On both sides of the imperial street between Chengtian Gate and Daming Gate were the civil and military offices of the imperial court. To the west of the Imperial Street are the Fifth Military Governor's Office and the Jinyiwei Yamen, as well as Taichang Temple and the General Affairs Department; to the east of the Imperial Street are the Zongren's Office and the Five Ministries (the Criminal Ministry, the Imperial Procuratorate, and the Dali Temple are listed separately , located in Fucai Square in the southwest of the imperial city), as well as Hanlin Academy, Honglu Temple, Qintianjian, Imperial Hospital, etc.
Generally speaking, with the exception of the Hanlin Academy, the closer these yamen are to Yujie, the more noble they are, or the more prominent their status.
The Hubu Yamen embodies its nobility and prominence - it faces Yujie and ranks first among the civil servants' Yamen on the east side of Yujie. To the north of the Hubu Yamen is the Libu, and further north of the Libu is the Zongren Mansion.
This setting obviously has symbolic meaning: since the Zongren Mansion manages clan affairs, Zhu Yuanzhang designated the Zongren Mansion as the first government office in the world, so it was not only placed on the side of the civil servants, but also closest to the palace. Its corresponding Wuchen Yamen was The Commander-in-Chief of the Chinese Army.
Below the Zongren Mansion is the Ministry of Personnel, and then it is the turn of the Ministry of Husbandry. However, although the official department is noble, it does not occupy a large area like the clan government. The two yamen together are even slightly smaller than the Hubu yamen. This shows how amazing the scale of the Hubu yamen is.
From today on, Gao Pragmatic is the official standing at the center of the six largest yamen departments.
From ancient times to the present, it is no small matter for the top leaders of any yamen or units to take up new posts. Even if Zhu Yuanzhang established a lot of rules for civil servants, as long as he dies, these dead rules will naturally not stop the living officials.
Although the Ming Dynasty had a lot of rules and theoretically did not allow grand officials to do anything when taking office, some procedures were actually necessary, such as a "meet-and-greet".
Faced with a clean and tidy Hubu Yamen after obvious "spring cleaning", as well as a large number of officials and staff, Gao Pragmatic naturally had to give a leadership speech.
However, he did not shout any big slogans. He just mentioned a work goal, which is to ensure that in the three years since the imperial court opened the vassal ban, the Ministry of Revenue can make every effort to ensure that the imperial court's financial situation is in good condition and try to eliminate the causes of the outbreak of the Northwest Rebellion—— The reason is the reduction of military pay. Everyone has known this for a long time.
This goal may not be too high or too low, but it is still acceptable and understandable to everyone. Originally, the current requirements of the imperial court for the Ministry of Household Affairs were pretty much the same. After all, if there was another rebellion in the Northwest, the number of people involved might not be as few as before.
Thanks to Gao Pragmatic's quick pacification of the rebellion in the northwest this time, although the shock was great at the time, the military exploits were sufficient and many things were covered up, otherwise it would not have ended well for everyone.
You see, if we really want to hold people accountable, if there is such a big mess in the local area, will Liang Wenmeng, the governor, not only be dismissed from his post? And if a small chaos turns into a big chaos, can Gao Guang still live in peace and quiet?
Not to mention the two of them, even the patrol officer might not be able to escape. As for the local officials such as the Chief Secretary and the Inspector General, every one of them could be found responsible for their incompetence and were subsequently implicated.
And is this really just a local issue? Isn't that right? Your Ministry of War has no responsibility? The Ministry of Accounts is not responsible? Even the officials are responsible!
Why did the Ministry of War agree to such a reduction in military pay earlier? Did you make a mistake in your calculations and overestimated the local "ability to withstand pressure"?
Why can't the Ministry of Revenue come up with more money and food, so it can only transfer the pressure to the local governments? Isn’t the work of your household department not “effective” enough?
And the Ministry of Personnel, what’s going on with the selection of officials in your Ministry of Personnel? Liang asked, Meng was harsh, Gao Guangxian was cowardly, how did you choose the local chief official? Is a place like the northwest suitable for such an official to rule?
Regardless of whether the above is justified or not, if you really want to care about it, you can bring it out and hold it accountable. Even if you are "not afraid of Tian Yan", even the emperor can get involved - after all, the reduction of military pay was approved by your emperor, so your majestic emperor can't take the leadership responsibility?
Of course, generally speaking, everyone still has a tacit understanding, and His Majesty the Emperor is usually not involved. But that's the truth. It just means that once this problem becomes more involved, it may get out of control.
Although the rebellion in the northwest has been basically settled now, we must remember the past and the aftermath. If chaos occurs in the northwest due to insufficient military pay, will other places be sure to be safe? No one dares to claim this guarantee, so the Ministry of Revenue is currently under great pressure and must find ways to raise money to eliminate these hidden dangers.
Although Shen Li's transfer to Zuodu Yushi is not a demotion, everyone can almost guess the hidden story behind it - he must have been transferred because of poor financial management, otherwise why is the person replaced now Gao Pragmatic, the golden touch? ? It is said that in the previous cabinet meeting, it was even proposed by the Holy Father himself to let Gao Pragmatic be the chief agricultural officer. Isn't this intention obvious?
Therefore, everyone quite understood Gao Pragmatic's simple speech today, and did not think that he was being arrogant and deliberately wanted to give everyone a blow.
Of course, the Ministry of Household Affairs was originally the sphere of influence of the Pragmatic School, and Gao Pragmatic really did not have to do this.
There were too many people at the meeting, dozens of people. Of course, Gao Pragmatic couldn't be too specific. Moreover, according to his habit, he would not launch any big operations without finding out the details of the household department. Then This is not a habit that a good leader should have.
There is an ironic saying in later generations that is specially used to describe this kind of leadership, which is called "a slap on the head, it's done; a slap on the chest, it's done; a slap on the thigh, it's broken; a slap on the butt, it's gone." Although Gao Pragmatic was just a leader in the past. Grassroots cadres, but they still take warning from this.
After the general meeting, there is a small meeting, which is a routine. After the meeting, it was time for the three ministers from the Ministry of Revenue to hold a high-level meeting, which was roughly equivalent to the meeting of local secretaries in later generations. As the saying goes, a meeting with many people is not important, and an important meeting with not many people is an inherent characteristic throughout the ages.
Unlike the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Household Affairs does not have a system of four ministers. There are only two ministers on the left and right, Cheng Wen, the left minister, and Hu Zhili, the right minister.
Cheng Wen was a gold medalist in Jiajing forty-four years. The examiner that year was Gao Gong, and Gao Gong had personally taught Gao Pragmatic to read. Therefore, although Cheng Wen was more than twenty years older than Gao Pragmatic, he often attended formal occasions. Gao pragmatism is called "brother", and Gao pragmatism is also called "senior brother".
The two of them had known each other for a long time. Gao Gongqi returned to Beijing in the past, and Gao pragmatism came with him. Soon they met Cheng Wen, who was an official at the time. Later, Gao pragmatically became a government official. When he first went to Datong as an envoy on behalf of the prince, Cheng Wen was the envoy. The relationship between the two was very good.
Later, Cheng Wen held many positions. At the Double Ninth Festival Conference where Gao Pragmatic returned to Beijing to discuss orthodox issues, Cheng Wen was already the Left Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs.
In a sense, Cheng Wen was the landlord of the Ministry of Household Affairs. The reason why he can take up such an important position is that, firstly, the Ministry of Household Affairs is one of the basic foundations of the Real School and needs to be guarded by "housekeeping generals"; secondly, it also shows that his ability is quite good - after all, the transfer of the Minister is sometimes political. The factors are greater than others, and Zuo Shilang is the "executive deputy" and often has to actually "preside over the overall work."
Although Shen Li was transferred due to poor performance in his job, Cheng Wen was not to blame for this. After all, he was not the person in charge, so he could only follow Shen Li's footsteps for many things. Once Shen Li loses his courage, Cheng Wen can't stand out either - this is sometimes the case in the officialdom. If you are more powerful than the first-in-command, but you are already the second-in-command, what will the second-in-command think of you? Therefore, Cheng Wen could only follow Shen Li's baton to do things.
Because Cheng Wen and Gao Pragmatic had a close relationship, Gao Pragmatic knew about these situations, but Gao Pragmatic didn't have any good ideas at that time.
After all, Shen Li is not Xu Guo. Gao Pragmatic can secretly argue with Xu Guo about who is the leader of the Shi School, but it is difficult to do this to Shen Li.
If he gives Cheng Wen his full support and lets Cheng Wen do his own thing, then on the one hand, Shen Li's situation will be very embarrassing, and on the other hand, the outside world will laugh at the fact that there is strife within the school, and even other troubles will arise as a result. Come on, isn’t it great and beautiful?
Now that Gao Pragmatic has become the Minister of Household Affairs, this situation can obviously be improved. He also believes that with his relationship with Cheng Wen, Cheng Wen can fully support his work.
As for Hu Zhili, his qualifications are even older. Not only has he held many positions, but he is also considered an "old household official".
Hu Zhili, whose courtesy name is Ruli and whose name is Yazhai, is from Yongchang but his ancestral home is in Lanzhou. He was originally from Yongchang from his father.
At the age of nine, Hu Zhili was already outstandingly intelligent and was highly praised by people at the time. He was called a child prodigy (the Ming Dynasty was indeed rich in child prodigies). He has not yet passed the imperial examination and entered the officialdom.
As mentioned earlier, most of the Jinshi in the Ming Dynasty were obtained in their thirties. People like Hu Zhili who passed the Jinshi in their twenties would basically be trained intensively. But it is a pity that although Hu Zhili passed the Jinshi examination, his ranking at that time was not very high - one of his classmates is now a Ge Lao, namely Wu Dui, who is the second-class "Jinshi". And Hu Zhili was not only ranked in the top three, he was even ranked 79th in the top three.
This ranking obviously had no chance with the Hanlin Academy, so Hu Zhili was appointed as the promotion official of Baoning Mansion.
Tuiguan is the official in charge of prisons in various government offices, equivalent to the president of the local intermediate court in later generations. In the Ming Dynasty, he also had the function of auditing, and was the seventh rank. Luo Tingshen, the then prefect, regarded him as childish and looked down upon him.
At that time, Hu Zhili came to his house, but Mr. Luo Mansion remained calm, as if he was talking to himself: "To win a Jinshi at such a young age, and to promote me to a position in the Baoning Mansion, I must have a backer in the court, right?"
Hu Zhili replied: "Nowadays, most of the ministers of the imperial court are famous people in the Jiangnan and Central Plains. Our ancestors are from Gansu. Even if students want to attach themselves to them, they don't know who to turn to!"
Mr. Luo Fu smiled again and said: "In today's world, if you have money, you can make the world go round."
Hu Zhili replied righteously: "The Lord's words are wrong. Firstly, the student's family is poor and he has no money to bribe court officials; secondly, he has been taught by his parents since he was a child, and his master clearly taught that bribery is an unjust act. If an adult treats a student as young, , have you ever remembered Gan Luo of the Qin Dynasty, Qu Bing of the Western Han Dynasty, and Zhou Yu of the Eastern Wu Dynasty? Before they reached their prime, they became very useful. Students feel ashamed that they are not talented. They are more than twenty years old, but they are only talented enough to get involved, and now they are ridiculed by adults. , really ashamed.”
Luo Tingshen was a little embarrassed when he heard that his family was poor, and said with a smile: "So, I am over fifty and have only just become a prefect, so I am even more embarrassed."
This Baoning Prefecture can be briefly introduced. From the 13th year of the Yuan Dynasty when Kublai Khan arrived to the first year of the Republic of China, Langzhong was governed as Baoning Prefecture for 636 years. In the Ming Dynasty, Langzhong was governed by the Northern Sichuan Guard Road, the Northern Sichuan Patrol Road, and the Northern Sichuan Military Preparatory Road.
North Sichuan Province also governs Baoning Prefecture, Shunqing Prefecture, Long'an Prefecture and Tongchuan Prefecture, a total of 31 prefectures and counties. Among them, Baoning Prefecture governs two prefectures and eight counties (namely: Jianzhou, Bazhou; Langzhong, Cangxi, Nannan). , Guangyuan, Zhaohua, Zitong, Tongjiang, and Nanjiang counties). In the Sichuan Opera that was widely circulated in the late Qing Dynasty, there was a singing line that later evolved into a common saying, "You are not afraid of lawsuits even if they go to Baoning Prefecture." This shows its His status and influence in Sichuan at that time.
When Hu Zhili took office, he reviewed the old cases of the two prefectures and eight counties under his jurisdiction one by one, regardless of the fatigue of the saddle and horse. Three days later, he brought all the old documents and more than 100 documents to see the prefect. Luo Tingshen was greatly puzzled: "Did he read all the files so quickly?"
Hu Zhili replied: "If you don't believe me, you can check randomly at will."
Mr. Luo Fu really didn't believe it, so he flipped through a few volumes and asked Hu Zhili: "After reading the volumes, what do you think?"
Hu Zhili replied: "There are thirty-six volumes, and the judgments are wrong and must be retried. Especially the case of Zhao Ting of Jianzhou who raped a civilian girl and forced her to death. Right and wrong are reversed and black and white cannot be distinguished. If this case is not corrected, it will be difficult for us to get justice." The law of the Ming Dynasty."
Luo Tingshen, the prefect, was a native of Chunhua, Shaanxi Province. After winning the imperial examination in the 25th year of Jiajing, his official career was ups and downs. He finally managed to survive until he was in his early fifties, and was promoted from chief officer to Baoning prefect in 1553. In addition to being busy with officialdom and socializing, he was also more interested in sparrow cards, gold, stones, and cultural relics (his "Xiaoshan Zhi" written in his life was also lost in the future).
He is good at perfunctory, prevaricating and flattering in government affairs, and his life is considered smooth. Unexpectedly, I would meet a newborn calf now, who is neither sensible nor humane, but insists on being truthful, and threatens to strengthen the righteousness, eliminate evil, and eradicate violence. What's even more terrible is that the Zhao Ting he mentioned was the son of Zhao Bingran, the Minister of War at the time.
Luo Fujun originally wanted to get in the way, but was pushed back by the "bookworm", so he had to avoid it on the excuse that he was not feeling well and needed some time to recuperate.
In fact, Hu Zhili knew full well who Zhao Ting was related to, but he knew better that Zhao Bingran was an important official of the dynasty who was able to govern the country with military force and civilized the country. He once put down the rebellion on the Yunnan border and led his cavalry into the desert to achieve military exploits.
When this official patrolled Jiangsu and Zhejiang, he assisted the deputy commander-in-chief Qi Jiguang in fighting against Japanese pirates. He made outstanding military achievements and had a good reputation. He successively served as the censor of Shuntian Prefecture, the censor of Jiangxi Province, and the governor of Datong in Xuanhua. He was awarded platinum and colorful silks by the emperor many times.
Hu Zhili secretly thought: Zhao Bingran is an upright official, loves the people like a son, and is famous in the government and the public. He will never tolerate his son corrupting the government and damaging his reputation. Therefore, Hu personally retried the case. When all the witnesses and evidence were present, the domineering Zhao Ting still wanted to deny it in every possible way, but he no longer had the arrogance of the past.
Hu Zhili was also worried that the case would implicate Zhao Bingran, so he decided to send the case file to the Ministry of Justice and then go to the Ministry of War to meet with Zhao Bingran to explain it, so as to prevent the sycophant from taking advantage of the opportunity to attack.
Just as he was about to get up, Zhang Shi, the then governor of Sichuan, came to Baoning Mansion in person and rebuked Hu Zhili sternly: "The case of Zhao Ting has been closed and reported to the Ministry of Punishment for approval. Why bother now?"
Hu Zhili replied: "Although the case has been concluded, the trial was unfair. Now, retrial is just to uphold the country's law and avenge the people's injustice. Why not?"
Zhang Shi said: "Who was instigating the retrial of this case?"
Hu Zhili replied: "It was all the lower official's idea."
Zhang Shi sneered and said, "You disobeyed the Ministry of Justice's instructions and retried old cases without authorization. What crime should you be punished for?"
Hu Zhili said: "To eliminate violence and bring peace to the people, and to avenge injustice for the people, this is the purpose of our Ming Dynasty Law. Moreover, Article 120 of the Criminal Code contains the law of 'trying unjust cases without first going through the Ministry of Punishment'. Futai will not forget it, right?" Zhang Yishi? At a loss for words, speechless.
Hu Zhili then hurriedly prepared the submission documents and rushed to the capital day and night. He promptly exchanged opinions with Zheng Xiao, the Secretary of the Ministry of Punishment, and repeatedly emphasized that "Zhao Ting forced people to die, and they should be beheaded. Moreover, this person has always done evil in the countryside and preyed on the people. In fact, The evil is so full that not killing him is not enough to appease the grievances and appease the people."
When he went to the Ministry of War to see Zhao Bingran and told the truth, the young Sima was silent for a long time, and suddenly choked up and said: "It's all my fault that I didn't know how to teach my son. The sin of an evil son will be dealt with according to the king's law, and will never be tolerated or condoned...". Later, he wrote a personal letter and asked Hu to deliver it to Zhang Shi, an old friend who had been recommended by Zhao Bingran to serve as governor of Sichuan.
After Zhang Shi read the letter, he had no choice but to agree to escort Zhao Ting, who had been taken away in advance, to Baoning Mansion. In the fall of that year, he was executed in Jianzhou. Luo Tingshen was frightened when he saw how powerful Hu Zhili was. He simply decided to "send away the plague god" and took the initiative to recommend Hu to the court. Soon Hu was promoted to head of the Ministry of Punishment.
After Hu Zhili came to Beijing, he successively served as the chief of the Ministry of Justice, the chief of the Ministry of War, the Selected Doctor of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Right Admiral of the General Affairs Department, Li Huang, the Minister of Taipu, the Minister of Guanglu, the Minister of Taichang, and the right deputy of the Metropolitan Procuratorate. He held the positions of censor, left minister of household affairs, and right minister of household affairs in Nanjing. Until he was transferred back to Beijing from Nanjing, he became today's right minister of household affairs.
The above two people are Gao Jingshi's right-hand men in the household department.
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