My father is Jiajing

Chapter 202 The Emperor's Political Needs

When Huang Jin heard Zhu Zaigui say this, he didn't urge him.

Huang Jin was also very aware of how big a matter this was. Without a certain amount of project funds in place, neither the Emperor Jiajing himself nor the cabinet would easily approve the actual implementation of this project.

Unless there is a practical plan at this time and a very considerable amount of project start-up funds.

Otherwise, we would rather maintain the status quo than start anything blindly.

Because once the arrow is shot, there is no turning back, so under the premise that there is no security pressure caused by the Tatars, caution is the most basic thinking in the capital expansion project.

Huang Jin accompanied Zhu Zaigui to drink tea for a while, and Huang Jin looked at the snow falling outside.

Huang Jin said with emotion: "Another year has passed. The days go by so fast."

Zhu Zaiqi laughed and drank a cup of warm tea, "Yes, another year has passed. I hope everything goes well next year as well."

Huang Jin smiled and said, "Of course, but before that, I would like to congratulate the prince."

Zhu Zaiqi looked at Huang Jin in surprise, "Congratulations to me? What good news has happened to me recently?"

Huang Jin continued with a smile, "The Ministry of Rites submitted a petition, requesting that next year, a selection be held for both the prince and the prince Jing. By then, the prince can start a family."

When Zhu Zaigui heard what Huang Jin said, his eyes suddenly widened. He never expected that such a good thing would happen.
"really?"

Zhu Zaigui was very surprised. He had almost forgotten that he didn't have a wife yet. He didn't expect that the people from the Ministry of Rites actually remembered it for him.

Huang Jin said: "Who dares to talk nonsense about this? The prince and Prince Jing are the same age. According to the etiquette, they should indeed hold a beauty pageant and get married next year. The Ministry of Rites submitted a memorial to this matter, but it is just a formality. The specific arrangements still depend on the palace's opinion."

Zhu Zaigui said, "I see. Then please help me and my brother, Prince Jing, to carefully select a virtuous lady from a noble family as the principal wife of the palace."

Huang Jin replied: "Don't worry, Your Majesty, these are what I should do. I will strictly check and select some beautiful girls with good character and appearance to enrich the palace for Your Majesty, and let them have children for Your Majesty."

After talking about this happy event, Huang Jin turned the topic to the bottled green tea and black tea business that will be launched next year.

Huang Jin said, "Your Majesty, your last suggestion on building the 'Great Ming Industrial Cycle' was highly valued by the Emperor. The Emperor has already ordered the Cabinet and the Ministry of Rites to take charge of this matter. The envoys sent by Andatsu in the north are also discussing the details."

"This time, we in the Ming Dynasty also followed the prince's idea and put forward the conditions of 'trading', requiring the Anda tribe to do its best to guarantee the Ming Dynasty caravans to go deep into the grasslands for business. The envoys from the Anda tribe have also agreed. Next year, we can send caravans to the grasslands to actively operate and sell our Ming Dynasty goods in exchange for cattle, sheep and horses on the grasslands."

After listening to Huang Jin's words, Zhu Zaigui also said: "First of all, the caravans going to the grasslands to do business must be mainly caravans with the background of the East Factory and the Jinyiwei. Anda was crippled by us, but we only heard about the situation on the grasslands from hearsay, and no one knows the real specific situation."

"So, at the beginning, we should not let ordinary civilian caravans participate. We should first use the East Factory and the Embroidered Uniform Guard to explore the way and understand the actual situation on the grassland. By the way, we should also record the relationship between the various tribes on the grassland and the actual location of each tribe on the grassland."

"After having this information, unless there are any unexpected events in the future, our Ming Dynasty will seize the opportunity to defeat the enemy in one move and directly remove the troublemakers on the grassland. This will make the grasslands in the north an inseparable part of our Ming Dynasty."

Huang Jin said: "Yes, Your Majesty is right. The Emperor also attaches great importance to this matter. If we can really use the trade route to completely bind the grassland and the Central Plains together, forming a large cycle of complementary forces, it will not only solve the northern problem once and for all, but also provide the Han people with sufficient cattle, sheep and horses as animal power reserves. This is simply a great achievement for the ages."

"So before implementing this policy, the Emperor had already followed the Prince's advice and ordered the Ministry of Rites to re-evaluate and restore the tablets of the former Yuan emperors in the Temple of Successive Emperors. This shows that the Emperor approves of this matter.

Zhu Zaigui hummed and said, "This tablet may not look big, but its function is obvious. It not only reflects the unbroken rule of China since the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, but also reflects the great spirit of the Ming Dynasty, which is tolerant and broad-minded. Moreover, this is an open conspiracy, which directly clarifies the ownership of the grassland from a legal perspective."

"So I think we should add some more supplements. For example, in addition to the east and west side halls in the Temple of Emperors of All Dynasties for honoring famous ministers of all dynasties, we should build two rows of side halls for vassal states of all dynasties to display the vassal states of the Central Plains dynasties throughout the dynasties, in order to show the heroic spirit of our Celestial Empire to control the world!" As soon as Zhu Zaigui said this, Huang Jin's eyes also shone brightly.

Huang Jin said excitedly: "Great, Your Majesty. This not only reflects the magnanimity of our Celestial Empire as the Central Kingdom since ancient times, but also reflects that the Emperor of the Great Ming is the common ruler of the nine provinces and ten thousand directions."

Zhu Zaigui smiled and said, "Whether it is good or not still depends on your Majesty's opinion. Only if your Majesty thinks it is good is it really good."

Huang Jin said: "I guarantee that the emperor will think it is good! Your Majesty's suggestion is really pertinent."

Zhu Zaigui laughed in his heart at Huang Jin's answer. This is indeed politics!
In the tenth year of the Jiajing reign, Emperor Jiajing issued an edict to the Ministry of Works to build the Temple of Emperors of All Dynasties in the west of the capital, imitating the system of Nanjing. Sacrifices were held there every spring and autumn to honor the rituals of the national dynasty.

However, not long after the construction of the Temple of All Emperors in the capital, Yao Lai, a compiler of the Hanlin Academy, submitted a memorial requesting the removal of Emperor Shizu of Yuan, believing that the Yuan Dynasty was a barbarian regime that should not be worshipped.

Emperor Jiajing did not take the matter seriously at the time and sent it to the Ministry of Rites for discussion. At that time, the Ministry of Rites still followed the mainstream historical concept passed down from generation to generation and believed that "barbarians who enter China become Chinese."

Therefore, the Ministry of Rites discussed and replied to Emperor Jiajing: "Hu Yuan has been in power for nine generations. Taizu was the most virtuous. His governance in one generation is worthy of praise. It is said that if a barbarian enters China, it will become Chinese. This is also the principle of the Spring and Autumn Annals. Moreover, since ancient times, emperors have always honored and respected the victorious country to show their loyalty and honesty. Taizu's divine counsel and wise judgment must have seen this, so it is recorded in the sacrificial rites. It has been more than a hundred years now. It is appropriate to follow the old system and worship the temple as before."

Faced with such a ministerial proposal, Emperor Jiajing had no other objections and approved it directly.

But as the conflicts and wars between the Ming Dynasty and the northern grasslands intensified, the Ming Dynasty was the one that suffered.

Therefore, the hateful nationalist sentiment in the country rose sharply, and even the Yuan Dynasty, which had been designated as orthodox by Zhu Yuanzhang, also encountered hostility.

In February of the 24th year of the Jiajing reign, Chen Wei, the Right Censor of the Li Ke, again requested that Kublai Khan be expelled from the Temple of All Emperors, believing that Kublai Khan was "a barbarian who disturbed the Chinese people and was not suitable for worship in the temple."

Because of the ideological reasons caused by the real contradictions, the results of the Ministry of Rites' deliberations naturally underwent a fundamental change. They agreed with Chen Wei's opinion and no longer insisted on the original historical tradition of "barbarians entering China become Chinese."

At that time, the Jiajing Emperor was also angry at the Tatars from the grasslands for their repeated invasions into the Ming Dynasty and their burning, killing and looting. Naturally, he was emotional at this time and no longer recognized the legal system of the former Yuan Dynasty. Therefore, the Jiajing Emperor directly said in anger, "The Yuan Dynasty was originally a barbarian people, and was even worse than that of the Five Dynasties. The emperor's temples and tombs should all be abolished." He obeyed the hatred consciousness of the court and the mainstream people.

From then on, Kublai Khan was kicked out of the temple of emperors of all dynasties.

The reason why this has happened so repeatedly over the past decade is, to put it bluntly, the reality of political needs.

Now the situation has reversed again. The invading army led by Anda was defeated in the suburbs of Beijing, making it impossible for the grassland to pose a threat for ten to twenty years, so the magnanimity of the Celestial Empire has naturally been restored.

In addition to the importance of grasslands mentioned in Zhu Zaigui's proposal, as well as the practicability of subsequently using economic means to control grasslands, Emperor Jiajing would naturally give more consideration to future political and legal issues.

Therefore, by restoring the sacrificial tradition of Kublai Khan, the succession relationship between the Ming Dynasty and the former Yuan Dynasty could be determined from a legal perspective, thereby concluding that the grassland was also part of the former Yuan Dynasty territory that the Ming Dynasty would inherit. Isn't this a political need that would please everyone?

After all, who wouldn't want to establish a great military feat to expand territory as an emperor? The operation of adding a tablet now gave him the legitimacy to rule the grassland. Only a fool would not do such a thing.

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Please vote for me~~It has been windy and rainy these days, and we have to harvest wheat in the face of wind and rain. Only I know how difficult it is.

Being a farmer is really hard.

So I never like those tunes that praise farmers, nor those tunes that praise suffering. . . . People who come up with such tunes are either stupid or evil!

If farmers and suffering are really worth singing praises to, there should be many people scrambling to become a poor farmer and enjoy the suffering, right?
But the reality is, unless there is no other choice or there is no other way to make a living, who the hell is willing to take the risks and hardships and be the hardest working farmer?
(End of this chapter)