Emperor Zhengde

Chapter 56: Cabinet Ministers Intend to Resign
Guo Rong had already brought his men to drag He Tianqu away. After a while, the sound of chopping melons and vegetables was heard again outside the Meridian Gate.

The civil servants in the court were almost scared at this time, and no one dared to challenge Zhu Houzhao's authority.

Zhu Houzhao seemed to be full of awe-inspiring majesty in every move he made. He asked the Minister of Justice Min Gui again: "Min Shangshu, did you hear my order clearly?"

When the Minister of Justice Min Gui saw Zhu Houzhao asking him a question, he was so scared that he instinctively crawled down: "I have heard clearly that Wang Yue and others are extremely evil and should be severely punished. Please rest assured, Your Majesty, I will obey your order!"

Zhu Houzhao nodded, thinking that this Shangshu was worthy of being a Shangshu. He would not be confused even when he shouldn't be confused.

So Zhu Houzhao waved his long sleeves and said, "Dismiss the court!"

The civil and military officials in the court began to shout "We, the ministers, are taking our leave!" and then they left one after another.

At this moment, all the civil and military officials dared not speak a word. They were all very worried. Some officials were even so frightened that they almost stumbled.

The chief minister of the cabinet, Liu Jian, had a gloomy face. He was very angry and helpless. He knew that he had lost. He also knew that he could no longer influence the emperor Zhu Houzhao. He even knew that he could no longer resist the emperor Zhu Houzhao.

"I never expected that our new emperor could defeat Wang Yue. How did he do it? Didn't Zhang Zhao lead his troops into the palace when the soldiers' salaries were not paid? As a result, he ended up in such a state. Zhu Houzhao even killed three censors. Does he really not care about his reputation after his death or the dignity of us civil officials?"

The chief minister of the cabinet, Liu Jian, finally sighed and said.

"In fact, we should have discovered the clues earlier. Yesterday, our emperor was completely different from the past. He was like a different person. He directly killed Sun Lingmei, the chief secretary of the Ministry of Rites. At that time, we should have realized that Zhu Houzhao had made preparations. It's a pity that we thought Wang Yue could suppress him!"

Li Dongyang said this and shook his head helplessly.

"Our Majesty was probably ready to take action a long time ago. Of course, we also expected this, but we thought that Wang Yue and Zhang Zhao could still manipulate the morale of the army and get rid of Liu Jin and others at lightning speed, but they ended up trapping themselves. These spirited soldiers in front of us don't look like they are dissatisfied because of the lack of salary. They all look very calm. It can be seen that our Majesty has already made sure that these soldiers get the salary!"

Xie Qian also said helplessly.

"Wang Yue is such a useless guy. If it weren't for Zhang Yu, the matter of the late emperor would not have been accomplished with him alone! As Yu Qiao said, we didn't allocate money to the Ministry of War, and the treasury didn't leave much for Your Majesty. Where would Your Majesty get the money to distribute rice!"

The chief minister of the cabinet, Liu Jian, was very puzzled.

"Your Majesty, didn't you hold a royal exposition some time ago and earn a lot of money? You're also raising shares everywhere and asking officials for money?"

Xie Qian, the third assistant of the cabinet, asked.

"But according to the Jinyiwei, your majesty has squandered the money! That night, Gu Dayong used the beauty pageant as an excuse to look for beauties everywhere, and even bought more than a dozen actors and actresses from Mingyue Tower! And Ma Yongcheng took your majesty to the casino and lost 100,000 taels. Could this all be fake news?"

After Liu Jian, the chief minister of the cabinet, finished speaking, Li Dongyang asked with a smile: "Prime Minister, do you think His Majesty in the hall today is a person who indulges in alcohol and sex too much?" Liu Jian and Xie Qian said at the same time as if they had suddenly realized something: "We were deceived by Zhu Houzhao!"

"So, Your Majesty has already won the support of the army, and naturally you can't bypass the Ministry of War to win the support of the army. This means Xu Jin is also in the same group with them! I'm afraid that the death of Lord Liu is related to them!"

Liu Jian waved his sleeves in anger as he spoke: "Poor Mr. Liu died tragically!"

"What the Prime Minister said is very true. Your Majesty is no longer the same as before. From now on, we can only continue to blame Liu the thief and cannot blame Your Majesty. Now that Liu the thief is in power, the three of us naturally cannot be tolerated by Liu the thief. It is better for us to resign, so as not to be the next one to be killed in the explosion!"

Li Dongyang said this and left first, not daring to walk with Liu Jian and Xie Qian.

The chief minister of the cabinet, Liu Jian, sighed and walked out of the palace alone.

Xie Qian looked back at Fengtian Gate and thought to himself that it was a pity that he had to leave the Ming Dynasty court before becoming the Prime Minister!
The three cabinet elders originally hoped that Zhu Houzhao would really be cynical, so that they could jointly control the government with Wang Yue and others in the inner court. Wang Yue had always respected the three cabinet ministers, so it would be equivalent to the three cabinet elders holding power over the world.

But they didn't expect that Zhu Houzhao at this moment was not really cynical, but a very shrewd emperor.

They had originally hoped that Wang Yue and others could use the army at the last opportunity to force Zhu Houzhao to kill Liu Jin and others so that they could continue to control Zhu Houzhao together. Even if Zhu Houzhao was more scheming and cunning, he would not be able to stand alone at that time. But what they did not expect was that the final winner was Zhu Houzhao, who had already won the hearts of the army without their knowledge.

The three cabinet elders now think that Zhu Houzhao's behavior was full of flaws, but they don't know why they didn't see it at the time. Even if they know it now, it will be of no use, so they can only resign obediently.

……

Emperor Zhengde Zhu Houzhao also didn't know how he managed to replace people in the inner court in history. The historical records are very concise. It only said that it was because the civil officials demanded the execution of Liu Jin. As a result, Liu Jin and other eight tigers came to Zhu Houzhao to plead for mercy. Zhu Houzhao directly ordered Liu Jin to take control of the Silijian, and then dismissed Wang Yue. Immediately afterwards, Wang Yue was assassinated, and the three cabinet elders resigned.

Of course, the historical truth may not be that simple. First of all, Wang Yue could not sit idly by and wait for death. Secondly, the three elders of the cabinet could not be intimidated just because Liu Jin came to power. There must be more unknown secrets in between, which Zhu Houzhao did not know at the moment.

However, he could guess that the three cabinet elders would probably resign next, because if they did not, he, the emperor, would be unhappy, as would Liu Jin and others in the inner court, and civil servants such as Ma Wensheng.

However, Zhu Houzhao did not know whether Li Dongyang would stay, because the original historical records stated that Li Dongyang did not leave the court because of Liu Jin's coming to power, but Zhu Houzhao was sure that as long as Li Dongyang submitted his resignation, he would approve Li Dongyang's resignation without hesitation.

Because according to the existing rules of the Ming Dynasty, the cabinet is based on seniority, and those who come first naturally have the most say. In other words, as long as one of the three cabinet elders remains in the cabinet, even if new cabinet ministers are added, the new cabinet ministers cannot become prime ministers. That naturally would be detrimental to allowing the new cabinet ministers to reform the new policies later.

Note: I didn't say here that the three elders should be let off. It is certain that their property will be confiscated and their clans will be exterminated. This is just the beginning. I have already mentioned it in the author's remarks.

Thanks to the book friend Huaiyou Buyi Zhao600 Qidian coins for the reward. Sorry that this chapter is still very short. I am really used to the way of words per chapter, and I can't change it for a while. I don't know why, I have been a little nervous recently. I really want to finish writing a novel seriously and the kind with a base of million, but I am worried that the shelf performance will not be good. Fortunately, the current recommendation data is okay, the book friends are very powerful, the daily push has been nearly , and the strong points can also increase by , but the increase fell yesterday, but it is still second in the new book list of the history category. I hope the shelf performance will not be bad. Grit your teeth and stick to it. As long as the shelf performance is good, I will burst and fight once, and I will not be as lazy as before. Book friends who think it is too short and not enough can first fatten up and read the author Jun's old book "The Great Ming Chongzhen Emperor" or "Reborn as the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty", but please don't forget to collect and vote for recommendations, because this is related to whether the author Jun can get better recommendations. Thank you for your support! In addition, the resignation of the cabinet ministers does not mean that the protagonist will let them go. This is just the beginning.

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(End of this chapter)