"Those who seek profit are very discerning, but those who seek fame are very different. Some seek the name of that time, while others seek the name of all ages."
Emperor Longqing's words were a bit difficult for the young prince to understand. Looking at his son's puzzled face, Zhu Zaiye also felt that what he said might be too profound. How could his son understand it when he was still young?
So after thinking about it, he decided to give an example and said: "My dear, you may not know that when my father was still Prince Yu, because of Yan Shifan... In short, Prince Yu's palace was getting poorer and poorer, and he could barely survive on the salary given by the court. . But in fact, there are gifts from the royal family, but I can't get them. At that time, Mr. Gao put down his identity and ambition and went back and forth for his father. He even came to Yan Shifan's door in person and begged Yan Shifan humbly, so that my father got the pitiful gift. . My dear, you have to know that Mr. Gao is a very talented man with a lot of experience. He is like a beggar. He works tirelessly and goes to great lengths for dad. How can dad not be grateful for his kindness?"
Zhu Yijun was surprised: "Huh? Not gong?"
"It's both kindness and merit." Zhu Zaiye said seriously: "Mr. Gao is my teacher. He preaches, teaches, and solves my doubts. This is his official duty. He teaches with all his heart, which is merit. But he sacrificed so much for me, but only I can regard it as 'grace'."
Zhu Yijun hesitated for a moment and said hesitantly: "But dad said that Mr. Gao also has selfish motives."
"Mr. Gao's selfishness is exactly what I want, isn't it?" Long Qing said with a smile: "Didn't I just say that Mr. Gao's target is Guan Zhongleyi, and dad is well aware of his talent and courage, so I let him do it. , so what? What he wants is to rejuvenate the Ming Dynasty, why doesn’t dad, the emperor, not want that?"
"But, my son heard that Xu Jie drove away Mr. Gao Ge the year before last, and his father just resurrected him not long ago. Then why?" Zhu Yijun asked strangely.
After hearing this, Longqing Emperor Zhu Zaihe fell silent, his eyes were a little dazed for a moment, and he murmured: "Sometimes, doing great things requires some sacrifice, but in fact, there are not many people who are really willing to sacrifice for you."
He recalled that not long after he came to the throne, because of the so-called greed for money, lust, and the "negligence" of the cabinet that seemed to ignore everything and ask questions about everything, an old minister known for his uprightness angrily commented on him: "Since the beginning of the world, I have never seen such a man. An emperor who can create a prosperous age by being so careless!"
Zhu Zaiye didn't mind such a roaring rebuke. He had his own way of being a king. He believed that he could create a prosperous age and create a ZTE.
In fact, many officials in the world know that he was very miserable and useless in his early years; but what many people don't know is that he was used to the hardships of people's livelihood and experienced the hardships of officialdom. He understood this required course for emperors earlier and more deeply than many emperors.
Moreover, although Jiajing was mean to him, he still trained him as his successor. Which of the teachers Gao Gong, Zhang Juzheng and others assigned to him were not great talents?
Even after he came to the throne, he never forgot the hardships of those years. Once when he was reviewing a memorial, he saw a local official requesting to commend a filial son. He recalled the past with his mother and burst into tears on the spot. This tearful memory is filled with the ideals he has always adhered to, just as he lamented to Gao Gong after Gao Gong's resurrection: I have encountered many difficulties since I came to the throne, but what I have never forgotten are the eight words in the imperial edict. One word - "According to changes and adaptability, promoting new changes!"
Facts have proved that he fulfilled this lifelong promise. And his method is based on two idioms: knowing people and being good at tasks, being soft on the outside and strong on the inside. These eight simple words are exactly the governing policy of Emperor Longqing.
The reason why Zhu Zaihe was "lazy and stupid" was because he believed that although there were many problems with the Ming Dynasty, there was only one root cause - official governance. If you are pragmatic and pragmatic about this view, you may not completely agree with it, but it is a view that Zhu Zaihe insists on.
Zhu Zaihe also believes that the most shocking thing in officialdom is the ever-increasing corruption.
Corrupt behaviors that were sneaky in the past, such as bribery, bribery, and embezzlement of public funds, have now become the order of the day. It is even more common for seniors to teach their juniors to be greedy, and for leaders to teach their subordinates to be bad. Mr. Gao once said to him: "This is why corruption is unbreakable." He agreed with Mr. Gao's words. The atmosphere of officialdom has become even more degenerate. A minister once commented that flattery has become modesty, and being too busy has become honest. People's descriptions are even harsher: "A wolf in the public house, a hawk in the private house."
In fact, Chongzhen also encountered similar problems sixty years later. However, Zhu Zaihe's understanding was obviously more than one level higher than that of Chongzhen. He publicly stated: "I can't investigate all the countries in the four directions by myself," and called for collective efforts to govern the country according to law!
But to do this, it is similar to catching birds. Not only must a good net be set up, but the key is to lay out the bait and release the scent. His "lazy and stupid" behavior is just blowing the wind. In the midst of singing and dancing, Zhu Zai's first "big net" - Jingcha, began.
At this time, the Beijing Police Department had become a mere formality, and the assessment of officials was basically a formality, often based on power and money, who had the money. If you have the right, you can stay. For a long time, there have been fewer and fewer good officials, and more and more corrupt people. So for this Beijing inspection, everyone was very relaxed and thought it was still just a formality. What they didn't expect was that Zhu Zaihe's breakthrough in rectifying officialdom was the "Beijing Procuratorate" that only targeted Beijing officials.
In the first month of the first year of Longqing, the thunderous results of the Beijing Procuratorate were announced: a large number of Beijing officials were dismissed. Even more than half of the officials who had been protected by the Procuratorate in the past and could never be offended were dismissed this time.
Such a fierce Jingchao had a severity that had not been seen in decades, because its presiding officer was Yang Bo, the then Minister of Personnel. This capable minister was old and had a stubborn temper. The Metropolitan Procuratorate, which originally cooperated with the Beijing Procuratorate, was also used as a decoration by him.
However, Yang Bo did not forget the hometown party in his anti-corruption campaign. As a Shanxi native, he did not even arrest a single Shanxi native. He "loved his hometown" so blatantly that the capital was in an uproar.
Sure enough, not long after the results were announced, Li Ke wrote an angry letter to Hu Yingjia, strongly criticizing Yang Bo's shameful behavior of shielding his fellow villagers during the Beijing inspection. Things like this were very common in previous imperial inspections. The vast majority of emperors never took it seriously, especially rarely dealing with officials who cursed.
But to everyone's surprise, when Zhu Zaihe, who was busy drafting girls, playing with jewelry, and entering the bridal chamber, heard that Yang Bo had been scolded, he angrily wrote an edict to the cabinet, saying that the official named Hu Yingjia was really honest. This is outrageous. Your cabinet will discuss this and teach this guy a lesson!
When the edict was sent to the cabinet, there was also an uproar, but this was what Zhu Zai was waiting for. He wanted to use this edict as a lead to bring out the disease hidden in Ming Dynasty's seemingly majestic body - inaction!
The people who suffer from the disease of "inaction" are headed by Xu Jie, the chief assistant.
Long Qing looked around at his trusted ministers, Zhang Juzheng was a disciple of Xu Jie, Chen Yiqin was fair but did not dare to be the first, Yin Shidan was the same year as Zhang Juzheng, and he was also a disciple of Xu Jie...
Zhu Zaihe could only propose Gao Gonglai to fight with Xu Jie!
As a result, everyone knew: "The Manchu Dynasty was inverted". Gao Gong wrote more than 20 memorials to resign and returned to his hometown to become an official.
Xu Jie seemed to have won a great victory, but Zhu Zaiye sneered behind his back.
The real loser is actually Xu Jie: his people were completely exposed in front of the emperor, and he went too far this time and angered the public - Gao Gong is gone, but the "Gao Party" will not The stars dispersed in an instant!
As a result, Xu Jie was surprised to find that many of his thugs were either punished or dismissed from office, and several other colleagues in the cabinet also began to defy him... After months of suffering, in the second year of Longqing, Xu Jie finally Realizing that this might be the emperor secretly punishing him, he wrote a resignation letter to see what was going on.
The situation is of course very bad, because Emperor Longqing wrote in his imperial pen: You should always go home, and you should not see him off.
When Xu Jie and Gao Gong were fighting, the reason why Gao Gong left in the first place was also the reason: the country was full of problems, but the new emperor had just ascended the throne, and stability was the top priority, so Xu Jie wanted to Jie exposed his strength, and for the time being he needed "Licorice Pavilion Elders" like Xu Jie to ensure the stability of the court; until it was time to in-depth rectification, Emperor Longqing would naturally not forget the teacher who he believed could truly rule the world!
So, the king of high arches returns.
In order to ensure the success of the reorganization, Zhu Zaiye also broke the old system and asked his teacher Gao Gong to concurrently serve as the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel as a cabinet bachelor, with a hand in administration and personnel.
Faced with the almost unreserved trust of the emperor's students, Gao Gong certainly would not be vague. This was also when Gao Pragmatic persuaded him to make greater efforts to open the sea and other matters. Gao Gong repeatedly said that it was not that he did not want to do it, but that there were more important things at the moment. The reason for the matter.
Emperor Longqing shook his head to free himself from his thoughts. He smiled inexplicably and said to Zhu Yijun: "For this reason, daddy will teach you next time. Today daddy wants to ask you another question first: If these honors Your noble son can't stay with you for a long time, how about daddy finding a civil servant son to accompany you?"
Zhu Yijun asked: "Whose descendant?"
"Mr. Gao's nephew." Long Qing said with a smile: "You rewarded me and said you had a great time chatting with him."
"Is it him?" Zhu Yijun's eyes lit up: "My son thinks he is pretty good."
Zhu Zaihe nodded and said pointedly: "Then, dad will support us for a few more days to make the noise outside bigger, and then...it depends on the performance of your little friend."
