My father is Jiajing

Chapter 493: Ministry of Industry Selection

Gao Gong acted very quickly. The next day, he and Ouyang Bijin jointly submitted a memorial recommending that the Minister of Works Zhao Wenhua be transferred to the Minister of Justice.

When Emperor Jiajing saw the recommendation memorial signed by Gao Gong, a playful smile appeared on his face.

Emperor Jiajing patted the recommendation letter in his hand, then turned to Huang Jin and said, "Who came up with the idea of ​​recommending Zhao Wenhua to be the Minister of Justice?"

When Huang Jin heard what Emperor Jiajing said, he replied carefully: "It should be Lord Yan, right?"

Emperor Jiajing laughed and said, "Yan Song is indeed a possibility, but look at who else signed the petition?"

Huang Jin respectfully took the memorial from Emperor Jiajing and quickly saw the name under the first line of words. Gao Gong was also one of them, which was beyond his expectation.

Huang Jin said: "Why is Gao Gong's name included? Isn't he following Lord Xu?"

Emperor Jiajing smiled and shook his head, "Who said Gao Gong followed Xu Jie? Have you forgotten the whole story of the promotion of the Minister of Personnel? Gao Gong and Xu Jie are not in harmony with each other, and they are destined not to stand together. And there is only one person who can really order Gao Gong around, and that is San'er!"

Huang Jin was surprised and said, "Your Majesty, are you talking about Prince Yu? But why did Prince Yu ask Gao Gong to recommend Zhao Wenhua? Zhao Wenhua is the adopted son of Lord Yan. According to the criticisms of those nobles in the outer court, Zhao Wenhua is definitely the core of the Yan Party."

Emperor Jiajing snorted, "What do you mean by Yan's party and clean stream? In my opinion, they are just a bunch of hypocrites who cling to each other. If I keep supporting Yan Song, then more than 90% of the so-called clean streams in the court will be the so-called Yan's party. But if I don't support Yan Song, then more than half of the people in the court and the public will call themselves the clean streams, and even the so-called Yan's party itself will call itself the clean stream."

"As for whether they are partisans or the clean stream, it is all up to me. They think they represent the so-called righteousness of the court, but in my opinion, except for a few who have some real skills, most of them are just a bunch of good-for-nothings who have endured the hard times."

"But unfortunately, I cannot do without these wine-making idiots, otherwise I cannot govern the Ming Dynasty alone, so I gave these idiots a chance to rise to the top of the government."

When it came to employing people, Emperor Jiajing had no choice but to feel helpless.

This kind of helplessness was not only felt by Emperor Jiajing, but also by most emperors.

But unfortunately, given the environment and era they live in, such helplessness is an unchangeable reality.

After all, not everyone can be as lucky as a founding emperor, who can gather a large number of talented people around him.

Most emperors lived in an environment where they had no friends or comrades, and few loyal people who would truly care about them.

So when a dynasty develops to a certain stage, sometimes it is not just talent that is hard to find, but more importantly, opportunities are hard to find.

Even though Emperor Jiajing could see the talents and abilities of some people, he had to spend more time investigating and understanding them because he was unsure of their loyalty.

During this process, as an emperor, the information he could receive was all passed on to him by real people. Once someone said something bad about someone he valued, and his investigation results happened to be almost the same as what the reporter said, even though he was extremely smart, he had to hesitate and be cautious.

Otherwise, if you use the wrong person, trust the wrong person, and entrust the wrong person with huge power, the consequences will be no joke.

Therefore, sometimes, even if the person around him was a fool, Emperor Jiajing would still entrust him with important tasks and let him hold the power to decide his safety, just like Qiu Luan in the past.

How could Emperor Jiajing not know that Qiu Luan was a mediocre talent?
But why did Emperor Jiajing entrust most of the military power to him instead of those so-called historical generals? The fundamental reason was that Emperor Jiajing was not sure whether those so-called capable generals were truly loyal to him.

If they are not absolutely loyal, and you give them such important military power, if something goes wrong, it will be like an old man eating arsenic - he is tired of living.

So sometimes when you are unsure of loyalty, it is better to use stupid people than those who are too smart and capable.

After Emperor Jiajing finished his sigh, he said to Huang Jin: "San'er is smart. Zhao Wenhua is obviously Yan Song's adopted son, but now San'er has grasped the key point and has taken it into his own hands. Just based on this, I can feel more at ease when I put some burdens on him."

When Huang Jin heard Emperor Jiajing praising Zhu Zaigui so much, his heart was also stirred. Could it be that the emperor was really going to appoint a crown prince?

"Does the Emperor mean to have the Cabinet convene another meeting to nominate Zhao Wenhua to the position of Minister of Justice?"

Huang Jin whispered what he guessed.

Emperor Jiajing shook his head slightly. "No need for a recommendation from the court. Not everything needs to be recommended by the court. Now that we have the joint recommendation memorial from the Minister of Personnel and the Vice Minister of Personnel, I can take advantage of the situation and transfer Zhao Wenhua to the position."

Huang Jin hurriedly said: "The Emperor is wise!"

Emperor Jiajing chuckled and said, "But the next candidate for the Minister of Works must be recommended by the court again, otherwise I can't think of anyone who is suitable for this position."

Huang Jin said: "Then shall I go and announce the decree now?"

Emperor Jiajing nodded, "Go ahead, don't delay this matter until after the New Year. I guess San'er wants to push Zhao Wenhua so quickly because of Wang Zhi. I was thinking of resolving this matter before or after the New Year, but it seems that San'er has already made up his mind. I can't wait to see the final result."

When Huang Jin heard Emperor Jiajing mention Wang Zhi, he couldn't help but be secretly shocked. It turned out that all these things finally came back to Wang Zhi. It seemed that the emperor really wanted to open up the sea.

With the order from Emperor Jiajing, Huang Jin did not delay and immediately went to the cabinet to convey the order from the Ministry of Personnel to recommend Zhao Wenhua to be transferred to the vacant position of Minister of Justice. After hearing the order, Yan Song, Xu Jie and others did not have any objections and immediately began to prepare a formal appointment edict, which was then submitted to the Imperial Household Department for Emperor Jiajing to seal and take effect.

At the same time, Huang Jin also conveyed the imperial decree regarding the vacant position of Minister of Works. However, due to the approaching year-end, the matter was postponed to after the Lantern Festival next year.

From this we can see that during the Ming Dynasty, the Spring Festival holiday was quite long, and could last directly from the end of the year to after the fifteenth day of the first lunar month.

Of course, this is also the only long holiday in ancient times after the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

Because during the Ming and Qing dynasties, with the strengthening of autocratic power, not only did officials' salaries decrease, but even their vacations became pitifully few.

During the Han and Tang dynasties, officials could enjoy about a hundred days of vacation a year, but after the Ming and Qing dynasties, even with the longest Spring Festival holiday, the total vacation time would not exceed one month.

From this we can see that in Zhu Yuanzhang's dictionary, officials of the Ming Dynasty were like cattle and horses!
However, these oxen and horses are all oxen and horses holding public power. If they are not happy, they will naturally not let the people below them have much happiness. Therefore, many local officials in the Ming Dynasty did everything they could to mess with the local people. If it were not for the feudal autocratic management that had evolved for a thousand or two thousand years, it would be hard to say what kind of chaos would happen under such management.

However, these worries are unnecessary. After the dynasties' increasingly compressed "pick the best and remove the males" management, anyone who had some blood and courage to resist would be ruthlessly killed.

The rest of the people must either accept their fate or die!
Therefore, unless the feudal dynasty was forced to the point of having no food to eat, it would be almost impossible for an earth-shaking rebellious movement to break out!
From this we can see that in the development of rule by man, the feudal system was far ahead, and this system was also the foundation for the Central Plains dynasty to assimilate other foreign rulers.

If it were not based on this management model that was beneficial to them, how could the tribal chiefs, who were used to living in the grasslands, be so enthusiastic about sinicization? Did they really love Confucian culture?
What they love is this low-cost culture of rule. As long as they assimilate themselves into this culture and occupy the top of the pyramid, they can enjoy a peaceful life for at least two or three hundred years.

So in the face of such huge benefits, idiots are unwilling to translate into Chinese!
Time quietly came to the 40th year of Jiajing.

This day is also the New Year's Day at the beginning of the year, which is the Spring Festival celebrated by people hundreds of years later.

On this day, Zhu Zaigui first asked Meng Chong to go to the Western Garden to deliver a memorial of greeting and celebration of the New Year, and then he waited in the main hall of his palace for Gao Gong and others who came to pay him a visit.

These people were all officials from Prince Yu's Mansion, and they were all master and disciple of Zhu Zaigui, so there was no problem for them to visit Zhu Zaigui to wish him a happy new year on this day.

After all, Emperor Jiajing would not hold a grand court on New Year's Day to ask all officials to wish him a happy new year.

Therefore, apart from preparing a New Year's greeting memorial to be submitted early, these officials all went to their own mountains to pay New Year's greetings.

Therefore, people like Gao Gong, who were very clear-cut members of Prince Yu's palace, would come to the palace to pay New Year's greetings without any scruples on this day.

Zhu Zaigui was sitting in the main hall, where several pots of warm charcoal fire had been lit early in the morning, and some dried fruits, sweets, and off-season fruits grown in the palace and the imperial farm had been prepared.

Gao Gong, Zhang Juzheng, Li Chunfang, Chen Yiqin, Hai Rui and others came to Prince Yu's Mansion together.

When the few people entered the palace, Meng Chong, who was standing in front of the gate to greet them, greeted them happily, as if this New Year was really wonderful.

After they said hello to each other at the gate, they followed Meng Chong to the main hall of the palace.

After arriving at the main hall, several people stood in order and bowed to Zhu Zaigui who stood up to greet them, saying: "Your Highness, we wish you a happy new year."

Zhu Zaigui smiled and said, "I also wish all of you a happy new year. Please take a seat quickly."

Gao Gong and the others bowed to Zhu Zaigui again, "Thank you, Your Majesty."

Then they sat down on the chairs in the main hall one by one and started the festive conversation.

First of all, everyone congratulated Gao Gong, and Gao Gong responded to everyone's congratulations with a humble smile.

After all, his progress this time was enormous. He jumped directly from a concurrent position as the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue to the position of Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel. Except for Li Chunfang who was present, anyone who saw this luck could not help but shed tears of envy.

Zhu Zaigui looked at everyone's happy faces and also turned his gaze to Li Chunfang.

Zhu Zaigui said, "Mr. Li is now the Minister of Rites and a Hanlin scholar, and he is also on duty in the Western Garden, with the same rank as a cabinet scholar, but there seems to be no movement in the past two years. Now that the position of Shangshu has been vacant in the Ministry of Works, I wonder if Mr. Li is willing to seize this opportunity to make a further step forward?"

When Li Chunfang heard Zhu Zaigui talking about the position of Minister of Works, he must have been tempted.

Although he is in the cabinet now, he is the last one in the cabinet without any legitimate reason. If he can have the position of Shangshu now, he may soon make a more obvious progress and become a real cabinet minister.

Once he really becomes a cabinet minister, then according to the current ranking sequence, he will be able to catch up with Gao Gong, Zhang Juzheng and others in the future and reach the position of the cabinet's chief minister.

So Li Chunfang was really excited.

Li Chunfang asked, "Can this minister really do this?"

Zhu Zaigui smiled and said, "Of course you can, but the Ministry of Works is not a good place to go. Yan Shifan and Xu Ge Lao's eldest son Xu Fan are both serving as assistant ministers of the Ministry of Works. If you can't control them, you might be accused of insubordination if you go there to serve as a minister."

Li Chunfang said immediately: "I am not afraid! I am an official of the court, working for Your Majesty and the prince, how can I care about other people's faces? Moreover, I am the top scholar in the 26th year of Jiajing, how can I be suppressed by these two students who are using their father's merits to help me?"

Zhu Zaigui smiled and said, "Okay, in that case, I will recommend you as a candidate for the Minister of Works after the New Year. However, whether you can be selected by the court at that time is not something I can control."

Li Chunfang was still excited and said: "With the prince's trust, even if I can't become the Minister of Industry, I will not disappoint the prince."

At this moment, everyone envied Li Chunfang. Li Chunfang was truly one of those lucky guys who came from behind to succeed.

He arrived at Prince Yu's Mansion not earlier than Gao Gong, not earlier than Zhang Juzheng, and not earlier than Hai Rui.

But he was lucky. Not only did he quickly gain the appreciation of Emperor Jiajing and was quickly promoted to Minister of Rites, but he was also allowed to serve as a Hanlin scholar and be on duty in the cabinet. This was simply a typical example of how to be an official.

Zhu Zaigui smiled and said, "Whether you disappoint me or not is a small matter. The important thing is that you must live up to the cultivation of the court and His Majesty. Although the status of the Ministry of Works is not as good as that of the other five ministries and the Censorate, it is also a formal official of the six ministries of the court, in charge of important engineering construction of the entire Ming Dynasty."

“Although there has been some slackness in recent years and no achievements have been made, if we can promptly check for gaps and keep up with the needs of the times, the Ministry of Industry may shine brightly in the future.”

"So, if you really have the hope of becoming the Minister of Industry, I hope you won't muddle through like the previous Minister of Industry did, doing some clichéd things. You should also exert your subjective initiative and actively make the Ministry of Industry the most successful of the six ministries!"

------

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