My father is Jiajing

After seeing off Emperor Jiajing, Zhu Zaigui turned around without any hesitation and sat on the dragon throne where Emperor Jiajing had just sat.

As soon as Zhu Zaigui sat down, all the civil and military officials inside and outside the Huangji Palace bowed and kowtowed: "Your Highness, long live the emperor!"

Zhu Zaigui sat on the dragon throne and looked down at the officials in the hall. His gaze then extended outside the hall to the wider world beyond.

"Be flat!"

Zhu Zaigui said these two words again, but at this moment, Zhu Zaigui's mood when he said these two words was very different from before.

Before, although Zhu Zaigui could also say "平身", he always felt that it was not powerful enough, nor confident enough.

Now, he finally sat on the supreme golden nanmu dragon throne with gold-painted and carved dragons in the Huangji Hall as the emperor.

At this moment, Zhu Zaigui's momentum and confidence suddenly emerged, and naturally revealed in his words and deeds, becoming an inviolable supreme existence.

After all the officials in the hall stood up, Zhu Zaigui gently raised his arm again. At this time, Li Chunfang respectfully stepped out from the side, bowed and walked to the side of Zhu Zaigui's dragon throne.

After paying his respects to Zhu Zaigui, Li Chunfang respectfully took out an imperial edict from the eunuch holding a tray beside him.

After receiving the imperial edict, Li Chunfang turned around, stood on the crane, and opened the imperial edict in his hand.

"The Emperor, in compliance with the Will of Heaven, proclaims: I believe that the Mandate of Heaven must be passed on to the eldest son; the lineage of succession must be passed on to the eldest son."

"I obey the will of heaven and inherit the throne. I shall follow the great teachings of the saints and obey the instructions of the Supreme Being."

"On the first month of the 46th year of the Jiajing reign, I hereby inform the heaven and earth, the ancestral temples, and the state that I will ascend the throne of emperor. The 46th year of the Jiajing reign will be changed to the first year of the Longqing reign."

"My father, the Emperor Jiajing, reigned for forty-five years. He worked hard to govern the country, and the country was peaceful and prosperous, with signs of the Jiajing Restoration."

"As the heir to this great foundation, how can I not work diligently and conscientiously to carry on my father's wishes? All the matters that need to be done are listed below:
"First, follow the ancestral system: All rituals, music, punishments and politics shall be in accordance with the "Great Ming Code" of my ancestor and the old system of my father, Emperor Jiajing. All officials inside and outside the court shall perform their duties."

"First, to relieve the suffering of the people: Before the 45th year of Jiajing, all arrears of taxes, grain, horse fodder, salt taxes, etc. were waived. The local officials will pay more attention to the widows, widowers and the lonely."

"One, record the loyal and upright: the former was dismissed from office for speaking out, the Ministry of Personnel investigated and requested to recruit him."

"First, be cautious in sentencing: except for those who commit treason, robbery, or serious crimes involving human life, the rest of the criminals will be carefully examined and sentenced to reduced punishment by this yamen."

"First, respect the ancient teachers and the hundreds of sages: Confucius's worship rituals still follow the old system to respect the holy learning. Among the hundreds of sages, select the best and use them for the time being."

"First, to keep the four barbarians at peace: All foreign countries and border officials should guard their own borders and not provoke any conflict."

"Oh my god!"

"The succession to the throne is difficult and the burden is heavy; show kindness and grace, and hope for reform."

"Announce it to the whole world, and let all know it."

"Appreciate this."

"The first day of the first lunar month in the first year of Longqing."

After Li Chunfang finished reading this edict, which was almost identical in format to the enthronement edicts of all Ming emperors.

All the civil and military officials inside and outside the Huangji Hall bowed again in unison: "Greetings to His Majesty Emperor Longqing. Long live the emperor."

After all the civil and military officials cheered, Zhu Zaigui raised his hand again, "Stand up."

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

All the officials bowed again and stood up.

Zhu Zaigui looked at the officials inside and outside the palace again, and he felt an unprecedented sense of ease.

The reason for this is that Zhu Zaigui added content that was different from the previous ones in the fifth column of his enthronement edict.

The original content should be "Respect the First Teacher: Confucius worship rituals, still follow the old system, to venerate the holy learning."

However, Zhu Zaigui felt that given the actual needs of the Ming Dynasty, it was far from enough to simply respect Confucius.

Therefore, Zhu Zaigui added "hundreds of sages" after "ritual for the first teacher", emphasizing the shared respect between the hundreds of sages and Confucius.

Then after "The worship of Confucius still follows the old system to venerate the sage's teachings", these twelve words were added: "Select the best from the hundreds of schools of thought and use them for the time being."

Although these words are not many, they are of great significance.

As long as these words appeared on Zhu Zaigui's enthronement edict, it would show that the sacred learning respected by Zhu Zaigui was slightly different from that of the emperors of previous dynasties.

This difference is equivalent to endorsing a series of new policies and strategies that Zhu Zaigui valued and promulgated during his regency.

From now on, no matter whether they are talents emerging from new schools or talents emerging from scientific and technological industrial research, we cannot simply generalize and degrade them as the so-called "lower nine classes".

These new talents will also gain new political status after the issuance of this edict, which will further stimulate and encourage their potential and motivation.

Let them create more brilliant and practical great inventions and technologies in the new era!
Help the Ming Dynasty to move towards a more promising and broader world and create new world rules!
The imperial edict has been issued and the title and position have been determined.

From now on, Zhu Zaigui is the helmsman at the helm of the great imperial ship of the Ming Dynasty!
How far his vision goes and how strong his ability to steer the ship is, how great this giant ship will be!

Zhu Zaigui glanced at the crowd again, and then issued a series of new decrees. Only then was this grand coronation ceremony successfully completed.

After the ceremony, Zhu Zaigui returned to the Wenhua Hall.

According to previous etiquette and rules, Zhu Zaigui was supposed to move to the Qianqing Palace.

However, Zhu Zaigui believed that the Qianqing Palace was old and too far from the Wenyuan Pavilion where the cabinet was located, making it inconvenient for handling daily government affairs.

Therefore, Zhu Zaigui continued to use Wenhua Hall as the main palace, and ordered the Construction Department and the Ministry of Works to come up with a plan to rebuild some of the facilities in Wenhua Hall to make it have the majesty of the emperor's residence.

Although some conservative officials and courtiers had some objections, few of them really took the issue of which palace Zhu Zaigui should live in to a serious issue.

After all, they have more positive things to do right now. Now that Zhu Zaigui's title as the emperor has been confirmed, in addition to celebrating the new emperor's heart and new title, the other thing that excites the court officials the most is the issue of Zhu Zaigui's crown prince.

Therefore, just a few days after Zhu Zaigui ascended the throne, many memorials requesting the establishment of a national foundation appeared on his desk. He also requested that the eldest prince go out to study and, in accordance with the previous education of the crown prince, select teachers for Zhu Yi to learn systematic ways of governing the country.

In response to this, Zhu Zaigui did not give any response or reply, and asked the Imperial Household Department to keep it all without sending it out.

Because at this time, Zhu Zaigui was actually struggling with whether the position of crown prince should be given to his eldest son or to Zhu Yijun.

But it seemed that he had no room to consider anything other than Zhu Yi.

First of all, Zhu Yi had not committed any fault, and he was the legitimate son of Zhu Zaigui’s first wife, “Empress Xiaoyi” Li, and was a natural heir with an extremely good family background.

Even if Zhu Zaigui had doubts and wanted to replace Zhu Yi, he had no legitimate reason.

After all, the possibility that Zhu Yi might have a genetic disease is just speculation and conjecture, and there is no way to prove it.

If he used this reason to convince all the officials, regardless of whether they would believe it or not, he would not be able to face Zhu Yi first!
You must know that Zhu Yi is not an outsider, nor is he an insignificant ordinary person, but Zhu Zaigui’s biological son who he has raised for many years.

If a father were to spread the word that his son might have problems and might not live long, it would affect future generations.
Zhu Zaigui could not imagine such a mysterious operation and such a blow to Zhu Yi, and he could not do such a thing.

After all, humans are not plants or trees, so how can we be heartless?

Even a cold-blooded political creature could not do something so callous and heartless?
Even if you want to do it, you have to have a legitimate reason.

Just like Li Longji, a tough guy who "killed three sons in one day", he first convicted his son of a crime on the grounds of "wearing armor into the palace" and then killed his son.

How could he attack his own son without any decent reason or charge?
If there really are such people, they must be tyrants and incompetent rulers!
Moreover, for a monarch who can kill even his own son at will, wouldn’t the ministers who have no blood relationship with him be even more dangerous?
Therefore, whether considering from common sense or from practical politics, Zhu Zaigui could not erase Zhu Yi's natural status as the heir.

Therefore, in such a situation, even if Zhu Zaigui is the emperor now, he cannot really replace his legitimate son.

What's more, before him, even a wise and ruthless man like Emperor Yongle wanted to replace the fat Zhu Dapang with Zhu Gaoxu, who was more like himself, but he couldn't do it.

Now when it comes to Zhu Zaigui, it is even more impossible to do it.

Moreover, even if we take a step back, Zhu Yi did not do anything wrong, and the political power of the Ming Dynasty should not be wasted on the struggle for the crown prince.

Otherwise, Zhu Zaigui would have been out of his mind if he had started a dispute over the foundation of the country that would have consumed the internal affairs of the Ming Dynasty at the beginning of his reign.

Therefore, faced with the memorial requesting the establishment of a national crown prince, all Zhu Zaigui could do now was to keep it in his pocket and wait and see the results.

At the same time, Zhu Zaigui also had to comfort Zhu Yi psychologically to prevent him from feeling alienated from his father and feeling that his father did not love his son.

If this situation really happens, Zhu Zaigui, the time traveler, will really lose face as a time traveler. He can't even deal with his own son, so what's the point of him?
"Your Majesty, it's getting late. It's time to rest."

It was already late at night, and Zhu Zaigui was still handling government affairs in Wenhua Hall. Meng Chong came over carefully to remind him of the time.

Zhu Zaigui looked up at Meng Chong and stretched his body.

"What time is it now?"

Meng Chong replied: "It is now the hour of Hai."

"Hai Hour? It's really late. It's time to rest. Call the Minister of Personnel over tomorrow. I have something to tell him."

Zhu Zaigui stood up and stretched his stiff body after sitting for a whole day, then gave Meng Chong instructions on what to do tomorrow.

Meng Chong kept Zhu Zai's instructions in mind and said to Zhu Zai, "Your Majesty, where will you sleep tonight? Concubine Zhen has asked me several times."

Concubine Zhen is Qi Muge, and now she has moved to Jingren Palace. The reason why she sent someone to ask is because Zhu Zaigui had said before that he would go to her palace.

Therefore, Qi Muge asked the palace servants to come and ask her a few more times, as if she was worried that Zhu Zaigui had forgotten her.

Zhu Zaigui laughed and said, "Then let's go to Jingren Palace. You go and make the arrangements." But after saying this, Zhu Zaigui stopped Meng Chong and said, "Forget it, no need to make the arrangements. I want to walk around and move around."

Meng Chong immediately agreed and went to find a lantern to light the way for Zhu Zaigui.

Walking on the palace road in the Forbidden City, Zhu Zaigui was wearing a warm cloak. The cold air outside had a great effect. After walking only a short distance, Zhu Zaigui's mind, which had been dull for the whole day, finally relaxed.

After relaxing, Zhu Zaigui couldn't help but think that things weren't going as they should be.

You already have a cabinet and six ministries, so how can you make your life so hard and tiring?
Although an emperor must be diligent and personally take care of everything, he can't always keep himself in such a high-intensity work state, right?
Therefore, Zhu Zaigui was also thinking about whether he should make some changes in his working methods so that he could have more time to think and plan more important strategic issues.

Instead of wasting all your time and energy on these daily government affairs.

You have to know that these daily government affairs actually have general handling methods and precedents that can be used as reference. If you waste all your time and energy on such standardized government affairs.

Not only will it not improve administrative efficiency, but it will also lengthen the review and processing process, which is fundamentally inconsistent with the original intention of scientific management, simplifying processes, and improving administrative efficiency.

Therefore, Zhu Zaigui had to have a new set of administrative ideas, to divide the current administrative work as much as possible, to improve the overall administrative efficiency of the central court, so that it could solve the ordinary affairs of the daily administrative management of the Ming Dynasty faster and better.

This will allow Zhu Zaigui to free up more time and space to resolve the important strategic choices that the Ming Dynasty will face now and in the future.

Otherwise, Zhu Zaigui would have been overwhelmed by the mountain of ordinary government affairs, as well as all his time and thoughts.

So what kind of ideal does he have?

After all, Zhu Zaigui did not want to work himself to death, nor did he want to turn himself into a hardworking, mediocre and good-for-nothing monarch like Emperor Xiaozong Hongzhi.

Now that he has reached this position, Zhu Zaigui must first establish his own rules and routines for all officials to understand and implement.

In this way, Zhu Zaigui could be considered a true emperor who could grasp the real initiative and decision-making power, rather than a goody-goody like Emperor Xiaozong Hongzhi, who thought everything the officials said was good.

Such a monarch can certainly leave an image of a benevolent ruler in the writings of literati, but it is necessary to carefully study and look for his historical achievements.

You will find that such monarchs are extremely mediocre except for being good people. If they live in a relatively peaceful era, they can have a good reputation, but if they live in a chaotic era, they will most likely be a replica of the cute Chongzhen!
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Ask for monthly ticket~~(End of this chapter)