Zhu Houzhao doesn't know why, as he gets older, he is now more and more afraid of death.

Although he knows that he is not a person who belongs to this world, he cannot accept some of the cultures of this world.

But now he has to admit that he still has some nostalgia for life, power, and the life of an emperor in this world.

He thought that his mentality would be much better after the arrival of Zhengde's seventeenth year.

He had fears of death in the sixteenth year of Zhengde, and he was indeed worried that he, the emperor of Zhengde, would still end his imperial career in the sixteenth year of Zhengde as in the original history.

At that time, he was just like the mood of later generations when they heard that there would be an end of the world in 2012, and it was not until the arrival of the seventeenth year of Zhengde that he relaxed a little.

But now, Empress Xia's words made him realize that if he could really live as long as he wished, it would not be a good thing for many people in the empire.

Zhang Zhong wants to become the master of ceremonies.

Naturally, there will be civil servants who want to become the first assistant of the cabinet, especially now that there is almost no difference between the first assistant of the cabinet and the prime minister.

Of course, there will definitely be princes who want to become emperors in the future, and there can be no princes who want to be emperors for the rest of their lives.

But Zhu Houzhao wants to live a long life.

Now he began to understand why the ancient emperors were eager to find the elixir of life, because it is also the nature of people to pursue to live forever.

Zhu Houzhao doesn't know how many people will be like Queen Xia in the future, hoping that they can live a long life.

But what Zhu Houzhao could expect was that if he really lived a long life, people like Zhang Zhong who wanted to rely on the new emperor to go further would find a way to let him go to see Lord Yan in advance.

Zhu Houzhao suddenly wanted to kill all these people.

But he knew that he couldn't kill him, and if he killed a Zhang Zhong, there would definitely be a Li Zhong who would appear.

Liu Jin's violent coughing sound pulled Zhu Houzhao back to reality, looking at the brilliant and bright spring, he seemed to have an epiphany, knowing that he could not block a person's hope, but he could use the hope of others to serve his own hope.

Zhu Houzhao's hope has not changed, he wants to change the Ming Dynasty, change the world he lives in now, and he wants to make himself the most secure and happiest emperor.

Zhu Houzhao didn't know if he would be able to transform Daming into what he wanted in his lifetime, but he knew that he had to work hard and try to make his life full of hope, instead of worrying about when his imperial career would end.

"Liu Jin, you are also old, there are not a few Eight Tigers left around me, Zhang Yong betrayed me, Luo Xiang and Gao Feng were both sick and died, Wei Bin went to Nanjing, now you and Gu Dayong and Ma Yongcheng are the three, you are the people who have been with me for the longest time, I don't treat you as slaves, but as friends, you better live longer, otherwise I will really become a loner."

What Zhu Houzhao said is not a lie, Liu Jin is in charge of the celebrant supervisor, Ma Yongcheng is in charge of the East Factory, and Gu Dayong is in charge of the West Factory, which is the foundation for him to maintain the emperor's rule, and it is also the basis for suppressing the civil officials and doctors group since he ascended the throne, but now, Zhu Houzhao has to pay attention to a problem that the inner court is also changing, and the people who follow him are also aging, and as this group of people grows old, he will lose his most loyal lackeys and lose the ability to control the government and the opposition.

What a terrible phenomenon this is!

His imperial power may gradually decline in the future, and it will not be until a new emperor appears that the imperial power will be highly concentrated again!

Zhu Houzhao does not want to see this phenomenon, because this is not the empire moving towards democracy, but it marks itself towards weakness.

Zhu Houzhao is unwilling to let this phenomenon appear, he wants to take advantage of the fact that he still has a chance now, and let the empire continue to be controlled in his hands.

Liu Jin glanced at Zhu Houzhao, he knew that the emperor who had accompanied him for more than 30 years had been trained in horseback riding all the year round, and he had not suffered as a child like the previous two generations of emperors, and his body had always been stronger than others, so he was afraid that it would not be a problem to live for another 30 years, so when he heard Zhu Houzhao say this, he couldn't help but think that he might not be able to accompany Zhu Houzhao in the future, and his eyes moistened for a while, and he couldn't help but say the words that he had thought in his heart for a while:

"The ministers can be remembered by His Majesty, even if it is the greatest creation in the life of the minister, the minister thinks that it is time to hand over the seal of the celebrant to retire, and ask Your Majesty for permission!"

Zhu Houzhao nodded, Liu Jin's constant occupation of the position of the master of ceremonies for a long time was not good for himself and other ambitious eunuchs, after all, everyone wanted to replace him.

Zhu Houzhao did not disagree with his idea of retreating bravely, and he thought of a way to stabilize his power in the future because Liu Jin suddenly resigned from the position of the master of ceremonies.

"Let Gu Dayong take over your errand, let Zhang Zhong take care of it in the West Factory, let him also enter the master of ceremonies!"

After Zhu Houzhao finished speaking, he left quietly.

In his opinion, Zhang Zhong's ability to serve by the emperor's eldest son must have been operated by Liu Jin, and Zhang Zhong wants to become the master of ceremonies, but he is afraid that he also wants Liu Jin's own will, and he is now transferring Zhang Zhong to the ceremonial supervisor, naturally to give Liu Jin and his faction in the entire inner court some hope of retaining real power.

But at the same time, he asked Gu Dayong to be the master of ceremonies, naturally to give Gu Dayong a chance to cultivate his own private, if Gu Dayong can't cultivate a person who can compete with Zhang Zhong, he will also help him cultivate one.

Zhu Houzhao didn't know when he would start to calculate this, as if he wished that the officials of his inner court and the outer court would fight.

"Yes!"

Liu Jin replied, he had expected that the emperor would have this kind of arrangement, and he was willing to see the emperor have such an arrangement, he believed that only in this way would the emperor be the safest, and Zhang Zhong would fight with Gu Dayong instead of himself in the future.

Liu Jin invited himself to Nanjing to recuperate, but before going to Nanjing, he met Zhang Zhong and specially mentioned to Zhang Zhong'er: "You will go to serve in front of Your Majesty in the future, the old man has to tell you a few words before leaving, don't despise Your Majesty, although Your Majesty's approach is not like that of an old man, often impulsive and often desperate, but Your Majesty is by no means a simple person, Your Majesty knows at least five hundred years later than us!" I've been thinking about Your Majesty for so many years, and I haven't figured out what he wants! ”

Liu Jin sighed as he spoke.

Zhang Zhong is now happy because he has been promoted to the chief of ceremonies and the superintendent of the West Factory, naturally everyone can listen to what he says, and when he saw Liu Jin say this, he hurriedly agreed: "Rest assured, the ancestor is assured, the son must remember the teachings of the ancestor and serve Your Majesty wholeheartedly!" ”

"It's good if you know, do things well for Your Majesty, the West Factory must be better than Gu Dayong in your hands, don't go together with Gu Dayong, and don't go together with people from other dynasties, otherwise you will lose your head."

Liu Jin closed his eyes as he spoke.

"What the ancestor said, the son remembers, the ancestor, the ancestor!" After Zhang Zhong answered, he called Liu Jin a few words, but seeing that Liu Jin did not respond, he couldn't help but reach out and wipe Liu Jin's nose for a while, only to find that Liu Jin had returned to the west, and then the whole person cried bitterly.

After Zhu Houzhao learned the news of Liu Jin's death, he couldn't help but be stunned for a moment, and then couldn't help but say with relief: "I let him live for seven more years!" ”

On the first day after Gu Dayong became the master of ceremonies, Zhu Houzhao asked him to draw up a will for himself that the emperor's eldest son, Zhu Zailei, should go to Hanbitang to study politics for an hour after school every day.

This decree was a shocking event both inside and outside the Ming court.

Because the Ming Dynasty is still an absolute monarchy empire in the final analysis, the establishment of the prince is still a major event affecting the entire empire.

As the eldest son of Zhu Houzhao, Zhu Zailei's political identity is even more special, and in the eyes of many Confucian ministers, he is the most legitimate successor.

Now, Zhu Houzhao asked Zhu Zailei to learn how to handle government affairs, so that domestic and foreign officials began to think that Zhu Houzhao wanted to establish the meaning of the prince.

But in fact, Zhu Houzhao did not want to establish Zhu Zailei as the crown prince.

"Lei'er, you tell me if you want to be the emperor or not, tell me the truth!"

The current Zhu Zailei is only in his teens, and based on Zhu Houzhao's observation of him, he is not the kind of young man who is precocious and almost demonic, so Zhu Houzhao feels that he should be able to get the answer from Zhu Zailei from the heart when he asks Zhu Zailei this question now.

Zhu Zailei really didn't think about this problem, or he never thought about it, he only knew that many people told him that he would become an emperor in the future, but he really asked himself if he wanted to be an emperor in his heart.

"Erchen didn't think about it", Zhu Zailei answered Zhu Houzhao truthfully.

Zhu Houzhao smiled with satisfaction, Zhu Zailei replied like this, at least let him know that Zhu Zailei did not deceive himself, so he couldn't help patting Zhu Zailei on the shoulder:

"In this case, I now give you a task, from now on, you have to think about this question, think about whether you want to be the emperor or not, and then answer me after thinking about it, I will now let you get in touch with the feeling of being an emperor, so that you can be more aware of whether you want to be an emperor or not."

Zhu Houzhao said and let Zhu Zailei come to his case: "This is the affairs that the emperor needs to deal with, you flip through these notes, tell me your opinions, don't answer according to the officials' intentions because you see the votes of the officials above, you have to have your own opinions!" ”

Zhu Zailei still feels fresh, and he replied "Erchen obeys orders" and took the initiative to read these notes.

Zhu Houzhao got up and stood up, stretched his muscles, and listened to Zhu Zailei's views on the affairs of the imperial court, while guiding him how to see through the essence of these affairs.

For a while, Zhang Zhong was naturally very happy when he saw this scene, he seemed to see Zhu Zailei ascending the throne as the emperor, and he became the master of ceremonies like Liu Jin and stood behind the emperor.

Gu Dayong interrupted Zhang Zhong's fantasy with the footsteps of entering, Gu Dayong, as the new celebrant seal, did not want to see Liu Jin's person replace him one day in the future, in that case, this person who replaced himself would only take care of the interests of Liu Jin and his party.

Therefore, what Gu Dayong is thinking about now is to get rid of Zhang Zhong, or cut off the possibility of Zhang Zhong becoming the palm seal of the celebrant supervisor.

"Your Majesty, the minister recommended Miao Ning to replace Zhang Zhong's previous affairs, do you think it is appropriate?"

The first thing Gu Dayong does now is to install a person of his own next to the emperor's eldest son Zhu Zailei, Zhang Zhong is naturally unhappy in his heart, and Zhu Zailei doesn't know why these big eunuchs like to stuff eunuchs to himself.

Of course, it is Zhu Houzhao who can decide all this.

Zhu Houzhao knew Gu Dayong's purpose, and he could guess that Miao Ning must be Gu Dayong's godson and grandson without asking.

"Well, very good", Zhu Houzhao did not refuse Gu Dayong's proposal, he couldn't wait to set up obstacles for Zhang Zhong, who wanted to improve, through Gu Dayong's hand.

Zhang Zhong's heart was naturally lost, but he also knew that it was inevitable, after all, he was already the master of ceremonies and the superintendent of the West Factory, and he could no longer accompany Zhu Zailei.

But Zhang Zhong was unwilling to give up contact with the emperor's eldest son, he would pinch the emperor's eldest son every day to come to Hanbitang to learn government affairs, basically as long as he was on duty, he would wait for the emperor's eldest son to appear, and then communicate, telling the emperor's eldest son how to get along with Emperor Zhu Houzhao, how to show himself to Emperor Zhu Houzhao.

Of course, Miao Ning, the eunuch sent by Gu Dayong, was also sparing no effort to curry favor with Zhu Zailei.

Zhu Houzhao saw all this in his eyes, and he had to admit that people's profit-seeking is really from the bottom of his bones: "I haven't admitted that I will let Zhu Zailei inherit the unification in the future, and these eunuchs will actively go to Zhu Zailei one by one to mix their faces, but I don't know if the civil and military officials of the foreign dynasty will be like this." ”

"Your Majesty, Liu Yu, the first assistant of the cabinet, asks to see you!"

On this day, Liu Yu, the head of the cabinet who had the power to unify the six ministries of etiquette, household, soldier, engineering, education, and agriculture, asked to see Zhu Houzhao, and also presented a note asking Zhu Houzhao to appoint Zhu Zailei as the crown prince.

Although Zhu Houzhao had long expected this, he still felt a little uncomfortable, he was not disgusted with Zhu Zailei as the crown prince, but disgusted that even Liu Yu joined in the fun and showed favor to Zhu Zailei, as if he also felt that he was going to be the emperor for a long time.

What's more, in Zhu Houzhao's view, it is naturally very irrational to make Zhu Zailei Fu the crown prince when it is not certain that he is not qualified as a qualified prince.

The emperor of the Ming Empire was not a king in a constitutional monarchy, and his ability largely determined the fortunes of the country.

"Liu Yu, tell me the truth, why are you so anxious to advise me to appoint Zhu Zailei as the crown prince?" Zhu Houzhao asked.

"The minister, the minister just thinks that the early establishment of the prince is conducive to the stability of the society, and the eldest son of the emperor is the eldest son of the emperor, and it is naturally the most orthodox to be established as the prince", Liu Yu replied.

"Yes, you must have other purposes, otherwise why don't you suggest it sooner or later, but after I let Zhu Zailei enter Hanbi Hall, I suggested! You'd better tell me the truth, otherwise, don't think that if you wait until the new emperor ascends the throne, you can still stay rich forever by selling to the new emperor! ”

Zhu Houzhao said sharply, which frightened Liu Yu on the spot and said: "Your Majesty forgives your sins, minister, minister does have this idea." ”