eldest son of Ming dynasty

Chapter 818 The Emperor and Princes

After passing the Inner and Outer Jinshui Bridge, going inward through Fengtian Gate, and bypassing Fengtian Hall, Qianqing Palace comes into view.

The emperor of the 20th year of Zhengde was already thirty-five years old. Not only did he have a beard on his upper lip, but his face was obviously two points wider than when he was young. Even his body inevitably had more flesh.

Beside him, Wang Hao from back then had disappeared, and the minister who had always been serving him had been replaced by Zhang Cong.

As for this Cong, in the 14th year of Zhengde's reign, Wang Hao passed away due to illness and An was the leader. In the six or seven years since then, he has been greatly favored.

From the order of clearing land under heaven in one province and one place, to the order of clearing land under heaven covering every province in the country,

From the abolition of the Ding tax in Jiangnan, the integration of the Ding tax and the local tax, and later the establishment of the field chief system,

From sending troops to Yarkand to conquering the small countries in Southeast Asia,

From the development of Northeast China to the construction of Taiwan, from the revitalization of the cotton textile industry to the booming shipbuilding industry,

The shadow of Zhang Cong can be seen everywhere.

This person was full-time in his work and only served the emperor's will. At the same time, he also lacked a bit of generosity. Therefore, many people in the official circles of the Ming Dynasty suffered from him.

The word "treacherous minister" was also used by some people.

At this time, in addition to Zhang Cong, there were two young people in the Qianqing Palace who were only twenty years old.

The one closest to Zhu Houzhao is tall and somewhat mighty, while the one farther away has a handsome face and is more restrained. The two of them have a noble aura and are the most noble people in the world.

Yes, these two people are the emperor's eldest son Zai Ao and the emperor's second son Zai Yi.

They are the same age, their mothers are biological sisters, and their grandfather is Mei Kejia, who has been promoted to Marquis of Jinghai.

In the past twenty years, although the emperor had raised many children, the main palace queen, Queen Xia, had no legitimate son and only had two daughters.

As a result, the matter of establishing a prince became complicated and confusing.

The princes gradually grew up, and the emperor was no longer in his prime. Who would take the position in the East Palace was actually the most concerning event inside and outside the court.

Even as early as six years ago, ministers began to report to the emperor that he should establish a prince as soon as possible to reassure people.

Zhu Houzhao ignored them all. When someone got angry, he would deal with a few people to establish his authority.

To this day, the status is still undecided.

In fact, according to the ancestral system, after the prince leaves the cabinet, he should be released to the vassal as soon as possible. Zhu Houzhao also does not care about this.

One reason is that over the years, the emperor has moved many vassal kings to very distant places, such as the northern and southern Xinjiang, the northeastern Mohe, etc. Now it is his turn to grant land to his son.

Okay then, why do you ask others to go to such a bitter and cold place but not your own son?

Therefore, after several attempts failed, the ministers all felt that the emperor wanted to keep these princes with him for as long as possible.

However, after the eighteenth year of Zhengde, the emperor appeared again with "Yao Mozi".

Zaihe and Zaiyi were both over eighteen years old, so Zhu Houzhao began to let them work separately. The performance between them obviously had the meaning of experience and test, which aroused the attention of the court.

No matter how wise and powerful the emperor is, his position after a hundred years will still have to be passed down to others.

In addition to these two, Concubine Xian's son Zai Yao is already fifteen years old and has grown into a heroic young man. He invited himself to the Naval Academy a year ago and is about to take up a job.

The children in the back are relatively younger. Concubine Shun's fourth son Zaiji is only twelve years old and is studying with a group of children in the palace.

Furthermore, the emperor was also a bit stingy with the titles given to the princes. Unlike the previous dynasties, the kings of Zhao and Han began to ennoble them when they were older.

In the Zhengde Dynasty, Zaihe and Zaiyi still only had the title of county prince, and they earned it after two years of hard work.

"Ten years of hard work has led to the 1.5 million immigrants who have immigrated to Sichuan today. The prosperous times have created a population, and it is beneficial to Sichuan and other provinces to get a share of this land of abundance. Zaihe, these two years have been dedicated to this matter. You have worked hard."

This thing is not very difficult.

The imperial court's immigration to Sichuan was also a national policy. A few years ago, a set of practices had been established, such as how to gather people from outside and how to settle in various places after entering Sichuan. You have to be careful on the way in between, as there are sometimes tens of thousands of people at a time, so there can be no trouble.

Because it involves cross-provincial affairs, someone from the imperial court is always required to take command and control.

As long as the prince doesn't mess around, is a little humble, and is good at learning, he will not make mistakes. Of course, this is not easy. Young people are eager to achieve success and may cause trouble. Fortunately, Zaihe remembered Zhu Houzhao's teachings. .

"All of this was arranged in an orderly manner by the emperor. My sons and ministers cannot follow the rules of Xiao, so they dare not take credit."

There was a fine line in the corner of the emperor's eyes. No matter how great a hero is, he can't withstand the years. He glanced at the memorial in his hand and said calmly: "You are the eldest son of the emperor, and you have all the nobility in the world. But these two errands, you should Understand, in your honor, there are things in this world that must be dealt with carefully. The national policies of the imperial court have their own reasons. You cannot rely on your status and be too negligent, otherwise the history of the Han, Tang, Song and Yuan Dynasties will not repeat itself."

Zaihe was a little happy after hearing this. This is the principle of governing the country.

"Yes, I would like to thank my father for his teachings. These few times I have been to Sichuan on business trips, I can better understand my father's holy will through on-site inspections. My Ming Dynasty has a territory of thousands of miles and hundreds of millions of people. If I want to govern this huge country, Being well organized, of course you have to be careful and don’t do anything arbitrarily.”

Zhu Houzhao rarely showed a smile, "Zhang Cong, my son is pretty good, right?"

Zhang Cong naturally smiled and spoke, "The emperor's eldest son is majestic, skilled and agile. He was taught by the emperor, so he is naturally very outstanding."

In fact, when he was approaching the sixteenth year of Zhengde, he had considered the issue of successor. This is a huge issue and should not be taken too casually. Under the imperial system, once the emperor is fatuous, there will be turmoil.

I even had the idea of ​​establishing a prince, but it was always difficult to make up my mind.

As Zhang Cong said, the emperor's eldest son Zai Gao is full of energy and courage, and although he is occasionally vain when doing things, he is still young, which is understandable.

The only thing that worries Zhu Houzhao is that Zaihe just seems to be smart, and he doesn't have his own unique insights after playing the right game many times. In this way, he is not very assertive. Generally speaking, it's not that you can't be the emperor, if you have no choice.

As for the emperor's second son Zai Yi, he was calm and gentle as jade, but Zhu Houzhao was always worried that he would not be able to suppress others.

Looking up at the child, he said: "Zai Yan is a little darker, but a little more masculine."

The boy had the air of a scholar and a gentleman, and he reported: "My sons and ministers have no spirit. Only my father has the spirit of a hero."

At the beginning of the 19th year of Zhengde, Zhu Houzhao gave him a major task - supervising the transportation of grain and grass to the northwest. Because there was a tribal rebellion in the original Yarkand Khanate in southern Xinjiang, the emperor sent Ma Rong to lead 4,000 troops to suppress it.

The war was fought with nothing but food and fodder. Now it seems that the prince can't cause big troubles by sitting in charge, and Zai Yan is doing a good job.

Zhu Hou looked at the memorial and said that the second son of the emperor was well-organized. Although he seemed to be a bit rigid in doing things, he was able to arrange things in place and execute them in an orderly manner. This made him doubt his own evaluation of him as a "soft" person. Thinking about it, he still Only by having more experience in things can we see things clearly.

To put it bluntly, Zhu Houzhao was really unsure about who he would appoint as the crown prince in the future.

After talking to the two children, the emperor asked them to go to the harem to visit their mother, leaving Zhang Cong alone.

"Bingyong, among all my princes, who is the most like a human king?"

When Zhang Cong heard this, he was shocked and immediately knelt down, "I dare not speak nonsense about the matter of my successor. I can only do it according to His Majesty's orders."

His answer was correct. In fact, civil servants always nudged the emperor to establish a prince because they had selfish motives. Generally, very smart emperors also cared about it.

To put it bluntly, when you recommend someone to be the prince, do you want to change the family?

Therefore, during the Northern Song Dynasty, when the emperor asked about this matter, Kou Zhun said that the matter of establishing a prince should not be discussed with concubines and eunuchs, let alone with close ministers.

Later, Bao Zheng persuaded him to establish a crown prince early, but Renzong said, who should I establish? Bao Zheng replied: I asked the emperor to establish a prince as soon as possible for the sake of the country. The emperor asked me, he doubted me. I am almost seventy years old, and I do not want to benefit myself by establishing a prince.

Confucianism says that there is nothing better than a father to know a son. If your father thinks he is good, you will appoint him. What do you want to do if you are indecisive?

Of course, this was not the case in the Ming Dynasty. During the Yongle period, a group of civil servants clearly wanted to support Zhu Gaochi instead of the Han king Zhu Gaoxu.

During the Chenghua and Wanli periods, there were also disturbances caused by the crown prince's affairs.

This group of literati in the Ming Dynasty did not know what was good or bad, and they packaged their desire to achieve success as a country and for the sake of the country.

For this reason, Zhu Houzhao punished several people, and took the famous officials of the Northern Song Dynasty as examples to insert a knife into the clear name that they cared about most.

Otherwise, Zhang Cong would not react like he did today.

The fundamental purpose is one: I decide this matter, not you. You should be your own officials. I will choose an emperor for you, and you can serve me in the future.

"According to logic, it is an ancient rule to establish a direct descendant. If I have no legitimate son, I will naturally establish an eldest son. Everyone has told me that breaking this rule will cause endless harm and even cause chaos in the world."

Zhang Cong said: "There must be great truth in what the Confucian sages said."

"But those great dynasties have also died. I am not saying that this method is completely bad, but there should be a better method. For example..."

Zhang Cong raised his head slightly and waited for the emperor.

"A secret reserve."

"Your Majesty!"

"Why not?"

"The position of the crown prince is related to the foundation of the country. If the prince's title is determined, people will be at ease. If the title is uncertain, people will be confused. If the emperor treats this as a secret, everyone in the court will be suspicious. How can this be beneficial to the country? "

"Hey." Of course Zhu Houzhao knew this. He was actually hesitant to secretly establish the prince system. The reason was "insufficient samples." This prince system, which had only been implemented since the Yongzheng Dynasty, had not been used a few times.

“Establishing a secret reserve has its drawbacks, but this matter must be settled.”

Although Zhu Houzhao said this, his tone was not strong, and he felt that he still needed to think about it.