My Portable Ming Dynasty

Chapter 36 Who agrees? Who objects?
Shen Shixing and Shen Yikuan both looked at Su Ze.

Su Ze said:

"The Gelugpa sect has three major monasteries and two tribute envoys."

Shen Shixing had a relatively high level of political awareness, and he immediately said:
"Yes, Brother Zilin, two peaches kill three warriors, what a brilliant strategy!"

When Shen Yikuan heard Shen Shixing say "Two peaches kill three warriors", he immediately clapped his hands and cheered.

Only Luo Wanhua didn't understand and looked at the other three in confusion.

Shen Yiguan quickly said:
"The Gelugpa sect has three main monasteries, and the successor has always been rotated between these three monasteries. However, this time, the tribute delegation is only from Ganden Monastery and Drepung Monastery. This means that if they accept the Golden Urn method, these two monasteries will draw the lot in the future."

Shen Shixing said again:

"And with the lottery method, everyone feels they have a chance of winning. Even if they don't win, there's nothing to complain about. You can only blame it on bad luck."

"Brother Zilin, what a great idea!"

Su Ze smiled slightly. Let alone the King of France, in the future our Ming Dynasty will also use the method of drawing lots to select officials. Wouldn’t it also receive rave reviews?
When fairness cannot be guaranteed, drawing lots is the greatest fairness.
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As expected, when officials from the Ministry of Rites and the Department of Guests and Guests rushed to the Sifang Pavilion and told the two groups of U-Tsang tribute envoys the method of drawing lots from the golden urn, both sides accepted it immediately and requested the court to hold the golden urn drawing ceremony immediately so that the selected envoys could participate in the ceremony of enthroning the crown prince.

Even Wei Yongjing, the director of the Ministry of Rites, was dumbfounded. He had thought that the tribute envoys from U-Tsang would strongly oppose it, but he didn't expect them to be so supportive.

In order to solve the problem of the tribute envoy from U-Tsang and the succession of the Dharma King, the Ministry of Rites had been racking their brains these days, but Su Ze solved it by drawing lots?
Wei Yongjing could not help but ask the tribute envoy from Drepung Monastery:
"Master, don't you think this lottery method is too ridiculous?"

Unexpectedly, the great monk from Drepung Monastery said in fluent Chinese:
"The soul boy found by our temple must be the reincarnation of the Dharma King. How could it be that he didn't win by drawing lots? The fake soul boy of Ganden Monastery will be exposed on his own!"

The Wei official then remembered that the tribute envoys from U-Tsang were first a group of monks and only then tribute envoys. He had actually had to reason with a group of monks before, so he might as well leave it to God.

Wei Yongjing was filled with infinite admiration for Su Ze. Su Hanlin took action and wrote a memorial to the emperor, which resolved the dispute over tribute.

High, it is high!

Wei Yongjing immediately said:
"The Ministry of Works is already crafting the golden urn. Once it's finished, we'll invite you all to participate in the golden urn drawing ceremony."

"Thank you, my Lord!"

On the other hand, the tribute envoys from Ganden Monastery also expressed their gratitude to Wei Yongjing warmly.

After receiving the gratitude from the U-Tsang delegation, Wei Yongjing hurried back to the Ministry of Rites to report, and wrote a memorial to the emperor stating that the U-Tsang envoys had fully accepted the golden urn drawing method and expressed gratitude to the Celestial Empire for helping them resolve the dispute. The memorial was then delivered to the cabinet early the next morning.
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cabinet.

When Zhang Juzheng saw the mountains of memorials sent in from the six departments and thirteen offices, he smiled.

He was holding Wei Yongjing's memorial in his hand. In fact, he had already known the news yesterday that the tribute envoy from U-Tsang had accepted the golden urn method.

Gao Gong was in the same good mood as Zhang Juzheng.

The Golden Urn Method was approved by the emperor, the cabinet, and even the tribute envoys from U-Tsang. So who was opposing it?
Oh, it’s the censors who are objecting.

In the first year of the Longqing reign, Gao Gong was dismissed from office and forced to resign and return home by the censors Hu Yingjia and Ouyang Yijing.

Now Gao Gong has returned to the court, Hu Yingjia has been exiled to the Huguang Provincial Government, and Ouyang Yijing has resigned.

However, many of the censors who had joined the two in impeaching Gao Gong still remained in the Six Departments and Thirteen Provinces, many of whom were former students and officials of Xu Jie. This was a good opportunity, as it further proved that these censors were useless, not only unable to propose useful national policies, but also attacking those who actually worked on practical matters.

Su Ze's memorial this time not only solved the problem of U-Tsang's dispute over tribute, but also gave Gao Gong an excuse to clean up the Ministry of Rites.

Gao Gong was in charge of the Ministry of Personnel. As long as he could get the emperor's support, it would be very easy for him to demote a few censors.

Faced with two stacks of memorials, one thick and one thin, Zhao Zhenji remained silent.

As the Minister of Rites, Su Ze helped him solve a big problem.

As a cabinet minister, he also hated the censors from outside the court who hindered him.

The resolution of the tribute issue from U-Tsang was the credit of the Chancellery and the Ministry of Rites under his management, and it also boosted the morale of the cabinet.

But why do I feel so depressed?

Zhao Zhenji was very conflicted.

Li Chunfang, Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng had all voted on Wei Yongjing's memorial.

This time, the Prime Minister Li Chunfang also took action. The opinions of the three cabinet ministers were surprisingly consistent. They all urged the Ministry of Works to speed up the creation of the golden urn and the Ministry of Rites to formulate a complete golden urn drawing system to solve the problem of succession to the U-Tsang Dharma King.

Zhao Zhenji sighed slightly. He could only pick up the peeling paper and agree with the opinions of the three people before him.

Wei Yongjing’s memorial is easy to deal with, but what about the impeachment memorial from the Kedao?
Zhao Zhenji stroked his beard, coughed and said:
"The dispute over the tribute from U-Tsang is now over. We no longer need to draft the memorials of these censors and officials. We can send them directly to the Imperial Household Department and not disturb His Majesty."

Emperor Longqing trusted the Imperial Household Department and the Cabinet, so they formed a political tacit understanding. Unless the Cabinet specifically requested for imperial review, for minor matters on which the Cabinet could reach a consensus, the Imperial Household Department would directly approve and seal the matter according to the Cabinet's wishes and would not send it to the Emperor's desk.

Zhao Zhenji's intention was naturally to protect those censors who submitted memorials.

But Gao Gong stood up and said:

"These censors and petty officials constantly attack ministers and interfere in state affairs! When there's something they really need to offer advice on, they can't come up with any useful solutions to state affairs, and instead attack Su Zilin, who solved the problem!"

"How despicable! Gao requests that Your Majesty severely punish these censors!"

Gao Gong played the good guy, while Zhang Juzheng stood up and played the bad guy.

"Gao Ge Lao, please calm down. The Six Departments and Thirteen Offices were established by Taizu. The censors submitted memorials to ensure that the channels for speech were unimpeded. Punishing people for their speech hurts the hearts of scholars all over the world. If Su Ze did the right thing, then reward him. If the Six Departments and Thirteen Offices did something wrong, then reprimand him. There is no need to call for punishment or killing."

Zhao Zhenji's face turned pale. The two of them sang in unison, seemingly competing in a duet, but in fact they were performing a double act.

The cabinet ministers had different opinions, and Li Fang, the cautious eunuch in charge of the Imperial Household Department, would definitely send all of them to the emperor's desk without missing a single one.

At that time, when Emperor Longqing saw the memorials from Wei Yongjing and the censors, he must have been dissatisfied with the Kedao system.

If the emperor does not trust you when you submit memorials to the Ministry of Justice to make suggestions and accusations, the power of your memorials will be greatly reduced.

Even if the emperor did not punish these officials, it would greatly affect the prestige of the six departments and thirteen provinces.

But Zhao Zhenji looked at the Prime Minister Li Chunfang who was writing something. He really couldn't understand why the cabinet had become like this just one month after Lord Xu left office?
(End of this chapter)