Chongzhen's domineering

Chapter 26 The Emperor Disappears, Unconcerned with Politics
After seeing off Lu Xiang-sheng and Sun Chuanting, Zhu Jue returned to his study.

This time, he didn't rush to review the memorials.

This was because there were two books on the emperor's desk: one was "Illustrated Explanation of Newly Made Instruments" and the other was "Illustrated Explanation of Strange Instruments from the Far West".

Both of these books were compiled by Wang Zheng and were only published in the last two years.

Wang Zheng also gave him a general overview: "Illustrated Explanation of Strange Western Instruments" focuses on explaining the principles, while "Illustrated Explanation of Newly Made Instruments" focuses on application.

When he opened "Illustrated Explanation of Strange Western Artifacts," he couldn't help but show a hint of shock.

This book introduces groundbreaking concepts such as mechanics, buoyancy calculations, hydraulics, power, and mechanical principles!

Unfortunately, these days not many people value these things, not many people study them, and very few people can even understand them.

Officials throughout the Ming Dynasty were busy vying for power and profit, and many scholars studied diligently for years just to pass the imperial examinations and gain official rank and power!

Nowadays, few scholars delve into science and technology, and even fewer can integrate and apply their knowledge.

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the Western countries were far behind the Ming Dynasty. After the Ming Dynasty regressed by more than two hundred years, the Western countries were about to catch up with and even surpass the Ming Dynasty!
Wang Zhengdu stated that the principles in "Illustrated Explanation of Strange Instruments from the Far West" were actually translated from works from various Western countries.

In other words, Western countries had already begun developing steam engines and ships, and the Ming Dynasty was about to be surpassed!
If the Ming Dynasty were surpassed by Western countries, the consequences would not only be unimaginable, but also self-evident. That tragic history has already been written in the history books. Western countries were nothing but colonial robbers!

The Ming Dynasty cannot afford to regress any further; he must lead the Ming Dynasty to catch up and quickly build an industrial empire.

The problem is that dealing with the affairs of the outer court takes too much time. Just reviewing memorials takes half a day, and if he meets with a few court officials, a whole day will be gone in the blink of an eye.

He spends most of his time dealing with state affairs. At this rate, when will the Ming Dynasty's industrial empire be built?

It seems that the affairs of the outer court can no longer be handled meticulously. It doesn't matter if he deals with them casually now, since the outer court will have to be started from scratch anyway!
Zhu Jue thought about it carefully, then picked up the memorial on the table and quickly began to read it.

He would just glance at the contents, then say whether it was accurate or not, and then hand it over to Wang Chengen and Liu Ruoyu for approval and official seal.

He originally intended to take a closer look at the contents and ponder them carefully, but now he was too lazy to look at them or ponder them. Anyway, the outer court was already rotten to the core, so it didn't matter if it got any worse.

Because he processed the memorials so haphazardly, he was naturally very fast. In less than an hour, he had finished processing them.

Immediately afterwards, he announced loudly, "Summon Wei Zhongxian to come and pay his respects."

Wei Zhongxian is currently selecting concubines; he hasn't finished selecting the concubines from Daxing and Wanping yet.

However, when summoned by the young emperor, he hurriedly abandoned the group of concubines and rushed to the imperial study.

Seeing that the man was panting heavily, Zhu Jue nodded slightly, then said sternly, "Eunuch Wei, in the future, after you finish processing the memorials, please forward them to the Directorate of Ceremonial Affairs first, and then to the Grand Secretariat."

Uh, what does this mean?
Why transfer it to the Directorate of Ceremonial Affairs after you've finished dealing with it? Isn't that just pointless and unnecessary?

Of course, he would never say such a thing out loud.

He nodded repeatedly and said, "This servant understands."

Zhu Jue then said authoritatively, "Furthermore, you should send someone to tell those officials in the outer court that I am busy and do not have time to see them. From now on, officials in the outer court should not come to the palace to see the Emperor. Even if they do come, I will not have time to see them."

Ah!
What does this mean?
Why did you send someone to speak to those officials in the outer court?

You have far more people under you than I do now.

Upon hearing this, Wei Zhongxian was taken aback for a moment before quickly nodding and saying, "This servant understands."

It seems this guy didn't understand.

Zhu Jue bluntly stated, "You must act as if you were still in power as your elder brother was, and seize control of the court. Do you understand?"

Should I pretend to have absolute control over the court?
Does the imperial court still have anything to do with me now?

Oh, so you want me to pretend and fool those officials in the outer court again.

Wei Zhongxian's eyes darted around for a moment before he nodded repeatedly and said, "This servant understands." This time, he seemed to have truly understood.

Zhu Jue nodded slightly, then waved his hand.

Wei Zhongxian quickly bowed and took his leave.

Next, he started disappearing.

Every morning, before the city gates of the imperial city were even opened, he would sneak into the woods south of the Wanshou Palace and not come out until the city gates were closed at night before returning to the Kunning Palace.

He would hastily process the memorials and then throw them at Wei Zhongxian, refusing to see any of the officials in the outer court.

However, the officials in the outer court knew what he was doing.

This was all because there was too much commotion in the woods south of Wanshou Palace.

He hired countless craftsmen to cut down trees there.

That guy cut a gap several feet wide in the woods south of Wanshou Palace, and he also ordered people to dig a huge pit two or three feet deep and more than ten feet long. Behind the huge pit, a black awning several feet wide and more than ten feet long was built.

This is the dock and waterway!
Those officials from the outer court could be seen standing across from Taiye Pond.

The young emperor seems to want to follow in the footsteps of his elder brother, Emperor Tianqi, and build a ship for fun.

Emperor Tianqi built a shipyard between the palace and Qionghua Island, and then built a ship that ultimately led to his own demise!

The young emperor apparently disliked that place because it was considered unlucky, so he went to build a boat in the woods south of the Longevity Palace.

Is this kid really going to follow in Apocalypse's footsteps and do nothing productive?
The Donglin Party and the Qi-Chu-Zhe Party in the Central Committee were both amused and exasperated.

They went through so much trouble to kill Tianqi, yet Wei Zhongxian got away scot-free.

This newly enthroned young emperor seems oblivious to his own mortality, and like the Tianqi Emperor, he has begun to neglect state affairs.

If they can kill this young emperor, then they can install a vassal king.

The problem is, this young emperor is somewhat different from Tianqi.

The young emperor had control over both the eunuchs and the imperial guards in the palace, and he didn't use the Embroidered Uniform Guard at all.

They had no way to place anyone close to the young emperor, so how could they possibly kill him?

Perhaps, when the young emperor has built the boat and is playing in Taiye Pond, they will find a way to capsize it!
In fact, Zhu Jue didn't care about shipbuilding at all; he was helping Wang Zheng develop a steam engine.

By this time, the steam engine was already taking shape, at least on paper.

Western countries were largely limited by their outdated processing methods and were unable to solve the problem of airtightness, so they were unable to produce truly usable steam engines.

This is actually one of the Ming Dynasty's strengths.

This is because the Ming Dynasty had many professional craftsmen.

For example, coppersmiths, silversmiths, jewelers, and so on.

These craftsmen can polish complex sculptures and even gold and silver jewelry to a smooth, mirror-like finish, thus solving the problem of airtightness.

Zhu Jue recruited a group of such craftsmen to work in a walled house next to the shipyard, where they built steam engines.

The steam engine can be considered the foundation of industrial infrastructure.

If this thing is built, not only will steamships have power, but all kinds of machines will also have power. At that time, the industrial system of the Ming Dynasty will develop incredibly fast.

(End of this chapter)