Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 4 The Emperor Longqing (Part [-])
"Tai Yue, what do you mean by Gao Suqing bringing a child to meet us?" Chen Yiqin looked at the back of Gao Gong's carriage heading towards the palace, and asked Zhang Juzheng beside him suspiciously.

Zhang Juzheng thought for a while, then shook his head: "I also don't understand, but this kid is only around seven or eight years old, and it's quite rare to see so many court officials without stage fright. I see Duke Xuan today It shows that he attaches great importance to this child, don't you want to adopt him?"

Chen Yiqin suddenly realized, and patted his forehead: "That's right, Gao Suqing has no son. He just said that this child is the son of the sixth son of his family... I'm afraid it's true as you said, because he wants to adopt him and leave him the son of the third son Gao." It's incense." Then she turned her head and asked Li Chunfang, "What do you think of the chief assistant?"

Li Chunfang smiled all over his face: "Good adoption, Brother Zhongxuan, the pillar of the country, will definitely be the one to be kind to his descendants in the future. Wouldn't it be a waste not to have a son? Even with the emperor, if Brother Zhongxuan really died without an offspring, he would definitely feel regretful .”

Zhang Juzheng saw that Li Chunfang was smiling easily, and knew that it was because of Gao Gong's appearance of not caring about old affairs just now, he felt that the chances of the cabinet's discord were greatly reduced, so his face was full of joy.

He had a smile on his face, but he couldn't help sneering in his heart, and said to himself: "How can this kind of good man be the chief assistant? Since Gao Suqing and the teacher left successively, the authority of the cabinet is getting worse day by day, and the dispute between the cabinet and the ministry is almost over. Now that he has come to the stage, and now that Zhao Zhenji, who is in charge of his words, has joined the cabinet, he often relies on his old qualifications to do his best, and the entire cabinet is a mess. There is no powerful minister to hold the line. The cabinet decree will make it difficult to get out of the Meridian Gate! Alas, if it wasn’t for this, why would I…”

Zhang Juzheng thought about this, and suddenly remembered something, and asked Li Chunfang, "Elder Zhao Ge refused to come to greet him today. Although Duke Zhongxuan didn't say anything about it, it's hard to say whether he will be dissatisfied. Right now, the emperor is hosting a banquet in person. , call him into the palace to have a meal together, if he puts forward a half sentence before the emperor..."

Li Chunfang's smile faltered, and he forced himself to laugh dryly: "Brother Zhongxuan is so generous, even if there were some...uh, some disagreements in the past, I will explain it together today, not to mention this trivial matter. Besides, Mr. Zhao Ge didn't come to greet him today, but It's because of recuperation... Brother Zhongxuan thinks he won't hold grudges for it."

Hmph, in the past, there was just some discord?

Chen Yiqin snorted softly: "Let's not talk about whether to remember grudges or not. I'm afraid Shoufu misunderstood Taiyue's meaning. He meant that if the emperor asked about it, and Gao Suqing said that sentence in a casual way, then even if the emperor didn't reply inappropriately." Zhao Dazhou [Note: Zhao Zhenji, named Dazhou.], even if Gao Suqing does not hold grudges, what about Zhao Dazhou? No one knows what Zhao Dazhou is doing in the cabinet right now. Don’t the three know? If he thinks that Gao Suqing is trying to get away with him, I think it’s likely that there will be another mess and no peace.”

The veins on Li Chunfang's thin cheeks twitched twice, and she said anxiously: "Then what should I do?"

At this time, Zhang Juzheng was not in a hurry, he waved his hands and said, "Actually, these are all trivial matters. Maybe the emperor couldn't help being overjoyed when he saw Brother Zhongxuan, and it's possible that he forgot to ask about this... The question before the cabinet right now is, Words are increasingly not taking the cabinet seriously, and some people in the six ministries rely on the prestige of words to decentralize power from the cabinet. But they don't want to think about it, if there is no cabinet to take charge of political affairs, what will happen between them? And I'm used to bickering with each other, so my court of Ming Dynasty just spends the whole day just arguing, what else can I do?"

Li Chunfang nodded with deep sympathy, and said: "Yes, right now, people like Yanlu are already monks holding umbrellas, and they are lawless. Alas, when Mr. Huating was here, Yanlu could always be heard and greeted, how come now? ..."

The corners of Zhang Juzheng's eyes twitched, but he didn't speak.According to his thinking, did Xu Jie listen to the greetings when he was in power?I'm afraid it's not necessarily true, but it just so happens that Xu Jie and Yanlu have the same goal, and Xu Jie has always indulged in Yanlu, so Yanlu seems to be "acceptable", but it is also Xu Jie's indulgence that caused him to After stepping down, speech has almost completely lost control.But Xu Jie was his mentor, Zhang Juzheng could not speak ill of him at this time.

Chen Yiqin didn't need to be scrupled, and said bluntly: "Mr. Huating may have thousands of good people, but the responsibility for indulging in words can only be on him. Thinking back to the time of the first emperor, how was the way of speaking? If it weren't for the introduction of Lord Huating Gao Suqing, why is your way of speaking so arrogant and domineering today that there is no way to restrain it?"

Li Chunfang is a good gentleman, although he can actually see the reason, but he dare not tell it, but he did not expect Chen Yiqin to be extremely disappointed with the current court situation, so he dared to speak out.Li Shoufu faltered immediately, and didn't say a word for a long time.

In fact, although what Chen Yiqin said was a bit absolute, it was generally good. It was indeed because of Xu Jie that the words were so rampant.But having said that, the reason why Xu Jie resigned later was also directly related to his indulgence in speech.

At the beginning, the so-called "full dynasty inverted arch", in fact, the core force was the speech channel controlled by Xu Jie, and after Gao Gong became an official, Xu Jie came back to see things amidst the calls of all officials.This war of words ended with Xu Jie winning a complete victory, and Xu Jie became more and more famous.

The situation at that time was that Xu Jie relied heavily on the officials, and showed his favor to them in everything;No matter how attached the emperor was to the previous expulsion of Gao Gong, he had to compromise in the end, and the officials became more and more convinced that the current emperor was different from the former emperor, and that he was a weak and deceitful person.Since then, the eunuchs have become more and more unscrupulous in their speeches, and they almost have to compete with the emperor regardless of public or private.

Of course, some of these debates are reasonable admonitions, such as the requirement to restrain the eunuchs from taking charge of their duties; however, more of them are trivial matters that have nothing to do with the national economy.For example: prohibiting the emperor from going to Yu Mansion for nostalgia; prohibiting the emperor from going to the suburbs of Beijing to relax and play; suspecting that the emperor has the intention of traveling at public expense and prohibiting him from going to Mount Tai to worship, etc., there is a strong tendency to want to raise the emperor in captivity as pigs.Even the private affairs of the palace have to be brought out with great fanfare, discussed in an open manner, and the truth is spoken in a dignified manner.All these things made even Emperor Longqing, who was so good-tempered that he had nothing to say, lose his temper from time to time—but he didn't do anything after losing his temper, so he had to swallow it back forcibly.

In fact, the emperor went to the Qiandi to relax and cherish nostalgia. Is this huge country about to perish?

Pure nonsense.

But that's not the case, why bother to make alarmist remarks!

Thinking that this group of seven-foot men who control the national public opinion and justice and justice, don’t pay attention to the many disadvantages of political affairs, but focus on the family’s shortcomings, pay close attention to the emperor’s private life and gossip, so tirelessly babbling, How is it different from the village woman in Lishe?But to be self-satisfied and pretend to be a righteous person will only increase the laughter of future generations.

And Xu Jie's favoritism towards the speech officials gradually lost his principles—or, in other words, he had no principles to restrict his various behaviors of speech.

In July of the first year of Longqing, the emperor ordered the cabinet to inspect Kedao.Officials are upright and selfless, and those who are competent will not be afraid of the assessment. This is not an excessive requirement, but Xu Jie remonstrated with the emperor in order to protect the officials.

That's right, the emperor even had to be rejected by the chief assistant for the routine assessment of officials!

At this time, the emperor could be said to be completely controlled by the civil official group headed by Xu Jie, unable to do anything he wanted.

It was this kind of unhappiness that gradually wore down the emperor's patience.The clay figurines still have a bit of earthy nature. Before, Emperor Longqing was a little jealous of these people because they attacked Gao Gong, his most trusted teacher. Now these people are becoming more and more arrogant. It is already justified to fight, and unreasonable to stir up three points!At this point, whoever becomes the emperor can not hate them?Therefore, they naturally hated Xu Jie, the chief assistant who always blindly protected them.

However, just hating it doesn't mean much. The emperor has no reliance in the outer court, and he is cowardly and cowardly. He got angry in private. What happened? He really didn't dare to fight with Xu Jie, so he could only criticize him occasionally. , expressing a little dissatisfaction——just like that, I dare not express this dissatisfaction too much, for fear of being caught again, being forced back by the officials, and even having a meal at the top.

For example, in September, because of the affairs of the inner circle, there were a lot of discussions about Ke Dao again, and Xu Jie, as always, expressed support for the views on behalf of the cabinet.Ke Dao's remarks were often too radical, and the emperor couldn't bear it. He issued a letter to complain about the cabinet, and he was extremely wronged in his words: "The speech officer also said that I am not, and your cabinet also said that I am not. What do you want?"

To squeeze the emperor to such an extent, no matter what the cause, no matter which dynasty he was in, seemed a bit too much.But the emperor's weakness gave the speech officials more and more excuses to bully the weak and fear the hard.Emperor Longqing was originally a benevolent and gentle king, known for his benevolence, thrift and generosity, but he was repeatedly attacked on the basis of excuses, and he had really reached the limit of his patience.Under such circumstances, the emperor naturally missed Gao Gong more and more.

When the water is full, it will overflow, and when the moon is full, it will be short, just like the prosperity of a person must decline.Looking back, Xu Jie's ups and downs in the political arena in the early years of Longqing can be described as "successful words of an official, failures of an official": relying on the momentum of public opinion created by words, he reached the peak of fame; The trust of the royal family was later directly approved by the emperor in a tentative resignation, and he returned home sadly.He was shrewd all his life, and he was able to serve the moody Emperor Jiajing with ease, but he couldn't please the cowardly and clumsy Jinshang. The whole story is really thought-provoking.

But this is not the time for deep thinking, so Zhang Juzheng said: "How things got to this point is not important now. What is important now is that we should see that now we have the ability and reason to suppress the words There is only one person."

Li Chunfang saw that Zhang Juzheng had been staring at Gao Gong and his party heading away from the palace, and suddenly realized: "So you are talking about Duke Zhongxuan...ah, that's right! If there is anyone who can suppress the way of speaking now, I am afraid that Gao Suqing will not be the first." The two thought. Well, you have been doing your best to mediate for Duke Zhongxuan before, could it be because of this?" Li Chunfang was not angry that Zhang Juzheng directly ignored her as the chief assistant, this...well, she is quite self-aware.

When Chen Yiqin heard this, he was half dazed and half hesitant, and said: "Gao Suqing is indeed deeply trusted by the emperor, but he was defeated in the past because he was defeated by the words, and he almost returned to the field and died of old age in the forest. , how do you know if he still dares to continue to go against the rhetoric?"

Zhang Juzheng laughed, and said confidently: "I expect he will definitely take action to curb the current rampant situation of speech."

Chen Yiqin looked at him with great interest, and insisted on asking: "Taiyue must be relying on someone to speak so boldly and bluntly, but the old man just can't think of the reason, so I dare to ask: why?"

"The reason is: Gao Gong is a person who wants to do things."

Not to mention Li Chunfang, even Chen Yiqin admitted it frankly, without rebuttal, and silently said nothing.

So Zhang Juzheng put away his smile and said sternly: "But in the current situation, if he wants to do something, he can't let people shouting and hindering his ears all day long. It's a logical move to suppress the words."

Chen Yiqin thought for a while, but still refused to give in, and said: "Yes, he is such a person, but this only shows that Gao Suqing has a reason to deal with Yanguan, but it does not mean that he must have such strength."

Zhang Juzheng's face became more and more serious, and he was even silent for a while, and then he spoke word by word: "The official is like fire, and the chief assistant is like the wind."

Chen Yiqin fell silent, he understood Zhang Juzheng's meaning: if the wind of Shoufu is not strong enough, no matter how much it blows, it will only increase the fire; but if the wind of Shoufu is strong enough and violent enough, it can blow out the group of words Official Fire's...

As for Gao Gong, I'm afraid it can be regarded as a gale at the very least, and it may even be a hurricane directly!
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(End of this chapter)