Daming talker

Chapter 777 I am not Zhang Juzheng
The emperor adopted the advice of Lin Tailai, Marquis of Daifang and academician of the Hanlin Academy, and after the edict was promulgated to appoint the eldest son Zhu Changluo as the crown prince, everyone at home and abroad was delighted.

As long as the crown prince position is decided, other matters such as the coronation and wedding are just trivial matters and can be carried out step by step.

The Ministry of Rites, which had been under high pressure for many years, finally felt relieved and quickly submitted a plan for the coming-of-age ceremony this year and the wedding next spring.

Other civil and military officials also submitted their congratulations. Lin Tailai was no exception. He followed the crowd and wrote a letter, which he personally delivered to the cabinet.

"Why are you here again?" The Third Elder Li Chun said dissatisfiedly, "You can just submit the memorial to Huiji Gate. You don't have to send it directly to Wenyuan Pavilion in person."

The Cabinet is the central authority and other ministers try to avoid suspicion if possible. But you, Lin Tailai, come and go as you please, as if you were visiting a neighbor. Is this acceptable?
Lin Tailai defended himself by saying, "I have not been appointed to any other official position. I am only a bachelor of the Imperial Academy, but President Zeng does not want me to go to the Imperial Academy.

So I thought I had nowhere to go to the government office, so I could only sit in the cabinet of the Hanlin Academy."

This explanation is correct. After all, in terms of the nominal system, the Cabinet is indeed the office of the Hanlin Academy in the palace. In the "Da Ming Hui Dian", the Cabinet is still listed under the Hanlin Academy.

Wenyuan Pavilion was the residence of the Hanlin Academy in the early Ming Dynasty, but the Hanlin Academy was moved outside the palace after the cabinet became powerful.

Prime Minister Zhao Zhigao waved to Lin Tailai and invited him, "Let's go to the East Pavilion to talk."

Lin Tailai followed Zhao Zhigao to the East Pavilion, and then heard Zhao Zhigao say: "Now I have no regrets, my life has been fulfilled, and since this spring, my health has been much worse than before, so I have decided to resign."

As a prime minister, Old Man Zhao had a very successful career. He had won great victories in foreign wars, his finances were healthy, and the dispute over the country's foundation that had lasted for more than a decade was over. It was a perfect time to retire.

You are already this old, why not quit and seek a good end? What are you waiting for?
Looking at the 78-year-old old man Zhao, Lin Tailai felt very complicated, but he tried to persuade him to stay, saying: "Although the foundation of the country has been established, the court is still in turmoil, and it still needs you as a ballast."

Zhao Zhigao waved his hand and whispered, "It is God's will that I retreat."

What is God's will? Even the emperor had hinted that old man Zhao should leave.

The emperor asked him to retire voluntarily, but Lin Tailai asked him to continue working. Is there any more difficult situation in the world than this?
Lin Tailai thought about it again and again, and finally decided to let Zhao Zhigao go. He sighed and said, "You and I have known each other for many years. Friendship should be started and ended well. I won't make things difficult for you."

Zhao Zhigao, who had seen through politics, finally breathed a sigh of relief. As an old prime minister who was nearly eighty years old and was about to "expire and become invalid" in all aspects, he was of course also very scared.

What he feared most was that Lin Tailai would ruthlessly treat him as a consumable and a sacrifice, using the idea of ​​recycling waste and squeezing out the last value, forcing him, the old prime minister, to rush forward and fight with bayonets.

There is no doubt that Lin Tailai has this ability, and Prime Minister Zhao knows it better than anyone else.

Zhao Zhigao then bowed to Lin Tailai with gratitude and said, "I am already old, but you still need to take care of yourself, my lord."

Then in April, Prime Minister Zhao Zhigao submitted a petition to resign on the grounds of old age, but was persuaded to stay by the emperor.

Then Zhao Shoufu submitted four consecutive memorials and finally obtained the approval of Emperor Wanli, allowing Zhao Shoufu to retire and return home.

In late April, Prime Minister Zhao left Beijing to return home. The good-natured Second Assistant Zhu Geng temporarily took over the duties of Prime Minister, and Grand Secretary Li Chun assisted him.

At this point everyone realized that the cabinet, which had been generally stable for many years, finally needed fresh blood. The last time new people were added to the cabinet was ten years ago.

The key politicians in the capital quickly listed the three most popular candidates, including the Minister of Personnel Shen Yikuan, the Minister of Revenue Yu Shenxing, and the "unemployed" Lin Tailai.

However, after becoming a popular candidate, Lin Junhou's illness relapsed, and he quickly ran to a new manor outside the western suburbs for recuperation, staying indoors and not seeing guests.

The suburbs outside Xizhimen are extremely rich in water resources, with large tracts of lakes, so it is called Haidian, and has always been a place for Beijingers to enjoy spring outings.

A few years ago, Lin Tailai purchased thousands of acres of land in Haidian and started building a manor - actually a garden, which was completed last year and named "Summer Palace".

As a nobleman who shares the same destiny with the country, it is normal for him to buy land and build manors around the capital.

Only those who have stable property can have stable determination. If you, a marquis, don't even have property around the capital, how loyal can you be to the court?

However, other nobles were not as wealthy as Marquis Daifang, who could not enclose such a large piece of land just to build a garden.

It's just a waste of money with no output, and it also requires long-term maintenance. Other nobles really can't afford to build a garden with thousands of acres of water surface.

Just when officials in the capital were discussing who would enter the cabinet, Chen Younian, a leader of the Qingliu forces and the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, suddenly submitted a memorial requesting the reinstatement of the Minister of Rites Shen Li, which caught no one by surprise.

The emperor, who had been completely indifferent to personnel appointments since last year, did not keep it to himself this time and quickly agreed.

So the position of Minister of Rites, which had been vacant for some time, was filled first.

This appointment immediately caused a stir in the officialdom of the capital, because Shen Li was no ordinary person!

He is the leader of the Qingliu forces, and it is not an exaggeration to say that he is the founder of today's Qingliu forces.

It was when Shen Li entered the Ministry of Personnel in the tenth year of Wanli that he successively promoted Chen Younian, Gu Xiancheng and Zhao Nanxing to the middle level of the Ministry of Personnel, and then joined forces with senior officials such as Xin Zixiu and Song Xun from the same province to lay the personnel foundation for the Qingliu forces.

At the same time, Shen Li was also the lecturer of Emperor Wanli when he was young. He had always had a good relationship with Emperor Wanli and naturally had a special status.

However, when the dispute over the national foundation reached a climax in the 17th year of Wanli, the then Minister of Rites Shen Li, after assessing the situation and risks, decisively chose to resign and avoid the issue, instead of directly breaking off relations with the emperor over the issue.

Afterwards, the Qingliu Party's status declined under the suppression of Lin Tailai. Unexpectedly, more than ten years later, Shen Li was called back.

Almost everyone in the officialdom believed that this was a new sign, as important as the death of Zhang Juzheng in the tenth year of Wanli, and it might very well be the beginning of a new era.

Because political veterans have summarized the political changes in the past three decades and found some patterns that seem to be traceable.

The first decade of the Wanli reign was generally a decade of Zhang Juzheng's one-man rule, until his death.

The second decade of the Wanli reign was generally a decade of the rise of the Qingliu forces and their fierce struggle with the cabinet represented by Shen Shixing, until Shen Shixing resigned at the end of the 19th year of the Wanli reign.

The third decade of the Wanli Dynasty was a decade in which the Lin Party firmly suppressed the Qingliu Party and dominated military and political affairs, which has continued to the present day.

Now it is the 29th year of the Wanli reign, and the fourth decade of the Wanli dynasty is about to begin. Is it time for another "change of dynasty"?
The return of Shen Li, the old "imperial teacher" who had a bad relationship with Lin Tailai, may be a signal.

It is obvious that at a time when the current cabinet is short of people, although Shen Li has only been temporarily reinstated to his original position as the Minister of Rites, it is impossible for him to be just the Minister of Rites.

Anyone with a little experience in officialdom could guess what the emperor was thinking. He probably wanted Shen Li to first be reappointed as the Minister of Rites as a formality, and then enter the cabinet as a Grand Secretary.

Before Shen Li arrived in the capital, another major event occurred in the imperial court. Ye Mengxiong, the Minister of War who was in charge of the ministry, died of illness while in office.

According to convention, the court recommended the qualified and experienced Minister of Military Affairs Wang Xianggan to take over, but the emperor vetoed his proposal, which was very rare, overturning the result of the court recommendation.

Finally, Emperor Wanli issued an edict to appoint another running-in candidate, the backbone of the Qingliu forces and the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of War, Wei Yunzhen, as the Minister of War.

At this point, the cabinet could still refuse to obey the order and seal the unreasonable decree. However, the good-natured acting Prime Minister Zhu Geng obviously did not have the courage to do so and obediently accepted the decree.

Now it was clear that "Sima Zhao's intention was known to everyone". Everyone could clearly feel that Emperor Wanli intended to "rebalance" the court.

The three-horse combination of the Prime Minister, the Heavenly Official, and the Grand Marshal that the Lin Party relied on for many years has now lost two of the three. Moreover, the Heavenly Official of the Ministry of Personnel, Shen Yiguan, is not a veteran of the Lin Party, but more like a latecomer, and his position may not always be stable.

At least on the surface, the power of the Lin Party was visibly reduced in the short term.

So when they saw that they had lost the battle for the position of Minister of War, some of the core members of Lin's party could no longer sit still, and they went to the Summer Palace in the western suburbs with a small entourage, under the pretext of going for an outing, to pay a visit to Lin Tailai.

Among them are Wang Xiangmeng, who completed his training as governor last year and was transferred back to the Ministry of Personnel as the right vice minister, Hao Jie, the former governor of Liaodong, who was transferred to the left vice minister of the Ministry of Revenue, Li Weizhen, the deputy leader of the literary world, who was promoted to the right vice minister of the Ministry of Rites, Shen Yongmao, who was promoted to the left vice minister of the Ministry of Works, and Wang Zhidu, who was promoted to the minister of the Imperial Household Department.

There were also Chen Yunjian, Langzhong of the Ministry of Personnel's Selection Department, Shen Yan, the Communications Envoy of the Ministry of Communications, Wang Yusheng, Shaoqing of the Dali Temple, Jin Shiheng, Yuwenlang of the Ministry of Examination, Cui Wukui, Shaoqing of the Honglu Temple, and so on.

Lin Tailai, who was fishing by the lake, saw such a large group of people, sighed softly, and said disappointedly: "I originally thought that you should have a calm mind after many years of experience.

I didn't expect that you still couldn't keep your cool when encountering problems. Maybe it's because you were taken care of too well in the past.

Isn't it just letting the Qingliu Party member Wei Yunzhen become the Minister of War? What's the big deal? "

Others didn't know how to respond, but Shen Yongmao squatted next to Lin Tailai, fiddling with a fish in a bucket, and said, "Your Excellency still wants to disparage us. Does this mean that the situation is not serious? Then I feel relieved."

Lin Tailai: "."

Damn it! After being PUAed by myself for so many years, some people have already started to develop antibodies.

Lin Tailai put down his fishing rod, went to the study at the foot of the mountain, took out a document and passed it to everyone to read.

Everyone took a quick look and found that it was a "letter of allegiance" in which the old Prime Minister Zhao Zhigao was worshipped as his adoptive father. It was signed by "Wei Guangwei" and his fingerprints were also pressed.

Lin Tailai said calmly: "Our new Minister of War, Wei Da Sima, really has a great son.

In the 26th year of the Wanli reign, Wei Guangwei also took part in the imperial examination. However, the chief examiner was Zhao Zhigao from our side, and his father Wei Yunzhen was not very powerful in other places, so he could not help at all.

At that time, I asked someone to secretly contact Wei Guangwei. I didn't expect that in order to pass the imperial examination and be selected as a scholar, Wei Guangwei was willing to write a secret letter of loyalty to Zhao Zhigao as his adoptive father.

You say, if this letter of allegiance is exposed, will Wei Yunzhen still have the face to be the Grand Marshal? "

Everyone was shocked! Even our own people had to admit that you, Lin Jiuyuan, simply weren't a human being!

How did you find Wei Guangwei so accurately three years ago? How did you know that Wei Guangwei would shamelessly write such a letter of loyalty? Is this the legendary "art of physiognomy"?
Lin Tailai slammed the table and said, "In short, stay calm! I am not Zhang Juzheng, the sky above our heads will not fall!"

The morale of the die-hard Lin Party members quickly stabilized; they had become accustomed to following Lin Tailai from victory to victory.

As long as Lin Tailai had foreseen today's situation, there seemed to be no need to worry too much.

If there are any wavering outsiders with weak wills, this is a good opportunity to weed out the weak.

However, the situation on the surface has not improved, and it can even be said to be getting worse.

In mid-May, the old imperial tutor Shen Li arrived in the capital and took office as Minister of Rites.

At the audience ceremony inside the Ministry of Rites, the Right Vice Minister Li Weizhen bluntly asked:

"Twelve years ago, a dispute over the national foundation suddenly arose. Senior Shen, who was the Minister of Rites and had the highest expectations in the world, resigned from his post at the height of the storm.

Now that the country has been settled and the storm has passed, Senior Shen immediately turned around and resumed his post as Minister of Rites. I really don’t understand.”

Minister Shen was silent for a moment, then answered reluctantly: "My reputation and honor are trivial matters, I just want to have a clear conscience."

A few days later, the court ministers nominated candidates for the cabinet and nominated Shen Yikuan and Shen Li.

The result was not unexpected at all. Emperor Wanli appointed Shen Li to join the cabinet.

So the members of the new cabinet were Zhu Geng, Li Chun, and Shen Li in order, with Zhu Geng, who was ranked first, becoming the prime minister.

However, no one expected that Zhu Geng and Li Chun would show humility, so the "newcomer" Shen Li, who was supposed to be ranked third, actually became the prime minister directly.

This set a new record of a new cabinet minister becoming the prime minister, which shocked the officialdom in the capital.

You know, the cabinet rules have always been to arrange the order according to the time of joining the cabinet, and whoever joins the cabinet earliest will become the prime minister.

So far, there have been perhaps only one or two exceptions to the order being changed, which is considered extremely special.

As for the situation where the newcomer to the cabinet directly bypassed all the old officials to become the prime minister, it was even more incredible.

Although among the three people in the cabinet, Shen Li has the longest official career and is the oldest - he is from the same era as Shen Shixing and Wang Xijue, and is even older than them. Compared with Zhu Geng and Li Chun, he is simply a crushing opponent.

But rules are rules, and the practice of relying on the emperor's support and becoming the prime minister when entering the cabinet is tantamount to directly and unreasonably trampling on the rules.

It can be seen as relying on the imperial power to forcibly break the rules, which is the same as the Jinyiwei's involvement in the judiciary, and aroused the disgust of many "establishment" ministers. But things are not really done that way.

Even though Lin Tailai was the king in the officialdom, he did not directly use imperial power to trample on the rules.

In the following month, there were frequent personnel changes in the court. There was nothing to say about this, as it was a normal phenomenon after the prime minister was replaced.

The Prime Minister was replaced by the Lin Party giant Zhao Zhigao with the Qingliu leader Shen Li. He must have promoted some frustrated Qingliu backbones first.

With the cooperation of Chen Younian, a veteran of the Qingliu forces and the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, and the tacit support of the emperor, the personnel layout below the Vice Minister level was relatively simple.

The Minister of Personnel Shen Yikuan was unwilling to risk being deposed by the emperor by resisting at all costs.

For example, Gu Xiancheng, who had been idle at home for many years and failed to rebuild the Donglin Academy in this time and space, was pulled out and reinstated at this time, and returned to his original post as the Deputy Director of the Ministry of Literature.

Zhao Nanxing, who had been suppressed in his position of chief for ten years, was finally promoted back to the position of Yuanwailang, in the most core department of the Ministry of Rites, the Ceremonial Department.

From the second half of this year to the spring of next year, Zhao Nanxing will participate in the preparations for the crowning, enthronement, and wedding ceremonies of the Crown Prince, which is clearly a way to gain credit.

Guo Zhengyu, the lecturer of the Crown Prince's course, was temporarily in charge of the Ministry of Rites after Shen Li entered the cabinet as the chief minister. Anyone with a discerning eye could see that after the Crown Prince's "three ceremonies" were completed, Guo Zhengyu would be able to take advantage of the situation and become the Minister of Rites.

There is also Li Sancai, who has been in poverty in Henan for many years. In recent years, he has become acquainted with Shen Li, who lives in his hometown in Henan. This time, his hard work has paid off, as he was promoted to the governor of Fengyang and governor-general of Hecao due to his talents.

After witnessing this series of personnel changes, some experts in keyboard politics began to speculate that once the Qingliu forces completed their initial layout, they would begin to liquidate the Lin Party, just like they had liquidated Zhang Juzheng's forces back then.

The only pillar of the Lin Party, Dai Fanghou Lin Tailai, has been sitting in the Summer Palace in the western suburbs fishing and watching the movements of the court with cold eyes.

Whenever someone from his own side asked him how to deal with the situation, Lin Tailai would respond with just one sentence, "I am not Zhang Juzheng."

(End of this chapter)