Optimus One Pillar of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 88 Without Annan, there is only Jiaozhi
Jiajing let Xia Yan go and didn't do anything to him at the time, but he made such a big mistake and it was impossible not to punish him.So in the evening, when three cabinet bachelors and five other examiners finished evaluating the papers and presented the top ten papers to Emperor Jiajing, the emperor and his ministers discussed the matter.

The three cabinet bachelors and the other five judges responsible for this evaluation unanimously believed that Xia Yan had no integrity, lived a corrupt life, had corrupt morals, had a very bad reputation among his colleagues, and had a bad influence on society, so he should be punished Submit it to the Tribunal of Justice for trial.

The important ministers of the imperial court were unanimous in their opinions, and what they said was well-founded. If the emperor changed his mind, Xia Yan would probably be thrown into prison and handed over to the three judicial departments composed of the Ministry of Punishment, the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and the Dali Temple for joint trial.But who is Emperor Jiajing!This is the emperor who is recognized as the most evil-minded emperor in the history of the Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, the more precise the ministers spoke and the more united they were, the more Emperor Jiajing thought that Xia Yan, the "lone minister", had done a great job!If the younger brothers are united and there is no fighting, then how can the elder brother's authority be reflected?
What's more, Xia Yan was a top three Jinshi in the 12th year of Zhengde. Because of his poor test scores, when he was assigned work, he only got a "Pedestrian" from the Zhengbapinxingren Division who was responsible for running errands and delivering documents and materials.Until Emperor Jiajing ascended the throne, Xia Yan was only a seventh-level military officer.

It was Emperor Jiajing who admired Xia Yan and promoted Xia Yan again and again. Finally, in the 15th year of Jiajing, he promoted Xia Yan to the cabinet bachelor, and in the 17th year of Jiajing, he promoted Xia Yan to the chief minister of the cabinet.

In just 17 years, Xia Yan, a junior seventh-level official with no background, was promoted again and again by Emperor Jiajing, and was finally mentioned as the first official of the first-level official. This clearly shows that Emperor Jiajing valued Xia Yan.Now all the ministers in the imperial court have said that Xia Yan is so unbearable, it is not worth a dime.Isn't this implying that Emperor Jiajing has no eyes, is a fool, and promoted such a bastard?
Although Xia Yan is now a pile of stinky shit that Emperor Jiajing wanted to vomit when he saw it, Emperor Jiajing also wished to kick Xia Yan's old dog back to the countryside and let him eat himself from now on.

However, as a politically mature emperor, Emperor Jiajing told himself not to be impulsive and to endure the old dog until he found someone to replace Xia Yan and help him shoulder the heavy responsibility of the country.At the same time, being a petty person, Emperor Jiajing spoke so unfavorably of Xia Yan, who was promoted by a group of ministers. Emperor Jiajing's old face was a bit unbearable. When his rebellious mood came up, he hoped to find someone who could replace Xia Yan in the future. , Xia Yan should be allowed to retire with dignity, this can be regarded as saving some face for himself!
It was precisely based on these small thoughts that Emperor Jiajing finally did not listen to those ministers. He made his own decisions and sentenced Xia Yan. He was deprived of all titles, demoted to the second rank, fined for one year, and publicly made a written review. And continued to spend a month behind closed doors at home.

After making these punishments, Emperor Jiajing asked the ministers to go back to rest, and asked the eunuchs to go to Xia Yan's mansion to deliver the decree.And he himself sat there and read the Shifendian examination paper presented by the ministers. When he saw Wang Daoqiu's paper, with eight neat circles in a row, Emperor Jiajing smiled.

The sun was shining brightly in the afternoon of the next day, and it was another sunny day. The weather in the north is good in this way. It rarely rains and most of the time it is sunny, which makes people feel good.

Knowing that there will be a series of "activities" after the palace examination, Wang Daoqiu did not go to the Nanjianhe construction site after the palace examination, but stayed at home, waiting for the call of Emperor Jiajing at any time.

At noon, Wang Daoqiu and Yin Zhengmao were eating there!Two young eunuchs came to their courtyard. King Xuan Daoqiu entered the palace to see Emperor Jiajing.

According to the rules of the imperial examinations of the Ming Dynasty, the emperor would personally approve the top ten papers for the palace examination, and would also personally recruit these ten candidates for interviews, which was called "Xiao Chuanlu" in the world.After the emperor has interviewed these ten people, he will finally determine the top pick, second place pick, third overall pick in the first class, and the top seven in the second class.Then the Ministry of Rites will fill in the big and small gold lists, and the list will be officially released on the third day after the palace examination. This is called "Dazhuanlu" or "Chuanlu Ceremony".

The emperor summoned Wang Daoqiu at this time, which meant that Wang Daoqiu's palace examination results ranked among the top ten.Therefore, when the young eunuch heard that Emperor Jiajing had summoned Wang Daoqiu to visit Xiyuan, Yin Zhengmao and the others understood what was going on. They gathered around Wang Daoqiu and congratulated him.

After bidding farewell to Yin Zhengmao and the others, Wang Daoqiu came to Xiyuan again with the young eunuch.The young eunuch led Wang Daoqiu to the entrance of a palace in Xiyuan. There were already four tribute students waiting here. The young eunuch asked Wang Daoqiu to stand there and wait, and then he left.

Emperor Jiajing's interview was very fast, basically no more than 10 minutes per person. Wang Daoqiu was the last one to get his turn. It was Lu Fang, the Chief of Ceremonies, who came out to invite him personally. Lu Fang smiled and said to him in a lowered voice: "Congratulations, congratulations. The number one scholar, the sixth prize! The second person in my court after Huang Guangong. Congratulations!"

"Eunuch Lu, don't be ridiculous. The emperor has not summoned him yet, and the subordinates have not responded yet. How can he be the number one scholar?" Although he knew after the examination, Emperor Jiajing was determined to give him a royal blessing this time. Six yuan and the third.But in the end, the matter was not sealed and took effect. Before announcing it to the world, Wang Daoqiu felt that he should remain low-key and modest.After all, this is the glorious tradition of the Chinese people!
After listening to Wang Daoqiu's words, Lu Fang didn't care at all and waved his hand with a smile.Then, still suppressing his voice, he whispered to Wang Daoqiu in a low voice: "To be fair to the No. 1 Scholar, the examiners sent the papers as soon as they came in last night. The Emperor read the No. [-] Scholar's paper and wrote a name on it. A No. [-]."

Damn it, Emperor Jiajing is so partial to himself!Since Emperor Jiajing has approved it, if Wang Daoqiu continues to pretend, he will not be a good friend.So Wang Daoqiu stopped pretending and said, "We are all happy together."

After finishing his pretense with Lu Fang, Wang Daoqiu followed Lu Fang into the palace to meet Emperor Jiajing.Different from seeing other newly promoted Gongsheng students, Emperor Jiajing was very casual when he saw Wang Daoqiu, lying lazily on the soft couch without any image, and waved for Wang Daoqiu to come over and sit down.

Wang Daoqiu did not dare to resist the order, but Emperor Jiajing was notoriously petty, and Wang Daoqiu did not dare to sit on Emperor Jiajing's soft couch.So he sat down on the ground next to the soft couch regardless of the image of a scholar or the royal etiquette.This made Emperor Jiajing laugh out loud, and then Wang Daoqiu was also very amused, and followed the silly music to make Emperor Jiajing happy.After laughing, Emperor Jiajing enthusiastically punched Wang Daoqiu a few times and pretended to scold Wang Daoqiu.Then he smiled and said: "I have read your kid's paper. You are dishonest. You only tell half of what you say. Tell me, what are your plans to deal with Annan."

"Hehehehe, Your Majesty, you took care of me. When you came back from Nanjian River that day, you rewarded me with food in Xiyuan. During the dinner, you mentioned Annan's affairs. At that time, I was stupid and did not understand the Sacred Heart. Later, I met Yan Shoufu When we went out together, it was the Chief Assistant who hinted at me. It’s really shameful to say that, if it weren’t for the kindness of the Chief Assistant, I would have almost let down His Majesty’s holy family.”

"It's nothing. You are just a young man. Although you are very smart, you have insufficient social experience. It is normal for you not to understand the sophistication of people. In the future, you will hang out with those old foxes in the officialdom for ten or twenty years. You will also understand those messy things. You can teach yourself without a teacher. Okay, let’s not talk about that. You tell me, what good advice do you plan to give me about Annan’s affairs?”

"Haha! Your Majesty, I dare not say anything about good advice. It is just some immature opinions of the minister. It is for your Majesty's reference only."

"Okay, okay, don't make such nonsense, just tell me clearly what the hell your plan is!"

"Yes, Your Majesty, this is what I think about the affairs in Annan. The Annan people are good at fighting and have been known far and wide since ancient times. Even during the Taizu and Chengzu periods when our dynasty was at its most prosperous, our dynasty was in the battle with Annan. We also lost more than we won. Especially during the Chengzu period, our dynasty conquered Annan several times. Although Annan was once turned into our dynasty's Jiaozhi Province. But in the end, our jurisdiction over Annan ended in failure. Hundreds of thousands of elite soldiers, including Liu All the famous generals including Sheng died in the battle in Annan."

"Later, Annan was still a small country with few people. Their manpower and material resources could not withstand long-term consumption, so they negotiated peace with our court. Annan surrendered to our court, and our court allowed them to establish an independent country. A province under my original jurisdiction rebelled and fought for independence. But we gave them kings and allowed them to establish an independent country. Isn't this a disguised form of encouraging those grass-headed kings to rebel? This move can also be said to disgrace me. If there is even the slightest chance, I dare to say that I will face the emperor and ministers at that time. They will continue to fight. But no! The Annan Mountains are high and densely forested, and the folk customs are fierce, and their combat power is not inferior to my southward, Guangxi wolf soldiers."

"There are such strong folk customs, such a natural environment that is evergreen all year round, with high temperatures and rain all year round, high mountains and dense forests, where everything grows, and there is no need to worry about food and drink. We have no choice but to spend time with them! After all, our main threat is the northern grassland As for the Tatars, our main military strength is destined to be in the north, and it is impossible to use all our strength to conquer the small Annan. So we could only endure this tone and accept this result that disgraced us."

"But it's different now. Their Prime Minister Mo Dengyong killed his king and established himself as the king. However, the loyal ministers in Annan did not recognize Mo Dengyong, and they themselves supported a prince from Annan as their king. The usurpers and the royalists , each has its own territory, each has its own small gang, and the number of people killed in Annan can be said to be as high as the sun and the moon. What's more terrible is that, whether they are usurpers or royalists, in order to strengthen their own strength, they They all tried their best to win over local military leaders and gave these military leaders a series of privileges such as recruiting troops and directly collecting local taxes. This also allowed these local military leaders to form the vassal towns in our country during the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties."

"And as Mo Dengyong killed the king and established himself, the imagination of those military leaders was suddenly opened up. Why can Mo Dengyong do it, but I can't? So on the surface, those military leaders now don't seem to be surrendering. Mo Dengyong is the original royalist faction who surrendered, but in fact the army is their own, and the territory is also their own. They also have the ambition to become kings, desperately attacking others, desperately occupying other people's territory, desperately Stealing the population to enhance our own strength, in the hope that one day we will be strong enough to submit an application for the title of king to our court. It can be said that Annan now is what we used to be in the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties."

After introducing Annan's current situation and the essence behind it, Wang Daoqiu asked Lu Fang for a cup of tea, and took a sip of tea to moisten his throat.He started to say again, we should respond accordingly.

Wang Daoqiu said: "The warlords in Annan are currently fighting. The people are in dire straits. The ordinary people are eager for someone to save them. And this public sentiment is an opportunity for our government. Your Majesty, our government has just put down the Guangdong and Guangxi forces headed by Hou Gongding not long ago. The rebellion is now at its peak in Guangdong and Guangxi. Zhang Jing, the current governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, once served as an official in Beijing, a minister of Taipu Temple, and the right deputy censor of the capital. He is upright, not afraid of powerful people, and his character is in the court. He is well-known and loyal to Your Majesty. More importantly, Governor Zhang is a good hand in commanding troops and managing local affairs, and he can be called an all-rounder in both civil and military affairs."

"Let Governor Zhang, a versatile man in both civil and military affairs, lead our country's powerful elite soldiers who have just experienced the baptism of the counter-insurgency war and have seen blood. In addition, we can recruit thousands of fierce Guangxi wolf soldiers in Guangxi and join them in Annan. On behalf of the Celestial Empire Go to Annan to uphold justice, and in the name of maintaining peace and stopping war, as a magistrate, encourage the Annan people to accuse those warlords of their crimes. Your Majesty, do you think those warlords, including Mo Dengyong and the Annan royalists, they For the sake of war, how could we not rape young men, seize people's property as war capital, and turn a blind eye to the burning, killing and looting of soldiers?"

"So as long as we encourage the Annan people to file a complaint and our army can effectively avenge the blood and hatred of the Annan people, then the Annan people will come to our side, and then we can justifiably kill the Annan warlords one by one. Get rid of it and leave a vacuum in the power of Annan's upper class. By then, Annan will still be our Ming Dynasty's Cochin Province. Of course, for the long-term stability of Annan, we must learn from the lessons of the Chengzu Dynasty's governance of Annan. When selecting officials to serve in Cochin, we must strictly examine them His character cannot allow us to send Han officials to Jiaozhi to incite hatred for our Han nation."

"In addition, in order to consolidate the people's support, I suggest that when your Majesty pacifies Annan, every time a warlord is eliminated, the land of that warlord and his cronies will be distributed to the local people. This will not only consolidate the people's support of our government in Jiaozhi, but also make people Our righteous action in Cochin will go smoothly. After all, as long as the Cochin people know that after the Chinese army comes and kills their military leader, the land of the military leader and his cronies will be distributed to them. I believe that by then the people of Cochin will , they will definitely stand on the side of the Celestial Empire, and even the big soldiers under the military leader will wish that the military leader died early so that they can share the land."

(End of this chapter)