Emperor Zhengde

Chapter 240 The Power of Inertia
In the Wenyuan Pavilion next to the Wenhua Hall, Wang Hua, wearing a bright red official uniform, sat in the first seat. Looking at the civil servants in front of him, he said, "My fellow officials, perhaps you have already asked in your heart why I suddenly presided over the court meeting. The reason is simple. I just have two things to tell you."

"The first thing is about my resignation. I have decided to resign from the position of Prime Minister of the Cabinet."

After Wang Hua said this, he looked towards the officials in the hall, all of whom had a look of horror on their faces. Some were already muttering in their hearts, wondering why Wang Hua suddenly resigned from his position as Prime Minister of the Cabinet. Did he offend His Majesty?
"Don't make blind guesses. This matter has nothing to do with anyone. It's just that Wang is old and weak, unable to assist the king in governing the people, and no longer able to understand the truth of governing the country."

Wang Hua said, "Next, I have to say the second thing. After I resign, I hope that all my colleagues will be clean and diligent in government affairs from now on. Don't pretend to obey the emperor and be enemies of the people. You have seen what happened to Lu Zhaoji. Don't think that you can oppress the good just because you are an official. The Ming Dynasty still needs you to usher in a prosperous era, not because of your corruption that the people rebel."

"The world has changed now. There are more and more businessmen, more and more workers, more and more literate people, and more and more people who care about national affairs. We officials must be more cautious and honest. Otherwise, if we are forced by public opinion and commit corruption according to the system of our ancestors, we will be skinned and stuffed with straw, and we will be infamous for thousands of years!"

"In any case, Wang Hua hopes that scholars like us, since we have taken the world as our responsibility, should strive for the welfare of the people of the world," Wang Hua said, then stood up and bowed, saying, "Here, Wang Hua bids farewell to you all!"

Having said that, Wang Hua walked out of Wenyuan Pavilion and announced the end of the court meeting.

As a civil official who had personally experienced various court changes during the Zhengde reign, Wang Hua had many feelings and wanted to say something to these civil officials and literati of the same class as himself, but he seemed to be very lacking in knowledge and could not say anything. It seemed that the only thing he could remind them was to be honest and self-disciplined and to work for the benefit of the people.

Although Wang Hua did not say much in this last court meeting, the civil servants present seemed to understand what the cabinet chief Wang Hua meant. They all stood up and bowed to Wang Hua. No one stood up to say that Wang Hua should not resign, nor did anyone say that Wang Hua should have resigned earlier.

For the civil servants and literati of the entire empire, they were confused, divided, and even frightened.

The confusion comes from not knowing what it means to usher in a prosperous era and govern the world well. The division comes from the fact that everyone has begun to believe in different ideas about governing the country. The fear comes from worrying that they will be severely punished in the future for corruption or other crimes. After all, the ten clans and tortures such as skinning and stuffing with straw have all appeared in this dynasty.

After all, what will happen to the Ming Empire in the future depends on the choice of Emperor Zhu Houzhao.

All officials now only know to follow the emperor's baton. Mindless obedience is always easier to adapt to than learning after questioning, and it is also easier to obtain actual benefits and avoid possible dangers.

Therefore, the civil servants felt that no matter what, they should not go against the emperor.

Therefore, when Wang Hua asked them not to be enemies with the emperor, they all agreed in their hearts.

But in fact, Zhu Houzhao did not want all officials to obey him unconditionally like slaves. After all, he had never thought of becoming an emperor who could do whatever he wanted. His goal was to turn the Ming Dynasty into a democratic and free country.

Zhu Houzhao knew that he, as the emperor, could do whatever he wanted through violent rule. The natural rights of human beings are life, freedom, and property, and he, as the emperor, could possess them all in the Ming Dynasty. He could even deprive others of their lives, freedom, and property, and thereby make himself richer and freer, and could do whatever he wanted.

However, sooner or later you will have to pay for your actions.

Doing this will only intensify the conflict between yourself and others. If you continue to deprive others of their life, freedom and property rights, after all, these are the most basic human rights. Once you intensify this conflict, others will try every means to deal with you.

As the emperor, he had to be busy every day to maintain his violent rule, but he still lived in fear.

Zhu Houzhao was not a coward who was afraid of struggle, but he did not want to deprive others of their right to life, freedom, and legal property. After all, he was a civilized man who traveled through time from modern times, not a barbarian who traveled through time from primitive society.

What's more, people have natural rights such as life, freedom, and property, and they also have their own social obligations.

As an emperor, Zhu Houzhao also has his own responsibilities. He will not just enjoy his rights without shouldering the responsibilities of an emperor.

Zhu Houzhao admitted that he had taken overly extreme measures in the beginning because he was facing the suppression of the monarch by civil officials, but he did not regret it. To deal with barbarism, one must use barbaric means. If barbaric forces appear in the future, he will still raise his butcher knife.

But this does not mean that he will give up on establishing order in the civilized world.

Zhu Houzhao respected Wang Hua's choice to resign.

At the same time, Zhu Houzhao also chose Liu Yu as the chief minister of the cabinet in accordance with established practice.

As usual, Liu Yu recommended Wang Qiong as the deputy assistant and Kang Hai to join the cabinet to participate in the maintenance work.

Whether it is Emperor Zhu Houzhao or the top civil servants of the empire, they still seem to follow the inherent conventions to exercise their power to ensure the fairness of the distribution of power in the empire. According to modern civilization, human rights are endowed by nature, and sovereignty lies with the people. The state as a political system should be elected by the people, and it is the people who give the state the power to manage themselves.

In other words, the Prime Minister, an official who may have the highest administrative power in the empire, should be elected and appointed by the people.

However, the Ming Dynasty did not have such an election system, or even such awareness. The chief minister of the cabinet was appointed by the emperor, and even the chief minister's highest administrative power was granted by the emperor.

However, as an emperor, Zhu Houzhao found it difficult to know which prime minister of the cabinet was the one that truly met the people's demands. He wanted every official to give a speech to let him know who was more suitable, but he found that he did not have the energy and the daily government affairs that happened every day and needed to be dealt with urgently did not allow him to have time to choose a more suitable prime minister.

Zhu Houzhao could only make his choice according to convention: when the first chancellor retired, the second chancellor would take over, and then the next chancellor would take over according to seniority, regardless of their wisdom or stupidity, or their superiority or inferiority. This was the most fair way, and the one that the entire bureaucracy had the least objection to.

On the contrary, if he rashly appointed an official with outstanding ability as the chief minister of the cabinet without considering his qualifications, the second and third ministers of the cabinet would definitely be dissatisfied.

Therefore, Zhu Houzhao had to appoint the chief minister of the cabinet according to convention.

The chief minister of the cabinet, Liu Yu, also recommended Wang Qiong as the second minister of the cabinet in accordance with convention. Although Emperor Zhu Houzhao had given him the power to recommend grand secretaries and officials of the six ministries, he did not dare to appoint people based on personal connections or only appoint people who shared his political ideas. He could only follow convention.

Zhu Houzhao found that as a person within the imperial ruling class, it was sometimes difficult to carry out a thorough reform and change the status quo. It was not that everyone did not understand the principle of appointing people based on their merits, but no one was able to break the existing rules.

Liu Yu was naturally very happy to become the chief minister of the cabinet, and he cooperated very well with Emperor Zhu Houzhao, just following the rules of Xiao and Cao, and had no intention of going against the emperor.

Wang Qiong was very happy to become the second assistant of the cabinet. He had already started to take care of his health, eating vegetarian food and chanting Buddhist scriptures every day, staying away from beautiful women, paying attention to his work style, and being honest and dedicated. It was obvious that he was preparing himself to become the first assistant of the cabinet in the future.

Kang Hai also thanked Zhu Houzhao, expressed his gratitude to Liu Yu for recommending him, and wrote several poems in praise of the court in a good mood. After all, the court made him a cabinet minister.

None of the officials had any objections. They all felt that this was a normal outcome for the changes in court officials after Wang Hua resigned as the Prime Minister of the Cabinet. If it were not for this outcome, it would make people feel uneasy.

The people are too lazy to care who the first and second prime ministers are.

The only one who was dissatisfied was Zhu Houzhao. He was dissatisfied because even though he had given up power, he still could not lead the Ming Dynasty onto the path of political democracy. What made him even more depressed was that although he was not satisfied with the results he had achieved, the officials and the people were very satisfied with him as a king. They all praised him for his tranquility and inaction, and for letting nature take its course without disturbing the people or disrupting the government.

Perhaps for many subordinates, it is really a good thing that the leaders do not make trouble.

But for a leader, if he doesn’t make some efforts himself, can he be considered a leader? What’s the difference between him and a walking corpse?

Zhu Houzhao is in this state of mind now. He clearly wants to change something, but he still cannot change the internal political structure of the empire. But now he can only let nature take its course and change slowly.

On this day, Zhu Houzhao came to the National School of Administration.

The National Academy of Administration was one of the new things Zhu Houzhao brought to the Ming Dynasty. It was an official training institution he established using the power of the emperor. The most obvious difference between it and the Hanlin Academy was that the National Academy of Administration more clearly stated that it was a base for training imperial officials.

The National School of Administration is also located in the Royal West Garden. It is a building mainly made of cement and stone. The classrooms are all equipped with glass windows. It is not far from the Imperial University of Peking and the Royal Industrial Experimental Base, so that traditional officials who are studying there can get close contact with new knowledge and new things.

Zhu Houzhao believed that what the officials of this era lacked was not intelligence but experience. It was Confucianism that imprisoned their thinking, not that they were really stupid. Therefore, he felt that if these officials were exposed to new knowledge and new things, they might be better at transforming the country than himself.

The Governor-General and Chief Censor of the Grand Canal Transport, Cong Lan, was one of the high-ranking officials selected to go to Beijing to attend the National School of Administration for training. At this moment, he was amazed at the architecture of the Ming Dynasty's National School of Administration. He did not expect that cement could allow the house to be built ten stories high.

Cong Lan couldn't help but sigh at the difference of the imperial capital, but he was even more surprised when he attended his first class, because in the first class, he saw Zhang Cong, the left vice minister of the Ministry of Personnel, actually took out a small white stick and easily wrote the three words "human rights", "country" and "decentralization" on the protruding black wall.

He had never heard of any of these three words.

No matter how Zhu Houzhao wanted to change the Ming Dynasty, the economic base determined the superstructure. The people at the bottom had no awakening or desire to participate in politics. No matter how Zhu Houzhao spread and changed it, he could not let the empire enter another era all at once. In other words, Zhu Houzhao could not do anything other than being an absolute monarch. This chapter is to show this point. It is impossible for Zhu Houzhao to be lazy and be a king who eats and waits for death. Whether it is the choice of the emperor or the choice of the prime minister, they are still following a kind of inertia. Thank you book friend Huachen for the reward of 100 starting coins. Thank you book friend 20190125102443622 for the reward of 100 starting coins. Thank you book friend Yeyuqingkuang for the reward of 300 starting coins.

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(End of this chapter)