Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 1568: The Boots Landed (Part [-])
It is not only Gao Yushi and the people around him who are worried, but the Heart School, the Real School, and the Neutral School, one counts as the other, are all worried because of the "imperial order" of the emperor yesterday. A boot had already hit the ground, but everyone was clearly waiting for the second thud.

The boots fall to the ground is a fable, which was often seen in various media before Gao Pragmatic Soul wears Daming.This story tells that there used to be a young man living upstairs in the old man's bedroom, and the young man often came back late at night.Entering the room, he took off his boot and threw it heavily on the ground. With a bang, the sound shook the whole room, waking the old man downstairs from his dream. Rediscover the dream.

Over time, the old man formed a conditioned reflex, and he had to wait until the two beeps every night before he could fall asleep.Once the old man couldn't bear it anymore, so he went upstairs to protest to the young man.Only then did the young man realize that his arbitrary behavior had hurt others, so he promised to correct it in the future.

The next night, the young man went back to his room late at night, and there was another "bang", and a boot fell to the ground.The old man held back his anger and waited for the other boot to hit the ground, but he waited and waited, but there was no more sound, but he dared not sleep peacefully, for fear that a sudden "bang" would come unexpectedly.

But the sound never came to mind. The old man stayed up until dawn, insomnia all night.When he went upstairs to inquire suspiciously, he found out that it was the young man who threw down one boot according to the old habit. Then he suddenly remembered the old man's protest, and quickly put the second boot on the ground without making a sound, but unexpectedly The old man suffered from insomnia all night.

In later generations, after many major government decisions were made, the media often used the term "boots hit the ground" to describe it. What does it mean?In fact, "waiting for the boots to hit the ground" is an eager, wait-and-see mentality.

Before a new policy or economic indicator is introduced, people already have expectations about the policy or performance. For example, the most sensitive one is in the financial market, that is, the early release of the effect of the early trading of securities.Since then, on the contrary, after the official introduction of the New Deal, the policy or economic results may deviate from the theory on which the policy is based.

The current court officials are waiting for the boots to fall to the ground, and they can simply stroke back and forth:
At the very beginning, the emperor suddenly announced the establishment of the Dingnan Capital Protectorate in the form of imperial edicts without going through the cabinet.There are two biggest problems with this matter: one is that the edict itself bypassed the cabinet, causing great embarrassment to the cabinet—please note that this is not just an embarrassment of face, but actually represents a serious shake in the status of the cabinet.

Why do you say that?Because if you look at it from another angle, it is that the imperial power is trying to bypass the de facto highest deliberative body of the civil service group and directly issue top-level administrative orders.

So what does it mean if it succeeds?It means that the cabinet is completely emptied of the imperial power, and it means that the large and small yamen, which are actually led by the cabinet, no longer have any degree of "deliberative power"—let alone decision-making power, they will only have executive power.

As we all know, during the founding period of the Ming Dynasty, the civil official group did not discuss political power at all. Almost all major events were decided by the two powerful emperors Taizu and Chengzu. After a long period of fermentation and a series of changes, the civil official group gradually fought To a certain degree of political power, as well as the right and status to exercise decision-making power in place of the imperial power in a very rare period (such as the emperor is young, extinct, etc.).

It should be known that the Chinese monarchy has never been and should not be controlled by the imperial power under Confucianism. This issue has already been explained, so I will not repeat it.The simple statement is: the most perfect system under Confucianism is that the emperor and the scholar-bureaucrats share the world-you, the emperor, cannot really be a "single husband".

Therefore, the civilian group absolutely cannot tolerate this situation.And this is also the reason why all the members knocked on the door and resigned to threaten the emperor for the first time in recent years without dividing factions.Similarly, this is the reason why Gao Wushi had to resolutely refuse even the imperial order.

What is "no one can betray his own class"?That's it.

You are not the emperor, so you betray your own class to empathize with the emperor, are you sick?But more importantly, it doesn’t matter if you are sick. The problem is that if your actions harm everyone in your class, then you are cutting yourself off from the “people”!

Therefore, Gao Yushi refused to accept the decree on the spot, so the cabinet knocked on the que and resigned collectively.

Should Dingnan Protectorate be established?unimportant!At least not the most important thing, the most important thing is that the ruling and opposition parties believe that the emperor cannot bypass the cabinet to issue orders!

The former is just a specific matter, and it is even just a "foreign state matter" that does not involve the "two capitals and thirteen provinces" in the core area of ​​Ming Dynasty.So it doesn't matter whether it is the establishment of the Duhufu, Dutongshi, or Jiedushi, at least in the face of the fundamental event of "the emperor and the scholar-bureaucrats share the world", it is not worth mentioning!
Fortunately, although the emperor refused to meet the ministers of the cabinet that day, on the next day, that is, this morning, he still accepted the opinions of the ministers. It is said that he listened carefully to the advice of the ministers and expressed his willingness Take it back.

Is this the end of the matter?No.Because the emperor was unwilling to back down on his own words, his actual attitude expressed at that time was: he understood that the cabinet refused to attach the signature, and he understood that the six divisions rejected the edict.

Eh?This seems to be the same thing, isn't it all retracted and invalidated?

Otherwise, it's a completely different matter.If the emperor himself withdraws the edict, it means that he admits that he, the emperor, has done something wrong completely, so he has to take the initiative to withdraw it.

But he did not do so, he just expressed his understanding of the cabinet's refusal to endorse it, and implied that the six divisions could reject the edict.What does this mean?
It means that the emperor still attaches great importance to the ancestral system.You see, the ancestral system allows the cabinet to refuse to attach the edict when it disagrees with it. Now that the cabinet has done this, I will admit it, right?
You see, the ancestral system gave the Sixth Division the privilege to refute the imperial decree. Now that the Sixth Division has done this, I also admit it, right?
I respect the ancestral system very much, and I respect the ministers and workers of the world very much!

In this way, he not only avoided the actions of changing his orders day and night as an emperor, breaking his words, and damaging his prestige, but also expressed his understanding and respect for the civil official group, which was a perfect operation.

However, precisely because the emperor was able to perform perfect operations under the huge political pressure of all the cabinet ministers, all the officials in Beijing became more and more nervous.Because this means two things: first, the emperor had planned it long ago, expected the cabinet's reaction, and had a countermeasure;

Then, on the basis of these two points, and considering the character of the emperor, the officials immediately realized: this is not the Mu Temple, but this is the second coming of the Shi Temple.

The first emperor Longqing was a "easy to bully" emperor, although he laid the foundation for many major events during his reign, and accomplished feats such as offering tribute to Alda and opening the sea.However, in terms of his ruling style alone, he is "easy to bully", and the civil servants have never considered him a threat to themselves.

That's right, he is very dependent on the Real School and Gao Gong, but whether it is the Real School or Gao Gong, it is also a part of the civil official group!Mumiao is still delegating power to the civil official group to rule according to the civil official group's hope!

But today's performance is different. He made the "establishment of the Dingnan Capital Protectorate", and he didn't even know the news about the scheduled protector Gao Yushi himself, and he had already predicted the reaction of the cabinet and Gao Yushi himself. He unhurriedly accepted the subsequent moves of the ministers, and achieved all the goals he wanted to achieve in the process.

He didn't really intend to set up Dingnan Protectorate now, but Dingnan Protector did not succeed, but he clearly made a cake for Gao Yushi in front of the whole world through this matter.

Theoretically, this cake is absolutely in line with the ideal of the civil service group: rewards for meritorious service.

However, things are not that simple. The civil service group is indeed united when faced with the pressure of the emperor's authority, but when the emperor favors a certain side to give gifts, it will arouse the jealousy of others.Because of jealousy, you will object, even if the objection fails, you will always stare at it, ready to find fault.

In other words, after the emperor made such a move, everyone knew that the emperor was going to "confer" the entire southern border to Gao Yushi.In this situation, it is hard to say what the rest of the Practical School think, but it is clear that the Heart School will definitely not be happy, and the other neutral schools may not be very happy either.

If you are not happy, you have to find fault and trouble, and the premise of these is to implement stricter monitoring of Gao Pragmatic's every move, and even strengthen monitoring of every move in southern Xinjiang, and strive to find out question.

As a result, Gao Yushi had to be more cautious, and Nanjiang did not dare to act rashly, and the emperor completed the control of the overall situation without a single soldier.

At the same time, he "recovered his fate" in a way that was completely in line with the ancestral system, minimizing the loss of his prestige—in fact, he didn't even reduce it, because it was common for the emperors of the Ming Dynasty to be sprayed, except for the "second ancestor". In addition, how many emperors have never been refuted by the cabinet, six departments, etc.?
But in doing so, he went back and solved the fundamental reason why the cabinet threatened him, that is, the emperor did not follow the ancestral system, ignored the cabinet, and so on.

This emperor already has the scheming skills of Emperor Sejong Jiajing, and the cards in his hand far exceed those of Emperor Jiajing in the early days of his succession.How big is this threat to the civil society?
It's hard to estimate, but at least Wang Xijue believes that the emperor will not be anticlimactic. There must be a more obvious and clear direct result of the application of tactics this time, and this result...he thinks most of it will fall on himself, or the school of mind on the head.

My family knew about my own family affairs, and the emperor refused to "rectify the foundation of the country early", and the School of Mind was the main force calling for "rectification of the foundation of the country early", so in this matter, the emperor was definitely dissatisfied with the School of Mind.

Of course, Wang Xijue knew very well that when the School of Reality—especially Gaodang of the School of Reality—held most of the important powers of the court, it was almost impossible for the emperor to suppress the School of Mind to the end, but he would definitely retain the airs of School of Mind and hand over Because of their important supervisory powers, to ensure that the Practical School does not get out of control, and that the imperial court does not become a monopoly of the Practical School.

However, as one of the two pillars of the School of Mind, he still has to constantly test the bottom line of the emperor, that is, the emperor's criterion for judging the "balance between the court and China", because only in this way can he gain more rights for the School of Mind.

As for his insistence on rectifying the foundation of the country early, this matter is not just as superficial as Zheng Huangguifei and his like think.In fact, Wang Xijue's personal benefit to the early rectification of the country's capital was not great. What was remarkable was that he gained some prestige at that time.

The real reason why he did this was to meet the political needs of the school of mind: the school of mind is a practical study of morality, if you don't insist on moral correctness, you will be finished!Can a tree whose roots have rotted survive?
This is like if the Practical School can’t do things, or if the things it does can’t change anything, whether the court should be poor or poor, whether it should lose the battle or lose the battle, wouldn’t the Practical School also have to die?

What is political correctness?That's it.Political correctness has existed in any period throughout the ages, and it is by no means exclusive to future generations.

Didn't Midi Baizuo know that conniving with certain ethnic groups would lead to many serious social problems, even economic, cultural, political, military and other problems?Of course they know, but if they don't continue to insist on Bai Zuo and the Virgin Mary, they may be finished first!A dead fellow is not a poor one. The threat of opposing parties is far greater than the threat of national decline—just look at the Donglin Party in the late Ming Dynasty for this reason.

A regime that is about to fall has always had similar troubles, that is, "I know what the problem is, but I can't change it, because once I change it, I will be finished first."

This principle was summarized by some scholars in later generations as "do nothing" under the entanglement and suppression of interest groups.Just like the "Jiangnan gentry resisting taxes (not necessarily all violently resisting taxes)" in the late Ming Dynasty in the original history, it could not be solved at the end of the Ming Dynasty, because a large number of people in power were members of Jiangnan interest groups.

In the early years of the Qing Dynasty, this matter achieved a temporary result, but the reason was that the upper ruling class of the Qing Dynasty at that time did not have much interest disputes with the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River. It was their interests that were lost by not paying taxes in the south of the Yangtze River, so they could not be polite. to suppress.A certain No. [-] was dismissed just because he failed to make up a penny in tax arrears, so that the world said that "No. [-] is worthless."

and then?In the middle and late Qing Dynasty, tax resistance in the south of the Yangtze River became the mainstream again, and the rescue was declared invalid: because at that time the interests of the upper ruling class and the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River had been bound, it was impossible to use a knife on themselves.

The reason why the Practical School was able to forcibly clear Zhang Tianmu in Jiangnan was, on the one hand, thanks to Hai Rui's blessing, and on the other hand, it was also because Gao Gong was not the chief assistant from Jiangnan.The reason why business taxes can be collected in Jiangnan is the same reason - Gao Yushi leads the Northern Commercial Alliance, not the Southern Commercial Alliance, and he has no psychological pressure to suppress the wealthy gentry and wealthy businessmen in the South.

Moreover, as a traveler with a limited sense of belonging in this era, he is highly pragmatic. He values ​​national interests far more than anyone else in this era, so he took the lead in paying a large amount of taxes.

After weighing the pros and cons, the other giants of Northern Commercial found that even if they paid taxes, they still earned more with high pragmatism, so they had no choice but to agree to pay taxes.Under such circumstances, the legitimacy of the Southern Merchant Gang's refusal to pay taxes has almost disappeared.

Therefore, to be able to complete so many reforms under the circumstances that the Ming Dynasty has been established for more than 200 years and various interest groups are intricate You can only start at the beginning, and it is probably impossible to be thorough.

Only Gao Pragmatic has this ability, because he can not only lead others to create and harvest more wealth, but also give up some of the benefits he could have obtained by himself at a level beyond the limitations of the times.If someone else had changed, they would always be unable to do one of these two points, and then they would have to give up halfway.
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PS: In the past half a month, I have carefully studied some of the world economic history of the Cold War and the post-Cold War period, as well as the historical development process of Midi’s current situation, so that this chapter almost digresses from the writing... But to be honest , the current situation of Midi is really very similar to that of the late Ming Dynasty. My personal opinion is that they are basically hopeless (this chapter has actually implied it)-even though they are still very strong now, but who thought that the Ming Dynasty before Saarhu Not strong?
(End of this chapter)