The Reborn Duke of Ming Dynasty

Time is still passing, and the speed is not slow. For those who have not encountered anything too serious, it is really a blink of an eye. Looking back, this time has passed It's been a long time, and similarly, for those people whose lives are not satisfactory, maybe they hope that the days of today will pass one day earlier, but in fact they don't, so maybe for these people To put it bluntly, at that time, they really felt that life was going too slowly, but at the same time, they discovered that such a long time had passed in this torment before they knew it. , but the situation has not changed much.

Two years, now it is the beginning of Wanli ten years, two years, for some people, it is very short, it is too short to react, it has already passed, but also, for some people He said that two years is also a very long time, but this length does not refer to his personal feelings, but refers to the fact that in just two years, people may undergo very huge changes.

For example, Zhang Juzheng, or it can only be said to be Zhang Juzheng. Of course, other people can also be used, but obviously, the changes of other people may be very obvious, but obviously, the status of these people is not as good as that of Zhang Juzheng. , is not the focus of people's attention, so no matter how obvious these people's changes are, they are no longer within the scope of discussion.

As for Zhang Juzheng, his changes in the past two years are really quite huge.

Let's talk about the "One Whip Law" first. Of course, there is nothing to say in fact. After all, Zhang Juzheng is still a cabinet chief assistant scholar, and he still controls the government. Although Zhang Juzheng's power has not changed much, he His authority is even worse than before, and everyone who knows his past can't help but sigh, this change is really too big.

"One Whip Method" is something that Zhang Juzheng strongly recommends, and he personally promoted it. Therefore, no matter how Zhang Juzheng himself changes, his attitude towards this matter will not change. He will only care more and more. And the result of caring more and more is that no matter who it is, they can only abide by it, but absolutely cannot violate it, and once you violate it, the consequences will be really serious.

In fact, after someone was killed for violating the "One Whip Law" for the first time, it was indeed because of Zhang Juzheng's ruthless methods at that time, which stabilized the situation.

But this kind of stability did not last as long as Zhang Juzheng imagined. What Zhang Juzheng thought at the time could last at least two or three years, at least one or two years. The estimate is wrong. In fact, the temptation of money and silver to those people is much greater than the disaster of killing someone who doesn't know when it will happen. They didn't last long at all. It took more than 300 days, less than a year, and some people began to "return to the old business".

In the face of this situation, since Zhang Juzheng had already set a precedent, he would naturally not be relentless, and the result was to kill.

In the past two years, there have been five people who have been murdered for violating the provisions of the "One Whip Law". This kind of meaning is developing in the direction that everyone wants money but not life.

But in the face of this situation, Zhang Juzheng obviously didn't know what to do.

If it can't be eliminated, then there is only another method. The method of decapitation, as the ultimate method, is now hidden by Zhang Juzheng. It will not be done unless it is absolutely necessary. But now, Zhang Juzheng has listened to Zhang Fan's method. , changed to penalty.

This kind of punishment is different from the previous kind of punishment. In the past, officials were demoted, and then fined, and the money fined was nothing more than what you corrupted.

How about now, no matter how much you have been greedy, as long as you have corrupt behavior, you will be fined as much as you want, until you go bankrupt, let you say that you can’t live, you can’t die, or it’s more uncomfortable than death .

Not to mention, Zhang Juzheng was not optimistic about this kind of method at the beginning. He just tried it out, but the effect was surprisingly good. At the very least, compared with the kind of killing, it didn't last long. It would be much better if it would make people panic in the court.

Even, Zhang Juzheng planned to implement this method in a large scale in the court, which made people who knew some inside information terrified.

However, obviously this method can only deal with the little people below, these people in the court, even if Zhang Juzheng is talking now, even the emperor dare not intervene, but he also dare not do so.

In short, after the "One Whip Law" has been implemented for such a long time, various problems have been exposed, and they will be corrected immediately. In addition, the "One Whip Law" is indeed effective, not only making the court richer Well, people's dream is much better than before, and this is naturally a good thing. Moreover, no matter how much people in the court oppose this matter, or how much they oppose Zhang Juzheng, Zhang Juzheng's achievements , but they also have to admit that Zhang Juzheng's "One Whip Method" is indeed beneficial.

And another change is the situation mentioned just now, that is, now Zhang Ju is speaking in the court, not to mention the ministers, even the emperor dare not object, such a monopoly is evident.

Of course, for the word "dictatorship" itself, as long as the word is mentioned, it will definitely not be a good thing, and this is not surprising, after all, once a person's power increases , when he feels that he is the biggest and no one can restrain him, that is when he becomes free-wheeling, so, basically, if a person's power has reached a very large level, and he starts to ignore others Time, that is the time for trouble.

But today's Zhang Juzheng is naturally inseparable from the word "dictatorship". After all, Zhang Juzheng's power in the court has reached its peak, and even the emperor dare not object to his words. , who dares to restrict Zhang Juzheng? No, not to mention the question of whether he dares or not, or whether it will be useful if he does this. The most basic point is that if he does this, he will provoke himself It's a big trouble, and this alone makes people disrespectful.

And Zhang Juzheng gradually felt that no one in the court could restrain him, so he became arrogant.

Although it is said that Zhang Juzheng's arrogance in the court, or his arrogance, is actually related to the "One Whip Law", if Zhang Juzheng really does not give in at all, and his attitude is obviously very tough , then obviously, this matter is also related to the "One Whip Method" to make Zhang Juzheng like this, other situations are better.

Some people may say that even if Zhang Juzheng is in power, but he is still because of the "One Whip Law" after all, or because Zhang Juzheng is very concerned about government affairs, and that's what happened.

It is true to say so, but it is not entirely true.

Zhang Juzheng became so authoritarian, naturally because of the "One Whip Law", it can be said that this incident is the cause.

However, the cause of Zhang Juzheng's dictatorship was the "One Whip Law", but because of the "One Whip Law", after the cause came out, the subsequent consequences were somewhat different, or in other words, although in this matter, , Zhang Juzheng showed monopoly power, but with the passage of time, and because of more and more problems in the "One Whip Law", Zhang Juzheng has gradually changed, and his monopoly At that time, it was not only manifested in the matters related to "One Whip", but also extended to other matters.

So, this time, Zhang Juzheng can be considered to have confirmed the word "dictatorship", and for this, Zhang Juzheng was obviously forced out. However, no matter whether he knows the reason or not, it is because The matter happened to you, Zhang Juzheng, so it is all your own problem.

As for Zhang Juzheng himself, he may or may not know about this matter. He naturally knows what he has done in the court and how those people in the court view him, but for Zhang Juzheng himself As far as he is concerned, he already doesn't care much about this matter.

Perhaps, this kind of monopoly itself is not a problem, and the affairs in the court will not change because of this matter. Even if you have to obey Zhang Juzheng's words, but at the very least, although Zhang Juzheng has monopoly, he has no To the point of abusing power, maybe a few cronies will be developed, but it will not be too much. Naturally, there is no way to compare with Yan Song back then.

Maybe, things are still normal up to this point, even if Zhang Juzheng has a little more power, but at the very least, the order in the court is still there, there is no big difference, at most it is what to do in the future , especially when it comes to things related to Zhang Juzheng, they have to think it through.

However, it is obvious that Zhang Juzheng's matter is not so simple.

I don't know if it was because Zhang Juzheng was under too much pressure during that time, or because he began to feel that he had great power and could be unscrupulous in the court. Although he didn't know what the reason was, what is certain now is that Zhang Juzheng The whole person, the change is quite huge.

The place where Zhang Juzheng lives really does not lose his status as the first assistant university scholar of the dynasty. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is a mansion. Of course, the people in Zhang Juzheng's family are also Quite a lot, plus this house was not bought by him, but was given to him by the Queen Mother back then, so if he lives like this, he naturally has nothing to say.

However, there is one of them. After the downfall of Yan Song, many properties were cleared out, and one of them was a courtyard built by Yan Song on the outskirts of the city, called "Xianglu".

This house was confiscated after Yan Song fell from power, and after that, it was not rewarded to anyone. It was put in the palace, and no one thought of it after that.

However, after Zhang Juzheng became the chief assistant of the cabinet, he didn't know whether Feng Bao brought up this matter intentionally or unintentionally. At the beginning, Zhang Fan was not in front of him, so he didn't know what was going on. This house was also rewarded to Zhang Juzheng.

After Zhang Juzheng received it, he didn't go there a few times, no, in fact, Zhang Juzheng went there once before that, just after receiving the reward from the Queen Mother, and he never went there again.

But ever since Zhang Juzheng became arrogant and unreasonable in the court, and everything had to be done according to him, he has changed. He often goes to that place, and sometimes lives there for several days in a row. over there.

Of course, this alone doesn’t mean much, anyway, it was given by the Queen Mother. In this case, it belongs to Zhang Juzheng. When Zhang Juzheng wants to live and how long he wants to live, that is his freedom, not at all. Other people should take care of things, but from this point alone, Zhang Juzheng's change can be clearly seen.

Of course, the change is definitely not limited to this point, there is another big reason.

This man, if he wants to succeed in his career, he will naturally need to struggle for a period of time, especially in the middle of the court. After so many years, the pressure is really not small, and there are many ways to relieve the pressure. Women, of course, are one of them.

But there is nothing to say about this kind of thing. After all, in this era, this is a very normal thing. Besides, as long as the family has money and can afford it, no one will care about how many women you want to raise. The premise is that you want the right money.

This is the case with Zhang Fan, and the incident with Wei Yaoyao is the best proof. Of course, Zhang Fan now no longer thinks about these things because he has more children.

Of course, Zhang Fan was not the only one. In fact, many people in the court had this kind of thing, but they never regarded it as a major event.

But now, since this matter has been mentioned, it is obvious that Zhang Juzheng can't get away with this kind of matter.

Of course, in fact, Zhang Juzheng has this kind of thing on him, which is not something that makes people feel curious, it is very normal, whether it is for this person or for this era, it is very normal It's okay, nothing surprising.

The reason why I want to talk about this matter now is because of a situation.

Qi Jiguang, this anti-Japanese is not a famous general, but now because the Japanese infestation in the eastern coast is very slight, he was transferred away from there as early as more than ten years ago, and defended in the Jizhou area north of the capital. The name at that time was naturally very good. After all, the Tartars in the north were still making rebellions, and in addition to the changes in the civil fortress, the protection of the capital was very important.

It's just that in less than two years, the court negotiated a peace with me, and the relationship between the two sides has been maintained quite well after so many years.

In other words, Qi Jiguang's role can be said to be getting smaller and smaller.

But obviously, it is impossible for Qi Jiguang to sit and wait for himself to be ordered by the imperial court, saying that he is useless and can go home to farm. Therefore, he wants to keep it going, and at the same time keep the dwindling military salary. You have to think of many ways.

Qi Jiguang's involvement in this kind of thing really insulted his demeanor as a famous general. He has done many things, for example, he had sacrificed to Emperor Longqing several times back then, so he did what he wanted.

And after that, for some reason, Qi Jiguang always seemed to like to make a fuss about this kind of thing.

After the death of Emperor Longqing, the Empress Dowager was in charge of the house, and the emperor was young, so Qi Jiguang still wanted to use the old method, but it would not work, but it was not impossible, but the wrong partner. Put it on Zhang Juzheng's body.

Nowadays, almost everyone in the court knows, or even talks about, about the pair that Qi Jiguang gave to Zhang Juzheng, and they don't know where Qi Jiguang got the Persian sister flowers.

Of course, even this matter was nothing at first, the most important thing was that last July, Zhang Juzheng fell ill.

At that time, both the empress dowager and the emperor were very concerned, so they immediately asked the empress dowager to see him to see what was wrong.

The result of the final diagnosis was "accumulated heat in the intestines and stomach, flowing into the lower part of the fever, and taking more cold medicine, which in turn hurt the spleen and stomach", such a result.

When the result came out, Zhang Fan didn't think it was a problem. Although he had read two or three medical books, he was proficient after all. Therefore, Zhang Fan didn't ask too much about it.

But after that, Zhang Fan heard that many people in the court began to discuss this matter, and obviously avoided him, Zhang Juzheng and others.

Zhang Fan was curious, so he found Wang Youcai, who was no longer an imperial physician in the palace, and asked him the result of the diagnosis to see what was going on.

When Wang Youcai heard what Zhang Fan said, he laughed without thinking, and it was even more strange for Zhang Fan to see him laughing, because he couldn't figure out why Wang Youcai was laughing.

But when Wang Youcai asked who it was, he realized that it was Zhang Juzheng. Although Wang Youcai was old because he was not an imperial physician, he was still clear about the affairs of the court, so he also knew about Zhang Juzheng's current affairs. When it was said that Zhang Juzheng suffered from this disease, Wang Youcai had the appearance of "no wonder this is the case".

This time, Zhang Fan became even more curious and hurriedly asked.

And Wang Youcai also told Zhang Fan the truth, and did not hide it from him. Zhang Juzheng's illness, or why he got this illness, was because he ate too much milk.

Hearing Wang Youcai's words, Zhang Fan's face immediately became embarrassing,