Imperial Master of the Ming Dynasty

Now that Jian Yi has made things clear to the emperor, it is obvious that the remaining ministers should not hide it.

They are ministers. In today's official system of the Ming Dynasty, they are at the top of the civil service system, with countless disciples and former officials standing behind them. When it comes time to speak on behalf of the gentry class, they will never hesitate.

Zheng Ci, the Minister of Punishment, was scolded by Jian Yi as an "incompetent sycophant" in front of everyone. At this time, he simply broke the pot and became a traitor among the six ministers, unequivocally supporting the emperor's reform.

The attitude of Li Zhigang, the Minister of Rites, is somewhat ambiguous. The important changes in the reform, the adjustment of the vassal system and the increase in the number of members of the Ministry of Rites are obviously greatly beneficial to his core interests. What's more, this "Duo Lao Duo" He's used to it. If he doesn't take pleasure in taking advantage now, why should he offend the emperor and wait for the new emperor to send him to prison for the third time, and then follow Jiang Xing to enlightenment in the fire prison?

Therefore, among the six ministers, one takes the lead in opposing, one supports, and one is neutral.

The remaining three ministers, Ru Yu, Minister of the Ministry of War, Huang Fu, Minister of the Ministry of Industry, and Xia Yuanji, Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, began to take turns to express their positions.

Uncle Zhongzhong and Secretary of the Ministry of War, Ru Yun, glanced at Jian Yi, who was sitting next to him as steady as a mountain, and then spoke with all his strength.

"Your Majesty, I think it is very appropriate to compare the situation of Wang Anshi's reform to the Eight Strategies for Reform."

"tell me the story."

Zhu Di also calmed down at this time. Seeing that Dao Yan still didn't answer, he asked himself.

"The various policies of Wang Anshi's reform, including the Young Crops Law, the Farmland Water Conservancy Law, the Labor Exemption Law, and the Farmland Equalization Law, are all policies that have been proposed by predecessors. Wang Anshi himself also proved the feasibility of these policies when he was governing the local area. .”

Ru Yun said slowly: "Compared with today's first issue of the Ming Dynasty National Bonds and the promotion of labor service in Jiangnan, what is the difference?"

"The Ming Dynasty's national debt has achieved results, recycling a lot of surplus treasure banknotes in Nanjing city, and stabilizing the rate of depreciation of the currency value of the treasure banknotes; the work-sharing system has indeed achieved success in Jiangnan. Everyone in Jiangnan is grateful for His Majesty's kindness. "

"But your Majesty needs to know." Ru Jun said seriously, "Wang Anshi's reform has proved that if it works in one place, it may not work in the whole country. It can even be said that it may not work to a large extent! Because whether it is population, economy, or product , customs, culture and education, geography. China is really huge, and each place has its own specific conditions."

"There are only tens of thousands of people in Gansu, and they are basically all military households and civilians who depend on military households to make a living. Is it feasible to go there to issue Ming Dynasty national debt?"

"Yunnan and Guizhou are full of chieftains' Xuanweisi, and the local people there are no different from slaves. Is it possible to go there to promote the practice of working in rural areas?"

"Although what I'm talking about is an extreme situation, your Majesty must know that if oranges grow in Huainan, they will become oranges, and if they grow in northern Huaibei, they will become oranges. The starting point is a good policy, but when it is implemented in the local area, there is a high probability that it will go wrong."

"At that time, I am afraid that the reform will change and I will go back to Wang Anshi's old path of reforming the Pharaoh. In order to achieve the goal of the reform, local officials will compete to bully the people and obtain corresponding political achievements."

After saying that, Ru Yu bowed respectfully, which was what she meant.

Loyal uncle, as loyal as ever.

It was Huang Fu's turn to speak, but his views were more concrete.

"Your Majesty, I thought that the Ming Dynasty had just calmed down the national crisis and had gone through several years of war, which was somewhat similar to the early Western Han Dynasty."

Huang Fu didn't dare to go too deep in what he said. Otherwise, it would be okay to compare Zhu Yuanzhang, the great emperor of the Ming Dynasty, to Liu Bang, the great emperor of the Han Dynasty. But to whom should Zhu Di, the rebellious vassal king, be compared to? The King of Wu Liu Bi in the Rebellion of Seven Kings?

It must be understood that it was precisely because Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty listened to Chao Cuo's suggestion to cut down the vassal that he took action against the kings. The kings were forced to panic, and King Wu Liu Bi took the lead in the rebellion, which resulted in the Seven Kings that almost shook the foundation of the Western Han Dynasty. chaos.

How similar is this to how Emperor Jianwen listened to Qitai Huang Zicheng's suggestion to cut down the vassals, and took action against the vassals, which led to the Yan King Zhu Di's rebellion and the turmoil?

It is precisely for this reason that Gao Wei, Li Jinglong's army officer, once wrote a memorandum, saying that Zhu Di "used an excuse to kill Zuoban civil servants, but in fact it was Wu Wang Bi's old wisdom, and everyone knows his way of thinking."

If Zhu Di felt that Huang Fu was mocking him, then the matter would become a big deal.

Huang Fu just continued: "The rule of Wen and Jing Dynasty emphasized that the king ruled the world without doing anything, because it was difficult for the court to control how the lower-level officials in various places should govern, and it was even impossible to assess them at all. Therefore, the more the court wanted to do something, the more The easier it is to make mistakes, the more miserable the people's lives will be. Therefore, although the local power became stronger during the Wenjing period, the people's lives gradually got better."

To put it bluntly, Huang Fu’s political philosophy is just four words.

——"Don't mess around."

This was undoubtedly not in line with Zhu Di's temperament, but Zhu Di did not blame him. After all, every minister had the right to speak when discussing important national policies, and the emperor could not say anything.

Five ministers have spoken, three are against, one is in favor, and one is neutral.

Zhu Di looked at the last minister who did not speak, Xia Yuanji, the minister of household affairs.

"What do you think, Xia Shangshu?"

"I am opposed to it, but I support it."

Xia Yuanji's answer made everyone feel dazed.

Is Xia Shangshu talking nonsense or is he confused?

"The reason why I object is because what Jian Shangshu said is reasonable. Without supporting the new profit-making class, it is indeed impossible to reform the law."

"Let's take Wang Anshi's reform as an example. Due to the pressure of Song Shenzong, in order to achieve quick results and to silence Sima Guang and other opponents of the reform, Wang Anshi was forced to use his own relatives in the absence of a reform team. and many people who defected to take advantage of the situation, including Wang Anshi's son Wang Wu, in-law Xie Jingwen, son-in-law Cai Bian, as well as Lu Huiqing, Zeng Bu, Li Ding, Deng Shao, Schumann, Zhang Zhun and others. "

"But without a group of benefited classes who firmly support the new law, how can Wang Anshi succeed in reforming the law with just these people who support the reform for the sake of their own personal gain?"

"Since ancient times, reformers have no castle in the air to succeed." Xia Yuanji sighed, "Qi Huan Gong Guan Zhong's reform was based on the wealthy merchants and landowners fighting against the Qing and bureaucrats; Qin Xiao Gong Shang Yang's reform was based on farming warfare. The military meritorious class came to fight against the old aristocratic class of the Qin State; Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty deposed hundreds of schools of thought and only respected Confucianism, and also used Confucian scholars to fight against the military meritorious aristocrats of the early Han Dynasty; the Yuwentai Reform in the Western Wei Dynasty established the Guanlong clan system to fight against the old aristocracy of Xianbei."

"On the other hand, Wang Mang and Wang Anshi, don't they both have saint-like conduct? What can be criticized in terms of private morality? But private morality is intact, and it has nothing to do with whether the reform is successful or not. In the final analysis, it is not because of Wang Mang's The new dynasty was inherited from the Western Han Dynasty and had no new beneficiary class of its own; Wang Anshi relied entirely on the support of Song Shenzong and had no truly powerful supporters of his own."

After Xia Yuanji finished speaking, everyone became more and more confused.

Xia Yuanji's objections are indeed the same as Jian Yi's, and they are very reasonable. They can even be said clearly.

Reforms have changed in the past dynasties. Success is due to success, and failure is due to failure.

But since Xia Yuanji said it so clearly, why did he say "but support"? Could it be that Xia Yuanji is also a sycophant like Zheng Ci?

But Xia Yuanji is obviously not such a person.

Soon, Xia Yuanji explained why he supported it.

"I object because of the reasons mentioned above."

"But because of one person, I support him."

As soon as this statement came out, although it was explained, everyone became more and more confused.

Here, people whose minds were spinning quickly, such as Li Zhigang, Xie Jin, Yang Shiqi and others, almost instantly thought of who Xia Yuanji supported the reform.

——Jiang Xinghuo!

There is only one reason!

It was precisely because Jiang Xinghuo proposed all of this that Xia Yuanji chose to unconditionally believe that Jiang Xinghuo must have thought of a solution.

You can think of it, I can think of it, but Jiang Sheng can’t think of it?

At this moment, Li Zhigang, who had thought about it, no longer hesitated and expressed his stance decisively.

"I didn't make it clear just now. I have the same idea as Xia Shangshu. Although I feel that there are indeed key points in the reform that cannot be solved, I support it because of that person!"

In an instant, the situation was overturned!

Six ministers, three opposed, three supported!

"I have something to say, and I won't be happy if I don't say it." Huang Fu, the minister of the Ministry of Industry, couldn't help but ask: "Who did Xia Shangshu and Li Shangshu decide to support the reform?"

Xia Yuanji and Li Zhigang both looked at the emperor.

Obviously, only Zhu Di can make the decision whether to expose Jiang Xinghuo's identity.

After all, among the ministers, some knew Jiang Xinghuo's existence and some did not.

But whether he knew it or not, Jiang Xinghuo, the Ming Dynasty master who had been in prison and guided Zhu Di in governing the country through lectures, was not on the table.

Therefore, the ministers knew about Jiang Xinghuo's existence, and under the emperor's explicit warning, they worked together to keep this secret that was not public.

And now, is it time for this secret to be revealed?

Jie Jin looked at the emperor who frowned slightly with complicated emotions.

Faced with Jiang Xinghuo, a monster who emerged from nowhere, Jie Jin was a little disdainful at first, but as time went by, unprecedented policies were proposed one after another.

Xie Jin's mentality changed from disdain to shock, from shock to shame, and from shame to numbness.

Why should people compare with monsters?

And Jie Jin knew that as long as today, in the cabinet room where high-level decision-makers from the Ming Empire gathered, the words "Jiang Xinghuo" were spoken by Zhu Di.

Then it means that a new era is coming.

In the face of this frightening, yet forced to accept the historical torrent.

Even a great talent like Xie Jin felt powerless.

At this moment, Zhu Di slowly spoke.

"Today, it's time to tell you."