prosperous age

You have to take advantage of the situation when doing things; blindly acting will not work.

At the beginning, Wei Guangde still thought about taking advantage of the reaction of court officials to strongly oppose the ban on academies.

But he did not expect that Tan Lun's analysis would directly divide the scholars, who he thought were a solid group, into several parts, and then analyze them one by one. In the end, he came to the conclusion that only officials in some places in Jiangnan would firmly oppose this policy. It was completely different from what he had expected, that the public sentiment was surging and they would strongly oppose it.

Since he couldn't take advantage of the situation, Wei Guangde naturally gave up the idea of ​​competing with Zhang Juzheng.

The chances of winning are not great, so why bother yourself?

But since Zhang Juzheng had seen through all of this and was determined to push it forward, he naturally had to minimize the impact if he couldn't stop it, and it became inevitable to give Jiangxi a heads-up.

"Now it seems that this is the only way."

Tan Lun replied in a low voice.

Because of the freedom of academic style in Jiangxi, even the followers of Neo-Confucianism do not look down on the followers of Mind-School. After all, orthodoxy has always been in their hearts and they don't pay any attention to those followers of Mind-School who jump around.

It is they who should be fighting, not the rationalists.

So what is manifested in them is that they appear to be broad-minded.

As for those followers of Neo-Confucianism who wanted to compete with the School of Mind, most of them were because the School of Mind had spread to their area, and naturally they could not understand it, so they fought back fiercely.

Jiangxi had already gone through this process long ago. Neo-Confucianism and Mind-philosophy were developing independently in Jiangxi without interfering with each other.

This is actually the reason why many followers of the School of Mind, especially He Xinyin of the Taizhou School, gave lectures everywhere.

In Jiangxi, those who wanted to learn the School of Mind had already started learning it. If they wanted to continue to expand the influence of the School of Mind, they could only go to other provinces to give lectures and attract students to study.

"I heard from Zhou Shouyu that He Xinyin should have gone to Huguang to spread the School of Mind in the past two years. It is very likely that he said something that reached the ears of the Prime Minister."

Jiang Zhi spoke at this time.

"I guess so."

Wei Guangde nodded. He had made some guesses before.

In order to attract students, those people dare to say anything when giving lectures.

Some outrageous words must have been said at this time.

"We should do our best and leave the rest to fate. We can't control other things. We can't have a fight with him in the court just because of this.

In the end, I’m afraid the rest of the group will just stand aside and watch the joke.”

The next day, as expected, the memorial from the Censorate opposing the ban on lectures and academies arrived at the Ministry of Public Security.

However, Zhang Juzheng had obviously prepared for this. On that very day, memorials supporting the new policy continued to be submitted to the Ministry of Public Security.

The influx of a large number of memorials has led to a significant increase in the number of memorials sent to the cabinet today.

Wei Guangde frowned as he looked at the two piles of memorials on the desk. They were the same things, just written by different people.

Rather than looking at what is written in the memorial, it would be better to just look at who wrote the memorial.

"Lubu."

Wei Guangde finally didn't want to watch any more and shouted to the outside of the door.

"Master, I'm here."

Lu Bu ran in quickly from outside and stood in front of the desk waiting for instructions.

"Take these memorials, pick out the ones that discuss the Forbidden Academy, and send them to the next room to have them draft them based on these two.

Just record the names of those who support and those who oppose separately, and then give the list to me.”

Wei Guangde was not willing to do any useless work, so he just threw these memorials out to the cabinet officials to help deal with them.

"Yes, sir."

After receiving Wei Guangde's instructions, Lu Bu hurriedly sorted and put the memorials in order. All of a sudden, most of the memorials in front of him were gone.

"Take it, take it, and send the list to me at the end."

Wei Guangde waved his hand and said.

After Lu Bu took away all the memorials, he felt better when he looked at the few memorials in front of him.

Just as Tan Lun said, in the first two days, memorials were flying everywhere, led by the censors of the Censorate, and many officials from various government offices also followed suit to submit memorials and make comments. However, considering the huge number of officials in the capital, Wei Guangde also noticed that not many people actually participated.

Yes, most people seem to be standing by and watching.

In fact, as Tan Lun said, officials who studied Neo-Confucianism actually thought it was a good thing after discussing it privately. After all, most academies had now become the territory of the School of Mind, and scholars of the School of Mind used the academies to give lectures and recruit believers in order to strengthen their influence.

Neo-Confucianism, on the other hand, was mostly spread through private schools and official schools, which became the main propaganda platform.

The ban on lectures and academies was actually aimed at the School of Mind.

Obviously, Zhang Juzheng came up with this decree because he was already impatient with the group of people who wrote the letter, who praised or criticized the current affairs and attacked him as the Prime Minister.

Since it is not targeting Neo-Confucianism and is beneficial to them, why should they help the disciples of the School of Mind to debate this matter?

As a result, the Neo-Confucian officials in the court consciously remained silent and allowed the followers of the School of Mind to make trouble.

In the Jiangxi circle that Zhang Juzheng paid the most attention to, there were officials who wrote letters of opposition, but they were not many.

Zhang Juzheng had long ago instructed people to pay attention to the officials who reported to the Ministry of Public Security, and a special list was handed to him.

It now seems that most of the Jiangxi officials, especially those above the fifth rank, basically did not speak. Zhang Juzheng thought about it and knew that the man next to him should have seen it clearly. Even if they opposed it, not many people would stand on his side. Instead, they would gather together separately to watch them fight.

"Haha, Shandai is still a sensible person."

Zhang Juzheng thought about it in his mind, then smiled contemptuously.

To be honest, at the beginning, when Wei Guangde opposed the ban on academies, he was a little nervous.

But after returning home and thinking about it carefully, Zhang Juzheng discovered the flaw in it, that is, this memorial is actually a double-edged sword, which kills the School of Mind and benefits the School of Principle.

Therefore, the first thing to do was to get rid of the Neo-Confucian officials in the court.

Even if there are some short-sighted people, they won't be able to achieve anything.

Zhang Juzheng believed that the Neo-Confucian scholars in the court would overwhelm the officials below.

After all, although those Neo-Confucianists seemed to be free and unrestrained in their daily lives and did not care about fame and fortune, when the followers of the School of Mind went to the capital to give lectures, there were many debates between the School of Mind and the School of Confucianism.

The rapid development of the School of Mind is inseparable from these debate activities, because the results of the debates are mostly favorable to the School of Mind.

Relatively speaking, the School of Mind is indeed more practical, which is why both he and his teacher have studied the School of Mind.

Compared with the vague and obscure rationalism, the philosophy of mind does have its strengths.

However, Zhang Juzheng studied Confucianism and didn't care about Neo-Confucianism or the School of Mind. All he could use was Confucianism.

As for the accusations in the memorials that he replaced Confucianism with power, he could only laugh.

That was nothing more than the desperate wail of the followers of the School of Mind, and was of no consequence at all.

After two years, Fujian and several other major provinces completed the land survey and land survey work. The court's tax revenue increased significantly and life became better. No one remembered this anymore.

This is what Zhang Juzheng thought. If those people want to seize power and make money, shouldn’t the court first have financial income and become well-off?

His reform measures could greatly increase fiscal revenue, giving these officials more room to maneuver, and they would probably support him even more. Thinking of this, Zhang Juzheng picked up the land survey document from Fujian Newspaper, read it carefully again, and thought about how to reply.

We have to continue to urge them to complete all the surveying work before the end of the year and summarize the experience so that it can be promoted to other provinces.

Once the land measurement and the Single Whip Law were implemented and the court's tax revenue improved, he could also consider whether it was time to retire or continue doing other things.

In any case, in Zhang Juzheng's view, his reform of the court's tax system was enough to save the country.

As for whether those whose interests were damaged would take advantage of his misfortune, Zhang Juzheng thought that Wei Guangde could help him withstand the pressure.

Wei Guangde still has a great influence among the nobles and civil servants. What is commendable is that he is better at discovering new points and making people around him make money with him.

The news that Feng Bao and Wei Guangde's men had gone to Burma to mine naturally could not be concealed from Zhang Juzheng, but he just pretended to be deaf and dumb.

This matter is really not suitable for me to get involved.

In Wei Guangde's opinion, this event would lead to a major political storm, but as all parties had their own thoughts, it only caused a little noise in the first two days and then quickly calmed down.

However, Wei Guangde also knew that this was just the beginning.

Even if the officials in Beijing do not make trouble, the governors and provincial governors below will not be so stupid as to be used as a knife by Zhang Juzheng. There will be many more consequences to this matter.

As for He Xinyin, Wei Guangde was not familiar with him and had done what he should do. The rest was up to him.

If I listen to the advice, I will go to Jiangxi to rest for a few years and focus on my studies. There shouldn't be any major problems.

As long as he was in Jiangxi, Wei Guangde was still confident that he could keep him.

"Master, there's a letter from Burma."

When Wei Guangde returned to the mansion that day, Zhang Ji whispered to him as soon as he entered the door.

"Put the letter in the study. I'll go read it later."

Wei Guangde nodded and said something, then walked towards the backyard.

Wei Guangde didn't think there would be any major events in Myanmar.

If that were true, Li Jin would have sent him a letter asking for help long ago.

Just because Li Jin got the assignment and never returned, and there was no news for such a long time, Wei Guangde felt at ease.

No news is sometimes good news.

After Wei Guangde checked his youngest son's homework in the backyard and had dinner, he wandered to the study and saw the letter on the desk.

Pick it up, open it, take out the letter, and read it slowly.

At the beginning, the relaxed expression quickly turned solemn, naturally because of the trouble caused by Li Chengliang and Mu Changzuo. In order to compete for the Burmese mines, the officers and soldiers of the Ming army almost went to war.

Fortunately, both sides knew the difference between good and bad and did not let this actually happen.

However, Wei Guangde also felt extremely uncomfortable with the practice of demonstrating against each other and showing off military force.

However, the most crucial thing is that Luo Rufang had no idea about it at all.

It is conceivable that as the military inspector, Luo Rufang was somewhat incompetent in his duties.

There was no news of these things in the capital at all, which shows that both Li Chengliang and Mu Changzuo were very clever in their methods.

If Li Jin's Fujin Chamber of Commerce had not been allowed to invest in mines in Myanmar, I'm afraid they would not have been able to hide it.

But in the end, it was not bad. Although Mu Changzuo's mine did not need investment from Fujin Chamber of Commerce, he also agreed to send 30% of the profits to the capital.

As for Li Chengliang, the situation was the same. The capital took one-third of the share, and the rest was divided between Li Jin and Li Chengliang.

Wei Guangde quietly collected the letter and put it back into the envelope, still muttering, "Li Chengliang's love of holding his own troops is not a good character, we have to find a way to persuade him.

As for Mu Changzuo."

Wei Guangde hesitated for a moment and then made up his mind. Since the war in Myanmar was basically over, he should take the Yunnan troops back to the defense zone.

In theory, it was a good thing to arrange Li Chengliang and Mu Changzuo to check and balance each other in Myanmar at this time, but Wei Guangde was really worried that these two would cause trouble again.

In Myanmar, Li Chengliang and Luo Rufang are enough.

As for whether we need to worry about Li Chengliang gathering his own troops and proclaiming himself king, that is just unnecessary worry.

The families of Li Chengliang's soldiers are still in Guangxi, Guizhou and Sichuan, so what trouble can they cause?

Dare to have other ideas, don't know how you died.

So Wei Guangde spread out the paper and wrote a letter to Luo Rufang.

It turned out that Wei Guangde and Luo Rufang were not familiar with each other. Luo Rufang was a fellow Jinshi in the 32nd year of Jiajing, and could be considered Wei Guangde's predecessor.

However, because of the relationship with Myanmar, Wei Guangde and Luo Rufang also had correspondence.

This time, Wei Guangde pointed out the matter so that he could open his eyes and ears and observe carefully what Li Chengliang did in Myanmar.

Since he is the military inspector, he must keep an eye on the army.

As for Li Jin and Wei Guangde, we have no plans to write back. Let's talk to Feng Bao tomorrow and let them know, and then we'll consider the reply.

Afterwards, Wei Guangde wrote another note to the Ministry of War, intending to have someone deliver it to Tan Lun the next morning.

Finally, I thought that since I wanted to get rid of Mu Changzuo, it would be troublesome if he was dissatisfied after returning to Yunnan.

So Wei Guangde started writing letters again to Wang Ning, the governor of Yunnan.

If the Mu family is the king of Yunnan, then the governor of Yunnan is the emperor. After all, although his Mu family is a hereditary duke and the general of Yunnan, they still have to be under the control of the governor.

Let Wang Ning take care of it and keep an eye on Mu Changzuo to prevent him from causing any more trouble.

The governor Wang Ning was almost removed from his position, but it was just a show for the people below.

After all, Wang Ning has too many connections. He is a fellow villager of Zhang Juzheng, from Huguang, and is of the same age as Wei Guangde. If we don't pretend to remove him, who knows what people will say.

Only after writing the letter to Wang Ning did Wei Guangde feel that the matter was settled.

Nothing happened that night. The next day, Wei Guangde had breakfast, got dressed, and went out to report for duty.

Before leaving, he gave the written letters and notes to Zhang Ji and asked him to arrange someone to deliver them.

Wei Guangde entered the cabinet and just started handling official business. The first memorial he received stunned him.

Gansu Governor Hou Donglai submitted a memorial, planning to invite the Gelug leader Sonam Gyatso to Ganzhou to spread Buddhism.

Before that, Hou Donglai was ordered to go to Yanghua Temple in Qinghai to issue an edict to Sonam Gyatso, conferring him the title of Dharma Master of the Nation and also sending him a golden seal.

Unexpectedly, when he returned to Ganzhou, he actually reported this matter to the emperor.

Just when Wei Guangde thought that Hou Donglai was fooled by Sonam Gyatso, he finally understood what he meant after reading the rest of the story.

Gansu is close to Qinghai. Now Altan Khan stays in Qinghai, and the Mongolian cavalry also stays there with him.

This is somewhat of a threat to Gansu Town.

If Sonam Gyatso was invited to Ganzhou, there would be no need for Altan Khan to stay in Qinghai and he would have to return to the grassland.

After a brief thought, Wei Guangde nodded. (End of this chapter)