prosperous age

"Shi Guanmin"

Wei Guangde was speechless for a while. The content of the memorial was to impeach this man named Shi Guanmin.

From the memorial, Wei Guangde roughly sorted out this person's official career.

Shi Guanmin, courtesy name Yuwo, alias Longgang, was a native of Fuqing County, Fuzhou Prefecture, Fujian Province. He was a civilian. In the 40th year of the Jiajing reign (1542), he ranked 90th in the Fujian Provincial Examination and became a Juren.

In the 44th year of the Jiajing reign, he ranked 56th in the Yichou imperial examination and became the 68th Jinshi in the second class.

After that, he observed government affairs in the Ministry of Revenue. In October of the 45th year, he was appointed Director of the Ministry of Revenue, supervising Chongwenmen exams. In July of the 3rd year of Longqing, he was promoted to Yuanwai. In November of the 4th year, he was promoted to Langzhong. In January of the 5th year of Longqing, he was appointed Governor of Changzhou Prefecture. He left office in October of the 3rd year of Wanli and was promoted to Deputy Envoy of Guangdong, guarding Huizhou.

To put it bluntly, it was the Huizhou Bingbei Dao, responsible for the military affairs of the local Ming army, supervising the local army, managing local troops, money, food and military farms, maintaining local public security, etc.

However, this memorial did not praise him for his diligence and dedication to his duties, nor did it accuse him of embezzling military funds and occupying military farms. Instead, it impeached him for undermining the court's discipline while serving as the prefect of Changzhou, and for embezzling people's wealth in the name of establishing Longcheng Academy. He also violated court policies by participating in lectures at the academy.

Now Shi Guanmin is in Huizhou. Knowing that the imperial court has banned academies and lectures, he still goes his own way and contacts local gentry, planning to establish a new academy in Huizhou.

At the end of the memorial, of course, it was said that this person was morally corrupt. He was making money under the banner of promoting literary style in order to embezzle money. He continued to do such things at a time when the court had issued an order to ban academies. He was really not worthy of being an official.

Seeing Wei Guangde still reading the memorial and thinking, Zhang Juzheng said seriously: "Shandai, during the Longqing period, the court issued an order to prohibit officials from participating in lectures, and now the court has also issued an order to ban academies.

It would have been fine for Shi Guanmin to establish an academy while serving in Changzhou Prefecture, as the imperial court did not prohibit it at the time. However, his participation in the academy's lectures was a blatant violation of imperial laws.

Now he has not changed his bad habits. The imperial court has issued orders to all provinces to ban academies, but he is still planning to build Huizhou Academy. He really does not take the imperial laws seriously.

Such people should be severely punished to deter all officials.

Otherwise, if everyone follows suit, the court will be corrupted and how can we govern the people on behalf of God?"

The memorial was submitted by the Guangdong Provincial Governor, and Wei Guangde had figured it out. This was Zhang Juzheng's goal in establishing his authority in the officialdom.

To be honest, if Shi Guanmin really participated in the lectures at the academy in Changzhou in the fifth year of Longqing, it would indeed be considered a violation of the court's rules and regulations.

Gao Gong had already issued an order at that time prohibiting local officials from participating in such activities.

At that time, Xu Jie, Zhang Juzheng and others liked to attend lectures to improve their status among the literati.

Gao Gong discovered the problems in the lectures at that time. Especially for Gao Gong, who always put the rectification of officialdom first, this kind of lecture activity was tantamount to public relations for the imperial examination. When local officials participated in it, they communicated too much with professors and scholars in the academy, which could easily affect their judgment of the test papers.

Judging from the fact that Shi Guanmin built new academies in Changzhou and Huizhou, he really liked to improve the local literary style. It's just that the timing was wrong and this time he ran into Zhang Juzheng's trap.

As for the impeachment that he was actually taking the opportunity to plunder the people's wealth, Wei Guangde did not agree with it, or was not sure.

Regardless of whether he took the opportunity to make money, from a simple point of view, establishing a college was beneficial to local cultural undertakings.

Even if there are flaws, the merits outweigh the faults.

Wei Guangde really did not have confidence in the integrity of Ming officials. He was afraid that apart from Hai Rui, there would be few who did not plunder the people's wealth.

"Uncle brother."

Wei Guangde looked up and asked in a low voice, "In my opinion, is this a punishment?"

Zhang Juzheng nodded slightly, still with a stern face, and said: "The court banned academies, but he went against the rules and committed crimes. Shouldn't he be punished?"

"Brother, you should know that the people are already in an uproar over the ban on the academy. If we punish officials for this now, I'm worried that it will cause unrest in the local area.

Even the entire South will be in chaos."

Wei Guangde reminded.

Although the memorial to the court regarding the "Appendix to the Old Regulations" only lasted for three or five days, when it came to the local level, the progress was actually very slow.

The provincial governments and prefects in various places have been trying every means to shirk responsibility and delay. Up to now, all places have been asked to report on the situation of academies and to conduct a survey on converting academies into community schools, but many places have yet to implement it.

That is to say, because Northern Zhili was guarding the emperor's feet, it could not slow down and had already reported the number.

According to Zhang Juzheng's reply to Northern Zhili, those who were willing to change academies into community schools would naturally be fully supported by the court, and all expenses of the community schools would be paid by the government in the future.

As for the academies that were unwilling to change into community schools and still wanted to continue to operate independently, they were directly demolished and were not allowed to continue to offer classes.

It can be said that Zhang Juzheng has made his attitude known to the world through his handling of the Beizhili Academy, that this time he is serious.

Don't think that Zhang Juzheng can intimidate officials all over the world just by holding the official hat in his hand. Don't forget that in the Jiajing period, officials would rather be dismissed by the emperor and beaten with a stick in the court than to go up the pole to anger the emperor.

These days, fame is no less powerful than power.

Even if they were dismissed from office and returned to their hometown, their good reputation could make them like local emperors, and the local government would have to give in to them. Even if they wanted to be officials again, they still had a chance to be reinstated.

"Knowing that he violated the court's laws, are you going to let him go?"

Hearing Wei Guangde's slightly threatening words, although he knew that Wei Guangde was considering him and did not want to cause trouble among the people, Zhang Juzheng had already made up his mind to rectify the academic style. Otherwise, he would only need to emphasize the ban on lecturing, so why bother to destroy academies.

As long as the academy is not destroyed, the attacks on him from the scholars will not stop. Even if this gives him an excuse to criticize him, he will accept it. It is better to suffer a short pain than a long one.

After a few years, when community schools were established throughout the Ming Dynasty, naturally no one would think about this anymore.

Zhang Juzheng was not disrespecting the ancients or deliberately suppressing private schools. It was just that the imperial court wanted to promote community schools to benefit the general public, and did not support the academy-like model of elite education.

Wei Guangde thought about it and answered this time: "Shi Guanmin can be punished, but this cannot be used as an excuse."

“Good lending means”

Zhang Juzheng looked at him curiously, with a questioning look on his face.

"Let Guangdong report to the officials for inspection, and rank Shi Guanmin as inferior in the name of privately founding a college, demote him, and assign him to other places instead.

If he continues to do what he wants, he will continue to be demoted and transferred.”

Wei Guangde whispered.

Being demoted is better than being dismissed from office.

If Shi Guanmin had been a little more stubborn and voluntarily retired, this disaster could have been avoided.

Zhang Juzheng also understood Wei Guangde's intention and taught him a lesson. As long as he still wanted to be an official and continue to establish the academy, he would be transferred continuously and would not be able to complete the establishment of the academy.

This response seems to be better than punishing him directly.

In any case, Shi Guanmin was a Jinshi, and he had a lot of teachers and classmates behind him, they were also a group of people.

This treatment result is naturally the lightest and is an approach that everyone can accept.

Zhang Juzheng knew very well that the consequences of pushing down the wall when it falls would be disastrous, and he did not want to put himself completely in opposition to all the officials.

"Okay, I will take Shandai's advice into consideration on this matter."

Zhang Juzheng stroked his beard and said in a low voice.

Although he was discussing the matter, his attitude had softened, and he would not embarrass Shi Guanmin. Wei Guangde returned to his duty room from Zhang Juzheng, and told Lu Bu at the door, "Immediately check Shi Guanmin, who is now the deputy envoy of Huizhou, Guangdong, and the academy he founded in Changzhou, which seems to be called Longcheng Academy."

"Yes, sir."

Seeing Wei Guangde's expression, Lu Bu knew that this matter seemed to be of great importance, and he quickly agreed.

After Wei Guangde walked into the duty room, he was busy looking through the files.

Lu Bu acted quickly. In less than an hour, the situation of Shi Guanmin and Longcheng Academy appeared on his desk.

Shi Guanmin's situation was not much different from the impeachment memorial, except that he lacked the charge of creating excuses to embezzle people's wealth in the name of establishing an academy.

Longcheng Academy was also built when he was the prefect of Changzhou, by contacting local gentry for funding, and it achieved remarkable results.

The academy was established in the fifth year of the Longqing reign. In the first year of the Wanli reign, when the Nanzhili Guiyou provincial examination took place, more than 30 candidates from Changzhou passed the examination.

In particular, Shi Guanmin was optimistic that one of the students, Sun Jigao, would be the best in the world in his essay. And Sun Jigao lived up to everyone's expectations and won the imperial examination in Beijing the following year, becoming the top scholar in the second year of Wanli.

"I also had a teacher-student relationship with Sun Jigao."

Wei Guangde chuckled and shook his head. Now Sun Jigao was just a Hanlin editor, not a very high-ranking official.

Many people have served as editors, but not everyone can come here and become an official who dominates the fate of the Ming Dynasty.

Of course, with the title of top scholar, there will be no major trouble in your official career. I can’t guarantee that for a second-rank official, but for a third-rank official, there won’t be too much resistance as long as you don’t make any big mistakes.

Wei Guangde was checking Shi Guanmin's situation in the duty room. Zhang Juzheng had already sent a letter to Guangdong, asking it to report on the results of this year's official inspections. It was obvious that he intended to deal with Shi Guanmin according to Wei Guangde's opinion.

However, these had nothing to do with Wei Guangde anymore. He handed the document regarding the Governor of Gansu to Lu Bu and asked him to send it to the Imperial Household Department and ask them to deal with it as soon as possible.

When he had some free time, Wei Guangde thought of Shi Guanmin, and then of He Xinyin, and he felt a headache.

This person is also a stubborn person.

Damn it, Wei Guangde asked many of his good friends to write to him to advise him, but this person actually replied saying that he would wait until the academy he was planning to build in Huguang was established before leaving.

He also had no idea about the strategy of clearing his name by letting him return to his hometown to serve as a teacher in the community school.

In fact, it is a waste of talent to let him, a Jiangxi Jieyuan, serve as a teacher in a community school, but he himself is unwilling to take part in the imperial examination, so who can he blame?

Up to now, he was only a juren, and the official he could hold could only be a teacher.

Only if you do a good job will you have the opportunity to become a county magistrate.

However, He Xinyin was obviously not interested in this and had no intention of becoming an official.

While Wei Guangde was worrying about He Xinyin, Zhang Juzheng, who was on duty, had already written a letter to Huguang Governor Wang Zhiyuan, asking him to immediately arrest He Xinyin.

Zhang Juzheng thought he had given Wei Guangde a chance and allowed several months to act, but He Xinyin continued to do as he pleased. He not only attacked him as the prime minister among the people, but also belittled his policy of banning academies, which made him unbearable.

If Wei Guangde can't do it, then forget it and let him do it.

When he returned home to bury his father, what Zhang Juzheng heard most was about this person. He gave lectures in various places in Huguang, and widely publicized his disloyal and unfilial behavior. The reason was that he was unwilling to return to his hometown to observe the system, was greedy for power, and was unwilling to give up the throne of Prime Minister.

It could be said in other places, but he said this in Huguang, in his hometown.

Zhang Juzheng's power included not only his own people from Huguang, but also the people entrusted to him by Xu Jie and a group of Shanxi officials left behind by Yang Bo.

Of course, over the years, Zhang Juzheng also selected many capable people and had many students under him.

However, because of the "love-stealing" incident, Zhang Juzheng and his disciples had become somewhat estranged.

He Xinyin said that about him in Huguang in order to cut off his roots.

Didn’t you see that Wei Guangde attached great importance to the scholars in Jiangxi? He even took care of He Xinyin, who had no interest in officialdom.

The same goes for Zhang Juzheng. This is his base, but he completely cannot accept what He Xinyin did.

"Liu Tai is hateful, but He Xinyin is even more hateful."

Looking at the written letter, Zhang Juzheng muttered to himself.

He did not doubt whether He Xinyin was instructed by Wei Guangde. He had already found out all about He Xinyin's situation in Huguang.

Perhaps, he was simply not cut out to be an official, and he had no idea of ​​the harm his actions would cause to Zhang Juzheng.

The influence of the lectures was so strong that it was just like the pyramid schemes of later generations, with a very strong persuasive power.

He Xinyin criticized Zhang Juzheng in front of the scholars from Huguang, which not only affected a few people, but also influenced a generation, or even several generations of scholars from Huguang on their views of Zhang Juzheng.

He could tolerate some of his fellow villagers opposing him, but he could not accept several generations opposing him.

Yan Song had such a bad reputation at the time, and there were only a few people in Jiangxi who openly opposed him.

Zhang Juzheng already had a bad reputation because of Liu Tai, and was said to be even worse than Yan Song. If He Xinyin's actions really led to that kind of result, it would prove that Zhang Juzheng was worse than Yan Song.

This was absolutely unacceptable to Zhang Juzheng, who always took the world as his responsibility. This was also the root cause of He Xinyin's eventual death.

In fact, Zhang Juzheng was trying his best to suppress his murderous intent towards He Xinyin in front of Wei Guangde, and now he almost didn't want to talk about this person to him.

Everyone else wants fame, so doesn’t Zhang Juzheng want it?

Time flies, and it is October in a blink of an eye. The temperature in Beijing has begun to drop significantly, and winter is coming.

People living in the north also have to start doing one important thing at this time, which is preparing coal and firewood for the winter.

"Has the coal that the counties were asked to purchase been prepared?"

Wei Guangde met Zhang Xueyan in the cabinet duty room. He came to report on the collection of silver for exchange of notes.

Before that, Zhang Juzheng’s ban on academies progressed from north to south, and this was accompanied by the establishment of community schools in various parts of the north. As a result, the public did not react much to the ban on academies.

Most of the academies in northern Zhili have been converted into community schools, and those that refused to be converted were directly demolished.

When a community school is established, the source of its funding becomes the key issue. It is impossible for the government to establish a community school but not have the money to run it.

The collection of silver for exchange of notes was also accelerated under the promotion of Wei Guangde.

For this reason, Zhang Juzheng was not dissatisfied with Wei Guangde's interference in the Ministry of Revenue, but asked Zhang Xueyan to cooperate fully.

After talking about the exchange of silver, Wei Guangde asked about coal in the capital.

Well, this was something Wei Guangde came up with when he accidentally remembered the article "The Charcoal Seller" in later textbooks.

In the winter in the north, if you are not careful, you will freeze to death. (End of this chapter)