Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 2042 Zhengguoben ([-]) Kanglong has regrets
What is the biggest problem in exchanging with Gao Pragmatism?The first thing to do is to rule out the option of "give money".

It is well known that high pragmatism is not short of money.The biggest characteristic of this Nanning Marquis is that he is not short of money both in public and in private, and he is a veritable God of Wealth in Ming Dynasty both in public and in private.

Yu Gong, he is in charge of finance as a bachelor, and also directly serves as the secretary of the household department.After the reform of the Ministry of Household Affairs, almost all the financial power in the world was under its control except for internal funds.From the Metropolitan Procuratorate, Six Ministries and other ministries in central Beijing, to provincial governors, Fu Yamen, and procuratorial divisions, without his seal, they would not get a penny.

Don’t say you can’t get it, even if you get too much or don’t use it up, you have to report to the account department to explain the situation, or if you don’t get enough, you want to apply for another sum, or even get a little more next year, then you need the account department even more review review.

In a word, no matter how powerful the ministries of the world are, they can't keep the money bag in his hands.If he likes you, you will have funds to advance the work in hand; if he doesn't like you, don't say that the job is hard to do, and the people under him may be dissatisfied.

What, you said to appeal to the emperor?Don't be kidding, look at the Chen Han that the emperor rewarded him last time, "You are the only salt and plum, and you are a boat", I can't do anything without you, Aiqing—do you think the emperor believes in you or him?
In private, let alone.How much money Jinghua has now, maybe even Gao Yushi himself has lost count.The money on the books is okay, it must be a lot, but how to calculate Jinghua's assets?
Jinghua Bank, Jinghua Trading Co., Jinghua Infrastructure, Jinghua Pharmaceutical... and Jinghua's huge industrial areas that are as large as cities, and the northern and southern ocean fleets that don't know how to calculate their value, etc. These are already hard to count, let alone Jinghua actually controls such a huge territory in southern Xinjiang and Nanyang, how can this be settled?

Therefore, everyone inside and outside the Ming Dynasty knew that "give money" was the most meaningless thing to do with Gao Yushi. Even if you put all your wealth, it might be nothing but a drop in the bucket, and you wouldn't be able to get into his eyes at all.Therefore, in order to exchange with Gao Yushi, he must have some political bargaining chips that are meaningful to him.

Of course, having said that, Zhao Zhigao had to figure out a way to fill in the hole for Zhao Fengwei's 7 taels of silver, and he would definitely not advance the money to him if he was pragmatic.

Leaving aside where the money will be raised from, what political bargaining chip can Zhao Zhigao come up with to make Gao Wushi tempted?

In fact, when Zhao Zhigao first heard the news that day, his first reaction was to resign.Of course, resignation cannot be regarded as an exchange. What can be called an exchange is that at the same time as resignation, an official of the real school is recommended to the cabinet as a substitute.

The current composition and ranking of the cabinet is as follows: Wang Jiaping, a scholar of the Zhongji Temple, Liang Menglong, a scholar of the Jianji Temple, Gao Yushi, a scholar of the Wenhua Temple, Zhao Zhigao, a scholar of the Wuying Temple, Shen Yiguan, a scholar of the Wenyuan Pavilion, Dongge University Shi Zhou Yong.

Except for Wang Jiaping, the first assistant, among the other five elders, there are three from the School of Reality and two from the School of Mind.As we all know, Wang Jiaping and Liang Menglong won't do it for too long, and they are about to retire and return to their hometowns.

At that time, that is, when Wang Jiaping leaves office, it is not known whether he will recommend a replacement to join the cabinet, but according to the usual practice, he has the right to recommend, and the emperor will definitely consider and convene the Jiuqing court to recommend him. , or engage in big court push.

But even if he would do this, he should recommend a neutral school, that is, an official from the traditional School of Neo-Confucianism, and it is unlikely that he will choose someone from among officials from the School of Reality and School of Mind.Besides, according to the emperor's mind, he might also hope that Wang Jiaping would recommend a neutral official.

Of course, even if Wang Jiaping recommended a neutral official to join the cabinet, there would be no loss for the Practical School, because once Wang Jiaping and Liang Menglong retreated, Gao Pragmatism was almost certain to be the chief assistant.

The position of chief assistant is much more important than the new cabinet boss who has been added to the cabinet, especially if Gao Yushi is appointed.

How to say this?In short, how much power the chief assistant has is mainly not how much power the position itself gives people, but how much power the person who serves as the chief assistant is capable of wielding.

This sounds a bit outrageous, the head of the civil servants of the Ming Dynasty, how come his power is not conferred by his position, but depends on the individual?

This is the mess of the cabinet system of the Ming Dynasty: the cabinet itself is not an "official of the economic system" in the traditional sense!It has been said many times before that the cabinet was originally just an auxiliary agency for the emperor to handle government affairs, and it was only a "secretariat" if it had a great status.

Before the Ming Dynasty, the prime ministers of all dynasties had great power, so the system of group ministers was often adopted to disperse the powers of the prime ministers.It can be seen that sometimes the prime minister with the highest status can still monopolize the power, which directly involves the monarchy, and such examples abound.

After all, the powers possessed by the prime minister mainly include decision-making power, participation power, and administrative power. People often say "under one person, above ten thousand people" refers to the prime minister.

After the Hu Weiyong case, Zhu Yuanzhang played a big game and directly abolished the prime minister system.This move looks very cool, and it can be described as the peak performance of China's feudal monarchy.But the problem is that the long-term reality of the formation of the ancient power and the power of the king is that the objective conditions require such a system.

As a result, because of Zhu Yuanzhang's actions, the Ming Dynasty stipulated that the decision-making power of the court affairs must be the emperor himself, the main power of the cabinet can only be the participation power, and the six ministries are mainly administrative power, and the local government is divided into the chief executive and other agencies. Administrative, judicial and military, the three powers restrict each other.

Separation of the three powers, what a "modern" and "advanced" term, but is the separation of the three powers really that good?Let us look at the reality of the separation of powers in the Ming Dynasty.

At first glance, the separation of powers in Ming Dynasty is really wonderful, and the cabinet system is also very advanced.For example, in the Jialong Wan Dynasty in the original history, the emperors were either obsessed with cultivating Taoism, or devoted themselves to creating people, or were angry with the foreign court and did not see their courtiers, but it did not delay the three emperors from taking control of the world. The system looks remarkably smooth.

But here comes a famous saying: So, at what cost?

Because related issues have been discussed in various aspects in the previous chapters of this book, only the conclusions are presented here.There are two most obvious costs: first, eunuchs are prone to chaos in politics; second, it will inevitably lead to intensified party disputes.

The point of eunuchs' chaos mainly depends on whether the emperor himself attaches great importance to the threat of eunuchs' chaos. In theory, as long as the emperor wants to control it, the eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty cannot mess with politics.

But it must be noted that although the Emperor Ming had the ability to control any eunuch in theory, sometimes eunuch chaos still inevitably occurred.For example, when the emperor came to the throne at a young age, he had a serious dependence on one or some eunuchs, which could easily lead to eunuchs' chaos in politics; another example was that when the emperor's monarchy was in serious conflict with the civil servants' power, the emperor pretended to entrust the eunuchs Suppressing the civil official group will also lead to chaos among eunuchs.

As for "inevitably leading to intensified party struggle", this may require a little analysis of the reasons.

The cabinet system is not the real prime minister system, and the chief minister of the cabinet is not the real prime minister.However, in terms of the needs of real politics, if there is no civilian leader in the administrative decision-making system of the imperial court, it will lead to two most direct consequences:
First, the decision-making process of the imperial court was slow, and since the chief minister was not the prime minister, the authority of the decision was greatly reduced after it was formed.

Some people may disagree, thinking that although the decision of Ming Dynasty was not made by the "Prime Minister", it was finally decided by the emperor!Why, the emperor's authority is not as good as your mere prime minister?
This is the key point - the "authority" recognized by officials at all levels of the court is actually different from the "authority" recognized in their hearts.

Verbally, any court official would say that "sage is no better than the emperor", but in fact, the ones everyone really trusts are the civil leaders who have experienced all kinds of wind and waves, or have survived for many years.

You want to ask why?The emperor came by inheritance, but talent cannot be inherited. No matter how wise and powerful the first emperor was, he may still be worth two hundred and five today;
Civilian leaders are different. Even though some people seem to have worked hard for high qualifications, they are still the best in the dangerous officialdom.Being a civilian leader means you must have done something right anyway.

That being the case, it goes without saying whose ability the officials who are also civil servants will trust more?But in the end, the current resolution is not necessarily the opinion of the civil leaders, but only the opinion of the emperor. Even if everyone dare not speak out against it, no one would say in their hearts: This is a mess.

In this way, it can be explained why the cabinet system will lead to a blow to the authority of the court's decision-making-this stuff is not necessarily recognized by our civil official group!
Second, under the premise of the previous article, the process of the formation of the chief assistant further intensified the internal struggle of the civil service group.

The abolition of the prime minister system has left the civil service group without a legitimate leader, but if a group wants to be united and efficient, it must have a core. In order to become this core figure, everyone has to try their best to try to rise to the top.

Some people may ask, isn't the former prime minister system also "one core"?How come there is no "inevitable party struggle" under the system of prime ministers, and the fake prime minister, the chief assistant, who is not justified, will lead to "inevitable party struggles" instead?This shows that the system of the dynasty is indeed amazing.

How did the prime ministers of previous dynasties come about?appointed by the emperor.

That's right, it's as simple as that: the emperor appoints a prime minister, who controls all officials and is responsible to the emperor at the same time.

Although the system is simple, the responsibilities and rights are very clear.I appoint you as the prime minister, and you are responsible for doing XXXX well. If you do well, I will reward you; if you don’t do well, I will replace you.

As a result, the cabinet system of the Ming Dynasty changed this rule, and what was it replaced with?The famous Ting Tui.

People in later generations often praised Tingtui, thinking that it even had the style of dish cooking, which was very advanced.In fact, this is as ignorant as many people praise the Athenian cooking system when they talk about the Western cooking tradition.

Democracy in Athens has never been a democracy for the whole people, it is only a democracy for the aborigines of the city of Athens, and several other classes in the city do not even have the right to R, so what the hell are you talking about?

The reason why the Ting Tui system emerged was essentially because the imperial power cut off the power of the prime minister with a single knife, and the civil official group's will to resist was increasing day by day.

However, this system is fundamentally a deformity, because it has caused the responsibilities and powers of the leaders of the civil official group to become very unclear-do you, the chief assistant, stand for the emperor, or for our civil official group?
The teacher said that the primary task in dealing with conflicts between the enemy and ourselves is to distinguish between ourselves and the enemy.Therefore, if it is not clear which side you, the chief assistant, are on, then your position must be embarrassing.However, the court push system pushed this ambiguity to the peak: important officials discussed together, and the emperor made a decision.

Well now, the chief assistant was elected by the top representatives of the civil official group, but in the end it was determined by the emperor's decree-may I ask which side are you from now?
Why is it difficult for the chief assistant of Ming Dynasty to be a minister of power or a minister of mediocrity?This is not something that Shoufu can change with his own will, but the institutional foundation is here.

If you and the emperor are of the same mind, the emperor will tolerate you as a powerful official on the surface, but this means that you will have conflicts with most of your civil servants, and their tolerance for you is often not high.

Here you can almost look for the so-called "power ministers" in the history of the Ming Dynasty at random: Yan Song, Gao Gong, Zhang Juzheng, which one was the "generation of sages" at the level of the entire civil official group at the time?In fact, no, their "popularity" is not very good.

Needless to say, Yan Song has too many flaws in himself, and it is normal for him to be scolded for hundreds of years, but even so, some scholars in later generations pointed out that he actually played a lot in the stability of the court at that time.

What about the high arch?As a person at that time, Wang Shizhen was also a leader in the literary world. When he wrote "Shoufu Biography", he really wanted to criticize Gao Gong if there were black spots, and if there were no black spots, he would also like to criticize black spots.

Gao Gong acted resolutely, pointed out misconduct immediately, and immediately asked to correct mistakes when he found mistakes. This is the spirit that a leader who does practical things should have. Forbearance. If there is disobedience, it will be broken when touched, and each eye will be glared, and the evil voice will follow, that is, both the left and the right will be changed. Once the ambition is gradually achieved, the baby will look at the hundred, and the day will be cut. By."

Good guy, they are in charge of the bureaucracy, arrested a bunch of corrupt officials, newly revised the examination law to strengthen the assessment of officials, and those who should be demoted and dismissed for unqualified officials will become impulsive when it comes to you, Wang Shizhen. Containing things, becoming a baby with a hundred visions, a teacher of only one's will, and there is no one who dares to resist?How should I put it, I have to be friendly and pretend not to see any corpses?

Where is Zhang Juzheng?This man was honored and favored constantly during his lifetime, but he was almost opened up and whipped to death after his death. All the officials attacked him and scolded him like a rat crossing the street.So much so that his final conclusion in "Shenzong Veritable Records" turned out to be "partial and jealous, petty weapons are easy to gain, suppress officials, rely on trustworthy and flattery, and when Fang's father wins his love, the root is broken. Authority shock My lord, it’s a disaster. Why is it so strange that the death is not long, but the slaughter and humiliation follow.”

Although Gao Wushi always said that Zhang Juzheng was just an improvement, not a reform, because he did not "renovate the past", but just repaired the decayed building, but...at least he has repaired it seriously!How did he end up with such a fate, such a reputation?

Fortunately, not long after, someone began to reverse the case for him, and the academic circles of later generations even brought him up again out of a certain need, boasting so much that it was even exaggerated.

In a word, the most difficult thing to do well as the chief assistant in the Ming Dynasty is how to define who is the representative of oneself——the emperor, or the officials?

In Zhao Zhigao's view, Gao Wushi does not have to worry too much about this point, because his identity and position have already been decided: the Real School has always been a royalist party.

Therefore, Zhao Zhigao believes that Gao Yushi's chief assistant must be a powerful minister, because what he wants to do is basically approved by the emperor, and the emperor will give him all the necessary support, and this will inevitably bring greater pressure to the School of Mind.

However, Shen, who also sees this point, always chooses to confront and resolutely oppose Gao Yushi, but Zhao Zhigao doesn't see it that way. His choice is to back down and sit back and watch Gao Yushi's power rise to the top.

So, is Zhao Zhigao really as cowardly as Shen Yiguan has seen him to be?If you only look at it this way, you will underestimate Zhao Zhigao too much.Zhao Zhigao's concession was not an end, but a means.

When he decided on this matter, he murmured to himself and recited a passage in "Book of Jin·Wang Bao Biography": "Today, with hard-to-reward achievements, with the prestige of the Lord of Shakespeare, we will occupy the capital alone and exercise great power. If you advance, the dragon will have regrets, if you retreat, thistles will grow in the garden, hoping for safety, you don’t know the blessing.”
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(End of this chapter)