Song Mingyue

Chapter 141
Since the Han Dynasty, there has been a saying that the winter solstice is as big as the year.

On the day before the winter solstice, Bianliang City is extremely lively, with lanterns and festoons everywhere, full of joy.

On the day of the winter solstice, everyone is dressed in new clothes and arranges a family banquet. The big fish and meat that are usually reluctant to eat are served on the table.

On the day of the winter solstice in later generations, dumplings are not as good as delicious, and not as fun... In the winter solstice of the Song Dynasty, dumplings were not eaten, but chaos must be eaten. Wontons are also indispensable for ancestor worship.The rich and powerful of your family are even more curious. They make wontons in various colors and dozens of different fillings, and put them in gold and silverware, which are called Baiwei wontons.

In addition to wontons, rice is also pounded to make cakes to worship ancestors.In addition, people in Kaifeng in the Northern Song Dynasty also had the customs of welcoming the sun, wearing a sun scarf, recommending millet cakes, and presenting winter solstice dishes during the winter solstice.

It is the feast and carnival on the day of the winter solstice, which has almost exhausted the savings for a year. When it comes to the real Chinese New Year, but the money is too shy, so I can only keep it simple, so I have the saying that the winter solstice is as big as the new year... This is like the Chinese New Year today. In those few days of the season, you can see mahjong with tens of thousands of wins and losses everywhere. If you are too young, people won’t play with you at all, but when it comes to the May Day Poetry Fair, many people can only afford to play mahjong for 20 yuan.

If the winter solstice is the busiest time of the year in Bianliang City, then the most lively activity on the day of the winter solstice is the emperor worshiping ancestors.

Since the Han Dynasty, the "interaction between heaven and man" has become one of the important logics for confirming the legitimacy of imperial power.For this reason, offering sacrifices to the "God Haotian" is regarded as one of the important ceremonies of the regime, and the time for offering sacrifices to heaven has been set on the winter solstice since the Song Dynasty.

The day before the winter solstice, the minister of the Ministry of Rites personally played to invite the sacrifice, and the official family was naturally gracious.

The sacrificial team is led by cavalry with silver armor and iron horses, followed by seven elephants dressed in gorgeous brocade, with a gilt lotus throne placed on the back of the elephant, and the head of the elephant is decorated with gold silk and golden bridle, and the rider is also beautifully dressed. From a distance, it looks like a fairy descending from an elephant.

The honor guards following the elephant team hold high flags, big fans, painted halberds, and spears respectively. The flags are painted with dragons and tigers, mountains and rivers, and the long soldiers are decorated with leopard tails and ribbons. All of a sudden.

Afterwards, many warriors with axes on their backs, shields on their backs, swords and sticks, dressed in green, soap, red, and ocher costumes, escorted the holy driver and officials to the Taimiao.The scene can be described as thousands of rides and horses like dragons.

At the third watch of the night, the emperor put on the green gown dragon suit, the crown of flat heaven with 24 pins on his head, and red shoes on his feet. He was helped to the altar by two servants.The altar is three stories high, with a total of 72 steps. The top of the altar has a radius of three feet. The yellow mattress of "God Haotian" is placed facing south, and the yellow mattress of "Emperor Taizu" is placed on one side, juxtaposing the worship of heaven and ancestors.

Taoist priests gathered under the altar, and there was an endless stream of ceremonies, music, singing and dancing. Hundreds of thousands of people outside the altar worshiped and shouted long live.

That scene, that grandeur, what Song Dandan said, "Three floors inside and three floors outside, red flags waving, gongs and drums blaring" were simply weak.

Following the emperor's line of offering sacrifices to ancestors, first the clan, and then the officials.

According to the practice of previous years, the clans that are eligible to participate in this occasion are all within the official family's three uniforms, but there are only three or forty people. It's Zhao Xiaoqian and other county kings, and the ones at the end are also at the state level.

However, this year's ancestor worship, there was a little accident.

Following behind the clan, Cai Jing, Wang Fu and others lined up at the front. Cai Jing, who was 73 years old, was a little dizzy, because he suddenly saw that in the queue of the clan, there were sixteen or seven more people for no reason. A young boy of [-] years old, dressed in a vermilion official robe... unexpectedly, he was not of the third rank.

At Cai Jing's age, he no longer trusts his eyesight very much. Although he wiped his eyes several times, it still remains the same, and it is inconvenient to ask, so he has to give up.

In addition to Cai Jing's doubts, Zhao Xiaoqian in the front clan team was the most depressed, because Zhao Hao didn't know whether it was intentional or not, he just followed behind him, and stepped on his heels from time to time, making him gnash his teeth in anger, and it was inconvenient attack.

God knows what the officials have in mind, to let a young man from the clan who is not in the seven clothes, and a young man who is not as weak as the crown, come to participate in the grand ceremony of worshiping the ancestors. You must know that Zhao Zhongshu didn't have this kind of treatment back then.

Look at this kid, like a Zhongshan wolf, he is rampant when he succeeds. He stepped on his heels seven or eight times along the way. It is obviously a demonstration. Why does this kind of immoral kid make an exception to participate in the ancestor worship ceremony?
Zhao Xiaoqian was depressed, and Zhao Hao was also depressed in his heart. Originally, he thought that he could show his face and pretend to be aggressive, but now he realized that this is such a hard job.

Along the way, there are various rituals including three kneelings and nine kowtows. After reading sacrificial texts, sacrifices, offering incense, offering rice soup, offering tea, offering silk, offering wine, offering food boxes, offering gills, and offering blessings , Burning Zhuwen, saying goodbye to God, etc.

Although more sunshine in winter is good for health, but staying up from morning to mid-day without playing for a full two hours is simply suffering, and military training was not so tiring back then.

But thinking about Zhao Ji in front of him, he was also quite tired. The three or four hours of going up and down steps, walking, kowtowing and kneeling was like a triathlon.

No wonder that after the winter solstice, the officials have to give all officials a seven-day holiday, which is equivalent to a small National Day holiday... After intensive labor such as worshiping ancestors, how can one recover without a seven-day rest?

Zhao Ji, who was carrying out the cumbersome ancestor worship ceremony ahead, was already sweating profusely and out of breath under the shining of the sun.

In recent years, I have done more health care, but less exercise. Unlike before, I often play Cuju to keep fit. Moreover, since Lin Lingsu entered the palace, I have also eaten a lot of medicines full of heavy metals, so my body is not as good as it used to be. A while ago, even though Zhao Hao restored him 5 points of health, he still felt overwhelmed, and his hands and feet were a little weak.

While the minister of Taichang Temple was still murmuring, Zhao Ji, taking advantage of no one's attention, suddenly took out a milky white pill from his sleeve, and secretly stuffed it into his mouth.

The elixir melted in his mouth, and Zhao Ji felt a cool and refreshing feeling in his heart. In an instant, his waist was no longer sore, his legs were no longer hurt, he was no longer short of breath, and his hands had strength. Vigorously, floating like a fairy.

"My nephew is indeed my Dharma protector. This Little Huan Dan seems to be much more mysterious than Mr. Yuan Miao's Dragon and Tiger Pill. My nephew is bestowed upon me..."

Zhao Ji admired secretly in his heart, and became more and more determined to secretly support Zhao Hao.

Of course, Zhao Ji wasn't completely dazzled by Zhao Hao's immortal techniques and elixir, but had his own ideas.

As an emperor, Zhao Ji had no strategy for governing the country, but he was extremely good at balancing the emperor.Now in the court, Liang Shicheng, Tong Guan, and Wang Fu are a party, and Cai Jing's husband for many years has won over Gao Qiu and others. The warriors headed by Zhong Shidao and others in the Western Army can be regarded as another faction. Zhao Ji didn't know that, in fact, he subconsciously wanted this kind of result.

No matter which faction you are in, you have to follow Zhao Ji's balance technique.

Cai Jing has been the prime minister for many years, and the power is in the hands of the government and the public. He let Cai Jing go up and down a few times to suppress him, and even used Cai Jing's own son Cai You to fight against him; He was too tall, so he made Tong Guan the supervising army, and suppressed his western army to death... So in Zhao Ji's reign, no matter how powerful the six thieves and other treacherous officials were, they were all suppressed to death by Zhao Ji. If you want you to go up, go up, if you want you to go down, you can go down, you can only circle around the official house.

But Zhao Ji still felt that it was not enough, because the real power in the DPRK is only the party headed by Liang Shicheng, Tong Guan, and Wang Fu and the party headed by Cai Jing, and the two parties themselves are closely related.You must know that Tong Guan and Wang Fu all started their careers by relying on Cai Jing in the past, but they were just pawns in Cai Jing's front and back, and they were separated because Zhao Ji saw Cai Jing's power and suppressed him.

So some people say that the Northern Song Dynasty died due to party disputes. In fact, Zhao Ji was well aware of this party dispute, and instead of resolving it, it fueled the flames.It used party struggle as the way to balance the emperor, and turned the prosperous and prosperous Song Dynasty into a miasma and decay. Finally, it was shattered like a glass wall by a golden man.

The appearance of Zhao Hao made Zhao Ji have a whim, and secretly kept the heart of cultivation.

If it was any other clan, Zhao Ji would naturally have to take precautions, especially the two younger brothers of King Yan and King Yue, they were like guarding against thieves, otherwise, how could Zhao Hao, a son of a distant clan, act wildly in front of the majestic King Yan ?
But Zhao Hao proved with his actual actions that he was indeed a Dharma protector who came to protect him, which made Zhao Ji less defensive. In addition, since he was a clan outside of the Qifu, there would be no threat at all.

Although the story of Emperor Taizong's candle shadow and the sound of the axe is a lesson for the past, Zhao Ji's balance skills have been played slyly in recent years, and the civil and military affairs of the Manchu Dynasty have been played by him in the applause, which has made him extremely confident in his emperor's skills. He has enough confidence to restrain any powerful minister.What's more, the protagonist of the sound of candle shadow and axe is Taizu's younger brother, and the defense is only focused on the younger brothers Yan Wang and Yue Wang. A clan like Zhao Hao, even without the aura of "Dharma Guardian God", is in the It seems to Zhao Ji that as long as he does not control the military power, it is absolutely impossible to pose any threat.

Of course, this is just Zhao Ji's preliminary thoughts. After all, Zhao Hao is too young and has no foundation in the court. It is still very early to become a pawn he uses to balance the power of the court... Now a Jilu official, He didn't go to court, among the officials, those who recognized Zhao Hao could be counted on two palms.

That's why Zhao Ji had the idea of ​​letting Zhao Hao participate in the ancestor worship ceremony.

One is to let the hit "Dharma Guardian" stay by his side, so that he feels a little more secure; the other is to let Zhao Hao show his face among the officials, so that if there is support in the future, he will not be too unfamiliar.

(End of this chapter)