"The first problem is that the Crown Prince has suffered a stroke after all. It is difficult to ensure that His Majesty recovers as before... His energy will definitely be less than before in the future." Fang Shujun said worriedly.
"It's good to be able to continue to control the overall situation, but I'm afraid that I won't be able to control the power." Luo Fu sighed with a helpless face: "It can be said that there is no job now. When Prince Yiwen died of illness, Emperor Taizu Gao still had some spare time. He has been in charge of the government for many years."
What these two people said sounded like nonsense to Zhu Lingjing. She said calmly: "King Jiang is still here, so there will be no chaos. My father can abdicate and become the emperor. He only needs to deal with important matters occasionally. The cabinet will handle other matters."
"Your Highness, that doesn't work, right?" Fang Shujun thought for a while, frowned and said, "The Republicans, the ▇▇▇▇, and the Peasants and Workers' Alliance are all focused on reducing the power of the emperor. Taking this opportunity, they will definitely strive to strengthen the Consultative Council. power, maybe the power to appoint the prime minister should be stripped away."
"Someone has to compromise." Zhu Lingjing sighed, "There is no other way now. Prince Jiang has a soft temper and soft ears, so he is not suitable for politics."
The attribution of power is explicitly written into the "Constitution of the Ming Dynasty". Although the Consultative Yuan is responsible for the revision of the law, the emperor has the final decision-making power. This is a characteristic of the dual-monarchy constitution and the reason why the monarch's power still exists. manifestation.
Want to weaken the monarch's power by changing the law? Wouldn't it be better if the emperor directly vetoed the constitutional amendment?
For a normal emperor who has firmly grasped the power, he is naturally not afraid, but what if he is replaced by an emperor who has no foundation, no team, and is weak by nature?
Ministers and parliamentarians are not efficient lamps. Most of them try to put pressure on the emperor and force him to submit.
When the conflict is minor, the methods will be milder; if the conflict intensifies, it is entirely possible for the army to stage a mutiny or to kill several people violently in the Forbidden City.
Obviously, it would be difficult for an emperor who lacked team members and experience to withstand such tireless efforts and could easily be defeated.
Luo Fu clicked his tongue and said: "Mutiny is the most terrifying thing. The scary thing is not the mutiny itself, but that it will weaken the emperor's trust in the army. This is related to the overall situation in the future. I can't imagine it."
"Indeed." Fang Shujun nodded in agreement.
"It's not that exaggerated, right? A mutiny? At most, it's a small incident to scare people, but on a large scale... I think the possibility is very small."
To be honest, Zhou Changfeng felt that their worries were overdone. The government would indeed be unstable and there would probably be turmoil for a period of time, but it was unlikely to reach the point of a large-scale mutiny.
This is not like the ancient times. The lower-level soldiers only obeyed the orders of the military leaders and sold their lives to whoever gave them money.
Even though today's Ming army still retains many feudal army habits, it is essentially a reconstructed modern army with qualified nationalist education. Moreover, the salary is not paid by the army, but by the household houses and the local government entrusted by the Ministry of War. Distributed jointly by military depots.
Separating this aspect of finance from the military and transferring it to the civilian government will cause a lot of trouble, but it is an effective means to prevent military leaders from overestimating their troops.
For example, the 1st Marine Regiment is stationed in Jiangning County. The salary of officers and soldiers is a special check issued by Jiangning County Household House, which is stamped with the seal of the military hall and delivered to the station at the beginning of each month.
There are also places where the financial industry is underdeveloped, so checks are not issued, but cash banknotes are used directly.
But whether it is a check or cash, they are all in envelopes, with bright red words such as "sergeant's salary", "issued by such-and-such military preparation road supervisor", "such-and-such county household housing approval", etc., which can be said from the inside out. They all reminded that this money was issued by the imperial court, not by a certain general.
What the nobles and military bosses care about are the huge profits that come with the war. As long as the emperor does not obstruct this matter, how can they risk it and plan a mutiny?
If the reason is not sufficient, there is a high probability that the soldiers will simply desert and disperse.
Zhu Lingjing glanced at him and said, "Just in case, it's good to be careful."
Zhou Changfeng said "Yeah", "I wonder if the cabinet forgot about it. Our department has not received the transfer order. The third and fourth divisions are now preparing to go to Zhenjiang and Taiping."
"It's just that you have a small number of people and are still stationed on Jiangxin Continent. It's not difficult to guard against them, so there's no need to transfer you."
"Your Highness, what you said..." Zhou Changfeng glanced at the people around him and continued: "This time the posture is a bit big, I'm afraid it has aroused suspicion from the outside world."
"It's enough to buy a few days. By the time the outside world knows about it, the dust will have settled." Zhu Lingjing, with an indifferent expression, waved her hands and said, "Let everyone perform their duties."
"Your Highness, take care." Everyone knew that she was in a bad mood, so they left after leaving these words.
The attitudes of others made Zhou Changfeng have some self-doubt. He felt that Fang Shujun, Luo Fu and others thought things were too bad, but he was much more optimistic.
Could it be that I am too arrogant?
But no matter how he thought about it, he felt that this crisis would not turn into a disaster. Since the experienced emperor is still here, no matter how bad the situation is, at least it will not get out of control. At most, it will just transfer some power.
After returning to the station, he called home and told Xia Xiaoshi that he would stay in the military camp on call in the next few days and could not go home, and asked her to take care of herself.
The latter could sense an unusual aura from the tone of his voice, and roughly guessed that something big might have happened, but she knew the rules and did not ask further questions.
Zhu Lingjing, on the other hand, rushed to the Forbidden City after briefly tidying up. She was destined to have a sleepless night.
Zhu Licheng's condition is pretty good at the moment, but everyone knows that this is just the last moment of tranquility before the defense line against germs collapses.
Outside the ward, two imperial doctors were holding several test result sheets and whispering. When they saw Zhu Lingjing coming, they raised their hands and saluted.
"How is the prince's condition?"
"Back to Your Highness, things are quite stable now."
Zhu Lingjing, with complicated eyes, stood by the door and looked in. She hesitated for two seconds before gently pushing the door open and entering.
This light green ward is elegantly decorated. The wall skirts and floors are made of solid wood. The ice-cracked window lattice is tightly closed. The entire room is maintained at a just right and comfortable temperature by the air conditioner.
The princess was sitting on a stool next to the hospital bed, and her son and daughter were leaning side by side.
Zhu Lizhen's face was flushed, and he looked tired.
It can be seen that he is very sleepy now, but he still insists on not sleeping because he is worried that he might not wake up. Wouldn't that be equivalent to wasting the last precious time?
Zhu Lingjing came slowly and didn't know what to say. At this moment, she had thousands of words to say but no choice. It seemed that every word she wanted to say was inappropriate.
In the end, it was Zhu Lizheng who broke the silence first, "Have you gone to see your father?"
"Been there before..."
"I mean just now."
"I didn't go." Zhu Lingjing, who was a little confused, asked, "Does father have anything to explain?"
"You'll find out when you get there later."
"good."
At this time, Zhu Licheng sighed, "Hey, my experiences in the past two days have been ups and downs. It happened too quickly."
He turned and looked out the window, "I can't see the future, tsk, what a pity."
"..." Standing beside the hospital bed, Zhu Lingjing covered her heart with both hands, lowered her head slightly, her eyes wandered, and she was speechless.
Next, although Zhu Lizhen originally thought about whether to talk about political affairs, he gave up the idea before he could speak.
Her father would have plenty of time to talk to her in the future, but talking about this now would be a waste of time, so he brought the topic to the past many years ago.
"The Forbidden City is not a good place. The palace walls are too high and too depressing. There was one time when I was a child. At that time, you seemed to have just turned ten. You were very naughty and wanted to go up to the palace walls to have a look, so I I can only take you to find a tree. I thought of climbing up the tree first and then climbing to the wall through the branches, but my feet got stuck and I couldn't move forward or retreat... Later, my mother gave me a hard lesson, ugh..."
As he spoke, he smiled, but Zhu Lingjing put her hands in front of her eyes and sobbed.
After about half an hour, in view of the fact that he was physically weak and exhausted, Zhu Lizheng asked everyone to leave, saying that he wanted to sleep for a while.
Outside the ward, a dejected Zhu Lingjing was in a daze, while the Crown Princess lowered her voice and covered her face as she sobbed.
Zhu Lingjing raised her head slightly, closed her eyes for a few seconds, took a deep breath, and then turned around and left without looking back.
In another ward of Tai Hospital, she saw the emperor who seemed to have recovered more than half of his body.
"My son has met my father."
"sit down."
The two of them were relatively speechless, and the atmosphere was both depressed and depressing. If you were in it, your heart would be lifted involuntarily.
The emperor suddenly spoke, "Is it really just a random whim that you wanted to get involved in political affairs a few years ago?"
This question was too strange and had nothing to do with what Zhu Lingjing was thinking, so she was stunned for a moment before hesitantly replied: "Basically... yes."
"Generally? What are the remaining few?"
"Father... um... just..." Zhu Lingjing was a little embarrassed and hesitantly said: "I feel that if I am always doing nothing, it will be really sad to spend half my life... so I want to do something."
The pampered daughter-in-law naturally does not realize how difficult life is. Zhu Lingjing has been living a carefree and carefree life for a long time. Because of the lack of emotional accumulation, she did not feel depressed for long after her consort died of illness.
After getting tired of the long-term monotonous life, some ridiculing remarks and "royal family jokes" among the people somewhat stimulated her, so she simply tried to change her lifestyle, and she has achieved little success to this day.
The popularity of sarcastic remarks and royal jokes was largely due to the Great Depression. Even though the Ming Dynasty was less negatively affected, there was still a big gap compared with the previous booming economy.
When the people had to work hard to be thrifty, and then look at the Ming Dynasty royal family and nobles who were still extravagant, various jokes came into being.
"At first I thought you were just trying to be fresh, and you would return to normal once the interest wore off. Unexpectedly... you persisted for four years." The emperor thought for a while and said.
Zhu Lingjing was a little embarrassed, "You are right, things in the political world are messy and complicated, there are many dirty things, and children and ministers are both happy and disgusted."
When the emperor heard this, he smiled very freely.
After a while, he gradually stopped smiling and said in a very formal tone: "I'm not in good health. It's time for me to give up my throne. From a legal perspective, the emperor is not as straightforward in exercising his power as the emperor. It will be difficult in the future." Presiding over the overall situation, Prince Jiang will never be able to stabilize the court."
Zhu Lingjing thought she was here to consider what happened after the young prince succeeded to the throne, so she said without hesitation: "I will try my best to help..."
"It's possible, but it's not the best option."
"Um?"
Did I hear that correctly? Not the best option? Father, did he say the wrong thing?
Zhu Lingjing looked puzzled.
"The new king cannot do without his own team. I have talked with the prince..." The emperor looked calmly and looked at Zhu Lingjing, who was two steps away, with sharp eyes. He said seriously: "Maybe... it would be better to let you come."
The latter was completely stunned on the spot, his lips were slightly opened, and his eyes were wide open.
She subconsciously took a step back and said in panic: "Father...Father, you are confused, the phlegm is in your mind..."
"Why are you confused? I am very sober." The emperor stretched out his hand and lightly knocked on the bedside table. "You have your own people, and you are young and energetic. The lack of experience is secondary. This is not ancient At that time, the distinction between men and women was not an iron rule, not to mention that even in ancient times, some people made exceptions..."
"Father," Zhu Lingjing lowered her voice involuntarily and whispered, "This is too shocking."
"Indeed. But you are justified... Do you think that today's Ming Dynasty is not as open and tolerant as it was a thousand years ago?"
"I……"
At this point, the emperor no longer cared about his daughter's mental state.
In this matter, after weighing the balance, she is the only one with medium risk and high return. It is related to the survival of the dynasty and the fate of the country, and it is not a matter of personal opinion.
In the middle of the night, Zhu Lichi's symptoms suddenly worsened, and his body temperature soared over 40°C.
After using multiple means to lower his voice, he briefly regained consciousness in the morning and made clear arrangements for his inheritance.
"This small amount of money is of no use to the clan... it would be more useful to use it in other places. Well... no matter what, the principle that food is the first thing for the people remains unchanged. There are still quite a few people in our country who live in the dynasty. The people are struggling to feed themselves... How to have enough to eat is still a big problem. Today's ever-changing technology has hope to solve all this... Half of the legacy is deposited in the bank, and the interest every three years is used to reward those who have contributed to farming. So be it."
Since noon, he fell into a long coma again.
The increasingly severe sepsis induced a cytokine storm, and the ensuing multiple organ failure caused his life lamp to quickly consume the last bit of oil.
On the same day, the emperor secretly delivered an oral message and summoned Prime Minister Gao Qingkui, Governor Wei Guogong Wu Weihuan, Chairman of the Constitutional Council Lu Hongmu, and the "top five prime ministers" of the cabinet.
The emperor expressed his attitude and thoughts straight to the point - his physical condition was unable to bear the changes in the situation in the future, but the position of Dabao was not suitable for the young prince Jiang Wang to take over.
"Your Majesty's plan is indeed transcendent." Wu Weihuan's reaction was the most bland. He stroked his beard and muttered: "But our Ming Dynasty has its own national conditions, so we can deal with it temporarily... It may be okay, but I'm afraid it won't last long. The old minister thinks it should be given a time limit. .”
Gao Qingkui said slowly: "I have another idea. Maybe we can create a new position of deputy prime minister? It would be a good idea for His Highness to serve as prime minister and to lead the court, and for the minister to retire and become deputy prime minister."
Okay, the first volume has more than 800,000 words, and it’s finally time for the second volume.
(End of chapter)
