Chapter 197 The Sixth Year of Zhengde
For the nearly hundred years of Ming Dynasty's magnificent and glorious history since Zhengde, the sixth year of Zhengde is not a very special year.
Compared with the historical events of drinking horses from the Rhine River and consecrating the Rocky Mountains, the history of the six years of Zhengde can only be described as ordinary, and it is not even as exciting as the eradication of the three cabinet ministers in the early years of Zhengde.
But hundreds of years later, Professor Fang Chuan, an authoritative professor of imperial history at the Central University of the Ming Dynasty, who was ranked first in research on the history of the Ming Empire, claimed in his best-selling monograph "The Sixth Year of Zhengde" that the Sixth Year of Zhengde was the year when the Ming Empire entered the Ming Dynasty. The true symbol of the Age of Navigation and the Age of Primitive Accumulation of Capital!
Because this year, the official immigration management agency was officially restored, and the country’s gates were officially opened, and they have not been closed since.
"Although in this era, the empire has not yet opened the sea, and has also destroyed the fleet that was once the most powerful in the world, but under the influence of the great Emperor Zhengde, the rulers of the empire have once again opened their eyes to the whole world. Eyes, this is the case of Shouning Hou and Jianchang Hou who requested the order to rebuild the Zhijiang Shipyard. These two dandy princes who were hated by the civil servants never expected that their actions at this time would be recorded in history! "
Professor Fang Chuan wrote this in his book.
When the cabinet was carrying out the land clearing and the border town was ordered to establish a shipping department to carry out border trade, Zhu Houzhao himself did not expect that Shouning Hou Zhang Heling and Jianchang Hou Zhang Yanling, who were still studying at the Capital University, would come to the court at this time. I hope that the imperial court will rebuild the Zhijiang Shipyard because the maritime territory cannot be without powerful warships, and the Ming Dynasty is the maritime overlord and cannot give up the vast maritime territory to the Western barbarians.
Of course, the real purpose of these two people is to verify whether the ground is a sphere.
Zhu Houzhao had already prepared that these two uncles could not stand the heavy studies at the Capital University and would cry to the Queen Mother so that he could let them go free. However, Zhu Houzhao did not expect that his two uncles did show a strong interest in geography and navigation. Zhu Houzhao breathed a sigh of relief.
Because he had to admit that his two uncles did go too far in doing evil and did a lot of bad things to seize land and bully the people. Sometimes he couldn't blame the civil officials for often impeaching these two people.
But because the Queen Mother really dotes on her two younger brothers, even the late Emperor Hongzhi added her two brothers-in-law to the marquis title during his lifetime. Although she is the emperor, she is still a junior, and sometimes she really can’t be so cruel as to give these two to them. The relatives who caused trouble to the royal family were eliminated.
Now it's good, staying at the Capital University has allowed these two relatives to have their own business, and Zhu Houzhao doesn't have to worry about these two people continuing to get into trouble at the Capital University, which will eventually force him to disown his relatives.
Therefore, Zhu Houzhao approved without hesitation the two relatives' request to rebuild the shipyard. He also personally ordered Zhang Heling to graduate from Beijing Normal University and supervise the Zhijiang Shipyard. He also allocated two hundred silver dollars from the Royal Taxation Bureau, Zhu Houzhao's internal funds. Wanliang gave Zhang Heling a chance to rebuild a seagoing ship.
In addition, Zhu Houzhao also appointed Zhang Heling to go to the Guangdong Navy to learn water warfare in order to prepare for future service in the empire's navigation and trade.
The civil servants were very surprised by this. They did not expect that His Majesty the Emperor would agree to the two foreign relatives' behavior of rebuilding the shipyard. In their view, the two foreign relatives were trying to make money from the court. In addition, the civil servants also passed Research on the recent behavior of Zhang Heling and Zhang Yanling revealed that the real intention of these two relatives was to verify an unrealistic conjecture, that is, to prove that the earth is spherical.
"Have you heard that Zhang Yanling, the Marquis of Jianchang, established the Ming Dynasty Maritime Association, and he was trying to attract the officials and gentry to invest money for them to complete a feat. He said that he wanted to prove that the earth is spherical, and that he wanted to start from the Ming Dynasty. Keep going and see if you can finally return to Daming! ”
"Don't you know that Zhang Yanling led a group of people from the Capital University to establish this association, saying that it was to inherit the legacy of Sanbao Eunuch and revive the Ming Dynasty's maritime affairs, but in fact it was just an opportunity to make money. The official of the Ministry of Science and Technology has already filed a memorial to impeach him, but His Majesty did not No Even the cabinet voted against it, and His Majesty even rewarded the Maritime Association with a hundred thousand taels of silver, saying that the royal family would also contribute to the revitalization of the Ming Dynasty Maritime Affairs! Isn't this a clear reward for the Marquis of Jianchang? "
< br>
"Although it is the royal internal funds that are being used, in the end it is taxes collected from merchants. If the emperor squanders it so wantonly and gives it to his relatives, wouldn't it hurt the people? Moreover, revitalizing the maritime industry is not a good government move. The Three Treasures of the year My father-in-law spent countless amounts of money and food during his seven voyages to the West, leaving the country poor and destitute. Your Majesty's actions are undoubtedly following Taizong's desire to bring prosperity to all countries! Your Majesty is so happy that it may not be a blessing to the country!"
Some civil servants were discussing this matter behind the scenes. In short, they were very disgusted with Zhu Houzhao's behavior of conniving and favoring his relatives. At the same time, they were also very unwilling to see Zhu Houzhao imitate Yongle and make another voyage to the West. Many of them were even worried. Zhu Houzhao therefore opened the border and then opened the sea.
For most civil servants who study Confucianism, opening up the sea and opening up the border are both behaviors that favor commerce and harm farmers, and are also inconsistent with the teachings of the saints. After all, the Ming Dynasty is already the center of the world, and it is the advantage of occupying the world. The Celestial Kingdom should not benefit or even plunder other foreign countries! Instead, we should show their kindness and make them grateful to heaven.
After all, the empire was already so powerful and rich, and there was no need to compete with some small barbarian countries for benefits. Moreover, the benefits of trade with barbarians should be given to the people, and the court did not have to occupy them. In the final analysis, there was no need to compete with the people for benefits.
However, the civil servants cannot do anything to Zhu Houzhao now. Zhu Houzhao was not willing to let Ming Dynasty become a superficial dynasty, nor was he willing to be fooled by civil servants. Therefore, now the entire civil servants and gentry group can only be forced to accept Zhu Houzhao. The transformation of empire. However, although these civil servants were reluctant in their hearts, they were very responsive on the surface. While secretly criticizing Zhang Heling's Ming Maritime Association for not doing its job properly, they also tried their best to get family members to join the Ming Maritime Association, even under the gift of Zhu Houzhao. After giving money to the Ming Maritime Society, they also rushed to donate money to the Ming Maritime Society in order to please His Majesty the Emperor.
Not only that, after more and more civil servants realized that they could not defeat the emperor Zhu Houzhao, they began to learn to cater to Zhu Houzhao. Before Zhu Houzhao even started to propose opening the sea, there were already smart civil servants who, through their keen sense of smell, first proposed to open the sea. Suggestions on setting up a municipal shipping department to open up the sea.
For example, Lin Tingxuan, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, proposed that the imperial court open the sea for trade and encourage countries in the South China Sea to visit the DPRK on the grounds that most of the poor people in Guangdong and Guangxi relied on the sea to make a living.
Although Lin Tingxuan, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, made this memorial, many courtiers scolded him, saying that he was just a sycophant trying to figure out the emperor's heart for personal achievements.
However, Zhu Houzhao was very in favor of Lin Tingxuan's idea of opening up the sea first, and allowed him to set up a shipping department in Guangdong and open the port for trade as a pilot site. At the same time, he also specially added Lin Tingxuan to be promoted to the second rank of Prince Shaobao. .
The civil servants now understand more and more that His Majesty the Emperor does not like old-fashioned officials, but likes new officials, so naturally they have begun to propose reforms.
In addition, today's entrance examination system no longer mainly requires officials to be honest, but mainly examines officials' political achievements, that is, what they have done. Therefore, officials have begun to gradually shift their main focus from managing their own reputations to manufacturing Some new achievements have come up.
Zhu Houzhao now receives many memorials about reform and eliminating disadvantages every day, but he has to admit that few of them really have practical significance for reform, but there are some that are indeed worthy of reform, and Zhu Houzhao will also give approval.
Speaking of the examination law, since the implementation of the examination law, the administration of officials in the Ming Dynasty has indeed improved a lot. Zhu Houzhao learned through Xichang's investigation that although today's civil and military officials in the court still take money and find ways to make money in their own pockets , but we did start to do some practical things.
In particular, the phenomenon that those who became officials in the past only wrote a few articles to gain some reputation or even spent money to gain connections to get important positions in the court has become much less common.
Because whether it is Zhu Houzhao's appointment, the recommendation of the Six Ministries and Nine Ministers of the Cabinet, or the recommendation of the Ministry of Personnel, the performance resume of each recommended candidate for an important official position will be examined in advance. His resume during his tenure will also be published by the Huangming Newspaper, and what political achievements he has made are It will be clear and will even be seen by the people all over the world.
Ordinary people fortunately didn't know how to read and didn't care much about it, but for the poor scholars, if a certain big shot in the court allowed a member of their family to be promoted without any political achievements, they would dare to bring the case to the emperor.
Because of this, the imperial examination law not only guaranteed the empire's tax revenue, but also greatly changed people's livelihood. Some local people-friendly officials no longer just waved their fans and took a few gentry to chant the wind and moonlight or to give gifts to the elders in the Beijing pavilion. Shang wrote longevity speeches, and began to take the initiative to build river embankments and bridges and conscientiously cut off sentences and prisons.
As a result, the emperor Zhu Houzhao and the ministers of the cabinet and other important ministers received less complimentary words and were no longer arrogant. There were even fewer instances of filial piety. As a result, the officialdom did not deteriorate as it had in the original history, since the Zhengde period and the Jiajing period. When it comes to collecting money, lower-level officials only focus on amassing money. Being an official only determines whether someone is good or bad based on how much money they make, not how good or bad they do.
It was also because of the gradual clarification of officialdom that the reform of the Ming Dynasty's border trade system and the clearing of abbots were successfully implemented. In order to get promoted, most officials had to do their best to complete the instructions of the central court.
Of course, whether it is the law of passing the examination or the reform of border towns and the clearing of land after the passing of the examination, the emperor and reformist civil servants used their power to forcefully implement it. For the vast majority of gentry groups and even honorary officials, For rulers such as nobles and feudal lords, they are unwilling to do this in their hearts.
But there is nothing we can do about it. The reason for the reform is that wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few people, which intensifies social conflicts and affects social development. The social benefit distribution system needs to be changed to make it more reasonable, so that wealth can help increase Social wealth is in the hands of people.
Thank you to book friend SHAJIA for the reward of 100 starting coins
(End of chapter)