the same time."

"Great! The new emperor ascends the throne, and the Ming Dynasty will be proud from now on! Hahahaha!"

……

Time flies.

In a blink of an eye, it is already the fifteenth day of the first lunar month.

Zhu Yunhuan was particularly busy this Spring Festival.

Because there are too many sacrifices.

At this moment, he really couldn't be lazy and not go.

On the other hand, he was still busy formulating various policies, waiting to be officially announced as soon as he ascended the throne.

Although Zhu Yunhuan set the deadline for the enthronement ceremony as before the end of the month.

But the ministers under him would naturally try to get it done as early as possible.

The fifteenth day of the first lunar month is the Lantern Festival, and it is also the day when Zhu Yunhuan officially ascended the throne and became emperor.

The new journey of the Ming Dynasty will officially begin from this day.

……

(End of this chapter)