Chapter 285 I actually didn’t think it was that complicated
Zhu Houzhao looked at Liu Yu's lonely figure and just smiled lightly. He couldn't bear that a chief minister of the cabinet would be so unenterprising, speculative, and only care about the interests of his own family.
Liu Yu's mind was still blank until he walked out of the palace. After thinking about it for a long time when he returned home, he suddenly realized: "I felt the wrong pulse of Your Majesty. Alas, one mistake will lead to eternal hatred. Liu Yu, Liu Yu, you are too young." Look, your majesty, your majesty asked the eldest son of the emperor to study government affairs not really to make him a prince, but to test the officials!"
anyway.
The news of Liu Yu's dismissal spread like wildfire.
Wang Qiong, the second minister of the cabinet, was also writing a memorial to invite the crown prince. When he heard that Liu Yu had been dismissed, he quickly burned the memorial and sighed in his heart: "Fortunately, I was a step too slow!"
then.
Wang Qiong became the chief minister of the cabinet just like that.
When Zhu Houzhao summoned Wang Qiong, he specifically asked: "Wang Qing, have you written a memorial recently to invite the establishment of a prince?"
"Your Majesty, I have no idea. The establishment of a prince is a family matter for your Majesty. I dare not ask about it. Besides, your Majesty is in the prime of his life and the princes are still young. It is too early to discuss this matter." Wang Qiong endured the pain of being burned on his feet and said.
"I heard that water leaked out of your study. What was the reason? Did anyone get hurt?" Zhu Houzhao asked pretending to be curious.
"The child accidentally fell into the water while playing. No one was hurt. Thank you for your concern," Wang Qiong replied.
Zhu Houzhao nodded, smiled slightly, and did not ask any more questions. He only ordered: "Now that you have succeeded as the chief assistant, you should do things well, innovate and eliminate shortcomings, and you cannot speculate and make small calculations like Liu Yu. Do you understand?"
"I understand! I must remember your Majesty's instructions!" Wang Qiong hurriedly replied.
Wang Qiong is now secretly glad that she did not submit the memorial to the emperor before Liu Yu to establish the prince and avoided the fate of being dismissed. She is also secretly glad that she will directly become the chief minister because of this.
After Zhu Houzhao made Wang Qiong the first assistant, he added Yang Yiqing to the cabinet, and Wang Shouren took over Yang Yiqing's position to control the three sides.
Gui E served as Minister of War.
"Your Majesty, this is the record of the conversation between Zhang Cong and Yan Song that was just reported by Xichang. Zhang Cong said that this time His Majesty demoted Liu Yu and promoted Wang Shouren to avoid contact between several officials who had joint ventures with the royal family and the eldest son of the emperor. Otherwise, He will not promote Yang Yiqing to the cabinet and let Gui E go to Beijing to be the Minister of War. "
At this time, Zhang Zhong, the new governor of Xichang, reported to Zhu Houzhao about the news that Xichang had found among the officials, and Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but smile bitterly after hearing this:
"I never thought it would be so complicated. Liu Yu was ordered to retire because he was not enterprising and was too opportunistic. My chief minister of the Ming Dynasty cannot be such a selfish official! Wang Shouren is because he has always been good at martial arts. Bian Town cannot lack a handsome man. After Yang Yiqing came to Beijing, he was just the one to fill it. Besides, Yang Yiqing is not young now. He has led troops in Bian Town for many years. After returning to Beijing, he will be able to train for me at the military training school!"
Zhu Houzhao was naturally not explaining it to Zhang Zhong, but to himself. He swore that he really thought so and that he was never thinking about guarding against anyone. Even if he wanted to guard against someone, he didn't think so deeply about it. I never felt that I was a master of maneuvering. It was obvious that the officials under me were over-interpreting my actions.
Zhang Zhongke did not think that the officials below were over-interpreting Emperor Zhu Houzhao's behavior.
Even when he returned to his palace outside the palace, Zhang Zhong was still enjoying the massage from his confidant Landie, while saying: "The ancestors are right, our current Majesty is really difficult to figure out. On the surface, he pretends not to be an emperor, and always explains and analyzes in a condescending manner, as if he only cares about the people of the world, but the emperor’s mind is very deep.”
"Even Zhang Butang and Yan Butang could see that he was deliberately demoting and promoting several officials with plutocratic backgrounds who might be allied with the emperor's eldest son, just to prevent the emperor's eldest son from colluding with the plutocrats, but he still denied it. On the surface, he was a father to his son. Xiao, in fact, has been making plans secretly for a long time! ”
"Otherwise, how could it be His Majesty? Master, you have to be extremely careful when doing things in front of His Majesty. As the saying goes, accompanying a king is like accompanying a tiger. It is not unreasonable. But from my perspective, Master, there is no need for you to work so hard. , why fight for that vanity!”
Landie advised. "How do you understand my thoughts? People like us, without that thing, what else can we pursue besides becoming the head of the inner court?" Zhang Zhong sighed and said.
"Look what you said, Master. Although you don't have that thing, the slave family is still willing to follow you. That thing is not as hard as a wooden stick. Don't look at it. Even though the princes of the Manchu Dynasty have it, it is almost the same as nothing. It’s okay to be discouraged within three to five seconds!”
When Lan Die said this, Zhang Zhong couldn't help but laugh.
And this Landie also took advantage of Zhang Zhongxi's smile and said: "Actually, it is easy for me to please your majesty. What your majesty is most afraid of now is not other people, but the aging of people. Since Mr. Jiao Ge and Liu After the father-in-law left, His Majesty only wanted to live a long life. I'm afraid it's even stronger! It's not just about longevity, I'm afraid that in the future, Your Majesty will still want to be as strong as a boy. Although you are different from them, you should know that men care about abilities in that area, sometimes more than women. Still care.”
Hearing what Lan Die said, Zhang Zhong also suddenly realized: "You are really my female Zhuge! There is no emperor in the world who does not want to live long, especially our Majesty who first conquered Mongolia and then occupied Nanyang! Immortality is naturally impossible. Yes, but there is no guarantee that Your Majesty will not believe it. The so-called concern is chaos!”
The more Zhang Zhong thought about it, the more he thought this was a good idea. Of course, he didn't really hope that Zhu Houzhao would live a hundred years or even become immortal. He wanted to gain Zhu Houzhao's respect and trust with this. He even wished that Zhu Houzhao would die early after taking the elixir of immortality. At that time, even if you blame him, you won't be able to blame him. After all, it was His Majesty the Emperor who ate it himself.
Zhu Houzhao didn't know that Zhang Zhong was looking for the elixir of life and other medicines for him. He was now trying his best to play the role of a father, patiently talking to the emperor's eldest son Zhu Zailei about his thoughts.
Of course, Zhu Houzhao did not intend to just educate Zhu Zailei personally. He planned to teach these princes one by one to learn to think proactively, learn to understand what they want, and know how to enjoy certain privileges that this society has given you while also giving you Some kind of special responsibility.
"Father, I don't understand why you dismissed Liu Shoukui from his position. I heard from the gentleman in the palace academy that Liu Shoukui is very honest and never accepts money from others. This shows that he is a good official!"
After spending an hour with Zhu Houzhao every day, Zhu Zailei has now learned to actively communicate with Zhu Houzhao. Now he takes the initiative to ask Zhu Houzhao about Liu Yu's dismissal.
Zhu Houzhao didn't hide it, and just said: "Liu Yu is an upright official, but you know, although he is an upright official, he is not a poor official. He gets millions of silver dollars in dividends from major companies and banks every year. He He was one of the ministers who invested money in your father, and now he has become one of the richest plutocrats in the Ming Dynasty! ”
"But he also knows that all his income is due to his father. In other words, it is all given to him by his father. Naturally, his father can take it back at any time, and the future emperor can also use his wealth at any time. Take it back, so he doesn’t dare to make any mistakes, let alone corruption, even if he goes to court, he doesn’t dare to be late, for fear of angering our royal family and making his Liu family become impoverished in an instant, just like the Kong family is now!"< br>
"That's why he is so eager to persuade me to make you the crown prince! Look at the memorial he wrote to persuade me to make you the crown prince!"
After Zhu Houzhao said that, Zhu Zailei followed Zhu Houzhao's instructions and picked up a previous memorial from Liu Yu. After reading it, he couldn't help but blush:
"Father, what Liu Shoufu said are all lies! My son is not talented and smart, and he is not respectful and polite. He actually doesn't know what he is like, but he is not as good as what Liu Shoufu said. Besides, my son I haven’t even spoken to him. How did he know that Erchen was so good? Why did he praise Erchen so much?”
"Because he wants you to be the future emperor of our Ming Dynasty, and if he wants you to be the emperor, he must be good enough! You should understand now why he wants to persuade me to let you be the prince, right?" Zhu Houzhao asked with a smile.
Zhu Zailei thought for a while and replied: "He wants to keep his family business!"
"That's right! But I, the Chief Assistant of the Ming Dynasty, can't think about protecting my family business. My heart, the Chief Assistant of the Ming Dynasty, can only be focused on the emperor and the people! Otherwise, the internal affairs of the Ming Dynasty will only be destroyed. Chaebol control! ”
When Zhu Houzhao said this, Zhu Zailei nodded as if he had some understanding. He was now more and more aware that everyone showed kindness to him and was willing to bow to him, not because he was good enough, but because he might one day sit on his father's throne. The emperor's position.
Zhu Zailei began to actively think about the question Zhu Houzhao had asked him, that is, whether he wanted to be emperor.
Zhang Zhong saw the emperor's eldest son Zhu Zailei coming out of Hanbi Hall and hurriedly greeted him: "Your Highness! Old slave, I have something to tell you!"
Zhang Zhong told Zhu Zailei that he hoped that Zhu Zailei would show more filial piety in front of Zhu Houzhao and say more auspicious words about longevity in Nanshan, but Zhu Zailei only asked Zhang Zhong after Zhang Zhong finished speaking. : "Zhang Dayan, tell me why you want me to be the emperor?"
Zhang Zhong was really stunned by this question for a moment. He couldn't help but wonder why he wanted you to be the emperor. Shouldn't it be that you also want to be the emperor?
But Zhang Zhong couldn't answer like this, so he only replied: "Because I believe that among the princes of the Ming Dynasty, only Your Highness is the most talented and the most worthy of the great responsibility. Moreover, you are the eldest son of the Queen. You are the eldest son of the Queen." You are the most qualified to be the emperor. Even the Confucian officials outside think so. You are the only one who is legitimate to be the emperor. Otherwise, Liu Shoufu would not persuade His Majesty to make you the crown prince!"
(End of chapter)