prosperous age

Chapter 1100 1191 Poor Vision

Wei Guangde did not expect that just two days after he made the plan, Lu Diaoyang brought up this matter for the first time during the cabinet meeting.

Yes, Lu Diaoyang also said before that the election was just a matter of time, and he said that he had many health problems and needed to take good care of himself.

But now, if you say it in this situation, the meaning is obviously wrong.

Thinking of this, Wei Guangde couldn't help but think of the valuable gift that Zhang Siwei had sent him two days ago. It was obvious that Zhang Juzheng had already known about Lu Diaoyang's plan, and Zhang Siwei also knew it, so this happened.

  "In that case, Shandai, do you have any suitable candidate?

Whether He Qing is on leave or retired, when the cabinet is recruiting new personnel, the palace will first ask for our cabinet’s opinion.”

Zhang Juzheng did not express his thoughts directly, but asked Wei Guangde in a tactful way if he had anyone to recommend.

“It seems that the only people in the court who are qualified to join the cabinet are a few people from the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Personnel.

To be able to reach this position, the ability is still good. "

Although Wei Guangde did not recognize Zhang Siwei's ability, he was able to do a good job as a minister in both the Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of Rites, so he definitely had no problem handling official business.

After accepting someone's things, it is naturally not a good time to say bad things about him.

Wei Guangde simply nominated several people from the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Personnel who were qualified to join the cabinet.

Anyone who can become a hall official in the Ministry of Rites must be from the Hanlin Academy and is absolutely qualified to compete for the position of cabinet minister. The Ministry of Personnel is more of a transfer, and it also gives new cabinet ministers an opportunity to build up their network and place some people before entering the cabinet to facilitate their work.

When Zhang Juzheng heard Wei Guangde say that officials from the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Personnel were qualified to join the cabinet, the first person he thought of was naturally Wei Guangde's fellow villager. But he heard that Wei Guangde was not on good terms with him, so how could he recommend him to join the cabinet?

Zhang Juzheng was surprised, but he did not show his feelings. Instead, he nodded and smiled, saying, "The people in the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Personnel are all from the Hanlin Academy, so they all have the qualifications.

Unfortunately, the cabinet cannot have too many new people, and if they all join the cabinet, who will lead the two ministries, haha."

Wei Guangde gave him a difficult problem, so Zhang Juzheng cast his eyes on Lü Diaoyang and asked with a smile: "Do you have a suitable candidate?"

“Well, the Minister of Rites Ma Ziqiang should have been a suitable person, but he has not been in charge of the ministry for long, and has never been transferred to the Ministry of Personnel.

Zhang Siwei was previously the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, and is now the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites. He has enough experience, and if the palace agrees, he can be transferred to the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel and then join the cabinet."

It turned out that Lu Diaoyang had a deal with Zhang Juzheng, so at this time he recommended Zhang Siwei, so that some of the criticisms between him and Zhang Siwei in the court could be resolved.

Don't forget that Liu Tai's memorial specifically mentioned that Zhang Juzheng had ulterior motives in appointing Zhang Siwei.

It was naturally difficult for Zhang Juzheng to recommend him to join the cabinet, so it was most appropriate for Lu Diaoyang to do this.

As for Ma Ziqiang mentioned by Lu Diaoyang, he is the current Minister of Rites. He is from Tongzhou County, Xi'an Prefecture, Shaanxi Province. He became a Jinshi in the 32nd year of Jiajing, the same year as Zhang Siwei.

After passing the imperial examination, he was selected into the Hanlin Academy as a scholar, appointed as a reviewer, and later promoted to editor, participating in the re-recording of the Yongle Encyclopedia.

During the Longqing period, he served as Xima, served as a lecturer in the imperial lectures, compiled the "Veritable Records of Emperor Shizong of the Ming Dynasty", and was later promoted to Jijiu of the Imperial College and then moved to Zhanshi. He was briefly in charge of the Hanlin Academy, rectified educational affairs, and taught Shujishi.

In the sixth year of Longqing's reign, he was promoted to Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites and became one of the lecturers of Emperor Wanli, teaching classics and history. Naturally, he was no stranger to Wei Guangde and others.

Wei Guangde also knew that Emperor Wanli Zhu Yijun liked to listen to his lectures very much. His teaching method was similar to Wei Guangde's, mostly inspirational education. Unlike other lecturers, he did not ask him to recite too much, but asked him to write his thoughts.

Also at the beginning of the year, Ma Ziqiang succeeded Wan Shihe as the Minister of Rites. This was an appointment by the palace, so naturally the two palaces wanted him to join the cabinet.

By mentioning these two people at this time, Lu Diaoyang was naturally reminding Zhang Juzheng that there was a high probability that Ma Ziqiang would be chosen.

  Of course, the Minister of Rites does not necessarily have to go through the Ministry of Rites to join the cabinet. After all, if he goes to the Ministry of Personnel, he will be the head of the ministry. And now the Minister of Personnel Zhang Han is Zhang Juzheng's close confidant. Is it necessary to swap Zhang Han with Ma Ziqiang and then switch back after Ma Ziqiang is promoted?

Obviously not.

Wei Guangde more or less guessed Zhang Juzheng's thoughts, so he let Ma Ziqiang work as the Minister of Rites for two years and then bring him into the cabinet if he was really suitable.

The most crucial thing is that after these two years, Ma Ziqiang is almost 70 years old, and even if he enters the cabinet, he will not have two years to work.

These things only happened during the imperial examination era. The potential difference between passing the imperial examination at the age of 40 and passing the imperial examination at the age of 20 or 30 is really huge.

It’s not like later generations, where everyone’s time of employment is only a few years apart, and their retirement times are also not much different.

"Ti Qian has only been in charge of the Ministry of Rites for three months, which is too short a time. He has no experience in the Ministry of Personnel, so this arrangement is really not suitable for him.

Zhang Siwei first entered the Ministry of Personnel and then the Ministry of Rites. He has experience in both fields and can be reported as a candidate."

Zhang Juzheng stopped pretending at this time. Wei Guangde didn't care, and Lu Diaoyang was also cunning and recommended people, but he didn't recommend just one, but two candidates at once.

If this were to be discussed in the ministry, it would be a bit troublesome.

Fortunately, the cabinet discussed the matter with just the three of them, which saved a lot of trouble.

"Since the candidates are limited to the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Personnel, no matter who enters the cabinet, there must be a vacant position. I wonder if my uncle and my brother have anyone to recommend?"

Wei Guangde didn't like such implicit communication. Although he had to do it sometimes, it was not something he liked. He would just state his demands clearly.

Since it was an open transaction, it would be difficult for Zhang Juzheng to offend him.

"Does Shandai have someone in mind?"

Upon hearing this, Zhang Juzheng naturally understood Wei Guangde's meaning and knew that the request had been made.

At this time, he naturally would not refuse. Instead, he was very curious about who Wei Guangde would nominate to enter the Ministry of Rites or the Ministry of Personnel.

Lu Diaoyang was also curious and wanted to know who Wei Guangde would recommend.

You know, his recommendation was not to promote his officials in the normal sense, but more for the qualification to join the cabinet.

After all, what was being discussed this time was not the official positions in the Ministry of Works, the Ministry of War or other government offices, but the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Personnel, two very sensitive government offices.

"I think Shen Shixing has been in the Zhanshi Mansion for many years. It is time for him to join the Ministry of Rites for training."

Wei Guangde said lightly.

Shen Shixing was the top scholar in the 41st year of the Jiajing reign, so there is no doubt about his literary talent.

His poems are plain and graceful, without any shocking words or weakness. His ancient poems explore the depth and breadth of poetry, with high momentum and vigorous artistic conception.

The prose is mainly prefaces, biographies, epitaphs, etc., while miscellaneous writings and applied writings account for an absolute proportion. The writing is also like his poetry, euphemistic and detailed, without exaggeration or shocking words.

Most of his poems and essays were written for social occasions or to describe the scenery in his spare time, so they are not very famous.

However, the man recommended by Wei Guangde still surprised Zhang Juzheng and Lu Diaoyang. Especially Lu Diaoyang, at this time he was not looking at Wei Guangde, but at Zhang Juzheng.

At this time, Zhang Juzheng was also in turmoil. He actually wanted to promote Shen Shixing. After all, he was the top scorer in the palace examination, although he did not participate in the joint examination and serve as their examiner that year.

But after all, Zhang Juzheng had long been a disciple of his master Xu Jie, and his awareness of absorbing fresh blood was much stronger than Wei Guangde's.

The reason why Xu Jie was able to remain standing in the court was because he had many followers and they were deeply rooted.

Xu Jie has always liked to promote new people, which not only earned him great reputation, but also recruited countless disciples.

  Zhang Juzheng has reached his current position. In fact, for most prime ministers, reform is nothing. Is it just about having more disciples?

However, because the promotion of the performance evaluation system undoubtedly took up a lot of Zhang Juzheng's energy, he seemed to be one step behind Wei Guangde when it came to winning over other officials.

In fact, Wei Guangde had never paid attention to Shen Shixing before. In the imperial examination that year, he and Zhang Juzheng were both responsible for copying books. How could he have the time to take part in the examination as an examiner?

Later, when he was copying the "Yongle Encyclopedia", he summoned Shen Shixing to be his copyist, but so what, he had many copyists under him.

That is to say, Shen Shixing was the top scholar in the imperial examination, so he was able to be promoted from Hanlin Compiler to Zhanshi Mansion according to the normal process, starting from Zuo Shuzi and slowly climbing up step by step.

It can be said that he has achieved what he has today entirely through hard work and without any help from anyone.

The reason for this is that he is young, having won the title of top scholar at the age of 27, and the golden amulet of "Top Scholar" can protect his promotion.

As long as he didn't make any serious mistakes, Shen Shixing's name would always be first on the promotion list.

However, if you want to transfer from the Hanlin Academy or the Zhanshi Palace to the Ministry of Rites or the Ministry of Personnel, it is a huge hurdle. If there is no one to help you, you can only muddle along until you are old, and finally transfer to one of the Five Temples and become a temple minister before retiring.

Wei Guangde finally decided to promote Shen Shixing, and he had a meeting with Shen Shixing at the Qingliu gathering yesterday.

How should I put it, Wei Guangde felt that he was an okay person.

Just like his articles, he does not like flowery words or piled-up rhetoric, but prefers to be plain.

The same is true of his behavior, which makes him appear very low-key and reserved.

Wei Guangde had naturally also heard people's comments about him, of course, they were all behind-the-scenes comments, saying that he was "playing both sides", "smooth with everyone", and "able to get along with everyone".

Well, this was the impression he gave people when he was in the Zhanshi Mansion and the Hanlin Academy. That is, he had no stance and his attitude was rather fickle. One could even say that he said different things to different people he met, just to avoid offending anyone.

This kind of person may make people feel that he is a good person in the short term, and communicating with him is like a spring breeze. However, after a long time, when people get to know his true colors, some people will naturally dislike this kind of "fence-sitter".

However, Wei Guangde understood Shen Shixing's difficulties. In his imperial examination, the chief examiner was the good-natured Li Chunfang, and the deputy chief examiner was Dong Fen.

His career may have been aided by the help of Li Chunfang, but Li Chunfang was a person of that kind after all, and he would not fight or compete for anything. So even though he had been the prime minister for so many years, he did not hold most of the real power.

As for Dong Fen, he was expelled from the court early on, so naturally he could not get any help from him.

It can be said that the future of Jinshi is closely related to the official career of their teacher to a large extent.

Having someone above you will naturally save a lot of time to complete the initial accumulation, so that you will have more time to accumulate qualifications and compete for the opportunity to join the cabinet.

In Wei Guangde's class, the chief examiner was cabinet minister Lu Ben, who was even worse than Li Chunfang. Although he was a cabinet minister, he was controlled by Yan Song in every way. In addition, he was in poor health and had been on sick leave for a long time, so he was of no help to these new scholars at all.

Wei Guangde was just lucky, as he unexpectedly received the emperor's favor, and he joined the team very early, so he was able to make it to where he is today.

If he had not decisively joined Prince Yu's camp, he would have had no qualifications to enter the cabinet.

Because he lacked the most important person, the one who pushed him into the cabinet.

"It's him."

After a brief shock, Zhang Juzheng quickly calmed down and said.

Although he was curious about why Wei Guangde took a fancy to him, since he had already proposed it publicly, if nothing else, he at least had had private contact with Shen Shixing.

However, letting Shen Shixing enter the Ministry of Rites as a minister was actually nothing. What Zhang Juzheng valued more was that Wei Guangde finally knew how to configure the cabinet team.

Yes, although Wei Guangde had competed with him for some official positions before, as far as those positions were concerned, the nature of his work was actually more important.

It can be seen that Wei Guangde, perhaps because he was young at the time, did not even consider establishing his own power structure.

Whether it is controlling the Ministry of Works or the Ministry of War, it is actually caused by the times.

The Ministry of Works was originally in the hands of his fellow villager Zhu Heng, and was the only surviving branch of Yan Song's generation.

Although people are reluctant to admit it, there are naturally local cliques in the Ming Dynasty court.

As for the later competition for the Ministry of War, in fact, in Zhang Juzheng's eyes, the position of a Shangshu was not as important as that of the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Personnel.

It is always the cabinet that decides the direction of the court. Although the six ministries are nominally the ones with real power, it is also a fact that the cabinet is above the six ministries.

It was Xu Jie who originally promoted Zhang Juzheng and trained him as the Prime Minister and as his successor.

In fact, Xu Jie had prepared a team to assist Zhang Juzheng, but after Prince Yu ascended the throne, he over-relying on capable ministers, and some of Xu Jie's preparations became useless.

It can be said that since the Longqing period, almost all cabinet ministers have been supported by the Gao and Chen factions, and he and Li Chunfang actually no longer have any right to recommend.

Perhaps it was because he had suffered too many injustices in those years, Emperor Longqing completely distrusted other people and only trusted a few people who had always been loyal to him.

After a brief thought, Zhang Juzheng nodded and said with a smile: "Rumo is indeed suitable. He did a good job in the previous position of the Minister of Household Affairs and the Imperial Academy. It is also suitable for him to be appointed to the Ministry of Rites."

Although Zhang Juzheng said this, he was actually a little skeptical about Wei Guangde's judgment of people.

Perhaps, he was only accurate in selecting generals, but when it came to selecting civil servants, he seemed to be quite lacking.

This is not to say that Zhang Juzheng looked down on the top scholar, but the top scholar in the Ming Dynasty always had a trend of starting high and ending low.

The top scholar in the early Ming Dynasty was truly a child of destiny, but in the middle and late periods, the performance of the top scholars obviously declined seriously.

During the Ming Dynasty, which lasted for 276 years, only 90 top scholars were produced in total, of whom 11 served as chief ministers of the cabinet, 2 served as deputy ministers of the cabinet, 6 served as ministers of the palace, 44 served as officials of the third rank or above, and the rest were only around the fifth rank.

Winning the imperial examination is an honor and promises a bright future, but that was only in the early and middle Ming Dynasty. After that, only a few people performed well and it is not worth mentioning.

Wei Guangde chose to support Shen Shixing, but in Zhang Juzheng's opinion, it would most likely be a waste of effort.