Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

The demands of the military officers and nobles were undoubtedly rejected by the civil officials.

This was because the civil officials did not want too many advisors in the court, which would affect the court's decisions and proposals.

For a time, the focus of the debate in the court shifted from whether nobles could be transferred to become counselors to the number of counselors.

Many officials realized that if the emperor was allowed to transfer nobles, military officers and other officials to become advisors, the existing system of court recommendation and court discussion would undergo great changes.

Considering that the Advisors belonged to the Council of State, which was a constituent body of the future Congress, some officials began to propose that the number of Advisors should be limited and that the number of Advisors should not be increased indefinitely.

Zhu Youjian thought about giving the power of recommending officials to the National Assembly, but this might affect his control over the court. So he decided to take it step by step and let the ministers have the power of recommending officials first.

Facing the demands of the ministers to limit the number of advisors, Zhu Youjian said:
"The position of the Minister of State Affairs is a privilege given by the court to retired officials."

"But the number of retired officials may be too large and should not be increased at will."

"What do you think is the appropriate number of advisors?"

"How should we place retired officials who did not receive the position of Counselor?"

The ministers now began to argue again, because the position of Counselor was a preferential treatment given by the current emperor to retired ministers.

They all have the potential to become advisory ministers in the future, so how can we impose too many restrictions on them?

So the ministers discussed and discussed, and came to the conclusion that:
The number of advisors should not exceed that of existing court ministers.

How many ministers are there in the court now?
The State Council can be said to have the largest number of people. The ministers and vice ministers of the six ministries in Beijing can all be called court ministers, totaling twenty-four people.

Next is the Privy Council, which consists of nine ministers.

There are a total of seven ministers above the rank of Assistant Censor-in-Chief in the Censorate.

There is now only one minister each for the Dali Yuan, Lifan Yuan, and Tongzhengsi, for a total of 43 ministers.

However, because there is overlap between the officials of the Ministry of War and the Privy Council, there are actually forty people in office.

The cabinet ministers all have the title of Four Assistant Ministers, and can be called court ministers. But because they do not participate in court discussions and recommendations, they are not counted this time.

The request of the ministers was to limit the number of the advisory ministers to 40, so that most of the civil servants who were willing to stay in the capital after retirement could get the position of advisory minister.

However, although their plan was good, the nobles and military officers were unwilling to do so.

This is because the number of advisors calculated by civil officials obviously does not include nobles and military officers.

These people united together and demanded half of the positions of the Councillors, including ten nobles and ten other military officers.

The civil servants responded by saying, “What are you thinking?” They will be given at most ten places, including all the nobles and military officers.

They felt that allowing nobles and military officers the opportunity to participate in court discussions was already a privilege enough, so how could they allow these people to have the same status as civil servants?

Moreover, with Duke Yansheng and Zhang Zhenren occupying two seats of advisory ministers, twenty seats were given to nobles and military officers, so the number of seats for civil servants was less than theirs. Of course, the civil servants were not satisfied with this.

A group of people were making a lot of noise, and Zhu Youjian found it very interesting.

His purpose of bringing nobles and military officers into the Council of State Affairs was to let them compete with the civil officials, so as to prevent the officials from being monolithic and restricting him.

However, the power of the nobles can be passed down, but they cannot be allowed to have too much say in personnel matters.

So Zhu Youjian thought about it and said to his ministers:
"Sixteen places for nobles and military officers, twenty places for civil officials, and the remaining four places for other personnel."

"What do you think, gentlemen? Do you agree with this ratio?"

The nobles and military officers were satisfied, and Duke of England Zhang Weixian took the lead and said:
"Your Majesty is wise and decisive, and we have no objection."

Although Yuan Keli and other civil officials felt that the emperor clearly favored the nobles and military officers, it was meaningless for them to continue arguing since the emperor had made his position clear.

After all, now that we are under martial law, the emperor can theoretically make his own decisions.

Therefore, after the nobles and military officers agreed, they also reluctantly expressed their approval.

The proportion of advisors has been basically determined at this point.

Those who fail to obtain the title of Counselor after retirement will be granted the title of Senior Counselor, which has the same status as the Minister of Counselor, but sounds better.

Zhang Weixian and Xu Xigao, as nobles who voluntarily retired, were appointed as advisors by Zhu Youjian.

The nobles were very satisfied with this result. They felt that the emperor still favored them and was gradually helping them regain power.

Only Yang Wuhou, who first proposed the request, felt hurt, because not only did he fail to get the position of advisor, but he was also impeached and the emperor divided half of his territory and soldiers.

In the end, what he got now was just a nominal position as a senior minister.

This position is not without power. With this status, one can submit memorials to the emperor and supervise the illegal behavior of civil and military officials.

But for Yang Wu Hou, he was able to submit memorials to the emperor without this status, and the position of the Grand Councillor was completely useless.

This hurt him deeply, and he felt that the emperor was plotting against him.

But at this time, no one cared about his feelings.

The nobles who had supported him before were nowhere to be seen.

When the emperor increased the power of the nobles and clearly punished Yang Wu Hou, who would have nothing better to do than to pick a fight with the emperor?

Not only was Yang Wu Hou abandoned by the noble group, he was also temporarily ignored.

This made Yang Wuhou angry, and he decided to teach these people a lesson in the future.

Zhu Youjian had not completely forgotten Yang Wuhou. After the court meeting, he summoned Yang Wuhou to comfort him for a while. He also took out a map and asked him to choose a fiefdom in Nanyang, hoping to drive this man out of the capital as soon as possible.

Yang Wuhou didn't know which place in Nanyang was better, so he chose the place north of Malacca based on the idea of ​​relying on the court.

The imperial court will establish the Nanyang Guards here. If any danger is encountered when establishing a fiefdom, the court can request support from the Nanyang Governor-General's Office.

Zhu Youjian asked him to go to Nanyang and discuss with the Nanyang Governor-General's Office to determine the boundary between the two sides.

Also, because this area borders Siam, he asked Yang Wuhou to handle the relationship with Siam well.

Yangwu Hou naturally obeyed this. He had learned in recent days that Siam was a big country in Southeast Asia, and naturally could not be compared with his own Yangwu Hou Kingdom, which had not yet been established.

After learning that people in Siam were devoted to Buddhism, he summoned a group of monks gathered in the capital and asked who was willing to follow him to Southeast Asia.

In the future, the Yangwu Marquisate will establish Buddhism as the state religion and build temples for them.

This incident caused a great sensation in Buddhism in the capital and received responses from many monks.

Because the current situation of Buddhism is not good at all, the Ming Dynasty basically called the rebellious folk religions the White Lotus Sect.

The Wenxiang Sect, Wuwei Sect, Hongyang Sect, etc. were all called the White Lotus Sect in official documents. Their doctrines were indeed similar, and many officials could not distinguish them.

It is well known that the White Lotus Sect originated from Buddhism.

Therefore, Buddhism was heavily targeted during this period and was subject to intensive searches by the imperial court.

Especially after Taoism was incorporated into the imperial court and the search of Taoist temples was basically completed, the current situation of Buddhism is even more obvious.

So much so that they regarded the recruitment of Yangwu Hou Xue Lian as a life-saving straw. All the major temples sent people to Southeast Asia.

However, after hearing the monks’ requests, Yangwu Hou Xue Lian hesitated for a moment.

Because he knew that he had no face in front of the emperor.

Even if you ask the emperor for mercy on this monk's behalf, he may not be able to succeed.

So he asked the monks:
"Although His Majesty worships Taoism, he is not opposed to Buddhism. He even asked the Wuqinghou Li family to spread the belief in the Nine Lotus Bodhisattva."

"Empress Zhou is a devout believer in the Nine Lotus Bodhisattva, why don't you ask the Queen for mercy?"

Master Tongan, a disciple of Master Deqing and a descendant of the Linji School of Zen Buddhism, said:
"I have asked someone to see you, but the palace is not accepting outsiders because the queen is about to give birth."

"Your Majesty has also strictly ordered all major temples to report the rebels and pay taxes in the future. This is too harsh and many of my colleagues are dissatisfied."

Upon hearing this, Yangwu Hou Xue Lian glanced at the monks.

It is speculated that the reason why the emperor did not meet with these monks was probably because he failed to reach an agreement on the taxation issue.

In order to get the nobles to pay taxes, the emperor first gave them preferential treatment, helped them fight for power, and even used them as a warning to others, only then was it barely possible to implement the plan.

These monks have not seen the severity of the situation and are still thinking about resisting.

He did not want to get involved in this matter, because even he knew that Buddhist temples were very rich. In the past, Master Deqing was once sent to Guangdong as a soldier by Emperor Wanli because he spent a huge amount of money to privately establish a temple.

In order to raise funds for the war next year, the emperor forced even the nobles to pay taxes, and these wealthy temples certainly could not escape.

If these monks were not useful in establishing a fiefdom in Southeast Asia, he would not want to bother with them.

Thinking about whether he could make some money from these monks, or use their money to help him establish a fiefdom in Southeast Asia, Yangwu Hou Xue Lian said:
"I will plead with your majesty on this matter."

"But you Buddhists must also show your attitude."

"We, the nobles and the Taoists, are already willing to pay taxes, why are you still resisting?"

"If Your Majesty loses his patience, then..."

Shaking his head, Yangwu Hou Xue Lian was not optimistic about the resistance of Buddhism.

They believe that the more they resist, the more they will be targeted.

Especially when the nobles and Taoism were willing to pay taxes, the situation of Buddhism became even more prominent.

Perhaps the emperor has even more powerful methods to impose on Buddhist temples.

How could these monks not know this? They had no ability to resist the imperial court at all.

But as the saying goes, "It's hard to give up good fortune", they were really unwilling to pay taxes according to the court regulations, so they looked for people everywhere a few days ago, hoping that the emperor would give them leniency.

However, they did not expect that the emperor was so determined and the civil officials in the court were also pleased with this and mostly ignored their demands. Even Qian Qianyi, who had listened to Master Deqing's teachings, avoided meeting with Master Tongan, a fellow disciple.

By the time they realized the seriousness of the matter, they no longer had the opportunity to communicate with the court.

The court’s current requirement is to clear the land of each temple and strictly follow the requirement of “each temple must have 60 acres of land” to collect the excess land as official land.

Officials would also be sent to temples to monitor temple property, and a so-called religious tax would be levied on temples with annual income of more than 10,000 taels.

At the same time, a ban was issued to all major temples, strictly prohibiting them from engaging in financial activities such as pawning and lending.

This is the appeal of the Neifujian Bank. More than a year after the bank was opened, some bank personnel have already realized who their competitors are.

Taking advantage of the court's rectification of religion, the temples engaged in this business were kicked out of the financial industry.

Therefore, Buddhist monks nowadays are no longer resisting religious taxes. Instead, they are worried that if things continue like this, the imperial court will issue more and more bans, making it more difficult for Buddhist temples to operate in the future.

In addition, Taoism participated in the compilation of "The Romance of Mythology", and there were rumors that they wanted to make up a story about Laozi and suppress the Buddhist gods.

These monks became even more anxious and went to Yang Wu Hou to ask for a meeting with the emperor.

Xue Lian, Marquis of Yangwu, initially refused to give in, but only after the monks promised to send personnel and call on believers to go to Southeast Asia to open up wasteland did he reluctantly agree and convey their demands to the emperor.

When Zhu Youjian learned that Buddhism had come to Yang Wuhou, he knew that he should close the net. He couldn't push these monks too hard, so he secretly supported the White Lotus Sect.

So he met with Buddhist representatives and asked Taoist personnel such as Zhang Jiugong and Wang Changyue to accompany him to negotiate terms with them.

These Taoist personnel were enjoying compiling the "Mythological Romance" and did not want to allow Buddhism to get involved in competing for the right to interpret the mythological stories.

Especially since Zhang Jiugong was appointed as the Minister of State Affairs, and Wang Changyue and others were also appointed as the Minister of State Affairs, Taoism would have more say in the court. This made them feel more satisfied and felt that the emperor treated Taoism very well.

So they put forward various conditions to obstruct and secretly accelerated the compilation of "Mythology", hoping to finalize the first draft before Buddhist personnel joined.

Zhu Youjian allowed Taoism to cause trouble for Buddhism and was not in a hurry to make a decision on the matter.

The first things he cleaned up were the temples that had deep ties to the royal family, such as Wanshou Temple, Tanzhe Temple, Chongguo Temple, and the temple of Jiulian Bodhisattva.

Because of their connection with the royal family, these temples were granted some farmland in addition to the temple land. At the same time, internal officials were stationed there to supervise the collection of religious taxes by the Taifu Temple.

After summarizing a set of methods through these temples, we will expand it to other temples.

Buddhism was getting more and more anxious about this, realizing that the emperor was determined to collect taxes. If they continued to resist for money, Taoism would completely suppress the status of Buddhism.

So they finally accepted all the court's demands, and only asked for more land to be reserved for some large temples.

Zhu Youjian agreed to this request and asked the Taichang Temple and the two religions of Buddhism and Taoism to discuss the level and number of temples and monasteries, giving preferential treatment to some large temples and monasteries, and letting them suppress small and medium-sized temples and monasteries.

At the same time, it also put forward requirements such as not allowing religious personnel without ordination certificates to preach, not allowing preaching outside religious places, etc., requiring Buddhism and Taoism to strictly monitor missionaries and suppress the development of folk religions.

Buddhism and Taoism are happy about this because they don't want folk religions to emerge and affect their status.

Some people even thought of the Nestorian Church, which the emperor attached great importance to, and planned to use this policy to suppress the development of the Nestorian Church.

While the two religions were fighting, they also reached a cooperation, shouting the slogan of the unity of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, and controlling the religion of the Ming Dynasty. (End of this chapter)