Chapter 711 Killing a chicken with a sledgehammer
The gates of the Liangyi Hall were opened one after another.
The sky is still covered with a sliver of night, and a column of nobles comes from the misty morning light, wearing the cool vigor of summer morning.
Li Shimin walked to the middle of the throne.
The hall is still very dark, and the hall is full of copper lamps, reflecting the various postures of the officials and officials in the hall.
The emperor stood there condescendingly and looked around before taking his seat and accepting the court.
All the nobles and purples shook in front of my eyes until the sound of the mountain stopped.
After the ceremony.
"Officials of the fifth rank or above, if they have important military affairs, they will report and listen in person, and the rest of the routine will be entered later!"
"I have something to play in order!"
Yushi sang loudly.
As the Shuowang Dynasty meeting held on the first and fifteenth day of the new year, because there are many officials involved, there are more rules. On the contrary, there are few serious discussions. With so many people, it is not easy to keep secrets when discussing general affairs, and it is too scattered and chaotic. Therefore, a system has been established long ago. At the outer court meeting, except for important military and state affairs, general routines are not presented in the hall, but are presented separately.
The main function of the court meeting is to engage in ceremonies so that the emperor can show off his prestige. There are usually a few things at the meeting of the foreign court. The official said goodbye to his majesty, the foreign official went to the palace to thank him, and the newly transferred officials went to the exhibition to thank the king.
The old officials retired, the emperor gave comfort and rewards in person, the Beijing officials were released, the emperor also encouraged a few words, and the foreign officials were transferred to Beijing, the emperor asked a few words of concern in person.
Other than that, Chang Chao is completely a regular meeting, a ceremony.
Only officials of the fifth rank or above are eligible to present matters to the court, and the matters must be reported to be important military and state affairs. Otherwise, if they dare to take something casual and say it at the court meeting, they will be repelled and recorded by the imperial censor.
Even if it is an important matter of military affairs, if there are endless disputes, the censor will control the time.
Even if it is an important military affairs, it will require the next battle.
According to the system, there will be guards of honor in the outer court meeting. After the court meeting is over, the guards will retreat, and all officials will withdraw with the guards. When encountering important matters, the emperor can ask the prime minister or important ministers to go to the inner hall to play the battle.
Essentially, it is the court meeting, but compared with the court meeting presided over by the prime minister, the battle under the battle can sometimes be done alone or by multiple people. This kind of battle is usually a special meeting held for a certain fundamental issue, and relevant officials are called to participate.
For this kind of battle, there will be a living man who will be responsible for recording, and there will be a historian to record.
However, this kind of fighting has been attacked by the prime ministers all the time. The reason is that there is a lack of supervision. The emperor casually summons officials to discuss and make decisions, which is actually depriving the prime minister of his power. On the other hand, the court meetings and court meetings are all supervised by special censors, officials, and admonishing officials.
However, there are only records of living officials and historians, but no supervision. Officials participating in the events under the staff have no rank or official position restrictions, and the meetings are confidential, so they can say a lot of things to the emperor without supervision.
It is easy for some people to take the opportunity to slander and attack political opponents.
Therefore, the chancellors usually do things in groups, and it is most taboo for the prime ministers to play against each other face to face, which is easy to carry private goods, and even attack political opponents.
In the past two years, the number of ginseng officials has reached a thousand people on weekdays, and even thousands of people during the Shuowang court meeting. It takes most of the day to sing at the palace gate.
After a set of ceremonies are set up, there is no time to discuss matters.
Even if the matter is played, 99% of the officials will not be able to hear it, and they are not qualified to participate in the discussion. Only officials of the fifth rank or above have the right to speak.
So the Zhenguan Dynasty meeting has become more and more ritualized and less nutritious, and it has to get up in the middle of the night every day, earlier than the chicken, which is purely tossing people.
Especially for the prime ministers, they are even more disgusted with this kind of court meeting. The prime ministers have to deal with a lot of things every day.
Not to mention that Li Shimin is a diligent man, he has to hold a court meeting every now and then, and from time to time he has to work under the stick, which makes the prime ministers get up early and work in the dark every day, which is miserable.
On the one hand, he is too busy with things, but on the other hand, he wakes up in the middle of the night every day, wasting most of the day in this useless court meeting.
So in the early court, the prime ministers were similar to Qin Lang, they all sat there with their eyes closed to refresh themselves, so as not to waste their tongues.
The prime ministers sit opposite each other in front of the incense table at the imperial steps, and behind them are two classes of civil and military classes from the first to the ninth rank.
As usual, it is to send officials to the hall to thank you, to give a speech to foreign officials, and to go to the hall to meet the saints when entering Beijing...
When these routine things are over, the sun has already shone into the temple.
The censor sang loudly, "Let's play something!"
Shangshu Zuo Pushe, Wei Guogong Fang Xuanling stood up and held up the wat board.
"Please play, the world is peaceful, and everything is simple, please come to the court once every three days! Shuowang Dynasty, please stop at the fifth rank! And please stop fighting and play!"
Fang Xuanling did not play important military and state affairs, but wanted to change the early court system, changing the daily attendance to once every three days, and changing the Shuowang court meeting from the original ninth rank and above to only the fifth rank and above scattered ranks. Participation of noble officials.
The old house also seems to be tired, holding this kind of court meeting without salt and water all day long, it is too annoying and boring, it is too time-consuming and affects the rest, the court meeting does not do business at all, just doing nothing.
How can the prime minister have so much time to retreat.
Qin Lang silently praised the old house, expressing the feelings of many officials. He would get up at three o'clock in the morning every day, and then wait in front of the palace until five o'clock in the morning. It's all right, it's all right, such a morning court sometimes has to be opened until noon, and they have a lunch in the palace before leaving the palace.
Half of the day is gone.
Back to their respective yamen, they have to take a lunch break and have business meetings in the afternoon. It is getting dark soon, so Suoya is off work. It is no wonder that the office efficiency is low. There are reasons for it.
You said that it would be better if the officials of the court were all idlers, but they were all officials from the three provinces, six ministries, nine temples, five supervisors, twelve guards and other departments of the imperial court.
Of course the world is not peaceful today, but it is appropriate for Lao Fang to use this as an excuse. You can’t just say that the emperor’s early morning driving is too painful, so stop driving.
Sitting on the throne, Li Shimin glanced over the prime ministers, and found that none of the prime ministers stood up to object.
"May!"
As a diligent king, Li Shimin is not afraid of getting up early and suffering early, but he also feels that early court is not nutritious.
But the early dynasty is a tradition that has been practiced for thousands of years since the Qin and Han Dynasties, and it is impossible to change it just by saying it.
"What Fang Xiang said is very reasonable, I think we can change the regular court to every other day." Speaking of this, Li Shimin paused and said, "The Shuo Wang Dynasty on the first and fifteenth day of the lunar new year can be changed to the five and tenth court. .”
The emperor did not fully adopt Fang Xuanling's suggestion, and changed the Chang Shen once every three days to every two days once, and made adjustments to the officials of the Chang Shen, reducing the number of Chang Shen officials to about 300. Officials of the fifth rank and above in the Yamen participated in the court.
The Shuo Wang Dynasty was also adjusted, from two dynasties in January on the fifteenth day of the first day to one day on five days. For the rest of the fifth and tenth dynasties meetings in the first four days, officials of the fifth rank and above in Beijing participated.
As for saying please cancel the next meeting, Li Shimin pretended not to hear it.
For the emperor, this is a good way to balance power and control power. How could the emperor give up easily.
Just like the court meeting, knowing that there is no practical effect in the morning court every day, but in order to maintain the emperor's prestige, court etiquette and other needs, the morning court has to continue, and the Shuowang court attendance has even been changed from twice a month to six times a month.
In order to distinguish the two grades of Shuowang court attendants, the emperor also asked future officials to attend the Shuowang court meeting and wear hakama pleats uniformly to go to court. The hakama pleats were originally military uniforms since the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and became a kind of official dresses in the Sui Dynasty.
In the temple.
There is an objection to the change of the court system in the middle of the matter, thinking that the king does not come to the court early, which is a sign of lazy government, and Fang Xuanling, as the prime minister, said that the world is peaceful, this is a treacherous statement, and it is to block the king's eyes and ears .
Li Shimin rewarded this subordinate with five bolts of silk, but still did not change his decision.
The court meeting did not end until noon, and the emperor gave meals as usual.
In ordinary courts, the emperor gave 100 plates of mutton as an example. In today’s court, the emperor gave 2,000 plates of mutton.
Usually three sheep are used for a hundred plates of mutton, and one plate of mutton is actually about one catty.
Today, 60 sheep and 2,000 catties of mutton were used for one meal. It was too extravagant for an official to complain, but Wei Zheng was too lazy to criticize the emperor for this matter. The mutton was paid for by the emperor's internal treasury. I can't control it either.
Besides, I got up in the middle of the night to go to court, and endured for a long time in the hall. At this time, I was really hungry. Isn’t this fresh and tender mutton delicious?
The three masters, the three masters, the prime minister, the prince, Kaifu Yitong and the third division have small stoves.
The lunches of the prime ministers are the same as the usual dine-in, eight dishes, very rich. The prime ministers' Xiaozao ate a sheep alone, and gave them another, which was not among the sixty sheep.
In addition to a sheep, there are ten catties of beef and several tails of fish.
Three meat dishes, two vegetarian dishes, and two cold dishes and one soup. The dishes are exquisitely prepared and taste good, which suits Qin Lang's appetite. The Gulouzi that he ate in the morning is almost digested by now.
Dragon Boat Festival is approaching, and today I even made horn millet, that is, zongzi. When the leaves of the zongzi are peeled off, the zongzi is as white as jade, so the name of this zongzi is Xiangjaponica Baiyutuan.
Today, Li Jing, Yang Gongren, Yuwen Shi and three were added to the prime minister's class. Sun Fujia, who was dismissed as prime minister, was missing. This man was not favored by Ma Zhou. But there is no reunion for the time being.
Today, a total of nine prime ministers dined, thirty catties of mutton and ten catties of beef, this dish is really rich.
"This sheepskin filigree is very well made!" Li Jing dozed off in the hall, but now he was full of vigor, and he used his chopsticks like a spirit.
I was full of praise for the dish of sheepskin filaments made of sheep stomach and tripe, and I ate the dish on my table in two or three times.
"Taste this Wusheng plate on behalf of the public. It is a colorful cold dish made of sheep, pig, cow, bear, and deer cut into thin slices. Look at the chef's knife skills. The meat slices are as thin as paper. , and it’s very lenient, dipped in this Xun Xun sauce, it’s really a must!"
Qin Lang smiled and said to Li Jing.
Xunpao sauce is a sauce made from fresh fish caught in the Yellow River and freshly slaughtered mutton. The fish and mutton are fresh, and they are really delicious. The name of the dish means fast. This sauce is also made very quickly, using the freshest The ingredients are made with the simplest cooking method, which is very delicious.
Changsun Wuji held a piece of white-cut mutton and said, "I still like today's cold-cut mutton. Slice the mutton's hind leg, boil it in water with seasonings such as shallots, ginger, and tangerine peel until the meat is crispy, and then take it out. Let it marinate, let it cool, put it in an ice tray to freeze, and eat it immediately, it is refreshing and palatable.”
Although tens of thousands of pigs are slaughtered every day in Chang’an, the prime ministers rarely eat pork, and mutton is still the king.
"At a court meeting, we are going to use troops against the Western Turks, Sanlang, I want to ask Ying to be in command, do you think it is okay?" Li Jing put down his chopsticks, looked at Qin Lang and said.
Before waiting in the leaking courtyard, Li Jing and Yang Gongren were only nominal prime ministers, and they were not there, so he didn't know that Qin Lang had already proposed to let Changsun Wuji be in command, and he had also obtained the tacit approval of all the prime ministers.
Changsun Wuji heard the words, and felt that Leng Xiuyang didn't seem so attractive anymore, "Dai Gong is highly respected, a generation of military gods, but how can you kill a chicken with a butcher's knife? Where are you going?"
(end of this chapter)