Chapter 4 The Eight Tigers are dispatched
The ministers withdrew from the Qianqing Palace one after another. Everyone was really tired after playing the crying scene for so long.
Queen Zhang, who was really crying, was also tired.
As the crown prince, Zhu Houzhao naturally wanted to keep vigil for Emperor Hongzhi, so he stayed in Xinuan Pavilion of Qianqing Palace.
While having lunch, Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but ask Liu Jin: "Where is Wang Yue, the chief seal of the Supervisor of Ceremonies?"
The power of the Ming Dynasty consists of the Supervisor of Ceremonies and the Cabinet. The Supervisor of Ceremonies is in charge of the Prime Minister of the Inner Court, and the first assistant of the Cabinet is the Prime Minister of the Outer Court.
Now that Zhu Houzhao met Liu Jian, the chief minister of the outer cabinet, he naturally could not ignore the number one figure in the inner court, Wang Yue, the eunuch and eunuch in charge of the ceremony.
"Back to the emperor, ancestors, no, the prince fainted because he heard the death of Emperor Daxing. He is not awake yet, so he did not come to see him," Liu Jin replied.
Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but smile, thinking that this Wang Yue was more dizzy than his own son. He had been awake for so long after he fainted when he heard that Emperor Hongzhi died, so why was Wang Yue still fainting?
Although Zhu Houzhao did not see Wang Yue, he could guess that Wang Yue was definitely not a good bird, otherwise it would be impossible for him, a prime minister of the inner court, to prevent the death of Emperor Hongzhi.
Zhu Houzhao didn't say much, and just called Liu Jin over: "In your name, Liu Jin, I will find ten or eight beauties to make the noise louder. I will say that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is too sad. Find a few beauties for the Emperor." The prince relieves his boredom by drinking.”
"Your Majesty, although the ministers have all left, they are not blind or deaf. They are in a hurry to find the beauty. I will let them know," Liu Jin said.
"I just want them to know. The ministers who have spies around me will definitely know, but the ministers who don't have spies naturally don't know. I'm just acting like what they want to see, letting them know After my father’s death, I, the crown prince, was only temporarily sad, but my nature was still playful and I had no intention of intervening in government affairs.”
Zhu Houzhao smiled and said.
Liu Jin was not stupid. After listening to Zhu Houzhao's words, he understood and hurriedly started to take the other seven tigers to search for beauties in various palaces.
Soon, Liu Jin and other Eight Tigers brought a dozen charming palace maidens to the West Nuan Pavilion of Qianqing Palace.
Seeing this, Zhu Houzhao said hurriedly: "Light all the candles in Xinuang Pavilion and let them all dance by the door. Come in with me!"
then.
The entire Xinuang Pavilion of the Qianqing Palace was suddenly as bright as day. A dozen palace maidens stood by the door twisting their waists, their dancing figures reflected on the window screen, and they could be seen swaying like fairies from a hundred steps away.
But in Xinuan Pavilion, Zhu Houzhao didn't even look at the dozen or so palace maids at this time, and even asked someone to use a screen to block the dozen or so palace maids.
Zhu Houzhao looked at the "Eight Tigers" standing in front of him with a serious face: "Do you think that I will be the emperor soon? You have been with me for so long, and you will definitely be promoted. From now on, you will be the one to rule the inner court. After all, what kind of ceremonial supervisor and royal horse supervisor will become yours? ”
After saying that, Zhu Houzhao picked up the tea and said: "I think it's too early. It's not that I don't want to promote you. You must have seen it today. The Secretary of Ceremony has been controlled by Wang Yue, Zhang Yu and other old eunuchs, and they and The people in the cabinet are wearing a pair of trousers, do you think they will let you take office?”
After Zhu Houzhao finished speaking, he glanced at Liu Jin and others. He found that Liu Jin and others were not surprised because he suddenly became serious. He couldn't help but think to himself that it seemed that Zhu Houzhao in history was not really that simple. At least he The eunuchs around him knew that their master was just pretending to be innocent in front of others, otherwise these eunuchs wouldn't look so bland.
Liu Jin was the first to stand up at this time: "What the emperor said is that the Chief of Ceremonies Bingbi Zhang Yu is not a thing. He didn't help the emperor first, but went to help the three pavilion elders first. I really don't know what he is." Whose slave! ”
Zhu Houzhao smiled slightly. He did not expect that Liu Jin would also see clues from Zhang Yu's behavior. He thought in his heart that Liu Jin could be regarded as a person who knew the subtleties. No wonder he would become a big thing in the future. If he wanted to control the power of the government now, he would have to use him.
"Liu Jin is right. Zhang Yu doesn't know where his knees are bending. I will not let him go lightly in the future! But I think this matter will not be that simple! You are all my closest people. Without me, you have nothing. No, if I secure the throne, you will be one person below ten thousand people, so now you have to follow me to pull down those people sitting above us, do you understand?" Zhu Houzhao asked after that.
"Understood!" the Eight Tigers replied in unison.
Among them, Zhang Yong stood up first: "Your Majesty, please speak up. What do you want us to do?"
"Time is urgent. If you delay for a while, there will be more changes. Let me make a long story short. Emperor Daxing has just passed away. After twenty-seven days of mourning, I can choose a day to ascend the throne. During this period, the government will definitely Entering a period of stagnation, all forces have not yet launched, we must take advantage of this to take advantage of it
Fortunately, you are not yet in a prominent position, and your actions are not easily noticed by others. Liu Jin, you have always been good at making friends with literati. Now I want you to take advantage of the great funeral period when officials are coming and going in the palace to have more contact with the literati, and find a few who are willing to work with you. Party people, these civil servants You are not a fool. If you know who is behind you, those who are willing to help me will naturally make friends with you, especially Jiao Fang, the left minister of the Ministry of official affairs, and Xu Jin, the left minister of the Ministry of war. There is no need to go to Ma Wensheng. He is a veteran of the four dynasties. He has a big tree and attracts the wind. Go. It's easy to be spotted looking for him. ”
"And Zhang Yong, you have always known a lot about military affairs, so you went to make friends with several distinguished military ministers, and the 12th regiment battalion and 50% of the troops and horses were all walking around;
Then, there is Gu Dayong. You are good at drinking and chivalrous. Find some reliable people in the world and lurk among several eunuchs in the inner court and senior ministers in the outer court to inquire about information. I hope to know them by then. Which room do you sleep in and how many bowls of rice do you eat every night? ”
"Ma Yongcheng, you sent people to follow the chief ceremonial officer Bingbi Zhang Yu, Zhang Tai Hospital Shi Youtong Zheng Shi Qin, court judge Liu Wentai, imperial doctor Gao Ting and these people. These people will definitely escape from the capital in the future. I I don’t want to let them go easily!”
"Gao Feng, go to the Imperial Guard and move around more!"
"Qiu Ju, you should go to Xiyuan immediately to choose a good place and build a separate garden. I will live there when the time comes! This Beiyuan is named Leopard House, and I will tell the outside world that I will build a garden of beasts!"< br>
"Luo Xiang and Wei Bin will stay with me for the time being, and you will have other important uses when the time comes!"
As soon as Zhu Houzhao finished speaking, Luo Xiang stood up and said, "Your Majesty, these all cost money. We don't have much money saved over the years. I'm afraid we will have to use internal funds by then."
Zhu Houzhao knew that the internal money Luo Xiang mentioned was the money in the internal transport warehouse, but the internal transport warehouse was under the Ministry of Household Affairs. Therefore, if Zhu Houzhao wanted to use the internal funds, he had to go through the Ministry of Household Affairs, and even disturb the inner court, because he was in charge of the internal transport warehouse. The eunuch of the palm print is now also Wang Yue's person.
In order to prevent the powerful people in the inner court and the outer court from knowing his purpose, Zhu Houzhao does not want to use the internal funds now, and as far as he knows, there is not much money in the internal funds.
The emperors of the Ming Dynasty were not inexhaustible, and any little money they had would be used by civil servants in various ways.
"I will figure out a way about money. You can use the money we saved first, and then I will earn money." Zhu Houzhao said.
The only people Zhu Houzhao can trust now are the "Eight Tigers", so he has assigned these Eight Tigers what he considers to be the most urgent tasks at the moment.
Zhu Houzhao knew that the main threats to his imperial power now were the three cabinet bachelors and the eunuchs such as Wang Yue and Zhang Yue of the inner court.
Originally, these two forces were used by the emperor to check and balance each other to protect the imperial power. However, once these two forces colluded, they would directly threaten the imperial power or even suppress it.
Therefore, after careful consideration, Zhu Houzhao decided to eradicate all these colluded ministers and cabinet ministers, and then re-establish a system of checks and balances.
However, Wang Yue, Liu Jian and others were deeply entangled in the court. Zhu Houzhao knew that he could not defeat them in a short time with just a few eunuchs, so he could only unite some internal and external officials who were dissatisfied with the inner court and the cabinet.
Today in the Qianqing Palace, Zhu Houzhao could already see that Liu Jian and other cabinet ministers did not dominate the entire civil servant group, nor did they have no political opponents, which just gave him an opportunity.
As for the inner court, Zhu Houzhao could guess that no matter how Wang Yue and Zhang Yu dominated the inner court, there must be people who opposed them, such as the "Eight Tigers" who followed him.
(End of chapter)