My father Zhu Gaoxu

Chapter 688: Jiaozhi Rebellion and Nei Shu Tang
"Bah! It's Jiaozhi again. Hasn't Jiaozhi been pacified long ago? Why is there another rebellion?"

In the Wuying Hall of the Imperial City of Beijing, Zhu Zhanji slammed the table angrily, while Xia Yuanji and others below also bowed their heads and remained silent.

Some time ago, Zhu Zhanji had just ennobled his son Zhu Qizhen as the crown prince. At the time when the whole world was celebrating, a rebellion in Jiaozhi suddenly interrupted this happy event. Zhu Zhanji was even more furious and directly faced everyone in the cabinet. Face was furious.

"Your Majesty, calm down. Although the rebellion in Jiaozhi came suddenly, it is not large in scale. Prince Chengshan is guarding Jiaozhi, which is enough to deal with this rebellion!"

Xia Yuanji coughed twice and stood up to persuade.

Xia Yuanji has turned sixty this year, and he will be able to retire in future generations. Moreover, his health has not been very good in the past two years, and he has been somewhat unable to cope with government affairs. He also submitted a letter to resign before, but was rejected by Zhu Zhanji. He refused, so now he can only hold on and help Zhu Zhanji handle government affairs.

"Humph, Jiaozhi has been honest all these years and has never rebelled. Why did they launch a rebellion as soon as I came to the throne? Do you think I am too kind?"

Zhu Zhanji snorted coldly.

In fact, it's not surprising that Zhu Zhanji was angry. After all, he had just ascended the throne and had just ennobled his son as prince. However, at this festive moment, a rebellion broke out in Jiaozhi, which was really disappointing.

"Your Majesty, Huang Fu, the chief envoy of Jiaozhi, wrote a letter saying that Jiaozhi should be wider and not tight. But now the imperial garrison and eunuchs in Jiaozhi have become a common practice of bullying the people, which forces the people of Jiaozhi to rebel!"

At this time Yang Rong also stood up and said.

This rebellion in Jiaozhi was completely a man-made disaster. When Zhu Gaoxu was in charge of Jiaozhi, he wiped out all the local wealthy families. Later, the chief envoy Huang Fu implemented benevolent policies so that the people of Jiaozhi could recuperate and recuperate. Therefore, during those years, Jiaozhi had been very peaceful. , There are even people from Cochin who have passed the examination.

But as time went by, the situation changed. The first was the corruption of the army, which led to the oppression of the lower levels by the upper echelons of the local garrison. Some military households even had their fields annexed by the officers, and they themselves became tenants of the officers' families.

This situation becomes more obvious the further away from Beijing, and it is especially serious in the south, let alone places like Cochin.

The officers were corrupted and military households lived in poverty, so they had no choice but to find ways to get money from the people. As a result, the relationship between the military households and the local people naturally became more tense, even reaching the point of incompatibility.

As for the eunuchs, it was a man-made disaster, and it had a lot to do with Zhu Zhanji. After Zhu Di was in trouble, there were too few available people around him, so he had no choice but to reuse a group of eunuchs. Later, when the manpower was sufficient, Zhu Di still wanted to Limit the power of eunuchs.

However, after Zhu Zhanji came to power, he began to delegate power to eunuchs and even stationed eunuchs in local areas. On the one hand, they served as the emperor's eyes and ears, supervising local officials. On the other hand, they could also expand the emperor's power in local areas through eunuchs.

But the consequences of doing so are also very obvious. Eunuchs are inhumane and naturally extremely greedy for yellow and white things. There are superiors in the palace who are in charge, so eunuchs don't dare to act arrogantly. But when they get to the place, without supervision, each of these eunuchs will They are desperately trying to make money without caring about the lives of local people.

This is especially true in Jiaozhi. Originally, Jiaozhi rice was harvested three times a year. Although the people of Jiaozhi were a little lazy, they had no problem eating enough. However, since Zhu Zhanji reused eunuchs, the power in the hands of eunuchs has increased, and local officials have no problem. Dare to take care of them, which led to the eunuchs' plunder of the Jiaozhi people becoming more serious, and even many local people were in dire straits.

In fact, the main reason for this Jiaozhi rebellion was that Dong Sheng, the eunuch sent by Zhu Zhanji, disturbed the place, and the garrison oppressed the people and other secondary reasons, which ultimately led to this rebellion.

"It's nonsense. When the King of Han started massacres in Jiaozhi, those people from Jiaozhi stayed honest for many years. Now that I have just ascended the throne, they dare to rebel. Do you think that my butcher's knife is not as good as that of the King of Han?"

Zhu Zhanji angrily reprimanded Yang Rong for his words.

Until now, he still calls Zhu Gaoxu the King of Han, obviously not recognizing the fact that Zhu Gaoxu established a country and proclaimed himself emperor.

"This time and the other time, when Jiaozhi was newly attached, there were many wealthy families in the territory, so the king of Han used force to pacify the wealthy families of all parties. But now, after these years of governance in Jiaozhi, many Jiaozhi people have recognized their identity as Mingren, but It was because of the oppression of the eunuchs and the garrison that we had to rebel, so for this rebellion, we should focus on appeasement and suppress the principal and auxiliary forces!"

Yang Rong, however, had a strong temper and argued without giving in to Zhu Zhanji's reprimand.

In fact, the cabinet had long been very dissatisfied with Zhu Zhanji's reuse of eunuchs, because eunuchs were not only stationed in local areas, but also eunuchs in the palace began to have some power. For example, the memorials approved by the cabinet should have been handed over to Zhu Zhanji. He handled it personally, but sometimes he was too lazy to look at it, and actually handed it over to the eunuch to approve it for him. Although it was only done occasionally, it was already a very bad sign.

"Yang Rong, do I need you to teach me what I want to do?"

Zhu Zhanji was also angry at this time, and immediately pointed at Yang Rong and asked angrily.

"Your Majesty, please calm down. Yang Shangshu is just worried about the chaos in Jiaozhi, so he speaks indiscriminately. Please don't blame your Majesty!" Yang Shiqi hurriedly stepped forward to smooth things over. Other cabinet ministers also came forward to persuade Yang Rong. He couldn't argue with Zhu Zhanji, so he admitted his mistake, which allowed Zhu Zhanji to calm down.

"I have made up my mind and ordered Wang Tong to lead the troops to suppress the rebellion in Jiaozhi. At the same time, I sent someone to inform Huang Fu that in troubled times, heavy regulations are used. In the future, the people of Jiaozhi must be strictly monitored to prevent further rebellions!"

Zhu Zhanji immediately issued an order.

In his opinion, when Zhu Gaoxu dared to use Chongdian in Jiaozhi and killed so many wealthy people, the people of Jiaozhi were peaceful for so many years. There was no reason why he couldn't do it. After all, he didn't believe that he was inferior to Zhu Gaoxu.

Faced with Zhu Zhanji's insistence, Xia Yuanji, Yang Rong and others, although they objected in their hearts, did not dare to speak out at this time.

Especially Yang Rong, whose face was red from holding back, but he could only pinch his thigh tightly to calm himself down, otherwise if he kept talking nonsense, he might not even be able to save his life.

Seeing that no one dared to object, Zhu Zhanji nodded with satisfaction, and then announced: "The prince is getting older and it is almost time for enlightenment. He is usually accompanied by a group of eunuchs. These Eunuchs who are illiterate will only mislead the prince, so I decided to set up an inner library in the palace and send people to teach these eunuchs how to read and write, so that they can better accompany the prince in the future!"

As soon as Zhu Zhanji's words came out, Xia Yuanji, Yang Rong and others all raised their heads in shock, with expressions of disbelief on their faces.

After a while, Yang Rong finally couldn't help but stood up and objected: "Your Majesty, you must not do this. When Emperor Taizu was still alive, he once set up an iron sign in the palace that "ministers are not allowed to interfere in political affairs, and those who intervene will be killed." Taizong When the emperor was in power, he issued decrees many times, strictly prohibiting the eunuchs in the palace from reading and literacy, so it is absolutely forbidden to allow eunuchs to read!"

The eunuchs were illiterate and naturally could not read the memorials, so they could not approve the emperor's favor on behalf of the emperor. When Zhu Di established the cabinet, Zhu Zhanhe strongly requested that Zhu Di issue an edict to prohibit eunuchs from being literate, and Zhu Di complied.

Therefore, most of the eunuchs in the palace are illiterate now, but there are still a small number of eunuchs who are literate. For example, the eunuchs in the Yan Palace, like Zheng He and others, all grew up studying with Zhu Di or Zhu Gaochi, so Zhu Zhanji was He will ask the eunuchs around him to help him approve it.

But he obviously felt that there were too few literate eunuchs around him and it was not easy to use them, so he used his son's name to set up an inner study hall to teach eunuchs to read and read. If this gap is opened, the eunuchs will be educated in the future, which will not only breed greater problems. Their ambition will also give them the ability to interfere in political affairs.

"Your Majesty, I think what Yang Shangshu said is absolutely true. It is Emperor Taizong's personal decree to strictly prohibit eunuchs from reading and literacy. We must not violate the ancestral precepts!"

Xia Yuanji also said solemnly at this time.

Xia Yuanji and Yang Rong took the lead, and other cabinet ministers also opposed it. Those who could enter the cabinet were not stupid. They knew that if the eunuchs were made literate, they would definitely have greater power in the future, and even achieve the purpose of containing the cabinet.

Seeing everyone's objections, Zhu Zhanji said again with a cold face: "Which of you just said 'this time and that time'? In the past, the decisions of Emperor Taizu and Emperor Taizong were only because of the situation at that time. Now I am here. position, the situation has changed, and it is natural to set up an internal study hall!"

"His Majesty……"

Yang Rong wanted to say something more, but Zhu Zhanji slapped the table and interrupted: "Okay, outsiders are not allowed to interfere in the affairs of the palace. I have made up my mind. You can leave!"

Faced with Zhu Zhanji's direct drive away, Yang Rong was trembling with anger, but had no choice but to be pulled by Xia Yuanji's sleeves and left Wuying Hall.

“Mr.

As soon as Yang Ronggang left Wuying Hall, he immediately expressed his dissatisfaction to Xia Yuanji.

"Of course I know this, but I also know His Majesty's temper. Whatever he decides, it's useless no matter what we say!"

When Xia Yuanji said this, he couldn't help complaining about Zhu Zhanhe again in his heart. If he hadn't designed this broken cabinet and didn't even have the slightest power to restrain the emperor, how could they have ended up in this situation?
"Then what should we do now? Can we just watch the inner study hall be established and let those eunuchs regain power?"

Yang Rong asked angrily again.

To be honest, Yang Rong is becoming more and more dissatisfied with Zhu Zhanji. This is not the first time that he has contradicted him in the court. But even though he is now a cabinet minister and has an official status as Minister of the Ministry of Industry, he still treats Zhu Zhanji Nothing can be done.

Yang Rong and Yang Shiqi were on good terms, and they had been exchanging letters. Sometimes he really wanted to listen to Yang Shiqi's advice, so he simply resigned from his official position and took his family to Tianzhu to join Zhu Gaoxu.

(End of this chapter)