Jiajing Chengming

Chapter 3 Will he be a good emperor?

According to Ming system.

The civil servants in the royal palace, including the chief secretary, were all selected from local scholars.

Needless to say, the military officers were all members of the Jinyiwei who had followed the prince's palace when he was enfeoffed.

Therefore, many of the tenants who received land granted by the palace were actually relatives and friends of the civil and military officials of the palace. They rented the land granted by the palace, and then further rented the land to landless people.

The relatives and friends of the civil and military officials who rented the land granted by the royal palace were equivalent to sub-landlords, using the way of renting a house in later generations.

This is also the reason why the officials and lackeys of the princes' palaces have always been very active in collecting rent and are not hesitant to kill the tenant farmers.

Zhu Houcong's reduction of rent now essentially only benefits the officials and hereditary guards of the palace, but does not directly benefit the people who cultivate the palace's fields.

Therefore, Yuan Zonggao and other civil and military officials of the prince's mansion were overjoyed, not because they were really happy for the people because Zhu Houcong gave benefits to the people.

If you want to take it, you must first give it.

In order to ensure that the people in his palace were loyal to him enough, and thus make them the core of his future control over the world and contribute value to his path to becoming an emperor, Zhu Houcong had to show favor to them first.

Let them know that as the prince, he will not let his own people suffer losses after gaining benefits.

A ruler can be harsh, but he cannot be ungrateful.

Zhu Houcong also knew that Jiajing in history did the same thing. Both his teacher Yuan Zonggao and his foster brother Lu Bing became prominent positions in a few years because of this.

And precisely because Jiajing did this in history, Lu Bing rushed into the fire and carried Jiajing out when Jiajing's bedroom was burned.

You must know that there is no imperial power within ten steps, and if you don’t give enough grace to the people around you, no one knows what accidents may happen.

His current reduction of rent is a way of giving benefits to the people and showing off his reputation as a virtuous person, but in reality it is an economic means of winning over the people around him.

In this way, he will not only satisfy the people around him, but also make the outside world feel that he truly loves his people like his own children, and will not think that he only knows how to take care of the people around him.

After Zhu Houcong gave this instruction, the officials in the palace were delighted and looked forward to him becoming the future emperor of the Ming Dynasty even more.

In their view.

Zhu Houcong is still the prince of Xingwang and is willing to show them favors. If he becomes the emperor, I am afraid he will show them even greater favors.

Yuan Zonggao, as an elder over sixty years old, could still appear calm on the surface. Except for the slight raise of his thick eyebrows, there was no other change in his facial expression.

However, middle-aged officials such as Lu Song and Huang Jin, who served as tutors and guards in the palace, could not help but purse their lips, their eyes filled with anticipation for the future.

However, Lu Bing, Zhu Houcong's foster brother and a captain, was young and naive, and only looked at Zhu Houcong with admiration. He felt from the bottom of his heart that this prince, who was like an elder brother to him, truly loved the people like his own children, and if he really became an emperor in the future, he would definitely be a good emperor.

……

"Will Prince Xing be a good emperor?"

Capital.

At this time, Yang Tinghe was looking up at the sky in the courtyard and muttered to himself.

Since Emperor Zhengde was on his deathbed, it was time to consider the next generation of emperor.

As Zhou Shiwang, a deputy minister of the Ministry of Justice, said in a recent memorial: "The emperor is in poor health, has been absent from court for months, the celestial phenomena are changing, and people are worried about the emperor. I beg you to remember the importance of the ancestral temples and the country, and establish the foundation of the country to prevent evil plots."

The implication was to advise Zhengde to select a son of the royal family as the crown prince as soon as possible.

However, the chief minister of the cabinet, Yang Tinghe, had not yet made up his mind to ask for an imperial decree to select a son of the royal family as the heir to the Zhengde Emperor's throne, so none of the memorials requesting the establishment of the national foundation were voted on and submitted.

Because Yang Tinghe didn't want the next emperor to succeed Zhengde!

In that case, the next generation of emperor would be the father of Emperor Zhengde.

Since there is a father-son relationship in name only, according to the Confucian filial piety that the father's system should not be changed for three years, it would be difficult for the new emperor to change the system of Zhengde time, and he would lose the orthodoxy.

Yang Tinghe had long been dissatisfied with the system of the Zhengde Dynasty that favored eunuchs and military generals, and he wanted to change this policy immediately and restore the respected status of civil officials. Of course, during the Northern Song Dynasty, after the death of Emperor Shenzong, Sima Guang, who opposed the reform, abolished Emperor Shenzong's new law by replacing his son with his mother.

However, if that were the case, the harem would be allowed to interfere in government affairs, which would undoubtedly violate the "Imperial Ming Ancestor Instructions". Moreover, civil officials did not like the harem to interfere in government affairs unless it was absolutely necessary, especially since the children of the current Empress Dowager Zhang were not virtuous and had already been notorious and evil during the Hongzhi and Zhengde dynasties.

Therefore, Yang Tinghe was unwilling to ask for permission to select a royal family member as the heir to the Zhengde throne unless it was absolutely necessary.

He would rather let the new emperor inherit the throne only as the heir of Emperor Xiaozong Hongzhi, in the name of succession from elder brother to younger brother.

In this case, the new emperor would be morally obliged to follow Xiaozong's system and could correct De's system without pressure.

The conservative civil officials have always preferred the system of Emperor Xiaozong.

It was an era that was almost comparable to the Song Dynasty, and it elevated the scholar-officials to a very high status.

Unlike the Zhengde Dynasty, not only were civil servants often beaten with sticks in court, they were also required to strip naked before being beaten. It can be said that the dignity and status of civil servants were seriously reduced.

Therefore, the civil officials dreamed of the new emperor restoring the rule of Hongzhi.

of course.

Yang Tinghe was not the only one who did not want Zhengde to appoint an heir to the throne and did not want the new emperor to succeed Zhengde.

Many civil officials shared the same idea as Yang Tinghe.

Therefore, apart from some civil servants in the middle and lower levels who were relatively simple-minded or who were more in favor of Zhengde's system and were still actively persuading Zhengde to establish an heir, the Grand Secretaries in power in the Cabinet and several major ministers in the six ministries now wanted Zhengde to have no heirs, just like Yang Tinghe.

Even though Yang Tinghe was a teacher that Zhengde always respected.

But politics has never been about personal feelings.

At least that's the case for Yang Tinghe.

The relationship between him and Zhengde as a teacher and student could not be compared with his determination to restore the status of civil officials and abolish the political system of Zhengde's reign.

Precisely because Yang Tinghe and others had this idea, he and his accomplices hoped that Zhu Houcong, who was more convincing in terms of the rotation order, would ascend the throne, making him the crown prince and the cousin of Zhengde, and the heir of Xiaozong, inheriting the throne in the name of elder brother-to-younger brother rule.

But Yang Tinghe was still worried whether Zhu Houcong would really become the wise monarch in his mind after becoming emperor.

You know, Zhengde was also very benevolent when he first ascended the throne.

Yang Ting and other civil servants were really scared by Zhengde!

I am very afraid that the new emperor will be another Zhengde.

Although Yang Tinghe had heard over the years that Zhu Houcong was a benevolent and studious prince.

In order to make himself feel more at ease, Yang Tinghe wrote a letter to his student Wang Yu, who was serving as the Deputy Censor in Huguang, asking him to find out more about Zhu Houcong's character after Zhengde suddenly became seriously ill and missed court for several days last month.

However, the civil service has never been a monolithic entity.

Furthermore, Yang Tinghe and his colleagues could not openly admit that they wanted Zhengde to have no heirs, and they forbade anyone to suggest that Zhengde appoint an heir. Moreover, Zhengde's condition was indeed getting worse, and it was unclear when he would die. Therefore, more and more civil servants submitted memorials requesting Zhengde to appoint an heir. Naturally, Yang Tinghe and his cabinet colleagues could not suppress these memorials for too long.

Yang Tinghe himself was extremely anxious at this time, and he wished that Wang Yu would reply to him as soon as possible so that he could confirm for the last time whether Zhu Houcong was suitable to be the next emperor.

In the following days, civil officials including the censor Wang Lin, the chief official Lu Cheng, and Chen Qi successively submitted memorials requesting the establishment of an imperial heir.

Yang Tinghe became even more angry and wanted to demote these stupid civil servants who were talking nonsense out of the capital. At the same time, he became more anxious.

Fortunately, Wang Qi's reply came about ten days later.

"Treat the scholars and officials with courtesy."

After reading the letter, Yang Tinghe couldn't help but relax and raise his eyebrows because of the content of the letter. He came to the cabinet duty room and said to his colleague and good friend Jiang Mian with a smile:
"The Holy Son of Heaven has appeared!"

(End of this chapter)