Guangzong Yaoming

Chapter 349: Let the Old Ministers Continue to Shine
On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the Lantern Festival, in the ninth year of Taichang, the court meeting was held on the full moon day.

The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty sat high up and kowtowed respectfully to the officials.

Inside the Fengtian Huangji Hall, the middle passage was also filled with officials.

At the front were five princes who were ordered to come to the capital.

There are also Shen Yikuan, Shen Shixing and Wang Xijue.

After returning to the Forbidden City after a long absence and seeing the current Fengtian Palace, Shen Yikuan and Shen Shixing felt mixed emotions as they thought that the five ministers now usually worked in the warm room of the Fengtian Palace.

Wang Xijue was fine, after all, he had had such an experience before.

Shen Shixing did not do so. After giving up his position, he first compiled the Veritable Records and the Collection of Taiyue Gong, and then returned to his hometown.

But he has now been invited back.

Wang Xijue gave up his throne to Xiao Daheng, and last year he was ordered to temporarily assist the young Duke Dingguo and others in ensuring the stability of the capital, and he has remained in Beijing ever since.

Today's court meeting was all about singing praises.

"Yuan Keli, the right commander of the left army, reported: On the night of the 30th day of the twelfth lunar month, the Jianzhou rebels attacked Jiefan Village at night. The government troops fought bravely and were then ordered to retreat to the Sarhu camp on the first day of the first lunar month. On the sixth day of the first lunar month, more than 13,000 rebel soldiers marched west from Jiefan Village. Zhenyuan Marquis Gu Dali led the Beijing camp, Liaodong border troops, and Chahar servants to resist the enemy at the mouth of the Suzi River Valley. The government troops won a great victory in this battle, beheading 637 heads in the battle. The rebels temporarily retreated to the west of Jiefan Village and tried to reorganize their troops to fight again..."

After the initial ceremony was completed, the Privy Council first reported the border situation.

The army led by Nurhaci's eldest son must first try to force the Ming Dynasty back within the border wall, but he did not dare to divide his troops into the Suzi River Valley to block Liu Jing and his men's retreat after failing to control Sarhu.

What's more, now that they have captured Jiefan Village which was deliberately abandoned by the Ming Dynasty, they are now in a dilemma in the east of Sarhu.

Fight, can't beat.

If they retreat, the Ming Dynasty will be able to retake Jiefan Village with impunity and ensure that the supply line from Fushun Pass to Suzi River Valley is unobstructed.

When spring comes and the snow melts, it will only be a matter of time before Liu Jing and his men march all the way to Hetuala.

The situation is actually clear.

Afterwards, the Privy Council and the Ministry of Rites jointly reported Khorchin's request for peace.

Zhu Changluo made a decision that he had already made: "The Jianzhou Jurchens have been pretending to be submissive for many years, but now their ambitions are exposed. After Nurhaci founded the country, he even called himself the emperor, insulted me in his edicts, and slandered the Ming Dynasty for driving them to the expedition to Korea, colluding with Korea, and taking advantage of the Ming Dynasty's military operations against the Tatars to betray their master and rebel!"

"There is also Korea, which repays kindness with hatred. When my father was alive, the Ming Dynasty first saved the country from extinction and provided relief to its people for more than a year. Now, Gwanghaegun Yi Hui, as the second son of a concubine, poisoned his father, exiled his brother, and usurped the throne, causing civil strife in Korea and making the people suffer!"

"The Ming Dynasty must eliminate these two thieves!"

"Now that Tumed Shunyi King and Zhongshun Duke are well aware of the righteousness, the Chahar Khan has surrendered after his defeat, and I have conferred him the title of Yuanshun King. The borders have been determined, and the two countries are on good terms. Although Khorchin is under the Khanate, it is actually autonomous. Now that they have asked for peace, I want to confer him the title of Xing'an King to cut off the support of the Jianzhou Jurchens."

After a pause, he said, "This year, on the occasion of the Wanshou Saint Festival, I will first visit Xuanfu, Liaoxi Town, Chengde Prefecture, and Liaoning Province, and then on the occasion of the Wanshou Saint Festival, I will hold an alliance with the Tatar tribes and the Lingnan Jurchen leaders in Tongliao."

After looking at the Privy Council, he said earnestly: "I hope the government troops will obey orders, first defeat Hetuala, drive out the Jianzhou Jurchens, and secure victory in Liaodong. Even if we cannot capture and kill Nurhaci and the other rebel leaders, we must make them lose their homes and lose their original territory!"

"I'm waiting for the order!"

Tian Le knew that the emperor was determined and there was no need to rush. For the officers and soldiers still fighting in Liaodong, now was the time to push forward steadily.

The next question is even simpler.

Zhu Changluo looked at Fang Congzhe and said, "The Ministry of Rites should warn Korea. In the past, the Korean king requested to submit to the Ming Dynasty, but the Ming Dynasty refused. We hope that they will protect the country and the people, and the two countries will remain as they were in the past. Now Li Hui killed his father and usurped the throne. The Korean rebels are everywhere. In addition to losing land, they also made peace with the Jianzhou Jurchens and rebelled against the country of En. I have made up my mind. The Korean Li family is corrupt and has harmed the country and the people. I want to establish a new king of Korea, allow Korea to submit to the Ming Dynasty and rule it, so as to eliminate the endless disasters in Liaodong. The knowledgeable people in Korea should capture Li Hui and tie him up in the capital to discuss his crime, and raise the banner of rebellion to welcome the royal army!"

"I accept the decree."

North Korea’s internal contradictions have clearly reached an extreme level.

Nurhaci certainly did not slander the Ming Dynasty. Zhu Changluo did hint at him, but it was just a hint.

Even when Nurhaci asked him to make it clear, Zhu Changluo only gave a brief evaluation of the situation in Korea, and there was no written document.

Therefore, in the eyes of many people who were dissatisfied with Gwanghaegun within Korea, Yi Hui did make peace with the Jianzhou Jurchens who invaded Korea and seized some land.

Not only did he make peace with him, but he also used his power to suppress those who rebelled against Li Hui.

Finally, it even betrayed the Ming Dynasty, which had always been its suzerain state, and brought real disaster to Korea.

Now the Ming Dynasty had sufficient reasons, and Zhu Changluo drew a clear blueprint and red line for Korea: the Lee family had lost the support of the people and was no longer qualified to be the master of Korea. As a country, Korea would be governed by the Ming Dynasty by appointing a new king.

For North Korea, this is an opportunity for a complete reshuffle.

Among them, there will be speculators and patriots who are truly dissatisfied with the status quo and are seeking a way out. Among these patriots, there will be those who are loyal to the Ming Dynasty, and there will also be those who try their best to resist the Ming Dynasty.

But they are all the same, the root of it is force.

The clear will of the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty will only bring greater chaos to Korea, and then he will rely on force to completely eliminate those powerful people who refuse to obey the will of the Ming Dynasty.

Just the rich and powerful.

Although there may be "righteous men" among ordinary people, how big a wave can North Korea cause once it has a new and powerful state machine?

After discussing several matters related to the border situation, Liaoning Province and Chengde Prefecture will then select a team of officials to begin preparations for construction.

In the later period, people were needed to relocate people to the border and to support the ongoing war.

"Liaodong Governor Xiong Tingbi remained calm in times of crisis, made great contributions in resisting the Jianzhou Jurchens, and is familiar with the border situation in Liaodong." Zhu Changluo said without hesitation, "Let him be the first governor of Liaoning. Chengde Prefecture will have important responsibilities in the future. Internally, it must settle the newly relocated people and preside over many construction projects. Externally, it must do a good job of spreading culture and education to the Tatar tribes and the Yehe Jurchens and protecting border trade routes. Shu Baiqing will be the prefect."

Shu Boqing had made great contributions after returning from his mission to Tumed. Although he was promoted from a clerk in the Inspection Office to the prefect of Chengde Prefecture, which was still a fourth-rank position, the prefect of Chengde Prefecture, which had a completely different structure, was of course more important.

Xiong Tingbi was not here, so Shu Baiqing hurried out to express his gratitude.

With this experience as the prefect of Chengde Prefecture, and the next step is for other provinces to reform their government offices, maybe he will really be able to get his hands on the position of a provincial governor in this lifetime.

He didn't dare to think about being a senior official in the central government. "Except for these two positions, the others will be recommended by the Jinxian Academy and will be summoned to the capital first. The Tongzheng Academy should be prepared to provide them with advanced studies and let them know the situation of the two borders as soon as possible."

After that there are some other things to do, such as this year's financial budget, military expenditures for the new border towns, and the preparation for the construction of new government offices such as the Liaodong Security Bureau and the Lifansi Bureau.

Zhu Changluo had already discussed these matters with the five ministers before the New Year. Now it was just a matter of formally deciding them at the court meeting and promulgating an imperial decree.

After the court session, the most important thing for today is to come.

Zhu Xuanqi, King of Shu, Zhu Shenyao, King of Su, Zhu Huazeng, King of Chu, Zhu Yiliu, King of Lu, and Zhu Yidu, King of Zheng, were all retained.

In addition to the five ministers, those present also included Hou Gongchen and Wang Bing from the Ministry of Clan Affairs, as well as three veteran ministers: Shen Yikuan, Shen Shixing, and Wang Xijue.

After giving them seats, Zhu Changluo looked at them and said, "When Taizu established the vassal states, each prince could lead an army. Now, you cannot lead an army, and you can no longer lead an army. However, the vassal kings can still protect the vassal states. This time, I want you to lead an invisible army, which is much more powerful and long-lasting. That is the king's rule and culture and education."

He looked at them one by one: "Prince Zheng is stationed in Kaiping, Prince Shu is stationed in Linhuang, Prince Chu is stationed in Fuzhou, Prince Su and Prince Lu are in Jianzhou and Korea respectively. The conditions are a bit difficult now, but there is a long way to go. This is a new attempt in the relationship between the Ming Dynasty and its neighboring countries, and also a new attempt in the royal family system."

What I wanted to tell them was nothing more than Zhu Changluo’s new ideas.

In addition to the necessary deployment on border defense and increased efforts in economic exchanges, the greater challenge facing the Ming Dynasty was the education of these places.

There are still a large number of ordinary people who have not left, or have been captured. Among them are Han people who fled to the border in the past, border troops, and foreigners. Outside the new border today, there are even more foreigners.

In addition to hoping that more members of the royal family would go to these places to find new ways out, Zhu Changluo also hoped that the most wealthy princes in each fiefdom would take on the important tasks of culture and education there.

The Lifanyuan planned a series of frontier academies to cultivate local talents and also wanted to absorb the children of foreign dignitaries to be influenced by them.

This is a long-term systematic project.

The pie that Zhu Changluo painted for them was to use their current place as a springboard. If there were opportunities in the future, such as autonomy in Mobei, and if they had enough influence, their descendants would have blood ties with the grassland nobles, and in the new era and with new prospects, they would be able to become the true masters of a country.

With the current average transportation conditions, the Ming Dynasty's direct control over a limited area, and the surrounding area is a circle of autonomous vassal states, which will continue to exist for a long time.

But Zhu Changluo wanted to lay a foundation first.

There's no point talking about pure bloodline, he just wants to be mixed-race.

It doesn't matter whether the bloodline is pure or not. On the contrary, Zhu Changluo now starts to let the princes help them organize their culture, protect their culture and customs, but they must establish a set of Chinese language norms to correspond to it.

At least more foreigners should be able to read Chinese and cultivate their own group of scholars.

Zhu Changluo believed that they would be willing to do it now, as long as Ming gave them the opportunity - after all, Ming was becoming visibly stronger, and even out of concern, they would not miss the opportunity to get to know Ming up close and catch up with it.

Whether the five princes were willing or not, the emperor was now forcing them to go on the shelf.

The reasons for choosing the King of Shu, the King of Chu, and the King of Su have been mentioned before. As for the King of Zheng, it was of course because Zhu Changluo attached great importance to the vassal state where Zhu Zaiyu came from.

As for Prince Lu...he is Zhu Changluo's uncle and the designated King of Korea.

There are differences in closeness, and the other four kings don't care too much about it.

However, Zhu Changluo had many requests for his uncle: "Uncle Wang, the court has not started to use troops against Korea yet, but I have made up my mind and this matter must be accomplished. Next, you might as well go to Jiuliancheng in Liaodong first. The Beiyang Fleet is now in the area of ​​​​Zhangzidao. After the Yalu River thaws, it will first take Yizhou, Korea. After the border troops go there, the Beiyang Fleet will seize Pi Island. There are people in Korea who are willing to submit to the Ming Dynasty, and they will definitely send people to contact us. In the future, we will have to use their people to govern Korea, so we should go and meet them first."

"I understand, I understand!"

Zhu Yiliu was of course happy. Even if it was a state of internal submission, the future important officials of the Joseon court must be appointed with the permission of the Ming Dynasty, but he was still the ruler of a country.

He felt that this nephew was much more capable than his brother and really had the potential to recreate the world!
There are many more details involved in the communication with the Five Kings. All five ministers are present, and their safety, their duties, and the guarantees for what they are going to do in the future will all be mentioned in detail.

The more this is the case, the more it appears that this is something that the emperor and his important ministers have carefully considered and planned.

Shen Yikuan, Shen Shixing and Wang Xijue were listening the whole time.

It was not until the five princes left that Zhu Changluo looked at them and smiled: "We will not discuss this here between the monarch and his subjects. The Yangxin Palace has been prepared. I will give you a banquet today to talk about our farewell and the future."

After moving to the Yangxin Palace, Zhu Changluo first looked at Wang An and Zou Yi, then sighed: "I am an emperor who cherishes old times. Cheng Jing is not here today, and Tian Yi and Chen Ju are both dead."

After saying this, he looked at Shen Yikuan, Shen Shixing, and Wang Xijue and said, "That's why I can't bear to leave you. Living in the countryside, enjoying the family life is certainly enjoyable, but an old man in the family is like a treasure, not to mention the old ministers of the imperial court. I have discussed it with the five of them and set a rule."

After that, he laughed again: "In the future, anyone who retires from the first rank or above, if they are in good health, will be appointed by me as a consultant scholar and stay in the capital. It won't be tiring, and it will be convenient for me to consult when I am undecided and want to hear more opinions. If they are not in good health, or if they really want to have some free time, they can also be appointed as a consultant scholar and return to their hometown, but the correspondence will be much slower."

The three of them were shocked and immediately expressed their gratitude.

Although there is no specific job difference, this is undoubtedly a way to maintain huge influence after giving up the position, and it is also a kind of treatment.

Of course, they all knew that the emperor brought up this matter not just out of "nostalgia" as he said.

Sure enough, the emperor then spoke: "You have all been in the court for many years, and have held positions in the government for many years, with students and friends all over the world. Now, thanks to the dedication of the soldiers and the unity of the court, the Ming Dynasty has won this great victory, and I have also gained great prestige. There is no need to beat around the bush between the monarch and his subjects. You all know that I want to reform the system and implement new policies. The Ming Dynasty is facing internal and external troubles, and I will always do something in my life. Next, the central and local government offices will be reformed, and many new policies will be implemented. The advisory scholars will continue to shine."

In fact, all three of them are aware.

The emperor simply hopes that they can use the relationships they have accumulated over the years to make those who listen to them follow the general trend.

Of course, it also provides them with opportunities to continue to support the younger generations.

When advising on government affairs, one must first know what the emperor and the court are thinking, and then offer one's own suggestions as needed.

Although it is not certain whether the proposal will be adopted or not, at least we know the opportunity first and know where the Ming Dynasty is heading.

why not?

After all, the three of them are the first to feel the trend, or the first to be eliminated or the first to adapt to the trend.

"Your Majesty is very gracious, and I am honored to be your old minister!"

(End of this chapter)