Spoiler History: Starting from the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 761 Too hasty

Yingtian Prefecture in the capital.

For all the officials of the Ming Dynasty, it was no secret that His Majesty summoned his close ministers, princes, doctors, monks and workers to the Huagai Palace in mid-November.

The officials had no idea what was discussed in the Huagai Palace, but in fact not many people were interested.

After all, let alone anything else this year, the matter of Hu Weiyong alone was enough to make all the officials tremble with fear.

With the death of Hu Weiyong, the position of prime minister was abolished by an imperial edict, and the six ministers of the six ministries quickly became His Majesty's right-hand men in governing the country.

But after just a few months, the six ministers either fell ill, retired, or remained silent during the court session.

The increasingly difficult-to-predict situation in the capital made all officials participating in court meetings even more cautious.

Under such circumstances, a small secret discussion in the Huagai Palace could not cause any waves among the officials. After all, anyone with a little vision could see clearly that the current Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was the true Son of Heaven who could decide everything with a single word.

Since it was useless to say it, there were only two things that the smart officials could do:
While working hard, I look forward to the New Year holiday.

After all, this year has been exhausting, and just one day of rest every month is not enough to soothe the officials who are already on edge.

Everyone is looking forward to the New Year coming early so that they can quickly turn over this difficult year and spend a relaxing vacation with their family and wife.

However, those officials with a keener sense of smell could sense that since the secret meeting in the Huagai Palace, the imperial court seemed to have undergone some subtle changes.

First, by His Majesty's decree, several capable officials were selected from the court to serve as scholars of the Jiadong Palace to assist the Crown Prince in governing the country.

This decree may seem ordinary at first glance, but those who are familiar with Your Majesty's character know that the current emperor is a monarch who is accustomed to holding the power of life and death tightly in his hands, and Your Majesty also makes the same request to the Crown Prince.

Now that the Crown Prince can be assisted by the East Palace Scholars in governing the country, it is inevitable that those with active minds will speculate:
Could it be that Your Majesty is not satisfied with the current situation where the Prime Minister appoints the six ministries to assist in government affairs, and is planning to try a new method to fill the vacancy of the Prime Minister?
Therefore, many people have been secretly calculating in their hearts and listed these Eastern Palace scholars as places where they must send their business cards during the New Year.

However, just as the officials were waiting for the holiday, news of another war came from the north, causing the officials to tremble:
An urgent report from Peking stated that on November 10, the remnant Yuan Dynasty Pingzhang Wanzhebuhua and Nairbuhua led thousands of Hu and Mongolian cavalry and invaded Yongping Prefecture through Beitaolinkou in Lulong County. Yongping Guard Commander Liu Guang died in battle, and Qianhu Wang Lu was wounded but refused to retreat. They joined forces with reinforcements to repel the enemy and divided their forces to cut off their retreat, then pursued them and launched a surprise attack across the Yan River, capturing the bandit leader Wanzhebuhua.

General Xu Da had a great reputation, so when he returned to the court, an official suggested that Your Majesty order the general to return to Beiping as soon as possible to prevent the remnants of the Yuan Dynasty from learning of this and launching a sudden attack. However, for some reason, this suggestion was rejected by Your Majesty.

And now the remnant Yuan Dynasty really launched an invasion, but fortunately, they finally got a victory report, otherwise all the officials felt that they would not have a good year.

Therefore, although they had never met before, all the officials in Yingtian Prefecture sincerely thanked this brave captain named Wang Lu in their hearts.

Logically speaking, after such an incident, the general should have been ordered to return as soon as possible to strengthen the vigilance, but His Majesty only emphasized the pension for the thousand-householder Liu Guang who died in the battle, and the commendation for the thousand-householder Wang Lu at the court meeting. Apart from that, there was no other imperial decree, as if the victory in Beiyongping Prefecture was a matter of course.

On the contrary, His Majesty issued orders one after another, one ordering all officials to discuss the abolition of the medical households, and another ordering all officials to discuss the change of the Penghu Inspection Office to the Ryukyu Inspection Office. Although all officials in the Fengtian Hall obeyed the orders in person, after the court meeting, all officials who left the hall saw mixed emotions on each other's faces:
Seven parts bitter, three parts expected.

After all, the next day is the winter solstice holiday. Given Your Majesty's temperament, these two edicts are probably equivalent to the homework assigned to them during the holiday.

At this moment, the censors even wanted to turn around and admonish His Majesty with the "way of alternating tension and relaxation in civil and military affairs". After all, they, the censors, were also victims of His Majesty's way of employing people with "one tension, two tensions, three tensions, and then another tension".

But when he calmed down and thought about the matter of Hu Weiyong which had not yet been resolved, the idea of ​​admonishing him was quickly killed.

Let’s discuss… let’s discuss it. There are three days of rest during the winter solstice. After two days of rest, spending one day thinking about the countermeasures for the two edicts should be enough, right?
Although they could think so, in reality, when they visited each other during the winter solstice, officials in the same dynasty could not help but mention the two edicts and work together. As a result, after the three-day winter solstice rest, all officials felt even more tired.

The reason is simple. Both imperial edicts are typical examples of saying little but doing a lot.

The policy of establishing households for artisans was inherited from Hu Yuan by the Ming Dynasty. Moreover, since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, apart from the artisans who were designated as households, there were very few people inside and outside the court who criticized this system.

Your Majesty has brought out a system that almost everyone praises, and asked you to discuss whether to abolish it. This matter itself is strange enough.

During this period of deliberation, the officials in the capital who could participate in the discussion of government affairs quickly locked on two people:
The imperial physician Dai Sigong, and the monk Daoyan, who was said to be proficient in Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, and medicine and fortune-telling.

But when they visited them, they found out that the imperial physician Dai Sigong had been living almost entirely in the palace since the secret meeting in Huagai Palace; and monk Daoyan had been in seclusion since returning to Tianjie Temple, refusing to see guests and claiming that he wanted to comprehend the Dao of Dayan.

Therefore, all the officials began to guess belatedly that something might have really happened in the secret meeting in Huagai Palace.

In addition to this, changing the Penghu Inspection Office to the Ryukyu Inspection Office is even more significant. After all, there are two places called Ryukyu today. One is the overseas isolated island called Yizhou in ancient times, now called Little Ryukyu, and the other is the overseas Ryukyu Kingdom, a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, now called Big Ryukyu.

Your Majesty's edict is vague, and the implications contained therein could be big or small, from accepting vassal states as subjects to govern the country, which might put other vassal states in danger, to reforming maritime affairs and vigorously eliminating Japanese pirates, anything is possible.

In this matter, the officials quickly locked on one person without any effort:
Li Wenzhong, Duke of Cao of the Ming Dynasty.

After all, if we talk about the degree of concern for maritime affairs and Japan, if this Duke is ranked second, no one would dare to claim to be the first, and this gentleman was also included in the secret meeting of the Huagai Palace.

As a result, the officials of the Ming Dynasty had new speculations:

Who knows, maybe those who can participate in the secret meetings in the Huagai Palace are the real right-hand men of Your Majesty. The Crown Prince's academician assists in the administration of the country, perhaps based on the secret meetings in the Huagai Palace?

Zhu Biao was unaware of these messy speculations. He just asked his father:

"Dad, this medical practice should be changed, but if it is abolished all at once, maybe it would be too hasty?"

(End of this chapter)