Jiajing Chengming

At this time, Altan's envoy Nuhuan and the people in the tent all knelt down in fear.

And Altan said with a gloomy face: "Zhu Houcong is too much of a bully!"

"Khan calm down!"

At this time, Nu Huan gave some advice.

Altan suddenly stood up and yelled, "I can't rest!"

"I showed so much sincerity and sent Li Jin back to him, but he mocked me for being naive!"

"Isn't he afraid that I will continue to invade the border?"

Altan asked loudly.

Nu Huan said: "I asked the same question, but their ruling minister said that just because we are paying tribute does not mean we will not invade the border, so we are not afraid."

After hearing this, Altan fell silent.

then.

Altan laughed again, then put his hands on his hips and said, "Damn it, how can the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty see the current situation of us Tatars so clearly! He also sees me, Altan, so clearly that he deliberately made a request that I would not agree to in order to evade us. He is so strong and smart!"

Zhu Houcong was indeed powerful.

Because the Marquis of Chongxin committed suicide to oppose the military household reform, he was also stripped of his title by his powerful decree.

Zhu Houcong's strong attitude also made the nobles quite indignant, especially those nobles in Nanjing like Chongxinbo.

"Duke Wei! Please say something. Yang Yiqing and his men treated Lord Chongxin so badly. Are we just going to let it go?"

Nanhebo Fang Shouxiang and others found Weigong Xu Pengju, and then Fang Shouxiang questioned Xu Pengju in person.

Of course, Nanhebo did not dare to blame the emperor openly, so he only blamed the Prime Minister Yang Yiqing and other ruling ministers.

Guangning Marquis Liu Tai also said: "Chongxin Marquis just couldn't bear the humiliation and chose to hang himself. What's wrong with that?"

Wu Jingbo Zhao Hongze said bluntly at this time: "We should settle accounts with Yang Yiqing and his people! Damn it, who do they think they are to bully us nobles like this!"

Xu Pengju also looked serious at this time, and asked these nobles: "How do you plan to settle the accounts? Do you want to rebel and purge the emperor, or do you want to have people dig up the Yang family's ancestral graves?"

"Don't forget what happened to the previous Earl of Xiangcheng, Marquis of Funing, and Duke of Dingguo!"

"Also, don't forget that in order to rebel, you need people willing to fight for you. But now the military households in Nanjing have either had their land occupied by us or have been forced to become tenant farmers. Is it possible to expect them to fight for you?"

After Xu Pengju asked this, all the nobles fell silent.

At this time, Xu Pengju said in a shocking voice: "You can't just know loyalty to the emperor and patriotism when His Majesty is rectifying the civil officials! Now that His Majesty is rectifying the generals, anyone who still wants to be a loyal minister should support it even more!"

"But the Lord Chongxin shouldn't be stripped of his title just because he hanged himself!"

At this time, someone said something.

Xu Pengju said: "Your Majesty's edict is very clear. Choosing to hang yourself at this time and refusing to cooperate is also a new policy against the military household reform! Moreover, now even Altan in the north can't do anything to Your Majesty, what else can you do? Be quiet! Nowadays, the emperor's sole rule is inevitable, and all officials can only obey and cannot question, otherwise they will die!"

After hearing this, these nobles said nothing more.

After all, they didn't dare to rebel.

After all, it was difficult for them to even stop a group of Japanese pirates coming to Nanjing, let alone raise an army to quell the rebellion.

Moreover, they could only cooperate obediently with the military reforms of the Qing army censors and trial censors.

Zhu Houcong therefore did not receive any response from Nanjing.

Of course, he had not yet received news that Altan Khan had invaded again.

This was mainly because Altan suffered heavy losses last time and needed to recuperate.

After all, there were many tribes within his Tatar group that were eyeing him covetously, and he had to guard against other Tatar tribes taking the opportunity to annex his tribe at this time.

Therefore, instead of invading the border at this time, he chose to migrate further north in order to avoid being annexed by other tribes.

Because there are more tribes living in the south, close to the wall of the Ming Great Wall, and he has just lost a lot of young and strong people, he has to avoid being targeted by other tribes at this time.

Recently, Zhu Houcong has received many memorials pleading for the censors who were previously dismissed from their posts and hoping that some of the offended officials would be pardoned and reinstated.

This made Zhu Houcong realize that some officials who had committed crimes were unwilling to lose power and wanted to make a comeback. Moreover, this happened after Li Chengxun became the Minister of Personnel.

Zhu Houcong also realized that this was Yang Yiqing's intention.

Because Li Chengxun is Yang Yiqing's man.

At this time, suddenly so many officials began to submit memorials requesting the court to reinstate some officials who had been convicted. There was no doubt that Yang Yiqing wanted to take the opportunity to make some money after his people became the Minister of Personnel, and at the same time repair his relationship with the conservative officials who protected rituals.

Because most of the bureaucrats who were dismissed from their posts and were idle were conservative and protected the old ways, such as Yang Tinghe's party in the past.

Their loss was too great.

Many people have even discovered that their disciples have reached the third rank.

But they themselves don't even have the power to submit suggestions or sign official documents.

Therefore, Yang Yiqing's doing this now is naturally intended to repair his relationship with the conservative faction that protects rituals.

The purpose.

Zhu Houcong felt that there might be both public and private reasons.

On the public side, naturally, we want to do things better.

On a personal level, he naturally wanted to have more people around him so that he could better suppress more radical people like Zhang Cong and Gui E.

The reason these officials requested the pardon and re-employment of some convicted officials was that there were insufficient number of candidate officials at the moment.

Therefore, Zhu Houcong threw these memorials on the table in the imperial study that day, then looked at Yang Yiqing and others and asked, "What do you think about this?"

"Your Majesty, what Grand Minister Hu said is true. The court is strict in evaluating officials, and because of the frequent dismissals and demotions, there is a shortage of successors in the court. The court is implementing major policies and increasing the number of officials, so it is necessary to reinstate officials if possible."

Yang Yiqing replied.

"No need to reinstate!"

"I would rather be lenient in admitting students than strict in graduating students! I will issue an imperial decree to increase the number of candidates for the next year's imperial examination by 50, and increase the number of candidates for the provincial examinations in each province by 30% compared to the previous year."

"In addition, considering that all candidates for the Shuntian Prefecture provincial examination are in the capital, after the expansion, Shuntian Prefecture will hold the provincial examination in advance at the end of next month, so that candidates in the capital have more time to prepare for the next year's joint examination."

Zhu Houcong put forward his own views.

He could not allow Yang Yiqing's party to grow so big that it completely overwhelmed Zhang Cong's party.

Because Zhu Houcong didn't know whether reinstating the conservatives would cause people like Yang Yiqing to become corrupt and eventually stand against him.

When Yang Yiqing heard what Zhu Houcong said, he was stunned on the spot.

Zhang Cong was the first to stand up and say, "Your Majesty is eager to recruit talents and expand the recruitment of talents. The scholars of the world will naturally be grateful to our emperor for his heavenly virtue!"

"I second the motion! Your Majesty is wise and has a better strategy to deal with this matter!"

"Instead of pardoning an official who may not have fully repented, it is better to show mercy to the younger generation in the world!"

"The people of this dynasty should strictly restrain themselves. They should not be arrogant and think that they are the only one who can rule the world just because they have talents, and stop cultivating virtue and restraining themselves!"

Gui E then followed suit.

After Gui E said this, Yang Yiqing couldn't help but glance at Gui E.

He was always sensitive and always felt that Gui E's glance at Zhang Cong meant to mock him.

But Yang Yiqing did not object, he just agreed.

After all, this was determined by the emperor, and it is indeed more wise.

However, Zhu Houcong also knew clearly that although his approach was clever, it was still not in the interests of the Ming bureaucracy.

Because the expansion of new scholars will make the bureaucracy more inward-looking, which will be more beneficial to the strengthening of imperial power and not conducive to the strengthening of scholar power.

"Since His Majesty is unwilling to reinstate us, we should just pretend to be ill and put the matter of reviving the military training of the Beijing Guards and training officers on hold!"

After being ordered to retire, the Chief Censor Sheng Yingqi was very disappointed when he learned the emperor's decision from Yang Yiqing, so he stood up and suggested to Yang Yiqing not to help the emperor train officers. (End of this chapter)