Emperor Zhengde

Chapter 191 I can become emperor not because of the support of civil officials

On this day, Zhu Houzhao summoned Yang Yiqing into the palace.

Yang Yiqing was very happy, thinking that Zhu Houzhao wanted to discuss with him how to quell the rebellion.

But Zhu Houzhao still only asked Yang Yiqing about his views on the military system of the world. Yang Yiqing was a little disappointed. After patiently telling Zhu Houzhao about the disadvantages of the Wei Suo system, he finally had to ask in person:

"Your Majesty, I would like to ask when the imperial court will issue the order for us to lead troops to suppress the rebellion?"

"Are you so anxious to quell the rebellion?"

Zhu Houzhao threw a memorial in front of Yang Yiqing and said, "Take a look. This is what Cai Kuan, the general commander of Shaanxi military affairs, just submitted to the capital. The Prince of Anhua has been captured alive, and the rest of his followers have been killed. The rebellion has been quelled! There is no point in going to war."

Yang Yiqing was a little dazed. Only then did he realize that he might have been tricked by the emperor in front of him. For a moment, he couldn't help but feel a chill on his back.

Yang Yiqing thought to himself, Your Majesty has never believed the exaggerated words of the officials in the border towns about the rebellion of Prince Anhua, and has always believed that the rebellion can be quelled by Shaanxi alone?

The reason why he listened to the advice of the officials below and held a court meeting to nominate important officials to lead the troops was just to use this as bait to see who was plotting something behind the scenes!
The person who was scheming was naturally himself. He wanted to take advantage of the dissatisfaction of many civil officials towards Xu Jin to get rid of Xu Jin and others, and then he could enter the cabinet by virtue of his merit in suppressing the rebellion, or at least become the Minister of War first.

Yang Yiqing knew that his intention to take advantage of this opportunity to quell the rebellion and get in touch with the eunuch Wei Bin was seen by His Majesty, so he was naturally afraid and prostrated himself on the ground: "Your Majesty, please forgive me! I just wanted to be promoted too much!"

Zhu Houzhao was very pleased that Yang Yiqing admitted his mistake so quickly, but he also had to admit that civil servants trained in Confucianism were indeed born to like infighting, and even Yang Yiqing was no exception. For the sake of his own political future, he would think of taking advantage of the dissatisfaction of many civil servants with Xu Jin's killing of Minister of Rites Mao Cheng to achieve his own further goals.

"Fortunately, you haven't had time to collude with the eunuchs yet! Otherwise, I will never forgive you! I know that you, Yang Yiqing, are a talent. You have been praised as a child prodigy since childhood. You are arrogant because of your talent. You think that if you don't become the prime minister of the world, you are not worthy of your ambition! But you can't be so unscrupulous and disregard the interests of the Ming Dynasty!"

Zhu Houzhao now knows that he can never kill all the political enemies who oppose the reformists. If he kills Yang Yiqing for Xu Jin today, then he will have to kill Xu Jin because of Jiao Fang tomorrow. Moreover, as an emperor, the best way to deal with the infighting among officials is not to favor one side, but to let them check and balance each other and rely on himself as the emperor.

Therefore, Zhu Houzhao did not choose to expose Yang Yiqing and Wei Bin's conspiracy and then execute them after they colluded with each other, but exposed it before he and Wei Bin colluded with each other, in order to prevent the infighting among court officials from intensifying, and also to avoid dealing with political events in a bloody way.

For some reason, since Zhu Houzhao realized that he might not be able to completely eliminate his opponents through killing, he no longer wanted to solve the problem by killing. First, he already had enough prestige, and second, even if these literati and scholars were pedantic and shameless, they were indeed the people who mastered knowledge in this era and the inheritors of Chinese civilization.
Killing all these people would be no different from being a foreign ruler. The best way is to reform them.

Yang Yiqing wiped the sweat from his forehead. One glance at the young emperor in front of him was enough to scare him out of his wits, because he knew that this emperor was as cruel as Taizu. But now, not killing him but only scolding him with words to warn him was undoubtedly the greatest tolerance towards him.

So Yang Yiqing bowed to Zhu Houzhao very solemnly and said, "I know my crime! I know my crime!"

"Then tell me what your crime is?"

Zhu Houzhao had been feeling a sense of frustration recently. Although he had just achieved military feat in pacifying the little prince and recovering Hetao, and had also resolved a crisis involving the throne, he did not feel very excited at all, because he found that the Ming Dynasty he ruled had not changed much as the fifth year of his rule was coming to an end.

The Ming Empire seemed to still be operating according to its original rules, regulations and political structure.

Most of the people were still farming, scholars were still preparing for the imperial examinations, craftsmen had their freedom but still worked in the Ordnance Bureau, and the army was still mainly composed of garrison officers and soldiers.

Even though he was the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, daily government decisions were still made by the Cabinet with the approval of the Imperial Household Department. Even if he did not ask about it, the empire's decisions could be handled according to established precedents, or the Cabinet ministers could handle them according to his will as the emperor.

Moreover, when it comes to daily government affairs, even if they have the insights of later generations, the way they handle specific issues is not much different from how the old bureaucrats of this era handle specific issues. It is still about checks and balances and compromises.

The Ming Empire may not be in a state of terminal illness. The Ming Empire has just ended the 18-year period of Hongzhi, so the empire has not yet shown a serious crisis. Therefore, what the emperor and the officials of this era have done seems to be insignificant, as if they are still following the rules. Zhu Houzhao asked Yang Yiqing this because he wanted to understand more clearly what the imperial elites of this era were thinking and how they viewed the interests of the country, the court, and individuals and families.

"I shouldn't have attempted to collude with the eunuchs and use Your Majesty to murder important officials in the court!" Yang Yiqing replied. The expression of the Majesty in front of him always revealed a majesty that he could not figure out. Therefore, even though he had dared to face the siege of hundreds of Tartars in front of the battlefield, he did not dare to say a single offensive word in front of the emperor now.

"You understand! However, you didn't make it clear. Your crime is that you didn't put the interests of the Ming Dynasty before your own political interests. Yang Yiqing, you ignored the court and me, and even only wanted to use the court and me to achieve your own political goals. I can understand that this is a common problem among you Confucian scholars. However, what I want to ask you today is, do you know the word country?"

Zhu Houzhao put forward the concept of "country", just as he had put this concept into "Outline of Governing the Country" and given it to some important ministers to read. He wanted to use his status as an emperor to influence some giants of this era so that their thinking would no longer be limited to Confucianism.

But Zhu Houzhao found that the results were minimal. Although these important officials did not dare to go against Zhu Houzhao's will, and even did not dare to denounce Zhu Houzhao's "Outline of Governing the Country" as a demonic book, they still resisted these new concepts in their hearts. Some even said that they did not understand Zhu Houzhao's meaning directly because they were stupid.
Moreover, there were officials who loyally told Zhu Houzhao that some people-oriented ideas were actually not beneficial to the monarch. If the Emperor wanted to consolidate his throne, he should not allow his subjects to demand equality too much.

Zhu Houzhao himself sometimes found himself contradictory. He was an emperor, and from the perspective of maintaining his imperial authority, it was good to continue to consolidate the orthodox status of Confucianism, emphasize ethics and clans to suppress individuality, and implement policies to keep the people ignorant.

However, as far as China as a whole is concerned, if we want Chinese civilization to progress and no longer be invaded by foreign races, we must liberate our minds and develop a new economic model.

But no matter what, Zhu Houzhao was still willing to take care of the latter first. As long as the people on his land and the civilization composed of these people could remain permanently stable and could always maintain a strong posture without being bullied by foreign forces, it didn't matter even if he couldn't become emperor in the future.

This may be what makes him different from some "wise rulers" of other ethnic groups. After all, he truly regards the people of this land as his compatriots.

Therefore, Zhu Houzhao was still conveying these new concepts to the literati and scholars of this era.

Yang Yiqing really didn't know what the word "country" that his Majesty mentioned meant. He tried to answer with the words of the saints in the Confucian classics, but found that even Zhu Xi, who could recite every sentence in the Four Books and Five Classics and even point out the annotations of each sentence, could not explain what a country is.

"I am stupid! Your Majesty, please enlighten me!"

Yang Yiqing frankly admitted that he did not know what a country was. He knew the word "country" and he also knew the word "home", but he really did not know what the word "country" and "home" combined were.

Zhu Houzhao had no choice but to explain it in detail to Yang Yiqing.

The more Yang Yiqing listened, the more shocked he became. He didn't know where His Majesty got all this knowledge from or who taught him, but he had to admit that this knowledge was worthy of the word "shocking"! He didn't dare to use the word "heresy". First of all, he was not a famous minister of Neo-Confucianism, a defender of morality, or someone who couldn't tolerate other miscellaneous studies. Secondly, he didn't dare to accuse His Majesty of being wrong.

But Yang Yiqing had to admit that today's meeting with the emperor made him feel as if he was not sure whether the king in the hall was an emperor or a traitor. He seemed to be destroying his own kingdom and also seemed to be saving his own kingdom.

“The real master of the empire is not the emperor, but all the people living on this land. The emperor is just the one who exercises the power of the country. The reason why the emperor can exercise the power of the country is because of the support of the people, not because of the support of civil officials and military generals.”

"The people pay taxes to this country, and the country has the obligation to protect the people of this country! If a strong man invades this country, no matter he is a foreigner or a Han Chinese, as long as he enslaves the people on this land, he is not the master of this country, but an invader and a colonizer."

At night, before going to sleep, Yang Yiqing was still recalling Zhu Houzhao's words.

He was wondering why the Emperor talked to him about the concept of the country. As he thought about it, he seemed to understand a little bit. If he really took advantage of the civil officials' dissatisfaction with Xu Jin and others to get rid of Xu Jin, then his new policy of salt administration reform would be blocked, and the burden on most people in the Ming Dynasty would not be alleviated. Instead, it would increase because of the possible increase in military expenditures. Then the Ming Emperor and the Ming court, who exercised state power, would be overthrown, and the Ming Dynasty would perish.

If it was a demise like that of the Tang Dynasty and the Sui Dynasty, it would be nothing, it would be nothing more than the destruction of a country of one family. But if it was the Yuan Dynasty and the Song Dynasty, it would be the destruction of a country composed of the entire Han civilization!
"So I was disregarding the national interests! But the saints only taught loyalty to the emperor, not loyalty to the country! And if that's the case, are the Han ministers who are loyal to the Yuan still loyal ministers?" Yang Yiqing finally thought.

(End of this chapter)