Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 2114 General Baikui ([-]) Retention
The "renewal" of the first assistant is naturally a major event for the court, but because the trend of being highly pragmatic has long been formed, and to a large extent, it can even be called popular expectations, so this event itself did not bring much shock to the court.

Both inside and outside the palace and among the scholar-liners have remained extremely calm about this. What everyone wants to know is after Gao Yushi succeeds the chief assistant, where will the three fires of his new official appointment go.

Compared with the succession itself, his three new officials are the real focus of attention.After all, everyone in the world knows that Gao Ge is always a reformer. He has promoted many major reforms over the years, and the achievements he has made are even more dazzling.As a result, many people even discussed in private, saying that even if Gao Yushi stopped here, he could still be comparable to Shang Yang in the history.

But everyone knows that the "stop here" scenario is bound to never happen.As far as the high-practical consistent style is concerned, when he becomes the chief assistant, the subsequent reforms will only be more shocking than before—whether it is the difficulty of the reform itself or the possible impact after the reform, it will only be worse than before. .

After Gao Yushi completed the routine refusal and the emperor's routine insistence, the eyes of the whole world were focused on Gao Yushi, waiting for him to make a big move.

Surprisingly, this time, Gao Yushi didn't seem to be in a hurry.He first personally sent Wang Jiaping and Liang Menglong out of the capital, and wrote poems as presents on the occasion of parting, and then persuaded Shen Yiguan who wanted to leave Beijing as soon as possible, and then began to talk to the emperor, mentioning two things: first, Request for additional cabinet members; second, please resign from the household department.

These two things, in theory, also belong to the category of routine practice.

Requesting additional cabinet members, this is what the chief minister of the cabinet will choose to submit a request to when the cabinet is not full of members.The so-called "dissatisfied staff" refers to the vacancies among the six bachelors of Zhongjidian, Jianjidian, Wenhuadian, Wuyingdian, Wenyuange and Dongge. .

Obviously, after this change in the cabinet, since the remaining four Grand Scholars are filling in, that is, each of them will fill in two positions forward, so the Wenyuan Pavilion Grand Scholars and Dongge Grand Scholars are vacant.At this time, it is necessary for Gao Yushi, as the successor chief assistant, to submit a request for cabinet additions.

Why is this something that must be done, and it is all proposed by the chief assistant?Because the chief minister must adopt such an attitude: the work of the cabinet is extremely important to the imperial court, and as the chief minister of the cabinet, ministers attach great importance to it. In order to ensure that there are dedicated personnel responsible for all aspects of work, the cabinet must be kept full , This is the embodiment of the minister's responsibility to the court and the emperor.

But in fact, this is just a reason on the surface. In addition, there is another reason under the surface: the power of the court is where the power of the court lies, so the fewer auxiliary ministers, the more centralized the power of the court.Therefore, as the chief assistant, if he refuses to ask for additional cabinet members, he will be suspected of seizing power and arrogating power. Not only may he be criticized by courtiers, but it may also arouse the suspicion of the emperor.

However, everything has two sides. Since the chief minister wants to use the proposal of adding cabinet members to put an end to criticism from the courtiers and dispel the emperor's suspicion, then on the contrary, once the chief minister does so, although the courtiers do not need to speak, the emperor often also expresses "no need to add ".

The purpose of doing this is to show His Majesty the Emperor's full affirmation of the ability of the ministers in the cabinet-you have done a good job, and you can do a good job now, so why do you need to add?The second is to show His Majesty the emperor's trust in the cabinet ministers, especially the chief assistant - don't be afraid of people gossiping, I completely trust you.

Therefore, there is no doubt that when Gao Wushi asked for additional cabinet members, Zhu Yijun also immediately issued an order, saying that the current cabinet has sufficient manpower, and the four assistant ministers are fully capable of all current tasks, and I will not consider adding cabinet members for the time being.

Immediately afterwards, Gao Wushi continued to write a booklet. In the booklet, he cited various manifestations of the current busy affairs in the cabinet, and believed that it would be impossible not to add cabinet ministers. Firstly, it might delay the court's affairs, and secondly, it would also increase the work burden of the cabinet ministers.

However, the emperor still refused to allow it, insisting that the current cabinet is running well, and there is no possibility of delaying the government's affairs.As for the possibility of increasing the burden on the cabinet ministers you mentioned, I also expressed that at the same time, and felt rather distressed.

But it doesn't matter, I think Gao Yuanfu is young and promising, especially compared to the age of the previous ministers, you Gao Yuanfu is in the prime of life, and you can be used by one person as two or even three people.In short, with you working as a leader in the cabinet, I don't think there is any problem at all, so you should worry more about the troubles, and it can be regarded as solving my problems for me.

It has to be said that this second reason is probably the most outrageous reason for several generations of emperors to refuse to add cabinet ministers over the years.

What's the matter, Your Majesty, are you planning to "use it to death as long as it doesn't kill you"?Co-author, are you so stingy that you want to save the salaries of the two cabinet ministers?No way, no way?
Gao Yushi himself didn't expect the emperor to say this in the imperial decree. He was so overwhelmed that he didn't even know what reason to continue adding.After all, you said that if you don't add more cabinet members, the work will not be done properly, but the emperor made it clear that he doesn't think there is such a possibility, so what should you do?You can't say "Your majesty, you know what a fart, if you say you can't do it well, you can't do it well", right?

The second point is even more serious. His age of high practicality is clearly shown here, and everyone in the world knows it clearly.If a 36-year-old Shoufu is not in his prime, what does he mean in his prime?
As I said a long time ago, the average age of Xinke Jinshi in the Ming Dynasty was 32 to 33 years old.At his age of high pragmatism, if calculated according to the average value, basically he has just entered the Imperial Academy for two or three years, and got mixed up as an editor of the Imperial Academy, and the era of struggling for qualifications has just begun;
Either it was two or three years after the shujishi disbanded. At this time, they were either doing a certain job in the sixth department, or they were sent to other places to be county magistrates or officials equivalent to county magistrates. Most of these two types of people, even the second. There is still time and qualifications for a promotion.

However, he is highly pragmatic, but at this age, he has directly reached the imperial court with one person under one person and above ten thousand people.Just say it, this is not called being young and promising, so what is being young and promising; this is not called being in the prime of life, so what is being in the prime of life?
So Gao Yushi was a little numb for a while, this...Your Majesty, you are playing your cards too unreasonably, right?If you say that, how can I reply?

No way, Gao Wushi had no choice but to simply bring out all the words under the table. Shangshu said that he has a great responsibility at the moment, and he is already the chief assistant. If you want me to continue to take care of more work, then I will master more accordingly. Bigger and more power, this is definitely not a good thing for the court, and it must not be like this.

Unexpectedly, it would be good if this essay was not uploaded. Once submitted, Zhu Yijun immediately replied, saying: "The incompetent will hurt the brocade, and the talented and capable will work hard." You Gao Yuanfu has proven yourself for many years Your ability and loyalty, my trust in you is as solid as a rock, so you don't need to mind these.

Even, the emperor said something like this at the end of the article, to the effect that if someone wants to question you, then please ask him to be the number one scholar in the six poems first, and then build a career like yours for me.

Oh!General, dead chess.

Everyone knows that these two conditions put forward by the emperor as a prerequisite for questioning high pragmatism are almost impossible to be satisfied at the same time.

If you want to talk about making meritorious deeds, although it is difficult, in the eyes of the world, it is actually a chance to catch up with high pragmatism. On the contrary, it is really difficult to hit the six yuan in the previous one.

Since the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, there are actually only two champions in the six poems, the latter one is Gao Yushi, and the former one is named Huang Guan—unfortunately, the result has been abolished.

It is rare in history to be able to achieve "six elements in a row". There is a folk saying that "there are three elements in the world, but there are no six poems in the world".In the original entire Chinese history, there were only two record holders of "Lianzhong Liuyuan", namely Huang Guan in the Ming Dynasty and Qian Qi in the Qing Dynasty.

Huang Guan, the number one scholar of the Ming Dynasty, was born in Guichi, Chizhou (now Chizhou, Anhui), and was born in a scholarly family.Huang Guan was surnamed Xu in his early years, because his father entered Xu's family, and after Huang Guan was born, he took his mother's surname.

Huang Guan was extremely intelligent and studious since he was a child. In his early years, he studied under the famous scholar at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the Imperial Academy Huang Xiao[hān]. Under the influence of his teacher, he studied rigorously and paid attention to current theories when writing articles. .

Huang Guan participated in the provincial examination, general examination, and county examination all the way through, ranking first in the list.In March of the 24th year of Hongwu, the 27-year-old Huang Guan won the first place again in the palace examination personally hosted by Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang.

At that time, Huang Guan put forward in his article the view that "garrison troops on the frontier, plow and defend, reject them when they come, and prevent them when they go, so that China will have no worries and the border will be safe."Because the point of view in the article coincides with Zhu Yuanzhang's thoughts—of course, he may have guessed Zhu Yuanzhang's thoughts and deliberately catered to him. In short, he won the appreciation of the old emperor, so he was hand-picked as No.1 champion.

Then why his grades were abolished?This reflects the importance of standing in the team.

In the 29th year of Hongwu, Huang Guan was promoted from the position of Minister of Shangbao to the right servant of the Ministry of Rites, and the court granted permission to restore the Huang surname.In the first year of Jianwen, Huang Guan was promoted to the right servant, and participated in the reform of the old system with Fang Xiaoru.

During this period, when Yan Wang Zhu Di entered the court as an emperor's uncle, he met Zhu Yunwen with the courtesy of his uncle and nephew, which was regarded by the courtiers as arrogant and rude to Emperor Jianwen.

However, all the ministers were afraid of King Yan's power and dared not criticize his actions. Only Huang Guan dared to reprimand King Yan in public, saying that he should behave like a monarch and his ministers in the hall, and only treat his uncle and nephew in the palace.

Because Zhu Yuanzhang has always been more willing to delegate power to his sons, the vassal kings at that time not only had great power, but also had a very high status. Don't take Wenchen seriously.

Zhu Di naturally held a grudge against Huang Guan's accusation.Soon, Zhu Di brazenly launched the Jingnan Campaign in the name of conquering the treacherous ministers Qi Tai and Huang Zicheng. The army marched towards the capital, and he announced the list of civilian "traitors", and Huang Guan was listed as No.6.

The "Secret History of the Jiang Family" records: Huang Guan was ordered to write a draft edict, which was "extremely righteous" in the text, and at the same time ran around the counties in the upper reaches of the Huaihe River, recruiting soldiers to help the capital.He "disregarded his family" and recruited warriors while walking along the way.

When Huang Guan and his party arrived in Anqing, they heard the news that the capital had been occupied by the Yan army, the whereabouts of Emperor Jianwen was unknown, and many officials and their families in the capital were persecuted.Huang Guan wept bitterly, and said to his subordinates: "My wife has always been upright, she will not endure humiliation!"

Huang Guan concluded that his wife had been killed, so he "called for the soul to be buried on the river" for his wife by the river.The next day, a family boy escaped from Nanjing and found Huang Guan. He told Huang Guan about the changes in his family. The Yan army occupied the capital and asked for the jade seal of Chuanguo.

Zhu Di then sent someone to raid Huang Guan's home, and forcibly assigned his wife Weng Shi and two daughters to elephant slaves who trained elephants.Weng gave the gold hairpins and other jewelry on his body to the elephant slaves in exchange for wine. Taking the opportunity, he led his two daughters and ten family members, and they threw themselves into the water one after another.

Huang Guan was sad, but also very relieved, so he sailed the boat to the vicinity of his hometown.He adjusted his clothes at the bow of the boat, bowed to the east, and then jumped into the river.The people on the boat rushed to rescue him, but it was of no avail. The boatman only recovered a beaded silk brown hat.

The soldiers chasing Huang Guan rushed to the scene and salvaged Huang Guan's body in the river, but they couldn't find it, so they had to take the hat back to the business.

When Zhu Di heard the news of Huang Guan's martyrdom, he was very dissatisfied, so he sent someone to make a straw man and put on the hat left by Huang Guan to parade through the streets to show the public.Then all the male members of Huang Guan's clan were beheaded (Huang Guan's younger brother Huang Gou[gòu] had a son who escaped the robbery).

Zhu Di was still angry, not only ordered to revoke Huang Guan's champion status, but also arrested all Huang Guan's relatives and imprisoned them.During Renzong's reign, he ordered Huang Guan's relatives to be sent to the frontier.

In short, the only "six-headed champion" who is the same as Gao Yushi in this plane has been completely denied by the court. Currently, there is only one of the six-headed champions recognized, and Gao Yushi is the only one. Difficult!Not to mention the need to establish achievements comparable to high pragmatism, it is almost impossible to talk about.

When the emperor said this, he almost told the people of the world clearly: In my eyes, there is no one better than Gao Yuanfu among all the ministers!
In this way, the matter of adding cabinet ministers was delayed. Even if Gao Yushi really wanted to add cabinet ministers to win people's hearts, he couldn't think of it for a while.

Well, there is one thing left now, which is to resign as Minister of the Household Department.Being pragmatic in this matter is not sincere, but I have to take such an attitude for the same reason.

But it is clear that the emperor would also refuse for the same reason.Zhu Yijun directly used Gao Gong as an example in his decree reply, saying that you don’t need to say that Yuanfu is inconvenient to concurrently serve as an important post in the Shangshu. Now it is even more important to concurrently serve as a minister—you concurrently serve as a local official, but he concurrently serves as a heavenly official!

Since he can do it, how can you not do it?Since the late emperor did it, why can't I follow the example of the late emperor?

This is good, now that the late emperor has been brought out, naturally no one dares to continue to criticize the emperor - "governing the world with filial piety" can we not be allowed to follow the example of the late emperor today?It doesn't make sense.

Therefore, Gao Yushi's move to stabilize his position after taking office has basically been completed so far.
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Thanks to book friends "Cao Mianzi" and "I am Liao Zhenxin" for their support, thank you!
Thanks to book friends "Book Friends 20200323154533247", "Soviet2003", "Clouds Covering the Moon and Rain", "Against the wind and not envying immortals", "Neglect and 20190414205124747" for their monthly support, thank you!
Thanks to the book friend "Baiju Feiju" for the support of 7 monthly tickets, thank you!

PS: 1. Grandpa's condition has improved, and he is even optimistic enough to say that he wants to travel and have fun after being discharged from the hospital, haha.

2. I am very grateful to the book friend "Baiju Feiju" for his long book review. For me, this article is full of goodwill and hits the nail on the head. However, some places are really overrated, and I am really ashamed.I will think carefully about some corrections in the article. Although the story of this book is coming to an end, I am afraid it will not be possible to correct it, but I will try my best to write better in the next book.

By the way, although I can’t take care of continuous updates recently, I have had more time to carefully read some of the historical materials and documents collected for writing this book. It should not be a waste of time.

(End of this chapter)