open sea

Chapter 542
The main theme of the Ming Dynasty was leisurely, and the pace of life was frighteningly slow.

How extravagant can the Ming people be? Take Zhang Dai, an essayist who has not yet been born, for example, the sons of officials and eunuchs have passed the provincial examination once in their life, but they have not; One of the four major historians of the East, a master of essays.

In order to find the most suitable tea and spring, he spent more than two years brewing famous tea from various springs; in order to learn to play the piano and write poems, he and his friends founded the "Silk Club" and "Poetry Club", regularly Gathering, practicing piano and reciting poems;
In order to learn the most authentic cockfighting training methods, he sent people to secretly search for the descendants of Fan Kuai, a famous cockfighting master in the Han Dynasty; in order to eat the most abundant delicacies, he raised cattle and made cheese himself;
In order to eat the fattest crabs, he created the "Crab Club" for this purpose, just to have a party with friends every October to eat crabs; in order to make playing cards more interesting, he personally designed various playing cards and invented many A variety of card games... In addition, kicking, watching snow, hunting, listening to operas, swimming in the lake, collecting, appreciating, until the country is ruined and the family is destroyed.

Being a middle class in Daming is very comfortable, who doesn't yearn for such a life?
In order to restore a lost ancient song, it took two or three years to appreciate its ancient taste, collect a large amount of historical materials, and rebuild an ancient style courtyard according to the content. Xiao accompanies, after the song is over, the garden is demolished, and everyone is happy.

Regardless of time, money, fame and fortune, gains and losses, Chen Mu is very envious.

It's a pity that it's just the life he yearns for, not the life he wants to pursue. No one can harbor a secret that is about to destroy the country for pleasure, and Chen Mu can't.

So he went to Beijing after saying goodbye to Xu Da in Yongguan, and rested for two days. On the third day, when he was ugly, he yawned and washed, put on a brand new official robe, hung the tooth card issued by the imperial court on his waist, and rode a horse with juniper Go to Meridian Gate.

The juniper was dressed thickly, wrapped three layers inside and three layers outside. When I went out, the whole imperial city was still asleep. When I opened the door in the dry night, I was shivering from the cold.

The weather has been abnormal for the past few years. Chen Mu is counting the time when he returns to Beijing. Normally, Beijing should have warmed up at this time. Who knows that there was another snowfall last night. , hit the face cold.

According to the time of later generations, it was not two o'clock in the morning when Chen Mu went out.

The court meeting that was supposed to start the day before yesterday did not start as scheduled. According to You Qi, who reported the news, it was because the little emperor secretly drank in the palace on the eve of the big eve, and was punished by the Empress Dowager Li to kneel for half the night, and it was time for the court meeting I really couldn't get up, the dazed appearance affected the emperor Long Wei, so I postponed it until today.

Of course, the courtiers and officials still went to participate in the morning court in those two days, but Xu Jue cheated Chen Mu by asking the palace servants to bring his tooth card last night.

Chen Mu felt that he might be the earliest member of the imperial court, because it was only at this time that he knew that other people generally had houses in the south of the city. This house, with this house, can sleep for more than half an hour in this dry and dark morning.

However, looking at the official sedan chairs on the road, it seems that he was not the first to get up, and obviously he did not live the farthest. Even when he turned on Chang'an Avenue, some people said that he was carried by the official sedan chair all the way from Andingmen.

Arriving outside the Meridian Gate, Chen Mu felt that what the civil and military officials said was completely wrong. Hundreds of people gathered in Wuyangyang, waiting for the bell and the drum to strike. There are more than a thousand people who go to court in Beijing.

Chen Mu didn't know any rules, so he just found a place to stand, wearing a scarlet robe and a crane could scare to death the officials in the blue and green nearby, if it wasn't for Xu Jue's special guard waiting outside the Meridian Gate, he would drag him when he saw him Let's go, I don't know what joke to make.

"Master of the first rank, what's the point of standing blindly outside the Meridian Gate, this is the direct room of our Jinyiwei, sit down for a while."

Jinyi Qianhu led Chen Mu all the way to the Zhifang next to the city gate. Xu Jue, the commander of Jinyi, was eating soy milk and scorched rings with his legs up. How about an hour, a bowl of soy milk? Where's your groom, let's get someone to bring you here."

Seeing Xu Jue snoring soy milk in the face of such a serious matter, the little expectation in Chen Mu's heart disappeared in a blink of an eye, and he waved his hand and said, "I ate at home, Juniper is outside, you have seen him, can he come in?"

Xu Jue waved his hand, just as he was wiping his mouth, Jinyi stepped forward and listened to him whisper a few words, something like 'the darkest one leads a white horse' ordered to go down, then he raised his head and smiled at Chen Mu: "Josh, our Jinyi is all in the palace. Man, it’s different from the Miyagi you ministers saw, much more at ease, when you enter the palace, it’s as if you’re going home—just in case you’re coming back, my brother asked you something.”

Chen Mu didn't have much interest in sitting, and raised his eyelids: "Huh?"

"Tobacco comes from Nanyang, but is this stuff not easy to buy?" Xu Jue waved his hand, someone handed him an oiled pipe, lit the flint lighter and said with a smile: "This is all yours. Last year, a petty official from Guangdong came to Beijing to give it to me, and I sent someone to buy it later, but I didn’t buy it.”

"I can't stop it." Seeing Xu Jue like this, Chen Mu sighed for no reason, and then said with a smile: "Tobacco is out of Luzon, and if you smoke too much, your health will be bad, so I will ban the insider flow of merchants. These two things are the things I want to discuss in this court meeting notebook."

Flint lighters are still military assets, and strictly speaking, they cannot be exported; tobacco is prohibited in the southern ports, and it is forbidden to be exported by the Nanyang Military Mansion's decree; now they are all in Xu Jue's hands. Obviously, these things cannot be blocked. live.

It’s okay to say that the lighter itself is commercialized by Chen Mu. It’s just that the flag army has not been prepared before, so there is no outflow; it’s hard to say about the tobacco. He plans to bring it to the court for discussion. Chen Mu is very aware of the disadvantages, but instead of letting people risk illegal smuggling, it is better for the government to monopolize it and extract heavy taxes.

"Then I'm afraid you will be disappointed. The court meeting is just a formality, and nothing can be done." Xu Jue smoked a cigarette after dinner, and said with a light smile: "Since Grandpa Jiajing's meeting, the court meeting is useless. In the notebook of the memorial. Instead of talking about it at the court meeting, you should go down to the court to talk at Zhang Ge's old mansion."

"The councilors talk too much, what can they talk about!"

As Xu Jue said, he put the pipe aside, and waved his hand to let Jin Yi go to another room. The round body in the boa robe folded his arms like a ball, and said to Chen Mu with a smile: "You ask Nanyang to get some tobacco for brother, follow me Tell me a secret."

Tobacco in exchange for secrets, Chen Mu rolled his eyes at Xu Jue, it is for your own good not to let you smoke, if you like smoking, you can smoke, if not, you can lose weight, he nodded and said: "Wait for two months, what is the secret?" ?”

"You must not have heard of it." Xu Jue laughed so hard that he sucked his teeth, "Your Majesty wants to knight you!"

　Good morning!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)