Grand Elder Xie blushed.
However, as the second assistant who was the best at chatting in the imperial court, Xie Qian was still neither embarrassed nor angry.
"Oh, it's not my son's work. I wonder who made it?" What a talent."
That was it.
The Ming Dynasty was different from the Sui and Tang Dynasties. At that time, one could really be recommended to be an official with a poem.
In the Ming Dynasty, it was useless no matter how talented one was or how good one was at writing. The standards of being an official were written in the Four Books and Five Classics. As long as one passed the imperial examination, they could be an official.
Xie Pi told Xie Qian about the grudge between the Back Mountain Academy and Su Ce. Finally, he told Xie Qian about how he went to the small courtyard of the Green Vines to confront Su Ce and was sent back with a poem.
Xie Qian frowned slightly and snorted."He is arrogant and disrespectful. Chen Xianru is the mountain elder of the Back Mountain Academy and has taught several Jinshi, not to mention many Juren.”
"Such a famous great scholar, yet he dares to shamelessly insult him with a couplet. Unreasonable!”
Xie Pi shook his head." Father, do you think he has such a lofty vision with just one poem? Why would he go against Teacher Chen for no reason?"”
Xie Qian was stunned for a moment before nodding." That makes sense. However, he should be a person who thinks highly of himself. You shouldn't befriend him. Prepare well for the general exams in three years."”
"I know."
So what if he was a talented person? If you can't govern the country, you're useless.
Xie Qian made an evaluation in his heart.
……
When Zhu Houzhao woke up from the Spring Harmony Palace Hall, it was already early the next morning.
Today, he did not go out and quietly waited for Yang Tinghe's arrival.
Yang Tinghe was extremely touched. He had never seen the Crown Prince so eager to learn, which made Yang Tinghe feel even more relieved.
This morning, he had been teaching especially hard.
Zhu Houzhao listened absent-mindedly.
After the class ended, Zhu Houzhao said to Yang Tinghe,""Teacher, I want to see the information about the relay station from the Ministry of Revenue, Ministry of Personnel, and Ministry of War. I wonder if Teacher can help me ask for it.”
These departments would not give face to the crown prince. Before the emperor gave the crown prince administrative power, he could not mobilize the resources of the officials, but Yang Tinghe was different.
He was born in the Imperial Academy, Zuo Chunfang of the Eastern Palace, and also a scholar of the Hall of Martial Valor.
He was a civil official, and civil officials were good to civil officials.
"What does Your Highness want this information for?" Yang Tinghe asked in confusion.”
Zhu Houzhao sighed." Teacher, I feel that it's time to share the burden of the country. Therefore, I'll start with the simple things and learn from them."”
"Good! Alright, this isn't a big deal. I'll go and ask for it now. Just you wait.”
How could Yang Tinghe refuse? The Crown Prince was eager to learn, so he was overjoyed. If the three yamens dared to not give it to him or to delay his teaching of the future of the empire, he would go to Zhu Youtang and impeach him, and let the Golden Armored Guards hammer those people to death!
Not long after, Yang Ting and the tool man brought all the information for Zhu Houzhao.
He even told Zhu Houzhao that he could teach him.
However, Zhu Houzhao refused.
Zhu Houzhao had locked himself in his study the entire day and had not gone out.
He continued to analyze the situation of the Bureau of Military Personnel regarding the use of the relay stations of the various Chief Ministers in Jiangnan.
Zhu Houzhao was surprised to find that it was just as Su Ce had expected. From the first year of Hongzhi to the 15th year of Hongzhi, other than the southwest, southeast Zhejiang, and Fujian, where there were more military intelligence transmissions, the rest of the relay stations in the Chief Secretary's prefectures and counties were mostly idle.
He then analyzed the personnel allocation of the relay stations. There were 116 relay stations in Jiangnan, 53 relay station officials registered by the imperial court, and 1235 petty officials and long-term workers.
These people required the court to spend nearly fifty thousand taels of silver every year.
As expected, he was feeding the idlers! If they could move and be useful, it would be fine. The key was that the imperial court was completely spending money to support a group of idlers.
The more Zhu Houzhao looked, the angrier he became.
There were many things that he would never understand if Su Ce did not urge him to look and explore. Even if he became the emperor in the future, he might not pay attention to these small and inconspicuous things.
After these two things were done, Zhu Houzhao turned his attention to the finances of the relay station.
Every year, the Ministry of Revenue allocated a budget of nearly 100,000 taels of silver. There was rarely any surplus at the end of the year. The facilities, mules, horses, and so on in the relay station had a lot of expenses. In some years, they would even exceed the budget.
Zhu Houzhao himself did not know that he had changed. He was no longer the rebellious crown prince who only cared about fighting cocks and walking dogs, building leopard houses for fun.
He felt that it was quite interesting to think about some things about the country.
Most importantly, this was a great sense of accomplishment because the people would sing praises of him.
Unknowingly, Su Ce was slowly changing the crown prince and correcting the future of the Ming Empire, making him a good emperor, a better emperor, an emperor who cared about the people's livelihood and knew the subtle.
Today, Zhu Houzhao had written a lot of materials in the Spring Harmony Palace Hall and planned to have a big fight tomorrow morning!
From the beginning, the system was beneficial to the country and the people, but now it had become the target of some big merchants and bureaucrats to accumulate wealth and deceive the people.
A good policy, after a hundred years of development, might not adapt to the national system, or it might be exploited by others to oppress the people.
Fortunately, Brother Ce was smart. He could actually link an unremarkable matter to a major event. To be honest, he was amazing! Zhu Houzhao prostrated himself in admiration!
Moreover, Brother Ce was not like Yang Tinghe and the others who liked to talk about great things. He would always casually mention many things that others could not see, and even small things that the court elders did not pay attention to.
And these small matters, in Zhu Houzhao's eyes, were all big matters.
Of course, what Zhu Houzhao didn't know was that Su Ce had planned all of this in advance.
Su Ce was planning and purposefully bringing Zhu Houzhao to see the flaws in the empire. He would accompany Zhu Houzhao to fix the loopholes in the empire.
However, Su Ce didn't tell Zhu Houzhao about these things. He didn't want to put too much pressure on this underage child.
He would do what he could do, and he would slowly figure out what he could not do. He still hoped that Zhu Houzhao would have a relaxed and free mood during his growth. This would be beneficial to the shaping of his three views and moral character.
……
The next morning.
Morning court!
Zhu Houzhao got up at the fourth watch. With the results of yesterday's day in his arms, he first went to Yangxin Hall to find Zhu Youtang, who had just woken up, washed up, and put on his dragon robe.
Zhu Youtang was also shocked when he saw Zhu Houzhao." Son, why didn't you sleep so early?”
"Father, I want to go to court with you." Zhu Houzhao said with a smile.”
Zhu Youtang smiled knowingly. Then let's go to court together!”
.........................
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