This was not a morning court session, but rather the young emperor's willingness to listen to advice and restore the old system of summoning ministers to the side hall. Although Zhu Youxiao had summoned ministers individually many times before, the official announcement was made yesterday.
Ministers were summoned to the side hall to decide state affairs in person, and opportunities for explaining classics and history were also used to allow ministers to discuss state policies face to face.
Therefore, there were not many ministers in the palace.
There were the newly appointed Minister of War Sun Chengzong, Minister of Revenue Li Qiyuan, Grand Secretary of the Dongge Xu Guangqi, and Deputy Minister of the Cabinet Han Yu. What was more special was that the emperor did not summon the censors of the Censorate.
Han Yu was an old minister entrusted by Emperor Guangzong with the care of the young emperor. He made great contributions when Zhu Youxiao ascended the throne. He was appointed as the Grand Secretary of the Dongke Academy and successively assisted Liu Yirong, Fang Congzhe and Ye Xianggao in governing the country.
In handling government affairs, Han Yu was relatively fair and could get along well with officials from all factions. In particular, when the Donglin Party was investigating the Red Pill Case, he acted with integrity and submitted a memorial to Emperor Tianqi, thus avoiding a major factional dispute.
In fact, in Zhu Youxiao's view, the so-called "Red Pill Case" was just a medical accident caused by a mediocre doctor, and there was no complicated or dark inside story.
It is said that Emperor Guangzong Zhu Changluo was not favored since he was a child. He was suppressed by Prince Fu, who was born to Concubine Zheng, for decades. After he finally waited for his father to die, he was like a serf who had risen up and was singing about his destiny. He was a little too self-indulgent.
Seeing her son ascend the throne, Concubine Zheng was afraid that he would bring up old grudges, so she hurried to please him and offered him eight beauties. Emperor Guangzong saw that this was a honey trap, a conspiracy, and accepted it all.
There's a saying that goes, "There are no cows that die from exhaustion." It's not true! It's only fields that are plowed to death. That's not true either. Guangzong had too much fun with the girls, overdrawing his body and feeling drained.
What to do, the girls are so pretty and flirty, if I am good, she will be good too! Guangzong took the palace tonic, and you know what the effect is.
As a result, the disease broke out and Guangzong became like a manic psychotic, extremely excited and laughing uncontrollably. The palace servants hurriedly invited the imperial physician Cui Wensheng to treat him.
When Cui Wensheng saw the emperor's condition, he thought it was due to internal evil heat, so he gave him a strong medicine to relieve heat and promote bowel movements.
After that, Guangzong lost his excitement, stopped jumping, laughing, and making noises. Instead, he suffered from diarrhea dozens of times a night and was about to die.
This rage was raging, and it caused trouble! The court officials were arguing, and Cui Wensheng made all kinds of excuses.
At this time, a smart guy who wanted to get promoted and make money came out. He was Li Kezhuo, the Minister of the Honglu Temple. He thought that since he had already lost a lot of money, he could make up for it, so he offered the "red pill".
The Red Pill is a polite name for an ancient aphrodisiac. Emperor Guangzong's grandfather, the Jiajing Emperor, had made many of them, harming many young girls.
Li Kezhuo came to the cabinet and said he had an elixir to present to the emperor. However, the cabinet chief Fang Congzhe was very cautious about presenting medicine to the emperor and refused.
After being rejected, Li Kezhuo did not give up. He went to the palace to deliver medicine to the eunuchs. The eunuchs did not dare to act on their own, so they reported to the cabinet: "The emperor's condition has worsened. Li Kezhuo, an official from the Honglu Temple, came to Sishan Gate to deliver medicine."
The cabinet officials again stopped him flatly, telling the eunuch, "He claims to have an elixir of life, so you can't trust him."
But the eunuch told Guangzong about this matter. Guangzong felt that he could still be saved, so he summoned Fang Congzhe and other ministers, asked them to entrust their son to him, and asked about Li Kezhuo's donation of medicine.
Fang Congzhe and others reported the situation truthfully, and no one dared to say whether the medicine should be taken or not.
Guangzong was eager to die, well, hoping for a miracle, and he placed high hopes on Li Kezhuo's red pill. He summoned Li Kezhuo to take the medicine and asked the ministers to watch him take it. He also happily touched Li Kezhuo's head and praised him: "Loyal minister, loyal minister."
After taking the red pill, Emperor Guangzong felt good. The eunuchs reported to the ministers, "The holy body feels warm and comfortable after taking the medicine. You should eat and drink."
When the ministers heard this, they were all very happy. Now that the leader has recovered, let’s continue to work with him!
At night, Guangzong felt that the effect of the medicine seemed to have worn off, so he took another red pill.
Then, nothing happened. At five o'clock in the morning, Guangzong's condition suddenly worsened and he died.
After sorting out the whole incident, who do you think is responsible for Guangzong's death?
Either it started with Concubine Zheng, who offered her beautiful women, and everyone involved is implicated. Or it was Cui Wensheng's misdiagnosis, and Li Kezhuo's medicine was fortunately accepted.
The Donglin Party took advantage of this to launch an attack and forced the Prime Minister Fang Congzhe to leave. Their purpose was not pure at all and was entirely for the purpose of party struggle.
Han Yu's character and courage are worthy of praise for his ability to treat this major matter concerning the emperor's death fairly.
Of the important ministers entrusted with the care of the young emperor, Fang Congzhe, Liu Yirong and Han Yu, only one is left.
Zhu Youxiao did not want to leave a reputation of being harsh and ungrateful, and he admired Ye Xianggao's integrity, low-key personality, and non-partisanship, so after Ye Xianggao retired, he was promoted to the position of Prime Minister.
In other words, the officials summoned to the side hall this time were basically those whom Zhu Youxiao trusted the most and could speak more openly.
The only thing that made Zhu Youxiao feel regretful was that the officials with whom he could be more confidant and entrusted important tasks were all very old.
Han Yu was fifty-six, Sun Chengzong was fifty-nine, Xu Guangqi was sixty, Li Qiyuan was sixty-three, and the new Minister of Personnel Tao Langxian, who was rushing over from Dengzhou, was still younger, at forty-three.
If we want to have younger cadres, we have to wait a few more years! Zhu Youxiao looked at these old officials and couldn't help but sigh.
Prime Minister Han Yu bowed and said, "It was only thanks to Your Majesty's wisdom in entrusting Xiong Tingbi with full authority that we were able to save Guangning from a precarious situation. Xiong Tingbi was the first to defeat the enemy, which is enough to bring honor to the frontier and enhance the prestige of China."
Minister of War Sun Chengzong bowed and said, "Xiong Tingbi defended the isolated city, fought desperately, and defeated the Eastern Tartars. He should be rewarded generously."
Li Qiyuan and Xu Guangqi also agreed and expressed their appreciation.
At this time, the whole country was overjoyed and praised Xiong Tingbi, packaging him as a famous general god. It was a consensus that this would boost the morale of the army and inspire the people.
"The cabinet has drafted an imperial edict to commend you. Once the formal memorial requesting meritorious service is submitted, I will use the treasury to reward the meritorious officers and soldiers." Zhu Youxiao nodded with a smile. It's a pleasure to be praised. Everyone is happy when they are praised.
The Ministry of Revenue was out of money, and Zhu Youxiao, who had just robbed the rich, was planning to use most of the silver to adjust the war situation in Liaodong and establish a town in Dongjiang.
"Minister Li," Zhu Youxiao turned to Li Qiyuan and said gently, "I have carefully reviewed the thirteen articles of fiscal and taxation reform you submitted, and have made some minor revisions. I hereby grant you my order to convene a meeting of the nine ministers and thirteen departments immediately to implement them as soon as possible!"
In Zhu Youxiao's view, Li Qiyuan's thirteen reforms should be called "paper-pasting thirteen articles." They were not overly radical measures, but precisely because of this, they were easier to implement and achieved results.
Although Zhu Youxiao was not entirely satisfied, he knew that haste would only lead to harm. A country with deep-rooted problems is like a patient with numerous ailments; using too strong a medicine would only backfire.
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