Jiajing Chengming

Chapter 246 Zhu Houcong gave a speech in court to stop factions!

After Wang Ju said this, the corner of his mouth slightly raised. This time he wanted the emperor to vent his anger on Zhang Cong.

"The bamboo and wood were burned?"

Zhu Houcong was indeed very angry after hearing this.

He knew that what Wang Ju said was just a rumor, so it must be true that the bamboo and wood were burned.

Although this cannot rule out the possibility that Zhang Cong really dared to do such a thing in order to reform commercial taxes.

But now Zhu Houcong was more willing to believe that it was the local gentry who, in conjunction with officials from the Ministry of Works and Engineering, deliberately framed Zhang Cong.

Because he didn't believe that last year's bamboo and wood commission income would really increase enough for him to build a warship.

Therefore, Zhu Houcong would be furious.

What made him furious was that these people even destroyed state property in order to frame Zhang Cong.

However, Zhu Houcong couldn't just say now that these people were wrongly accusing Zhang Cong.

After all, Wang Ju only heard it, which was equivalent to reminding him that if such a thing happened, he could think about it in this direction, because he heard that this was the rumor.

Moreover, Zhu Houcong needed to let the civil officials know that his top concern was still building warships.

This is a national policy that must be implemented!
He could have been slow to implement internal reforms, especially reforms to the tax distribution system that affected the vital interests of all the wealthy and powerful gentry in the world.

After all, this would indeed put him as the emperor in a more dangerous situation.

Because he could not rule out the possibility that if he carried out drastic distribution reforms internally, it would cause a fire in his backyard and make him, the emperor, sleep uneasy.

He had also heard in his previous life that Jiajing was murdered in the palace because he carried out massive internal reforms, cutting palace expenses, which greatly reduced the benefits of the palace people, but at the same time did not reduce their workload, resulting in a lot of resentment in the palace.

Therefore, Zhu Houcong considered that now was a good time for global expansion and did not plan to rush into drastic changes internally. However, actions to expand new resource space externally had to be launched!

No matter they are dignitaries, scholars or common people, on this point, they must maintain the same thinking as the emperor!

Anyone who wants to get some kind of support from him needs to support him in building warships first. Don't think that putting the blame on Zhang Cong for preventing you from building warships will prompt you to deal with Zhang Cong. If you want the emperor to support you without putting up some real bargaining chips, there is no such good thing in the world!

Therefore, Zhu Houcong simply said: "No need to investigate. Don't employ people you doubt, and don't doubt people you employ. I trust Zhang Fujing! Everything will be decided after his report arrives!"

"His Majesty!"

"Zhang Fujing has always had evil intentions, so we must be on guard. If we don't send someone to investigate, he might have the opportunity to confuse right and wrong and fabricate false accusations!"

Wang Ju, the Imperial Censor of Engineering, was naturally very disappointed by this.

Because he came out this time to punish Zhang Cong, and now the emperor didn't allow him to do so, so he naturally had to insist. He was also indeed worried that if the emperor let him go so easily, it would give Zhang Cong a chance to turn the tables, so he continued to make his statement.

"I second the proposal!"

"Your Majesty, Zhang Fujing has always hated the gentlemen in the court, and he wants to make the court full of his party's voices, so as to abolish the laws of our ancestors!"

"Now, if we don't investigate thoroughly, he will only use the organization to trap the officials in the court and eliminate dissidents!"

The Imperial Censor Du Zongkui also followed suit.

"I ask Your Majesty to send another imperial envoy to investigate this matter and verify what I have heard!"

then.

Another deputy censor-in-chief from Zhejiang, Jia Bin, followed suit and knelt on the ground, kowtowed and spoke excitedly.

"I ask Your Majesty to send another imperial envoy to investigate this matter and verify what I have heard!"

"I ask Your Majesty to send another imperial envoy to investigate this matter and verify what I have heard!"

Afterwards, many court officials followed suit, showing their determination to not give up until Zhang Cong was overthrown.

"presumptuous!"

"You are not allowed to slander the character of the nine ministers of the court at will!"

"You can hear rumors of the truth, but you cannot arbitrarily accuse an important official of the court of being evil, let alone an official who was instrumental in negotiating the grand ceremony!"

Zhu Houcong suddenly raised his hand and pointed at Wang Ju and other censors, saying, "I think you are the ones with evil intentions. You rely on your status as censors and your right to report rumors to the emperor, so you make arbitrary judgments on ministers! According to what you mean, can I also say that any important minister who assists the country is a traitor!"

then.

Zhu Houcong ordered: "Pass the order! Banish these people to Xinhua Prefecture in Yunnan and educate the Ailao people!"

"Let them reflect on themselves in a place where they have no help from their colleagues, and reflect on whether they should slander their colleagues who also graduated from the Imperial Academy!"

Zhu Houcong recently received a report from the governor of Yunnan that there was serious internal strife among the chieftains of Letian in the Ailao Mountain area of ​​Xinhua Prefecture. It was at this time that he decided to send these officials who did not know how to cooperate with him to Xinhua Prefecture to gain some experience, so as to prevent them from deliberately ignoring what he, the emperor, really wanted.

Wang Ju and others were stunned.

"I have always emphasized the need for unity. We must not only believe that our king and father are wise rulers, but also believe that our colleagues are loyal subjects."

"Colleagues should talk about feelings and friendship, and don't easily say who is a traitor and who is a villain!" "I want to believe that all the officials in the court are loyal officials, and there are no treacherous officials!"

"I hope you will take the initiative to believe it, and not resort to clique-based accusations!"

"But you just didn't listen, which made me very disappointed!"

Although it is impossible for a ruling group to be without factions, Zhu Houcong, as the monarch with the highest authority, did have to openly require his ministers to be united and work for the common goal of making the Ming Dynasty more prosperous.

For example, right now we are planning to build a large number of warships and declare war on the Portuguese.

He hoped that this was not just his goal as emperor, but the common goal of the entire bureaucratic system.

Otherwise, if the emperor was the only one with this goal, those who carried it out would lack enthusiasm, or they would only pursue superficial completion in order to please the emperor, not caring whether the warships needed to be improved or whether a good balance should be struck between completion progress and completion quality.

Cabinet ministers such as Mao Ji and Yang Yiqing agreed with Zhu Houcong's words and found them useful.

In their view, the emperor should indeed use great efforts to maintain internal unity, so that everyone from top to bottom can be of one mind and avoid serious factional disputes.

But they also felt that elements like Zhang Cong who were not conducive to internal unity should also be eradicated.

Yang Yiqing even made a special appointment to meet with the Minister of Works Tong Rui for this purpose.

"Could you tell me the truth, do the various bureaus and factories under your Ministry of Industry have that much annual income from bamboo and wood?"

Yang Yiqing asked.

Tong Rui said against his will: "Sir, of course there are! Especially in Hangzhou, it's a pity that it was burned down by the traitor Zhang Fujing, but Your Majesty doesn't believe it!"

Yang Yiqing naturally didn't believe it, so he just laughed: "You should understand that if you want your majesty to be willing to overthrow Zhang, the key is not how excessive Zhang Cong's actions are, but whether we can really let your majesty build warships!"

"The bamboo and wood were burned, and they said it was Zhang Cong who burned them. Isn't that equivalent to preventing Your Majesty from building more warships for a while and punishing Zhang Cong?!"

"How is it possible to have the best of both worlds?"

"Don't mention that this was probably not done by Zhang Cong. Even if you produce solid evidence to prove that it was Zhang Cong who burned the ship and did not support your majesty in building warships, your majesty may not believe it!"

Tong Rui nodded after hearing this: "I understand what you mean, but this is not something I can decide. After all, the people below do not want Zhang Cong to reform the tax policy nor do they want Your Majesty to build warships!"

"We should try to persuade them. If you want to overthrow Zhang, you must make your majesty willing to overthrow Zhang and really provide enough bamboo and wood materials."

“Don’t think you have both!”

Yang Yiqing said.

Tong Rui nodded: "I'll try my best!"

then.

Tong Rui added: "For Wang Ju and the others, please ask the Lord to plead for mercy in front of the emperor and banish them to Xinhua, Yunnan, to educate the Ailao people. This will make them feel worse than killing them!"

"Whether we can save them or not is not up to me. What is more important is that the wealthy people in Fujian and Zhejiang decide for themselves whether they are willing to support Your Majesty in building ships and to support the fight against the Portuguese!"

Yang Yiqing replied.

As mentioned earlier, although Zhu Houcong hoped that everyone would be united and work together, there were still factions within the Ming bureaucracy, and they were further subdivided than the previous ritual advocates and ritual protectors.

This was mainly because after the new policy was further implemented, the Ritualists split into two factions. One was Yang Yiqing, who advocated no drastic internal reforms but could support His Majesty's external expansion. The other was Zhang Cong, who hoped to carry out drastic internal reforms and completely change the system of internal imbalance, but also supported the emperor's external expansion.

The ritualists were naturally conservative. They not only did not support drastic internal reforms, but also did not support the emperor's external expansion.

Therefore, moderate reformists such as Yang Yiqing had common ground with the ritualists on whether to carry out internal reforms, and they could talk together, and they all wanted to overthrow Zhang Cong.

But they can only agree on something; there are still huge differences when it comes to external affairs.

As a result, Xu Jie, who represented the Nanzhi gentry, and Yao Lai, who represented the Fujian and Zhejiang gentry, had great differences on whether to support the emperor in building ships and strengthening the navy, although they were both willing to overthrow Zhang.

Because Yao Lai mentioned that his fellow countryman and good friend Wang Ju was exiled, Xu Jie said, "I have said long ago that if I don't support Your Majesty in shipbuilding, Zhang will not fall, but you just don't believe it."

"It's easy for you to say that. If Your Majesty really builds a large number of warships, strengthens the navy, and takes care of the Portuguese, who will come to trade with us?"

Yao Lai asked with a sneer.

Xu Jie said: "We can allow our merchants to engage in maritime trade."

"Allow our merchants to trade overseas?"

Yao Lai sneered and then asked, "Who will solve the problem of the massive loss of tenants and servants in coastal Fujian and Zhejiang?"

After hearing this, Xu Jie fell silent.

"Master! Zhang Tong from the Pacification Office is here!"

At this time, Yao Lai's servant came over and reported.

As soon as the servant finished speaking, Zhang Tong rushed in, looked at Yao Lai with anger on his face, and asked in a deep voice: "Are you kidding me?"

(End of this chapter)