prosperous age

Chapter 1022 1113 Students impeach the teacher

"Master, the cabinet received an impeachment today."

"Hmm? Impeach who?"

"Your Excellency, the Prime Minister."

When Wei Guangde heard that Zhang Juzheng was still being impeached, he breathed a sigh of relief, as long as it wasn't him.

As soon as I came in, I felt that the secretary outside was behaving strangely, so when I heard the impeachment memorial, I thought it was an impeachment against me.

Now I feel relieved, it was to impeach Zhang Juzheng.

"Hmm? That's not right. Who submitted the memorial?"

Wei Guangde thought it was nothing and had nothing to do with him the moment before, but the next second he felt that there was something fishy about it.

Impeachment of Zhang Juzheng, everyone knows his current status.

He is the prime minister and has the support of the inner court. Who would be so bold as to impeach him?

Moreover, it seems that this impeachment is very unusual, otherwise everyone would not have this reaction.

"Liu Tai."

Lu Bu replied softly.

"Liu Tai?"

It sounded familiar, but I couldn't remember which government office this person worked for, so I continued to ask, "Which government office, and what position?"

"Master, you forgot that Liu Tai is the Imperial Inspector of Liaodong."

Lu Bu said hurriedly.

"It's him. How can he impeach his teacher?"

Wei Guangde stopped talking as soon as he finished speaking and did not continue.

Only then did he understand why others reacted that way.

This matter is actually not a big deal. Every month the court will have impeachment memorials, either impeaching Zhang San or targeting Li Si. It is normal.

  Students can impeach teachers

As far as Wei Guangde can remember, it seems that this has never happened before.

However, now is not the time for Wei Guangde to sit around and watch. Don't think that just because Liu Tai impeached Zhang Juzheng, it has nothing to do with him, Wei Guangde. There are deep connections here, and Wei Guangde can't help but think about it.

"Snapped."

The next moment, Wei Guangde slammed the desk hard.

The anger on Wei Guangde's face at this moment was not pretended, nor was he standing up for Zhang Juzheng, but there were some entanglements behind the scenes that were somewhat related to him.

"What is the reason for the impeachment? Where is the memorial?"

Wei Guangde asked hurriedly.

Now Wei Guangde was eager to see the original text of the impeachment memorial. This matter was of great importance. If Zhang Juzheng was angered, the consequences would be unpredictable.

In fact, this was not the first time this had happened. Before this, another minister had also submitted a memorial. Although it was not an impeachment memorial but a memorial to advise the emperor, this incident still caused a big uproar.

Just three or four months ago, the court received a memorial from Fu Yingzhen, the censor of the Censorate, in which he was very dissatisfied with the performance evaluation system implemented by Zhang Juzheng, which required local officials at all levels to collect all rents and taxes, not only those for the current year, but also those for all previous years.

Fu Yingzhen believed that it was good enough for the people if their harvest of the year could cover their annual expenses. If they still had to collect more than they earned, the people would not be able to survive.

Therefore, he wrote to Emperor Wanli requesting the abolition of the performance evaluation system, opening up the channels for communication, and reinstating those officials who had been dismissed for giving advice.

This memorial was the first since the court implemented the performance evaluation system, in which an official publicly stood up to oppose it. Zhang Juzheng naturally would not hold back, even though this person was a Jinshi in the fifth year of Longqing and was considered his student. He would still kill him.

Fu Yingzhen was soon imprisoned, and his accomplices were also held accountable.

Zhang Juzheng could ignore his nominal student, but Wei Guangde could not ignore his fellow villager.

Yes, Fu Yingzhen was from Anfu, Jiangxi Province. He could have had a very good future. He had the Prime Minister as his "mentor" and Wei Guangde, the Second Prime Minister, his fellow townsman. Although he might not be like a fish in water in the court, he would have lived a very comfortable life.

But he chose to be the first to jump out and oppose the performance evaluation system.

Perhaps, he thought that his background was strong enough and became a little arrogant, so he was taken advantage of without knowing it.

Anyway, after some discussion with Zhang Juzheng, Wei Guangde finally demoted Fu Yingzhen and sent him to another post.

Originally, Zhang Juzheng wanted to strip him of his official position and sentence him to exile at the border, but this time Wei Guangde pleaded for mercy and was able to keep his official position.

But after this incident, his official career was almost over.

Zhang Juzheng's reaction was so strong that it was not only intended to kill a chicken to scare the monkeys, but also Fu Yingzhen's memorial contained many taboos, comparing Zhang Juzheng to Wang Anshi. This was the source of Zhang Juzheng's anger.

Wang Anshi's reform is also very famous in Chinese history, and is even listed as one of the four major reforms in China.

The four major reforms in Chinese history include Shang Yang's Reforms, Emperor Xiaowen's Reforms in the Northern Wei Dynasty, the New Policies of Qingli in the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty, and Wang Anshi's Reforms.

Shang Yang's Reforms were the most widely spread. They took place in the Qin State during the Warring States Period and were led by Shang Yang. They aimed to abolish the old feudal system and promote a centralized political system. Through policies that emphasized agriculture and suppressed commerce, unified weights and measures, and implemented a system of military merit and titles, they greatly enhanced the national strength of the Qin State and laid the foundation for its subsequent war of unification.

The reforms of Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty took place in the Northern Wei Dynasty during the Southern and Northern Dynasties period. They mainly focused on sinicization reforms, including changing to wearing Hanfu, speaking Chinese, and moving the capital to Luoyang. These reforms promoted ethnic integration and cultural unification, and had a profound impact on later Chinese history.

The New Policies of Qingli and Wang Anshi's Reforms both took place in the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty. The former was mainly led by Fan Zhongyan and aimed to solve the social and economic problems of the time, including rectifying the bureaucracy, reducing the burden on farmers, and strengthening centralization. Although it ultimately failed due to opposition from conservative forces, many of the reform concepts it proposed had an impact on Wang Anshi's later Reforms.

The latter was led by Wang Anshi, who attempted to resolve financial difficulties, strengthen centralization and promote economic development through a series of economic and political reform measures, such as the Qingmiao Law, the Shiyi Law, and the Fangtian Junshui Law. Although these reforms alleviated the financial crisis of the Northern Song Dynasty to a certain extent, they also aroused strong opposition from conservatives.

Wang Anshi's reform failed, and because of the political differences between Wang Anshi and Sima Guang, it directly evolved into a party struggle.

  Fu Yingzhen compared him to Wang Anshi. How could Zhang Juzheng not be angry?

This is not a curse on his failure of reform or something else.

Fortunately, Fu Yingzhen did not attack Zhang Juzheng, but instead advised the emperor, saving him some face.

But now that Liu Tai directly impeached Zhang Juzheng, it was another matter. A student suing his teacher was an anecdote that will go down in history and will definitely go down in history.

Wei Guangde didn't care about Liu Tai's life or death, but he was worried that this would cause Zhang Juzheng to reopen old scores and use Fu Yingzhen as a scapegoat again.

Having Liu Tai is enough, there is no need to involve others.

"Go and make a copy of Liu Tai's memorial and send it over right away." Wei Guangde didn't want to take on this hot potato, as it was difficult to handle.

However, he also needs to see the content of Liu Tai's impeachment before he can deal with this matter.

When Lu Bu went out to work, Wei Guangde took a sip of tea and sighed in his heart that it was fortunate that he was not the chief examiner of the imperial examination in the fifth year of Longqing, otherwise Zhang Juzheng would have thought that he had done it secretly.

Indeed, when such things happened in ancient times, people generally would not think that the students were acting on their own, but would associate it with their teachers, and would believe that they were acting under instructions.

After all, it is normal that one cannot stand being fooled by others after only being in the officialdom for a few years.

What does a minor official of the sixth or seventh rank know, and why does he think he can impeach the prime minister?

If there is no one behind the scenes instructing them, they would never do such a futile act.

But it's also funny. Zhang Juzheng was both Fu Yingzhen's teacher and Liu Tai's teacher. Fu Yingzhen still gave his teacher face and did not directly say that it was Zhang Juzheng's fault. But Liu Tai was such a scumbag that he directly sued his teacher.

In fact, up to this time, Wei Guangde did not take Liu Tai's impeachment of Zhang Juzheng too seriously. He thought it was just because after the performance evaluation system was implemented in the local areas, the inspectors requested the court to suspend the system based on some things done by local officials to collect taxes and labor service.

Wei Guangde had heard many times that in order to complete their tasks, local officials had forced families to be torn apart and people to die. As for the number of people who were displaced as a result, the number was too numerous to list.

There are too many. I’m numb and don’t want to listen anymore.

In the past, when the imperial court did not urge them to pay, the village heads and headmen would discuss with the clerks and let the people pay the debt first, seeing that they were truly in need.

Of course, doing so would not be without benefits for the clerks. Everyone knows the system of the Ming Dynasty. It is hard to say when an imperial decree will come down and these debts will be forgiven.

  By then, these arrears will be gone.

With the performance evaluation system in place, such a situation will naturally not occur.

The official couldn't even wear his hat steadily, and the clerks under him were also at a loss, so they might end up firing themselves.

After all, according to the standards of later generations, although clerks were workers who were needed in the government office for a long time, they could only be regarded as temporary workers without a regular salary.

Only a very few lucky ones have the opportunity to be recommended and promoted to become regular staff.

However, that only happened during the founding years of the Ming Dynasty, when there were few scholars and a shortage of officials.

Nowadays, it has become very difficult for clerks to make a name for themselves, and they have to be on guard against being dragged out as sacrifices by officials at all times.

However, when Lu Bu brought the copied memorial from Liu Tai to him, Wei Guangde only glanced at it and, even though it was the coldest time of winter, he couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat.

This was the worst outcome he could imagine, it couldn't be any worse.

The censor Fu Yingzhen reported to the young Emperor Wanli that Zhang Juzheng was just another Wang Anshi. The reason why the Song Dynasty eventually collapsed into internal strife was Wang Anshi's reform. If he were allowed to continue implementing the new policy, our Ming Dynasty would have followed the same path as the Song Dynasty.

If we look at it from the perspective of later historical trends, the fall of the Ming Empire was indeed related to Zhang Juzheng's reform.

It can be said that although Zhang Juzheng's reforms filled the Ming court's treasury in the short term, they also left many troubles. In particular, after the failure of the reforms, local officials became more and more aggressive, and the embryonic forms of political parties were formed as a result.

Before this, most of the people in the court were from the countryside, but Zhang Juzheng was too powerful, and his policies greatly restricted the privileges of the gentry and nobles. Therefore, behind his encroachment on the court and the country, the opposition gradually formed a big network.

Being a official is like rowing against the current. Unless you are content with mediocrity, if you want to make progress, you must always pay attention to other people around you, seize their mistakes, and every time you defeat one of them, you have one less competitor.

This is also the reason why officials later liked to form cliques, so that they could take care of each other.

If a high-ranking official emerges from the province in the imperial court, the younger disciples will certainly stick closely to him, hoping to gain his protection.

Liu Tai's memorial was extremely harsh. This memorial, submitted from Liaodong, listed six major charges against Zhang Juzheng.

One was to say that Zhang Juzheng "deceived the world and stole the name" and impeached Zhang Juzheng for using the slogan of following the ancestral laws but actually doing things that violated the ancestral laws.

The second is that Zhang Juzheng changed the role of the supervisory system. Zhang Juzheng used the performance evaluation system to replace the original with the six ministries, which were responsible to the six departments, and the six departments were responsible to the cabinet. In this way, the independence of the supervisory system no longer existed.

The third is that Zhang Juzheng formed a clique for personal gain. The appointment of officials is based on certain regulations, and Zhang Juzheng appointed people based on personal connections and did not abide by the procedures for the appointment of officials.

Fourth, it is said that Zhang Juzheng abused his power, used the cabinet to control the administrative and supervisory systems, and regarded himself as prime minister.

The fifth is that Zhang Juzheng's policies were more harsh than a tiger. In order to collect taxes, he issued death orders to officials in various places to collect taxes, making the people's lives miserable.

Sixth, it is said that Zhang Juzheng led a corrupt life and was corrupt. Since Zhang Juzheng became the prime minister, the Zhang family has become one of the richest families in the country.

At the end of the memorial, it was said that "Emperor Gao learned from the mistakes of previous dynasties and did not appoint a prime minister. All affairs were handed over to the ministries and the government. The positions were changed and the positions were not coordinated.

Emperor Wen first established a cabinet to participate in government affairs. At that time, the official ranks were not high, and there was no tendency for dictatorship.

Over the past two hundred years, even if there were people who abused their power, they still avoided the title of prime minister and dared not take the position, because of the laws of our ancestors.

It is the Grand Secretary Zhang Juzheng who has been acting as the Prime Minister, and has been enjoying power and authority for three or four years since Gao Gong was expelled.

But what really shocked Wei Guangde was the last sentence of Liu Tai's memorial, "I request that it be corrected according to the laws of our ancestors."

This is completely the rhythm of a fight to the death with Zhang Juzheng, and he wants to be punished by the ancestral law.

Perhaps, as the second prime minister, he should be celebrating when seeing such a memorial impeaching the first prime minister, but Wei Guangde was not happy at all about this matter.

Because of this memorial, he had a falling out with Zhang Juzheng and started an internal struggle. Wei Guangde did not think that he could convince the two Empress Dowagers and the young emperor in the inner court, which meant that he was not sure he could convince them to support him.

The person who has the greatest influence on the harem is undoubtedly Feng Bao, but he will never cooperate with himself.

Obviously, in the end, they will most likely choose to support Zhang Juzheng.

However, this is not what Wei Guangde is most worried about. In fact, he still lacks confidence in governing the Ming Dynasty.

Zhang Juzheng's talent in governing the country has been verified by history. However, no matter what the outcome of Zhang Juzheng's reforms was, at least when he was alive, the Ming Dynasty was thriving.

  And what can Wei Guangde do?

Are we going to develop the system of later generations?

If he said it out loud, he was afraid that those under his wing would rebel, because those things were too shocking to be put into the current Ming Dynasty.

One only needs to look at the most famous reform in later generations, or the reform event that is closest to later generations - the Reform Movement of 1898, to know that new laws were introduced in the country in the late Qing Dynasty, which eventually led to the dethronement of Emperor Guangxu.

  why?

It is because the Western system was difficult to reconcile with the domestic situation in the late Qing Dynasty. As for why the country was established as a republic afterwards, we can generally understand the situation by looking at what happened during the Republic of China period.

The Republic of China, which replaced the late Qing Dynasty, is actually a combination of four symbols.

Because there was no thorough settlement like in previous dynasty changes, the Republic of China was full of chaos and it did not look like a new country at all.

This is also the reason why the country was still a mess decades after the Republic of China replaced the Qing Dynasty.

(End of this chapter)