novelaction Chapter 698
Chapter 698
The Zhenwu Hall was also completed at the same time as the Military Academy.
The Zhenwu Hall is different from the Military Academy. The civil and military officials have a contradictory and divided attitude towards the Military Academy. On the one hand, they are afraid that in a few years, Zhou Chu will become too powerful to control because of the Military Academy.
On the other hand, they all tried every means to send their sons and grandsons into military academies, fearing they would miss this opportunity. All the officials could foresee that the military officers who came out of the military academies would naturally form a faction, namely the Zhou faction.
By then, if no one from their family is in the Zhou faction, they will suffer a great loss.
Therefore, most officials would arrange for some of their second sons, or even their eldest sons, to enter military academies.
The Zhenwu Hall is different. The Zhenwu Hall is directly related to every official. Nowadays, which official in the capital, or even those in other places who know about the Zhenwu Hall, would not want to be ranked in the Zhenwu Hall?
This would be a great thing that would go down in history.
Therefore, on the day the Zhenwu Hall was opened, when Jiajing led his civil and military officials to burn incense and offer sacrifices to Heaven, the officials following behind Jiajing were all moved by the magnificent Zhenwu Hall. They thought to themselves that if they could be among the hall one day, they would die without regret.
"Today I open the Zhenwu Hall and report to the Supreme Jade Emperor of the Golden Palace of the Azure Heaven, the Ancestral Master, the True Martial Lord of the North Pole, the Holy Spirit, the True Lord of the Mysterious Heaven, that I beseech the Ancestral Master to protect the Great Ming."
As Jiajing spoke, he lit three incense sticks and then bowed respectfully. The civil and military officials behind him followed suit and bowed in unison.
"Today, I open the Zhenwu Hall to report to the Great Emperor Yongle, who opened the Heavenly Palace, established the Way, founded the Great Dynasty, and was extremely sagacious, divine, benevolent, righteous, martial, and accomplished. I hope that our ancestors will protect the Great Ming Dynasty."
Emperor Jiajing offered incense again.
The first is the full title of the Hongwu Emperor. Zhu Yuanzhang's imperial title is quite impressive. As for Zhu Di, there are not so many rules. He only has the title of the Yongle Emperor. However, everyone knows that the Zhenwu Hall mainly enshrines the Zhenwu Emperor and the Yongle Emperor. In the Ming Dynasty, the Yongle Emperor was always the earthly incarnation of the Zhenwu Emperor.
The Jade Emperor and the Hongwu Emperor are listed first because the Jade Emperor was the superior of the Zhenwu Emperor, and the Hongwu Emperor was the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty and the father of the Yongle Emperor.
The ceremony for opening the Zhenwu Hall was extremely complicated, but neither the Jiajing Emperor nor the officials showed any impatience. The more complicated the ceremony, the higher the value of the Zhenwu Hall.
After all the ceremonies were completed, half a day had already passed.
The gates of the Zhenwu Hall were then opened, and Huang Jin, holding an imperial edict, came before the officials.
"Now we will read out the first batch of meritorious individuals of the Zhenwu Hall and their rankings."
Upon hearing Huang Jin's words, the civil and military officials immediately perked up and looked at him with eager anticipation. Apart from Yang Yiqing and others who knew they would definitely be admitted to the Zhenwu Hall, a large number of people had made roughly the same contribution to the Ming Dynasty. Whether they could be admitted depended entirely on the emperor's word.
These people were very anxious, hoping that their names would be on the list.
"The first meritorious official of the Zhenwu Hall: Lord Zhou Chu, Zhou Hengqi."
Huang Jin said loudly.
No one was surprised to be ranked first. If Zhou Hengqi was not ranked first, the officials really didn't know who was qualified to be ranked ahead of him. After all, Zhou Hengqi deserved at least half the credit for the current state of the Ming Dynasty. Even Xia Yan, who hated Zhou Chu to the extreme, had to admit this.
"Congratulations, Lord Zhou! You truly deserve the title."
Yang Yiqing, standing next to Zhou Chu, sighed.
"Yes, Hengqi. This Zhenwu Hall was probably set up by His Majesty specifically for you. We are just there to make up the numbers."
Yang Shen smiled.
"What are you saying, Mr. Sheng'an? The Ming Dynasty is in its current state entirely due to everyone's concerted efforts. As the saying goes, human strength has its limits. How much can I, as an individual, do?"