Jiajing Chengming

"His Majesty!"

"The Ministry of Rites submitted a memorial saying that in addition to the talented candidates from Xingming Academy who applied for the selection of the imperial consort, there were other talented candidates from outside the capital who applied for the selection. However, since the preliminary selection had already ended, the Ministry of Rites requested an order to restart the preliminary selection."

March 7, the seventh year of Jiajing.

Royal study room.

Yang Yiqing reported to Zhu Houcong the latest situation regarding the selection of a consort for Princess Yongchun.

Zhu Houcong smiled contemptuously after hearing this: "You didn't want to apply for the election before, but now you are here to apply again. Can they take the daughter of the royal family whenever they want or not whenever they want?"

"As Your Majesty said, these wealthy families started to panic again after seeing Your Majesty was going to choose a consort from among the orphans they were training. They were afraid that they would miss out on this opportunity to learn about the inner workings of the palace by allowing the children of commoners to become relatives of the emperor."

"So, they have changed their minds now and are willing to mobilize talented people from the public to participate in the selection of the prince consort. But it is too late! They really don't take the national law and the royal family seriously!"

"This also shows that your majesty's choice of a consort from among the orphans is indeed a wise move! It really makes it easier for them to embarrass the royal family!"

Zhang Cong also followed suit.

After hearing this, Zhu Houcong stood up, put his hands behind his back, walked to the palace gate, and said, "You are right, they don't take the national system seriously, they don't take the royal family seriously!"

"I hereby order the Ministry of Rites to pass the preliminary selection. There is no reason to break the rules for anyone! The officials of the Ministry of Rites failed to understand my intentions and submitted such a ridiculous memorial. They shall all be fined half a year's salary!"

then.

Zhu Houcong stretched out his right hand from his sleeve, pointed at Yang Yiqing and gave instructions.

"Yes!"

Afterwards, Zhu Houcong brought up something else, turned around and looked at the two of them with a smile and said:
"The Iwami Silver Mine has sent another batch of silver to the capital. I think we can use this to continue to promote the reform of the civil service system. The Five Temples, the Hanlin Academy, and the Imperial College must also carry out the transformation of civil servants into officials. All new officials in their offices must also be selected! No more complaints!"

"As for the embassy money of these government offices, it must also be determined by the Ministry of Revenue and the various government offices! In addition, the Ministry of Revenue must urge the Ministry of Revenue to review the advance payments for embassy money! The court's money is the blood and sweat of the people, not created out of thin air. Although it should be spent, it should not be too harsh, but it should not be wasteful either. Everything must be accounted for!"

Yang Yiqing and Zhang Cong nodded in agreement.

On the Ministry of Rites side, the Minister of Rites Zhu Xizhou soon received the imperial edict that there was no need to re-select the son-in-law and there was no need to deduct the salary.

Zhu Xizhou closed his eyes in frustration and said to Xia Yan, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites: "I told you not to ask for an imperial decree, but you insisted, saying that the gentry and wealthy families also need to be taken care of. Now look what has happened. Half a year's salary is gone, and the key is that now they are all paid in full!"

Xia Yan was also very depressed, but he still notified the news and asked all the talented people from all over the country who came to the Ministry of Rites to apply for the selection of the prince consort to go back.

"Why not choose?"

"Then our silver dollars were wasted, right?"

"Besides, didn't your Ministry of Rites say that we can run for re-election?"

The talented people who applied to be the prince consort were quite dissatisfied with this, and some of them started to make a fuss outside the Ministry of Rites.

Xia Yan, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites who was in charge of this matter, came out and shouted at them directly:

"What are you yelling about! When did the Ministry of Rites ever say that you can run for the election? They only said that they would help you fight for it. Don't make trouble here! Otherwise, don't blame the court for punishing you for causing trouble in court!"

These talented people did not dare to make a scene outside the government office, so they had to leave in disappointment.

Yu Shiyou, the servant of Honglu Temple Minister Du Wenming, also came back with a frustrated look on his face and told his master Du Wenming about this, and also said sadly:
"I have failed the master in letting me leave the house, and I was not able to participate in the selection of the prince consort!"

Du Wenming also said to his brother Du Wenqian with an unpleasant look:

"Now it seems that we, the wealthy families, really have to give up the idea of ​​letting the young people we have trained become the prince consorts of the royal family."

"It may not just be the young people we train who can't become a prince consort."

"I'm afraid that in the future, the selection of concubines will be more difficult for us to control."

"After all, His Majesty is raising so many orphans now, regardless of gender. Since he intends to choose a prince consort from these grown-up orphans, he will also intend to choose concubines from these grown-up orphans in the future, or even concubines for the crown prince and clan relatives!"

Du Wenqian echoed with a serious expression.

Du Wenming's face became even more ferocious after hearing this: "The concubines are said to be selected from poor families with no foundation, but they are poor families who have only received the emperor's grace! The consequences will undoubtedly be very terrible!"

"Not only is it terrible, but we, the wealthy and powerful, will also be supporting so many idle people for nothing!"

When Du Wenming got to this point, he gritted his teeth and sighed, "What the old court elders thought was right. The emperor's private treasury cannot be too abundant. Once it is abundant, he will support private interests. If the emperor supports private interests, the court will be in chaos and the gentry will be in a difficult position!" Du Wenming had just finished sighing like this when his servant came to report that he should return to the temple immediately, because the court had announced that it would continue to promote the reform of the civil service system, and the officials of the Honglu Temple asked him to go back to discuss the matter of changing civil servants into officials and determining the amount of public expenses to be applied for.

"Sure enough, it's our Honglu Temple's turn!"

"Now that your majesty has become wealthy, there will be no end to the reforms! Sooner or later, this court will become a court that is no longer for the gentry of the world!"

When Du Wenming said this, he said to his younger brother Du Wenqian: "You should stop spending your days in debauchery and focus on your studies. Don't think about getting an official position by informing others!"

Du Wenqian looked embarrassed: "But the imperial examination is too hard! You know how crazy those children from small families who are looking forward to getting promoted are! Why bother to compete with them for the more than 300 Jinshi places when you can use money and power to suppress them!"

"Is this something you can do even if you don't want to? The emperor is only willing to grant special examinations, not donations, so you have to endure some hardships to become a superior person!"

Du Wenming did not say anything more to his brother, and just took a sedan chair to the Honglu Temple.

At this time, the middle and lower-level officials of the Honglu Temple were all happily discussing in the yamen, discussing how to get more new official positions in the yamen to share the workload for themselves, and also discussing how much official expenses they should apply for.

Therefore, when Du Wenming arrived, he only heard the chattering of the yamen, and his face darkened, and he shouted loudly:
"What are you arguing about! Even though the grace from heaven is immense, you shouldn't be so happy and forget yourself. Do you still have any behavior as an official of the imperial court?"

"It's really outrageous!"

Du Wenming said this and walked into the lobby with a stern face, then looked at the officials who were beginning to quiet down one after another.

Seeing the excitement on the faces of many middle and lower-level officials in the Honglu Temple, he felt as uncomfortable as if he had eaten a fly.

But he couldn't say much, so he could only reluctantly let his colleagues express their ideas according to the size of their official positions.

Zhu Houcong improved the living conditions of middle and lower-level officials, which made many of them quite excited.

Now, he has extended this new policy to the Five Temples, the Hanlin Academy, and the Imperial College, which has also caused heated discussions.

At the same time, the middle and lower-level officials of the Five Temples, the Hanlin Academy, and the Imperial College also began to truly feel the happiness brought to them by the prosperity of the court.

Tang Shunzhi, who was serving as a newly-appointed Jinshi in the Ministry of Rites, also truly felt the warmth brought to him by the court's current prosperity.

Tang Shunzhi, whose family was not wealthy because his father was too honest, had almost spent all his money by the time he went to Beijing to take the imperial examination.

Therefore, he is ready to take out a loan to rent a house.

But because he was assigned to the Ministry of Rites to observe government affairs, and it happened that the Ministry of Rites had just completed its reform after the Ministry of Personnel and had built public housing, he no longer had to borrow money to rent a house.

The key point is that the Ministry of Rites now has money for public envoys, and it is not easy for the officials of the Ministry of Rites to embezzle such money with clear accounts, so it can only benefit the lower officials like them. Therefore, they set a rule to give each new scholar like him a settling-in fee of ten silver dollars.

This also saved Tang Shunzhi the expense of buying clothes, bedding, writing materials, etc.

Tang Shunzhi was deeply moved by the kindness shown by the emperor of this dynasty to the Jinshi scholars, and he also discussed with Ge Shouli, who was also observing politics in the Ministry of Rites, the fact that the court spent so much money to treat new minor officials so well.

"This is a good thing!"

"You know, in the past, it was the local gentry who set up guilds to support new officials in their hometowns."

"Now the court is providing funding to support new officials."

"As the saying goes, if you take something from someone, you should be grateful. Now we only take what the court gives us, only use what the court gives us, and only rely on the court for aid. We no longer need to rely on the local gentry, but on the people of the world."

"It will be easier for the rural party to become the royal party!"

Tang Shunzhi first stated his own views.

After hearing this, Ge Shouli thought about it seriously and said with a smile, "That's right! I was wondering why our Shandong Guild Hall's owner, Junior Sima Liu Gong, looked unhappy recently! Now it seems that the reason is that he can no longer use the guild hall's funds to support new local officials in the name of fellow townsmen, and then form a clique!"

Tang Shunzhi smiled after hearing this: "I am not talented. Although I have just become the emperor's disciple, I have studied the gains and losses of this dynasty in my spare time before. I feel that the main problem of this dynasty is the lack of treasury, and without treasury, everything is difficult. Now your majesty's wise judgment is that we must first enrich the country before we can reform and eliminate the problems!"

"However, I originally thought that we had to thoroughly survey the land in the world before we could enrich the country, but I didn't expect that Your Majesty would take a different approach. He first enriched the country by taking advantage of foreign interests, and then, with this strong financial strength, he would continue to implement the reform!"

Ge Shouli said: "It is not easy to carry out land reclamation. First of all, the administration of officials and the military should be stricter. Your Majesty is obviously more cautious and not rash!"

"Yes, I was rash and impatient!"

Tang Shunzhi suddenly looked at Ge Shouli seriously and replied.

Ge Shouli was slightly startled, and hurriedly bowed: "That's not what I meant! I'm just talking about the facts. I think Your Majesty is not in a hurry and rash because he didn't thoroughly survey the land in the country first!" (End of this chapter)