Ming Dynasty: Domination of the World from the Imperial Examination

Chapter 324: Forming cliques for personal gain is correct for a certain period of time!

Zhu Biao’s eyes widened.

The whole person felt horrified after hearing this, and his eyes were full of disbelief and shock.

He really couldn't believe that this was something a subject could say?

His East Palace already has the most luxurious team in the world, and his status is unique in the long history. Even so, Xia Zhibai thinks that he is just a "puppet tool" and shamelessly asks himself to "open a government" again and create his own team.

Isn't this making me betray my father? !
When Xia Zhibai stopped talking, Zhu Biao could no longer suppress his anger and said angrily, "That's enough, Xia Zhibai. I have tolerated you for a long time. Don't think that you can tell me what to do just because you have some knowledge. It is not your turn to say what I should do or what I should do."

"The suggestions you made are really hurtful."

"As long as I want."

"I can wipe out all nine of your clans right now!"

"Let me open my own palace. How can the people in my Eastern Palace compare to those scholars from the outside world? Who among them can compare to my important officials in the Eastern Palace? Who can be more loyal to the Ming Dynasty, to His Majesty, and to me than them?!"

"What is even more incomprehensible is that you are actually clamoring for local factions to engage in self-interest."

"You know this is the most intolerable thing in the imperial court!"

"You are seeking death!"

Zhu Biao glared at him.

The anger in his eyes seemed to burn Xia Zhibai to death.

Facing Zhu Biao's anger, Xia Zhibai remained calm and unmoved, like a mountain that could not be shaken. He just shook his head quietly, as if expressing his disappointment and regret.

"You're still shaking your head. What excuse do you have for shaking your head?" Zhu Biao snorted coldly, his tone becoming even heavier.

Xia Zhibai raised his head, looked directly at Zhu Biao, and said slowly: "If I am not mistaken, Your Highness is not angry, but afraid."

"Since Your Highness wants to know why, I will tell You why."

"As for why I asked His Highness to open a mansion, His Highness actually knows it in his heart, so I won't say more."

"Just explain why we encourage 'forming cliques for personal gain'."

"I am not encouraging cliques and seeking personal gain. I even hate it. But things often don't happen overnight. My ambition is to achieve universal peace. But with the current state of the world, it is obviously unrealistic to achieve universal peace. And the road ahead will be long and tortuous."

“And some roads are destined to be taken.”

"There are no factions in the court, and there are all kinds of strange things."

"Wherever there are people, there will be struggles and cliques."

"It's meant to be."

"Whether it's the imperial court or the local government, they all have their own factions."

"In the past, the most obvious groups in the court were the East Zhejiang Group and the West Huai Group."

"Huaixi is headed by Li Shanchang, and the main personnel include Guo Xing, Guo Ying, Tang He, Zhou Dexing and others. Although these people seem to be low-key, they are actually very powerful and prestigious. Moreover, they rely on your majesty's confidants to unite and fight against dissidents."

"As for the Zhejiang East Group, it is headed by Liu Ji, and also includes Yang Xian, Gao Jianxian, Song Lian and others."

"These people mainly provided advice and suggestions in the early stage."

"In the past 20 to 30 years, the two sides seemed to be at peace, but in fact, they were seriously attacking each other privately. The Zhejiang East Group took advantage of the mistakes made by Li Bin, a close confidant of Li Shanchang, and then had Li Bin killed. Li Shanchang incited court officials to attack Liu Ji, forcing Liu Ji to resign and return home."

"Although Liu Ji stepped down, he secretly made plans to impeach Li Shanchang and then persuaded the current emperor. The Huaixi Group was completely suppressed."

"However, the Huaixi Group was very close to Your Majesty after all. Under the constant influence of Liu Ji, Your Majesty completely lost trust in Liu Ji. The final result was that Huaixi won a great victory, but it was also because of this that Huaixi began to split."

"Hu Weiyong appeared, who attempted to usurp power for personal gain." "The court has never been a monolithic entity, from the beginning to the end."

"And this may not be intentional on the part of your Majesty. If all the ministers are of one mind, then your Majesty will probably not be able to sleep well."

"It's just that your majesty was too ruthless in suppressing the Zhejiang East Group, so that Huaixi dominated for a period of time. Although Huaixi was partially cleared out by taking advantage of Hu Weiyong's incident, it did not hurt the foundation. This also led to the South having too much say in the court, and there were no voices of opposition, and even fewer people questioning it."

"The Ming Dynasty's court is actually a bit top-heavy today."

“And the Meritorious Group is so large that the entire southern power is dependent on them.”

"In time, the Southeast will protect each other, and the South will not be far from being at odds with the imperial court, because the South's interests are too aligned now."

“It’s so consistent that it’s a little chilling.”

"So allowing local cliques to exist may not be for the purpose of dividing local forces."

"Your Highness, do you think it would be more harmful if the entire South became united, or if only one governor formed a clique for personal gain, to break up the current political structure?

"My strategy is to choose the lesser of two evils."

"Indeed."

“This approach is not flattering.”

"It may even make people feel disgusted or even disgusted."

"But the reality is that you can't get rich overnight, nor can you reach the sky in one step. The only way is to keep your feet on the ground, take one step at a time, and move in the most advantageous direction. When the time is right, we will naturally catch all those who form cliques for personal gain."

“Just not right now.”

"It is far more beneficial to the court to let the localities secretly form factions than to let the South unite as one."

"And His Majesty has fallen into a misunderstanding."

"They thought that keeping court officials away from the local areas and not being influenced by them would make the government more honest. However, they did not know that it was precisely because they had no connection with the local areas that these officials were actually first-class officials. Their influence on the other side was minimal, and the local areas had every reason and ability to fool them."

"But if these officials have connections with the local government, then they will more or less have to do something."

"It has invisibly strengthened the power of the imperial court."

"Moreover, court officials will be replaced. When new officials come up and old officials go down, new interest groups will be formed, and conflicts and struggles will inevitably arise between the new and old. At that time, these local forces will have to look to the court for their favor and need to be checked and balanced by the court."

"If an official really has bad intentions and is discovered by the court, the court will also be able to settle the score later."

"After all, the path to promotion for these people is too obvious."

"We can catch them all in one net."

"By killing some, suppressing some, and winning over some, wouldn't that invisibly reshuffle the local forces? If the imperial court wants to always control the local areas, it must rely on constantly provoking conflicts and contradictions between local forces, letting them fight each other, and then letting the imperial court reap the benefits."

"As local governments inflict more internal friction, they naturally have no time to covet the central government."

"Therefore, the current official promotion system of the Ming Dynasty actually has certain problems. That is, a large number of officials in the court have not been sent to the local level and have no experience in local service. Their actual influence is too weak."

"If you want to strengthen the power of the central government, you must strengthen the power of court officials."

“At least the influence on local areas needs to be deepened.”

"Otherwise, it will become what people say: the county magistrate is an outsider, and the clerks are the local tyrants. The clerks are permanent, but the county magistrates are changing. The local clerks are never afraid of officials. As long as they don't want to be promoted, they are invincible under the protection of local forces."

"The purpose of delegating officials is to control these clerks."

"These people must be promoted, must be transferred, and must remain in awe of the court."

(End of this chapter)