I am the prince of the Ming Dynasty, I don't give up

Chapter 289 The First Thing After Regent
The cabinet ministers discussed for a long time and finally came to the conclusion that they should send an envoy first to see if they could persuade Zhu Houzhao to come back.

When the messenger caught up with Zhu Houzhao, Zhu Houzhao had already passed through Juyong Pass and arrived in Xuanfu. At this time, there was no obstruction from Zhang Qin, the imperial censor in charge of border patrol. Zhu Houzhao passed Juyong Pass smoothly and sent Gu Dayong to garrison Juyong Pass.

Zhu Houzhao was dismissive of the envoys sent by the cabinet. He had been in the capital for a long time, and this was the first time he saw the scenery outside the Great Wall. As soon as he arrived, he felt extremely free. He liked the feeling of the Great Wall very much and developed a strong interest in the frontier.
So he directly sent the envoy back and asked them to inform the cabinet ministers to execute the imperial edict he left behind.
After receiving the news brought back by the envoy, the cabinet ministers were all numb.
The cabinet ministers began to discuss the issue of Prince Jing's regent again. This time they deliberately expanded the scope of the meeting and also pulled in the Nine Ministers. After all, if anyone had to take the blame in the end, everyone would share it.

When the highest-ranking civil servants of the Ming Dynasty gathered together for a heated discussion, the final conclusion was to let Prince Jing serve as regent.

In fact, the civil officials had complicated feelings towards Zhu Houchun, and letting Zhu Houchun serve as regent did not mean to express support for him.

In the view of most civil officials, it was not a good thing for Zhu Houxuan to become the Prince Regent.

In their view, no matter how outstanding Zhu Houxuan was, he could not become Zhu Houzhao's crown prince due to the clan law. In addition to blood reasons, if Zhu Houxuan wanted to become the crown prince, he had to become Xiaozong's stepson, which meant that Zhu Houxuan had to abandon his biological father and mother.

In a society that advocates filial piety, this behavior is despised by most people. It carries the bad reputation of being unfilial and selling one's relatives for fame. Even if he becomes the crown prince, he will not get the support of the civil officials and will not be able to succeed to the throne with such a bad reputation.
Someone may mention Jiajing again. In history, after Zhu Houzhao passed away, Yang Tinghe chose Zhu Houcong to succeed him. He originally wanted to adopt Zhu Houcong under the name of Xiaozong, making him Xiaozong's son, first the heir and then the successor.
At that time, Zhu Houcong first received the support of the civil officials, who took the initiative to promote the adoption of the emperor to Emperor Xiaozong. Zhu Houcong only needed to accept it passively, and his reputation would not be affected too much. Although a series of problems arose later due to various reasons, this was the original plan of the civil officials.

But Zhu Houxun does not have the support of civil officials now, and it is impossible for his distant bloodline to get the support of civil officials. He can only take the initiative to do all this, and then his reputation will be completely ruined.

Therefore, in the eyes of the civil servants, Zhu Houxuan, who was destined not to become emperor, would be envied by the new emperor after his experience as regent.

The second point is that after becoming the Prince Regent, he has to do things. Before that, Zhu Houxuan had been in charge of carrying out work in the Royal Group. The Royal Group belongs to a separate system. The outside world will not know what Zhu Houxuan did or what mistakes he made.

But being a Prince Regent is different. You have to work in the court system. If you don't do anything, you won't make mistakes. If you do something, you will make mistakes. As long as you make mistakes, you will naturally be criticized.
The reason why the Donglin Party in the late Ming Dynasty became stronger and stronger was because they held the belief that if they did nothing, they would not make mistakes. Not only did they not do anything themselves, but they also criticized several people in the court who were capable of doing things.
Finally, some civil officials still have some small thoughts. If we were to say who controls the most wealth in the Ming Dynasty, it would definitely be Zhu Houxuan.
In the past, Zhu Houchun was a vassal of the royal family, and civil officials did not dare to have any contact with him, for fear of being implicated in the vassal policy. But it was different after Zhu Houchun became the Prince Regent. Contact with Zhu Houchun was equivalent to normal official dealings. Many people were thinking about how to get more money from Zhu Houchun. After all, only with money can one have the confidence to do things and achieve political achievements.

It was precisely because of this series of reasons that the cabinet did not reject the imperial edict, but sent someone to deliver the imperial edict to King Jing.
Zhu Houxuan was completely unaware of all this.

When Zhu Houxuan received the imperial edict, he was also confused. After hearing the content of the edict, he was even more horrified. He was already considering whether to accept the edict.

Because Zhu Houxuan thought this was a test. In fact, Zhu Houxuan felt that this time Zhu Houzhao was testing whether he dared to rule the country.

When Zhu Houxuan was hesitating, Zhu Houzhao's messenger brought a message from Xuanfu, in which Zhu Houzhao asked Zhu Houxuan to accept the gift he left behind.
After a long period of consideration, Zhu Houxuan decided to accept the imperial edict and become the Prince Regent, because he felt that this was Zhu Houzhao paving the way for his future.

After making this decision, Zhu Houxuan went to the imperial city with the imperial edict and a full set of princely ceremonial equipment.

He went straight into the Palace of Heavenly Purity, but of course he went through the side door. The reason for going to the Palace of Heavenly Purity was that the seal of the emperor was placed in the Palace of Heavenly Purity, which was the object that he needed to take special care of when he was the regent. The Palace of Heavenly Purity was also where the emperor handled government affairs on a daily basis, but Zhu Houxuan was not qualified to sit in the main seat. There was already an extra set of tables and chairs in the Palace of Heavenly Purity, which was where he handled government affairs.

After Zhu Houxuan verified the emperor's seal, the eunuchs brought in piles of memorials.

Zhu Houxuan was about to sit down and start reading the memorial when he found Zhang Yong running in breathlessly.

"Eunuch Zhang, didn't you go to Xuanfu with the emperor?" Zhu Houxuan asked in surprise.

"I live in Xuanfu, and I came to the capital for an urgent matter."

"What's the matter?"

"Your Highness is already the Prince Regent. Please use the Emperor's seal here." Zhang Yong took out an imperial edict and said.

Zhu Houxuan took it and opened it. He almost vomited blood. He saw the following words written on it:

"The Emperor, by the Will of Heaven, decrees:

While I was in charge of government affairs, I heard that there was a remarkable man named Zhu Shou among the people who was both talented and virtuous, proficient in military tactics, and both civil and military. He was comparable to Bai Qi and Wang Jian in the distant past, and Di Qing and Yue Fei in the recent past. He was a rare general in the world.

I am very pleased and specially appoint Zhu Shou as the mighty general, commander-in-chief of the nine towns, and governor-general of military affairs to commend his achievements.

Admire this. "

"What is this?" Zhu Houxun looked at Zhang Yong with an unfriendly expression. Of course he knew who Zhu Shou was. Zhu Houzhao's bragging about himself really left him speechless.

"After the emperor arrived in Xuanfu, he was ready to reorganize the military affairs of the border towns, but he felt it was quite inconvenient to act, and he left the imperial seal in the capital. The emperor said that if the name is not right, then the words will not be smooth, so this imperial edict was issued to correct the name," Zhang Yong said helplessly. He also felt that this matter was outrageous.

Zhu Houxuan was even more speechless. What a good way to justify his reputation! This was the first thing he encountered when he first became regent. It really put him on the spot!
Still writing, still writing
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(End of this chapter)