On the first day of the new year, Liu Jin was preparing to take the little kids at home to watch a football match.
The capital is the busiest on the first day of the Lunar New Year, with football matches, horse racing, dramas, juggling, etc. There are many various activities and everything is lively.
Among them, the most exciting one right now is the football match. On the first day of the Lunar New Year, these are heavyweight football matches, and they are an entertainment program that people in the capital must not miss.
"Let's go, let's go~"
"Let's go watch a football match~"
The little ones at home are all very excited. Liu Jin is so busy that he rarely has time to watch football games with them. This is definitely the happiest time.
"Let's go, let's go~"
Liu Jin and his family were about to go out.
"Lao Liu, Lao Liu~"
Zhu Houzhao's voice came in from outside.
"It's the first day of the Lunar New Year. If he can't properly accompany Emperor Hongzhi and the Empress, why would he come to see me?"
Hearing Zhu Houzhao's voice, Liu Jin was immediately speechless.
Apparently, the plan to watch the football match has changed.
Soon, Zhu Houzhao came to Liu Jin's house in a hurry. Seeing Liu Jin and his family about to go out, he asked curiously: "Old Liu, where are you going?"
"I'm about to go out to watch a football match. What can I do for you, Your Highness?"
Liu Jin quickly said, in fact, the meaning is already very clear, that is, if there is nothing else, I will not entertain. This year I will spend time with my family.
"I really have something to discuss with you."
Zhu Houzhao naturally didn't understand it at all.
"You take the children to watch the football game."
There was no other way, Liu Jin could only speak to Xu Waner and Li Zhen in an extremely apologetic tone.
"It's okay. It's the same if we take them there. You are busy with national affairs."
Xu Waner and Li Zhen were naturally very virtuous. They took their children to watch the football match, leaving Liu Jin and Zhu Houzhao to discuss national affairs.
"Your Highness, what's the matter? We can't talk about it until after the festival."
In the living room, Liu Jin began to complain a little. Can he give me a few days of rest during the Chinese New Year? I work for your Lao Zhu family all year round, so I don't think I can give him a few days of rest.
"The matter is rather urgent, mainly because I feel that only you, Lao Liu, can help me."
Zhu Houzhao didn't care about this. He had sacrificed a lot today. Logically speaking, he should have taken his whole family to pay New Year's greetings to Emperor Hongzhi and Empress Zhang.
But the late night talk with Emperor Hongzhi last night made Zhu Houzhao clearly aware of the responsibilities he shouldered, so he came to see Liu Jin early in the morning and prepared to have a good meeting with Liu Jin.
"What's the emergency?"
When Liu Jin heard this, he became curious.
"It's like this. My father plans to let me take charge of Shuntian Mansion after the Chinese New Year. He said he would let me practice and practice, and then let me take charge of Beizhili in a few years to accumulate experience in governing."
"So I came here specifically to ask you for advice."
Zhu Houzhao said quickly.
The heart-to-heart talk between father and son yesterday had some effect.
Only then did Zhu Houzhao realize what his father had gone through over the years.
Hongzhi ascended the throne at the age of eighteen. To be honest, people are still ignorant about how much they can understand at the age of eighteen. They don't know or understand many things.
In later generations, eighteen-year-olds are still high school students, and many people are still obsessed with playing games without knowing anything else.
Even though Emperor Hongzhi was taught by famous teachers, at the age of eighteen, he was still too young. He didn't understand or know many things, but there was no one to teach him.
He could only believe in his teachers, the Confucianism he had learned, and the civil servants. As a result, he was deceived by these civil servants.
The national treasury is empty, the border defenses are in trouble, and the people's lives are difficult. It can be said that there are internal and external troubles.
Even so, these civil servants were still able to desperately advocate the Hongzhi ZTE and the prosperous Ming Dynasty, making Emperor Hongzhi really think that the Ming Dynasty was prosperous and prosperous. Only in winter, the Tatars went south and tore this veil apart again and again.
Only then did Emperor Hongzhi gradually realize that the so-called prosperous age was nothing but self-humiliation, and was just used by the civil servants to deceive him.
Although I worked very hard, I never had a day off from the end of the year. I reviewed as many memorials as a mountain every day, and I had to read at least more than 100,000 words of memorials every day.
However, Daming still couldn't do it.
Later, Liu Jin appeared, and Emperor Hongzhi slowly realized some problems, realized that these civil servants could not be fully trusted, and also realized the key to the problem.
Later, he slowly and boldly appointed Liu Jin to carry out many reforms. This brought about the current situation of the Ming Dynasty, otherwise it would be really unimaginable.
Emperor Hongzhi's more than 20 years of experience in governing gave Emperor Hongzhi many insights.
I had a long chat with Zhu Houzhao last night and talked about a lot.
Only then did Zhu Houzhao realize that what his father had gone through from a young emperor to what he had experienced now was really not easy and too difficult.
From being ignorant to slowly becoming familiar with government affairs, then gradually thinking about the way out for the Ming Dynasty, realizing the problems that existed in the Ming Dynasty, and then boldly appointing Liu Jin, trying his best to suppress Jiangnan Shilin, carrying out tax reforms, levying commercial taxes, and then to the military
System reform, administrative reform, etc.
Without this series of changes, Ming Dynasty would still be the Ming Dynasty it was before.
Internal and external troubles, the internal treasury is empty, the gentry group is growing, the border defenses are in trouble, and the taxation is gradually collapsing. Externally, there are Tatars from the north who go south to seize customs every year, Jurchens in Liaodong who are capricious, Japanese pirates are raging along the southeast coast, and the chieftains in the southwest are unable to feed.
Full white-eyed wolf.
If disasters and the like happen at random, the Ming Dynasty will definitely be starving, with wars everywhere, and countless thieves. It is a prosperous age, and everything is precarious. God knows how long it can last.
On the other hand, those gentry, salt merchants and the like were each extremely wealthy and powerful, and their power was growing. They relied on the imperial examination system to form a huge gentry group.
Their subordinates continued to annex land, making the land more and more concentrated, and the conflicts became more and more intense. Their superiors constantly demanded to take sole control of the political power, excluded military generals and nobles, and wanted to limit the imperial power. Everything was obeyed by them, so that
Everything in Ming Dynasty revolves around their interests.
Emperor Hongzhi explained all this to Zhu Houzhao in detail.
Only then did Zhu Houzhao realize that Emperor Hongzhi had not lived a good life for a few days over the years. Even though being an emperor seemed to be a glorious sight, it was actually very stressful and very tiring.
Therefore, he also listened to some of Emperor Hongzhi's words.
I know that the good life I have now is because Emperor Hongzhi is supporting me. When Emperor Hongzhi left that day, this burden fell on Zhu Houzhao.
If Zhu Houzhao still doesn't understand anything and has little experience, he will follow the old path of Emperor Hongzhi again.
Therefore, Zhu Houzhao no longer resists Emperor Hongzhi's arrangements.
Thinking about it, he had indeed grown up and had enough fun. It was time to take on some responsibilities. Zhu Houzhao no longer resisted taking charge of Shuntian Mansion.
He even began to think about how he should take charge of Shuntian Mansion properly, which made Emperor Hongzhi look at him with admiration.
"In charge of Shuntian Mansion?"
"Experience, experience, accumulate experience."
When Liu Jin heard this, he thought about it and nodded slightly.
This arrangement of routes was also suggested to Emperor Hongzhi by himself.
The emperors in ancient times basically lacked experience in governing, especially the young emperors, who basically relied on reincarnation to get their jobs. There was no experience at all, and they all just became emperors.
What experience do you expect them to have?
Even if you have experience, it is just what the ministers and teachers around you teach you. The Confucian approach is nothing more than the approach of governing the world with light corvee and low taxes, diligence, benevolence, righteousness, and filial piety.
When encountering an emperor like Emperor Hongzhi who has no independent opinions, he can naturally be fooled.
If you meet Emperor Hongzhi's father or Zhu Houzhao, they have their own ideas, so you may not fully believe in their ideas, and the court situation will inevitably be turbulent.
Anyway, generally speaking, the emperors in ancient times, except for the founding emperors and the first few, basically did not have a very high level of governance. Don't expect them to be able to make any great achievements in the world and to protect their ancestors.
Jiangshan is already extremely rare.
Based on this, Liu Jin also gave the following advice to Emperor Hongzhi, asking the prince to start from the county and slowly try to govern a party, exercise himself, accumulate experience, and at the same time understand the sentiments of the people and understand the sufferings of the people.
Emperor Hongzhi obviously listened to it, and of course he had his own understanding in it.
He just jumped in and didn't understand anything, so he liked to hold small meetings to listen to the opinions and suggestions of ministers he trusted.
Now that I am in my prime, I can slowly allow Zhu Houzhao to practice and gain experience.
When he was in Huairou County, Zhu Houzhao did a very good job, so he was put in charge of Shuntian Mansion to govern a larger area, and it was also the land of Jingji. It is now the most prosperous, richest, and most complex area in the Ming Dynasty.
place.
If Shuntian Prefecture can also govern well, it means that Zhu Houzhao does have good governance ability and can accumulate experience and lessons.
Chapter 1673: Being an emperor is not an easy task
