Chapter 611 610 Preparation for Succession

"Yifu, you should come with me and go back to the palace. You are the Minister of Rites. You should be in the palace to preside over the funeral of His Majesty at this time."

This visit to Prince Yu's Mansion is actually the cabinet's invitation to Prince Yu to enter the palace. On the one hand, he presides over the funeral of Emperor Jiajing, and on the other hand, he is preparing for the coronation ceremony.

The will has been shown to Prince Yu. As expected, it is of course stated that Prince Yu will succeed the throne.

The will will be announced to Fengxian Hall tomorrow after Prince Yu officially enters the palace, and then announced to the world.

At this time, everything is in accordance with the court system. Officials like Wei Guangde and Yin Shizhan who have no real power in the court actually have nothing to do, that is, to accompany Prince Yu, the new emperor.

Talk to him more, don't let your imagination run wild.

After Chen Yiqin nodded, Gao Gong said to Yin Shizhan and Wei Guangde: "You will temporarily rest in the palace tonight. I will ask Li Fang to prepare rooms for you."

At this time, Gao Gong had no idea that he had entered the court as an official. He still treated the palace as his own and arranged it directly.

Wei Guangde turned his head away and did not intend to argue with Gao Gong, although he felt uncomfortable.

Yin Shizhan was similar to him. Although he was dissatisfied, he did not show it. He just nodded casually, seemingly agreeing.

Although Wei Guangde had not returned to the palace for two days, his family must have known about the big commotion in the capital today.

He was in the Prince Yu's Palace, and Prince Yu would soon become the emperor. His mother and wife should be happy to see it happen.

Gao Gong left with Xu Jie and others, and Chen Yiqin followed him. He came here on the pretext of checking the preparations of the Prince Yu's Palace.

The palace was well prepared and did not panic, which made Chen Yiqin very satisfied.

And he also knew that His Majesty had met His Highness and the Crown Prince at the last moment today, so he was even less worried.

Now all he had to do was to handle the funeral of the late emperor and prepare for the affairs of the new dynasty. The affairs of the Ministry of Rites would be very busy during this period.

At night, Prince Yu still didn't want to eat, but after repeated persuasion from Yin Shizhan, Wei Guangde and others, he finally ate something.

Wei Guangde could only quietly tell Li Fang to bring more cakes and other food with him.

Prince Yu's life would not be easy in the next few days.

Jinyiwei Beizhenfu Division dungeon.

The speed of Jinyiwei's information transmission was no slower than that of the Ming Dynasty's officialdom. After all, many of them were closest to the palace and knew a lot of things inside.

"I heard that the new emperor will pardon Hai Rui."

"I heard about this, too. This old man Hai is so lucky. He was interrogated for two days at the beginning, and then he was fed and well fed. People who didn't know him would think he was a master invited back."

"What did I say when the order came down from above? This man is not destined to die, otherwise he would have been tortured with all kinds of instruments in the torture room."

"It should be in these few days. Let's arrange something good for him. When he leaves, let him remember us. We didn't treat him badly."

Several jailers talked together. There are no serious criminals in the prison now. There are a few criminals who have committed crimes and have been waiting for the emperor to punish them.

Those people have confessed their crimes long ago, so there is nothing to say. Only Hai Rui dared to talk back to Qianhu and Zhenfu. He is not afraid of death.

The jailers still have some respect for this kind of people, because he did this and nothing happened.

If it were someone else, he would have been beaten to pieces.

So, Hai Rui was miserable tonight.

After taking back the food box and taking out the rather sumptuous dinner inside, Hai Rui did not touch his chopsticks for a long time.

There were four dishes, one soup and five courses, including fish, meat and chicken soup, and the other two dishes were vegetarian dishes. The most important thing was that there was also a pot of wine. This was the standard configuration of the last dinner for a death row prisoner.

Yes, Hai Rui saw the sumptuous food and wine tonight and thought that he would be dragged out and beheaded tomorrow.

Not to mention that the emperor wanted to kill people before the autumn execution, for the imperial prisoners, there was no need to wait until the autumn to be executed, and he could be killed whenever he wanted.

In fact, a person's mentality can change at any time due to changes in the environment.

At the beginning, when he submitted the "Public Security Memorial", he was indeed determined to die. It can be said that he would die if he failed, which was why he prepared the coffin.

But there was no trouble for several months afterwards, and Emperor Jiajing did not get angry and punish him.

Especially during this period, many officials who had not said a few words to him before intentionally or unintentionally talked to him and made friends with him, which made him live a very comfortable time.

Although there was no positive information from the palace, and Emperor Jiajing still did his own thing, Hai Rui really didn't want to die at this time.

It's better to live a miserable life than to die a good death, why do you have to ask for death?

He also felt something vaguely from the changes in the people around him during this period, and he seemed to have inadvertently become a representative of the clean stream.

Of course, he couldn't be called a leader yet.

When interacting with those Jinshi, he could still feel their subtle contempt for him.

He was a juren after all.

But there are unexpected events, and he was finally arrested. When he was still on duty at the Ministry of Revenue, a group of Jinyiwei rushed in like wolves and tigers and took him away.

After two days of interrogation, he was finally thrown into this prison and no longer cared about him.

After being imprisoned for so long, the jailer brought a table of sumptuous food and wine today. Hai Rui thought that today was not his birthday, nor was it an important day, so it could only be the last meal of his life: the last meal of execution.

Hai Rui couldn't eat, and the Prince of Yu in the Prince's Mansion was the same.

No matter who it is, if his father is gone, this may be the case.

Only time may allow him to gradually recover.

Half an hour later, the jailer came to collect the food box. He stood outside the cell and looked inside. The food and wine had not been touched. Hai Rui just sat there in a daze, not packing the food box and bringing it over.

"Huang San, come here."

The jailer shouted to the jailer at the entrance of the alley.

"What's going on?"

Huang San came over slowly and asked.

"Open the cell door. There seems to be something wrong with Mr. Hai inside."

The jailer who delivered the meal said.

"Really? It was fine before."

Huang San walked to the cell door and looked inside, and was shocked.

Although the light was dim, they had long been accustomed to the environment in the dungeon, and they could see that the food and wine had not been touched.

With the sound of flipping keys, Huang found the three keys and quickly opened the cell and entered.

Hai Rui remained motionless as if he hadn't noticed any of these movements.

Arriving in front of Hai Rui, Huang Sanban knelt down and looked over. Only then did Hai Rui's eyes move, but she just stared at him.

Although he was very reluctant to admit it, Huang San's heart trembled because he was actually being stared at by Hai Rui.

"Master Hai, these food and wine are not to your liking?"

Huang San asked bravely.

Hai Rui didn't answer, but still stared at him.

"Come on, you haven't even had two meals in this prison. I thought I would prepare something for you before you leave. If you don't want to eat, forget it."

Although Huang San didn't know what was going on with Hai Rui, he didn't want to waste the food and wine on the table, so he called to the person next to him: "Master Hai doesn't want to eat, then let's eat."

"What do you mean when you say I haven't had a single meal in prison?"

A low voice sounded, it was Hai Rui who asked.

"You have stayed in the prison for a long enough time. You should be out soon, in the next two days."

The jailer said casually.

"Why was I released? I scolded His Majesty."

Hai Rui asked.

In order to avoid trouble in Fusi Prison in Beizhen, Hai Rui was directly detained in the dungeon, so the bells that kept echoing outside could not be heard here at all.

"The late emperor has passed away today. No one will chop off your head again. I was still thinking about it."

Huang San said casually, but stopped suddenly when he said this.

"Wait, what did you say? Your Majesty... no! Ah."

When Hai Rui heard the news of Emperor Jiajing's death, he did not show any joy. Instead, he was very sad and retched.

"Master Hai, you are fine now. You should be happy. Why are you crying?"

The jailer was unhappy when he saw Hai Rui like this. The two quickly packed up the food and drinks without bothering to pay attention to him.

When he locked the cell again, he not only spat, "Students are hypocritical."

It doesn't matter who is the emperor, as long as the emperor doesn't fire them.

Not long after they left, Hai Rui, who was retching, finally calmed down. Not only did he start whimpering, but he also wailed twice from time to time, making the prison restless all night long.

For a scholar like Hai Rui, being an official naturally means making decisions for the people and working hard for the country. When he saw Emperor Jiajing behaving recklessly, he risked his life to remonstrate, and he had to be scolded when he deserved it.

But in his bones, the idea of ​​loyalty to the emperor and patriotism had already penetrated deep into his bones. When he heard that the emperor passed away, he naturally couldn't help crying sadly.

Many people in later generations regarded the ministers crying for the emperor at this time as acting. In fact, it was not the case. Perhaps only those officials who were half buried in the earth would have this idea. Most officials would cry because of the emperor's death.

Loyalty, filial piety, benevolence, justice, etiquette, wisdom and trust have been repeatedly mentioned by their teachers since they were in school. They have been more or less integrated into their bones and connected with their blood.

Only those who know destiny will understand that death is what it is and no one can escape it.

In the early morning in Beijing, heavy snow fell last night, turning the entire city into white.

The gate of Prince Yu's Mansion has been opened. Prince Yu wore the black-winged benevolent crown, green cloth robe, and black horn belt that had been prepared long ago and walked out of the palace and got on the carriage that had been prepared.

Yin Shizhen, Wei Guangde and others followed him and got into the carriage behind him.

Although the guards at the front and rear of today's motorcade were still fully dressed, they were also wrapped in plain clothes.

When they arrived outside Dong'an Gate, the motorcade stopped. King Yu got out of the car, carried mourning utensils, and walked into the imperial city.

Walking from Dong'an Gate to the Palace of Qianqing, he took off his crown, robes, and hair, kowtowed in front of the imperial palace and cried. Only then did he give orders to the palace officials, and officials inside and outside the gates stayed guard to pay their respects.

Emperor Daxing sent an announcement to the Fengxian Hall, issued a posthumous edict to the world, reported the obituary to the kings of the clan, strictly guarded the capital, and ordered the Ministry of Rites to meet with the Hanlin Academy to discuss the funeral etiquette.

This is what King Yu will do on the first day he enters the palace, and the Ministry of Rites has also prepared to hold a funeral ceremony for the Daxing Emperor. After all, this is a routine. The so-called meeting of the Ministry of Rites and the Hanlin Academy is actually a formality.

On the second day, the Ministry of Rites held a grand funeral ceremony for the emperor, with detailed requirements for the ministers in Beijing, the ladies of each family, and what the military and civilians needed to do.

When Wei Guangde and the others left the palace, they were still sighing that there were so many etiquettes. From tomorrow on, like other ministers, he would go to Sishan's door in plain clothes, black gauze, hat and black horns to cry. After that, those who were supposed to go to work would continue to go to work.

Wei Guangde doesn't need to go to the school recording hall these days. This is the order of King Yu, asking him to come to the palace every day.

Fortunately, he is only a fourth-rank official now. If he is promoted to the third rank, his wife will also come to Sishan Gate to cry for three days.

After that, the funeral of Emperor Jiajing was carried out according to the rituals. The first thing Wei Guangde did when he entered the palace every day was to look at the arrangements for the day, and then pick out the key points to discuss with Prince Yu.

On this day, Prince Yu was in the mourning hall, and Wei Guangde came out to take a breath. He saw Chen Yiqin walking towards him quickly with a gauze hat wrapped in cloth, a hanging belt, plain clothes, a waist sash, and hemp shoes.

In fact, all officials dressed like this in the past few days, even if they returned to the government office after crying.

"Shuntian Prefecture has prepared it. Tomorrow is the time for civil and military officials, soldiers and civilians, and elders to submit letters to persuade him to ascend the throne."

After walking in front of Wei Guangde, Chen Yiqin whispered to him.

"Okay, then what officials will participate tomorrow?"

When the emperor ascends the throne, even if he has no choice like Prince Yu, he must perform three persuadings before agreeing. This is already a ritual.

Each time the persuasion was not only for officials, but also for the government to find representatives from the people, that is, young and middle-aged people and the elderly with clean family backgrounds.

"Tomorrow I will lead, mainly the officials at the level of assistant ministers and nobles such as earls in Beijing, and the rest will be selected by Shuntian Prefecture."

Chen Yiqin said in a low voice, "The day after tomorrow, the six ministers and nine ministers will participate, and the marquises in Beijing will also be present. The people will be replaced by a group of people, and Shuntian Prefecture has already made arrangements."

The last persuasion was, of course, by the cabinet and ministers, and nobles such as dukes and marquises in Beijing and the people, and this time Prince Yu had to agree half-heartedly.

"Then is there anything else today?"

Wei Guangde nodded and asked in a low voice.

"How is the preparation of your highness's crown and robes? Shangshu Gao asked me to ask."

Chen Yiqin replied.

Crown and robes are the name of a formal dress in ancient China.

It is said to have appeared in the Xia Dynasty. It is mainly composed of a crown, a black robe, a skirt, a white silk belt, a yellow knee-covering, a plain yarn middle singlet, and red shoes. It is the formal dress worn by the ancient emperor for major ceremonies.

The shoulders of the black robe are woven with sun, moon, and dragon patterns; the back is woven with stars and mountains; the sleeves are woven with fire, Hua insects, and Zong Yi patterns. The skirt is woven with two algae, pink rice, fu, and fu patterns, which are the so-called "twelve emblems" patterns.

In addition, there are middle singles and knee-coverings. They are all woven with algae, pink rice, fu, and fu patterns. In addition, there are six-color large and small ribbons in yellow, white, red, black, phoenix, and green, jade hooks, jade pendants, gold hooks, jade rings, and red socks and shoes.

The crown is the most noble formal dress among all the emperor's costumes. It will only be worn during major ceremonies. The enthronement ceremony is undoubtedly such an occasion.

"According to Eunuch Huang, it will be modified within two days."

The crown is made of 搦兴 and 狝肖, and the process starts with dyeing the silk. It is very complicated and of course it cannot be made temporarily. There is no time at all.

Fortunately, the inner court has prepared several sets of crowns, which are all Emperor Jiajing has never used, and they are being modified according to Prince Yu's body shape.

Wei Guangde naturally asked Huang Jin about these things a long time ago, so there will be no mistakes.