King Xiang of the Red Chamber

Chapter 800 Baochai's Rage
These words were ostensibly spoken to Zheng and Ye, but in reality they were spoken to Zhu Jinghong. After all, Zhao Yushan had been in power for nearly ten years, and it seemed that it was time for him to move to another position.

If the emperor had this intention, it would be honorable for him to step down voluntarily. Otherwise, he would end up losing his reputation in his later years, which would be a real loss.

Of course, Zhao Yushan’s ideal outcome was to resign after the land survey was completed, but reality did not go as he expected, so he had to make plans early.

Yu Hai smiled and replied, "Your Excellency, that's too much!"

Having said just this, Yu Hai said goodbye and left. As the chief steward of the Qianqing Palace, he had a special status and really shouldn't say too many unnecessary words.

After Yu Hai left, the elderly Zhao Yushan looked solemn and said to his attendants, "Notify all ministries and departments to hold a meeting tomorrow!"

You know, on his left and right were two cabinet ministers, Zheng and Ye. As they were on the same level, they seemed to be more polite in their conversation, but Zhao Yushan spoke so bluntly.

There was no other way. If he wanted to do something, he had to suppress his opponent. Zheng Ye and the other two were his opponents, and they had fought each other to a bloody pulp before. Naturally, there was no need to be polite now.

While the cabinet members were doing their own thing and the officials in the six ministries were stirring up trouble, Zhu Jinghong had already arrived at Yijing Palace for lunch. This was the residence of Yingchun and Tanchun.

Even though they were conferred the title of noble ladies, Yingchun and Tanchun lived a very simple life. For example, the lunch they had was a very simple vegetarian meal.

White rice porridge and pickles, plus six vegetarian dishes and a bowl of soup, this is indeed a life like a monk.

Sitting in the middle, Zhu Jinghong said: "I never get tired of the vegetarian food in Yijing Palace!"

Tanchun sat next to Zhu Jinghong and said with a bright smile, "If your majesty likes it, I, your concubine and sister, will be waiting for you at any time!"

"I would like to come here every day, but unfortunately there are too many things to do in the past, so it is difficult to come!"

"That's right. The whole world is on your Majesty's shoulders. You have a heavy responsibility and cannot afford to make any mistakes. Your Majesty's suffering... How can I, your concubine, understand even a little bit!"

This was comforting, so Zhu Jinghong replied: "That's right, only here with you can I find a moment of peace!"

Just as Zhu Jinghong did not take Tanchun's words seriously, the latter did not really believe what he said at this moment.

"If I can help relieve your majesty's worries, I will be very lucky and will not let you down!"

After hearing this, Zhu Jinghong grabbed Tanchun's hand. He found that this girl was indeed very talkative.

Looking at Tanchun, Zhu Jinghong said, "It seems that bringing you back from Jinling was actually my greatest gain!"

"Your Majesty, you are wrong. Being able to accompany Your Majesty is my greatest blessing!"

Tanchun smiled sweetly, with reverence on her face, and the destructive power of this was truly immense.

"Good...good!" Zhu Jinghong couldn't help but praise.

Yingchun, who was sitting next to them, was really like a piece of wood. She sat there eating vegetarian food, her face was calm but her heart was slightly sour.

What's more, although her action was unintentional, it achieved the effect of retreating to advance.

Seeing Yingchun was all alone, Zhu Jinghong stretched out his other hand and pulled her into his arms, shocking Yingchun so much that she almost screamed out.

"Why don't you say anything? Do you think I'm causing trouble?"

"How dare I!" Yingchun replied hesitantly.

Zhu Jinghong asked again: "What are you doing recently?"

Yingchun replied, "I finished reading the "Tai Shang Wuji Zong Zhen Wenchang Dadong Zhenjing" a few days ago, and started reading the "Supreme Jiuxiao Yuqing Dafan Ziwei Xuandu Leiting Jade Sutra" yesterday!"

Zhu Jinghong was stunned for a moment, as if something had passed through his mind. Anyway, he didn't remember anything after listening.

"Oh... um... very good, I really need to learn the Daoist scriptures. You should teach me well later!"

After hearing what Zhu Jinghong said, Tanchun felt so sad that she could not even cry. She realized that she was the stupidest person. She racked her brains and said a lot of things, but she was still no match for her second sister who was just concentrating on eating.

"Your Majesty, I have also read the "Dipankara Sutra" recently and was just about to ask Your Majesty for advice!" Tanchun hugged Zhu Jinghong's arm.

Feeling the softness in his arms, Zhu Jinghong smiled and said, "Okay... Let's talk about Taoism together later. I have to learn all the Buddhist scriptures and Taoist scriptures!"

A trace of difficulty flashed across Yingchun's face. She didn't like this in her heart, but she didn't want to disappoint Zhu Jinghong.

Of course Tanchun didn't want to do this, but she didn't show it on her face. On the contrary, she was smiling especially brightly at this moment.

Zhu Jinghong and his two companions were traveling together here, while on the other side, in Kunning Palace, Baochai was meeting a lady of noble birth, and Baoqin, who was conferred the title of concubine, was also accompanying them.

It was not unusual for the empress to receive ladies of high rank, but it was extremely unusual for her to receive someone alone.

The person who came was Xia Yuegui, Baochai's sister-in-law, and now a countess.

"The palace's intention now is that if all the imperial missions in the family are converted to maritime trade, we can concentrate more on serving Your Majesty!" Xia Yuegui said with a faint smile.

Although the Xue family is already an earl, they still serve the royal family and pay 100,000 to 200,000 taels of silver to the treasury every year.

Now the Xue family also has several ships and has started maritime transportation business. Having tasted the sweetness of it, they want to expand the scale.

Although the maritime ban has been lifted nowadays, it is still not easy to go out to sea to do business. You must get approval from the government, which is also to facilitate taxation.

In the early years, in order to expand the scale of maritime trade, the imperial court basically did not hinder the issuance of licenses. In recent years, the market has shown signs of saturation, and the imperial court has become much stricter in approving maritime merchants.

This is done to facilitate management and taxation. After all, it would be difficult to manage a market that is too chaotic.

Once those merchant ships that have not been approved are inspected by the navy, all the supplies on board will be confiscated, 50% of which will be handed over to the Maritime Customs, and the other 50% will be used as navy military expenses.

Therefore, the navy is not only very active, but also particularly interested in seizing smuggling ships.

The Xue family now has six ships, and they want to expand to thirty. The increase reaches one-quarter of the annual permission granted by the court, so Xia Yuegui asked the Queen for help.

Although the Maritime Customs Office was a government agency, it was actually a private official of the royal family, similar to the Xue family's status as royal merchants, so asking Baochai for help was a key move.

Picking up the teacup and blowing a breath of hot air, Baochai looked at the tea in the cup and asked slowly, "Is this the Xue family's idea, or yours?"

There is a huge difference here. Xia Yuegui is an extremely smart person. She immediately became alert after hearing this.

Facing the cold eyes of the current queen, her sister-in-law, Xia Yuegui felt a chill all over her body.

She had been given a seat, but now she stood up in a hurry, then bent her waist and reported: "Your Majesty, this matter has been discussed in detail with An Xinbo, and we have just come up with this idea!"

Earl An Xin is Xue Pan. Although he is already an earl, he is still controlled by Xia Yuegui. Now the Xue family is basically controlled by the latter.

Putting down the teacup, Baochai continued to ask: "Do you know that His Majesty conferred the title of Anxin Earl on the Xue family? What does the word An mean?"

Xia Yuegui was stunned. The word "An" could have many interpretations. The question now was what answer the Queen wanted.

Baoqin noticed that the atmosphere was a little strange. After all, Xia Yuegui was also a family member, so she wanted to come out to smooth things over.

But seeing her cousin's expression, Baoqin held back what she wanted to say. She also knew that if she spoke now, something bad might happen.

After experiencing shock and panic, Xia Yuegui finally realized that the problem must be with those thirty ships. The queen herself did not want the Xue family to expand their maritime trade. After figuring this out, Xia Yuegui's reply gradually took shape. But after seeing her bow again, she said, "Reporting to the queen, the word 'An' that His Majesty bestowed was to warn the Xue family to be content with what they have. Now that they are extremely rich and powerful, they should not be greedy!"

Of course, what Xia Yuegui said was correct, but Baochai had three concerns.

One was that the Xue family had too big an appetite and wanted to add thirty merchant ships at once, which indeed seemed too greedy, which was what Xia Yuegui replied.

The second reason why Baochai was angry was that Xia Yuegui was too bold and used her own will to kidnap the Xue family in order to convince herself, the queen.

The third is that the Queen's family is heavily involved in maritime trade, which can easily lead to discussions from all over the world and be detrimental to Queen Baochai and her offspring.

Of course, the essence of the above three issues is that Baochai’s interests are different from those of the Xue family, which is why she puts such pressure on Xia Yuegui.

Money is indeed a material thing for the Queen, but what Baochai wants is fame and the Queen's favor.

"Your Majesty has issued a clear decree, saying that the royal family should not be involved in maritime trade, but should focus on maintaining order, collecting commercial taxes to make up for the losses!"

Baochai's opening words were a compliment, and the edict from Zhu Jinghong that she quoted was actually something that had been said several years earlier. It's hard to say whether it's still valid now.

But she is the queen, and her words at this moment are the truth, unless Zhu Jinghong comes in person and says that he has changed his mind.

"What you are doing is not just out of greed. As a royal relative, you are competing with the people for profit. This is a serious crime!"

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Baochai was bullying the others, and Xia Yuegui had no way of knowing all of her considerations, so at this moment she just nodded in panic, really thinking that she had made a big mistake.

After giving her a few more lectures, Baochai said, "Forget it. You are all loyal, so I won't say any more about this matter!"

"Tao Te Ching says, 'When a hollow is filled, it will be filled; when an empty hollow is filled, it will be filled with new things.' If you do the opposite, disaster is not far away!"

"Your Majesty's teachings, I will remember them!" Xia Yuegui paid her respects again.

Half an hour later, Xia Yuegui walked out of the palace, still feeling frightened.

And the considerate and kind sister-in-law in her impression is now only left with the majestic image sitting in the center of the palace.

After leaving Dong'an Gate, the Xue family's servants welcomed her into the sedan chair, and then carried Xia Yuegui to the mansion. The Xue family still had a mansion in the capital.

Xia Yuegui came to Beijing from Jinling, thousands of miles away, not only to meet the queen, but also to go back to her mother's home and meet her sister.

To the entire Ming Dynasty, the affairs of the Xue family were insignificant. The most important thing at the moment was the court recommendation on the second day of February.

The next day, officials participating in the court recommendation arrived at the Chongzheng Hall one after another. In addition to the cabinet ministers and officials from various ministries and halls, the chief secretaries of the six departments were also participating.

After everyone entered the hall, they stood in line according to their ranks. At this time, the throne in the middle of the Chongzheng Hall was empty.

Everyone waited quietly until the first quarter of the day, which was the scheduled meeting time, when Zhu Jinghong arrived.

"Your Majesty, I wish you the best of health. Long live the Emperor!"

"I am at peace, everyone please stand still!"

After the ceremony, Zhu Jinghong sat behind the imperial desk, looked at the ministers below, and said slowly: "I have just ascended the throne, and I am not familiar with the affairs of state. Today's court discussion involves many vacancies, and you are all my right-hand men... You must speak impartially and recommend virtuous people!"

"If the person you have chosen is capable, I will entrust him with an important task. I hope you will live up to my expectations!"

After some brief nonsense, the court meeting began.

There were more than 30 people at the scene, discussing the ownership of more than a dozen positions. Everyone spoke one by one and argued, and for a while the Chongzheng Hall was extremely noisy.

Everyone has a point, and everyone’s rebuttal also has a point, so who should we use?
After listening for almost half an hour, Zhu Jinghong understood more clearly why the emperors of the past favored the treacherous and appointed people based on personal connections, because it was too difficult to distinguish who were the loyal and capable ministers.

After the court discussion lasted for an hour, only a few people were chosen, and Zhu Jinghong was already tired of listening.

So when everyone continued to discuss, Zhu Jinghong told everyone to continue the discussion and left, saying that he was not feeling well.

Even after entering the Qianqing Palace, he still felt a buzzing sound in his ears.

After returning to the palace, he was not idle. He immediately asked someone to find information about the people to be discussed, intending to make a decision after getting to know them better.

At the same time, he also had people monitor the court discussions, and each person would report immediately after each discussion so that they could grasp the relevant matters as soon as possible.

About half an hour later, Zhu Jinghong learned that there were only two positions that had not been decided, so he returned to the Chongzheng Hall.

After everyone paid him homage again, Zhu Jinghong realized that the last position, that of the Governor of Zhejiang, was being discussed.

Zhejiang is an important tax collection area for the imperial court, and with its back to the sea it has a prosperous commerce. Its governor can be said to be a lucrative position, so the competition is very fierce at the moment.

The intensity of the dispute was reflected in the fact that Mei Jingwen, the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, and Liu Zhixian, the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites, had been confronting each other alone for several minutes.

The level of Vice Minister is only above the Shangshu and the Grand Secretary of the Cabinet. His official rank and actual power are already very high. Such a person should not be in the forefront of the battle.

But as it happened, these two people really confronted each other, making it difficult for others to join the battle.

In fact, Mei and Liu actually have another identity. Their respective teachers are Zhao Yushan and Zheng Zhiqing, the former is the chief minister and the latter is the second chief minister.

Zhu Jinghong was well aware of these situations, so he knew that what was happening now was not only a dispute over truth, but also a party struggle.

"As the saying goes, people should be put to the best use of their talents and things should be put to the best use. Song Zhiyuan is good at governing the people but is good at investigating the inquisition. If he continues to serve in the Hebei Provincial Procuratorate, he will be able to clear up more illegal matters!"

The Song Zhiyuan mentioned by Mei Jingwen is the person recommended by Liu Zhixian, and is currently the deputy envoy of the Hebei Provincial Surveillance Department.

Mei Jingwen continued, looking at everyone present, "Whether serving as the deputy envoy of Hebei Provincial Surveillance Department or the governor of Zhejiang Province, I am serving the court and being loyal to Your Majesty!"

Hearing these words, Liu Zhixian sneered: "Master Mei is worthy of being the top of the second class. He can make up any reason!"

"How can we let the upright official Song Zhiyuan stay where he is and let Du Chengxuan, who has been impeached several times, be promoted to the governor of Zhejiang? "

"The so-called impeachment is all groundless. The court has not charged him with any crime. How can Du Chengxuan not take up his new post?" Mei Jingwen replied calmly.

Liu Zhixian smiled and said, "Lord Mei, His Majesty just told us to speak impartially. Do you dare to swear to heaven that you have no selfish motives in what you say?"

Before Mei Jingwen could reply, Liu Zhixian continued, "As far as I know, Du Chengxuan and you are from the same hometown, and you both worked in Nanjing before, which shows that you two have a close personal relationship!"

"Official positions are public tools of the imperial court. How can they be granted for personal reasons? Lord Mei's actions... can hardly be called fair!"

It has long been an unspoken rule of the court that teachers and students from the same hometown and year support each other. Liu Zhixian pointed it out at this moment, which actually broke the "rules."

But for Liu Zhixian, or the party headed by Zheng Zhiqing, what Zhao Yushan and his party have done over the years has already crossed a more important bottom line.

So now, what does it matter if they ignore the unspoken rules and take risks?
At this moment, everyone present fell silent and focused their attention on the throne; even the three cabinet ministers were no exception.

For the three cabinet ministers, the position of Zhejiang Governor is actually not important. What is important is the emperor’s attitude towards the current structure of the cabinet.

So this last position is actually still a test, but it seems to be more covert.

(End of this chapter)