Red Mansion: I am Jia Lian

Chapter 310 Bombshell
Wang Ziteng's secret letter mainly talked about the following contents: the Nanyang Navy is good at fighting near the coast but not good at sailing far away, and the gap between the naval battle and the large ships of the Western Yi is not small. Now nearly 100 Western Yi have been recruited for use, and two large ships of the Western Yi have been purchased in the name of the Navy, which will be delivered in the second half of the year. The plan to build large ships is also proceeding in an orderly manner. The only concern is the objection of the court. There is no need to worry about the Guangdong and Guangxi areas for the time being.

The northern part of Annan is mountainous and densely forested. In ancient times, those who conquered Annan all took this route, which was very costly. For the past 30 years, the Zheng family of Annan has respected the upper country, but they are afraid that their cause is unjust.

After eliminating the polite words and sorting out the core content, Jia Lian burned the letter to ashes, poured some tea, and leaned back in a chair, silently thinking about Wang Ziteng's true intentions.

There is no doubt that Wang Ziteng is an ambitious person. He was willing to leave the capital at the beginning, not because he gave up his ambition, but because he wisely jumped out of the vortex of struggle.

The current situation in the DPRK has experienced turmoil and is still in the stage of recovering stability. Wang Ziteng seized this opportunity to develop his power in Guangdong and Guangxi. There is no doubt that doing so is bound to hurt the inherent interests of others.

Although Wang Ziteng said it simply, in fact, he made everything clear. After successfully suppressing the local forces in Guangdong and Guangxi, Wang Ziteng's move to develop and strengthen his own strength will inevitably be counterattacked by the capital.

Especially since Guangzhou is an important window for maritime trade, Wang Ziteng needs money to reorganize the navy, purchase warships, and train the army.

Where does the money come from? Of course, you have to fight for benefits from others. If you have already robbed others of their money, how can they not fight back?

Wang Ziteng did not have no political allies in the capital, but the purge after the Li Ni case must have had a huge impact on Wang Ziteng's power in the capital, and it might have been scattered. Well, Jia Lian firmly believed that Emperor Chenghui would not let this matter go, otherwise he would not have given Wang Ziteng the title of Marquis of Annan.

In order to avoid the pressure from the capital, Wang Ziteng needed the help from Jia Lian. The reason for looking for Jia Lian was very simple, Lin Ruhai was in the Inspectorate.

In the past, when Jia Lian represented the emperor to talk to Wang Ziteng, the relationship was at most that of quasi-allies. Now that Wang Ziteng has sent a secret letter, although it seems to be a general discussion, it actually indicates a deepening of the relationship.

Of course, it is impossible to become allies immediately. Jia Lian can say that Jia She and Jia Zheng can thrive in front of Emperor Chenghui, and Wang Ziteng dare not underestimate them.

In short, the true meaning of this secret letter can be summarized as follows: This was a test by Wang Ziteng to see if the relationship between the two could be further deepened.

How the relationship between the two will develop in the future depends on the feedback from Jia Lian.

After thinking it through, Jia Lian was no longer entangled. Wang Ziteng's idea of ​​turning the Annan Marquis from virtual to real was not bad in Jia Lian's eyes. A brilliant politician, realizing that there was little room for internal development and that the ceiling had been reached, chose to develop externally. Why not support him? As for allies, Jia Lian really didn't dare to trust him, even though his wife was from the Wang family.

Let’s put it this way, Jia Lian can take Lin Ruhai as an ally, but he doesn’t dare to take Wang Ziteng as an ally.

Speaking of close relationships, which one of Wang Ziteng's relationships with the four kings and eight dukes is not close? When he found an opportunity to escape the struggle between two generations of emperors, he chose to compromise with the emperor without hesitation.

This man is too powerful. Jia Lian is afraid that he cannot defeat him, so he can only rely on his youth advantage to outlast him. Anyway, there is no outstanding descendant of the Wang family.

Let’s take our time with Wang Ziteng’s matter.

Compared with Jia Lian, who was not too conflicted, the new Minister of Revenue Ning Ke was very seriously conflicted.

If there is no response after submitting a secret report, it would be strange if you don't feel upset.

Ning Ke’s original intention is not difficult to understand. He wanted to do something big to establish his personal image.

This was the result of his careful selection of topics, because anyone could see that the King of Xining and the King of Dongping stopped listening to the proclamation.

The officials in the court turned a blind eye to this matter. Did they have bad brains? No! After the Li Ni case, the officials in the capital collectively became extremely cautious.

Besides, the allocation of funds is the Ministry of Revenue's business, and it is not for others to worry about. Since it has nothing to do with me, there is no need to take risks.

Ning Ke, who wanted to make a big splash, chose this topic because it was more in line with the emperor's wishes. The risk of doing this was not high, but the rewards were not small.

Another important point is that Kong Zhao hinted that he was going to retire. Ning Ke saw the hope of entering the cabinet after one term.

This matter has nothing to do with lofty ideals. It is nothing more than an adventure of an official in pursuit of progress.

The reason for taking the risk was simple. Ning Ke was worried that this memorial would leave an impression of instability on the emperor.

The emperor and his ministers had not had much contact time, and had not yet fully understood each other's style of doing things.

When going to work in the morning, Ning Ke was summoned to the Qianqing Palace with a nervous mood. When meeting the emperor, Ning Ke tried his best to calm down and kowtowed to pay his respects.

Emperor Chenghui did not mention the memorial, but asked him whether he had any work ideas about the budget system and how the progress was going.

Ning Ke, feeling uneasy, hurried to report the recent work progress. Because there was no precedent for this matter, there was also endless debate within the Ministry of Revenue, and many people had doubts about the "Draft Budget".

In short, it will take time to perfect the draft before submitting it to the cabinet for deliberation. It is not certain how long it will take.

After hearing this, Emperor Chenghui said expressionlessly that this was the most important task for the cabinet and the Ministry of Revenue this year, and he hoped that you would do a good job and live up to my expectations. Then he changed the subject and said, "Your enthusiasm for work is commendable, and it is understandable that you are dissatisfied with the current situation of the court and feel anxious, but you must not be hasty in everything and must be patient."

When Ning Ke heard this at the end, he was naturally quite surprised. What was he implying?
"I will remember your majesty's instructions!" Ning Ke quickly corrected his attitude and accepted the instructions from the emperor.

Emperor Chenghui didn't say much and signaled him to go down.

The Dragon Boat Festival was approaching, and on the second day, Emperor Chenghui suddenly convened an enlarged cabinet meeting, with all the officials from the six ministries and nine departments present. Well, this was a Central Court meeting, which meant that something big was bound to happen.

When the ministers gathered in the Qianqing Palace, they saw a very abrupt person appear. Everyone decided to pretend not to see him. After all, this guy often appeared at the cabinet meeting at such a high level. The current cabinet of the Great Zhou Dynasty is much better than the inner court of Emperor Wu of Han. It rarely bypasses the outer court to directly issue decrees.

Jia Lian didn't want to come. A meeting of this level was not something that a fourth-rank official like him could attend. But the emperor had ordered him to attend, so he had no choice but to come.

After entering the Qianqing Palace, Jia Lian skillfully found a corner and stood there.

Meetings of this level were not so formal. After the emperor arrived, all the ministers could just clasp their hands and bow under the leadership of the chief minister. Emperor Chenghui informed the ministers very directly: "Recently, considering the hard work of being an official, I have decided to increase the salary of officials outside the capital by 20% and the salary of officials in the capital by 30%. My dear ministers, do you have any objections?"

Knowing that the Zhongchao meeting was called for this matter, Jia Lian suddenly felt very bored. How could there be anything interesting to learn from such a matter?
Raise wages. Anyone who opposes will be the public enemy of all officials in the world.

Led by Kong Zhao, all the ministers answered in unison: "We have no objection." Jia Lian was the last one to respond, and he also said something.

Just when Jia Lian thought that "if there is something to report, report it; if there is nothing to report, leave the court" was about to happen, Emperor Chenghui said again: "There is one thing I have been thinking about for a long time, so I would like to discuss it with you."

Emperor Chenghui paused, and seeing that the ministers were calm and waiting for the next step, he dropped a bombshell: "I see that you have been working hard, and I intend to increase the tasks of the cabinet. I have tentatively decided to add two people. You can go back and discuss it, and submit a memorial to express your attitude before the end of the month." The ministers were confused. How come there was no news at all, and it was so sudden?
Emperor Chenghui obviously didn't give everyone a chance to argue, and said directly, "Let's do it as it is. I'm tired, so I'll leave first."

Then the emperor left. Jia Lian finally understood why he had to come today. He immediately reached into his sleeve to grab some melon seeds, but unfortunately he came up empty.

As soon as the emperor left, the ministers immediately went wild. They chatted with each other in groups of three or two, and the buzzing sound echoed in the hall.

Jia Lian felt excited watching this and stood aside carefully observing the expressions of each minister.

First of all, the five existing cabinet ministers all looked uglier than the others. Even though only two people were added, the original cabinet ministers' voice was naturally diluted.

Next were the two ministers. The new Minister of Revenue, Ning Ke, was shaking with excitement, his fists clenched in his sleeves, but he didn't dare to raise his arms and cheer, for fear of being beaten up. And then there was the Minister of Justice, who had always had little presence. There was only one sentence in his mind: No way, no way, no way, can I have this day?
From now on, anyone who opposes the expansion of the cabinet will be Wang’s mortal enemy.

The cabinet was expanded from five to seven people. In principle, apart from the prime minister, each cabinet minister would be in charge of a ministry. There were six ministries in the court. Isn't that just enough to fill the gap?
Other departments don't think so, for example, Lin Ruhai of the Inspectorate, the Ministry of Justice, dares to compete with the Inspectorate? Look, the big sand pot, no, it's the mouthpiece group of the Inspectorate.

Jia Lian was very excited to have the melon to eat, and looked around. Just when he wanted to see all the people in the world, someone grabbed his wrist and pulled him away.

Jia Lian looked unhappy, but when he saw clearly that it was Lin Ruhai, he had no choice but to follow him out.

When no one was around, Lin Ruhai couldn't help but ask, "How come there was no news beforehand? What do you know?"

Even if it was Lin Ruhai, Jia Lian could not tell the truth about this matter, and quickly shook his head: "The Lord Chief Justice really thinks highly of me. Asking me about this matter is like asking a blind man."

Lin Ruhai looked at him in disbelief. You don’t know why the emperor would let you sit in as an audience?
Facing this look, Jia Lian could only respond with a clear and stupid look. Look, do I look like someone who could know it in advance?

Lin Ruhai, with thick eyebrows and big eyes, suddenly put away his seriousness and smiled slightly: "We are family, why should we be so polite?"

Jia Lian replied seriously: "When you are working, you call it your job title!"

Lin Ruhai suppressed the urge to beat him up and said, "After get off work, come to my house to discuss it in detail."

Lin Ruhai left in a hurry, and other officials also returned to their posts one after another, but the sensation caused by the two pieces of news today could not be overshadowed by other things.

The increase in salary made the grassroots officials excited. The capital was big and it was not easy to live there. After the increase in salary, among other things, the food and clothing of their wives and children at home would be improved.

What did you say? Buy a house? Don't you have any idea about the housing prices in Beijing? Is this something that grassroots officials can think about? Just rent a house and live there peacefully!
The addition of new members to the cabinet has little impact on lower-level officials. They may discuss it, but it is just talk. At this stage, the officials still need to explain the pros and cons.

Naturally, people were divided into two camps, those who supported the supplementation and those who opposed it.

Forget about the nonsense that the emperor threw a bone and the ministers scrambled for it like vicious dogs. Even if we knew that this was the truth of the matter and that the emperor was just trying to divide the ministers, no one would be willing to unite for a while. Let's fight for the position of cabinet minister first and determine the additional personnel first, and then decide how to fight for it.

The five existing cabinet ministers all went to Kong Zhao's place to hold a small meeting. In fact, Kong Zhao was very reluctant to see this happen at this time.

But how can we say it? Everyone is used to it. When there is a big issue, they will hold a small meeting here first. This is part of the symbol of the Prime Minister's power.

What is the saying? Since you enjoy the power of the Prime Minister, you must speak up for the power of other cabinet members. Otherwise, how can you regulate the cabinet and unify the discourse power in the future?
Let me put it this way, even though the cabinet members look down on each other and there is a lot of infighting, everyone must unite on such matters.

Similarly, if you stand up against it as a cabinet minister, you will definitely offend others, especially those who have the opportunity to enter the cabinet.

So everyone had to discuss a countermeasure and explain from various angles that as a minister, I am grateful for your Majesty's understanding, but I am not really suffering. I can be more tired. It's just that there are too many things to do, so I can work overtime. As a symbol of the cabinet, Kong Zhao must appear very patient and listen to what everyone has to say.

On the other hand, just as Lin Ruhai returned to the Inspectorate, Lord Wang, the Minister of Justice, came to see him. It turned out that Ning Ke did not come.

Does Ning Ke not want to join the cabinet? Of course he does, but he is not born with the talent.

You've only been the Minister for a few days, and you want to join the cabinet?

So, Ning Ke went straight back to his office and refused to see any visitors except for official business.

At this time, no matter how great the temptation is, you have to resist. Now the emperor just wants everyone to discuss it, and there are still many procedures to go through. After the ministers submit their memorials, the emperor will decide whether to add to them based on the content of the memorials.

It was obvious that the ministers saw a signal that the emperor was dissatisfied with this cabinet.

Let’s put it this way, perhaps the cabinet is more cooperative with the emperor, but in the process of execution, they delay and make trouble, making it impossible for you to implement it, or deforming it after implementation. These are all tricks used by civil servants to deal with the emperor.

The cabinet quickly reached a consensus, and the general direction was to oppose it. The specific method was to delay for a while and wait for changes. Secondly, if it could not be delayed any longer, it would have to express its position and use history as an excuse when submitting a memorial. Even the group prime minister system of the prosperous Tang Dynasty had many flaws. What about the later Song Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty? It was not convenient to centralize power with too many people.

Lin Ruhai and Shangshu Wang did not reach any consensus in their conversation. The two were competitors, and after some polite exchanges and some meaningless gossip, they went their separate ways without further mention.

No one wants to be the first to stand out, everyone wants to take advantage of what’s already available!

(End of this chapter)