My father is Jiajing

Chapter 417 The pot comes from the sky

The capital, Prince Yu’s Palace.

Zhu Zaigui was deeply moved when he learned that Xu Wei came to Hu Zongxian to offer his services as soon as he arrived at the Governor's Office in Hangzhou.

Zhu Zaigui always thought that this great talent should have lived 10 to 20 years later, but he did not expect that he would become active during the Jiajing period.

"Hu Zongxian is so lucky that he got the support of Xu Wei, a great talent from Jiangsu and Zhejiang."

Zhu Zaigui praised Hu Zongxian, but actually he was praising Xu Wei.

When Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng heard Zhu Zaigui praising Xu Wei, they were a little confused.

Because neither of them had ever heard of this name.

Gao Gong asked, "Your Majesty, who is this Xu Wei?"

Zhu Zaigui laughed and said, "The unknown young man now will be a world-class talent in the future. However, this person is unlucky. Since he passed the examination for a scholar in his early twenties, he has failed eight times in a row. Now he can only serve as a staff member in Hu Zongxian's governor's office."

"But this is also his luck. I hope he can assist Hu Zongxian in stabilizing the situation in the southeast."

Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng never expected that Zhu Zaigui would have such a high opinion of Xu Wei.

For a moment, the two of them couldn't help but become curious about Xu Wei.

But then Zhu Zaigui said to Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng: "Don't think too much about how great Xu Wei is. In fact, compared with you, his shortcomings are still very obvious. Xu Wei is only suitable to be a staff member who gives advice and a teacher who teaches books."

"If he is really allowed to be on his own, the halo of this great talent will make him become someone like Xie Jin and Yang Shen who are too ambitious. And such a person is destined to have no talent for managing the world and will only be a tool."

Hearing Zhu Zaigui's evaluation of Xu Wei again, Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng couldn't help but feel relieved.

Gao Gong said: "Your Majesty, since Xu Wei is so talented, why not recruit him to serve in the palace?"

Zhu Zaigui waved his hand and said, "The affairs of the palace are not as important as those of the southeast. Besides, you and Mr. Zhang are helping us inside and outside the palace, so there is no need for him to help. By the way, how is Pan Jixun now?"

Finally, Zhu Zaigui shifted the topic to Pan Jixun.

When Zhang Juzheng heard Zhu Zaigui asking about Pan Jixun, he immediately replied: "Pan Jixun is currently conducting a field survey of the water flow in the river near the capital, preparing to dredge the Yongding River again to complete the moat water system project in the special district of the capital."

Zhu Zaigui nodded slightly, "This is also a big deal. You must support this matter with the Special District Office, so that Pan Jixun can give full play to his greatest talents. After the moat water system of the Beijing Special District is managed by him, let him study the water system project from the capital to Tianjin Wei and see if the connection between the capital and Tianjin Wei can be opened up by water."

Zhu Zaigui also had high hopes for Pan Jixun, the water god of the Ming Dynasty.

However, Zhu Zaigui also knew that no top master achieved success overnight.

The current arrangement of the capital's water network is just the right opportunity for Pan Jixun to practice. Once he has figured out the capital's water system, he will be pushed back to his original track of expertise and sent to manage the Yellow River, thus fully unleashing his true role as the water god of the Ming Dynasty.

After chatting with Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng for these days, Zhu Zaigui asked some more questions about the Ming Federal Reserve and the Special District Office. After receiving serious answers from Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng, Zhu Zaigui also highly praised their work and asked them to continue to work hard to do a good job in the Ming Federal Reserve and the Beijing Special District.

Then Zhu Zaigui summoned Li Chunfang.

Li Chunfang is now on duty in the cabinet and is also the Minister of the Ministry of Rites.

So now when Zhu Zaigui came to him, he was relatively sensitive.

However, Zhu Zaigui was not afraid of this sensitivity, because one of his current identities was regent, and he had the right to inquire about the affairs of the cabinet.

Moreover, Li Chunfang was an official of Prince Yu's mansion before. It was human nature to call him to his mansion to ask some questions. No one could find fault with it. "How is the matter of Prince Jing's selection of a concubine going now?"

After Zhu Zaigui found Li Chunfang, the first thing he asked was about selecting a concubine for Prince Jing.

Li Chunfang replied, "Your Majesty, I have issued an order that women of appropriate age near the capital city are prohibited from marrying for one year. There are now more than a thousand candidates registered for the election."

Zhu Zaigui looked at Li Chunfang with some surprise, feeling a little unexpected.

But soon Zhu Zaigui also calmly said: "The matter of selecting a concubine for King Jing must be serious and cautious, and there must be no negligence. King Jing's brother is your Majesty's biological son and my brother. There must be no mistakes in his marriage."

Li Chunfang bowed and said, "Don't worry, Your Majesty. I have followed the most stringent etiquette procedures. Once the identities of the more than 1,000 candidates have been verified, they can be handed over to the inner court for preliminary selection. The results will be announced within three months."

Zhu Zaigui nodded in agreement. If he remembered correctly, the process of selecting his concubine seemed to be the same.

Now that Emperor Jiajing has thrown the matter of choosing a concubine for Prince Jing to him, as an elder brother, Zhu Zaigui must take it more seriously than his own affairs. Otherwise, if people spread rumors that Prince Yu dislikes Prince Jing and casually chose a concubine for him, it would be very hurtful to the relationship between the brothers.

Although there is no real affection between the brothers.

But when it comes to matters in heaven, there are no small matters.

This is the only way to do a good job in face-saving projects.

Li Chunfang probably understood Zhu Zaigui's good intentions, so when dealing with this matter, Li Chunfang was extremely careful and did not allow any counterfeit people to be squeezed in.

But just when Zhu Zaigui was worrying about choosing a concubine for Zhu Zaizhen.

A huge pot was thrown down from the sky.

After years of continuous infiltration, although there are still some minor frictions between the Ming Dynasty and the grassland, it is only a small problem and does not affect the overall situation.

In order to ensure that his long-term interests would not be eroded by the Ming Dynasty, some smart person came up with a bad idea and suggested a marriage between the Ming Dynasty and Altan.

However, the Ming Dynasty and the grasslands had been fighting for so many years, and although the feud between the two sides had shown signs of easing in recent years, a marriage alliance was definitely impossible.

Because in the Ming Dynasty, there were no princesses who married out of the family, even palace maids never married out of the family.

Moreover, the two daughters of Emperor Jiajing were married to princes-in-law. Even if the daughters of Emperor Jiajing had not been married, it would have been impossible for them to marry into a foreign kingdom.

So Emperor Jiajing asked the cabinet to reject Altan's unreasonable request without even thinking about it.

As a result, they received feedback saying that they wanted to send a "princess" to the Ming Dynasty for marriage, in order to set the precedent for the marriage between princesses from foreign vassal states and princes of the Ming Dynasty in the early years of the Ming Dynasty.

Upon seeing this information, Emperor Jiajing's eyes widened. This script seemed a bit beyond the scope.

But it seems reasonable, because such an example has appeared in the history of the Ming Dynasty. Qin Wang Zhu Chong married a grassland princess as his Qin Wang Consort.

Therefore, Emperor Jiajing couldn't help but wonder whether he should marry the grassland princess mentioned by Altan to Prince Jing?
But when he thought about Prince Jing's health again, Emperor Jiajing was worried that Prince Jing's body could not withstand the pressure of the heroic woman from the northern grassland.

So, Emperor Jiajing thought of Zhu Zaigui.

Should we arrange a grassland concubine for Zhu Zaigui?

(End of this chapter)