Prince Chongzhen

Chapter 453: Early Imperial Examination
Time is a strange thing. To those who don't need it, the days pass by like years, while to those who need it, they wish they had a few more hands.

Zhu Cilang did not have much time to spend with Xu Shaoyue after his wedding. As soon as he completed all the procedures, he stayed in the warm room of the Qianqing Palace.

There is no way around this.

At the beginning, he didn't have many people he could trust, and he had to keep an eye on everything himself.

By this time, although the imperial court had restored all control of the palace, due to inertia, the officials in the court all felt that His Majesty would pay attention to all the details of the task at hand.

As a result, his desk was piled high with memorials coming in from all directions, and even Zhou Quan could not help but secretly complain about the governors and governors-general.

Zhu Cilang was not very impatient with this situation.

At heart, he was also a person who had experienced all kinds of entertainment. In his eyes, those toys of the time were not much different from reviewing memorials. Instead of wasting time, he might as well put all his energy into government affairs.

"Zhou Quan, send these two out as soon as possible."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

With a light call, Zhou Quan took the two memorials placed on the corner of the desk. Then, seeing that the emperor's attention was not here, he knew that there was no further instruction, so he quietly retreated outside the pavilion.

These two memorials were sent by Yang Weizhi and Qu Shisi. One described the situation of the chieftain system reform in Yunnan, while the other described the internal strife among the chieftains in Guangxi.

There is nothing surprising about the internal strife. The families in Guangxi have been feuding for more than a hundred years. Every time they try to find ways to kill all the enemies, there will always be some that slip through the net.

To this day, there are frequent feuds between chieftains in Guangxi. The imperial court knows that they cannot cause much trouble, so they just do their best and leave the rest to fate. Apart from waiting until they have killed almost all of them and then mediating, there is not much action taken.

At first, Zhu Cilang did not pay much attention to this memorial. After he commented on it, he planned to issue it through the cabinet according to normal procedures.

But it is not known whether the cabinet members acted deliberately or it was just an accident, but below the memorial from Guangxi was the one sent by Yang Weizhi.

According to common sense, he was only the military governor of Lancang, and had no qualifications to submit memorials directly to the central government. However, he used a trick to greatly delay the time for Sha Dingzhou to advance, and his role was extremely crucial.

Therefore, even though Yang Weizhi did not have any outstanding military achievements in the war to quell the rebellion, Zhu Cilang still gave him the title of Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Left Army Commandery through the cabinet.

By this time, the Duke of Qian was young and the Governor of Yunnan was dismissed, so he, the Deputy Governor-General, became the de facto person in charge of Yunnan.

In his memorial, he detailed the progress of the policy of converting natives into officials in Yunnan.

There is no need to say much about those who firmly stand on the side of the government army. There are only a few chieftains there, and the court should reward them well. There is no need to bother about those who obeyed Sha Dingzhou. When Zhu Cilang was still entangled with Haoge in Hanzhong, their lairs had been raided.

Apart from these two groups, the rest were openly unwilling to help each other, and Yang Weizhi's focus was on these people.

This group of people did not directly send troops during the Sha Dingzhou Rebellion, but many of them secretly provided great convenience to the rebels. Therefore, at the end of the rebellion, evidence of collusion with the rebels was found among many of these fence-sitters, and they could not escape the fate of being demoted to the Han people.

As the situation has developed to this point, the settlement of the fence-sitters has been completed, and their fields and forests have been distributed to the people according to the emperor's order. However, the remnants of their forces are still restless, so Yang Weizhi wants the central government to issue an edict to allow the Guangxi troops led by Jiao Lian to stay in Yunnan temporarily.

After reading these two memorials, Zhu Cilang not only understood Qu Shisi's implied meaning, but also imagined a war of words between Yunnan and Guangxi.

Earlier, due to the Sha Dingzhou rebellion in Yunnan and the Qingxian army in Sichuan, Zhu Cilang was slightly short of troops, so he ordered Jiao Lian to lead the troops from Guangxi into Yunnan to quell the rebellion.

According to common sense, the Sha Dingzhou Rebellion should have been quelled by this time, and the foreign troops from Guangxi should have returned the same way they came. However, the situation in Yunnan was rather special, and without the deterrence of a large army, some trouble was bound to occur.

According to Zhu Cilang's thinking, Yang Weizhi must have played Tai Chi tricks on Qu Shisi again and again, and was reluctant to let the Guangxi troops return.

When the modest gentleman reacted, Yang Wei knew that this fellow must have suppressed the matter by claiming that there was no imperial order, otherwise the lawsuit would most likely not have been brought to Zhu Cilang in this way.

No matter what, the imperial court wants these governors to solve problems. If they always bring things to the higher-ups, they will inevitably be branded as having limited abilities, and it will be difficult for them to advance in their official careers.

Now that Qu Shisi had tactfully brought the matter to light, it seemed that he had been cornered by that cunning fellow in Yunnan.

This is what makes Zhu Cilang embarrassed.

Although the two fiefdoms were in turmoil, neither of them was at fault.

The root cause was that Zhu Cilang did not issue orders in time regarding the departure or stay of the Guangxi soldiers, which caused discord between the two sides.

But then again, during the past year or so, Zhu Cilang was either fighting or on his way to fight. Even after returning to Yingtian, he was still dragged into this warm room by a series of matters, big or small, urgent or slow. He had no time to rest at all, so it was inevitable that he would make mistakes.

The Imperial Household Department still needs to be put into operation.

When this thought came to his mind, Zhu Cilang suppressed it in an instant.

It's not that he was afraid of eunuchs causing trouble, but the eunuchs in Yingtian were really inappropriate.

All the people in the Imperial Household Department in Beijing graduated from the Imperial Palace Academy. In comparison, it would be an exaggeration to say that the eunuchs in Yingtian are illiterate. If he really has the courage to use these people to approve documents, he would probably make a huge joke in just three to five days.

As time passed, another memorial was put aside by Zhu Cilang. Just when he took another one in his hand, footsteps came from outside, and then Xu Shaoyue's voice came into his ears.

"Take a break."

"It's okay. They are all very important. If we are slow in approving them, it will inevitably delay things."

Seeing Zhu Cilang turned around and said something to her with a smile, then turned his attention to the memorial, she placed the fruit plate in her hand on the table and quietly sat down diagonally opposite Zhu Cilang.

She was really worried.

Since his wedding, Zhu Cilang would arrive at the Qianqing Palace before dawn and return to the Rouyi Palace to sleep around midnight.

Xu Shaoyue had heard that His Majesty personally handled all matters and attached great importance to government affairs, but he had not expected that he would spend seven or eight hours out of twelve hours a day buried in these thick documents. If this continued, it would inevitably damage his vitality.

Therefore, she thought that if she could take His Majesty for a walk every day, it would at least help to relax her mind. However, when she saw that he was so focused, she always felt that she could not find a chance to talk.

After a while, Zhu Cilang straightened up, but his brows were tightly furrowed.

Seeing this, Xu Shaoyue knew that His Majesty had encountered a difficult decision, and swallowed back the words that were on the tip of his tongue. But how could Zhu Cilang ignore such a big person sitting opposite him? When he realized that his queen had been sitting there since she came in earlier, he immediately said a little embarrassedly: "We just settled the case between Yunnan and Guangxi, and Gu Yuanjing threw another difficult problem at me. I haven't recovered yet."

According to common sense, since the emperor had said this, the empress should have said a few words to please him, but their relationship was still much closer than that of an ordinary emperor and empress, so Xu Shaoyue spoke directly after a slight hesitation.

"Your Majesty, can you please grant me a favor?"

Zhu Cilang himself was impatient with being confined in the palace. When he heard his wife's words, his first reaction was that the little girl was bored. Then he asked like a string of cannonballs: "Oh? What's the matter? Are you tired of being confined in the palace?"

"No, Your Majesty has been busy with state affairs all day and has lost his vitality. I just want you to take some time to walk around in the garden, so that you can have a rest."

When Zhu Cilang heard the words, his heart was warmed. Looking at his wife's eyes full of concern, he put the red pen back on the pen holder.

"Okay, it's up to you."

After all, he was a person who often served in the army. As soon as he finished speaking, he walked out from behind the desk. When he reached Xu Shaoyue, he stretched out his hand. Then a soft little hand came out in response to the invitation. The emperor and the empress then went out of the pavilion hand in hand.

"Your Majesty, I am honored to see you! Your Majesty, I am honored to see you!"

"."

Looking at Yang Tinglin kneeling at the gate of the Qianqing Palace, Zhu Cilang was speechless.

If it were someone else, he would have waited for a while, or simply sent the person away, but since the old gentleman took office as the Minister of Personnel, he has mostly followed the normal procedures and rarely came to the palace to ask for an audience like he did now. After some hesitation, he could only tentatively ask: "The Queen saw that I was buried in memorials every day, so she invited me to take a walk in the garden. If Mr. Yang has something urgent, why don't we go together?"

"According to the order."

"."

To be honest, Zhu Cilang was always surrounded by a large group of eunuchs and palace maids, so it was impossible for them to have some time alone.

But then again, everyone in the palace is very perceptive. Even if they are always following the emperor, they know when to get closer and when to stay away.

At this time, Yang Tinglin obviously had important matters to report, so Zide followed him, and this opportunity to keep in touch with him became a simple walk.

Forget it, just take a walk.

Feeling the little hand quietly pulled away, Zhu Cilang couldn't help feeling disappointed.

However, facing such an old minister, he couldn't show his emotions on his face, so he could only finish the matter quickly: "Mr. Yang, are you here for the official report?"

"Your Majesty is wise, and the matter of the court report is indeed important."

Zhu Cilang had taken a tour of the factory earlier, during which he focused on important matters such as guns and steam engines. However, such a large factory included all the craftsmen in the Ming Dynasty south of the Yangtze River. There were a wide variety of things inside, and those few things could not represent all of them. Printing technology was one of them.

Back then, Bi Sheng invented printing technology using movable type made of clay, but it was difficult to fully promote it due to cost and durability issues.

Later, with the improvements of countless craftsmen, movable type made of other materials appeared one after another. By the Ming Dynasty, copper movable type was mostly used as a printing medium, and Chinese books also flowed into Europe in large quantities.

But there are some problems here.

On the one hand, not many people mastered the technology of copper movable type, and on the other hand, copper itself has the properties of currency.

As a result of these two factors, knowledge was finally monopolized by a group of people in the Ming Dynasty, and Zhu Cilang could not just stand by and watch.

But then again, he has always believed that touching interests is more difficult than touching the soul.

Since arriving here, he has been doing everything indirectly and piecemeal, and has never had a head-on conflict with internal forces.

So when the factory produced lead movable type, he did not deliberately publicize it, but first published it in the official newspaper.

This official report first appeared in the Han Dynasty, and was roughly equivalent to newspapers in later generations. However, its circulation was limited to the imperial court. Even though some opposition political forces would take pains to obtain it through various channels, ordinary people might not even have heard of it.

This time he made some subtle adjustments to address this situation.

The reports received by officials were distributed according to their ranks. The lower the rank, the closer the content was to daily life. By the time it came to the ninth rank, not only did the reports not contain any important information, but the language was also filled with ordinary, plain language.

According to his thinking, there were already people who made money by copying the imperial gazette in the Song Dynasty. After half a year's work, someone would discover the business opportunity. By then, the technology for making movable lead type would spread quietly like spring rain, and knowledge would probably seep into the minds of ordinary people in this strange way.

Of course, this is just a hypothesis. How things will develop remains to be seen. At this time, Yang Tinglin has come to the palace with the question.

"Mr. Yang, do you think there is something wrong?"

"Your Majesty, the imperial report is an important letter from the court. If it contains some weird and strange skills, it may undermine the dignity of the court."

Weird, supernatural, and bizarre techniques.

Novels like Journey to the West are full of supernatural powers, and books like The Exploitation of the Works of Nature are full of strange and obscene techniques.

Such an evaluation was within Zhu Cilang's expectations, and he had also prepared an explanation.

After he gave some plausible reasons, Yang Tinglin was just stunned for a moment and then did not object at all.

This is the understanding of the ministers.

Yang Tinglin has principles, but in his heart loyalty to the legal system comes first. Now Zhu Cilang is the biggest principle in his heart. He has a justifiable reason, and he can't be as stubborn as an old scholar like Xu Yu.

At this point, Zhu Cilang thought that the matter with Yang Tinglin was over, and he and his wife could now continue to bond without being disturbed.

But who would have thought that when he looked at the old minister who had come from afar to save Yingtian with a little doubt, the other party unexpectedly said: "Your Majesty, now that the Tartars have stopped their wars, our dynasty can also cultivate itself. Under such circumstances, the court should hold the imperial examinations as soon as possible."

(End of this chapter)