Daming talker

Chapter 701 Repertoire
The reason why the issue of the Minister of Personnel has attracted so much attention is not only because the position is too important.

Also, next year, which is the 21st year of Wanli, is the year of the Beijing Inspection. After the new year, officials in the capital will begin to "pass the inspection", and the Beijing Inspection will be jointly presided over by the Minister of Personnel and the Left Censor-in-Chief.

The imperial inspection is held every six years. The results of the last inspection in the 15th year of the Wanli reign told everyone that the inspection had become a tool for factional struggles.

The struggle at that time spread from the capital to Suzhou. The prime minister almost resigned. Then the prefect of Suzhou and the governor of Jiangnan died one after another, and a second-rank imperial commissioner was dismissed. This shows how fierce the inspection in the capital was.

As a result, at the end of this year, when the imperial inspection was about to begin in two months, the elderly and sick Wang Tianguan was bedridden. How could this not attract everyone's attention?
Zhao Nanxing, who had had a rough career in recent years and had been demoted from the Deputy Director of the Ministry of Personnel's Selection Department to the Director of the Ministry of Rites' Department of Guests and Guests, did not want to step forward to do anything.

But the organization required him to go and lobby the North Korean envoys, and he had no choice but to go.

Because he was the only one who could legitimately contact the North Korean envoys without attracting any attention.

In fact, Zhao Nanxing could understand the organization's difficulties. In the past five years, the Qingliu forces seemed to have been suppressed and weakened.

At its peak in the past few years, the Qingliu forces occupied nearly half of the seven ministers in the ministries and agencies, monopolized most of the positions in the Ministry of Personnel's Selection Office and the Ministry of Examination, controlled the discourse power in the Ministry of Rites, and also had thirty or forty censors in the Ministry of Rites.

But now, the Qingliu forces may not even have one-third of their peak strength, and this is because they have been bled for many consecutive years.

And this fight for the position of Minister of Personnel is an opportunity for a counterattack!

As long as they can take down the Minister of Personnel, combined with the existing strength of the Censorate, they will be able to take absolute initiative in next year's Beijing inspection, and through party unity and fighting against dissidents, allow the Qingliu forces to grow stronger again!

The most crucial thing is that Lin is not in Beijing during this period, which is a strategic opportunity that cannot be missed.

To achieve this goal, we can do whatever it takes, and some people may have to make sacrifices.

When Zhao Nanxing approached the North Korean envoy Yin Zhuoran, he was mentally prepared to be betrayed by Yin Zhuoran. After all, this was a very risky job.

But the head of the Ministry of Rites was in an awkward situation, so he had to be sacrificed.

If Yin Zhuoran is willing to cooperate, then a wave of public opinion offensive can be launched to cope with the battle for the position of Minister of Personnel, so the risk is worth taking.

When Zhao Nanxing left, Yin Zhuoran put away his greedy look and fell into deep thought.

He really didn't expect that he, an envoy who was just trying to get by, would be dragged into the internal strife of the Celestial Empire?

But when it comes to party struggles, Yin Zhuoran is also a veteran. In North Korea, he is one of the eight generals of the Northern Party.

After thinking it over, Yin Zhuoran sent his confidant to secretly visit Shen Yan of the Ministry of Rites.

After two diplomatic missions to the Ming Dynasty, Yin Zhuoran was very clear that among the officials of the Ministry of Guests and Guests, Shen Yan was Lin Tailai's absolute confidant.

The confidant asked, "What should I say when I meet Lord Shen?"

Yin Zhuoran instructed, "Let's say that I am a minister of the Joseon Dynasty, and I have to submit a memorial to the emperor for the burning of his palace to preserve my loyalty. However, the crying can be loud or soft."

After receiving the message from Envoy Yin Zheng, Shen Yan thought about it for a while and guessed some of the inside story. Was someone hoping that Envoy Yin Zheng would make a big fuss?

However, Shen Yan did not give an immediate reply. He also had to report to the club, and there happened to be a club meeting tonight.

The meeting was chaired by Zhou Yingqiu, editor of the Hanlin Academy, and this has become a customary scene.

Although the pillars of the Lin Party are the triangle of the Prime Minister, the Heavenly Official, and the Grand Marshal, when Lin Tailai is away, the person responsible for intermediary liaison is Zhou Yingqiu.

After all, the Prime Minister, the Minister of Heaven, and the Grand Marshal are too conspicuous, and it is often inconvenient for them to take action, and they don’t even have to attend internal meetings.

The appointment of Zhou Yingqiu as the chief contact person and internal meeting host was not deliberately designated by Lin Tailai, but was a situation that was naturally formed in the long-term struggle and practice.

The first is that Zhou Yingqiu is thick-skinned enough; the second is that Zhou Yingqiu has the most ideas and the strongest adaptability; the third is that Zhou Yingqiu is the most fanatical towards Lin Tailai, and is implicitly recognized as the "number one running dog."

In terms of these three qualities, no one else in the society can compare to Zhou Yingqiu.
Therefore, when Lin Tailai was not in the capital, the responsibility of chief contact person and internal meeting host gradually fell on Zhou Yingqiu.

Originally, the person in charge of these was Wang Xiangmeng, a real relative of Lin Tailai, the nephew of his good wife, and a core official of the Ministry of Personnel, but unknowingly and imperceptibly, it became Zhou Yingqiu.

Even Wang Xiangmeng himself felt that Zhou Yingqiu was indeed more suitable.

Being able to replace those with "upper class connections" with talent and strength is something that no one can deny.

Tonight's meeting will be held at Wang Xiangmeng's residence. After all, the Wang family has a larger space, as this was once the residence of the Minister of Revenue.

A brazier had been lit in the hall, and the core members of the Renewal Society were chatting in groups of three or four. Only Zhou Yingqiu was alone with his eyes closed.

Only in front of the Nine Yuan True Immortal would Zhou Yingqiu show his greatest enthusiasm, even to the point of being fanatical enough that even his own people thought it was excessive.

However, there was a slight sense of distance between Zhou Yingqiu and other people in the society, and everyone else was used to it.

"It's getting late, let's get started and talk about what we want to say." Zhou Yingqiu suddenly opened his eyes and said.

The hall was temporarily quiet. Shen Yan spoke first and relayed the message from Envoy Yin Zheng of the Kingdom of Korea today.

Zhou Yingqiu said without hesitation: "Let him make a scene, as loud as he wants, the louder the better."

Shen Yan asked doubtfully: "Why is this happening? What's the trick?"

Zhou Yingqiu replied: "There are some confidential information here. I have already reported it to Prime Minister Zhao. It is not convenient to announce it within the society for the time being."

So Shen Yan stopped talking. The club has its own rules and he shouldn't ask questions that he shouldn't ask.

Then Wang Xiangmeng said, "Finally, the doctor of the Ministry of Literature has been driven out. Now I will strive to be promoted to doctor."

Zhou Yingqiu said: "Senior Wang must be taken down."

Wang Xiangmeng said: "Do your best."

Zhou Yingqiu added: "It's not about trying your best, but about making sure. If it were in normal times, the competition for the position of Langzhong in the Ministry of Literature would be extremely fierce.

But now all the opponents' energy is on the Minister of Personnel, and all the resources they can use in the Ministry of Personnel will be used to fight for the Minister of Personnel.

Therefore, the pressure of competing for the position of Doctor of the Ministry of Literature is much less. This is also a good opportunity for you, Senior Wang. It would be a pity if you fail to take it. "

Then everyone talked about a few more things and finished discussing the matters that needed to be informed to the society recently.

Finally, Zhou Yingqiu spoke up and said, "Mr. Jiuyuan once said that whenever he was not in the capital, the Qingliu forces would always make a small rebellion and then wait for him to come back to clean up the situation.

Although this is a joke, it is also a criticism of us, and we must keep this criticism in mind. Now that Lord Jiuyuan is not in the capital, and we have encountered a major event in the capital, we must firmly hold our ground and firmly suppress our opponents! "

Someone reminded: "Let's not talk about the imperial examination for now, the most important thing right now is the selection of the Minister of Personnel!"

Zhou Yingqiu responded: "This is actually the same thing, a different stage of the same battle!

According to reports from insiders, the Qingliu Party’s plan this time is to make an exception and let Sun Piyang, the Left Censor-in-Chief, be transferred to the position of Minister of Personnel, and at the same time let Sun Yu, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, be promoted to the position of Left Censor-in-Chief, so as to achieve the goal of controlling the layout of the Heavenly Official and the General Censor at the same time! "

Someone immediately cursed, "It's these two old guys from the 35th year of Jiajing again!"

In the current imperial court, apart from the long-term bedridden Tianguan Wang Shizhen, these two are the ones who have passed the imperial examinations the earliest and have the longest seniority.

It seems that no matter what official position it is, these two people will jump out to compete for it, and their priority is not low, at least they can disgust the Lin party.

Zhou Yingqiu continued, "The insider also revealed the strategy of the Qingliu forces! This time they may try their best to avoid the imperial nomination and strive to ask the emperor to directly appoint the inner surrender!"

The rest of the people were speechless. Who on earth was this traitor? How could he know such a confidential matter? It sounded like he had a high status in the Qingliu faction.

However, this insider is currently only in direct contact with Zhou Yingqiu, so no matter how curious others are, they have no way of knowing, and they cannot ask due to the confidentiality code.

Also, are the Qingliu Party members so cowardly now? They even want to avoid the imperial nomination?

Although the Minister of Personnel is as special as the Grand Secretary of the Cabinet, he can be recommended by the court or appointed by the emperor, depending mainly on the emperor's thoughts.

But are the Qingliu Party members so afraid of the imperial nomination now? Could it be that they have been hurt by several key imperial nominations in recent years?
Someone else took the initiative to ask: "Then how should we do it?"

Zhou Yingqiu replied: "Let's first nominate Wang Honghui, the Minister of Personnel of Nanjing!"

Everyone was unfamiliar with this name and felt it was very confusing.

Although selecting a Shangshu from Nanjing is a normal operation, Wang Honghui is not one of their own. Why would they suddenly recommend such a person?

Zhou Yingqiu emphasized: "Regarding this matter, I have informed the Prime Minister and other senior figures, so it is not convenient to reveal more for the time being.

Please believe that this final victory will definitely be ours, and we must reassure Lin Jiuyuan who is away on the expedition! "

A day later, Yun Zhuoran, the chief envoy of the Kingdom of Korea, submitted a memorial to the emperor regarding the burning of the Hamheung Palace, asking him to make a decision.

On the same day, Yin Zhengshi cried outside the right gate of Chang'an again, moving all the officials.

Then it seemed as if a new round of struggle had begun. Some censors impeached Lin Tailai for disregarding other people's ancestral temples, and carried out a vigorous popularization of etiquette and law in the court.

If someone impeaches Lin Tailai, there will inevitably be someone who defends Lin Tailai, claiming that war is dangerous and it is normal for war to occur and he should not be blamed for it.

At the same time, another censor submitted a memorial to the court, saying that the Minister of Personnel Wang Shizhen was often ill, and demanded that Wang Tianguan resign and the court replace the Minister of Personnel.

These scenes could not help but make many court officials sigh with emotion. For some reason, at the end of the year in recent years, the court has become very lively, as if the year-end brawl has become a regular feature.

Although it is not as exciting as the simultaneous replacement of three cabinet ministers last year, the fight over a minister of the Ministry of Personnel is still quite interesting, not to mention that this is a precursor to next year's imperial inspection.

Emperor Wanli had no specific opinion on these memorials, so he kept them for the time being and continued to wait and see.

In fact, as long as the ministers did not write memorials to disturb the country or criticize the emperor, Emperor Wanli's attitude was often relatively mild.

Many ministers then viewed this retention as "encouragement", which triggered a new round of memorials.

In this round of memorials, not only did they discuss Wang Tianguan's own problems, but they also began to advise on the selection of the next Minister of Personnel.

At this time, there was another prominent voice in the court, which was to request the emperor to make an independent decision and make an exception to transfer the Left Censor-in-Chief Sun Pi Yang to the position of Tianguan in the Ministry of Personnel.

It has to be said that this request actually made Emperor Wanli very excited and successfully attracted the attention of the emperor.

Whenever possible, the emperor would of course prefer to appoint ministers through imperial decree to demonstrate the absolute authority of the monarch.

However, due to various restrictions in the political environment, this idea is often difficult to implement.

For example, after being appointed, he would often encounter strong opposition from ministers outside the court. Although he could suppress it by force with the power of the emperor, the process would be too troublesome and make the emperor feel that it was not worth it.

In other words, there is no minister now who is worthy of the emperor's support at all costs.

Therefore, if one wants to truly achieve the state of "absolute power", it will test the emperor's political skills. Emperor Jiajing possessed this ability, but he also achieved centralization slowly through more than ten years of great ritual debates.

However, Emperor Wanli obviously did not have such a level of political skills, nor did he have the patience to carry out such planning for more than ten years.

All of Emperor Wanli's talent for patience was probably spent on "getting angry".

Although Emperor Wanli admired his grandfather Jiajing very much, the difference between him and his grandfather might be that Emperor Jiajing was able to stick to one idea and operate it for 10 to 20 years, and finally achieve the effect he wanted.

The Wanli Emperor would only be angry for 10 to 20 years, with intermittent fits in between his impotent rage.

In Lin Tailai's eyes, he is a novice who loves to play, but often cannot afford to play.

In history, Emperor Wanli was just making trouble at the beginning, and then took the opportunity to be angry and not attend court. It was said that he could not afford to play anymore.

After more than ten years of turmoil and being forced to establish the eldest son, the ministers thought that the emperor would calm down, but he started to act even worse than they had imagined.

It was so severe that the appointments of officials were kept in reserve for more than ten years in a row. More than half of the official posts in the court were often vacant, and there was often only one person in the cabinet, which made the court almost paralyzed.

In fact, this caused great damage to the system and seriously shook the prestige and operating mechanism of the Ming Dynasty court.

Perhaps Emperor Wanli can be whitewashed in many aspects, but he cannot be whitewashed when it comes to destroying the system.

It can be said that the "sacredness" of the Ming Dynasty imperial power was destroyed by the grandfather and grandson, Jiajing and Wanli, in different ways.

Having said that, Emperor Wanli was not very interested in the "dog-eat-dog" infighting among the foreign court this time, but when there were voices calling for "autocratic decision-making", it aroused Emperor Wanli's strong interest.

I even thought too much - was this a good sign? Was this a political hint that some ministers were thinking of "joining" me?

Can we use this opportunity to get ministers used to the emperor's autocratic decisions?

If the ministers are used to making decisions arbitrarily, then when it comes to matters concerning the country in the future, can the emperor make the decision with just a word?
Thinking of this, Emperor Wanli decided to intervene in the dispute over the Minister of Personnel in a more proactive manner.

(End of this chapter)