Zhu Hou looked at Liu Yu's lonely figure, and just smiled faintly, he couldn't stand a cabinet chief assistant meeting so unenterprising, would engage in speculation, and would only care about the interests of his family.

Liu Yu didn't walk out of the palace gate, his head was still blank, and after thinking about it for a long time when he went home, he suddenly realized: "I have touched the wrong pulse of His Majesty, alas, one misstep will become a thousand years of hatred, Liu Yu, Liu Yu, you underestimate Your Majesty too much, Your Majesty let the emperor's eldest son learn government affairs not really to make him the prince, but to test the ministers!" ”

At all costs.

The news of Liu Yu's dismissal spread far and wide.

Wang Qiong, the second assistant of the cabinet, was also writing a song asking the prince to be a prince at this time, and as soon as he heard that Liu Yu was dismissed, he hurriedly burned the song, and sighed in his heart: "Fortunately, I am one step slower!" ”

Thereupon.

Wang Qiong became the first assistant of the cabinet without danger.

When Zhu Houzhao summoned Wang Qiong, he specially asked: "Wang Qing, have you also written about the appointment of the prince recently?" ”

"Back to Your Majesty, the minister does not, the establishment of the prince is a family matter of His Majesty, the minister does not dare to ask, not to mention that Your Majesty is prosperous in the Spring and Autumn Period, and the princes are still young, it is still early to talk about this matter, it is still early", Wang Qiong endured the pain of being burned in his feet and said.

"I heard that the water in your study has gone away, what is the reason, but did you hurt anyone?" Zhu Houzhao asked curiously.

"The child accidentally walked out of the water while playing, and it didn't hurt anyone, thank Your Majesty for your care," Wang Qiong replied.

Zhu Houzhao nodded, smiled slightly, didn't ask any more, and only ordered: "Now that you are the successor to the first assistant, you should do things well, innovate and eliminate cheats, and you can't engage in speculation and petty calculations like Liu Yu, understand?" ”

"I understand! Ministers should remember His Majesty's instructions! Wang Qiong hurriedly replied.

Wang Qiong is now secretly glad that she did not submit the recital of the prince to the emperor before Liu Yu to avoid the fate of being dismissed, and secretly rejoiced that she would directly become the first assistant because of this.

After Zhu Houzhao made Wang Qiong the first assistant, he added Yang Yiqing to the cabinet, and Wang Shouren took over Yang Yiqing's position to control the three sides.

The secretary of the military department is served by Gui Cao.

"Your Majesty, this is the record of the conversation between Zhang Xuan and Yan Song just reported by Xichang, Zhang Xuan said that this time His Majesty deposed Liu Yu and promoted Wang Shouren to avoid contact with several officials of the royal joint venture with the emperor's eldest son, otherwise he would not have promoted Yang Yiqing to the cabinet and let Gui Cao enter Beijing as the secretary of the military department."

Zhang Zhong, the new governor of Xichang, reported to Zhu Houzhao at this time the news about the Xichang among officials, and Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but smile bitterly after hearing it:

"How could I have thought that it was so complicated, this Liu Yu was ordered to retire by me because he was not enterprising and too speculative, my first assistant of the Ming Dynasty can't be such a selfish official! Wang Shouren is because he has always been good at martial arts, and the border town cannot be less handsome, after Yang Yiqing entered Beijing, he just let him make up for it, not to mention that Yang Yiqing is not young now, and he has led troops in the border town for many years, and after returning to Beijing, he just trained for me to train the military academy! ”

Zhu Houzhao was naturally not explaining to Zhang Zhong, but to himself, he swore that he did think so, and he never thought about guarding against anyone, even if he wanted to guard against anyone, but he didn't think so deeply, he never felt that he was a master of scheming, and it was obvious that the officials under him were overinterpreting his behavior.

Zhang Zhong didn't think that the officials under him were overinterpreting Emperor Zhu Houzhao's behavior.

Even when he returned to the mansion outside his palace, Zhang Zhong was still enjoying the massage of his henchman concubine Lan Die, and said: "The ancestor is right, our current majesty is really very difficult to fathom, on the surface, he pretends not to look like the emperor, and he also condescends to explain and analyze at every turn, as if it is only for the sake of the world, but the emperor's heart is very deep!" ”

"Even Zhang Butang and Yan Butang can see that he is deliberately degrading and promoting several officials with chaebol backgrounds who may be united with the emperor's eldest son, just to avoid collusion between the emperor's eldest son and the chaebol, but he also flatly denied that on the surface, the father is kind and filial to the son, but in fact, he has been secretly calculating for a long time!"

"Otherwise, how can it be Your Majesty, Master, you are doing things in front of Your Majesty now, naturally you have to be very careful, as the saying goes, a companion is like a tiger, it is not unreasonable, but from the perspective of the concubine, you don't need to work so hard, why fight for that vanity!"

Blue Butterfly persuaded.

"Where do you understand my mind, people like us, without that thing, what else can we pursue except to become the head of the inner court", Zhang Zhong sighed and said.

"Look at what you said, master, although you don't have that thing, but the slave family is still willing to follow you, that thing has not been hard for a long time, don't look at the princes of the Manchu Dynasty, although they have, but they are almost the same as not, and they are deflated in three or five seconds!"

When Blue Butterfly said this, Zhang Zhong couldn't help laughing.

And this blue butterfly also took advantage of Zhang Zhongxi's smile, and said: "Actually, it is easy for the lord to please His Majesty, but now Your Majesty is most afraid of not others, but the years urge people to grow old, since Jiao Ge Lao and Liu Gonggong are gone, Your Majesty's desire to live a long life is only afraid of being stronger!" It's not just about longevity, I'm afraid that in the future, Your Majesty will still want to be as fierce as a teenager, although you are different from them, but you should also know that men care a lot about that ability, sometimes more than women. ”

Hearing Lan Die say this, Zhang Zhong also suddenly realized: "You are really my female Zhuge ah!" How can there be an emperor in the world who doesn't want to live long, especially our majesty who first collected Mongolia and then occupied the South Seas! Immortality is naturally impossible, but it is hard to guarantee that His Majesty does not believe it, and the so-called care is chaotic! ”

The more Zhang Zhong thought about it, the more he felt that this idea was good, of course, he didn't really hope that Zhu Houzhao could live a long life and even live forever, he hoped to gain Zhu Houzhao's trust, and even hoped that Zhu Houzhao would die early after knocking the elixir, and even if he was to blame him, after all, His Majesty the Emperor ate it himself.

Zhu Houzhao didn't know that Zhang Zhong was looking for the elixir of life and that medicine for him, and he was now trying his best to play the role of a father, patiently talking to the emperor's eldest son, Zhu Zailei, about his thoughts.

Of course, Zhu Houzhao didn't plan to just educate Zhu Zailei personally, he planned to come one by one, so that these princes could learn to think actively, learn to understand what they wanted, and know how to enjoy some kind of privileges given to you by this society at the same time give you some special responsibilities.

"Father, the son actually doesn't understand, why did you dismiss Liu Shouhua, the son heard from the gentleman in the palace that Liu Shouhua is very honest and never accepts money, it can be seen that he is a good official!"

After getting along with Zhu Houzhao for an hour every day, Zhu Zailei has now begun to learn to take the initiative to communicate with Zhu Houzhao, and now he takes the initiative to ask Zhu Houzhao about Liu Yu's dismissal.

Zhu Houzhao didn't hide it, but said: "Liu Yu is a clean official, but do you know, although he is a clean official, he is not a poor official, he gets millions of silver dollars in dividends from major companies and firms every year, he is one of the ministers who invested money in your father's emperor back then, and now he has become one of the richest chaebols in the Ming Dynasty!" ”

"But he also knows that his income is all because of his father, that is to say, it was given to him by his father, and his father can naturally take it back at any time, and the future emperor can also take back his wealth at any time, so he doesn't dare to make any mistakes, not to mention corruption, even if he is in the court, he doesn't dare to be late, for fear of angering our royal family and making his Liu family impoverished in an instant, just like the Kong family is now!"

"That's why he is so anxious to persuade me to make you the crown prince! Look at his persuasion to make you the crown prince! ”

After Zhu Houzhao said, Zhu Zailei followed Zhu Houzhao's instructions and picked up Liu Yu's previous note, and couldn't help blushing after reading it:

"Father, what Liu Shoufu said is a lie! Erchen is not talented and intelligent, and he is not respectful and polite, Erchen actually doesn't know what he is like, but he is not as good as Liu Shoufu said, besides, Erchen has never spoken to him, how does he know that Erchen is so good, why is he so praised! ”

"Because he wants you to be the future emperor of the Ming Dynasty, and if he wants you to be the emperor, he naturally wants to say that you are good enough! You should understand by now why he persuaded me to make you the crown prince, right? Zhu Houzhao asked with a smile.

Zhu Zailei thought for a while and replied: "He wants to keep his family business!" ”

"That's right! But my Ming Shoufu can't think about keeping his family business, and my Ming Shoufu's heart can only be placed on the emperor and the common people! Otherwise, my Ming Dynasty's internal affairs will only be controlled by the chaebol! ”

When Zhu Houzhao said this, Zhu Zailei nodded as if he had realized something, and he now realized more and more that everyone was showing favor to him and was willing to bow down to him, not because he was good enough, but because he might one day sit in the position of his father.

Zhu Zailei began to take the initiative to think about the question that Zhu Houzhao had asked him, that is, the question about whether he wanted to be the emperor.

Zhang Zhong saw the emperor's eldest son, Zhu Zailei, walking out of Hanbi Hall, and hurriedly greeted him: "Your Highness! Old slave, I have something to say to you! ”

Zhang Zhong informed Zhu Zailei of his hope that Zhu Zailei would show filial piety in front of Zhu Houzhao and talk more about the auspicious words of Shoubi Nanshan, and Zhu Zailei only asked Zhang Zhong after Zhang Zhong finished speaking: "Zhang Daban, you tell this king, why do you want me to be the emperor?" ”

Zhang Zhong was really stopped by this question for a while, he couldn't help but think to himself, where is this because he wants you to be the emperor, shouldn't it be that you yourself also want to be the emperor?

But Zhang Zhong didn't want to answer like this, so he only replied: "Because the old slave thinks that among the princes of the Ming Dynasty, only Your Royal Highness is the most talented and intelligent, and you are the eldest son of the queen's mother, you are the most qualified to be the emperor, even the Confucian ministers outside think so, you are orthodox to be the emperor, otherwise Liu Shoufu will not persuade His Majesty to make you the prince!" ”