If the emperor of the Ming Dynasty wants to do something, the ministers really can't stop it, but they can disobey it!

Zhu Houzhao forcibly ordered the six departments to carry out the matter of sealing the king, but more than half a month passed, but there was not even any movement.

The eunuch was sent to the Ministry of Rites to inquire about the progress, and the eunuch came back to report and said, "Emperor, the Ministry of Rites is discussing the title of the new king. ”

Zhu Houzhao was so angry: "It's been almost a month, and you haven't figured out the title yet?" Isn't it okay for the king of Zhenxi? ”

The eunuch replied cautiously: "The Ministry of Rites said that the king of Zhenxi is not in line with the etiquette system, and only the leader of an alien race will have such a title. My Ming royal family, if you are a prince or a king, you must be a king; If you are crowned the king of the county, you must be the king of two characters. And all of them are called fiefs. ”

Zhu Houzhao said depressedly: "In more than half a month, the Ministry of Rites discussed these? ”

The eunuch bowed his head and said, "They were discussing whether it would be appropriate to make the new king the 'King of Liang'. ”

"Any results?" Zhu Houzhao asked.

The eunuch said weakly: "It's not etiquette either." First, the emperor only said that the prince was the prince of Zhibi, not the real prince, so he could not use a one-word title; Second, 'Liang' specifically refers to the land west of the river, not to the west of Jiayuguan. ”

Zhu Houzhao asked, "So what?" ”

The eunuch buried his head lower: "So the Ministry of Rites is still discussing what title the new king should give." ”

Zhu Houzhao sneered: "Good, very good!" ”

At this rate, what title should be given to Zhu Dangshu, the Ministry of Rites can repeatedly discuss it for a year or two.

Regarding the title reward or something, it should have been discussed by the Zongren Mansion and the Ministry of Rites, and it was mainly based on the Zongren Mansion (Xungui). But by the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the Zongren Mansion had already existed in name only, and all relevant decision-making power was occupied by the Ministry of Rites - equivalent to civil officials snatching the power of the nobles.

Liu Chun, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, although promoted by Zhu Houzhao, once helped the emperor fight against Yang Tinghe.

But as an old minister, Liu Chun has his own insistence, and some things will still be done against the emperor. For example, the royal driving pro-conquest, such as the indiscriminate sealing of the prince, these principled issues, Liu Chun will never cooperate.

Zhu Houzhao immediately called Liu Chun over and said, "Since the King of Zhenxi is not in accordance with the etiquette system, and the King of Liang is not in accordance with the etiquette system, then the King of Xiliang should always be in accordance with the etiquette system, right?" ”

Liu Chun replied, "Your Majesty, Rong Chen went back and discussed with his colleagues. ”

"You don't have to discuss, just crown the 'King of Xiliang'!" Zhu Houzhao said arbitrarily.

"Yes." Liu Chun ordered him to retreat.

Then, continue to grind foreign workers and discuss what treatment should be given to King Xiliang.

After all, Zhu Houzhao only said that the rank is higher than the prince, so Yulu must be close to the prince and must be higher than the county king, and this issue can also be discussed for a few months. There are also the regulations of the palace, the regulations of the guards, the treatment of the princess, the treatment of the prince, and so on, and so on, there are many things that need to be discussed.

Compared with the delay of the Ministry of Rites, the Ministry of Household is much more single. Shi Jue directly said that there was not enough money and food to support the establishment of a palace in the Western Regions, and asked to put the matter on hold for the time being, and wait for the country's finances to improve a little.

The officials waited slowly, and when the Ministry of Rites came up with the regulations, they would start to select the officials of the royal palace.

Anyway, Zhu Houzhao waited stupidly for a month, urging several times in the middle, and at present, he only confirmed the title of "King of Xiliang", and the emperor himself made the decision.

The civil officials showed unprecedented unity and used practical actions to resist Zhu Houzhao's proclamation of king in the Western Regions.

Zhu Houzhao, who thought he had controlled the court, suddenly felt a deep fear. His order, don't say that he can't get out of the capital, he can't even get out of the six departments!

"Very well, they are all my humerus ministers." Zhu Houzhao sneered, and his heart was already extremely angry.

This matter is no longer as simple as being crowned king, but has evolved into a confrontation between the emperor and civil officials.

Zhu Houzhao personally promoted several important ministers, Liu Chun resisted with a clear attitude. Although Jin Gui and Wang Qiong did not do anything against each other, they also objected to this matter, but they did not block the emperor in actual operation.

Qian Ning said quietly: "Emperor, this matter should be instructed by Fei Hong. ”

"What's the matter with him? He didn't go up to oppose the king. Zhu Houzhao didn't understand.

Qian Ning blindly analyzed: "The four cabinet ministers, Liang Ge Lao is step-by-step, Yang Ge Lao has a good personality, and Jin Ge Lao is loyal to His Majesty, but this Fei Ge Lao is unpredictable. Everyone else is against it, but he is not sparse, isn't it just that there are no three hundred taels of silver here? Such a turbulent discussion must be Fei Hong's secret series! ”

Of course, Zhu Houzhao didn't believe Qian Ning's nonsense, but from this nonsense, he got inspiration to deal with civil officials.

At the next day's court meeting, Zhu Houzhao accused Fei Hong on the spot, Fei Hong had to take the blame and resign, and the emperor directly approved his Zhishi without saying a word.

The hundred officials were shocked, and there were only four people in the cabinet, and the emperor actually directly bombed one away.

……

Why did Qian Ning frame Fei Hong?

Because among the cabinet ministers, only Fei Hong clearly opposed the restoration of King Ning's guards, King Ning held a grudge and spent a lot of money to force Fei Hong away.

In the past year, Qian Ning has made slanderous remarks many times and said countless bad things about Fei Hong, causing Zhu Houzhao's perception of Fei Hong to plummet.

Well, just last year, King Ning sprinkled money for several years, and finally got the thing done, and the imperial court approved that he could have the royal palace guard again.

This kind of mentally retarded decision-making was made by Yang Tinghe!

Although Yang Shen later helped his father push the responsibility away in "Dan Lead Miscellaneous Records", saying that Yang Ting and Ding Wei went home, and it was the guards restored by Prince Liang to King Ning. But it is impossible to speculate from the time, because Yang Tinghe left Beijing this year, and the Ning Wang Guard had already recovered last year!

According to Yang Shen's quibble, it is equivalent to letting his grandfather die a year early.

At that time, Jin Gui had just been in the cabinet for a month, and he did not have the power to deal with major affairs. Although Prince Liang had a lot of bad things, he refused to accept bribes from King Ning. Fei Hong was even more resolutely opposed to the restoration of King Ning's guards.

Therefore, in the entire cabinet, only Yang Tinghe can help King Ning.

According to the disclosure of some officials' private writings, in order to prevent Fei Hong from stopping the matter, Yang Tinghe took advantage of the fact that the ministers were all in the East Pavilion to review the palace examination answer sheets, and the eunuch Lu Ming summoned Yang Tinghe alone to draft an edict. At that time, Jin Gui was no longer in charge of the imperial house, and it was Yang Ting and his henchmen who wrote the edict. Yang Tinghe bypassed his cabinet colleagues and colluded with the celebrant eunuchs, and actually did this, so that King Ning had the basic strength to launch a rebellion.

Yang Tinghe did this for probably three reasons: first, Zhu Houzhao was too absurd, and Yang Tinghe was completely disappointed; Second, Zhu Houzhao has been childless for many years, and King Ning is plotting to pass his son to the emperor, and it is likely that Yang Tinghe has the same mind; Third, Yang Tinghe accepted a large amount of bribes from King Ning.

Yang Tinghe's henchman Lu Wan also made a big effort in it, asking for the restoration of King Ning's guards, which was proposed by Lu Wan. The reason is that the anti-thieves in Jiangxi have not been peaceful for many years, and based on the ancestral training of the Emperor Ming, the restoration of King Ning's guards can suppress the anti-thieves.

No matter what, anyway, Fei Hong was removed from power ahead of schedule, and there were only three members left in the Ming cabinet.

Prince Liang was frightened and took the initiative to help the emperor lobby the six ministries, and formal negotiations between the monarch and the ministers began.

In the past, the civil officials refused to cooperate, and Zhu Houzhao asked for a price, and they were too lazy to repay the money, but now they finally have room for negotiation.

After some haggling, the two sides made concessions to each other -

First of all, he changed the title of Zhu Dangshu to the king of Xiliang, which still belongs to the treatment of the county king, but he has an actual fief and can control the military and government in the territory. However, the king of Xiliang is not allowed to enter Kansai without authorization, that is, to lead troops to rescue the seven guards of Kansai, he must obtain the approval of the imperial court, and once he crosses the border, it will be like a rebellion.

Secondly, the Seven Guards of Guanxi continued to be managed by the town of Gansu, and the fief of the King of Xiliang was cut off from the actual territory of the Ming Dynasty. The new Western Regions Capital Division was established, west to Changji, east to Liucheng, and the King of Western Liang concurrently served as the commander of the capital; Xinli Changjiwei and Liuchengwei were commanded by Bu Erzi and Yamulan respectively, and the only fiefdoms directly under King Xiliang were Turpan and Huozhou.

Thirdly, the king of Xiliang was not allowed to get involved in the tea and horse trade, and directly cut off his important financial resources, leaving the relevant interests to the civil officials, eunuchs and the Xungui group. However, the initial right to receive the Gongdao in the Western Regions was transferred to the King of Xiliang by the King of Hami, and the countries of the Western Regions had to report to the court through the King of Xiliang if they wanted to trade.

The matter of sealing the king is done.

When the household department was searching for funds, the imperial court ordered Shaanxi to organize immigrants and throw all the Shaanxi refugees affected by this year's disaster to Turpan for reclamation - this silver was spent on Shi Jue's heart.

At the same time, it also blew up Wang Yuan.

Wang Yuan stayed in Turpan Town, afraid that someone would make trouble after he left.

It wasn't until the end of October that the migrants and food finally arrived.

As a result, there were only more than 3,000 immigrants, only more than 5,000 taels of silver, only 12,000 stone of grain, and only eight oxen. Don't ask, asking is a long-distance consumption, and people have to spend money and food to eat horses along the way.

With this little material alone, I don't know how many people will starve to death.

Fortunately, Wang Yuan still had the identity of the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, and forced Gansu to move some military rations over. And with the looted goods, deducting those that were distributed to the ministries, and using the rest to attract merchants, and buy grain by commercial means to tide over the trouble.

Don't think that there is a shortage of food in the northwest, the government is indeed very short, but the generals and eunuchs are very rich.

The Hongwu and Yongle dynasties cultivated so many military fields in the northwest, and at that time they could collect grain on the spot and invade Mongolia in the north, but where did those military fields and military rations go now? All in the hands of hereditary generals and eunuchs. Even the military rations that the imperial court transported to the border areas, they secretly swallowed countless people.

As long as Wang Yuan can afford the silver, he can buy grain in the northwest in minutes.

Next year will be much better, because Turpan is stuck on the Silk Road, and with the initial right to receive tribute from Fanbang, Zhu Dangshu can become rich by collecting business taxes.

Wang Yuan has stayed in the Western Regions for the past few months, and he has not done anything except to attract merchants and buy grain. He is leading his disciples to improve the traditional wool spinning technology, and to buy a large amount of wool, and plans to build a wool mill with the cheap old man - a total of tens of thousands of women are captured, of course, to find something to do for them, and by the way, to develop the economy of the Western Regions.

Wool spinning technology existed thousands of years ago, but it was limited to coarseness, and was used to make felt, blankets and other supplies, and made into clothes, which was heavy and coarse.

Once Wang Yuan improved his wool spinning technique and made light and warm sweaters, he would not only be able to make countless money, but also control the grassland tribes to a great extent, so that those nomads would become economically dependent on the Western Regions Capital.

Wang Yuan was busy in the Western Regions, and Zhu Houzhao was busy in the court.

Finally got the matter of sealing the king, and the Ministry of Rites and Honglu Temple finally began to receive the Western Regions, and by the way, a simple ceremony was held at the noon gate.

Well, Zhu Ying, Zhang Wei and Li Sanlang are back, and they will take prisoners on behalf of Wang Yuan.