Although it is necessary to put an end to the eunuch thing.

But now the 24 yamen of the Ming Dynasty, such as the celebrant supervisor and the imperial horse supervisor, are still Zhu Youzhen's special guarantee to protect the imperial power.

In other words, Zhu Youzhen has not been able to revoke these government offices.

Besides.

If you want to get enough human resources services for yourself and your harem, you must be either a eunuch or a palace maid, and men are naturally not good, and you can be in charge of guards, but serving the inner court is not what men are good at, and it is easy to breed trouble, and Zhu Youzhen does not want his harem to be green.

But now that the appearance of new eunuchs is to be stopped, Zhu Youzhen can only let the palace maid replace the role of the former eunuch.

That is, to manage the administration of the inner court and the services of royal life.

Therefore, Zhu Youzhen's selection of concubines this time not only lengthened the age but also increased the number of places, the reason is to increase the number of eunuchs who should have been recruited to the selection of palace maids.

However, in the eyes of some ulterior motives, Zhu Youzhen's policies were regarded as a lascivious and unscrupulous strategy.

"Your Majesty, recently, there have been rumors and discussions among literati in various places, saying that Your Majesty is faint and lustful, and in order to accumulate beautiful women, you have not hesitated to increase your age, and you have also expanded the number of palace maids."

Wang Chengen, the governor of Dongchang, informed Zhu Youzhen of this phenomenon when he was making a daily public opinion supervision report.

Zhu You's face couldn't help but turn cold after listening, and he hurriedly summoned Liu Zongzhou, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, and threw the report of Dongchang in front of Liu Zongzhou:

"What's going on, if you want to recruit concubines and heirs, it's your civil official's proposal!

Since the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, there has been this proposal, you Liu Zongzhou, the great Confucian in the south of the Yangtze River, shouted the most fiercely, and now according to what you said, I have chosen a concubine, you civil officials are good, give me a rake, and say that I am lewd and lustful!

Liu Zongzhou, tell me the truth, did you deliberately let me drill into the cage and then slander me? You treacherous fellow! ”

Zhu Youzhen scolded him like this, and Liu Zongzhou was also quite shocked on the spot, and hurriedly crawled down:

"Your Majesty is angry, Weichen has never dared to think about it! His Majesty's choice of concubines is the main matter of the imperial court, and the people below do not know what to do, and slander the holy reputation indiscriminately, they should be severely punished and affirmed! ”

"Very good, the Ministry of Rites is in charge of the world's rites and controls the world's public opinion guidance, you, as a scholar of Dongge University and the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, must handle this matter well, and you can't let people with ulterior motives misinterpret my intentions, I will let Dongchang review the rumors, and your Ministry of Rites must also do a good job of public opinion guidance through newspapers and periodicals and various channels!"

After Zhu Youzhen confessed a few words to Liu Zongzhou, he asked him to retreat.

In fact, Chongzhen Zhu Youzhen himself can guess that there must be political enemies who are not satisfied with his new policy and are making waves, but I am afraid that these gentry in Jiangnan who are dissatisfied with him.

If these people are best at building public opinion, if they do not stop and deal with it, they are afraid that their prestige among the people will be greatly damaged.

Liu Zongzhou, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, was originally a scholar-type official and did not have rich experience in political struggles, so he did not expect that a small concubine would hide such a conspiracy.

But he cares more about his reputation than Zhu Youzhen, and he proposed the selection of concubines this time, and he doesn't like to be said to be a minister who blindly flatters the king.

Therefore, when the people in Dongchang put the article that there were already scholars who said that he was a courtier who searched for beautiful women for the emperor in front of Liu Zongzhou, Liu Zongzhou was also angry.

"Who wrote this, it's just nonsense!"

Liu Zongzhou was so angry that he slapped an article published in Guanghua Daily on the table, his eyes were full of anger, and he wanted to kill the person who wrote the article.

"The authors of Guanghua Daily are all fictitious pen names, and it is generally difficult to find out who wrote it, but since it is a slander of Liu Butang's remarks, it can naturally be checked, but if you need Liu Butang, you need to play and ask for Your Majesty's will, so that we can help you find out and understand;

But the important thing is not this, but that such remarks can't just breed like this, and they must be stopped as soon as possible, at present, this issue of Guanghua Daily has not yet been issued, Shi Gong can stop it, but the messages in the market can't be stopped, and you have to Liu Butang personally write an article published by Guanghua Daily, and explain it clearly to the people of the world. ”

When Wang Chengen, the governor of Dongchang, said this, Liu Zongzhou also understood what he meant, and hurriedly wrote a 10,000-character article overnight to defend the matter of Zhu Youzhen's selection of concubines for himself, and at the same time denounced the rumor-mongers and those with ulterior motives.

Liu Zongzhou has a very high status in the Shilin literary circle, and as soon as he spoke in person, it also caused a great sensation, and a large number of Jiangnan scholars also followed to support him.

Immediately afterwards, Liu Zongzhou also successively issued more than a dozen articles and notices to explain the policy of choosing concubines this time, and at the same time, Huang Daozhou, Wang Siren, Shi Kefa, etc. also responded positively.

In the Guanghua Daily, which was several feet square, Liu Zongzhou and other court officials who were not affiliated with Nanzhili started a fierce battle with the scholars and officials of Nanzhili.

From whether Liu Zongzhou, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, disputed for the courtiers to whether the court is a traitor in charge today, although it is called the quarrel between the scholars and the court, it is a struggle between two gentry groups with different interests and needs.

Whether Liu Zongzhou is a minister is equivalent to saying whether Zhu Youzhen is a faint monarch.

Whether the court is a traitor or not is in charge is tantamount to saying whether the government is correct.

Most of the people who supported Liu Zongzhou's remarks were officials and scholars who were not affiliated with the Nanzhi, and most of them were from traditional squires, and they were very satisfied with the current imperial court that had reduced agricultural taxes for several years and banned the forced labor and grain chief system.

Those who did not support Liu Zongzhou's remarks and even desperately slandered Liu Zongzhou and other court officials were mostly scholars from Nanzhili or some business-oriented scholars, most of whom were commercial squires, and they were dissatisfied with the excessive commercial taxes imposed by the imperial court and the opening of the port Qingzhang Songjiang Mansion.

Therefore, the quarrel is getting more and more noisy, and the sales of Guanghua Daily are getting higher and higher.

There is also an increasing number of people engaged in newspaper selling and newspaper reading.

That's right, some low-level scholars have begun to engage in newspaper reading to meet the needs of the low-level people for information, but most of the low-level people are not interested in government affairs and court disputes.

They are only interested in whether the current emperor is a good emperor or a bad emperor.

Runing, Henan.

"Yan Xianggong, do you say that the emperor is a good emperor or a bad emperor, why does this newspaper say that corrupt officials are rampant, and that the people are in the Ying Dynasty, what does this mean?"

An old farmer with a hoe asked Yan Xiucai, a newspaper reader in his village, and handed a silver dollar to Yan Xiucai.

This Yan Xiucai was just a child, but he became a student because he became a social science teacher, and he was not in business, so he was naturally very satisfied with the government, so he replied with a smile:

"Old man, whether the emperor is good or not can not be seen in the newspapers, as the saying goes, justice is at ease in the hearts of the people, you think about what was the situation of our village three years ago, and what is the situation of our village this year, you can see whether Your Majesty is a good emperor."

"Three years ago, I starved to death of two daughters, and this year, I have added a daughter, a son, and a little grandson, and I still don't need to eat tree bark, so the year is naturally better."

"Then do you say that the emperor is a good emperor or a bad emperor?"

"That's naturally a good emperor!"

(End of chapter)