Emperor Zhengde

Chapter 340: Establishing the Heir
Frankly speaking, Zhu Houzhao naturally did not want Xu Jin to join the cabinet to take charge of affairs, because he had already been sure that Xu Jin was not an honest official.

If Xu Jin was just a pure Taoist minister, a pure conservative, who strictly abided by rites and laws, and would rather disobey the emperor than advise him to appoint a crown prince, Zhu Houzhao could have allowed him to join the cabinet because of his upright conduct and loyalty to rites and laws, like Kang Hai.

But it is obvious that Xu Jin is not such an official with good work style. He is a selfish civil servant and a hypocritical hypocrite!
Otherwise, Zhu Houzhao believed that after his eldest son Zhu Zailei told him that Shuntian Prefecture official Pan Gu purchased inferior steel from the Xu family at high prices and he asked Zhu Zailei to adopt Pan Gu's suggestion to directly bribe the Xu family with it, Xu Jin's students would not have been so quick to submit petitions to advise him to make his eldest son the crown prince as soon as possible.

However, Zhu Houzhao, who was already in his old age, realized that many times he could not do things based on his subjective feelings, and he had to be more rational. If he refused Xu Jin to join the cabinet at this time, Xu Jin and other upright civil servants would naturally know that he was dissatisfied with them, and they might even realize that Zhu Zaile had told him about Pan Gu and the Xu family embezzling the funds for the construction of the Shuntian Prefecture water supply project.

However, Zhu Houzhao did not want Xu Jin to realize this yet, because he wanted these upright civil officials to support a prince who would not actually take care of the interests of the bourgeoisie to succeed to the throne.

In this way, he, as the emperor, needed to run a scam to make Xu Jin believe that the eldest prince and other princes were taking care of their civil servants.

Therefore, Zhu Houzhao finally agreed to add Xu Jin to the cabinet against his conscience.

Xu Jin was naturally delighted when he learned that he was promoted to Grand Secretary of the Cabinet. His joy at this time was no less than the joy he felt when he passed the imperial examination.

His Xu family was also very happy and held a grand banquet.

After all, the fact that Xu Jin could enter the cabinet proved that the emperor still valued Xu Jin, which meant that the Xu family was still rich. Moreover, the Xu family had just made a lot of money during the period when the eldest prince was the prefect of Shuntian Prefecture. Now that Xu Jin had entered the cabinet, the Xu family was naturally prosperous.

Xu Jin naturally didn't know that his Emperor had already regarded him and his Xu family as prey. He was only waiting for the Xu family to grow stronger and stronger, and then act more and more unscrupulously, and then he would destroy the entire Xu family and use the blood of the Xu family to make up for the country's losses.

Xu Jin is now very optimistic about the future of himself and his Xu family, because he feels that the emperor is old and the new emperor is most likely the eldest son Zhu Zailei, who is very caring towards civil servants like him. As long as he helps the eldest son become the crown prince, the Xu family will remain rich and prosperous for at least the next few decades.

In fact, many aristocratic families in the capital were very optimistic about this and were optimistic about the prospects of the Xu family. Even the Xu family of Duke Dingguo acknowledged Xu Jin as their relative, and Xu Jin also had the leisure and elegance to take a concubine, staging a drama of an old man and a young wife.

In the court, because Xia Yan regarded himself as the prime minister but did not give full equality to the civil servants, the civil servants' complaints and dissatisfaction with Xia Yan increased day by day. The clean-minded civil servant Xu Jin, who had just entered the cabinet, was naturally highly respected by the civil servants, so much so that Xu Jin's entry into the cabinet seemed to greatly increase his power and prestige.

Zhu Houzhao was naturally well aware of all this, but he knew that in order to destroy the enemy, he had to make him crazy first, so he would reward Xu Jin with something from time to time to show his favor for him.

Xu Jin became more and more proud.

But once a person has selfish desires, it means that he is also an ordinary person. Ordinary people will make fatal mistakes because of the temptation of some interests. But saints are different. Saints are selfless and desireless, so it is difficult to make them make mistakes.

And although Xu Jin was a gentleman on the surface, a great Confucian scholar who was close to a sage, it was obvious that Xu Jin was an ordinary person with selfish desires. Therefore, he would make some mistakes, some of which he would feel stupid for afterwards.

What's more, he is now in the prime of his life, which makes him more likely to be careless and fall into a trap.

When the second prince Zhu Zaituo left the capital, he learned about Xu Jin's entry into the cabinet, which made him feel not very good, because he was now basically certain that after his brother Zhu Zailei continued to use the Shuntian Prefecture water project funds to purchase Xu's inferior steel pipes and bribed the Xu family in this way, Xu Jin had become a staunch supporter of helping his brother Zhu Zailei become the crown prince.

Therefore, Xu Jin becoming the Grand Secretary of the Cabinet was a result that the Second Prince Zhu Zailei did not want to see. He implemented his strategy and decided to expose more of the Xu family's secrets to his brother Zhu Zailei to see whether his brother Zhu Zailei would continue to protect Xu Jin.

Zhu Zailei arrived in Henan, which was a major grain-producing province in the Ming Dynasty, but because of the Yellow River, Henan often suffered from disasters.

But at present, there has been no flood disaster in the Yellow River. Zhu Zailei also inspected the river section and found that there were basically no dams that needed to be renovated. However, just as Zhu Zailei was inspecting the dams, a newly built railway bridge pier suddenly collapsed. Zhu Zailei rode over to take a look, only to find that the building materials of the piers contained very little cement.

Zhu Zailei felt something was wrong, and hurriedly asked the people who had lived on the banks of the Yellow River for generations to take him to check other bridge piers. He was surprised to find that the construction materials of these piers contained very little cement, and they were even in danger of collapsing under the impact of the river. Zhu Zailei also discovered that the collapsed railway steel was also made of Xu's family's inferior steel!
"This is simply bringing disaster to the country and the people. Who gave them the courage to do this?!"

Zhu Zailei felt terrified. He was the new supervisor of the Henan section of the Liangjing Railway and naturally had the power to supervise railway matters. He hurriedly found Shao Ju, the right governor in charge of the construction of the Henan section, and asked, "Who gave you the courage to do this?!"

"Your Highness, please calm down. It was the Second Young Master of the Xu Family who forced me to do this. I had no choice but to obey," Shao Ju said as he handed the letter from the Second Young Master of the Xu Family to Zhu Zailei.

Zhu Zailei immediately took it and took a look. He couldn't help but get even angrier: "Asshole! This is a major project that concerns the national economy and people's livelihood. How can we allow these profiteers to erode it!"

"Your Highness, please don't be angry. This is inevitable. I know this is not good, so I have delayed reporting to the Ministry of Railways that the Henan section has been completed. I was just waiting for the new governor to come and discuss a good solution. Now I didn't expect that Your Highness would be the governor of Henan. In your opinion, Your Highness should not make this public. After all, the cabinet minister (Xu Jin) has just joined the cabinet. Once this matter is exposed, it will be a small matter for Xu's career to be ruined, but it will be a big matter for your position as the crown prince, Your Highness!"

Henan Right Governor Shao Ju said this with some excitement.

Zhu Zailei has now obviously concluded that Xu Jin is a parasite of the empire, and he even begins to feel a little disgusted with these civil servants who always use his position as crown prince to threaten him. This makes Zhu Zailei feel very aggrieved. He wants to be the crown prince, but does he really have to sit back and watch these parasites exist in order to become the crown prince?

Zhu Zailei encountered a difficult problem. He certainly knew Xu Jin's position in the civil service group. If he reported this matter to the court, it would definitely cause an uproar, and he would offend the entire civil service group.

However, Zhu Zailei could not sit idly by and watch these civil servants embezzle state assets, build shoddy projects, and even become so corrupt as to harm the people and destroy the foundation of the country.

"It's better not to be a prince like this!"

Zhu Zailei couldn't help but say something in his heart. He finally chose to expose the matter. He decided that he would rather not be the crown prince than let the national interests and the people's interests suffer huge losses. After all, the corruption problem in Henan's railway construction is different from the Shuntian Prefecture tap water project. The use of inferior steel in the Shuntian Prefecture tap water project only involves the interests of the people of Shuntian Prefecture. Now, if there is a problem with the entire Liangjing Railway, it means that the entire country will suffer huge losses!
Zhu Zailei did not want to clean up the mess for the Xu family this time, and he could not do so, nor could he tolerate the existence of such a parasite. In the end, he directly submitted the impeachment memorial to the Censorate in an urgent manner, and also reported the matter to Zhu Houzhao in the form of a family letter.

At this time, the capital city was still prosperous and peaceful.

Zhu Houzhao and Xu Jin didn't know about these things yet.

Zhu Houzhao was preparing to go on a spring outing with his concubines, and Xu Jin was hugging his new concubine's waist, but with a satisfied smile on his face. But at this moment.

The Eastern Depot Inspectorate has already surrounded his residence with people.

Zhu Houzhao naturally knew the news first. He did not expect that Xu Jin's family would extend their hands to the railway between the two capitals. Of course, what he did not expect was that his eldest son would choose to expose this hot cabinet minister who had just entered the cabinet.

This incident happened very suddenly, and Zhu Houzhao did not expect it.

But now that the matter has been exposed by Zhu Zailei, naturally no one can cover it up.

After all, Zhu Zailei was the eldest son of the emperor and the governor of Henan Province. He held a post in the Censorate. If he reported the matter to the Censorate, it would be as if the matter was made public to the world.

The media industry in the Ming Dynasty is so developed now that it is enough to let everyone in the world know about the sins committed by the Xu family within three months!

Even Emperor Zhu Houzhao had to go with the flow at this time and asked the East Factory Inspectorate to immediately investigate Xu Jin's second son and temporarily suspend Xu Jin from his post.

However, at the same time, Zhu Zailei was also suspended from his post by Zhu Houzhao and summoned to Beijing on the grounds that Zhu Zailei was also the person in charge of the Henan section of the Liangjing Railway, so he naturally had to go to Beijing to be personally interrogated by Zhu Houzhao. Of course, Zhu Houzhao actually still wanted to protect Zhu Zailei's life.

Because Zhu Zailei's actions were tantamount to offending many civil servants, who knew whether these people would take revenge by silencing him.

The civil servants of the Ming Dynasty were not without the courage to kill the emperor, let alone the prince.

Xu Jin was very surprised. He could not believe that it was the eldest prince Zhu Zailei who reported his Xu family. When he saw his second son being taken away by the East Factory Inspectorate, he felt betrayed and he felt extremely angry towards the eldest prince Zhu Zailei!

“Why would he do that!”

Xu Jin was roaring in his heart, but he could not show such a mentality on the surface. On the one hand, he praised the eldest prince for his impartiality, and on the other hand, he submitted a petition to retire and stood in the court in silence, expressing his regret.

At the same time, Xu Jin also secretly told his second son not to betray the family.

then.

Xu Jin's second son admitted that he was the one who did all these things and said that they had nothing to do with his father.

Xu Jin's second son was naturally sentenced to death, and the Xu family also paid a huge fine. However, Zhu Houzhao did not agree to let Xu Jin resign. After all, Xu Jin's crime could not be punished yet, so Zhu Houzhao would naturally not let him retire at this time.

The matter came to a temporary end. The Henan section of the Liangjing Railway had to be rebuilt, and the eldest son Zhu Zailei also returned to Henan. Under his supervision, there were no more mistakes in the project.

As time went by, both the eldest prince Zhu Zailei and other princes did a good job. For example, the second prince Zhu Zaituo, Zhu Houzhao found that under his management, Zhejiang Province's maritime trade income had been increasing.

However, Zhu Houzhao felt something strange. Maritime trade seemed too peaceful, so there were very few cases of smuggling. But Zhu Houzhao did not want to make something up. He believed that if someone was playing tricks on him, their true colors would eventually be exposed.

The second prince Zhu Zaituo is very happy now after he learned that Zhu Zailei reported the Xu family's dirty deeds and caused the execution of Xu Jin's second son.

Because the second prince knew that this meant that his brother had cut himself off from the entire civil service group: "My brother is still too honest and can't tolerate any injustice. I really thought he had learned to be more tactful than before, but I didn't expect that he was still so righteous!"

Zhu Zailei's behavior did anger the entire civil service group, causing many civil servants to begin to fear him and worry that if Zhu Zailei really became emperor in the future, he would become the second Zhengde Emperor.

Therefore, the scholars and people of the Ming Dynasty were surprised to find that after this, the voices calling on the emperor to appoint a crown prince early and follow the etiquette and make the eldest son Zhu Zaile the crown prince became less and less, or even disappeared. What was even more surprising was that some true moralists would be attacked by civil servants even if they suggested to the court to make the eldest son Zhu Zaile the crown prince out of public interest.

Zhu Houzhao realized this change and began to be more and more satisfied with Zhu Zailei's performance, but he knew that the civil servants were becoming increasingly disappointed with Zhu Zailei. But Zhu Houzhao didn't care about this. After all, he still had the final say in the Ming Empire.

Zhu Houzhao was actually happy that no one bothered him with the issue of the national crown prince, but it happened that when the civil officials were not in a hurry to urge him to appoint a crown prince, Zhu Houzhao had already made up his mind to appoint his eldest son Zhu Zaile as the crown prince.

Because the reason why Zhu Houzhao had delayed until now was that he was still unsure whether Zhu Zailei had the determination to safeguard the national interests and the interests of the people. It was obvious that Zhu Zailei's behavior of reporting the Xu family was not wise, but he was impartial. Therefore, Zhu Houzhao made up his mind to make Zhu Zailei the crown prince to end the issue of succession that had been pending for decades.

Not long after, Zhu Houzhao directly issued an imperial decree to promote the eldest son Zhu Zaile to the position of Minister of Revenue. This move naturally made the court officials smell something, but many civil servants were not happy about it.

On this day, Zhang Juzheng happened to submit a memorial again requesting the appointment of a crown prince to stabilize the country. Zhu Houzhao summoned all the ministers and said, "I have made up my mind. I have decided to follow the wishes of the people and appoint my eldest son Zhu Zailei as the crown prince."

As soon as Zhu Houzhao said this, the Minister of Rites Zhou Luo stood up and said, "Your Majesty, I think it is better to appoint a virtuous person than a legitimate heir. Now the princes are not clear about their virtues and foolishness, and the crown prince is the heir to the throne, so he should not be appointed lightly. Therefore, I suggest that you should carefully examine it!"

"It's really strange. It was you who said that the eldest son should be the heir according to the rites and laws, and now you are saying that the most capable one should be the heir," Zhu Houzhao said in a cold voice and glared at Zhou Luo.

Zhou Luo was so scared that he fell to the ground: "Your Majesty, please understand that I have never said anything about establishing the eldest son as the heir, but the selection of the crown prince is a national event and it cannot be decided lightly!"

Thanks to my book friend Yi Jin Bai Tang 100 Qidian coins for the reward. Thank you to my book friend Su Shi Ah Qi 18000 Qidian coins for the reward and becoming the hall master.
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(End of this chapter)