Imperial Master of the Ming Dynasty

Dao Yan flicked the cuffs of his black cassock and pulled out a letter from the sleeves.

"Lao Na asked Yuan Gong and Yuan Zhenren to have a correspondence with Jiang Sheng."

Then, Dao Yan seemed to be thirsty, so he picked up the teacup on the table and took a sip of tea.

The old monk's slowness made the officials who were waiting for the result extremely anxious. They wanted to go up and pry Daoyan's mouth open so that he could reveal all the information.

But at this time, the emperor also added to the obstruction, and Zhu Di waved to Lao San behind him.

The third prince Zhu Gaosui came close to Zhu Di, listened for a few moments, and said in slight surprise: "Father, do you want the second brother to come over now?"

Zhu Di nodded, and Zhu Gaosui did not dare to say anything. After leaving the house and arranging Tongzhen to take charge of defense, he used his horse riding privileges in the imperial city and headed for the imperial prison not far away.

Dao Yan said: "Of course Jiang Sheng has a way to support a new class of people who will benefit."

Hearing this, Huang Fu, the minister of the Ministry of Industry, suddenly felt curious.

Unlike the dog-licking Zheng Ci, Huang Fu had been through the ups and downs of the officialdom for many years and had long been calm about honor and disgrace. He had no psychological fluctuations about the emperor not taking him to listen to the sermons of the banished immortals.

As the saying goes, thunder, rain and dew are all your kindness.

What the emperor wants to do is the emperor's business. As an important minister of the country, what he has to do is not to blindly and unprincipledly move closer to the emperor, but to perform his duties well and be worthy of the saints and the people.

But even if Huang Fu is calm in his heart, it would be wrong to say that Huang Fu is not even the least bit curious about "Jiang Xinghuo", the banished immortal who came out of nowhere.

In fact, ever since the emperor personally told him about Jiang Xinghuo's magical qualities, Huang Fu had become extremely interested in this person.

But at the moment, Dao Yan's intention seems to be that a letter from the other party can solve the core problem that plagues the reform.

——Support new beneficiary classes.

You must know that this matter is not as simple as it sounds.

Supporting the new beneficiary class means that it will inevitably harm the old beneficiary class.

Under the current temple system in the Ming Dynasty, what are the old benefited classes?

Of course, it is the gentry class that evolved from the scholar-bureaucrat class in the Song and Yuan Dynasties.

The gentry class controls a large amount of knowledge, land, population, and voice. Anyone who tries to offend this powerful and conservative old profitable class will face strong resistance and counterattack.

Even Zhu Di, who had the cleanest separation from the gentry class and the most serious opposition, did not dare to act rashly.

Because the basic base that Zhu Di relied on was the small and medium-sized landowners in the north and the Han-Mongolian military leaders. Although he had an advantage in terms of force over the southern gentry class, he was not as good as him in other aspects, such as temples, economy, culture and education, etc. The point of fighting against each other.

The north, during the Ming Dynasty at this time, was still lagging behind in all aspects compared with the south.

The gentry class was so powerful. Its strength did not lie in any one individual, but in the fact that the entire class was deeply rooted in the economic center of the Ming Dynasty.

To attack the gentry class and completely break with it is almost equivalent to a person using a dagger to dig out his own heart.

Can a person live without a heart?

Of course not.

In addition, Huang Fu also thought of a more important issue.

Even through reforms, a new profit class was created to fight against the gentry class.

Then can you guarantee that the new class of people who have benefited will not turn around and rebel against the emperor?

If this is the case, even if the Ming Dynasty bothers to make more reforms, it is better not to change. At any rate, the gentry class has no objection to the old Zhu family being the emperor. At most, they can let an undesirable emperor dissolve in water and replace him with one. Wouldn't he still be a descendant of your old Zhu family?

Therefore, although Dao Yan said that Jiang Xinghuo, "Jiang Sheng", had found a way to support the new beneficiary class, Huang Fu still did not think that more reform would work.

Everyone knows that change is better than staying the same most of the time.

Change, no matter how it is changed, as long as the ability of the people leading the reform is not too bad, there is a high probability that it will enhance national strength.

Because since it's time to change the method, it means it's already rotten.

But why in China's thousands of years of history, there were only a few emperors who made great changes? Isn't this enough to explain the problem?

Huang Fu's doubts could only be solved by Dao Yan.

But as Daoyan delayed opening the letter.

Jian Yi suddenly realized something.

"Wait a minute."

At this time Jian Yi spoke, or in other words, spoke for Daoyan.

"Your Majesty, I believe that this letter is related to the fate of the country and should not be seen by everyone."

Jian Yi glanced at the people in the cabinet behind him, and the meaning was self-evident.

To put it bluntly, in the early Ming Dynasty, when the Zhongshu Sheng and the prime minister system had just been abolished by Zhu Yuanzhang, big bosses like Liubu Shangshu, who stood at the top of the civil service system, really looked down on the young men in the cabinet.

Although there are some young men here, they are really quite old.

But in the bureaucracy, seniority is just like this. Older people can look down on those younger than them, and senior people can look down on junior people.

Huang Fu instead said: "Jian Shangshu, we are not in a hurry to change the law. Since all the young talents in the cabinet have heard about it, why can't they stay and discuss it? After all, these people are already the leaders of the next generation of our Ming Dynasty. "

Jian Yi insisted stubbornly: "There is no need to discuss it, Your Majesty. I think everyone in the cabinet should be evacuated immediately."

Of course Xie Jin is a bureaucrat with temple ideals and ambitions. He is now the de facto chief assistant of the cabinet. Even though his status is very different from Jian Yi, if he does not stand up to safeguard the interests of the cabinet as a whole at this time, I am afraid that he will be in trouble in the future. It would be a huge disappointment.

What's more, the most critical point is that the emperor did not drive away the cabinet.

Jie Jin frowned and said thoughtfully: "Mr. Jian, I'm afraid this is inappropriate."

"Since His Majesty has formed a cabinet and appointed us to handle edicts and memorials, he naturally trusts us. Your Majesty has already summoned us to observe today's matter. Why does Mr. Jian have to drive us away?"

Jian Yi snorted coldly: "When will it be the turn of you and other junior counselors for the important matters of the country?"

It should be noted that although Jian Yi could not be called amiable in ordinary times, he was definitely not as aggressive as he is now.

Jian Yi's uncharacteristic behavior made almost everyone in the cabinet realize that something was wrong.

Xie Jin was stunned for a few seconds, and his smart mind suddenly understood.

Jian Yi drove them away not because he was jealous of their talents, nor because he looked down upon them, but because he was protecting the most outstanding and outstanding young talents in the civil service system of the Ming Empire.

Participating in the changes and reforms of the past dynasties is certainly the first step.

But one mistake can lead to a temple crisis that will shatter his body into pieces.

The problem is that as long as the people in the cabinet can endure the qualifications, their future prospects are limitless. Why join in at this time and try to change the reform, which is a step forward for them that is quite eager for quick success and instant benefits?

Yang Shiqi was startled and thought to himself: "Mr. Jian is indeed a responsible man. He is an ordinary minister. It is too late to save himself at this time. How can he dare to do such a thing without fear of offending the emperor?"

The emperor asked the cabinet members to attend the meeting, and the head of the six ministers told the cabinet members to get out.

Jian Yi said this without caring much about the emperor's face!

On the other side, Jin Youzi, who knew more about the inside story, remained silent and seemed to be hesitating.

As the emperor's absolute confidant, Jin Youzi not only knew a lot about today's changes in the reform, but also knew that what the emperor wanted to solve today was not just the preliminary consensus among the decision-makers of the Ming Empire on the changes.

The battle to establish the crown prince that had troubled the emperor for a long time; the killing of the Jurchens after the ice and snow melted in the coming spring; the more distant cross-sea battle against Japan; and the large-scale conquest of Mobei that the emperor had been thinking about.

All in all, many important national policies of the Ming Empire in the future will be set at this meeting.

With these messy thoughts running through Jin Youzi's head, he couldn't help but look at Yang Rong next to him.

At this time, Yang Rong was lowering his head, his expression uncertain, and he didn't know what he was thinking.

"Cough." Zhu Gaochi coughed dryly and looked up at his father above him.

Zhu Di's face was still calm and silent.

Zhu Gaochi said: "I think what Jian Shangshu said is not unreasonable."

After hearing this, everyone in the cabinet felt convinced that His Highness the First Prince loved them.

Zhu Di waved his hand, and everyone in the cabinet walked out of the cabinet duty room with relief and came to the yard.

Looking at the closed door, several young talents were relieved that they did not have to be involved in this whirlpool that was often shattered to pieces, but they were also frustrated that they had missed this rare opportunity to participate in the decision-making of the high-level temples of the Ming Dynasty.

"Jian Gong is righteous."

Yang Rong was stunned for a long time, then uttered one sentence and stopped talking.

——————

In the room, only Zhu Di, Zhu Gaochi, Dao Yan, and six ministers were left.

Dao Yan achieved his goal and asked the few little guys in the cabinet who were not successful enough to be ruined to leave. Then he stopped fussing and simply opened the letter and handed it to everyone, including the emperor, for circulation.

Zhu Di looked at it and threw it directly to Zhu Gaochi.

Zhu Gaochi took it with both hands and read it carefully.

There were only two pages of letter paper in total, and the content was really not much, but Zhu Gaochi read it very seriously, and even read it over and over again, not wanting to let go and hand it to the next person.

It wasn't until Jian Yi cleared his throat that Zhu Gaochi reluctantly handed him the letter.

Jian Yi's expression before taking the letter was relatively calm, but as soon as he took the letter, he immediately became serious, which aroused the curiosity of several ministers around him.

"Master Jiang, what did you write? That it attracted so much attention from Minister Jian?"

Xia Yuanji felt itchy but couldn't wait anymore.

Although he couldn't see what was written in the letter, Xia Yuanji guessed that it must be about supporting the new class of people who would benefit after the reform.

Moreover, Xia Yuanji has attended many classes and has a clear understanding of what the new beneficiary class is.

He looked at Dao Yan, and Dao Yan nodded indifferently to his guess.

Finally, Jian Yi finished reading the letter and passed it to Xia Yuanji.