Since the failure of the coup, Zhu Yijun had been living in depression. For countless days and nights after that, he reflected on his mistakes. He reflected on what he had done wrong, what he had done wrong, what he had done wrong, what he had done wrong, what he had done wrong, what he had done wrong, and how he should use people.
Since ancient times, the way emperors in the palace dealt with the officials was nothing more than spies and eunuchs. A strong emperor on horseback had prestige in the army and prestige among the people. With power in hand, no one dared to refute.
After the death of a strong emperor, most of the new emperors grew up in the palace and never left the Forbidden City. Instead of being the ruler of the world, it was better to say that the emperor was a rare and precious beast that the world raised together.
The civil officials of the Ming Dynasty were committed to treating the emperor as a rare and precious beast that was kept in the palace for people to admire. They let them do the governing and tormenting the country. Of course, when something went wrong, the emperor would be the scapegoat and the emperor would be punished. For this reason, the emperor suffered a lot. Many honest emperors were fooled by the officials before they started to work as spies.
If you said that Zhu Yijun was wrong, then he was really wrong.
As an emperor, he did not fight with the officials for power. He did not fight with his wits and courage like his grandfather Jiajing did. He played like a monkey for decades, but he fought with the officials for power. He did not go to the court because he was angry with the officials. He did not fill the officials when they were lacking. He thought that he was punishing the officials, but in fact, he ruined the country.
However, if you were to say that Zhu Yijun was completely wrong, that would be even more untenable. Dear Emperors, have you ever seen him ignore the Emperor's imperial edict when there was no problem, and when there was a problem, he used the Emperor as a scapegoat. He emptied the national treasury, and when the country needed money, he asked the Emperor for his private treasury to play with.
This was really a case of not being in charge of the country. When things went wrong, they used the emperor as the scapegoat and emptied the national treasury. Since ancient times, no one was as wronged as the emperors of the Ming Dynasty, Chenghua, Zhengde, Jiajing, Wanli, and Chongzhen.
When Daming was still alive, he was slandered and vilified by the literati with all kinds of unofficial writings. That was because these intelligent emperors who fought for power with the civil officials used eunuchs and Imperial Bodyguards to deal with the officials. They did not learn from Emperor Hongzhi and Emperor Longqing and were fooled. This made the civil officials unhappy, and so were the landlords and gentry.
When the Daming was gone, the Manchurian Qing Dynasty was established. Out of political considerations, the Manchurian Qing Dynasty tried their best to discredit the Ming Dynasty. However, this was not what the Manchurian Qing Dynasty did. Didn't the Jin Dynasty also discredit Cao Mengde? Didn't Li Shiming also slander Yang Jian, Yang Guang, and Li Jiancheng?
This was all politics. Everyone just had to watch. Looking at these ugly faces, they could more or less understand how much the people who did this hated their predecessors.
However, there were very few people who were still discredited like Daming when he was alive. Even after the fall of the Qing Dynasty for hundreds of years, almost no one discredited him. Almost no one discredited the Jin Dynasty who created the Five Barbarians. Almost no one discredited the Song Dynasty which was first ravaged by the Jin Dynasty and then by the Mongols. However, the Ming Dynasty who reestablished the Song Dynasty was discredited so badly …
If Zhu Yijun knew about this, what would he think?
Anyway, he had already experienced a little bit of pain. He roughly knew how he would be slandered and criticized after his death.
Just like his grandfather Jiajing, who was a powerful emperor with a high IQ and strong political skills, he was slandered as a Taoist emperor who did not care about the court affairs. People said that he did not go to court for decades and made the court affairs foul. He used evil officials and made the people have no way to make a living.
Of course, objectively, these situations did happen. Anyone who knew a little about the rules of Daming's political game would know that he, the emperor, could not interfere with the court affairs. The emperor's orders needed to be approved by the cabinet and the six ministries to be considered legitimate. Only then could the officials accept it. The emperor's own words were called the Central Edict, which had very little weight.
If Zhu Yijun gave out the Central Edict now, the cabinet and the six ministries would probably treat it as a fart. They would throw it aside without even hearing it. Maybe they would even say disdainfully, "Only the elites of the country know how to govern the court affairs. You're just a foppish emperor who inherited the family business. What do you know about the affairs of the country?
Worry for nothing. Go back to your harem and have children! "
When did Zhu Yijun's words work the most?
When the court asked the emperor to use the internal funds to do something, Zhu Yijun's word would guarantee that the emperor would be cheered. The efficiency of the execution would be faster than anything else. As soon as he finished speaking, the officials over there would take the silver away.
Then the emperor would continue to be empty, lonely, and cold.
The current First Secretary Zhao Zhigao was a little older and had more contact with Wang Xijue. Compared to others, he respected the emperor more, understood the emperor, and acted more gently. But because of this, Zhao Zhigao was not like Wang Xijue who could help him block all the artillery fire.
Zhu Yijun was bitter and bored. He wandered in the imperial garden alone, looking at the branches and leaves that had withered earlier than usual. He felt even more lonely.
"Your Majesty, the cabinet has sent a report. They said that they must ask for Your Majesty's approval as soon as possible."
The chief eunuch beside him walked forward with two junior eunuchs and handed over a memorial. Zhu Yijun frowned. He wanted to refuse, but in the end, he did not.
These guys still remembered that he was the emperor. They would discuss everything with him. After all, he still had a little prestige as the emperor …
Wait, could it be that they wanted him to give them silver again?
It was not the first time that Zhu Yijun had been tricked by the officials like this. He was almost used to it. This habit made him a little afraid.
According to their fixed routine, when it came to matters that had to be decided by the emperor, it was inseparable from the silver. The whole article would be about the suffering of the common people. The common people would starve, and the bones would be everywhere. The article would be beautifully written, and it would make people cry. Then, the topic would change —
Your Majesty, your empire is short of money again. To Daming the empire, shouldn't your internal funds be …
Hehe, you know, just admit it! Just pay the money honestly, and then you can go back and have children. We will help you manage your empire!
Bastard!
Every year, the imperial court's finance would be two to three million taels. These few years, they could get 2.6 million taels of silver from Japan every year. In total, it would be an annual income of five million taels. In the end, this group of bastards said that because His Majesty kept a batch of silver for the internal funds, they could not make ends meet! Make ends meet your sister!
Two million taels of silver was not enough to make ends meet, and five million taels of silver was still not enough to make ends meet! I left three to four hundred thousand taels of silver in the internal funds to prevent them from being greedy. The remaining four to five million taels of silver was eaten by you?
The silver that Xiao Ruxun had worked hard to get back from Japan, and the silver that tens of thousands of soldiers had exchanged for on the battlefield, was eaten by you rats!
Zhu Yijun was more and more dissatisfied with them, to the point that he was about to explode.
"Your Majesty, do you want to read this booklet … or not?"
Wang De saw that Zhu Yijun's expression was not right. He did not know whether to give or return the booklet.
Zhu Yijun's expression changed several times. Finally, he sighed deeply and said, "Give me the booklet! I will read it, I will read it, okay? "
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