"Tell me, what do these officials think? Mr. Zhang escorted the little prince back from his lair, and he actually felt that the emperor had been defeated!"

"What's even more ridiculous is that the rumors spread to the capital, and the officials in the capital really believed it! Have you heard of the thing that was called the Ming Dynasty's current affairs monthly? It revealed that the officials in the capital really thought that the emperor was defeated and was captured alive, so they directly asked the current Xu Ge Lao to find the empress dowager to establish a new king. As a result, guess what, Xu Ge Lao didn't believe it, and directly used Shangfang's sword to kill a high-ranking official who was trying to cause trouble! The court stabilized, so that two more emperors did not appear in our Ming Dynasty."

"Then, the accurate information transmission of the mansion was sent to Beijing. Only then did the officials and men in the capital believe that the emperor had not been defeated and was captured, and they captured the little prince alive. However, they were unwilling to promote this matter, and they had to kill dozens of Tartars. But the emperor did not agree and directly asked each of them to write articles to promote this matter. They had to write more than 10,000 words a day, tsk tsk! I have been reading for three years and knew that writing with a pen is not as easy as farming with a hoe. Not to mention 10,000 words, 100 words can kill my life."

"This is amazing. Isn't it a good thing to capture the little prince who killed thousands of swords alive? Why are these officials and masters unwilling to promote it? And from what you mean, it seems that they are unwilling to let the emperor win, and they even want the emperor to be captured alive."

Recently, due to the large-scale construction and factory construction in Beijing, more people in Beijing have increased, and the number of new population has reached 300,000!

Most of these people are workers and craftsmen. Because the emperor issued an order to implement an eight-hour working system on the grounds of loving the people, if he continues to work, the factory will have to pay overtime subsidies.

But the industry in the Ming Dynasty is not yet developed enough, so most factories are not big and there are few people who need to work overtime. Therefore, these people usually get bored after work and naturally discuss political affairs.

Zhu Houzhao asked the Second Secret Office to open night schools for major government and royal factories and asked the Ministry of Rites to order local governments to open literacy classes, so that more and more people began to recognize some words, and even if they were illiterate, they had special newspaper readers.

In addition, Zhu Houzhao issued an order to encourage the government and the public to run newspapers, which made the people more and more channels to obtain information and know more and more things, so naturally they like to talk about state affairs after dinner.

A recent Ming Dynasty monthly magazine also reported the recent performance of civil servants about the capture of the little prince alive, which made the people know about the incident and were quite interesting. After all, they did not have a good impression of the official, and they really hoped that such a story of the official being slapped in the face.

Therefore, in a restaurant where this matter was discussed, several people talked about this matter. One of the smarter people also realized that the officials did not seem to be loyal to the emperor, so they asked this question.

When the commoner asked this, the other person who spoke to him smiled and said, "Otherwise, there is no good thing in the world who are officials. Don't look at them saying they are loyal to the emperor every day. In fact, they are loyal to the money they can have, and they are not even as many ordinary people as we all think of the emperor."

“Bold!”

He Jingming endured the people opposite him for a long time. Now he wanted to learn from Zhang Zeduan's city to find inspiration for drawing winter pictures in the capital. However, he didn't expect to hear a group of people talking about political affairs here. Now, he heard these people say that their civil servants were not as loyal to the emperor as those of them, which naturally made He Jingming angry, and therefore, he slapped the table and scolded the people.

These people only dared to discuss it privately, but they did not have the awareness of being equal to everyone without fear of officials, gentlemen and men. Therefore, seeing that He Jingming was a Confucian scholar, he did not dare to get angry because of his scolding him, and he just timidly paid the bill and left here.

He Jingming was not an official who bullied others by his power, nor was he willing to fight with such a commoner. However, he was still very depressed because he found that he had just used his status to stop the discussions of these people, and he could not refute what was wrong with what he said!

He Jingming had to admit that many civil officials were indeed dissatisfied with His Majesty, and they were even unwilling to think of an emperor who focused on martial arts. However, he also believed that most civil officials also paid attention to the righteousness of the monarch and ministers, and were also loyal ministers, such as himself. He even wanted to say that there was more than one loyal minister in the world, but he didn't know how to explain to these people, and he could not even downplay the nobles to explain to these people. He would instinctively use his status to stop these lowly people.

Looking at the couplet behind him that "family affairs, state affairs, and the world are concerned about everything", he became even more bored and thought that this couplet of Your Majesty is okay for use in scholars and officials, why should it be used for the people!

Not only He Jingming is depressed, but many civil servants are also quite depressed. They know that what they do is embarrassing and even mentally retarded, but they do not want more people to know, and they are even unwilling to let future generations know. They think this will make them lose their politeness.

Therefore, some civil officials once again submitted memorials to hope that His Majesty the Emperor could forbid the people from talking about state affairs, and at the same time, they prohibited newspapers from revealing the secrets of the court at will.

This time, Zhu Houzhao pretended to be deaf and became dumb, and ordered the cabinet to reply to these civil servants on the grounds that the people were more verbal than the Sichuan government. Except for blocking the people's mouths, there would be no way to prohibit the people from talking about state affairs.

Civilians cannot, and some civilians have to start to put down their arrogant attitude and defend the people through newspapers or speeches.

Although the people are not so concerned about the right and wrong of politics, they have a scale in their hearts. When some scholars and officials start to explain to them, they find that they seem to be beginning to be respected.

Zhu Houzhao was also very satisfied with the performance of some civil servants willing to explain to the people, especially when he learned that He Jingming personally invested in the newspaper to convey his thoughts on governing the country to the people.

Although the idea of ​​governing the country by these civil servants is wrong, and although many people do not have the habit of caring about politics, the fact that these civil servants can lower their attitude to express their ideas of governing the country to the people is itself a kind of progress.

After all, people from one class began to learn to respect people from another class under the deliberate protection and indulgence of the emperor.

Moreover, Zhu Houzhao believes that although the people are illiterate, it does not mean that they do not know their interests. If civil officials cannot give them good policies such as light taxes and clearing the land they want, the people will not be easily brainwashed by these civil officials.

The scholars and officials and the people themselves are two opposing classes, and they cannot unite. However, Zhu Houzhao hopes that the people of these two classes can understand that they are both Ming people, Chinese people, and equal and free.

You can't bully the people at will just because you are a scholar and not be punished, nor can you be arrogant and not follow the rules just because you are a scholar.

If the scholars and officials could enslave the people at will and betray the country without taking the responsibility of governing the people and strengthening the country, and if they could not change the people who only wanted to be peaceful and did not know the dignity of being a human being, they would not be able to completely change the Ming Empire from a Confucian Neo-Confucian society, and they would not be able to compete with a Western island country that had been promulgated for hundreds of years with the Western world that had begun to enter the Renaissance and began the Age of Discovery!

Zhu Houzhao wanted to be a great emperor, but he didn't want to be a land under his feet in the future. The land under his feet was still a country that needed wise rulers and wise ministers.

From the Qin and Han dynasties to the Sui and Tang dynasties to the Song dynasties, and to the present Ming Dynasty, there is no need for the reincarnation of land annexation through wise monarchs and wise ministers to suppress land annexation and maintain the stability of the small peasant economy, and the peaceful and prosperous times were created through stubborn monarchs and treacherous ministers to increase exploitation and enslave the people, resulting in the emergence of chaotic times, so that the reincarnation of foreign races destruction of China is no longer necessary to continue to repeat it!

After all, if this continues, it will not only add the family history of a dynasty, but also add the history of humiliation of a nation for hundreds of years, and make it not yet regain its former confidence in a hundred years!

However, Zhu Houzhao knew that the literati and officials were more willing to see the obedient people, who would not rebel, but only knew how to farm and pay taxes, and were enslaved by them.

Just as the emperor, I hope to see obedient officials, not to contradict myself, only know how to do things with peace of mind, and even have to be honest and self-righteous.

But reality is impossible.

People have the nature of desire and pursuit of interests.

If the emperor wants China to break out of the cycle of prosperity and decline after he is in power, he must first let China have a motivation to improve its social mechanism. People from all walks of the empire know that they are part of the empire. While the empire gains power, they also have the obligation to make the empire continue to be stronger and prosperous. This requires people from every class to identify with the empire. To make Chinese people from all walks of life identify with the empire, the empire must have the obligation to protect the interests and political needs of every Chinese, and systems and laws need to be formed to protect the interests and political needs of every Chinese.

This system and laws are the most critical things that the empire can consolidate or even grow.

But it is the emperor who is the easiest to destroy the system and laws. Zhu Houzhao himself has to admit this.

However, Zhu Houzhao has not yet thought about limiting his monarchy power. First of all, most people in this era still do not want the monarchy power to be restricted. After all, the monarchy power extends to the clan is clan power.

If the ruling class of this era wants to deny the monarchy, they have to deny their clan rights in the family.

This is also the reason why civil officials cannot overthrow Zhu Houzhao on the surface, because they cannot demand democracy on the court and dictatorship in the clan.
Chapter completed!