Chapter 191 I can become emperor not because of the support of civil servants
On this day, Zhu Houzhao summoned Yang Yiqing into the palace.
Yang Yiqing was very happy, thinking that Zhu Houzhao wanted to discuss counterinsurgency with him.
But Zhu Houzhao still only asked Yang Yiqing about his views on the military system in the world. Yang Yiqing was a little disappointed in his heart. After patiently telling Zhu Houzhao about the shortcomings of the military system, he finally had to ask in person:
"Your Majesty, I would like to ask when will the imperial court's order for ministers and others to lead troops to quell the rebellion be issued?"
"Are you so anxious to put down the rebellion?"
As Zhu Houzhao spoke, he threw a memorial in front of Yang Yiqing: "Look, this is what Cai Kuan, who is in charge of Shaanxi's military affairs, has just delivered to the capital. King Anhua has been captured alive, the rest of the party has been killed, and the rebellion has ended." Calm down! The expedition is of course meaningless.”
Yang Yiqing was in a daze. Only then did he realize that he might have fallen for the emperor in front of him, and for a moment he couldn't help but feel a chill running down his back.
Yang Yiqing thought to himself, Your Majesty, how dare you never believe the exaggerated words of those officials in the border town about the rebellion of King Anhua, but always believe that Shaanxi alone can put down the rebellion?
And the reason why he listened to the advice of the officials below to open a court meeting and recommend ministers to lead the army was just to use it as a bait to see who was playing tricks behind his back!
And the person who is playing tricks is naturally himself. He wants to take advantage of the dissatisfaction of many civil servants with Xu Jin and want to get rid of Xu Jin and others, and then he can join the cabinet by countering the rebellion, or at least become the Ministry of War first. Shangshu.
Yang Yiqing knew that his intention to take advantage of this opportunity to suppress the rebellion and get in touch with the internal official Wei Bin was noticed by his majesty. Naturally, he became frightened and crouched on the ground: "Your majesty, forgive me! I, I just want to be promoted too much." ! ”
Zhu Houzhao was very pleased and pleased that Yang Yiqing could take the initiative to admit his mistakes so quickly, but he also had to admit that civil servants trained by Confucianism were indeed naturally fond of fighting among themselves. Even Yang Yiqing was not exempt from this and would think about his own political future. He tried to take advantage of the dissatisfaction of many civil servants with Xu Jin's execution of Mao Cheng, the Minister of Rites, to achieve his further goals.
"Fortunately, you haven't had time to collude with the ministers! Otherwise, I will definitely not spare you! I know that you, Yang Yiqing, are a talent. You have been hailed as a child prodigy since you were a child. You are arrogant because of your talent. You think that if you are not the first minister in the world, you are not worthy of yourself. Ambition! But you can’t be too unscrupulous and ignore the interests of Ming Dynasty!”
Zhu Houzhao now also knows that he can't kill all the political opponents who oppose the reformists. If he kills Yang Yiqing for Xu Jin today, then he will have to kill Xu Jin because of Jiao Fang tomorrow. What's more, as an emperor, he will not care about the internal fighting among officials. The best way to deal with it is not to favor one side, but to let them check and balance each other, so as to rely on yourself as the emperor.
Therefore, Zhu Houzhao did not choose to expose Yang Yiqing and Wei Bin's conspiracy after Yang Yiqing colluded with Wei Bin and then execute them. Instead, he exposed Yang Yiqing and Wei Bin before they colluded together, in order to prevent the infighting among the courtiers from intensifying. At the same time, it is also to avoid handling political events in a bloody manner.
For some reason, ever since Zhu Houzhao realized that he might not be able to completely eliminate opponents through killing, he no longer wanted to solve the problem through killing. Firstly, because he already had enough prestige, and secondly, even if these literati and officials were pedantic and shameless, they were indeed He is the person who masters knowledge in this era and is the inheritor of Chinese civilization;
Killing all these people yourself is no different from foreign rulers. The best way is to transform them.
Yang Yiqing wiped the sweat from his forehead. The sight of the young emperor in front of him was enough to frighten him out of his wits, because he knew that this emperor was as ruthless as Taizu, and now, he could not kill himself without killing him. Only reprimanding yourself with words to warn yourself is undoubtedly the greatest tolerance for yourself.
So, Yang Yiqing solemnly saluted Zhu Houzhao: "I know the crime! I know the crime!"
"Then tell me what your crime is?"
Zhu Houzhao had a sense of frustration recently. Although he had just achieved martial arts achievements in pacifying the young prince and regaining the Hetao, and also resolved a crisis involving the throne, he did not feel much excitement at all, because he found that the Ming Dynasty he was in charge of was governing by himself. As our fifth year comes to an end, not much has changed.
The Ming Empire seems to still be operating according to its original rules, regulations and political structure.
Most of the people are still farming, scholars are still preparing for the imperial examinations, craftsmen still work in the Ordnance Bureau although they have freedom, and the army is still dominated by guardsmen.
Even though he is the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, the government affairs are still decided by the cabinet's ceremonial supervisor Pian Hong every day. Even if he does not interfere, these decisions of the empire can be handled based on established rules, or the cabinet ministers can make decisions based on It will be dealt with according to the will of the emperor himself.
And regarding daily government affairs, even if I have the insights of later generations, the handling of specific issues is not much different from the handling of specific issues by the old bureaucrats of this era. It is still checks and balances and compromises.
The Ming Empire may not have reached the point of terminal illness. The Ming Empire has just ended its eighteen-year period of hard work, so the empire has not yet shown a serious crisis. Therefore, what the emperor and the officials of this era have done seems to be insignificant. Still following the rules. Zhu Houzhao asked Yang Yiqing because he wanted to have a clearer understanding of what the imperial elites of this era were thinking and how they viewed the interests of the country and the court, as well as individuals and families.
"I should not collude with the ministers and use your majesty to murder important ministers in the court!" Yang Yiqing replied. The majesty's expression in front of him always revealed a majesty that he could not figure out. Therefore, even if he had dared to stand in front of the battle He was not afraid of the siege of hundreds of Tartars, and he did not dare to say an offensive word in front of the current emperor.
"You understand! However, you didn't make it clear. Your crime is that you did not put the interests of Ming Dynasty before your own political interests. Yang Yiqing, you ignored the imperial court and me, and even only thought of using the imperial court and me. I can understand that this is a common problem for you Confucian officials to achieve your own political goals. However, what I want to ask you today is, do you know the word country?”
Zhu Houzhao threw out the concept of "country", just as he once put this concept into the "Outline of the Governance of the Country" and gave it to some important ministers to read. He wanted to use his status as an emperor to influence some giants of this era and make their thinking more interesting. Then limit yourself to Confucianism.
But Zhu Houzhao found that the results were little. Although these important ministers did not dare to go against Zhu Houzhao's will, and did not even dare to rebuke Zhu Houzhao's "Outline of the Governance of the Country" as a demon book, they still resisted these new concepts in their hearts, and some even directly used their own He said he didn't quite understand what Zhu Houzhao meant on the grounds of being stupid;
Moreover, some officials loyally told Zhu Houzhao that some people-oriented ideas were actually not conducive to the emperor. If the emperor wanted to consolidate his position as emperor, he should not let his subjects demand equality too much.
Zhu Houzhao himself sometimes found that he was also contradictory. He was an emperor. From the perspective of maintaining his imperial authority, it was good to continue to consolidate the orthodox status of Confucianism, emphasize ethics, clan suppression of individuality, and policies to obscure the people.
But from the perspective of China as a whole, if we want Chinese civilization to progress and no longer be invaded by foreign races, we must emancipate our minds and develop new economic models.
But no matter what, Zhu Houzhao is still willing to take care of the latter first, as long as he can make the land where he is and the civilization composed of these people permanently stable, and can always maintain a strong posture and not be bullied by external forces. It doesn't matter even if I can't become emperor in the future.
This may be the difference from some foreign "wise kings". After all, he really regards the people on this land as his compatriots.
Therefore, Zhu Houzhao is still passing on these new concepts to the literati and officials of this era.
Yang Yiqing really didn't know what his Majesty meant by the word "country". He tried to use the words of saints in Confucian classics to answer, but found that he could even recite every sentence in the Four Books and Five Classics. Zhu Xi's annotations, which can specify each sentence, cannot explain what a state is.
"I am stupid! Your Majesty, please clarify my confusion!"
Yang Yiqing frankly admitted that he didn't know what country was. He knew country, and he also knew family. But he really didn't know the word "country" and "home" combined.
Zhu Houzhao had no choice but to explain it in detail to Yang Yiqing.
The more Yang Yiqing listened, the more horrified he became. He didn't know where your majesty's knowledge came from or who taught it, but he had to admit that the knowledge was enough to deserve the words "shock the world"! He did not dare to use the word "deviant". First of all, he was not a famous official in Neo-Confucianism, nor a defender of Taoism, nor a person who could not tolerate other miscellaneous scholars. Secondly, he did not dare to accuse His Majesty of what he said was wrong.
But Yang Yiqing had to admit that today's face-to-face meeting gave him the feeling of not knowing whether the king in the palace was an emperor or a traitor. He seemed to be destroying his country or saving his country.
"The real master of the empire is not the emperor, but all the people living on this land. The emperor is just the person who exercises the power of the country. The reason why the emperor can exercise the power of the country is because of the support of the people, not because of the support of civil servants and generals. .”
"The people pay taxes to this country, and the country has the obligation to protect the people of this country! If a strong man invades this country, whether he is a foreigner or a Han Chinese, as long as he is enslaving the people on this land, then he They are not the masters of the country on this land, but the invaders are the colonizers.”
At night, before Yang Yiqing fell asleep, he was still recalling Zhu Houzhao's words.
He was thinking about why His Majesty the Emperor gave him the concept of country. As he thought about it, he seemed to understand that if he really took advantage of this opportunity when the civil servants were dissatisfied with Xu Jin and others to get rid of Xu Jin, then he would be in ruins of the government. If the reform of the New Deal is blocked, the burden of most people in the Ming Dynasty will not be relieved. Instead, it will increase because of the possible increase in military expenditures. Then the Ming Emperor and the Ming Dynasty, the people who exercise state power, will be overthrown, and the Ming Dynasty will be overthrown. perish.
If it was like the Tang Dynasty and Sui Dynasty, it would be nothing. It would be nothing more than the death of a family. But if it was the Yuan Dynasty and the Song Dynasty, it would be the death of the entire Han civilization!
"It turns out that I am ignoring the interests of the country! But the saint only teaches loyalty to the emperor and not to the country! And if you say so, are the Han ministers who are loyal to the Yuan still loyal ministers?" Yang Yiqing finally thought.
(End of chapter)