prosperous age

In the capital of the Ming Dynasty, in the backyard of the Ministry of Works, Wei Guangde came here again to check the map of the Yellow River made by the Ministry of Works.

"Mr. Wei, the project to regulate the Yellow River that started in Xuzhou has been mostly completed. In addition to reinforcing the original river embankment, another river embankment was built one mile behind the river embankment. Between the two river embankments is the reserved flood channel. In addition, two flood discharge areas have been prepared here to ensure the safety of the canal."

A doctor holding a long wooden stick pointed out on the map the flood control plan adjusted by the Ministry of Works. According to the methods of later generations, two river embankments were built to prevent the river from bursting.

"Now only the middle and downstream sections of the riverbank have not been completed, and the flood discharge area has not been completed either."

Wei Guangde listened quietly to the doctor's introduction and just nodded slightly.

He knew nothing about water conservancy, and the little he knew was what he saw on TV later. He was a complete layman.

"The remaining projects need to be accelerated and completed before the flood season next year. Is that difficult?"

Wei Guangde asked casually.

"It's a bit difficult, but Lord Pan is already trying his best to mobilize the service workers to the remaining sections to speed up the progress of the project."

The doctor replied hastily, "The remaining areas are mostly barren lands with less population and land, so it is impossible to recruit enough laborers in a short period of time. We need to mobilize them from surrounding prefectures and counties, which has delayed us for a long time."

While the two were talking, a red-robed official walked into the backyard. When Wei Guangde saw him, he bowed to him.

"Shandai, the ministry is busy and delayed."

The person who came was Jiang Zhi, who is now in charge of the Engineering Department. He had been dealing with an urgent document.

"Is it the batch sent to Fujian?"

Wei Guangde knew that the Ministry of Industry had recently been busy producing measuring carts and other items, all of which were tools to prepare for the comprehensive survey of Fujian next year.

"Yes, the Ministry of Industry rushed to make the required measuring tools, and before we could measure some of them, the Ministry of Revenue came to ask for them."

Jiang Zhi smiled bitterly.

“The survey of Fujian is a major event that the Prime Minister has been preparing for a long time, and the Ministry of Industry must do its utmost to ensure the necessary measuring tools.

Also, do more and don’t be afraid of leaving it idle, because it will always be put to good use.”

Wei Guangde spoke to Jiang Zhi in a low voice.

Jiang Zhi nodded slightly. Although the cabinet did not say it explicitly, he had some guesses after Wei Guangde told him this.

In fact, this was an open conspiracy, and all the court officials could not have imagined it.

It’s just that Zhang Juzheng’s power in the court is too great, and no one dares to openly stand up and oppose him.

So at the beginning, many people put inciting Wei Guangde first, and only when the second assistant took the lead in opposing the first assistant did others dare to follow suit.

However, although Wei Guangde explicitly stated in the cabinet that he did not want the land survey to be carried out and that it would be a waste of time and money, he ultimately did not do his utmost to stop the matter, causing other talents to give up the idea.

Wei Guangde's hint to the outside world was that he was under pressure from Zhang Juzheng, so he had to remain silent.

There were also some rumors in the court that Wei Guangde owned tens of thousands of acres of land in Jiangxi.

These are actually Wei Guangde's expression of his attitude towards land survey.

After all, if the land survey is carried out in Jiangxi, his family’s fields will also be affected.

If Zhang Siwei had not entered the cabinet, perhaps the outside world would have scoffed at this reason, but now that there are two Zhangs in the cabinet, Wei Guangde's words seem more credible.

Everyone knows that Zhang Juzheng and Zhang Siwei are in the same group.

"You are right, Lord. I will ask the craftsmen to continue making measuring tools and have them ready to be shipped to Fujian to replace the damaged ones."

Jiang Zhi also said in a low voice.

"These measuring tools are a major issue for the imperial court in the next few years. The Ministry of Industry must not take them lightly. We must..."

While Wei Guangde was speaking, a man dressed as an attendant came in from outside. Wei Guangde recognized at a glance that he was his personal attendant.

The man entered the yard, took a quick glance and saw Wei Guangde. He immediately bowed and walked over quickly, whispering something in his ear.

"Where did the news come from?"

After hearing what his long-servant said, Wei Guangde was slightly surprised and asked directly.

"Butler Zhang sent someone to inform us, saying that the Prime Minister has returned home to change into mourning clothes, and the Zhang family is also setting up the mourning hall. They should have submitted a memorial to the palace."

The attendant said in a low voice.

After confirming the news, Wei Guangde's expression kept changing.

"what happened?"

Jiang Zhi asked with concern.

"Zhang Shuda's father died."

Wei Guangde said calmly.

"hiss."

Hearing this, Jiang Zhi couldn't help but take a breath, "When did it happen? There was no news at all before."

"I guess we entered the city only after the city gates were opened today, so we were in such a hurry."

Wei Guangde said.

When he went to the cabinet to report for duty in the morning, Zhang Juzheng also went there, and the two of them chatted and laughed for a while at the door.

However, he did not expect that after he left the cabinet, Zhang Juzheng received news from the mansion and hurried back to handle the funeral.

In later generations, this would have been nothing, but it happened to be the time when Zhang Juzheng was about to start implementing reforms, especially after the Fujian land survey order had been issued.

At this time, Zhang Juzheng's father had passed away, and according to regulations he had to return to his hometown to mourn.

Well, Wei Guangde is next in line to take over the position of Prime Minister of the Cabinet, but what to do next is a bit difficult for Wei Guangde.

Continue to promote Zhang Juzheng’s policies?

Wei Guangde didn't want to be involved and then be criticized by court officials.

“Shandai, you should return to the cabinet as soon as possible.

Now that the Prime Minister has returned home, he must observe a period of mourning.

But what to do next still needs to be carefully planned.”

There was no joy on Jiang Zhi's face. Normally, he should be very happy that Wei Guangde was promoted from the second assistant to the first assistant.

After all, he is a fellow villager and a prominent figure on their side.

But it is useless to just see this point. The policies in the court are very sensitive now. Zhang Juzheng has been advocating reforms. Although there is not much opposition among the ministers, it is only because they are intimidated by Zhang Juzheng's tyranny. In fact, there are many people who oppose him.

At the very least, I do not support the decision made by the Prime Minister.

But everyone knew that Zhang Juzheng and Feng Bao had a good relationship, and with the internal and external ministers supporting each other, few people dared to jump out and oppose.

Didn’t you see that those officials who submitted memorials opposing the performance evaluation system and the land survey were all escorted out of the capital with courtesy?

The most unfortunate person was Liu Tai, who was directly exiled to Guangxi, even though he took his whole family with him to reunite.

After hearing Jiang Zhi's words, Wei Guangde came back to his senses and nodded slightly.

Just now, Wei Guangde had vaguely found a trace of memory in his mind from his previous life, which was the incident of Zhang Juzheng "seizing love". Could this be what he was talking about?

According to the etiquette of the Ming Dynasty, when one's parents died, officials in the court had to resign and return to their hometown to observe mourning for three years.

Of course, it was actually 27 months, or more than two years to be precise. This period of time was called Dingyou or Shouzhi.

The court would severely punish those officials who concealed the death of their deceased relatives and did not resign and return to their hometowns.

After the mourning period for the official is over, he will apply to the Ministry of Personnel for "reinstatement" and return to his job.

Of course, during the period of mourning, other officials were not allowed to petition the court to "reinstate" the officials who were in mourning, which shows how strict the regulations were.

Generally speaking, it is unlikely that an official who has been "reinstated" will return to his original position. Especially for some important positions, when an official leaves due to mourning, a new official will immediately take his place.

When a former official is "reinstated", the replacement official generally does not leave office, so it is difficult for him to return directly to his original position.

Therefore, for Zhang Juzheng, once he resigned and returned to his hometown to mourn his father, even if he was "reinstated" three years later, he would not return to the position of Prime Minister of the Cabinet.

Even according to the order of the cabinet, he still ranks behind Zhang Siwei.

Because according to the current order of the Ming Dynasty cabinet, Zhang Juzheng is in mourning, so Wei Guangde will take over the position of Chief Minister, and Zhang Siwei will take over as Second Chief Minister.

In order to ensure the cabinet's ability to handle government affairs, it may have to recruit more people. By then, Zhang Juzheng will have to be the last one to return to the court.

According to the view of later generations, Zhang Juzheng's love affair with the emperor Wanli ended up being revoked. He only returned to the court after returning to his hometown to bury his father, and continued to serve as the prime minister.

The result of this was that he continued to be foreign minister and could continue to push forward his reforms.

The impact of this love affair was enormous. It not only divided the Ming court, but also greatly weakened Zhang Juzheng's reputation. Many officials who supported Zhang Juzheng began to oppose him because this incident exposed Zhang Juzheng's ambition for power.

As to whether Zhang Juzheng was really greedy for power or had to do so because he felt that reform was at a critical stage, that was not something these people needed to consider.

After all, Zhang Juzheng's reforms did not have many real supporters.

"The Yellow River works and surveying tools are the top priorities of the Ministry of Works during this period. Shunqing must pay attention to this."

Wei Guangde reached out and pulled Jiang Zhi aside, whispering something about measuring tools in his ear.

Jiang Zhi kept nodding, indicating that he understood.

"Then I will go back to the Cabinet first. I'll leave the Ministry of Industry to you. There is no time to delay."

Now, he could only implement the matters promoted by Zhang Juzheng as soon as possible, so as to avoid that the trouble would fall on his head in the end.

"Fujian measuring tools, do we really need to speed up the preparations?"

Jiang Zhi asked in a low voice at this time.

Wei Guangde was slightly stunned, then he reacted.

At this time, Zhang Juzheng must have been staying in the mansion. When the Ministry of Works had made the measuring tools, he would still be required to issue a document to ship them to Fujian. This seemed inconsistent with his previous attitude towards the outside world.

"Just do the job well, don't report it yet, keep it to yourself and see how it goes."

Wei Guangde immediately changed his tone and stopped urging the preparation of measuring tools for Fujian. "The Ministry of Industry should focus on river engineering recently and cooperate with the river channel to get things done."

Wei Guangde hurriedly left the Ministry of Works and went straight back to the cabinet.

He had just entered the duty room and hadn't even sat down yet when Zhang Siwei came over.

"Ziwei, I'm aware of this matter. Now you and I are the only ones doing the work in the cabinet, so first of all, we must ensure that the memorials are processed promptly and sent to the Imperial Household Department for approval.

As for the matter at Uncle Da's house, we will discuss it after Uncle's Ministry of Rites submits a memorial."

Zhang Juzheng was the prime minister of the time. Although his father did not hold an official position, sacrifices were still sent out as a courtesy.

"So now, you and I should finish dealing with today's memorials in our respective duty rooms, and then go to Uncle's mansion to pay our respects after the court is over."

Wei Guangde said.

"Yes."

Hearing Wei Guangde say this, Zhang Siwei had no choice but to speak.

"By the way, did Uncle send any message to the palace before returning home?"

Wei Guangde suddenly asked again.

"It has been delivered."

Zhang Siwei said hurriedly.

"Then we will handle government affairs normally. The cabinet must still function."

Wei Guangde nodded and spoke.

Watching Zhang Siwei leave, Wei Guangde turned his gaze to the pile of desks. There were two thick stacks of memorials. One stack was the one he should deal with, and the other stack was moved from Zhang Juzheng's office.

Wei Guangde has had a hard time these days as he has to do the work of two people.

Ju Zheng's father was named Zhang Wenming. He was originally a poor country scholar who had achieved nothing in his studies and had failed many examinations. He was admitted as a student in the prefecture when he was 20 years old.

During the imperial examination era, in order to gain a reputation, he entered the provincial examination hall seven times, but failed every time.

It was not until his promising son Zhang Juzheng was appointed as a Hanlin that he threw down his examination pen and basket and completely gave up the path of imperial examination.

However, when talking about the emperor, people often say "a mother is honored by her son", but when it comes to ministers, it becomes "a father is honored by his son".

Although Zhang Wenming failed the imperial examination, he was still favored by the court because of his relationship with Zhang Juzheng.

Last year, when Emperor Wanli learned that Zhang Juzheng's father was still alive, he issued a special decree, "I heard that both of Mr. Zhang's parents are still alive, each in their seventies, in good health and well, and I am very pleased."

In addition, she was given a scarlet python robe, twenty taels of silver, seven jade flower pendants, and six pieces of colorful gauze as gifts from the Virgin Mary.

Shaking his head, Wei Guangde walked towards the desk, ready to finish today's task first. Lu Bu hurried in from outside the door and whispered in his ear: "Master, I just received news that Feng Bao, the eunuch, was ordered to go to Zhang's house to express condolences."

Wei Guangde nodded and said softly, "I understand."

After saying that, he returned to his desk and started reading a memorial.

What Wei Guangde fears most now is that history will not follow its original trajectory, and Zhang Juzheng will run back home to mourn his father, leaving all the mess in the court to him.

Although he understood and supported Zhang Juzheng's reforms, it did not mean that he would take over the baton of Zhang Juzheng's reforms and move forward.

Too dangerous.

If things go wrong, the outcome will be torn to pieces, and he cannot afford it.

"Lubu."

Suddenly, Wei Guangde shouted loudly.

Lu Bu had just retreated to the door and was about to go out when he heard Wei Guangde's voice and hurriedly turned back.

"Send a message outside and find out the content of the conversation between Feng Bao and Zhang Juzheng."

"This, yes, sir."

Lu Bu hesitated for a moment, then immediately agreed and left.

Wei Guangde now only hopes that Zhang Juzheng can follow the original history, seek to seize the throne, and continue to complete his reform cause.

And this time Feng Bao's trip to Zhang's house is undoubtedly the best opportunity.

Only if he expressed his true thoughts to Feng Bao was Feng Bao able to help him overcome this difficulty.

It was obviously unrealistic for Zhang Juzheng to seek Wei Guangde's support.

Under normal circumstances, it is impossible that Wei Guangde would not want Zhang Juzheng to return to his hometown to mourn his father and give up the position of Prime Minister.

As for whether Wei Guangde will continue his reform measures after taking office, it is better not to think too much about it. Zhang Juzheng believes that if Wei Guangde really reaches that position, it would be commendable if he does not directly revoke the previous policies, or even just press the pause button.

He didn't dare to gamble, having already done so much.

Wei Guangde was now somewhat certain of Zhang Juzheng's intention, so he simply proceeded with everything as usual.

This was just to pave the way for him to take over as the Prime Minister. After the palace issued the order to deprive Zhang Juzheng of his power, he still had to persuade Zhang Juzheng to think twice, and then he would just leave it alone.

Therefore, especially at this time, in addition to finding out information from all sides, we must also do our part well.

Even without Zhang Juzheng, the cabinet still had to function smoothly. (End of this chapter)