Volume 1: Birth! Seven time travelers Chapter 114 Donglin also wants to publish a newspaper (Part 3)
"Your Highness, this is the memorial recently received by the Nanjing Tongzhengsi."
"Huh? Why are there so many?"
The time came to the fifth day of February in 1608, the first ten-day meeting of the six ministries in Nanjing that year.
Zhu Youdong left Nanjing on December 5 last year and returned northward. He spent the 15th day of the lunar year with Wanli, Zhu Changluo and others in Beijing before returning from Beijing. Therefore, the Nanjing Six Departments Meeting on February 5 was the first in the 36th year of Wanli.
During this time in Beijing, Wanli was very pleased to listen to Zhu Youdong's work report, and then encouraged him to do a good job. Of course, Wanli also gladly accepted the dividends of 1.8 million taels from Zhu Youdong's Honghezhuang, Mubang Jade Mine, Fangshan and other industries.
Not only that, Wanli also asked Zhu Youdong to hand over all his manuscripts of The Legend of the Condor Heroes.
That was it. Although Zhu Youdong promised Wanli that the annual dividend would not be less than two million, he was a little speechless when he heard that Wanli had ignored the imperial edict that had been issued to the whole country since the end of last year and began to send tax inspectors to collect mining taxes and customs duties all over the country.
But there is no way. Let’s not talk about the mining tax. Let’s talk about the customs duty. The market is there and the changes are not big. But when the eunuchs were in charge, there were still 300,000 or 500,000 taels a year. The civil officials have been in charge for less than a year, and the amount has dropped sharply to less than 30,000 taels...
Therefore, Zhu Youdong could only express his understanding of Wanli's behavior.
As for Ciqing Palace, his younger brother Zhu Youxiao was two years old and could already call him brother. Zhu Changluo and the concubine Wang gave him a younger brother, and he and other concubines gave him two younger sisters - and this was in just less than a year.
Mother Guo became even more resentful. During her time alone with Zhu Youdong, she repeatedly expressed her desire to go south to Nanjing and live with Zhu Youdong. But you are the Crown Princess! Do you still want to maintain the dignity of the country?
The bags under his father's eyes got deeper. Wu Youxing, Zhang Jingyue and others who accompanied Zhu Youdong back to Beijing looked solemn after they gave the people in Ciqing Palace a physical examination. Everyone said to Zhu Youdong directly or implicitly: Your Highness, you have to persuade the prince that excessive indulgence is not good!
However, when he came back this time, Zhu Youdong clearly felt that Zhu Changluo's attitude towards him had become very strange and overly polite. When the father and son were together, they were both very uncomfortable.
Think about it: the crown prince was in Nanjing, and it was the grandson who went there instead of the crown prince. This was a slap in Zhu Changluo's face. Although Zhu Youdong did not do anything earth-shattering during his year in Nanjing, he had established a firm foothold anyway.
Zhu Changluo was not stupid, he knew very well how difficult it was for Zhu Youdong to do this. But the more this happened, the more unbalanced he felt.
Well, I am actually jealous of my son. Alas, the royal family is ruthless, and this is also one of its manifestations.
In short, after spending about twenty days in Beijing, Zhu Youdong hurried back to Nanjing.
Then he was overwhelmed by countless memorials.
Looking at the six ministers who were smiling but not saying anything, the angry Wang Kun, and Liu Maoxun who was laughing awkwardly beside him, Zhu Youdong frowned and opened a memorial.
Oh? Impeach Zhang Yicheng for being a corrupt person and openly visiting prostitutes?
The second book impeached Zhang Yicheng for accepting bribes from businessmen and using his position to provide the bribed businessmen with free advertising in the Jinling Daily.
The third book impeached Zhang Yicheng and ruined his reputation... The fourth book...
Zhu Youdong read one book and chuckled twice. He read another book and chuckled again. He patiently read more than 70 books of bullets and finally finished reading all of them.
"I just spent nearly two hours reading more than seventy memorials, all of which talked about the same thing. Why? Have the southern provinces of our Ming Dynasty not had any other important things in the past month? Or is it that the things that Zhang Yicheng is responsible for are more important than all the military and national affairs of the Ming Dynasty?"
The Ming Dynasty censors were allowed to speak out on hearsay because Zhu Yuanzhang had set such good rules. They could do whatever they heard even without any real evidence. The key point was that they did not have to take responsibility for their comments. This caused a big problem: if an official was criticized by a censor, he had to prove that he was not wrong.
Any normal person knows that if you want to prove that something exists, it is relatively simple, just a single case will do. But if you want to prove that something does not exist, how do you prove it?
Therefore, there is no way to argue about these bullets, and we can only change the subject.
"Your Highness, although Zhang Yicheng's official position is not high, he is the Imperial Censor who is related to the future of the country and the teacher of all the students in the ten prefectures of Yingtian. His every word and action is an object of imitation for the students. If such a person behaves improperly, it will destroy the future of the country."
"Hmm... It seems that Marquis Anyuan has read a lot of books in recent years. He can speak such profound truths. Hmm, does anyone in your family want to take part in the imperial examination in the future?"
"Your Highness!" The fat man Liu Maoxun listened to Zhu Youdong's words which were as cold as metal. In the middle of winter, beads of sweat suddenly appeared on his forehead. "I just said it casually. I just said it casually ."
"Well, is there any other minister who wants to say something?"
“Your Highness…”
Zhu Youdong gently extended a hand to stop the Minister of War Xu Honggang from speaking, and then said: "When I was in Beijing, I received news from the Jinyiwei that Wuding Prefecture in Yunnan and Qu Tusi Ake rebelled, had already captured Wuding, led the people to approach Kunming, burned the houses of the people, and threatened the governor of Yunnan hand over the official seal of the prefect of Wuding Prefecture. After receiving this news, I hurried back to the south. As a result, after I came back, you did not show me the handling of the Yunnan incident, but brought me a bunch of impeachment documents? Minister Xu, is this how you served as the garrison of Nanjing and the counselor of the aircraft?"
"Your Highness." Hearing such heart-piercing words, Xu Honggang had no choice but to stand up and apologize: "Your Highness, the matter in Yunnan has been settled. What remains is just the follow-up cleanup. It is not urgent."
"Hehe..." Zhu Youdong also stood up: "How did you solve it? Tell me? What? You don't want to talk anymore? Then I'll tell you!"
In the historical plane, in 1607, the chieftain Ake of Wuding, Yunnan, rebelled. The local prefect was unable to suppress the rebellion, so he fled to the provincial capital of Kunming with the prefect's official seal. Then Ake led his army to Kunming, and the defenders of Kunming and the guards of the Duke of Qian's mansion did not dare to go out of the city to fight! Mu Rui, the son of the Duke of Qian, who was exercising the functions of the Duke of Qian on behalf of his sick and bedridden father, saw Ake's rebels from a distance on the city wall and actually ran away!
As a result, thousands of soldiers from the Kunming garrison and thousands of personal soldiers from the Duke of Qian's mansion had no choice but to allow Ak to burn down houses outside Kunming and rob people in the suburbs.
Ake said that he only opposed the prefect, not the Ming Dynasty. So the officials in Yunnan just need to give me the prefect seal of Wujin Prefecture and appoint me as the prefect. So officials and gentry at all levels in Kunming mobilized the people and threatened the highest official in the city at that time, Chen Yongbin, the right deputy censor of the Nanjing Metropolitan Procuratorate and the governor of Yunnan: My lord, give the seal to the rebels. After the rebels retreat, we will send troops to kill them!
Then Chen Yongbin did just that.
This rebellion was quickly quelled after Chen Yongbin transferred troops from Yunnan shortly after Ak retreated. However, this serious violation of political regulations and extremely damaging to the image of the government must be held accountable!
"This incident fully reflects the uselessness of the Yunnan garrison soldiers! The incompetence of the Duke of Qian's Mansion! Chen Yongbin's cowardice! Once this precedent is set, won't the local chieftains follow suit? Will they threaten local officials at every turn? Once this precedent is set, will the local chieftains still trust the court? In the future, it will be many times more difficult for the court to gain the trust of local chieftains! Such a big thing, you didn't even bring it up for discussion at the first ten-day meeting after I returned to Nanjing. Instead, you are entangled in the personal morality of an academic official!"
"I am guilty, Your Highness, please punish me."
"I am only the crown prince in Nanjing, so I cannot punish you. However, the Nanjing Military Department is in charge of the military affairs of the southern provinces. Nanjing is responsible for such a big incident in Yunnan. Let's put it this way. Nanjing Jinyiwei, Nanjing Ministry of Personnel, and Nanjing Ministry of War will immediately send people to Kunming to bring Chen Yongbin and the prince of Qian Guogong, Mu Ruisuo, to Nanjing. At that time, the Ministry of Justice, the Censorate, and the Dali Temple will hold a joint trial, and the Jinyiwei will sit in."
"Your Highness obeys your command."
After the meeting ended and they returned to Nanhua Palace, Tian Ergeng hurried in.
"Your Highness."
"Ergen, this is all my fault. After I returned to Nanjing, I should have met with you first and listened to your news about Nanjing in the past month or two before going to the meeting. But the situation in Yunnan really made me anxious, so I held the meeting first."
Tian Ergeng, who stayed in Nanjing after contacting Li Dan and Yan Siqi, was already a captain of the Nanjing Jinyiwei. At that time, the Nanjing Jinyiwei had no real commander or high-ranking officials, but only some administrative officials. Therefore, Tian Ergeng, the captain, was actually the chief of the Ming Dynasty's Southern Jinyiwei.
After Zhu Youdong took the initiative to confess his mistake, Tian Ergeng felt relieved. "Your Highness, you are too kind. I have no intention of complaining. Your Highness, I just received news a few days ago that Donglin Academy is also planning to publish a newspaper."
"Donglin Academy?" A murderous intent flashed across Zhu Youdong's eyes: "Well, I understand."
