The Prosperous Era of Longwan

Among the six ministers of the Ming Dynasty, except for Zhu Heng, the minister of the Ministry of Industry, and Ge Shouli, the censor of Zuodu, the other ministers have only been promoted recently.

For example, Wang Guoguang, the Minister of Hubu, Tan Lun, the Minister of War, and Wang Zhigao, the Minister of Punishments, all took office last year. Zhang Han, the Minister of Rites, had just issued the decree, and no one had arrived in the capital yet.

With such qualifications, it would be difficult to take over Yang Bo's position as Minister of Civil Affairs.

Because of the unspoken rules of the Ministry of Personnel, all officials in the court did not think much about it and naturally placed their bets on Ge Shouli and Zhu Heng.

In the past, Ge Shouli gave people an attitude of only doing his job with all his heart and having no desire for official positions. Therefore, Wei Guangde did not think that Ge Shouli would participate in the competition for the position of Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs at first, so he felt that Zhu Heng had a chance of taking the position. Still big.

The distribution of power among the six ministries of the Ming Dynasty: the Ministry of Personnel is in charge of officials and has great political power; the Ministry of Households is in charge of finance and taxation, and controls the economic lifeline of the government; the Ministry of Rites is in charge of diplomacy and all organizational activities, which is the facade and the face of the emperor; the Ministry of War is in charge of military and national defense; the Ministry of Punishment is in charge of military and national defense; Manage the public security and law all over the country; the Ministry of Industry manages all construction projects across the country.

In terms of political weight, the Ministry of Industry is the weakest, but it is the only pure consumption department with huge benefits. If other ministries want to get some benefits, they must rely on the Ministry of Industry's accommodation.

Although the Ministry of Industry is the most lucrative among the six yamen, Wei Guangde still rolled up his sleeves and planned to help Zhu Heng fight for this position. Naturally, what he valued was the huge political power, which could help his fellow villagers seek a better background.

The township party is a naturally small group, and all officials have no choice.

Although Wei Guangde does not expect to recreate the grand situation of "the court is half Jiangxi" during the Yan Song period, but there are a few more people in the court to help him. After defeating Zhang Juzheng, doesn't he want their help?

It's just that Wei Guangde was destined to be disappointed this time. After Zhang Juzheng realized that this problem was unsolvable, the first choice he made was to support Ge Shouli rather than let Zhu Heng take over.

Who is Ge Shouli? It was because he was unwilling to oppose Gao Gong during the fight between Xu Jie and Gao Gong. He was collectively targeted by the officials of the Ministry of Revenue, and in the end he could only retire sadly.

Only after Gao Gong recovered did he have the opportunity to return to the court.

But in the past two years, his relationship with Gao Gong was still close.

As for why Ge Shouli didn't come out to speak when Gao Gong was dismissed, he naturally saw Gao Gong's arrogant and domineering appearance in the court. What's more, the dismissal was supported by the empress dowagers of the two palaces, so it couldn't change the situation at all.

But what dissatisfied Ge Shouli the most was that in the case of Minister Wang against Gao Gong, Yang Bo and Ge Shouli both stood firmly on Gao Gong's side, hoping that he could speak for Gao Gong.

Zhang Juzheng didn't say anything at that time, but he was still somewhat unhappy in his heart.

Not to mention that later, Zhang Juzheng also found out that Xinzheng sent them many gifts, including Lu Tiaoyang.

Zhang Juzheng hated Ge Shouli because he thought he was pretentious, and he also hated Zhu Heng because he had many people in the cabinet and was also very arrogant.

There was originally an unsolvable problem. No matter how hard he struggled, he had to choose one of the two. But after receiving Feng Baodi's message today, Zhang Juzheng planned to be the one with the biggest votes.

Didn't everyone in the court think that the Minister of Civil Affairs would choose between Ge Shouli and Zhu Heng?

Why not take a gamble and not choose these two people, but promote another one to be the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel. Anyway, Feng Bao said that he can handle it in the palace.

As long as the person he proposes can be included in the list of candidates for the Ministry of Personnel, it is enough to send it to the palace for the emperor and the queen mother to check. The rest depends on Feng Bao's methods.

Failure is just a matter of course, but if he succeeds, Zhang Juzheng's status in the minds of the officials in the outer court will be very different, and his prestige will be far behind Wei Guangde and others.

He can break the unspoken rules of the previous ministers of the Ministry of Civil Affairs. As the chief assistant, he has a strong influence in the palace. I believe that in the future, all the yamen of the six departments and five temples will look upon him.

As for who should be promoted to the position of Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, the candidate must be old enough, otherwise he will not be able to control the courtiers.

Although old age does not mean strong ability, but because of age, the ability may have declined, but as long as you are a senior in the imperial examination, it will be fine.

In the officialdom, the time of passing the Jinshi is also very important. The key to distinguishing the juniors in the officialdom is the time of the Jinshi.

Zhang Juzheng had already thought of the candidate just now. He chose Zhang Han, who had been a Jinshi in the 14th year of Jiajing and was even older than him.

Zhang Juzheng did not have much contact with Zhang Han, but he had a good relationship with his teacher Xu Jie in his early years and could be considered one of his own.

Xu Jie was from Huating County, Songjiang Prefecture, and Zhang Han was from Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. The two places were not far from each other. When something happened to Xu Jie two years ago, he ran to Zhejiang to avoid trouble.

In the first year of Longqing, Zhang Han supervised the military affairs of Guangdong and Guangxi. Later, Gao Gong was reinstated. In order to cope with Yin Zhengmao's layout, Zhang Han was transferred from Guangdong and Guangxi and went to Nanjing to serve as minister of the Ministry of Industry. Full power over the military affairs of Guangdong and Guangxi was transferred to Yin Zhengmao.

For the next two years, Zhang Han served as Minister of the Ministry of Industry in Nanjing.

If no one mentioned it among the officials in the capital, who would take the initiative to consider the so-called Six Ministries in Nanjing.

But if you really want to talk about it, Zhang Han, the Minister of the Ministry of Industry in Nanjing, is actually qualified to compete for the position of Minister of the Ministry of Personnel.

Zhang Juzheng thought over and over again in his study and finally made his choice.

During the court meeting, he recommended Zhang Han, the Minister of the Ministry of Industry in Nanjing, to be the Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs. If successful, not only would he have established a huge prestige in the hearts of the courtiers, but Zhang Han would also be grateful to Dai Decai because of his recommendation. yes.

Because the Six Ministries mainly manage major and minor matters in the court, the appointment of the Minister of the Palm is naturally the top priority and cannot be delayed.

At the beginning, Gao Gong concurrently served as a minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, promoted party members and disciples, and quickly gathered a force. Zhang Juzheng would not let such a thing happen again.

Now Wei Guangde, the second assistant in the cabinet, carries the title of Minister of the Ministry of Personnel.

If it is delayed, if something happens in the palace and Wei Guangde is allowed to take over the errands of the staff department, it will be troublesome.

So on the third day after the palace agreed to Yang Bo's appointment, the cabinet summoned more than 30 officials of the fourth rank and above, the sixth rank and the imperial censor of the imperial court to gather in Wenzhao Pavilion for court discussions.

Because they were only recommending candidates, Wei Guangde just sat there and there was no need for him to speak at all.

All the people who should be roped in have been roped in. When the time comes, just put your name on the list of officials who support Zhu Heng and submit it.

Because there had been discussions about this in the court, someone quickly mentioned the names of Zhu Heng and Ge Shouli.

These two people were originally among the few people in the court who were qualified to compete for the position of Minister of Civil Affairs. Naturally, no one opposed them, so they easily became candidates in the court discussion.

Throughout the Ming Dynasty, court meetings or court meetings were very common, among which court meetings were, to put it bluntly, the king's daily morning court meeting.

The court discussion system of the Ming Dynasty was actually the most common and important way to deal with national affairs in ancient times. It can be said that the court discussion system was not unique to the Ming Dynasty, but the court discussion of the Ming Dynasty still had its own characteristics.

So what are the characteristics of the Ming Dynasty’s court discussion system?

That is, the Ming Dynasty's court meetings were to provide reference for the emperor's decision-making, so the emperor generally did not come forward. The cabinet, together with the Five Temples, Six Ministries, the Metropolitan Procuratorate and the Sixth Section, discussed major policies and recommended ministers of civil and military affairs. Report the situation to the emperor in detail, and the latter will make a decision.

If there is no objection to the outcome of the court meeting, according to the regulations, the draft will generally be drafted by a minister of a certain ministry, and then signed by all the participants. The convener of the court meeting will then report it to the emperor for the emperor to hear, and the emperor will make the final decision and approve it.

For court discussions where there are differences, the existing differences will generally be written down in memorials and submitted to the emperor. Moreover, these differences must be submitted to the imperial review, and the emperor will make a decision and adopt them.

Moreover, for those matters that cannot be discussed explicitly in the court meeting, participants have the right to rewrite their ideas into memorials and submit them to the emperor.

Just when the court meeting was halfway through and everyone had determined that Ge Shouli and Zhu Heng were the candidates for the Ministry of Civil Affairs, Zhang Juzheng, the chief assistant, suddenly spoke.

What Zhang Juzheng said was naturally not the final summary of the court meeting, but a recommendation for candidates.

"Today's court meeting is convened mainly to recommend candidates for the Ministry of Civil Affairs. Now that the princes have recommended candidates, Ju Zheng also plans to recommend a candidate."

As soon as Zhang Juzheng opened his mouth, he attracted the attention of everyone in the palace. After hearing his words clearly, many people were shocked. They did not expect that the chief minister would recommend candidates after the dust had settled.

You know, when discussing Ge Shouli and Zhu Heng previously, most everyone had already expressed their attitudes. Even those who were close to Zhang Juzheng had a look of surprise at this time, especially Wang Zhigao.

You know, among the six ministerial books now, the ones who support Zhang Juzheng are definitely him and Hubu Wang Guoguang, but Wang Guangguang is from Shanxi after all, and he was originally closer to Yang Bo.

This time, Wang Guoguang originally wanted to recommend Zhang Siwei, but after several trials, he finally determined that Zhang Siwei was indeed impossible to be a candidate, so he had to give up.

But Zhang Juzheng actually wanted to nominate candidates this time, and there was no news about it before.

Wang Zhigao is a fellow villager of Zhang Juzheng. It is said that he has someone to recommend, so he should tell him no matter what.

A pair of suspicious eyes looked at Zhang Juzheng, wondering who he was going to recommend. Was he really persuaded by Yang Bo to push Zhang Siwei to the position?

At this time, others, including Wei Guangde, were also curious as to who else, besides Ge Shouli and Zhu Heng, was qualified to participate in the competition for Minister of Civil Affairs.

Everyone in the room looked at Zhang Juzheng, and saw a strange name appearing in their ears between his lips.

"Zhang Han."

This name was so unfamiliar that even Wei Guangde, who has a superb memory, did not immediately realize who he was talking about.

For a moment, everyone in the room was looking around to find out who Zhang Han was in Zhang Juzheng's mouth.

Zhu Heng was the first to react and asked with some hesitation: "Master Chief Assistant, is the Zhang Han Zhang you are talking about not the Minister of the Ministry of Industry in Nanjing?"

"Exactly."

Zhang Juzheng gently stroked his beard and replied with a smile.

"this"

Wei Guangde looked at Zhang Juzheng in surprise, and heard Lu Tiaoyang's voice next to him. He seemed to want to say something, but realized that something was wrong and shut up again.

At this time, Wei Guangde also gradually sorted out the memories in his mind and identified the person.

However, he had no contact with Zhang Han at all, so he could only be classified into the Xu Jie category, thinking that Zhang Juzheng was unwilling to let Ge Shouli or Zhu Heng take the position, and temporarily selected one from his own camp who was qualified to run. People come out.

"Master Zhang is the Minister of the Ministry of Industry in Nanjing, so he is also a candidate for the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel."

At this moment, Ge Shouli, the censor of Zuodu, took the lead in speaking out.

In fact, according to the rules of the DPRK, there are two types of candidates for the Ministry of Personnel: one is the Sixth Ministry and the Metropolitan Inspectorate, and the other is the Ministry of Rites or other minister-level officials.

No other civil servants are qualified to participate in the dispute between officials and ministers.

Zhang Han is also the Minister of the Ministry of Industry anyway, so he is naturally qualified to participate.

With Ge Shouli's support, everyone else at the meeting soon nodded, because they could find no reason to object to his participation in this competition.

"Sir, Chief Assistant, so there are only three candidates to be submitted to the palace this time?"

Wei Guangde asked at this time.

"If there are no objections, what I mean is that all qualified candidates should be included in the memorial and submitted to the palace."

Zhang Juzheng looked at Wei Guangde and answered seriously.

Wei Guangde glanced at Zhu Heng and Tan Lun below, and Tan Lun shook his head slightly at him.

Among the three people, Tan Lun was the one who had contact with Zhang Han, but he could not find any reason to object to Zhang Han's selection.

You must know that neither Wei Guangde nor Zhu Heng had much contact with the southern officialdom. Tan Lun had been fighting Japanese invaders in Jiangnan for a long time, so he naturally knew more about Jiangnan officials.

Wei Guangde saw what Tan Lun meant and nodded immediately: "In that case, I also agree to include Mr. Zhang in the selection."

Immediately, Lu Tiaoyang, Wang Guoguang and others also nodded in agreement.

None of the bosses objected, and everyone else below nodded.

However, when it came to expressing support at the end, there was no doubt that the fewest people supported Zhang Han. Only Zhang Juzheng and two Zhejiang-level Kedao expressed their support.

Finally, when presiding over the court meeting, Wei Xuezeng, the left minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, asked again if there was anyone he could recommend.

After no one responded after three calls, Wei Xuezeng looked at Zhang Juzheng, Wei Guangde and Lu Tiaoyang who were standing up, waiting for their opinions.

Zhang Juzheng looked at Wei Guangde and whispered: "If no one recommends it, then let Wei Guan write the memorial for this court meeting and everyone will sign it."

Weiguan is Wei Xuezeng's name. He is also the host of this court meeting, so naturally it is most appropriate for him to do it.

Wei Guangde nodded, and when he saw Lu Tiaoyang nodded, he said: "Since no one recommends a candidate, Mr. Wei will write the memorial for this court meeting. The princes will sit for a while, sign their names, and then leave."

After finishing speaking, Wei Guangde looked at the somewhat lonely Zhang Siwei below and sneered in his heart.

This time, after Yang Bo discovered that he had a physical problem, he had already planned to stay up until the end of the year to help Zhang Siwei transfer to the Ministry of Ceremonies and then invite him to become an official. During this period, he helped Zhang Siwei win over officials from the DPRK and the Central Committee and made some preparations.

I just didn't expect that the news that I was ill would leak out somehow.

Under the anger, Yang Bo's body couldn't bear it at first, and he finally had to resign in advance.

Zhang Siwei is not ready yet, and it is obvious that he cannot meet Yang Bo's wish.

When Wei Guangde came out of Wenzhao Pavilion, he didn't take two steps before he was quickly caught up by Zhu Heng who came out from behind and whispered a few words.

"hiss"

Wei Guangde suddenly stood still, looked at Zhu Heng and said, "Brother Shi Nan, this"

"When you told me that thing the day before yesterday, I felt that it was inappropriate and that it should be postponed for a while. Based on what happened just now, I made this guess."

Zhu Heng replied in a low voice. (End of chapter)