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

Chapter 590 The Beginning of a New Dynasty
"Your Highness, we, the ministers, are not talented and knowledgeable enough. Please propose a reign title yourself!" Yang Tinghe couldn't help but stand up and speak when he saw that the reign titles were rejected one after another.

"Yes! Your Highness, please draft it yourself." All the ministers also said.

Zhu Houxuan pondered for a moment. This matter still required him to make the final decision. He suddenly thought of a suitable reign title.

"Republic!" Zhu Houxuan raised his head and looked at the ministers and said, "What do you think of the reign title 'Republic'?"

Republic?

Everyone present looked at each other, not understanding why Zhu Houxuan used this reign title.

However, there were many well-informed and knowledgeable people present, and they quickly thought of the origin of the word "republic".
Yan Shigu of the Tang Dynasty commented on "Gong Bohe" in "Han Shu·Table of Ancient and Modern People": "Gong is the name of a country; Bo is a title; He is the name of Gong Bo. Gong is pronounced as Gong."

Wang Yinglin of the Song Dynasty wrote in The Study of Poetry and Geography: Gonghe: "In ancient history, Gongbohe was a wise prince during the reign of Emperor Li. All the princes went to pay homage to him, so they named the year after him, calling it Gonghe. It lasted for fourteen years before King Xuan came to power."

According to the "Jizhong Ji Nian", Gongbohe was the king, so it was called Gonghe.

To sum up, there was a Duke of Gong named He in the Zhou Dynasty, who was very famous. At that time, King Li of Zhou lost his power, and Gong Bo He took over the administration for fourteen years. These fourteen years were called the Years of Gonghe. Fourteen years later, he returned the power to King Xuan of Zhou.
The allusion of this word soon spread to everyone present in the whispers of the ministers.
The ministers all looked at Zhu Houxuan with different eyes. All the people present had been in politics for a long time, so they naturally would not think that Zhu Houxuan would want to use this reign title for no reason. There must be a deep political significance in it.

Moreover, the story of the Republic is very similar to the current situation. Zhu Houxuan was the famous "Gong Bohe" who was in charge of the administration.

Zhu Houxuan used this reign title as if to declare to the world that he would get along well with the successor, would not fight for power, and would definitely return power to the successor in the end.
Everyone took a deep breath when they thought of this. This actually made sense.
Besides the allusions, just looking at the literal meaning, the word "republic" also expresses a good meaning.
Some people with more active minds thought about things in the south, and even thought that Zhu Houxuan was using this reign title to send some message to the south.
At this time, it was no secret to the officials in the court of Beijing that the South was going to rebel. Many of them had been persuaded by the gentry in the South, but they finally stayed in the North. In a short period of time, the officials present thought a lot, and no one spoke out against this reign title.
"What do you think of the era name 'Republic'?" Zhu Houxuan asked again after seeing that the ministers had been discussing for a long time.

He naturally didn't know that his ministers had already made up a lot of things in their minds in such a short period of time. Although he had a good memory, he had never read books like "Han Shu" and naturally didn't know the allusions to the Republic.

He chose the reign title "Republic" to express the meaning that he understood in later generations. Although he knew that people of this era could not understand the deep meaning behind this word, he believed that they would eventually understand it.
"I think the reign title 'Gonghe' is a good one!" Yang Tinghe was the first to express his opinion.
With Yang Tinghe's statement, other ministers quickly followed suit and expressed their agreement.
So the new emperor’s reign title was decided - Republic!
After Zhu Zaihe ascended the throne, he worshipped his stepmother, Xia, as the Empress Dowager, with the title Gong'an; as for his biological mother, Princess Jing Liu Yourong, she was given the title Ci'an.

He also gave his biological father, Prince of Jing Zhu Houxun, a two-character title.

No one among the ministers objected to this. After all, the King of Jing had a long list of honorific titles, so it was not unacceptable for the King of Jing's wife to have an honorific title.
On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month of the first year of the Republic, Zhu Zaihe attended court to govern.

The six-year-old emperor sat in the Fengtian Hall, still wearing mourning clothes, which he had to wear for three full months.

The emperor only listened to government affairs, that is, he just sat there to pretend. The one who really asked questions about government affairs was Zhu Houxun, who made all kinds of decisions. He had lived like this for 18 years.
The first series of decisions he made were to reward officials and soldiers with silver to show the emperor's kindness. This kind of reward was mainly used to buy people's hearts.
During these days, the news of Zhu Houzhao's death gradually spread throughout the Ming Dynasty, along with the poem "沁园春·雪".
The people of the entire Ming Dynasty were immersed in sorrow. No matter what, Zhu Houzhao turned the national strength and power of the Ming Dynasty around during the Zhengde period and raised it to several levels.
The people's livelihood has also improved significantly.
Even in the south where undercurrents were surging, people preparing for rebellion could not deny Zhu Houzhao's achievements, and were willing to wear mourning for him, nor did they question his temple name.
It was the poem "沁园春·雪" that made the southern literati marvel at it but also show disdain for it, because the nominal author of this poem was Zhu Houxuan.
The southern literati started a trend of writing poems in the style of Qinyuanchun. They wanted to write a poem to overwhelm the "Qinyuanchun·Snow", but they failed in the end.
The southern poet Wen Zhengming even sighed: "I regard the poem "Qinyuanchun" by King Jing as the best song of all time. Even Su Dongpo and You An are far behind it, not to mention the short lyrics of the Southern Tang Dynasty and the slow lyrics of the Southern Song Dynasty."

As expected, the new era name caused misunderstanding among those in the south who were preparing for rebellion.
They believed that Zhu Houxuan's use of the reign title "Gonghe" was a sign of weakness and a request for peace.
In response, they actually sent envoys to Beijing to put forward conditions. The conditions were that Zhu Zaiqi must abdicate, Zhu Houxuan must give up power, and the whole family must be exiled to North America, so that the lives of the whole family could be saved.
They even think their conditions are generous.
In this regard, Zhu Houxuan could only helplessly give them one word: Get out!

However, the war will not break out immediately. After all, it is still the mourning period for Zhu Houzhao. If a war is started at this time, given Zhu Houzhao's reputation in the world, the party that takes the initiative to start the war will lose points greatly.
However, both sides knew that war was inevitable and were making intensive preparations for it.
Zhu Houxuan received bad news one after another in February. First, Yang Shen came to report that Yang Tinghe had died of illness at home at the age of 77. Then, Wang Qiong also died of illness at the age of 77.
The old and famous officials of the Zhengde era died one after another in a short period of time.
In fact, these Zhengde old ministers generally lived a few years longer than in history, because they were not excluded and attacked by Jiajing as in history. After Jiajing ascended the throne, he did not treat these Zhengde old ministers very well.
With the passing of these old ministers, the Zhengde era came to an end.
(End of this chapter)