It is not a big deal to let the vassal kings come out to participate in politics and make decisions, but the difficulties faced are huge.

Su Tiancheng, who had long been thinking about reform, established the Zhongxing Academy. Now, the viewpoint of the Zhongxing Academy has gradually begun to spread in society. In some places in the south, its influence has even exceeded that of Fushe and Donglin Academy. In particular, the leader of Fushe, Zhang Pu, took the initiative to join the Zhongxing Academy, which has caused a huge impact.

But such an impact has not yet been able to penetrate into the court.

In the court, the power of the Donglin Party was still extraordinary. The party struggles mainly occurred between the Donglin Party and the Zhejiang Party. The Zhongxing Academy had almost no influence in the court.

Su Tiancheng had a very bad understanding of the Donglin Party, especially after traveling through time, he became even more disgusted by some students and officials of the Donglin Party.

In Su Tiancheng's view, the Donglin Party was originally a group composed of a small group of unsuccessful bureaucrats and gentry. This group began to gradually grow by controlling speech and controlling the government's affairs. The establishment of academies was the greatest success of the Donglin Party.

The Ming Dynasty's teacher-sitting system led to the Donglin Party's rapid development and growth. After the students passed the imperial examination, they naturally became the examiner's students under the name of the examiner, no matter what your identity was before. The purpose of the imperial examination was to select talents for the emperor and the court. Unfortunately, this teacher-sitting system changed the students who passed the imperial examination into private candidates for the bureaucratic group.

This move is too ruthless. Just imagine, if a student passes the imperial examination and just enters the court, he is labeled. The mentor who follows you belongs to a certain civil servant group. And all your political propositions must meet the requirements of this civil servant group, otherwise you will be deceiving your teachers and destroying your ancestors. Your future is closely related to this civil servant group. Such a system will naturally produce political party groups.

Through such means, the Donglin Party developed and grew stronger quietly and began to influence the government on a large scale.

This is a normal situation, and such situations have occurred in all dynasties, but sadly, the Donglin Party has no specific political propositions. Their requirements have always been vague.

Su Tiancheng summarized the demands of the Donglin Party. Their purpose was to limit the imperial power to the greatest extent and spare no effort to strengthen the power of the civil servant group. The way to grow was to start from the economic side. They demanded to be cautious in solitary self-sanity. They required everyone to have extremely noble sentiments and everyone was a moral model. Unfortunately, their request was a castle in the air and could not be achieved at all.

The emperor is not a fool, and he can notice this problem.

Powerful emperors, such as Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di, used iron-blooded means to suppress the civil servant group and consolidate the imperial power.

Ironically, when the imperial power was consolidated, the development of society showed a positive trend, the country was rich and the people were strong, and when the interests of civil servants took the upper hand, the country began to decline.

It is precisely based on this understanding that Su Tiancheng must consolidate the imperial power and obey orders.

To achieve this, you must face the entire civil service group and a class. Therefore, such reforms are destined to be not that simple.

The key figure here is Zhu Youjian.

After so many contacts, Su Tiancheng felt that Zhu Youjian was not a foolish monarch, nor the tyrants described in official history, and was definitely not useless. At least Zhu Youjian worked hard to govern and had very strict requirements on himself.

But Zhu Youjian’s shortcomings are also obvious, that is, he still lacks in his ability to govern the country.

A young man who grew up in the deep palace almost lost his life after experiencing the threats of Wei Zhongxian and Keshi and others. He ascended the throne at the age of sixteen. He did not realize the folk life and was even more difficult to receive systematic education on the imperial thoughts. Zhu Youjian had no chance to be an emperor. He was just the younger brother of Zhu Youxiao, the Emperor Xizong of the Ming Dynasty. Because Zhu Youxiao was in poor health, he died for seven years and had no descendants, so he was able to become an emperor.

It is still reasonable to describe Zhu Youjian using talent and ambition.

But Zhu Youjian trusted talented ministers very much, and this trust was almost unparalleled. Unfortunately, the result of this trust was not what he imagined. The situation in the country was getting worse and worse. Over time, a young man would inevitably have problems of one kind and another, and it was difficult to trust the ministers unconditionally as he did at the beginning. Even when dealing with the government, he felt a bit of a joke.

Su Tiancheng made silent contributions, which made Zhu Youjian re-examine his own problems and began to trust Su Tiancheng unconditionally. This time, Su Tiancheng seized the opportunity and injected vitality into the Ming Dynasty, which was about to collapse, and gave him a shot of a heart-warming agent. In this case, Su Tiancheng was about to start moving and began to implement his ambitions.

The purpose of exposing the outside world is to avoid party struggles, truly do things, rely on these achievements to slowly influence the emperor, slowly start to implement many of his own ideas, and slowly start the pace of reform.

After the conditions are ripe, Su Tiancheng will not wait, even though he is only the prefect of Henan Prefecture.

In the conversation in the Hall of Yangxin, Zhu Youjian spoke out his concerns without hesitation, fearing that the dynasty is in turmoil, fearing that the situation cannot be controlled, fearing that the civil servant group will rise up to resist, and fearing that the gentry and wealthy families will no longer support it. As the emperor, saying these words in front of the ministers also shows that Zhu Youjian was really afraid.

Su Tiancheng gave Zhu Youjian the greatest confidence and he made a detailed analysis.

The continuation of the Ming Dynasty was first to control the army, and secondly to control the economic lifeline. As long as you grasp these two aspects, you don’t have to worry too much. Let the royal family come out to do things. The purpose is to distribute the power of the essay official group. The army does not need to worry. At least the Jiangning Camp and the Datong border army fully support the emperor. The army of the five provinces controlled by Sun Chengzong is also loyal to the emperor. The taxes in Jiangning County have initially solved the problem of insufficient silver in the imperial court. These two aspects are currently available, so there is no need to worry about some ministers causing chaos and involving reform. It is best to use moderate means. At critical moments, there is no need to be afraid. Killing a few people is not a big deal.

After Zhu Youjian and Su Tiancheng analyzed the current situation, they finally made a decision, adopted the suggestions put forward by Su Tiancheng, loosened the vassal kings, and let them come out to do things.

During the discussion, Su Tiancheng also talked about the eunuch's issue.

Although Su Tiancheng received the greatest support from Wang Chengen, he was also outspoken when talking about the issue of eunuchs. Su Tiancheng had a little different understanding from other ministers. He did not oppose the emperor granting eunuchs certain powers, but the key was that he needed to control the eunuchs' power and could not let eunuchs do whatever they wanted. To a certain extent, eunuchs were the incarnation of the emperor, expressing their wishes on behalf of the emperor at all times. The eunuchs' power was completely granted by the emperor, which was different from civil and military ministers.

Su Tiancheng expressed his own understanding, and what he did not expect was that Zhu Youjian was going to ask him to be responsible for the act of acts of the vassal kings or the sons of the vassal princes entering the court to do things. Su Tiancheng quickly expressed his objection.

Without taking into account Zhu Youjian's ugly expression, Su Tiancheng explained again.

It is a huge matter for the vassal kings and their children to do things and become officials in the court. They will inevitably encounter strong opposition. In such cases, only by letting a respected minister preside over such a thing can the voices of opposition be suppressed to the greatest extent. Moreover, with the implementation of this matter, there are some subsequent things to do. Sometimes, the minister presided over this matter is likely to encounter many besieges or even fight alone.

Su Tiancheng did not shirk his own responsibilities. As long as the emperor issued an order, he would definitely support him with all his strength. No matter what situation he encountered, he would not be afraid. If someone objected or even threatened, Jiangning Camp was not a vegetarian.

The person Su Tiancheng recommended was Sun Chengzong.

As for presiding over the extermination of bandits, Lu Shanji could be held responsible. Over the years, Lu Shanji has always followed Sun Chengzong. He has already understood the habits of bandits and knows how to exterminate bandits.

Zhu Youjian decided that Sun Chengzong had little thought.

Sun Chengzong's qualifications were almost unparalleled in the court. He was originally the teacher of the late emperor and ranked among the three dukes. He made great contributions in the fight against the Tartars and bandits, and recommended and promoted a large number of officials.

Sun Chengzong was old and in his seventies, and it seemed inappropriate to continue running around the battlefield. It was very appropriate to come to the capital to preside over the affairs of the vassal kings and the sons of the vassal kings.

Of course, Sun Chengzong will encounter many problems, including the opposition of ministers in the court and doubts from all parties. After hearing this news, the vassal kings will definitely find ways to meet Sun Chengzong. Everyone wants to arrange their own things, but in the early stage of implementation, they must be cautious. There must be not many vassal kings and children of vassal kings who can enter the court to do things. As for the children of vassal princes taking the imperial examination, it is natural.

After discussing and deciding on all matters, Su Tiancheng made another request.

Lord Sun Chengzong is old and has difficulties in presiding on this matter alone. It is best to have several assistants. Su Tiancheng recommends Liu Zongzhou and Huang Daozhou to assist Sun Chengzong.

When Zhu Youjian, who had always been serious, showed a comfortable smile when he heard that Sun Chengzong, Liu Zongzhou and Huang Daozhou agreed to this matter, the many ministers in the court wanted to strongly oppose it, and the effect was not great. Sun Chengzong had great qualifications and influence among civil and military ministers. Liu Zongzhou and Huang Daozhou were both great scholars, and their influence among students was also extraordinary.

The imperial edict was issued soon.

Summoned Sun Chengzong, Liu Zongzhou and Huang Daozhou into the capital.
Chapter completed!