Emperor Zhengde

Chapter 4: Eight Tigers Go Out
The ministers left the Qianqing Palace one after another. Everyone was indeed tired after acting out the crying scene for so long.

Empress Zhang was really tired of crying.

As the crown prince, Zhu Houzhao naturally had to keep vigil for Emperor Hongzhi, so he settled down in the western warm pavilion of the Qianqing Palace.

At lunch, Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but ask Liu Jin: "Where is Wang Yue, the seal holder of the Imperial Household Department?"

The power of the Ming Empire was composed of the Imperial Household Department and the Cabinet. The holder of the Imperial Household Department was the Prime Minister of the Inner Court, and the Chief Minister of the Cabinet was the Prime Minister of the Outer Court.

Now that Zhu Houzhao had met with Liu Jian, the chief minister of the outer court cabinet, he naturally could not ignore the number one figure in the inner court, the eunuch Wang Yue who held the seal of the Imperial Household Department.

"Your Majesty, Ancestor, no, Eunuch Wang fainted after hearing the news that the late emperor had passed away. He hasn't woken up yet, so he didn't come to see you," Liu Jin replied.

Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but smile, thinking that Wang Yue was even more dizzy than his son. He had been awake for such a long time since he fainted upon hearing the death of Emperor Hongzhi, but why was Wang Yue still dizzy?

Although Zhu Houzhao had never met Wang Yue, he could guess that Wang Yue was definitely not a good person, otherwise he, as the prime minister of the inner court, would not have been able to prevent the death of Emperor Hongzhi.

Zhu Houzhao did not say much, but called Liu Jin over and said, "Go find eight or ten beauties in your name, make a bigger noise, and say that the Crown Prince is too sad, so find some beauties to entertain him and have some drinks."

"Your Majesty, although all the ministers have left, they are not blind or deaf. If we rush to find the beauty now, we will let them know," Liu Jin said.

"I just want them to know that the ministers who have spies around me will definitely know, but the ministers who don't have spies naturally don't know. I am just acting like they want to see it, to let them know that after their father passed away, I, the crown prince, was only sad for a while, but my nature is still playful and I have no intention of interfering in state affairs."

Zhu Houzhao smiled and said.

Liu Jin was not a stupid man. After listening to Zhu Houzhao's words, he understood and immediately began to personally lead the other seven tigers to various palaces to search for beauties.

Soon, Liu Jin and the other eight tigers came to the western warm pavilion of the Qianqing Palace with a dozen beautiful palace maids.

Seeing this, Zhu Houzhao hurriedly ordered, "Light up all the candles in the West Warm Pavilion, let them all dance by the door, and follow me in!"

then.

The entire western warm room of the Qianqing Palace was suddenly as bright as day. A dozen palace maids stood by the door, twisting their waists. Their dancing figures were reflected on the window screen. Even from a hundred steps away, one could see their swaying figures like those of fairies.

But in the west warm pavilion, Zhu Houzhao didn't even look at the dozen or so palace maids at this time, and even asked someone to use a screen to block the view of the dozen or so palace maids.

Zhu Houzhao looked at the "Eight Tigers" standing in front of him with a serious face: "Do you think I will become the emperor soon? You have been with me for so long, you will definitely be promoted and given more titles. From now on, you will have the final say in the inner court. The Silijian and the Imperial Horse Bureau will also become yours?"

After saying that, Zhu Houzhao picked up the tea and said, "It's too early to think about it. It's not that I don't want to promote you. You must have seen today that the Silijian has always been controlled by old eunuchs such as Wang Yue and Zhang Yu, and they are in cahoots with the people in the cabinet. Do you think they will let you take the position?"

After Zhu Houzhao finished speaking, he glanced at Liu Jin and others. He found that Liu Jin and others did not show any surprise because of his sudden seriousness. He couldn't help but think to himself that it seems that Zhu Houzhao in history was not really that simple. At least the eunuchs around him knew that their master's innocence in front of others was pretended, otherwise these eunuchs would not have such calm expressions.

Liu Jin was the first to stand up and said, "Your Majesty is right. That Imperial Clerk Zhang Yu is such a piece of shit. He didn't help Your Majesty first, but went to help the three ministers first. I really don't know whose servant he is!"

Zhu Houzhao smiled slightly. He did not expect that Liu Jin also saw clues from Zhang Yu's behavior. He thought to himself that Liu Jin was a man who could see the big picture from the small details. No wonder he could achieve great things in the future. If he wanted to control the power of the court now, he had to use him.

"Liu Jin is right. Zhang Yu doesn't know where to bend his knees. I will not let him off easily in the future! But I don't think this matter will be that simple! You are all my closest people. Without me, you are nothing. If I sit firmly on the throne, you will be second to none. So now you have to follow me and pull down those people sitting above us. Do you understand?" Zhu Houzhao asked again after he finished speaking.

"Understood!" the eight tigers replied in unison.

Among them, Zhang Yong was the first to stand up and said, "Your Majesty, please give us the order. What do you want us to do?"

"Time is urgent. Any further delay will lead to more accidents. To make a long story short, the late emperor has just passed away. I can only choose a day to ascend the throne after a 27-day mourning period. During this period of time, the government will definitely enter a period of stagnation. Various forces have not yet launched their actions. We must take advantage of this opportunity to strike first!
Fortunately, you are not in important positions yet, so your actions are not easy to be noticed. Liu Jin, you have always been good at making friends with scholars. Now I want you to take advantage of the period of mourning when all officials are traveling in and out of the palace to contact more civil officials and find a few people who are willing to form a party with you. These civil officials are not fools. They know who is behind you, and those who are willing to help me will naturally make friends with you, especially the Left Vice Minister of Personnel Jiao Fang and the Left Vice Minister of War Xu Jin. You don't need to go to Ma Wensheng, he is a veteran of four dynasties, and a big tree attracts the wind. It's easy to be discovered if you go to him."

"And Zhang Yong, you have always been quite knowledgeable about military affairs, so go make friends with some of the noble military officials, and go around the Twelve Regiments and the Five Corps.

Then, it is Gu Dayong, you like drinking and are chivalrous, find some reliable people in the martial arts world, lurk in the inner court and the ministers of the outer court to get information. I hope to know which room they sleep in every night and how many bowls of rice they eat. "

"Ma Yongcheng, send someone to follow Zhang Yu, the chief scribe of the Imperial Household Department, Shi Qin, the right minister of the Imperial Hospital, Liu Wentai, the judge of the Imperial Hospital, and Gao Tinghe, the imperial physician. These people will definitely escape from the capital in the future, and I don't want to let them go easily!"

"Gao Feng, go to the Imperial Guards and move around more!"

"Qiu Ju, go to the West Garden right now and select a good spot to build a garden. I will live there when the time comes! We will name this North Garden the Leopard House and tell everyone that I am going to build a Garden of Beasts!"

"Luo Xiang and Wei Bin will stay with me for the time being. I will use you for other purposes later!"

As soon as Zhu Houzhao finished speaking, Luo Xiang stood up and said, "Your Majesty, these things cost money. We haven't saved much money over the years, so I'm afraid we'll have to use the treasury when the time comes."

Zhu Houzhao knew that the internal treasury that Luo Xiang was referring to was the silver in the Neichengyunku, but the Neichengyunku was under the Ministry of Revenue. Therefore, if Zhu Houzhao wanted to use the internal treasury, he had to go through the Ministry of Revenue, and even disturb the inner court, because the eunuch who held the seal of the Neichengyunku was now also Wang Yue's man.

In order to prevent those in power in the inner court and the outer court from knowing his purpose, Zhu Houzhao did not want to use the imperial treasury now, and as far as he knew, there was not much silver in the imperial treasury.

The emperors of the Ming Dynasty were all poor, and any little money they had would be taken away by civil servants in various ways.

"I will find a way to deal with the money issue. You can use the money we have saved first, and I will earn money in time." Zhu Houzhao said.

The only people Zhu Houzhao could trust now were these "Eight Tigers", so he assigned each of them the tasks he believed were most important.

Zhu Houzhao knew that the main threats to his imperial power now were the three cabinet ministers and the eunuchs in the inner court such as Wang Yue and Zhang Yue.

Originally, these two forces were used by the emperor to check and balance each other in order to safeguard the imperial power, but once these two forces colluded with each other, they would directly threaten the imperial power or even suppress it.

Therefore, after careful consideration, Zhu Houzhao decided to eliminate all these colluding eunuchs and cabinet ministers, and then re-establish a system of checks and balances.

However, Wang Yue, Liu Jian and others had complex forces in the court. Zhu Houzhao knew that he could not overthrow them in a short period of time with just a few eunuchs. He could only unite some internal and external officials who were dissatisfied with the inner court and the cabinet.

Today in the Qianqing Palace, Zhu Houzhao has already seen that Liu Jian and other cabinet ministers are not all-powerful in the entire civil service group, and they also have political enemies. This also gives him an opportunity.

As for the inner court, Zhu Houzhao could guess without asking that no matter how powerful Wang Yue and Zhang Yu were in the inner court, there must be people who opposed them, such as the "Eight Tigers" who followed him.

(End of this chapter)