Emperor Zhengde

Chapter 12 Liu Jin is promoted to the position of Chief of Bell and Drum Department

While Zhu Houzhao was staying in the Leopard House and engaging in industrial production, the court was not peaceful.

Ever since Zhu Houzhao promised to make Ma Wensheng the prime minister in the future, Ma Wensheng has begun to use his opportunity as the Minister of Personnel to place his own people in the local areas and the six ministries.

In addition, Ma Wensheng, who was determined to fight the cabinet, also implemented a strict assessment system, demoting and dismissing many incompetent officials such as Liu Jian, which made Liu Jian, the chief minister of the cabinet, and others very unhappy.

Because of this, Liu Jian and other upright civil servants ignored Zhu Houzhao and even did not dare to force him too much, fearing that Emperor Zhu Houzhao and Ma Wensheng would stand on his side, and he would lose more than he gained.

Therefore, Zhu Houzhao successfully avoided the regular imperial lectures arranged for them by the upright civil officials, and simply cancelled them on the grounds that he was too sad and needed to rest.

In addition, when Zhu Houzhao was making soap and glass and doing other strange and cunning things, Liu Jian and other upright court officials did not have the time to care about him. Moreover, they sincerely hoped that the emperor would not do his job and not care about state affairs, even though on the surface he said that His Majesty wanted to be a virtuous and holy monarch.

Ma Wensheng and other corrupt officials, who were not from the Hanlin Academy and most of whom had experience in border towns, naturally cared less about these things. What they cared more about now was seizing power from the clean officials.

The court officials seemed to have forgotten the existence of the Ming Emperor Zhu Houzhao. All they knew now was that Zhu Houzhao had fun in the Leopard Room every night, and even stayed overnight in brothels. He even made soap for fun. The brave ones even jokingly called Zhu Houzhao the Craftsman Emperor.

The eunuch Wang Yue, who was in charge of the Imperial Household Department, adhered to the habit of reporting everything to Zhu Houzhao, but he would always appear when Zhu Houzhao was busy with his craft, and Zhu Houzhao would raise some questions at the beginning.

"Why is the customs duty in Suzhou going to be exempted again?" For example, one day, Zhu Houzhao asked about this matter. He knew that the customs duty was a commercial tax. Although it was not a source of regular taxes for the court, it was the main source of his own treasury. After all, these commercial taxes all belonged to the imperial treasury, which was related to his own treasury income, so he couldn't help but ask.

"The cabinet means that two counties in Suzhou suffered from floods this year, so we should exempt taxes to save people's energy," Wang Yue replied.

"Wouldn't it be better to exempt the land tax? Why exempt the tax? Merchants don't farm, so how can the flood harm them?" Zhu Houzhao asked.

"Your Majesty, the government is not stable right now, so it is better to listen to the cabinet's decision," Wang Yue, the eunuch in charge of the Imperial Household Department, would suggest at this time.

Zhu Houzhao also realized at this time that Wang Yue had obviously become a lackey of the cabinet officials, and hurriedly said: "Since you want to save the people's strength, all the land taxes in Suzhou this year will be exempted! Let the cabinet decide!"

"Your Majesty is so kind. I will report back right away!" Wang Yue bowed to Zhu Houzhao and left. He couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. He thought that His Majesty was really thinking very simply. If the tax was not exempted, would the civil officials agree to it? The gentry in the south of the Yangtze River would have lost so much silver in vain.

Zhu Houzhao naturally wanted to overthrow Wang Yue more and more, but he also knew that he could not start a war before he controlled the Twelve Regiments and the Imperial Guards, that is, the military power. Therefore, Zhu Houzhao often pretended to trust Wang Yue and the cabinet.

Sometimes, when Wang Yue, the seal holder of the Imperial Household Department, came to report on government affairs, Zhu Houzhao would pretend to be indifferent and say, "Don't bother me with these things!"

Wang Yue, the seal holder of the Imperial Household Department, was always very pleased with this, and so were Liu Jian and others in the cabinet, and they all wished that Zhu Houzhao would do the same every time.

However, after the urgent military report of the little prince's plundering of the border town of Datong was delivered to the capital in August of that year, the court officials had to hold another court meeting, and naturally the emperor Zhu Houzhao could not be absent from the meeting.

then.

This time, the eunuch Wang Yue, who was in charge of the Imperial Household Department, did not dare to come to report to Zhu Houzhao while he was studying industrial manufacturing. Instead, he immediately found Zhu Houzhao.

This time, Zhu Houzhao no longer pretended to be indifferent to state affairs. Accompanied by Wang Yue, the seal holder of the Imperial Household Department, he went to the main hall platform of the Qianqing Palace to hold a court meeting with the cabinet and important officials in Beijing on the disaster of the little prince in the border town.

Zhu Houzhao was also very annoyed with the little prince's Tartar group. In his memory, it seemed that the little prince had never been at peace and had repeatedly invaded the border, and the powerful Ming Empire had no way to deal with it. However, a lot of silver was invested in them, and half of the silver that Emperor Hongzhi had saved throughout his life was spent on border towns.

"The little prince has been invading the border towns of our Ming Dynasty, killing our border troops, and looting our border town civilians. What good plans do you have, my dear ministers?" Zhu Houzhao asked directly as soon as he came up.

Ma Wensheng, the Minister of Personnel who was a former border town governor, immediately stood up and proposed: "Your Majesty, now the military is in disrepair, the soldiers dare not fight, and the generals are afraid of death. We should train elite troops and select good generals to wipe out the rebellion!" "Your Majesty, mobilizing a large-scale military force is a move of war and aggression, which is not conducive to the support of the people." At this time, Li Dongyang, the second assistant of the cabinet, said.

"The Tartars have come to our doorstep. Sending troops to wipe them out is not a waste of effort. It's like a person who is beaten up. Shouldn't he beat the bully to scare him away? When did the Ming Dynasty become so cowardly? Didn't we just collect the summer taxes? If we don't have money and food, we can just train elite soldiers. Moreover, allowing the Tartars to run rampant is not nourishing the people, but harming them."

Zhu Houzhao said.

"Your Majesty! The Tartars have always been mostly cavalrymen, and it is a fact that they are difficult to wipe out. Even if our Ming Dynasty spends countless money and grain and raises millions of elite soldiers, it is still difficult to wipe them out. It is better to build a border wall to defend ourselves. If the enemy invades, they will leave in three to five days!"

The person who said this was the Minister of War Liu Daxia, but after hearing this, Zhu Houzhao felt that Liu Daxia was not suitable to be the Minister of War. The Minister of War was equivalent to the Minister of Defense, who was in charge of the military in the Ming Dynasty. A person in charge of the military could say, "The enemy is coming to attack me, don't worry, they will just leave." How could a person with this ostrich mentality be suitable to be the Minister of War?

"The Taicang warehouse is short of money now, and the summer tax has to make up for last year's deficit. In addition, the late emperor's mausoleum and burial still need money, and the money for repairing the Qianqing Palace has not yet been allocated. Your Majesty's wedding also needs money. The training of elite soldiers and selecting good generals to suppress the Tartars can only be delayed for now. What the Grand Marshal said is indeed mature and prudent!"

The chief minister of the cabinet, Liu Jian, spoke at this time and praised Liu Daxia implicitly. Then the other ministers also nodded and thought that Liu Daxia was right.

Seeing that all the senior civil officials supported Liu Daxia except Ma Wensheng who insisted on training troops for war, Zhu Houzhao naturally could not say anything else and only said, "Since the Prime Minister said so, so be it."

"Your Majesty is wise!"

The chief minister of the cabinet, Liu Jian, and other ministers hurriedly praised Zhu Houzhao. They were very happy in their hearts. After all, they had made wise decisions for the state this time and did not let the emperor think about military affairs. Naturally, they would be praised in history when their names were recorded in the future.

But Zhu Houzhao was unhappy, because he did not expect that a court discussion on national defense would end with the conclusion that "the enemy will go away on their own."

Zhu Houzhao didn't want to wait any longer. He couldn't help but glance at Ma Wensheng, Ma Wensheng, Liu Jin and others. Then, after the ministers left, he asked Wang Yue: "Which of the 24 yamen in the inner court has a vacancy recently?"

"Your Majesty, there is a vacancy in the Bell and Drum Department." Wang Yue noticed that Zhu Houzhao had been looking at Liu Jin for a long time, and knew that Zhu Houzhao wanted to promote Liu Jin, so he only reported a relatively unpopular government office in the inner court.

"Then let Liu Jin take charge of the bell and drum department," Zhu Houzhao said, and Wang Yue nodded in agreement.

In this way, Liu Jin became the eunuch of the Bell and Drum Department and one of the eunuchs in charge of seals in the twenty-four yamen.

But Liu Jin was still a little disappointed. What he wanted was not the eunuch who held the seal of the Bell and Drum Department, but the eunuch who held the seal of the Imperial Household Department.

Zhu Houzhao also saw this, but he did this to let Liu Jin know that if he did not follow him to defeat Wang Yue and others, he would never be able to become a eunuch with real power.

As soon as he returned to the Leopard Room, Zhu Houzhao secretly summoned Liu Jin: "You have seen it too, it's not that I don't want to use you, it's that someone doesn't want to use you. Don't worry, I will promote you sooner or later. Now I am just testing the waters. The most important thing right now is that the military power is not in our hands. The positions of the commander of the 12th Regiment and the Minister of War must be ours! I have decided to get rid of the Minister of War Liu Daxia first. The longer this guy stays in the Ministry of War, the worse the military affairs of the Ming Dynasty will be!"

"No matter what, I, the eunuch Liu Jin, have to be grateful to the emperor. Without the emperor, Liu Jin wouldn't even be able to take the seal of the Bell and Drum Department," said Liu Jin.

"I'm glad you understand. How are your contacts with the civil servants? Who are willing to make friends with you?" Zhu Houzhao asked.

Liu Jin asked solemnly, "Left Vice Minister of Personnel Jiao Fang, Left Vice Minister of War Xu Jin, and Director of the Ministry of Literature Zhang Cai are all willing to make friends with me. Your Majesty wants to get rid of Liu Daxia. Junior Sima Xu Jin is suitable. He has been suppressed by Liu Daxia and is quite resentful. You can ask Xu Jin to find someone to deal with Liu Daxia."

"That's too slow. Ask Xu Jin if he wants to be put in the first place in the Ministry of War. If he does, help him and let him know your methods. Murder is not something that only civil servants can do!" Zhu Houzhao said with a smile.

(End of this chapter)