I am Emperor Wanli

Chapter 55 Donation and Relief Bureau
"Congratulations, Mr. Xu! Congratulations, Mr. Xu, on being promoted to Prime Minister!"

In the cabinet duty room, Gao Gong, Li Chunfang, the newly appointed cabinet minister Yan Ne, and even the cabinet minister Yuan Wei who often worked in the West Garden, all appeared here and bowed to congratulate Xu Jie.

Xu Jie finally became the prime minister of the cabinet, and the second in command for thousands of years finally turned the tables and became the boss.

Xu Jie, wearing a brand new scarlet official uniform, was in high spirits, with a smile on his face, and politely returned the greeting: "Thank you all for being polite. We are all here to share your worries and serve the court."

"Mr. Xu is honored to be the Prime Minister. He will surely be able to manage all officials, govern the country, manage yin and yang, and govern the country." Gao Gong said with a smile.

The corner of Xu Jie's eye twitched.

Lao Gao, you are setting a trap for me!

What you are talking about is the prime minister of a country. I am only the chief minister of the cabinet. To put it bluntly, I am just the leader of the emperor's consultation and drafting, which is far from the prime minister.

If these words of yours were to spread to Xiyuan, they would be like an insult to me!

"Lord Gao, you are also a member of the cabinet. We are all here to share the emperor's worries. The rest should be done by the six ministries and the Censorate. As ministers, we must first be conscientious in our duties and fulfill our responsibilities."

Xu Jie responded indifferently, then suddenly got excited, picked up the brush and wrote three lines on the screen in the duty room.

"Return power and blessings to the master."

"Return government affairs to the various departments."

"Reward and punish should be based on public opinion."

Gao Gong and others looked at these three lines of words and exclaimed in unison: "Good."

"Mr. Xu has a beautiful handwriting!"

"Mr. Xu wrote well!"

Everyone looked at the high-spirited Xu Jie with different expressions.

In the side hall of Renshou Palace, Emperor Jiajing looked at the note copied by the eunuch, read it three times, sneered, and handed it to Zhu Yijun beside him.

"Jun'er, what do you think after reading these three sentences from Lord Xu?"

After reading it, Zhu Yijun answered without hesitation: "I think it is very hypocritical."

"Hypocrisy?" Emperor Jiajing was amused. "My dear grandson, how did you come to this conclusion? As soon as these three lines came out, the court was in an uproar, and everyone praised them highly, earning a good reputation for Lord Xu."

"Return the power and authority to the master. Could it be that the emperor was bullied by Yan Song and his gang before, and even his power and authority were taken away? Now he needs him, Lord Xu, to return the power to the master?"

"Haha!" Emperor Jiajing laughed.

Everyone in the court who was interested knew that Yan Song and his faction were just tools of Emperor Jiajing. They were very qualified tools and were easy to use, so they were used for twenty years.

If you say that the Yan Party took away the power and authority of Emperor Jiajing, Yan Song would be the first one to fight you to the death.

"Return government affairs to various departments." Does this sentence mean that the national affairs were previously controlled by one place? Which place? The cabinet? Xu Ge Lao was previously the second assistant of the cabinet. If the cabinet abused its power, wasn't he one of the masterminds?

The six ministries have exclusive control over the affairs of the country? According to the imperial edicts of the Ming Dynasty, the six ministries exercise exclusive control over the affairs of the country. "

Emperor Jiajing waved his sleeves, sat down on a stool, picked up a fruit and started eating, turning himself into a spectator and continuing to listen to Zhu Yijun.

"Return the punishment to justice by using the punishment and reward. Was the punishment and reward before unfair? Why was it unfair? Was it the emperor's unfairness in ruling the country, or the cabinet's unfairness in advising the government, or the six ministries' unfairness in handling affairs? Now we need him, Lord Xu, to return the punishment to justice by using the punishment and reward?"

Emperor Jiajing laughed out loud, pointed at Zhu Yijun and said happily: "My good grandson, you have a very cunning idea!"

Zhu Yijun also smiled and replied: "After Xu Ge Lao took over as the Prime Minister, he did not think about finding out the accumulated problems in the government, nor how to eliminate them and reform them. Instead, he was busy promising benefits to the Emperor, the six ministries, and the civil and military officials in the court.

What a positive and adaptable person! In my grandson's opinion, what he does deep down is just to gain fame and reputation and to maintain his position and favor."

Emperor Jiajing smiled, "My dear grandson, now you know why I asked Xu Jie to serve as Yan Song's deputy for twenty years? Yan Song's party only cares about profit, not fame, and they can do something.

Xu Jie's party wants both profit and fame. They have taken all the benefits, but they are unwilling to do anything under the pretext of protecting their reputation. You are right, they are hypocritical and sham!"

"Grandpa Emperor is wise. Yan Song and his party are really villains. If you give them benefits, they will be willing to do some practical things. Xu Jie and his party are hypocrites. They want to take all the fame and wealth, but they are still unwilling to get their feet wet."

Emperor Jiajing smiled with even more relief: "That's right, a true villain has his own way of using things, and a hypocrite has his own way of using things. Grandson, you must remember this."

"Grandson, remember this. Make the best use of people and things. Even a piece of toilet paper can be very useful when you go to the toilet!"

Emperor Jiajing laughed so hard that he fell backwards, pointed at Zhu Yijun, and his fingers trembled. Suddenly, he choked and coughed. Li Fang hurriedly stroked and patted him gently on the back.

"You little bastard! You are lawless!" Zhu Yijun held a bowl of tea and handed it to him with both hands.

"Don't choke, Grandpa Huang. Drink some hot tea to calm yourself down."

Emperor Jiajing took the hot tea, took two sips, and calmed down from laughing.

"Duke Chengguo is a man who works hard. Today, I submitted a memorial requesting the establishment of a training hall in the capital camp to train new soldiers for the nine frontiers. We will start with Jizhou Town, and select soldiers from the southeast, the nine frontiers and other places with the best food and wages. This is called the New Army Camp.

The new army camp's soldier register will be temporarily kept in the Beijing Camp Military Affairs Office. Hmm, what is the name of this office?"

"Grandpa Emperor, why not call it the Beijing Camp Military Administration Supervisory Office?"

"The Military Administration Supervisory Office of the Beijing Camp? Haha, in another two years, we can remove the word Beijing Camp and just call it the Military Administration Supervisory Office."

Emperor Jiajing said meaningfully.

Zhu Yijun nodded in understanding.

The two looked at each other and smiled. Emperor Jiajing continued, "Wait until the new military camp is trained and qualified for the drill and examination and distributed to the nine frontier towns, and then hand over the military roster to the Ministry of War."

"Thank you, Grandpa Huang."

An old fox and a young fox, both knew what tricks the Training Department and the Supervision Office were playing, but they just didn't point them out.

"During the Guihai Incident and the Gengxu Incident before it, I knew that the soldiers in the nine frontiers had been harmed by those civil officials.

The food and money that the court had worked so hard to raise were passed around among these civil officials, one, two, three, four, five, six times, and each time they passed through the hands of the officials and soldiers, only some crumbs that even dogs would despise were left! "

I know all these dirty things and want to change them, but I don't have the courage. My cousin, Emperor Wuzong, died in an unclear manner, which was related to these dirty things.

Now is a good time to change. There are no more capable and shrewd people like Yang Tinghe and Yang Yiqing among the civil officials. Just look at Lord Xu and you will know that the civil officials nowadays are just a bunch of mediocre people who are greedy for fame and wealth and forget about morality. "

Emperor Jiajing sighed.

Zhu Yijun listened and kept it in mind.

Although some of the Emperor's words were extreme, they did make some sense.

Through the continuous efforts of civil officials such as Yu Qian and Shang Lu, the civil service group controlled the nine border troops and the Beijing camp army through official hats and money bags.

The emperor's grandfather's cousin, Emperor Zhengde, wanted to take back military power.

He appointed Liu Jin and other eight tigers, won over border generals, surveyed military farms, and expanded financial resources, all of which were in line with what he had done secretly.

However, he acted too hastily and appointed the wrong people, such as Liu Jin. In addition, his opponents at the time, Yang Tinghe and Yang Yiqing, were both first-class political strategists.

He soon returned with failure and finally died under unclear circumstances.

After the Emperor ascended the throne, he assessed the situation, initiated a grand ceremony, and used political tactics to knock out Yang Tinghe, Yang Yiqing and others, but he did not have the ambition of Emperor Zhengde.

Anyway, this kingdom was picked up by someone else. As long as you live comfortably, why bother about so many things?
Now it is his turn to compete with the civil service group in wits and courage to take back what belongs to the imperial power.

Although Grandpa Huang did not have such ambition, he supported me in fighting for it.

Because his own power was fought for and snatched from ministers such as Yang Tinghe!
"Jun'er, the Coordination Office must prepare the food and wages for the new military camp well, and don't let anything go wrong." Emperor Jiajing reminded again.

"Grandson has remembered it. But Grandpa Emperor, recently many ministers and censors have repeatedly submitted memorials to request the abolition of the Coordination Office on the grounds of the Southeast Purge. Grandson is thinking, should this Coordination Office be renamed?"

"Change vest?"

“It’s just a change of sign.”

Emperor Jiajing's eyes lit up, "How do I change it?"

"In recent years, the Yellow River and Huai River have been hit by floods, the northwest has been hit by drought, the southeast has been hit by typhoons, and Huguang has been hit by floods. The people have suffered from natural and man-made disasters. The power of the imperial court is limited, so the righteous people in the southeast are willing to donate money to help the emperor and the country.

Grandfather Emperor, you can change the Southeast Anti-Japanese Food and Pay Coordination Office into the Donation and Relief Coordination Bureau, use the maritime merchant franchise license as a donation reward, and add the profits from maritime merchant taxes to provide relief to the victims. "

Emperor Jiajing's eyes were like light bulbs, shining brightly.

My dear grandson, this is a good idea.

The Donation and Relief Coordination Bureau is dedicated to providing relief to disaster victims in various regions. What a noble reason!
Whoever dares to talk nonsense, I will make him lose his reputation!
(End of this chapter)