When it comes to making big moves in the officialdom, there are few cases like Gao Pingshi's "Qi Yong Shu", where he directly went to the Shu to comment on the matter as a minister.
Although the plan of the two cabinet elders of the Xinxue Sect has been decided, they must act according to the usual practice. First, they will go to the Kedao officials to discuss and see the emperor's reaction. Then, depending on the situation, they will mobilize higher-level officials to discuss the matter, and then raise the level step by step. , and in the end it is up to the elders to make the final decision, so there must be a process involved.
However, neither the northern inspection nor the southern inspection will be suspended due to this, so all inspection matters in the two places are still progressing smoothly.
Although Yang Wei was in charge of Becha, Gu Xian became the actual supervisor. Yang Wei took Gao Pragmatic's hint and deliberately kept a low profile, so the two most important items in the preparations for the Beijing inspection and the interview work were completely handled by Gu Xiancheng.
Kaoyu is the evaluation of subordinate officials by the superiors of various ministries and government offices. This is a large item in the Beijing inspection. However, this item is usually carried out after the consultation visit, so it is not involved for the time being and will be discussed later. (This will take at least a month or two.)
The so-called consultation means that before the inspection, the Ministry of Civil Affairs sends an interview book with the names of the officials to be inspected to other officials in Beijing. The officials with the responsibility of informing will evaluate the candidates they know or specify them. An act of unlawful deeds.
Its purpose is twofold: first, in the preparation stage of the Beijing inspection, it is to collect public information and "based on the investigation", in order to ensure that the Beijing inspection is fair and objective as much as possible; second, in the collecting stage of the Beijing inspection, the science and technology officials can use the information written by other officials to Kao Yu, impeach those who have not yet been deposed and censured to prevent incompetent officials from remaining in office.
For example, in the original history, during the inspection of Beijing in the 21st year of Wanli, "Yu Chunxi and three other people, who were subordinate to the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Ministry of War, visited the Shan and discussed it, and the science and technology were used to correct it." example.
The specific method of consultation has always been in the form of interviews. "History of the Ming Dynasty" states: "For those who visit individuals, the officials will inspect them, and they will consult the public to determine whether they are worthy or not. The court officials will vote for the inspectors because of what they have learned from the books." , things are verified, but there are reasons for the evildoers."
In layman's terms, the interview form is a questionnaire that lists the names of officials who are candidates for examination. The designated officials (mostly speaking officials) check and fill in the performance of officials they are familiar with or have heard about, and feedback it to the Ministry of Personnel. To assist with inspection.
After a period of development, the interview list gradually became complete and evolved into the interview list. Therefore, in the records, articles, and memorials of the Ming Dynasty, interview lists and interview records were often used interchangeably.
According to what Zhao Nanxing said in the original history of the 21st year of Wanli, who was a meritorious doctor but was actually responsible for the imperial inspection, when discussing the issue of interview registration (the original text is quite long, so I will not quote it), there are roughly the following key points:
Firstly, the interview order is not a product of the imperial inspection mandated by the Ming court, but is an expedient measure implemented by the officials to facilitate inspections and demonstrate the fairness of the inspection order; secondly, the exact time when the interview order appeared is difficult to ascertain, but It can be determined that it had already appeared before Longqing; thirdly, at the beginning of the release of the interview orders, the number of recipients was not wide. The only ones who received the interview orders were Zhang Ke and Zhang Henan Province. However, after a period of development, the order recipients The crowd gradually expanded; fourthly, the content of the interview list was only a list of the names of the officials who should be examined; fifthly, the interview list was actually the prototype of the interview book.
By this time in the Wanli period, the interview book had become the "old rule" in inspections, so many inspections in the Wanli period used the interview book.
The production of the interview book needs to go through three steps: conception, stereotypes, and binding, all of which are completed by officials from ministries and commissions. The specific details will not be detailed in this book.
After the interview book was formed, the Ministry of Personnel sent someone to deliver it to the Chief of Staff and the two ministers in charge of Henan Province. "The interview booklet is sent by the official (for examination of merit)", and the official department is in charge of the matter. After receiving the interview booklet from the official department, the censor of Henan Province distributed the interview booklet separately, which took about one or two hours. About a month. Judging from the time it was carried out, it was consistent with Yan Guan's statement and impeachment.
There are many officials listed in the interview list, and the "Responsibilities of the Ministry of Personnel" lists them in detail, quoted as follows:
This (official) ministry consults the household department, except for officials such as the Cangchang ambassador, and registers all subordinate officials.
The three ministries of rites, punishment, and work will register the subordinate officials.
In the Ministry of War, in addition to the officers affiliated with the guards of the five prefectures and those with experience in collecting grain, all the subordinate officers will be registered at the meeting, including those with experience in guard posts such as pro-army and brocade uniforms, commanders of soldiers and horses in the five cities, and martial arts instructors.
The Inquisition Office of the Consulting Capital will create a register for each palace, experience, and division.
The Cangchang Yamen, the governor-general, will have experience in managing the warehouse and collecting grain, and will be registered with the Cangchang ambassador, deputy envoy and other officials.
The letter was sent to the four temples of Taichang, Taipu, Guanglu, and Hongju, and to the supervisor of Shanglinyuan, and the officials of the fifth rank and below and all the subordinate officials were registered.
Zha paid Shuntian Mansion to register the court officials below the fifth rank of the mansion and the officials of the large and small yamen attached to it, and still ordered the mansion to change careers.
The General Administration Department, Shangbaosi Department, Liuke Department, Zhongshu Department and other yamen compiled books.
The interview rolls are mainly issued to officials, and the Ministry of Personnel Department sometimes accepts the interview rolls and assumes the responsibility of interviews. In addition, some high-ranking officials, such as cabinet ministers and Taiwanese governors (supervisors of the Metropolitan Procuratorate) will also receive visit notices. However, different officials receive different contents and reception times.
According to Zhao Nanxing's words: "The interview list does not list the names of the chief ministers; it will be sent to cabinet ministers and the superior officials of the Imperial Court in mid-October. The big interview list is sent by the court officials, and the names of the four divisions are listed first. The non-special department visit list Without the guidance of the chief minister, even if the ministers and other superiors came to the chief minister, they would not be allowed to visit each other, but they would only be temporarily arranged to stay and keep an eye on them."
It can be seen that there are differences in the interview registers. There are the so-called Kedao interview registers and the so-called grand interview registers. The name of the official subordinates is not included in the Kedao interview book, but the name of the official subordinates is included in the large interview book sent to the cabinet ministers and the director of the station. Moreover, the Kedao official received the interview order earlier, and the cabinet minister , the time for court officials to receive orders will be later.
In addition, the grade of the official responsible for sending the interview list will also differ depending on the recipient of the interview list. The officials responsible for delivering registrations to cabinet ministers and station chiefs were personally appointed by the Tang Guan of the Ministry of Personnel; while the officials responsible for delivering registrations to Yanguan only needed to be officials from the Kao Gong Department and those in charge of officials and ministers in charge of Henan Dao.
The main work after the issuance of the visit order will be taken over by Henan Road. Therefore, Tang Zhaojing, who was once in charge of the censor of Henan Province in history, once said: "All consultations, receipts, and receipts are all under the responsibility of the minister."
After the interview order is sent to the interviewer, the interview begins immediately. The usual method is to "gather public opinion from the whole country", that is, to hear what is said everywhere and consider it.
After the interview is over, the interviewer will fill in the interview form based on the content of the interview, which is called billing. "If there is evidence for the single document and the consultation and visit are the same, the ministry will not dare to manipulate people in vain."
However, there have always been conflicts among courtiers regarding filling out the visit form. On the one hand, due to the large number of people who took the exam within six years, "the department has no basis for investigation and it is difficult for the public to know", and "the parties involved are often difficult to see and hear, so they have to invest in honest interviews." Therefore, the supervisory officials need to largely The comments on the interview form will be used to determine the dismissal of personnel, so it is hoped that the officials receiving the interview form will fill in the interview form as detailed as possible so that the inspection can proceed smoothly.
On the other hand, since the interview form needs to be filled out with real names, although "the interview form is secret and difficult to be known to every household", there are still many officials who can see the interview form after it is handed in, such as the Ministry of Personnel, the superiors of the Imperial Court, the Kao Gong Department, Li Ke, Henan Road officials, etc.
Word of mouth is passed down among the people, and it inevitably falls into the ears of the people being criticized. For this reason, many public officials are afraid to take up their posts because they are worried that the contents filled in the interview form will be known to others, and their political future will be affected by accidentally offending the powerful. Therefore, there are cases where various excuses are used to avoid filling in the interview form.
Gu Xiancheng, the chief inspector this time, is not afraid of offending others, so he made his suggestion: "Those who are on duty must not use the long-distance investigation as an excuse to stir up the chaff; those on standby have already made plans and heard about it in the past, which is hard to tolerate." Avoid."
Although he made a statement, due to the influence of factors such as familiarity and familiarity, especially the great influence of Ding Hai's Beijing inspection this year, it has actually involved a battle between practical and spiritual studies, and the actual effect of the interview may still be unsatisfactory. Judging from past results, it is estimated that there will be a large number of "no results" interviews and anonymous interviews this year - most of which should be carried out by neutral officials.
After the interview order is issued, the consultation work is usually completed within two months, and the order will be "received by appointment" on a certain day of the month. Because there are two yamen responsible for issuing visit orders, one is the official department and the other is the Henan Province, there are also two yamen responsible for collecting the orders: one is the Henan Province and the other is the official department.
The reason why the receipt of bills does not go through the Civil Service Department is probably because the Civil Service Department is located in a close location, and it would be inconvenient for many officials to go to the Civil Service Department to hand over the bills, so they went to the Civil Service Department to pay the bills instead. After the receipt of the order, the work of checking the testimonials begins immediately, while the work of reviewing the order will not be carried out until a few days before the court hearing.
With such a complicated procedure and such a long-lasting process, it is impossible not to do other work during the period. The affairs of various ministries and yamen must still be followed, and the operation of the imperial court cannot be stopped for a moment. (So I’m going to add a narration here...)
Two days before the Mid-Autumn Festival, the capital received an urgent message from Li Song, governor of Liaodong:
Tumen's army sent out troops a month ago to surround Yehe's east and west cities. Because the two cities were strong and could not be broken for a long time, they divided their troops and plundered them. Su Wan, Wula, and Huifa were all plundered and suffered heavy losses.
Nurha Chibu, the left guard of Jianzhou, used the excuse that his wife Zhezhe was still in Yehe and was in danger, so he sent troops north to meet her. Since the journey from Jianzhou Zuowei to Yehe required passing through the territory under the jurisdiction of the Hada tribe, Hadabele Menggebul was warned by the Ming people, believing that Nurhachi's move was intended to attack Guo on a false road, "clearly going to Yehe, secretly planning to Hada", so Reluctant to open the border for Nurhaci to transit.
This move of course "annoyed" Nurhachi - he had previously won a great victory and defeated Nikan Wailan, and he was very high-spirited, but he was forced to retreat from Fushun Pass by a letter from Gao Pragmatic. He was just holding back his anger, and there was no room for Hada. "arrogance" - immediately decided to attack Hada.
At this time, Hada's military strength was divided into three parts, with Menggebulu, Daishan, and Kanggulu each leading one (see the chapters of Gao Pragmatic Fu Liao). Among them, Meng Gebulu received the support of Gao Jingshi because of his contribution in the incident of trapping and killing Qing Jia Ni and Yang Ji Ni by Gao Jingshi. He now has the largest number of troops and is stronger.
However, Hada had declined in the late Wanhan period, and Huergan continued to mess around again, causing considerable losses. Although the total strength of Hada is not weaker than Nurhaci's Jianzhou Left Guard, its actual combat effectiveness is actually somewhat inferior. In addition, they still had three points in the family. After Gao Pragmatic left office, Daishan and Kang Gulu began to defy Menggebulu, so Hada obviously couldn't defeat Nurhaci.
After Nurhachi sent troops, Menggebulu dispatched Daishan and Kanggulu to resist, claiming that he would "arrive shortly", but Daishan and Kanggulu were not fooled, and both said that they also needed time to prepare.
Menggebulu had a military staff officer assigned to him by Gao pragmatically through Jinghua. The staff suggested: "Since the two of them are unwilling to go alone, Baylor can take them with him." This means that since the two of them are unwilling to go alone, To resist Nurhaci, then Belle, let them come to your army and gather the three armies to go together.
But at this time, Nurhaci came very quickly and had already arrived near Qinghe River. Once he crossed the Qinghe River, his army would be almost in a flat area towards Hada City, with no danger to defend. Therefore, Menggebulu did not listen to the advice of Beijing's military staff, saying that as "the right pillar, General Longhu, and the Khan of Manchuria", he would never tolerate Nurhaci's "evil slave bullying the master", so he personally led the main force of four thousand Go to resist. Among the four thousand main force are the one thousand Wanhan's personal guard cavalry who performed meritorious service last time.
The positions and titles of "Youzhu Kingdom, General Longhu, and King of the Manchurian Kingdom" were obtained by Wan Khan through hard work in his early years. In his later period, they were already empty-handed. Later, in order to stabilize the situation in Liaodong, Gao pragmatically added these titles. The canonization allowed Meng Gebulu to inherit. After Menggebulu's attack, he even forgot that these were all false names. His real position of real power was actually just the commander of the Tashan Left Guard (when he was in high position, he was the Commander of the Tashan Left Guard) - in fact, he was on the same level as Nurhaci.
Menggebulu's 4,000 troops went south to resist Nurhaci, and Nurhachi's 3,000 troops went north to Qinghe. Naturally, a battle between the two sides was inevitable.
The process of the battle is relatively simple. Beijing's military staff suggested to Meng Gebulu: The best strategy for this battle is to create an opportunity to attack halfway across the river; the middle strategy is to rely on the slightly superior force to hold on to the river; the worst strategy is to let it go and attack.
Menggebulu felt that the best strategy was "too cunning" and the middle strategy was "not brave enough", so he chose the lower strategy.
Wonderful.
Nurhaci ran to Qinghe and saw that Menggebulu on the opposite side had set up his camp ten miles north of Qinghe. He was immediately stunned and said to the people around him: "Menggebulu is deceiving. There may be an ambush near the north bank of Qinghe in front of our army." " All his generals and his younger brother Shuerhaqi all said that this must be the case, so Nurhaci sent scouts with good water skills to cross the river at night to investigate.
As a result, there was no ambush on the other side. Except for the main camp ten miles away, Menggebulu even sent few exploration horses.
Nurhaci was so happy when he heard the news that he didn't even want to wait overnight. He started building a pontoon bridge that night and sent the vanguard to cross the river. Early the next morning, Menggebulu had just woken up from a hangover and heard that Nurhachi's army had arrayed along the river. He was not surprised but overjoyed and ordered preparations for war.
Gao Yimin, the military staff officer of Beijing, immediately left first on the pretext that he needed to report the war situation to the summit. Menggebulu did not object and personally took people to the Nurhachi formation to arrange a battle.
Nurhachi readily accepted the challenge, and all his troops were sent to the front army, and he commanded the central army to plunder the formation. Menggebulu also sent his generals to fight for the front army, but they were killed and dismounted in less than ten moves, and his subordinates collapsed.
Menggebulu was so surprised that he rushed forward with all his troops. However, he rushed forward too fast, and instead of retreating, he stepped forward and struck a blow with his sword, which shocked Menggebulu, who had just woken up from a hangover and was weak in strength. The knives flew away. Fortunately, Menggebulu himself was very good at riding, so he simply took advantage of the situation and jumped off his horse to escape the disaster.
But the coach failed in one move, and the battle could not be fought well. Nurhachi's main force was not sent out, and the Eyidu front army alone defeated Menggebulu's main force. Fortunately, the main force of the thousand cavalry under him was the real elite that Wan Khan had accumulated over the years. He rescued Mengbululu from the front of the battle and took him to escape northward, slipping back to Hada City.
The news Li Song sent back to the capital was that Menggebulu had been defeated and returned to Hada, and Nurhaci followed in the attack. Judging by the time, Nurhaci should have surrounded Hada City by this time.
----------
Thanks to book friend "Cao Mianzi" for your monthly ticket support, thank you!
