Jiajing Chengming

Chapter 55 I don't want to pay this price
Zhang Cong returned the greeting again: "It is a pleasure to meet you. Your name is well-known throughout the world. It is my honor to meet you in the Imperial Academy."

Yang Shen smiled awkwardly: "It's just a little bit of empty reputation, how can it compare to your words that calmed more than 200,000 soldiers and civilians, initiated a new policy for our dynasty, and preserved your majesty's saintly virtue."

Yang Shen took Yang Tinghe's words to heart and admitted that if he wanted to govern the Ming Dynasty in the future, he should be broad-minded and treat those who had not yet committed evil deeds fairly. It was at this time that he took the initiative to get to know Zhang Cong and praised Zhang Cong.

"Excellent."

Zhang Cong replied, and in his heart he had a higher opinion of Yang Shen.

Jiang Rubi, who was standing by, couldn't help but show his admiration for Yang Shen.

After all, Yang Shen was indeed a leader in the literati circle at that time. He was able to take the initiative to humble himself and make friends with the new Jinshi and praise him endlessly. In this era, no one would not be moved.

Moreover, not only Zhang Cong and Jiang Rubi were moved, but other scholars were also deeply touched and admired Yang Shen even more.

"After all, he is the eldest son of the Grand Tutor, and his family tradition is very upright. He does not make friends based on status, but only on talent and virtue."

"I am a new comer, Yang Weicong from Gu'an, and would like to meet Yang Xiuzhuan!"

At this time, Yang Weicong took the initiative to step forward, bowed to Yang Shen, and at the same time glanced at Jiang Rubi with an unfriendly look.

Yang Shen also returned the greeting: "I have also heard of Yang Jieyuan's talent and reputation for a long time."

"Don't dare!"

The provincial examinations in the north and south of Zhili have always been of high value. In the eyes of scholars all over the world, the top scorer in the provincial examinations in these two places is more valuable than the first place in the palace examinations, so Yang Shen called Yang Weicong the top scorer.

In front of the literati and scholars, Yang Shen would naturally not be as arrogant as he was in front of the Jinyiwei Luo An, and he would still show due respect to the literati and scholars.

As a result, Yang Shen was respected and appreciated by the Hanlin scholars. The Hanlin scholars did not feel that Yang Shen was arrogant. They only felt that Yang Shen was respectful to the wise and humble, magnanimous and of high character, worthy of being a descendant of a famous family.

So, for a while, many Hanlin scholars gathered around Yang Shen after hearing that Yang Shen was coming, and paid their respects to him.

Yang Shen was naturally accustomed to this phenomenon, so he dealt with it calmly.

Jiang Ruobi, who never liked to mingle with people, hid behind Zhang Cong unconsciously as more and more people came, and said to Zhang Cong:
"Why don't we go first? It's boring with so many people here."

At this time, Shu Fen, the top scholar of the previous year, also came over, took the initiative to bow to Yang Shen, and asked Yang Shen: "I wonder if the master is feeling better now?"

Without waiting for Yang Shen to answer, Yang Weicong said, "The Grand Tutor has also worked hard for the country. He determined the order of rotation and stabilized the government before Your Majesty came to Beijing. He eliminated treacherous officials, cut redundant staff, and allocated disaster funds. All of these things took a lot of effort. He is the pillar of the country. Gentlemen in the world, who doesn't want the Grand Tutor to recover soon, return to the cabinet, assist the emperor, and resume the rule of Hongzhi as soon as possible."

"That's right. We just hope that the Master can recover from his illness and arrange the grand ceremony as soon as possible."

Editor Xu Chengming then added something.

Shu Fen nodded and said, "At present, Shunde is in charge of the cabinet, and he is very willing to keep the people safe, but he is not strong enough to eliminate traitors. Although he has great benefits for the people, he can hardly make great plans for the country. We only hope that the Grand Tutor will return to the cabinet as soon as possible to make the country safe."

"Thank you for your concern for my father."

Yang Shen then bowed and said, "To be honest, my father's illness has gradually improved and his appetite has increased a lot. According to the doctor, after a few more days of recuperation, he will not need to take medicine anymore and just needs to pay attention to his daily diet."

"This is a blessing for the country and the people!"

Yang Weicong immediately exclaimed in praise.

Xu Chengming also laughed and said, "It seems that the day when the Grand Tutor returns to the cabinet is just around the corner!"

Yang Shen also smiled slightly, only then looked at Zhang Cong, bowed to him and said: "I have heard that you have a lot of insights on the Book of Rites. I wonder what you think of the great ceremony?"

"Etiquette should be correct."

Zhang Cong replied.

Yang Shen couldn't help but praise: "Well said!"

Then, Yang Shen bowed and said: "Reforming the system and clearing the fields is for the sake of the people, so it must be done, but etiquette is for the sake of the country, so it must be correct."

Zhang Cong nodded, but then he was pulled away by Jiang Ruobi, who asked in a low voice, "Are you going to have the same courtesy as Yang Sheng'an?"

"I am practicing the correct etiquette, not the same etiquette!" Zhang Cong replied.

Jiang Ruobi looked back quickly and then whispered, "You are killing yourself, you are making such a loud noise."

"Didn't you hear? Yang Xindu is almost fully recovered from his illness and is going back to the cabinet. By then, whoever asks the emperor to recognize Emperor Xiaozong as his father but doesn't speak loud enough will be considered disloyal!"

Jiang Rubi continued.

Zhang Cong laughed: "He won't return to the cabinet!"

"Why?"

"The emperor won't want him to come back."

……

Zhu Houcong really didn't want Yang Tinghe to return to the cabinet.

Very much not.

No emperor likes a prime minister who treats the monarch as the price to maintain world peace.

After learning that the rumor that Yang Tinghe had recovered was spreading among the court and the public, Zhu Houcong became more determined to prevent Yang Tinghe from returning to the cabinet.

He knew that he could not sit idly by and watch Yang Tinghe announce his recovery and then wait for others to put a memorial in front of him asking him to return to the court.

"Sir, in this first issue of the Yumin Newspaper, in addition to spreading my benevolence to the world, you should also include more praise for Yuan Fu."

For this reason, when Yuan Zonggao presented him the first issue of "Yumin Newspaper" and asked him to read it, Zhu Houcong specifically requested that "Yumin Newspaper" should contain more positive and praise words for Liang Chu.

This is because Zhu Houcong needed to hype up Liang Chu, the chief minister of the cabinet, so that Liang Chu's reputation would be higher in the court and the public, so that he could compete with Yang Tinghe.

After all, Liang Chu also had the merit of making plans and welcoming the emperor to the throne.

Moreover, he has cleared the farms and stabilized more than 200,000 soldiers and civilians, which has greatly reduced the number of bandits in the capital and successfully started the new dynasty's revival.

Therefore, as long as Liang Chu himself is willing to fight for it, or the emperor or other people are willing to support him, Liang Chu can easily gain the support of many middle and lower-level officials in the capital and local officials outside the court who are not clear about the secrets of the top circles in the court and are not clear about the emperor's likes and dislikes.

At least it makes people feel that even if Yang Tinghe does not serve as the prime minister, it is not a bad thing for Liang Chu to serve as the prime minister.

It was not difficult for Zhu Houcong to support Liang Chu, as he had plenty of merits to give to Liang Chu.

For example, recalling the eunuchs who had committed crimes in various places and were hated by local civil officials, gentry, and even the people.

Since these eunuchs had no families in the local area, they often used very brutal means to make money. For example, they would slander a place for mining or special products, arrest people to pay compensation or forcibly levy levies, which forced many people into bankruptcy, causing public resentment and damaging the emperor's reputation, making people more willing to believe that civil officials would rule for the people, rather than believe that the emperor and the people in the palace would rule for the people.

In short.

If Liang Chu could obtain an imperial decree to recall the eunuchs stationed in various places, then Liang Chu would surely be praised by everyone in the world.

But of course this requires Zhu Houcong to be willing to feed these merits to Liang Chu, so that Liang Chu can enjoy them.

However, Zhu Houcong had no intention of giving these merits to Liang Chu for nothing. Naturally, he wanted Liang Chu to be willing to cooperate with him and give him corresponding rewards.

Besides.

Zhu Houcong also planned to continue creating difficulties for the rulers and ask them to solve major problems related to the country's economy and people's livelihood.

Because Zhu Houcong knew that Yang Tinghe was essentially a conservative, he was not really willing to reform and eliminate malpractices. The reforms and elimination of malpractices he was willing to do were essentially just pasting, and were not of the same nature as Zhang Cong, Gui E, and later Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng.

Therefore, as long as Zhu Houcong really wanted to do something truly revitalizing under the banner of serving the country and the people, Yang Tinghe would be afraid to move forward.

Therefore, Zhu Houcong continued to work hard to govern the country, and began to search in his memorials for urgent and bad policies that he could use the pretext of justice to ask the ruling authorities to find ways to solve.

Not long after, Zhu Houcong found one, and he deliberately acted very angry on the spot, and said in a deep voice: "Call the Prime Minister!"

(End of this chapter)