Chapter 260 Chapter : Flowers Hidden Under the Leaves
The Ming History - Official Records records:
Although Zhou Zongbo was in charge of state rituals, and Situ was in charge of state education, the so-called rituals were merely the worship of ghosts and gods.

As for combining the classics of music and education, from the royal family to the various vassal states, from the heavenly officials to the doctors and cooks, all are included, and this starts with enlightenment.

The Ministry of Rites was composed of four departments: Ceremonials, Ancestral Sacrifices, Hosts and Guests, and Fine Foods, which were responsible for the affairs of rituals and music, schools, religion, ethnic groups, and foreign affairs.

In simple terms, the Ministry of Rites is a combination of the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Ou Zanghua, as the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites, is the third in command of the Ministry of Rites and is also the Minister of the Honglu Temple.

Therefore, after consulting with the Minister of Rites Tian Jingxian, he was mainly responsible for some affairs of the Department of Guests and Guests and the Department of Ceremonies. This is called professional matching.

After Ou Zanghua entered the Ministry of Rites, he specially summoned the Jiaofangsi to listen carefully to the performances of the most advanced musicians of the time.

Here we have to mention the self-satisfaction of the scholar-official class. Be it the court or the officials, starting from the Southern Song Dynasty, poetry and music began to gradually become self-contained, with the circle shrinking and becoming confined to individual scholar-official groups.

By the end of the Song Dynasty and the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, the twenty-eight-tone system gradually merged and disintegrated. By the Ming Dynasty, it had been replaced by the Nine Palaces and Thirteen Tones and the Gongche Seven Tones, and the regulations on killing sounds disappeared. The tunes of the Gongche Seven Tones actually correspond to the adverbs of the Tang and Song musical scales.

The Nine Palaces and Thirteen Tunes summarized by people in the Ming Dynasty were also confusing, a mixture of musical scores from different periods. Most of them had the same name but were actually different. That's why Mr. Yang Yinliu of later generations said, "The palace is not a palace, and the tune is not a tune."

The Nine-Music Songs are the music played at court banquets, describing how Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty pacified the world, and are the kind that eulogizes and praises him.

"Ming Ji Li" states: At every banquet, nine cups are raised, and a song is played for each cup raised. The songs are all based on the lunar rhythm. The first three are gentle, the middle four are heroic, and the last two are long.

Of course, the development of court music in the Ming Dynasty also played a role in inheriting the past and ushering in the future.

On the one hand, the obscene dances and music of the Yuan Palace were eliminated, while some traditional elegant music was retained.

On the other hand, the essence of classical music was not fully developed, which was also related to the chaos among various parties at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, which led to a lack of musicians.

Ou Zanghua listened to classical music for a whole day, and then found the "History of Yuan Dynasty: Rites and Music" in Wenyuan Pavilion, planning to study it carefully after returning home.

As soon as he got home, Hua An came out to greet him and reported, "Master, Young Master Jie is here. I took him to the tea room to wait for you. He looks like he has something urgent to do."

Ou Zanghua nodded, took off his black gauze hat and handed it to Hua An. Without changing out of his official robe, he went straight to the tea room.

At this moment, Jie Bai changed into clean clothes and took care of his hair.

When he saw Ou Zanghua coming in, he immediately stood up and bowed, saying, "Master Ou."

"Young Master Xie, there is no need to be so polite. Please take a seat." Ou Zanghua bowed in return and sat down on the main seat.

Jie Bai didn't say too much politely to Ou Zanghua. After saying "thank you", he sat down and said, "Fortunately, I have fulfilled my mission. Elder Gou of the Beggars' Sect and I have successfully infiltrated the Imperial Manor."

Then, Jie Bai told Ou Zanghua everything he had experienced in the past ten days, without leaving out anything, and concluded: "According to the investigation of Elder Gou and I, there are 8,000 hectares of farmland in the Weiyang Palace, and 1,200 farming families living there!"

After hearing this, Ou Zanghua looked calm, but was quite surprised in his heart.

You should know that according to the records of the Ministry of Revenue and the Imperial Household Department, the Weiyang Palace Imperial Farm had 7,055.33 acres of land and 900 farm households.

But the reality turned out to be this, no wonder Ou Zanghua couldn't see any problems in the account books.

The things that people actually stole were not even recorded in the book!

"What a great trick of hiding flowers under leaves. Really brilliant!" Ou Zanghua couldn't help but praise after hearing it.

He looked at Jie Bai and said gently, "Thank you for your assistance, Young Master Jie and Master Gou. Leave the rest to me. Don't worry about your wanted warrants. They will be removed in a few days."

"I feel relieved with what Lord Ou said!" Jie Bai smiled and looked a lot more relaxed.

Ou Zanghua collected the information written by Jie Bai and said calmly: "You two should stay in the capital for now. I will have someone notify you when the matter is resolved in a while."

Jie Bai responded, chatted with Ou Zanghua for a few more words, then stood up and said goodbye.

On the second day, after Ou Zanghua had his roll call at the Honglu Temple and the Ministry of Rites, he first called Chen Mengji and asked him to lead the Honglu Temple officials to visit the area around Tongzhou and bring back the county annals of Pinggu, Xianghe, Jinghai, and Wuqing. Chen Mengji bowed and asked, "Dongqing, what can I do to get them to hand over the county annals?"

Ou Zanghua thought for a while, picked up a pen and wrote a letter. After stamping it with the official seal of the Honglu Temple, he handed it to Chen Mengji and said, "The Honglu Temple is editing a book called "Years in the Capital" to introduce the capital to envoys from various countries. Ask them to provide some information."

"So that's how it is. I understand now!" Chen Mengji took over Ou Zanghua's letter and left the capital with a group of officials.

Since he was doing this for official business, the requests he made were very reasonable and the four county governments were very cooperative.

In less than half a month, Chen Mengji returned with a truckload of county annals.

Everyone gained weight, and Ou Zanghua was speechless. It was really amazing that he could get some of this and bring it back to Beijing.

Then, Ou Zanghua organized everyone and began to sort out the county annals of each county and found what he wanted.

He compiled it into a book, entered the palace with the intelligence at dawn, and went straight to the Qianqing Palace.

However, he seemed to have arrived at an inopportune time, as he happened to meet the Minister of Justice Yang Yiqing who was admonishing Emperor Zhengde to be close to virtuous ministers and stay away from villains.

As for who the villain is?

Of course it can’t be the legitimate Ou Zanghua!
"Your Majesty spends his days wandering around, not caring about state affairs. Qian Ning gets lucky with his brocade clothes, and Zang Xian gets lucky with his actors. The disaster has spread to China and abroad, and the royal family and society are on the verge of collapse. Your Majesty should win over the people's hearts and restore the throne!"

The Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites was standing outside the hall. He heaved a sigh of relief when he heard Yang Yiqing say this.

Emperor Zhengde smiled and said casually, "You are worrying too much, Yang Qing. Qian Ning and Zang Xian are good people. It's just that Yang Qing has never met them, so he has this illusion."

Yang Yiqing took out a business card of Qian Ning and placed it on the table, and asked in a cold voice: "Your Majesty, do you know that Qian Ning is so bold and presumptuous that he dared to call himself the emperor's bastard on his business card! Such treasonous behavior, does Your Majesty not care?"

Emperor Zhengde said seriously, "Qian Ning is my godson. It seems there is nothing wrong with him calling himself the emperor's bastard son, right?"

Yang Yiqing was stunned. At this moment, he really wanted to use the inkstone on the table to knock open Emperor Zhengde's head to see what was inside.

At the critical moment, Zhang Yong hurried over and whispered, "Your Majesty, the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites, Ou Zanghua, requests to see you."

"Is Lord Ou here? Hurry up and announce him!" Emperor Zhengde's attention was immediately diverted to him, and he even urged him.

After Ou Zanghua entered, he bowed and said, "Your Majesty, I greet you, Yang Qiuguan."

This was the first time Ou Zanghua met Yang Yiqing, and he discovered that this guy's looks were so good that he could single-handedly lift the Six Ministers from an idol group to the level of powerful veteran actors.

"Minister Ou." Yang Yiqing looked at the fresh and handsome Ou Zanghua, but had no other thoughts.

A strong man who can defeat a large number of handsome guys of the same class with his talent will not judge people superficially by their appearance.

"What do you want to talk to me about, Lord Ou?" Emperor Zhengde wanted to change the subject, so he asked in a friendly manner.

"I went to the Weiyang Palace and the imperial farm a few days ago and found some clues. Your Majesty, please take a look." Ou Zanghua said, holding up the information he had copied with both hands.

Zhang Yong immediately stepped forward, took the memorial from Ou Zanghua, and handed it to Emperor Zhengde.

Emperor Zhengde opened the memorial and began to read it. His originally smiling face became serious after a moment.

He looked through the previous content again, and the data was clearly listed in front of him, and he couldn't help but believe it.

"These servants!" Emperor Zhengde suddenly paused, looked up at Yang Yiqing and asked, "Is there anything else, Mr. Yang?"

(End of this chapter)