579 [The Little Emperor's Doubts and Expectations]
After Zhu Zaiyi ascended the throne, he immediately moved out of the Baofang and lived in the Qianqing Palace every day. He only went to the Baofang to relax in his spare time.
Empress Dowager Gu also moved with her son and lived in Qingning Palace, the Prince's East Palace. During the Zhu Houzhao period, this palace was occupied by the Empress Dowager (Zhu Jianshen's queen). It has been vacant since the Empress Dowager died of illness.
As for the Queen Mother Xia and the two concubines, they lived in Renshou Palace, Erluan Palace and Jiefeng Palace.
According to the residences of the two queen mothers, Gu was also called the East Queen Mother, and Xia was called the West Queen Mother.
Empress Dowager Gu was usually boring, so she often went to the West Palace to find Empress Dowager Xia and the two concubines. The four of them were all Zhu Houzhao's concubines, so there were no conflicts at all and they got along relatively harmoniously.
early morning.
Zhu Zaijun came to Qingning Palace to say hello: "My son came to see his mother and expressed his sincere greetings to Yi'an."
Empress Dowager Gu said happily: "Your Majesty, don't be too polite, please sit down quickly!"
The mother and son chatted for a while, and gradually the conversation turned to government affairs.
Zhu Zaiyi said: "Teacher...Teacher seems to be a bit intolerant of dissent. Yao Yushi just impeached the Xinxue disciples, and was squeezed out to Nanjing to be the Minister of Household Affairs."
Queen Mother Gu's expression instantly became serious and she asked, "Are you suspicious of the teacher?"
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Zhu Zaiyi quickly said: "It's not that I'm jealous, it's just a little...uncomfortable."
Queen Mother Gu was silent for a moment and suddenly asked: "Your Majesty, do you know what your father thinks of Wang Ruoxu?"
Zhu Zaiyi said: "It's true that I am highly praised."
Queen Mother Gu shook her head and recalled the past: "It was two years ago when your father suddenly said: 'After I die, Erlang will become a powerful minister.'"
Zhu Zaiyi was extremely surprised: "Father, did you really say that?"
Empress Dowager Gu continued: "Your father also said: 'Erlang wants to be famous throughout the ages, to reform the law, and to achieve great achievements. If he wants to accomplish these things, it is impossible not to be a powerful minister, so let him try." If you want to control power, you might as well wait until you are thirty before talking about it. Don't let him have a dispute with Erlang before he is thirty.'"
Zhu Zaiyi was stunned on the spot, not knowing how to react.
Empress Dowager Gu asked again: "Your Majesty, do you know why your father has not allowed Wang Ruoxu to enter the cabinet?"
Zhu Zaiyi replied: "My father was so kind that he specially left the teacher to his son as an assistant minister, and the kindness of promoting the teacher to the cabinet was also left to his son."
"It's good that you know," Empress Dowager Gu warned, "If Wang Ruoxu wants to be a powerful minister, let him do it, and you should take the opportunity to learn from him. When you are thirty years old, it will not be too late to take back the power. Your father also said: "Xun'er can be gentle, but not forceful, so as not to lose the righteousness between king and subject, and the relationship between master and disciple. With Erlang's intelligence, he will leave a way out for himself and will not hold on to the power."
Zhu Zaiyi disagreed with this, because Wang Yuan told him that absolute power can make people get lost in it. Teachers are also human beings. What if they are addicted to power and cannot extricate themselves?
Seeing her son's unnatural expression, Queen Mother Gu smiled and said: "Your father doesn't like to be an emperor, and your teacher doesn't like to be a powerful minister. They know each other well. Your father also said: 'Erlang and I, if we are not emperors and ministers, They must be close friends. Maybe we can ride a giant boat together in the four seas and subdue the barbarians in the waves. Wouldn't that be fun?'"
Recalling everything his teacher taught him, Zhu Zaiyi has begun to believe what his parents said. But he is only fifteen years old now. If he takes back his power after he turns thirty, is he really willing to be a mascot for fifteen years?
Zhu Zaiyi said goodbye to his mother and returned to his office.
The new Chief of Ceremony is named Zhang Fang. He used to be in charge of the Baofang Study Room and was responsible for managing various books for Zhu Houzhao. There are also nine eunuchs named Bingbi, all of whom were eunuchs serving as Empress Dowager Gu.
Under Zhu Zaiyi's reforms, among the nine eunuchs who reviewed the six departments, six reviewed the memorials of the six departments, one reviewed the memorials of the factory guards, one reviewed the memorials submitted by the General Affairs Department, and one reviewed the memorials of the Metropolitan Procuratorate. The nine eunuchs of the Household Department
Interference, directly protected by the emperor, independent of the ceremonial supervisor, and not in charge of any institution.
This is equivalent to dividing the power of the Supervisor of Ceremonies into ten, with the emperor taking charge!
Such behavior can be regarded as a virtuous emperor in the eyes of civil servants, and it completely prevents eunuchs from intervening in politics. What is even more rare is that the emperor is not yet fifteen years old.
Zhang Fang, the chief seal officer of the Supervisor of Ceremonies, stood beside him holding the big seal. Although he did not have the power to hold the pen, he not only stamped seals all day long, but was also responsible for supervising the East Factory.
Nine eunuchs holding pens lined up and waited in sequence.
When Zhu Zaiyi sat down, Eunuch Bingbi, who was in charge of the General Affairs Department, came forward and reported on the main work content today.
The General Affairs Department can bypass the affairs of the Six Ministries, mainly the Six Section reports and official and civilian confidential letters. These can be sent directly from the General Affairs Department to the Secretary of Ceremonies without going through the hands of the cabinet.
There are generally two types of reports from the Sixth Section to the emperor.
The first is the tasks assigned by the Cabinet to the Sixth Department. The Sixth Section is responsible for inspection and verification once every five days. If it is not completed, the Sixth Department will be urged to handle it quickly. If it has been completed, it will be reported to the emperor.
The second is the cabinet. If the six departments deem the decisions designated by the six ministries to be inconsistent with the rules, they can directly reject them and report them to the emperor.
The Sixth Section and the General Affairs Department can check and balance the six ministries and the cabinet, but in the past their functions were missing. Zhu Zaiyi, while decentralizing the power of the eunuchs, also erected the Sixth Section and the General Affairs Department to check and balance the power of the cabinet and the six ministries.
These things were all taught by Wang Yuan.
While listening to the work report on the six subjects, Zhu Zaiyi suddenly trusted Wang Yuan again. If the teacher was really selfish, how could he teach him these things?
Soon the memorial came to the Ministry of Household Affairs. Long Dayou, a doctor in the Ministry of Household Affairs, first wrote "Pleading for the Clearance of Land and Taxes", asking for the clearing of all the land in the world and the reform of the riddled taxation system.
Historically, Long Dayou was the first person to preside over the local clearing of fields during the Zhengde period. Unfortunately, Ding You returned home midway, and his work of clearing fields was abandoned halfway.
Zhu Zaiyi didn't take it seriously at first, but gradually he realized something was wrong.
Yao Rong was transferred to Nanjing by Wang Yuan, which seemed to sound the charge of the reformists.
Immediately afterwards, Gu Dingchen, the right minister of the Ministry of Revenue, wrote "Chen Yu saw the accumulated disadvantages of the plan to benefit the new policy". He reflected that the taxes in Jiangnan were too heavy, the land tax was unbalanced, there were many miscellaneous taxes, and the problems of Lijia and grain production were serious, and he requested a series of inspections.
Gu Dingchen was the number one scholar in the last years of Hongzhi's reign. His father was a small businessman who opened a grocery store. He was over 150 years old and had no heirs. At the age of fifty-seven, he had an affair with his maid and gave birth to Gu Dingchen. His wife wanted to kill the concubine many times, so his mother had to secretly kill him.
He hid in the mill road and was rescued and adopted by the miller.
His adoptive father only ran a small mill, and his economic conditions were limited. It was rare for him to be able to support Gu Dingchen in his studies. Sometimes he was so hungry that he ran to beg, but he became very familiar with a group of beggars. Even after he was admitted as a scholar, Gu Dingchen still had friends with beggars.
During my travels, I once stole a dog into a temple, chopped up an Arhat statue to use as firewood, and had a great meal with a group of beggar friends.
Until Gu Dingchen became the top scorer in high school, his biological mother was still working as a maid in the Gu family. His wife was forced by public pressure to allow mother and son to meet!
The environment in which Gu Dingchen grew up made Gu Dingchen suffer from the hardships of the people. Historically, he was full of ambition when he was young, and he advocated reforms in the early years of Jiajing. However, he gradually became tired of party strife.
Prime Minister Qingci who specializes in flattering Jiajing.
However, Gu Dingchen's protégé Wang Yi secretly carried out the Qingtian reform in the local area, practiced according to Gu Dingchen's instructions when he was young, and successfully completed the Qingtian reform in Suzhou Prefecture.
After Gu Dingchen's two memorials were presented, Huo Tao, a doctor in the Ministry of Rites, handed over another copy of "Chen Yan Shu": "Where I grew up, I witnessed the evil beetles. Every time I thought about it, I often sighed, surprised and angry..."
Then, the imperial censor Guo Honghua went on to write: "The number of acres in the world was reduced by half in the early years of the country, and people were begged to clear the land and verify household registrations to eliminate the disadvantages of annexation and compensation..."
Is this about to start reform?
Zhu Zaiyi was actually quite looking forward to it. He was a young emperor, and his mind was full of efforts to govern. He didn't know how many years this enthusiasm would last.
These memorials and the cabinet's draft plan are: clearing the land must be carried out, do not be impatient, and discuss it for the court.
The four people's memorial requesting Qingtian seemed to have kicked off the reform, and many reformers or speculators also followed up the discussion.
In the next half month, dozens of people came up to clear the fields!
Liang Cai, the left minister of the Ministry of Punishment, secretly visited Yang Tinghe and said: "Mr. Yang, Mr. Yao has been promoted openly and secretly, and has been transferred to Nanjing to serve as minister. Wang Qiong, Wang Xian and others have taken the initiative to join Wang Ruoxu, and the whole court is full of royalists.
All the officials only know Wang Ruoxu, but they don’t know who the chief assistant is. Why does Prime Minister Yang still sit back and watch this person do whatever he wants? If the world is cleared, the people will be filled with resentment and it will be difficult to achieve peace in the world!"
Historically, many clearings of land during the Jiajing period were forcibly blocked by Liang Cai.
Yao Rong and Liang Cai, role models for upright officials in the world!
And Liang Cai's city was deeper, and he did not say anything, observing silently, sitting back and watching Yao Rong become the leader. Seeing that Yao Rong was pushed out to Nanjing, he did not dare to directly stand up to oppose, so he quietly went to Yang Tinghe to sow discord.
Yang Tinghe was already old and frail. He would leave after one job. How could he do this? He smiled and said: "Da Yong (Liang Cai), don't talk too much. How can I, a terminally ill man, have the energy to manage the government? Wang Ruoxu worked hard to govern."
, it is not a bad thing for the country and the people."
Liang Cai had no choice but to leave in despair, and went to contact other officials, but all of them were cowardly, and no one dared to follow him around.
This is the role of squeezing out Yao Rong, firstly to intimidate the opposition, and secondly to motivate the reformers.
However, there are still many opponents, and they are waiting for opportunities, waiting for Qingtian reforms to cause trouble!
The reason for this situation is not only that Wang Yuan has become powerful and uses Yao Rong to attack the mountain, but also because Qingtian's reform has great righteousness. Everyone knows that the long-standing shortcomings are deep and everyone knows that reform is necessary. There is no benefit in jumping out to oppose it directly.
Not only would he not be able to win a good reputation, but he would also offend Wang Yuan.
Then wait slowly. Reform will inevitably lead to chaos. Once chaos occurs, we can point out the problem and attack it in groups.
It is a pity that Wang Yuan did not take action and delayed ordering the country to clear the land. He only asked the Ministry of Industry to rush to produce 30,000 bows and rulers, saying that they would be distributed to local prefectures and counties. In the future, private rulers would not be used to farm land.