prosperous age

Chapter 1024 1115 Give Ideas

Why did Wei Guangde try to exonerate Zhang Juzheng from the beginning? You have to know that the matter involved the Prime Minister, and it was difficult for him to explain it himself.

That’s because Liu Tai’s memorial was written perfectly, and all the charges against Zhang Juzheng in it were true.

Although the intention may not be as written in the memorial, each and every one of them can be verified.

  Can we let the Censorate investigate?

Of course not, otherwise Zhang Juzheng would be in trouble, and the performance evaluation system would also be in trouble.

Therefore, from the beginning, Wei Guangde characterized this incident as Liu Tai's attempt to take the opportunity to retaliate against important officials of the court with ulterior motives.

The expulsion of Gao Gong involved the inner court and was naturally difficult to investigate. They couldn't just call the two empress dowagers and the young emperor to the Censorate for questioning. However, the matter of Zhu Xizhong was obvious and the decree was drafted by Zhang Juzheng.

According to the Kaocheng System, the six ministries were responsible to the six departments, and the six departments were responsible to the cabinet, which indeed snatched away the supervisory power that should have belonged to the emperor.

The six departments were directly responsible to the emperor, not to the cabinet.

However, we have to take into account the fact that the emperor was still young, but it was indeed an infringement of imperial power.

Wei Guangde said it out loud and had someone spread it, spreading it throughout the government offices in Beijing, in order to shut other people up.

  The attitude of the second assistant was so obvious. Even if someone else wanted to deal with Zhang Juzheng, and even if Zhang Juzheng was finally forced to step down, what would be the result?

Wei Guangde came to power, but he may not remember your favor.

In the afternoon, Lü Diaoyang's impeachment memorial was drafted. After reading it, Wei Guangde signed his name on the back and sent it over with a reed cloth. Lü Diaoyang then sent it directly to the Imperial Household Department, hoping that it would be delivered to the palace as soon as possible so that the two palaces would be informed.

The news that Zhang Juzheng had returned home to avoid suspicion had already spread in the court, and the inner court also learned the news soon afterwards.

For this reason, Ciqing Palace also sent people to the cabinet to inquire about the situation.

After all, the cabinet has such a big country and heavy responsibilities. The loss of one person is a big deal, not to mention that it is an emergency and there is no prior preparation.

Wei Guangde entered the palace and explained the situation in detail. The key point was to point out that Liu Tai was dissatisfied with his teacher Zhang Juzheng, including the fact that Liu Tai was transferred to Liaodong instead of the prosperous area in the south of the Yangtze River. Liu Tai had already been resentful of his teacher.

When Wei Guangde returned to the cabinet, he received the news, and Ciqing Palace sent Feng Bao to Zhang's house to comfort him.

The next morning, a self-defense memorial was submitted. Following the steps set up by Wei Guangde, Zhang Juzheng said that he had no eyes but no paper and was too ashamed to face anyone.

"According to the decree, the inspectors were not allowed to report military achievements. At the beginning of the year, there was a great victory in Liaodong. The governor violated the rules and made a false report. According to the law, he should be demoted.

  I asked for a warning from the emperor, but the emperor was already so angry that he became suspicious and took his anger out on me without any further consideration.

Moreover, the court is a place where I recruit scholars. For the past two hundred years, no student has criticized their teacher. The only thing I can do is to thank him."

Zhang Juzheng's resignation from the position of Prime Minister was within everyone's expectations. Anyone who was impeached would say this, otherwise he would be suspected of being greedy for power.

The self-defense letter came into the hands of Wei Guangde, who drafted it and asked him to give it to Lu Diaoyang in reed cloth, asking him to sign it and send it directly to the Imperial Household Department.

Forbidden City, Qianqing Palace.

At this time, Emperor Wanli Zhu Yijun was sitting behind his desk bored, with his chin supported by one hand, and no one knew what he was thinking about.

At this time in the past, he should be sitting in the Wenhua Hall listening to the lecturer's lecture.

However, Master Zhang was impeached by the censor yesterday and chose to put down his work and return home to avoid suspicion. The little emperor keenly felt that his mother's mood had deteriorated.

Yes, I took over such a big country from my father, and there are so many things to deal with every day.

But it was a good thing that this happened, so the Queen Mother ordered that his studies be suspended for the next few days, giving him more time to rest.

Master Zhang is the head of the cabinet. Although Master Wei is also very powerful, he is not the prime minister after all. It is inevitable that he will be timid in doing things, unless Master Wei takes the position of prime minister.

The little emperor thought to himself, but he also knew that this was impossible.

In the Queen Mother's mind, someone mature and steady is still needed to preside over the overall situation. Although Master Wei has his own ideas and can give advice, he is not as senior as Master Zhang after all.

By the way, should I talk to Wei Guangde about this? After all, Master Zhang is his teacher. As a disciple, I should listen to Master Wei’s advice on what to do at this time.

Thinking of this, Zhu Yijun shouted to the outside, and then a eunuch came in and stood respectfully in front of him.

"Go, ask Master Wei to come to the Qianqing Palace. I have something to say to him."

The little emperor gave the order.

Since yesterday afternoon, Feng Daban was called to Ciqing Palace and has seldom returned since then.

However, there is no shortage of people in the palace. Even though Feng Bao is not here, there are still many others.

"According to the order."

The eunuch agreed and hurried to the cabinet.

Half an hour later, Wei Guangde followed the eunuch into the Qianqing Palace.

In fact, when he came out of the cabinet, Wei Guangde had already guessed the purpose of the young emperor asking him to come, and he guessed that it was to ask about Zhang Juzheng.

Sure enough, after he saluted and stood up, the little emperor first casually asked him how he was feeling recently. After all, the weather was getting colder, so he asked him to keep warm.

After Wei Guangde expressed his gratitude, the little emperor asked him his questions.

  "Master Wei, I heard that Liu Tai, who submitted the memorial, was a student of Master Zhang. How could he frame the teacher?

I have read Master Zhang's self-defense. Master Zhang must be very sad now."

The little emperor asked about this with a serious expression. In his opinion, students should respect their teachers. How could they falsely accuse their teachers? It was really treasonous.

It can only be said that the people around him had too much influence on the few decision-makers in the palace. The two Empress Dowagers and the young emperor were all influenced by Feng Bao, Wei Guangde and Lu Diaoyang. They all said that Liu Tai was framing Zhang Juzheng, and when they heard this, they naturally believed it without a doubt.

Among them, the statements made by Feng Bao and Wei Guangde undoubtedly had the greatest influence.

Feng Bao was a eunuch in the palace and their domestic slave, so naturally they trusted him more.

Strictly speaking, Wei Guangde and Zhang Juzheng were in competition. If Zhang Juzheng fell, Wei Guangde would undoubtedly be the one who benefited.

Even people like this said that Liu Tai was slandering Zhang Juzheng and speaking well of Zhang Juzheng. How could people believe Liu Tai's impeachment?

Therefore, at this time, none of the people who really held power in the Ming Dynasty believed that Liu Tai was telling the truth, and they just thought that his impeachment memorial was full of lies.

With this preconceived impression, and the fact that it was a student who impeached the teacher and did not pay any attention to the relationship between teacher and student, naturally the impression of Liu Tai became worse.

When Wei Guangde heard the young emperor say this, he lowered his head and whispered, "Your Majesty, your Master Zhang must be very sad, otherwise he would not have resigned."

"That's what Feng Daban said when he came back yesterday. He said Master Zhang said he was too embarrassed to face anyone when he saw him."

The little emperor spoke with a stern face.

"Alas, there is nothing we can do about receiving such a student. Examination papers can only reveal a person's talent, but cannot reveal his character."

Wei Guangde sighed and said.

"Master Wei, what do you think I should do now? Should I send someone to arrest him?"

The young emperor Zhu Yijun finally asked the question he had always wanted to ask. He felt that as a student he should do something for his teacher.

"Your Majesty, it is the duty of the censors to impeach. Although Liu Tai's memorial is very fierce and exaggerated, it is inappropriate to punish him for this. If he is punished, it will probably arouse the dissatisfaction of the censors."

When Wei Guangde heard the little emperor say he wanted to arrest someone, he hurriedly reminded him.

"The Imperial Censorate's report of rumors does not allow them to arbitrarily frame important officials in the court."

The young emperor replied, "Besides, he is his teacher. This shows that he has a bad character and is not worthy of this position."

Wei Guangde looked up and carefully observed the little emperor's expression. Seeing that he did not seem to be pretending, he did not know whether the little emperor was influenced by other people. It was difficult for him to respond at this time.

The key point is that Liu Tai is the Inspector General and belongs to the Censorate. If he says that the person should be punished, it is not known whether he will anger the young people in the Censorate.

It would be bad if they targeted me and started to attack me from time to time.

In fact, not to mention Wei Guangde, even Zhang Juzheng was rarely impeached by others.

Because in most cases, Zhang Juzheng chose to stay out of the core of the struggle. Whether it was Xu Jie fighting Yan Song or Gao Gong punishing Xu Jie, he always maintained a harmonious attitude and did not offend either side.

This time, not only was there a fierce impeachment, but the initiator of the impeachment turned out to be his own student.

In the feudal era, the relationship between teachers and students was very important. In the Ming Dynasty, it was not a big deal to curse the emperor or the ministers, but cursing your own teacher would be considered treason.

In this situation, not to mention Zhang Juzheng, even Wei Guangde felt a little overwhelmed. He really had no experience in dealing with such a situation.

Seeing Wei Guangde's silence, the young emperor Zhu Yijun said again: "I read Master Zhang's memorial and he sincerely wanted to leave, but the court cannot do without Master Zhang, especially since the new law has just been introduced, and this Liu Tai said such a thing.

I think if we don't kill the chicken to scare the monkeys, such things will continue to happen in the future.

Master Wei, I remember that when we were in class, you told me about the current situation in the Ming Dynasty.

very bad.

Master Zhang's performance evaluation method can improve the efficiency of officials. Although it cannot cure all the chronic diseases of the court, if the court is more efficient, it will be able to deal with various problems more quickly.

You also said that Master Zhang seemed to have a complete strategy to change the current situation of the Ming Dynasty, but he just needed to take it step by step. If we can't let Master Zhang vent his anger at this time, what will we do if he insists on leaving?"

Did Zhang Juzheng already have a complete set of reform steps at this time? In fact, he did.

When they were in Yu Ji, they often got together to discuss current affairs and point out the shortcomings of the government. Naturally, they were familiar with the difficult problems and also discussed solutions.

However, whether it was Gao Gong, Zhang Juzheng, or Wei Guangde, they had different understandings of the importance of these drawbacks.

Gao Gong believed that the inefficiency of the court was caused by corruption in the bureaucracy, so it should be rectified and he was somewhat idealistic.

Zhang Juzheng believed that there would be no fish in clear water, so the efficiency of the court should be improved through the system, which was a more pragmatic idea.

In fact, even Gao Gong had some shameful deeds in private, and in Gao Gong's hands, the rectification of officialdom was mostly used for political struggles rather than truly rectifying the situation.

In comparison, Wei Guangde felt that Zhang Juzheng's approach seemed more suitable for the current Ming Dynasty.

Wei Guangde certainly didn't believe whether Zhang Juzheng really wanted to resign, but he couldn't say this to the little emperor.

Saying such words is tantamount to slapping the minister in the face, as well as one's own.

Wei Guangde cannot say it, but some people can.

This person is naturally Feng Bao.

He is a eunuch, why does he need a good reputation?

Thinking of this, Wei Guangde said, "Your Majesty, I still think that the censor's impeachment is his duty and he should not be punished.

If Your Majesty has this intention, you might as well think about it more and ask the people around you, especially the Queen Mother, for their opinions and see what they say. "

When Wei Guangde's words got out, he was sure that he was right and he opposed the emperor's punishment of the censor.

Why did the Censor have the power to impeach? Isn’t it because Taizu wanted to control the high-ranking ministers and make them more cautious when doing things?

In fact, this system is a very clever design.

Most of the low-ranking censors were officials who had just entered the court. They had little connection with the officialdom and had just separated from the people, but not cleanly enough. They were able to understand the sufferings of the people, which was called "speaking for the people."

With such power, the censors would always supervise the high-ranking officials in the court and prevent them from acting recklessly.

Therefore, the Ming Dynasty has always been very conservative in dealing with censors.

However, in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, morals were declining, and the censors were more or less influenced by party struggles before entering the court because they were recruited by so-called "famous scholars" in the form of academies, lectures, poetry meetings, etc., and had already become biased.

In the late Ming Dynasty, censors often took the lead in political struggles.

For example, the famous Six Gentlemen of Donglin in the late Ming Dynasty were Yang Lian, Zuo Guangdou, Yuan Huazhong, Wei Dazhong, Zhou Chaorui and Gu Dazhang. Among them, Yang Lian and Zuo Guangdou were both Censors-in-Chief, which was a high-ranking official in the Censorate and they managed many censors under them.

Yuan Huazhong was also an inspector. Although Wei Dazhong and Zhou Chaorui were not censors, they were secretaries of the six ministries. All five of them were so-called censors.

The only one who did not belong to the Kedao was Gu Dazhang, but he was also the Shaanxi Provincial Surveillance Commissioner, in charge of local criminal justice, and had close relations with the Censorate.

Although the Donglin Party in the late Ming Dynasty had few seats among the important officials in the court, it almost completely controlled the Kedao.

The existence of such a force can almost determine the promotion and even life and death of important officials in the court.

During the Tianqi period, the Donglin Party wanted to use the censors to force the Tianqi Emperor to deal with Wei Zhongxian. However, they did not expect Wei Zhongxian to simply overturn the table and take a hard approach, and did not follow the civil service struggle method at all.

Later generations only talked about the torture the Six Gentlemen suffered in the Zhenfusi Prison, but did not discuss the harm they caused by initiating party struggles.

In fact, the so-called Six Gentlemen were nothing more than six big fools who were pushed out by the leader of Donglin to take the blame. They were the victims of their planned plan to seize power.

Wei Guangde had some sense of these things and he had realized the importance of the Censorate.

However, it was really difficult for him to get his hands on this yamen as Zhang Juzheng was watching him.

Correspondingly, Zhang Juzheng could not intervene because Wei Guangde would not agree.

The only option is to let Lao Kan first slowly hone his qualifications in the Censorate, and then move directly to the position of Assistant or Deputy Censor-in-Chief.

As long as he has enough qualifications, even if Zhang Juzheng wants to object, he must have a suitable reason.

If you plan early, you can be more confident of success.

When Wei Guangde gave the young emperor advice and asked him to consult other people's opinions, he calculated that the person who came up with the final idea was most likely Feng Bao.

If you expect the people in the harem to be familiar with the stories of the previous dynasty, that would be too difficult for the two Empress Dowagers.

Feng Bao had met Zhang Juzheng, so he obviously knew more clearly what Zhang Juzheng wanted to achieve.

Not long after Wei Guangde returned to the cabinet, an imperial edict was sent from the palace. It was not to punish Liu Tai, which was not so efficient, but to ask the cabinet to draft an edict to retain Zhang Juzheng and praise him at the same time.

(End of this chapter)