Daming talker

Chapter 571: The Ministry of Personnel

When Lin Tailai returned home, he finally received good news. His retainer Gu Bingqian reported: "We have bought both houses at a reasonable price."

This time, Lin Tailai brought more than 200 servants with him to Beijing. The original house only had three courtyards and more than 40 rooms, which was definitely not enough to accommodate them.

Most servants could only rent a place to live temporarily, but this was not a long-term solution.

So either buy a bigger house or buy out all the neighbors and merge the three houses together.

I didn’t expect Gu Bingqian to be so efficient that he even bought out all the neighbors, especially at a “reasonable” price.

"How did you do it?" Lin Tailai has been busy with court affairs recently and has not paid much attention to family matters.

Gu Bingqian replied: "There has been no major incident recently, so there are enough people. I send dozens of servants every day to hang around in front of the neighbors' doors and in the alleys all day long.

So they took the initiative to propose selling the house. Otherwise, how could they live here when their family members and women and children would not even dare to go out?

As the saying goes, peach and plum trees do not speak, but people come to them of their own accord. "

After thinking it over, Lin Tailai decided to give a compliment so as not to discourage his subordinates' enthusiasm for work.

Besides, he really didn't want to move away. First, the location here was good. It was in the core of the high-end community of officials' residences and it was convenient to go everywhere.

Second, you are already familiar with the surrounding terrain and topography, and if you move to a new place you will have to adapt to the environment and build a sense of security again.

Third, the name of Li Ge Lao Hutong where I currently live has a good meaning, while the names of other alleys in the capital are mostly not very good.

The specific arrangements and servant scheduling were left to Gu Bingqian, and Lin Tailai still focused his main energy on state affairs.

Two days later, Lin Tailai had no choice but to go to the Ministry of Personnel to take up his post, cursing.

The first thing he did after taking office was to call Zhao Nanxing over and scold him: "I have repeatedly ordered you to submit a memorial requesting the court to restore the performance evaluation system. Have you done it?"

Zhao Nanxing's attitude remained firm: "I won't accept orders!"

Anyone who wants to write such a memorial seeking criticism can do so, but Zhao Nanxing will never write one and is firmly against it.

However, Lin Tailai's repeated questioning made Zhao Nanxing feel that he was at his wit's end.

Sure enough, Lin Tailai said angrily: "Since you don't want to write it, I will write it myself!"

Zhao Nanxing then felt that he had won this game.

Lin Tailai wanted to force himself to write a "suicidal petition", but it was impossible!

So on the first day of his appointment as the Director of the Ministry of Personnel's Examination and Appraisal Department, Lin Tailai submitted a memorial proposing the reform of the official examination system.

There are two main contents. The first is the standardization and regularization of test language, and the second is the restoration of the test performance method, which is very exciting.

When the ministers saw the memorial, they found it completely within their expectations.

As previously "speculated", the significance of Lin Tailai's previous secret reports to the cabinet was limited to "information".

As for what the cabinet thinks, Lin Tailai will not listen; whether the cabinet agrees or not will not affect the subsequent public submission.

Although the Performance Evaluation Law is the power that the cabinet threw away six years ago, it does not mean that we are willing to see it being picked up by others!

Therefore, the cabinet certainly does not want to agree, even if Lin Tailai’s well-intentioned plan is to take away all the power and the cabinet does not have to “take responsibility”.

Under normal circumstances, hundreds of memorials were delivered to the palace every day.

Unless the emperor is a workaholic, it is impossible for him to read all the documents in detail. The cabinet and the Imperial Household Department can complete most of the work.

Only some special memorials would be truly noticed by the emperor, such as those about direct remonstrance, war, disasters, civil unrest, money and grain in the granary, the advancement and retreat of important ministers, etc.

If there was nothing special about it, Lin Tailai's memorial would have just been mixed in among the hundreds of memorials submitted that day.

If you can say "I know", it would be like giving you the face of a Nine Yuan True Immortal.

However, in the end, Lin Tailai's memorial was specially delivered to the emperor by Zhang Cheng, the eunuch in charge of the Imperial Household Department.

Emperor Wanli glanced at the title of the memorial and the first few sentences of the summary, and asked the eunuchs of the Imperial Household Department in confusion, "What's so special about it?"

To be honest, there are quite a few memorials from ministers requesting improvements in certain work.

For example, recently someone petitioned to reform the "Regulations on Imperial Clan and Vassal States" to allow members of the imperial clan without titles to work freely.

Therefore, if one only looks at the title of Lin Tailai's "Memorial on the Reform of Assessment Methods", it is not surprising and is not worthy of the emperor's special attention.

Zhang Cheng, the eunuch in charge of the Imperial Household Department, reminded him, “The memorial mentioned Zhang Juzheng and the Kaocheng System.”

A memorial clamoring for reform is not a sensitive memorial; but if it talks a lot about Zhang Juzheng, it becomes a sensitive memorial that the emperor must be reminded to pay special attention to.

If the Imperial Household Department fails to help the emperor pick out such memorials, it would be a serious dereliction of duty.

Therefore, the work of the eunuchs in the Imperial Household Department was not just to approve memorials. They also read the memorials every day to filter out sensitive ones.

As expected, when he heard the name Zhang Juzheng, Emperor Wanli opened the memorial again and read it carefully.

Although six or seven years have passed since the anti-Zhang Juzheng storm was launched and the climax has passed, this thorn in the emperor's heart still exists.

If it weren't for "Zhang Juzheng" as a gimmick, Emperor Wanli would not have paid special attention to Lin Tailai's memorial.

This can be regarded as Lin Tailai's "little trick" in writing. Of course, Lin Tailai would not be stupid enough to reverse Zhang Juzheng's verdict in his memorial.

Afterwards, Emperor Wanli personally wrote a secret letter to the cabinet, the main content of which was "What on earth is Lin Tailai thinking about?"

In the early years, when the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was not so much of a homebody, when encountering such a situation, he would directly summon his cabinet ministers to the Wenhua Hall for face-to-face conversations.

But later, the Ming emperors became more and more homebound, and written communication such as secret letters became more and more common.

When cabinet ministers received secret letters, they would report back in secret memorials. The specific content was not known to outsiders, and they usually said something that was not convenient to make public.

During the Jiajing reign, Emperor Shizong pushed the use of secret letters to a peak, and he often sent secret letters that were like riddles.

The current Emperor Wanli admired his grandfather, Emperor Shizong, the most, and he followed suit in asking questions in secret letters.

However, in history, it is not known whether Emperor Wanli did it intentionally or sincerely, but the contents of the ministers' secret memorials were often leaked, which repeatedly led to major political accidents.

In the original history, the resignation of Shen Shixing, Xu Guo, and Wang Xijue was all related to the leakage of the contents of the secret memorial.
But in the cabinet, after receiving the emperor's secret letter, the ministers wrote secret memorials and sent them to the palace. Even the newcomer Zhao Si wrote one.

Outsiders have no way of knowing what the specific contents of the secret letter are.

Anyway, after reading the secret memorials of the cabinet ministers, especially Zhao Si, Emperor Wanli approved Lin Tailai's memorial and sent it to the Ministry for discussion, which seemed to be more conventional and impartial.

In various government offices, Lin Tailai's memorials attracted a lot of attention. After all, the assessment system was related to the vital interests of every official. Who could not care?

Not to mention that the emperor had specifically issued this order, asking all government offices to comment on it. Most officials did not like the performance evaluation system and were opposed to the memorial.

But at the same time, most people were rational and remained on the sidelines because the author of this memorial was Lin Tailai.

In the next two days, two things happened in Xicheng where the officials lived.

First, two censors submitted a tentative memorial opposing the restoration of the Kaocheng System and impeaching Lin Tailai for his disorderly government.

More importantly, these two censors did not suffer any retaliation in the Lin style!

They were not blocked by the servants of the Lin residence, and their own door was not smashed or looted.

Second, the Beijing Patrol Battalion announced that it had entered a period of "severe crackdown" and stepped up patrols in Xicheng to prevent vicious cases such as group fights, kidnappings, and breaking and entering involving officials.

Not only were thousands of troops deployed in the streets and alleys of West City, but they were also deployed in shifts day and night.

After these two signals came out, the number of memorials opposing Lin Tailai soared exponentially!

From two books a day, the number increased directly to more than ten books a day, and on the third day it increased to dozens of books!
According to Beijing's political experts, there are probably two reasons for this phenomenon.

On the one hand, although the Kaocheng system was not invented by Zhang Juzheng, it is closely related to Zhang Juzheng and is one of his most representative policy measures.

Therefore, opposing the restoration of the performance evaluation system is absolutely in line with current political correctness and is completely politically risk-free.

In this case, why not submit a petition to oppose it?

Many people have nothing to do at work, so it might be a good idea for them to write a completely safe memorial to make their presence known, so as to avoid being accused of being a sycophant.

Another reason is that Lin Jiuyuan is really popular.

This opportunity to oppose and impeach Lin Tailai without being beaten or smashed is a rare one.

Even if I can't do anything substantial to Lin Tailai, I can still satisfy myself by just following the trend and cursing him a few times.

Seeing this situation, Zhao Nanxing, the head of the Ministry of Examination, was in a very good mood.

The fact that he has attracted such a huge wave of opposition just after taking office just shows that he is incompetent!
He even began to wonder if it was possible for Lin Tailai to lose his position as Langzhong of the Ministry of Examination?
At this time, Chen Younian, the doctor of the Ministry of Personnel, who had been pretending to be sick at home for many days, also returned to the Ministry of Personnel to work.

He has no choice but to go to work. Lin Tailai has already started working. If Chen Younian doesn't come back, won't the Ministry of Personnel be ruled by Lin Tailai, who has the highest voice?
However, the painful experience of being beaten when he claimed to be the head of the Ministry of Personnel a few days ago made Chen Younian regain his calm and composure.

Hearing that his old comrade had returned, Zhao Nanxing came to Chen Younian's public housing and discussed:
"I am considering whether to follow the trend within the Examination Yuan and launch an attack on and impeachment of Lin Tailai."

Chen Younian answered without hesitation: "Absolutely not! There are so many people who oppose Lin Tailai now, and you are not the only one. There is absolutely no need for you to put yourself in danger."

Now Lin Tailai is Zhao Nanxing's immediate superior. Zhao Nanxing feels extremely uncomfortable with this situation and is a little anxious.

Chen Younian patiently advised: "Past lessons have shown that we must be patient when facing Lin Tailai.

It is better to wait and see what happens than to rush for success. Just like this time, how do you know that Lin Tailai has not set a trap for you?
Our colleagues have suffered heavy losses in recent years and can no longer bear the pain.

Therefore, we must remain stable at this moment, take self-protection as the top priority, and put safety first in everything.”

Zhao Nanxing finally accepted Chen Younian's advice, "Then let's not do anything this time and not give Lin Tailai any chance to take advantage of us."

He has been demoted to the position of chief official, which is already the lowest-ranking official in the six ministries. If he is demoted further, he will only be able to serve as a county magistrate in another place.

It can be said that there is absolutely no ability to resist risks, so it is better to be honest.

Chen Younian reassured them, "We are not doing nothing, but we are moving forward uprightly within the institutional framework."

Chen Younian was referring to the upcoming meeting of the Ministry of Personnel, the theme of which would certainly be the preliminary drawing up of a list of candidates.

Among the six ministries' meetings, the Ministry of Personnel's meeting is the most important, or the one that attracts the most attention.

Because the personnel movements discussed and decided by the Ministry of Personnel have a huge impact on other departments.

The situation of the Ministry of Revenue is somewhat similar, and it also has a huge influence on other departments, so the Ministry of Revenue ranks second among the six ministries.

During this special period, there were not many people who participated in the ministry's discussion on personnel issues. They included Right Vice Minister Wang Yongji, Langzhong of the Ministry of Selection Chen Younian and Yuanwailang of the Ministry of Selection, and Langzhong of the Ministry of Examination Lin Tailai.

This was Lin Tailai's first time attending a ministry meeting. Unfortunately, his voice was not very influential in personnel selection.

After all, this is the main business of the Ministry of Selection, and the Ministry of Examination can only be regarded as an auxiliary department.

All official positions have certain requirements for appointment. The more important the position, the more stringent the requirements.

If you don't understand the requirements for the position and randomly recommend candidates, you will end up making a big fool of yourself.

For example, in recent decades, there has been a practice in the court to have the Governor-General of Xuanda or the Governor-General of Ji and Liao return to the court to take up the position of Minister of War.

Recommending the Minister of Works to be transferred to the Minister of War would be extremely unprofessional behavior.

According to convention, the Minister of Personnel is usually transferred from the second-rank minister of other ministries, or the Chief Censor of the same rank.

Moreover, he must be a senior and fully qualified official of the second rank in a ministry or court; those with less qualifications will not be considered.

There are also examples of assistant ministers of the Ministry of Personnel being directly promoted to the Minister of Personnel, but these are very rare cases and are not considered the norm.

After Wang Yongji put down his teacup, he said to Chen Younian from the Ministry of Literature, "How many suitable candidates are there for the position of Minister of Personnel?"

As an experienced civil servant, Chen Younian was very familiar with personnel matters and immediately answered:
"The suitable candidates who conform to the convention are Lu Guangzu, the Minister of Punishment, Song Xun, the Minister of Works, and Sun Piyang, the Chief Censor of Nanjing."

First of all, these three people were all second-rank officials in the ministries and courts. Secondly, they all had long experience, having become Jinshi in the 26th, 35th, and 38th years of Jiajing respectively.

In comparison, cabinet members Shen Da and Wang Ercai became Jinshi in the 41st year of Jiajing, which was later than the above three, and Wang San and Zhao Si were even later.

Wang Situ, the Minister of Revenue, was not nominated because he wanted to "avoid suspicion"; Yu Shenxing, the Minister of Rites, was not nominated because he was "young".

After all, Yu Shenxing became the Shangshu only last year, and his year of examination was the second year of Longqing, which made him much inferior to the previous few old officials in the ministry.

Therefore, although Chen Younian's nomination of Lu Guangzu, Song Xun, and Sun Piyang was motivated by selfish motives, there is nothing wrong with their professionalism.

Wang Yongji asked Lin Tailai again: "Do you have any additional candidates?"

Lin Tailai was deeply frustrated. Compared with the Qingliu forces that had been deeply rooted for many years, his foundation was still weak.

Among the people on his side, there is no one whose qualifications can match those of Lu Guangzu, Song Xun, and Sun Piyang.

The biggest difference between cabinet ministers and ministers of the Ministry of Personnel and other official positions is that seniority is extremely important.

Those whose qualifications are too far behind would only bring themselves up in disgrace.

After much thought, Lin Tailai could only think of one person, the Left Censor-in-Chief Wu Shilai, who also had enough experience, but he was a member of Prime Minister Shen's faction.

(End of this chapter)