Looking at the ministers walking out of the palace, Zhu Qiyu smacked his lips and once again remembered a wise saying, reading history can make you wise!
If he hadn't seen the good things Jiajing did, he would never have thought that he would be able to do this.
Sure enough, people just need to be more knowledgeable. Some methods are straightforward and simple, but if you don't pierce the window paper, you can't think of it even if you think about it.
Of course, this is also because of the difficult situation now. Otherwise, these ministers would have been making trouble for ten days and a half, and how could they have been dismissed with just a handwritten letter from him.
After all, he is not the empty-headed prince who just woke up in the beginning, has no power, needs to be cautious in his actions, and can only rely on the prestige of his courtiers.
The court meeting a few days ago, plus yesterday's East Palace Ceremony, have confirmed his prestige and status. Now he can do things as he pleases.
Turning his gaze back to the palace, he saw both Chen Xun and Gao Gu with their heads lowered. Although they didn't know why they were left behind, they were both smart people.
Thinking of the succession edict that was just discussed in the palace, I couldn't help but feel a little worried. After all, the cabinet was mainly involved in drafting this edict, but unfortunately, the edict was not in line with the wishes of His Highness King Tan.
At this moment, King Xi dismissed the ministers and left the two of them behind. Could it be that he wanted to settle accounts with the Queen?
After ordering someone to serve two cups of tea, Zhu Qiyu said with warm eyes.
"Gentlemen, don't be nervous. I have no other intention of keeping you two. I just have a few things that I want to discuss with you."
Chen Xun and Gao Gu sat down and secretly took a look at the expression of His Royal Highness, King Xi, and saw that there was nothing unusual. In addition, the cabinet had the function of preparing for consultation, so they felt relieved and replied. : "This is a matter within the scope of my duties. Your Highness, I would like to ask."
Zhu Qiyu said: "This first thing is about the selection of people to patrol the border. Now the border is unstable and the armaments at each pass are in chaos. A few days ago, Chen Yi, the censor of Zuodu, suggested that the imperial court send censors to station at each pass. Coordinated defense, do you two gentlemen still remember this?"
The two nodded. They were naturally aware of this matter. In fact, this matter was drafted by the two of them themselves.
These days, although the DPRK and China are quarreling over various issues, these are all matters that the top brass are worried about.
With His Highness King Yin overseeing the country, most of the government affairs are continuing to advance, the most important of which is the defense and rectification of the capital and borders.
In the capital, it is said that Yu Qian has officially taken over the capital camp. He has been so busy these days that he has not even returned to the military department. He has focused all his energy on the defense of the capital camp, so naturally they don't have to worry about it.
At the same time, border defense mobilization is naturally continuing to advance.
After thinking for a while, Gao Gu said: "Back to Your Highness, it is true that this matter has happened. Until now, the Imperial Procuratorate has sent out censors to inspect various passes and coordinate the defense. The seven Fengxian officials who were punished at the court meeting were punished during the incident. There are forty-one in total, and many of the passes along the border are already guarded by officials."
Zhu Qiyu nodded, he was naturally aware of this situation.
The Ming Dynasty's formal nine-border military town defense system has not yet been formed, but there are indeed many large and small passes. In the east-west direction, from Liaodong to Yansui, in the north-south direction, from Xuanfu to Juyongguan, there are enough large and small passes prepared for war. There are more than fifty places.
After all, forty-one censors were actually not enough.
But there is no way. There are about a hundred standing censors in the Metropolitan Procuratorate. A group of people died in Tumubao, and there are still a group of people patrolling in Jiangnan and other places.
These more than forty censors are already the majority of the manpower available to the Metropolitan Procuratorate. After all, there must be some people left within the Metropolitan Procuratorate to maintain daily operations.
At this point, I have to say one more thing. In fact, the original intention of Taizu's establishment of the Metropolitan Procuratorate was to use censors to monitor illegal things in the world, and to use royal guards to monitor all officials, thereby forming a stable political system. system.
But now, for some reason, an unhealthy trend has gradually arisen among the censors, and many people have set their sights on the king.
The reason for this is not only the objective reason that the emperor's behavior has been inappropriate since Xuande, which caused the dissatisfaction of the ministers, but also there may be another reason, which is the consideration of restricting the monarch's power.
Zhu Qiyu himself supports maintaining a relative balance between imperial power and ministerial power, but in the final analysis, no one wants to be impeached every day, so the censors were sent out this time, which can be regarded as a return to the right path.
Judging from the experience of the past life, this group of censors is quite reliable when they start doing serious things, whether it is because of suppressing the military, or because they want to make a difference in the face of disaster.
After all, they found out a lot of problems that existed in the border town now, so at this time, Zhu Qiyu still chose to send them out.
But what he wanted to ask today was certainly not such a trivial matter.
Pulling out a few memorials from under his hand, Zhu Qiyu said: "These are the memorials that the censors sent out in the past few days have reported back. There are a few stubborn ones who have uncovered some old abuses, but there are more. It was because of the friction with the guarding border general that caused a series of public cases."
"The purpose of the censor's border patrol is to organize and defend the country. If it continues like this, it will probably cause conflicts and be counterproductive."
This is not difficult to understand. The censor patrols the border and coordinates the defense. To put it bluntly, he is there to find faults. How can those who guard the border and live a comfortable life be willing to be picked on?
The censor is like a dragon crossing the river, and the general is a local snake. One side wants to maintain stability, and the other wants to make a difference. When the two fight, conflicts will naturally arise.
This is not what Zhu Qiyu wants to see.
Chen Xundao: "Your Highness clearly knows that the border has been stable in recent years. Except for the Xuanfu and the important towns of Datong, which are directly facing Oala, the other border generals have been slacking off and deceiving the superiors and subordinates. It is common for the imperial court to send a large number of censors to inspect. It is intended to rectify unhealthy trends, and it is normal for some conflicts to arise."
"In my opinion, the final analysis is that although the imperial censor patrols for the imperial court, he only has the power to make reports based on rumors. The generals everywhere have been arrogant for a long time. How can they be willing to do so? If we want to solve this matter, we need to send powerful forces from the capital." Important ministers patrol everywhere and make arbitrary decisions when the opportunity arises."
Zhu Qiyu glanced at Chen Xun. Although these words were meant to give the general an eye candy, they were indeed true.
Today's border generals are indeed very different from those in the early years of the Kingdom. It is common for them to live on empty pay and waste their training. What's more, it is not uncommon to misappropriate garrison troops for personal use.
It's not all the civil servants who are throwing dirty water on the generals.
Putting the memorial in his hand on the case, Zhu Qiyu said: "What you said is true. The overall situation is current, and I have no time to deal with these trivial matters of mutual criticism."
"It's just that the manpower in the imperial court is tight now. Chen Yi, the imperial censor of Zuodu, is in charge of the affairs of the Imperial Procuratorate and also needs to supervise the transportation of grain. It is really hard to do both. The two gentlemen have been in the cabinet for a long time and are more familiar with the officials in the court than I am. , so I would like to ask you two gentlemen, if you want to choose a capable minister to be responsible for patrolling the border, do you have any candidates?"
Logically speaking, supervision matters are in charge of the Metropolitan Procuratorate. As the head of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, Chen Yi also needs to personally come forward for this matter. But let alone Chen Yi, there are now big bosses with big names in the capital. Basically, They are all busy...
