When Zhu Pingan and Liu Dazhou arrived at Xiyuan with their horses, the sky was still dark and the palace gates were not yet open.
However, the open space of more than a hundred metres outside the palace gates was bustling with lights, vendors selling various snacks such as mixed liver soup, intestinal noodles, buns, rice porridge and other snacks were greeting them, and from time to time, one could see the officials, housekeepers, and long-time followers patronising in front of the stalls, which was just like a full-fledged morning market already.
Luckily, this was in the Ming Dynasty, if it was in modern times, these vendors would have been flattened by the world’s number one armed force, the city police.
After Emperor Jiajing moved to the West Garden, the political centre of the Ming Dynasty naturally shifted from the Forbidden City to the West Garden.
Who dares to be late under the eyes of the Emperor, officials in order to catch up, many people get up in the dark, no time to eat breakfast. But officials are also people, ah, they also need to eat breakfast, so vendors who saw business opportunities spontaneously formed a morning market here.
“Alright, I’ll wait here to enter the palace, you guys go eat breakfast.”
Zhu Pingan rolled over and dismounted, took a dime of broken silver from his money pouch and handed it to Liu Mu, letting the two of them go to the morning market to eat breakfast.
“No need gongzi, some days ago the young lady asked the housekeeper to give us monthly money in advance, more than one or two silver per person.”Li Dazhou laughed nervously and shook his head, mentioning the monthly money, his face was full of satisfaction.
The young lady in his mouth is naturally Li Shu, the monthly money is allowance in nature, it is the pocket money given to the upper, middle and lower members of the family according to their status each month for pocket money, it is not a salary, they also have another salary, which is calculated separately.
More than one or two silver, this is compared to the first-class maid’s monthly money.
More than one or two silver, but only pocket money, this is not a small amount for Liu Dazhou them.
At dawning time, a bell rang from the West Garden, and then the door to the West Garden opened.
Zhu Pingan handed over the Killing Horse Black Horse to Liu Mu and the others, and once again instructed them to return to the house after using the breakfast at the morning market.
Only after the instructions were finished did Zhu Pingan enter the West Garden along with several officials.
“This lord, please stay.”
Only after Zhu Pingan stepped into the Western Court, he was stopped by the Western Court guards.
Zhu Pingan had not come to the West Garden except for the time of the Imperial Examination and the two times he had been summoned by Emperor Jiajing, the West Garden guards saw that Zhu Pingan looked unfamiliar, so out of duty, they politely stopped Zhu Pingan.
“Oh, I am Zhu Pingan, the Hanlin Academy’s attendant reader and the Cabinet’s Secretary, by His Majesty’s word of mouth, from today onwards, the Secretary will straighten the Cabinet.”
Zhu Pingan stopped in his tracks and figured out what was going on after a little thought, so he turned around with a slight smile and explained to the forbidden guards.
“Oh, Lord Zhu is here ah, please also sign in over here.”
Right at this moment, a small eunuch in tea camel clothing came over and greeted Zhu Pingan with a hefty smile before explaining to the forbidden guards again.
With a palace eunuch as a guarantor, naturally there would be no falsehoods, and the forbidden guards at the entrance clasped their fists to Zhu Pingan and let him go after asking for forgiveness.
“The school lieutenant did his duty, what fault is there.”Zhu Pingan arched his hand and returned the salute to the guards.
After entering the palace gates, Zhu Pingan once again arched his hand and thanked the small eunuch in tea camel clothing, “Thank you to this eunuch for relieving me, forgive Pingan’s poor eyesight, I wonder who the eunuch is?”
“Ta-Jen Zhu is polite. If you don’t mind, Ta-Jen Zhu can call me Xiao Cao Zi. Ta-Jen Zhu doesn’t know me, but I’ve heard of Ta-Jen Zhu’s name for a long time.”The tea camel-clothed eunuch Xiao Cao Zi laughed, with a look of self-acquaintance.
“So it’s Eunuch Cao, nice to meet you.”Zhu Pingan smiled back, but his heart was full of puzzlement, he really didn’t know any other chamberlains in the palace other than Feng Bao, and this little eunuch was also too enthusiastic.
“I used to work at the Raccoon Bureau, thanks to Eunuch Feng’s care, I am now transferred to the Palace Gate Supervisor. I have often heard Eunuch Feng mention Lord Zhu, and Eunuch Feng holds Lord Zhu in high esteem.”Tea camel suit eunuch Xiao Cao Zi laughed and explained to Zhu Ping An.
Oh, so it is Feng Bao’s little squad, Zhu Pingan came to a sudden realisation after listening to the little eunuch’s explanation.
Ming dynasty palace eunuchs department mainly has twelve supervisors, four divisions and eight bureaus, respectively, for the Division of rituals, the inner officer, the imperial, the Division of settings, the imperial horse, the magistrates, the Shang Cuisine, the Shang Bao, the seal ribbon, the straight temple, the Shang Yi, all know the twelve supervisors; the payroll, the bells and drums, the treasures of the money, the mixer and other four divisions; the military, silver as, raccoon, the scarf and hat, the needlework, the inner weaving and dyeing, the wine vinegar face, the Division of the Court and other eight bureaus, the above departments are also commonly known as the twenty-four yamen.
Raccoon Clothes Bureau is responsible for providing laundry services for all the masters of the palace department, is the twenty-four Yamen in the most bitter a department, but also twenty-four Yamen in the only eunuchs in the palace in the agency, mainly by the guilty retired from the abolition of the palace as well as unpopular to fill the palace, can be said to be hard and have no future.
Palace Gate Supervisor is a special post, responsible for the registration of the officials who joined the Xiyuan, supervise the officials to and from work, equivalent to the Disciplinary Committee. Ming Dynasty on the entry into the West Garden officials to keep a close eye on, if the entry into the official for going out to do business and leave early, must be the reason for leaving early to inform the Supervisory Gate eunuchs, and to be registered for checking. Because of this, even the high-powered cabinet ministers, the palace gate supervisors are also polite and courteous.
Therefore, the supervisory gate is a fat job with a bright future.
Xiao Cao Zi was able to transfer from the Raccoon Clothes Bureau to the Palace Gate Supervisory Gate, and was naturally grateful to Feng Bao, so it was understandable.
And Feng Bao was able to transfer Xiao Cao Zi from the Raccoon Clothes Bureau to the Palace Gate Supervisor, so it was evident that he had already gained a firm foothold within the palace, and had all started to develop his own team.
After exchanging pleasantries, Eunuch Cao led Zhu Pingan to the signing office, where Zhu Pingan raised his pen to leave his name on the signing book.
“Ta-Jen Zhu, because of my duties, it is inconvenient for the miscellaneous family to leave. However, Eunuch Feng has already explained, so this young Eunuch Zhang will lead Lord Zhu to report to the Cabinet Office of the Wu Yi Hall.”Eunuch Cao introduced a grey-clothed little eunuch to Zhu Pingan after he finished signing in.
“Thank you Eunuch Feng and Eunuch Cao for taking the trouble, then I would like to thank Eunuch Zhang.”Zhu Pingan arched his hand and thanked him, and in passing, he slipped Li Shu’s pre-packed red packet into Eunuch Cao and Eunuch Zhang’s sleeves without a trace.
“Your Excellency Zhu is polite, just call me Little Eunuch Zhang, Your Excellency Zhu please come this way.”The grey-robed little eunuch Eunuch Zhang led the way.
The Western Garden was a large area, including places like the current Zhongnanhai, Beihai Park, and Guotu Wenjin Hall, and the Jin’ao Yu Rainbow Bridge was also among them. The place where Zhu Pingan entered was the South Gate, and the Wuyi Hall where the Cabinet offices were located was east of the Left Tuck Gate, it was a long way, and Zhu Pingan was not qualified to take a horse and a sedan chair, so he could only rely on his legs.
“Further ahead, after the Yuxi Palace, Shen Yingxuan two halls, and then a Binfeng Pavilion Terrace, you can see a rice field, and in front of the rice field is the Hall of Wuji.”Eunuch Zhang led the way while introducing Zhu Pingan.
Zhu Pingan followed the direction of Eunuch Zhang’s finger and saw that there were rows and rows of palaces and halls in front of him, and there was no trace of the Hall of Wuji at all.
After walking for almost a quarter of an hour, or about 15 minutes, Zhu Pingan saw the rice field that Eunuch Zhang had mentioned, and the morning breeze blew against the emerald green rice field, causing waves of green waves to ripple.
This paddy field should be the place where Emperor Jiajing advised on farming and mulberrying, Zhu Pingan Zhu Pingan stopped in front of the paddy field and looked at it for a moment.
