Fei Bai? Tingbi?
Yes, this Guanzheng Jinshi was named Tingbi and his courtesy name was Feibai. Oh, by the way, his surname is Xiong, Xiong Tingbi, and he was born with Jinshi in the 26th year of Wanli.
Since he was born with the same Jinshi background, it means that he did not do well in the examination where the average scorer was the best.
In fact, in the 26th year of the Wuxu Ke Jinshi Gold List, in addition to the three first-class scholars and the second-class scholars, there are 57 second-class scholars, which makes it 60, and Xiong Tingbi is only ranked among the top three. Only the one hundred and fifteenth.
Logically speaking, it is unlikely that such a result would make Gao Pragmatic, a scholar of the Wenhua Palace, a candidate for the imperial examination. However, Xiong Tingbi also had advantages.
His advantage is that Gao Pragmatic's understanding of the history of the late Ming Dynasty made him very impressed with Xiong Tingbi, and in the palace examination held after the imperial examination that year - that is, the Shujishi examination - Xiao Liangyou, the right minister of the Ministry of Rites, was He was one of the examiners of the imperial examination, so Xiong Tingbi passed the imperial examination and became a scholar.
After disbanding, Xiong Tingbi quickly received the transfer order and became one of Gao Pragmatic's Guanzheng Jinshi.
To put it more clearly, Gao Pingzhi "recommended" Xiong Tingbi behind his back, which made his life different from the original history.
Historically, Xiong Tingbi was famous in the late Ming Dynasty, famous for his vision of saving time, and even more famous for his tragic death, but few people mentioned his early years. In fact, as long as you know his early years, you will know that it is extremely difficult for him to get the 115th place in the top three.
In May of the 11th year of Wanli in the original history, when the 24-year-old Nurhachi raised troops to attack the city of Tulun and started his first battle to establish the post-Jin regime and unify Liaodong, his future opponent, the 14-year-old Nurhaci at the time, Xiong Tingbi is still working and studying in his hometown in Jiangxia, Huguang.
Yes, Xiong Tingbi was born in poverty, and it was difficult for him to have enough to eat. Because his family was poor and could not afford tuition, Xiong Tingbi dropped out of school many times. Of course, his desire for knowledge and his desire to get ahead always supported him in saving money to return to school and continue studying.
However, as a result, his academic progress was delayed for a long time, and it was not until the twenty-fifth year of Wanli that he, who was originally talented, was admitted to the gold list at the age of twenty-eight.
As mentioned in the first volume of this book, in terms of age among the Jinshi of the Ming Dynasty, most were in their early thirties when they were on the high school gold medal list. However, most of them were "professional scholars" whose families were well-off and not engaged in production. -For example, high pragmatism is very typical.
However, Xiong Tingbi started "part-time work and part-study" since he was a child. He could only constantly switch between doing odd jobs, doing farm work and studying. Just like this, someone is still on the high school gold medal list at the age of 28, and saying that he is not good at studying is really a bit of a pain in the back when he stands and talks.
However, throughout Xiong Tingbi's life, the imperial examination high school was both a blessing and a misfortune for Xiong Tingbi.
"Luck" is reflected in the fact that Xiong Tingbi achieved a class climb from civilian to official through scientific examination, and had the opportunity to realize his ambition and leave his name in history.
"Unfortunately" is reflected in the fact that he entered a government and opposition party with fierce party disputes, but he himself had a strong temperament, and he would not be able to escape unscathed in the end.
Xiong Tingbi passed the Jinshi examination, and since he was only the 115th among his peers, his poor family naturally meant that he could not have any seniors to take care of him in Beijing. As a result, Xiong Tingbi had no one to take care of him, and he failed to pass the imperial examination. Of course, his first official position was very inconspicuous - Baoding official position.
At the same time, not only was his future rival Nurhaci flourishing in Liaodong, but the Ming Dynasty and opposition parties at this time were still full of fierce internal fighting. The national strength could no longer be said to have stopped, but should be said to have continued under the three major conquests. In decline.
There was no such thing as high pragmatism in the original history. After the forces in the DPRK and China were constantly divided, merged, and reorganized, a situation gradually formed in which the three parties of Qi, Chu, and Zhejiang were in confrontation with the Donglin Party. They attacked each other, just to compete for the biggest advantage of their own side. rights and interests.
In the past few years, Xiong Tingbi had been a local official, so he was fortunate not to be affected by these fierce party disputes. But when he gradually achieved outstanding political achievements, was promoted to the supervisory censor and entered the court, he could no longer stay out of it.
Although Xiong Tingbi himself had no intention of "taking sides", according to the geographical division of the township, he was automatically classified into the Chu Party, indirectly standing on the opposite side of the Donglin Party.
However, Xiong Tingbi, who relied on his own efforts to change his destiny, had a fiery temperament and was also upright. He was especially loyal to the Ming Dynasty court and particularly concerned about court affairs. Therefore, compared with other officials in the DPRK who value personal interests and the interests of their own camp more, he appears to be much more "naive" and "immature".
Although he was in the Chu Party, Xiong Tingbi did not deliberately distance himself from the Donglin Party members. Some of the Donglin Party members also maintained a good relationship with him because they had no obvious disputes. Therefore, Xiong Tingbi during this period was actually a marginalized person in the fierce party struggle and was not greatly affected.
It was this identity and status that made Xiong Tingbi a suitable censor candidate in the eyes of the two parties who could thoroughly investigate the "Liaodong Abandoned Land Case" in the thirty-sixth year of Wanli, and therefore had an intersection with Nurhaci.
The "Liaodong Abandoned Land Case" occurred two years ago in the thirty-fourth year of Wanli. At that time, the game between the Qi, Chu, and Zhejiang parties and the Donglin Party entered a white-hot stage. Li Chengliang, the commander-in-chief of Liaodong, who was in the former camp, planned to eliminate some potential dangers in Liaodong in advance to avoid harming Chiyu.
When he realized that Kuandian Liubao, located in the Jurchen hinterland of Jianzhou, was difficult to hold, and once lost, it would become the best excuse for the Donglin Party to attack the three parties of Qi, Chu and Zhejiang and drag himself into trouble, he decided to give up directly. piece of place.
As a result, there was a scene where "800 miles of land was abandoned without permission, and 60,000 residents were forced to move back inland and became homeless." Nurhaci also gained greater military advantage in the Northeast.
This incident was not a big deal, but because the three parties of Qi, Chu, and Zhejiang had greater power in the government than the Donglin Party at that time, and they knew the reasons behind Li Chengliang's actions, they stepped in to protect Li Chengliang. But in the thirty-sixth year of Wanli, after Ye Xianggao, who was considered an important figure in the Donglin Party, became the chief minister, this old incident was revealed again.
Under the pressure of strong public opinion, Emperor Wanli decided to send his censor to Liaodong to find out the truth. At this time, Xiong Tingbi, who seemed to be relatively neutral, was pushed out.
After arriving in Liaodong, Xiong Tingbi conducted field research there for half a year, and finally found out the entire process of Li Chengliang and Zhao Ji giving up their territory and driving the people to migrate.
Xiong Tingbi, who did not understand party struggle, or was unwilling to participate in party struggle, and was only worried about national interests, was very angry. He listed eight major crimes of Li Chengliang and Zhao Ji, and demanded severe punishment.
The ideal is very full and the reality is very skinny. In fact, Wanli Emperor Zhu Yijun, who was fully aware of the inside story, certainly ignored the statement of severe punishment. He did not even send Xiong Tingbi's memorial to the ministers for discussion. Instead, he directly issued an edict praising Li Chengliang for "his long service in suppressing Liao Dynasty and should be commended." Then he let Li Chengliang "retire" honorably.
Is this because Zhu Yijun cannot distinguish right from wrong? Of course not, this is just a political compromise. It can give the Donglin Party an explanation without completely offending the three parties of Qi, Chu and Zhejiang.
In fact, he deliberately maintained the party struggle within the court so that neither party could escape the control of the imperial power, and accordingly could not form a joint force to interfere too much with the emperor. In the final analysis, behind this is the struggle between monarchy and ministerial power.
Although the severe punishment was not adopted, Xiong Tingbi did not lose his enthusiasm. He soon conducted an actual military inspection of Liaodong.
At that time, in the land of Liaodong, the three major military forces of the Ming Dynasty, Monan Mongolia and Jurchen were fighting against each other, and they stayed at the stage of war or peace, and the relationship was unclear. However, despite the ambiguity of the situation, Xiong Tingbi clearly realized that the Jianzhou Jurchens under the leadership of Nurhaci posed a far greater threat to the Ming Dynasty than Mongolia.
He pointed out that although Mongolia was powerful, they "only plundered property and had no distant aspirations", while the Jurchens in Jianzhou had similar food and temperament to those of the Ming Dynasty and "aimed for my land" - later facts obviously confirmed this.
In order to better defend against the Jianzhou Jurchens led by Nurhachi, Xiong Tingbi proposed the idea of rectifying military discipline, solidifying internal forces and strengthening external forces, and using barbarians to control barbarians. And he continued to do so during the three years of his term.
More than 700 miles of city walls and a large number of city piers have been built in the Liaodong territory, forming a high line of defense. Large areas of wasteland were reclaimed and planted with crops. The grain harvest in Liaodong reached millions of stones every year, which was a blessing to the army and the people.
Since Xiong Tingbi knew that the strength of the Liaodong Ming Army was already much weaker than before due to the attrition of wars such as aiding Korea and anti-Japanese wars, he advocated that the army should focus on defense, which gave him the opportunity to clean up military discipline, improve combat effectiveness, and preserve strength. The overall strength to recover slowly.
Under such circumstances, even Nurhachi, who had heroic ambitions, had to re-examine his plan and went dormant.
In the thirty-ninth year of Wanli, Xiong Tingbi's term in Liaodong expired and he was ordered to be transferred to Nanzhili to supervise schools. However, after that, there were many disputes between Xiong Tingbi and the Donglin Party - this is not surprising, the inspector of Nanzhili went to other people's territory.
During his tenure as the Superintendent of the Nanzhi School, Xiong Tingbi became more and more offended by the Donglin Party because "all the people he promoted were celebrities, all the people he promoted were from humble backgrounds, and all the people he deposed were the children of the squire Jin, most of whom were disciples of Donglin."
Soon after, Xiong Tingbi, who had strict discipline and bad temper, was caught by the Donglin Party members for beating a prisoner to death. After being impeached, he was immediately removed from his official position and could only stay at home for many years.
At this time, Nurhachi, who had established the Houjin regime, took the opportunity to launch the "Battle of Sarhu" in Liaodong. Yang Hao, who replaced Xiong Tingbi to guard Liaodong, led 120,000 Ming troops to fight against Nurhaci's Eight Banners Army, but due to well-known reasons, he suffered a disastrous defeat.
Since then, Ming Dynasty has repeatedly lost its original advantages and become passive. As the situation gets worse and worse, "cleaning up the mess in Liaodong" has become a hot potato that Ming officials can't avoid.
Under this circumstance, Xiong Tingbi, who had been idle at home for many years, was finally remembered and received an order to resurrect. Xiong Tingbi, who was eager to save the country, did not weigh the pros and cons. After receiving the appointment of "Liaodong Economic Strategy", he rushed to Liaodong for more than 200 miles day and night despite being ill.
In order to improve military discipline, inspire military morale, stabilize people's hearts, restore Liaodong's military defense capabilities as soon as possible, and respond to enemy attacks, Xiong Tingbi, with the support of Zhu Yijun, began to carry out drastic military reforms in Liaodong.
He first asked the imperial court for instructions and mobilized some elite Ming troops and supplies from various places to solve the most pressing problem. Later, he personally visited various important towns in Liaodong, giving the original soldiers and civilians in Liaodong a shot in the arm. He also executed generals who had escaped from battle and were corrupt and perverted the law, and were replaced by a group of generals who performed relatively well.
In this way, in less than a year, he re-established an impregnable defensive front in the key areas of Liaoning and Shenyang, and the Ming Army in Liaodong also began to show a good situation in which the generals were eager to fight and the morale of the soldiers was high. The results here are very intuitively proven from the fact that Xiong Tingbi defeated Nurhaci who invaded Liaodong twice shortly afterwards.
At the same time, this also shows that Zhu Yijun is in control of the overall situation, and as always knows who is the minister who can really do things, and as always dares to delegate power after being enabled.
However, it is a pity that just when Liaodong was in a good situation, the imperial court thousands of miles away began an unprecedented power reorganization.
In less than three months, Emperor Wanli Zhu Yijun and Emperor Taichang Zhu Changluo died one after another. Emperor Tianqi Zhu Youxiaochong succeeded to the throne. The party struggle between the DPRK and China became more intense, and even Xiong Tingbi, who was far away from the customs, was not immune. He was soon impeached and resigned by the Donglin Party's spokesman, and Yuan Yingtai of the Donglin Party succeeded him as Liaodong Manager.
Unlike Xiong Tingbi, who has outstanding military command talents, Yuan Yingtai can even be said to know nothing about military affairs. Therefore, in less than three or four months after he took office, Nurhaci found out the true story.
Liaodong, which was once impregnable under the garrison of Xiong Tingbi, was gradually found by Nurhachi and planted spies from Hou Jin. After this, Yuan Yingtai no longer had the ability to fight Nurhaci.
However, Yuan Yingtai, who was unaware of the danger, followed the DPRK's call for a quick victory and took the initiative to launch an attack, which obviously accelerated his defeat.
In a short period of time, he lost Shenyang, Liaoyang and other important cities one after another, and could only lead the vulnerable Ming army to retreat to the west of the Liao River. Yuan Yingtai, who felt that the situation was over, committed suicide with his whole family, leaving this unsolvable mess to the court. And Xiong Tingbi, who had been squeezed away, was remembered by the court in worry.
After Emperor Tianqi personally received him and "told him with emotion and moved with reason," Xiong Tingbi, as a minister, could not show his temper, so naturally he could only take over the task of cleaning up the mess again.
However, what Xiong Tingbi didn't expect was that already in this situation, the court would still ignore his requests for troops and pay, citing financial difficulties and the Sichuan rebellion. The Donglin Party members even took this opportunity to ask Wang Huazhen, the governor of Liaodong, to check and balance Xiong Tingbi.
The most ridiculous thing here is that Xiong Tingbi couldn't get military pay, but the Donglin Party planned corresponding military pay for Wang Huazhen. In this way, there was a sharp contrast in that Xiong Tingbi, who was the manager of Liaodong, was severely constrained and could not perform his duties, while Wang Huazhen, the governor of Liaodong, led an army of 60,000 to guard the important town of Guangning, and had sufficient military pay.
During this period, in order to support Wang Huazhen, the Donglin Party petitioned many times to remove Xiong Tingbi from his official position in Liaodong. Wang Huazhen also expressed that he could bring good news to the court before autumn. The difficulty of Xiong Tingbi's situation at this time has become obvious.
However, the Donglin Party members boasted about Haikou's ability, but the corresponding strength was obviously not there. Facing the fierce Eight Banners army that came in May, Wang Huazhen didn't even have the strength to resist, so she could only abandon Guangning and flee all the way to Shanhaiguan.
By the time Xiong Tingbi arrived for support, Guangning had been captured by Nurhaci. He still had his old temper. He first laughed at Wang Huazhen, but finally took over the remaining troops and escorted the generals and civilians to Shanhaiguan.
According to the situation at the time, Wang Huazhen was obviously mainly responsible for the loss of Guangning. However, in order to cover up their recommendation for Wang Huazhen to be stationed in Guangning and get rid of their guilt, the Donglin Party members began to divert misfortune to the east and "support Xiong Tingbi". "unfavorable" issue. So Xiong Tingbi was also sent to prison, awaiting sentencing.
Xiong Tingbi spent three years in prison, working hard to clear his name. However, he ultimately failed because he became a victim of political struggle.
At that time, the Eunuch Party, which had a grudge against the Donglin Party, planned to take advantage of the Donglin Party's unstable standing to fabricate some charges and put them to death. Just when Wei Zhongxian, the leader of the eunuch party, was thinking about what charges to fabricate, a eunuch named Ma who had had a rift with Xiong Tingbi in the early years suggested that he could fabricate the charge that Xiong Tingbi had bribed the Donglin Party members.
Therefore, Xiong Tingbi, who clearly had no dealings with the Donglin Party, died like this.
It's funny to say that the Hou Jin regime, which he tried so hard to destroy, was given a more objective evaluation by Qianlong more than a hundred years later.
"When it comes to military affairs in the Ming Dynasty, Xiong Tingbi should be regarded as a giant. Reading a few words from his "Bi Ci" almost makes me want to cry. However, a man who served his country so loyally was sentenced to death. He destroyed the Great Wall and abandoned the foundation of his ancestors without caring about it. Can one be said to have a human heart and conscience?"
Qianlong's words naturally had political motives. He deliberately pointed out the faults of the Ming Dynasty to prove that the Qing Dynasty was "submissive to nature and people". However, this fault did exist objectively, so we had to let him talk.
Gao pragmatically had no favorable impression of many officials in the late Ming Dynasty, and even had a lot of dislike for him. However, Gao pragmatically still held a positive attitude toward Xiong Tingbi.
Although Xiong Tingbi also has his own problems, such as bad temper, arrogance, and especially his tendency to mock colleagues, etc., in official circles... well, it is indeed a bit suspicious of seeking death. However, in Gao Pragmatic's view, these issues are minor issues. How can the country make a small sacrifice while employing people?
For example, he is said to be pragmatic and "the holy family is independent and prosperous", but he does not want to kill all those who oppose him because of this. Even looking back, Liang Menglong was still Zhang Juzheng's disciple!
In short, no matter what, Gao Jingshi is indeed deliberately cultivating Xiong Tingbi, and Xiong Tingbi has been his Guanzheng Jinshi for more than two years, and Gao Jingshi is ready to reuse him for the first time.
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PS: Argentina’s victory in the championship is much more effective than taking medicine. After experiencing “Happiness – Cardiopulmonary Arrest – Slight Relaxation – Cardiopulmonary Arrest – Uneasiness – Ecstasy” last night, I felt better when I woke up. Today’s 5K is considered a good one. Entering the stage of code character rehabilitation, I hope the situation will not happen again, and I hope I can have a disease-free and disaster-free New Year.
(End of chapter)
