Eagle-eyed and wolf-watching

Chapter 1529 Untitled
Although Gu Sansi rejected Li Zhijian, his expression looked quite regretful. After all, Li Zhijian was an old subordinate who had worked with him for many years. Gu Sansi admired his abilities very much and understood how strong Li Zhijian's desire to improve was. So at this moment, the Minister of Personnel was also a little sighing.

Feeling Gu Sansi's melancholy, Chen Wanting pondered for a moment and then asked tentatively:
"The position of the Minister of Personnel is of utmost importance. Think twice before you choose a suitable candidate!"

Gu Sansi nodded slightly, then subconsciously asked:
"Wanting, do you have any recommendations?"

As soon as these words were spoken, Chen Wanting's heart moved, and she immediately wanted to blurt out a name, but feeling Gu Sansi's gaze, Chen Wanting still restrained the impulse in her heart. As Gu Sansi's bedside person, she knew very well that Gu Sansi was still a very sensitive person, so this name must not come out of her mouth!

Thinking of this, Chen Wanting shook her head and said, facing Gu Sansi's gaze:

"I don't know much about what's going on in your court. Sansi, you are the Minister of Personnel, so you have to make the decision on this matter!"

After saying this, Gu Sansi was a little hesitant, but still spoke:
"According to your majesty's request, the general list consists of three to five candidates. This time I have prepared three candidates. One is Li Zhijian, the other is Xuan Yifeng, the censor of the Metropolitan Censorate, and the third is Wang Shande, the prefect of Licheng..."

"These three people are all qualified and capable. In my opinion, they are all qualified candidates for the position of Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel!"

After hearing the three names given by Gu Sansi, Chen Wanting immediately realized that Gu Sansi was really planning to help Li Zhijian take the position.

The names Xuan Yifeng and Wang Shande are not unfamiliar names. Xuan Yifeng is a well-known censor in the Censorate. He has always been known for his fearlessness of power and incorruptibility. The number of officials impeached by him in the court could hardly be counted on one hand. Moreover, he is also one of the few censors in the Censorate who dared to impeach members of the royal family!
In addition, he was a thorn in the side of the Coordination Office. In previous clashes between the Censorate and the Coordination Office, this Censor Xuan was always the vanguard. He once scolded Wang Xuecheng, the former director of the Coordination Office, and made Wang Xuecheng look miserable!

Xuan Yifeng's personal morality is definitely clean and flawless, otherwise with Wang Xuecheng's vindictive character, he would definitely dig up some dirt on Xuan Yifeng to get him, and Xuan Yifeng would not be safe and sound until now.

However, Xuan Yifeng also had his problems. First of all, it could be seen from his surname that he had some Gongdu bloodline, but this was not a big problem. The real problem was that Xuan Yifeng had always been a minor official in Liaoyang. When His Majesty was rectifying the administration of Liaoyang, a group of people were arrested and many positions became vacant. As a result, Xuan Yifeng was able to get promoted and became a county magistrate!
However, Xuan Yifeng had only been in the position of county magistrate for more than a year, but because of his poor performance in farming, public security, commercial development, helping with conscription, taxation and other aspects, he was at the bottom of Liaoyang in all aspects, and was therefore questioned by His Majesty...

It is said that His Majesty thought that Xuan Yifeng's poor performance was due to corruption, so His Majesty arranged for the Coordination Office to investigate. However, who would have thought that Xuan Yifeng was clean and had never confiscated a single tael of silver other than his salary. The reason for his poor performance was that he was not good at economics. His Majesty was also very surprised when he learned about it, so he arranged for Xuan Yifeng to be the censor.

Although he handed in an unsatisfactory answer sheet as a county magistrate, after becoming an imperial censor, Xuan Yifeng's character of speaking out and making direct criticisms was fully demonstrated, and he became a relatively well-known imperial censor in the Censorate!
The Licheng prefect Wang Shande is also a very good candidate. During the past few years as the prefect of Licheng, he has managed Licheng in an orderly manner. Last year, Licheng paid more than 150,000 taels of silver in taxes, so everyone thinks that Wang Shande has a bright future!
Chen Wanting didn't know much about Wang Shande. She only knew that although Wang Shande was a native of Qi and Lu, he married his eldest son to a woman from the Cui family as his principal wife, which was a way of getting closer to Cui Shao and branding himself as a member of the Cui faction. However, he was at most a peripheral member of the Cui faction.

Although Xuan Yifeng and Wang Shande are both good and have made achievements in their respective fields and are qualified to be competitors for the position of Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, Chen Wanting feels that compared with Li Zhijian, they can only be runners-up!

Xuan Yifeng's resume has proved that he is only suitable to be a censor. In this position, he can exert his greatest ability. If you transfer him to the Ministry of Personnel to do personnel work, it will only harm both him and the Ministry of Personnel...

Xuan Yifeng's best choice is to see if he has the opportunity to become the Left Censor-in-Chief or the Right Censor-in-Chief in the future. These two positions are also very important, especially the Left Censor-in-Chief, which means he can directly enter the cabinet and become a Daqian cabinet elder, standing at the pinnacle of Daqian's ministers.
As for Wang Shande, he also has a big flaw. In the Daqian court dominated by the Liaoyang Gang, if you are from Qi and Lu, you will definitely be excluded or even targeted. After all, Licheng is an important town in the north. Not only is its political status important, but it also has a lot of benefits. If you use your brain in this position, it will be enough for several generations of your family to spend. Therefore, there are many people who are jealous of the position of Licheng prefect!
Therefore, Wang Shande married his eldest son to a woman from the Cui family and gave himself a label of the Cui faction. This was a correct move as it could help him reduce a lot of trouble, allowing him to secure his position as the prefect of Licheng and focus on the economy.

But everything has its pros and cons. Wang Shande's disadvantage is that the Cui faction is too powerful, so in the short term, Your Majesty will definitely suppress and restrict the Cui faction.

With the political stigma of the Cui faction, Wang Shande would definitely have no chance of becoming the Minister of Personnel, and he was also not young anymore, so it was impossible for him to enter the central government. His best choice was to see if he could rely on his achievements in economic development to seek the position of Governor of Qi and Lu and become a frontier official of Daqian!

Li Zhijian served as a county magistrate in Youyan for two years after the Fengwu Army entered the Pass. His grades were not outstanding, but he was among the best and had rich grassroots experience. Ye Mingsheng always advocated that the officials promoted by the court should have been trained at the grassroots level, so Li Zhijian had an advantage in this regard!
In addition, Li Zhijian started as a Yuanwailang in the Ministry of Revenue and was promoted to Langzhong. He is also very familiar with the various work contents of the Ministry of Personnel. When he becomes a Shilang, he can directly work seamlessly without the need for transition. So according to Your Majesty’s usual style, if Gu Sansi really hands over these three people, then Chen Wanting is almost certain that Li Zhijian will most likely be promoted...
Thinking of this, Chen Wanting was secretly glad that she had just had an idea and told him about Li Zhijian's bribery, otherwise she would probably have no chance!
Chen Wanting hesitated for a moment and said:
"Sir, I think the position of the Minister of Personnel is very important and must meet three requirements!"

After hearing this, Gu Sansi also became interested and asked:
"Wanting, are those three requirements you are talking about?"

Chen Wanting said with a serious face:

"First, there are too many people in the court who want to win over the Minister of Personnel. Therefore, the person who serves as the Minister of Personnel must have a strong will, otherwise he will not be able to face so many temptations!"

"Wanting, you make sense!"

"Secondly, he must be capable and have a good resume. It would be best if he had made achievements at the grassroots level. This is what His Majesty values ​​most. With such a resume, it will be easy for him to stand out!"

"That's right! Your Majesty does attach great importance to this!"

"Third, he cannot be from Liaoyang, and cannot have any connection with the Liaoyang Gang!"

After Chen Wanting finished speaking, Gu Sansi said with some confusion:

"Wanting, what do you mean? What's wrong with people from Liaoyang? The Daqian world was conquered by us people from Liaoyang..."

Chen Wanting explained:

"Think twice, I'm not saying you Liaoyang people are bad!"

"But don't you think there are too many people from Liaoyang in your court?"

"You Liaoyang people occupy most of the positions in the court! This is not a good thing for the world!" "Sansi, you are from Liaoyang, the Minister of Revenue Cui Shao is from Liaoyang, the Minister of Dali Temple Zhu Xiaowen is from Liaoyang, the Left Censor-in-Chief Wang Huaiyi is from Liaoyang, and although the Minister of Justice Liu Ning is from Youyan, he has been an official in Liaoyang for more than ten years, so he can be considered half a member of your Liaoyang Gang!"

"Among the five ministers, only Minister of Works Chen Fu and Minister of Rites Su Yi have no connection with the Liaoyang Gang. But everyone knows that Chen Fu is just a worker and has no say in the cabinet. In my opinion, the Daqian Cabinet might as well be renamed the Liaoyang Pavilion!"

"And below you, the assistant ministers, doctors, deputy ministers, and even the lowest-level clerks, you Liaoyang people also occupy most of the positions!"

"Many positions of provincial governors and provincial judges are occupied by people from Liaoyang, such as Ma Runchuan, Qi Dechao, Zhang Zhiwen, etc."

"Although this world was conquered by you Liaoyang people, but you occupy so many positions, you are really too powerful!"

When Gu Sansi heard this, he immediately understood Chen Wanting's thoughts and fell into silence.

Seeing this, Chen Wanting also held Gu Sansi's hand and said very sincerely and solemnly:

"Although Your Majesty is also from Liaoyang, I believe Your Majesty would definitely like to see someone who is not from Liaoyang and has no connection with the Liaoyang Gang become the Minister of Personnel!"

"Your Majesty has always said that the world belongs to everyone in the world. From this point of view, it is abnormal for people from Liaoyang to occupy so many positions. This needs to be changed..."

Hearing Chen Wanting say this, Gu Sansi nodded with a complicated expression and said:
"Wanting, you are right! We Liaoyang people do occupy too many positions!"

After Gu Sansi pondered for a moment, he raised his head and said:

"Wanting, what do you think of Youyan Deputy Governor Zhang Yilin?"

"Zhang Yilin is from Youyan and was a Jinshi of the previous Zhou Dynasty. He had been a county magistrate in Qilu before. He had experience at the grassroots level and did a good job in agricultural production and economic development. That's why he was transferred to the central government and then served as the prefect of Yuyang. He also did a good job in the trade with Luobei, so he was promoted to the deputy governor of Youyan to assist Zhang Zhiwen!"

"But it is said that Zhang Yilin and Zhang Zhiwen had some disagreements at work and there was some unpleasantness!"

At this moment, when Chen Wanting really heard that name from her husband, she was immediately overjoyed. However, in front of Gu Sansi, she also tried her best to suppress her inner joy and pretended to be a little surprised and asked:
"Think carefully, are you talking about Zhang Yilin?"

"Yes! That's him! Wanting, do you know him?"

Chen Wanting nodded slightly and said:

"My father and Zhang Yilin's father were colleagues in the government, and our two families lived relatively close to each other, so we are very familiar with each other!"

Now it was Gu Sansi's turn to ask with some surprise?

"Wanting, do you still have this kind of relationship with him?"

"Then Wan Ting, what do you know about Zhang Yilin?"

Chen Wanting hesitated for a moment before slowly saying:
“Because Zhang Yilin’s father only had the title of a scholar, his official career development was not very good. The highest position he could reach was only a county magistrate. His father felt very sorry about this, so he placed all his hopes on Zhang Yilin, hoping that Zhang Yilin would be able to pass the imperial examination, be conferred a title of nobility, and become a prime minister…”

"So when I was a kid playing with the kids from the neighborhood, Zhang Yilin was always studying, and his dad was watching him study every day!"

"Zhang Yilin himself was also very talented, so he passed the imperial examination and stayed in the Hanlin Academy for a while. At that time, his teacher Xu Xian was appointed as the governor of Qi and Lu, and Zhang Yilin followed him. He must have thought that by following his teacher, he would have a good future in Qi and Lu!"

"Who would have thought that his teacher Xu Xian died of illness in Qilu less than a year after he was in office? As a result, he was also excluded by the local officials in Qilu and was driven out of the provincial government to serve as a county magistrate!"

"In my opinion, Zhang Yilin is a gentleman. He not only has a good style, but also has strong abilities!"

Gu Sansi nodded slightly when he heard this and said:
"Zhang Yilin is indeed quite capable. He is the best at the trade with the Luobei people in Yuyang, and can bring at least 10,000 taels of silver in taxes to the court every year!"

After saying this, Gu Sansi also made up his mind and said:

"Wanting, since you think so highly of Zhang Yilin, I have decided to put him on the list and present it to His Majesty!"

Chen Wanting was very happy when she heard this, but in order to prevent Gu Sansi from getting suspicious, she also said:
"Think carefully, I haven't seen Zhang Yilin for a long time, so what I know about him is mostly about his childhood. If you want to recommend him, you must get to know him well. Recommending an assistant minister of the Ministry of Personnel is no small matter, and you can't be careless..."