Jiajing Chengming

Chapter 15: A Big Problem for Yang Tinghe
Yuan Zonggao took advantage of the time when the imperial carriage stopped at the post stations along the way to go to the nearby temple to borrow food, rice and medicinal herbs.

Because Yuan Zonggao himself was a local official, and he was about to become the emperor's teacher, and his words were threatening, the temple landlords did not refuse to lend grain and medicine. They took the initiative to change the loans into donations, and donated a total of 10,000 dan of rice and a large amount of medicine, which were escorted by the abbot himself and his lay disciples.

Since these great monks were very sensible, Zhu Houcong still met with them after they delivered the grain in order to encourage them to actively participate in public welfare activities.

The monks were naturally very happy about this, and they did not dare to refuse, so their only goal was to leave a good impression in front of the heir.

After all, if the successor really wants to "destroy Buddhism", they will only suffer greater losses.

And if they could leave a good impression on the successor, perhaps he would be more devoted to Buddha, thus greatly improving the status of these monks.

Of course, they naturally did not want them to donate grain and rice, which would make the successor king greedy for them.

Fortunately, Zhu Houcong's current image of them is that of a kind person who does not seize the interests of the people, which makes them less worried in this regard.

However, what Zhu Houcong did not expect was that because he helped the people along the way, many refugees along the way chose to follow him north, and many of them followed behind his carriage team.

"They said that there was no food to be found in the nearby cities, so they could only continue to flee. Rather than fleeing to other places, they would rather come back and follow the heir king into exile."

"This way, not only will they not have to worry about bandits and insects along the way, but if they run out of food or get plagued, they can still have the emperor to help them. They will undoubtedly feel more at ease. They have also determined that the emperor is a good emperor who will care about their lives!"

After Zhu Houcong learned from Yuan Zonggao why these refugees insisted on following the emperor's carriage north, he nodded.

He knew that this situation was related to the fact that the Ming Dynasty was currently experiencing an overpopulation problem, a single industry, and the government and wealthy families were unable to absorb so many people.

Especially now that land annexation has intensified, disasters have intensified in recent years, and public construction has been insufficient, the problem of overpopulation has become more serious, and there are more unemployed vagrants.

When the refugees saw that there was an emperor who was willing to care about their lives, they naturally regarded Zhu Houcong as their lifeline.

to this end.

Zhu Houcong summoned Liang Chu and others and asked, "Many people want to follow us to Beijing. What do you think?"

Liang Chu, Mao Cheng and other upright civil servants from the capital remained silent.

This is because they could neither tell the emperor that you cannot bring these people into the capital nor drive them away violently. After all, once these people were brought into the capital, it would bring a huge financial burden to the court.

You know, the government in power now can't even afford to support more than 100,000 military academies and wants to cut back on them, so how could they be willing to support these refugees?

same.

They couldn't say that they should bring these people to Beijing. At most, they could carry out financial reforms, such as clearing the farmlands in the north, and then they would be able to settle these people naturally. After all, they were conservatives who didn't want reform and even opposed reform and were accelerating the abolition of the Zhengde reform policy.

This way.

Yuan Zonggao had another opportunity to show himself and establish his authority and reputation.

At this time, he decisively bowed to Zhu Houcong and said, "In my humble opinion, it is not a big problem to bring these people to Beijing. First, most of them are people who sold their land at a low price due to the disaster last year, so they have obtained a lot of food by selling their land at a low price. In other words, most of them bring their own food, so naturally we don't need to give out too much food for relief; secondly, we have a lot of followers now, and we can assign personnel to manage and escort them, but after bringing them to Beijing, how to settle them is a problem."

When Yuan Zonggao said this, he glanced at Liang Chu, Mao Cheng and others.

He raised the question of how to resettle these refugees after bringing them to Beijing, in order to test whether any of the upright civil servants who had welcomed Zhu Houcong to the throne advocated reform.

Liang Chu and Mao Cheng naturally also realized the hidden meaning of Yuan Zonggao's words.

Liang Chu, who had already made up his mind to retire, naturally pretended to be stupid and closed his eyes to rest.

Mao Cheng did not play dumb, and at this time he had to take the initiative to speak: "I have observed that there are many wastelands in this area. I think the local government can take in these refugees and reclaim the wasteland on the spot."

"The Grand Master of the Imperial Clan may have been serving as an official in the capital and does not know the real situation in the local areas. Although there are many wastelands in various parts of the country, especially near the flat official roads, these wastelands are not without owners. Instead, they all have owners, but no one is cultivating them."

Yuan Zonggao then started to explain, and directly exposed Mao Cheng's shortcomings. Mao Cheng couldn't help but blush, and looked at Zhu Houcong. He was afraid that Zhu Houcong would blame him for pretending to be stupid and fooling him, or really think that he was a nerd who didn't know the local realities.

Seeing Mao Cheng's embarrassed expression, Zhu Houcong was secretly delighted. He also took the initiative to cooperate with Yuan Zonggao and pretended to be puzzled and asked, "Sir, why are there so many fields without anyone to cultivate them?"

"This is because most of these wastelands were acquired by the wealthy and powerful, and usually within a radius of 100 miles, they were all owned by one family or one household, so the rent was very high. In addition, officials exploited them, so the people would rather beg for food than pay rent."

Yuan Zonggao replied at this time.

Zhu Houcong nodded, then looked at Mao Cheng: "So, Grand Master, do you still hold this view?"

"I am ashamed!"

Mao Cheng quickly admitted his mistake, bowed to Zhu Houcong, and then cupped his hands and said: "Thanks to Mr. Yuan's advice, I now understand that my proposal is unrealistic and just empty talk."

Mao Cheng said this while gritting his teeth.

He would rather admit that he was ignorant of the local realities than admit that he was playing dumb to deceive the emperor, because the former would at most lead to contempt and ridicule, while the latter would be suspected of deceiving the emperor.

The middle and lower level ministers among the entourage could not help but be secretly shocked when they saw this.

Because they didn't expect that Mao Cheng, the dignified Minister of Rites from the capital, would be worse than a chief historian who was familiar with practical affairs beside the heir to the throne.

The young officers and generals did not understand so much, so at this time, they directly felt that their filter for Mao Cheng, the Minister of Rites, was greatly reduced, and they felt that this group of ministers seemed to be a makeshift team.

Even the young Lu Bing couldn't help but feel that these so-called court ministers from the capital were just like that, otherwise he wouldn't have been taught how to behave by his own prince's teacher, Yuan Changshi.

At this time, Mao Cheng did not regret his embarrassing remarks.

Because he knew that the land annexation in the country was serious. What he said just now was certainly to take advantage of Zhu Houcong's youth and innocence, and to find a reason to fool Zhu Houcong into giving up the idea of ​​bringing the people to Beijing. At the same time, it was also to test whether Yuan Zonggao was really determined to lead Zhu Houcong on the road of reform.

Therefore, he now just hated Yuan Zonggao for being so tactless and deliberately being so frank with the successor.

Is it really true that being too honest with the emperor is loyal?
After all, he had clearly said that, but Yuan Zonggao kept on confronting him, not knowing how to go with the flow and agree with him, the Minister of Rites, that he was right. He also agreed to let local officials settle these refugees on the spot and reclaim wasteland. Instead, he took the initiative to expose himself and accused himself of being ignorant of the actual situation in the local area. It was obvious that he was determined to remind the successor that the world had reached a point where thorough reform was necessary!
Zhu Houcong noticed Mao Cheng's clenched fists in his sleeves.

But he just laughed in his heart and did not expose Mao Cheng. He just continued to say to Mao Cheng at this time: "Grand Master, please tell me about the prime minister of the current dynasty. You are a gentleman, and I think your evaluation of the prime minister is fair."

Mao Cheng looked up in astonishment, looking at Zhu Houcong's clear eyes. He didn't know whether there was only innocent inquiry in Zhu Houcong's clear eyes, or whether there was a hint of cunning hidden in them.

Because asking him to evaluate Prime Minister Yang Tinghe at this time would be tantamount to putting him in an awkward position.

If he praised Yang Tinghe, it would certainly make the successor emperor believe that Yang Tinghe could solve the problem of refugees entering Beijing, which would be tantamount to posing a big problem for Yang Tinghe.

If he did not praise Yang Tinghe but criticized Yang Tinghe instead, he would be taking the lead in denying Yang Tinghe as a senior official. How could he then use Zhu Houcong's name as a trusted senior official to restrict the imperial power?
Therefore, Mao Cheng found that no matter how he evaluated Yang Tinghe now, it would be disadvantageous to himself and other clean civil servants, and would only allow Emperor Zhu Houcong to win.

And it’s a big win!
This made Mao Cheng wonder whether Zhu Houcong was truly innocent or just pretending to be stupid.

But now Mao Cheng could only bow and agree, and could only praise Yang Tinghe, which at least threw the difficult problem to Yang Tinghe.

He now only hopes that Yang Tinghe is wise enough to resolve this difficult problem.

Therefore, Mao Cheng said at this time: "The Prime Minister is loyal and upright, able to stabilize the country and achieve the rejuvenation of the country."

Zhu Houcong nodded and asked again: "How about the common people? Can you help me let them live and work in peace in the capital again?"

Mao Cheng gritted his teeth and replied: "Yuan Fu is a minister who is good at economics. He can restore order and he can be relied on by the successor emperor and the people!"

(End of this chapter)