prosperous age

Chapter 1140 1231 Elimination
"Since they have taken action in the Metropolitan Censorate, can I ask Lord Chen to show some mercy and transfer one of my good friends here?"

"No."

After hearing Wei Guangde's words, Chen Zan immediately said that he did not want the court struggle to continue to the Censorate.

"He's just a deputy imperial envoy. What's wrong with helping to keep an eye on things so that what happened today won't happen again?"

Wei Guangde still had a faint smile on his face as he persuaded.

If Wei Guangde could have ignored the fact that the Censorate was full of trolls before, it is different now.

There are certain factions among the trolls, and he is worried that this group of trolls will be exploited.

Arrange someone to watch in the Censorate and take action to stop the other party when he finds any action. Wei Guangde believes that his reason is very tenable.

"The Censorate is responsible for investigating and impeaching all officials in the court. If we follow your idea, wouldn't we also be caught up in the court struggle?"

Chen Zan felt that this bottom line could not be crossed. In fact, he had already planned to transfer the person who was the leader of this incident.

The Nanjing Dali Temple is a punishment for breaking the rules.

Thinking of this, Chen Zan continued to speak and expressed his plan to transfer the person and send him to the Nanjing Dali Temple.

"Haha, he's already been exposed. My Lordship transferred him away, which seems to be exactly what they wanted."

After hearing this, Wei Guangde replied indifferently, "If he stays in the Censorate, you can continue to suppress him.

But if you are transferred, the Ministry of Personnel will have the final say.

The Nanjing Dali Temple is not very good, but believe it or not, you can be promoted in less than half a year."

Wei Guangde pointed out the loophole in Chen Zan's plan. If he were to ask for a reward based on his merit, that person would definitely be promoted.

Apart from the Censorate, Chen Zan does not have the final say. It is unclear whether such a punishment is a commendation or something else for him.

"This"

Chen Zan was speechless for a moment after hearing Wei Guangde's words.

He only considered punishing him and transferring him to an unpopular position, but he forgot that he had someone behind him and could order people in the Ministry of Personnel around.

"Even if the external inspection gave him a very low evaluation, so what? Can't the Ministry of Personnel find a good job to assign him?"

Wei Guangde reminded him again, and seeing Chen Zan's slip of the tongue, he continued, "The best way is to keep him in the Censorate and not give him a chance to be promoted."

Well, Wei Guangde's method almost ended that man's official career. Although the Censorate held great power, that was during the time when they were inspectors, and they held the power of life and death over local officials.

Although it is a bit exaggerated, the official hat is indeed in the hands of the Inspector-General.

As for the capital, well, the censor doesn't seem to have much power except to act like a mad dog biting people.

After all, the one who has the say in the Censorate is the Chief Censor. With Chen Zan around, the censors below have no chance to make any big moves.

"Besides, how can we know if there are other people in the Censorate who have formed a clique with him?"

Wei Guangde said that the people in the Censorate were forming a clique, which was a serious accusation.

"No, not really."

Chen Zan knew that Wei Guangde was exaggerating. There were many of Wei Guangde's fellow Jiangxi natives in the Censorate, but there were no Jiangxi people at the level of Deputy Censor-in-Chief or Assistant Censor.

They were all the lower-level censors. Wei Guangde was threatening him like this because he was actually aiming for the position of Deputy Chief Censor.

"Who do you want to transfer to the Censorate?"

Chen Zan also became curious at this time. After saying so much, Wei Guangde's meaning was very clear.

"I am willing to take on the responsibility."

Wei Guangde said frankly that he believed Chen Zan knew this person. After all, he was the Left Provincial Governor in the imperial court. There were only thirteen such officials, so he was considered a local official.

"He."

Sure enough, after hearing the name Wei Guangde said, Chen Zan nodded slightly, but suddenly stared at Wei Guangde and said, "He is the one you have been taking care of, right?"

Just now, knowing that Wei Guangde intended to push him into the Censorate, Chen Zan went over Lao Kan's resume in his mind.

After Lao Kan passed the imperial examination, he first observed government affairs in the Ministry of Justice, then stayed in the Ministry of Justice, and was later promoted to the head of the Ministry of Rites.

Under normal circumstances, such a person could, after retiring, perhaps become a vice minister in one of the six ministries, which would be considered a good career path for an official.

But at the end of the Jiajing period, he was suddenly transferred from his official position in the capital to Guangdong to serve as the Xiantai, or deputy envoy of Guangdong.

Three years later, he was moved to Fujian again and was promoted to Fujian Censor, then Right Governor and Left Governor. It can be said that his career flourished after he was sent to Fujian and he was constantly promoted.

For such people, the next step seems to be either promotion to the two capitals and return to the ranks of Beijing officials, or if they are to be sent to other places, they will become high-ranking officials such as governors-general and governor-general.

It can be said that in ten years, Lao Kan almost completed his entire career, and every remaining promotion was earned.

"I had originally planned to have him serve as an assistant minister in the Ministry of Justice, but I didn't expect this to happen."

Wei Guangde did not answer, but said something else, "The current cabinet situation is known to the Lord General. If he cannot intervene, the power in the court will be unbalanced."

Wei Guangde gave another reminder, which actually pointed out his current passive position in the cabinet.

Indeed, now that Lu Diaoyang is not in charge of the cabinet, and Zhang Juzheng and Zhang Siwei are a powerful force, Wei Guangde seems to be alone and unable to act.

In the past, it was Zhang Juzheng and Wei Guangde who were competing against each other, but now with the addition of Zhang Siwei, they are at a disadvantage.

At this time, it seemed understandable that Wei Guangde did not dare to take the matter of the Censorate lightly.

Now, Wei Guangde used the excuse that the Censorate had failed to supervise the personnel and wanted to arrange for someone to come in and keep an eye on the situation. Chen Zan didn't know whether he should agree or not.

Originally, Chen Zan certainly did not want both the first and second assistants to have people in the Censorate, as that would greatly threaten his control over the Censorate.

The current situation is that the Second Prime Minister has not asked the Censorate for influence, but the First Prime Minister seems to have planted people there.

If I can't strike a balance, it might be difficult to give Wei Guangde an explanation.

Among those people, does anyone know if there are any people pushed forward by Zhang Siwei?

"Will the cabinet agree to transfer me out of Laokan now?"

Chen Zan asked tentatively.

"I will naturally handle the cabinet affairs when I return. As for the Censorate, I hope General Chen will not object."

Wei Guangde said.

Wei Guangde could use Yu Yingchang's trip to Liaodong as an inspection tour as an excuse to ask Chen Zan for an official position, and he could naturally also approach Zhang Juzheng.

The two of them had a tacit understanding before that they would not ask the Censorate for help.

In this incident, Zhang Juzheng broke the rules.

Regardless of whether Zhang Juzheng knew about this matter at the beginning, it would eventually fall on his head.

Now Zhang Juzheng also wants the position of Fujian Provincial Governor, so that he can make preparations for the land survey in Fujian. It will take at least one or two years to take action.

If Wei Guangde was unhappy and refused to give up his position, Zhang Juzheng would either have to move to another place or spend a lot of effort.

The most crucial thing is that because of the fight with Wei Guangde for the position of Deputy Chief Censor, it is very likely that all his reform plans will fail.

Wei Guangde could oppose the land survey in Fujian, as well as other policies, including the performance evaluation system.

Now, he can suppress those who oppose the performance evaluation system, as long as the reason is that Wei Guangde does not oppose this system.

Most of the opponents were in the local areas, and they lacked people who could speak out in the court. If Wei Guangde changed his appearance and became an opponent of the new law, whether the performance evaluation law could continue to be implemented would probably make Zhang Juzheng very busy for a while.

To put it bluntly, both of them value interests more and may not care about other things.

As for the fight between the two people, whether Zhang Juzheng should continue to reform the bad policies.

Although making Zhang Siwei the second assistant might help implement the new policy, Zhang Juzheng's reputation would be completely ruined by then.

Sometimes, when opponents are on the stage, they can still give the audience a glimmer of hope.

Wei Guangde was able to think it through because he was clear about the relationship between him and Zhang Juzheng.

Chen Zan didn't know, but he believed that Wei Guangde would make some compromises to make Zhang Juzheng agree.

"As long as it can be passed in the court, I have no objection."

Chen Zan finally nodded and said, "Lord Wei, I have a memorial here impeaching Li Chengliang, the Grand Commander of the Southwest. Don't you really know about it?"

"Haha, a general is not bound by his sovereign's orders when he is away from home. The general will make his own decision on what to do.

There is actually no need for the court to intervene too much, just wait for the results.

If you win, everything will be easy. If you lose, you will be severely punished.

Mr. Chen, is this correct?"

Wei Guangde smiled.

"Haha, it seems that Lord Wei really doesn't take this matter seriously."

Chen Zan said with a smile.

“If he kills innocent people to gain merit, I, Wei Guangde, will be the first to stand up and say no, and I will not be able to relieve my hatred until I cut him into pieces.

But it was just dealing with some prisoners, and they were prisoners with bad records, so it didn't seem like a big deal.

As for the bad luck of killing prisoners, I have also read books and know that it is retribution for the generals who lead the troops."

Wei Guangde smiled and said, "You have to bear the consequences yourself, what does it have to do with others?"

"In that case, I won't say much."

Chen Zan still smiled and spoke casually.

"If Lord Chen could also talk to the censors below, so that fewer people would submit impeachments, Shandai would be very grateful."

Although he did not take this matter seriously, Wei Guangde would not allow the censor to impeach him crazily.

If a trend were to emerge, it would be very troublesome.

After coming out of Chen Zan's duty room, Wei Guangde also found a few Jiangxi censors and discussed the matter with them in private.

For things like this, just give a warning in private, and stop as many as you can.

In fact, it would be bad if no one from the Censorate stepped forward to impeach.

It is easy to give people the feeling that the Censorate and the military men are in cahoots.

Wei Guangde came out of the Censorate and returned to the cabinet.

As for Zhang Juzheng, Wei Guangde did not go there immediately.

He also had to go home tonight and write a letter to Lao Kan, telling him the news and then seeing his attitude.

If Lao Kan doesn't want to return to the capital, you can't force him to come back.

For most officials, returning to the capital to work as an official is naturally a good idea.

But for those officials who want to do things, most of them may not be willing to return to the capital, and there are people in the capital to protect them.

In the local area, it is actually more free and easy.

In the capital, unless you are a cabinet minister or a minister, there will always be a large group of people oppressing you.

To use the words of later generations, one does not know how low one's official position is until one has visited the capital.

People who can call the shots in local areas have to hide in the capital, for fear of meeting people they cannot afford to offend.

Although Wei Guangde pretended to be indifferent in front of Chen Zan, as if Li Chengliang's killing of prisoners was a trivial matter, in fact, Wei Guangde received a lot of notes from outside into the cabinet today.

In response to this, he also passed many small notes to the outside world, naturally hoping that they would help appease those people.

Well, most of the Qingliu people are aloof and not easy to convince.

But even though he knew it was useless, Wei Guangde still asked people to do it.

It would be difficult for him to step forward in such matters, as it would easily give those upright officials the impression that Wei Guangde was using his power to bully others. Not only would that not only be fruitless, it would also have a counterproductive effect, and perhaps their opposition would become even more resolute.

Anyway, they just found people to lobby them to give up, and the reason was nothing more than the last few paragraphs in Luo Rufang's memorial.

There are frequent reports of victories in the war in the southwest now, and there is no need to be too harsh on the generals who are able to win battles.

At the same time, the Ministry of War also intentionally spread the content of the note passed by Wei Guangde, which was to keep an eye on the war situation in the southwest. If there was evidence that Li Chengliang had killed innocent people and claimed credit, they would immediately order him to be arrested.

By using this news, he successfully made officials from both the court and the public notice that Li Chengliang was only dealing with prisoners, thus downplaying the matter.

Zhang Juzheng next door actually thought that Wei Guangde would come over and discuss with him to suppress the matter after hearing the news from the southwest. However, he did not expect that in the next two days, although there were occasional impeachment memorials against Li Chengliang in the court, not many people followed.

When he found out the reason, he could only smile bitterly.

As for Zhang Siwei's question about whether to contact the government and the opposition to jointly launch an impeachment against Li Chengliang, Zhang Juzheng directly refused.

Zhang Juzheng could guess Zhang Siwei's little thoughts.

Wang Chonggu and his men all have their own generals in Xuanda.

The southwest was on the verge of a victory, and Zhang Siwei might have had some evil thoughts, wanting to use this opportunity to capture Li Chengliang and send their people to the southwest to reap the benefits.

If it was an ordinary matter, Zhang Juzheng would not ask too many questions, but knowing that Wei Guangde was behind Li Chengliang, this was a grave offense.

Perhaps, Zhang Siwei thought that once he entered the cabinet, the two of them with the surname Zhang would be able to influence the cabinet's decisions.

Wei Guangde has brought quite a few people with him. Although they usually keep a low profile and may not be able to accomplish anything, it is not difficult for them to do something bad.

This is also the reason why Zhang Juzheng negotiated with Wei Guangde many times even though his strength exceeded Wei Guangde.

Some of his reform measures require help from others to review and fill in the gaps.

But they are very sensitive and can easily be criticized.

As a second assistant who is not on the same side as them, he is naturally the target that these opponents want to win over.

Wei Guangde's ideas were similar to his. Although he did not support many of Zhang Juzheng's policies, he did not explicitly oppose them either. He simply tacitly approved of them, which was a huge help to Zhang Juzheng.

Therefore, leaving Wei Ci Fu in the cabinet would be beneficial to Zhang Juzheng's administration, and it would also prevent a fight between them.

Of course, Zhang Siwei’s plan could not be carried out.

Zhang Juzheng had no intention of engaging in a fierce battle with Wei Guangde and making his already damaged reputation even worse.

I heard that Gao Gong had compiled a book in his hometown, which was a compilation of the original manuscripts, but the preface scolded him harshly.

It is said that Gao Gong forced this and that to leave when he came to power. What if Zhang Juzheng did the same?
Zhang Juzheng still wants fame.