Daming talker

Chapter 633: Stop Pursuing Political Achievements

In the Ming Dynasty, Kaifeng was a metropolis in the Central Plains with a population of hundreds of thousands. It was the core city of the Central Plains region with a very developed economy and culture.

Moreover, as this place is the capital of Henan Province, Lin Tailai must have passed by here during his southern tour.

When the Censorate, the Governor's Office, and the Prefectural Court in Kaifeng City received Lin Tailai's notice, they were all very confused.

Aren't you Lin Jiuyuan from Suzhou? When you go back to your hometown to visit your relatives, you should go to neighboring Shandong. Why did you pass by Henan?
Life is not so voluntary. Whether the officials are willing or not, Lin Tailai, who is on his southern tour, has to pass by.

What worries the provincial leaders the most is that when important figures pass through the province, there should be etiquette to go out of the city to welcome them, but what specific standards should be used to welcome Lin Tailai?

Under normal circumstances, the essence of all etiquette and legal issues is two words - as usual. As long as you follow the old rules, you will not go wrong.

However, there is no precedent for someone like Lin Jiuyuan, so there is no previous example to refer to.

On the surface, Lin Tailai was just a fourth-rank official in Beijing, and he was not on a business trip under the imperial order. He was just returning home to visit his relatives.

But even a fool knew that Lin Tailai must not be treated according to the etiquette standards for an ordinary fourth-rank Beijing official passing through the border, otherwise Lin Tailai would definitely get furious.

The specifications were neither too high nor too low, and finally the provincial government offices jointly elected a perfect person as the representative, that is, Li Weizhen, the third-rank left councilor.

It was not considered as a poor treatment for a third-rank official to go out of the city to welcome a fourth-rank official, and Lin Tailai could not find any fault with it.

At the same time, Li Weizhen is also a famous figure in the literary world. He was first the leader of the last five of the famous retro-style school, and later became the deputy leader of the New Literary League, and was nominated by the old leader Wang.

Therefore, Li Weizhen and Lin Tailai have some indirect connection, or if that doesn't work, we can start from the literary world.

When Li Weizhen, the Minister of Government, met Lin Tailai, the first deputy leader of the New Literary League, outside the city, he felt a little complicated.

Because he is the successor that the old leader of the literary world has high hopes for, and he was once the next generation of literary leader designated and trained by the old leader.
But now everyone knows who the next generation leader of the literary world will be.

In a sense, Li Weizhen felt that his literary luck had been taken away by the person in front of him.

"I have long heard of your great name, Jiuyuan. However, I have been traveling to various provinces for official business and did not expect to meet you until now." Li Weizhen said after greeting him.

Lin Tailai also returned the greeting and said, "I have also long heard of Li Jingshan's name, but it's a pity that I didn't get to meet him. In addition, Wang Tianguan from the Ministry of Personnel asked me to bring a letter!"

In history, after Wang Shizhen's death, Li Weizhen was indeed the leader of the next generation of literary world, but he failed to prevent the collapse and demise of the retro school.

According to custom, when unfamiliar officials met, they would introduce themselves at the beginning of the conversation - what subject are you in, what subject am I in, your teacher is so-and-so, my teacher is so-and-so, and what is the relationship between us.

Of course, Lin Tailai generally does not need to introduce himself. Who doesn’t know about the achievements of Jiu Yuan Zhenxian?
Therefore, the focus was still on discussing Li Weizhen's academic achievement. Lin Tailai took the initiative to ask, "Did you pass the imperial examination in the second year of Longqing?"

Li Weizhen replied: "That's right, I heard that Jiuyuan is friendly with Brother Zhao from Lanxi, who is in the same class?
At that time, I was selected as a scholar and then promoted to editor and compiler. I was in the Hanyuan with Brother Zhao and compiled the Muzong Shilu together. We have very similar personalities. "

The Brother Zhao of Lanxi mentioned here is the Fourth Cabinet Minister Zhao Zhigao.

Lin Tailai then responded, "Your list is truly a gathering of talented people, and is no less impressive than the list from the 26th year of Jiajing!
The top scholar Luo Wanhua is now the Minister of Rites, the second place Huang Fengxiang is now the Right Vice Minister of Rites and Hanlin Academician, and the third place Zhao Laoqian is even ranked as Grand Secretary!

Others include Wang Jiaping who was also ranked as Grand Secretary, Yu Shenxing who was the Minister of Revenue, and Chen Yubei who was the Minister of Works!

Recently, Zhang Wei has been recommended to be reinstated as the head of the Hanlin Academy!
And there is also Shen Yikuan, who has also been promoted to the third-rank poet and minister of the Imperial Household, but he was in mourning the year before last!
So every time I see your top scorer in that subject, I can't help but admire you! Among all the subjects in my Daming, your quality is at least in the top three!"

Li Weizhen: “.”

Stop blowing, stop blowing! The hotter you, Lin Tailai, blow, the colder your heart becomes!
There are already two cabinet ministers, three ministers, one head of the Hanlin Academy, and one chancellor in the same class. What am I then?
Then Lin Tailai seemed very curious and suddenly asked, "Let's not talk about the top three for now, but you, Wang Jiaping, Yu Shenxing, Chen Yubei, Zhang Wei, and Shen Yikuan are all from the same class of Shujishi. How come you are only a councilor now?"

Lin Tailai also knew that in history, even after more than ten years, Li Weizhen would still participate in politics.

At this moment, Li Weizhen felt as if his heart was being stabbed again and again, and his face was twitching again and again. He answered with difficulty: "Maybe I am relatively young and still need more training."

Li Weizhen is 45 years old this year, in the prime of his life. When he passed the imperial examination, he was only 21 years old, definitely a younger brother.

Lin Tailai shook his head and said, "Although age is indeed a factor, Yu Shenxing and Chen Yubi are not three or four years older than you, and they are both Shangshu now, so the key is to follow the right person.

Even if you cannot gain the emperor's favor directly, you still need the care of a powerful person.

And you have been following the old leader Wang for so many years, no wonder you were delayed.

But now everything is fine. With my support, the old leader Wang has become the official of the Ministry of Personnel. As the younger generation of the old leader Wang, it is not a problem for you to enjoy the benefits for a year or two."

After some warm greetings, Li Weizhen was finally silenced. It was not until they were near the city gate that they found another topic.

Lin Tailai rode on his horse and looked at the majestic city wall.

Li Weizhen introduced: "Kaifeng City's layout is inherited from the Song and Jin Dynasties. The Zhou Palace in the city was built on the basis of the Forbidden City of the Song and Jin Dynasties, and its regulations are slightly higher than those of other princes."

Lin Tailai said impatiently: "No matter how magnificent the city wall is, it's not worth being stuck here for a quarter of an hour, right?"

At this moment, the direction of the city gate was completely blocked, causing Lin Tailai to stop here and unable to move forward.

Li Weizhen, who was in charge of welcoming Lin Tailai into the city, was a little embarrassed and said quickly, "I did instruct the gate guards to keep the traffic open, but I don't know what went wrong. I'll go to the front gate to take a look."

Lin Tailai instructed the left protector Zhang Wen, "Go and take a look."

Not long after, Zhang Wenxian rode back and reported, "It seems that several powerful groups have gathered over there. For some reason, they have blocked the city gate. Li Dacan went to mediate."

Lin Tailai ordered again: "What are you trying to persuade? Call back Li Canzheng!"

After a while, Zhang Wen came back with Li Weizhen.

Then I heard Li Weizhen explain: "Behind the city gate are the servants of the King of Yanling, the King of Yingchuan, and the King of Pujiang. They are fighting for the road and are not willing to give way to each other, so they are blocking the city gate."

Lin Tailai said in amazement: "I heard that there are as many as fifty or sixty princes in Kaifeng City. How could you recognize people from these three families?"

It can be said that Kaifeng is the city with the highest density of princes in the Ming Dynasty, and there is indeed only one prince, that is Prince Zhou.

However, there were dozens of princes in the Zhou royal lineage, and as many as sixty-nine at the peak. Even if some of them died out and their titles were lost, there are still fifty or sixty princes now.

The titles of King of Yanling, King of Yingchuan, and King of Pujiang mentioned by Li Weizhen just now sound very impressive, but in fact, they were just like that in the Ming Dynasty. There were dozens of princes like them in Kaifeng City.

In addition, there were several thousand generals and about a thousand lieutenants in the Zhou royal lineage.

Therefore, the Zhou royal family is the most fertile family among all the royal families in the Ming Dynasty. Currently, the total number of people is about 6,000, and the salary is 2 million dan, which is all distributed by the Henan government. Of course, the civil officials are not without a way to deal with it. They can just delay the salary of the royal family. Anyway, the payment of the royal family salary is not included in the performance evaluation.

In many cases, if one-third of the quota can be paid out each year, or if the arrears from previous years can be slightly cleared, it would be considered as a gesture of kindness on the part of the civil servants.

Therefore, the issue of royal family salaries in the late Ming Dynasty was a very complicated issue. Judging from the accounts, the government's financial burden was very heavy, and the royal family salaries accounted for a large proportion.

However, in actual practice, how much the government actually paid out is a very metaphysical question. In some more exaggerated cases, some royal family members may not have received any salary for ten years.

Another example is the famous enfeoffment of Prince Fu, in which Emperor Wanli granted two million mu of land as a salary. But after the wealthy Prince Fu became a fief, he found that he had a lot of poor relatives around him who could not receive any salary and needed to pay for their relief.

In short, the later the period, the lower the status of the royal family.

Hearing that Lin Tailai still had the heart to tease, Li Weizhen smiled bitterly and said, "Prince Yanling, Prince Yingchuan, and Prince Pujiang were all crowned this year, so I still remember them.

These three princes are all young men of the same generation, so it is inevitable that the servants will be aggressive and competitive outside, unwilling to lose face for this mansion."

Looking towards the city gate, Lin Tailai said calmly: "I have been fighting in the court for two years. If I am blocked from entering Kaifeng City, wouldn't it be a waste of effort?"

The left and right bodyguards Zhang Wen and Zhang Wu said together: "Understood!" Then they turned around and began to call the two hundred servants.

Li Weizhen was still confused. What did he understand? What did Lin Jiuyuan mean by that?
"Mr. Jiuyuan, please be patient. I will go and persuade them to leave." Li Weizhen felt that he had to do something, so he quickly said.

But Lin Tailai held Li Weizhen back and said, "You don't have to go. Just wait for the result."

When Li Weizhen wanted to ask "what result are you waiting for", he saw Lin Tailai's two hundred servants suddenly and skillfully formed several formations, and then pounced towards the city gate like wolves and tigers!
For a moment, the sounds of ghosts crying and wolves howling were heard from the city gate. People kept fleeing outside, but were beaten back by the guard servants roaming around the periphery.

The servants of the three princes were suddenly attacked together and were completely stunned.

The large number of people who were watching the excitement from a distance were also dumbfounded. They didn't know what kind of fierce dragon was this that crossed the river and surrounded the people of the three princes to fight.

A moment later, more than a hundred wounded were lying at the city gate. They were lifted up and thrown to the roadside, and the passage into the city was finally cleared.

Lin Tailai raised his chin to Li Weizhen and said, "The road is not blocked anymore, let's go!"

Li Weizhen was in a daze. He always felt that the rumor that Lin Tailai led his troops to surround Pingshan Hall at the Yangzhou Literary Conference that year might have been an exaggeration.

But judging from the current situation, the rumors may not be exaggerated.

The area of ​​the Song and Jin Dynasty Palace in the middle of Kaifeng City is occupied by the Zhou Palace, while most of the government offices are located in the Baoding Street area west of the Bell Tower.

The provincial government and the provincial judicial commissioner's office were located at both ends, while in the middle were the offices of the various patrol routes, where councilors like Li Weizhen, as well as deputy provincial judges and deputy provincial envoys, worked.

After sending Lin Tailai to the posthouse, it was already late, so we agreed to rest tonight and visit again tomorrow.

Then Li Weizhen returned to the office of the Left Vice-Chancellor and the Grain Supervisory Office and respectfully opened the letter from the old leader Wang.

Li Weizhen has a very deep affection for the old leader Wang and has always regarded him as his teacher.

It was the old leader Wang who helped him become famous in the literary world, it was the old leader Wang who listed him as one of the last five figures of the retro style, and it was the old leader Wang who had always trained him as his successor.

Although the old leader Wang was a scoundrel in the officialdom and did not help much after the eighth year of Wanli, making him hesitate to participate in politics, Li Weizhen had no complaints in his heart.

Under the candlelight, the letter read: "Although I am lucky enough to be an official, I don't know how to use you. I am afraid that I will ruin your future like I did ten years ago, so I have been hesitant.

Lin Jiuyuan has the ability to identify and employ people, and all the people he promotes are suitable.

Now that he is passing through Henan, I have entrusted Lin Jiuyuan to look after you and plan your future.

If you are passionate about literature, don't worry about it and become a leader in the future.

If you still want to pursue a career in government, just listen to Lin Jiuyuan's teachings and you won't be disappointed."

After not sleeping well that night, Li Weizhen went to visit the inn as scheduled the next day.

Lin Tailai asked, "Have you read Wang Tianguan's letter?"

Li Weizhen replied: "I have seen it."

Lin Tailai added: "Wang Tianguan asked me to identify you and to help you pave the way. I agreed, but I don't know what you think."

Li Weizhen replied: "I would like to hear the advice of Lord Jiuyuan."

After thinking for a moment, Lin Tailai said, "If you want to be a stable official in the government, you'd better have solid political achievements as a foundation to avoid being attacked by scoundrels. Have you thought about what political achievements you want to make?"

Li Weizhen thought about it for a while before speaking: "I heard that the emperor is concerned about the gathering of mine thieves in Henan. You can pacify the mine thieves in a few places as a political achievement."

Lin Tailai: "."

Are you, Li Weizhen, sensitive? Is the emperor really concerned about the problem of mine thieves?

The mining business is a huge pit! It's too late to dodge, but you, Li Weizhen, actually want to jump into it?
No wonder in history Li Weizhen participated in politics in the eighth year of the Wanli reign and was still participating in politics in the thirty-fourth year of the Wanli reign! How could anyone participate in politics for twenty-six years?

It is true that birds of a feather flock together. He is worthy of being the successor chosen by the old leader Wang, an old gangster in officialdom, and his official level is equal to his.

Lin Tailai, who had no one to use, rubbed his face vigorously and muttered to himself, "As long as you are obedient, you can be used."

Then he said, "Don't bother with political achievements. The water is too deep here and you can't control yourself.

Let’s just have some personnel struggle, this is simpler.

For example, if you get rid of Censor Zou Xuezhu, can't you be promoted to Censor?

After being promoted to Censor, you can be transferred to Governor at any time as long as there is an opportunity, so you can go to Jiangnan to serve as Governor of Yingtian.

It is also the center of the literary world. You are serving as a governor and improving your political achievements while also improving your reputation in the literary world. Isn't that a double success in the literary and official circles?"

In just a few words, the plan is made clear.

Li Weizhen was in a daze again. Could it be so easy to get by in the officialdom?

(End of this chapter)