The Prosperous Era of Longwan

"Haha, Chen Hong's chicken selection is still the best, Meng Chong, you are still a bit tender after all."

After watching the cockfight, Emperor Longqing spoke to the eunuch beside him.

An older eunuch smiled like a blooming chrysanthemum, "Thank you for your praise, I have carefully selected this fighting cock since I was a child, and it requires expert breeding and training before I can use it, hehe."

"Not bad, not bad. This chicken is easy to feed. Look at this injury. Find someone to take good care of it. Next time I go out to fight, I guarantee that it will win."

Emperor Longqing was very happy because he bet on Chen Hong's chicken from the beginning. When did his eyesight become so good?

Emperor Longqing and Chen Hong were talking happily there, while a slightly younger eunuch on the other side had a gloomy look on his face. The little eunuch caught the defeated chicken and was frightened by his glare and he backed away.

"Take it back and kill it."

This eunuch is naturally Meng Chong. Today he presented a carefully selected fighting cock to show off in front of the emperor. Unexpectedly, he lost the game so gorgeously when he encountered a fighting cock that was also carefully selected.

He was now in a very unhappy mood. He hated the clerk who presented the cockfight, and he also hated Chen Hong.

But he also knew that with his current position of power, he couldn't go against Eunuch Chen Hong, and he couldn't afford to offend him.

When he turned to look at the emperor and Chen Hong, he was already smiling like a flatterer.

A figure appeared at the palace gate in the distance, still wearing eunuch clothes. Most of the people who could walk around the emperor were high-level eunuchs, while the chamberlains could only be handymen.

He usually hides far away and only appears when summoned, and he still does some hard work, which is thankless.

"Your Majesty."

The person who came was none other than Chen Ju. He bowed before and after Emperor Longqing and said softly.

"Chen Ju, what's going on ahead?"

Chen Ju was left by him in Qianqing Palace, not because he didn't like him, but mainly because he was similar to Li Fang in that they didn't like him having fun and resting, so he didn't bother to ask him to follow him when he went out to play.

However, Emperor Longqing still trusted Chen Ju. After all, he had informed the palace through Wei Guangde's relationship very early.

Regardless of the purpose, he helped Yu Zhuan a lot. He was a nostalgic person, so he kept Chen Ju by his side after he ascended the throne.

No matter what, you still need these loyal ministers around you to feel at ease.

Chen Ju reached out and took out a letter from his arms. He held it in both hands and handed it over. He lowered his voice and said, "Master Wei asked someone to send this in. He asked me to deliver it to His Majesty." ’

"oh."

Emperor Longqing raised his eyebrows, reached out and took the envelope from Chen Ju's hand, looked at it, found that the seal was intact, and then walked aside.

Behind them, Chen Hong and others wanted to follow but were stopped by Emperor Longqing with a wave of his sleeves.

After walking into the pavilion not far away, Emperor Longqing tore open the envelope and took out the note inside to read it carefully, and then his face moved slightly.

It was said to be a note, but it was actually a full piece of stationery. It contained a lot of content, but the most important one was that Tu Zemin, the governor of Fujian Province, petitioned for the lifting of the sea ban, and then the cabinet's possible votes and responses.

Most of the previous content did not have much impact on Emperor Longqing, but when he read the last two paragraphs, his eyes flashed, and then he fell into deep thought, and murmured in his mouth: "If the courtiers If the opposition is serious, a trial area can be opened, and the inner court will send people to supervise it, and the collected tax money will go directly to the inner treasury, so that the market can be carried out. "

Originally, Wei Guangde was very cautious when it came to opening the sea, because he knew that there would be great resistance from the DPRK and China, so he had long planned to launch a trial in one or two places.

Emperor Longqing knew all this. After all, he had seen Wei Guangde's revised articles many times.

But the content of today's letter has changed, that is, it was originally thought to be the income of the imperial court. If there is too much resistance from the central government, the inner court will directly do it, leaving the imperial court alone.

Emperor Longqing knew that this was Wei Guangde's helpless move after thinking about it again and again and finding that the resistance between the DPRK and China was too great to implement this policy.

But for Wei Guangde, it was a helpless move, but for Emperor Longqing, he was eager to do it at this time.

The benefits of sea trade, Wei Guangde had told him in detail before, could be said to be very profitable, so those people had to do it even with their heads high.

Before, he felt that he could not skip the court to advance this matter, but now Wei Guangde reminded him that he seemed to be able to do it alone.

It is not until he is an emperor that he knows how expensive firewood and rice are. Only when he becomes an emperor can he understand the financial situation of the inner court.

The inner court earns a lot of money every year, but the expenses are also not small. Look at how many palace maids and chamberlains they have to support, and there are countless palaces that need to be repaired.

Teng Xiang and Meng Chong said before that they wanted to buy him some jewelry, clothes, hats and some gadgets, but the inner court could not come up with 20,000 taels of silver. They wanted to go to the Ministry of Household Affairs to get it, but they were rejected. This made Emperor Longqing, who had a strong self-esteem, felt very embarrassed.

If we could really capture this port, we would still be able to earn tens of thousands of taels of silver a year just by opening notes and stamping them.

Don't think that tens of thousands taels of silver are very small. In fact, in Fujian, apart from the physical taxes that are difficult to realize on transportation and cash, the tax silver that a province can pay to the capital in a year is only tens of thousands of taels.

Opening a port is equivalent to the tax revenue of an additional province, which is naturally a big figure for the financially strapped imperial court.

Moreover, during this period, global silver had not yet poured into the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty was in short supply of gold, silver, and even copper.

In fact, Emperor Jiajing did not really leave an empty inner treasury to Emperor Longqing. There was still a lot of money.

But for the emperor who had just ascended the throne, more than two hundred thousand taels of silver was really not enough.

Not to mention the funeral of Emperor Jiajing, the reward for the army after he ascended the throne almost emptied the internal treasury, and the money had to be paid out.

Of course Emperor Longqing knew that the military households would not actually get much if the money went out, but he also knew that the money itself was not for the military households, but as a reward for the generals in various places.

Just think of it as buying the loyalty of the army, although the actual effect may be very low.

After folding the letter and putting it in his arms, Emperor Longqing stood up and left the pavilion, "Go back to Qianqing Palace."

When the news came out from the cabinet, all the officials gathered in the major flower streets, willow alleys, restaurants and teahouses in the capital talked about the matter that night.

Originally, everyone was indifferent to this matter at first, but I heard that the cabinet was divided into two factions because of Tu Zemin's memorial, and they seemed to be equally matched. If it were not for the opposition of the first and second assistants, it is hard to say what the cabinet resolution would have been like. At this time, Just have to worry about it.

For most officials, do they need to be taught how to choose?

A person who never forgets the past has never forgotten the aftermath. How many times has someone proposed to open the sea, and what is the final result?

As before, there is an overwhelming majority of voices supporting the maintenance of ancestral institutions, while only a few support change.

Most of those who support the change do not really think that this policy is right, but because they know that those who support Kaihai are Gao Gong, Chen Yiqin and other old people from Yuzhuan. They are people who have the ability to change today's attitudes.

It is not an exaggeration to say that they are actually political speculation.

"Teacher, are we going to start using those methods?"

In a dark room in Xu Jie's mansion, Zhang Juzheng and Xu Jie sat opposite each other.

"There is no rush. Let the officials discuss it first. This matter will only be launched after His Majesty's Holy Judgment."

Xu Jie planned his actions before taking action, so naturally he would not rush into battle.

Emperor Longqing had only two choices. One was to support him, which was to stick to the ancestral system, so the opportunity to reverse the arch would not be ripe.

At least he knew from his experience that even if he activated it, it would be difficult to kill the enemy with one hit.

Differences in political views are actually commonplace in the court.

But if Emperor Longqing chooses to support Gao Gong, that will be the opportunity to expel Gao Gong from the court.

The support of the first and second assistants was denied by the emperor. This in itself was a slight to the officials, not to mention that it was related to the ancestral system.

By that time, the rumors that Gao Gong could influence the emperor's decisions will be confirmed. Impeaching Gao Gong on this basis is the ultimate move.

"Teacher, let me give you some news first so that they can be prepared."

Zhang Juzheng continued to ask.

Knocking on the table gently, Xu Jie thought for a long time before saying: "If your majesty complies with the wishes of the cabinet, don't act rashly. But if he supports Gao Suqing, then focus on impeaching him on the grounds of 'intimidating the gentry and specializing in state affairs'." It must be driven out.”

"What about establishing a sea ban?"

In just that moment, Zhang Juzheng actually recognized the teacher's words in his heart. However, he still had to have an attitude towards the focus of this controversy, the sea ban.

"What do you think of Tu Zemin's memorial?"

Xu Jie did not answer Zhang Juzheng's words, but asked instead.

"As the teacher said, it seems feasible."

Zhang Juzheng replied.

"The new dynasty has a new atmosphere. This is a good saying. Gao Gong and Chen Yiqin are still somewhat capable, but they are a little too green."

Xu Jie commented, "If His Majesty insists on lifting the maritime ban, I will definitely fight fiercely and lead all the ministers in the court to oppose it collectively."

"This way, Your Majesty will lose face."

Zhang Juzheng knew that Emperor Longqing took his face very seriously, perhaps because he had been offended by Yan Shifan a lot in the past, so he paid more attention to this.

"I will prepare steps for Your Majesty. You can try this in one place."

Xu Jie glanced at Zhang Juzheng and continued: "If you think about it carefully, the rise of Japanese pirates back then was probably due to Zhu Dian's strict laws.

It's a pity that he didn't consider the livelihood of the coastal people at the beginning. He only thought that blocking the sea and blocking traffic would eliminate the Japanese pirates, but he didn't know that people living without support would also take desperate risks. "

"I see."

Zhang Juzheng understood that it was best to do this naturally and save Emperor Longqing's face, but he just didn't know what he would choose.

At this moment, Guo Pu was sitting opposite Gao Gong in Gao Gong's mansion.

"Qing Su, the more I think about this, the more difficult it becomes."

Guo Pu looked bad about this and said to Gao Gong in a low voice: "Tell me, could this be done by the other side to make us the public enemies of the government and the public?"

"I have thought about it after this incident, but no matter what, even if the opening of the sea cannot cure the Japanese pirates, it will definitely make the lives of the people in Fujian much easier. The number of people who want to join the Japanese pirates will inevitably decrease, and it will still be beneficial to the government in eliminating the Japanese pirates. of."

Gao Gong was not stupid. Even if he didn't notice it at the time, he would notice something unusual about Xu Jie today if he recalled it for a moment after coming down.

Expressing his position too early is not what the Chief Assistant should do. It is no wonder that Guo Pu guessed that Tu Zemin's memorial was related to Xu Jie.

"I was also influenced by Governor Tu's memorial at the time. When I think about it carefully, there are a lot of strange things about this matter."

Guo Pu sighed and said.

"As long as we act with a public heart, we don't have to worry about being criticized by them."

Gao Gong is really not afraid of Xu Jie inciting his men to impeach him crazily. It's really a big deal. It's not like he can't find someone to impeach. Everyone should impeach each other and don't go back to the cabinet to do errands. In the end, it depends on whether the emperor will protect him, Gao Gong or you Xu. level.

Before, most of the courtiers only saw Ke Dao's crazy impeachment of Gao Gong, which seemed to make him miserable. In fact, Gao Gong did not fight back until now, but there was a dispute between the cabinet and Xu Jie over different political views. .

As for the rumors circulating outside that he deliberately opposed Mr. Xu Ge, Gao Gong also dismissed it.

In fact, most of the disputes were not really about competing with Xu Jie for the right to speak in the cabinet, but rather the fundamental differences in their governance philosophies that led to differences in how they handled things.

With the emperor behind him, he was naturally not afraid of quarreling with Xu Jie in the cabinet.

He just didn't expect that Xu Jie would use his political discord as evidence of his struggle for power and spread news among the government and the public.

"I don't know when His Majesty will send back the memorial. Before that, I think we still need to contact some like-minded people and everyone can submit a memorial together to support this matter."

He has made his stance known, and even if he wants to change his stance now, it will not work. Guo Pu just wants to attract more people to stand with them to build momentum.

"I think it's okay. I'll contact Yu Zhuan's people soon. Forget about your low-level official position. Just contact some friends to help out."

Gao Gong said while twirling his beard.

What he actually meant was that their disciples, most of whom were in the sixth or seventh grade at this time, were not suitable to get involved in this matter.

"We also have some fellow villagers from Kedao. Can we contact them too?"

Guo Pu frowned and thought about it.

"Ke Dao."

Gao Gong was a bit noncommittal. He also had a headache with Ke Dao Yan Guan now. Unlike Xu Jie, he could bow down to these people. He always felt that these people were seventh-rank petty officials, but he delusionally thought that they might not be cabinet ministers even if they were in the lowest position. It's really ridiculous.

Xu Jie was so smooth that he could put down his body and mingle with officials at all levels. It was okay for an official like him to be the chief assistant in the prosperous times, but now the Ming Dynasty has become riddled with holes after the two emperors Zhengde and Jiajing, and is in urgent need of rectification.

Xu Jie is not suitable for such a position.

What the imperial court needs now is someone who can reorganize the imperial court to serve as the chief minister.

Looking at the entire court, only he could barely do it, and no one else could.

Even Li Chunfang, who was even more miserable than Xu Jie, Gao Gong was actually unhappy from the bottom of his heart.

After working together for more than a year, he discovered that Li Chunfang was not as capable of making decisions as Xu Jie.

"In the palace, should Qing Su go and talk about it?"

At this time, Guo Pu reminded him in a low voice.

Gao Gong did not answer his previous question, so Guo Pu decided to use his own opinion.

He and Gao Gong have more of a cooperative relationship. It is far-fetched to say that they are one party committee.

In the study room of the Wei Mansion, Wei Guangde sat alone behind his desk. There was a note on the desk, which was sent by Chen Yiqin.

If he didn't expect it at the beginning, now that he was reminded by Chen Yiqin, Wei Guangde finally realized that this incident would really turn into a Waterloo for Gao Gong.