Volume 2: Residence in the Capital Chapter 188: State and Family Affairs
The emperor was mostly satisfied with the system left by Taizu, but there were always some aspects that he was not so satisfied with. In particular, he had always had deep resentment towards the court meeting system. Emperor Taizu did change the time and number of people attending court in previous dynasties, so at least he, as an emperor, did not have to get up in the dark and yawn all the time to attend court, but he could not decide the topics of the court meeting.
The night before, the cabinet would select the topics for the next day's court meeting, and the Imperial Household Department would present them to the emperor for selection. Then, officials would be selected from the speakers on the pre-determined topics, and the time would be set in advance. At the court meeting every day, the emperor could raise one issue that was not on the agenda, and then listen to the court discussion. However, the time for the court meeting was strictly limited .
It was not allowed to exceed one hour! Because Emperor Taizu believed that it would take at least half an hour for officials to go from entering the palace to returning to the government office. If an official wasted more than one hour on a court session, how could he have enough time to handle other matters?
So, he was so engrossed in watching the show during the court meeting this morning that he did not notice that the topic he raised at the end caused so much controversy, so the time limit of the court meeting was exceeded. The emperor could only blame himself for his bad luck and let the attendant make a note in the diary - on a certain day of a certain year, the emperor attended the regular court in Fengtian Hall, and the court meeting exceeded the time limit because of the discussion on the emperor's second son's reckless speech and wild behavior.
As a result, when the court meeting was over, the gloomy emperor ordered the eldest prince and the second prince to be taken to the Qianqing Gate, and personally supervised the execution and gave the two princes a severe lesson, no eunuch or palace servant dared to say a word.
In the evening, when the emperor was about to leave the western warm room of the Qianqing Palace and go to the Qingning Palace to stay with the empress dowager, he heard the eunuch report that the queen had been staying in Qingning Palace. He sneered unhappily and said, "Are you going to ask the empress dowager for justice again?"
In front of the eunuchs and palace servants, he didn't say anything else, but he was extremely impatient. He only had two older sons, one was taught to be sincere and false by her, and the other was taught to be irritable and impulsive by her. She didn't know how to reflect on herself, but only knew how to complain? Because he was too lazy to run into the queen in Qingning Palace, he simply sent someone to send a letter to the queen mother, changed direction, and went straight to the cabinet.
The emperor came suddenly without any warning, and even without any greeting, which naturally caused a lot of chaos. After all, in addition to those high-ranking university scholars, there are also many Zhongshu Sheren who draft imperial edicts and handle various miscellaneous tasks in the cabinet. After the emperor walked around here as if he was just strolling around , he asked the assistant university scholar Kong to come out with him.
When they reached the wide corridor outside, he asked casually, "Have you found out anything about the Linhai Camp?"
The only different secret letter that Wang Jie deciphered through Zhang Shou was the one that only announced false news at the court meeting. Therefore, the emperor only told the real content to a few people, including Academician Kong who was clearly mentioned in the secret letter.
The deputy assistant who once served as the Minister of War pondered for a moment before choosing his words carefully: "The commander of Linhai Camp, Du Heng, is an old subordinate of Duke Zhao. He has just been transferred to Linhai Camp for less than three months, so it is impossible for him to control the army. Therefore, during the previous rebellion, he only relied on the bravery of his personal soldiers to break through, and then forced the two troops that did not participate in the rebellion to suppress the rebellion. Although he was later punished and dismissed, it can be said that he also made meritorious contributions while serving his sentence. The words in the letter must be a frame-up."
Seeing that the emperor did not make any comment, Grand Secretary Kong said sincerely: "Although I impeached Duke Zhao for delaying the war, I will never sacrifice public interests for personal gain. Du Heng is also a talented person..."
Before Grand Secretary Kong could finish his words, the emperor laughed and said, "Grand Secretary Kong is truly selfless! I begged Zhu Jing to go to war, but he was so cautious that he waited for a few days. Unfortunately, I was sick for a few days, and the result of your discussion was to force him to go to war quickly, and also to entrap my nephew. Then, you launched a massive impeachment campaign to bury Zhu Jing."
Facing the emperor's blunt revelation, Grand Secretary Kong remained calm. He took a step back, raised his hand and bowed, then said in a deep voice: "The northern barbarians are attacking, and there are generals in the court who can be sent. Why did the emperor send the Duke of Zhao who has not been on the battlefield for many years?"
Seeing that the emperor did not speak, the cabinet assistant emphasized, "Duke Zhao followed Emperor Ruizong in his conquests and was conferred the title of Duke when he was less than 25 years old. Now he is only in his early 50s, and is indeed in his prime. But has the emperor forgotten that Duke Zhao is a relative of the emperor? If a woman becomes an empress, her father, brothers, sons, and nephews will all give up their military power. This is the ancestral system!"
"Where do so many ancestral rules come from!" The emperor finally became a little impatient and raised his eyebrows, "Among the ancestral rules left by Emperor Taizu, is this one included?"
Academician Kong was choked up and his face tightened. Then he saw the emperor looking at him with deep eyes: "I don't have to use Zhu Jing, but because some people who used to guard Xuanfu and Datong were too greedy! What's more, I not only used Zhu Jing, but also Zhang Rui and his three brothers. Ma, the meritorious minister of the previous emperor, has been in exile for so many years, and it's time to bring him out to see if he is still useful!"
"But before the war, it's not the time to test people's abilities!" Academician Kong still argued.
The emperor put his hands in his sleeves casually, and seemed calm about the doubts raised by Grand Secretary Kong. "I know your concerns, Mr. Kong, and I know your persistence. However, I am no longer the child I was back then, nor am I the young man I was when I first took power. Since you said Du Heng is good, then transfer him to the capital. Give him the left battalion of the Ruiqi Battalion."
After hearing this, Grand Secretary Kong took a deep breath. He thought that Du Heng had no intention of betraying others, so he could be used. But was it too bold of the emperor to transfer the chief general who had rebelled to the capital as one of the chief generals of the Ruiqi Battalion?
However, before he could speak, the emperor turned around leisurely, leaving him with only his back: "As for Xiong Wei, he had made some contributions was transferred to the Linhai camp."
Damn, a small meritorious service... Those rebels were captured by Zhang Shou and his noble sons. Xiong Wei was just following the emperor's order to bring them back. Where is the meritorious service? Although Kong Daxueshi was full of opposition, the emperor left without giving him a chance to advise. He could only secretly decide to return to the court or stop it when he wrote a letter.
But when he returned to the cabinet with this thought in mind, he found that something was wrong. He saw that the third-ranked Wu Ge Lao, who was always like Maitreya Buddha, smiled and winked at him, as if he was an old friend.
The next moment, the always strong Prime Minister Jiang Ge Lao said coldly: "The emperor gave instructions to you, brother Kong, alone, and sent people to guard the entrance and exit. Many cabinet documents cannot be sent out, and official documents from outside cannot be sent in. This really shows his trust in you!"
Because of his radical political views, Grand Secretary Kong has always been at odds with the conservative Lord Jiang. Faced with this sarcasm, he chose to fight back immediately: "I tell everyone everything, but walls have ears. The emperor must have his reasons for being so cautious!"
"What a joke! As the Prime Minister, there is nothing I cannot tolerate!"
"Then you'll have to ask the Prime Minister himself!"
Wu Ge Lao was always a man who followed the emperor's will in everything. Seeing the two strong men fighting, he tried to mediate. But Jiang Ge Lao immediately brought up the old account of obeying the emperor's orders. Zhang Yu, a university scholar who had just been in the cabinet for less than three months, was usually taciturn, but he was also unknowingly involved in the dispute.
In the end, Lord Jiang and Grand Secretary Kong almost came to blows.
After going to the cabinet and quarreling with Confucius, the emperor did not expect that the cabinet chief and deputy chief ministers would almost fight each other, so he returned to Qingning Palace refreshed. At this time, he could not help but admire the cabinet voting and decentralization system of Emperor Taizu.
Even the Prime Minister could not monopolize the power of drafting the imperial edicts. The memorials from all parties were distributed to all the cabinet ministers according to the categories of the six ministries. If there were not six cabinet ministers, the Prime Minister would take charge of two cases, and the rest would be distributed in turn. And every season, all cabinet ministers would rotate once, striving to prevent monopolization of power. Of course, if the country had a young ruler, there would be no way, but the emperors after him would further emphasize this point.
This is the case now. In the recent season, the affairs of the Ministry of War happened to be rotated to the Grand Secretary Zhang Yu. This taciturn Grand Secretary was cultivated by him. He is more of a trusted and right-hand man than the Amitabha Wu. In this way, the exchange of the commanders of the Linhai Camp and the Ruiqi Camp should be completed.
As for the opposition in the court... well, he has indeed been a bit softer in recent years compared to when he first took power, but it's not like he won't be tough.
On the way to Qingning Palace, the emperor received a report from Chu Kuan, the chief of the Imperial Household Department, that Zhang Shou had written a letter requesting the return of Taizu's manuscripts, and had ordered his students to copy several copies, keeping one for himself and giving the rest to Ge Yong and others. He couldn't help but laugh and said, "I just came back from the cabinet and didn't hear about this."
"In the eyes of the cabinet elders, this should be just a trivial matter." Chu Kuan followed the emperor all the way to Qingning Palace, and wanted to find an opportunity to mention the Ancient and Modern Collection Library. However, no matter what he said, the emperor just hummed without interest, leaving him no way to start. It was not until he saw Yuquan, the female official next to the empress dowager, coming out at the Qingning Gate that he felt a pang in his heart.
Could it be that the Queen would stay in Qingning Palace until so late? So the Queen Mother sent someone to guard outside?
"Your Majesty." Yuquan hurried forward, knelt down and saluted, then whispered, "The Queen just left. She said before that since Your Majesty wants to change the system of princes choosing concubines, then the system of princesses descending should also be changed? Since princes can only choose concubines below the seventh rank, then the princesses will naturally be demoted to the princes, and only commoners will be chosen!"
Hearing this, even though the emperor had expected it and knew that his wife was not the type to cry, he still became furious. He took a deep breath, suppressed his rage, and then asked in a deep voice, "What did the Queen Mother say?"
Yuquan calmed down and said word for word: "The Queen Mother said: 'A rich family marries a daughter, a poor family marries a wife'. The princesses and wives that the princes and royal family members marry in the future are all carefully selected by the Ministry of Rites, and then carefully taught by special people. Women with relatively low births will naturally not be arrogant and domineering because of their birth, but will always remember to be respectful. But the princess is different. How can she marry easily?"
