GBP Chapter 1087 This son-in-law is good, but he's a bit of a burden to his father-in-law.
Chapter 1087 This son-in-law is good, but he's a bit of a burden to his father-in-law.
Before the Tang Dynasty, there was no concept of the Longevity Festival.
Li Er even said, “Today is my birthday. The world celebrates it, but I feel sorrow. As the poem says: ‘Alas, my parents, who bore me with such toil.’ Why should we indulge in feasting on this day of toil?”
However, more than eighty years later, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, Li Sanlang, accepted the petition of Chancellor Yuan Qianyao and Zhang Yue with great satisfaction and established the "Qianqiu Festival" on his birthday.
To celebrate the Thousand Autumns Festival, Li San also composed the grand pieces "Qianqiu Le" and "Qianqiu Zi".
By the Song Dynasty, the Qianqiu Festival had become even grander. Officials would perform thirty-three bows to the emperor in the Zichen Hall. The prime minister would represent the officials in the hall, offering a cup to wish the emperor a long life. The emperor would then bestow tea and soup upon all officials, followed by songs, dances, and variety shows by court musicians.
Of course, there was no problem with celebrations such as singing, dancing and variety shows. The problem was that the New Year's Day court ceremony involved nineteen bows, the Winter Solstice court ceremony involved twelve bows, and the emperor's birthday court ceremony involved more bows than the New Year's Day court ceremony and the Winter Solstice court ceremony.
From the perspective of the emperor alone, the Zhao family seemed to have a somewhat indiscriminate sense of hierarchy.
When it came to Old Deng, the situation became even more complicated.
In the first year of the Hongwu reign, Xu Da and Chang Heizi were busy with the Northern Expedition against the Yuan Dynasty, and Lao Deng did not have a proper birthday celebration until the second year of the Hongwu reign, when he finally celebrated his first birthday properly.
Pay attention.
In the second year of the Hongwu reign, it was Lao Deng's first birthday. At that time, the festival was called "Christmas Day," which was not a proper holiday, and Lao Deng would not give the officials a holiday.
In the third year of the Hongwu reign, Emperor Hongwu officially designated his birthday as "Tian Shou Sheng Jie" (Heavenly Longevity Festival), abandoning all the previous nonsensical names such as "Qian Qiu Jie" (Thousand Autumns Festival), "Tian Chang Jie" (Heavenly Longevity Festival), "Tian Ping Di Cheng Jie" (Heavenly Balance and Earthly Success Festival), "Qing Cheng Jie" (Celebrating Success Festival), and "Jia Hui Jie" (Auspicious Gathering Festival).
But by the eleventh year of Hongwu's reign, Emperor Deng started to get annoyed—we finally get to celebrate our birthday, and we still have to give you officials three days off?
Fine, give us a holiday then, but the problem is that you guys are using the guise of celebrating for us to cause trouble for the people.
Screw it, we're not celebrating our birthdays!
It wasn't until the thirteenth year of the Hongwu reign that Li Shanchang repeatedly petitioned to celebrate the "Heavenly Longevity Festival," and the old emperor reluctantly agreed, but with several conditions: "No gifts, no poems, no large banquets, and no religious ceremonies," only a large-scale court assembly.
After Empress Ma passed away in the seventeenth year of the Hongwu reign, Emperor Deng was no longer willing to hold even large-scale court assemblies, nor did he accept the congratulations of the officials.
As for now?
In the seventh year of Hongwu's reign, Dengzhou was arguably at its happiest. Almost the entire Liaodong region had been captured, and the Dengzhou border market was making a fortune, if not a fortune, but a fortune. Although the Minister of Revenue kept complaining about the empty treasury, one granary after another was built to store gold and silver, and the Ever-Normal Granaries in various places finally had grain stored.
Throughout the Ming Dynasty, numerous community schools have been established in over a thousand prefectures and counties. Simple agricultural tools such as water pumps and harvesters are also about to be widely deployed. Dengzhou University is also receiving a constant stream of good news, with all sorts of novel gadgets and new knowledge emerging.
Jin'er is pregnant, her first grandson and granddaughter are about to be born, and Biao'er is already married.
For two consecutive years, there have been no more Japanese pirate raids along the coast. Goryeo's horse administration has been completely abolished, and even those disgusting local gentry have been driven to desperation. The reform of various ministries, directorates, temples, and academies in the court is also being carried out step by step.
The first five-year plan, formulated in the second year of the Hongwu reign, faced various problems during its implementation. For example, some scoundrel would always come up with new tricks, forcing the plan to be changed temporarily. However, the final result was good.
The sheer number of people and annual tax revenue reported by the Ministry of Revenue, along with the length of cement roads built as reported by the Ministry of Works, were enough to make Old Deng grin from ear to ear.
Of course, Old Deng's back teeth never show for very long.
The thought of that scoundrel repeatedly coming up with all sorts of new tricks, causing him, Li Shanchang, and Liu Bowen endless headaches, made Emperor Zhu's teeth ache.
Damn it, this son-in-law is good, but he's a bit of a good-for-nothing father-in-law.
Emperor Zhu clicked his tongue, then sat down next to Empress Ma and said, "Sister, tomorrow is the Emperor's birthday celebration. Guess what that scoundrel will send us?"
Empress Ma had eaten the black sesame dumplings and the cake they brought back, but she didn't intend to tell Emperor Zhu. Instead, she smiled and said, "Your good son-in-law has always been a troublemaker. This time, he's probably using the Timurid Khanate to cause trouble and bringing Timurid Khanate's oil as a gift."
Emperor Zhu clicked his tongue again, "The Timurid Khanate will belong to our Great Ming sooner or later. Isn't he just offering us our oil as a gift?"
What?
Empress Ma stared blankly at Emperor Zhu.
Seriously, Chongba, who did you learn to be so bad from? How could you say such shameless things?
What do you mean by saying that Timur's Khanate will eventually belong to our Great Ming Dynasty, so your son-in-law is bringing you your oil as a gift?
Empress Ma did not argue with Emperor Zhu, but instead asked, "Then what other good things do you think he could give as a gift? What if he brings some new things or new knowledge from Dengzhou University as a congratulatory gift? Don't tell me that's also your knowledge?"
Emperor Zhu chuckled dryly and said, "No, I know I don't have that kind of knowledge."
At this point, Emperor Zhu couldn't help but click his tongue and say, "How did he come up with the idea of a university? Especially those messy subjects. Now we feel that there are more and more subjects in universities. Even if future scholars spend their whole lives studying them, they will never be able to learn all of them."
"Especially that steam engine, that thing alone is enough to bring about earth-shattering changes to our Great Ming, and most of those changes are good things."
"Once the railway is fully operational, if the speed could be even faster... tsk tsk."
"If all the soldiers and even ordinary people of our Great Ming can travel a thousand miles a day, wouldn't that be better than a thousand thoroughbred horses?"
"The key is that this thing can not only carry people, but also goods."
"According to that bastard, as long as the carriage can fit it, even thousands of kilograms of goods can travel a thousand miles a day."
"..."
Empress Ma couldn't help but roll her eyes.
Emperor Zhu continued, "With people and goods able to travel a thousand miles a day, coupled with farms scattered throughout the Ming Dynasty, our Ming Dynasty will never have to worry about grain allocation again."
"That bastard told our Biao'er that the various provincial administrations should be interdependent and each one should be able to do without the others. Now, the foundation for that has finally been laid."
"..."
The more Emperor Zhu spoke, the happier he became, while Empress Ma grew angrier as she listened.
Alright, alright, you Zhu Chongba, you were just talking about your birthday one minute, and the next minute you're already thinking about the railway, huh?
Empress Ma pondered for a moment, then suddenly smiled and said, "Don't think about the railway for now, think about the Timurid Khanate first."