Red Mansion: I am Jia Lian

Chapter 299: A Heart-breaking

What does the emperor care about? First of all, the throne, and secondly, a stable and sustainable order. A turbulent situation means the instability of the throne, which is why the tug-of-war between the monarch and his subjects must be done openly.

If the emperor does not follow the rules and starts to mess around, the ministers below will not rebel directly, but will most likely want to mess things up. The consequence of ministers messing things up is that the country cannot function properly. A country that cannot function properly means that the building will collapse and be overthrown soon. Don't think that the emperor can do whatever he wants. Even the Qing emperors who played centralization to the extreme could not do whatever they want.

To put it bluntly, it was good enough for the emperor to be able to control the capital. In fact, in the capital, which was known as the best place, people still froze to death every year and crimes happened every day.

However, the vast majority of emperors didn't care!
It is undoubtedly foolish to pin the hope of changing the country on imperial power. The fact that Emperor Chenghui has the idea of ​​reform does not mean that Jia Lian completely relies on him.

Judging from the financial situation alone, there was a hint of revival during the Chenghui period, but in fact many problems were hidden behind it.

Now Emperor Chenghui's attention is drawn to the tug-of-war between the monarch and his subjects. He must ease the internal friction as soon as possible. Yes, he must ease it, because it cannot be resolved. When the internal friction is not obvious, the country often develops rapidly and well, covering up the internal contradictions. When development stagnates and falls into stock competition, internal contradictions between various interest groups are bound to erupt. If there is not enough to share among the interest groups, how can there be any concern for the people at the bottom?

The Great Zhou also faced the problem of internal circulation. After more than a hundred years, all that should be divided had been divided, but the desires of each interest group were constantly expanding, and the boundaries of interests were repeatedly rubbed, BOOM.

Now is a buffer period after the explosion. The tug of war between the monarch and his subjects is essentially about how to divide the vacancies of interests. When the emperor and the young prince Zhongyi existed, as an interest group, they were very important to the entire court structure. Now is the time to share the benefits, and no one wants to give in.

Emperor Chenghui's advantage is that he can overturn the table by taking advantage of the aftermath of the rebellion, but he dare not go too far. At most, he can use it to scare people, but he dare not really do it.

Throughout history, Zhu Yuanzhang was the only emperor who dared to kill your entire family if he said so. He was the most special one, even Liu Bang could not compare to him.

Emperor Chenghui was in high spirits, pointing to the list on the table: "Look, the new candidates have been selected, who do you think is suitable?"

Jia Lian was so frightened that he knelt down and said, "Your Majesty, if you want to kill me, all you need is three feet of white silk!"

Emperor Chenghui laughed loudly when he saw this, and stepped forward and gave him a light kick: "Get up, you are so big, three feet of white silk is not enough, at least ten feet. Look, I am going to circle one at random."

"In that case, I dare to say so!" Jia Lian stood up, picked up the resumes of the candidates on the table, and quickly read through them. Five of the candidates, three governors and two vice ministers, all had relevant work experience and were officials who had risen from the grassroots. The only shortcoming was naturally insufficient qualifications. It was fine if they had not been ministers, let alone governors.

After reading it, Jia Lian said, "If the Qinling Mountains and the Huai River are used as the boundary to divide the north and the south, considering the future balance of the cabinet between the north and the south, I suggest choosing a northerner."

Emperor Chenghui nodded with great satisfaction: "I think so too, so none of these five people are suitable. According to your suggestion, among those who are Jinshi graduates, started from the grassroots, have experience in the Ministry of Revenue, and have good political performance, only Ning Ke, the governor of Shanxi, is qualified. Unfortunately, he is not on the list. Moreover, in last year's Beijing inspection, his political performance was average. There is a memorial he submitted at the beginning of last year on the table, take a look."

The memorial was placed at the top right corner and was visible at a glance. Jia Lian picked it up and started reading. Qiu Shian came in with a teacup and didn't notice it.

The content of the memorial pointed out the various problems and chaos that had arisen in the operation of Shanxi United Bank among the people. It pointed out that the four major families in Taiyuan and various parts of Shanxi all had the problem of one or two families controlling the local economy. From the perspective of tax collection, being an official was really easy, but from the perspective of doing things, officials had to get the approval of local gentry to do something, otherwise it was often difficult to implement. The so-called United Bank was funded by thirteen money houses, which basically monopolized the people's livelihood economy in various parts of Shanxi by taking advantage of the bank.

Finally, Ning Ke shouted loudly that Shanxi is no longer the Shanxi of the imperial court!
After reading it, Jia Lian made a pointed remark: "The Shandong clans have reappeared after changing their appearance!"

Wang Wei has a poem, Remembering My Brothers in Shandong on the Ninth Day of the Ninth Month, which is about missing my family all the more during every festive occasion. The Shandong here is not the present Shandong province, but the area east of Taihang Mountains.

Emperor Chenghui had read history books, so he certainly knew the yin and yang behind Jia Lian's words. After all, Shanxi was a place with a long history. There were Wang's family in Taiyuan, Pei's family in Wenxi, Liu's family in Hedong, and so on.

If it weren't for the fact that the bones of the nobles were trampled on the streets, and the military leaders of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms took turns wielding their swords to kill the civil officials like chickens, the imperial examination system of the Song Dynasty would not have been so easy.

It is said that the Northern Song Dynasty overcorrected, which led to the country's military weakness. Objectively speaking, the Song Dynasty made great contributions to the improvement and maturity of the imperial examination system. However, no one expected that Zhu Yuanzhang would directly set up an imperial examination system based on eight-part essays under the framework of the Four Books and Five Classics in order to reduce the difficulty. Even so, Zhu Yuanzhang was still not satisfied and thought that "Mencius" was not "correct" enough, so he made an abridged version.

Therefore, the imperial examination system started by Zhu Yuanzhang was never a talent training mechanism. It was a screening mechanism. Through the largest screening mechanism, a group of people with the highest IQ were selected, and then these people were asked to learn how to be officials, and then in the process of being officials, they learned how to govern the country. Does it seem reasonable? In fact, the best stage of life learning is to study the Four Books and Five Classics. Such people, no matter how high their IQ is, start much later. Even such a crude selection mechanism is still the most advanced system in the world at the same time.

Passing an exam to qualify as a civil servant was a thing that was overwhelmingly popular in Europe at the time.

When Jia Lian mentioned the so-called Shandong clan at this time, Emperor Chenghui felt a sense of joy at the harmonious relationship between the monarch and his subjects, and my worries were known to everyone.

It's no wonder Jia Lian said that.
"We can only put Shanxi's problems aside for now." Jia Lian once again expressed what Emperor Chenghui was thinking. Similar situations were too common. For the emperor, it was really nothing. First, we should sort out the problems in the capital, and then deal with them one by one. Didn't you see what Sun Huazhen did in Liangjiang? No matter how powerful the gentry is, they have to kneel down before me when a knife is placed on their necks.

It can only be said that Emperor Chenghui was unprecedentedly confident after the New Year's Eve. From the capital to the local areas, the two most difficult areas were already taken care of, not to mention a mere Shanxi.

"Okay, that's it, someone come draft the decree." Emperor Chenghui called out, Qiu Shian came in to prepare writing, Jia Lian looked around, Emperor Chenghui stood in the hall with his hands behind his back, looking up at the gate, Qiu Shian prepared writing, and quietly stepped back. There's no one else, right?
Jia Lian sighed helplessly, sat down at the small table beside him, picked up his pen and dipped it in ink, getting ready.

"Ning Ke, the governor of Shanxi, is loyal to the country and has outstanding political achievements..." Following the dictation of Emperor Chenghui, Jia Lian wrote down the words and blew the ink dry after putting down the pen. Qiu Shian hurried over to take it. Emperor Chenghui said, "Send it to the cabinet!" Qiu Shian hurried out. It can only be said that this wave of tug-of-war between the emperor and his ministers caught the cabinet off guard. Who didn't say at the time that they had to choose people from the cabinet's recommendations?
After Kong Zhao saw the unstamped draft, he closed his eyes silently and leaned back, leaning against the back of his chair for a while before speaking: "Go and invite all the ministers to gather here."

As the cabinet ministers came in one after another, they all looked gloomy when they saw the draft on the table.

Seeing this, Kong Zhao said, "If there is no objection, copy it and submit it for seal." This can be regarded as a tacit understanding between the monarch and his subjects. Emperor Chenghui showed everyone a draft, and it can be rejected.

But this situation also depends on the time and whether the emperor in power is strong. There is no doubt that Emperor Chenghui is in the strongest stage, especially since he has not violated the rules.

One good thing about this system is that it is no longer a personal opinion of the emperor, but a collective decision made with the input of the cabinet.

If there is any dissatisfaction in the imperial edict, the emperor and the cabinet will be scolded together. "Wait a minute, this handwriting looks very familiar, it's not your majesty's handwriting." Guo Yan, a fence-sitter, still has a sharp eye.

"Damn it! It must have been his idea." When the door was closed, Liang Daoyuan had nothing to do with Ruoya.

Kong Zhao coughed twice and said, "Be self-disciplined, be self-disciplined!" This reminder was very awkward. Liang Daoyuan certainly knew that Kong Zhao was Ning Ke's teacher twice, for both the provincial and metropolitan examinations.

In fact, Kong Zhao was also quite wronged. As his master, he did not have a good relationship with Ning Ke and they had little contact.

But others don’t think so!
"Your Majesty's selection is interesting." Li Chi said calmly, and Pan Jixun followed up: "The previous list was all southerners, right?"

"Master Pan, please don't talk nonsense. Are people from Jiangbei also considered southerners?" Li Chi, a Fujian guy, spoke very rudely.

Liang Daoyuan also agreed: "Yes, the Lord Gong on the list is from Suqian, so he is not considered a southerner."

Kong Zhao couldn't stand it any longer: "We are all working for the country, so why should we distinguish between north and south?"

"Okay, stop arguing. The Jia family's ancestral home is Jinling!"

"Lin Ruhai's ancestral home is in Suzhou. Didn't you see him sending pickles to Lord Sun?"

Seeing that the argument was about to break out again, Kong Zhao slammed the table angrily and said, "If you have no objection, just go back to work! It's annoying just watching!" He didn't have the courage to reject His Majesty's draft, and he got really excited about the argument.

After going out, Liang Daoyuan and Li Chi walked together. After entering Liang Daoyuan's office, Li Chi said, "Prime Minister Kong intends to retire."

Liang Daoyuan nodded: "I see. In my opinion, it's rare to find a Prime Minister who is so soft-hearted and good at smoothing things over. Your Majesty will not let him go easily."

"People like Li Dongyang all had a good end!" Li Chi seemed to be praising them, but in fact he was belittling them.

"Brother Li, you will know from now on that being a peacemaker is a must-have skill for cabinet ministers. It's hard to please everyone, so how can you add fuel to the fire if you don't try to be a peacemaker?"

Li Chi hesitated for a moment and said, "That's right. If a fight really breaks out, the cabinet will be the ones to be punished. But in my opinion, if I get punished, my lower body won't be any better off."

Liang Daoyuan twirled his beard and pondered: "That makes sense. Being too soft is not good, but I can't learn Fang Xiang's tricks."

Fang Baiyi's problem is actually very simple. He has too much power but still doesn't know how to restrain it. It's not that he doesn't know, but that he can't do it, or he doesn't want to, and thinks he can control the situation. In reality, under the pattern of the emperor's unlimited power, as long as there is a little push, the prime minister will voluntarily resign.

Others may not know, but Kong Zhao and Liang Daoyuan saw it clearly.

Guo Yan and Pan Jixun walked along the road. Guo Yan couldn't wait to whisper, "This is just the appetizer, wait."

Pan Jixun nodded: "Your Majesty is in high spirits and cannot be resisted!"

After the draft was copied, the chief minister of the cabinet used the seal and presented it to the emperor. Emperor Chenghui looked at Jia Lian and laughed, "Here it comes!" Then he took out the jade seal and said with a clang, "After Ning Ke takes office, it will be natural to expand the cabinet on the grounds that the Minister of Revenue is too important."

Jia Lian's very simple move: "Your Majesty is wise! I am far from being able to compare with you!"

Emperor Chenghui waved his hand and said, "Don't be modest. You are a loyal minister who understands me and can share my worries."

Jia Lian was really flattered to be praised in person, and didn't know how to respond for a moment.

Emperor Chenghui looked at him with great satisfaction, unable to speak, and thought to himself: You are still young! Too easily excited! After another two years of training, you can become a third-rank official and govern a province.

In fact, Emperor Chenghui was very bold and willful in promoting and appointing his ministers. In order to promote Jia Lian to the fourth rank, he created a position when there was no suitable position.

The main reason here is that Jia Lian showed no attachment to military power. The Shenjiying was the fighting force he had brought up, but he wanted to divide it up. The same was true for his relative Wang Ziteng. He went to Guangdong and Guangxi and refused to accept the instigation of other nobles. He stayed in the capital and made things difficult for the emperor.

"Your Majesty, I plan to focus on the R&D department in the near future. If there are any shortcomings in my other part-time jobs, please forgive me."

This request was not excessive at all, but Emperor Chenghui was still curious and asked, "What new tricks have you come up with? Be careful not to be accused of being obsessed with tricks and sleight of hand."

"Without those tricks, how can the army of Great Zhou be invincible? How can the Great Zhou dynasty last for thousands of years? I don't care about these people." Jia Lian took the opportunity to express his loyalty.

Emperor Chenghui nodded contentedly: "Well, I understand."

(End of this chapter)