Chen Yubi, Chen Jingbang, and Xu Xuemo held court nominations as candidates for the Ministry of Civil Affairs. This approach was completely in line with "correct procedures." However, there are some problems with the ordering of these three candidates.
At this moment, Chen Yubi's position is the bachelor's degree in charge of the Hanlin Academy, Chen Jingbang is the left minister of the Ministry of Rites, and Xu Xuemo is the minister of the Ministry of Rites.
Once these three positions are laid out, it is obvious that the problem can be seen: Chen Yubi is in charge of academic affairs as a bachelor of the Hanlin Academy, and his status is quite special, let’s not talk about it for now; Chen Jingbang, as the left minister of the Ministry of Rites, is actually ranked before Xu Xuemo, the minister of the Ministry of Rites. There seems to be something wrong no matter how you look at it, and it is completely inconsistent with the Ming Dynasty officialdom that has always emphasized seniority rankings.
In fact, things are not that simple. The fact is that Chen Jingbang served as Minister of Rites once in the eleventh year of Wanli, but the time was very short. He resigned and returned to his hometown after just over two months because of worries about Ding's mother. However, he was unable to recover in time after Ding You because he himself fell ill again. After procrastinating, he finally recovered and returned to Beijing last year.
However, at this time, there was a lot of trouble in the capital, and there was really no place for him. We originally planned to let him go to the Sixth Department of Nanjing to find a position as a minister, but the position of Zuo Shilang in the Ministry of Rites happened to be vacant, so we had to feel sorry for him to fill it first. Missed this.
But the vacancy must be filled. His title, rank, literary official, etc. are all based on his previous rank as the Minister of Rites. And because he was older than Xu Xuemo when he first served as the Minister of Rites, the ranking this time was determined. In front of Xu Xuemo.
However, although seniority is important, for important ministerial positions that require court recommendation, seniority is not required for the recommenders in the primary selection of the Ministry of Personnel. However, this huge power is completely in the hands of the doctor of the Literary Selection Department of the Ministry of Personnel.
Well...that's pretty obvious.
Of course, power is sometimes very dangerous. For example, in the 21st year of Wanli in the original history, Gu Xiancheng was appointed as a doctor in the Literary Selection Department of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and was in charge of matters such as promotion and transfer of officials. In the 22nd year of Wanli, the imperial court jointly recommended the appointment of a cabinet bachelor. This time, the people nominated by Gu Xiancheng were disliked by Zhu Yijun and thus offended the emperor (Gu Xiancheng had already offended him not long ago), so they were directly stripped of their official status and dismissed from their posts and returned home.
However, this time, the emperor seemed to have no objection to the candidate selected by the Civil Affairs Department, and directly issued an order to recommend it.
Gao Pragmatic was well aware of the situation in the court, and of course he knew why the emperor had no objection. The reason is: Chen Yubi and Chen Jingbang should both be acceptable candidates for heavenly officialdom by the emperor. As for Xu Xuemo, who was at the bottom of the three recommended positions, the emperor probably only regarded him as a top candidate.
However, from a highly pragmatic point of view, the emperor would most likely recognize Chen Yubi more. The reason is that although Chen Yubi theoretically belongs to the neutral faction, in fact during the War of Yunnan and Burma, Chen Yubi's father Chen Yiqin was in the position of cabinet minister. The "Chen Party" formed on the Communist Party of China received great favor from Gao Pragmatic and retained the core of the Chen Party at that time, Yunnan Governor Liu Shizeng. From then on, Chen Yubi actually became a member of Gao Dang's family of the Practical School.
After the rise of the Civil Service at the end of the third year of Longqing, it has always been the exclusive domain of the Practical School, and the Civil Service itself is the yamen that must be controlled by the Practical School's reform. The emperor knew this very well. Therefore, unless the emperor does not intend to continue the reform, the position of Minister of the Ministry of Personnel will definitely be handed over to the Real School, or at least to a neutral school that will not restrict the Real School. Chen Yubi obviously meets this condition very well.
Of course, Chen Jingbang actually meets the requirements. Although he was born in Nantang, he was a Jinshi in the 44th year of Jiajing, so he also had Gao Gong as his disciple. However, he was not a core member of the Gao Party. Even when the court was doing its best, he was still on the fringes of the real school.
But he also has an advantage, that is, when Zhu Yijun was still the prince, he served as the prince's daily lecturer, and he could be regarded as the common teacher of Zhu Yijun and Gao Pragmatic. Of course, Zhu Yijun had a lot of teachers, and Guo Pu was the only one who was a pragmatic and serious teacher. However, these are traditional issues, so there is no need to elaborate on them.
All in all, Chen Jingbang was a person who was very familiar to the emperor, and his qualifications were completely sufficient. It was very reasonable for the Literary and Selection Department of the Ministry of Personnel to put him second in the recommendation.
As for Xu Xuemo, he, the Minister of Rites, was originally the product of the struggle and compromise between the Practical School and the Heart School at that time. It is hard to say whether the emperor had a bad feeling for him, but he must not have a good impression of him. Under the current circumstances, to put it bluntly, even if the recommendation finally recommended him, the emperor would probably "veto it with one vote" and ask the cabinet to recommend him again.
As soon as the Ting Tui incident came out, it also had another impact, that is, both Zhang Xueyan and Gao Pragmatic immediately accepted the emperor's "consolation" and immediately "came out and took matters into their own hands."
Well, we can't blame them for not being reserved. It's such an important matter for the imperial court to appoint the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel. If the Real School loses a Pavilion Elder and a Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, what if something unexpected happens... Although there is the emperor's " "One-vote veto power", but if the trouble really comes to that point, the real school will be too embarrassed to lose face.
Interest is always more important than face, not to mention such a critical core interest, so the two of them had no choice but to hold their noses and admit it. And this allowed everyone to see the emperor's methods again: Aren't you two unable to persuade him? What now?
I have a lot of ideas!
Three days later, the Tingtui campaign began. However, the process and results of this promotion were all expected, so there is no need to elaborate. Roughly speaking, not only the people of the Real School voted for Chen Yubi, but also many neutrals. The remaining neutrals voted for Chen Jingbang. Xu Xuemo got the lowest vote - even the Xin School did not vote. Give him the vote.
There were a lot of people participating in the recommendation of the Minister of Civil Affairs. In addition to the six cabinet ministers, there were also Da Jiuqing and Xiao Jiuqing. Xu Xuemo only got three votes in total. Excluding Shen Shixing and Wang Xijue, there was only one person. To vote for him, obviously everyone knew that the emperor would not pick him.
In this case, everyone might as well avoid disgusting the emperor and causing trouble for themselves. As for the person other than Shen Shixing and Wang Xijue... he is about to reach his age, and he has nothing to fear anyway, so he won't mention it.
As soon as the results came out, the emperor was indeed very satisfied. The results of the court recommendation came out in the morning, and in the afternoon the emperor issued an order to replace Yang Wei, who had resigned and returned home, to become the new Minister of the Ministry of Personnel.
Of course, according to tradition, Chen Yubi quickly went to the court to explain himself, saying that his talents and knowledge were not good enough, and his moral character was not worthy of Balabala's. Naturally, the emperor refused to resign. After completing the process, Chen Yubi took office.
However, the changes in the imperial court were not over yet. A few days after Chen Yubi took office as the new minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, Zhang Xueyan invited Wu Dui and Gao pragmatism to his house and solemnly expressed his intention to resign and return home.
This matter was actually expected by Gao Pragmatic, but he didn't expect Zhang Xueyan to be so anxious. He and Wu Dui tried to persuade him for a while, but Zhang Xueyan must have decided to leave this time and refused to stay in office no matter what. The two had no choice but to discuss successor candidates with Zhang Xueyan.
In fact, according to the current qualifications within the Real School, apart from Gao Pragmatic, the most suitable person to become a cabinet minister should be Shen Li. However, since Shen Li was replaced by Gao Pragmatic as the Secretary of the Ministry of Revenue and appointed as the Yushi of the Zuodu of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, Gao Dang and his faction of the Duishi School showed a serious centrifugal tendency, and instead became very close to Xu Guo.
Under such circumstances, and considering the great significance of Zhang Xueyan's position as cabinet minister for Gao Pragmatic's practical mastery of the pragmatic school, the three of them all believed that Shen Li could not be recommended as cabinet minister at this time.
But this will cause trouble. If they don't recommend Shen Li, then Xu Guo and Shen Li will most likely not support the candidates they recommend. The real school will obviously split in this recommendation. This This is a typical act of loving relatives and hating enemies.
In this regard, Gao Pragmatic proposed an idea to resolve the crisis by proactively recommending Shen Li. He thought that by doing this, Shen Li might be able to "change his mind" and realize that being replaced by Gao Pragmatic last time was actually the emperor's decision, and that Gao Pragmatic was not trying to steal his limelight or embarrass him.
There is obviously another advantage to doing this, that is, once Shen Li really "figures it out", Xu Guozai will become isolated and helpless, and is likely to "accept his fate" to recognize the leadership of the Gao pragmatism school, thus This completes the "unification" of the Practical School.
However, both Zhang Xueyan and Wu Dui thought Gao Pragmatic's proposal was too unstable. The last time Gao Jingshi replaced Shen Li as the Minister of Household Affairs, anyone with a discerning eye knew that the reason was that Gao Jingshi knew more about finances, and that was when the emperor needed a powerful local official to help him.
Shen Li is not a child, so there is no way he doesn't understand this. The key reason why he still can't let go of this matter is that he thinks that he has lost face, which is equivalent to being named by the emperor as lacking ability.
Of course Zhang Xueyan can recommend Shen Li when he leaves office, and Wu Dui and Gao Pragmatic can also give their full support, but no one can predict whether Shen Li will think that this is enough to regain his face. If he still can't let go of this matter, if he gets the position of cabinet minister, it will become a cocoon for the high party, and the trouble will be big.
Zhang Xueyan's own consideration was to recommend Liang Menglong to join the cabinet. Although Liang Menglong first entered the official position as a disciple of Zhang Juzheng, it has been almost 20 years since Zhang Juzheng's downfall. Liang Menglong had already surrendered to the Shi School, and he had not shown any "disloyalty" to the Shi School in these years, especially When Gao Pinggong was serving in the Ministry of War, Liang Menglong also cooperated very well with him, and their relationship could be said to be close.
As for Liang Menglong's ability, there is no need to doubt it. If he hadn't been strong enough, why didn't Gao Gong suppress Zhang Juzheng after he fell? Gao Gong's characteristics are very obvious. Even if he comes from the "enemy" camp, unless he is a die-hard member, he will treat everyone equally and use them according to their talents. The fact that he can keep Liang Menglong and promote him along the way shows that Liang Menglong is very capable.
As for what to do with the Ministry of War after Liang Menglong leaves the throne, Zhang Xueyan also has his own considerations. He thought that Zhou Yong, the governor of Jiliao, could be transferred back to his ministry to serve as Minister of War. In this way, according to the usual practice, it is very likely that Li Song, the governor of Liao, will be promoted to the governor of Ji Liao. At this time, the Shi School will recommend Gu Yangqian as the governor of Liao...
This idea is somewhat of a chain plan. Li Song, the governor of Liao, has obviously never been a favorite candidate of the Practical School. He has always suppressed the pragmatically arranged general Xuan Da in Liaodong. With his help, Li Rusong, who succeeded his father in controlling Liao, greatly restored the Li family's army. The trend in the heyday also affected Gao Jingjing's arrangement in Liaodong.
Although Li Rusong is also a famous general, and he has always been highly regarded and even protected by Gao Jingshi, but that does not mean that the entire Practical School is satisfied with him. In fact, whether Gao Jingxing favors or protects him, it is all personal behavior, and the Practical School Overall, they are more inclined to suppress Li Rusong.
As for Li Song, he served in Liaodong for a very long time. Once he left Liaodong and went to Jizhen, considering that Jizhen was originally Qi Jiguang's residence and almost all the generals were under the Shixue School, Li Song would definitely not be able to use his fingers like an arm. It would be difficult to cause too much practical trouble to the Practical School.
Gu Yangqian was also a Jinshi in the 44th year of Jiajing. He was one of the first "senior brothers" Gao Jingshi met when he came to Beijing with Gao Gong. If he became the governor of Liao, it would be impossible for him to violate Gao Jingshi's appointment as governor of Liao. According to the rules set down by Gao Jingshi, he will definitely do his best to take care of the direct descendants of Xuan University who were transferred to Liaodong. As for things happening in Liaodong in the future or sending troops to Chahar, they should be able to listen to Gao Pragmatic's "hello".
The only problem is Zhou Yong's ability. The current Governor of Jiliao has never been favored by the Practical School in terms of his ability. Gao Pragmatic's evaluation of him from the bottom of his heart is basically "mediocre". To say that the level is very poor seems not to be wrong, but to say that the level is very high is obviously nonsense. Generally speaking, his main advantage is that he is obedient.
But for the position of Minister of the Ministry of War, Gao Jingshi felt that just being obedient was not enough. Moreover, the emperor had been worried about Zhou Yong's ability before - the emperor had been worried before he took office as governor of Jiliao, so now let him be a soldier. The emperor must be more worried?
However, Zhang Xueyan was probably not afraid of playing a big game before leaving. He also suggested that Han Ji be appointed as the Minister of Rongzheng in the Ministry of War as a supplement to Zhou Yong's own soldier.
Han Ji was also a Jinshi in the 44th year of Jiajing. He was one of the first "senior brothers" Gao Pragmatic met. He had been a key member of the Shi School for a long time, and he also had the experience of serving as the governor of Yingtian.
The governor of the Ming Dynasty was nicknamed Fujun, so Han Ji actually had military experience - although he had never fought in a war, it did not affect this.
Gao Pragmatic certainly had no dissatisfaction with Han Ji, and his qualifications were indeed sufficient. It’s just that Gao Pragmatic felt that if the Minister of War was of average ability, and the Minister of Rongzheng of the Ministry of War had no real experience in leading troops, if a big war really happened, would these two people be able to handle it?
At this time, Wu Dui stood up and said: "If Duke Xinzhai becomes an official, I expect that the emperor will let me take over from Duke Xinzhai to supervise the household department. Now that Rixin is in the household department, there is no need for me to do anything, and Mingquan Then, just like me before, I am joining the cabinet as a soldier, and I will probably supervise the Ministry of War... In this way, even if the Ministry of War really has to face any major events, Mingquan can always be at the helm for them, and I think there will be no problem. "
Now that the words came to this point, Gao Pragmatic couldn't insist on it anymore, so he had to agree.
A few days later, Zhang Xueyan begged for the bones three times and was finally allowed. Before leaving, he recommended Liang Menglong, Minister of War, to join the cabinet. The emperor expressed his approval and requested a court recommendation.
This time things went surprisingly smoothly, and the Xinxue School did not even express objections to Li Song's transfer from Liaodong - maybe they thought it was a good deal for Li Song to be promoted to governor of Jiliao.
In short, within a short period of time, the exchange plan discussed by Zhang Xueyan, Wu Dui and Gao Pragmatic was completed: Wu Dui was promoted from Wuyingdian Bachelor to Wenhua Palace Bachelor, followed by Wang Jiaping and Wang Xijue respectively; Liang Menglong entered the cabinet. He was awarded the title of Bachelor of Dongge University; Zhou Yong was promoted to Minister of the Ministry of War; Han Ji was transferred to the left minister of the Ministry of War to assist in military affairs; Li Song was promoted to Governor of Jiliao; Gu Yangqian was promoted to Governor of Liaodong...
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