Jiajing Chengming

Chapter 23 Paying Homage to the Emperor Zhengde's Coffin
"Master, the situation is better than I thought. The successor entered through the Daming Gate, which shows that the successor not only truly loves the people like his own children, but also has considerable skills. He has not been completely controlled like a puppet by those rotten ministers!"

"This is truly a blessing for the country and the people!"

Unlike Yang Shen who was greatly disappointed.

When Zhang Cong saw Zhu Houcong's carriage entering the city towards the Daming Gate, he became even more excited.

He kept waving the folding fan in his hand, letting the breeze blow his thick beard, and he spoke to Yan Song with a beaming expression.

Yan Song frowned and couldn't help but cover his face with his folding fan.

He now didn't want anyone to know that he was the teacher mentioned by Zhang Cong.

Although I am just a test room technician.

But now he did not really want others to know about his relationship with Zhang Cong. He was even depressed about it, thinking that God was fooling him by making him have a teacher-student relationship with such an unscrupulous new scholar.

The reason why Yan Song blamed God was that the Ming Dynasty imperial examination implemented a system of anonymous examination.

Therefore, when he was marking the papers, he had no idea who the author of the article he had selected was, and he did not investigate the writer's personality and background in advance.

"My luck is really bad!"

"I got seriously ill right after I was selected into the Imperial Academy, wasting nearly ten years, and now they have selected a student like this."

"Others recruit new disciples by pretending to be examiners in order to strengthen their power in the future, but I chose to accept a rebellious disciple who is ignorant of the immensity of heaven and earth. I really don't know how much trouble this will bring me."

Yan Song couldn't help but sigh in his heart.

But he still shook his hand and advised Zhang Cong: "Be careful with your words, be careful with your words, some things should only be thought in your heart, don't say them out loud!"

"The emperor is indeed a ruler like Yao and Shun, but not all his subjects are honest and upright gentlemen. Now everyone in the court praises Yang Xindu, and the court is full of people, but you call them rotten ministers. Aren't you afraid that you will be suppressed in the future?"

Zhang Cong said: "But they are indeed useless ministers. For example, Yang Xindu, although he has made great efforts to stabilize the country and reduce redundant troops, and has made contributions to the country and the people, he is just a mediocre doctor who treats diseases without getting to the root of the problem. Instead, he leaves hidden dangers. He is just a good assistant in name only, but he actually has the intention of deceiving the emperor and stealing the country."

Yan Song shook his head and said nothing more.

However, although he could not accept Zhang Cong's outspoken character and was even quite worried that he would implicate himself, he agreed with Zhang Cong's views and did not refute Zhang Cong on specific points.

and.

After seeing Zhu Houcong enter the city from the Daming Gate, he also realized that Yang Tinghe and other upright civil servants who wanted to control the successor emperor obviously failed to really control the successor emperor. The successor emperor was indeed as Zhang Cong said. While he truly loved the people like his own children, he also had very powerful means. It seemed that he was not the second Xiaozong of his Ming Dynasty, but Emperor Wen of Han.

As a result, Yan Song could not help but give up his plan of siding with Yang Tinghe and his party and forcing the emperor to succeed Emperor Xiaozong, and decided to wait and see.

He was reinstated as Hanlin in the 15th year of Zhengde, but not long after he returned, Zhengde passed away, so he had no time to take sides.

Originally, he was planning to join Yang Tinghe's party. After all, most of the Hanlin scholars were headed by Yang Tinghe.

But this situation made Yan Song decide to observe for a while longer, and also decided to observe Zhang Cong for a while longer, instead of immediately breaking up with his noisy student.

Zhu Houcong did not enter the city from Dong'an Gate with the ceremony for the crown prince, but entered from Daming Gate with the ceremony for the emperor. This lies in its political significance.

Many civil servants and literati who do not blindly worship Yang Tinghe, or even hold objections to his governing philosophy, and even those who currently remain neutral and only serve the emperor, will know that the emperor has not been controlled by Yang Tinghe's party, and that Yang Tinghe's party has not yet reached the point of covering the sky with one hand. As a result, they do not need to rush to join Yang Tinghe's party, and can even continue to compete with Yang Tinghe's party.

Zhu Houcong knew that Yang Tinghe's political prestige was very high, so high that most people in the world felt that he could only be a wise emperor if he made use of him or even completely delegated power to him.

But Zhu Houcong was not without a plan to deal with the situation.

The strategy he adopted was to take one step at a time.

Find various problems and let Yang Tinghe solve them.

For Yang Tinghe, who was known as a good assistant in reform and elimination of malpractices but was actually conservative and hypocritical, this would only be a pit that would lead him to fall from the altar.

This goes on.

People in the world gradually stopped blindly worshipping Yang Tinghe, and even became disappointed.

Zhu Houcong successfully entered the city through the Daming Gate with imperial ceremony, which was considered a preliminary step in weakening the power of Yang Tinghe and his faction.

Although many ordinary scholars and common people could not see any clues.

However, many neutral civil servants who disagreed with Yang Tinghe's ideas would naturally see something was wrong because of this situation. Even if they did not dare to stand on the side of the emperor immediately, they would not rush to join Yang Tinghe's side for the time being, or give up the desire to sing against Yang Tinghe's party.

The facts did develop as Zhu Houcong expected.

Not only did Zhang Cong become more motivated, but Yan Song, a realist who only wanted to be promoted and had no clear political beliefs, also began to be less eager to take sides.

Not just Zhang Cong and Yan Song.

Among important officials such as cabinet ministers and ministers.

The Minister of Personnel Wang Qiong smiled smugly.

As Yang Tinghe's mortal enemy, he thought that Yang Tinghe had really taken complete control of the court, and even the new emperor would be controlled, and he would have little chance of turning the tables when Yang Tinghe directly joined forces with the empress dowager and the Imperial Household Department to isolate him after Zhengde's death. Even his only ally in the cabinet, Liang Chu, turned against him and excluded him from the decision-making circle together with Yang Tinghe.

But Wang Qiong did not expect that Yang Tinghe did not seem to be able to completely control the new emperor.

Therefore, Wang Qiong felt much happier.

Because of this situation, the second assistant Liang Chu felt that Yang Tinghe did not seem to be able to cover the sky with one hand, and that he did not need to retire in a hurry. His determination to bid farewell to the officialdom faded a lot, and his desire to make further progress became active again.

So, after welcoming Zhu Houcong into the palace, Liang Chu went to Wang Qiong on his way out and asked, "Do you still recognize me as your friend?"

Wang Qiong smiled.

He knew the purpose behind Liang Chu's initiative to ask him this question.

But because of today's scene, Wang Qiong did not want to blame Liang Chu for being too slippery and selling out his friends too quickly. Instead, he showed a generous attitude: "It's not easy for the elder, how can I be narrow-minded?"

"At that time, Yang Xindu used his words to provoke me, and I had no choice but to agree to go to Huguang to welcome him, but he sent me away, so you couldn't know the truth in the palace. Now I think about it, although I had no choice, I still feel sorry for you."

Liang Chu sighed after he said this.

Wang Qiong hurriedly said, "You don't have to be like this, Lord. I really have never resented you. Now that the new emperor is about to be appointed, let's do our duty together for the new emperor!"

"Besides, I think this new emperor is very intelligent and a young hero. He will definitely be a wise ruler in the future. If you can get the merit of welcoming him to the throne, you may not necessarily be inferior to Yang Xindu in the future!"

Liang Chu was very happy.

What he wanted was Wang Qiong's willingness to continue to cooperate with him.

After Zhu Houcong entered the city and the palace, he first went to pay homage to Zhengde's coffin.

No matter what, he wanted to meet the late emperor who had appeared in his dream.

Because this time he already knew from the eunuch Zhou Xian that he was able to successfully win the first round of confrontation with Yang Tinghe. In addition to his insistence on doing things the way Jiajing did in history, it was also related to the eunuchs left behind by Zhengde who temporarily stabbed Yang Tinghe in the back and helped him.

Of course, Zhu Houcong didn’t know whether these eunuchs’ betrayal of Yang Tinghe was also related to the fact that Zhengde himself had given these eunuchs instructions in advance.

In short, whether it was the eunuchs' spontaneous act or a combination of both, it was all the legacy of Zhengde.

However, what Zhu Houcong did not expect was that when he arrived at Zhengde's coffin, he saw some eunuchs had already been kneeling here to accompany Zhengde. Unlike other eunuchs, they did not just remember to come and welcome him, the new master.

Zhu Houcong looked at these eunuchs with great satisfaction, thinking that there were still many loyal and righteous eunuchs left behind by Zhengde.

Subsequently.

Zhu Houcong first called Zhengde on Sunday and promised in his heart: "Don't worry, my royal brother, I will do my best to preserve the army you left behind and realize your ambition to make the Ming Dynasty full of martial virtues, so that your hard work will not be wasted!"

(End of this chapter)