If the emperor of the Ming Dynasty wanted to do something, the ministers really couldn't stop him, but they could obey him in disguise!
Zhu Houzhao forced the six ministries to implement the matter of crowning the king. As a result, more than half a month passed, but there was no movement at all.
A eunuch was sent to the Ministry of Rites to check on the progress. The eunuch came back and reported: "Your Majesty, the Ministry of Rites is discussing the title of the new king."
Zhu Houzhao was so angry: "It's been almost a month, and I still haven't figured out how to ban the account? Can't King Zhenxi be enough?"
The eunuch answered cautiously: "The Ministry of Rites said that the King of Zhenxi does not conform to the etiquette system. Only leaders of foreign tribes can have such a title. In the Ming royal family, if we are to be crowned a prince or king, it must be a one-character king; if we are to be crowned a county king, it must be two-character kings."
The title is king. And they all take the title of fiefdom."
Zhu Houzhao said depressedly: "In more than half a month, the Ministry of Rites discussed this?"
The eunuch lowered his head and said, "They were discussing whether it would be appropriate to call the new king the 'King of Liang'."
"Is there any result?" Zhu Houzhao asked.
The eunuch said weakly: "It is also inconsistent with etiquette. First, the emperor only said Prince Zhibi, not the real prince, so he cannot be titled with one word; second, 'Liang' refers specifically to the land west of Hexi, not to the west of Jiayuguan
."
Zhu Houzhao asked: "So?"
The eunuch buried his head lower: "So the Ministry of Rites is still discussing what title should be given to the new king."
Zhu Houzhao sneered: "Okay, very good!"
At this rate, the Ministry of Rites will be able to discuss repeatedly what title should be given to Zhu Dangqi for a year or two.
As for titles and rewards, they should have been discussed jointly by the Zongren Mansion and the Ministry of Rites, with the Zongren Mansion (Honobles) as the main focus. However, by the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the Zongren Mansion had ceased to exist in name only, and all relevant decision-making powers were occupied by the Ministry of Rites -
-It is equivalent to civil officials taking away the power of nobles.
Although Liu Chun, the Minister of Rites, was promoted by Zhu Houzhao, he once helped the emperor fight against Yang Tinghe.
But as an old minister, Liu Chun had his own persistence, and would still go against the emperor on some matters. For example, the emperor's personal conquests, such as the arbitrary title of prince, Liu Chun would never cooperate with these principled issues.
Zhu Houzhao immediately called Liu Chun and said, "Since the King of Zhenxi is not in accordance with the etiquette system, and the King of Liang is also not in accordance with the etiquette system, then the King of Xiliang should be in compliance with the etiquette system, right?"
Liu Chun replied: "Your Majesty, please allow me to go back and discuss it with my colleagues."
"There is no need to discuss, just call him the 'King of Xiliang'!" Zhu Houzhao said decisively.
"According to the order." Liu Chun accepted the order and stepped back.
Then, they continued to work hard and discussed what kind of treatment should be given to the King of Xiliang.
After all, Zhu Houzhao only said that the salary must be close to that of the prince, but must be higher than that of the prince. This issue can be discussed for several months. There are also regulations of the palace, regulations of the guards, the treatment of the princess, the treatment of the prince, etc.
Wait, wait, there are a lot of things that need to be discussed.
Compared with the delay of the Ministry of Rites, the Ministry of Hunan was much more bachelor. Shi Jie directly said that there was not enough money and food to support the establishment of a palace in the Western Regions, and requested that the matter be put aside temporarily until the national finances improved slightly.
The Ministry of Personnel waited slowly, waiting for the Ministry of Rites to come up with the regulations, before they would start selecting officials for the royal palace.
Anyway, Zhu Houzhao waited stupidly for a month, and urged him several times. At present, he only confirmed the title of "King of Xiliang", and it was the emperor himself who made the final decision.
The civil servants showed unprecedented unity and took practical actions to resist Zhu Houzhao's attempt to enthrone the king in the Western Regions.
Zhu Houzhao, who thought he had control of the court, suddenly felt a deep fear. Not only could his orders not be conveyed to the capital, he couldn't even get out of the six departments!
"Very good, they are all my ministers." Zhu Houzhao sneered, feeling extremely angry inside.
This matter is no longer as simple as conferring a king, but has evolved into a confrontation between the emperor and civil servants.
Liu Chun, a few important ministers promoted by Zhu Houzhao himself, resisted with a clear attitude. Although Jin Gui and Wang Qiong did not confront each other, they also opposed the matter at Shangshu, but they did not create any obstacles for the emperor in actual operation.
Qian Ning said quietly: "Your Majesty, Fei Hong must have ordered this matter."
"What does it have to do with him? He didn't even go to court to oppose the title of king." Zhu Houzhao didn't understand.
Qian Ning's Blind Chicken analysis said: "Of the four cabinet ministers, Liang Ge Lao follows the steps, Yang Ge Lao has a straightforward character, and Jin Ge Lao is loyal to His Majesty. Only Fei Ge Lao has ulterior motives. Others have opposed it, but he does not
Shang Shu, isn’t it because there is no three hundred taels of silver here? With such fierce discussions, it must be Fei Hong who is secretly involved!"
Of course Zhu Houzhao didn't believe Qian Ning's lies, but he got inspiration for dealing with civil servants from these lies.
The next day at the court meeting, Zhu Houzhao accused Fei Hong on the spot, and Fei Hong had to take the blame and resign. The emperor directly approved his appointment without saying anything.
All the officials were shocked. There were only four people in the cabinet, but the emperor actually fired one away.
…
Why did Qian Ning frame Fei Hong?
Because among the cabinet ministers, only Fei Hong clearly opposed the reinstatement of Prince Ning's bodyguard, Prince Ning held a grudge and spent a large sum of money to force Fei Hong away.
In the past year, Qian Ning has made many slanderous remarks and said countless bad things about Fei Hong, which caused Zhu Houzhao's impression of Fei Hong to plummet. This time, he simply used Fei Hong for surgery.
Well, just last year, Prince Ning spent several years of money and finally got the job done, and the court approved him to have the palace guards again.
This kind of mentally retarded decision-making was made by Yang Tinghe!
Although Yang Shen later helped his father to shift all the blame in "Danqian Zalu", saying that Yang Ting and Ding You went home and were the guards restored by Liang Chu to King Ning. But it is impossible to speculate from the time.
Because Yang Tinghe left Beijing this year, and King Ning’s guard was restored last year!
According to Yang Shen's sophistry, it was equivalent to causing his grandfather to die a year early.
At that time, Jin Gui had just been in the cabinet for a month and did not have the power to deal with major affairs. Although Liang Chu made a lot of mistakes, he refused to accept bribes from Prince Ning. Fei Hong was firmly opposed to reinstating Prince Ning's guards.
Therefore, in the entire cabinet, only Yang Tinghe could help King Ning.
According to the private writings of some officials, in order to prevent Fei Hong from stopping the matter, Yang Tinghe, the eunuch Lu Ming, summoned Yang Tinghe alone to draft the imperial edict while all the cabinet ministers were in the East Pavilion reviewing the examination papers. At that time, Jin Gui was no longer in charge of the imperial palace.
, it was also Yang Ting and his party members who wrote the edict. Yang Tinghe bypassed his cabinet colleagues and colluded with the eunuchs and eunuchs to get the matter done, giving King Ning the basic strength to launch a rebellion.
There are probably three reasons why Yang Tinghe did this: first, Zhu Houzhao was too ridiculous, and Yang Tinghe was completely disappointed; second, Zhu Houzhao had been childless for many years, and Prince Ning was plotting to adopt his son to the emperor. It is possible that Yang Tinghe had the same idea; third
, Yang Tinghe accepted a large amount of bribes from King Ning.
Yang Tinghe's confidant Lu Wan also played a big role in this, and it was Lu Wan who proposed the restoration of King Ning's bodyguard. The reason was that the rebels in Jiangxi had not been suppressed for many years, and based on the ancestral teachings of Emperor Ming, restoring King Ning's bodyguard could be done.
Suppress the rebels.
No matter what, Fei Hong was removed from office ahead of schedule, leaving only three members of the Ming cabinet.
Liang Chu was so frightened that he took the initiative to help the emperor lobby the six ministries, and formal negotiations began between the emperor and his ministers.
In the past, the civil servants refused to cooperate, and Zhu Houzhao demanded a high price. They were too lazy to pay back the money. Now there is finally room for negotiation.
After some bargaining, both parties made concessions to each other——
First of all, by renaming Zhu Dangqi the King of Xiliang, he still has the status of a county king, but he has the actual fiefdom and can govern the military affairs in the area. However, the King of Xiliang is not allowed to enter Guanxi without permission, which is to lead troops to rescue Guanxi. The Western Seven Guards must obtain the approval of the imperial court. Once they cross the border, it is tantamount to rebellion.
Secondly, the Seven Guards of Guanxi continued to be under the jurisdiction of Gansu Town, and the fiefdom of the Xiliang King was thus isolated from the actual territory of the Ming Dynasty. A new Western Region Capital Division was established, stretching from Changji in the west to Liucheng in the east. The Xiliang King also served as the commander of the capital; Changji Guard and Liucheng Guard were commanded by Bu'erhai and Yamulan respectively. The only fiefdoms directly under the Xiliang King were Turpan and Huozhou.
Thirdly, the King of Xiliang was not allowed to get involved in the tea-horse trade, which directly cut off his important financial resources and left the relevant interests to civil servants, eunuchs and the noble group. However, the initial right to receive tribute roads in the Western Regions was transferred to Xiliang from King Hami King, if all the countries in the Western Regions want to conduct trade, they must report to the court through the King of Xiliang.
The matter of being crowned king is settled now.
When the Ministry of Household Affairs was scrambling for funds, the imperial court ordered Shaanxi to organize immigration and send all the Shaanxi refugees affected by this year's disaster to settle in Turpan - spending this amount of money made Shi Jie's heart bleed.
At the same time, Wang Yuan was furious.
Wang Yuan stayed in Turpan Town, fearing that someone would cause trouble after he left.
It was not until the end of October that the immigrants, money and food finally arrived.
As a result, there were only more than 3,000 immigrants, only a little over 5,000 taels of silver, only 12,000 dan of grain, and only eight cattle. Don’t ask, it’s a long-distance consumption, and people eating horses’ chews along the way also cost money and food.
With just this amount of supplies, I don’t know how many people will starve to death.
Fortunately, Wang Yuan was still the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, so he forced Gansu to move some military rations. He also used the looted goods, deducting those distributed to various ministries, and used the rest to attract businessmen and buy food through commercial means. Get through the hard times.
Don't think that the northwest is short of food. The government is indeed in short supply, but the generals and eunuchs are very wealthy.
During the Hongwu and Yongle dynasties, so much military land was cultivated in the northwest. At that time, grain could be collected locally for the Northern Expedition to Mongolia. Where have those military fields and military grain gone now? They are all in the hands of hereditary generals and guarding eunuchs. They were even shipped to the border areas by the imperial court. They secretly devoured countless amounts of military rations.
As long as Wang Yuan can afford the money, he can buy food in the northwest in minutes.
Next year will be much easier, because Turpan is blocked by the Silk Road and has the preliminary right to receive tribute from foreign countries. Zhu Dangqi can become rich by collecting business taxes.
Wang Yuan has stayed in the Western Regions for the past few months and has done nothing except attracting business and buying grain. He is leading his disciples to improve traditional wool spinning technology and purchase large quantities of wool. He plans to build a wool spinning factory with his father-in-law. - Tens of thousands of women were captured in total. Of course, we had to find something to do for them and develop the economy of the Western Regions at the same time.
Wool spinning technology existed thousands of years ago, but it was only rough and used to make felts, blankets and other supplies. The clothes made into them were heavy and rough.
Once Wang Yuan improves wool spinning technology and creates light and warm sweaters, he will not only be able to make a lot of money, but also control the grassland tribes to a great extent, making those nomadic people economically dependent on the Western Region Dusi.
Wang Yuan was busy in the Western Regions, and Zhu Houzhao was busy in the court.
After finally settling the matter of enthroning the king, the Ministry of Rites and Honglu Temple finally began to receive the princes from the Western Regions, and held a simple prisoner presentation ceremony at the Meridian Gate.
Well, Zhu Ying, Zhang Wei and Li Sanlang are back, and they will offer the prisoners to the palace on behalf of Wang Yuan.