Jiajing Chengming

Chapter 18 Yang Tinghe's Reforms
On the fifteenth day of the third month of the sixteenth year of the Zhengde reign, the day after the death of Emperor Zhengde, his last will was officially promulgated throughout the country.

As a result, military post stations across the Ming Dynasty became busy, and the sound of horse hooves could be heard everywhere on the official roads.

From this day on, Yang Tinghe, the chief minister of the cabinet, also ushered in his most glorious period.

First, he joined forces with the Imperial Household Department and used a trick to put Jiang Bin, Shen Zhou, Li Cong and other powerful generals in the Zhengde period into prison.

Then, Yang Tinghe began a vigorous reform to cut down redundant staff in military academies.

There were more than 100,000 Jinyiwei, internal supervisors, flag officers and servants left over from the Zhengde Dynasty. Yang Tinghe had put them on the layoff list in advance, preparing to dismiss them in the enthronement edict when Zhu Houcong came to Beijing to ascend the throne.

There were indeed problems of redundant staff and empty salaries in the official academies in the capital of the Ming Dynasty. That is, although there seemed to be a lot of soldiers in the capital on the roster, the actual number of soldiers was very small. Most of them were white-collar people with connections who received salaries but did not practice, or they were empty salaries used by the powerful to enrich themselves.

Logically, if the Ming Dynasty wanted to improve its finances, it should also cut redundant staff and reduce expenditures on relationships and empty salaries.

However, Yang Tinghe did not choose to offend these powerful bureaucrats. Instead, he chose to take action against the ordinary banner officers who were recruited into the palace by Zhengde to strengthen the Jinyiwei, and only laid off these people.

Because these people were all selected from the soldiers in the border towns, they did not have any strong backgrounds, but were very loyal to the Ming Dynasty. They were so loyal and brave that they dared to go into battle and fight the Tartars. They were selected by Zhengde to join the Jinyiwei when he patrolled the border and became his close ministers.

To be more specific, these frontier soldiers were basically the middle and lower-level military landlords in the frontier garrisons. Like Qi Jiguang and Yu Dayou in history, although they had hereditary military officer positions, those positions were not high, and their family backgrounds were not very strong, so they had to rely on military examinations and military exploits to be discovered and reused by the emperor, which could not be compared with the military honors of dukes and marquises.

And precisely because these frontier soldiers had no background, had received some favors from the country, and held an ordinary hereditary official position, they were easy to lay off.

In short.

Yang Tinghe targeted ordinary military sons who were both loyal and brave.

Only when these people are laid off will they understand the court and be able to do their work, and there will be no possibility of large-scale rebellion. At most, a few lowest-level soldiers who have no property may turn into thieves.

On the contrary, he did not dare to lay off the nobles who were drawing salaries without doing anything and the sons of important civil servants who were serving as officials in the Jinyiwei system and drawing salaries without doing anything.

After all, these people have backgrounds and power, and their loyalty to the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty is not that high.

This is normal. The closer one is to the imperial power, the less awe one has for it.

Although it is said that serving the emperor is like serving a tiger, the closer you are to the emperor, the less mysterious the tiger will be.

Therefore, in history, whenever dynasties changed, there were very few top nobles and civil officials who died for their country. However, there were quite a few middle and lower-level officials, both civil and military, who died for their country.

However, Yang Tinghe's reform of cutting redundant staff was a reform to improve the financial difficulties at the expense of the country's fundamentals and weakening of the country's military strength.

The biggest victims of this reform were the middle class who were the most loyal to the Ming Dynasty and the emperor, and who had the most respect for him.

Perhaps in Yang Tinghe's view, the more one loves the Ming Dynasty, the more one should sacrifice for it.

After all, for the Ming Dynasty, these people are the least valuable for united front work. Letting them bear the cost of reform will cause the least harm in the short term and is also the easiest to succeed.

This is true.

It is not ruled out that in the ordinary military academies that were eliminated, extremists might do extreme things, such as assassinating Yang Tinghe.

But among the upper eunuchs, no one disobeyed Yang Tinghe. From the chief eunuch of the Imperial Household Department to the officials of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, and to the nobles in charge of various camps in the capital and the officials of the Ministry of War, all cooperated with Yang Tinghe and handed over the list.

They were also happy to lay off these people, replace them with a few of their own relatives and friends, and sell a few more official positions.

They have even begun soliciting bribes in the name of cooperating with layoffs in an effort to make a fortune.

The weak-willed officers and soldiers naturally paid money, offered bribes, and even offered their daughters and wives to satisfy the desires of these people.

Officers with good character and strong will will naturally not only not pay the money, but will also become discouraged and resign on their own initiative. Their disappointment with the court will deepen and their desire to achieve success will fade.

of course.

The chief eunuch of the Imperial Household Department, the officials of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, the nobles of the capital, and the officials of the Ministry of War all knew that if they cooperated with Yang Tinghe in doing this, they would be damaging the vitality of the country and the foundation of imperial power. After all, these people were the backbone of the emperor's personal army who worked really hard. If they were laid off, it would be like leaving the emperor, the giant dragon, without claws and fangs.

But they were not afraid of the new emperor's revenge, because they would say that they were all doing what Yang Tinghe wanted, and that they themselves were stupid and mediocre and had no opinions of their own, so they were fooled by Yang Tinghe.

As a result, Yang Tinghe seemed to be extremely powerful for a time. From the Imperial Household Department to the Embroidered Uniform Guard, to the Six Ministries, and even to the local governments, most people obeyed his orders.

Yang Tinghe was adept at cutting down the foundation of imperial power and placing his own people in positions of power.

Even if Yang Tinghe let one of his dogs go to the palace to be a royal dog, it would not be a problem.

For Yang Tinghe, the feeling of being in power was like an addictive drug.

Now he is feeling very proud and feels that everything is going well.

First of all, everyone from nobles to civil officials praised him, and even the eunuchs now respected him.

Secondly, he knew that once he eliminated the Jinyiwei Banner Schools that were added during the Zhengde period, he would be able to save a lot of expenses, improve the finances, and benefit the people.

Finally, and more importantly, he was finally going to welcome a holy emperor who loved his people like his own children to the Ming Dynasty.

Because he had learned from the urgent message sent by his student Wang Yu that Zhu Houcong, whom he supported, vomited all the food he had eaten when he suddenly heard the news of the emperor's death. Moreover, when his students had a conflict with Gu Dayong, he did not favor the eunuchs, and did not punish Gu Dayong on the grounds that he did not want to treat the old people of Zhengde harshly.

This made Yang Tinghe, who was also an old man of the Zhengde Dynasty, very satisfied. He felt that Zhu Houcong was very moderate and honest, and was exactly the image of his ideal emperor.

After all, people who are moderate and honest are easy to bully.

Good people are better to be pointed at with guns.

Just like the main personnel he laid off this time were all the most loyal people to the Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, Yang Tinghe believed that Zhu Houcong would be a benevolent monarch who would be easy to control and would be very satisfied with him and grateful to him for what he had done during the more than 30-day window of imperial power.

Anyway, in this season of late spring and early summer, in Yang Tinghe's eyes, the entire Ming Dynasty also had a feeling that all things were competing to flourish.

Full of life!

When I think about the fact that the new emperor is only fifteen years old and still a local vassal with shallow roots.

He felt more and more that he had an advantage over me, and his desire for power to hold on to it for a long time became increasingly difficult to fade away, and even became more intense to the point of being difficult to suppress.

As a result, Yang Tinghe became more and more determined to completely suppress the imperial power.

Of course, Yang Tinghe was not without concerns that Zhu Houcong might not be an ordinary young man, that he might be extremely talented, or that there might be a master around him who could enlighten him.

But as far as Yang Tinghe knew, Yuan Zonggao, who was driven to the Prince Xing's Palace by him, had been very honest over the years and did not teach Zhu Houcong any improper knowledge.

Also.

Yang Tinghe himself was once a child prodigy.

He passed the imperial examination at the age of twelve and became a Jinshi at the age of nineteen. He didn't think there was any young man in the world smarter than him.

Therefore, he felt from the bottom of his heart that even if Zhu Houcong was a talented young man, he could not compare to him.

Yang Tinghe did not have too many doubts about this. He did not even directly transfer Yuan Zonggao away from Zhu Houcong. He only let Mao Cheng and Gu Dayong replace the people around Zhu Houcong and thus achieve the goal of controlling Zhu Houcong.

But what Yang Tinghe did not expect was that the successor emperor really loved the people like his own children. According to reports from his subordinates, the emperor actually brought quite a few refugees into the capital.

This made him feel sad and happy at the same time.

What is worrying is that if the successor monarch truly loves the people, it means he may be too obsessed with governance and not follow the laws established by his ancestors.

The good news is that this shows that the successor is a truly benevolent ruler, which means that in the name of the people, we can ask the successor to be self-disciplined and frugal, or even sacrifice himself.

When the imperial carriage arrived at the outskirts of the capital, Mao Cheng obtained Zhu Houcong's permission to send someone to ask Yang Tinghe first, and directly sent Yang Tinghe's brother Yang Tingyi to deliver the letter to him. Only then did he realize that although the heir to the throne was kind, he did not seem so easy to control.

"You don't want to enter the city with the ceremony of a crown prince?"

After Yang Tingyi told him this, Yang Tinghe asked Yang Tingyi with great disappointment.

Yang Tingyi nodded solemnly.

(End of this chapter)