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Chapter 133
In September 1607, Li Zhi, a scholar in the cabinet, asked to resign. The emperor declined, and then resigned, and then declined again.The two of them went back and forth like this for more than a month. The emperor became angry and went to Wenyuan Pavilion to be a bachelor and governor of the military affairs of Guangdong and Guangxi.

This decision caused another uproar in the court, and everyone was talking about how Li Zhi had offended the emperor, wanted to retire, and even raped the bachelor of Wenyuan Pavilion.

Compared with the cabinet bachelor, the governor of Guangdong and Guangdong is definitely more gain than loss.He stayed by the emperor's side all day long and came up with ideas without having to do anything or bear any responsibilities. He was in a very respectable position.

The Governor sounds very powerful, and he does have a lot of real power, but he still has to bear responsibilities.Doing practical things is never as comfortable and high-end as pointing fingers. This is the consensus in official circles.

Moreover, there are many ethnic minorities in Guangdong and Guangxi, and the land is covered with mountains. Except for a few coastal cities that are directly controlled by the imperial court, the inland areas are basically controlled by local clan forces, and pirates and bandits emerge one after another.Although it can't be said that he was exiled, it was close to being exiled. At Li Zhi's age, he probably died in a foreign country.

It is always a happy thing to watch others being unlucky. If it were a famous person in front of the emperor, the happiness would have to be increased by [-]%. This is human nature.In the eyes of the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty, Li Zhi's loss of power was not only personal, but also marked a trend. The Taizhou School with radical ideas was no longer popular.

It also means a very important thing. There is a vacuum around the emperor. Whoever can fill Li Zhi's vacancy at this time will most likely affect the emperor's thoughts and actions.

Stimulated by such great news, the conventions of the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty were also deliberately ignored. People from the south, Bei Guan, and people from the north, Nan Guan, all lost their bachelor's degrees. It was considered a great favor of the emperor to work somewhere closer to their hometown!

Following Li Zhi's footsteps, Zhu Geng, the chief minister of the cabinet, also followed suit.He is the one who really retired from old age and returned to his hometown. He has been in the cabinet for more than six years and has been the first assistant for more than a year. Every day, he is caught in the middle of several forces and acts as a doormat. He has never lived a comfortable day.Seeing that the emperor was becoming more and more assertive, he had completed his job and might have to die in a foreign country if he didn't leave.

Two vacancies suddenly appeared in the cabinet, which greatly attracted the attention of officials. Except for some close friends, no one cared about the whereabouts of Li Zhi and Zhu Geng. Instead, they were all wondering who would be in power and who would be the emperor. Who to choose and what choice to make during the chaos.

In the inner city, there is Mingshifang Ma Sheng Hutong on the east side of Chongwen Gate, and Ye Mansion crosses the courtyard in the west.Four middle-aged men were sitting at the stone table. Although the temperature was a bit low, the charcoal stove on the table was burning brightly, and the teapot was steaming. In addition, there was no wind, so they were cooking with their friends under the grape trellis. It is also appropriate to have a chat over tea.

There are three courtyards in total. They originally belonged to the Hu Hao family, the Minister of Rites, but after a hundred years of rise and fall, the Hu family gradually declined. In this generation, they only relied on their ancestor Meng Yin to get a job as a town governor in Jinyiwei, Nanjing, and moved their family south. He sold this royal courtyard to a Wuxi businessman named Ye.

But Wuxi merchants did not go north to live. The person who actually lived here also had the surname Ye, whose given name was Maocai, whose courtesy name was Shenzhi, and whose nickname was Xianshi. He was currently a member of the Jiangxi Qing Li Division of the Ministry of Punishments, Wai Lang, from the fifth rank.Although they both have the surname Ye and are fellow Wuxi residents, Ye Maocai and the businessman surnamed Ye are not from the same family, they just rent here.

Zhu Yuanzhang suffered from poverty since childhood and hated corruption the most. After becoming emperor, he tried every means to restrict officials from using their power to make profits.Unfortunately, my brain is limited, it takes a lot of effort, and the effect is short-lived.

According to the method he designed, officials in the Ming Dynasty had the principle of avoidance of place of origin and family members, and were not allowed to buy houses and marry wives in the place of office, thinking that this would reduce corruption and nepotism.

The results of it?Working in other places allows you to relax your taboos, and you don't have to worry about being poked in the back.He was greedy for every penny he should be greedy for. When he retired, he walked away and turned into a good man when he returned to his hometown. He built bridges and roads and used the money from corruption to build houses and buy land to gain fame.On the contrary, it created trouble for officials who did not want to be corrupt. They traveled thousands of miles to serve as officials and could not return to their hometown more than once in their lifetime.Without their own house and home, no one will regard their place of employment as their home. If it is not a home, they do not have to manage it carefully and just mess around.

Ye Maocai is a living example. There are policies at the top and countermeasures at the bottom.Isn’t it forbidden for officials to buy houses in the place where they work?Well, let's not buy it. Let's find a village party member or an acquaintance to come forward and buy the package, and then rent it to us in a pretentious manner. This will not violate the regulations and solve the housing problem. How simple!
It cannot be said that all officials in Beijing do this. The main reason is that not all families are as rich as Ye Maocai's family. What should those who cannot afford a big house do?Three paths, choose yourself.

The brightest option is to win the favor of the emperor, and then just give you a house or a piece of land to build a new one with just a few clicks. This is how the former owner of this house, Hu Hao, got it.

The second is to live in official dormitories. Each department will have an official residence, which is allocated according to rank when you are in office. It is furnished and has dedicated services. It is a bit like an apartment in later generations. It is returned when you leave or are transferred.

The last option is to rent your own house. Some officials have relatively wealthy families and are not used to living in dormitories, and they cannot afford to buy a large yard wherever they serve, so they might as well rent a better house.

This is very similar to some college students in later generations. They are not used to living in multi-person dormitories and are not sure where they will work in the future. They are reluctant to buy a house. It is suitable to rent a house near the school.

"Li Hongfu and Zhu Shaoqin are gone, and two positions in the cabinet are suddenly vacant. We can't take both of them, but we have to take down the chief minister. Shen Ge has the most seniority, so he should be a sure winner this time!"

Ye Maocai is under fifty this year, but most of his hair has turned white, and he looks like he is in his 60s.However, he is in good spirits and does not look old-fashioned in his movements. It is probably because of the greying of his head at a young age, not really premature aging.

"It should be like this, but I heard a lot of rumors in the Hanlin Academy. It seems that the current emperor doesn't like being mature and prudent. Zhu Shoufu was left out because he was too old. At present, except for Mr. Shen Ge, the other three in the cabinet are all under 60. The longest Wu Daonan is 57, and the lightest Fang Congzhe is only 45."

Sitting opposite Ye Maocai was a young man. The hair and beards of the two men were in sharp contrast, one was less gray and the other was black and thick.In addition, the opinions seem to be different. Ye Maocai is more optimistic, while the young people are more cautious.

"Hey, Dahong, your time in the court is still short, you don't need to listen to those guys' noise!" Ye Maocai was a little annoyed when a junior refuted him in person, and rejected his point of view without thinking.

"Bo Qin, you are also in the Hanlin Academy. What do you think of this matter?" The person who spoke had a thin face and three neatly trimmed long beards. He was clearly Gu Xiancheng.

(End of this chapter)