My father is Jiajing

Chapter 491: The results of the imperial examination are delivered to Xiyuan
Gao Gong, who came out of the queue, bowed solemnly to Zhu Zaigui who was sitting under the throne. He knew very well that the only reason he had the opportunity to speak this time was because of Zhu Zaigui's help.

If Zhu Zaigui had not said this, he might have only been able to stand in the hall and watch how the cabinet used their power and influence to influence the choices of the officials who came to participate in the court election.

After Gao Gong paid his respects to Zhu Zaigui, he took a deep breath and turned to the other officials and colleagues in the hall and bowed slightly.

Then Gao Gong began his speech.

Gao Gong was a more pragmatic person, so his speaking style and topics were not as empty as Ouyang Bijin's.

Ouyang Bi Jin talked about the origin and history of the Ministry of Personnel, as well as some of the well-known duties of the Ministry of Personnel.

These words are all very confident and have the tone of an official statement.

But the current situation is that Zhu Zaigui wants them to take the position through "competition" and canvass votes for him, so Ouyang Bijin's speech will definitely not impress Zhu Zaigui.

But as to whether he could impress the hearts of the officials in the palace, Zhu Zaigui didn't know.

After all, Zhu Zaigui had no actual contact with what these bureaucrats were like. Apart from Gao Gong, Zhang Juzheng, Zhao Zhenji, Chen Yiqin, Li Chunfang and others who were sent to the palace by Emperor Jiajing, the only officials Zhu Zaigui actually came into contact with were Hai Rui and some officials in the current Beijing Special District.

The rest of the court officials had never seen Prince Yu, and Prince Yu did not recognize them.

Moreover, due to the political system of the Ming Dynasty, even if some of them wanted to criticize those in high positions with loyal advice, they would target Emperor Jiajing or a few cabinet elders, as well as the ministers of certain departments.

As for princes like Zhu Zaigui who did not directly participate in court politics, they had no place to criticize them even if they wanted to.

At most, they would criticize the business of Prince Yu's Mansion, but doing business is a trivial matter, and they thought that the emperor tacitly approved of this matter, and most of their families were also engaged in some business and trading to a greater or lesser extent.

Otherwise, he would rely on the salary of a Beijing official. He is not a minister with real power, nor does he hold an important position. If he doesn't make some "extra money", he will starve to death in the capital.

Moreover, according to the laws of the Ming Dynasty, officials below the fifth rank in the court were allowed to engage in business. After all, the salary given by Zhu Baba was really too low, and it was reasonable to expect this salary to support a simple family of three.

However, family relationships in ancient times were by no means simple families of three. Many relatives would depend on each other and support each other. In addition, the women in the family were almost all unproductive. The more diligent ones would only weave cloth and do some needlework to supplement the family income.

As for the rest, don't even think about it.

Therefore, with the salaries of officials in the Ming and Qing dynasties, it was almost impossible to support a family and maintain dignity.

Therefore, under such a deformed salary and remuneration system, it is extremely difficult for officials to avoid becoming corrupt officials.

After all, when he is alone, he can make himself suffer and say some sarcastic words like "If you are poor, you should take care of yourself" and "Be frugal to cultivate virtue, and be honest to establish yourself". But if an official with a low salary is really asked to support a whole family with his low and untimely salary, it is simply a test for the cadre.

Therefore, in order to be tolerant of these lower-ranking officials, the imperial court naturally relaxed the restrictions on officials engaging in business, although on the surface it only relaxed the restrictions for officials of the fifth rank.

But once he has become an official and has started to get involved in business, how could he stop at the fifth rank?
Therefore, in bureaucratic families in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, it was inevitable that officials or other members of officials' families would engage in business, land acquisition and mergers.

Even if the emperor wanted to stop it, he could not afford to compensate these officials for their household expenses, let alone the hard power to eradicate these stubborn problems.

After all, the people the emperor wants to use are all this group of people.

If it really reaches an unbearable stage, they will just arrest a few typical cases and be done with it. It is simply impossible to punish large areas of people as in the early Ming Dynasty. Otherwise, the country will be unstable in an instant!
You should know that the Ming Dynasty is the only dynasty in the past 5,000 years that collapsed due to "layoffs".

Of course, there is a joke in this statement, but it is undeniable that the reason why the Ming Dynasty was forced to lay off postmen was because it had no money.

Otherwise, how could the court allow so many people who are literate and have certain social connections and status to leave the system and make a living on their own?

You have to know that for these people who are literate and have social connections and status, once they lose the respectability and stable jobs that they have worked so hard to maintain, their first reaction is injustice.

Why should you fire me and not him?

Why should I sacrifice myself?

With such a psychological attitude, these laid-off people in the system can be incredible. The energy and slogans they can raise are absolutely soul-touching and can directly resonate with the vast majority of people.

Once such resonance forms an overwhelming force, they can overturn not only a dynasty, but even the sky, no matter how high it is.

Therefore, if you want stability, you must keep developing and opening up new sources. If you only think about cutting costs without any way to open up new sources, then you are doomed and the world will definitely fall apart.

Therefore, Gao Gong's speech focused on institutional innovation in talent selection and salary adjustment for responsible officials.

When the officials in the hall heard Gao Gong talking about the innovation of the talent selection system, they were not interested. After all, in the eyes of these old-timers, such words were just a variation of "Jingcha" or "Kaogong".

But when Gao Gong talked about the salary adjustment of certain responsible officials and the establishment of a sound housing provident fund system for officials, everyone's eyes began to light up.

If the salaries of officials can really be adjusted and increased to a certain extent, and if the court is really willing to follow certain trial rules of the Beijing Special District and provide a system guarantee for the payment and provision of housing provident funds to officials in the capital, so that these officials who are already short of money can also have a provident fund subsidy to rent or purchase properties in the capital, they will definitely be very happy.

After all, when you just watch others eat meat, the pain you feel in your heart is almost more painful than suffering yourself.

But as scholars who read the books of sages, how could they talk lightly about money and profit?

Therefore, when they listened to Gao Gong's proposal to establish and improve the housing provident fund system for officials, although they were very tempted, they still opposed it verbally.

After all, no one wants to be labeled as "greedy for money and profit", so as soon as Gao Gong finished talking about his "election" philosophy, the people present couldn't help but start a buzz of discussion.

There were even a few shameless people who were ready to stand up and accuse Gao Gong of wanting to corrupt the scholars' "Taoist heart" of being content with poverty.

But in the end, these shameless officials did not stand up after hesitating for a while.

Because they are also afraid that after they feel good for a while, they will become the public enemy of most Beijing officials.

After all, these talents account for about one twentieth of the total number of officials in the capital, and there are more than 2,000 officials who are not eligible to participate in the court recommendation.

But the lives of ordinary officials who were not eligible to participate in the Beijing campaign were even more difficult to describe. If someone said something that angered the public, these officials would not cause trouble directly, but would definitely kill them in secret.

Therefore, those officials in the hall who were prepared to be both in office and in power only said a few bad words in front of the officials beside them, saying that Gao Gong was obsessed with money and tried to buy people's hearts with a few taels of silver.

But for such bad words, most people also expressed admiration with deep approval, but in their hearts they also sneered and cursed: "Did you eat your rice?"

Zhu Zaigui looked at Gao Gong, who had also finished his speech, and said to the cabinet: "Now that Minister Ouyang and Chairman Gao have finished their speeches, do you have anything else to add?"

Yan Song did not move, as if he had fallen asleep in the chair.

Xu Jie, Lu Ben and Li Chunfang looked at each other, and none of them had any objections.

So at this time, Zhu Zaigui said again: "Since the cabinet has nothing to add, let's start the court recommendation now. Later, I will have someone give each of you two beans, one red and one black. Red represents support for Minister Ouyang, and black represents support for Chairman Gao."

"When the time comes, you just need to line up and quietly throw the beans you have chosen into the closed box. If someone is smart enough to throw all the beans in his hand into the box, so that the final number of beans is more than the number of people present, you will have to throw again. I have the patience to wait until you throw a number of beans that is the same as your number of people."

"So, if you are not afraid of being tired or cold, just go ahead and throw the money, because I will put the box outside the palace door and open the palace door when you throw the money."

After saying that, Zhu Zaigui waved his hand and had the door of the Huangji Hall opened. The cold air outside quickly filled the entire hall, exposing all the officials who had just warmed up to the cold wind of the winter again.

At the same time, the red beans and black cups that Zhu Zaigui ordered were also brought by several guards. These guards began to distribute the beans to everyone in turn, and after all the beans were distributed.

Zhu Zaigui then said to the cabinet: "Please go first, all the elders."

At this time, Yan Song seemed to have woken up. He stood up from the chair tremblingly and bowed slightly to Zhu Zaigui. Then Xu Jie, who was standing beside him, supported his arm like a filial son and slowly walked to the door of the hall. He looked at a box placed at the door.

Yan Song touched the beans in his hand, and finally threw a bean into the box at an angle where no one else could see.

Then Xu Jie also cast his bean. After the people in the cabinet had finished casting theirs, the ministers of the six ministries and the chief censor of the Censorate also began to cast their beans.

After they had finished casting their balls, it was the turn of other officials in the hall to start casting their balls.

After about a quarter of an hour, all the officials finally finished throwing their beans according to the rules set by Zhu Zaigui.

At this time, Zhu Zaigui said to the cabinet: "Please ask the cabinet and the Censorate to supervise and sort the beans in the boxes for you."

Xu Jie and Chief Censor Zhou Yan stood up, bowed to Zhu Zaigui, and then began to monitor the number of beans in the box in their respective tasks.

After the two of them counted twice, the guard on the side counted twice.

Xu Jie bowed and said, "Your Highness, there are 131 people participating in the imperial selection this time, and the number of beans in the box is also 131, which is in line with the rules set by Your Highness."

Zhu Zaigui said: "Start dividing the beans."

Xu Jie and Zhou Yan bowed together, "I obey your command!"

Then, under the joint witness of the two, two guards began to sort the 131 beans.

When they were sorting, everyone in the hall couldn't help but tiptoe to look around. They also wanted to know the final result: would there be more red beans or black beans?

After all, this was the first time they had held a court promotion in this way, so they couldn't help but feel excited and expectant.

You have to know that in the past, when the imperial court held court sessions, most of them just followed along. As for who to choose to recommend, it was almost no different from the internal selection.

This time, Prince Yu had the unique idea of ​​using two-colored beans to carry out court recommendation.

This not only eliminates the risk of cheating, but also eliminates the risk of being held accountable afterwards.

After all, these beans are all exactly the same. Once they are thrown into the box, no one can use the beans to track who supports whom and who does not support whom.

So this method is really great!

After a long time, the beans were finally sorted.

Xu Jie and Zhou Yan checked it again and confirmed that it was correct.

The two men also wrote the results on a piece of paper and handed it to the guard beside them, who then presented it to Zhu Zaigui.

Zhu Zaigui took the paper handed to him by the guard. He glanced at the words on it without any extra expression on his face.

But all the officials in the hall had already focused all their attention on Zhu Zaigui.

Ouyang Bijin and Gao Gong, in particular, looked at Zhu Zaigui nervously, wanting to hear Zhu Zaigui announce the result.

Others who were equally nervous included Zhang Juzheng and others. They were also so nervous about the results of the imperial recommendation for the first time.

You have to know that in the past, this kind of court recommendation was just a formality, and the result was almost known from the beginning.

Unless there is some unexpected dark horse emerging, the result of each court recommendation will be the candidate who has already been nominated by the cabinet or various ministries.

But now not only is there an additional candidate, Gao Gong, among the candidates recommended by the court this time, but he has also been changed in such a way by Prince Yu, which really makes people nervous and excited.

Zhu Zaigui swept his eyes across the crowd, glanced at Ouyang Bijin, and also glanced at Gao Gong.

But at the last moment, Zhu Zaigui folded up the paper and said, "Come here, deliver the result of the imperial examination to the Western Garden as soon as possible and present it to Your Majesty. All the ministers can leave now."

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Asking for a monthly ticket~~
(End of this chapter)