Jiajing Chengming

Early the next morning after the court meeting, Zhu Houcong learned that Du Wenming and Du Wenqian had committed suicide to prove their innocence.

Zhu Houcong was naturally secretly happy.

He knew that these two people were smart and would choose to give him an explanation in this way.

Sometimes, as an emperor, he could kill people without using a knife, and he didn't even have to show his murderous intention.

But the prerequisite is that his power and prestige as an emperor must reach a certain level before this ability can appear.

Now, he has imperial supporters like Gui E, who are willing to forcibly frame Du Wenming for treason, and he also has enough financial resources to maintain the stability of his base.

Therefore, if Zhu Houcong wanted someone like Du Wenming to die, he didn't even have to say it directly.

The benefit of this was that Zhu Houcong could continue to show his regret for Du Wenming and show his image of being fair and kind on the surface.

"I have said before that you should not slander or impeach your colleagues easily. You should believe that there are no treacherous ministers who are guilty of all crimes in the current dynasty, and there are no pillar ministers who can only save the world. You should believe that the country can achieve today's prosperity because of the wisdom of the people and because everyone has the country in their hearts."

"Just because of a rumor, which only mentioned that Du Honglu might have colluded with the thieves, Du Honglu and his brother had to die to prove their innocence."

“Isn’t this something to be regretted?”

"Although we now know that he is innocent, he is gone."

"My Lords, it is not easy for the imperial court to support scholars, and it is not easy for a family to produce a Jinshi!"

"So, in the future, when you impeach ministers, especially for crimes like treason, you must be cautious. You officials are often told to be humble and modest. I also hope that you can be more tolerant of each other."

"For example, this time, you gentlemen can't really think that Du Honglu is suspected of collaborating with the thieves and committing suicide out of fear of punishment, right?"

At the next court meeting, Zhu Houcong pretended to be profound and taught the court officials, sighing as he spoke.

Although Zhu Houcong was actually both a king and a queen.

But as an emperor, especially an extremely powerful one, sometimes he was both in office and in power, killing people like slaughtering dogs and engaging in literary inquisitions. For his subjects, who were like ants, this was something to be thankful for.

Because this means that the party with absolute violence intends to abide by the rules they set, and intends to reason with you as long as you don't mess around.

The court officials knew that the emperor was in both power and authority.

But what made some of the old-school ritualists who still existed among the court officials angry was that it was now the emperor who was in power and was no longer the emperor.

You have to know that before this, it was them, not the emperor, who could be both the emperor and the queen.

The emperor could only cooperate with them in his performance and act in accordance with their requirements.

Now they have to perform in cooperation with the emperor.

It is equivalent to that, on the political stage, they changed from directors to actors, and the emperor changed from an actor to a director.

And now they can only cooperate with the emperor in performance.

You can imagine how huge the gap is from being a director to being an actor.

Therefore, when the emperor said this, they could only follow the emperor's party ministers and praise him, saying: "Your Majesty is wise, and we, the ministers, remember the emperor's teachings and dare not impeach our colleagues!"

After all, they couldn't really say that Du Wenming was suspected of collaborating with the thieves and therefore committed suicide out of fear of punishment.

Zhu Houcong also knew that he was in a dual role, and he chose to do so in order to allow this state machine composed of bureaucrats to do more beneficial things for himself, the Ming Dynasty, and the people of the world.

Because he knew that he could not eliminate the bureaucracy, let alone the gentry and wealthy families.

After all, classes can only be defeated, not eliminated.

From the moment a country boy passes the imperial examination and becomes a scholar-official, he will become a new gentry.

Now the people working for Zhu Houcong are also members of the gentry.

Zhu Houcong needed to guide the bureaucratic group to form a common goal and control the intensity of their struggle.

Historical experience has also proved that it is not good for the country if bureaucrats fight among themselves too fiercely.

The reason why Zhu Houcong still emphasized this was because he had already seen some clues. Yang Yiqing and Zhang Cong were also beginning to form factions and split into two parties and engage in internal strife.

He remembered that during this period in history, the biggest problem of the Jiajing Dynasty was the factional strife between Yang Yiqing and Zhang Cong. The Jiajing in his previous life was inexperienced and did not realize the problems caused by the factional strife between the two. Instead, he was dragged into the quagmire of the factional strife, which made the Jiajing Dynasty lose the opportunity to quickly rectify the border defenses after the great ritual meeting. The reform was also intermittent due to the factional strife, which led to the Jiajing Dynasty not starting to rectify the military system and carry out a series of reforms in taxation and labor service until Altan Khan entered the pass to plunder the capital and Japanese pirates harassed the southeast.

Zhu Houcong naturally had this concern, and of course he hoped that the intensity of the incident could be controlled.

Yang Yiqing and Zhang Cong also understood the hidden meaning behind Emperor Jiajing's performance.

But there are many things they can do nothing about.

The scholar-official class, because of the production relations they benefited from, naturally split into different schools of academic thought, and politically they also split into schools with different propositions. The old powerful faction was defeated and the new faction was divided again.

The only thing they could do was to cooperate with the emperor, try their best to fight without breaking up, try their best to consider the overall situation, and try their best to unify tens of thousands of officials across the world to generally maintain a common goal.

Zhu Houcong also admitted that internal strife could not be completely eliminated and factions were bound to continue to exist.

But he just hopes that these can be controlled within a certain limit.

Of course, as an emperor, he would also try his best to balance these factions and allow people who know the big picture to gain a foothold in the court.

"Chief Inspector Gui'e is sensible. He did not immediately conclude that Du Honglu was in collusion with the thieves just because he was suspected of colluding with the thieves. Instead, he informed me of this first. I hope that all of you will be so cautious."

After Zhu Houcong said this, he said, "I order Gui E to enter the cabinet as the Left Censor-in-Chief to take charge of the cabinet affairs and concurrently serve as the Minister of the Imperial Study to consult with me."

After hearing this, Gui E was very excited. He immediately stepped out of the group and bowed to the ground: "I accept your command and thank you!"

The expressions of all the court officials became much more complicated.

They naturally knew why Gui E was able to enter the cabinet and the imperial study. The real reason was not only that he had a good sense of the overall situation, but also that he dared to be a sharp sword for the emperor.

But Zhu Houcong did hope that his ministers could understand the general situation, so he continued at this time: "In terms of understanding the general situation, the Minister of Personnel Zhao Huang can be said to be a good minister. Therefore, when the Li Fuda case occurred, he did a good job in respecting sovereignty and did not cause chaos. He can be said to be both loyal and wise."

Upon hearing this, the Minister of Personnel Zhao Huang had already knelt down, his heart pounding like thunder.

After all, it was the emperor who personally praised him at the court meeting.

As the saying goes, a king never jokes. Since the emperor is so sure of him, he will not easily deny him. Future kings will not easily deny him for the sake of filial piety. This will make him feel more secure.

So, Zhao Huang was naturally very excited.

"Also, when the Ministry of Personnel was reformed, he cooperated well. Not only did he not become pedantic, but he also admonished those who did not understand the new policy of the official system and helped to implement it successfully."

"So I was appointed to the Cabinet to take charge of the affairs of state, and concurrently to be the Minister of the Imperial Study, to consult with me."

After Zhu Houcong said this, Zhao Huang stared at the gold bricks and sobbed: "I accept your order. Thank you for your favor, Your Majesty!"

Zhu Houcong just smiled slightly at this. His sudden decision to add a cabinet minister was not a sudden idea. It was because Wang Ao was ill, Lin Jun passed away, and Wang Qiong was away from home recently, so new people were needed to govern. Otherwise, Yang Yiqing of the Ming Dynasty and Zhang Cong who had entered the cabinet in advance would be too busy to handle it.

However, Zhu Houcong's actions made many court officials, while envying Gui E and Zhao Huang, fall into deep thought.

Zhu Houcong, on the other hand, discussed a few other matters before returning to the imperial study.

Yang Yiqing and Zhang Cong also came here with Zhao Huang and Gui E.

The Imperial Study is not big, nor is it the main entrance to the main hall. Although it is where the world's major affairs are decided, in name it only provides consulting services to Emperor Zhu Houcong. It is equivalent to a place for teaching the emperor to read, and it is also the place where Zhu Houcong himself reads and studies. Therefore, there is no major etiquette planning, and all rules and procedures only focus on efficiency and comfort.

Therefore, after the four people came in, Zhu Houcong did not get up, and even continued to lie on the couch, and only let the four people sit down.

Not long after the four of them sat down, Yang Yiqing stood up first, picked up a newspaper report and said, "Your Majesty, the governor of Datong has a newspaper report saying that according to the investigation at night, the defected general Li Jin has brought a cavalry of 100,000 to Datong, but according to a detailed investigation, it is estimated to be around 30,000."

Zhu Houcong took the report from Yang Yiqing and said as he read it, "Li Jin is the Lieutenant General of Datong. He is very familiar with the defense situation in Datong. He must know clearly where the border walls have collapsed and where the garrisons are not well guarded. If Altan comes at this time and cannot be stopped, it will undoubtedly increase the casualties of the soldiers and civilians in Datong, and the court's warehouses on the border will also suffer greater losses."

"Your Majesty is right. The court's strict management of the army and generals will inevitably lead to foreign intervention. In my humble opinion, we should increase the number of troops in Datong to prevent the local troops from being insufficient to deal with it."

"In addition, we should also make use of Altan's brother Jinang. He has been imprisoned in the imperial prison since he was captured alive by the Grand Protector Wang Gong (Wang Xian) last time. Now we can use him as a hostage to go to the border and ask him to persuade his brother to withdraw his troops!"

Yang Yiqing then proposed his own solution.

Zhu Houcong nodded and said: "To increase the troops, we should dispatch a guard from the emperor's personal guard to assist Datong. The personal guard we dispatch should include the Shenji Battalion that has just mastered the self-propelled muskets."

Yang Yiqing bowed and said yes.

then.

Zhu Houcong said again: "As for Jinang, bring him here. I will see him in person first."

then.

Soon.

Jinang was brought before the emperor.

This Tatar noble, who was only in his twenties, had an untidy beard and messy hair like a chicken coop when he was brought here.

"Your Majesty!"

Only after Jinyiwei Luo An gave an order did Jinang kneel down.

Zhu Houcong looked at Jinang who was kneeling on the ground and asked, "Can you sing and dance?" (End of this chapter)