Volume 2: Soaring! The Overlord of the Region Chapter 201 The First Day of Regent
The appointment of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince as Regent was a manifestation of the ancestral system, so Wanli's imperial edict took effect immediately, without the need for the cabinet's countersignature, let alone the review of the Imperial Censorate. In short, the civil servants could not stop it.
However, the hearts of the civil servants - at least the hearts of the vast majority of them - were devastated.
How many years have passed? At least since Emperor Renzong, among all the emperors of the Ming Dynasty, except Emperor Shizong (Jiajing), who was more difficult to serve, the other emperors were actually easy to deal with: at least, they basically did not kill ministers, and they were also easy to fool.
Therefore, in the past two hundred years, although the Ming Dynasty's national power was declining, the civil servants still lived a very comfortable life: almost no one cared about their laziness, corruption and bribery were also common practices in the officialdom, and if they were unhappy, they would criticize the emperor, and if they were irritated, they would just flip the table and leave. It was really too comfortable.
And now this grandson? My goodness, this is not Emperor Xuan at all, he clearly has the temper of Emperor Chengzu or even Emperor Taizu!
Hey, you say, why did the prince suddenly die? We were still hoping that the prince would ascend the throne in the future, depose this grandson, and save us from the dire straits.
After lamenting, one still has to face it. After all, official positions and power are so tempting that one cannot give them up unless it is absolutely necessary.
Of course, Zhu Youdong could not care so much. After a deep discussion with Wanli, he had already started to make a series of adjustments:
First, the Henghaiwei soldiers all went north and all converted to military status and joined the Beijing camp.
Second, he ordered the eunuch Wang Kun, who was in charge of Nanjing, as well as Tian Ergeng, Cao Sanxi, Xu Guangqi and others to rush to Beijing.
Third, he ordered Wei Zhongxian to find and purchase land near Beijing to build a new Ming Dynasty R&D center.
After these three arrangements were made, especially after Henghaiwei rushed to Beijing at the end of November, on the first day of December of that year, Zhu Youdong formally summoned the two cabinet elders and the heads of the six ministries, the Metropolitan Procuratorate and other departments to hold a collective meeting in Xinghua Palace.
"My Lords, Grandfather the Emperor has asked me to be the regent. To be honest, I am a little excited, but more afraid. No matter what, I must govern my country. In order to make this country more glorious based on the foundation laid by the previous emperors and Grandfather the Emperor, I will set a few rules here to make it easier for us, the monarch and his subjects, to work together in the future."
"Your Highness, please give us your instructions."
"The first rule is that I will still live and manage affairs in Xinghua Palace. From now on, I will prepare two copies of the six ministries' memorials and cabinet bills. One for Xinghua Palace and one for Qianqing Palace. If the emperor doesn't approve it, the Xinghua Palace's approval will prevail. As long as Qianqing Palace approves it, it will prevail."
"I obey your orders."
"Second, court meetings. Ordinary court meetings are held regularly once a month. Officials above the sixth rank in Beijing can attend and have the right to submit proposals. However, these proposals must be reviewed by the Ministry of Public Administration and the Cabinet first. Those that are not worthy of being brought to the court meeting will not be passed. Those that only raise issues but do not propose solutions or suggestions will not be passed. For the time being, only the New Year's Day court meeting will be retained for festive court meetings. If a court meeting is to be held on the emperor's birthday, it can be temporarily increased. There will no longer be a grand court meeting for foreign envoys to meet the emperor, and officials from various departments will send some people to observe the ceremony."
"Your Highness?"
"What does Lord Ye have to say?"
"Isn't the frequency of the grand court meetings and ordinary court meetings a little low?"
"Haha." Zhu Youdong, who was pleasant at first, raised his head slightly and looked at Ye Xianggao with a squint: "Lord Ye, you may not have heard clearly what I just said. I said to set rules, not to make suggestions!"
"If Your Highness doesn't even listen to my advice, then what is the point of me?"
"Hmm..." Zhu Youdong looked up at the roof for a while and smiled, "It turns out that Elder Ye is strong. Elder Ye, I'll make it clear to you, from now on, when I say to set the rules, it means I have made up my mind and must be implemented resolutely. When I say to listen to suggestions, that's when you should speak."
"Your Highness is so arrogant, I cannot serve you anymore. I beg for mercy!"
"OK!"
"you!"
Ye Ge Lao was fifty-three years old this year, and he had been a government official for thirty years. He had never encountered such an arrogant and overbearing superior. So even though Ye Ge Lao didn't want to resign at all, he had no choice but to stand up and prepare to leave Xinghua Palace.
"Master Ye, please stay!"
What? Did you realize that you were too arrogant and tough just now and said something wrong? Humph, come on, beg me!
"I haven't finished talking about the rules just now. One of the rules is going to be mentioned later, but since Lord Ye is resigning, I'll say it first . From now on, all officials must undergo an exit audit before leaving office! When a county magistrate resigns, the prefectures will audit him. When the chief official of a prefecture resigns, the provincial government will audit him... and so on. When the Lord, the ministers of the six ministries, and the chief censor of the Censorate resign, I will personally audit them!"
"My reputation as an honest and incorruptible minister is known to all in the court. I am waiting for the Crown Prince to come and audit me!" With a flick of his sleeves, Ye Xianggao walked out of Xinghua Palace with great bearing.
After watching Ye Xianggao leave, Zhu Youdong glanced at the remaining dozens of senior officials of the Ming Empire, and then said in a cold voice: "Anyone who thinks I'm difficult to serve or can't stand me can resign! I accept all offers!"
Resign? Are you kidding me? Forget about the resignation audit. Anyone with a little common sense will know that the prince is not afraid of our resignation. No, the prince is actually eager for us to resign!
The Ming Dynasty's ancestral system designated Nanjing as the capital, where a complete set of central government teams were assigned, and this team was given certain powers to a greater or lesser extent. This system, which seemed to have overlapping institutions and was quite wasteful of national funds, was not without reason!
Without a crown prince, the capital would be a nursing home or a place of exile. As long as there is a crown prince guarding Nanjing, this system is extremely scientific!
The Crown Prince has guarded Nanjing for six years. Apart from a few trusted ministers in his shogunate, there are so many officials in the six ministries and the Metropolitan Censorate in Nanjing. Are there no trusted officials of the Crown Prince? Even if all the officials of the six ministries and the Metropolitan Censorate in Beijing resigned, the Crown Prince can make adjustments quickly and still maintain the overall effective operation of the country. It is possible that the Crown Prince is so domineering today to deliberately stimulate us to submit our collective resignations!
In addition to cultivating a team in Nanjing, the crown prince also has his own army. The most capable border troops in the country also basically support the crown prince. In other words, the crown prince has a knife in his hand, and he can kill tens of thousands of officials in one breath like Taizu did back then!
How many years have passed? Since Emperor Yingzong, successive emperors did not have their own team because they did not go to Nanjing alone when . In addition, under the shadow of the Battle of Tumu, they were basically isolated from the army. Therefore, after the emperors ascended the throne, it was often difficult to confront the civil officials. Over the past 100 years, Emperor Sejong was able to suppress the civil officials when he was in power because he had his own independent team as a vassal king. The subsequent Longqing and Wanli were weaker than each other.
Hey! Why didn't you strongly oppose the grandson's departure to Nanjing six years ago? It was a mistake! It was really a mistake!
After realizing this, all the ministers present were silent: I hope this person’s temper is not like Taizu’s, otherwise his life as an official will be miserable.
"Well, it seems that no one wants to resign for the time being. Okay, then I will continue. Article 3, the State Council Meeting. The participants are me, the Grand Secretary of the Cabinet, the Ministers and Vice Ministers of the Six Ministries, the Left and Right Censors-in-Chief, the Minister of Public Administration, the Minister of the Supreme Court, the Eunuchs who hold the seal and the pen of the Silijian, the eunuchs who supervise the Imperial Horse Bureau, the Director of the East Factory, the Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, and some individuals specially designated by me. The State Council Meeting is held regularly, once every ten days, and will be postponed in case of holidays or grand court meetings. The meeting procedure is: each department shall submit matters that need to be decided in the meeting in advance, especially matters that require the cooperation of multiple departments to complete, to the Minister of Public Administration, who will sort them out and submit them to the cabinet elders for review and approval before they are put into the meeting. For all matters, each department must first state the solution proposal, otherwise it will not be accepted!
As for daily affairs, unless it is a particularly important matter involving national security, the State Council meeting is generally not held temporarily. It is still sent to the Cabinet for approval. "
"I obey your orders."
To be honest, Zhu Youdong's rule really cost the lives of officials from various departments.
During the operation of the Ming Empire till now, all the problems ultimately come down to one thing: no money!
In the past, each ministry could directly throw out problems and directly hand them over to the cabinet. The cabinet's solution was also very simple: ask the emperor's inner treasury for support. So it was actually very easy to be an official in the Ming Dynasty after reaching a certain level: just hand it over to the emperor.
But now? Look at the grandson's momentum. If you keep asking for support from the inner treasury, do you believe that the grandson will directly send the Royal Guards to visit your home?
"At each State Council meeting, at least three Zhongshu Sheren should be arranged to take notes. The speed of writing with a brush is too slow, so I have asked Fangshan Laboratory to urgently deliver a batch of fountain pens. The meeting paper is also specially provided by Fangshan Materials Laboratory... After the meeting, the matters decided at the meeting will be distributed to all participating officials in the form of meeting minutes. All departments will strictly follow the instructions in the meeting minutes to carry out specific work. At the second State Council meeting, the progress of the work arranged at the previous meeting will be checked first. Those who do well will be rewarded! Those who do poorly will be punished! Those who always fail to complete the assigned tasks will be reported to the whole country in the official newspaper!"
It's over! It's really hard to be an official like this!
"As for the rules, let's just set these four first. Now I'm going to talk about something, and please go back and brainstorm."
"Your Highness, please give your instructions."
"At present, many ministries and government offices in the Ming Dynasty are short of officials. As far as I know, among the six ministries in Beijing, there is a shortage of three ministers and six assistant ministers. The six ministries in Nanjing also have large vacancies. In addition, after the retirement of Minister Ye, there is only one minister in the cabinet. Therefore, all of you present here can propose candidates for these vacancies. Well, the list of candidates can be handed over to me privately through Wang Chengen, and I will keep it absolutely confidential. After I get the list, I will do some confidentiality processing, and then discuss it at the State Council meeting in ten days."
His Highness is really good at what he does. Those few rules just now really made me lose all desire for life, but now, this official position? You can recommend yourself! Especially, you may even be able to join the cabinet?
"Also, I know that the court has been spending more than it earns in recent years. Both the border troops and the officials in the capital have been owed wages for a long time. Last year, the court conquered Jianzhou and issued one million yuan from the treasury to make up for the arrears of the border troops. But the arrears of the officials in the capital have not been settled. So, the Ministry of Revenue will go down and calculate how much is still owed. As long as everyone has no objection at the next meeting, I will pay for it myself and make up for it all!"
