In the imperial palace in the capital, Emperor Hongzhi was chatting and laughing with several important court officials.
After defeating the Tatars and even beheading the little prince, at least in the next ten years or so, there will be no border problems in the north of the Ming Dynasty. Now, in winter, he can sleep peacefully. Have a good sleep.
The problem of southwestern chieftains also quickly settled down under the policy of reforming native soil and returning to local affairs. Although there are still a few chieftains who are still stubborn, they are no longer a problem. Most areas have also changed after the reform. settle down.
Coupled with the butterfly effect caused by the emergence of Liu Jin, the Ming Dynasty's economy also developed rapidly, and all aspects were prosperous.
As the emperor, his life was naturally much better, and he didn't have many worries, so he had time to chat with these ministers.
"Your Majesty, this new Qianqing Palace should be ready for use. It is so magnificent that I can't help but want to enter and take a look."
At this time, everyone was talking about the Qianqing Palace. The Qianqing Palace was burned down due to a fire last winter. Liu Jin and Zhu Houzhao took the initiative to undertake the construction. After almost a year of construction and spending millions of taels of silver, they finally It is almost completed and will be put into use soon.
The new Qianqing Palace is very majestic, using reinforced concrete structure, extensive use of glass and ceramic tiles, and many designs from later generations, so it looks very grand and luxurious both outside and inside.
Now it has become the focus of discussion in the entire capital and has become a landmark building in the capital. Especially at night, when the dozens of meters high Qianqing Palace is lit up, it is resplendent and radiant, and can be seen throughout the capital. Very beautiful.
"If Aiqing wants to see it, we can go and see it together later. To be honest, I can't wait to move in."
Hongzhi said with a smile.
At this moment, a small yellow doorman hurriedly came to the door and handed a memorial into Xiao Jing's hands. Xiao Jing asked about the situation of the memorial in detail and did not dare to delay, so he immediately hurriedly delivered it to Xiao Jing. Hongzhi here.
"Your Majesty, there is an urgent memorial from His Highness the Crown Prince."
Xiao Jing presented it respectfully and said at the same time.
"oh?"
"The Prince's memorial?"
"Eight hundred taels for urgent delivery?"
When Emperor Hongzhi heard this, he immediately became interested. He picked up the memorial and read it carefully. As for the ministers on the side, they all became curious.
Of course, they knew that Zhu Houzhao went to reward the three armies. This time he won a great victory and spent tens of millions of taels of silver. Zhu Houzhao followed up on this matter and also severely brushed off his presence. He was also considered to be erected among the Ming army. gained some prestige.
Emperor Hongzhi supported this matter with both hands. He was his only son, and sooner or later this position would be passed on to Zhu Houzhao.
Moreover, in the past few years, Emperor Hongzhi obviously felt that his health was not as good as before, and he had long been interested in cultivating Zhu Houzhao's ability to handle national affairs.
Of course, he absolutely supported the matter of showing his face and establishing prestige in the army this time. This would be very helpful for Zhu Houzhao to control the army after he ascended the throne.
Zhu Houzhao went to reward the three armies. Everyone didn't think anything was wrong, and they all thought nothing would happen. They had just won a great victory. At this happy time, what could happen?
Therefore, everyone is also very curious about what Zhu Houzhao wrote in the memorial that was sent eight hundred miles away.
Everyone looked at Emperor Hongzhi and saw him looking at the memorial. The smile on his face quickly disappeared, and then his face turned gloomy.
"Oops~"
When people like Liu Jian, Li Dongyang, Xie Qian, Ma Wensheng, and Zhou Jing saw this, they immediately screamed secretly in their hearts.
Something big must have happened, otherwise Emperor Hongzhi would never have changed his face so quickly.
"Huh~ It's so lawless!"
After Emperor Hongzhi finished reading the memorial, he threw it away angrily and became extremely angry.
In the memorial, Zhu Houzhao told Emperor Hongzhi in detail about his investigation of the border army, from weapons and equipment, to military supplies, to military pay, as well as opening a horse market, opening a slave market, and even robbing passing merchants.
, killing good people and taking merit, etc., all kinds of problems were brought to Emperor Hongzhi at once.
"Your Majesty, what happened?"
Liu Jian and the others looked at each other and said bravely.
"See for yourself~"
"You all take a look."
Emperor Hongzhi said with a cold face.
Liu Jianjian started the memorial and read it carefully. The more he read, the more alarmed he became. There were too many problems listed above. The key is that if any problem comes up, it can be checked and kept by the court.
It's turbulent, and I don't know how many heads will fall to the ground.
After Liu Jian finished reading, he slumped down on his chair and then weakly handed the memorial to Li Dongyang. Li Dongyang also quickly took it over and read it quickly.
"this…"
Li Dongyang was dumbfounded after reading it, and at the same time he suddenly understood why Emperor Hongzhi was so angry.
Xie Qian, Ma Wensheng, Zhou Jing, and Zhang Mao also carefully read the memorial one by one. As soon as Zhou Jing and Ma Wensheng finished reading, they immediately fell to their knees.
"I...I am guilty!"
Zhou Jing and Ma Wensheng kowtowed heavily and said.
The two of them have an unshirkable responsibility for this matter. One is the Minister of Hubu and the other is the Minister of War. The Hubu is in charge of money and the Ministry of War is in charge. Now that such a huge thing has happened to the army, they cannot escape the blame.
"Guilty, of course you are guilty."
"If the prince hadn't gone to the border army to check this time, I wouldn't have known that the Ming Dynasty's army was riddled with holes. No wonder we could only watch helplessly when the Tatars went south in the past."
"Look at the armor and weapons issued by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Affairs. The armor is made of cotton armor, with only a thin layer. The weapons are made of iron sheets, which are mostly used for performances."
"Also, the rice that these soldiers eat is all moldy and old rotten rice, and they can't even eat enough."
"The soldiers in the border army have not received any military pay for more than a year. Some people died because they had no money, their children were sick and they couldn't afford the doctor."
Emperor Hongzhi was completely angry, like an extremely angry lion, and kept saying what was written in the memorial. His voice became louder and louder, and he became more and more excited as he spoke, so that the entire palace kept echoing his words.
People all of a sudden became trembling with fear.
Liu Jian, Li Dongyang, Xie Qian, and Zhang Mao could not sit still anymore, and they all knelt down on the ground, with cold sweat on their foreheads, feeling the anger of Emperor Hongzhi.
This good old man was really angry.
He used to trust these civil servants too much, and felt that they were very trustworthy in doing things, and they were alienated from the generals and noble group. Therefore, he simply smeared the situation of the army.
His only feeling was that the Ming Dynasty's army was unable to fight. Every year the Tatars went south, and they were cowering every year. They had never been tough, and they had never had a real fight with the Tatars.
Every time the Tatars went south, he, the emperor, could not sleep and was worried. But the ministers below all said that they could not defeat them and would go back when the Tatars had plundered enough.
No one has ever told me that I want to have a good fight with the Tatars, and no one has ever told me why I can't win.
Is it really impossible to beat it?
Not necessarily, this time they won the battle, all the Tatars were wiped out, and not even the little prince escaped back to the grassland.
How could the Ming Dynasty, with a population of tens of millions, be unable to defeat the grassland people who only had less than a million people?
It turns out that the root of all this lies in this. The Ming Dynasty's army has long been riddled with defects and has little combat effectiveness, which was completely ruined by these civil servants.
What made Emperor Hongzhi angry was not only that such a thing happened in the army, but what was even more angry was that he felt that his trust had been fed to the dog. He trusted these civil servants. Is this how they were loyal to the emperor?
"Ahem~"
Because he was too angry and excited, Emperor Hongzhi suddenly couldn't breathe, and his whole body started to cough violently.
"Your Majesty, calm down, calm down, the dragon body is important~"
Xiao Jing, Liu Jian and others hurriedly said, and Xiao Jing stepped forward to support Emperor Hongzhi and patted Emperor Hongzhi gently on the back.
"Huh~"
After a while, Emperor Hongzhi stood up and looked at the minister who was kneeling in front of him.
His eyes became cold, and his trust was betrayed again and again, which made Emperor Hongzhi, who was originally a good man, completely murderous.
At this moment, he finally understood the reason why his ancestor Zhu Yuanzhang went on a killing spree. Sometimes, killing may not solve the problem, but it can solve the people who caused the problem.
If you don't establish some authority among the officials below, they will think you are easy to fool, and they will not be afraid of you. On the contrary, they will think of ways to restrict you and control you.
His eyes were fixed on Zhou Jing. This Zhou Jing, Zhou Papi, had nothing else but to empty out his own money and the national treasury was empty. The only way he thought of was to get money from the internal money.
But I never thought about levying commercial tax or anything like that.
In the past, when he wanted to do something, Zhou Jing always resisted because he didn't have the money. At this moment, Emperor Hongzhi felt that this Zhou Jing was not afraid of him at all, and he used money to limit himself.
Emperor Hongzhi had a gloomy face, thinking rapidly in his mind, and soon he made a decision.
"Come here, put Zhou Jing, the Minister of Hubu, and Ma Wensheng, the Minister of War, into the heavenly prison~"
No longer merciful, Emperor Hongzhi directly took down Zhou Jing and Ma Wensheng. He was really angry. He had never been so angry about the theft of the official warehouse last time, and he had never touched these six ministers.
But this time, he not only touched Zhou Jing and Ma Wensheng, he also went on a killing spree.