Guangzong Yaoming

Chapter 55: Old Man and Newbie
The situation is obvious.

This old man!

It’s clearly been prepared, but they just don’t take it out.

Now they had to discuss it in court, and only then did they bring it up in an attempt to seize the initiative.

The draft was very thick, and there was no time to copy many copies for everyone to read, so Tian Yi naturally presented it to Zhu Changluo first.

The contents of the ceremonial notes were extremely detailed, from the process arrangement to the specific layout and quantity of various utensils used, to the corresponding praises and the positions of the ministers and guests watching the ceremony. Zhu Changluo had to read for a long time.

Time passed little by little, and Shen Yikuan, Yu Jideng and Xiao Daheng seemed very patient.

Zhu Changluo began to realize: This is also to observe his reading ability, right?
The rituals are fine, but the words and sentences used in the abdication and imperial edict are not easy to understand and comprehend some of their special meanings.

Zhu Changluo also realized another purpose behind Shen Yi Guan's plan to present the report in person: the successor emperor had summoned these important ministers for such a long time before he officially ascended the throne.

In the eyes of other ministers in the outer court, their positions are stable, and the new monarch is unlikely to make drastic changes against these ministers after ascending the throne.

It is still unknown how the court structure will change after Shen Shixing and Wang Xijue take office, but these people still have common interests.

If Zhu Changluo himself did not raise some opinions that were unfavorable to him, people other than Shen Yiquan and the other two would not necessarily raise objections in certain aspects.

There is no need to count on Xu Wenbi and the others, they are just mascots.

As he read and thought, Zhu Changluo gradually began to laugh in his heart: This is what you are talking about? I am too used to mountains of documents and endless meetings.

In front of all the ministers, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince raised his head and smiled awkwardly: "You all know that I started school late. Please allow me to read it slowly first. Tian Yi, serve tea."

To deal with this, Zhu Changluo only had to use an extremely simple trick: outlast the old man.

With a humble and cautious attitude, Zhu Changluo, as the crown prince and heir to the throne, first read it himself, and then asked Tian Yi to read it again word by word.

After reading it, let everyone present express their opinions one by one.

Must speak.

You all hold high positions, do you have any opinions?

No opinion, maybe he is just a yes-man like Shen Yi, or maybe he has no talent.

At worst, Zhu Changluo could pretend not to understand the meaning of certain words and phrases, and randomly select a lucky important official to ask for advice in person.

Time unknowingly dragged on to noon, and the court meeting was only then underway when everyone had expressed their opinions on the ceremony process.

"…It's already noon. Let's take a break and ask the Guanglu Temple to prepare some lunch."

Zhu Changluo was extremely considerate and stood up: "Since there is a draft, I will also present it to my father and grandmother. Let's take advantage of this time to have the secretariat copy thirteen copies, and continue the discussion at noon."

It's time for "free debate" in the afternoon.

Shen Yikuan and others felt their scalps tingling, and they all stood up to respectfully escort the prince to the Cining Palace.

Is this going to be finalized item by item and word by word, and is there going to be a result today?
The food in Guanglu Temple was tasteless, and the ministers here found it difficult to swallow with mixed feelings.

Zhu Changluo ignored them. After leaving Wenhua Hall and heading north, he took a detour back to Ciqing Palace.

He only sent Cheng Jing to Cining Palace to report, and said that he would return to Ciqing Palace to discuss the matter in detail.

Over at Ciqing Palace, Zhu Changluo was having a meal while Liu Shimin and others were working overtime on the "minutes".

When he finished his meal, one of the screens had been cleaned and had many notes stuck on it.

Zhu Changluo held a small meeting with his three loyal eunuchs.

"The process of the ceremony is not important." Zhu Changluo stood in front of the screen and pointed to a place. "Building a temporary hall in the place of the Huangji Hall, what does this mean?"

They had expressed some opinions before, but they were not very significant. Zhu Changluo also had to have a deeper understanding.

"The Qianqing Palace is small," Chen Ju said. "A grand ceremony requires a procession of officials, and all civil and military officials will gather. It is not in accordance with the rules to hold it in the Qianqing Palace, and it will disturb the harem. The three main halls have been burned down, so building a temporary hall is a temporary solution."

"Hmph. First, it's to delay time, and second, it's to get money from the treasury, right?" Cheng Jing nodded.

Zhu Changluo glanced at Cheng Jing, and then said: "There is little rain in autumn and winter, so there is no need to spend more money. Since I have been appointed by heaven, I will ascend the throne on the cloud platform of the Third Palace! Instead, all officials should remember that the Ming Dynasty still has a lot of things to do!"

"Your Highness, that is really crude and not solemn enough," Tian Yi reminded.

"I think there is nothing to be undignified under the bright sun. Father is frugal in his work, which is a merit." Zhu Changluo skipped over this and said, "As for the edict of abdication and the edict of accession, you can talk about it first."

Yu Jideng was naturally quite capable, and he was very skilled in arranging the procedures for the ceremony. Although there was no precedent, it was nothing more than a visit to the emperor and receiving the order during the previous coronation ceremony, which was replaced by a visit to the emperor emeritus and the abdication edict. After the audience at the Qianqing Palace, he went directly to the three main halls to complete the coronation ceremony.

The main key lies in the two edicts.

The abdication edict focused on the summary of the Wanli reign, while the accession edict focused on the policy program of the new dynasty.

We must be wary of word games and also sort out the interest games behind some of the "good policies" they propose.

No matter how much Zhu Changluo studied, he could not compare to those people of this era who have been dealing with ancient Chinese literature for most of their lives.

As for the problem of wording, we naturally have to listen to the opinions of Tian Yi and others.

Zhu Changluo still had doubts about the intentions behind the good policies.

Time was short and the task was heavy. Over at the Wenhua Hall, some people sat on chairs with their eyes closed to rest, some went to the courtyard to chat quietly, and the three dukes found a place to talk.

"Master Xu," Zhang Weixian asked, "What do you mean by Elder Shen and the others mentioning the reorganization of the Beijing camp?"

Xu Wenbi looked as if he didn't want to care, but just snorted.

"Master Zhu?"

Zhu Dingchen coughed again.

Zhang Weixian: ???

"What is the purpose?"

He also didn't know whether Xu Wenbi and Zhu Dingchen couldn't figure it out or just didn't want to say it.

Over at Ciqing Palace, Tian Yi and Chen Ju had sorted out the wording in the imperial edict and began to talk about specific good policies.

"I'm afraid there are at least three intentions here." Tian Yi said, "First, to reorganize the Beijing Camp, we naturally have to take inventory first. Your Highness, there are many meritorious officials and generals who have occupied the service, and there are many who have abused their power. I'm afraid that at the beginning of the inventory, there will be many impeachments of meritorious officials. Second, they want to disperse the brave generals and fierce soldiers who have been idle in the Beijing Camp. Third, after the three expeditions, taking advantage of the opportunity of the victorious officers and soldiers being incorporated into the Beijing Camp, it is natural to cut down on the empty quotas and lay off more old and weak without reducing the combat effectiveness, so as to reduce the food and salary of the Beijing Camp."

Unlike the border troops, the Beijing troops basically have no opportunity or ability to participate in the war. Now they are not recruiting soldiers, but are still selected from the garrisons.

Now, after three major expeditions, the Ming army has actually produced some brave generals and elite soldiers.

But what follows now is the suppression of military generals by civil officials.

On the surface, it was to reorganize the Beijing camp, but in reality, he wanted to kill several birds with one stone.

Zhu Changluo thought for a moment and said, "I also want to test the true intention of saving those brave generals who made great contributions before."

If we really follow the advice of the civil officials to clean up the Beijing camp, we will have to face the meritorious officials who are now more than 90% corrupt.

The so-called occupation of labor meant that the soldiers of the Beijing camp were used as domestic slaves, and the so-called abuse was that there were people on the list of those who should receive salaries and grain in the Beijing camp, but in fact there were no such people.

These are the vital interests of the meritorious officials.

If he fails to understand the pros and cons, Zhu Changluo will most likely face the situation of alienation among his meritorious officials after ascending the throne, and will then become more dependent on civil officials.

Although the meritorious officials could not be relied upon, they played a great role as role models: if they had made contributions to the emperor, they could ensure the prosperity and wealth of their descendants. If the meritorious officials were treated poorly, then a large number of simple-minded military generals would probably be even less optimistic about their future working for the Zhu family.

"What about the canal transport exchange? I don't know the ins and outs of it yet."

"This... is a long story."

Zhu Changluo uses the young to support the old, while the old people use many profound national policies to coax the newbies.

If the emperor announces the enthronement edict to the world, he can of course change it in the future.

But this determines what trends the officials and gentry of the world see and how they interpret them.

In a hurry, Zhu Changluo was actually trapped in this.

Before the hour of Wei, another shocking news came.

"Your Highness!" Liu Shimin reported in a panic, "Admiral Wang of the Jinyiwei reported that there was a riot at Shanhaiguan, and Gao Huai was beaten to death."

(End of this chapter)