On this day, Zhu Houzhao summoned Yang Yiqing into the palace.

Yang Yiqing was very happy, thinking that Zhu Houzhao was going to discuss the counterinsurgency with him.

But Zhu Houzhao still only asked Yang Yiqing's views on the world's military system, Yang Yiqing was a little disappointed in his heart, and after patiently telling Zhu Houzhao about the disadvantages of the Wei system, he finally had to ask in person:

"Your Majesty, the minister wants to ask when the court's will to let the ministers and others lead troops to quell the rebellion will be issued?"

"You're in such a hurry to put down the rebellion?"

Zhu Houzhao said and threw a piece of music in front of Yang Yiqing: "Look at it, this is the general manager of Shaanxi military affairs, Caikuan, who has just entered Beijing, King Anhua has been captured alive, the rest of the party has also been destroyed, and the rebellion has been quelled!" The matter of going on the expedition is naturally meaningless. ”

Yang Yiqing was a little stunned, and at this time he realized that he might have fallen into the way of His Majesty the Emperor in front of him, and he couldn't help but feel a chill in his back for a while.

Yang Yiqing thought to himself, His Majesty dared to love it, and he never believed the exaggerated words of those officials in the border town about the rebellion of King Anhua, but always believed that the rebellion could be quelled by relying only on Shaanxi?

And the reason why he listened to the advice of the officials below to open a court to promote the commander of the army was just to use this as a bait to see who was playing carefully behind his back!

And this trickster is naturally himself, who wants to take advantage of the dissatisfaction of many civilian officials with Xu Jin to get rid of Xu Jin and others, and then he can use the merit of counterinsurgency to enter the cabinet, at least become the secretary of the military department first.

Yang Yiqing knew that his desire to take advantage of this counterinsurgency opportunity to make meritorious service and contact with the internal official Wei Bin was seen by His Majesty, so he naturally felt frightened and hurriedly prostrated on the ground: "Your Majesty forgives your sins!" Minister, minister just wants to be promoted too much! ”

Zhu Houzhao was very relieved, very pleased that Yang Yiqing could take the initiative to admit his mistakes so quickly, but he also had to admit that the civil officials cultivated by Confucianism were indeed born to like infighting, even Yang Yiqing was not exempt from vulgarity, and for the sake of his own political future, he would think of using the dissatisfaction of many civil officials with Xu Jin's killing of Mao Cheng, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, to achieve his own further goals.

"It's a good thing you haven't had time to collude with the ministers! Otherwise, I will never spare you! I know that you Yang Yiqing is a talent, he has been known as a prodigy since he was a child, he is proud of his talents, and he thinks that if he does not be the first assistant in the world, he is not worthy of his ambition! But you can't be too unscrupulous, regardless of the interests of the Ming Dynasty! ”

Zhu Houzhao now also knows that he can't kill the political enemies who oppose the reformers, and today he killed Yang Yiqing for Xu Jin, so tomorrow he will have to kill Xu Jin because of Jiao Fang, not to mention that as an emperor, the best way to deal with the internal strife between officials is not to favor one side, but to let them check and balance each other, so as to rely on himself as an emperor.

Therefore, Zhu Houzhao did not choose to expose the conspiracy of Yang Yiqing and Wei Bin after Yang Yiqing and Wei Bin colluded and then execute them, but to debunk them before he and Wei Bin colluded together, in order to prevent the infighting between the courtiers from intensifying, and also to avoid dealing with political events in a bloody way.

For some reason, since Zhu Houzhao realized that he might not be able to completely eliminate his opponents through killing, he didn't want to solve the problem by killing, first, because he already had enough prestige, and second, even if these literati doctors were pedantic and shameless, they were indeed the people who mastered knowledge in this era and the inheritors of Chinese civilization;

Killing all of these people yourself is no different from a foreign ruler, and the best way is to reform them.

Yang Yiqing touched the sweat on his forehead, and the glance of the only young emperor in front of him was enough to make him frightened, because he knew that this emperor was no less ruthless than Taizu, and now, not killing himself but only reprimanding himself with words to warn himself is undoubtedly the greatest tolerance for himself.

So, Yang Yiqing solemnly saluted Zhu Houzhao: "The minister is guilty!" Guilty of sin! ”

"And tell me what your sin is?"

Zhu Houzhao has a sense of frustration lately, although he has just achieved the martial arts of pacifying the little prince to recover the Hetao and defusing a crisis involving the throne, he does not feel much excitement at all, because he finds that the Ming Dynasty under his rule has not changed much at the end of the fifth year of his rule.

The Ming Empire still seems to be operating according to its original rules and political structure.

Most of the people are still farming, the scholars are still preparing for the imperial examinations, the craftsmen are still working in the ordnance bureau despite their freedom, and the army is still dominated by officers and soldiers of the guards.

Even if he is the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, he still makes decisions on government affairs every day by the cabinet votes and the celebrant and the superintendent, and even if he doesn't ask, these decisions of the empire can be handled according to the rules, or the cabinet ministers can deal with it according to their own will as the emperor.

Moreover, for daily government affairs, even if he has the insight of later generations, there is not much difference between the handling of specific problems and the handling of specific problems by the old bureaucrats of this era, and it is still a matter of checks and balances and compromises.

The Ming Empire may not have reached the time when it is terminally ill, the Ming Empire has just ended the eighteen-year period of Hongzhi's hard work, so the empire has not yet shown too serious a crisis, so what the emperor and the officials of this era have done seems to be minimal, as if they are still following the rules.

Zhu Houzhao asked Yang Yiqing this to get a clearer understanding of what the imperial elites of this era were thinking and how they were looking at the interests of the country and the imperial court, as well as individuals and families.

"The minister should not intend to collude with the ministers and use His Majesty to murder the important ministers of the court!" Yang Yiqing replied, the look of His Majesty in front of him always revealed a majesty that he couldn't figure out, therefore, Rao was once afraid of hundreds of Tartar sieges in front of the battle, and he didn't dare to have the slightest offensive word in front of the current emperor.

"You get the idea! However, you didn't make it clear, your guilt is that you didn't put the interests of the Ming Dynasty in front of your own political interests, Yang Yiqing, you ignore the court and me, and even only think about using the court and me to achieve your own political goals, I can understand, this is a common problem of you Confucian scholars, but what I still want to ask you today is, do you know the word country? ”

Zhu Houzhao threw out the concept of "state", just as he once put this concept into the "Outline of Governance" and gave it to some important ministers to read, he wanted to influence some giants of this era as emperor, so that their thinking was no longer limited to Confucianism.

But Zhu Houzhao found that it had little effect, although these important ministers did not dare to go against Zhu Houzhao's will, and even did not dare to reprimand Zhu Houzhao's "Outline of Governance" as a demon book, but they still resisted these new concepts in their hearts, and some even directly said that they did not understand Zhu Houzhao's meaning on the grounds that they were stupid;

Moreover, some officials loyally told Zhu Houzhao that some people-oriented ideas are actually not conducive to the king, and if His Majesty the Emperor wants to consolidate his imperial position, he should not let his subjects demand equality too much.

Zhu Houzhao himself sometimes found himself contradictory, he was the emperor, and from the perspective of maintaining his imperial authority, it was good to continue to consolidate the orthodox position of Confucianism, emphasize the suppression of individuality by ethical clans, and the policy of ignoring the people.

However, from the perspective of China as a whole, in order for Chinese civilization to progress and no longer be invaded by foreign races, it is necessary to emancipate the mind and develop a new economic model.

But in any case, Zhu Houzhao is still willing to take care of the latter first, as long as he can let the civilization composed of people and these people in this land where he is located be stable forever, and can always maintain a strong posture without being bullied by foreign forces, it doesn't matter if he can't become an emperor in the future.

This may be the difference from some alien "Ming Jun", after all, he really regards the people of this land as his compatriots.

Therefore, Zhu Houzhao is still passing on these new concepts to the literati and doctors of this era.

Yang Yiqing really didn't know what the word "country" meant by his majesty, and he tried to answer it with the words of the sages in the Confucian classics, but found that Zhu Zi's commentary, which could recite every sentence in the Four Books and Five Classics, and even indicate every sentence, could not explain what a country was.

"Foolish! Your Majesty, please clear your mind! ”

Yang Yiqing frankly admitted that he didn't know what a country was, a country, he knew; home, he also knows; But the words of country and home, he really don't know.

Zhu Houzhao had to explain it in detail with Yang Yiqing.

The more Yang Yiqing listened, the more shocked he became, he didn't know where His Majesty's knowledge came from and who taught him, but he had to admit that these knowledge was enough to be worthy of the words "shocking the world"! He did not dare to use the words "deviant", firstly, he was not a famous minister of science, not a defender, not a person who could not tolerate other miscellaneous studies, and secondly, he did not dare to accuse His Majesty of what he said was wrong.

But Yang Yiqing had to admit that today's face saint made him feel that he didn't know whether the king in the palace was an emperor or a thief, as if he was destroying his own country and as if he was saving his country.

"The real master of the empire is not the emperor, but all the people who live in this land, and the emperor is only the one who exercises the power of the state, and the reason why the emperor can exercise the power of the state is because of the support of the people, not because of the support of the civil and military generals."

"The people pay taxes to the country, and the state has an obligation to protect the people of the country! If a strong man invades the country, whether he is a foreign race or a Han Chinese, as long as he enslaves the people of this land, then he is not the master of the country in this land, but the invader is a colonist".

At night, Yang Yiqing was still recalling Zhu Houzhao's words before he fell asleep.

He was wondering why His Majesty the Emperor had given him the concept of the country, thinking about it, he seemed to understand that if he really used the opportunity of the civil officials' dissatisfaction with Xu Jin and others to get rid of Xu Jin, then he would be prevented from reforming the new policy, and the burden on most of the people in the Ming Dynasty would not be reduced for a day, but would increase because of the possible increase in military spending, and then the Ming Emperor and the Ming court, the person who exercised state power, would be overthrown, and the Ming Dynasty would perish.

If it is the destruction of the Sui Dynasty in the Tang Dynasty, it is naturally nothing, it is nothing more than the death of a country, but if it is the Yuan Dynasty and the Song Dynasty, it is the country composed of the entire Han civilization that will die!

"It turns out that I am ignoring the interests of the country! But the saint only teaches loyalty to the king, not to be loyal to the country! And if so, is Hanchen, who is loyal to Yuan, still a loyal minister? Yang Yiqing finally thought so.

Please remember that the first domain name of this book is .. m.