Emperor Zhengde

Chapter 343 The Disadvantages of Imperial Recommendation

Although the expedition to Spain was the first expedition of the Ming Dynasty to another country, because the Ming Dynasty and Spain were tens of thousands of miles apart, after the expeditionary force set out to sea, everyone in the empire no longer paid attention to this matter and just waited for the results after a year or two. The ports responsible for providing logistical supplies and replenishment for the expeditionary force also only carried out military production and food transportation step by step.

For the empire, the dispatch of an expeditionary force was not a major event worthy of much attention. What the officials and people of the empire were really concerned about was the issue of the crown prince.

After all, the current Zhengde Emperor Zhu Houzhao is nearly 70 years old, which is considered a long life in the Ming Dynasty. Even for several emperors of the Ming Dynasty, no one can predict when he will die at this age.

The Ming Dynasty's system determined that the level of the monarch still played an extremely important role in the operation of the country.

Therefore, people all over the world are speculating who the next crown prince will be.

In fact, many people would rather the emperor decide on the position of crown prince directly according to the system of establishing the eldest son of the legitimate wife. This would avoid everyone's speculation and not knowing which side to take. It would also cause all the princes in the country to be afraid to offend, for fear that one of them would become the crown prince in the future.

However, Xu Jin and Zhou Luo's "establishing the virtuous" remarks prevented the emperor from making his decision to establish the eldest son as the heir, so that the issue of the crown prince remains undecided until now. Therefore, many people blame Xu Jin and Zhou Luo.

However, there were also many civil servants and scholars who knew that the political intentions of the eldest prince Zhu Zailei were not in line with the interests of their class and supported the views of Xu Jin, Zhou Luo and others.

Zhu Houzhao is actually in good health now. He has been exercising regularly since he was fifteen years old. For decades, he has restrained his greed, paid attention to health preservation, and did not accumulate depression in his heart. As a result, his temples are still not covered with white frost, he does not need anyone to support him when walking, and he can even still have sex with a woman every day, and his sex life is not weak even when the fragrance goes out.

Of course, this may be related to the fact that Zhu Houzhao has loved martial arts and been active since childhood, and because Emperor Hongzhi loved him very much because he was the only son and had a miserable childhood, he did not let him suffer and provided him with adequate nutrition since childhood, which is why Zhu Houzhao is still in good health.

It is not ruled out that this is related to factors such as the current technological development of Daming Dairy, the further improvement of nutritional levels and the advancement of drug research technology.

Therefore, Zhu Houzhao sometimes did not understand why the subjects in the world were so anxious for him to appoint a crown prince, as if they really felt that they would soon go to see the late emperor.

Of course, the ministers around Zhu Houzhao did not have these anxieties. They could see that His Majesty was still in exceptionally good health. Xia Yan, who was over 70 years old, firmly believed this.

Because he could see that the Emperor was much healthier than he was when he was the same age.

For Zhu Houzhao and Xia Yan, they naturally age slowly. After all, one of them is the emperor and the other is the prime minister. One has made the Ming Dynasty powerful throughout the country and the people never feel hungry or cold, while the other is a high-ranking official. They don't have too much anxieties and pursuits. They are just thinking about how to ensure a smooth transition of power.

But for many people, they really hope that time will pass slower and they will age slower, but they can only helplessly watch their hair turn snow-white and their skin color become darker.

This day was Yan Song’s 77th birthday.

This Minister of Agriculture, who saved the Ming Dynasty from famine by promoting sweet potatoes and potatoes, had always had a close relationship with Zhu Houzhao, and the two had a deep cooperative relationship in agricultural science research.

Yan Song was very good at making friends, especially with his own emperor, but he was also criticized by many for trying to curry favor with his superiors.

But no matter what, Yan Song was indeed very good at making friends with the emperor. Recently, because of his research on rhizobia, Emperor Zhu Houzhao paid more attention to him. This time, Yan Song boldly invited His Majesty the Emperor Zhu Houzhao to his birthday party.

Zhu Houzhao, who was used to eating delicacies from land and sea in the palace, also wanted to try the birthday banquet of the bureaucrats and literati, so he readily agreed and asked the inner court to prepare a gift.

But what was unexpected was that the cabinet chief Xia Yan also came to congratulate in person, although it cannot be ruled out that he was worried that the emperor would begin to value Yan Song more.

But for Yan Song, it was naturally a great honor that both the emperor and the prime minister came to celebrate his birthday!

But at Yan Song's birthday hall, although Zhu Houzhao came to celebrate, he actually didn't know Yan Song's age, so he asked about it.

Yan Song had no choice but to reply: "I am seventy-seven years old this year!"

"He is actually older than Yuanfu. Xia Qing, you should call him brother," Zhu Houzhao said to Xia Yan with a smile after hearing this.

"Your Majesty, this is very true. I am from Ganzhou with Lord Yan, so I should call him brother," Xia Yan said, and then said:

"However, my elder brother does not look like he is nine years older than Your Majesty. Rather, he looks like he is nineteen years older than Your Majesty. It is obvious that you have been worrying a lot about the court over the years. It is time to unload some of the burden on the younger generation."

Zhu Houzhao knew that Xia Yan had a ulterior motive in his words. He was obviously afraid that Yan Song would gain more of his trust, so he deliberately poked at Yan Song's sore spot. His implicit meaning was to remind Yan Song that he was old and should stop focusing on trying to please others and should think about retirement.

Zhu Houzhao could hear the hidden meaning of Xia Yan's words, so how could Yan Song not hear it? He was naturally unhappy in his heart. He also wanted to wear a first-rank seven-beam crown like Xia Yan. Although Xia Yan came to celebrate the birthday today and did not wear official clothes but casual clothes, the first-rank cloud crane patch made Yan Song envious. He was still a second-rank Shangshu official, and his patch was still a pheasant. The key point was that he was older than Xia Yan, and Xia Yan had even been his student.

However, Yan Song did not dare to be angry with Xia Yan in front of Zhu Houzhao, so he had to say elegantly and tactfully: "I thank the Prime Minister for his concern, but I am really not worthy of being called the Prime Minister's brother. In fact, I should call you the Prime Minister's brother. In front of Your Majesty, I dare not rely on my age. In fact, although I am seventy-seven years old, I am obviously not as mature as the Prime Minister." Xia Yan smiled slightly and said nothing more. Although he disliked Yan Song's smooth personality but his habit of currying favor, he also knew that the Ministry of Agriculture could not do without Yan Song. Now that Yan Song said that he was more mature, he could only admit it, and he had to admit it. After all, if he was not more mature, how could he become the Prime Minister.

Zhu Houzhao sometimes felt bored sitting and chatting with these civil officials. He was obviously not as happy as the military officers because they all liked to talk in a roundabout way. However, Zhu Houzhao could not force these civil officials to speak more directly. He just smiled and said, "Xia Yan, you are just a mouth that doesn't forgive others!"

Yan Song could see that although his Majesty the Emperor only mentioned Xia Yan and even criticized Xia Yan, he obviously still valued Xia Yan, who was daring and responsible. Otherwise, he would not have said that Xia Yan was just a man with a bad mouth, instead of saying that Xia Yan was narrow-minded and jealous of talented people!
But Yan Song did not hate Xia Yan that much, or rather, he and Xia Yan had not yet reached the point of being incompatible as in history.

Yan Song even admired Xia Yan very much. He admired Xia Yan for daring to stand up and confront the leader of the Qingliu at that time, Wang Ao, when he was young, and thus was valued by His Majesty. Later, he exposed the conspiracy of the traitors to assassinate His Majesty in the Ordnance Bureau and thus had a smooth career. Finally, he became an important official because of his inspection tour to the West.

However, Yan Song never thought that he was worse than Xia Yan. The fertilizer research he conducted in Nanzhili and the subsequent promotion of sweet potatoes and potatoes helped the Ming Dynasty avoid famine caused by several severe droughts and thwarted several schemes of unscrupulous merchants to hoard goods. Today, every household has surplus food, which has a lot to do with his agricultural research.

Therefore, Yan Song believed that his political achievements and deeds were enough to make him a member of the cabinet like Xia Yan. However, he was helpless because everything he did was basically for the benefit of the people, and the people were the most silent, so that the literati who controlled public opinion and discourse power did not praise him very much.

Unlike Xia Yan, his tax reduction outside the customs was praised by the court and the public. His inspection tour to the Western Ocean to open up sea trade helped the merchants grow stronger, making Xia Yan even more famous overseas.

But no matter what, Yan Song still insisted on agricultural research, because even though the common people only knew to follow the children of aristocratic families and call for tax cuts and exemptions, and increased welfare after having enough food to eat and reading, they forgot about him, the Minister of Agriculture.

But he knew that the Emperor was aware of his role, otherwise he would not have agreed to celebrate his birthday and give him shares in the agricultural industry. Although he was not as successful as Xia Yan in officialdom, he was richer than Xia Yan in terms of assets.

But Yan Song knew that he was not interested in women. He had a lot of daughters-in-law, but only one wife. What he was interested in was being an official, the highest official!
And the person who can make himself the highest official is naturally the emperor.

Therefore, Yan Song was still happy to please Zhu Houzhao. Even on his birthday, he couldn't help but follow Zhu Houzhao's preferences and said, "Your Majesty, I recently built a bacterial fertilizer plant based on the nitrogen fixation of rhizobia. The purpose is to promote the production of legumes. After all, you said that the people of the Ming Dynasty cannot eat enough, but must eat well. Now the demand for legumes in the Ming Dynasty has not decreased due to the decrease in the demand for horses, but has increased day by day. Why don't you move and take a look? It's on the west side of my residence!"

After Yan Song said this, Zhu Houzhao became interested and hurriedly moved to take a look.

Seeing this, Xia Yan could only shake his head slightly. He did not object to Yan Song's research in this area, and even supported it. After all, he also hoped that the grain production in the Ming Dynasty would continue to increase. But he had to admit that Yan Song obviously did not reduce his pursuit of power because of his increasing age.

Zhu Houzhao was very satisfied with Yan Song's research on rhizobia, and expressed his support after visiting Yan Song's bacterial fertilizer factory. After all, this kind of thing that originally appeared in the 1930s in history can now appear in the Ming Dynasty ahead of schedule, which undoubtedly shows that the Ming Dynasty has left other civilizations far behind in microbial research.

However, shortly after Zhu Houzhao visited Yan Song's fertilizer factory, news came from the Ministry of Rites that Cabinet Grand Secretary Zhang Jing had suddenly passed away. Zhu Houzhao was heartbroken upon hearing the news, thinking that another of these old ministers had passed away. But for Yan Song, it was a happy thing, because Zhang Jing's death meant that he had the opportunity to join the cabinet.

Zhu Houzhao didn't mind letting Yan Song join the cabinet. After all, apart from the fact that Yan Song falsely accused Xia Yan in history, Yan Song did a lot of practical things in this life. But Zhu Houzhao didn't mind Yan Song not being able to join the cabinet. After all, there were many officials in the empire who could join the cabinet, and Yan Song's failure to join the cabinet would have no impact on the Ming Dynasty.

But when the court introduced Wang Yongbin as the chief and Zhou Luo as the accompanying, Zhu Houzhao could not help but frown. He clearly remembered that Wang Yongbin was a representative of Shanxi merchants and that since he became an official, he had always requested the court to reduce commercial taxes. Not to mention Zhou Luo, an official who had just made suggestions and established virtuous people, but was scolded by people all over the world.

Since he ascended the throne, Zhu Houzhao has never arbitrarily changed the Ming Empire's system of recommendation by the court, and has always allowed the officials under him to elect important officials of the empire by voting. After all, such officials seem to be more fair and democratic. However, Zhu Houzhao now cannot help but find that it seems that the officials recommended by the court are not his favorites, or they are too concentrated in officials with backgrounds of wealthy businessmen.

"Your Majesty, the West Factory has checked and found that since Mr. Zhang passed away, these qualified officials have been running around. A man named Hou Lu from the Shanxi Guild Hall donated more than 300,000 silver dollars to the Wang Clan Association to help Wang Yongbin win the position of Dongge Grand Secretary in the court."

Gao Zhong, a eunuch from the Western Factory, reported to Zhu Houzhao the Western Factory's investigation into the imperial court nominations. Zhu Houzhao had to admit that with the development of capitalism, these businessmen had begun to control court politics. Not only had they trained their children to study and become officials, they had also learned to use capital to manipulate national events such as the imperial court nominations.

Zhu Houzhao was wondering whether he should take back the power of recommendation by the court. Originally, he should have appointed the cabinet ministers himself, but since the eighth year of Hongzhi, due to the death of Qiu Jun, Emperor Hongzhi issued an edict that the officials of the Ministry of Personnel and other officials should recommend the cabinet ministers by the court. From then on, the imperial cabinet ministers were recommended by the officials of the court.

"This court recommendation seems democratic, but it is bound to be exploited by capital, and although the elected officials can be accepted by the court officials, they will inevitably not be grateful that I promoted them, but will be grateful that the court officials promoted them, thus becoming the spokespersons of the civil servants and gentry group, rather than being my loyal subjects. However, I am getting older and have taken back the power of Tai'a, but I do not have the energy to carefully select officials who do not live up to public expectations to hold important positions."

Zhu Houzhao fell into confusion. He used to be proud that the Ming Dynasty had a democratic system promoted by the court, but now he had to admit that this system did have great hidden dangers, because this seemingly democratic system could easily be controlled by the financial tycoons behind the scenes.

"Since my health does not allow me to make decisions alone, I will make it public directly so that more people in the world can see the real inside story of this court recommendation. The Western Factory will disclose the fact that Hou Lu manipulated the court recommendation through the Huangming News so that everyone in the world can see it. I don't believe that this world is really just the world of the plutocrats and wealthy businessmen," Zhu Houzhao ordered.

After Zhu Houzhao's words, he did not immediately appoint Wang Yongbin or Zhou Luo as new cabinet ministers. He just hid in the inner court and continued his life of fishing and playing with birds.

Huang Ming Bao was the official newspaper of the Ming Dynasty and was directly managed by Zhu Houzhao's attendant office.

The officials of the Attendant's Office were all selected from those who had just entered the official career, and they all had a fair mind. Therefore, when the Western Factory brought the investigation results about the court recommendation to the Attendant's Office, the officials in the Attendant's Office were shocked at first.

Among them, Hai Rui, who had already taken office as the director of the Imperial Secretariat and the editor-in-chief of the Huangming Daily, could not help but slam his head on the table and said, "How could such a thing happen? Merchants manipulate the imperial court to impose heavy penalties. Is this still the world of the people?!"

Thank you for the reward of 100 starting coins for one pound of sugar from my book friend. I found that the imperial recommendation has many disadvantages, because the officials selected in this way are not appointed by the emperor, but by the officials. Therefore, it is beyond doubt who these officials listen to and who they are grateful to. Moreover, if there are financial tycoons to manipulate, the result will be terrible. However, Zhu Houzhao is old, and it seems difficult for him to select the right person if he appoints himself. After all, he cannot always know who to promote and who is suitable. What suggestions do book friends have for reform?

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(End of this chapter)