Ming Jiajing: Starting from Immortality

Chapter 82: The whole country selects concubines, and thousands of officials return their land!
After the hymn was finished.

Zhang Juzheng stood there, with sweat stains still visible on his face. Zhu Houcong ordered Huang Jin to bring him a face towel.

Huang Jin washed his hands in the copper basin, wrung out a face towel from the golden basin, and walked over to wipe Zhang Juzheng's forehead.

"Prince Yu hasn't recovered for a long time. Has the person who treated him come to Beijing?" Zhu Houcong asked.

It rained for half the night and he watched a drama of a son being taught a lesson at the Meridian Gate. From then on, Prince Yu Zhu Zaihou would have a fever from time to time. The imperial doctors from the Imperial Medical Bureau went to see him several times, but he could not be completely cured.

Zhu Houcong knew that it was a problem with the medical skills of the imperial physicians in the Imperial Medical Bureau, and that there would not be any major epidemics or diseases in Chun'an, so he simply ordered Li Shizhen to return to Beijing.

Zhang Juzheng was silent for a moment, "Your Majesty, I have come to the capital, but the imperial physician Li said that he cannot be cured."

"Please tell me what the disease is?" Zhu Houcong's expression was calm.

"Your Majesty, Imperial Physician Li said it was a heart disease."

"What kind of heart disease is it? What kind of heart medicine can cure it?"

How to answer this?

Is it a mental illness caused by the throne, and can it be cured by sitting on the throne?
The current emperor is a very sharp, suspicious, jealous, and unyielding person!

If this kind of heart disease and heart medicine came from the mouth of a cabinet elder, the court would have launched a large-scale purge again.

Zhang Juzheng could only lower his head and remain silent.

Zhu Houcong knew Zhang Juzheng's dilemma and said, "If we can't cure the root cause, we can at least cure the symptoms, right?"

"Your Majesty, Imperial Physician Li has prescribed a prescription. After Prince Yu took a few doses of the medicine, his fever no longer recurred." Zhang Juzheng could answer this question.

Zhu Houcong nodded and closed his eyes. Based on past experience, the dialogue between the emperor and his ministers should end here.

But Zhang Juzheng obviously didn't want to end it so quickly today. He didn't bow and leave, but said, "Your Majesty, I have something else to say."

"Speak." Zhu Houcong did not open his eyes.

"Your Majesty, the Cabinet and the Ministry of Revenue have roughly drawn up a list of 6,000 new officials to the court," Zhang Juzheng reported.

Selecting 6,000 from hundreds of thousands of Jinshi and Juren to serve as officials almost exhausted Gao Gong's efforts, but he finally did it and lived up to the emperor's expectations.

"Wait until the list is presented to the palace, and then let Huang Jin use the seal to issue an order to the whole country."

Don't use people with suspicion, don't use people who are suspicious.

Zhu Houcong saw the efforts of Zhang Juzheng and Gao Gong, and took all aspects into consideration as much as possible. Even if any problems occurred to these 6,000 officials in the future, it was due to their personal failure to control their own conscience, and had nothing to do with Zhang and Gao.

Zhang Juzheng's eyes welled up with this trust of "the emperor does not doubt his subjects", and he knelt down and said, "Thank you for your trust, Your Majesty, but this is not what I want to say."

"I don't like ministers who keep things a secret."

"Yes."

Zhang Juzheng took out a list from his sleeve and said respectfully, "Your Majesty, according to the ancestral system of Emperor Taizu Gao, when Jinshi and Juren become officials, they must return the land donated by the people, but from the Hongwu period to the present, the ancestral system has not been strictly implemented.

The six thousand new officials who are about to enter the government have donated nearly five million acres of farmland. I would like to use this as a precedent for the new officials to enter the court and return the land to the people!"

Zhu Houcong opened his eyes, stared at Zhang Juzheng, and asked, "What if the new official refuses to give up his land?"

"Your Majesty, there are still hundreds of thousands of candidates waiting to be promoted to officials." Zhang Juzheng said in a slightly cold tone.

Selecting scholars to serve in the court is a grace from the imperial court, but grace is not without price, and the land donated by the people must be returned.

If you don’t give up the land, you will resign from office!
Anyway, there were many people who wanted to be officials in the Ming Dynasty. If there were not enough Jinshi, they would choose from Juren. If there were not enough Juren, they would choose from Xiucai. If millions of Xiucai were not enough, they would choose from Tongsheng.

In short, there are endless people who want to be officials. As for the shallow knowledge of scholars and students, it is not the case that the more knowledge you have, the higher your official position will be. The Analects cannot rule the world, but the Great Ming Code can.

The longer he served as an official, the deeper his understanding became. He realized that what he was doing was not being an official, but having a conscience. Only with a conscience could he be a good official, no matter whether he was a Jinshi, Juren, Xiucai, or Tongsheng.

Tying the new official's position to the donation of land was only Zhang Juzheng's first step.

Zhang Juzheng planned to add this condition to the selection of new officials in the future, and after the civil and military officials gradually adapted to it, he would implement it among all officials in the Ming Dynasty.

Donate land.

Court salary.

These were the only two sources of income that the officials of the Ming Dynasty could openly state: returning the land as donations. What they returned was not land, but half of their lives.

But if he doesn't give up the land, he won't be able to be an official, and he won't be able to get the salary from the court, and he will lose his life even more.

Zhang Juzheng's move hit the nail on the head for the scholars who were eager to become officials.

sinister!

Zhu Houcong gradually understood why Zhang Juzheng was so hated in the officialdom. When it came to matters of power and money, Zhang Juzheng always made officials speechless and unable to express their grievances.

Huang Jin took the list of land and presented it to Zhu Houcong. The precise number of 4,996,752 acres of land at the end was indeed a huge number.

If converted into money and grain, it would be at least hundreds of millions of taels of silver. Zhang Juzheng had opened a hole in the country's officials, and blood was gushing out.

Want to be an official!
Pay the land (money) first!

Zhang Juzheng deserves the title of Prime Minister of the Cabinet!
Zhu Houcong nodded and smiled, "Since you have an idea, then draft a memorial and submit it to the palace. I hope to see that other cabinet elders think the same way."

In official circles.

The word "hope" often carries the meaning of an order. If the word "hope" comes from the emperor's mouth, it is no different from an imperial decree.

The emperor "hopes" to confirm the proposal of the cabinet chief, and the other cabinet members have to agree to this idea even if they disagree.

Even if you really encounter a stubborn person who refuses to agree, the position of cabinet elder is not a lifetime position, so you can just replace him with someone who agrees with the idea.

If you understand, you must execute. If you don’t understand, you must slowly understand through execution.

This is Zhang Juzheng’s understanding of power.

"I will submit a memorial when I return and have the cabinet approve it."

Zhang Juzheng also smiled and said, "Your Majesty, I have another memorial to submit."

Zhu Houcong suddenly didn't want to laugh anymore. For the first time, he felt that it was not a good thing for a minister to be too smart. With so many memorials submitted one after another, the time it took for the emperor and his ministers to discuss their opinions had never been so long.

"Go ahead."

"Your Majesty, since the 12th year of the Jiajing reign, Your Majesty has not selected concubines from across the country, resulting in a lack of royal heirs. Prince Yu is now in poor health, Prince Jing has not had a successor for a long time, the crown prince is still undecided, and the court is uneasy.

In the 26th year of Jiajing's reign, Empress Xiaolie passed away, and fourteen years had passed in a flash.

A country cannot be without a ruler for a day, and the same goes for the harem.

I think that the emperor is in his prime now, and it is time for the whole country to select a concubine and a new queen, so as to recreate the world, continue the royal bloodline, stabilize the government, and only in this way can the Ming Dynasty continue for thousands of generations!" Zhang Juzheng bowed his head and made suggestions.

Zhu Houcong was stunned.

Huang Jin looked at Zhang Juzheng as if he was looking at an unprecedented traitor!
(End of this chapter)