The rise of the poor

"How are the preparations for the Meridian Gate Prisoner Presentation Ceremony?" Emperor Jiajing asked.

"Your Majesty, we have made a preliminary agenda with reference to the format of the Meridian Gate Prison Presentation Ceremony in previous dynasties."

A minister on duty from Wuyi Palace stepped forward and replied.

"Leave your agenda to the cabinet for review, and it must be finalized within three days." Emperor Jiajing waved his hand and said.

"Follow your orders." The minister on duty at Wuyi Palace accepted the order.

"The Imperial Heavenly Prison will choose a date for the prisoner presentation ceremony at the afternoon gate. The cabinet will take the lead in organizing the ceremony. There are only a few days left before the Chinese New Year. The ceremony must be held within this year without any mistake."

Emperor Jiajing ordered without any doubt.

"As ordered."

A number of officials took orders one after another.

"Okay, the cabinet will stay, and the rest can retreat." Emperor Jiajing waved his hand and ordered the court to disperse.

Yan Song, Xu Jie and Li Ben stayed in compliance with the order, while the other officials bowed and exited the hall.

"I'm leaving you three here. There are two things I want to hear your opinions on."

Emperor Jiajing slowly walked down from the dragon chair and spoke to Yan Song, Xu Jie and Li Ben in a chatting tone.

Yan Song and others naturally bowed to listen.

"The first thing is to establish the crown prince." Emperor Jiajing stood in front of Yan Song and the others and said slowly.

When they heard about the appointment of a crown prince, Yan Song, Xu Jie and Li Ben were immediately excited. The appointment of a crown prince was a matter of national importance.

It's just that Emperor Jiajing was very resistant to establishing a crown prince in the past. This was the first time he took the initiative to talk about establishing a crown prince like today.

Although Emperor Jiajing was very lustful, it was more difficult to have children. Since he began to favor women when he was a teenager, he had been working hard for more than ten years until he was twenty-six years old before he had his eldest son. However, the eldest son of the emperor was not blessed. He died within a month. Then, there was Tao Zhongwen's "two dragons never meet" rhetoric, saying that Emperor Jiajing's dragon life was too hard, and the princes were all little dragons, and their lives were not hard enough. If the two dragons met, the little dragon's life would be hard to save.

Later, after experiencing the incident where the second prince fell ill on the day of the ceremony of being established as prince and died soon after, Emperor Jiajing firmly believed in the two dragons' statement that they should not meet each other and strictly abided by it.

He only has two princes left. If he dies again, he will have to follow the old path of his ridiculous brother.

If he appoints another uncle's son to succeed him on the throne, the great ceremony controversy he caused must not happen again.

Therefore, Emperor Jiajing was very resistant to the matter of opposing the crown prince.

However, establishing a prince is related to the continuation of the Ming Dynasty and the foundation of the country. If you do not establish a prince, the country will not be stable.

King Yu and King Jing were both grown up and had established mansions. Since Emperor Jiajing was slow to establish a crown prince, both of them had the opportunity to look up to the throne. Prince Yu was older and had the advantage of Dayi, but Prince Jing was more favored. Each of them had their own advantages and disadvantages, so they fought openly and secretly, and the battle for the crown prince began early. It's already heating up.

The ministers were very anxious, and some people wrote letters from time to time, but the outcome was not good, including Xu Jie, who was left out in the cold for a while.

This resulted in ministers not daring to talk about establishing a heir apparent.

However, some ministers were still worried about this matter and risked being punished by Emperor Jiajing to write a letter.

Because Emperor Jiajing is not young anymore, he is already forty-five, and if he is refining elixirs and cultivating immortals, he might die one day. If he does not establish a crown prince, and when you die, then King Yu and King Jing will fight for the throne, and the world will be in chaos. ah.

"I have made countless announcements over the years to establish a crown prince. It seems that it is time to establish a crown prince. Regarding King Yu and King Jing, who of them is worthy of the great responsibility and inherit the throne?" Emperor Jiajing asked gently. This time there was no need for Yan Song to use his eyes. Emperor Jiajing first looked at Li Ben. Li Ben's calves shivered. He was silent for two seconds and then replied with a murmur, "Your Majesty, I have been busy with the documents. Neither Wang nor King Jing are familiar with each other, so I really don’t know who is more worthy of the responsibility."

Faced with the important proposition of establishing a prince, Li Ben chose to play dumb.

Sorry, I didn't know. I also took the opportunity to reveal that I had never befriended King Yu and King Jing, and was a pure minister.

Emperor Jiajing was naturally dissatisfied with Li Ben's stupid answer. He looked at Li Ben intently for a second, until he saw cold sweat breaking out on Li Ben's back. He almost couldn't help but kneel down to apologize.

Fortunately, at the moment when Li Ben bent his legs and was about to kneel down, Emperor Jiajing looked at Xu Jie, making Li Ben breathe a sigh of relief.

Facing Emperor Jiajing, Xu Jie had experience this time.

As the saying goes, one learns from one's mistakes.

Xu Jie had learned the lesson from last time and had already thought about how to answer. As soon as Emperor Jiajing looked at him, he replied, "Your Majesty, the so-called knowing son is better than his father. Which one, King Yu or King Jing, can inherit the throne? Who is more worthy?" Your Majesty knows very well that I only hope that your Majesty will follow your lead."

Compared to Li Ben's pretending to be stupid, Xu Jie chose to practice Tai Chi and pushed the problem to Emperor Jiajing.

There is no better son than a father. You know best. Whoever you think can inherit the throne is the one. You are the emperor and you are the greatest. I will listen to you.

Although Xu Jie really wanted to recommend King Yu because he was a direct descendant and King Yu was older, but after learning the lesson from last time and having a deeper understanding of Emperor Jiajing, Xu Jie took this to heart. Not mentioned here.

Emperor Jiajing was a powerful and assertive king, or rather arbitrary and willful. He would make whoever he wanted to be the crown prince, and the opinions of the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty could not influence Emperor Jiajing's thoughts.

Recommending King Yu at this time is not a good thing for King Yu.

So Xu Jie chose to practice Tai Chi.

"I want to be clear and ask for your opinion?!"

Emperor Jiajing was not satisfied with Xu Jie's answer. He glanced at Xu Jie and turned his attention to Yan Song.

"Your Majesty, the prince is the foundation of the country. The establishment of a prince is related to the foundation of the country, so we need to be very careful. King Yu and King Jing have just grown up, and they are both dragons among men. For a while, it is difficult to tell which prince is better and more worthy of the great responsibility. It will take time to verify the resolution.

Moreover, the Holy Emperor is in the prime of the Spring and Autumn Period, and the dragon body is in good health. There is no need to rush into establishing the heir apparent. It is not too late to make a decision after slowly examining the two princes. "

Yan Song cupped his hands and said, suggesting that Emperor Jiajing should not be in a hurry to establish a heir apparent. You are still young, so why be anxious.

In fact, Yan Song's favorite candidate for crown prince was King Jing, and he was already secretly supporting King Jing.

However, he did it very secretly and covertly. On the surface, he kept a distance from King Yu and King Jing and did not make friends with anyone.

The reason why Yan Song did not recommend King Jing was, firstly, to establish a pure ministerial character. I, Yan Song, am a minister of your Emperor Jiajing. I will never make friends with King Yu and King Jing in private, and I will only be loyal to you. Secondly, Yan Song knew in his heart that Emperor Jiajing There is no idea of ​​establishing a reserve now, and it would be wrong to recommend anyone.

"There's no rush. Over the years, the memorials I've received regarding the establishment of the crown prince can be used as firewood to burn a Qianqiu banquet."

Emperor Jiajing glared at Yan Song and said displeasedly.

"I still mean the same thing. There is no rush to establish the heir. You need to be cautious. Real gold is not afraid of fire, and real dragon is not afraid of tests. Time will still need to test the two princes to see who can be more worthy of the great responsibility and inherit the throne."

Yan Song insisted.

"Okay, let me see what you guys come up with. Let's discuss this later." Emperor Jiajing let them go. (End of chapter)