My father is Jiajing

Chapter 479 The future has changed
Zhu Zaigui looked through the memorial written by Zhang Juzheng on expanding the jurisdiction of Shuntian Prefecture and the division of powers and responsibilities between the Shuntian Prefecture Governor and the Shuntian Governor, and a look of satisfaction appeared on his face.

"Mr. Zhang's memorial is well written, but there are some points that need further consideration. Tianjin Wei is different from ordinary prefectures and counties. Strictly speaking, Tianjin Wei should be considered a garrison."

"Mr. Zhang's proposal to turn Tianjin Wei into Tianjin County and absorb it into the future Dashun Tianfu is somewhat inappropriate. So regarding the proposal on Tianjin Wei, I think we should first resolve the positioning of Tianjin Wei, and then consider whether to absorb Tianjin Wei into Dashun Tianfu."

Zhang Juzheng listened carefully to Zhu Zaigui's suggestion. He looked at Zhu Zaigui with some confusion and replied, "Your Majesty, if Tianjin Wei is incorporated into the new Dashun Tianfu, then its position will be obvious, right?"

Zhu Zaigui waved his hand and said, "No, no, no, you don't understand what I mean. Tianjin Wei may not seem big, but it actually has a big impact. If it is absorbed into Dashuntianfu, then Shuntianfu's jurisdiction will occupy as much as half of Northern Zhili."

"It is absolutely impossible to manage such a large prefecture efficiently. We even need to set up two more local government offices slightly lower than Dashun Tianfu to handle local relations."

"In this way, the court will be no different from setting up a new provincial government. Therefore, I suggest that you change your mindset to deal with Tianjin Garrison. For example, you can transform part of Tianjin Garrison into a special zone, and the rest can be turned into a county, or you can continue to give priority to military functions according to the original garrison configuration."

"According to this line of thought, not only can the Dashuntianfu plan be passed more smoothly, but you can also more easily use the functions of the Shuntian governor to complete the management integration of Dashuntianfu and Tianjinwei and other places."

"As for what will happen in the future, it depends on how the future develops. After all, Shuntian Prefecture is the capital, and the establishment of the Shuntian Governor is also for the current coordinated development, not a long-term government office."

"So after the Shuntian Governor completes his mission in the future, your majesty and I will not allow a Shuntian Governor who controls the entire capital or even half of Northern Zhili to exist. Do you understand this?"

Zhu Zaigui's words suddenly woke Zhang Juzheng up. He only thought about the power he wanted to control, but ignored the most realistic security issue of division and rule between the central and local governments.

If he really submitted this memorial to the cabinet, the court and Emperor Jiajing for a decision, then given the weight of Zhu Zaigui's last sentence, not only would the matter fail to be accomplished, but he might also be suspected of having other intentions.

So at this moment Zhang Juzheng was also frightened and knelt on the ground immediately, "I am stupid. If it weren't for the prince's enlightenment, I would have made a big mistake!"

Zhu Zaigui smiled and closed Zhang Juzheng's memorial, then came over and helped Zhang Juzheng up by the arm, "Mr. Zhang is concerned about the country, and I understand that. But the officials in the court are not familiar with Mr. Zhang, and they don't understand Mr. Zhang's character, so sometimes when they think about things, they can't help but be cautious."

"As long as Mr. Zhang can understand this, he will be more cautious in the rest of the things. Otherwise, if Mr. Zhang is still so stubborn when encountering a big event in the future, it will be easy for him to be eager for quick success and go astray. Even if his intentions are good, the outcome will not be very good."

Zhu Zaigui also wanted to warn Zhang Juzheng. Since he let Zhang Juzheng serve as the head of the Beijing Special District in recent years, Zhu Zaigui discovered that Zhang Juzheng's other major flaw was that he liked to be arbitrary.

If this problem happened to a real superior, it would not be a serious problem.

After all, who among those who have accomplished great things in ancient and modern times is not like this?
But Zhang Juzheng was a minister, not a king.

There is nothing wrong with him being autocratic in a certain position, but if he really reaches a high position in the future and still does so, not only will he offend his colleagues and subordinates, but even the person above him will dislike him extremely.

If there is another accident, then all his efforts, whether right or wrong, will eventually be overturned without a single copy left.

In this case, Zhang Juzheng would only become a tragic figure in history.

But Zhu Zaigui now does not need Zhang Juzheng to do so. He only needs Zhang Juzheng to give full play to his strong administrative management capabilities and come up with some new ways of dealing with new things. This is what Zhu Zaigui needs.

As for what will happen in the future, we will have to wait until the future comes.

Therefore, Zhu Zaigui must not allow Zhang Juzheng to develop an autocratic personality that takes on too much at his current stage.

As for whether Zhang Juzheng can understand Zhu Zaigui’s painstaking efforts, it is actually not important. After all, what Zhu Zaigui is worried about is the future history, and these things are not something Zhang Juzheng can know.

Therefore, now Zhang Juzheng just needs to control his inflated heart.

"Thank you for your teachings, Your Majesty."

Zhang Juzheng bowed to Zhu Zaigui again.

Zhu Zaigui laughed again, "Mr. Zhang, how can you say that? You are the tutor selected by His Majesty to serve in the palace. You are the only one who can teach me. How can I teach you? Don't say such things in the future. Otherwise, if it gets out, outsiders will think that I am a bad student who refuses to obey the teacher's discipline."

Zhang Juzheng laughed when he heard Zhu Zaigui's joke. "Your Highness, you are too serious. As the ancients said, 'People learn the truth in different ways.' Your Highness can surpass us, and this is what we hope for. How could we spread bad things about you?"

Zhu Zaigui smiled and said, "Yes, Mr. Zhang, please sit down first. You still need to sort out this memorial. Once you have dealt with the minor issues just mentioned, there shouldn't be any problems. In addition, I have an important matter that I have asked you to come here for today, and I need your help."

Zhang Juzheng sat upright and said to Zhu Zaigui, "Please give your instructions, Your Majesty."

Zhu Zaigui said, "There have been a lot of things going on in the court recently, the biggest of which is Wu Peng's retirement and the court's recommendation of a new Minister of Personnel. I recently heard that only Lord Yan recommended a candidate, and Lord Xu has not made any move yet, which surprised me. Could it be that Lord Xu, the second assistant, is really a follower who follows Lord Yan closely?"

"If that is the case, I should also consider whether to advise Your Majesty to replace Lord Xu with a young and energetic minister who can provide advice and suggestions to Your Majesty. After all, the current cabinet is extremely old and has no new ideas. How can it be able to shoulder the current good situation of the Jiajing Restoration?"

Zhu Zaigui's words were quite ruthless. He directly criticized Xu Jie in front of Zhang Juzheng. This made Zhang Juzheng, who was Xu Jie's disciple, feel a little cold.

Zhang Juzheng said hurriedly, "Your Majesty, calm down. Lord Xu has no such intention! He is not a follower. He did not compete with Lord Yan just for the sake of the overall situation. That is why he did not recommend a new candidate for the Minister of Personnel."

Zhu Zaigui snorted and laughed, "Does the court need him to take care of the overall situation? Is the court's overall situation a one-person decision? The court has a cabinet, and multiple cabinet members work together. The purpose is to pool ideas and more efficiently assist the emperor in handling important affairs of the world."

"But if the elders in the cabinet always put the so-called overall situation first, do not speak up for good suggestions, do not recommend good candidates, and only think about the overall situation and not offending people, and think about getting through one day at a time, and think of the affairs of the court as the sophistication of human relations, and always want to be a good person who does not offend his superiors, then such a good person will offend people all over the world."

"So, I hope that if Mr. Zhang is free, he can tell Elder Xu what I said. Don't always think about being cautious and don't always think about your own little piece of land. If there are things he really can't do, I have people I can recommend to His Majesty to do the work."

Zhang Juzheng quickly replied, "I will definitely convey your instructions to you, Your Majesty."

Zhu Zaigui said, "Well, then you go talk to Lord Xu. I don't want to see only Lord Yan recommending a candidate for the imperial nomination after the new year. If there is only one candidate, is it necessary to go through the imperial nomination process?" "Your Majesty allowed you to choose the best from the best, not to let you treat the imperial nomination as a power test game. Do you understand?"

Zhang Juzheng was so frightened by Zhu Zaigui's words that he broke out in cold sweats. He had never heard such heart-piercing words from Zhu Zaigui. It was obvious that the current Prince Yu, or His Majesty the Emperor, was really dissatisfied with the current atmosphere in the court.

Zhang Juzheng said anxiously, "Your Majesty, we have no intention of testing your power! There must be a misunderstanding! Lord Xu just hasn't found a suitable candidate yet, and he is worried that the person he recommends will not satisfy Your Majesty, so he has not made any move yet. When I return, I will communicate with Lord Xu seriously and recommend a candidate for the court to recommend for the officials to choose from."

Zhu Zaigui looked at Zhang Juzheng who was so excited and couldn't help laughing again. This time, Zhu Zaigui laughed very easily. He said with a smile: "Mr. Zhang, don't be so nervous. Although this is the case, it doesn't have to be like this. Since Lord Xu hasn't made up his mind yet and hasn't thought of other outstanding candidates for the court, then I will step in and choose one for him. How about it?"

Zhang Juzheng quickly said, "Your Majesty, please speak."

Zhu Zaigui pondered for a moment, tapping his fingers rhythmically on the table and said, "How about Mr. Gao? His term as chairman of the Ming Federal Reserve will expire next year, and he will have to transfer to a new position. The Ministry of Personnel is a good government office, so you can let him try."

When Zhang Juzheng heard Zhu Zaigui mention Gao Gong, he was shocked. He never thought it would be Gao Gong, but after hearing Zhu Zaigui mention Gao Gong, he couldn't help but think calmly.

It seems that in the current Prince Yu's Mansion, only Gao Gong is in line with Zhu Zaigui's fundamental interests. Although others are also capable, they are still not qualified enough and have not as much experience as Gao Gong.

Therefore, it is reasonable for Prince Yu to push Gao Gong to be included in the court nomination list.

Seeing Zhang Juzheng's changing expression, Zhu Zaigui laughed again and said, "What do you think, Mr. Zhang? Mr. Gao should also be a good candidate, right? I'm afraid that he failed to get the unanimous approval of all officials this time, and he was just a runner-up, but at least this is an attitude. Otherwise, if there is not even an attitude, I really can't imagine whether His Majesty will really use Lord Xu as the chief minister after Lord Yan."

Zhu Zaigui seemed like a different person today. He was testing and speaking frankly everywhere. This made Zhang Juzheng feel not only frightened but also filled with an unprecedented fear.

And this fear was not fear of Zhu Zaigui's words, but fear of Zhu Zaigui himself. He felt that the Prince Yu in front of him had changed. He was no longer the Prince Yu before. The current Prince Yu had also become outstanding and no longer like an ordinary person.

So at this moment, Zhang Juzheng's fear of Zhu Zaigui was actually a fear of supreme power.

It was as if Zhu Zaigui also possessed the innate supreme power of Emperor Jiajing, making it impossible for people to look directly at him.

Zhang Juzheng could no longer sit still. He stood up from his seat and bowed to Zhu Zaigui earnestly. "I understand. I will definitely convey the prince's will to Lord Xu and let Lord Xu show the attitude he should have."

Zhang Juzheng also changed the wording of Zhu Zaigui's words and directly used the word "imperial will".

You must know that in the entire Ming Dynasty, only the words of Emperor Jiajing could be called an imperial decree. Now Zhang Juzheng also treated Zhu Zaigui's words as an imperial decree.

From this we can see that Zhu Zaigui's performance and words today really gave Zhang Juzheng a great shock, and made him really feel a real sense of submission.

Otherwise, he would not have used the word "instruction" so quickly to describe Zhu Zaigui's will and suggestions.

Zhu Zaigui saw that he had achieved his goal, so he did not keep Zhang Juzheng to continue the conversation.

Zhu Zaigui said, "In this case, I will not keep Mr. Zhang here. Mr. Zhang should go back early to deal with the memorial issue, and then go to communicate with Lord Xu, and try to get Lord Xu to show the attitude that a cabinet vice minister should have, and not be so cautious that people mistake him for a follower."

Zhang Juzheng bowed again and said, "I'll take my leave."

Zhu Zaiqi hummed, and then instructed the person outside the door, "Meng Chong, send Mr. Zhang away."

After leaving Prince Yu's Mansion, Zhang Juzheng did not go directly back to the Beijing Special District Office, but asked his coachman to go to Xu's Mansion immediately.

After arriving at Xu's house, Zhang Juzheng went straight to Xu Jie's study without any hesitation.

At this moment, Xu Jie was still looking at the Qingci he had just written on the table, carefully considering the words and sentences, trying to revise it to make it more perfect.

So when he saw Zhang Juzheng coming hurriedly, he also laughed and said, "Juzheng, come and help me see how to correct this Qingci to make it better?"

When Zhang Juzheng saw that Xu Jie was still immersed in writing Qingci in the hope of winning the emperor's favor, he was numb.

Based on Zhu Zaigui's abnormal behavior today, Zhang Juzheng's clever mind immediately associated many things, the most serious of which was that the future Ming Dynasty might change, and the era of using Qingci to win favor would be gone forever.

Zhang Juzheng said anxiously: "Lord, I have something important to do. Let's put the Qingci aside for now."

Xu Jie was somewhat displeased when he heard this. In his opinion, no matter how big the matter was, it was not as important as the Qingci he wrote to Emperor Jiajing.

Because as long as the Qingci is written well, his position will be stable.

Moreover, he was preparing to further improve the turtle magic skills, allowing Yan Song to continue to be the dominant one and to steal the show in the court, so as to cause the displeasure of Emperor Jiajing and thus reap the benefits.

So when Xu Jie saw Zhang Juzheng in a hurry and said that he wanted to put Qingci aside, he became displeased.

Xu Jie said: "What's wrong with you today? Can't you tell the difference between the important and the urgent? Is this Qingci? This is our future."

Zhang Juzheng said anxiously: "Lord, the future has changed! Qingci may soon be a thing of the past. The future is not something that can be achieved just by writing a Qingci. We need to consider the changes that are about to happen."

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Asking for monthly ticket

(End of this chapter)