Chapter 1960 Who is worthy of the big post
“How are the preparations for the Meridian Gate Prisoner Presentation Ceremony?” Emperor Jiajing asked.
"Hui Sheng, we have made a preliminary agenda with reference to the format of the Meridian Gate Prisoner Presentation Ceremony in the past dynasties."
A minister on duty from Wuyi Palace stepped forward and replied.
"Send your agenda to the cabinet for review, and it must be finalized within three days." Emperor Jiajing waved his hand and explained.
"Follow your orders." The minister on duty at Wuyi Palace accepted the order.
"The Qin Tian Jian chooses a date and sets the date for the prisoner presentation ceremony at the afternoon gate. The cabinet will take the lead in organizing the ceremony. There are only a few days left before the Chinese New Year. The ceremony must be held within this year without any mistakes. "
Emperor Jiajing ordered without any doubt.
“Follow the order.”
A group of officials followed the order one after another.
"Okay, the cabinet will stay, and the rest can retreat." Emperor Jiajing waved his hand and ordered the court to disperse.
Yan Song, Xu Jie and Li Ben stayed in compliance with the order, while the other officials bowed and exited the hall.
"I am leaving you three here. There are two things I want to hear your opinions on."
Emperor Jiajing slowly walked down from the dragon chair and spoke in a chatting tone. Yan Song, Xu Jie and Li Ben said.
Yan Song and others naturally bowed to listen.
"The first thing is to establish the crown prince." Emperor Jiajing stood in front of Yan Song and the others and said slowly.
When they heard about the establishment of a crown prince, Yan Song, Xu Jie and Li Ben were immediately excited. The establishment of a crown prince was a matter of national importance.
It’s just that Emperor Jiajing was very resistant to establishing a crown prince in the past. It was the first time that he took the initiative to talk about establishing a crown prince like today.
Although Emperor Jiajing was very lustful, it was more difficult to have children. Since he began to favor women when he was a teenager, he has been working hard for more than ten years, and he did not have the eldest prince until he was twenty-six years old. But this The emperor's eldest son was unlucky and died in just two months. Then, there was Tao Zhongwen's "two dragons never meet" rhetoric, saying that Emperor Jiajing's dragon life was too hard, and the princes were all little dragons, and their lives were not hard enough. If the two dragons met, the little dragon's life would be hard to save.
After that, after experiencing the incident where the second prince fell ill on the day of the ceremony and died soon after he was established as prince, Emperor Jiajing firmly believed in the two dragons' statement that they would not meet each other and strictly abided by it. .
He only has two princes left. If he dies again, he will have to follow the old path of his ridiculous brother.
If another uncle's son is appointed to succeed him, the great ritual dispute he caused must not happen again.
Therefore, Emperor Jiajing was very resistant to the matter of opposing the crown prince.
But the establishment of a reserve is related to the continuation of the Ming Dynasty and the foundation of the country. Without the establishment of a reserve, the country will not be stable.
King Yu and King Jing are both grown up and have established mansions. Since Emperor Jiajing was slow to establish a crown prince, both of them had the opportunity to look up to the throne. Prince Yu was older and had the advantage of Dayi, but Prince Jing was more favored. Each of them had their own advantages and disadvantages, so they fought openly and secretly, and the battle for the crown prince began early. It's already heating up.
The ministers were very anxious, and some people wrote letters from time to time, but the outcome was not good, including Xu Jie, who was left out in the cold for a while.
This resulted in ministers not daring to talk lightly about establishing a crown prince.
However, some ministers were still worried about this matter and risked being punished by Emperor Jiajing to write a letter.
Because Emperor Jiajing is no longer young, he is already forty-five, and if he is refining elixirs and cultivating immortality, he might die one day. If he does not establish a crown prince, when you die, then King Yu and King Jing will fight for it. The throne will not cause chaos in the world.
"I have lost count of the number of petitions that have been made over the years to establish a crown prince. It seems that it is time to establish a crown prince. As for King Yu and King Jing, who among them is worthy of the great responsibility and inherits the throne?" . Emperor Jiajing asked gently.
This time there was no need for Yan Song to use his eyes. Emperor Jiajing first looked at Li Ben. Li Ben shivered in his calf and stomach. He was silent for two seconds before replying in a hushed tone, "Your Majesty, I have been busy with the documents. Neither Wang nor King Jing are familiar with each other, so I really don’t know who is more worthy of the responsibility."
Faced with the important proposition of establishing a prince, Li Ben chose to play dumb.
I'm sorry, I didn't know, and I took the opportunity to reveal that I had never befriended King Yu and King Jing, and was a pure minister.
Emperor Jiajing was naturally dissatisfied with Li Ben's answer of pretending to be stupid. He looked at Li Ben intently for a second, until he saw cold sweat breaking out on Li Ben's back. He almost couldn't help but kneel down to apologize. .
Fortunately, at the moment when Li Ben bent his legs and was about to kneel, Emperor Jiajing looked at Xu Jie, making Li Ben breathe a sigh of relief.
Facing Emperor Jiajing, Xu Jie had experience this time.
As the saying goes, one learns from one's mistakes.
After learning the lesson from last time, Xu Jie had already thought about how to answer. As soon as Emperor Jiajing looked at him, he replied, "Your Majesty, the so-called knowing son is better than his father. Which one, King Yu or King Jing, can inherit the throne?" The emperor knows who is more worthy, and I will obey the emperor."
Compared to Li Ben's pretending to be stupid, Xu Jie chose to practice Tai Chi and pushed the problem to Emperor Jiajing.
There is no better son than a father. You know best. Whoever you think can inherit the throne is the one. You are the emperor and you are the greatest. I will listen to you.
Although Xu Jie really wanted to recommend King Yu because he was a direct descendant and King Yu was older, but after learning the lesson from last time and having a deeper understanding of Emperor Jiajing, Xu Jie took this to heart. Not mentioned here.
Emperor Jiajing was a powerful and opinionated king, or rather arbitrary and willful. He would make whoever he wanted to be the prince. The civil and military opinions of the Manchu Dynasty could not influence Emperor Jiajing. idea.
Recommending King Yu at this time is not a good thing for King Yu.
So Xu Jie chose to practice Tai Chi.
“I want to be clear, why do I ask for your opinion?!”
Emperor Jiajing was not satisfied with Xu Jie's answer. He glanced at Xu Jie and turned his attention to Yan Song.
"Your Majesty, the prince is the foundation of the country. The matter of establishing a prince is related to the foundation of the country, so we need to be very careful. King Yu and King Jing have just come of age. They are both dragons among men. They are so bright for a while that it is difficult to tell which prince is more important. Excellent, more worthy of a big responsibility, it will take time to verify the distinction. < br>
Moreover, the Spring and Autumn Period is in full swing, and the dragon body is in good health. There is no need to rush into establishing the heir apparent. It is not too late to make a decision after slowly examining the two princes."
Yan Song cupped his hands and said, advising Emperor Jiajing not to do so. You are in a hurry to establish a reserve. You are still young, so why be anxious?
In fact, Yan Song's favorite candidate for crown prince is King Jing, and he has secretly supported King Jing.
However, he did it very secretly and covertly. On the surface, he kept a distance from King Yu and King Jing and did not make friends with anyone.
The reason why Yan Song did not recommend King Jing was, firstly, to establish a pure ministerial character. I, Yan Song, am a minister of your Emperor Jiajing. I will never befriend King Yu and King Jing in private, and will only be loyal to you; secondly, Yan Song knew in his heart that Emperor Jiajing had no idea of establishing a heir apparent yet, and it would be a mistake to recommend anyone.
"There is no rush. Over the years, the memorials I have received regarding the establishment of the crown prince can be used as firewood to cook a Qianqiu banquet."
Emperor Jiajing glared at Yan Song, He said displeasedly.
"I still mean the same thing. There is no rush to establish a heir. You need to be very cautious. Real gold is not afraid of fire, and real dragon is not afraid of tests. Time will test the two princes to see who can be more worthy of the great responsibility and inherit the throne. Datong.”
Yan Song insisted.
"Okay, let me see what you guys come up with. Let's discuss this later." Emperor Jiajing let them go. (End of this chapter)