Ming Dynasty: I am truly not the Emperor of Longevity

Lu Chen picked up the top memorial, but instead of looking at the draft, he opened the original document to read it.

Respectfully inscribed by Jiang Yao, Minister of Works:

The title is "The Yellow River Floods, the Second Flood is Shallow and Difficult, Urgent Need to Dredge to Facilitate Water Transport."

Since the Yellow River breached its banks at Yejigang in Suizhou, Guide Prefecture, the entire river flows through the Wo River and into the Huai River via Bozhou. Of the original flow that entered the Xuzhou and Lüliang tributaries via Sunjikou and Kaocheng, only one-tenth remains. The Xuzhou and Lüliang tributaries are shallow and dry, causing stagnation for cargo ships and making annual transport extremely difficult. It is not something that can be accomplished by ordinary dredging.

We humbly request that a special envoy, a minister of high rank and talent, be dispatched to meet with the Governor-General of the Grand Canal and the Chief Censor of the Waterways, to assess the water situation and devise methods to dredge and clear the river, so that the river may once again receive the two floods and allow grain transport to proceed smoothly.

Your humble servants, together with the Ministry of Personnel and other relevant departments, have publicly recommended:

Wang Yiqi, the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of War and concurrently the Left Vice Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate, is a man of keen insight and exceptional talent. He has served in various official positions in the past and is well-suited for this post.

He was dispatched to supervise officials in charge of canal transport and waterways to promptly dredge the silted-up waterways around Sunjikou and Dingjiadaokou, diverting tributaries of the Yellow River to irrigate the Xu and Lü rivers. He was also instructed to allocate funds for staking and hiring laborers as needed, with the aim of ensuring the smooth flow of the canal.

We still request an imperial edict to facilitate our actions.

Due to the changes in the Yellow River and the shallowness of the two floods, we request that a minister be appointed to dredge the river to facilitate the important task of grain transport. This is a reasonable request.

This is the Yellow River breaching its banks, diverting the Wo River southwards to flow into the Huai River!

Turning back to the cover, the small slip of paper on which the cabinet drafted the proposal was quite brief.

As proposed. Wang Yiqi, Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of War and concurrently Left Vice Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate, is hereby dispatched to supervise the dredging of the waterways, in conjunction with officials in charge of grain transport and river management, to irrigate the Xu and Lü rivers. An imperial edict is to be drafted and given to him. The rest is as proposed.

In ancient China, the Yellow River floods were a long-term problem. Despite continuous efforts to control the floods, breaches still occurred from time to time.

Aside from a few major disasters, there have actually been many relatively minor floods.

For example, Lu Chen had never heard of this breach, so it must be under control.

I don’t know who is good at water management. Since Wang Yiqi was jointly recommended by the Minister of Works and the Ministry of Personnel, he should be knowledgeable. Moreover, the Grand Secretariat and the Directorate of Ceremonial also think it is feasible.

Controlling floods is something that cannot be delayed; if it is delayed too long, even a small disaster can turn into a major one.

Picking up a red pen, Lu Chen wrote "OK" on the small slip of paper on which the vote was being prepared.

Continuing to look through other memorials, the last few concerned the battles of Xuanda and Guyuan.

Ji Nang invaded Wanquan Right Guard, but General Bai Jue defeated him at Xuanping and Sanggan River.

Governor Chu Shu reported the victory to the Ministry of War and requested a reward for Bai Jue.

The cabinet's proposal was to award Bai Jue with forty taels of silver, two bolts of colored silk, and promote him to Acting Vice Commander-in-Chief; Chu Shu was promoted to Right Vice Censor-in-Chief; and all officers and soldiers who participated in the battle would be rewarded.

At the same time, Feng Liang, a censor, submitted another memorial, stating that "the reports of merits and demerits by the border guards are mostly untrue," and requested that an official be sent to Xuanda University to verify the information. If the reports were true, then the merits and rewards would be determined.

The draft proposal suggested sending Zhang Lianggui, a supervising secretary of the Ministry of Rites, to Xuanfu, Datong, and various towns in Shanxi to investigate merits and demerits, but did not agree to postpone the commendation of Bai Jue and Chu Shu.

Lu Chen immediately saw through the cabinet's intentions.

Military merit rewards cannot be delayed. If an imperial edict were issued to first send Zhang Lianggui to investigate merits and demerits, and only after verification would rewards be given, it would discourage the soldiers who participated in the war and raise questions about Governor Chu Shu.

However, verification is still necessary. Zhang Lianggui must go. If it is found that the war merits were falsely reported, it will not be too late to punish Bai Jue and Chu Shu.

Those who can become cabinet ministers are indeed all extraordinary.

Lu Chen, of course, also wrote "OK" on all the drafts in red pen.

After reading these memorials, Lu Chen picked up his teacup, took a sip, and felt much more relaxed.

The Ming Dynasty had already institutionalized the process of handling state affairs. Generally, the Six Ministries would submit their proposals and solutions before sending them to the Grand Secretariat for approval.

After the cabinet drafts the proposal, the Directorate of Ceremonial Affairs will also review it; if they deem it inappropriate, they will not approve it.

The memorials delivered to his desk had all passed through three groups of people.

It is now the nineteenth year of the Jiajing reign. Although the Mongols frequently invade, the battlefield is limited to the border. There is no major war, and there is nothing that really requires the emperor to make decisions.

It could even be said that even without him, if Jiajing had secluded himself in the Western Garden for cultivation and had left the five-year-old crown prince to oversee the country, he would still have been able to handle state affairs in an orderly manner.

However, people are inherently selfish. If there is no oversight, the bigwigs in the cabinet and the Directorate of Ceremonial Affairs will become arrogant, going from being cautious to secretly colluding, and then joining forces to control the government and undermine the emperor's power.

The alliance between Zhang Juzheng and Feng Bao in the early Wanli period took this matter to the extreme.

Even though Emperor Wanli (Zhu Yijun) was nineteen years old when Zhang Juzheng was alive, he still had no real power and treated Zhang Juzheng with the respect due to a disciple.

Only then did Lu Chen truly understand the significance of Emperor Jiajing's decision to send him to the capital to assist the Crown Prince in overseeing the country, giving him this final veto power.

As a prince from a close branch of the imperial family, he naturally stood on the side of the Ming imperial family and would never allow the cabinet and the Directorate of Ceremonial to collude and control the government.

But wasn't the Jiajing Emperor afraid that he would seize control of the government?

Or was he confident enough to believe that he was only given a veto power and not the power to interfere with the cabinet, and that during his two years in seclusion, he was not capable of doing so?

. . .

In the afternoon, at Chonghua Palace in the Southern Palace.

After becoming more familiar with the process, Lu Chen read the memorials faster and faster, spending the entire morning reading through all the memorials that had been delivered that day.

Aside from writing "no" on two seemingly insignificant matters and returning them to the cabinet for revision to assert his authority, he wrote "yes" on all other memorials.

According to the "Collected Statutes of the Ming Dynasty", when a prince was eight years old, he would undergo the coming-of-age ceremony and formally receive instruction in the Four Books and Five Classics from Hanlin officials, learn calligraphy, and practice riding and archery.

As a prince assisting the crown prince, Lu Chen naturally had to be present.

But the crown prince is only five years old now and does not need to study. After the morning court session, he has already returned to the East Palace and is playing with the palace maids and eunuchs. Lu Chen is happy to have some free time.

After having lunch at the Wenhua Hall, Lu Chen returned to the Southern Palace by palanquin.

"Your Highness, shortly after the morning court session, Lord Bao sent this from the West Garden."

Not long after returning to Chonghua Palace, Yang Bingzhong came to Lu Chen with a box in his hand.

"It is an elixir bestowed upon Your Highness by His Majesty."

What utter nonsense about "elixir of immortality"!

Lu Chen silently complained in his heart, but such words were not appropriate to say aloud.

It seems that Emperor Jiajing, who has just begun his seclusion in the Western Garden, has not yet truly isolated himself from the outside world.

That's true. Although Emperor Jiajing was a devout believer in cultivating immortality and was indeed going into seclusion this time, whether he started a few days earlier or a few days later was not that important to him.

Presumably, someone has already reported on his performance in the Wenhua Hall today.

Lu Chen had long heard that Emperor Jiajing not only practiced alchemy and consumed it himself year-round, but also frequently bestowed it upon the eunuchs, ministers, and even princes around him.

Yan Song has a history of being given "elixirs of immortality" on many occasions.

Taoists add large amounts of lead and mercury when making "elixirs"!

Let whoever wants to eat this stuff eat it; Lu Chen has no intention of putting it in his stomach.