Zhang Siwei acted as Prime Minister when Zhang Juzheng was seriously ill, and was officially appointed after his death for a term of two and a half years. In the past two and a half years, Zhu Yijun did not get along well with him. This was the most fundamental reason why he left just after half of his statutory term.
Zhu Yijun asked Zhang Siwei to resign in a conflicting mood. According to his plan, it is best for the Prime Minister to serve for ten years, so as to ensure full continuity of policies.
Although maintaining policy continuity is not an urgent issue when you are fully in power, it is also very necessary to leave a well-functioning political tradition - God knows whether your descendants will be virtuous or unworthy.
However, he didn't have much time to wait for Zhang Siwei's body to get better or to get used to him. After all, at this time in the original time and space, Zhang Siwei had long since passed away. Rather than letting him recuperate while serving as a general, it would be better to let him go home - and maybe live a few more years as a result.
After Zhang Siwei leaves, the new prime minister must choose carefully. Zhu Yijun made up his mind that this term of prime minister should serve two full terms - or at least one term.
As a result, Pan Sheng, who is already 70 years old, and Wang Guangguang, who is about to retire, will naturally be eliminated. The reform edict stipulates that cabinet ministers must become official at the age of seventy-five, and the same applies to the prime minister.
What's more, according to Zhu Yijun's observation, although Pan Sheng is an extremely staunch reformist, he can be followed by a big politician like Zhang Juzheng to implement it. If he is allowed to take the lead in the work of the political hall, he will probably be able to sell it and help count the money. .
Among the remaining cabinet ministers, Xu Guo and Liang Menglong are sixty years old, Shen Shixing is fifty-two years old, and Luo Wanhua is fifty-one years old, all of whom meet the age requirements.
Among these four people, Xu Guo had a bad temper and was almost incompatible with Yan Lu. He was often criticized by Yan Lu. Although he had political ability, he was not as broad-minded as the other three. This person was eliminated first by Zhu Yijun.
After Zhang Siwei of the original time and space died of illness, he was succeeded by Shen Shixing. Shen Shixing's life experience is very interesting: he was born in the 14th year of Jiajing, Emperor Shizong of the Ming Dynasty, and was the son of Suzhou businessman Xu Shizhang. But his grandfather's surname was not Xu, but Shen Qian. Because he was raised by his uncle Xu Pu, and Xu Pu had no children - so Shen Shixing's grandfather adoptively changed his name to Xu Qian, so Shen Shixing's father and son both adopted the surname Xu, and Shen Shixing's original name was Xu Shixing.
When Xu Shixing became the number one scholar, his father had passed away and he and his stepmother depended on each other. As a disciple of Confucianism, he was a little worried about the fact that his grandfather changed his surname. After passing the Jinshi examination, he wanted to return to the clan surname Shen.
Of course, the old Xu family is not happy: Why should the number one scholar be returned to the Shen family? Wouldn't it look good if the big archway where the number one scholar was awarded was placed in the Xu family? Of course, even if the old Xu family was willing, Shen Shixing would not dare to change it, because in modern times, changing one's name is very simple, just go to the police station, but in the Ming Dynasty, changing one's name violated the criminal law, and in severe cases, one could even lose one's head.
In the 19th year of Hongwu's reign, Zhu Yuanzhang, in order to prevent military families from refusing to perform military service, severely restricted name changes. If the name was changed three times, he would be directly executed, his family property would be confiscated, and the whole family would be sent to the frontier. We are also encouraged to report on people who change their names, and all confiscated property will go to the whistleblower.
For example, Li Ben, a cabinet scholar during the Jiajing period, should have been named Lu. His ancestor, Lu Deyu, was registered as "Li" in the early years of Hongwu because the pronunciations of "Lv" and "Li" were too similar, so the registration staff wrote it as "Li". This mistake lasted more than 200 years because the surname changing system was strict. Seriously, hundreds of people in Li's family have not been able to restore their original surnames for more than ten generations.
In the fifth year of Longqing's reign, Shen Shixing became the right minister of the Ministry of Rites and learned about this matter. So this guy persuaded Li Ben to request an order to restore his surname. He also suggested that Emperor Longqing grant an amnesty - any names of senior officials and ministers in the imperial court who had errors in their names could be corrected through this amnesty.
Emperor Longqing considered that Li Ben was a senior official in the Jiajing court and had to give him face. In addition, Shen Shixing followed the advice, and he really made a special purpose for this matter, and Shen Shixing got what he wanted - at that time, a total of thirty-one senior officials in the imperial court followed Zhanguang and were able to change their surname back to their ancestors.
Lord Gong Xian, who conquered Burma, was not eligible for the amnesty at that time, because this amnesty was specifically for civil servants and important ministers. He was able to restore his surname to Gong later because of the special reward given by Zhu Yijun, otherwise his descendants would still have to follow Gong Xian's alias and join the army with the surname Liu. In that case, Marshal Gong, who had been granted the title of Duke, would be depressed to death. This also shows that Zhu Yuanzhang's original strict regulations were necessary.
After Shen Shixing changed his surname and returned to his clan in accordance with the special decree, he made a large plaque with the words "Entong Reconstruction", which was connected with the big sign of "The Number One Scholar and the Rank", and gave it to the old Xu family in Suzhou, expressing his intention to take care of the old Xu family's education. Seed - what he really did later. So, both Shen and Xu families were very happy.
The handling of this matter showed Shen Shixing's high political skills, which earned him very high praise from people at the time: He did things carefully, did not use force to pressure others, and took care of the interests of many parties, making a relatively complicated matter It is the prime minister's talent to make everyone happy.
But compared to Liang Menglong and Luo Wanhua, Shen Shixing's political stance is more conservative. He repeatedly advised Zhu Yijun on matters related to the Hanlin Academy. Although he did not dare to obstruct the reform policy, whenever he encountered more complicated problems in governance, he always thought about his nephew lighting lanterns - as usual. Zhu Yijun hopes to have such an "opposition" in the cabinet, but it is obviously inappropriate for him to be the prime minister.
Then only Liang Menglong and Luo Wanhua are left. One of them is a representative of the "local faction" and the other is the leader of the "returnee faction". They are of equal ability and skill, and both are relatively firm reformists. Luo Wanhua's character is somewhat stubborn, but after being tempered by his tenure as Governor-General of Myanmar, he is no longer the same character. The ability to quickly take advantage of the Manila incident is evidence - Zhu Yijun has not yet thought that Luo Wanhua might have tampered with Xiao and Xie's political affairs order.
But from Zhu Yijun's perspective, choosing one of them meant that the emperor was leaning towards the "battle between sea power and land power" to some extent, and Zhu Yijun did not want to make this choice.
Later geopolitical scientists such as Mackinder and Mahan proposed the concepts of land power and sea power respectively, which were used to guide the political map throughout the second half of the 19th century and the 20th century. A common view is that continental countries naturally tend to land power, such as France's Napoleon and Germany's Mustache, who all take expansion of their territory as their mission; while a maritime country, such as the Empire on which the sun never sets, naturally tends to sea power - they Outside the world island, offshore balancing hands must be used to create a balance of power among land-based countries.
But Zhu Yijun in the 21st century does not believe in this theory. It may be a seemingly reasonable rule that strategists summarized when summarizing the history of the original time and space. But after the end of the Cold War, far away from the World Island, North America has a hegemony with equal emphasis on land and sea. It not only uses offshore balancing hands, but also deeply intervenes in the situation on the mainland, and deploys heavy troops in the heart of the world. And then controlled the whole world geographically.
The Ming Dynasty now occupies a corner of the World Island - the most fertile corner with the best geographical situation. To dominate the world and then do kingly things all over the world, it is natural to advance by sea and land. Therefore, Zhu Yijun was unwilling to tie his own hands and choose sides between the naturally formed "sea power faction" and "land power faction".
Do you want to use Ting Tui? Zhu Yijun fell into deep confusion. Although the Tingtui system was a method used by successive emperors of the Ming Dynasty to consolidate power by taking advantage of internal conflicts within the civil service group to divide and disintegrate, its existence itself meant a compromise between imperial power and ministerial power - after the cabinet became powerful, no one without Tingtui could join the cabinet. The fact that the ministers of the special briefs have no face and are proud of their appearance in the imperial court is a clear proof.
During the drafting and promulgation of the reform edict, Zhang Juzheng and Zhu Yijun agreed that it was extremely necessary for the prime minister to be nominated by the emperor. This design systematically breaks the old practice of ranking cabinets based on seniority and taking turns to reach the top. It is not only conducive to the balance between the cabinet and imperial power, but also eliminates political disputes to a certain extent.
At the same time, Zhang Juzheng believed that after the emperor nominated the prime minister, it was necessary to go through the process of selecting the prime minister. This design avoided the problem of later emperors acting recklessly and directly appointing traitors, and prevented the imperial power from getting out of control. It was impossible for the prime minister to successfully pass the secret vote of the courtiers, and it was impossible to disobey the public.
Therefore, the original text of the imperial edict stipulates this about the prime minister: "Strengthen the power of the cabinet and establish a system of prime ministers nominated by the emperor and recommended by the court, and then appointed and dismissed by the emperor."
But at the beginning of the design of the imperial edict, neither Zhu Yijun nor Zhang Juzheng expected that in the process of nominating the emperor, there would be candidates who were difficult for the emperor to decide. Could it be that two people were nominated this time, and the choice was really left to the courtiers? what is this? The Ming Dynasty’s version of the “Pan Boiling System”?
(End of chapter)
