My father is Jiajing

In the Ministry of Personnel, Zhang Juzheng was transferred to a new position after the New Year. He was transferred from the Vice Minister of the Ministry of War to the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel.

At the same time, the position of Minister of Personnel was still vacant at this time, because the former Minister of Personnel Guo Pu was also transferred to the Minister of Rites, and it was said that he would also be added to the cabinet.

Therefore, the Ministry of Personnel is currently headed by the Vice Minister.

However, this situation would not last too long. After a while, either Zhang Juzheng would be extremely lucky and be promoted to the position of Minister of Personnel, or the court would re-select and appoint an experienced senior minister to the position of Minister of Personnel.

But this did not prevent Zhang Juzheng from feeling proud and contented at the moment!
Before the New Year, he thought Xu Jie was just making empty promises for him, but he didn't expect that after the New Year, he would actually be transferred from the Ministry of War to the Ministry of Personnel.

Even though this is just a transfer of departments at the same level, the value of the Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of War is, no matter how different they are, at least they are clearly superior.

Inside the Wenhua Hall.

Zhu Zaigui was sitting in the warm room of a side hall handling official business, while Li Chunfang, Zhao Wenhua, Hu Zongxian, Zhao Zhenji and others were sitting nearby waiting.

After Zhu Zaigui had dealt with the government affairs in his hands, he looked up at Li Chunfang, Zhao Wenhua, Hu Zongxian, Zhao Zhenji and others.

Zhu Zaigui said, "In February, I will accompany you to Chengtian Prefecture. You four will stay in the capital. I hope you can work together to deal with some problems that are difficult to deal with in the past."

After hearing what Zhu Zaigui said, Li Chunfang and others couldn't help but feel moved and silently looked up at Zhu Zaigui.

But Zhu Zaigui's expression and eyes remained as calm as ever, without much emotion.

It seemed that when I said these words to them, I was not hinting at them to do something, but just a routine request.

Li Chunfang and the others bowed slightly and saluted to Zhu Zaigui, "We understand."

Zhu Zaigui put down the red brush in his hand, looked up at Zhao Zhenji and said, "Now the position of Minister of Personnel is vacant. I have recommended you to His Majesty. The decree should come down before the emperor leaves Beijing."

Zhao Zhenji looked up at Zhu Zaigui in disbelief. He never expected that such an important position as the Minister of Personnel would fall on his head. He originally thought that he would have to wait for a while until other positions of the six ministers became vacant before he could fill them.

Unexpectedly, Zhu Zaigui gave him such a big surprise and directly appointed him to the vacant position of Minister of Personnel.

Zhao Zhenji excitedly bowed to Zhu Zaigui, "Thank you, Your Majesty, for your great grace!"

Zhu Zaigui chuckled and said, "Thank you, my Lord. These are all affirmations from His Majesty. Now Yan Ne has also resigned from the cabinet, and Gao Gong is far away in Nanjing. Only Lord Xu and Mr. Li are left in the cabinet."

"So, Your Majesty also intends to examine several capable ministers and promote them to the cabinet during this period. Therefore, this period is a probation period for you."

"If your work can satisfy His Majesty, then after I return to the capital with the Emperor, some of you will be lucky enough to be entrusted with important tasks and join the cabinet."

Zhu Zaigui paused when he said this.

This also ignited a burning flame in Zhao Zhenji's heart.

He is different from Zhao Wenhua and Hu Zongxian.

He was a genuine Hanlin Jinshi, and he had many more innate advantages than Zhao Wenhua and Hu Zongxian.

For example, during the suppression of the Japanese pirates in the southeast this time, although Hu Zongxian was the Governor-General of Zhejiang and Minister of War who was in charge of the overall situation, he was only the Governor of Zhejiang and Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice.

However, after arriving in the capital, Zhao Zhenji was promoted and appointed to the same level as Hu Zongxian.

One of the reasons for this has to be his status as a Hanlin, which played a key role in some aspects.

Otherwise, if Zhao Zhenji was just an ordinary Jinshi who had never entered the Hanlin Academy, even if he was transferred back to the capital, it would at most be a lateral transfer, and he would never jump one level to the same level as Hu Zongxian.

Now Zhu Zaigui said that Emperor Jiajing intended to examine new people to enter the cabinet. How could Zhao Zhenji not be excited again?
Zhu Zaigui looked at Zhao Zhenji who looked excited, and also at Zhao Wenhua and Hu Zongxian who looked envious.

Zhu Zaigui stretched his body, picked up the teacup in front of him and took a sip.

"Your Majesty will test not only those officials from the Imperial Academy who have sufficient qualifications or status this time, but also those with outstanding abilities. Your Majesty will break the rules and select them to join the cabinet."

"So, I hope you all won't belittle yourselves and think that you have no hope of entering the cabinet."

Zhao Wenhua and Hu Zongxian, who were originally just envious, couldn't help but show a gleam in their eyes after hearing Zhu Zaigui's words!

Zhu Zaigui looked at their reactions and felt extremely satisfied.

Before, Zhu Zaigui had many concerns and was unwilling to break the unspoken rule in the Ming officialdom that "only Hanlin scholars can enter the cabinet."

But as time went by, and Zhu Zaigui's power grew, Zhu Zaigui observed that those who were not Hanlin but had already reached the ceiling level of their current officialdom always had a perfunctory attitude towards work, as if it didn't matter whether they did their job well or not.

Therefore, Zhu Zaigui had to take some action. He had to create a gap for these non-Hanlin officials who had outstanding abilities but low upper limits.

Allow these people to continue to have the motivation and hope to work towards higher achievements and status, thereby sweeping away the culture of laissez-faire in official circles!
This will enable the new policies he plans to implement in the future to be more effective and more enforceable.

Otherwise, even if Zhu Zaigui was sitting in the Forbidden City and thinking about beautiful things and wishes in his head, he would lack a team with strong execution capabilities that could turn the beautiful things and wishes he imagined into reality.

Then, all of Zhu Zaigui's ideas and ideals were nothing more than one person's fantasy.

Therefore, Zhu Zaigui had to mobilize some enthusiasm and at the same time make it difficult for those Hanlin scholars who thought they had it easy.

Let them understand that after entering the Hanlin Academy, it is not enough to just follow the routine for ten or twenty years before they can become a high-ranking official or hold an important position in the six ministries.

Zhao Wenhua and Hu Zongxian's eyes lit up immediately. They both bowed to Zhu Zaigui, "Your Majesty, Your Majesty, the Emperor's grace is so great!"

Zhu Zaigui laughed and said, "I am not opening this door for you, but for more talented people who have nowhere to display their talents."

"The current Hanlin Academy is too comfortable. Most of the Hanlin scholars can only write a few so-called moral articles to point out the current problems. When asked to do things, they often have high expectations but poor skills, and cannot solve the problems they see and talk about."

"So, I set this precedent so that these Hanlin scholars who can only talk big can reflect on the relationship between being an official and doing things."

"If they just want to be officials, thinking that they can rule the country and solve the people's livelihood problems just by reading a lot and talking, I dare not employ such people, and the people of Ming Dynasty will not need such people as their parents."

"Therefore, I must change the usual official atmosphere of boasting and talkativeness, and base everything on pragmatism, so that the scholars and those who aspire to be officials in the world will understand that if being an official cannot benefit the people of a certain area, if it cannot be beneficial to the court and the world, if it cannot repay the appreciation and trust of the emperor and father, then it is better not to be an official as soon as possible."

After saying these words, Zhu Zaigui's eyes stayed on Zhao Zhenji again, and continued: "After Mr. Zhao arrives at the Ministry of Personnel, he should also communicate more with the officials of the Ministry of Personnel and think of ways to introduce a series of new and effective official assessment methods."

"Don't think that after you arrive at the Ministry of Personnel, you can just follow the rules left by your predecessors and sit firmly for a full term as a minister, and then you can enter the cabinet based on your seniority."

"I want you to play your due role and ability and formulate a set of new rules for the Ming officialdom that can improve administrative efficiency, satisfy the people, and make His Majesty happy."

"My other teacher, Zhang Juzheng, is currently serving as the Minister of Personnel. He is young and promising, and more pragmatic than his teacher Xu Jie. When Mr. Zhao goes to the Ministry of Personnel, he can also discuss and communicate with Zhang Juzheng more."

"I hope you can work together to make new contributions to the Ming Dynasty!"

Zhao Zhenji bowed to Zhu Zaigui and said, "I obey your order! If I go to the Ministry of Personnel, I will work closely with Zhang Taiyue to formulate new rules for evaluating officials, so that all officials in the Ming Dynasty can improve their efficiency and ability to do things under the new rules. I will live up to the expectations of the prince and His Majesty."

Zhu Zaigui nodded slightly.

The reason why he asked Zhao Zhenji to find Zhang Juzheng to discuss cooperation was actually to give it a try and see if Zhang Juzheng could come up with the "Performance Evaluation System" that would make Ming officials so excited a few years in advance!
The Kaocheng method in history was an official assessment system established during the Wanli period.

This assessment method was proposed by Zhang Juzheng in the first year of the Wanli reign and implemented throughout the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty.

The new law stipulates that the six ministries and the Metropolitan Censorate should set deadlines for the tasks that their officials should do and record them in three separate account books. Then, the six ministries and the Metropolitan Censorate will conduct monthly inspections based on the records in the account books.

This has formed a complete official evaluation mechanism, effectively combining evaluation with correction, and changing the previous method of evaluating officials mainly relying on the Ministry of Personnel.

Now Zhu Zaigui is preparing to come up with this law in advance and let it return the power to the Ministry of Personnel. His purpose is simple, which is to balance the power of the cabinet.

This is to prevent the emergence of a powerful official in the cabinet in the future who would conflict with him and hinder his future new policies.

Therefore, after careful consideration, Zhu Zaigui did not place the power of the future performance evaluation system in the cabinet, but in the Ministry of Personnel.

In this way, Zhu Zaigui will have more room for maneuver and control over power in the future.

At that time, his will can be further radiated to every corner that the Ming Dynasty's state apparatus can influence through the balance and control among the cabinet departments.

Moreover, according to the history that Zhu Zaigui knew, the performance evaluation system implemented by Zhang Juzheng in the early years of the Wanli period not only had obvious effects, but also had outstanding merits!

But unfortunately, this law was too harsh, and thus offended many scholars who wanted to lie down and become officials.

Therefore, after Zhang Juzheng's sudden death, his series of new laws that were beneficial to the Ming Dynasty were all criticized by hundreds of officials and abolished or thrown aside by the young and ignorant Emperor Wanli.

As a result, the Ming Dynasty not only did not become better, but also produced more hypocritical people. Apart from talking about morality and current problems, these people's ability to actually solve and deal with problems was almost zero.

But this was the prevailing trend, and the last few emperors of the Ming Dynasty were all greenhouse flowers raised in the deep palace, unaware of the sufferings of the people.

All they knew about the sufferings of the people and the problems in the world came from the memorials written to them by this group of people who were only good at talking big.

Naturally, through such memorials, they could not see clearly the essence of the Ming Dynasty's problems, nor could they truly understand why the people were suffering and the world was in difficulty.

Therefore, expecting such an emperor to turn the tide is itself an unrealistic fantasy.

Now, as a time traveler, Zhu Zaigui dare not say how much real suffering of the people he has seen or how much he understands the essence of the problems.

But at least Zhu Zaigui was able to understand that governing the world was not something that could be done just by talking, but required actual practical methods and countermeasures.

Otherwise, he would just look at the piles of memorials written to him by others every day, and gather a group of senior officials who had never gone to the countryside to investigate the actual problems of the people, and make some unrealistic policies in the palace with empty words, thinking that they could make the people live a good life in peace and contentment, and that the Ming Dynasty could be stable and peaceful for a long time.

This is just a joke!

You have to know that even in the future world where information technology is extremely advanced, it is often not possible to formulate governing policies to the point of being fully prepared.

Many times, when senior officials who have more information and data are formulating a policy, they also have to make various assessments and trade-offs before they can ultimately formulate a policy that may be effective.

So if you expect the Ming Dynasty, where information, transportation and technology were not developed, to govern the country in an orderly manner by relying on memorials collected from all over the country and a group of Hanlin scholars who never left the yamen, no one would dare to believe it.

Therefore, Zhu Zaigui had to improve the evaluation and assessment mechanism of officials as much as possible, concretize many of the originally vague assessment issues, and make those evaluation methods that had unclear rules more detailed.

Only in this way can Zhu Zaigui prevent those bureaucrats who deceived the people, the court and the emperor from having a chance to be lazy, make them fall into a state of anxiety at work, and let them form the established facts and rules of "the capable are promoted and the mediocre are demoted"!
Therefore, Zhang Juzheng's performance evaluation system must be implemented, and it must be implemented on a large scale so that it becomes a mandatory rule that must be followed by the future officialdom of the Ming Dynasty!

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