After the princes complete their education, usually when they have just reached adulthood, they will be sent directly to the local area to participate in the so-called political training.
Just like ordinary people who have just graduated from college and have just obtained the title of scholar, they want to be real grassroots officials.
Ordinary officials take the exam every three years, while the princes and grandsons who are in administrative training take the exam every two years. The assessment and promotion cycle is completely different from that of ordinary officials.
Ordinary officials who pass the assessment may not be promoted, and promotion may not change the area where they serve.
Those princes who received "bad" scores will be eliminated directly, while those who received "average" scores will be transferred to another location and will be reassessed two years later.
Those who receive "excellent" or "good" evaluations will be promoted to a different location, serve as a higher-level bureaucrat, and enter the next round of biennial evaluations, and so on.
After they have served on earth for more than ten years, their official rank is usually raised to the level of chief envoy. The older ones will be replaced by a chief envoy every two years.
"This star really wants to retire"
A few years before retirement, the old emperor would summon princes of suitable age to the capital and assign them to various ministries as ministers for final inspection and selection.
This cycle usually lasts only one to two years. The selected princes will be promoted to ministers of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, while those who are not selected will serve in other ministries.
After the heir is promoted to Minister of Civil Affairs, he usually takes the throne in two years.
During this whole process, the princes certainly had the opportunity to develop their own party members, but most of them would be scattered locally.
With the continuous misplacement of promotions and the constant isolation from the princes, it is difficult to always maintain a close relationship.
In most cases, the prince will only remember that a certain person is capable and can use it when he gets the position in the future. This is the relationship and impression between modern bureaucrats.
It is impossible to get the ancient society's attitude of serving one's subordinates like a minister.
More importantly, local bureaucrats who had worked with the prince for a long time were not allowed to be promoted to the capital before the new emperor ascended the throne.
Therefore, before the prince ascends the throne, even if he has local party members, he will not be of much help in the competition for the reserve. He can only use them after he ascends the throne.
As for senior officials taking the initiative to invest in a certain prince locally, this situation is not completely impossible, but it is too difficult and the return cycle is too long.
Regardless of whether the prince is outstanding or not, he must serve in the local government for more than ten years.
During this period, no return can be given to investors, and investors will have to bear risks for more than ten years. It is time for the prince to retire when he returns to the capital.
If you are really optimistic about a certain prince, it is better to let the children of the family go to the local area, and after the prince ascends the throne, call the children of the family into the capital as officials.
The one or two years when the prince went to the capital to undergo screening was not enough to develop a strong and stable team in the court.
When the prince can ascend the throne, most of the existing ministers will retire. There is no need to collect the credit of Conglong. If he chooses the wrong festival, he will not be guaranteed.
The retirement time of the old ministers is not completely fixed, but as a rule, they will retire with the old emperor, unless the old emperor asks him to help the new emperor for a few more years.
The ministers of military aircraft and cabinet bachelors may be a little younger, but they are no longer likely to be promoted.
As for the lower level, middle and high-level ministers such as ministers may have speculative ideas.
But the time window is too short, and the successor has already been decided before many people have made up their minds.
It is also the short period of one or two years that prevents the princes from forming a deep partisan camp, and ordinary bureaucrats do not have to worry about being attacked for failing to deliver results.
After the identity of the heir is determined, there is no need for the heir to develop his own party members.
The heir has already been recognized by the old emperor. After ascending the throne, all his ministers are his public followers and are under the direct care of the old emperor.
Why do such heirs still want to win over bureaucrats?
Therefore, after the Renwu Dynasty, the princes had their own party members, but they were all local and could only be used after they ascended the throne.
The heir to the throne does not have and does not need die-hard party members among the top bureaucrats in the capital.
The old emperor will retire at the age of sixty, and he will ascend the throne in his thirties.
There is no need to take risks at all, the benefits and risks are not proportional at all.
In today's Ming Dynasty, there is no longer the kind of situation in the classical era where ministers took refuge in a certain prince as their future lord in advance, forming a mutually binding relationship of personal dependence.
Even the mentality of many ministers when facing the emperor no longer regarded them as the masters of the classical era, but similar to the mentality of the highest superiors, bureaucrats, let alone the uncertain prince.
To put it bluntly, people’s wisdom has gradually opened up.
The result of this is that if a certain prince is really selected as the heir and then given up, they have basically no room for resistance at this time.
For ordinary officials, it makes no difference who becomes the emperor, and it is impossible to temporarily help the abandoned heir.
Zhu Jianfeng's situation was a bit special. After becoming the semi-public heir, he stayed in this position for six years.
The increasing pressure forced him to try, as a minister-level official, to contact and develop other bureaucrats and become closer political allies.
Cao Zhenyong is Zhu Jianfeng's ally.
Cao Zhenyong himself believes that his relationship with Zhu Jianfeng is not at all like the mentality of a courtier who pursued the merit of following the dragon before the Renwu Dynasty.
At best, the two of them could be regarded as political allies, a relationship of cronies rather than potential monarchs and ministers.
The key is that even the old emperor is fully aware of the relationship between the two.
The current Emperor of Ming Dynasty is very open-minded. Wherever there are people, there are rivers and lakes. It is impossible to completely ban cliques, as long as the overall situation is relatively controllable.
Cao Zhenyong subconsciously turned his head and looked outside, and then persuaded him with serious words:
"So, Your Highness, instead of continuing to worry about this, it's better to accept it calmly.
"As the best prince of this generation, you will be indispensable for the position of Zongzheng in the future.
“Now the Zongren Mansion, especially the Zongren Yuan, has become more and more powerful, and the imperial court has begun to be affected by it.
“Although the clan members of the clan have no direct power, they can raise questions about any policy, and the relevant officials must provide explanations.
"Apart from His Majesty, the clan members are the only ones who can legitimately interfere in any government affairs."
Zhu Jianfeng was definitely not an idiot. After listening to Cao Zhenyong's persuasion, he suddenly trembled and stared at Cao Zhenyong:
"My father asked you to persuade me! Is this your father's arrangement?"
Cao Zhenyong said nothing, which was taken as acquiescence by Zhu Jianfeng.
The scene was quiet for a few seconds. Zhu Jianfeng raised his head, closed his eyes, and asked in a particularly heavy tone:
"Why did it become like this? How did it become like this?"
Cao Zhenyong thought for a while:
"If I have to say it, Xiyi has to bear part of the responsibility. If there hadn't been this war..."
Cao Zhenyong just raised his head slightly and did not finish what he meant. Zhu Jianfeng suddenly reacted:
"Yes! It's Xiyi! It's Xiyi! If it hadn't been for this war initiated by Xiyi! I would have done it five years ago -
"Five years ago, Jingyuan was just a young kid. No matter how talented he was, he was just a precocious kid.
"Without that war, nothing would be what it is now. Everything should be as expected!"
Cao Zhenyong secretly breathed a sigh of relief. His Highness needed an excuse and a direction to vent, otherwise it would be really difficult to accept the reality.
As for whether the Western Yi started the war because they were forced by the Ming Dynasty, that is irrelevant:
"So Your Highness, are you going to take this job and, as the representative of the Ming Dynasty clan, go to the peace talks with the Western countries?"
Zhu Jianfeng said loudly in a particularly gloomy tone:
"Go, why not go! No one knows how to deal with barbarians better than me!"
