My father is Jiajing

Chapter 240 The Worried Emperor Jiajing
The summer heat rises and autumn comes, and tigers appear after the dog days.

The summer of the 30th year of Jiajing passed in a flash, and nothing major happened. During the three months of summer, Zhu Zaigui was happy to spend his leisure time in the palace listening to the lectures of Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng, as if the outside world had nothing to do with him.

But this world is always conserved.

When some people are free, naturally some people are busy.

For example, the Minister of Works Ouyang Bijin. Ever since Zhu Zaigui expressed to Huang Jin that he had no intention of participating in the expansion of the capital, Emperor Jiajing seemed to feel that it would be unbalanced if Zhu Zaigui was allowed to take on some responsibilities.

After all, the current Emperor Jiajing is still thinking about Yan Shifan and his group helping him get money.

If we cut off the source of funds before we get the money from Emperor Jiajing, and dampen the enthusiasm of Yan Shifan and others, wouldn't it be a huge loss for them if they don't work hard?
Therefore, after much deliberation, Emperor Jiajing decided to put Zhu Zaigui's matter aside for the time being and continue to urge Yan Shifan, Yan Maoqing and others to work hard to prepare the first sum of money needed for the expansion of the capital.

Finally, after three months of unremitting efforts, Yan Shifan did not let the emperor down. The Yan Maoqing he recommended finally fulfilled his promise to serve as the Prime Minister of Salt Administration and obtained one million taels of salt tax for the court.

With this one million taels of silver as a foundation, Emperor Jiajing immediately felt more confident.

Emperor Jiajing immediately summoned the Minister of Works Ouyang Bijin to urge the progress of the capital's expansion plan.

Ouyang Bijin could not bear the urging of Emperor Jiajing. During the hottest days of these months, he kept looking up information, striving to present a satisfactory plan for the expansion of the capital to Emperor Jiajing.

So in the past few months, Ouyang Bijin's life can only be described as one of ecstasy.

Fortunately, the plan he presented was finally approved by Emperor Jiajing, who stopped nitpicking like before.

Therefore, Ouyang Bijin also thought that he had passed the test successfully.

Therefore, the Ministry of Works and Shuntian Prefecture jointly with the Imperial Astronomical Observatory selected an auspicious day and reported it to the Cabinet. After the Cabinet voted on it, it was submitted to the Imperial Household Department for approval.

As the boss of the Imperial Household Department, Huang Jin was of course the first to see the request memorials from the Ministry of Works, Shuntian Prefecture and the Imperial Observatory. He also knew how much importance the Jiajing Emperor attached to the expansion of the capital.

Therefore, he did not easily approve it directly, but presented the request to Emperor Jiajing for his review.

Emperor Jiajing looked at the request and couldn't help but snorted twice, "Ouyang Bijin seems to be very anxious. He even found Yan Song to help him draft it. Well, since they want to make trouble, I will allow it."

After reading the memorial, Emperor Jiajing gave it back to Huang Jin and asked him to approve it according to the rules.

After all, the cabinet chief's face must be taken into consideration sometimes, otherwise how will the officials below deal with it?
Therefore, this time Emperor Jiajing approved the request and memorial submitted by Ouyang Bijin and others, out of consideration for Yan Song's face and for the sake of maintaining order in the court.

After all, the Ming Dynasty was a huge empire with a complex system and a vast territory.

Although the emperor's authority is supreme, he is just one person. It is impossible to expect one person to be able to see through everything and handle everything well, unless Emperor Jiajing is an artificial intelligence program with superb computing power.

Otherwise, he would have to rely on his ministers to help him share most of the things and problems, so Emperor Jiajing still had to maintain a relatively respectful attitude towards officials in some key positions.

This not only shows that Emperor Jiajing is respectful to others, but also plays a role in maintaining order.

So sometimes, we have to give face to the prime minister of the cabinet.

Otherwise, when the officials see that the chief minister of the cabinet is often refuted by the emperor, they will lose their respect for the cabinet and instead throw all problems and decisions to the emperor himself.

In this case, what is the point of setting up a cabinet in the court?
After all, the emperor is a human being, not a machine.

If all problems and matters were really thrown to the emperor to deal with personally, he would probably die of exhaustion before long.

Therefore, sometimes, no matter whether the emperor likes it or not, he has to give some face to the cabinet and maintain the basic rules of the court.

Otherwise, everything would be in chaos. How could the emperor control the court through the cabinet and then manage the world?

Therefore, when Ouyang Bijin united with Shuntian Prefecture and the Imperial Observatory and other government offices, he also asked the chief minister of the cabinet to draft the bill for them. In addition, the proposal provided by Ouyang Bijin was not particularly unpopular with Emperor Jiajing. Therefore, Emperor Jiajing naturally had no reason to refuse and directly let Huang Jin approve it.

When Emperor Jiajing asked Huang Jin to approve the document, he said, "The auspicious date for the start of construction should be based on the time they have planned, and it should be set on the Beginning of Autumn Day to offer sacrifices to the gods of heaven, earth, mountains and rivers. The ceremony will be presided over by Si'er and the Ministry of Rites. Let the Ministry of Works and Shuntian Prefecture handle the rest."

Huang Jin heard what Emperor Jiajing meant and bowed to him, saying, "I'll take note of that."

Then Emperor Jiajing asked again, "What is San'er doing recently?"

Hearing Emperor Jiajing asking about Zhu Zaigui again, Huang Jin quickly said, "Prince Yu has been studying in the palace and has rarely gone out in the past few months."

Upon hearing this, Emperor Jiajing could not help but snort, "He is so lazy. Doesn't he care about the trade with the Tatars? And doesn't he worry about making my money? He only knows how to enjoy himself at such a young age. Later, you go to Prince Yu's Mansion and issue an order to stop him from staying in the palace and enjoying the air conditioning. It's time for him to go out and move around."

When Huang Jin heard Emperor Jiajing's dissatisfaction with Zhu Zaigui's words, he immediately smiled and replied, "Your Majesty, you have wronged Prince Yu. Although Prince Yu has rarely gone out these days, he is not idle. He is asking one of Li Shizhen's disciples to make a new thing called canned food."

"According to Prince Yu, once this research called canning is mastered, the beef and mutton from the northern grasslands can be preserved for a long time and circulated in the Ming market at a low price, thereby improving the dietary structure of the people of the Ming Dynasty."

Emperor Jiajing was no longer surprised when he heard Huang Jin's new words, because he knew that these new words were created by Zhu Zaigui.

Emperor Jiajing asked curiously, "Is there really such a magical thing? Canned food, that's interesting. And the dietary structure, haha, isn't the diet of the people of the Ming Dynasty complete enough? Whether it's grains or other cereals, the people of the Ming Dynasty have everything they need, so why should he worry about it?"

Huang Jin said: "The Emperor is right. Prince Yu is too young and has too little experience. He doesn't know these daily things, so he tends to have more fantastic ideas. However, according to Prince Yu's calculations, if the canned food can be successfully produced, the profits gained by then may far exceed those of Yiran Sugar."

"Yiran candy has been sold for such a long time now, and those who can afford it have already had it, but those who can't afford it still can't afford it. So Prince Yu believes that the potential of Yiran candy has reached its limit for the time being, and if it wants to make further profits, it has to lower the price. But if it lowers the price, it will easily hurt the original loyal users of Yiran candy."

"Therefore, Prince Yu believes that in order to continuously earn more money, he must constantly introduce new products and let these wealthy people continue to buy. This is in line with the long-term interests."

After hearing this, Emperor Jiajing nodded and said, "San'er's concerns are correct. This is indeed the way it should be."

Then Emperor Jiajing turned around and looked at Huang Jin and said with a smile: "You have been so close to San'er these days, and it seems that you have learned a lot. Now you can speak clearly in front of me."

Huang Jin was frightened when she heard what Emperor Jiajing said, and she immediately knelt on the ground, "Your Majesty, please understand, I have never been close to anyone. I am only close to you, Your Majesty!"

Emperor Jiajing waved his hand and said, "Get up, get up. Look how scared you are. You and San'er are acquainted because of my order. How could I blame you? Just do your job well and handle things according to my wishes in the future."

Huang Jin bowed again in fear and said, "Thank you for your trust, Your Majesty. I have no way to repay you, except to serve you forever with my humble life."

Emperor Jiajing laughed again, and his tone became a little gentler. "Hurry up and get up. Look at you like this. I know that the other eunuchs in the palace call you ancestor. If they knew that their ancestor was so timid and cowardly, how could they obey you in the future?"

Huang Jin knocked her head hard again, "I know I was wrong, and I will never let the servants in the palace call me like this again."

At this time, Emperor Jiajing put away his smile and gestures, and hummed, "That's right. Our ancestors used that name to refer to the dead. They are calling you that, and they are cursing you to death. From tomorrow on, you will go to Shunyi to announce the decree and promote Chen Hong to the Silijian to replace Feng Bao. This Feng Bao is too impetuous and is not suitable for monitoring the Silijian."

Huang Jin quickly replied: "I obey your order!"

Emperor Jiajing appointed Chen Hong not on a whim, but because of his innate political sensitivity.

Emperor Jiajing knew that Huang Jin adopted Feng Bao as his godson, which was not conducive to the management of the Imperial Household Department. So Emperor Jiajing wanted to give Huang Jin a warning to make him sober up. Then he exiled Feng Bao from the Imperial Household Department and sent him to work in Shunyi to see if he could calm down.

If he can, he still has a chance. If not, he doesn't have to do it himself. San'er will deal with this useless waste.

As for Chen Hong, Emperor Jiajing also wanted to know more about the financial affairs of the Shunyi Industrial Park, so Emperor Jiajing mentioned Chen Hong's name.

You should know that Chen Hong is now in charge of finance in Shunyi Industrial Park, so the meaning of Emperor Jiajing is very clear. He wants to help his son to sort out the situation of Shunyi Industrial Park and see if anyone is bullying Zhu Zaigui because he is young and infringing on his interests.

It can be said that Emperor Jiajing was very worried about helping the "young and ignorant" Prince Yu, fearing that the gold ingots in his son's hands would be coveted by others.

(End of this chapter)