Zhu Youxiao actually wanted to scare Wang Yongguang, but he had no intention of starting a literary inquisition, so he smiled and said, "Get up and sit down! I'm just asking your beloved, why should your beloved be like this?"
"Thank you, Your Majesty!"
Wang Yongguang had no choice but to sit back and thought to himself: "I will never say anything casually to some people who look very loyal in the future. Your Majesty obviously has spies among our civil servants!"
"For the time being, I think that you courtiers are not treacherous and evil. You have read the books of saints and sages since you were young, and learned how to manage the world and benefit the people. It is for the sake of the people of the world. Only when you govern the country can the world be governed. Therefore, , I believe you can share the state affairs for me, but there are many courtiers, and even if there is no great evil, there must be differences in character and ability."
"You have been selected for your character and ability, and have been recognized by the civil and military officials of the fourth rank and above in the capital. I would like to ask you now how you would do things if you were the ministers of the political hall, cabinet, and privy council. What practical matters should be admonished to the king?"
Zhu Youxiao asked after speaking.
None of the ministers dared to speak at will.
The main reason is that they feel that the pulse of His Majesty in front of them is really difficult to grasp, and they have no way of knowing what His Majesty the Emperor means.
He was clearly spying on his ministers in secret, but he refused to be punished for his words, and he openly discussed the private words of his ministers. Does His Majesty know what kind of frightened people he was at this moment? Now I want people like me to talk about what practical matters they can advise the king after they are promoted.
Zhu Youxiao first looked at Li Biao who was sitting outside: "Li Aiqing, please tell me first. Don't tell me that since you became an official, you have been working in an official position without thinking about the gains and losses of the government."
Li Biao had no choice but to stand up first and said to himself: "Since His Majesty's attitude is so unpredictable, let's honestly say what's in his heart. Anyway, it's not up to him to decide whether he's guilty or not. I just ask his heart. No shame.”
So Li Biao replied: "Your Majesty, if I join the central committee, I should keep myself clean and do not form cliques for personal gain. In my humble opinion, a minister cannot party with the king, and a king cannot party with suspicious officials. Always check people carefully. Character, distinguish between loyal and traitorous people, and then act appropriately. If there is arrogance in the hall, and the palace is divided horizontally, it may not be a blessing to the country, and peace should be used to cultivate the country's vitality."
Zhu Youxiao nodded after listening.
Since the Wanli era of the Ming Dynasty, party strife has never been interrupted. Even when Zhu Youxiao was in power, various reforms led to more intense fights among courtiers. On several occasions, he, the emperor, even personally stepped down and took sides. Otherwise, the previous bad situation would not be reversed. After all, according to the original inertia of the Ming Dynasty, Xiong Tingbi would be punished for party fighting, and the situation in Liaodong would worsen as a result, so the slaves would not be wiped out as easily as now.
However, in essence, party struggle is inevitable because it is essentially a competition for interests.
Li Biao may have been pretending to be stupid because he was unwilling to state the truth, or he may have really not understood the essence. Therefore, he just said that because of the increasingly fierce party struggles in the Ming Dynasty, he felt that as a central minister, he should eliminate party struggles as much as possible. .
"According to your wishes, all civil and military officials should unite to deal with me?"
Zhu Youxiao asked straight to the point, regardless of what Li Biao thought.
After hearing this, Li Biao, like Wang Yongguang, turned pale: "Your Majesty, minister, that's not what I mean. What I mean is that we all should serve the king with sincerity and settle the affairs of the world for the king, not for ourselves." Private! Please tell me, Your Majesty!"
"I believe that what Aiqing said is not a lie, but it is also suspected of being false. This party dispute will never be eliminated. When your tongue is still bitten by your teeth, you can only say as much as possible, and still say something practical."
Zhu Youxiao replied with a smile.
Practical?
Wasn't it practical just now?
Li Biao was a little embarrassed.
The education received by scholar-officials in this era was more about teaching them how to cultivate their moral character rather than political theory.
Therefore, unless they have been in office for a long time, know the sufferings of the people, and have some ideas for innovation and elimination of disadvantages, most of them have no clear political goals.
In particular, Li Biao was born in Qingliu. He has been an official in the capital since he became a Jinshi in middle school. Moreover, he is not that big in pursuing interests, so he has not participated in previous battles. Now the emperor asked him to talk about some actual political goals. , and he couldn’t answer.
Yuan Keli looked on with some anxiety. The hundreds of thousands of arrogant soldiers and generals added to suppress the Eastern invaders should not be reduced. How many miles of official roads should be built, how many border walls should be built in the border towns, and the court taxes should be increased. How much, how much farmland should be increased? Now that the pressure on water transportation is increasing, should we open sea transportation? There are so many government affairs that need to be dealt with urgently, why don't we know the answer?
Zhu Youxiao looked at Liu Hongxun and said, "Liu Aiqing, please tell me."
"Your Majesty, if I have any plans for the country, I just want to use my help to completely eradicate the harm caused by subordinate officials, students, and squires. Among them, I recommend subordinate officials first!
This is because local affairs involving the common people are controlled by subordinate staff, and the government's decrees are also implemented by subordinate staff. Some treacherous subordinate staff can even control officials. Although His Majesty has set up a western factory, opened a medical clinic and installed medical officers in various places. The Anti-Corruption Department of Dongchang was established, but in the end the harm caused by subordinate staff was not completely eradicated! "
Liu Hongxun saw that His Majesty the Emperor wanted to listen to facts, so he directly expressed his thoughts.
Although he was also born in the Imperial Academy, unlike Li Biao, he did not just focus on the court. During the Taichang period, when he was still an editor of the Imperial Academy, he took in refugees and learned about them on his way back to Beijing from his mission to North Korea. The sentiments of the people are great, and there are great plans to prepare for the future governance of the country.
Now that I finally had the opportunity to discuss politics in front of the emperor, I simply expressed my thoughts.
"Keep talking!"
Zhu Youxiao found the resume about Liu Hongxun that was piled up in front of the case, and while looking at it, he nodded approvingly.
Historically, after the fall of the Ming Dynasty, a group of Han officials learned the hard way. Gu Yanwu, for example, concluded that the three major harms to the Ming Dynasty were subordinate officials, students, and squires.
Gu Yanwu, who was a scholar, could say that his life as a member was one of the three great harms, and he even said that the squire was one of the three great harms. He was obviously very high-level and objective in his thinking.
And now that Liu Hongxun also took the initiative to propose this, Zhu Youxiao naturally had to admit that there were indeed people among scholars who were not influenced by their butts.
"There are also students. Although His Majesty has abolished the regulations on privileges and exemptions for students and prohibited students from forming associations, he has not prohibited students from discussing politics. Therefore, most of the people who stir up public opinion are still students. Generally speaking, there will be students who create chaos. Instigated from this, and with the increasing number of scholars in the world, the number of students is also becoming larger and larger. These people are unwilling to suffer poverty and are arrogant. They are gathered in large numbers because they love to speak out, so they are most likely to get angry. Things must be strictly controlled, otherwise, if things continue like this, public opinion will be unfavorable to the imperial government."
"I risk my life to speak frankly. If it is just to slander Your Majesty, Your Majesty can ignore it and it will not be a big problem. But if it completely denies the orthodoxy of our founding of the Ming Dynasty and completely denies the necessity of a human king, then the foundation of the country will not be preserved."
Liu Hongxun replied.
"Where's the squire?"
Zhu Youxiao continued to ask.
"They are the masters of their villages, and their subordinate officials and students often use their power to fight against the government, and collude with them to gain benefits for the people and the government!"
Liu Hongxun replied.
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