My father is Jiajing

Chapter 468 The Emperor's Helplessness

After eating the melon, Emperor Jiajing waved his hand to let Chen Hong go out, and then Huang Jin quietly entered the temple and served carefully.

Emperor Jiajing leaned against the backrest of a round chair, reading a hardcover handwritten copy of The Return of the Condor Heroes which he had pulled out from somewhere. He had no idea how many times he had read this book, but every time he finished reading it, he would have a new experience that made him unable to put it down.

Huang Jin quietly helped Emperor Jiajing change the incense in the palace, tidied up the imperial desk in the palace, and put the papers, pens and other small things that Emperor Jiajing had placed there in their original places.

After Huang Jin finished doing all this, Emperor Jiajing also looked over and asked, "Is San'er still in Xishan?"

When Huang Jin heard the sudden question from Emperor Jiajing, he immediately replied, "Reporting to the Emperor, Prince Yu is still in the Western Hills."

Emperor Jiajing chuckled, "It's worth it for him to be under house arrest. I'm here to help him clean up his mess, but he took his wife and children to the Western Hills to play, and even said he wanted to see a steam-powered railroad car that could move on its own. Does he really think those craftsmen, like Zhuge Liang, could build a self-driving buffalo wooden horse if they were still alive?"

Emperor Jiajing had been staying in the palace for a long time and seldom went out. He was skeptical about what Zhu Zaigui said about the steam railroad car that could move by itself. However, Emperor Jiajing was not really angry in his tone, he just had some complaints in his voice.

Huang Jin looked at the arrogant look of Emperor Jiajing and laughed, "Your Majesty is right. I guess this is the reason Prince Yu didn't want to sit in the mansion and deliberately found it with Your Majesty. How could there be a car that moves by itself in this world?"

When Emperor Jiajing heard Huang Jin's words, he looked up at the steam-powered fan device in the abode. He added, "It's not impossible. Look, the fan in this room is modeled after the one in San'er's house. The steam engine outside only needs to boil some water to drive the mechanism, and the fan will start to rotate, right?"

"Now San'er said that Xishan has made a steam rail car that can move on its own. It seems that it is not impossible."

Hearing the Emperor Jiajing's contradictory words, Huang Jin smiled and said, "Why don't we go and take a look too?"

Emperor Jiajing thought for a moment and said, "Forget it. I will wait until I have dealt with the affairs in the capital and then go and see. During this time, you should keep an eye on Yan Shifan and his men to see what other tricks they have. If they still insist on using those three tricks and continue to hold on to Wang Zhi's crimes, I will have to take action myself."

Huang Jin replied: "The Emperor has lofty ambitions, why would he need to do it himself? Zhang Juzheng and his men have done a great job recently, seizing Wang Bengu's weakness of being righteous and righteous, and attacking him for luring Wang Zhi to steal the credit for Zhejiang's fight against the Japanese pirates."

"Now the news is spreading all over the capital, and Wang Bengu has no way to defend himself. Even if Yan Shifan and others want to continue to question Wang Zhi about his crimes and bring him to justice, it is not that easy at this time."

Emperor Jiajing hummed and nodded, saying, "That's true, but there's one thing I still don't understand. Why is Yan Shifan so obsessed with Wang Zhi? Has he really changed his character? Has he become so hateful of evil that he really wants to kill Wang Zhi, the notorious bandit, to show his righteousness?"

Huang Jin replied: "I also find this matter strange. At first, I thought it might be because Yan Shifan couldn't stand Hu Zongxian and wanted to kick him out and replace him with one of his own to go to Zhejiang to reap the fruits of the victory against the Japanese invaders."

"But recently I have been thinking about it again and again. If Yan Shifan really thought this way, he should have directly found someone to attack Hu Zongxian's anti-Japanese strategy. There is no need to kill Wang Zhi."

"After all, Wang Zhi's life and death is indeed related to the balance of power between pirates and Japanese pirates off the coast of Zhejiang. Once Wang Zhi is really killed by the imperial court, the Japanese pirates on the sea and Wang Zhi's former pirates will definitely be desperate and think that the imperial court must wipe them out. If so, they will go crazy, and the chaos in Zhejiang and Fujian will not last for a few more years?"

"So, I think Yan Shifan is so eager to kill Wang Zhi, there must be other secrets that we don't know now. As long as we find out what the secret is, the next thing will be easy."

After listening to Huang Jin's analysis, Emperor Jiajing pondered for a while and said, "That's right. It's a pity that Lu Bing is seriously ill now and can't help me investigate what's going on outside. Otherwise, I really want to investigate carefully to see if there is anything else I don't know."

Emperor Jiajing also had his own way of checking and balancing the Embroidered Uniform Guard and the Eastern Depot.

Under the control of Lu Bing, the Jinyiwei had the power to monitor the whole world at the instruction of Emperor Jiajing, and could easily help Emperor Jiajing find out some secret matters outside the capital.

The power of the East Depot was confined to the capital, and it did not have the right to investigate locally like the Embroidered Uniform Guard. Therefore, sometimes when Emperor Jiajing wanted to know something important, he had to gather internal and external intelligence from the Embroidered Uniform Guard and the East Depot to get key information about some things.

However, because the investigation of this information was done by humans, sometimes the records would inevitably avoid the important and focus on the trivial and have personal subjective deviations. This meant that even though Emperor Jiajing was very smart, he could not get the full picture of everything he wanted to know through text information.

Sometimes he could only guess and rely on the information he had been seeing to deduce the secrets. Therefore, when Emperor Jiajing was dealing with some issues, he would have complex and ambiguous intentions that he would convey to his subordinates, causing them to work in fear and speculation.

As for how things are done afterwards and whether they are done beautifully or not, it all depends on the Emperor Jiajing's mind. If he agrees that what you have done is good, then you will pass smoothly. But if he thinks that what you have done is not the result he wants, he will directly blame the person who did it.

It can be said that secret service agencies like the Eastern Depot and the Embroidered Uniform Guard, under the orders of a leader like Emperor Jiajing, sometimes found it difficult to do some things.

Now that Huang Jin mentioned this, he was not actually thinking of asking Emperor Jiajing to hand over the power of the East Factory to him again, but wanted to remind Emperor Jiajing that it was time to consider the successor of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

After all, Lu Bing is in this state now. Anyone with a discerning eye can see that it is doubtful whether he can survive this winter.

If the power of the Jinyiwei is still in the hands of a bedridden person, it will cause great delays.

However, Emperor Jiajing was actually troubled by Huang Jin's reminder.

Emperor Jiajing was a master at playing political games, but there were really few people he could trust. Lu Bing and Huang Jin were both old men he brought from Anlu, and Emperor Jiajing naturally recognized their loyalty.

However, Emperor Jiajing was still very hesitant if he had to hand over the Jinyiwei to someone he could not guarantee was truly loyal to him.

You should know that in his early years, Emperor Jiajing had great trust in Qiu Luan. Even though he was a hopeless case, in order to control the military power inside and outside the capital, Emperor Jiajing still chose to trust him without hesitation.

The reason for this was that when he had just ascended the throne, the entire court and the entire Ming noble group either wanted to force Emperor Jiajing to find a new father, or remained silent, ready to stand aside and wait to watch the young emperor make a fool of himself.

At this critical moment, Zhang Cong and Qiu Luan stood up to speak for Emperor Jiajing, which moved Emperor Jiajing so much that he thought Zhang Cong and Qiu Luan were also loyal to him.

Therefore, Zhang Cong was later promoted step by step by Emperor Jiajing from a minor official demoted to Nanjing to the position of Prime Minister, and assisted Emperor Jiajing in developing the "Jiajing New Deal" praised by later generations.

However, due to Zhang Cong's old age and the fact that the Jiajing New Deal had offended too many people, Zhang Cong was afraid that he would not have a good end, so he resigned from the position of Prime Minister to Emperor Jiajing and retired peacefully.

While the young man Qiu Luan was still alive, Emperor Jiajing did not let him down. Whenever there was an important war inside or outside the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Jiajing would let Qiu Luan go to the battlefield and use him to control the ultimate military power.

But Qiu Luan was a complete fool. Having him lead troops into battle, apart from serving as a deterrent to outsiders from interfering with military power, when it came time to fight, Qiu Luan's ability to command troops was hard to describe. Almost no battles were won by him; all the credit went to his subordinates.

But even so, Emperor Jiajing would still give Qiu Luan the most complete trust. The reason for doing so was that apart from Qiu Luan, Emperor Jiajing really had no other generals he could trust.

The reason for this is that, after all, although Emperor Jiajing was the supreme emperor, he still had great shortcomings and defects compared to those emperors who had military merits and fought wars.

Those emperors who have been to the battlefield and fought wars, regardless of their actual achievements, at least they dared to lead troops out, which shows that they have a team of generals that can be trusted or used and are not afraid of the military power falling into the hands of others.

For an heir emperor like Emperor Jiajing, who had no experience of the battlefield and no reliable generals to trust, if he wanted to break this deadlock, he could either cultivate and use his trusted relatives like Emperor Wu of Han did, or learn from his cousin and secretly confer himself the title of "Duke of the State" or "General" and go out to fight on his own.

But these two routes have obviously been blocked long ago.

Especially the issue of relatives by marriage, which was ruined by Wang Mang as early as the Han Dynasty. Then, all the dynasties that allowed relatives by marriage to hold power, including the Three Kingdoms, the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, and even the Sui and Tang Dynasties, followed suit. They cursed Wang Mang for his atrocities while copying his homework.

In the end, all these dynasties ruled by external relatives would end up being replaced by their ambitious relatives.

Therefore, during the stable Tang and Song dynasties, relatives by marriage were constantly suppressed, and in the end even the emperor was not allowed to marry someone from a powerful maternal family, and important officials who married their daughters to the emperor would be automatically excluded from the core of power.

Therefore, it would be simply impossible for a successor emperor like Emperor Jiajing to learn from Emperor Wu of Han and train a few powerful relatives to lead the army for him.

Next is the path of his cousin Zhu Houzhao, and this path is also extremely difficult for Emperor Jiajing. First of all, Emperor Jiajing is not a warlike person. He is also clear about his abilities and knows that he is not the type to lead troops in battle.

Also, his cousin spent sixteen years fighting against the Tatars and destroying King Ning, but in the end he accidentally killed himself.

Moreover, after his death, no one in the court or the public said a good word to praise him. At the same time, Emperor Jiajing, who had been educated in traditional Confucianism since childhood, naturally looked down on his cousin's unorthodox behavior.

Therefore, considering the above two points, it would be almost impossible for Emperor Jiajing to use someone he trusted to help him manage the army.

But sometimes Emperor Jiajing felt that God really favored him. Although Qiu Luan, the scumbag, was no longer capable, his son performed brilliantly in the defense of the capital and became an invincible general with prestige in the army.

Although Zhu Zaigui was very tactful and faked his death to escape after the Battle of the Capital, giving up all his honors and military exploits, Emperor Jiajing knew very well that as long as he needed him, Zhu Zaigui could always stand up and call back the soul of the dead General Zhu Wuji.

Therefore, when it comes to the control of military power, Emperor Jiajing no longer has to be as hesitant and cautious as before, not knowing who to use.

As long as the Jiajing Emperor now felt that the war was worth fighting, he would select officials who could go to the battlefield and arrange military affairs without hesitation. He did not have to worry at all that they would become powerful in the local area, because the Jiajing Emperor knew very well that he still had Zhu Zaigui as his last trump card, which could make him invincible.

But now Lu Bing was about to die, and in order to balance the future, Emperor Jiajing also dismissed Huang Jin from his job in the East Factory.

For a moment, Emperor Huang Jin couldn't help but have a headache about who to appoint to replace Lu Bing as the commander of the Jinyiwei.

After all, if such an important position is entrusted to the wrong person, Emperor Jiajing will become deaf and blind in an instant, and will no longer be able to remotely control the court and manage the world as confidently as before.

So after Huang Jin’s reminder this time, Emperor Jiajing was really troubled. Who should he choose after Lu Bang?
Emperor Jiajing thought about all the people around him, but there was not one who could make him feel at ease. This feeling was really powerless.

Emperor Jiajing finally sighed helplessly and put the "The Return of the Condor Heroes" aside. He looked at Huang Jin and asked, "After Lu Bing, who should I choose to take the important position of Jinyiwei?"

Huang Jin was also shocked when he heard Emperor Jiajing ask this. How could a servant like him say this? Even if he was the most trusted servant of Emperor Jiajing, he couldn't do that.

So Huang Jin also reacted immediately and replied: "How can this servant know who is suitable? This matter still needs the emperor to decide. Now this servant only wants to serve the emperor well, be influenced by the emperor's immortal spirit, and rise to heaven with the emperor in the future. This is the greatest wish of this servant in this life."

When Emperor Jiajing heard Huang Jin's answer, he immediately laughed, "You are lazy and want to take advantage of my aura. I will punish you by making you copy the Tao Te Ching 100 times to see if you are still lazy."

Huang Jin replied happily: "Thank you, Your Majesty. I like copying scriptures."

Emperor Jiajing laughed and said, "You wish. Who will serve me while you go copy the scriptures? Go get me an elixir. I want to start practicing."

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