Jiajing Chengming

Chapter 221 I am not afraid of your resignation. The Jiajing Dynasty is full of hope!
The reason why Zhu Houcong thought so was because he received a secret report from Lin Jun.

This made Zhu Houcong realize even more firmly that the literati were indeed not so principled and were easy to bribe.

Therefore, he does not need to worry about how much of an obstacle the scholar-official group will cause to his goal of building a more powerful Ming Dynasty.

Although there may be cases where an individual scholar-official does not fear the imperial power, it is not the scholar-official who can pose a real threat to his imperial status.

Therefore, Zhu Houcong did not care about the resignation of court officials such as Yu Cai and Xu Chengming.

Even though more and more court officials resigned because of the deaths of Lu Qiong and Shu Fen, he didn't care.

Even Shi Yao, the Grand Secretary of the Cabinet, submitted a petition to the court asking for retirement citing illness. The court officials thought that Zhu Houcong would try to keep him, and Zhu Houcong did not. Instead, he granted his retirement and granted him grace as usual.

This surprised many court officials!

They were surprised by the emperor's determination, and it even gave rise to greater anger.

Saying.

Since Yongle, a group of literati in the Ming Dynasty had been spoiled and began to develop a childish giant baby mentality similar to that of a certain group in later generations.

This mentality is that I think saying "I will die in front of you" will threaten you, the emperor, and make you compromise. I even threaten the emperor like a child, saying "I won't play with you anymore" by resigning, thinking that this will also make the emperor compromise.

This mentality even continued into the Qing Dynasty.

The emperors of the Qing Dynasty were naturally not as polite as those of the Ming Dynasty, and it took a variety of harsh measures to make the literati learn their lesson.

Now that Zhu Houcong did not try to retain him, and even Grand Secretary Shi Rong resigned from his post, he did not try to retain him, which further expanded the giant baby mentality of many court officials.

As a result, more court officials submitted petitions and left.

Zhu Houcong still approved it.

Never hold back.

Zhu Houcong only asked the Ministry of Personnel to fill vacancies as soon as possible, and stated that if there were not enough Jinshi to be promoted, then Juren students would be used instead.

Anyway, there is no shortage of officials in the Ming Dynasty.

Moreover, according to the Ming Dynasty system, even students could hold high positions, because it was indeed very common for students to become high-ranking officials during the reign of Zhu Yuanzhang.

It was only after Zhu Yuanzhang that the number of Jinshi increased and the students could only serve as minor officials.

Soon, many court officials with a giant baby mentality found that they could not threaten the emperor with resignation, so they had to give up, under the pretext of not allowing all positions in the court to be occupied by treacherous officials and villains.

However, these courtiers with a giant baby mentality were still resentful in their hearts because they did not get the emotional value of being comforted from the emperor. Their resentment became more and more intense. The more they realized that they seemed to be less important to the emperor, the more they could not bear this sense of loss, and the more they wanted to continue making trouble.

Therefore, these court officials with the mentality of giant babies simply laid down and played rotten on purpose, not reporting for duty at their respective offices, not attending court meetings on time, and deliberately delaying government affairs.

Zhu Houcong was not polite either. He dismissed those who should be dismissed from their posts, fined those who should have their salaries fined, and deducted those whose bonuses should have their bonuses deducted.

These court officials became even more devastated, and the court was filled with grief.

After crying and making a fuss, there were actually court officials who couldn't bear it anymore and chose to hang themselves, completing the entire drama of crying, making a fuss, and finally hanging themselves.

Zhu Houcong simply followed the custom and granted sacrifices to those who were due and posthumously honored those who were due. In short, the main idea was that you do your thing and I do mine.

Although Zhu Houcong had never been a high-ranking leader in his previous life, he still had experience in dealing with troublesome giant babies.

Not only did the emperor take it indifferently, but many mature ministers also took it indifferently.

After pleading for Lu Qiong and Shu Fen, the Minister of Personnel Wang Yangming no longer paid any attention to his colleagues who threatened to resign and give up their jobs.

Because since he was demoted to Longmen, he has gained great enlightenment and matured a lot. He knows that he can no longer demand that the emperor become a saint. He feels that in this way he can rely on the emperor to fulfill the Tao in his heart.

He now understands that he should rely on himself to do good and avoid evil in everything, so as to make this world brighter and the emperor brighter.

And he pleaded for Lu Qiong and Shu Fen just to show it to the scholars of the world.

Let the scholars of the world know that as the Minister of Personnel, he has contributed to the harmony between the monarch and his subjects. They should cooperate with his work as the Minister of Personnel and be willing to believe that he, as the Minister of Personnel, is still working hard for the scholars of the world to persuade the emperor to be a sage and benevolent ruler in line with the will of the scholars.

But Wang Yangming had to admit that the emperor's determination to govern the country was indeed far beyond his imagination, and he was even more desperate than the literati like them. Therefore, he actually said that if they really felt that he, the emperor, was immoral, they could raise an army to fight against him.

This made Wang Yangming even more impressed by the emperor's perseverance and courage.

He couldn't help but feel fortunate that he had met such a resolute and courageous emperor.

He also began to believe that it was precisely because the Ming Dynasty now had such a resolute and courageous emperor that he, a so-called scholar-official heretic who was disliked by Yang Tinghe and his party of ritualists, was able to become one of the Nine Ministers and even the Grand Chancellor.

Wang Yangming was very grateful for the emperor's kindness and believed that he would really realize his ambition of reforming the world under the rule of such an emperor!

Wang Yangming knew that the emperor wanted to open up a larger territory, so he said that the state system of the Ming Dynasty was that the emperor and the military households shared the world. He wanted to cultivate people in the military as his base, realize the confrontation with the power of the scholars, and achieve external expansion.

Wang Yangming did not object to this, not because he was promoted to military service, but because after he attained enlightenment at Longmen, he no longer believed that the emperor must be selfless and desireless, but believed that the emperor's desire to expand territory and accomplish extraordinary feats was the desire of his heart, neither good nor evil, just like when he wanted to be a saint and to establish his words, achievements, and virtues!
So... in Wang Yangming's view, as long as the emperor's original desire does not hinder the long-term stability of the world, it is not evil. If it is beneficial to the long-term stability of the world, it can even be considered good!

"Since Your Majesty wants to share the world with the military, then as long as Your Majesty can truly rely on the military children to ensure long-term peace and prosperity in the world, then you deserve support."

"And now, I also understand that being a king is just like being an official. To be virtuous and close to the people, you need a base. Officials need this, and the emperor naturally needs it too!"

Wang Yangming told his students what he was thinking about this.

Now, since so many people have resigned, and he is the Minister of Personnel and supports the emperor in cultivating his base, Wang Yangming plans to take advantage of his position as the Minister of Personnel to cooperate with the emperor and take the initiative to give priority to reusing military scholars.

to this end.

Wang Yangming took the initiative to meet with Zhang Cong.

He knew very well that the only good prime minister who could truly usher in a new era of revival for His Majesty could be his fellow townsman.

After all, his fellow countryman had always been very courageous and dared to bear the pressure from the meat-eaters for the emperor. At the same time, he was not an overly radical person and did not deliberately try to please the emperor.

Zhang Cong was overjoyed when he learned that Wang Yangming had sent a letter to ask to meet him.

He naturally knew that Wang Yangming wanted to help him build political power so that he could assist His Majesty in starting greater reforms in the future.

He agreed to meet Wang Yangming.

That night.

Zhang Cong went out in a carriage.

After Zhu Houcong returned the fire consumption revenue to the public, he implemented administrative reforms to increase the salaries of all officials. Ministers like Zhang Cong, one of the Nine Ministers, now received much higher salary than before, in addition to basic salary and bonus.

There is also a certain amount of silver for ministers and silver for maintaining integrity.

The so-called public silver was originally learned from the Song Dynasty, which allowed officials to perform official duties without having to ask local governments to reimburse their expenses on official business, so as to reduce local government expenditures and prevent officials, especially Beijing officials, from extorting money by asking local governments to reimburse official expenses while on business trips.

Because generally speaking, when many officials are on official business, especially the imperial envoys or officials like the Chief Censor or the Censor-in-Chief, they will ask the local officials to provide silver for vegetables, candles, charcoal, pens, ink, paper, case handling tools, umbrellas, fans, tea, accommodation, etc., which increases the local fiscal expenditure and causes the local government to suffer deficits and fail to provide disaster relief in time. Moreover, often the main source of local deficits is the corruption of superiors. After all, the disadvantage of a centralized society is that the higher the official, the more powerful he is. Few local officials dare to refuse the exploitation of their superiors like Hai Rui did for the sake of reasonable expenses of their local government offices. Some even wish to double the exploitation of the people in the name of their superiors.

Zhu Houcong's establishment of public funds and the implementation of the public ownership of fire consumption were not really intended to stop superiors from extorting their subordinates, but doing so would at least allow him to legitimately rectify the officials who extorted their subordinates in the future.

As for the silver for maintaining integrity, the amount was not much, just enough to satisfy officials who were willing to be honest and allow their families to live a comfortable life.

and so……

Even when Zhang Cong was wearing casual clothes to meet a private person, he would still be dressed very luxuriously, and would be accompanied by twenty or thirty servants and guards. The carriage he rode in was also a high-quality carriage with carvings and gold inlays.

Passersby couldn't help but make way for his carriage when they saw it, knowing that the person sitting in the carriage must be rich or noble. But while making way for him, they couldn't help but glance at him with envious eyes. Some young men even fantasized that they would have such a day.

It is indeed envy and hopeful fantasies, not hatred and contempt.

After all, the lives of ordinary people in the Ming Dynasty are now thriving and full of hope, and class contradictions have been greatly eased.

First, it is reflected in the rapid growth of wealth, then the improvement of living environment and living environment, the diet is more abundant and nutritious, and then the class status is rapidly improved.

Jia Shiyuan, a scholar who had just graduated from the Ming Dynasty School of Practical Politics, had never thought that he would become an observer of the Ministry of Revenue in such a short time. What he did not expect was that he was appointed as the head of the Yunnan Qingli Division of the Ministry of Revenue after only two months of observation. He could not believe even in his dreams that he would become a sixth-rank official in the capital so quickly.

of course.

The fact that Jia Shiyuan, a professional bureaucrat who graduated from the Ming Dynasty Practical School, could become a Beijing official so quickly was mainly due to the fact that a large number of court officials resigned at that time, leading to a rapid change of blood in the officialdom.

Having said that, it was precisely because Zhu Houcong set up the Ming Dynasty Practical Politics School in advance and selected many military children from the students of the Imperial Academy and the second-place winners of the provincial examinations to be trained in the Ming Dynasty Practical Politics School that he had the confidence to not be afraid of a large number of officials resigning in a short period of time.

even!

He hoped that as many old bureaucrats as possible would leave so that there would be room for the new bureaucrats he trained.

At this time, Jia Shiyuan, because he was promoted too quickly, looked at the luxurious carriages ridden by dignitaries on the street with hope, and believed that one day he would also live such a wealthy life.

Wei Changgui, who was studying in his attic, had the same hope.

Having been promoted to the rank of general bannerman, he also followed Zhang Bin's example and mortgaged a shop with a building built under the supervision of the imperial palace in the newly developed Xicheng District near Guangqumen in the outer city of the capital.

But he did not choose to run the shop himself, but rented it to others.

Because he was a direct soldier of the emperor, he could apply for loans with very low interest rates. In addition, the capital's business was becoming more and more developed, so his rental income had always offset his monthly repayment costs. This allowed him to live peacefully with his sister Xiu Lian in a brick and tile building, and all his military income could be used to hire scholars to teach him to prepare for the future military examinations.

Wei Changgui already knew that those who passed the military examination in military academies could be promoted faster, and the military examination tested cultural content, so if he wanted to become a higher-ranking official as quickly as possible, he needed to invest more in himself.

Zhang Cong also read for a while in the carriage, but when his eyes got tired of reading, he lifted the curtain and looked out the window.

As soon as he saw the scenery outside the window, he felt genuinely satisfied and couldn't help but smile.

Because he saw the best reward for his dedication to helping the emperor solve the country's problems during the Jiajing period!
(End of this chapter)