The pattern on the blueprint was clearly that of the current Marquis of Huating's Mansion.
However, the Marquis of Huating's Mansion on the map was completely different from its current state; the front area and the main courtyard were basically left untouched, while the backyard had undergone much more significant changes.
This mansion was originally Dorgon's Prince's Mansion. Dorgon had many concubines and children, so there were many buildings. On the new blueprints, half of those buildings had been leveled and replaced by gardens.
The small pond originally in the mansion had been expanded into almost a full lake, besides this lake, various water systems were spread throughout the mansion.
Zhu Ci took a few looks and gestured, thinking it was acceptable; the only drawback was that the backyard was still a bit small.
Although half of the house had been stripped, he still felt it was a bit cramped.
He gestured with his hand before standing up and saying, "Prepare a carriage; we are going to the Marquis of Huating's Mansion."
No one asked which Marquis's Mansion, as there was only one Marquis left in the entire Great Ming.
News of the Emperor visiting the Marquis's Mansion once again quickly reached the Grand Secretariat.
He Tengjiao tucked his hands into his sleeves and remarked with clicks of his tongue, "These past few days.. once a day, I assume? And yet people are still saying that His Majesty and the Grand Secretary have developed a rift. I wonder what kind of behavior would be considered not having a rift."
Huang Daozhou frowned and said, "His Majesty.. this action is somewhat inappropriate."
Previously, the Emperor's visit to the sickbed was out of concern for a high-ranking official and could be seen as a gesture of respect toward the talented, so there was no issue there; however, running to the Marquis of Huating's Mansion every single day was highly problematic.
Huang Daozhou couldn't help but think of the rumors from before. There had been no shortage of skeptics at the time, but since the Emperor and the Grand Secretary both acted so openly, it felt as if everyone had just heard a joke, they simply took it as a sign of the deep bond between the monarch and his minister.
But now, he felt that something wasn't quite right again.
He Tengjiao said calmly, "What is improper? Even if you truly think it is improper, do not say it out loud. As long as His Majesty and the Grand Secretary have not neglected the affairs of state, then act as if you know nothing."
Huang Daozhou looked at He Tengjiao with some surprise: "Could it be that you also.."
He Tengjiao glanced at him. "It's not just me; I imagine many people are guessing this. Setting that aside, why haven't I seen His Majesty act so out of line with the Prince of Ning?"
The Emperor and the Prince of Ning are still cousins, although their blood relation is somewhat distant, the two brothers have shared hardships together. If the Prince of Ning is not suitable as an example, then there are others.
Not to mention anything else, everyone initially thought that Jiang Shanggong, who had always stayed by the Emperor's side, would eventually become one of the imperial concubines. As it turned out, when the two of them were together, they were as pure as biological siblings—actually, many biological siblings might not even be that pure; it was obvious they had absolutely no romantic feelings for each other.
With such a stark contrast, everyone naturally couldn't help but feel a sense of doubt in their hearts.
Huang Daozhou hesitated: "This.. why did no one provide a warning? His Majesty is still so young, what if this.."
“You really are thick-headed. I'm telling you, if you don't want to offend His Majesty, don't open your mouth. Even the Left Censor hasn't said anything yet, so why are you rushing to do it? Besides, His Majesty is no ordinary person; before you try to advise him, ask yourself what you were doing when you were eighteen,” He Tengjiao said, rolling his eyes.
The Left Censor is still a senior member of the imperial clan; isn't the reason he didn't offer a reminder because he knew His Majesty had everything under control?
However, His Majesty, who was being discussed by He Tengjiao and Huang Daozhou, had no idea what was going on; he was currently discussing the renovation of the Marquis of Huating's Mansion with Fu.
Fu's health had improved significantly. He had originally wanted to attend today's grand assembly, but Zhu Ci had insisted he stay in bed to continue recuperating, telling him to only go once he was fully recovered.
To prevent Fu from becoming disconnected from state affairs, Zhu Ci would come over every day to tell him what had happened.
Even if the Vice Grand Secretary from the Grand Secretariat sent a daily summary of various government affairs, the information they received was not necessarily as comprehensive as what Zhu Ci received.
Setting aside everything else, they can no longer have any contact with military and political affairs.
Ever since the world was stabilized, Zhu Ci began to have the military and political affairs completely separated from the imperial court. The court focused more on the people's livelihood, so the Ministry of War naturally separated from the Six Ministries, then Zhu Ci added the Ministry of Education.
The Ministry of Education was naturally primarily responsible for matters such as examinations and schools; previously, these responsibilities were all assigned to the Ministry of Rites, while the Grand Secretariat and the Six Ministries were responsible for setting questions for major examinations.
The division of responsibilities is quite troublesome; once something goes wrong and someone wants to hold someone accountable, it leads to endless bickering.
Moreover, Zhu Ci still wanted to popularize education. The scholar-official class had held onto the reins of state affairs for too many years; even if they had internal disagreements, their overall interests remained aligned.
Zhu Ci couldn't be bothered to spend every day researching how to balance the factions at court; instead, he decided to simply expand the group. With more people in a group, every possible stance would be represented, so he figured they could just fight among themselves first.
Adding one more department requires considering every aspect, which has resulted in Zhu Ci having almost no rest days now; he needs to attend both large and small imperial assemblies, as well as military department advisory meetings.
In this situation, the Emperor might not even have much time to rest each day; even so, he still has to find time to visit the Grand Secretary.. they should just keep their mouths shut.
Anyway, the atmosphere in the Great Ming has always been open; as long as the Emperor doesn't act recklessly, he can do as he pleases.
Huang Daozhou really wanted to say, isn't this already acting recklessly? The Emperor isn't married and doesn't have any children yet.
Although all the memorials previously submitted to advise the Emperor to establish an Empress had been sent back, His Majesty was still young at that time, so it was not a concern. Now that His Majesty has turned nineteen after the New Year, the time has come.
Just as Huang Daozhou wanted to submit a memorial to test the Emperor's reaction, he found that he couldn't find him at all; most of the government affairs had been left to the Grand Secretariat to handle because the Emperor had run off to soak in a hot spring with the Grand Secretary!
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Author's Note: Zhu Ci: Don't make such a fuss, it's very close! Even Jiajing could go twenty years without attending court, so what's wrong with me going away for a few days of fun! *A cat floating on the water on its back. jpg*
Next update tomorrow morning at six o'clock
Chapter 273
Huang Daozhou felt a sense of helplessness when he learned about this matter.
Your Majesty, how can you just leave like that? You left such a mess behind just to go soak in hot springs?
Huang Daozhou looked at the work plan of the Grand Secretariat and, for a moment, could not spare the thought to consider whether there was any issue with the Emperor and the Grand Secretary going to soak in the hot springs alone; he only wanted to know how to complete the sorting and distribution of the farmland in the shortest time possible to keep up with next year's spring plowing!
Although the Emperor had been allocating land as he traveled, he only managed the cities he passed through, leaving a vast amount of land unaddressed.
For example, in these two extremely important places, Shandong and Henan, the main issue was that although this policy received support from the majority of the common people, most of the opposition came from the scholar-officials and landlords.
If these two classes are not appeased, trouble will easily arise. There were uprisings in the south before; although they were suppressed, it was only because their numbers were small.
If the Henan and Shandong regions were to become like this as well, it would easily cause national instability.
Therefore, one must carefully deliberate on how to continue the progress.
The only silver lining is that the process of clarifying land and distributing fields can be handled together with the census.
Hidden populations cannot be allocated land, those without household registration have no land; under these circumstances, no one would hide their population.
Oh, besides that, quite a few refugees and mountain dwellers have also emerged.
After all, the Emperor had issued a general amnesty, signaling that he would not hold the refugees and mountain dwellers accountable for their past actions, allowing them to register their households and receive land allotments as usual.
Strictly speaking, none of them were major matters, but they were extremely trivial, there were many affairs to handle every day. In such circumstances, the Emperor and the Grand Secretary had gone off to soak in hot springs!
We want to soak in the hot springs too!
Why couldn't you take us with you?
Huang Daozhou was filled with resentment, this time even He Tengjiao did not try to persuade him, merely saying, "I heard that this time His Majesty rushed over without even tidying up the Imperial Palace; perhaps it was for the sake of the Grand Secretary's health."
Even if it was for the Grand Secretary's health, the Emperor didn't need to rush over there in person!
Although the officials stationed in the capital had grown accustomed to the Emperor's habit of favoritism, they still couldn't help but sigh whenever the matter was brought up.
Most of the officials had originally grown up in the south and were not very accustomed to the climate in the north; some even fell ill due to the unfamiliar environment and water.
The Emperor did grant some medicinal herbs and inquired briefly, but.. compared to this, the Emperor is far too biased!
As for the officials' resentment, Zhu Ci didn't care in the slightest.
As long as a person has feelings, how can they not be biased?
"Even sages cannot guarantee they won't show favoritism." Zhu Ci soaked in the hot spring, sipping cold fruit wine while looking up at the moon.
On the other side, Fu leaned against the white jade pool wall, his eyes seeing the moon in the sky, but his heart was with the person beside him.
The scent of sulfur mixed with the fragrance of wine and fruit made him lose his composure.
He struggled to maintain a shred of clarity as he said, "I believe that since there are many hot spring springs here, more pools could be constructed, allowing some elderly officials with poor health to come here occasionally for recuperation."
Zhu Ci turned his head to look at Fu.
Perhaps because the hot spring water was quite warm, Fu's skin was no longer as white as if it were transparent, but was instead tinged with a faint pink.
Although the silvery-white hair was tied up, a few strands still drifted down, floating on the water's surface.
Look, if he were to come out with Fu alone, soaking in the hot springs under the moonlight would be like admiring a beauty and a beautiful view. If he brought more people.. just imagine if all the high officials from the court came here to soak in the hot springs.
Forget it, stop thinking about it.
In fact, although the Great Ming Dynasty has been a bit of a makeshift operation from the very beginning, there really aren't any ugly people in the imperial court; at the very worst, they are all quite well-featured.
However, even someone with decent features and good looks would appear dull and lackluster when standing next to Fu.
Fu knew that Zhu Ci was looking at him, so he shifted his sitting position uncomfortably and began to force himself to silently recite the "Classic of Purity" in a loop, attempting to calm his mind and soothe his spirit.
At this moment, he was conflicted; he did not want Zhu Ci to look at him because it made him restless, yet he also hoped Zhu Ci would look at him more.
After admiring the Grand Secretary's beauty for a few moments, Zhu Ci's gaze drifted downward, a thought popped into his mind: he actually had pectoral muscles.
In fact, the Grand Secretary not only had pectoral muscles, but the muscle lines on his arms were also very beautiful, looking further down, one could even faintly see the abdominal muscles submerged beneath the water.
I just don't know if it's eight or six.
Zhu Ci felt that Lord Fu truly exceeded his expectations.
In his eyes, Lord Fu was nothing more than a frail and sickly beauty.
Because of a congenital genetic disease, his body required exceptional care, he usually lived a lonely, quiet life, seemingly unlike someone who would exercise; as a result, his muscle lines were unexpectedly quite good.
It was like seeing an Arctic rabbit, which had been crouching on the ice, suddenly stand up.
After looking for a few more moments, Zhu Ci immediately withdrew his gaze, feeling somewhat strange.
He took a sip of the fruit wine and leaned against the pool wall with his eyes closed.
He didn't know if it was just his imagination, but he felt as though the alcohol content of this fruit wine was a bit high today.
He had only taken a couple of sips before he started feeling a bit dizzy.
He closed his eyes and rested for a while, then opened them, preparing to set the wine cup aside and switch to ice water.
As a result, just as he picked up the kettle, his hand was pressed down by Fu.
Fu looked at him with some disapproval and said, "Your Majesty, sudden changes in temperature can easily cause illness."
As he spoke, he called for someone to take away the water that still contained ice.
Zhu Ci looked at that pot of water longingly, but in the end, he only let out an "oh" and obediently withdrew his hand.
Hmm?
Fu felt that something was amiss.
Why is the Little Emperor being so easy to talk to today?
If it had been before, he would definitely have bargained with him.