My father is Jiajing

Chapter 388 Bullying is not

Zhu Zaigui, who was officially the regent, wanted to meet someone from the Ministry of Public Administration first. He did not go to meet people from the cabinet or the six ministries. It was not because Zhu Zaigui really could not understand the memorials written in four-six parallel prose, but because Zhu Zaigui knew that his every move was actually under the surveillance of Emperor Jiajing.

His status as regent was just a whim of the old Taoist priest Jiajing. If Zhu Zaigui really took this "feather" of regent as a token of authority and really issued orders to the cabinet and the six ministries, then everything would be over.

Therefore, Zhu Zaigui was very clear from the very beginning that his identity as regent was nothing more than a political show organized by Emperor Jiajing with his unique creativity and was not something that should ever be taken seriously.

Because imperial power is inherently selfish, anyone who dares to really interfere with imperial power will be killed, not to mention his own son, even his own father will be chopped off!
What's more, Zhu Zaigui still has a younger brother who is still alive. Unless he is crazy, he would not really regard the power of regent as real power.

Therefore, even though Zhu Zaigui was the regent and had several piles of memorials around him that were reserved for the imperial power to deal with, he did not easily write down his opinions on them.

When the Minister of Public Administration heard that Prince Yu had summoned him, he was a little bit incredulous.

Although the Tongzhengsi was also considered one of the Nine Ministerial Offices, by the time of the Ming Dynasty, the Tongzhengsi, like the Dali Temple, was inferior to the Six Ministries and the Censorate, and the chief official was only a third-rank official, not as high as the second-rank official of the Six Ministries and the Censorate.

Therefore, in the Ming Dynasty, both in the officialdom and among the people, people were no longer accustomed to calling the court offices the Nine Ministers, but instead called them "Seven Ministers". The meaning of these Seven Ministers was obvious, which meant that the Tongzhengsi and the Dali Temple were no longer worthy of being called the "Nine Ministers" on an equal footing with the Six Ministries and the Censorate.

Moreover, as the powers of the inner court offices such as the Imperial Household Department overlapped with those of the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Public Security became more and more transparent.

But today, Prince Yu actually took the initiative to summon the Minister of Public Administration to meet him, which made the current Minister of Public Administration Shen Kui confused, but also a little excited.

Shen Kui followed Meng Chong all the way from the Tongzhengsi Yamen to Prince Yu's Mansion, and then under the guidance of Meng Chong, they arrived at Zhu Zaigui's study.

After arriving at Zhu Zaigui's study, Shen Kui immediately bowed and said, "I, the Minister of Public Administration Shen Kui, pay my respects to Your Majesty."

After hearing Shen Kui's voice, Zhu Zaigui tilted his head and looked at Shen Kui who was prostrating on the ground from behind a pile of memorials.

Zhu Zaigui put down the memorial in his hand and said in a neutral voice, "Envoy Shen, please stand up."

Shen Kui thanked Zhu Zaigui, then stood up and glanced at Zhu Zaigui secretly. He found that the young prince was sitting behind the desk, flipping through the mountain of memorials in front of him.

For a moment, Shen Kui felt that this was the diligent king he had always dreamed of.

But soon after, Shen Kui regretted having this idea.

Zhu Zaigui stood up and picked up a memorial he had just read, then handed it to Shen Kui, "Envoy Shen, please read this memorial and tell me what it says."

When Shen Kui heard what Zhu Zaigui said, he was shocked and fell to the ground. However, Zhu Zaigui had already handed the thick memorial in his hand to Shen Kui without any hesitation. Shen Kui bowed and said "yes" repeatedly, and then began to read the contents of the memorial.

Just after Shen Shenkui had read for about half a minute, Zhu Zaigui suddenly asked, "Envoy Shen Tongzheng, please close the memorial and tell me what it says."

Shen Kui was stunned for a moment. He had just read the beginning and had no idea what it was about.
Shen Kui bowed with a little embarrassment and said, "I haven't finished reading it yet."

Zhu Zaiqi hummed, "How much did you read?"

Shen Kui didn't know what Zhu Zaigui was up to, so he replied cautiously, "I have only read less than a third of it."

Zhu Zaiqi hummed again, "Then let's talk about the content of this third."

When Shen Kui heard what Zhu Zaigui said, he was stunned again. This one-third of the content was just rhetorical preparation. Where was the actual content?
But he had to answer Zhu Zai's question, so Shen Kui twistedly repeated one-third of what he had just seen. After he finished repeating, Zhu Zai asked again: "Is this content useful?"

After hearing this, Shen Kui suddenly realized that it was Prince Yu who disliked the format of these memorials.

However, these are the rules passed down from generation to generation. Unless it is an extremely urgent matter or a petition, it must be written according to this format.

However, those urgent memorials were usually not sent through the Tongzhengsi. The memorials sent through the Tongzhengsi were all trivial matters that were not urgent or important. Otherwise, these memorials would not have been sent to Zhu Zaigui, but would have been directly sent to the Cabinet and the Silijian, and then directly to Emperor Jiajing.

Therefore, these memorials that can be sent to Zhu Zaigui's mansion now are just for Zhu Zaigui to practice, and are not at all for Zhu Zaigui to perform his duties as regent.

But Zhu Zaigui didn't buy it. What the hell was this? Wasn't this bullying?
He couldn't vent his temper on the cabinet, nor on the Imperial Household Department, but Zhu Zaigui still dared to vent his temper on the small Tongzhengsi!

Shen Kui said, "Your Highness, the format of these memorials is a rule passed down from past dynasties. Except for some urgent official documents and petitions, they must all be written in this solemn and gorgeous four-six parallel prose. This is the only way to demonstrate the style of our Celestial Empire."

Zhu Zaigui said: "Four-six parallel prose is gorgeous and solemn, but its language is too elaborate, and many things are unclear. Moreover, it always likes to quote some pretentious allusions to express things, instead of speaking directly. I don't know what your majesty thinks of this style of writing, but now I am ordered to supervise the country. I don't like this kind of flashy style of writing."

"As the chief official of the Tongzhengsi, you are responsible for receiving and refuting memorials from both the inner and outer courts. This is a heavy responsibility. If you cannot set an example and let the ministers inside and outside the court report the truth, then what is the use of you? Does the court really have to support a bunch of idle people like you who just write and copy?"

Zhu Zaigui's words were extremely harsh. Even Shen Kui did not expect that he would be treated so harshly by Prince Yu the first time he met him.

Shen Kui's temper flared up all of a sudden, and he replied, "Your Highness, the court has its own laws. I am the chief official of the Tongzhengsi, so I must act in accordance with the court's laws. The Tongzhengsi is in charge of internal and external memorials, so it must also act in accordance with the rules. It cannot be erased with a word from Your Highness."

Zhu Zaigui chuckled, "I can't erase it, but I can make the Tongzhengsi more idle! Now if Tongzhengshi Shen can find a workaround and let the ministers inside and outside the court write plain words when submitting memorials to the Tongzhengsi, then I can also arrange for people from the Tongzhengsi to handle government affairs for me. But if the Tongzhengsi does nothing and just sticks to the so-called rules, then I can only ask His Majesty to allow the Silijian to handle this matter."

Zhu Zaigui also knew that in order to deal with old officials like Shen Kui, he had to use some direct methods to deal with them.

Otherwise, if he didn't make things clear and kept going around in circles, then even if Zhu Zaigui looked for Shen Kui a few more times, the memorials that were finally sent to Zhu Zaigui would still be the same, without any change.

Therefore, Zhu Zaigui was not so polite to Shen Kui and directly threatened him with the Imperial Household Department. If Shen Kui was unwilling to do this job, then Zhu Zaigui would simply skip him and make his Tongzhengsi Yamen more transparent and no one would care about it.

Shen Kui stood there in shock. He never expected that Prince Yu would be so direct and leave no room for maneuver.

But if you think about it carefully, there is nothing to worry about in the Tongzhengsi Yamen.

If Prince Yu really asks for an imperial decree to let the Imperial Household Department be fully responsible for delivering memorials to Prince Yu's mansion, then once this becomes a habit, who will take the Ministry of Public Security seriously in the future?
Therefore, after a fierce ideological struggle, Shen Kui found a way out. It was normal for Prince Yu to be young and energetic and not be used to this kind of parallel prose.

At worst, the Ministry of Public Administration could just send a clear message to all government offices during this period, asking them not to write this kind of ornate four-six parallel prose memorials.

So Shen Kui bowed to Zhu Zaigui again and said, "I am ashamed. I will definitely correct my mistakes and let the Tongzhengsi pass on the prince's order to all government offices to speak the truth and put an end to empty talk."

Zhu Zaiqi hummed, "Okay, you can go down."

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Asking for a monthly ticket! ! !
(End of this chapter)