Chapter 116 Professor
Yuxi Palace, inside the side hall.
Prince Jing's words seemed to be an excuse for Prince Yu, but in fact, he was exonerating himself while putting all the blame on Prince Yu.
Not only would he not be punished for ignoring cabinet affairs, but he would be rewarded for sharing his father's worries and helping to maintain the stability of the grassland.
Well, there is one more point. This will also allow my father to understand that if the cabinet lets Prince Yu alone to assist in the administration, he will not be able to do it at all.
He also secretly said that Prince Yu had no ability to resist, and that his father should not consider him for the position of crown prince.
Of course, Prince Jing did not expect his father to give up the consideration of choosing Prince Yu as the crown prince because of this incident.
"Father, your son, your son," Prince Yu had no time to care about Prince Jing's little calculations at this time, and hurriedly said:
"Those memorials impeaching Xu Jie, although well-founded, are just the result of the selfish desires of these people. They are forcing me to make a decision just because Xu Jie has harmed their interests."
Prince Yu was capable in handling government affairs.
Unfortunately, he can't handle things and will basically lose his composure if frightened, especially with King Jing by his side.
After hearing Prince Yu's words, Jiajing did not express anything, but just stared at him coldly.
This suddenly increased the pressure on Prince Yu!
"Father, Xu Jie took the initiative to hand over the family's interest list in order to protect himself and his family. I think Xu Jie is a capable minister, so we cannot deny him a chance, just..."
The more I talk about it, the more boundless it becomes.
"So, you made a deal with him?"
"Let me ask you, what do you take governing a country as? " Looking at Prince Yu's appearance, Jiajing felt an unprecedented disappointment in his heart, and his tone became even colder.
"As a prince, I made a deal with my subjects, was dragged by them, and now I am forced to make a decision?"
"You've even brought this trouble to my doorstep?" Jiajing's face was filled with anger. He pointed at Prince Yu and laughed in anger, saying, "The problem can't be solved. You didn't tell me in advance, and let those bastards come to your own doorstep... What country are you supervising, huh?!"
At the end, Jiajing almost roared out in a sinister voice.
The words "Regent" were also spoken by him so bluntly.
At this, both Prince Yu and Prince Jing shuddered, but they were not surprised at the word "Regent".
Everyone knows that the emperor is in meditation, and the cabinet is in charge of government and handling state affairs. Now Prince Yu and Prince Jing are jointly assisting in the management of the cabinet, which is actually a disguised form of regent.
This was well known to everyone in the court.
"Father!" After being scolded, Prince Yu immediately realized that he had said something wrong in a panic, so he quickly put his head on the ground and shouted, "I know I was wrong, please forgive me, Father!"
"People often say that raising children is a way to provide for one's old age. Now it seems that I am living worse than an ordinary citizen!"
"Why did I give birth to incompetent people like you!" This time, Jiajing directly scolded Prince Jing as well.
Seeing Jiajing's rage, the atmosphere became tense. Lu Fang, who knew how to read people's expressions, stepped forward and said gently, "Master, calm down."
As he spoke, Lu Fang glanced at Prince Yu, who was kneeling on the ground like a quail, then looked at Prince Jing, who was lowering his head without any fear, and then bowed to Jiajing and said:
"The factions and interests among the officials are complicated. It is inevitable that your Highnesses will fail to take care of some things since this is your first time governing the country." Lv Fang paused for a moment and continued:
"Rectifying the administration of officials is related to the subsequent land reform, which will inevitably affect the interests of some people. It is normal for them to react in this way. Your Highnesses are also anxious."
"So, please calm down, Master. As for these officials, why not let the Imperial Household Department handle them? So as not to disturb the Master's meditation."
From the beginning to the end, Lu Fang had been referring to "Your Highnesses". He could naturally see that today's incident was simply Prince Jing causing trouble for Prince Yu, and the two of them were competing for the throne.
Obviously, Prince Yu was unprepared and lost the first battle of this struggle.
At this time, the master needs a step down.
"No need to speak for them!" Jiajing waved his hand, pointed at Prince Yu, and said, "You, Zhu Zai'ao, raise your head!"
"Father, father..." Prince Yu looked up at Jiajing in horror.
"You will be the one to handle this matter. You don't have to enter the palace to practice until you have dealt with it!" Jiajing said, pointing at Prince Yu and sternly said, "If you can't even handle government affairs, then your cultivation of immortality is just a waste of resources!"
"Tell me, can you do it?"
After hearing Jiajing say that he would not be allowed to enter the palace to practice until this matter was settled, Prince Yu was stunned.
For a moment, I was stunned.
He never imagined that things would be so serious.
All he wanted was to be reprimanded by his father, or have his power taken away, but he never expected that his own path to becoming an immortal would be cut short?!
Well, it cannot be said that he was cut off, but he was not allowed to enter the spiritual field courtyard to practice. However, the spiritual source in his hands, as well as the daily spiritual rice, spiritual melons, and spiritual fruits were still distributed normally.
However, if one does not practice in the spiritual field courtyard and uses these spiritual resources in the outside world, the spiritual energy will be severely depleted.
It is not an exaggeration to say that you get half the result with twice the effort. No, the result may not even be half, or even less!
This punishment is too severe!
King Jing on the side was also stunned. He didn’t expect the consequences of the matter to be so serious. This... is really great!
This is an unexpected surprise!
Now all the high-ranking officials of the Ming Dynasty know that the emperor has received magic from the immortals. In their opinion, the greatest thing in life is to cultivate immortality and achieve immortality, and everyone is eagerly waiting.
Even if it was Prince Jing and Prince Yu, their purpose in competing for the crown prince was just to fight for resources.
Therefore, it goes without saying how important cultivating immortals is to them.
At this time, the emperor's father directly cut off Prince Yu's path to cultivating immortals. Well, it cannot be said that it was completely cut off. At least Prince Yu still had some spiritual sources bestowed by the emperor, but the spiritual fields and courtyards to assist in the spiritual sources were different from practicing alone in the palace with the spiritual sources.
One gets twice the result with half the effort, the other gets half the result with twice the effort!
Well, while King Jing was happy, he also felt that the punishment for making a mistake was a bit too heavy. His heart tightened secretly, and it seemed that he had to be more cautious in the future.
"Your Highness, why don't you thank the master?" Lu Fang said softly to Prince Yu.
"Your Majesty, your son thanks you," Prince Yu, who had been stunned for a moment, immediately reacted after hearing Lu Fang's reminder and said, "Your Majesty, your son will live up to your expectations and handle the matter properly!"
In order to prevent his path to becoming an immortal being from being cut off, Prince Yu secretly became ruthless, and at the same time, he became more and more hateful towards Prince Jing.
To cut off the path to immortality is to seek one's own death!
Just wait, I was careless this time and let you get ahead of me. When I make my next move, you'd better be able to follow suit!
"Let's go back." After getting Prince Yu's assurance, Jiajing waved his hand, signaling them to go back.
"Yes, I'll take my leave." Prince Yu and Prince Jing bowed to Jiajing, then turned around and walked out of the Yuxi Palace together.
After watching the two leave, Jiajing chuckled.
"Master, Prince Yu was really scared this time." Alu Fang said softly.
"He is too weak and needs to be tempered," Jiajing said, shaking his head slightly, and said, "Originally, we planned to use the dispute between the Qingliu and the Yan Party in the north as an opportunity to let them grow."
"But since Altan is coming, I have no choice but to make some arrangements in advance."
"But fortunately, everything has returned to the original state and the test I arranged for them."
At the beginning, Jiajing wanted to let Prince Jing and Prince Yu assist in the cabinet, and then use the northern border as a battlefield to conduct some training.
This trial will start from the northern border, the battle between the Qingliu and the Yan Party, and continue to the rectification of official administration, fiscal revenue and land reform.
After all, after the land reform, he himself believed that the crisis that the Ming Dynasty needed to solve had basically been solved.
After that, he would return to the world of immortal cultivation and prepare to break through to the foundation-building stage.
The current Ming Dynasty has already proven that spiritual fields can be cultivated, but has encountered a bottleneck on the road to development of the Immortal Dynasty.
If you want to develop further, you must break through the foundation.
Only by binding one's own destiny with the destiny object can one directly transport a large amount of supplies from the world of cultivation to the Ming Dynasty.
Instead of using storage bags, moving them bit by bit, and sending others away every time, it must be done reasonably.
This way, the efficiency is too slow.
In addition, the planning of the spiritual vein should also be put on the agenda.
Of course, spiritual veins are something that cannot be obtained in a short period of time even if the "wild market" in the world of immortal cultivation is built.
He was used to being cautious, so naturally he would not be at the forefront in planning the spiritual vein business of the "Wild Market".
He would have to wait until all the other big sects and families had entered the game, and until the entire market and the spiritual vein industry behind the scenes were fully mature, before he would follow these sects.
After all, it is nice to stay under a big tree. Even if the tree is going to fall one day, he can make an accurate judgment based on some clues in advance and retreat in time when he gets wind of it.
Therefore, Jiajing was not in a hurry to plan the spiritual veins for the Ming Dynasty. He just needed to take it slow and steady step by step.
"Master, this time His Royal Highness Prince Yu may be faced with a dilemma." At this time, Lu Fang's voice sounded again.
Seeing that Jiajing did not speak, Lu Fang knew that this was the master's tacit consent, so he paused and then said in a gentle voice:
"Lord Xu betrayed his allies and is now suffering backlash. And His Royal Highness Prince Yu obviously wants to protect Lord Xu."
"So, he now faces two choices: either give up Lord Xu and appease the officials, or go his own way."
"If we choose the former, then it will inevitably disappoint those who followed His Royal Highness Prince Yu." "His Royal Highness has obviously accepted Elder Xu's surrender. If he gives up, he will inevitably be criticized by others, and his position in the court will also be questioned by others."
"I'm afraid it will be hard for anyone to follow me faithfully in the future."
"If you continue to be so ruthless as to conduct a major purge of the Southeast officialdom... well, this must be done. Your Highness will become a villain in the eyes of the world, and your reputation will be damaged."
“At this time, if there is an official like the Imperial Censor who cannot understand the situation and imitates Zhou Yunyi who stood in front of the palace gate in the past and makes a death-defying remonstration, then His Royal Highness Prince Yu will really…”
Having said that, Lu Fang shook his head.
Lu Fang naturally understood the difficulty involved, but the decision to rectify the administration of officials by cutting the Gordian knot was already made early on.
It's just that originally, according to the normal development, it should be the two of them, Prince Yu and Prince Jing, brothers working together. But now it is obvious that Prince Yu and Prince Jing are competing for the throne.
Since they are fighting for the throne, they are naturally enemies.
How could they work together when they were enemies? Besides, the master didn't want his two sons to be really friendly and respectful to each other. That was just his personality.
As the crown prince, one cannot do such evil things, but the master's order has already been issued, so this thing has to be done. In this case, only one of them can take the responsibility, while the other can remain a clean onlooker.
And who needs to remain clean and not be a bad person? Apart from the emperor, it is naturally the crown prince.
The crown prince must be great, glorious and upright, and cannot have any stain on him.
Prince Jing, or rather, Yan Song behind him, knew the key points clearly, so he started to make plans in advance.
I have to say that Yan Song’s move was very clever!
King Jing contacted the Mongolian grassland tribes that were in panic at the time, and conferred the title of "Shunyi King" on Yisiha Hala to appease the grassland tribes and stabilize the peace of the grassland.
As a result, the gratitude of the entire grassland, especially Yisiha Hala who was conferred the title of "King of Shunyi", to King Jing would inevitably soar to a height that ordinary people could hardly reach.
Obviously, Yan Song's move also had the intention of laying out the grassland.
Moreover, this matter has basically been accomplished. Serving His Royal Highness King Jing will definitely gain some support from various tribes on the grassland, and he will even gain praise from all officials in the court.
The ability to govern the country will be recognized by most officials!
As for His Royal Highness Prince Yu, to clean up the entire southeastern officialdom with a swift and decisive move meant to bury all the supporters of the Qingliu faction who originally belonged to his faction.
The consequence of doing this is that Prince Yu will become the biggest villain in the whole thing.
What kind of impression will he leave on the officials?
A cold-blooded person who can betray all those who support him at any time for his own benefit!
Some who support him and some who do not will stay away from him.
Even for His Royal Highness Prince Yu, whether he gave up Xu Jie or not, he would eventually have to purge the gentry and powerful families who originally belonged to his faction and supported his Qingliu faction.
In short, no matter what choice he makes, Prince Yu is doomed to be a villain.
"Hmph," Jiajing snorted after hearing Lu Fang's words, and then said faintly: "Difficult? There is no easy way to govern a country!"
"I want to teach them this lesson that governing a country is not as simple as they think."
"It's not that there is no solution to this problem, but if he can't even handle such a small matter," Jiajing said, with a cold look in his eyes, "then I really have to consider whether to stop using their resources."
Hearing what Jiajing said, Lu Fang remained silent.
As Jiajing was the emperor and the prince's father, he could naturally criticize at will, but as a house slave, he could not follow his master and criticize the prince in front of his master.
I think Lu Fang can handle these things just right.
"What do you think?" At this moment, Jiajing suddenly spoke again.
"Master is wise," Lu Fang flattered Jiajing calmly at first, then after a moment's hesitation, he spoke slowly, "It's really not difficult to solve it. We just need to use the opponent's strength to counter the opponent's strength, and when one gains, the other loses."
"In this way, everything will naturally be resolved."
"Oh, good servant." After hearing this, Jiajing smiled and raised his hand to nod, saying: "You are getting smarter. Let's see how my two sons deal with this matter."
Hearing this, Lu Fang also looked outside the hall at the heavy rain.
This matter seems difficult, but for Jiajing, or even for Lu Fang, it is not a big deal.
Even though it seems like King Jing won the fight between the two kings this time, in fact, the master's test of the two has just begun.
Anyone who makes a mistake in this matter will be punished by the master without hesitation.
Prince Yu and Prince Jing remained silent all the way after leaving Yuxi Palace.
Behind each of them there was a little eunuch holding an umbrella for them.
"Pah, pah, pah." The dense and huge raindrops kept hitting the umbrella, making a rapid sound.
"Fourth brother," finally, when he was about to step out of the gate of Xiyuan, Prince Yu stopped and looked at Prince Jing who was also looking at him, "What a trick, I underestimated you."
"Heh," facing the gloomy Prince Yu, Prince Jing chuckled and slowly straightened his sleeves. He first smiled at Prince Yu, then looked at the twenty or so Qingliu officials kneeling on the Xiyuan Square and said:
"Third brother, for the sake of our father and the Ming Dynasty, someone has to bear some of the blame, you must know..."
As he spoke, he raised a smile and looked at Prince Yu, "It is a truth that one has no choice but to fulfill his responsibilities when he is in a high position and has great power."
"If Third Brother feels that his position is too high and his responsibilities are too heavy, he can just step down and do something within his ability."
"As the younger brother, I am happy to do it for you."
"Well, I think Third Brother still has a lot of things to deal with, so I won't bother you here." After saying that, Prince Jing bowed to Prince Yu, and then strode out of the palace gate.
He didn't even look at the officials who were kneeling outside the West Garden in the heavy rain, demanding death for their remonstrance.
He stared at Prince Jing's departing back for a long time, until Prince Jing's sedan chair disappeared into the heavy rain. Then Prince Yu flicked his sleeves and strode out of the palace.
Some officials have been keeping an eye on the palace gate since they saw King Jing coming out of it.
And when they saw Prince Yu coming out from the door, everyone looked at him.
"Your Highness, Xu Jie has brought disaster to the country. Please do not listen to slander. We..."
However, before they could finish their words, they saw Prince Yu didn't even look at them. He just walked past them indifferently, got into the sedan chair and left.
Suddenly, the official who was only halfway through his sentence was speechless.
Some white-haired old men moved their lips, with a gloomy look in their eyes. Then they looked towards Xiyuan stubbornly and said loudly: "The cabinet is in chaos and deceiving the emperor..."
"Your Majesty, I beg you to punish the cabinet and restore the country!" As one person started, the others shouted in unison.
The news that a large number of officials from the Qingliu faction in Xiyuan submitted a memorial to the emperor, demanding the punishment of the cabinet and Xu Jie, soon spread throughout the officialdom of the capital, and many officials were extremely shocked.
But soon, these cunning people reacted and pretended to be dead at home, looking like they knew nothing.
Prince Jing’s Mansion, in the main hall.
Yan Song and Yan Shifan were already sitting on their chairs.
Prince Jing told Yan Song everything that had just happened in Yuxi Palace.
"Lord Yan, I was able to overthrow my third brother this time, all thanks to your far-reaching and detailed planning!" King Jing was very happy at this moment.
"Next, we just need to add more fuel to the fire and make Third Brother completely flustered. Father will definitely be able to see which of us is more suitable to be the crown prince. At the same time, we can also hold Third Brother back and slow down his cultivation."
"And I can take this opportunity to practice and leave him far behind. As for the affairs of the court, it will all depend on Lord Yan."
However, after listening to King Jing's words, Yan Song just looked at him quietly with his old eyes.
"Your Highness, from now on, not only can you no longer pursue the victory, but you must also actively cooperate with His Highness Prince Yu in the next move!"
Yan Song shook his head and held a negative attitude towards King Jing's subsequent actions.
"Why?" Upon hearing this, King Jing frowned, "We just need to wait until Third Brother is in disarray and the mess is beyond repair, and then we can act quickly to rectify the administration."
"By then, Third Brother's reputation would be ruined, and we would have achieved our goal, so why not?"
Looking at King Jing who only knew how to attack, Yan Song sighed in his heart.
Although this Prince Jing is very similar to the emperor, he is only similar in one aspect, such as making money. The other aspect is his confidence, which makes him seem more like a royal family compared to Prince Yu.
But he did not inherit the emperor's tolerance and acumen for governing the country!
In some matters, we look too superficially and not thoroughly enough, and we are unable to deeply understand the divine will.
However, this feature was inherited by Prince Yu. It can be said that each of the two brothers shared some of the emperor's advantages.
"Your Highness, do you think the Emperor can't see through our tricks?" Yan Song's tone turned serious.
He stared at King Jing like a shrewd fox, with a shrewd and deep gleam in his eyes.
"..."
It's a new week, everyone, please vote, don't let the data be too ugly, thank you~~~
(End of this chapter)
