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

Chapter 295 Civil Service and the Central Government

Villain, clique follower, deceiver, traitor.
These are the words that appear most frequently in memorials.

Zhu Houxuan finally discovered that all the important officials in the court had been impeached.
If we only look at these memorials, we can see that not a single good person is among the civil and military officials in the court.

Everyone who submitted a memorial believed that others were treacherous ministers, while he himself was loyal and selfless.

Zhu Houxuan made a simple calculation and found that these memorials impeaching others accounted for more than one-third of all memorials.
This was beyond his expectations. Was it necessary for the civil servants to put so much energy into internal struggles?

Zhu Houxuan thought about it and felt that it was probably the emergence of the Royal Group that reduced the power of the eunuchs, because the emergence of the Royal Group occupied many of the eunuchs' ecological niches. After all, handing over many things to the Royal Group was actually the best choice.

As a result, the eunuchs had fewer tasks to do, their power was reduced accordingly, and their arrogance was also reduced a lot.

Under the leadership of Zhu Houxuan, the Royal Group was relatively low-key, behaved in a more disciplined manner, engaged in industrial and commercial business, and did not get involved in politics. Therefore, the civil servants did not feel too much external threat at this stage, so they began to intensify their internal struggles.
Zhu Houxuan didn't like this kind of memorials, because they said a lot in the memorials, but they couldn't provide any solid evidence. Many of the things that supported their arguments were what they heard or imagined. Although many of them were very good, Zhu Houxuan couldn't appreciate them.
The second thing Zhu Houxuan disliked was some memorials of persuasion, because they were really empty, such as this memorial Liang Chu wrote to Zhu Houzhao to persuade him:
"Your Majesty, please focus on state affairs, listen to all sides and you will be wise. First, remove the treacherous and corrupt officials, cut off the abuses; then stay away from the villains and make wise decisions. Encourage learning and open up the imperial examinations, appoint virtuous officials; open up channels for speech and clarify the administration of officials; reduce taxes and levies, and implement benevolent policies; the monarch and his ministers will work together to achieve a revival of the country."

The words are very beautiful and very correct, but none of them are useful. They are all big talk, empty words and nonsense!
In Zhu Houxun's view, correct nonsense is the same as saying nothing!

But if you say that Liang Chu, the chief minister of the cabinet, is of low level, that is not true. Every word he says represents the interests of the civil officials.

In short, don't make a fuss and let these "wise ministers" rule the country on your behalf. You should deal with the wise ministers in person and listen to their advice to govern the country. Don't be instigated by villains to engage in war, large-scale construction, and waste people's money and labor.

It's all old tricks. This is what the wise emperors Yao and Shun did many years ago. The goal of the emperor and his ministers throughout their lives was just to return to the legendary era of the past.

After reading the memorials for two days, Zhu Houxuan was very disappointed. In his opinion, there were three problems in the memorials of the Ming Dynasty officials: widespread criticism, widespread exaggeration, and widespread empty talk.

With such an atmosphere in the court, how can the entire Ming Dynasty be good?

Zhu Houxuan suddenly understood his brother Zhu Houzhao. Given the situation in the court, it was no wonder that Zhu Houzhao set up the Leopard Room, stayed in the Leopard Room all day long, and even did not attend court meetings, starting a life of "absenteeism".

Zhu Houzhao also saw clearly that in the current political ecology of the Ming Dynasty, the emperor's diligence would not have much effect.

The best example is his father, Emperor Xiaozong Zhu Youtang. He almost met the requirements of the civil officials for a wise ruler and obeyed their orders, but the national situation of the Ming Dynasty became worse.
Zhu Houzhao's purpose in establishing the Leopard House was to set up a small central government and then try to get something done, but the quality of the talent under his command was really worrying. However, even so, some things did happen in history.

However, in this world, the appearance of Zhu Houxun completely made up for Zhu Houzhao's disadvantage in this regard.

Zhu Houxuan was actually secretly building the Royal Group in another central direction of the Ming Dynasty. Let's take a look at the departments under the Royal Group!

Ming Royal Bank, Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Heavy Industry, Ministry of Light Industry, Ministry of Coal, Ministry of Chemical Industry, Ministry of Publicity
This is still part of it, and the most important part.

From the perspective of the Ming Dynasty people today, there is nothing wrong with this organizational structure.

But if a modern person looks at this organizational structure, he will be amazed: If this is not the central government, then what is the central government? The lifeblood of the country is in their hands!

As long as it develops for a few more years or even decades, the Ming Royal Group, an industrial organization, will definitely overwhelm the Ming court, a feudal organization that mainly relies on agricultural taxes.

Zhu Houxun really felt that he had inherited a mess as regent this time. He also saw clearly that the civil servants were just occupying the toilet without doing anything.

The country's system has been deteriorating over time. They can only maintain the operation of the country based on existing experience, make various patches and patch things up. After all, their thinking is limited by the times. There are still too few people like Zhang Juzheng.
Zhu Houxuan once read a sentence in his previous life that a dynasty is actually dead when it is over a hundred years old, but is only buried in the grave when it is over two hundred years old.

Zhu Houxuan felt that this sentence was very appropriate. He felt that the Ming Dynasty was at such a stage. Counting on his fingers, the Ming Dynasty is now more than a hundred years old.
While Zhu Houxuan was reading the memorial, Liang Chu and Yang Yiqing were also discussing today's court meeting.

"What happened today is actually a good thing. There are many drawbacks in this morning court. It would be better to change it!" Yang Yiqing said.

Although not many people agreed with Zhu Houxuan's early reforms at the court meeting, many people had actually expressed their approval of these early reforms in their hearts with both hands and feet.

After all, anyone can see the irrationality of the morning court system, but no one dares to be the first to break the window paper.

Besides, no one wants to get up early every day. The emperor can get up at 5 o'clock in the palace, but the ministers have to get up at or in the morning. It's too hard.
Liang Chu didn't say anything after listening, but just nodded silently.

"His Royal Highness the Prince of Jing has always been steady and prudent. How come he suddenly became so radical?" Yang Yiqing continued.

"It's only been three days since he took over as regent. On the first day, he conferred the title of mighty general on Your Majesty. On the second day, he changed the approval process of the Imperial Household Department. On the third day, he wanted to reform the morning court system. Under normal circumstances, these things would take ten days or half a month to discuss, and there might not be any results. Now it seems that everything is about to succeed. This is simply shocking!" Yang Yiqing exclaimed.

"I didn't know that His Royal Highness the Prince of Jing would have changed so much. If anyone else were to be the regent, they would definitely not dare to do any of the three things he did in these three days. The Prince of Jing is really so bold and presumptuous," Liang Chu said, shaking his head.

"But we can also think about this matter from another angle. Maybe His Royal Highness Prince Jing doesn't want to be the regent, so he deliberately did such a shocking thing to force His Majesty to return to the capital."

(End of this chapter)