Chapter 1051: To Report or Not to Report, That Is the Question

The implementation of the Single Whip Law in the six prefectures was far smoother than Zhu Yijun had anticipated. Sixty-three years of failure taught him that if this matter could be accomplished so simply, could it really have failed for sixty-three years?

From the very beginning, the Emperor of Great Ming had prepared to flip the table.

Flipping the table meant dispatching the Capital Garrison to completely take over local yamen, conducting a carpet-style purge of local worthies, gentry, and powerful, influential families—a thorough purge that left absolutely no way out.

Afterward, they would utilize the junior officers cultivated by the Capital Garrison to take over local yamen for six months to a year to enforce government decrees, and use retired soldiers and junior officers to control local power.

When it was necessary to kill, Zhu Yijun never softened his hand, nor was he ever stingy with the violence at his disposal.

The biggest problem with doing this was that all the evil consequences and karmic debts would entangle him, the Emperor himself. As it happened, he did not care much for these posthumous evaluations.

He had said more than once: when a person dies, they are dead; no matter how powerful they were in life, they cannot control what happens after they are gone.

However, the situation of implementing the Single Whip Law in the six prefectures was far more optimistic and smoother than Zhu Yijun had imagined. When the Ministry of Revenue, the Ministry of Personnel, and the Ministry of War coordinated to replace the three classes of yamen runners and clerks in the six prefectures, the policy began to be implemented smoothly.

It started first in Suzhou Prefecture. The county yamen of the various departments and counties in Suzhou Prefecture issued notices and convened public deliberation meetings to expound upon the Great Ming Emperor's imperial edicts and goals.

At the public deliberation meetings, local worthies and gentry expressed one after another that they would support the imperial court's decrees, actively cooperate with the implementation of the Single Whip Law, not offer discounts, not act in compliance in public while opposing in private, and effectively implement the policy of returning land, guarantee the effectiveness of returning land, earnestly study "Deep Plowing" and "Turning Over," jointly safeguard the brilliant achievements of the Wanli Reform, carry forward the past and open up the future, and let Great Ming become great again, even greater!

Of course, these worthies and gentry simultaneously hoped that His Majesty could clearly feel the sincere loyalty and patriotism of the various worthies and gentry, and that unless necessary, he would not dispatch the Capital Garrison. Adding trouble to trouble was a burden; dispatching the Capital Garrison was no small matter. If it could be avoided, it should not be lightly set in motion.

What a small matter! Wasn't it just dividing taxes into land taxes and commercial taxes, and collecting them strictly in accordance with the *Great Ming Collected Statutes: Commercial Taxes*? Cooperation would certainly be provided. The Capital Garrison was meant for killing and cutting; such matters as dispatching riot squads should be avoided.

Zhu Yijun also issued a decree to the Prefect of Suzhou, inquiring about the specific implementation of the two decrees—the Land Return Order and the Single Whip Law—and what exactly was discussed at the public deliberation meetings.

The Prefect of Suzhou quickly replied to His Majesty that nothing much was discussed at the public deliberation meetings; they simply repeated in detail the handling results of Rongcheng County in Baoding Prefecture after the anti-corruption Censor Xu Chengchu was attacked in the original Qingmaqiao case.

The worthies, gentry, and powerful, influential families immediately became reasonable and quickly reached a consensus.

"I didn't expect it to be this easy." Zhu Yijun finished reading the memorial from the Prefect of Suzhou and breathed a sigh of relief. The smooth implementation of the Single Whip Law met with far, far less resistance than previous decrees.

"Is it easy? It is not easy at all." Li Yougong looked at the burly Emperor. He had grown up following the Emperor; this physique of sinewy muscle and those calluses on his hands were not what a naturally noble person should have.

It looked like the Single Whip Law was being executed very smoothly, but this was the result of twenty-two years of reform, the stable inflow of overseas silver, the accumulation of sufficient experience, and the sum total of the Wanli Reform, including the strengthening of martial arts.

This was not easy at all. If these local, deeply entrenched forces were really that obedient, the Governor of Zhejiang, Zhu Wan, would not have committed suicide.

"In any case, the result is good!" Zhu Yijun picked up the vermilion brush and wrote a reply of over two hundred characters to the Prefect of Suzhou.

He vigorously commended the officials of Suzhou Prefecture and approved several applications for Suzhou official factories reported by Suzhou Prefecture, such as the Suzhou Weaving Factory, Suzhou Machinery Factory, and Suzhou Coal and Steel Factory, which were self-funded official factories.

With the establishment of these self-funded official factories, officials at all levels in Suzhou could obtain a top-tier performance evaluation. Promotion was one aspect, but the key was that with a good overall performance evaluation, the quota for the civil service examination could be increased.

The quota for the civil service examination in Suzhou Prefecture was 120 people per year. If they could obtain a top-tier comprehensive performance evaluation, they could increase it by 50 to 100 people to enter the Imperial Academy.

Actually, as an Emperor, Zhu Yijun somewhat neglected the role he, the Emperor, played in the Single Whip Law.

Confucius said in *The Analects*: "The ruler employs his ministers according to ritual; the ministers serve the ruler with loyalty."

Hou Yuzhao personally made a trip to Suzhou Prefecture and even communicated well with these department and county magistrates about specific difficulties, instead of making decisions on a whim. This was employing ministers according to ritual.

He solved the urgent needs of the department and county magistrates. If they did not serve the ruler with loyalty, then in the future, His Majesty would not be so easy to talk to, and would not employ ministers according to ritual.

The department and county magistrates would naturally exert their subjective initiative and rack their brains to make everyone agree to the implementation of the decree. Moreover, the department and county magistrates truly felt the support from their superiors, so things would be much, much easier to handle.

Serving superiors and settling subordinates—if the department and county magistrates chose to serve superiors, but the superiors only knew how to shirk responsibility and did not provide any support, leaving everything for the locality to find a way, then it would be a strange thing indeed if the decree could be pushed forward.

If His Majesty was willing to bear the infamy, then the department and county magistrates would naturally actively promote it.

Zhu Yijun began to sharpen his blade, and then he looked at the six memorials in front of him, pointing at them one by one, and said to Li Yougong: "Lu Song needs people, Jiugang needs people, the Datie Lingwei needs people, the Jinchi Viceroy's Office needs people, the Jinshan Kingdom needs people. Now it's even better; even Xiong Tingbi needs people!"

"Where would I get so many people to give them!"

After Xiong Tingbi defeated the coalition army of Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu at Odawara Castle, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, after careful consideration, finally gave up the idea of attacking the Kanto Plain.

To attack the Kanto Plain, Odawara Castle was the only way, and its importance was almost equivalent to Great Ming's Shanhai Pass.

With Great Ming's firearm support at Odawara Castle, unless Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu exhausted all their strength, wanting to take it again would be like a fool's dream.

The key was that Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu were also guarding against each other, fearing that when they exhausted their strength, they would be stabbed in the back by each other.

After Hojo Ujimasa and Hojo Ujinao changed their names to Yuan Zheng and Yuan Zhi, after a brief adjustment, they quickly accepted their new identities. To them, Toyotomi Hideyoshi could not be provoked, Tokugawa Ieyasu could not be provoked, and Great Ming could not be provoked either.

Since they had to surrender in the end, it was very necessary to find a master who looked a bit more benevolent.

If one really wanted to compare morality, Great Ming was truly very moral.

Yuan Zheng and Yuan Zhi thus became Xiong Tingbi's lackeys. The series of things conquerors were supposed to do—the massacres, the capturing of Japanese slaves, the plundering of Japanese women for pleasure—that they had anticipated, the Capital Garrison led by Xiong Tingbi did none of.

Xiong Tingbi launched a small-scale equal-field system in Edogawa.

The equal-field system meant confiscating land and then distributing it to the landless people, except that these people had to give up their original surnames, change to Han surnames, and were not allowed to wear the *chonmage* hairstyle anymore.

For these people, there was actually such a good thing?! The sources of the surnames of the Japanese people were very complex, and some were too casual. Soon, the vigorous equal-field system began to be carried out.

Xiong Tingbi was in Japan, not in Great Ming. Those who did not submit to the equal-field system were all flattened by Xiong Tingbi.

The mountain castles that these Japanese pirates relied on were vulnerable in front of Great Ming's firearms.

The reason Xiong Tingbi needed people was very simple: he lacked people to promote the King's transformation. No matter what kind of person it was, as long as His Majesty looked at them and gave them, he wanted them. He wanted all kinds of villains from prison. In any case, the Capital Garrison was a big melting pot; pull them in and burn them, and they would all be high-quality resources.

Unlike Lu Song, Jiugang, the Datie Lingwei, and Jinchi, Xiong Tingbi brought three thousand elite soldiers of the Capital Garrison. These three thousand elite soldiers—no matter what kind of person entered, under the system and the power of the collective, he could forge them into usable talents. Just send them!

The key was that Zhu Yijun had no one left to give. He only handled a few exile cases a year, and the number of exiled people was limited. He had been catching local ruffians for several years already.

"We can only make these local ruffians suffer a bit more." Zhu Yijun finally divided the local ruffians up and gave a bit to all six places, and also told them that there really were no more.

Xiong Tingbi was the Five-Star Emperor in Japan, and he did not act very gently as this Five-Star Emperor.

Any samurai or daimyo whose family land exceeded ten *qing* was ordered to hand over their land deeds and were all moved into Edo Castle, not allowed to leave the city.

This move completely separated the identities of samurai and farmers, reconstructing the order of the Kanto Plain.

For this, Xiong Tingbi also specially formulated the *Samurai Laws* to restrain the behavior of samurai and punish the illegal acts of samurai and daimyo.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi could still drive Xiong Tingbi out if he exhausted everything now. Once Xiong Tingbi was allowed to operate in the Kanto Plain for more than five years, even if Toyotomi Hideyoshi wanted to drive him out, he would not have the strength or opportunity. The Japanese people in the Kanto Plain who were gradually being transformed by the King would not agree.

If one had always been in the darkness, one could tolerate the darkness. Once one had seen the light, one could no longer tolerate it.

Zhu Yijun was willing to let Xiong Tingbi give it a try. Even if it didn't succeed, it didn't matter. At the very least, Edo Castle could become an important link in Great Ming's Pan-Pacific Commercial Alliance, making the entire Pan-Pacific Commercial Alliance operate more smoothly.

"This joint memorial from the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Rites is approved. Include it in the *Great Ming Collected Statutes*." Zhu Yijun approved a memorial.

It was jointly submitted by Gao Qiyu and Hou Yuzhao of the Ministry of Revenue. The name of the memorial was *Memorial on the Entry Criteria for Overseas Barbarians*, and it was listed as a legal statute to facilitate the management of barbarians by the Maritime Trade Office.

Envoys from overseas barbarian countries could enter the capital for an audience, and with His Majesty's permission, could move freely, such as Shah Mamaiti and Li Yashi;

Overseas students who passed the examination and could be admitted to the Academy of Physical Sciences to serve as Doctors of Physical Sciences could enter the Imperial Academy and the Capital University to study and prepare for the Academy of Physical Sciences;

All other people could only move within the Ten Thousand Nations City, and must comply with the approved stay time. Without official document approval, they could not leave the Ten Thousand Nations City; all barbarians in Great Ming were subject to the Great Ming Code.

If there was any violation of the prohibition, they would be killed without mercy.

The Ten Thousand Nations City was probably a small city with a circumference of no more than five *li*, completely isolated from the world, and guarded by the Great Ming army.

Under the general trend of opening the seas, the standard for publishing this entry approval was extremely strict. The scholars who could enter Great Ming were probably only top-tier geniuses like Galileo and Kepler.

In the memorial, Gao Qiyu brought up the past again, mentioning the Isfahan turmoil at the end of the Yuan Dynasty.

At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, there were more and more Persians in Quanzhou. These Persians began to rebel, lasting for more than ten years, and the chaotic war that spread throughout Fujian made the people miserable.

History is the best teacher. If one cannot learn, it will repeat itself, letting people continue to learn until they have thoroughly learned it.

The Isfahan turmoil was a historical lesson. Zhu Yuanzhang's implementation of the sea ban during the Hongwu period was to a large extent a reference to the Isfahan turmoil. Moreover, there was the old story of the Pu clan betraying the Zhao Song royal family, which further strengthened Zhu Yuanzhang's determination to ban the seas.

This memorial had been written long ago, but Gao Qiyu organized the old archives of the former Yuan and carefully sorted out the Isfahan turmoil, letting His Majesty understand this historical lesson and understand why the Ministry of Rites formulated such strict and tightened approval rules for barbarians entering Great Ming.

The policy supporting this entry approval rule was called the *Reward and Punishment Order for Reporting and Arresting Barbarians*.

Reporting a barbarian who sneaked into Great Ming would be rewarded with five taels of silver; arresting one would be rewarded with fifteen taels of silver. If the barbarian was accidentally killed during the arrest process, and the corpse was intact, only ten taels of silver would be given.

According to the Ministry of Revenue's calculation, the administrative and dispatch costs for the imperial court to arrest a barbarian were about twenty silver. If the people could arrest them and send them directly to the yamen, not only would the people get fifteen taels of silver, but the imperial court could also save five silver in expenditure.

Moreover, this captured barbarian could also be sold to overseas plantations, making a steady profit without loss.

The reward system was a system that Great Ming had had since the beginning of the country. In the past, they offered rewards for heads; now they offered rewards for living people. Both were given rewards.

The various police inspection offices and the archers of the police inspection offices in Great Ming relied on reward money to eat.

Great Ming was like this—an extremely conservative dynasty, even more conservative than conservative. This was not something the Wanli Reform could change. In fact, the Wanli Reform made Great Ming even more conservative.

Zhu Yijun felt it was very reasonable. This land had been the Chinese people's from beginning to end. These barbarians had never even paid blood taxes.

He approved the memorial and appended it to the *Great Ming Collected Statutes*, becoming a confirmed law.

"The Master has written a memorial." Zhu Yijun suddenly saw a name he hadn't seen for a long time: Zhang Juzheng.

Zhang Juzheng had long since stopped managing affairs. Now he was actually writing a memorial. Zhu Yijun immediately sat up straight and carefully looked at the content of the memorial.

The memorial was divided into two parts, upper and lower. The upper part wrote about the Performance Evaluation Law and the Civil Service Examination Law. Zhang Juzheng first affirmed in writing that Shen Shixing's subtraction from the Performance Evaluation Law was correct, and also expressed affirmation of Shen Shixing's ability. The upper part mainly talked about official governance.

In the upper part, Zhang Juzheng cited the content in *On Dissection* and *Illustrated Muscle Manual*.

Humans are very magical animals. There are many problems in posture that are muscle atrophy.

For example, shoulder impingement is caused by poor posture of long-term rounded shoulders and hunched back. The root cause is the atrophy of the back muscle group, which cannot maintain the correct posture. For example, anterior pelvic tilt, rib flaring, calf valgus, varus, collapsed arches, etc.

Partial muscle atrophy leads to the activation of compensation mechanisms, and poor posture further causes these muscles to atrophy.

This is the principle of use-it-or-lose-it for muscles. Humans are like this, and an organization is also like this, especially an administrative bureaucratic organization.

The bureaucratic organization is the ruling class. Everyone in the administrative organization system has no survival pressure, so they will follow the principle of use-it-or-lose-it, and the organization will naturally decline.

The purpose of the Performance Evaluation Law is not that the ministers in the imperial court and the Emperor have nothing to do and want to use the Performance Evaluation Law to toss the officials, but to prevent the natural decline of the organization, make the muscles strong enough, and prevent the problem of poor posture.

As for the content of the lower part, the matter Zhang Juzheng talked about was very, very rebellious.

However, Zhang Juzheng was almost seventy years old. At his age, he was already at the age where he was free from all taboos, so in the lower part, he raised a question that all ministers dared not raise: the question of the Crown Prince.

Zhang Juzheng told a story. When the Witchcraft Calamity broke out, Crown Prince Liu Ju was defeated and wanted to escape from the capital. There were two guards at the gate. One advocated letting him go, saying that the affairs of the Heavenly Family should be treated as if they hadn't been seen; the other advocated arresting him, saying that if Liu Ju really escaped, no one could escape the relationship.

In the end, Liu Ju resisted arrest and committed suicide.

After Wu Di of Han returned to the capital, he killed the guard who advocated letting him go.

Not long after, Wu Di of Han regretted it deeply, rehabilitated Crown Prince Liu Ju, and built the "Terrace of Looking for the Return" to commemorate Liu Ju. The guard who advocated arresting him was killed by Wu Di of Han.

The reason was very strange. Wu Di of Han felt that if Liu Ju had escaped at that time, and he, Wu Di of Han, had returned to the capital and figured out the truth, Liu Ju would not have died.

The guard who advocated letting go died, and the guard who advocated arresting also died.

Of course, whether it was Wu Di of Han or later people, they all knew that Liu Ju was bound to die, and even Empress Wei Zifu committed suicide.

Looking at the historical experience of all dynasties, the result of the struggle between the Crown Prince and the Emperor often kills four types of people: one is the Crown Prince himself; one is those who support the Crown Prince; one is those who oppose the Crown Prince; and finally, those who are neutral.

Everyone says that if Li Chengqian hadn't listened to Hou Junji's slander and hadn't staged a mutiny, he would have successfully succeeded to the throne. But in reality, Li Chengqian was making his last stand. If he rebelled, he would die; if he didn't rebel, he would also die. Waiting for death, he could only gamble everything.

Since there has been reliable history, the proportion of Crown Princes who were killed or abolished is as high as 45%. If those Emperors who were puppets controlled by powerful ministers were removed, more than 80% of Crown Princes and Emperors would reach the point of life-and-death struggle and armed confrontation.

This is a historical lesson and also historical experience.

The root cause of all this is not the result of the difficulty of ending well, not the result of people getting old and stubborn and not trusting anyone, but the result of the alienation of power.

Power will gradually make people lose their humanity and become a ruthless monster. All behaviors will unfold around power.

For the ministers, should they listen to the Emperor or the Crown Prince?

The old Emperor is bound to die, and it is not just the Emperor, for example, the Yan Dang at the end of the Jiajing period.

Did the Yan Dang listen to Yan Shifan or Yan Song? Logically speaking, Yan Song was the leader of the Yan Dang, but the Yan Dang generally listened to Yan Shifan.

Because Yan Song was bound to die, the Yan Dang could only listen to Yan Shifan for their own future.

These ministers who defected to the Crown Prince would also push the Crown Prince forward, because the sooner the Crown Prince ascended the throne, the sooner the ministers' investments would be realized, and they would rise to prominence.

For the Emperor, the Emperor could only constantly pick bones from eggs, constantly beat and admonish the Crown Prince, set up opponents for the Crown Prince, and let the ministers not easily defect to the Crown Prince.

This Crown Prince could be finished at any time. If the ministers didn't want to be involved, they should stay far away.

At this time, the contradiction between the Emperor and the Crown Prince would completely lose control.

Because the Emperor constantly beat him, the Crown Prince would naturally harbor resentment, and the gap between father and son would become larger and larger until they completely broke up.

And as long as the Emperor discovered the Crown Prince's heart of disobedience, he would often turn the fake into reality, changing from beating to abolishing the storage, and changing to a son with a shallow foundation and insufficient power to threaten imperial power to continue to be the Crown Prince.

And at present, the Emperor stayed in the Southern Yamen for half a year every year, and the capital was supervised by the Crown Prince, assisted by ministers. The Crown Prince was still young, only thirteen years old this year, and seemed to have no too much power, but in fact, this already had the basic conditions for forming a Crown Prince faction.

In the lower part, Zhang Juzheng only talked about the universal contradiction between the Emperor and the Crown Prince, hoping that His Majesty would pay attention, and at present, this contradiction would definitely intensify.

Because His Majesty was too young, and His Majesty was good at self-protection and had a long-lived face, could the Crown Prince and the Crown Prince's party wait that long?

As for how to solve it? Zhang Juzheng did not mention it at all in the memorial, because it was very simple: this is the natural defect of the imperial system, and it is impossible to solve it with a system.

In truth, because of the Great Ming's system of primogeniture, the scope of such struggles surrounding imperial power has already become very, very small. It is neither as prone to being turned into puppets by powerful clans as the Great Han, nor is it like the Great Tang, which ended up with the Xuanwu Gate succession system.

But the flaws of the primogeniture system are also obvious: what if the eldest legitimate son is a bastard?

"The Master can be considered one of the few people in our Great Ming qualified to mention this contradiction." Zhu Yijun sighed. He actually noticed this problem too. The Crown Prince was gathering his own party, and Zhu Changzhi, this child, was really sensible.

Zhu Changzhi took the initiative to ask for orders to help bury the coffin of the hero, gathering the hearts of the military.

Zhu Yijun really didn't want to reach the scene of fighting each other at Xuanwu Gate with Zhu Changzhi. Great Ming also had a Xuanwu Gate, right between Jingshan, where the crooked-neck tree was located, and the Imperial Palace.

But from historical experience and lessons, from the universal contradiction between the Emperor and the Crown Prince and the development process of the contradiction, this was a problem that could not be avoided at all and must be looked at directly.

"The Master is a hero of a generation. He should have a way, but as a minister, it's not convenient?" Li Yougong pondered with his own brain and found that he couldn't figure it out. He felt that his brain was stupid, so Zhang Juzheng's brain was so good, he must have a way!

The great success of the Wanli Reform made the people of Great Ming have a natural idea: that no matter how difficult things were, as long as Zhang Juzheng was willing to find a way, it could be solved.

After all, the Wanli Reform pulled Great Ming out of the quagmire and once again stood proudly between heaven and earth and under the sun and moon with the posture of a Celestial Empire.

Zhu Yijun shook his head and said: "The Master has no way. If he had a way, he would let his son enter the government, instead of being a doctor in the Academy of Physical Sciences who is not in the five elements."

Zhang Juzheng did not let his son enter the government because he was afraid of repeating the mistakes of the Yan Dang.

"Does the Master have no way either?" Li Yougong was silent for a while. That seemed to be a very difficult contradiction to solve.

Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao, this pair of Emperor and Crown Prince, were not within the scope of discussion. On the entire historical scale, one could not find a second pair of Emperor and Crown Prince who got along so harmoniously.

The key to the problem was very clear: the Emperor and the Crown Prince were both ruler and minister, and father and son, and they were ruler and minister first, and then father and son.

The Crown Prince could not be a piece of trash. If the Crown Prince was a piece of trash, how could he succeed to the throne?

But the Crown Prince could not be too virtuous and capable. Being virtuous and corporal was well-known. The Emperor was still alive, what did you, the Crown Prince, want to do?

Zhu Yijun put down Zhang Juzheng's memorial and suddenly remembered that Wang Yaozhuo was on a southern tour this time and insisted on bringing Zhu Changchao, the second prince, with him.

Actually, Wang Yaozhuo bringing Zhu Changchao by her side was also somewhat guarding against her own son, Zhu Changzhi, listening to some rumors and acting recklessly.

Zhu Yijun sighed heavily. He had no way to deal with this matter either.

And at this time, in the Imperial Study of Tonghe Palace, thirteen-year-old Zhu Changzhi sat on the dragon chair, looking at the memorial in front of him, looking at the Senior Grand Secretary Shen Shixing and the Junior Grand Secretary Gao Qiyu in front of him, and said with a frown: "Two Masters, I have doubts."

"The Viceroy of the Granary and Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, Chu Fu, memorialized that from the 14th year of Wanli to the 22nd year of Wanli, the various provinces owed a total of over 7.64 million silver in capital transport. The Ministry of Revenue advocated strictly holding the local pacification officials accountable, considering the situation, reporting according to the fixed year, and sending it to the capital."

"At the end of last year, the Ministry of Revenue audited that the 7.64 million silver owed was mostly land tax. Now, the imperial court is arguing endlessly about this matter."

"If I send a message to the Songjiang Prefecture Palace and ask Father Emperor to make a decision, will Father Emperor think that I am too incompetent, that I have to ask about such a small matter, that I am not entrusted with the right person, and that I have no virtue or talent as a ruler?"

"But if I don't report it and handle it myself, will Father Emperor think that I decided such a big matter without reporting it, and think that I, the Crown Prince, am forming a party and trying to seize power?"

Zhu Changzhi was only thirteen years old. This was the third time he had supervised the country while his Father Emperor was on a southern tour. The first two times he was young and didn't feel anything, just stamping the seal.

This time Zhu Changzhi truly felt the pressure. Reporting was not right, and not reporting was not right. He didn't know how to grasp the degree of what was a big matter and what was a small matter.

Zhu Changzhi sincerely envied Zhu Changchao for being able to be carefree, focusing on studying medicine, and being able to follow his father's side to enjoy the family happiness of father and son.

Zhu Changzhi, who began to sharpen his blade at a young age, had some doubts about his identity as the eldest son by the legal wife for the first time, and even felt worried about his future.

Zhu Changzhi, who had read the theory of contradictions well, knew that from the moment he supervised the country, his relationship with his father was already ruler and minister more than father and son.

"This..." Shen Shixing and Gao Qiyu looked at each other. They were still thinking on the way about why the Crown Prince summoned the two of them.

It turned out that what the Crown Prince asked was something that ministers could not answer.

Xie Jin presided over the compilation of the *Yongle Encyclopedia*, which showed the trust of Emperor Chengzu Wen in Xie Jin. But after Xie Jin participated in the struggle for the Crown Prince, he immediately lost all trust. When he died, it was just Emperor Wen asking if Xie Jin was still alive, and then Xie Jin was frozen to death.

This question, Shen Shixing and Gao Qiyu could not answer at all! Even if Zhang Juzheng was standing here, he could not answer it.

"Two Masters, why don't you say anything?" Zhu Changzhi held the memorial of the Viceroy of the Granary in his hand and asked Shen Shixing and Gao Qiyu. At his age, he didn't know how to make decisions. Did the two Masters not know either?

"Your Highness, don't ask, don't ask." Gao Qiyu stretched out a hand and bowed, saying: "If Your Highness has nothing else, we will withdraw."

This matter, the two of them as ministers, could not answer a single word wrongly. They could only let the Crown Prince weigh the pros and cons himself. ===== CHAPTER 1052 =====