Guangzong Yaoming

Chapter 242 Never Let Down the Heroes

It was already late December when Shen Yikuan's memorial and letter arrived in the capital.

"Time flies so fast. More than three years have passed in a flash."

Beside the stove in the Yangxin Palace, Tian Le could only hear the emperor sighing, "For more than three years, I have been treading on thin ice in dealing with this financial problem. I still don't know how far I have to go."

After reading Shen Yi Guan's memorial, he put it down and said, "Your Majesty has been on the throne for only three years, but the new dynasty has already taken on a new look. Financial resources have been expanded to include small gains, and military preparations can be deployed outside the capital. What is even more valuable is the field of learning. Now that the Hundred Family Garden has been established, there will always be a day when the accumulated knowledge will be released."

"Xizhi didn't mention the administration of officials." Zhu Changluo pointed at the memorial. "What do you think of Shen Jianwu's request?"

Tian Le thought for a moment and answered solemnly, "Governance is the most difficult. At present, only the Beijing camp is somewhat in order in the Privy Council. There are still many problems with the border troops and local military governors. Since the preparations are not sufficient, what Shen Jianwu requested is safe for Zhejiang and Jiangnan."

Zhu Changluo remained silent.

After a long time, he sighed and said, "I'm afraid there won't be such a good opportunity in the future."

"Your Majesty, you are worrying too much." Tian Le smiled. "Shen Zhonghua has been upright and honest all his life. Even if he has never been involved in the Chu vassal incident, it will only take a few years for him to investigate fewer cases. By then, he will really be demoted and dismissed. Only then will Your Majesty see what the public sentiment is really like."

"Wouldn't it be more of a deprivation of their interests to strictly enforce preferential treatment than to reduce it a little bit?"

"That's different. The strict exemption of privileges is just the court's routine, and the officials and gentry have no excuse. If they really reduce the exemption of privileges, there will definitely be a second time after the first time, and there will inevitably be more trouble. Even if it is not a rebellion, the situation has changed and they can simply implement a new tax policy."

Zhu Changluo's eyes moved: "That's not a joke."

"It all depends on how many talents the Imperial Academy can produce over the years. I, your servant, must also hurry up and let the world know about your majesty's military might."

Zhu Changluo pondered for a moment and nodded: "Then let's raise it high and let it fall gently. Several things need to be decided within this year. The selection of the Grand Secretary of the Ministry of Rites, the reform of the royal family, the Changming and the Caojun..."

Among the important officials in the court, the one Zhu Changluo trusts the most is still Tian Le.

The situation regarding the selection of Shen Shixing's successor is now very complicated.

Because it is one house with four courtyards, the incumbents have also broken some of the unspoken rules of the past, so the competition this time is particularly fierce.

After the major changes to the central government offices, the people who were eligible to participate in the court recommendations also changed.

In fact, the Privy Council system no longer participated in the court recommendation, but Zhu Changluo still discussed it with Tian Le.

Tian Le replied solemnly: "Since the Privy Council is in charge of military affairs, the selection of ministers of the Ministry of Rites should not speak rashly."

"…During the transition period, I trust Xizhi."

Tian Le shook his head firmly: "Once there is a precedent, those who come after will follow suit. If I don't set an example myself, how will the Privy Council handle itself in the future?"

"… Never mind, let's just talk about other things."

This is also the reason why Zhu Changluo trusts Tian Le. He has a long-term vision and can treat the power he already has with caution.

The reform of the vassal system is bound to be done, and the case of Chu Zong has been basically clarified.

There is no smoke without fire. For the former king of Chu, the biggest worry at that time was indeed the loss of the throne to someone else.

But Zhu Huakui was only a posthumous child. He and Zhu Huabi, the "two brothers", grew up under the control of the Queen Mother of Chu and her Wang family.

Even though he had doubts and asked several times, he was naturally only told that he was the bloodline of the King of Chu.

Being suspected, when he grew up he could only rely more on the Wang family and the prince's power to suppress other branches. During this process, the Wang family secretly embezzled the assets of the Chu clan.

Zhu Huakui was their banner and their face, so of course they would treat him well. Since he had no worries about food and clothing and was highly respected, Zhu Huakui was happy to do so.

In fact, he was of course stupid, otherwise he would not have allowed the internal conflicts within the Chu Clan to grow bigger and bigger, and he would not have considered it normal that the Chu Clan, which was known as one of the richest vassal states in the world, had only more than 100,000 taels of silver in its deposits.

Now the Chu vassal state must be dealt with, and the problems of other vassal states must also be considered.

It is easy to deal with the Chu vassal state. The two brothers Zhu Huakui and the Wang family cannot escape the blame. Wugang County Prince Lunxu is the closest, so let him inherit the throne of King of Chu.

But all the vassal states, including the Chu vassal state, must take this opportunity to carry out reforms.

"Willn't this make all the vassal states tremble with fear?" Zhu Changluo asked.

"First, announce to the world that the new King of Chu has been appointed. This is naturally just a fair decision by Your Majesty. The profits from Changminghao will still be given to the three feudal lords. Then summon the princes to the capital to meet the emperor. Each feudal lord will only worry about what problems will arise in their own feudal lords. There will definitely be no shortage of royalties this year. Since the side branches of the clan are stable, only the princes are worried, but there is no need to worry. Besides, the army of the Beijing camp has gone out for training and has not returned yet."

Zhu Changluo thought about it, smiled and nodded: "This is a grand event."

It has been who knows how many years since a prince of the Ming Dynasty came to Beijing to meet the emperor, let alone all the princes?
However, the vassal reforms that Zhu Changluo hoped for required face-to-face communication.

With so many princes coming to Beijing to meet the emperor, the Ministry of Rites will have a lot of work to do.

The affairs of the Ministry of Rites also involve the selection of the Grand Secretary of the Ministry of Rites.

The next day, Shen Yikuan's son Shen Taihong also received a letter from his father. After passing the imperial examination, Shen Taihong, who had studied at the Hanlin Academy and Tongzheng College, had to urgently visit many people for the sake of Zhejiang affairs.

It was decided at the imperial court, and tomorrow will be the official day for recommending the Grand Secretary of the Imperial Secretariat.

Those who were capable of competing for this position included Li Dai, Zhu Guozuo, Xiao Daheng, Li Tingji, Ye Xianggao, and Li Sancai.

After Wen Chun took up the post of Deputy Privy Councilor, Li Tingji appointed him as the Left Censor-in-Chief.

Li Dai and Zhu Guozuo were already in the Jinxian Academy, Ye Xianggao was the Minister of Rites in Nanjing, Xiao Daheng was already very prestigious, and Li Sancai had a wide range of friends.

However, the position of Grand Secretary of the Imperial Secretariat requires a sufficient academic foundation, and now he is also shouldering the important task of reforming Confucianism.

After the court election, the main candidate was Xiao Daheng, and there were two other candidates: Ye Xianggao and Li Dai.

In the Yan Dynasty, all four prime ministers were present.

After reading the result of the court recommendation, Zhu Changluo smiled: It seems that many people want to select Xiao Daheng away from Nanjing, even if it means letting him, a person from the third class, be the Minister of Culture.

Or, in other words, since there was no longer any leader of the old party in the court, they had no choice but to hold their noses and push forward this former Zhejiang Party general.

Zhu Changluo thought about it and then took up the red pen to circle it. He said, "After all, he is a Grand Secretary of the Ministry of Rites. He still needs to have talent and knowledge. Among these three people, let Ye Xianggao come."

Although court officials could nominate candidates, the final decision-making power lay solely with the emperor.

The four of them thought about it and knew that Xiao Daheng's greatest achievement was to continue to do well in Nanjing. At his age, he was probably hopeless to make further progress. And Ye Xianggao, who was only in his forties, didn't know how many years he would stay in the court.

Tian Le and Wang Xijue thought that this was probably a reward for Ye Xianggao's "surrendering" in the first year of Taichang.

He slid down on his knees and cleared himself out. As a de facto "man of fault", he was now highly valued by the emperor, which meant he had used his talents.

In this case, we can only resolutely implement the emperor's will.

Coincidentally, Ye Xianggao is also an outlier in the literary world. He prefers the Taige style of poetry and prose with the theme of praising one's merits and virtues.

Now that the position of Grand Secretary of the Imperial Household had been decided, Zhu Changluo then summoned Li Dai and Li Tingji.

"Next year is the Yisi year. According to the system, the imperial examination should be held. Why didn't the officials of various ministries propose to prepare for the imperial examination?"

Since the Hongzhi reign, officials in the two capitals have been required to conduct inspections every six years, and even in the preparatory stage, there are three stages: suggestions, consultations, and impeachments. The first stage of suggestions is that officials take the initiative to petition to start the preparations for the inspection, and consultations are also carried out almost at the same time, and the inspection forms are issued to the censors to evaluate the officials.

This work should have started in the first year, rather than waiting until the first year of the imperial examination.

Faced with the emperor's questions, Li Dai first apologized, and then said: "I am old, and there were many things before and after the rebellion of the Chu vassal this year..." He said a lot, showing that he did not want to take on this important responsibility anymore.

The imperial examination was not easy to conduct. Every time it would end up turning into a factional struggle and would inevitably offend a large number of people.

Li Dai was unable to make any further progress, and the candidate for the Grand Secretary of the Jinxian Academy had not been determined, so everyone tacitly refrained from suggesting that the imperial examination should be held.

In the first year of Taichang, Shen Yikuan and others wanted to use the imperial examination as a weapon and conduct another imperial examination in the second year of Taichang to intimidate the officials in Nanjing. Later, Xiao Daheng did a good job and the matter was suppressed. In the second year of Taichang, a "self-surrender and exoneration" was carried out.

Li Tingji, the Left Censor-in-Chief, also found many excuses. After the Chu Rebellion, the emperor had openly stated that there was a rebellion, and the local governors and censors were very nervous.

"Although it happened by chance, the officials in the capital are inspected every six years, and the inspection should be a routine next year. Now that the New Year is almost over, it is naturally too late, so we should start at the beginning of next spring. There must be rules. If only the Grand Secretary of Jinshen petitioned for the inspection, it would seem that the officials in the two capitals are avoiding this matter and insisting that I speak out clearly."

Although there are many reasons, how can an official only do one thing at a time?
Everyone is hiding. After the central government offices were overhauled, they all had dedicated university scholars. The motivation for the cabinet university scholars to actively use the imperial examinations to eliminate dissidents and promote their own party members has been greatly reduced.

Moreover, since the first year of Taichang, it seems that there is something happening every year, and I have to keep my nerves busy all the time.

Who knows what tricks the emperor will play with the Beijing Inspection? What if, under the pretext of the Beijing Inspection, a nationwide investigation of all the cases of officials and gentry harming the people is suddenly launched, and the number of cases exceeds 5,000, and the officials are demoted or exempted?

But what is coming will come.

Many people in the third year of Taichang spent the last month in fear, and the fourth year of Taichang will also begin in worry.

Zhu Changluo's response to Shen Yikuan's request would only be achieved through hints. How could the emperor take the initiative to help Zhejiang officials and gentry "protect the market"?

His attitude will also arrive in Zhejiang after the New Year.

In the fourth year of Taichang, the two capitals were inspected and all the kings came to the capital to meet the emperor.

Each of these incidents makes the people involved feel a chill down their spine.

The emperor's mind is unpredictable. Although Zhu Changluo's real intentions were not what they guessed, the first three years of the Taichang Dynasty had set the pattern.

No one knew that after Zhu Changluo and Tian Le discussed it, they decided to lift it high and drop it gently this time.

The problem is that the emperor always holds it high, which is scary.

Even at this moment, major cases of "rebellion" were still being handled in Huguang, Zhejiang, Nanzhili, Shandong and other places.

On the last day of the twelfth lunar month, the elderly Li Cai was escorted to the capital. Even though the canal was frozen, he was an "imperial criminal" who had instructed his disciples to spread the word that the Chu clan had hidden more than 13 million taels of Dingyuan Marquis's property, so how could he not travel in wind and snow?
Ding Weining, who was arrested earlier than him, met him in the Ministry of Justice prison. Old grudges existed before, and new hatred was added.

No one is taking care of them for the time being, so who will come to try the case?

They spent the New Year in prison.

There are many people who also spend the New Year in prison, including Xu Yinghuang who spends the New Year in a prison van.

At the same time, many soldiers of the Ming Dynasty also spent the New Year in the wild.

But their spirits were high, because at this special time, the emperor had specially sent people with some treasury to their front, to purchase a large amount of good wine and meat from the city near the place where they would camp during the New Year, specifically to entertain the troops.

He also brought the emperor's oral instructions.

Duke of England Zhang Weixian is one of them.

"Your Majesty said that I should come and suffer with the soldiers. But today, drinking wine and eating meat in this wilderness, the taste is really different. How can it be called suffering?"

"It's bitter!" The soldiers from the Beijing camp joked along the way.

"You are a bunch of killers!"

Zhang Weixian had been pampered since childhood. Now that he had grown up and could no longer live a leisurely life at home, he naturally felt bitter.

But the emperor was different. In order to perform in front of the emperor, he said that he would still join the army and make achievements, but now he has to grit his teeth and do it.

After staying in the Beijing Camp for three years, seeing the fear and submission of Li Chengliang by the soldiers of the Beijing Camp and the respect that Liu Jing and his men had received in the Beijing Camp before, Zhang Weixian was eventually changed little by little.

At this moment, these ordinary generals and soldiers who he had never taken seriously in the past were joking with him, and Zhang Weixian just laughed and scolded.

"Your Majesty asked me to bring a message to everyone!"

"The Emperor's order!" He stood in front of the tent in the camp, holding a jar of wine, and shouted, "You all obeyed orders, good job! Without war, you are willing to stay in the wilderness in the cold winter and celebrate the New Year, good job! During this period of time, I have not heard of any local accusations that you harmed the people, and you obeyed orders, good job! When you come back, I will personally visit the camp to review and reward the three armies!"

"Your Majesty, Holy Might!"

"This country prince is also a good guy, right or not?"

"Young Master is mighty!"

"Say a few more words, my lord would like to hear it."

Zhang Weixian smiled and listened to a few more words of flattery before he said with satisfaction: "Let's light the bonfire and drink some wine!"

A little drunk, he listened to the wind blowing through the mountains and suddenly felt a little dazed.

How many nights like this, sleeping in the open air, did his ancestor have to endure before he could win the title of Duke and enjoy his life?
He remembered what the emperor said to him before leaving Beijing in early December.

"Zhang Weixian, I have already admired you for being able to hold out for the past three years. Make another trip and tell me when you come back whether you are willing to fight back to Jiaozhi like your ancestors did. If you succeed, I will not hesitate to make your Zhang family more glorious in the future!"

Zhang Weixian had never thought that far ahead, but now he knew for sure that the emperor and the privy council should already be planning to expand the territory.

But the Zhang family is already a duke’s family, how can they become more glorious?
Could it be possible to confer a title on a living king of a different surname?

Or will he rule a region forever like the Duke of Qian?
He heard that Xu Hongji took out his share of the profits from Changminghao and presented it to the emperor to buy horses for the Xiaoling Guards.

Is that guy trying to compete with me, or has he secretly received some promise from Your Majesty?
On the last night of the third year of Taichang, Zhu Changluo invited five people to a banquet in the palace.

These are the five living sons of Zhang Juzheng.

"Although it's a little late, I will toast to Grand Tutor Zhang on behalf of my father today. Tomorrow's newspaper will announce it to the world, and that will be the time when Grand Tutor Zhang's reputation will be fully restored. I will never let down my meritorious officials. From next year on, you will help the Zhu family educate their descendants, and the Zhu family will respect the Zhang family as the emperor's teachers from generation to generation."

"Your Majesty is so gracious, I ..." As the eldest of the five brothers, Zhang Sixiu had already burst into tears.

That afternoon, they had already listened to the emperor's plans for the entire royal family and his many long-term aspirations.

The Zhang family will become a royal family, but they will still have to serve as officials in the court.

Zhang Sixiu will be given an important task as the inspector of the Ming Dynasty Imperial Academy, which will be located in the Ten Princes' Palaces. He will teach all the princes, princes and other relatives who can be admitted to the Imperial Academy.

The eldest prince, who had just learned to walk, had been brought here to practice the etiquette of apprenticeship with Zhang Si.

From the clouds to the bottom of the valley, and now back again.

After dawn, the "Xueyong" newspaper, which had already published two trial issues, published its first official issue.

The three words "Zhang Juzheng", which cannot be avoided in the history of the Ming Dynasty, are clearly written on it, declaring that the new policy is unstoppable and the emperor's determination to never let down his meritorious ministers.

At the beginning of his reign, he conferred titles on three marquises and five earls, and later recruited many retired old ministers. Even Shen Yikuan, who once "overwhelmed the imperial power", was safely relegated to a different position, and now the title of Zhang Juzheng has been restored.

Where will the officials and gentry of the country go? Will they still "rebel" like they did in the third year of Taichang?

(End of this chapter)