My Portable Ming Dynasty

Chapter 1: Traveling through time and becoming a scholar

In the second year of Longqing, the capital.

"Ah!"

"It's worthy of the Little Ice Age. It's so cold in April."

Su Ze sat up from the small room and smiled bitterly at the thin quilt.

It was still dark outside the window, but the sound of carriages and horses could be vaguely heard.

Before traveling through time, Su Ze was a grassroots civil servant in a ministry in the capital. Although he called himself an ox or a horse, he had never seen the capital at five o'clock in the morning.

I didn't expect to see him after traveling through time, and we see him every few days!

The thought of having to go to court so early in the morning is simply a sin.

Su Ze got up, picked up an ember from the charcoal stove that was about to go out, stuffed it into the copper hand warmer, wrapped it in a cloth bag and stuffed it into his clothes.

Since the Song Dynasty, large cities have begun to use coal for heating.

The Ming Dynasty established its capital in Beijing, the winters became colder, and the price of coal became increasingly high.

As a time traveler, Su Ze was afraid of carbon monoxide poisoning, but he did not dare to burn coal directly for heating like ordinary people. So he spent half a month's salary to build this charcoal stove.

It’s a pity that even though the charcoal stove was built, there was not much money left to buy charcoal, and I would be woken up by the cold every morning.

"What a bad decision!"

Su Ze fetched a basin of water from the water tank in the corner of the room, squatted at the door and brushed his teeth with a willow branch.

There was no other way. In that era, there were no dentists. Once a tooth decayed, there was no way to fill it. Didn't modern archaeology reveal this? Cao Cao's headache was caused by toothache, and Su Ze didn't want to suffer from toothache for the rest of his life.

Every time at this time, Su Ze missed the time before he traveled through time.

I should have stopped fantasizing!
Didn’t I just complain a little after working overtime, and fantasized about traveling through time in bed, and then I traveled through time just like that?

Do you have to be so careless?
After washing his face again, Su Ze opened the closet and took out his court dress.

This set of court robes is the most valuable thing in the entire house, and the second most valuable thing is the charcoal stove.

Being an official in Beijing in ancient times was also very hard.

With a sigh, "It's not easy to live in the capital," Su Ze changed into court clothes and rushed out of the yard when he heard the night watchman's clapperboard.

I have to say that the location of the rented house is good.

The previous owner of this house was an old Hanlin who had spent ten years in the capital. He finally found an opportunity to be an official in a remote place. For the sake of being from the same hometown, he sublet the house to Su Ze.

Although the house is small, it is not far from the Forbidden City.

As we moved towards the Meridian Gate, the number of carriages and horses along the way gradually increased. Of course, most of them were the hard-working grassroots officials who walked to work like Su Ze.

With so many officials from the capital attending court, if everyone rode horses or used sedan chairs, the Meridian Gate would have been jammed with traffic long ago.

Therefore, the Ming Dynasty had a regulation that only important ministers of the ministries and cabinets could ride horses or sedan chairs to court, while ordinary officials could only walk to court.

Of course, for Su Ze, this ban was of no concern, as he couldn't afford to buy a mule or horse anyway. The emperor of the Ming Dynasty really treated ordinary officials as mules and horses!
As he walked, Su Ze was thinking that it was fortunate that he traveled to the Longqing Dynasty. If it were the Jiajing Dynasty, in order to build a Taoist temple for the old Taoist emperor to practice, the salaries of officials in Beijing were often in arrears, and many grassroots officials had to borrow money to survive.

If you travel back to the time of Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang, you will be even more fortunate. Your salary will be in Ming Dynasty treasure notes. As for whether you can spend it or not, it depends on your ability.

Thank you Emperor Longqing!

Su Ze was still grateful to this "boss". After Longqing ascended the throne, he improved the treatment of grassroots civil servants and did not always withhold their wages like his father did.

The only thing that Su Ze criticized was that the new emperor, who had been the crown prince for seventeen years, loved attending court too much!

There are three types of morning courts. One is the grand court, which is held on New Year's Day, the Winter Solstice, and the Emperor's birthday. This type is generally ceremonial in nature.

The New Moon and Full Moon Courts were held on the first and fifteenth day of each month. Their nature was similar to the Grand Court and they were also held in the Fengtian Hall. They were only for congratulations and no political affairs were discussed.

Finally, it is today's regular court meeting. The time of this court meeting depends entirely on the emperor's personal mood.

For example, the workaholic Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang stipulated that regular court sessions be held every two days, while the immortal-cultivating Emperor Jiajing basically stopped attending court sessions in his later years, and sometimes even skipped the grand court sessions and the new moon and full moon court sessions.

After the current emperor ascended the throne, he wanted to emulate his ancestors and work hard to govern the country, so he changed the regular court session to once every three days.

This caused great trouble for the time traveler Su Ze.

It is clear that in this era, the mode of handling political affairs has begun to shift towards "red tapeism", and political affairs are resolved through the processing of various memorials.

Emperor Jiajing once said, "There is no use in sitting in the court," publicly pointing out that court meetings had lost their purpose in handling state affairs.

Although Jiajing did not attend court, he continued to handle memorials. Later generations highly praised him for "reviewing and replying to memorials as quickly as wind and rain", affirming his diligence in handling state affairs through official documents.

Instead of learning the advanced management experience, you insist on engaging in the formalism of the Ming Dynasty morning court!
The Five Phoenix Drum on the Meridian Gate sounded, and Su Ze hurriedly quickened his pace.

The morning court time is set at "meishuang", which is when the sky just breaks daybreak.

The Five Phoenix Drum was struck three times. Officials who failed to arrive at the Meridian Gate to gather after the last strike were considered late. The censors were waiting for these late officials to show off their political achievements.

Finally, they arrived at the Meridian Gate before the third drum. As the bell on the Meridian Gate rang, the official military flag officers entered first and lined up. The Meridian Gate slowly opened. Su Ze stood behind the civil servants and lined up in a long queue to enter the Forbidden City from the Zuoye Gate.

In the cold wind of dawn, civil and military officials lined up in front of the Jinshui Bridge. A eunuch in a red robe walked onto the bridge, swinging the long whip in his hand, making a whistling sound, and the team of civil and military officials started moving again.

During this period, there were censors patrolling back and forth to find officials who did not follow the etiquette. Su Ze lowered his head and followed the steps, and finally stood outside the Fengtian Hall.

A minor official like him was not qualified to enter the palace, so he saw the big man in the front row walking into the palace under the leadership of the Honglu Temple, and then the stage of reporting on affairs began.

After being a background figure for a long time, other officials had breakfast before going to work in the yamen, but Su Ze could only take a bite of the Hu pancake in his arms and hurried to the Hanlin Academy in the Forbidden City.

Whenever he stood in front of the Hanlin Academy, Su Ze's fatigue from the morning court would always be swept away.

Even the poorest Hanlin in the Hanlin Academy would involuntarily straighten his chest when he thought of the prime ministers and important officials who came out of here!
Although this body I traveled through is poor, but I can still study!

Su Ze, 25 years old, was a Jinshi in the second year of Longqing, and was awarded the title of Shujishi and entered the Hanlin Academy.

It’s a pity that the original body studied too hard and worked too hard after entering the Hanlin Academy, and finally died suddenly, allowing Su Ze to travel through time.

You have to know that if this identity is put into a historical time-travel imperial examination article, it will definitely take at least four million words!
Of course, there are more benefits to this time travel. In addition to this identity, Su Ze also has a golden finger.

It’s just that the golden finger has been “charging” all the time, and today is finally the day when the charging is completed!
(End of this chapter)