Throughout the meeting, Kong Zheng glanced at the frowning Huo Jianbai from time to time, filled with the desire to retaliate against him.
To be honest, Kong Zheng thought that he was well-educated and had not lost any effort in cultivating his character since he was a child. It was not too difficult for him to remain calm even if Mount Tai collapsed in front of him.
But it is impossible to say that Kong Zheng does not hate Huo Jianbai.
They targeted him everywhere, set up obstacles everywhere, made small reports at every turn, and even went out to confront him, vowing to eradicate Kong Zheng and the Shandong faction.
How can you not hate it?
But he can't do anything now. At least until the limelight passes, he can't blatantly oppose Huo Jianbai, otherwise it won't be a good look, and it will be easy for others to gossip, saying that he neglects public affairs for personal reasons and is narrow-minded.
So he hoped that Huo Jianbai would be stupid and do something wrong, and let Su Yonglin punish Huo Jianbai.
Then create an opportunity for them from Shandong Department to enter the upper echelons of Shangshu Province.
Kong Zheng still has some ideas about the fact that no leading figure in the Shandong faction can enter the decision-making level of Shangshu Province.
After this failure, Kong Zheng not only realized his shortcomings in political struggle, but also realized that the Shandong Department's lack of connections with the top leaders of Shangshu Province was a big weakness.
There were no high-level connections or information channels in Shangshu Province, which prevented him from seizing the opportunity to explain to Su Yonglin in time.
In the end, Zhao Zuoliang took the initiative to apologize. He had just learned the news.
Kong Zheng had suffered enough from losing the opportunity and falling behind. If he could have known Zhao Zuoliang's movements and communicated with Su Yonglin earlier, he might have been able to save the situation and reduce the losses, and he would not have lost twenty in one go. A position of authority.
He now especially hopes to build some connections within the decision-making level of Shangshu Province, and even push some people to take up middle- and high-level positions in Shangshu Province, so as to avoid making the same mistakes as before.
However, the upper echelons of Shangshu Province are filled with people from Su Yonglin's Yuancong Faction, Yanyun Faction, and Foreign Clan Faction. These three factions are more or less resistant to the Shandong Faction.
Of course, I have to say that in the central government of the Ming Empire, although the Shandong Clan was slightly insufficient in terms of the number of senior officials, in terms of middle-level officials, the Shandong Clan was not inferior to the other three families at all.
The Shandong clique's numerical and quality advantages mean that at the level of middle-level administrative officials, the number of officials from the Yanyun clique and the foreign clan clique combined is less than the number of Shandong clique.
The numerical advantage of Su Yonglin's Yuan Clan is mainly reflected in the level of grassroots errand-running and petty officials, and it cannot compete with the Shandong Clan at the level of middle-level officials.
Kong Zheng believed that Su Yonglin knew the numerical and quality advantages of the Shandong Clique, so he deliberately suppressed the Shandong Clique at the top, but had to rely on Shandong Clique officials as middle-level officials. This was a balancing act.
Therefore, Kong Zheng believes that what the Shandong clique needs to do now is not to compete with other groups of forces at the high-level level where the strength is insufficient, and to show the political background of the Shandong clique in a tough way, but to lay a solid foundation, take advantage of the soft body, win over high-level relationships, and wait for opportunities. Movement to the top.
Especially the Shangshu Province, the agency directly under Su Yonglin often knows a lot of things at the first time. After they finish discussing, the news will be spread, and even the lower-level administrative departments will have to wait for a while.
Just such a period of time is enough to determine the occurrence of many things.
Political movements can be divided into two forms, one is to please and the other is to frame.
Kong Zheng can't do this kind of thing for the time being, so the only thing left is to please.
Who do you want to please?
Let alone Huo Jianbai, the bitter rivals and Kong Zheng belong to the category of wanting to kill each other. Unless the sky falls and the earth falls, there is no way to reconcile.
Let alone Yelu Chenghui. Shandong clique officials have never had a favorable impression of foreign cliques. Their relationship is second only to the Yanyun clique. Cooperating with them would be worse than committing suicide.
Then there is only one choice left.
That Pingzhang government official who also looked at his nose and his heart, and seemed not to care about it at all - Zhao Zuoliang.
Zhao Zuoliang, a senior official with a very special status who could not even be counted as a member of the Yuan Cong Department.
When Su Yonglin and Liu Yongzhen discussed the matter, Zhao Zuoliang remained silent.
When Lin Jingchun stood up to report to Su Yonglin on the fiscal expenditure issues of the Ming Empire, Zhao Zuoliang remained silent and secretly yawned.
At the beginning, when they first learned that Zhao Zuoliang was going to be in charge of political affairs, people around Kong Zheng were spreading the news about Zhao Zuoliang, an old Taishan, relying on the real Taishan. They were not only envious, but also mocking Zhao Zuoliang for pretending to be a tiger and relying on Su Yonglin to rise to power.
But Zhao Zuoliang pleaded guilty to the emperor before his movement, and the method of convicting himself and then directly defining the Shandong clique's resistance as a sin made Kong Zheng feel sad.
Whether this was Su Yonglin's instruction or Zhao Zuoliang's own initiative, it is enough to show that Zhao Zuoliang has considerable influence on the situation.
And if this is Zhao Zuoliang's own idea, it would explain the problem even more - Zhao Zuoliang is a deep-thinking person, not Su Yonglin's marionette and towering king as rumored by the outside world.
People who have real abilities can well control the power that belongs to Pingzhang political affairs.
As for how real the ability is, it's hard to say.
But no matter what, Kong Zheng felt that he needed to establish a relationship with Zhao Zuoliang.
Although this is more utilitarian, who doesn't like the feeling of someone fawning over them?
Previously, Kong Zheng heard that many middle-level and lower-level officials were trying every means to build relationships with high-level officials, and Zhao Zuoliang was the top priority.
At first, Kong Zheng was quite disdainful of this, feeling that he was also a senior official worthy of currying favor. However, after this round of blows, he realized that he was nothing at all in the high-level political struggle.
If Su Yonglin hadn't wanted to capture him, he would have been gone long ago.
There needs to be a backer, someone who can help and speak up at critical moments.
Kong Zheng began to silently think about how to approach Zhao Zuoliang and win his favor.
The State Council has also come to an end.
Su Yonglin set the work contents for the courtiers.
Educational reform, imperial examination reform, the central government's decisions and the comprehensive implementation of local governments will start from the first year of Hongwu, and strive to basically complete the work before the imperial examination in the second year of Hongwu. By the fifth year of Hongwu, we will strive to see the reform of the imperial examination and education the results of reform.
With such a lot of work, Kong Zheng felt that including the Ministry of Rites, the Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of Finance could not even hope to have a peaceful life. The numerous problems would make them fall into endless work hell.
Get promoted and make a fortune?
Political struggle?
Then you have to finish things first.
With deep melancholy, Kong Zheng left the meeting hall with the officials of the Ministry of Rites.
But this is not the end at all, or there is no end at all.
Su Yonglin was very diligent. After finishing the education conference here, he removed the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Personnel, leaving the Ministry of Finance, and then brought in the Ministry of Industry to continue the state affairs conference.
The content of this State Council meeting became the topic of regulating the Yellow River.
The Yellow River has greatly destroyed Hebei's agricultural productivity since the Sanyi River in the Northern Song Dynasty. The Yellow River has become a sharp knife hanging over the heads of the people of Hebei. It has also kicked off a century-old change that has seen economic decline in the north and economic prosperity in the south.
At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, Du Chong, a god-level figure who stayed in Tokyo, even destroyed the Yellow River embankment in an attempt to stop the Jin soldiers, which resulted in tragedy.
Not many Jin soldiers were drowned in the Yellow River, but people in the lower reaches of the Yellow River and the Huaihe River Basin suffered - more than 200,000 people died directly, and several times more were killed indirectly, with a total death of more than one million people, and tens of millions of people were made homeless by floods. people.
And this traitor later surrendered to the Kingdom of Jin and became the right prime minister of Yanjing, leaving behind descendants in the Kingdom of Jin.
Therefore, after Su Yonglin captured Zhongdu, he sent people to find Du Chong's tomb, dug out Du Chong's body, whipped the corpse, crushed his bones and scattered ashes.
Then he arrested all the descendants of his family who stayed in the Jin Kingdom and took them to the edge of the Yellow River. They were all beheaded and their bodies were pushed into the Yellow River. An altar was then set up to worship the more than one million people who died directly and indirectly because of Du Chong's digging of the Yellow River. people.
Finally, Su Yonglin cast a kneeling statue of Du Chong with pig iron on the edge of the Yellow River in Kaifeng City, and set up the "Traitor Du Chong Digging the Yellow River Embankment Monument", which recorded in detail the events before and after Du Chong dug the Yellow River embankment, and expressed his gratitude to the more than one million people who died as a result. Condolences and expression of guilt to the tens of millions of Lianghuai residents who suffered as a result.
Of course, Su Yonglin did not forget to give Southern Song eye drops.
