Prince Chongzhen

Chapter 223: Hmm. You still don’t understand me as well as they do
This meeting can be considered a more formal court meeting.

Not only did it bring together representatives from all sides, but it also discussed important issues.

If the ministers had not yet defined their respective powers and responsibilities, there would be nothing wrong with calling it a grand court meeting.

Zhu Cilang had previously announced that he would be the regent because Hongguang was captured, and what's more, Yingtian had only a few small towns and did not have the conditions to establish a complete court framework, so he just made do with it for the time being.

By the time Zhu Cilang's power spread to Hangzhou, there was a lack of opportunity for formal appointment. As a result, the official positions of each person were postponed again and again, and remained in a relatively vague state.

Fortunately, at that time the small court focused all its energy on the war. With the assistance of Wu Yi in military supplies and logistics, and as most of the land in the south of the Yangtze River was still occupied by the Tartars, there were no mistakes. In the end, the battle of the south of the Yangtze River was successfully won.

But that kind of situation is just a compromise.

When the territory he occupied was only three or two cities, Zhu Cilang could work harder and sleep less without delaying anything. But now with the victory in the battle of Jiangnan, Zhu Cilang already has southern Jiangsu, southern Anhui, half of Jiangxi and a complete Zhejiang province in his hands. If he still has to deal with every detail personally as before, he is afraid that he will not live for many years.

Under such circumstances, setting up a central team as soon as possible becomes the key to success.

"Due to the Tartar attack earlier, the imperial court was in a state of disarray. I intend to redistribute the responsibilities, but I wonder what you think?"

As soon as the words fell, all the ministers responded.

Everyone has their own guesses about this, so naturally no one is surprised. However, everyone has different guesses about the specific candidate.

As the highest-ranking civil servants in Yingtian and Hangzhou, Qian Qianyi and Ma Shiying's entry into the cabinet was a foregone conclusion. However, according to common practice, the number of cabinet ministers must be odd to avoid a stalemate in the event of a dispute.

In this way, one of the cabinet ministers' positions will be vacant, and the speculations of the ministers will be focused on this vacant position.

"I order Qian Qianyi, Ma Shiying, and Yuan Jixian to serve as directors of the East Pavilion."

Unexpected, really unexpected.

As a second-rank governor, Yuan Jixian was qualified to return to the court and join the cabinet, but if he left, what would happen to the tens of thousands of troops under his command? Who could suppress the left wing?

"Your Highness, I still have important responsibilities in the local area."

For a civil servant, being able to join the cabinet is a great power and honor, but Yuan Jixian was well aware of the complexity of the situation between the two armies, and after thinking for a moment he decided to decline.

But Zhu Cilang had not been trapped in the deep palace for long, so how could her words in such an occasion be aimless?

"It's okay. I still have some arrangements for the two armies. It's okay for Elder Yuan to return to the court after everything is done."

His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has said so much. If Yuan Jixian still makes excuses, it means he is not concerned about state affairs but is planning to increase his military power for his own benefit.

Although he still had some doubts in his heart, he had no other choice facing such a situation. After agreeing, he returned to the civil servant queue.

"Here is a list of candidates for various ministries and departments. The cabinet can refer to it. As for other matters, let the three elders decide."

"Old minister accepts the order."

Seeing that the position of cabinet minister had been decided, Zhu Cilang pulled out a list from his sleeve.

On this list, he gave "suggestions" to the six ministers and made special "suggestions" to individual vice ministers. In this way, the framework of the central government of the imperial court was basically established.

This is as it should be. As the "king" of a country, Zhu Cilang naturally has to maintain a certain control over key departments.

However, he did not place all the officials from various departments as his confidants. After all, he did not have many candidates who were qualified to serve as the Shangshu, and he also knew that eating alone would cause great backlash.

In the eyes of some people, the emperor's words are law and his words are enforceable. But in reality, except for a few founding emperors who conquered the world with their own hands, every emperor would be subject to various restrictions.

Zhu Cilang was well aware of this. He even knew what kind of backlash a founding emperor who had made great contributions to the country suffered after "betraying" the vested interest groups.

Under such circumstances, he naturally had to think carefully before giving out this seemingly decisive list.

Minister of War Zhu Dadian, Minister of Revenue Zhang Guowei, Minister of Rites Liu Zongzhou, Minister of Personnel Yang Tinglin, Minister of Works Li Yongmao, Minister of Punishments Ruan Dacheng, Left Vice Minister of War Wu Yi, Left Vice Minister of Punishments Tian Yang, Left Censor-in-Chief Xu Yu, and Right Censor-in-Chief Huang Daozhou.

Zhu Cilang used Zhang Guowei and Yang Tinglin, two people who seemed to have no obvious faction and were quite loyal to him, to control the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Personnel, and also pinned Wu Yi and Tian Yang in the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Justice. In general, he completed his control over the core of the court.

The most noteworthy thing here is the appointment of the Donglin Party.

The Minister of Rites, as a candidate for cabinet minister, was a high position, but he had no real power and was just an empty title before he actually entered the cabinet; and although the Right Censor-in-Chief was a high position with great power, he could not actually directly interfere in administration.

Under such an arrangement, if the Zhejiang faction wanted to influence the government, they had to do so either through Qian Qianyi or Huang Daozhou.

Although Qian Qianyi's disciples were distributed locally, there were only a few of them at the central level. It would cost a lot to exert influence through him. After all, Huang Daozhou's department was an offensive department. Every intervention in the government meant offending a group of people.

In this way, Zhu Cilang not only fulfilled his promise to the two Donglin factions, but also reduced Donglin's interference in the government as much as possible. Moreover, their entry into the court also hung a sharp sword over the heads of the eunuch party. It is not an exaggeration to say that he killed four birds with one stone.

Of course, in the subsequent competition for the posts of vice minister and so on, there will inevitably be changes of one kind or another, but no matter what, after such an appointment, there will inevitably be a three-way confrontation in the small court.

Things have come to this point. Although the court meeting has ended, it does not mean that everything has been arranged.

After all the ministers had left one after another and only three cabinet ministers and Xu Yinjue, a super-rank duke, were left in the lobby of the Ministry of War, Zhu Cilang then moved on to the next topic.

"I intend to reorganize the armies and redraw the defense zones."

After he finished speaking, everyone present had a calm expression, and they had obviously guessed the purpose of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince asking them to stay.

joke.

Generals such as Zhang Guowei, Zhu Datian, Yang Tinglin and Li Yongmao have all served as officials in the court. If the tens of thousands of newly recruited troops are not reorganized, will they be left to cause chaos?
There is probably nothing wrong with inferring from this that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is thinking.

But their thoughts were correct, but not comprehensive. According to Zhu Cilang's thoughts, not only the new militias had to be reorganized, but also the existing armies had to be moved slightly. So when they once again saw what was written on the piece of paper taken out from the sleeve of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, everyone's expressions became quite complicated.

The imperial guards were expanded into five armies: front, back, left, right and center, led by Fang Guoan, Hou Chengzu, Chang Guanlin, Mei Chun and Xiang Rensheng. Except for the front army led by Chang Guanlin with 40,000 troops and the center army led by Xiang Rensheng with 5,000 troops, the other three armies each had 30,000 troops.

This action is not small, but these troops have made considerable military achievements under the personal leadership of His Highness. For example, Fang Guoan's troops even received His Highness's personal permission to join the Royal Guards in the Battle of Hangzhou.

Although such an arrangement was somewhat unexpected for the ministers in the hall, it was reasonable upon closer thought.

What really made them look complicated was the arrangements for the rest of the armies.

The reorganization of Zuo Menggeng's troops, the reorganization of Yuan Jixian's troops, the reorganization of Hu Maozhen's troops, the reorganization of Wu Zhikui's troops, and the reorganization of the southern Anhui volunteer army.

These five consecutive reorganizations would not necessarily proceed smoothly even in a stable period, let alone during this period of internal and external troubles and precarious situation?
"Your Highness, I should have avoided suspicion, but the reorganization is too serious. If we are not careful, it will lead to civil unrest. We should not rush it."

Yuan Jixian was quite optimistic about Zhu Cilang, but since the two had never dealt with each other on real affairs, he naturally did not have a deep understanding of the Crown Prince's style of doing things.

So when he had read all the contents on that page into his mind, and saw that the other two cabinet ministers and the duke did not take any action, he took the initiative to step forward.

In his opinion, the other three routes were okay, the most troublesome were the Zuo and Wu routes.

Although the left troop no longer has the former military might after several twists and turns, it would still be a big trouble if they caused trouble due to resisting reorganization; and Wu Zhikui occupied many cities in Suzhou and Songjiang, and although his troops were insignificant, if he was determined to resist, it would have a huge impact on Suzhou and Songjiang's recovery.

Yuan Jixian knew very well that reorganization could strengthen the combat capability of each unit and reduce the risk of military generals becoming independent. However, in the current situation, everything was complicated and even if reorganization had great benefits, it should be done slowly and not rashly.

"It doesn't matter. If there is trouble, there will be trouble. At worst, we can take advantage of the Tartars' return to the north to wipe out those who have evil intentions."

After he finished speaking, Yuan Jixian opened his mouth, not knowing how to respond, while the other three people all showed an expression of "as expected".

Given this gentleman's temper of preferring death to disgrace, how could he possibly allow the emergence of a self-contained vassal state under his rule?
"Your Highness is wise, but I don't know who should be sent to suppress any unusual movements in the tribes?"

Just as Yuan Jixian was shocked at the Crown Prince's indifference, he heard another murderous remark coming from the side. When he turned his head, he saw Qian Qianyi, who had a sage-like air, waiting for the Crown Prince's reply.

The world is in chaos, why are people becoming abnormal?

He had dealt with Qian Qianyi before, and had a certain understanding of his style of doing things from what Qian Qianyi had done. However, he had never imagined that after such a long time since they last met, the literary leader who usually hid in the dark and stirred up trouble would actually start with the word "eliminate".

"Xuancheng has Chang Guanlin, whose troops should be able to suppress Zuo Menggeng. This Wu Zhikui..."

Another round of voices was heard. Yuan Jixian, who was still in a daze, turned his head and saw Ma Shiying frowning and thinking, as if he was also a little embarrassed about how to deal with Wu Zhikui's troops.

What happened to these two?
Why does the first thing they do is start fighting and killing?

After hearing these two sentences, Yuan Jixian was no longer able to think about whether the opinions of the two elders were feasible. At this moment, all his attention was focused on why the person had undergone such a change.

But there were three people in the field after all. Before he could find any clues, he heard another burst of voices coming over.

"Wu Zhikui's place is easy to deal with. Hu Maozhen's troops have been reorganized for quite some time. Why not just send him there directly?"

After Xu Yinjue finished speaking, both Zhu Cilang and Qian Ma nodded slowly, obviously thinking that this method was feasible.

At this point, the reorganization was completely finalized. When Zhu Cilang noticed that Yuan Jixian's eyes were a little dull, he thought for a moment and said to him, "As the saying goes, before resisting foreign aggression, we must first stabilize the country. The Ming Dynasty lost half of its territory because the country was rotten to the core."

Zhu Cilang was quite disdainful of this statement at the time because of his relationship with Chiang Kai-shek.

But as he grew older, he suddenly realized that the guy had more defeats than victories precisely because he had not sorted out the internal problems of his faction.

"The soldiers are the generals who are afraid to fight to the death, and the factional struggles have almost caused the court to malfunction. In this situation, the three elders must be extremely cautious."

As he spoke, Zhu Cilang's eyes seemed to inadvertently sweep over the faces of Qian Ma and the other two, and the others naturally bowed and said yes, and the voices of Qian Ma and the other two were obviously more respectful than the other two.

Zhu Cilang would not express anything about the two's performance. After a brief thought, he felt that there was nothing more to say, so he said to them, "If there is nothing else, then let's go."

"Your Highness, I have something to report."

As the voice came, everyone's eyes were cast on Xu Yinjue.

In the officialdom, it has always been said that if you don't know something, it means that it is useless even if you know it.

Based on this, no matter how curious everyone was about what Xu Yinjue was going to report, they should have left on their own initiative to avoid being accused of spying on others.

But just as Ma Shiying was about to bow and leave, he found that Qian Qianyi was still standing upright beside him. Then he seemed to feel an itch in his throat and coughed lightly. Yuan Jixian, who had just raised his hand, straightened his collar which seemed a little messy.

Xu Yinjue was naturally unaware of the little actions of the few people, but Zhu Cilang was sitting opposite them, so how could he not know anything?
But after a brief thought, he found that the only thing that Xu Yinjue could report privately was that matter. So he just stared at Xu Yinjue and pretended to be ignorant of the other people's shamelessness.

"What's the matter, Duke?"

As His Royal Highness the Crown Prince continued to ask questions, even though Xu Yinjue no longer wanted to show in front of them that he did not have much prestige among the nobles, he had to bite the bullet and answer.

"Your Highness, I have failed to live up to your trust. Less than 40% of the nobles are willing to engage in the grain business. Even if we calculate based on the grain prices before the war, there is still a big gap."

As soon as he finished speaking, Xu Yinjue felt his face getting hot. But who would have thought that before His Royal Highness the Crown Prince expressed his opinion on this, two powerful voices came from behind him.

"Your Highness! This old minister is willing to help the court with its worries!"

"Your Highness! I, an old minister, am also willing to share the worries of the court!"

(End of this chapter)