Xu Jie's situation cannot be described in a nice way now. He's definitely in trouble right now.
Zhang Juzheng's face was as gloomy as water, and he carefully reviewed the political situation of the past two months in his mind. Then he discovered that Gao Gong seemed to really want to rebel against Xu Jie's old politics recently.
What's even more frightening is that Zhang Juzheng knew that Gao Gong really wanted to oppose Xu Jie's old regime from the bottom of his heart.
This matter must start from the specific circumstances of that year: On December 14, the forty-fifth year of Jiajing, Emperor Jiajing passed away. That night, Xu Jie summoned his favorite disciple Zhang Juzheng and rushed to make a copy of Jiajing's "Posthumous Edict" in his own voice. In the morning of the next day, he presented it to King Yu as the new emperor, who proclaimed it to the world. However, this matter was not discussed with other colleagues in the cabinet. It was only Xu Jie's decision and Zhang Juzheng's decision, completely excluding other ministers. This caused another intensification of cabinet conflicts.
Cabinet colleagues who have been completely exposed to transparency must not be able to calm down!
Although Li Chunfang, who only followed Xu Jie's lead, did not dare to express any opinions, the two elders Gao Gong and Guo Pu were furious. Guo Pu said excitedly on the spot: "Xu Gong is pretending to be a posthumous edict and slandering the late emperor. His heart is to be punished!"
Gao Gong immediately agreed and said: "The late emperor is the British master. Could it be that everything he did in the past forty-five years was wrong? Now I am the late emperor's biological son. He ascended the throne at the age of thirty. He is not a young master. How can I force this general to do so?" If the late emperor's sins were exposed to the world, where would the emperor's dignity be put? Furthermore, the late emperor had originally wanted to stop the affairs of the emperor. Who suggested that he rebuild the Purple Emperor's Palace? Those civil engineering projects were all covered every foot. The father and son of the Xu family planned it themselves, now can they all be blamed on the late emperor? Before the late emperor was alive, he was always flattering, and as soon as the late emperor came to power, he would wantonly slander and insult him, which is really disgusting." As he said this, he looked at each other in tears with Guo Pu.
In fact, it may not be possible to say that all of Gao Gong's remarks came from his true heart. Logically speaking, he didn't have that deep affection for Emperor Jiajing, and he wouldn't really be sad about his reputation being ruined after his death. In fact, he was mainly worried that King Yu, the new emperor, might be kidnapped by Xu Jie and be wronged. After all, his relationship with Emperor Longqing was far beyond comparison with others.
However, from a fundamental starting point, these remarks are mainly aimed at Xu Jie. Because Xu Jie actually took advantage of the opportunity of the change of generations to cleverly blame all the bad policies of the previous dynasty on the dead, thus cleansing his own previous disgraceful actions. Not only that, he also greatly bought people's hearts. And when he was doing this, he deliberately excluded his cabinet colleagues, including Gao Gong himself. This kind of unabashed contempt and suppression was what really made Gao Gong resentful.
Because Gao Gong positioned himself as Emperor Longqing's first loyal minister, he believed that Xu Jie's actions were not only selfish, but also deliberately suppressing and contemptuous of the new emperor's majesty - my father has done all the wrong things in his life, and I Where can this new gentleman go to face him?
Of course, the conflict between Xu and Gao is not limited to this. Just give two examples: at the army reward ceremony after the new emperor ascended the throne, Gao Gong once again had political differences with Xu Jie. Originally, the reward given to the military when the new emperor ascended the throne was not an ancestral system, but a practice that began in the first year of orthodoxy. When Emperor Jiajing came to the throne, he doubled the original reward because the treasury was strong.
When Longqing ascended the throne, Xu Jie planned to act in accordance with the standards when Jiajing ascended the throne. Gao Gong immediately objected, saying: "The current treasury is empty and cannot afford this consumption. It is better to act according to the standards of the orthodox period, then you can save half of it." As for the money, only two million is enough.”
Xu Jie directly rejected Gao Gong's suggestion. Because Xu Jie knows that for the people below, the more the better, and reducing the rewards for whatever reason will offend people. With Xu Jie's shrewdness, of course he would not do such a stupid thing that would be harmful to himself. After all, Xu Ge Lao did not have to pay for the reward. As a result, Gao Gong fought hard but failed. In the end, the rewards were issued according to the standards of Jiajing's accession to the throne, but the Ministry of Households was in dire straits for this.
Another example is that there was a court meeting, and the officials were arguing over whether a minister should be appointed. The two sides argued so hard that they almost staged a full-scale martial arts show. As soon as Xu Jie saw that the situation was difficult to control, and he was unwilling to offend either party, he planned to push the issue to the emperor and let the emperor decide whether the minister should stay or go.
Gao Gong questioned Xu Jie's irresponsible behavior on the spot and objected: "We cannot set the precedent of 'respectfully requesting the Holy See'. In the previous dynasty, we did not ask for the Holy See to make a decision because the late emperor had been in power for a long time and had a good understanding of the state system; now that I have ascended the throne, It has only been a few days, how is it possible to know which of the ministers are virtuous and who is unworthy? Let the emperor make his own decision, how should the emperor judge? I am afraid I can only ask the people around me. If things continue like this, major events in the world may be hijacked by Xiaoxiao."
Xu Jie immediately darkened his face, thinking that Gao Gong was purely unreasonable and had to face him in everything to be happy. With the support of the officials, Xu Jie once again won, and finally invited the "superior judge". The conflict between Gao Gong and Xu Jie also became more public, and everyone in the court knew about it. Due to Xu Jie's prestige and influence, as well as his unwillingness to offend others, while Gao Gong was devoted to protecting his emperor's students, public opinion tended to accuse Gao Gong of wielding power and disrupting the order of the cabinet.
Conflicts like this were played out almost continuously between Xu and Gao during the nearly one year when Gao Gong first joined the cabinet. It's just that because of the initial instability of the new dynasty, the atmosphere affected by these things has become increasingly subtle. Huang Jingfang, a contemporary, commented: "Gao Gong is responsible for resentment, while Xu Jie is devoted to kindness. This is where the conflict between the two begins." This evaluation can be said to be pertinent.
The smoothness of the Xu steps and the straightforwardness of the high arches form a sharp contrast, and they are both irreconcilable contradictions. The two people's level of concern for state affairs is not at the same level. Xu Jie takes into account the interests of all parties and is particularly cautious. His primary purpose is to protect himself wisely and always make himself invincible on the basis of handling events tactfully. Gao Gong, on the other hand, tends to talk about things and is not distracted. For this reason, he does not even care about talking to anyone. Make grudges.
In the final analysis, Xu Jie cares about official position, fame and fortune, while Gao Gong cares about the great cause of the world.
Later, because of the Beijing investigation, the Hu Yingjia case broke out. After a fierce struggle, "the whole court was reversed", Gao Gong resigned in embarrassment, and Xu Jie finally lost his sacred heart and returned to his hometown.
When Gao Gong came back this time, he first overthrew "the ministers who recommended the advice of the previous dynasty". When Xu Jie drafted the "Jiajing Posthumous Edict", he rehabilitated the ministers who were dismissed, exiled, imprisoned and sentenced to death for speaking out during the forty-five years of Jiajing's reign. A large number of people were involved, and there was no gain. It’s hard to say how popular it will be, but it’s definitely a good thing that will win the support of officials.
But as soon as Gao Gong returned to Beijing, he immediately overturned this. Gao Gong's reason is that the "crimes" of these ministers were all determined by the late Emperor Jiajing. Can the case decided by the late emperor be overturned? No, because if these people are rehabilitated, wouldn't it be obvious that the late emperor was in the wrong? That’s okay!
In a word, Xu Jie's behavior is "harmful to the saintly virtue". At the same time, he commented that Xu Jie "does not serve the emperor with loyalty and filial piety, but acts on his own account" and "returns to the late emperor." This move was of course very cruel, and in Zhang Juzheng's view, it was an attempt to kill Xu Jie. Fortunately, Long Qing was quite assertive this time. He only agreed that the guilty ministers should not be "unscreened and recorded with caution", but did not directly touch Xu Jie.
But even though the decree said so, it actually overturned the "Edict", and the efforts to rehabilitate the ministers who had been convicted of the crime ended without a cure. Hundreds of families who had hoped to see the light of day again fell into misery. There is also a person involved here, this person is the father of the great writer Wang Shizhen. The result... Historically, Wang Shizhen wrote "The Biography of the First Assistant Since Jiajing", which arbitrarily slandered and vilified Gao Gong. Whenever Gao Gong had merit, he either brushed it off or said it was "black and white", and as long as there were any negative remarks against Gao Gong, The rumors were clearly recorded and analyzed one by one.
Because of Wang Shizhen's historical position in the literary world, this "Shou Fu Zhuan" has become an important material for later generations to study this period of history! This is the reason why Gao Gong's reputation has been bad for so many years in later generations. It was not until around the time of the reform and opening up that some scholars slowly overturned the verdict.
Feng Bao saw Zhang Ju's face sinking like water, with a trace of murderous intent unconsciously revealed in his eyes. He was secretly proud in his heart, and struck again: "Mr. Taiyue, Gao Beard made a fuss a few days ago, saying that he and Hua Tinggong were just the same. A little private holiday, you are the person involved, you won’t believe it, right? And according to my informants, a few days ago, he had a night meeting with students in Beijing at home, including four science and technology officials ...What do you think his tall beard wants to do?”
