Emperor Zhengde

Chapter 209 This is what the clean civil servants should do (two in one)

Ye Zhi regretted what he said and immediately knelt down in front of Zhu Houzhao in fear.

The civil servants from the Taichang Temple present also looked at Ye Zhi in astonishment. They were all wondering why Ye Zhi suddenly called the emperor by his taboo name and spoke in such a disrespectful manner.

Zhu Houzhao also laughed in anger. He walked up to Ye Zhi and said, "Tell me, why are you so angry all of a sudden?"

Ye Zhi shivered all over, feeling a chill on his back, and said hurriedly, "Your Majesty, I just can't stand this aphrodisiac. Although the traitor is shameless, Your Majesty cannot let innocent ministers like me be implicated by him!"

After Ye Zhi forced an explanation, he smiled awkwardly at Zhu Houzhao.

Although Zhu Houzhao had not yet proven that Ye Zhi had said this, he had already suspected Ye Zhi in his heart. An official who dared to scold him, the emperor, in front of everyone showed that he had no respect for him, the emperor, or had hated him for a long time.

Zhu Houzhao believed that this was the time when Ye Zhi was most panicked and his psychological defenses were at their weakest. Therefore, after returning to the throne, Zhu Houzhao took advantage of Ye Zhi's distraction and asked casually, "Ye Zhi, what is this aphrodisiac? Is it the love potion?"

"No! It's the Heart-shaking Noodles!"

Ye Zhi replied casually, then realized that he had let the cat out of the bag. He looked around in panic and kowtowed again: "Your Majesty! I, I, I only heard it, I only heard it!"

"Ye Shaoqing! Who gave you the courage to treat His Majesty like this?"

Before Ye Zhi could continue to explain, Liu Jie, the Minister of Taichang Temple, with dark circles under his eyes due to excessive indulgence, pointed at Ye Zhi and started cursing. He was not a stupid man. Although Ye Zhi himself did not admit it at this time, he was sure that Ye Zhi was the one who secretly drugged the emperor. Therefore, he instinctively questioned Ye Zhi angrily.

After being scolded by Liu Jie, Ye Zhi couldn't come up with any lies at the moment, so he just kowtowed: "Your Majesty, I am innocent, I am innocent!"

Yang Yuanyi, the Minister of Imperial Household Department, also came over, holding the back of his chair. After bowing to Zhu Houzhao, he pointed at Ye Zhi:

"What are you accusing? You are the only one who dares to address His Majesty by his taboo name. It shows that you have long been disloyal. Now His Majesty has only asked a few questions, and all the officials in the hall do not know the name of this medicine, but you are the only one who can tell it quickly. Ye Zhi, you are unworthy of being a minister of the Ming Dynasty! I never thought you would harbor such evil intentions!"

As the saying goes, when a wall falls, everyone pushes it.

Whether it was because they didn't want to continue taking the aphrodisiac, or because they wanted to perform for Emperor Zhu Houzhao to avoid being implicated, all the civil servants from the Taichang Temple present scolded Ye Zhi. Some suggested that he be tortured to death, some suggested that his property be confiscated and his family be exterminated, and some even spat at him without paying any attention to their manners in front of the emperor.

Zhu Houzhao looked at the chaotic scene and only smiled faintly, then ordered: "Take him away and let the three judges judge his crime!"

Zhu Houzhao believed that as long as Ye Zhi's conspiracy was exposed, even if he, the emperor, did not give specific instructions, the empire's state machinery would give Ye Zhi the most severe punishment for his act of murdering the emperor and his father.

Because the current system of the Ming Empire and Confucianism are actually in principle maintaining the dignity of the emperor.

Once the crime of murdering the emperor was exposed, even if the emperor did not pursue the matter and wanted to show leniency, the ruling class of the empire would not agree. In order to maintain the monarchy, patriarchy and Confucian ethical order, such acts of insubordination would be severely punished.

The chief minister of the cabinet, Wang Hua, originally hated the officials who used such means behind the scenes, because he could not understand why, as an official in the court, as a scholar who should be determined to assist the wise monarch in governing the country, he would become a demon who wanted to turn His Majesty into a tyrant and turn the pure world into a turbid one.

But now, Wang Hua could not muster much hatred towards Ye Zhi, the Shaoqing of Taichang Temple. He understood without asking why Ye Zhi did this. As the son of Ye Qi, the former Minister of Revenue who reformed the Sino-French system and benefited Huizhou merchants all over the world, the Ye family, which could have become rich by relying on salt profits, had to bear the huge losses brought about by the reform of the salt policy. It was normal for Ye Zhi to hate the current emperor who was keen on reform.

But what Wang Hua didn't understand was why Ye Zhi, who was still a prominent family even though he had suffered great losses, would do this? Could family interests really be so great that he would disregard the safety of the country.

Wang Hua had to admit that His Majesty the Emperor Zhu Houzhao had won again this time. He was able to discover clues through his increasingly indulgent daily life. He had to admit that his emperor was indeed very meticulous, but he also had to admit that his emperor obviously never let down his guard against his civil service group.

Wang Hua, the chief minister of the cabinet, was not happy at all about this. His ideal relationship between the monarch and his subjects should not be like this. It should not be one of scheming against each other, suspicion of each other, and harming each other, but one of working together to build the country to its most prosperous era, catching up with Yao and Shun, and approaching the Han and Tang dynasties.

Zhu Houzhao never thought so in his heart. He was not targeting the entire civil service group, nor did he really want to favor his family slaves, nor did he want to be a dictator. However, a series of events told him a fact, that is, there were many people who wanted to harm him and many people who wanted to use him.

"Your Majesty, please leave!"

Wang Hua and others left the hall. Zhu Houzhao looked at them silently without saying a word. He believed that there were still idealists in the Ming Empire. He believed that as long as he, the emperor, continued to show his determination to rule the world, there would still be a group of people who were dedicated to serving the public or like-minded people who would follow him to govern the world.

Now, the problem facing Zhu Houzhao was how to prevent anyone from taking advantage of his diet. As an emperor, he naturally could not cook himself. Moreover, many people in the entire royal food supply chain relied on this supply chain to support their families. Even if he wanted to cancel it, he could not, as that would cause a large group of people to lose their means of livelihood.

But Zhu Houzhao had to prevent such a thing from happening again, so he had to issue an order that from then on, the Taichang Temple would have food tasters who would take turns tasting food in front of the emperor every morning, noon and evening, and that there would be male and female food tasters. He could not only think about his own safety as the emperor, but also the safety of the concubines in the palace. The news of Ye Zhi's death by slow slicing quickly spread throughout Beijing through major newspapers and even to major cities in the Ming Dynasty. At the same time, there were also stories about the intention to frame the emperor and make him a tyrant. Under the deliberate promotion of the Second Attendant's Office, people were all dumbfounded by this matter, and even became more disgusted with the hypocrisy and shamelessness of the literati and scholars, and denounced the selfishness of Ye Zhi and others.

So much so that in the future, even if there were unfavorable rumors about Emperor Zhu Houzhao, people would choose to doubt, wondering whether some shameless civil servants were deliberately throwing dirty water on the emperor.

The civil service group's control over public opinion is becoming increasingly weak, and as public intellectuals of the Ming Dynasty, they are often questioned even if they put forward some useful arguments.

Xia Yan did not have the energy to participate in the condemnation of Ye Zhi's behavior. He respected Emperor Zhu Houzhao very much, but he was not willing to be a minister who only knew how to sing praises for Emperor Zhu Houzhao. He had his own ideals.

He wanted the Ming Dynasty to rebuild the rule of Hong Yongxi and Xuande, and he wanted the Ming Dynasty to have the appearance of the prosperous Kaiyuan period. His favorite poem was not the first-rate "The rain from the apricot blossoms wets my clothes, the wind from the willows blows on my face without making me feel cold" nor the heroic and free and easy "A raincoat and a straw hat will protect me from the wind and rain for the rest of my life", but "Remembering the prosperous days of Kaiyuan, even small towns still housed tens of thousands of households."

Xia Yan didn't know whether the poet's words could be taken seriously, but he felt that what Emperor Zhu Houzhao said at the Imperial University of Peking was very right. The strength of an empire should not be reflected in the fact that all nations came to pay tribute, but in the fact that the common people did not suffer from hunger and cold, and that foreigners had no intention of invading.

But Xia Yan felt regretful that he did not become a people-friendly official. Because of the science he studied at the Imperial University of Peking and his own intelligence, he was appointed by Emperor Zhu Houzhao as the first head of the Ordnance Bureau.

But he did not slack off because of this. He did his job and looked at the Portuguese cannons and warships seized from the Portuguese.

Xia Yan had to admit that if the Ming Dynasty's craftsman registration system had not been abolished, if invention and creation had not been encouraged, if His Majesty had not attached importance to the skills of all craftsmen, and if the Ming Dynasty's court officials had only wanted to turn the emperor into a puppet who only knew how to offer sacrifices to heaven and listen to lectures, and if they only wanted to rely on the Four Books and Five Classics in one hand and let the people farm and pay rent with the other hand, the Ming Dynasty would probably have fallen behind the Portuguese in military equipment.

"If it weren't for Your Majesty, a small Tuen Mun naval battle might not have been so easy to win. But I think that the meat-eaters of China will not be so complacent as to not know how to learn from the barbarians to defeat them. But what I am worried about is that if there is no motivation for innovation within the Ming Dynasty, we will always learn from these barbarians. Maybe your generation and I will learn, but if we encounter a chaotic world, the end of foreign rule, will these barbarians who are better than us in skills one day also be better than us in knowledge! I think I need to take a look at the world of Western barbarians! We can't just let their missionaries come to our Ming Dynasty, while our Confucian scholars have never set foot on their land. I want to petition Your Majesty to send an envoy to Portugal!"

Xia Yan wrote this in a letter to his classmate and good friend Zhang Cong.

Without waiting for Zhang Cong's reply, Xia Yan wrote a memorial to Zhu Houzhao in the summer of the ninth year of Zhengde, requesting Emperor Zhu Houzhao's permission to allow him to go on a diplomatic mission to Western countries.

Zhu Houzhao approved Xia Yan's memorial to tour Western countries. In any case, it was always necessary to support the Ming Dynasty scholars of that era who were willing to travel more.

Wang Hua, the chief minister of the cabinet, knew that he was not as agile as his predecessors Ma Wensheng and Jiao Fang in reforming the government, but he was deeply influenced by the new things in the constitutional outline. He decided to do his utmost to establish a good relationship between the monarch and his subjects and realize true justice in the court during his tenure as the chief minister.

The cabinet chief minister Wang Hua requested permission to preside over the cabinet's first court meeting on the construction of spiritual civilization. In Wenyuan Pavilion in Wenhua Hall, he severely criticized a group of treacherous officials who opposed His Majesty for their family's private interests, and said:

"My fellow officers, as the saying goes, a civil official dies for his remonstrance, a military official dies for his battle. As civil officials, we can die for our remonstrances and for justice, but we cannot die for selfishness or disloyalty! I believe that the Cabinet, ministries, and provinces should establish a Loyalty Society to promote the idea of ​​loyalty to the emperor and the country within each government office, to prevent a group of colleagues from insulting our literati for selfishness!"

Wang Hua personally bowed to Xia Yan, the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of War, and said, "There is no shortage of capable ministers in our Ming Dynasty. Although there are selfish people like Ye Zhi who ignore loyalty and righteousness, there are also ministers like Vice Minister Xia who are willing to travel across the ocean for the sake of the world. Regardless, as court officials, we should expel the treacherous and corrupt and clean up the mess!"

Wang Hua held a very high status in the literati circle. As a result of his efforts, all his students and former officials followed suit and started this kind of spiritual civilization construction activity. Xia Yan, who was personally bowed to by Wang Hua, the prime minister, was coincidentally praised as the Zhang Qian of the contemporary era.

But no matter what, Zhu Houzhao was still very satisfied to see this. In his opinion, the clean officials were not completely useless. If they could all be as committed as Wang Hua to maintaining the imperial ruling order and correctly guiding the imperial thoughts, it would be beneficial to the country and the people.

Of course, Zhu Houzhao also knew that if Wang Hua had not made his son Wang Yangming's investment in royal industries and turned the Wang family into bureaucratic capitalists with the same interests as the royal family, he, Wang Hua, a noble and upright person, would not have become so loyal to the emperor.

However, this time the Ming Empire began to understand the Western world with an active and confident attitude.

But at this time, Alfonso, the commander of the Portuguese fleet stationed in Malacca, did not welcome the Ming Empire's sudden initiative to send an envoy to his country, because he believed that the Ming Empire's innocent occupation of Tuen Mun Island and even captured Andra and others and forcibly demanded and paid a huge amount of atonement for the crime of aggression was impolite to his country.

After learning that the Guangdong and Guangxi Navy of the Ming Dynasty occupied Tuen Mun Island and captured Andra and other Portuguese, the entire Portuguese fleet stationed in Malacca was completely shocked!

Alfonso immediately shouted that he wanted to let the Ming Dynasty know how powerful he was, and immediately prepared to send troops to attack the Ming Dynasty.

However, while Alfonso was still preparing, the Ming navy led by Fu Gui and Wang Hong had already arrived at Malacca Batam Island. This time, the Ming brought five main sailing warships, twenty hard-sailed warships and more than fifty other auxiliary ships, which was considered a large fleet in the entire South Seas.

Alfonso obviously did not have a good understanding of the strength of the Ming fleet. At that time, he had only fifteen warships stationed in Malacca and a total force of no more than a thousand people.

Not only that, under Wang Hong's coercion and inducement, the Han people such as Yang San who followed Andra and other Portuguese as interpreters had already told him the real situation in Malacca. Therefore, as soon as the Ming fleet arrived at Batam Island, Wang Hong took five main sailing warships and rushed to the anchorage of Alfonso's main fleet in Malacca.

While Alfonso was still standing on the side of the ship enjoying the quiet sea breeze, five Ming Dynasty sailing warships appeared at the end of the horizon.

(End of this chapter)