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

Chapter 291 The First Morning Court

Zhu Houxuan's first day as regent ended simply. He just familiarized himself with the situation on the first day and would start to deal with government affairs on the second day.

The next morning, before daybreak, Zhu Houxun, who had just turned eighteen, was sleeping soundly in his bed when he heard someone knocking cautiously on his door.

Zhu Houxuan pulled the quilt over his head. He inherited some habits from before he traveled through time and became a night owl. In addition, he had too many things to deal with every day, so he went to bed in the late night and never got up so early.

But the knocking on the door was getting louder and louder, and Zhu Houxuan couldn't sleep at all...

"What's the matter?" Zhu Houxun said angrily.

"Your Highness, it's time to go to court..." Chen Hong's somewhat frightened voice came from outside the door.

Go to court? Zhu Houxuan then remembered that he was now the Prince Regent and needed to go to court on behalf of Zhu Houzhao.

When Zhu Houzhao thought that he was still enjoying himself in Xuanfu, Zhu Houxuan couldn't help but curse in his heart.

However, he quickly got out of bed and began to put on his clothes. The concubine who was serving him in the bedroom was also awakened and hurriedly got up to help Zhu Houxuan put on his clothes.

Zhu Houxuan quickly put on his clothes, yawned, and walked out of the room, only to find that his princely ceremonial guard was ready.

Everyone in the honor guard was in high spirits. After all, they were escorting the Prince Regent to court, which was a matter of honor for the family...

Many people in the team were holding lanterns. Zhu Houxuan looked up at the sky again and found that it was completely the middle of the night! Even the roosters hadn't crowed yet.

Zhu Houxuan felt helpless as he had to get up so early for a morning court session.

He sat in the carriage and suddenly felt less sleepy. He opened the curtains of the carriage and observed the street scene of the capital city in the early morning.

There were not many people on the streets of the capital at this time. Lanterns kept appearing and gathering on the streets. These were people who were going to attend the morning court, and they were gathering at Chengtian Gate.

When these people saw Zhu Houxun's ceremonial procession, they quickly made way for it and then looked at it with complicated eyes.

Zhu Houzhao also saw many people riding in sedan chairs, all of whom were officials of the third rank or above.

In the early Ming Dynasty, officials were not allowed to ride in sedan chairs to attend court. Neo-Confucianists believed that riding in sedan chairs was bad and was like using people like animals. But after the death of Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di, no one cared about this anymore. More and more officials violated the rule, and later it was simply stipulated that officials of the third rank and above could ride in sedan chairs to attend court.

Officials of the sixth and seventh ranks also rode in sedan chairs, but they did not go to court.

The court officials came to the city gate to check their badges before entering. The city gate was blocked by a crowd of people, and the military guarding the city gate left a special gate for Zhu Houxuan to enter, so that Zhu Houxuan's ceremonial guard could enter quickly.

Countless court officials saluted Zhu Houxuan. They felt it was very fresh that the Prince Regent entered the palace to attend court like them.
During the journey, Zhu Houxuan had many feelings. Today's court session reminded him of his days as a social animal in Beijing before he traveled through time. He also went to work every day, just like today's court session.

It has been seven or eight years since Zhu Houxuan traveled through time. Although he has worked a lot during these seven or eight years, his working hours are extremely flexible and depend entirely on his mood.

This is the first time that the morning court is scheduled so early and so rigidly.

As soon as Zhu Houxuan entered the imperial city, Wei Bin, the eunuch in charge of the Imperial Household Department, and a number of other eunuchs were already waiting at the door.

After meeting Zhu Houxuan, Wei Bin hurriedly followed Zhu Houxuan's carriage.

Zhu Houxuan kept observing his surroundings and gradually felt that something was wrong. There were too many officials attending the court meeting today! Even some low-ranking officials came to attend the morning court. It was simply inexplicable.

He told Wei Bin about this question. Wei Bin smiled and explained: "Today is the first time that Your Highness attends the court as the Prince Regent. I guess the Censorate and the Honglu Temple are checking more strictly to avoid too many civil and military officials being absent from the court. They want to leave a good impression on Your Highness."

"Can you be absent from the morning court?" Zhu Houxuan asked in surprise.

Wei Bin laughed softly and said, "On a certain day in August of the fifteenth year of the Hongzhi reign, a total of 1,160 people did not come to court, which made the late emperor furious."

Zhu Houxuan was speechless for a moment. More than a thousand people were absent from the morning court session. How many officials should have attended the meeting?

The main reason was that Zhu Yuanzhang was too capable. He abolished the position of prime minister, resulting in the court having no one in charge, and everything had to be resolved through court meetings.

In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, no matter how big or small the matter was, it had to be decided by the emperor. Every morning court session, everyone from the six ministers to the ninth-rank officials, and even the lower-ranking clerks, had to attend the morning court session. Even if the imperial guards caught thieves, they had to drag them before the emperor and hand them over to Zhu Yuanzhang for personal punishment.

After passing through the Meridian Gate and waiting for the court outside the Jinshui Bridge, Zhu Houxuan looked around and was immediately stunned. Under the moonlight, he saw densely packed heads, just like the temple fairs on the first and fifteenth days of the lunar month.

According to a rough estimate, there may be nearly two thousand officials attending the court.

The Fengtian Hall could certainly accommodate them, but it would be too crowded. Therefore, minor officials and clerks could only stand in the square to attend court.

Seeing all this, Zhu Houxuan felt speechless for a while, because he had seen the "script" of today's court meeting in advance yesterday.
Only five issues were discussed at the morning court, all of which had been handled by the cabinet ministers and had clear opinions on how to deal with them.

what does this mean?
This morning court is just a formality!
There is really no need for such court meetings. It would not have any impact if the emperor did not attend court for decades.

It is such a waste of life to wake up so many officials in the middle of the night and use them as background for court meetings.

As a result, more and more officials were absent from work, and not attending court meetings became the norm. No wonder there was an emperor who didn't attend court for thirty years. It was better not to attend this kind of morning meeting.

Zhang Juzheng is really awesome. This bad habit has continued for more than a hundred years. Everyone knows that it is a waste of time and useless, but no one dares to reform it from the institutional level.

Only Zhang Juzheng dared to take drastic measures and changed the daily morning court to the 3rd, 6th and 9th morning court sessions, meaning there were only nine morning court sessions per month.

Anyway, after seeing the current situation of the morning court, Zhu Houxuan began to think about reforming it.

The morning court officially began.

First, the drum band played music, then the officials from the Honglu Temple announced the entry of the class, and then they performed the ceremony and reported on the matter.

There is no exact time for the morning court session. It officially begins when the sky starts to get light.

Zhu Houxun was not qualified to sit on the dragon throne in the Fengtian Hall, so a table and a chair were placed on the royal platform where the dragon throne was placed. As the prince regent, Zhu Houxun sat there and listened to the matters that had been handled by the cabinet yesterday - there was even a script in front of him, with all the lines prepared.

Liu Kai, the Minister of the Honglu Temple, was the first to step forward and said, "Your Majesty, King Yi Ye of Joseon has sent Liang Shuang, the Minister of Justice, and others to present gifts to the emperor."

Zhu Houxuan immediately responded with the line: "Give him a reward."

Most of these two chapters were written by me on my mobile phone on the high-speed train. I was too tired these two days. I wanted to write one more chapter and then go to bed, but I was too sleepy, so I set the alarm and prepared to get up around five o'clock tomorrow morning to write a chapter.

Finally, I know I owe two more chapters.

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(End of this chapter)