In fact, there are actually people who can replace Zhang Juzheng.
Such as high arch.
Unfortunately, Gao Gong was already seriously ill. According to his family, he did not have much time left, so he asked for permission to return to his hometown.
Zhu Yijun was naturally right.
And it stands to reason that Gao Gong should have died of illness in the sixth year of Wanli.
It's just that in this life, Gao Gong was relieved a lot about Zhang Juzheng's alliance with Feng Bao to overthrow him in the past, especially since he was able to regain the emperor's approval, but he could not stay in the position of chief minister for a few more years, so he was still Regretful in his heart, he inevitably fell seriously ill due to old age in the seventh year of Wanli.
Of course, life, old age, illness and death are inevitable.
What's more, the medical conditions in this era are not as good as those in later generations. A veteran like Gao Gong has a bad temper. Even if he is treated by the famous doctor Li Shizhen, it is still difficult for him to live longer than in history.
However, Zhu Yijun's worries in the past became more prominent at this moment.
That is to say, the Ming Dynasty really entered an era of shortage of good assistants.
Once Gao Gong left, the only assistant minister in the entire Ming Empire who could be called a reformer was Zhang Juzheng.
If we look at it according to the original historical development.
The chief assistant after Zhang Juzheng, apart from Shen Shixing, who could suppress the public officials, tinker with things, and sort out the relationship between monarch and ministers, there really was no one who made great achievements.
However, Zhu Yijun felt that the first assistant behind Zhang Juzheng was not good in history, and it cannot be entirely attributed to the fact that Ming Dynasty did not have outstanding talents to serve as the first assistant after Zhang Juzheng.
Because whether the first assistant is excellent or not depends more on the environment at the time and the emperor's ability to recognize and employ people.
After all, before people like Xiao He and Li Shanchang rose to power, no one knew they could be good ministers.
"Let's wait and see what happens. As for your contact with the Xu family, please let me know immediately as soon as there is any situation."
Zhu Yijun gave Zhang Jing some instructions first.
"yes!"
Zhang Jing agreed and left.
"Your Majesty, Master Shen has sent you a secret report."
After Zhang Jing left, Zhang Hong reported new political affairs.
It turned out that after Zhu Yijun gave Zhang Juzheng and Yin Zhengmao the privilege of secret report, he also granted the privilege of secret report to the cabinet ministers Ma Ziqiang, Shen Shixing and Qi Jiguang who were on local inspections, and Yu Dayou who went to Zhejiang to serve as the chief military officer to prepare for Japan.
The person who manages these secret performances is Zhang Hong.
Zhang Honghui arranges for people to wait at the Qianqing Gate every day, and ministers with the privilege of secret memorial can send their trusted domestic slaves or Wu Bian to directly enter the palace with the secret memorial to the Qianqing Gate. The eunuch who was waiting at Qianqing Gate to report the news that "a secret memorial was coming" ran to the Supervisor of Ceremonies and informed Zhang Hong to collect it.
The whole process is equivalent to letting the secret report only pass through the hands of the person who sent the secret report and Zhang Hong, without going through the General Affairs Department and the cabinet, and not issuing it to the six departments.
The emperor could also learn more secrets from his foreign ministers, and he could also have more private communications with some officials.
But Zhu Yijun didn't expect that Shen Shixing would be the first person besides Yin Zhengmao to give him a secret memorial.
Zhu Yijun took it and saw that Zhang Hong still had a secret memorial in his hand, so he asked: "Who else has it?"
"From Jizhou Qihou."
Zhang Hong took out Qi Jiguang's secret memorial, held it above his head, and got back up.
Zhu Yijun also took it, went to the study, took the key with the corresponding identification that only he knew, and opened the secret memorial book of Shen Shixing and Qi Jiguang.
Shen Shixing's secret report was mainly a secret report to Zhu Yijun. Zhang Juzheng wanted him to conduct inspections on three matters: "divide people into acres", "increase commercial tax", and "pay grain and serve as errands for both officials and gentry" after inspecting the local area. He also expressed his hope that if the imperial court continued to reform its system, it would implement "officials and gentry all pay for their duties together", that is, abolish the privileges and exemptions of powerful officials and gentry.
Zhu Yijun laughed after reading Shen Shixing's secret performance.
He finally understood why Zhang Hong insisted that he continue to trust the scholar-bureaucrats, instead of abandoning the scholar-bureaucrats and start re-employing eunuchs just because Zhang Juzheng made peace with Xu Jie. Obviously he had guessed from Shen Shixing's secret report that these scholar-bureaucrats were not of the same mind. A civil servant with a keen sense of smell would know how to express his loyalty to him, the emperor.
It can be said that the fundamental reason for the differences between the two eunuchs Zhang Hong and Zhang Jing in the matter of Xu Jieqiu and Zhang Juzheng was that there was an information gap between them.
Logically speaking, Shen Shixing and Ma Ziqiang could explain the matters that Zhang Juzheng had to convey to Shen Shixing and Ma Ziqiang in secret to him, the emperor, or not.
But now, Shen Shixing reported to him, the emperor.
But Ma Ziqiang did not.
This undoubtedly shows that Shen Shixing is already suspecting that it is not only Zhang Juzheng's intention that the court continue to restructure, but it may also be his intention as the emperor.
Therefore, Shen Shixing directly explained it to him, the emperor.
After all, civil servants all over the world are passed through examinations at all levels, just like thousands of troops crossing a single-plank bridge, and those who can become cabinet ministers have survived many academics and successfully resolved various political crises without harming their own interests. The person who can enter the cabinet is the best.
Therefore, Xu Jie was not the only one who doubted whether the emperor played an important role in these events because of many incidents, and then began to think about seeking peace with Zhang Juzheng and joining forces to suppress the emperor.
At least, what Zhu Yijun can now be sure of is that Shen Shixing should have also doubted whether the emperor himself had the intention to continue the restructuring, and then decided to secretly tell him what Zhang Juzheng had told him and report his attitude to him.
After hiding behind the scenes for a long time, it is inevitable that there will be some clues that will lead to suspicion.
What makes Zhu Yijun happy is that this not only reflects Shen Shixing's intelligence, but also reflects Shen Shixing's attitude.
That is to say, Shen Shixing regards himself as the emperor as the leader and does not report to Zhang Juzheng alone. He intends to show to himself, the emperor, that he is loyal to the emperor rather than to Zhang Juzheng. It is also obvious that he does not support the idea of letting the emperor only He can be a puppet and complete some ceremonial tasks, but the attitude that political affairs should be controlled by civil servants.
Because since Shen Shixing could guess that he, the emperor, might have the intention to continue restructuring, then Ma Ziqiang would probably guess it too.
But now Ma Ziqiang has not reported to himself.
The reason can only be that Ma Ziqiang prefers to leave the decision-making power of whether to continue the restructuring in the hands of Zhang Juzheng and other civil servants, and does not want the emperor to decide this matter, so as not to ruin himself. Scholar-bureaucrats are responsible for actual government affairs and the emperor only A national pattern that fulfills ceremonial requirements and continues work through descendants.
In Zhu Yijun's view, Shen Shixing may have done this because he cared more about his own power and whether he could rely on the emperor's support to become the chief minister in the future, rather than caring about the interests of the entire civil government.
Of course, Shen Shixing may have done this out of public concern, or perhaps he really did not advocate a false emperor, but believed that power should be returned to the emperor.
He felt that Shen Shixing might have thought that the subsequent chief minister could no longer control many powers as the "executive deputy emperor" like Zhang Juzheng, such as the appointment of ministries and governors and important policy decisions.
After all, not everyone has the status of Imperial Master and Gu Ming Minister, and not everyone has the opportunity of Zhang Juzheng, that is, when he was the first assistant, the emperor was still young.
But now that the emperor has come of age, restricting the monarch's power will only disrupt the order and produce more serious consequences.
After all, the emperor would not sit still and wait for death, but would seize power by reusing eunuchs and even military ministers.
Because the lessons of history are not far away.
In Zhu Yijun's view, Shen Shixing may really just think that what the new chief minister should do is not to exercise power on behalf of the emperor, but to manage the relationship between the emperor and his ministers. He wants to use a more peaceful approach to the too fierce political struggle in the Zhang Juzheng era and now. Instead of killing ministers for the New Deal or even killing officials of the same department to clean up the family, we should deal with it in a certain way.
Shen Shixing may think that what the new chief minister should do is to allow tens of thousands of civil servants in the world to be more cooperative in executing the emperor's will through the chief minister's supervision, rather than forming cliques and coordinating powerful ministers. In order to complete a certain reform at the request of the emperor, he even had to take various drastic measures to severely crack down on officials who disobeyed the powerful ministers and insisted that the power belonged to the emperor.
After all, Neo-Confucianism is still the dominant thought today.
Therefore, among the officials who are loyal to the court, most officials still insist that the power is only controlled by the king and father, which is a normal court. Whether it is the emergence of powerful eunuchs or powerful ministers, it is abnormal and is no different from the dictatorship of relatives or the dictatorship of the harem. .
The biggest problem with Zhang Juzheng's implementation of reforms in front of Zhu Yijun was that he became a de facto powerful official and was not tolerated by many Neo-Confucian ministers in the world. No matter how correct he was, in the eyes of Neo-Confucian officials, his power The source is illegal, not to mention, what Zhang Juzheng did did harm the interests of the officials, gentry and people all over the world.
(End of chapter)
