My Portable Ming Dynasty

Chapter 33: The Fifth Commentary, Drawing Lots from the Golden Urn
July 1st, the day for system refresh.

Su Ze took out the memorial he had prepared last month and stuffed it into the portable Ming Dynasty court.

"Petition to establish the Golden Urn Drawing System to succeed Dharma King Qingyuan."

The content of this memorial is actually not complicated. It is about using the method of drawing lots from the golden urn to decide the successor Dharma King after the death of the U-Tsang Dharma King.

The Golden Urn Lottery is to cast a golden urn, write the reincarnated child found by each party on a piece of paper, throw it into the golden urn, and then draw lots from it!

Deciding the next King of France by drawing lots naturally sounds a bit absurd.

But in fact, the focus of this system is not the process of deciding the Dalai Lama, but the process of drawing lots.

According to Su Ze's memorial, the Golden Urn Drawing Ceremony must be held in the capital, which means that every time the previous Dharma King dies, all parties in U-Tsang must gather in the capital to participate in the Golden Urn Drawing Ceremony.

In addition, Su Ze also proposed in his memorial to send a senior official as a minister to Tibet to mediate disputes within U-Tsang.

——[Simulation Start]——

A day later, the "Petition to Establish a Golden Urn to Draw Lots to Successor the Dharma King Qingyuan" was submitted to the Cabinet. Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng voted in favor of it and the petition was sent to the palace.

Two days later, the "Petition to Establish a Golden Urn to Successor the Dharma King Qingyuan" was kept by the emperor and not sent out.

——[Simulation End]——

Sure enough, the cabinet passed it, but the emperor hesitated.

This system seemed a little too advanced, and Emperor Longqing was unable to accept it for a while.

However, Su Ze estimated that given Emperor Longqing's political level, he could not see the benefits of the golden urn drawing system.

The Golden Urn Lots seemed to have added a lot-drawing process, but in fact it gave the Ming court the final right to confirm the succession of the Dharma King.

Sending a minister to Tibet was a way to strengthen control over Tibet and allow the Ming court to further interfere in Tibetan affairs.

As reformist politicians, Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng naturally agreed with Su Ze's memorial.

This system was not originally created by Su Ze. The Qing Dynasty later used this system to control Tibet, and this system even continued until before Su Ze traveled through time.

But it doesn’t matter, Su Ze is also a systematic person.

[Do you want to spend 50 prestige points to ensure that the "Petition to Establish the Golden Urn Drawing to Succession the Dharma King Qingyuan" is carried out?]

50 points, there was indeed considerable resistance, but Su Ze looked at his accumulated prestige and decisively chose "yes".

Immediately afterwards, Su Ze called the clerk and had the official from the Ministry of Public Administration send it to the cabinet.
-
cabinet.

In order to prepare for the ceremony of enthroning the crown prince, Zhang Juzheng and Zhao Zhenji had been talking themselves hoarse in the cabinet these days.

What you thought was a high-end political struggle was actually a conspiracy.

In reality, it was a high-level political struggle, with the cabinet ministers arguing at the top of their lungs.

Zhang Juzheng and Zhao Zhenji were both top test-takers in high school. Zhao Zhenji was a master of the School of Mind, and Zhang Juzheng was also well-versed in Confucian classics.

They were all famous officials who were well-versed in the classics and regulations, so when they argued, they would naturally quote from the classics, which was quite lively.

Gao Gong sat down in his seat and took the tea handed to him by the clerk.

Gao Gong was from Xinzheng, Henan. Emperor Longqing specially selected Xinyang tea, also from Henan, from the royal tribute tea and gave it to the cabinet.

This small incident is enough to show Longqing's respect for Gao Gong.

Gao Gong is in a good mood these days.

After Zhao Zhenji's promotion, he no longer held back and ruthlessly cleaned out the remnants of Xu's faction in the Ministry of Personnel, expelling them from important departments and firmly controlling the Ministry. After Li Chunfang joined the cabinet, he remained silent and only engaged in lectures, which made Gao Gong despise him. The court and the public began to call this Prime Minister the "Qingci Prime Minister", referring to his ability to write Qingci, which was the reason he was promoted by the previous Emperor Jiajing.

Only Zhao Zhenji is left, but now Zhang Juzheng is also blocking him.

Gao Gong discovered that Zhang Juzheng, who had once followed Xu Jie closely, had an unexpectedly strong understanding with him on specific government affairs, and they could agree on many things.

I'm afraid Xu Jie, who was preparing to retire a month ago, didn't expect that the four-on-one situation he envisioned would become one-on-two in just one month.

"Are there any important memorials today?"

Gao Gong took a sip of tea and asked the assistant clerk beside him.

"There's a copy sent by the National History Museum, sent by Su Zanshan from the Ministry of Household Affairs."

The assistant officials in the cabinet were all smart people. They naturally knew what their leader was thinking and knew that Su Ze was Gao Gong's favorite.

Su Ze’s memorial?
Gao Gong became interested and asked:

"Where is the memorial?"

"With Elder Zhao."

Gao Gong frowned. Su Ze was nominally an official of the Zhanshi Mansion, which meant he was Zhao Zhenji's subordinate. It would be no problem for the Tongzhengsi to give it to him for review first.

Will Zhao Zhenji suppress Su Ze and vote for unfavorable opinions?

The cabinet drafts the memorial, and every cabinet minister can vote on his opinion. Of course, the cabinet bosses generally have their own division of labor, and it is impossible for them to vote on every memorial. Generally speaking, as long as one or two cabinet ministers vote on it, it can be sent to the palace.

At this time, the cabinet had no intention of refuting Su Zeshang's memorial, which meant that it was impossible for Zhao Zhenji to withhold it.

Although they cannot be withheld, there is a difference in the order in which the tickets are drafted.

Generally speaking, the emperor's ability to handle government affairs was limited, so he needed to draft the memorials. The cabinet would summarize the contents of the memorials and form opinions on how to deal with them.

But with so many memorials every day, it would be very tiring for the emperor even to read the drafts.

Those memorials on which every cabinet minister has voted on opinions are even more difficult to read.

The first draft opinion often determines the emperor's intention. Ming Dynasty ministers did not understand psychology, but they understood human nature.

If Zhao Zhenji was the first to write an opinion that was unfavorable to Su Ze, the emperor might be led by his opinion and disagree with Su Ze's memorial.

Gao Gong stood up and prepared to take the memorial from Zhao Zhenji and draft it himself.

At this moment, Zhang Juzheng came to Zhao Zhenji's seat and said:
"Lord Zhao, have you finished reading Su Ze's memorial?"

Zhao Zhenji glanced at Zhang Juzheng, lowered his eyes and said:
"This boy Su Ze has made irresponsible remarks about state affairs, even proposing such an absurd method, treating the succession to the throne of the Dharma King as a joke. I have already drafted a bill, Your Majesty, and ask you to punish him. Why? Do you even want to read a memorial like this from Lord Zhang?"

Strictly speaking, Zhao Zhenji was not a non-stick pan. On the contrary, he had a very hot temper and often confronted Yan Song directly during the Jiajing period.

Zhang Juzheng frowned and said:
"I think Su Ze's method is very clever. Since Lord Zhao has already drafted it, can you give me the memorial?"

If he were the prime minister of the previous dynasty, Zhao Zhenji would have wanted to reject Su Ze's memorial directly.

It’s a pity that the cabinet ministers of this dynasty do not have this power. He fought with Zhang Juzheng for a whole day yesterday. Zhao Zhenji is seventeen years older than Zhang Juzheng. Today, he really can’t argue anymore and can only reluctantly hand over the memorial to Zhang Juzheng.

Zhang Juzheng finished his draft with great speed and directly posted his own draft opinion in front of Zhao Zhenji's draft!

The minor official from the Ministry of Public Administration standing by felt his legs go weak. He wanted to remind Zhang Juzheng that this was against the rules, but he did not dare to speak.

Zhang Juzheng took the memorial and asked Li Chunfang if he wanted to see it. The prime minister naturally shook his head. Zhang Juzheng came to Gao Gong and said:
"Lord Gao, I think Su Zilin's memorial is feasible. Please take a look at it."

(End of this chapter)