Jiajing was a ruthless man who dared to challenge the civil and military forces of the entire court at the age of 15. He was a political strongman!
What is a political strongman?
They are people who can force their political will on others.
Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Di, and Jiajing are all such people.
Being able to impose one's personal will on hundreds of officials and the entire court is a political strongman!
When you work for them, you just have to work obediently.
You dare to try bargaining with them.
So a good man cannot be a good emperor, because to be a good emperor, you have to be tough and treat human life as nothing.
Zulong, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty, Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, and Emperor Taizu of the Song Dynasty.
These are all emperors who have made great achievements and made positive contributions to history.
Look how many people they killed?
If you become so angry, you can even kill your own son and brothers!
Even Emperor Wen of Han, who had almost no bad reviews, killed many people.
A good emperor means that his policies are good and his governance is good, not that he is a good person.
Xu Jie had lived under the high-pressure rule of Jiajing for half his life. Seeing Zhu Zaijing, who had always been submissive, suddenly become tough, he couldn't help but feel bitter in his heart.
Isn't this man a very arbitrary person?
"There is no need to bother the cabinet with the subsequent imperial edicts. I will do it myself!"
The literati of the Ming Dynasty have always had a fantasy.
I just want to restore the supremacy of scholars and the privileges of civil servants as in the Song Dynasty.
Their minds are full of kings and scholar-bureaucrats ruling the world.
Therefore, the civil servants were very resistant and opposed to the emperors who had sole control of the court.
But Zhu Zaijing's attitude towards them was: qtmd!
Three-legged toads are hard to find, but there are many people who want to be officials!
A bunch of students from the Imperial College and the Imperial Academy who have studied hard for ten years are staring at these official positions like wolves and tigers!
If you don't want to be, some people should be obedient ministers.
How many civil servants did Zhu Yuanzhang kill?
How many civil servants died in the Kongyin case and the Hu Weiyong case?
I didn’t see you guys causing trouble? Why don't you just eat the old Zhu family's salary?
Despicable sex!
"When I slowly take over the military power, you will be screwed if I can't!" Zhu Zaijing thought to himself.
"Your Majesty, I'm afraid this is inappropriate, right?" Xu Jie still wanted to struggle for a while. After finally getting a taste of the benefits of writing an imperial edict, he didn't want to give up so easily.
"I'm not disabled anymore!" the emperor said, "Mr. Xu Ge, I can still write an imperial edict of several hundred words by myself!"
The struggle was hopeless. It seemed that the emperor was determined not to give him face.
"Old minister, I understand, I understand!"
Both the monarch and the minister were silent for a while.
"How is Hai Rui?" Zhu Zaijing asked, breaking the silence.
"Back to Your Majesty, he is still in prison. I heard that he fainted from crying several times when he heard the news of the late emperor's death!"
"Send hello to the Criminal Department and ask Hai Rui to wash up and change into clean clothes today."
"Is Your Majesty going to release him tomorrow?"
"right!"
Zhu Zaijing also had to make great use of Hai Rui.
Many people said that Hai Rui was just an upright official and a straight minister, without any real talent or knowledge and could not be put to great use.
Come on, come on, people who said these words lined up to jump into the Huangpu River one by one.
If Hai Rui had no real talent or knowledge, then who dredged the Huangpu River?
Everyone born in Magic City should thank Hai Gong!
Without Hai Gong's management of the Huangpu River, there would be no Magic City.
And the Wusong River.
This problem, which had been raging since the Yongle Dynasty and cost countless money, food, and manpower, was solved by tens of thousands of people within three months when Hai Rui went there.
Is this true talent and learning? Is this a real skill?
Historically, Hai Rui almost always held local positions. Because he was excluded and suppressed, he was not reused at all.
As a result, Hai Rui received top marks every year in official assessments, and people everywhere he went were grateful.
The people called him Hai Qingtian!
Only one other person in history bears this title.
Bao Qingtian!
For Zhu Zaijing, Hai Rui also had another role.
That is the last backbone of the Ming literati!
The Tumu Fort Incident broke the backbone of the Ming Dynasty warriors.
The incident of seizing the door cut off the backbone of the literati of the Ming Dynasty.
(Both of these were caused by Zhu Qizhen of the Mingbao Sect!)
Because of the incident of seizing the gate, after Zhu Qizhen was restored, he killed Yu Qian.
Yu Qian, who saved half of the Ming Dynasty, was beheaded and his body abandoned.
From then on, the scholars and the old Zhu family were at odds with each other.
What Zhu Zaijing wanted to do was to build Hai Rui into a model for the new generation of literati and regain the hearts of the literati in the world.
Hai Rui wants to become a symbol, a logo, and a template.
Zhu Zaijing wanted to spread his influence across the country and let all young students follow his example.
Hai Rui may be the last scholar willing to serve the Zhu family to the death, and he did so in history.
Historically, Hai Rui always died in office. He was very competent, dedicated and loved the people.
It can be regarded as serving the country and the people until the last moment of his life.
"I also think that Hai Rui should be released. Almost all the ministers in the court are looking forward to his release."
"Hai Ruizhen will naturally release it."
After a few more brief conversations, Xu Jie left.
Hai Rui's Shang Shu scolded Jiajing, which was a way of speaking out for the officials who dared to be angry but dared not speak out. Therefore, everyone was waiting for Hai Rui to be released.
Xu Jie felt the emperor's toughness, and he was afraid that he would not be as easy to talk to as before.
It seems the cabinet’s hard days are not over yet…
In the evening, Feng Bao brought back the Dongchang information.
Now there is only more than one million taels of silver left in the treasury. The New Year is coming soon. Officials' salaries and frontier soldiers' salaries have to be distributed, and this little money is simply not enough to put food between the teeth.
Zhu Zaijing opened the booklet and took a look, what a guy!
Feng Bao prepared all their evidence.
Now, this is called professionalism!
If I have evidence, why don't I just search my house... so that I can combat corruption?
The first one on the list is the corrupt official: Yin Zhengmao!
This guy is the most corrupt official in the Long Qing Dynasty!
Historically, a lot of money has been made by relying on high arches for reuse.
Isn't it a coincidence that someone gave me a pillow when I just fell asleep? Isn't it...
His family property is a full three hundred thousand taels!
A high-ranking official in the military department actually has two properties worth three hundred thousand!
I seemed to hear the crisp sound of small coins!
The charge is simple, corruption and bribery, and Dongchang has already found evidence.
The second person on the list is Fang Yankong, the head of the Ministry of Personnel.
The family property is one hundred thousand taels!
Almost every official on this list has a fortune of more than 50,000 taels!
Our officials in the Ming Dynasty are very rich!
It doesn’t look like the salary is not enough to support the family at all!
Hey hey hey...
Don't worry, come one by one, I will treat your... property very gently.
No one is more in need of money than me right now!
We will raid several officials tomorrow. The treasury originally had more than one million taels. After the raids, the treasury should have two million taels.
The urgent need can be temporarily relieved.
"Feng Bao, you did a great job!"
"Thank you for the compliment, Your Majesty!"
Feng Bao was secretly happy that the head of the Supervisor of Ceremonies seemed to be stable.
"Have the princes from all over the country who came to pay their respects not returned yet?" Zhu Zaijing asked.
"My lord, I haven't left yet. They are all in the palace in the capital."
I really want to seize it all in one fell swoop and confiscate all my property!
But he doesn't have military power yet, so he can't do whatever he wants with them.
In the land of the Ming Dynasty, the people were only half, or even less.
The other half is in the hands of vassal kings and landlords in various places.
According to regulations, these vassal kings were not allowed to do anything. They were not allowed to join the army, business, or politics, nor were they allowed to engage in other industries. So besides amassing money like crazy and having children, what else could they do?
It just so happened that they all had to attend Jiajing's funeral more than ten days ago, his coronation ceremony yesterday, and the court meeting tomorrow, and they were still in the capital.
Zhu Zaijing: Dear family members, it’s so rare to come here. It’s so hard to go back to your hometown. I can’t bear to let you go back empty-handed!
Lend me some money before we go!
The emperor’s family has no food left! …
