Jiajing Chengming

Chapter 51 Yang Tinghe should not return to the cabinet
"I know it's not suitable now, but this outer city of the capital must be built in the future!"

Zhu Houcong spoke in a solemn and unquestionable tone.

Liang Chu hurriedly bowed and said yes, and became more respectful and obedient to Zhu Houcong.

Zhu Houcong became more interested because of his cooperation, and then he said: "Secondly, there are things to do, such as promoting education, health and epidemic prevention, water control, forest protection and sand prevention!"

When Zhu Houcong said this, he stood up and walked to the palace door, letting the cool breeze from outside the palace brush his face, and said with a smile:
"After all, it's hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians."

"They are not bound by their clans, and there are no village elders to advise them. How can we make them know etiquette and observe morality?"

"Prime Minister! This is something that our court needs to put more thought into."

Liang Chu turned around and said to Zhu Houcong's back:

"Your Majesty said so!"

"I am also worried about this."

"With so many newly settled soldiers and civilians in the capital, and without any clan elders, if we don't strengthen education and control, it will only lead to the proliferation of evil cults and temples, and then become a den of prostitutes and thieves."

"However, the energy of officials in Beizhi is limited. They still need the help of local people to manage the original people, not to mention so many newly resettled soldiers and civilians."

"So, I thought that we could only appoint more Tongzhi or Tuiguan, and then send them to the surrounding prefectures."

Liang Chu quite agreed with Zhu Houcong's opinion and proposed a solution that he had long anticipated.

Zhu Houcong said: "Tongzhi and Tuiguan have low positions and little power, while there are many nobles and high-ranking officials in the capital, so it is not appropriate!"

"If we really want to manage these people, I have my own ideas."

Zhu Houcong looked back at Liang Chu and said with a smile.

"I respectfully listen to the Holy Word."

Liang Chu replied immediately.

"Bring me the map!"

Zhu Houcong had already asked the Imperial Household Department to prepare a map of the capital, so he called out at this time.

Liang Chu couldn't help but be startled: "Map?"

Soon.

Eunuch Mai Fu spread the map on the imperial desk.

Zhu Houcong also asked Liang Chu to come to his desk, picked up a pen, dipped it in ink, and then walked to the map.

then.

Liang Chu saw that his Majesty had drawn a circle around Jing Cheng on the map.

Liang Chu was even more surprised, but also more curious.

"I intend to set up the area where these relocated soldiers and civilians are located as a Gyeonggi Province, which will be directly managed by me!"

Zhu Houcong said with a smile at this time.

"Gyeonggi Province is directly governed by the emperor?"

Liang Chu looked like he was thinking seriously, wondering how to agree.

"I will directly appoint trustworthy and capable officials to try to implement some new policies in this area, and the court will give them some preferential treatment in terms of policy, so that the tax revenue and people's wealth here can become a model for the capital."

"The officials here report directly to me, without going through the cabinet or the six ministries!"

"This way, I, a young emperor who has just ascended the throne, can first get familiar with government affairs by directly managing a region, so that I won't be easily panicked when encountering setbacks when implementing major policies throughout the country in the future."

Zhu Houcong then continued to explain the reasons why he did so.

He had to make Liang Chu, the chief minister of the cabinet, understand his meaning, and then let Liang Chu mediate and make this matter happen on his behalf.

After all, most of the court officials are now more concerned about discussing rituals. In order to make the entire bureaucratic group cooperate with Zhu Houcong and follow the direction designated by Zhu Houcong, Liang Chu, the chief minister, is needed to take the lead in mediating.

Just like this time the cleanup of the farmland could proceed smoothly, Zhu Houcong knew that it was due to the contribution of Liang Chu Xieli.

Liang Chu pursed his lips and glanced with a complicated expression at Zhu Houcong who was enthusiastically expounding on the blueprint in his mind.

His eyes suddenly became red.

Because he realized that the young emperor in front of him was really planning to exercise his practical political ability and was really working hard to benefit the entire country and the people in the future, instead of using his intelligence and talents only to figure out and learn how to play tricks on people and fight for power. Even though he had been sarcastic and scheming towards them before, it was all aimed at forcing him and other ministers to focus more on people's livelihood.

"This is a true saintly monarch, a benevolent ruler with a keen determination to innovate!"

"Fortunately, Yang Tinghe is not in power."

Liang Chu sighed to himself.

Zhu Houcong shook his hand, walked to the throne and sat down, looking at Liang Chu and said: "Of course, in this case, my energy is limited, and I have to rely more on the cabinet for major affairs of the country!" "I will issue an edict to allow the six departments to be directly evaluated by the cabinet, so that the six departments can assist the cabinet in managing both internal and external affairs;"

"At the same time, I will also expand the size of the cabinet, build more imperial edict rooms and imperial edict rooms, expand the cabinet ministers' duty rooms, add more servants to each duty room, and add a policy research room and an audit office. I will also establish a cabinet scholar position, which will be led by you, the Prime Minister, so that you can help me investigate the malpractices and deficits in the country."

Zhu Houcong knew that whatever he wanted to do now basically had to be approved by the cabinet, and the imperial edict was basically useless.

Because the troops under his direct control were greatly reduced, the bureaucratic base had not been established because he had only ascended the throne not long ago.

This means that whether he can exercise the power of the emperor now depends on whether the ministers of the cabinet cooperate with him.

Now he can exercise power smoothly because the Prime Minister is Liang Chu, a man of soft character who tries his best to be obedient to the emperor and is willing to cooperate with him, as well as to smooth things over and mobilize other civil servants for him.

If Yang Tinghe were in power, he would do the same as in history. What he would do would have only one result, which was to be rejected several times.

thus.

Zhu Houcong thought that while Liang Chu was the Prime Minister, he should focus on building up the basic base and let the cabinet shoulder more responsibilities. He also learned from Jiajing and, when he met a Prime Minister with a suitable personality, he would push the cabinet to the front to take the blame.

That’s right, Zhu Houcong came up with this idea based on the historical experience of Jiajing’s control of power, Longqing’s and Wanli’s reforms, as well as some practices in later generations.

The emperor is indeed not suitable to fight alone now.

Because the national conditions of the Ming Dynasty were no longer the same as they were at the beginning of the country.

The power of officials and gentry has grown significantly.

It was difficult for the emperor to fight alone against this bureaucratic group that had expanded many times, and he could only divide and disintegrate them.

Therefore, Zhu Houcong wanted to take this opportunity to learn from Jiajing, expand the cabinet, increase the cabinet's power, and let the civil officials fight for the position of prime minister.

Historically, this was the case with Jiajing.

He expanded the cabinet and nominally showed great trust in the prime minister, turning the cabinet minister from his original advisory role into a role with the power of a prime minister but not the name.

Because he had the power of prime minister, he could fight against the entire bureaucracy by controlling a certain cabinet minister.

Because he did not have the title of prime minister, he could easily depose a cabinet minister or even execute him to intimidate other cabinet ministers.

This naturally includes the prime minister, cabinet ministers.

Therefore, in history, Jiajing's killing of Xia Yan did not affect his imperial power, and letting Yan Song hold sole power for twenty years did not affect his imperial power.

However, after Jiajing, Longqing did not just trust the cabinet ministers in name only, but trusted them completely and began to let them manage ministry affairs.

As a result, in the early Wanli period, the power of the Prime Minister was no different from that of the Vice Emperor because the emperor was young, which made the cabinet ministers fight more fiercely for the Prime Minister's chair and often stab each other in the back.

Zhu Houcong had no intention of letting cabinet ministers take charge of ministry affairs.

He still planned to follow Jiajing's approach and not let the Nine Ministers report directly to the cabinet.

Because Zhu Houcong did not want the cabinet to be without checks and balances, nor did he want the cabinet ministers to fight each other too much because of their excessive power.

Zhu Houcong thought that it would be enough to let the cabinet test six subjects for the time being.

This will allow them to supervise each other. The cabinet can supervise the ministries and agencies through the six departments, and the ministries and agencies can supervise the cabinet through the censors.

At the same time, it can also make them cooperate in work, so that they will not ignore national affairs because of fighting too fiercely, or even collude with eunuchs to fight together.

Liang Chu's heart felt like it was on fire at this moment, and he couldn't help grinning.

Because the benefits given by the emperor were so great, he actually wanted to give his cabinet more real power to investigate the deficits of the country and directly formulate policies for the country.

This forced Liang Chu to admit that the emperor really trusted the cabinet, which was completely different from the Zhengde period.

However, Liang Chu did not know that Zhu Houcong only trusted people like him.

But Zhu Houcong's actions made Liang Chu, who had long been disheartened and only wanted to smooth things over and leave with dignity as soon as possible, begin to have the urge to seriously do a few more big things.

"It is rare that Your Majesty is so talented and yet is willing to rely on our scholars and officials to rule the world, and is still willing to believe that there are gentlemen in the world, rather than consult with the eunuchs."

"It's a pity that I'm too old now and couldn't meet His Majesty earlier!"

After Liang Chu complained inwardly, he sighed secretly and couldn't help thinking:
"If this decree is really promulgated throughout the country, Yang Xin will regret claiming illness so much."

"I'm afraid his illness will be cured quickly after the field cleaning is completed, right?"

"It would be great if he stayed sick forever, or even died. This might be a good thing for him."

Liang Chu couldn't help but complain about this.

But then, he suddenly realized that something was wrong. He actually wanted Yang Tinghe to disappear from this world more than His Majesty did.

Zhu Houcong saw Liang Chu frowning in deep thought, so he said, "If you have any objections, please speak up. I am not someone who cannot accept advice!"

(End of this chapter)