The night's discussion did not come to a conclusion. Although Gao pragmatic knew that Gao Gong had indeed compromised once during this period in history and transferred Hai Rui to another position, he was not sure whether Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng would still be the same after their discussions. Old history.
Even if Hai Rui is still transferred, it does not mean that he has really given up. Historically, a few months later Gao Dang reversed his previous policy and attacked Xu Dang again, and the struggle between North Korea and China became more obvious.
What Gao Pangshi still couldn't figure out was what happened in the months between the first and second wars, which caused Gao Dang, who had already given up on attacking Xu Dang, to choose to go to war in the end.
If you really can't figure it out, you can only let it go for a while, pay attention at all times, and respond immediately if the situation changes.
In addition to discussing two major matters this night, each disciple also discussed a few "small matters" respectively. Gao Pragmatic did not intend to interfere in some specific affairs of government at the moment. After all, Gao Gong had done a very good job in history, and It would be abnormal for a child like him to act very familiar with specific matters. This requires a process, so he basically just listened and did not express any opinions.
But there was an episode that attracted Gao Pragmatic's attention. It was Tu Menggui's mention that Zhao Zhenji first avoided welcoming his teacher, and then had several private meetings with Li Chunfang. He treated his teacher as a college student and was in charge of the official department. , not long after Zhao Zhenji took charge of the Metropolitan Procuratorate on Li Chunfang's recommendation, there may be some connection.
Zhao Zhenji originally also had the responsibility of leading the Metropolitan Procuratorate, but that kind of leadership is different from "taking charge of the Metropolitan Procuratorate". The former situation is similar to a deputy mayor in later generations who is in charge of certain tasks. For example, the deputy mayor is in charge of public security. But the "Capital Procuratorate" is equivalent to the deputy mayor also serving as the director of public security. The difference is actually very big.
Tu Menggui thought there might be some conspiracy here, and Li Chunfang might have actually sided with Zhao Zhenji.
Gao Pangshi agreed with this inference in his heart, otherwise it would not be possible to explain why Li Chunfang was so panicked after Zhao Zhenji's resignation in history, and finally resigned from office one after another and finally returned to his hometown as an official.
In fact, some historians in later generations put forward this idea after studying the late Longqing cabinet, but Gao Pragmatic was not clear about it. He inferred from another aspect: Li Chunfang's original political stance was close to Xu Jie's, and Zhao Zhenji was also from Xu Jie's faction. Mingqi in the imperial court, so it is reasonable for Li Chunfang to get close to or even join forces with Zhao Zhenji.
There are now five cabinet ministers in the cabinet. Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng have always had similar political views and can be regarded as one faction. Li Chunfang and Zhao Zhenji can be regarded as another faction once they get close, while Chen Yiqin can be regarded as a neutral faction if they do not agree with each other.
Is it possible that Li Chunfang is close to Zhao Zhenji? Of course there is.
Although Li Chunfang behaves like a good gentleman, no matter how good his temper is, he will definitely not be happy when he is the chief minister of the cabinet but does not have the power of the chief minister. After getting close to Zhao Zhenji, he will take advantage of the power of the Metropolitan Procuratorate controlled by Zhao Zhenji. , Li Chunfang, the chief assistant, is somewhat intimidating to the officials' talents. Because Zhao Zhenji was suppressed too hard in the past few years, he suddenly entered the cabinet this time, and his foundation was naturally insufficient. Therefore, he not only needed the political resources left by Xu Jie to solidify his foundation, but also needed Li Chunfang, his chief assistant, to build a strong foundation for him. Flag, cover.
Li and Zhao have the foundation and the need to unite.
Thinking of this, Gao Pragmatic suddenly realized something: If Gao Gong attacked Xu Jie's party, wouldn't he actually be attacking Zhao Zhenji's political foundation? Then Li Chunfang would definitely refuse, so it makes sense for Li Chunfang to step up to protect Xu Jie - not because he just wants to be a good gentleman, but because once Xu Jie falls, Zhao Zhenji will probably fall as well. Once Zhao Zhenji falls, Well, Li Chunfang is really just a figurehead. As for the fact that he pleads for Xu Jie but was directly rejected by Hai Rui, that's something Haigangfeng is too awesome to do and can't do anything about. In addition, Li Chunfang also knew that Chen Yiqin would not jump out to confront Gao Gong in this matter, because Chen Yiqin was also dissatisfied with Xu Jie's original approach.
Based on the original history, Gao Pragmatic is very clear that Chen Yiqin has truly always insisted that "a gentleman does not party", but here is the problem: his insistence now has a very difficult point. He and Gao Gong are colleagues in the Yufu, but He and Zhao Zhenji are from the same hometown. No matter which side he leans on, the world will think that he is on the same side and opposed to those who are different.
Unless Chen Yiqin changes his basic principles as an official, he can only remain neutral.
Then the cabinet becomes two against two, and it looks like a deadlock.
But Gao pragmatically knew that there were two unstable factors in this so-called deadlock.
The first unstable factor lies in Zhang Juzheng. This person seems to have always been on the side of Gao Gong, and even this time Gao Gong returned, he played a big role in it. However, the reason why he made great efforts to revive Gao Gong was that he wanted to use Gao Gong to deal with Zhao Zhenji. In fact, Zhang Juzheng was Xu Jie's favorite disciple, and the political resources left by Xu Jie were always regarded by him as part of his own strength. However, Zhao Zhenji's entry into the cabinet divided this strength, which made Zhang Juzheng very dissatisfied. Perhaps Xu Jie's original intention at that time was to let Zhao Zhenji cooperate with Zhang Juzheng in the cabinet. Unexpectedly, Zhao Zhenji relied on his old age and regarded Zhang Juzheng as a junior. He bossed him around and even called Zhang Juzheng "Zhang Zi" in public (Wufeng Note: It is roughly equivalent to calling someone "Zhang Zi" in modern times) "Xiao Zhang"), Zhang Juzheng has always been ashamed to be inferior to others, and of course he cannot accept it.
Therefore, Zhang Juzheng stood on Gao Gong's side and encouraged Gao Gong to become a vanguard against Zhao. The reason was not that he sincerely respected Gao Gong as the leader, but that he used Gao Gong's character and Gao Gong's holy family to defeat his opponents within the faction. Once Gao Gong successfully completes this mission, Zhang Juzheng will definitely turn his attention to Gao Gong every minute - this is what he did in history.
The second unstable factor is Gao Gong's holy family. The current cabinet is two against two. In fact, Gao Gong must actually have the advantage. This advantage is the Holy Family: the emperor obeys Gao Gong's words. However, only Gao Pingshi in the world knew that Emperor Longqing only had two years to live... He was only thirty-five years old when he died.
If Emperor Longqing is here, Gao Gong will be the de facto chief assistant regardless of whether he is in the position of chief assistant or not. If Emperor Longqing dies, this kind of holy love will disappear immediately: no matter the young emperor Wanli or the harem Queen Mother Chen and Queen Mother Li, they will not have that kind of trust in Gao Gong that is almost like family affection. At the starting line, the person the harem really trusted was the eunuch - the harem didn't understand the ministers, so it had no choice but to trust the eunuch. However, trusting the eunuchs does not mean trusting the eunuch Meng Chong at this time - he was recommended by Gao Gong and was not close to the Queen Mother of the two palaces. Not to mention that Empress Dowager Chen had no intention of getting involved in politics. Empress Dowager Li had no choice but to not get involved in politics because the emperor's son was underage. To do politics, she had to control the Supervisor of Ceremonies, so replacing Meng Chong with Feng Bao by her side was almost an inevitable choice.
However, the biggest reason why Gao Gong in history refused to let Feng Bao serve as the Chief of Ceremonies was because Feng Bao was a close confidant of Concubine Li and the "big companion" of the prince. Once the prince ascended the throne in the future, Feng Bao might become the next Wang Zhen. .
Gao Gong's "prejudgment" is certainly not unreasonable, because later Wei Zhongxian also took this path. As the chief assistant of a civil servant leader, suppressing eunuchs is a normal choice, especially for powerful eunuchs like Wang Zhen, which is absolutely unacceptable to civil servants. But what Gao Gong didn't expect was that because Feng Bao was a close confidant of Empress Dowager Li, and Empress Dowager Li was too strict with Wanli, Feng Bao could only act as a strict supervisor and did not establish too close a bond with Wanli. As a result, after Wanli took office, besides whipping Zhang Juzheng to death, the first thing he did was to exile Feng Bao - the exile was probably because it gave Empress Dowager Li face.
