The most reckless man in the Ming Dynasty.

Chapter 307: Court Fight
The next morning, there was a court meeting.

Different from the previous court meeting in Wenhua Hall.

Now Zhu Houzhao had already begun to rule the country, so the court meeting was held in the main hall of the Qianqing Palace, and all officials of the fifth rank and above in Beijing had to attend.

Whether or not to rule the country personally is related to the emperor's normal use of his decision-making power, so it is crucial for Zhu Houzhao to take back power.

When he took this step completely, he was no longer the little emperor, but the Zhengde Emperor Zhu Houzhao!

All the officials in Beijing chose to attend today's court meeting.

Not for anything else, just for the Japanese resources.

Whether it was various minerals, or the money and grain from Japan, or even those Japanese slaves who were classified as slaves, they were all huge fortunes for the powerful and wealthy.

No one will miss this moment of "dividing the cake". Even if some officials cannot get a share of the cake, they are happy to watch the division meeting to see which side gets the biggest benefit and which side gets nothing.

After all, the person who presided over this "cake-sharing meeting" was none other than His Majesty the Emperor.

It is not difficult to see from the final result the Emperor’s attitude towards these court forces.

Therefore, with all kinds of thoughts in mind, the ministers got up before dawn to prepare, and then took carriages straight to the palace gate.

Yang Tinghe was considered to have arrived relatively early, but there were others who arrived earlier than him.

For example, the Minister of Personnel Wang Ao, the Minister of War Yang Yiqing, the Minister of Punishments Wang Jianzhi, the Minister of Works Li Shan and other important officials of the court.

As soon as they saw Yang Tinghe coming, they immediately came forward to greet him.

"Prime Minister, I heard that you went to visit Marquis Zhongshan yesterday."

"What's the situation? What's the attitude of Marquis Zhongshan?"

"Did he...promise?"

The ministers surrounded Yang Tinghe and kept asking questions.

Of course, for Wang Ao and others, it is not that they value the benefits involved, but they are forced to do so by the situation.

Anyone with a discerning eye could see that the Emperor was determined to suppress the increasingly domineering civil officials and gentry, and for this purpose he did not hesitate to bring the power of the royal family into the court, creating a court situation of competition between the two sides.

To the Ming Dynasty, Japan is now like a girl with her legs spread open, who can be taken at will and dare not resist.

Then, whoever gets the biggest benefit from it will naturally develop their power faster.

What Wang Ao, Yang Yiqing and others were worried about was that His Majesty the Emperor would do his best to prevent the gentry from participating and completely exclude them!

In this way, when other forces have completely digested Japan's resources, what will the civil officials and gentry use to compete with them?

Even if Your Majesty wants to take back power, you can't completely suppress the civil officials and gentry and let the royal family and princes take charge of the government, right?
Yang Tinghe smiled confidently and nodded slightly.

"Don't worry, Your Majesty knows what's going on!"

After receiving this answer, the ministers roughly understood what was going on, so they all felt a lot more relieved.

Yang Tinghe looked at another circle, which was Prince Ning Zhu Chenhao and Prince Xing Zhu Youlang.

Feeling Yang Tinghe's gaze, Ning Wang Zhu Chenhao's cold gaze followed.

"Prince Ning, why do you have to fight with Yang Tinghe?"

Seeing this, Zhu Youqiu couldn't help but smile bitterly and spoke.

This Prince Xing is a quiet and unknown person.

He happened to become the biggest winner in the struggle between the two forces, and sat on the position of Minister of Rites without doing anything.

However, the higher his position, the more uneasy Zhu Youlang felt.

He did not want to get involved in these court struggles, but was always kept in the spotlight by the Emperor and had no choice but to participate.

Nowadays, the civil officials and gentry are at loggerheads with the royal family and princes, and Zhu Youju was inevitably affected as well.

For example, when he was in the Ministry of Rites, his colleagues and subordinates all looked cold and impartial when they saw him, not to mention winning over people's hearts and cultivating his own clique.

Zhu Youqiu had no such thoughts. He would rather maintain the status quo and wait until the Emperor closed the net so that he could take the opportunity to escape from the vortex of fighting.

However, Zhu Chenhao was completely different. According to the rumors that Zhu Youlang had heard, this Prince Ning had made a big move. All the gold, silver and jewelry he brought were used to bribe court officials. At least those officials in the Guanglu Temple had now become Zhu Chenhao's trusted cronies.

Some people who were unwilling to obey were ostracized and suppressed by Zhu Chenhao and expelled from the Guanglu Temple.

In other words, the Guanglu Temple is now Zhu Chenhao's one-man show.

In addition, the number of court officials secretly won over by Prince Ning was countless. There were even rumors that even the Emperor's absolute confidant, Zhongshan Hou Tang Hao, had secret dealings with Prince Ning Zhu Chenhao, and even accepted Prince Ning Zhu Chenhao's adopted daughter as a concubine.

Zhu Youqiu had no idea whether the rumor was true or not.

He just knew that the more Zhu Chenhao did this, the closer he, the Prince of Ning, would be to death.

Even if the rumors were true, it was nothing more than Marquis Zhongshan pretending to be nice to him. It was ridiculous that this guy was kept in the dark and was still thinking about rebelling.

Are all these people in Ning Fan's faction mentally ill?
Zhu Chenhao scoffed at Zhu Youqiu's statement.

"Your Majesty is determined to revive the royal family and bring the power of the royal family into the court to fight against the civil officials and gentry!"

"You and I have been chosen by His Majesty to represent the royal family. Are we going to betray the emperor's grace?"

Zhu Chenhao sneered: "This prince is fighting with civil officials and gentry, which is to obey the will of the emperor!"

"But you, Prince Xing, have always disobeyed the emperor's will and acted like a good person without fighting or competing. I'm afraid you will be in great trouble soon!"

Zhu Youqiu sighed secretly when he heard this.

Good words can't persuade you to die!
Since Zhu Chenhao was seeking death on his own initiative, he didn't want to persuade him any more.

Just at this moment, Zhongshan Marquis Tang Hao helped Duke Yingguo Zhang Mao get out of the carriage.

As soon as Marquis Zhongshan arrived, there was a sudden silence outside the palace gate.

Then all the officials came forward at the same time and bowed to Tang Hao in congratulations.

"Congratulations to Marquis Zhongshan on the birth of his son!"

"Yes, yes, and he is the eldest son!"

"It just so happens that the Marquis of Zhongshan has returned to the court after destroying the country. This is a double blessing!"

"Zhongshan Hou was truly a fierce general at that time!"

All kinds of compliments and flattery came one after another, but they were still here to congratulate him, so Tang Hao could only force a smile and deal with these guys with a smile.

Of course he understood that this was not because of how popular he was, but because of the interests of Japan.

Seeing that Tang Hao was getting impatient, Zhang Mao stepped forward to smooth things over.

"What's the fuss about?"

"It's killing me, an old man!"

Duke Yingguo Zhang Mao was the most powerful military hero in the past, and the Duke Yingguo's family was related to the imperial family by marriage, so no one dared to say anything when he wanted to take advantage of his seniority.

But there were also some old guys among the ministers, such as Hanlin Academician Huang Xizhai.

He is also a veteran of three dynasties, and a well-known scholar and literary master.

"I wonder if the Marquis of Zhongshan has chosen a name for your son? As a member of the Imperial Academy, I have a lot of experience in naming..."

Hearing this, Tang Hao was at a loss whether to laugh or cry for a moment.

"Thank you Mr. Huang for your kindness. I have already named my son "Tuo"!"

Huang Xizhai was stunned when he heard this, then he stroked his beard and nodded repeatedly.

"Tuo means to open up!"

"Open up the land in all directions and expand the territory by thousands of miles!"

"We admire Lord Tang's ambition!"

Hearing the praise from this famous scholar, Tang Hao couldn't help but smile, and Zhang Mao's old face was full of pride. "It's almost time, stop making noise!"

Yang Tinghe came over and acted as the bad guy, reminding the ministers to open the palace gates immediately.

The ministers then returned to their seats obediently, but they were still whispering to each other.

Tang Hao and Yang Tinghe looked at each other without saying much, and then helped Zhang Mao to the designated position.

Today's court forces can be roughly divided into three categories.

The first of them is naturally the civil officials and gentry. They have controlled the government for more than 50 years and their influence is spread throughout the Ming Dynasty. Even the local officialdom is monopolized by these gentry. You can imagine what a behemoth they are.

In addition, because of the existence of the imperial examination system, the gentry can continuously supply fresh blood to the central court, so as to ensure their inheritance and ensure that their interests are always represented in the court to safeguard their own interests.

The second group was military generals and nobles, including Duke of Yingguo Zhang Mao, Marquis of Zhongshan Tang Hao, Duke of Baoguo Zhu Hui, Duke of Dingguo Xu Guangzuo and others, as well as the emerging military general, Earl of Xianning Qiu Yue. All of them chose to attend the court meeting today.

Compared with the orderly inheritance of civil officials and gentry, the reason why military generals and nobles declined and perished was because they had no inheritance. Whether it was the military examination in the imperial examination or the strict restrictions on military merits, this made the inheritance of the Ming Dynasty nobles even more difficult. In other words, its essence was a restriction on the emperor's military power.

Fortunately, because the Nine Frontier Military Towns had to defend against the barbarians on the grassland at all times, they became a place for selecting outstanding generals, such as Qiu Yue, An Guo and other Nine Frontier generals.

Today they all went to court together, naturally to show their support for Marquis Zhongshan.

Tang Hao has decided to take advantage of the situation in Japan to help the military hero rise completely today!

The third is the power of the royal family represented by Prince Ning Zhu Chenhao and Prince Xing Zhu Youlang.

It seems that their force is the weakest in the court, but don't forget the royal family princes behind these two kings. They are big landlords and wealthy people who have both money and connections!

So, what will happen in today's court meeting?

Hundreds of officials from the three major forces were unaware of this and could only wait patiently.

Soon when the time came, the palace gates opened and officials filed in and stood in the main hall.

Zhu Houzhao walked in from the back hall and sat on the dragon throne amid the worship of the whole court.

With Zhang Yong's sharp nod, today's meeting began.

First of all, the Minister of Revenue Jiao Fang took the lead and mentioned the matter of Liu Jin's investigation of Wang Zhuang. The amount of farmland investigated in the Qing Fan family alone amounted to thousands of hectares. It was simply insane and unscrupulous!

All the civil and military officials in the court knew that Jiao Fang was the Emperor's man and a true supporter of the Emperor.

Therefore, when he brought up this matter at this moment, it was clear that His Majesty the Emperor was targeting the royal family and princes.

In this case, the civil officials and gentry will naturally not sit idly by and watch.

Yang Tinghe gave Fei Hong a look, and the latter immediately stepped out and spoke.

"Your Majesty, the royal family and vassal kings have been annexing a lot of land. The three judicial departments have secretly investigated this. It's not just the Qing clan, but also the Shu clan, the Qin clan...especially the Ning clan!"

As expected, Fei Hong’s main target was naturally the much-desired Ning Wang Zhu Chenhao.

The newly appointed Chief Censor of the Censorate took out a memorial from his bosom.

"According to investigation, the Ning clan has been annexing land on a large scale since they were enfeoffed in Nanchang!"

"There are three ways to seize farmland by making up excuses: first, petition for it; second, pay tribute; and third, buy it."

"First, the so-called petitions are requests for additional lands that the Ning clan has been petitioning the court for over the years, in addition to the lands that were granted to them by the court when they were born."

"Initially, there were a large number of barren fields in Nanchang Prefecture, so the Ning clan took the opportunity to ask the court to assign some of the ownerless wasteland to themselves in order to increase their farmland property. However, most of these fields were not ownerless fields. They originally had owners, but were persecuted and assassinated by people sent by the Ning Palace. This is why they became the so-called ownerless fields!"

Fei Hong's single stone caused a thousand ripples!

All the civil and military officials in the court began to talk immediately, and all looked at Ning Wang Zhu Chenhao with unfriendly eyes.

This is such a fucking beast!
He took a fancy to someone else's land, killed the owner, and then petitioned the court for compensation, and then the land became his own land with full legitimacy.

"Secondly, the so-called offering, which means to offer one's land as a gift to the Ning Palace. Although the Ning clan has no real power, they are descendants of the royal family after all, especially the princes who are enfeoffed in the local areas. If the local forces can act under the banner of the princes, it will be very convenient. Faced with these people's ill-intentioned offerings, the Ning clan will not refuse anyone. So giving money, land, and women to the Ning clan, making friends with the Ning clan's royal family members and winning their favor has become the tacit behavior of officials and gentry in various parts of Jiangxi, causing the atmosphere in Jiangxi to be very wrong. The root of the problem lies with the Ning clan!"

The second one is more normal.

As for donation, everyone understands it.

In fact, it’s not just Ning Wang’s Mansion, it’s the same for palaces all over the place.

And it was not just the royal family and princes who were like this, but also the gentry and local gentry in various places.

Because these damn local officials would continuously increase the corvée and taxes of the self-cultivating farmers through the method of "apportionment". In order to survive, the self-cultivating farmers had to choose to donate their land to the local gentry.

The same logic applies to the next level, where gentry and local gentry competed to donate their land to the local royal palace, thereby leveraging the power of the royal palace to make profits under the banner of the royal palace.

After all, local officials would never dare to offend a royal palace, and the name of the Zhu family was still very effective, especially during the Hongzhi period.

"Third, the so-called seizure and purchase is that the Ning clan bought the land from the common people. It's called buying, but it's actually seizure!"

"Because the common people value their land more than their lives, no one would sell their land unless they were driven to the point of desperation. However, the unowned fertile land and wasteland had already been divided up by the Ning clan. These lazy and greedy clan members turned their attention to the common people's land."

“Once they targeted us, they would resort to all sorts of tactics. Ordinary people had no power to resist and could only accept defeat and sell their land to the palace at a low price. The land was then forcibly bought away and became the legitimate land of the Ning Palace. This was called ‘seizure purchase’.”

Some things cannot be brought to the table, because once they are done, it will completely tear the relationship apart.

But the young Lord Chief Constitutionalist didn't seem to care about this.

Fei Hong, courtesy name Zichong, was a native of Qianshan County, Guangxin Prefecture, Jiangxi Province. He was a descendant of Fei Yi, a famous prime minister of Shu Han during the Three Kingdoms period.

The Fei family of Qianshan can be considered a prominent family. In every generation, there have been outstanding children who entered the court as officials or became scholars through intensive study. For example, Fei Hong's fifth uncle Fei Rui was a well-known Confucian scholar, also known as Mr. Xuefeng. Fei Hong studied under him and improved his moral character. He made great progress in his studies and was able to connect words and sentences to form an article.

Later, in the 23rd year of Chenghua, Fei Hong ranked first in the imperial examination, and was appointed as a compiler in the Hanlin Academy. Later, he served as Zuo Chunfang Zuo Zanshan, Zuo Yude and Hanlin Academy Lecturer, Shaoqing of Taichang Temple and Hanlin Academy Reader. Among them, the positions of Zuo Chunfang Zuo Zanshan were more important, because they were official positions in the Eastern Palace, and he tutored the Crown Prince Zhu Houzhao in his studies.

Now that Zhu Houzhao had ascended the throne and became Emperor Zhengde, Fei Hong, who was his "half-teacher", also rose rapidly to prominence. It happened that the former Chief Censor Zhang Fuhua retired in anger, so Fei Hong succeeded him as Chief Censor of the Censorate at the age of only 40. He held great power in one day and was very proud of himself.

What is even more rare is that this Chief Censor is quite similar to Xie Qian, hating evil and being honest and incorruptible.

When he learned that Ning Wang Zhu Chenhao had been secretly plotting a rebellion, he firmly joined Yang Tinghe's camp and took a clear stance against Zhu Chenhao. On the one hand, he frantically submitted memorials to impeach this guy's illegal behavior. On the other hand, Fei Hong was also secretly investigating and collecting evidence of Ning Wang Zhu Chenhao's illegal crimes.

This time, Jiao Fang's proposal to annex the land was actually the result of an exchange of interests between Yang Tinghe and him.

After all, Jiao Fang was also a civil official and a gentry. No matter how much he was excluded and suppressed, in the end he could not deviate from the position of a civil official and a gentry.

So Jiao Fang spoke up, giving Fei Hong an opportunity to attack!

Fei Hong lived up to everyone's expectations and stabbed Zhu Chenhao hard in the heart!

Annexing land and persecuting the people are simply beastly acts!
Fei Hong even investigated clearly the three ways in which the Ning Wang Mansion annexed land!
Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but take a closer look at the new governor, and then turned his gaze to Zhu Chenhao.

"Prince Ning, do you have anything to say?"

Zhu Chenhao stepped out with an expressionless face.

"Your Majesty, I know nothing about this matter."

"Even if there is, it doesn't prove that it was definitely done by Prince Ning's Mansion!"

"After all, there are many people in the Ning Palace. Perhaps some evil slaves are using the Ning Palace as an excuse to commit crimes. Since General Fei has brought this up, I will definitely keep this in mind and order the Palace to conduct a thorough investigation after the court session..."

This is a consistent excuse and also a tactic often used by Zhu Chenhao.

For example, when he was eliminating dissidents in Nanchang, he secretly raised a group of death warriors, had them disguise themselves as bandits and kill the officials who disobeyed him, and then put all the blame on these bandits!

This time, the same method was used. At most, they would just catch an insignificant servant and kill him.

But how could the civil officials and gentry agree to his little tricks!

"Haha, what a joke!"

Yang Tinghe stepped out and taunted: "One's own people are investigating one's own people. King Ning is really good at this!"

"Does Prince Ning think that all the civil and military officials in the court are fools, or do you think that His Majesty is incapable of seeing things clearly?"

Zhu Chenhao glared at Yang Tinghe with a gloomy expression.

"So what does the Prime Minister want to do?"

"Simple. Send officials from the Three Judicial Departments to Nanchang and station in Prince Ning's Mansion to investigate the case of the annexation of the land!"

Yang Tinghe's true intentions are revealed, and his target is directly targeting Prince Ning's Mansion!
(End of this chapter)