Gao Pragmatic was familiar with the name Wang Zhizhen, but he had only met Wang Zhizhen a few times when Wang Chonggu was still in the capital, so he was not particularly impressed.
Wang Chonggu was actually Gao Jingshi's maternal uncle, who was called uncle in Puzhou where the Wang family was located. However, when Gao Jingshi met him in Datong (before I paid tribute, Gao Jingshi inspected the defense of Xuanda on behalf of the crown prince), because he led the Imperial orders and edicts were only addressed by official official names in person. After Wang Chonggu came to Beijing, he had several private visits and got to know Wang Zhizhen.
But Gao Jingshi is very familiar with Wang Zhizhen's father, Wang Qian, because Wang Qian was the one who advocated the establishment of the Wang family's private arsenal and took the initiative to come to Gao Jingshi to discuss cooperation. The main direction of the cooperation was to provide Beijing with refined iron and refined steel. .
Wang Qian's identity is Gao Jingshi's cousin, but he passed the Jinshi examination only one year earlier than Gao Jingshi. He was on the gold medal list in the fifth year of Wanli. He was already thirty-seven years old at that time, but his ranking was acceptable, and it was a coincidence. , ranked 37th in the top two (historical fact).
However, Wang Qian's official career was relatively average. After the Hanlin Academy was disbanded, he was appointed as the director of the Ministry of Industry. Not long after Gao Gong passed away, Gao Gong's party was unable to take care of him as a newcomer and allowed him to develop freely. As a result, he was sent to Hangzhou discusses taxes.
When I arrived in Hangzhou, I showed my talents. I happened to encounter a mutiny in Hangzhou Luomuying. The mutiny rebels kidnapped the governor Wu Shanyan. The name of this man may not be accurate. He did not solve the mutiny by himself because of "good words". The result was still Wang Qian. He rushed over to comfort him, settled the matter, and rescued Wu Futai.
However, before Wu Futai could repay Wang Qian, he was deemed incompetent by Zhu Yijun who learned the news and sent Zhang Jiayin, the Minister of War, to replace Wu Shanyan and suppress the Zhejiang army that continued to cause chaos. Therefore, Wang Qian had no choice but to stay in Zhejiang and be responsible for tax reform. The affairs in this area are still in Hangzhou and have not yet returned.
Wang Qian had two sons. The eldest son was Wang Zhizhen. He was not very good at studying, so he took advantage of Wang Chonggu's merits and became a Yin official and guarded thousands of households. After him, Wang Qian's second son Qian, Yinguozi Jiansheng; and the youngest son Cai Cai, who is currently He was still young, only thirteen or fourteen years old, and stayed in his hometown in Shanxi to study. In fact, the Wang family still had a place for Yin Guan and Jin Yiwei, but Zhi Qian and Zhicai seemed to be able to study at the moment, so they didn't go. They only gave it to Zhi Qian. Just because of his reputation as a Imperial College student, he will be exempted from one exam.
Let’s not talk about Zhiqian and Zhicai for now, let’s just talk about Wang Zhizhen. He is two years older than Gao Pragmatic. He is twenty-two this year. He has been working as a guard in Jinyiwei for several years, but he is still a Qianhu—he is Yinguan. Thousand households, it means they have been standing still for a few years, and they are basically just playing catch-up.
This seems a bit strange. Zhang Siwei has been the second assistant a few years ago. It stands to reason that it is easy to take care of his nephew. Why should Wang Zhizhen do so much?
In fact, Zhang Siwei also has his difficulties.
As we all know, there are only three of his juniors who are already in the officialdom. One is his nephew Gao Pragmatic, one is his son Zhang Taizheng, and the other is his nephew Wang Zhizhen.
Gao pragmatic has nothing to say, his future is favored by the entire Ming Dynasty, and there is no need for Zhang Siwei to pay special attention to him;
His son Zhang Taizheng was a serious Jinshi. He was in the eighth year of Wanli with Gao Pangshi, and he ranked fourth in the second class, and ranked among the top shujishi in the Hanlin Academy. After he left the house, he had already worked as the head of the Department of Rites and Worships in the Temple of Purity. Although he was just a sixth-grade idler with little luck, the Zhang family was not short of money anyway. He just had to follow the steps and take his time. For the time being, There is no need for Zhang Siwei to be promoted.
So everyone focused their attention on Zhang Siwei's Wang family relatives. Last time when Wang Qian, a cousin of Wang Qian, was sent to Hangzhou to collect taxes as the head of the Ministry of Industry, some censors impeached Zhang Siwei, saying that he was looking for a beauty for his cousin. Well, how could he have the time to think of something for Wang Zhizhen?
If the tree is big, it will definitely attract the wind, unless the tree is in a particularly good location and grows on the leeward side of the mountain - for example, if Gao Pragmatic is the emperor, the mountain behind his tree is the emperor, and the general wind will not come to him.
Of course, the more important reason may be that Gao Pragmatic itself is a rather special tree. He is a money tree.
But Zhang Siwei didn't have the opportunity to help Wang Zhizhen, but Gao Wuchen now has the opportunity, and he is not afraid to take advantage of it.
Why? Because in the original history, in the 23rd year of Wanli, Wang Zhizhen himself was able to become the left governor of Jinyiwei!
What does this mean? It shows that although Wang Zhizhen is not good at studying, he is still capable as a person and an official, and his work level is not too bad. Doesn't this provide a basis for promotion?
Moreover, Gao Jingshi did not promote Wang Zhizhen, and he did not have the power. He just created a chance for Wang Zhizhen to show his face so that his name could appear in front of Zhu Yijun. Of course, Gao Jingshi could also mention Wang Zhizhen directly in front of Zhu Yijun, but That would be inferior and not up to par.
As for Gao Wuben, his cousin is relatively honest and responsible. If he were in some Qingshui Yamen, he might be able to be a chief official, but in a land of tigers and wolves like Jinyiwei, Gao Wuben would not consider pushing him out at all. Now that he has reached the position of court official, it seems that Ding Po Tian can be a deputy, maybe even a little lower.
But in any case, Gao Pragmatic dared to think of ways to push them, and he didn't worry about the emperor's suspicion - not because he had a close relationship with the emperor.
This is a question of "system" and "trend".
The system is the unique Yinguan system of the Ming Dynasty (Yinguan existed in all dynasties, but the Ming Dynasty was more distinctive); the trend is the special trend of "civilian officials Yinwu military positions".
The system of shadow officials in the Ming Dynasty has been briefly discussed in the previous article of this book, so I will not go into details here. I will just talk about this magical trend of "civilian officials shadowing military positions".
According to the textual research of "Records of the Ming Dynasty", it can be found that the "civilian Yinwu" of the Ming Dynasty did not exist at the beginning, but originated in the Jingtai period.
In August of the first year of Jingtai (1450), Hou Jing, the Minister of War who was in charge of the army in Guizhou, "died in Puding due to exhaustion from overwork". Emperor Jing "gave him a funeral and buried him, and his son, Jin Yiwei, was hereditary to thousands of households." From then on, in the second year of Jingtai , Jingtai five years and so on, this kind of records of "civilians and military officials" began to appear continuously.
However, a careful analysis of the "civilian Yinwu" records of the Jingtai period shows that the status of those civil servants and military officials at that time should be regarded as individual awards for the meritorious service of the civil servants and military, and the degree of institutionalized operation is very low (I will not go into detail one by one). for example).
After that, the three dynasties of Tianshun, Chenghua, and Hongzhi continued the previous administration, regarding military contribution as the main criterion and assigning military positions to the children of civilian officials. At that time, when the Ming Dynasty was promoting the system of civil servants and governors, and the system of Fu commanding troops, the number of border ministers who were under the influence of the Ming Dynasty increased.
At that time, the specific conditions and implementation details of the civil servant Yinzi's military position were not listed in the canons. Judging from more than ten related cases since the Jingtai Dynasty, ministers who received preferential treatment from civil servant Yinwu were still an absolute minority in the civil service group and still belonged to the civil service group. Category of "heteronomia". However, the continuous accumulation of cases of civil servants and military officials also constitutes an institutional norm similar to "case law".
As "case law", the typical story of the former civil servant Yinzi's military career is often cited by later generations as the basis for re-opening Yinxu's grace. For example, Yu Qian's son Yu Mian was originally appointed as the deputy Qianhu of the avant-garde army. However, in the Chenghua Dynasty, Yu Mian "since Chen did not want to take a military position and became a member of the military department, Wai Lang" and then "tiredly moved to Yingtian Fuyin". But this is still a special case.
However, from the beginning of the Zhengde Dynasty, the number of civil servants who misused their military merits to cover up their hereditary military positions suddenly increased. This was obviously adversely affected by the Wu Zong's prowess in martial arts and the eunuchs' sycophantic behavior.
According to the "Bie Ji of Yanshan Hall", in the fifth year of Zhengde's reign during the Ningxia Peace Period, the cabinet ministers Li Dongyang, Yang Tinghe, Liu Zhong, Liang Chu, etc. were favored for their merits, and all cabinet ministers were promoted to officials. Although the cabinet elders did not shadow the military ministers this time, Bian Gongen and the cabinet really "started this year."
In the eighth year of Zhengde's reign, "the rebels in Shandong and Henan were defeated, and the cabinet bachelors Li Dongyang, Yang Tinghe, Liang Chu, and Fei Hong, each of whom was a descendant of the Jin Dynasty, passed on to the throne of thousands of households and resigned."
Afterwards, in the twelfth year of Zhengde, the imperial court "recorded the merits of Datong Fishing King Mountain and the southwest mountain village of the town, etc.", and supervise the eunuch Zhang Zhong to "add twenty-four stones of rice, and one of Yin's brothers and nephews to guard thousands of households in Jinyi". "Liu Huizi, the commander-in-chief of the left army, deputy to a thousand households, and Ding Fengzi, the admiral's assistant to hundreds of households, are all hereditary." He also added that "the military department has made great contributions in planning and planning" and Wang Qiong, the minister, "the young protector is also the crown prince's Taibao, and the shadow is as loyal as the son."
This battle was originally due to the fighting of the generals Hang Xiong and others, "this victory was achieved", but the eunuch Zhang Zhong returned to the court early and had no credit. It was only because Wang Qiong, the Minister of War, asked, "Zhong Zhong was rewarded again and merged with Qiong." . At that time, Wang Qiong "joined forces with Quan Xing" and pretended to be the leader of military exploits many times.
In July of the 13th year of Zhengde's reign, Emperor Wuzong launched the "Yingzhou imperial prisoner merit promotion reward" and generously rewarded Yin's ministers and generals' children, including "Zheng Congren and Hou Guan, governor's ministers, and Hu Zan and Liu Da, the imperial censors of Fudu". There are hundreds of households in Jinyiwei. This time Tui En Jiayin was considered by the compiler of "Records of Emperor Wuzong of the Ming Dynasty" to be "unparalleled military merit."
However, within the same month, Wu Zong also rewarded the eunuch Gu Dayong and other ministers who accompanied the army, the Minister of War Wang Qiong and other civil servants, and the governor Zhu Tai and other military officers in the name of "the powerful general Zhu Shou, the governor of military affairs, personally unified the Sixth Division to exterminate the bandits". Fortunately, Bian Ren, Yin's descendants were assigned to the Jinyi Guards for thousands or hundreds of households. In the name of "planning and making plans and working together to achieve success", he ordered the cabinet Yang Tinghe, Liang Chu, Jiang Mian, and Mao Ji to "each Yin's nephew and one Jinyi Guards hereditary official for thousands of households."
In short, during the Zhengde Dynasty, some civil servants followed the internal ministers and acted in vain to abuse their military merits and take advantage of their military positions. This is really unreasonable.
After that, Emperor Jiajing succeeded to the throne, and in order to win over the courtiers and support him and gain merit, he started to abuse the throne on a large scale. Among them, the orders of the cabinet minister Yinzi were particularly unreasonable, and the ministers who were under the influence resigned one after another.
However, this momentum could no longer be stopped, especially since the middle and late Jiajing period, the Ming Dynasty was experiencing repeated affairs, which made it more normal for the court to favor the children of civil servants with military positions.
Cabinet ministers, military staff, local governors, martyred gentry, etc. were rewarded with various meritorious services. In the original history, this trend continued for a long time until the demise of the Ming Dynasty. From the middle to late Jiajing period, important ministers in the cabinet such as Xia Yan, who "exploited wealth and made his own hereditary brocade robes", Zhai Luan, who "traveled to nine sides with the old", Yin Jinyi, and other senior ministers and ministers such as Yan Song, Xu Jie, Gao Gong, Zhang Juzheng, etc. , all of them obtained Yinzi's brocade clothes due to their meritorious service in the army.
More importantly, the emperors did not have any distrust for the descendants of these ministers, and even had extra trust. For example, the current Liu Shouyou, the future Wang Zhizhen, Wu Mengming (grandson of Wu Dui), many of these Jinyiwei commanders were It is after the civil servant Yin Guan.
Since the system and trends are already like this, what does Gao Pragmatic have to worry about?
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Thanks to book friends "Joshua", "Charming Little TV", "Flying Fold-eared Cat", "Qin Dynasty Xiaozhu", and "kxzf" for their monthly support, thank you!
ps: After yesterday’s chapter, some book reviewers worried that Gao Jingshi’s relatives taking power in the Imperial Guard would affect the emperor’s trust in Gao Jingshi. Here is a little more explanation. There are still some non-institutional human issues left. The next chapter says, let me take a shower first.
