Emperor Zhengde

Chapter 225 No! Your Majesty!

Xue Fengming left Wang Hua's mansion. He knew that from today on, he and his mentor had completely broken off!
Xue Fengming naturally knew that if he followed the imperial court's policies, he could become a high-ranking official in a few years thanks to his status as a student of the Prime Minister.

However, Xue Fengming could not bring himself to abandon Confucianism and become a jester, nor could he tolerate the Emperor and those dignitaries who held power in the court sacrificing the interests of the gentry class for their own benefit.

Like Xue Fengming, Dai Guan, the head of the Ministry of Revenue, could not accept the court's attempt to gain the glory of expanding territory at the expense of the interests of the gentry, and hoped to solve the problem of refugees in this way.

Dai Guan was from Changshu, Southern Zhili, and also from a prominent gentry family in Jiangnan. However, after learning from his family's letters that a large number of tenants had fled and the income had dropped sharply, he also knew that it was due to the abolition of the road permit system and the booming business. Therefore, he dared to submit a memorial to the emperor to report seven things.

"Brother Qizhui, please tell the Lord that I will not go to see him. I will go directly to the Emperor. From now on, I am not a disciple of Liu Cifu, and I am ashamed to be his disciple!"

Dai Guan said as he looked at Tu Biaojia, the official who came to entrust him with instructions on the orders of Liu Yu, the second assistant of the Cabinet.

"Brother Zhangfu (wearing a crown and using the courtesy name Zhangfu)! Why do you have to do this? My teacher is thinking about you. Do you know what you are doing now? You are going against the trend! This is disobeying His Majesty! My teacher has not abandoned you now. It is because he is kind and generous. Yet you are so disrespectful to him! Do you know what you are doing now?"

The official surnamed Tu started to question.

"Heaven, Earth, the Emperor, Parents, and Teachers are the righteousness of Heaven and Earth. Dai is ashamed to recognize him as his teacher! Liu Yu is just a mediocre minister who only knows how to curry favor with the Emperor. He holds a high position, but he allows Your Majesty to be the enemy of the gentry of the world and advises you. This is disloyalty!

He even took advantage of his important position in the cabinet to instigate his family members to engage in business and mining to make huge profits, causing people to be displaced and fields to become barren. This is unrighteous!
Such a disloyal and unrighteous person! Why would I, Dai, recognize him? "

Dai Guan also shouted loudly.

Seeing this, the official surnamed Tu had no choice but to turn away.

Liu Yu was also very angry when he knew this. He slammed the table and shouted, "Okay! Then he can no longer recognize me as his teacher!"

Liu Yu shouted and then sat back down angrily, thinking to himself:

"Your Majesty has already said that inviting investment and mining in border towns is conducive to achieving the goal of settling immigrants in the border areas, is a favorable measure to eliminate border troubles, and is beneficial to creating a peaceful and prosperous era. How can it be an unjust act?

Since your Majesty ascended the throne, there has been no eunuch dictatorship, the power of the cabinet has been strengthened, civil officials have been exempted from the ritual of kneeling and reporting, and you have repeatedly increased rice and gold and silver rewards. How can this be considered an enemy of the gentry? Why should I advise against it? "

Through the Western Factory, Zhu Houzhao saw all these actions of the officials. He knew that this was a series of contradictions that were bound to arise after he joined forces with a group of powerful people to develop industry and commerce. The contradiction was the contradiction between the traditional gentry group and his own bureaucratic capitalists in the competition for human resources.

Zhu Houzhao looked at Dai Guan in front of him and wanted to say something, but then he thought that there was really no need for him to say anything to this head of the Ministry of Revenue, so he said:

"Forget it, you can leave now! Send an order to the Tongzhengsi that from now on, all memorials submitted by officials, except for those submitted by the ministers, governors-general, provincial governors, provincial governors, and the six departments, will no longer be submitted to the cabinet, and their memorials will no longer be accepted! At the same time, an imperial decree is issued to the world that the people of the Ming Dynasty can discuss politics, but they must do so in an orderly manner. From now on, the Tongzhengsi will select a group of councilors every five years, and the personnel will be approved by the cabinet and me. The Tongzhengsi will hold a political meeting every five years.

These councillors can raise political issues at the council meeting, and I will listen to them and select those who are useful to use!"

"Next year, the tenth year of Zhengde, will be the first session of the Council of State, which will be presided over by the Tongzhengsi. From now on, the Tongzhengsi will not be affiliated with the Cabinet, but will be under my direct jurisdiction like the Censorate, the Ministry of Justice, the Cabinet, and the Privy Council of the Imperial Guards."

Zhu Houzhao said this and threw the remonstrance of Dai Guan, the head of the Ministry of Revenue, in front of him:

"Take your memorial back yourself. If you have any objections to the government, you can raise them when the Council convenes next year. However, the prerequisite is that the Ministry of Public Administration will select you as a councilor. Remember to do your job well. I don't need to tell you this. Your superior should tell you this. But since I have met you, I will give you a reminder. If you don't do your job well, someone will naturally hold you accountable and remove you from your position!"

Zhu Houzhao simply ignored Dai Guan and instructed Wang Qiong, the Grand Secretary of the Cabinet:
"Divide all memorials into different categories. Anything that does not involve the official's duties will be rejected. From now on, the cabinet will only deal with practical matters and formulate political plans!

This will naturally be more efficient. You don't have to spend energy explaining every policy of the court. Instead, each ministry will appoint a spokesperson to explain the specific policies. He will be given the title of chief and will be responsible for explaining them to the people. Your cabinet should also appoint a spokesperson!
I was wondering why you are so busy every day, but you don’t get much work done. You spend most of your time reviewing and responding to the government documents of officials, so you don’t have much time to do important things that benefit the people.”

Zhu Houzhao said this and asked Wang Qiong to take action.

"Yes, I obey your order!"

Wang Qiong was confused. He didn't understand what the emperor was thinking. He thought the emperor would question Dai Guan, or even scold him, and explain the benefits of the court's current policies through scolding. Then Dai Guan might still be stubborn, angering the emperor, and eventually be executed or demoted by the emperor.

However, Wang Qiong never expected that the events would develop into His Majesty suddenly issuing an order for the Ministry of Public Administration to prepare to host a political council next year, which would be held once every five years. This made him very confused. He wondered what the seven matters of admonition had to do with it. It did not seem to mean prohibiting scholars from discussing state affairs at will, but it seemed a little different from the current political council.

Although Wang Qiong was suspicious in his heart, he appeared to be obediently following Zhu Houzhao's instructions. He picked out some memorials that were not related to practical affairs, and had them all sent back to the Ministry of Public Administration as instructed by Zhu Houzhao. At the same time, he only dealt with memorials that were related to practical affairs.

Wang Qiong had to admit that this method was indeed much more efficient, and he didn't have to go to great lengths to explain to all the officials and gentry why the government was run in this way and blame them.

Dai Guan was dumbfounded. He came here with the determination to die. He thought that the emperor would scold him loudly, and he could take this opportunity to speak out again. Even if he could not make the emperor change his mind, he could let the emperor see the determination of his civil servants and gentry.

However, what Dai Guan did not expect was that although the emperor summoned him and was indeed furious at first, he was now very calm and simply ignored him, and even only spoke to Wang Qiong, the Grand Secretary of the Cabinet.

What Dai Guan had not expected was that the Emperor actually asked the Tongzhengsi to preside over a political council, and rejected most of the political memorials submitted by the Tongzhengsi to the Cabinet, which were submitted by officials and gentry from all over the country. Moreover, they were rejected without any reply. This made Dai Guan realize that the Emperor was no longer going to let the literati and officials influence the government, so he fell to the ground and cried: "Your Majesty, this is not right! You can't block the channels for speech! Not approving memorials is a loss of virtue as a monarch!"

Zhu Houzhao's perspective had changed. He was too lazy to pay attention to the memorials and advice from the censors and officials. He didn't even want to get angry and kill them. In Zhu Houzhao's eyes, these were just the nonsense of the Ming Dynasty trolls who could be ignored. So Zhu Houzhao chose to throw away all of these memorials and let the cabinet handle the real business. However, in order to show respect for the people's (currently mainly scholars) right to participate in politics, he could give these trolls a chance to talk nonsense, but he, the emperor, and the cabinet could not have time to listen to the nonsense of the Ming Dynasty civil servants every day. It could only be once every five years. Moreover, it was impossible for him to listen to everyone's nonsense. He could only choose a few representatives.

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(End of this chapter)