General Zhengyi? This word made Liu Xin feel stunned at first, and then she started to shudder. As the Secretary-General of the Jinghua Secretariat, she keenly discovered that what Gao Pragmatic was most worried about seemed to be happening, or developing rapidly.
If you want to ask who knows Gao pragmatism best in the world today, Liu Xin dares to confidently think that it must be herself. Even Huang Zhiting cannot compare with her on this point, because only she and Gao pragmatism have the same understanding. The soul of an era.
In the eyes of ordinary people, Gao pragmatically shows many noble qualities and magical uniqueness. This is not because he is a born gentleman, but because his knowledge system and vision of the times are far beyond the current situation.
He knew where the Ming Empire would sail in the original history, and he could basically understand why this giant ship ran aground and sank. He also knew what consequences the collapse of the Ming Empire would bring to the Chinese nation with the Han as the core. A tragic fall. In this historical context, as a former young grassroots cadre, he hopes to avoid and change, and is willing to pay some price for it.
Are these costly? It depends on who you compare with. At least based on Liu Xin's understanding, Gao pragmatic believed that he could afford the price. Liu Xin remembered that Gao Pangshi once said to her that compared to the countless martyrs who sacrificed their lives and blood to save the nation from danger in previous lives, the price he needs to pay now is not insignificant, but it is indeed not worth it. carry.
This is what our ancestors did, and future generations should remember it.
Gao pragmatically remembered, so he used actions to change Ming Dynasty. However, in the Ming Dynasty, where the national system was rigid and bureaucratic thinking was solidified, it was extremely difficult to change.
However, Gao Pragmatism does not recognize violent revolution, and even believes that when social productivity cannot reach a certain threshold, even violent revolution may not be able to build the new system he hopes to see, so the only option left is reform.
What does reform require? In addition to objective social needs, it first needs someone to lead, secondly it needs force promotion, then it needs dividend promotion, and finally it needs sustainable power.
There must be objective social needs. There were so many problems in all aspects of the Ming Dynasty. It was basically the same as Li Hongzhang's description of the late Qing Dynasty as a shabby house with leaks everywhere. Therefore, the objective reality of social demand for change already exists, and Gao Pragmatic need not worry that his approach is building castles in the air.
"Having someone to lead" is considered Gao Pragmatic's good luck. When he was still young, his uncle Gao Gong was a reformist and had the almost unconditional support of Emperor Longqing. Therefore, in his early years, Gao Pragmatic was able to influence Gao Gong to strengthen the specific reform ideas he originally wanted to reform. This laid a relatively good social ideological foundation and objective reality foundation for Gao Pragmatic's subsequent deepening of reforms.
When Gao Jingshi gradually rose up in the court and successfully succeeded Yu Yin, the third generation chief minister, this leader was naturally replaced by him. However, due to Gao Pragmatic's age, he is actually flawed as a leader. The biggest trouble is his lack of political qualifications and his inability to truly join the recognized core decision-making circle of the court.
Becoming the Minister of Household Affairs allowed Gao Pragmatic to step half-foot into the core decision-making circle, and the reform of the "Big Household Department" further strengthened the real power in his hands, but this also brought about another trouble: the real power he held was in his own position. When his status is insufficient, he appears to be too powerful, which makes people focus more on him personally.
Gao pragmatically kept a low profile as much as possible and rarely participated in various lectures, poetry gatherings, garden outings and other social activities that were popular among the upper-class literati of this era. A large reason was that he wanted to expose himself as little as possible.
There are pros and cons to this approach. The advantage is that there is less exposure, and outsiders think that Gao is pragmatic and mature and stable. The disadvantage is that it increases the outside world's speculation about his personal ambitions. For example, some people say that he is obsessed with officialdom and just wants to become the prime minister as soon as possible. Status is better than fame.
In any case, the reform leader's status as a highly pragmatic leader has been firmly established, but the foundation is not particularly solid, and there are always people trying to pull him down.
So, what about force push? First of all, we need to figure out who is the most powerful person in Ming Dynasty, or who is it.
Gao Pragmatic certainly knows that the people are the most powerful. Unfortunately, at a time when the people do not yet have a sense of ownership, the people themselves do not know what power they have at all. Even if there is, the one who truly controls their power is not themselves, but someone else.
The power of the Ming Dynasty was in the hands of the ruling class, and the ruling class had internal subdivisions. These subdivisions were not simply either/or. In fact, they were like drawing several circles, and each circle had its own parts. , there are also intersecting parts.
The so-called economic base determines the superstructure, and this also applies to the Ming Dynasty. Civil servants and military ministers each have their own foundation. The foundation of civil servants is the local gentry, which can also be said to be private landowners across the country.
The civil servants can continue to be subdivided. For example, the landlords in the Jiangnan area are often not only landlords, but also business groups, and many of them are business groups that were originally engaged in overseas smuggling; the northern landlords were originally relatively "simple", but after the practice of the Practical School The Dayton operation is now gradually commercialized, forming another type of business group.
The two business groups will naturally compete. The Northern Business Group was originally not as good as the Southern Business Group, but now due to the cheating presence of Jinghua, it has in turn suppressed the Southern Business Group. This will of course cause resistance from the Southern Business Group.
This is actually the reason why the real school and the mind school are fighting so fiercely: ideas may be discussed, but interests cannot be compromised.
If the civil service group is like this, how can military ministers be noble? There are also two types of military general groups. One is the group of honorable ministers, who control a lot of interests through the shadow of their ancestors - such as huge military camps, countless military households, etc.; the other type is the group of military meritorious officials, who have Through their own efforts, they have improved their ranks and mastered a core force that is theoretically only subordinate to themselves, that is, armed servants.
The former has hereditary status and economic strength, while the latter has the military force that the court must rely on. Together they form a group of military commanders, which theoretically stand on the opposite side of the civilian group.
However, due to well-known reasons, it is actually difficult for them to really oppose the civil service group. On the contrary, they have to move closer to the civil service group and choose a certain faction in the civil service group as their backing.
The reason why this is the case has been mentioned many times in the previous article: the Five Army Governor's Mansion, which represents the interests of the military generals group, was completely castrated after the Civil War. As a result, the group of generals with incomplete limbs cannot find or promote their own spokespersons, so naturally they cannot fight for their own interests. They have to find their own mothers and embrace the thighs of a certain faction of civil servants.
But at this time, a very strange question arose: The emperor was supposed to be an arbiter who was independent of the civil and military groups. When the civil and military forces were not equal, shouldn't he restrain the strong and support the weak?
This issue is very complicated, but when a regime enters a stable period, the civilian group will definitely be stronger than the general group. This is the most common trend throughout the ages, otherwise it will become a ****.
Because of Emperor Taizu's principle of "a country without conquests", the Ming Dynasty essentially opposed treason from a systemic perspective, which also limited the upper limit of the general group. The result of this is that the power of the civil servant group is unchecked, while the military general group will be jealous if it rebounds even slightly. Add the DEBUFF of the civil war change, and the general decline of the military general group is inevitable.
In this case, as long as the emperor did not feel that the decline of the generals group brought great danger to his rule, he would naturally not have the motivation to support the generals group - after all, in the emperor's view, the civil service system of the Ming Dynasty was not enough to threaten He, so the expansion of the power of the civilian group is better than the expansion of the power of the general group.
However, Gao Pragmatic needed strength to support his reforms, and the first thing he wanted to win over was the group of generals who were easiest for him to win over. The military commander group originally needed strong civilian support. Gao Pragmatism could not only provide political support but also make them rich. It was natural that they hit it off, but this suddenly laid hidden dangers for the future.
As for dividends, they are naturally necessary. Any leader who wants to successfully control the power under his name has prerequisites: the basic prerequisite is that you can protect their interests, and a further step is that you can bring them greater benefits. .
The reason why military ministers and generals have been able to worship Gao Jingshi for twenty years is obviously not because they are inspired by Gao Jingshi's personality, but because Gao Jingshi can not only protect their interests, but also bring greater benefits to them. Interests.
The Xungui Group joined the Maritime Trade Alliance. Not only did it get rid of the chaotic stalls in the Beijing camp with the help of Gao Pragmatic, it was able to abandon its combat responsibilities and concentrate on making money with the production and construction corps. It was also able to make a lot of money in maritime trade activities. Naturally, it will fully support it. Highly pragmatic in all actions - except perhaps rebellion.
Due to the highly pragmatic military reform, the military generals group with military merits received more military pay while equipping their troops, especially their servants, with stronger weapons. Obviously, they also made huge profits. The former makes them more popular in the army (and maybe even gets a commission), and the latter makes them more powerful, obtains more military exploits, and then improves their status. As a result, the group of military generals with great military exploits also obeyed Gao Pragmatic's orders.
Li Rusong is obviously not in the same trench as Gao Jingshi because of his father's relationship, but he is still able to carry out Gao Jingshi's military orders. In the final analysis, isn't it because Gao Jingshi can ensure that he obtains new military exploits?
Finally, as for the sustainable power, this is still uncertain. To a certain extent, it is best for Gao Pragmatism to continue to be in power and let the practical reform form inertia. When more people enjoy the dividends of the reform, the reform will continue to roll in. forward. By that time, the reform will enter a virtuous circle, and it will not matter whether Gao Pragmatism himself is in charge. Gao Pragmatism can be regarded as completing the historical mission.
But this is still a matter of the future, and it doesn’t matter that much now.
The trouble now is that it has not yet developed into a virtuous cycle, and the previous hidden dangers have begun to emerge. Narita Kai mentioned that Gao Pragmatic "The current situation is like what it was like before Japan became a general to conquer the barbarians." It may have been an unintentional statement, but it sounded like a thunder to Liu Xin.
Even she, a concubine who had just come to the Ming Dynasty from Japan, could feel the power of Gao Pingshi in the court. Could it be that the princes in the court couldn't feel it? Couldn't the emperor feel it? Obviously impossible, they are not fools, the courtiers and the emperor must feel it.
Now that they can feel this power, how will the courtiers and the emperor react? Liu Xin felt that she couldn't quite grasp their thoughts.
Generally speaking, the courtiers are now divided into three factions, the Practical School, the Heart School and the Old Neo-Confucian School, which is the Neutral School. The pragmatic school will definitely continue to support Gao pragmatism, after all, this is the representative of their interests; the heart school will definitely be more opposed to Gao pragmatism, because Gao pragmatism, as their political opponent, is becoming more and more powerful; the trouble lies with the neutral school.
In the past, the reason why the neutral school was neutral was mainly because the Shi School and the Xin School both emerged after Jiajing and became the two major factions that controlled the real power of the court, while Neo-Confucianism itself showed signs of decline (there is a view in the historians that this was due to the civilization of the late Ming Dynasty). (resulting from this), so we can only wait for the two factions to fight, and then see if there is a chance for the fishermen to benefit.
However, as the Battle of Fayuan was basically won, this situation of basic balance of power between the two factions was broken by Gao Pragmatism. If everything goes according to tradition, Gao Pragmatism will definitely be rewarded next. Once this reward allows Gao Pragmatic to join the cabinet, then Gao Pragmatic's biggest trouble before - lack of qualifications and difficulty in joining the cabinet and getting a position will be solved.
In other words, the next step is to lead the pragmatic school to suppress the heart school. Everyone knows the truth behind the death of lips and cold teeth. When the Shi school has completely suppressed the Heart school, can the neutral school of traditional Neo-Confucianism be able to survive on its own? Of course it is impossible. They believe that being pragmatic will definitely expand the scope of attack and bring them to deal with it - it has been like this in all dynasties, otherwise it would be called a party struggle!
With this judgment, Liu Xin felt nervous. When a faction becomes powerful, can it really suppress all other "non-selfs"? At the same time, Tianzi has never been a fool, can he allow the Real School to dominate and completely lose checks and balances?
Jiajing dared to let Yan Song dominate the world because he knew that the source of Yan Song's power was him. As long as he took back power, Yan Song would be nothing more than a rootless drifter, unable to cause trouble at all.
However, Yan Song is not Yan Song who is highly pragmatic. He is not just a civil servant. He is also the "No. 1 Civil Service Officer in the World" - a title that will be completely confirmed after the victory over the Yuan Dynasty. He is also the richest man in the Ming Dynasty, and he is as rich as the country. Moreover, he controls a powerful military production; he also has armed servants all over the country, especially gathered on the nine sides, which can theoretically pose a threat to the capital.
Doesn't this situation meet the prerequisites for the leader of the Japanese martial arts family to serve as the general to conquer the barbarians?
What is General Zhengyi? He is the leader of the shogunate, the person who actually controls Japan's political power!
Would the Ming Emperor be willing to be a puppet mascot like the Japanese Emperor? Absolutely not. China does not have the so-called traditional theological thinking that lasts forever. China has always been a practitioner of the doctrine of supremacy of strength: "Princes, generals, ministers, and ministers are all the same."
It doesn't matter whether Gao Pragmatic has the subjective consciousness to threaten the imperial power, because in the eyes of the Chinese, as long as he is powerful enough, all he needs is a "yellow robe" Chenqiao mutiny to change everything.
What a great victory, why did it end up like this? Liu Xin felt her head was as big as a bucket.
what to do?
Advise Gao Pragmatic to give up his previous ideas and simply go one step further? Or should we persuade him to take the initiative to delegate power, and after giving up direct intervention in factories and guards before, continue to give up military power, or give up direct influence on military power?
As the secretary-general of Jinghua, Liu Xin became more and more uneasy as she thought about it. The more she thought about it, the more difficult the situation became. She felt that Gao Pragmatism at this time was simply in a dilemma.
Just when Liu Xin was worried, Gao Mo suddenly came in a hurry, his face extremely serious.
Before Liu Xin had time to ask him what happened, Gao Mo, who had always been calm, took the initiative to speak: "Secretary-General Liu, just now the General Affairs Department sent someone to send an urgent secret report: The master formally submitted a letter to Meng Yuan and resigned on the grounds that the war was over. Strategy."
Before Liu Xin could speak, Gao Mo frowned deeply and continued: "Furthermore, after the two great victories, the master didn't even go to Guihua City. Instead, he immediately entered the pass from the nearby Dushi Castle and only brought five hundred servants back. Beijing... I have calculated the time, I may have arrived in Yanping Prefecture now, and I will arrive in Beijing in a few days."
Liu Xin was stunned on the spot, but she knew very well that Gao Pragmatic had already made a choice.
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