When Zhu Houzhao was engaged in industrial production in the leopard room, the court was not calm.

Since Zhu Houzhao promised to let Ma Wensheng be the first assistant in the future, Ma Wensheng has begun to use the opportunity of being the secretary of the ministry to install his own people in the local and six departments.

In addition, Ma Wensheng, who was riveting his efforts to fight with the cabinet, also implemented a strict evaluation system, demoted Liu Jian and other incompetent officials and deposed them a lot, which made Liu Jian, the first assistant of the cabinet, and others very unhappy.

Because of this, Liu Jian and other Qingliu civil officials ignored Zhu Houzhao, and they didn't even dare to persecute Zhu Houzhao, for fear that Emperor Zhu Houzhao and Ma Wensheng would stand aside, and then he would lose more than he gained.

Therefore, Zhu Houzhao successfully avoided the regular feasts arranged for them by the Qingliu civil officials, and was only banned on the grounds that he was sad and needed to recuperate.

In addition, Zhu Houzhao made soap and glass to do these strange and ingenious things, and Liu Jian and other Qingliu courtiers did not care about him, not to mention that they originally hoped from the bottom of their hearts that the emperor would not do his job properly and not care about the government and politics, although on the surface His Majesty wanted to be a virtuous saint.

Ma Wensheng and other factions of turbid civil officials, that is, officials who were not from Hanlin and most of whom had local experience in border towns, naturally did not care about these things, and they were now more concerned about wrestling power from Qingliu.

The courtiers seem to have forgotten the existence of Emperor Zhu Houzhao of the Ming Dynasty, and all they know now is that Zhu Houzhao sang in the leopard room every night, and even stayed in the Chu Pavilion of Qinlou at night.

And Wang Yue, the eunuch who holds the seal of the celebrant eunuch, adheres to the habit of reporting everything to Zhu Houzhao, but he will always appear when Zhu Houzhao is busy with the craftsman's craft, and Zhu Houzhao will also raise some questions at the beginning.

"Why should Suzhou's taxes be exempted?" For example, on this day, Zhu Houzhao asked about this matter, and he knew that the tax was a commercial tax, although it was not the source of the imperial court's regular tax, but it was the main source of his own internal money, after all, these commercial taxes were all attributed to the internal money, and it was also related to his own internal income, so he couldn't help but ask.

"The cabinet means that there are two counties in Suzhou that have floods this year, and they should be exempted from taxes and save people's power," Wang Yue replied.

"Wouldn't it be better to be exempt from land tax, why is it exempt from tax, and why do merchants not farm, and what damage does the flood do to them?" Zhu Houzhao asked.

"Emperor, the current government is not stable, it is better to listen to the cabinet vote", the eunuch Wang Yue will suggest at this time.

Zhu Houzhao also understood at this time that Wang Yue had obviously become a dog leg of the cabinet civil officials, and hurriedly said: "Since we cherish the people's power, we will exempt Suzhou's tax and field tax this year!" The cabinet has agreed! ”

"The emperor is benevolent, and the slave and maid will go back to the will!" Wang Yue saluted Zhu Houzhao and left, and couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief in his heart, thinking that His Majesty was really thinking simply, if the tax was inevitable, the civil officials could agree, and the gentry in Jiangnan didn't stuff so much silver in vain.

Zhu Houzhao's heart to bring down Wang Yue naturally became heavier and heavier, but he also knew that he couldn't make a big move before he took control of the 12th regiment battalion and the forbidden army, that is, the military power, so Zhu Houzhao often simply pretended to have a lot of trust in Wang Yue and the cabinet.

Sometimes, when the celebrant seals Wang Yue to report on government affairs, Zhu Houzhao will pretend not to care and say, "Don't bother me with these things!" ”

The celebrant and supervisor Wang Yue are always very satisfied with this, and Liu Jian and others in the cabinet are also very pleased, and they all wish that Zhu Houzhao would do this every time.

However, in August of this year, after the urgent military report of the border town of Datong was transmitted to Beijing, the courtiers could not help but hold a court meeting again, and the court meeting naturally could not be held without Emperor Zhu Houzhao.

Thereupon.

Wang Yue, the eunuch who was in charge of the celebrant seal, did not dare to take advantage of Zhu Houzhao's research on industrial manufacturing this time, but immediately found Zhu Houzhao.

Zhu Houzhao did not pretend to be indifferent to the government this time, and accompanied by Wang Yue, the master of ceremonies, he went to the platform of the main hall of the Qianqing Palace to hold a court meeting with the cabinet and important officials in Beijing about the disaster of the little prince in the border town.

For the little prince's tartar, Zhu Houzhao also felt very annoyed, in his memory, this little prince seems to have never been born in peace, repeatedly deducted the edge, and the powerful Ming Empire has nothing to do with it, but a lot of silver has been invested, and half of the silver saved by Emperor Hongzhi in his thrifty life was spent on the border town.

"The little prince has been offending my Daming border town, killing my border army, and plundering the people of my border town, what is your good plan for Aiqing?" Zhu Houzhao asked directly as soon as he came up.

Ma Wensheng, the official who was born as the governor of the border town, immediately stood up and proposed: "Your Majesty, at present, the armament is in ruins, the soldiers dare not fight, and the generals are afraid of death. ”

"Your Majesty, the great revival of military affairs is a reckless move of the army, which is not conducive to the strategy of supporting the people," said Li Dongyang, deputy assistant to the cabinet.

"The Tartars have all hit the doorstep, sending troops to exterminate them is considered a poor army, like a person being beaten, shouldn't he be afraid of the people who bully him, when did I Daming be so cowardly, didn't I just collect the summer tax now, how to train without money and food, without elite soldiers, and let the Tartars be so rampant, instead of raising the people but harming the people."

Zhu Houzhao said.

"Your Majesty! Tartars have always been mostly rangers, it is a fact that it is difficult to exterminate, even if I spend countless money and food, and raise millions of elite soldiers, it is difficult to exterminate them, it is better to repair the border wall to defend itself, if Kou comes to commit only three or five days, he will go by himself! ”

It was Liu Daxia who said this, but Zhu Houzhao heard this and felt that Liu Daxia was very unsuitable to be the secretary of the Ministry of War, and the secretary of the Ministry of War is equivalent to the Minister of National Defense.

"Now there is a shortage of silver in Taicang, and the summer tax has to make up for last year's deficit, and at present, the mausoleum and burial of the Emperor Daxing still cost silver and the silver for repairing the Qing Palace has not been allocated, and Your Majesty, your wedding, it also costs money, and the training of elite soldiers and the selection of good generals can only be dragged first, what Da Sima said is indeed a serious word!"

Liu Jian, the first assistant of the cabinet, spoke at this time, and praised Liu Daxia in an extraneous way, and then the other ministers also nodded and felt that Liu Daxia was right.

Zhu Houzhao saw that all of these high-ranking civil officials, except for Ma Wensheng, who insisted on training and preparing for war, all supported Liu Daxia, so naturally he couldn't say anything, but said: "Since Shoufu said so, so be it." ”

"Your Majesty is wise!"

Liu Jian, the first assistant of the cabinet, and other ministers were busy praising Zhu Houzhao, and they were also very happy in their hearts, after all, they had never let His Majesty think about martial arts again, and they would naturally praise themselves in the future.

But Zhu Houzhao was not happy, because he did not expect that a court discussion on national defense would end with the conclusion that "Kou will go by himself."

Zhu Houzhao didn't want to wait any longer, he couldn't help but glance at Ma Wensheng, Ma Wensheng, Liu Jin and others, and then asked Wang Yue after the ministers left: "Which yamen of the twenty-four yamen of the inner court has been vacant recently?" ”

"Back to the emperor, there is a vacancy in the Bell and Drum Division", Wang Yue noticed that Zhu Houzhao had been looking at Liu Jin for a long time just now, and knew that he wanted to promote Liu Jin, so he only reported to a yamen with a relatively cold inner court.

"Then let Liu Jin palm the bell and drum division", after Zhu Houzhao said, Wang Yue nodded hurriedly and said yes.

In this way, Liu Jin became the eunuch of the Bell and Drum Division and one of the eunuchs of the twenty-four yamen palm seals.

But Liu Jin was still a little disappointed, what he wanted was not the palm print eunuch of the bell and drum division, but the palm print eunuch of the celebrant eunuch.

Zhu Houzhao also saw it, but he did this to let Liu Jin know that if he didn't follow him to fight Wang Yue and others, he wouldn't be able to be a powerful eunuch at all.

As soon as he returned to the leopard room, Zhu Houzhao secretly summoned Liu Jin: "You also saw it, it's not that I don't want to use you, it's that someone doesn't want to use you, don't worry, I will let you rise sooner or later, now it's just a stone throwing to ask for directions, the most important thing at the moment is that the military power is not in our hands, the two positions of the 12th Regiment Battalion and the Military Department Shangshu must be our people!" I decided to get rid of Liu Daxia, the secretary of the Ministry of War, first, and if this goods are in the Ministry of War for one more day, my Ming military affairs will be even worse! ”

"In any case, the slaves and maids have to be grateful to the emperor, without the emperor, Liu Jin would not even be able to take the palm print of the bell and drum division," Liu Jin said.

"It's good that you can understand, how are the contacts on the civilian side, and what are the people who are willing to make friends with you?" Zhu Houzhao asked.

Liu Jin hurriedly asked with a solemn expression: "Jiao Fang, the left attendant of the Ministry of Officials, Xu Jin, the left attendant of the Ministry of War, and Zhang Cai of Wenxuan Shilang are all willing to make friends with slaves and maids, the emperor wants to get rid of Liu Daxia, and the young Sima Xu Jin is suitable, he has been pressed by Liu Daxia, and he is quite resentful, so Xu Jin can find someone to deal with Liu Daxia." ”

"That's too slow, you ask Xu Jin if he wants to put the chair of the military department in the first place, if he wants to, you can help him and let him know your methods, murder is not only capable of civilian officials!" Zhu Houzhao said with a smile.