Emperor Zhengde

Chapter 285 I Didn’t Think That Complicated

Zhu Houzhao looked at Liu Yu's lonely figure and just smiled faintly. He couldn't tolerate a cabinet chief who was so unmotivated, speculative, and only cared about the interests of his own family.

Liu Yu's mind was still blank until he walked out of the palace. After thinking for a long time at home, he suddenly realized: "I have misjudged His Majesty's pulse. Alas, one misstep will lead to eternal regret. Liu Yu, Liu Yu, you underestimated His Majesty. His Majesty asked the eldest son to learn government affairs not to make him the crown prince, but just to test the ministers!"

anyway.

The news of Liu Yu's dismissal spread like wildfire.

Wang Qiong, the second assistant of the cabinet, was also writing a memorial to the emperor requesting the establishment of a crown prince. When he heard that Liu Yu had been dismissed, he hurriedly burned the memorial and sighed in his heart, "It's a good thing I was a step slower!"

then.

Wang Qiong became the Prime Minister of the Cabinet without any trouble.

When Zhu Houzhao summoned Wang Qiong, he specifically asked, "Mr. Wang, have you recently written a petition to establish a crown prince?"

"Your Majesty, I don't. Selecting a crown prince is your Majesty's family affair. I dare not interfere. Moreover, your Majesty is in the prime of life, and the princes are still young. It is too early to discuss this matter, too early," Wang Qiong said, enduring the pain from the burns on his feet.

"I heard that there was a fire in your study. What was the cause? Was anyone hurt?" Zhu Houzhao asked with pretended curiosity.

"The child accidentally spilled water while playing, but no one was hurt. Thank you, Your Majesty, for your concern," Wang Qiong replied.

Zhu Houzhao nodded, smiled slightly, and didn't ask any more questions. He just ordered: "Now that you have succeeded as the Prime Minister, you should do your job well, reform and eliminate malpractices, and don't be like Liu Yu who is speculative and calculating. Do you understand?"

"I understand! I will definitely keep your Majesty's instructions in mind!" Wang Qiong replied hurriedly.

Wang Qiong was now secretly glad that he had not submitted the memorial to the emperor requesting the establishment of a crown prince before Liu Yu and thus avoided being dismissed from his post. He was also secretly delighted that he would become the prime minister directly because of this.

After Zhu Houzhao appointed Wang Qiong as the Prime Minister, he added Yang Yiqing to the cabinet, and Wang Shouren took over Yang Yiqing's position as the overall commander of the three borders.

The Minister of War was Gui E.

"Your Majesty, this is the record of the conversation between Zhang Cong and Yan Song that the Western Factory just reported. Zhang Cong said that Your Majesty demoted Liu Yu and promoted Wang Shouren this time in order to prevent several officials who were in partnership with the royal family from having any connection with the eldest prince. Otherwise, you would not have promoted Yang Yiqing to the cabinet and let Gui E come to Beijing to be the Minister of War."

The new Western Factory Governor Zhang Zhong was reporting to Zhu Houzhao about the news that the Western Factory had learned from the officials. Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but smile bitterly:

"I never thought it would be so complicated. I ordered Liu Yu to retire because he was too opportunistic and unambitious. The Prime Minister of the Ming Dynasty cannot be such a selfish official! Wang Shouren is because he is good at military affairs. The border town cannot be without a talented commander. After Yang Yiqing came to Beijing, he was just the right person to fill the position. Besides, Yang Yiqing is not young now, and he has led troops in the border town for many years. After returning to Beijing, he can train the troops for me!"

Zhu Houzhao was naturally not explaining to Zhang Zhong, but to himself. He swore that he really thought so, and he never thought of guarding against anyone. Even if he wanted to guard against someone, he didn't think so deeply. He never thought of himself as a master of political intrigue. It was obvious that the officials under him were over-interpreting his behavior.

Zhang Zhong did not think that the officials under him were over-interpreting the behavior of Emperor Zhu Houzhao.

Even after returning to his mansion outside the palace, Zhang Zhong was still enjoying the massage from his trusted concubine Lan Die, saying, "The old ancestor is right. Our current emperor is really hard to figure out. On the surface, he pretends not to be an emperor, and he always condescends to explain and analyze things, as if he is only considering the people of the world, but the emperor's mind is very deep!"

"Even Zhang and Yan have seen that he is deliberately demoting and promoting several officials with chaebol backgrounds who may be in league with the eldest prince, just to prevent the eldest prince from colluding with the chaebol. But he still denies it. On the surface, he seems to be a loving father and a filial son, but in fact, he has been secretly calculating!"

"Otherwise, how could it be His Majesty? Master, you are now doing things in front of His Majesty, so you must be extremely careful. As the saying goes, serving the emperor is like serving a tiger. There is some truth to that. But in my opinion, Master, there is no need for you to work so hard. Why bother to fight for that vanity!"

Lan Die advised. "How can you understand my thoughts? People like us, without that thing, what else can we pursue except pursuing to become the head of the inner court?" Zhang Zhong said with a sigh.

"Look at what you said, Master. Even though you don't have that thing, I'm still willing to follow you. That thing doesn't last as long as a wooden stick. Don't look at the officials in the court who have it, but it's almost the same as not having it. Those who lose their power in three to five seconds are considered good!"

Zhang Zhong couldn't help but laugh when Lan Die said this.

And Lan Die took advantage of Zhang Zhongxi's smile and said, "Actually, it's easy for you to please His Majesty. What His Majesty fears most now is not others, but the aging of time. Since the death of Elder Jiao and Eunuch Liu, His Majesty's desire for longevity has only increased! It's not just about longevity. I'm afraid His Majesty will still want to be as strong as a young man in the future. Although you are different from them, you should also know that men care a lot about that ability, sometimes more than women."

Hearing what Lan Die said, Zhang Zhong suddenly realized: "You are really my female Zhuge! What emperor in the world doesn't want to live a long life, especially our Majesty who first conquered Mongolia and then occupied Southeast Asia! Immortality is of course impossible, but there is no guarantee that His Majesty does not believe it, as the saying goes, if you care too much, you will be confused!"

The more Zhang Zhong thought about it, the better he felt this was a good idea. Of course, he didn't really hope that Zhu Houzhao would live to be a hundred years old or even immortal. He hoped to gain Zhu Houzhao's respect and trust. He even hoped that Zhu Houzhao would take the elixir and die sooner. Then even if someone was blamed, it wouldn't be him, because it was the emperor who took it himself.

Zhu Houzhao didn't know that Zhang Zhong was looking for the elixir of life and other medicines for him. He was now trying his best to be a good father and patiently talked about his ideas with the eldest prince Zhu Zailei.

Of course, Zhu Houzhao did not intend to educate Zhu Zailei only personally. He planned to teach these princes one by one, so that they could learn to think proactively, learn to understand what they want, and understand that while enjoying certain privileges granted by this society, it also gives you certain special responsibilities.

"Father, I don't understand why you dismissed Prime Minister Liu. I heard from the teacher in the palace that Prime Minister Liu is very honest and never accepts money from others. It shows that he is a good official!"

After spending a fixed hour with Zhu Houzhao every day, Zhu Zailei has now begun to learn to actively communicate with Zhu Houzhao. Now, he took the initiative to ask Zhu Houzhao about Liu Yu's dismissal.

Zhu Houzhao did not hide anything and just said, "Liu Yu is an honest official, but you know, although he is an honest official, he is not a poor official. He gets millions of silver dollars in dividends from major companies and businesses every year. He was one of the ministers who invested money in your father, and now he has become one of the richest tycoons in the Ming Dynasty!"

"But he also knows that all his income is due to following his father. In other words, it is all given to him by his father. His father can take it back at any time. The future emperor can also take back his wealth at any time. Therefore, he dare not make any mistakes. Not to mention corruption, he dare not be late for court, for fear of angering our royal family and making his Liu family impoverished in an instant, just like the Kong family is now!"

"That's why he was so eager to persuade me to make you the crown prince! Look at the memorial he wrote to me to persuade me to make you the crown prince!"

After Zhu Houzhao said this, Zhu Zailei followed Zhu Houzhao's instructions and picked up a memorial from Liu Yu. After reading it, he couldn't help but blush:
"Father, what Prime Minister Liu said is all lies! I am not naturally intelligent, nor am I respectful and polite. I don't really know what I am like, but I am not as good as Prime Minister Liu said. Besides, I have never spoken to him, so how does he know that I am so good? Why does he praise me so much?"

"Because he wants you to be the future emperor of my Ming Dynasty. If he wants you to be the emperor, he naturally has to say that you are good enough! Now you should understand why he persuaded me to let you be the crown prince, right?" Zhu Houzhao asked with a smile.

Zhu Zailei thought for a moment and replied, "He wants to protect his family business!"

"That's right! But the Prime Minister of our Ming Dynasty cannot think about protecting his own family business. The Prime Minister of our Ming Dynasty can only focus on the emperor and the common people! Otherwise, the internal affairs of our Ming Dynasty will only be controlled by the chaebols!"

After Zhu Houzhao said this, Zhu Zailei nodded as if he understood something. He now realized more and more that the reason why everyone was kind to him and willing to obey him was not because he was good enough, but because he might one day sit in the position of his father.

Zhu Zailei began to actively think about the question Zhu Houzhao had once asked him, that is, whether he wanted to be emperor.

Zhang Zhong saw the eldest prince Zhu Zailei coming out of Hanbi Hall and hurriedly greeted him: "Your Highness! This old servant has something to tell you!"

Zhang Zhong told Zhu Zailei that he hoped Zhu Zailei would show more filial piety in front of Zhu Houzhao and say more auspicious words such as "live as long as the Southern Mountains". After Zhang Zhong finished speaking, Zhu Zailei only asked Zhang Zhong one question: "Zhang Daban, tell me why you want me to be the emperor?"

Zhang Zhong was really stumped by this question for a moment. He couldn't help but think to himself, it's not that I want you to be the emperor, shouldn't you want to be the emperor too?
But Zhang Zhong couldn't answer that, so he just said, "Because I think that among all the princes of the Ming Dynasty, only you are the most talented and capable of great responsibilities, and you are the eldest son of the Empress, so you are the most qualified to be the emperor. Even the Confucian officials outside think so. It is orthodox for you to be the emperor, otherwise Prime Minister Liu would not have advised His Majesty to make you the crown prince!"

(End of this chapter)