Emperor Zhengde

Chapter 20 Royal Fair

The area around Daming Gate has always been the most prosperous area in the capital of the Ming Dynasty. This area is crowded with merchants and has a wide variety of shops. Naturally, the flow of people is also very large. From high-ranking officials to peddlers, people coming from the south and the north gather here, and the goods coming from Tongzhou are basically gathered here.

Zhu Houzhao now had a high platform built in front of a pavilion in the middle of Qipan Street, where the traffic was the most intrusive at Daming Gate. The platform was covered with a red carpet and a gilded dragon throne was placed on it.

Zhu Houzhao sat on the dragon throne, wearing a yellow robe over mourning clothes, with a kind smile on his face.

Even though he hadn't asked Liu Jin to shout at this moment, the people of the Ming Dynasty who were coming and going had already been attracted by the scene, because even if they had never seen Zhu Houzhao, they knew that only the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty could be so bold as to sit on the gilded throne and wear a yellow dragon robe.

"Your Majesty, that's Your Majesty!"

Some people already shouted in surprise.

Then, more and more people gathered here consciously.

The current Ming Dynasty still has the support of the people. Seeing this, the people have even knelt down on their own initiative:
"Long live my emperor! Long live!"

"Long live my emperor! Long live!"

"Long live my emperor! Long live!"

Although these people don’t know why the emperor appears here, it is always right to worship him, just like when you meet a Bodhisattva and don’t know what kind of Bodhisattva it is, it is always right to worship him.

People who had already walked far away also rushed out after noticing that the emperor was here.

Those who were eating and drinking in the teahouse and restaurant also paid their bills and hurried out.

Even the scholars who were hugging girls in the brothels left their confidantes and rushed over, and some even had their confidantes follow them and run over.

"The Emperor has arrived at Daming Gate, go and see!"

"Oh my God, why is the emperor here!"

"It's really like the sun is rising from the west. Our Emperor of the Daming Dynasty has appeared at the Daming Gate!"

……

For a time, people had consciously spread the news by word of mouth, and more and more people heard that the Ming Emperor Zhu Houzhao appeared at the Daming Gate. Some businesses even closed their stores just to come and see the Ming Emperor.

Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but smile when he saw the ten-odd-high stage surrounded by people who were kowtowing and kneeling before him. He felt like a famous star in later generations, whose appearance would attract countless people's exclamations and cheers, causing the streets to be deserted.

Liu Jin stood up at this time, holding a brass loudspeaker made by the Royal Industrial Laboratory and yelled: "Everyone! Please be quiet. As you can see, the one sitting in front of you is the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty! He is our Son of Heaven! Now please let the Emperor speak to us, and everyone will cheer three times with me!"

"Long live!"

"Long live!"

"Long live!"

Liu Jin's roar once again gave the excited people of the Ming Dynasty a boost, and they started to shout "Long live the Ming Dynasty" again.
Zhu Houzhao stood up, smiled, and made a hand gesture, then took the brass megaphone from Liu Jin's hand: "My people, please be quiet!"

After Zhu Houzhao's roar, all the people stopped shouting and looked at him seriously, because this opportunity was too rare. After all, for ordinary people in the Ming Dynasty, it was difficult to listen to the emperor's speech, let alone listen to the county magistrate's speech.

"I am here outside the Daming Gate today not to attend court sessions nor to listen to the people's voices, but to hold the first Royal Expo of the Daming Dynasty!"

As Zhu Houzhao spoke, he signaled Wei Bin and Qiu Ju to open the red curtain behind him.

So, Wei Bin and Qiu Ju began to slowly open the red curtain.

The people in the audience were staring intently at the slowly opening curtain. They were a little surprised when the emperor said he was going to hold an expo, and wondered what an expo was. But when the red curtain opened, they saw the huge glass wall and the five large gold-plated characters in the center of the glass wall, and they couldn't help but exclaimed.

"Oh my god, it's really royal! I, Xu Jing, am well-informed, but I've never seen such a large piece of glass! And it's so pure and colorless!"

A middle-aged Confucian scholar named Xu Jing exclaimed.

"Not only that, the craftsmanship of the royal craftsmen in the palace is unique. How did they embed the golden characters into the glass? It's amazing!"

Other people beside Xu Jing also started talking.

"This is better than Western glass. As the name suggests, an exhibition is supposed to show us some objects. Nowadays, this glass is obviously a very rare thing!"

"Stop talking! This kind of glass is worth at least a thousand taels of silver."

"More than a thousand, in my opinion, no less than ten thousand taels!"

……

The people below looked at the Ming Emperor Zhu Houzhao on the stage and the glass wall behind him with curiosity.

At this time, Emperor Zhu Houzhao shouted again: "You all think that I am the emperor of the Ming Dynasty and that I must be rich, but I tell you the truth, I am poor! I have not had a pancake for two months."

Some simple-minded people didn't know that Zhu Houzhao didn't eat pancakes. One butcher even said casually, "Is it so miserable? I, a pork seller, can have cabbage and meat pancakes every day. Does that mean I eat better than the emperor?"

"It was winter, snow was falling, and it was so cold that people were shivering. At that time, I was still the crown prince, and the emperor was still the late emperor. My father saw that I was very cold, so he asked the eunuchs to find me a thick cotton coat to wear. However, the court was poor and could not find a thick cotton coat. Fortunately, my father was still alive at that time, so apart from the cold winter, I lived a carefree life."

Zhu Houzhao began to complain, making up stories about how miserable his life was in the past, then wiped his tears and said, "But who would have thought that my father would suddenly pass away, just like the children of ordinary people who lost their fathers. No one takes care of me. Woohoo! I have no money to eat or buy clothes, and now that I have grown up, I have to marry a queen, just like you ordinary people have to marry a wife! But I don't have money to marry a queen!"

"Also, I have to spend money to buy a coffin and build a mausoleum for my father's burial. Even if your parents are old, you have to do the same. Besides, I am the emperor. But I have no money. My father has not been buried yet. And my Qianqing Palace can't keep out the rain in summer and the cold wind in winter. I have to spend money to repair it. In a word, I am poor!"

"So, I am going to hold a royal exposition today. The purpose is to show you some of the treasures in the royal family. If you can afford it, buy these treasures. It is equivalent to helping me as the emperor and the Ming Dynasty. I don't want to increase taxes on the people to make money to marry a wife for my father's burial. This is the only way. If you want to say that I am a spendthrift emperor, just say so. I will bear it. Just don't let my father be buried and don't let me marry a queen!"

The people in the audience were all surprised. They never expected that the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was so poor that he had to sell his family's treasures to marry a queen and bury the late emperor.

The people of the Ming Dynasty are not as numb as those of the Qing Dynasty. After hearing what the emperor said, some of the more sympathetic people have begun to wipe away their tears. They almost said, "Your Majesty, please stop talking. We didn't expect you to be so miserable."

In addition, Gu Dayong also sent someone to act as a shill according to Zhu Houzhao's instructions, saying in the crowd of people: "This is so touching. Everyone, this is the good emperor of our Ming Dynasty. He would rather lose his family and sell his royal treasures than increase taxes!"

"Isn't it? Moreover, our Ming emperor sold his family treasures only to marry a queen and buy a coffin for the late emperor's burial! This shows that our Ming emperor is not only a good emperor but also a filial son. I don't know if those gentlemen are blind or making up stories. They insist that our emperor is a tyrant. If this kind of emperor is a tyrant, then what good emperors are there in the world!"

Some people who heard this discussion also echoed it in agreement.

Of course, there were also people who were unwilling to believe. One merchant questioned, "How is this possible? We pay a lot of taxes every year. Nearly 30% of our income goes to the court, which is several thousand taels of silver. The court can collect several million taels of silver at any cost. How can we be so poor?"

Gu Dayong, who was pretending to be a babysitter, shouted in a shrill voice: "That's because of the corruption of corrupt officials! The emperor is a good emperor, but the officials in the world are not necessarily good officials. That's why the officials in the court are so rich that they eat delicacies every day, buy children and land. It's a pity that our emperor is obviously a good emperor, but he was ruined by these corrupt officials and became a tyrant who doesn't care about the people!"

The common people at the bottom of society all have natural fantasies about the emperor. Even many peasant uprisings only shouted for the killing of corrupt officials in the early stages of the uprising. In their eyes, those who made their lives impossible were corrupt officials, while emperors who did not directly exploit them would be sympathized with or at least considered not so bad.

Therefore, now that Gu Dayong said this, the people all felt that he was right, and began to say indignantly: "Yes, it is these corrupt officials who are responsible. These corrupt officials should be killed. Not only have they made us poor, but also the emperor. The taxes we pay are not for them! They are for the emperor's grain!"

(End of this chapter)