The Prosperous Era of Longwan

"Are there any restrictions?"

Wei Guangde suddenly interjected, "Recommending generals is of course a good thing, but the recommendations may be uneven, which may allow some people to take advantage of the loopholes.

Wei Guangde's words were naturally not without purpose.

Considering the official situation of the Ming Dynasty, as long as the court took the initiative to recommend generals, it was not known which relatives and children the officials would recommend to serve as officials.

You know, over the years, many wealthy and distinguished families have been unable to enter official careers because their children failed in the imperial examinations.

In order to maintain a transcendent status in the local area, it is necessary to ensure that someone in the family is above the officialdom.

The result is very obvious. Everyone will use the relationship channels they have reserved to ask their friends to recommend to each other the children in the family who have no hope of taking the imperial examination and are ineffective. Even if they become military generals, they will at least have official status, which can keep the family and the officialdom in touch. .

Just imagine, if we really do this, the original military attaché system of the Ming Dynasty will be completely destroyed.

In the past, military honors were hereditary, and many others came in suddenly. Even if there were some people from military general families, they were definitely not as many as the civil servant group.

Zhang Juzheng has said before that the qualification requirements for recommenders are fourth-rank or above in Beijing and scientific and technical officials, governors, towns, patrols and other officials abroad. Most of them are civilian officials and only a few military generals.

"How to limit it?"

Zhang Juzheng just put forward his immature ideas for everyone to discuss, but Wei Guangde pointed out the huge flaws in his idea. So at this time, Zhang Juzheng really wanted to see if Wei Guangde had any solution.

The reason why he came up with the idea of ​​recommending generals was because, according to his understanding, the border town was now becoming a clan, and the generals had begun to appear.

In his opinion, in order to break through this kind of gate, it is necessary to introduce new blood and new people.

It is difficult for newcomers to take the lead, and it is difficult for the court to select them. Therefore, it is better to delegate power to local governments and let local governments go to towns, patrols, and provincial roads to select some hidden talents so that they can have a chance to take the lead.

However, Wei Guangde is right to worry. Policy must be a double-edged sword, with both good and bad aspects. The key is to see how those who formulate policies choose to maximize the advantages and suppress the disadvantages.

Wei Guangde just stared at Zhang Juzheng at this time, not in a hurry to answer, but seemed to be thinking.

Yes, Wei Guangde was thinking about why Zhang Juzheng made this suggestion. If he said that he wanted to recommend candidates, Wei Guangde wouldn't believe it.

With Zhang Juzheng's influence, it is not difficult for the Ministry of War and the Governor's Office to promote someone.

If you can't think of it, you don't want to think about it.

Wei Guangde just thought about it for a moment, and then gave up his intention to ask clearly. Instead, he thought about how to solve the problem of officials recommending family members to each other based on their relationships and further monopolizing the officialdom.

Before that, the way out that civil servants chose for the incompetent children in their clans was that most of them could read but lacked talent. They would find ways to get into the Imperial College and become prison students.

A student born as a prisoner came out of prison and entered an official position. Although his official career was capped, he was still an official and still had an official status.

Otherwise, they can only change careers and run other industries in the family, such as business and other activities, to make money for the family.

In fact, there are really not many ways to restrict officials from making random recommendations for their own selfish desires, except by increasing the cost for them to do so.

Right, that's it.

Wei Guangde suddenly thought that in this era, there was a joint sitting system. If one person committed a crime, the whole family would be punished.

Although it seems very undemocratic, it can actually ensure that most people are respectful and honest. After all, not everyone is worried about not being able to enter the ancestral grave.

Family is the most important thing in this era.

If something goes wrong as an official, although the family cannot be brought down directly, it will be implicated to some extent.

For example, once a case of imperial examination fraud is confirmed, it will be difficult for the family of the official involved to have a successful person for more than ten years or even longer.

Because officials need to avoid suspicion.

If a child of such a family is chosen, it will be easy for someone to accuse him of committing fraud and taking advantage of others.

After all, if previous cases are uncovered, then there is a criminal record.

Thinking of this, Wei Guangde suddenly showed a smile on his face and said: "Then add one more thing. If the person you mentioned has done meritorious deeds or bad deeds, the leader of the continuous promotion will be rewarded and punished."

"ah?"

Lu Tiaoyang couldn't help but be a little surprised when he heard Wei Guangde mention that he wanted to sit together.

"The meritorious service of the person recommended naturally means that the person who recommended him has a bright eye. He who has done good for the country should naturally be rewarded. As for the bad people, the same is true.

Although with this addition, many people may choose not to do it, it is better than making random recommendations for their own interests. When things go wrong, the court will bear the consequences. "

Wei Guangde explained, "Actually, when we recommend officials, although they will not be associated with the recommended person's mistakes, they will still be implicated to some extent and affect his face with His Majesty."

"I think it's okay. I'll add this to prevent officials from making random recommendations. Merits will be rewarded and punishment will be punished.

If they didn't really like someone, they wouldn't recommend them randomly, which is exactly what I wanted. "

Zhang Juzheng suddenly said.

Just when Zhang Juzheng wanted to continue discussing with Wei Guangde, finalize the matter, and plan to draft a memorial and send it to the palace, someone from Zhongshushe came outside with a memorial and was talking to the clerk at the door. Negotiate.

"What's the matter?"

Zhang Juzheng was facing the door of the house at this time, so he could naturally see what was going on outside at a glance.

A memorial was sent, and it seemed to be a separate copy. I thought it was not a trivial matter, so I asked.

After being asked by the chief assistant, the secretary hurriedly stepped into the room and bowed to everyone in the room before standing up and saying: "The Ministry of Household Affairs sent a memorial from Tianjin Haidao, saying that the grain shipped by sea this year has arrived at Tianjin Gate, but..."

"But what? Show it to me."

Wei Guangde frowned and said directly.

"yes."

The middle school secretary handed his hands to Wei Guangde. Wei Guangde took them and looked through them quickly.

But soon, the frown on his face relaxed, and he was obviously not satisfied with the turn in Zhongshu Sheren's words.

"What happened?"

Lu Tiaoyang asked curiously from the side.

From what Zhongshu said earlier, it was obvious that there was something wrong with the shipping of grain this time, otherwise it would not have been the case.

Wei Guangde is a staunch shipping faction in the cabinet and is even tougher than Zhang Juzheng.

But from the way he stretched his brows, it didn't seem like it was a big deal.

"This year, 120,000 shi of grain were transported by sea. When the fleet arrived at the sea near Fukushima, Jimo County, Shandong Province, it suddenly encountered a hurricane. Under heavy wind and rain, seven ships capsized, nearly 5,000 shi of rice were lost, and 15 people in the transport army were drowned."

Wei Guangde said.

Before receiving the memorial, Wei Guangde was still a little uneasy, worried that something might happen to the shipping.

However, after reading the memorial, the loss of transporting 120,000 shi of grain was less than 5,000 shi. This loss ratio was still within the acceptable range of Wei Guangde.

As for the unexpected hurricane, Wei Guangde probably encountered an irregular typhoon in the Pacific.

Later generations can track the activities of this meteorological phenomenon through meteorological satellites, predict its trajectory, and notify ships along the way to avoid it.

But in the Ming Dynasty, such means were naturally unavailable, and it could only be said to be God's will.

Five thousand corresponds to 120,000 dan. Although it is not a small amount, compared with the losses in previous years, it seems to be acceptable.

In fact, water transportation seems to be safe, but the loss of canal grain due to weather reasons, stranding, or water leakage every year is not smaller than this amount, and the canal army also loses a lot of personnel.

At the same time, there is also the problem that because the canals are narrow and shallow, they often face insufficient water sources, which in turn affects the transportation capacity, resulting in the inability to complete the transportation capacity as planned.

Maritime transportation, although there are climate reasons, has minimal impact in other aspects.

In fact, the ships of the Ming Dynasty were not afraid of wind and rain at this time, so Wei Guangde also mentioned many times in his memorials that "boats traveling on the ocean are not afraid of depth but fear of shallowness, and are not afraid of wind but worry about reefs."

The shipwreck in Fukushima and the loss of food supplies were naturally not a big deal in his eyes and were acceptable, so he didn't take it seriously.

After Zhang Juzheng read the memorial, he also nodded.

Although it was not as safe as last year during the trial run, he could probably accept such a loss.

Hurricanes at sea do not happen all the time, and during the transportation period, such walruses are very rare. It can only be said that this is an accident.

However, after all, Zhang Juzheng was older than Wei Guangde and had many more years in his official career, so he still had much more experience than Wei Guangde.

He is deeply aware of the terrifying power of water transportation interest groups. Even if they lose seven ships, if they use the topic to make use of it, they are afraid of another trouble in the court.

However, Zhang Juzheng did not remind Wei Guangde at this time that the left and right were just a debate over national affairs.

Well, in his opinion, it might not be a bad thing for everyone to argue about it, right?

At first, everyone supported maritime transportation because they were worried that the Yellow River would be unfavorable for many times. It seems that after the change of Yuan this year, the Yellow River has become docile, and maybe it will be like this in the future.

Or a flood occurs every three or five years, which seems to be acceptable to the court.

Using this incident to undermine Wei Guangde's prestige doesn't seem to be a bad thing.

Although he tried his best to remove himself from the incident involving Feng Bao, private discussions between the government and the public still focused more on him, causing him to suffer a great loss in prestige.

There are now rumors among Qingliu officials that he and Feng Bao took advantage of each other to rise to power. He used Feng Bao's help to kill Gao Gong, and Feng Bao also used his help to succeed.

After leaving office that day, Wei Guangde returned to his mansion to rest, unaware that a political storm was brewing against shipping.

That night, in a private mansion in Huai'an Mansion, several people dressed as businessmen but exuding official aura were discussing secretly.

"The news has come from Tianjin that only seven ships have been sunk, and there is no chance to take action on the others."

"Haha, it must be that those people are afraid that their lives are in danger, so they dare not move."

"No matter what, these people cannot be kept."

"This is natural. I will find a reason to move them away first and then take action."

"Sir, do you think this matter can be criticized?"

One of them suddenly asked the person sitting in the middle.

"Nowadays, several people who support shipping have risen to high positions, and not many people in the government can say anything good about it."

The "adult" didn't answer directly, but talked about him sideways, but the meaning of his words was still obvious.

"Also, regardless of whether this time is successful or not, you have restrained your subordinates in the past few years and don't cause trouble again.

Regarding this matter, if you had listened to me before, Beijing would not have made up its mind to take the sea route instead.

In order to limit the amount of grain transported by sea, we spent a lot of money to persuade the people above. "

"But sir, why don't you continue your efforts? Please talk to the chief minister and cancel the shipping of grain directly."

The man continued to ask.

"The reason is not sufficient, the chief minister also has to consider the safety of the grain supply.

You said, for that little profit, why don't you report a bunch of shipwrecks every year? The water transportation suffered heavy losses, which have caught up with the sea transportation, and there is also the Yellow River. How can you ask people to speak for you?

The cabinet does not care what we do below, but the rated grain must be safely transported to Jingtong. This is a basic requirement.

The one who asked us to try out sea transportation didn't mean to beat him up. If you still don't stop, do you really have to go to the guillotine to regret it? "

"In fact, no matter whether you are traveling through the canal or the sea, ship damage is inevitable."

"That won't work. If the ship travels across the sea, what will happen to our industries along the way? What goes up and down the road will lead to inefficiency. Businessmen are also asking for the opening of the sea. They want to use sea transportation to replace the northward water transportation. Our industries along the canal will be ruined."

"Exactly, as long as the court does not allocate money to dredge the river, the canal will be abandoned in a few years, and the money we invested will be wasted."

"There cannot be less money to operate the capital. I am thinking whether we should organize river workers to do a job and let the court know the power of millions of river workers."

On the second day, the weather in the capital was sunny and cloudless, which was a good day for traveling.

In a few days, the sun will be very scorching, and people will not dare to go out and be exposed to the scorching sun.

In the duty room of the Chief Assistant of the Cabinet, a man dressed as a servant stood in front of Zhang Juzheng, and Zhang Juzheng was sitting on the throne of the Chief Assistant and looking at the note in his hand.

"Naokata hid back."

"Yes, sir.

Nafang hid after knowing that Gao Gong was expelled, and secretly returned to Danyang to hide. "

The servant said hurriedly.

Nafang, naturally the great hero Danyang, used his connections to help Gao Gong reinstate himself.

After Gao Gong was dismissed, Shao Fang became a dangerous figure in Zhang Juzheng's eyes.

A person in the world could actually influence the situation and intervene in the replacement of the chief ministers of the imperial cabinet. This was something Zhang Juzheng could never tolerate. The threat was too great.

After successfully expelling Gao Gong last year, Zhang Juzheng planned to execute Xian Fang secretly, but all the people he sent were in vain and he was forced to hide.

Although Zhang Juzheng couldn't do anything to Gao Gong, he still couldn't handle a small person like Xing Fang.

Moreover, most of the official circles were dissatisfied with him.

After Gao Gong came to power, he not only provided him with many conveniences, but also made Shao Fang self-righteous and openly considered himself the political leader of the opposition. He even built a secret room in his home for discussing national affairs, which was extremely arrogant.

For a little man who looked up to officials, and suddenly turned over and sat on top of them, one can imagine everyone's attitude towards him.

However, this man was cunning, and after several failed attempts to catch him, Zhang Juzheng specially arranged for people to look for clues, intending to give him a fatal blow, catch him, kill him, and avoid future troubles forever.

Yes, he was able to perform high arch reduction yesterday, but he doesn’t know if it will happen again in the future.

Zhang Juzheng didn't say much, and quickly wrote a letter, sealed it in an envelope, sealed it with wax, and then handed it to his servants.

"You take this letter to see Zhang Jiayin. Danyang is under his rule and he has asked him to secretly arrest Xing Fang. You must witness his execution with your own eyes."

Zhang Jiayin's courtesy name was Xiao Fu. His first name was Shan, and later his name was changed to Juelaishan. He was a native of Chongqing Prefecture in Sichuan. He was a Jinshi in the 29th year of Jiajing and was awarded the title of county magistrate.