It stands to reason that since Huo Ji is a minister-level official who favors Gao Gong, Gao Gong seems to be the one who should help him in this matter, but the situation is not that simple.
In the first year of Huo Ji Longqing's reign, he was the governor of the three sides of Shaanxi. In February, Zhang Juzheng entered the cabinet to participate in machine maintenance. At that time, Xu Jie was in great power. Gao Gong left the cabinet in May of the first year because of disagreements with Xu Jie. In September, I attacked Datong, fell into Shizhou, plundered Jiaocheng and Wenshui, and marched straight into the middle of Shanxi Province. The capital was in the terror of war. In October, I led my troops to retreat north after being satisfied with the plunder. Emperor Longqing issued an edict to discuss war and defense matters with the ministers. Guo Qian, the Minister of War, was dismissed from his post. In October, Dinghai, Huo Ji took over. During the Sino-Japanese War, Wang Chonggu, who was governor of Ningxia, was changed to the right minister of the Ministry of War and the censor of the right Qiandu, and became the governor of the three sides of Shaanxi.
In the third year of Longqing, Huo Ji entered Jiubian Books. This year there were frequent disasters. Huo Ji and Yang Bo begged for leave together, but Long Qing refused.
Here comes the problem. At that time, Yang Bo was the Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, so it was reasonable for him to resign frequently due to disasters, but why did Huo Ji, the Minister of the Ministry of War, also join in the fun?
The reason is that Huo Ji and Yang Bo are from the same hometown, and to advance and retreat together to this extent shows that the relationship is very unusual. Before Huo Ji, Yang Bo was the Minister of the Ministry of War. When Huo Ji was the Minister of the Ministry of War, Yang Bo was the Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, but he was also in charge of the affairs of the Ministry of War. It can be seen that when Huo Ji was the Minister of the Ministry of War, Yang Bo must have Help, he definitely hopes that one of his own will continue to manage the Ministry of War, so that there will be no conflicts.
So in the final analysis, Huo Ji is Yang Bo's person, not Gao Gong's person. As for why his political attitude tilts towards Gao Gong, there is an incomplete reason: Gao Gong has always had a good relationship with Shanxi officials - do you remember what triggered the conflict between Xu Jie and Gao Gong? It was that time when Yang Bo presided over the Beijing Inquisition, Gao Gong was on Yang Bo's side.
Of course, the specific situation is quite complicated and cannot be explained in a few words. In short, the political attitudes of Shanxi-born officials such as Yang Bo, Wang Chonggu, and Zhang Siwei tended to be high-profile in the court. As one of the Shanxi-born officials, Huo Ji probably followed Yang Bo internally. It’s not surprising that they also tend to have high arches.
But in any case, Huo Ji's "big brother" is Yang Bo, not Gao Gong.
In this case, Gao Gong can't just push forward casually. He must at least wait for Yang Bo to express his position before he can take action. Otherwise, what do you want Yang Bo to think? What do other officials from Shanxi think?
What's going on, are you, Gao Suqing, planning to directly integrate our Shanxi Gang as a whole or something?
For this reason, it is definitely inconvenient for Gao Gong to intervene now. Even if he wants to intervene, he will have to wait until Huo Ji cannot withstand the pressure of Zhao Zhenji and Yang Bo is helpless. Only then will the weight of the action become apparent.
But in the original history, something went wrong later, and the reasons were complicated. To put it simply, Huo Ji resigned out of anger, and Gao Gong had no time to do anything. However, a year later, Gao Gong became the chief minister and consolidated his position, so he instructed his close disciples and officials to inform Han Ji, who was involved in the matter, and asked Huo Ji to be reinstated. Not only Han Ji, but starting from Han Ji, a large number of Gao Gong's disciples and former officials petitioned to re-appoint Huo Ji. However, Huo Ji fell ill at that time and was in poor health, so he refused. Four more years later He died of illness.
This is probably the cause and effect of the matter, and now it’s time to get down to business.
Although Emperor Longqing was usually quiet, he actually knew these inside stories very well. He knew that the idea that Zhao Zhenji was only at odds with Gao Gong because of his stubborn temper and arrogance was completely untenable. Zhao Zhenji is a remnant of Xu Jie's party. The conflict between him and Gao Gong is ultimately due to different governance concepts: Xu Jie's governance philosophy has long been stated, and thousands of words can be summed up in one sentence: maintain the status quo.
But Gao Gong is obviously not satisfied with maintaining the status quo. What he wants is to "eliminate the eight evils" and create a new and upward Ming Dynasty.
The conflict between these two people cannot be resolved at all. The reason why Zhao Zhenji is still retained is that firstly, Zhao Zhenji has not made any big mistakes so far and cannot be dismissed without guilt; secondly, the forces within Xu Jieyu's party have not been straightened out yet and they have to wait.
The former need not be said much, but the latter must be mentioned.
Who is Emperor Longqing waiting for to sort out the internal forces of Xu Jieyu's party?
It was none other than Zhang Juzheng.
Zhang Juzheng was of course a member of Xu Jie's party, but he was also a potential official of Long Qing. In this case, whether to use him or not depends on his own inclination.
How does Long Qing observe his tendencies? It's quite simple: those who are close to Gao Gong are inclined towards him as the emperor; those who are far away from Gao Gong are the selfish Xu Jie party members.
After all, in Long Qing's mind, because Gao Gong's political ideals overlapped perfectly with his own, Gao Gong was his plenipotentiary spokesperson in the outer court, his direct descendant among his direct descendants, and his closest confidant among his closest relatives.
It is said that being with Gao Gong is like being with Emperor Longqing; anyone who is stranger to Gao Gong is like being with Emperor Longqing.
Therefore, his subconscious words would not mention Zhao Zhenji at all.
Gao pragmatic vaguely understood this truth, and suddenly felt that his waist was no longer sore, his legs were no longer painful, and he could climb the fifth floor in one breath... Hey, why is this sentence so familiar?
At this time, Meng Chong also smiled and nodded, and agreed: "Yes, yes, Long Live Grandpa is sage and arbitrary. The cabinet finally... finally understands Long Live Grandpa's painstaking efforts." As he spoke, he felt scared and thought : Straight lady, I almost said, "The cabinet finally gave me face and didn't return the decree." Fortunately, I responded in time.
Long Qing also smiled and nodded, and said to Feng Bao: "Feng Bao, go and tell me in person that you can engrave Gao Pragmatic's plaque."
Engraving and carving plates refers to engraving official seals and waist badges. With this thing in mind, only those who are highly pragmatic can be regarded as serious Ming officials.
Gao pragmatically thought a little bit: I wonder what will be written on my official seal and waist badge?
The official seal must be that of the crown prince?
Should the badge read "The Prince's Accompanying Student, Fake Attendant, Bachelor's Degree, High and Pragmatic"?
My two officials seem to be a bit like a formal position with an additional title, but they don't have a serious rank. If they were placed in the previous life, what kind of rank would they be?
From the fifth rank, it should be a Zhizhou. Should the Zhizhou be equivalent to the deputy director, or the principal? Then shouldn't I be counted as... having no rank but enjoying the treatment of deputy director or senior director?
Interesting...
It is still easy to get along in this era. At just a few years old, you can get to a level that you did not reach in your previous life when you were more than 30 years old. This shows that there is an old saying: There are people in the court who are easy to be officials!
