golden scales

Before Lu Suyao knew about these things, Zhu Cihong was truly alone.Because even trusted ministers like Wu Tong and Sun Chuanting couldn't say anything about it.If you really go to them to discuss, not only will you not get useful advice, but you will be looked down upon from the bottom of your heart.

Because it is very likely that they themselves are the promoters of this matter.

Imperial power and ministerial power are like a Yin-Yang Tai Chi diagram composed of black and white.When the two are in a balanced state, the two yin and yang fish swim in harmony, and the Tai Chi diagram pushes and rotates, achieving the effect of peace in the world.This is why most of the Ming emperors in history emphasized "accepting advice", because "accepting advice" itself is a concession of the monarchy, helping the ministers to cheer up, and promoting the perfect operation of the whole world.

The emperor is as powerful as Taizu, Chengzu, and Shimiao, or the ministers are as powerful as Xia Yan, Xu Jie, and Zhang Juzheng, which will cause the country's yin and yang to be out of balance, or even yin and yang to conflict.In severe cases, large prisons are built repeatedly and blood flows like rivers; in light cases, government affairs wither because of people talking nonsense.

It is from this that the prime minister wants to regulate yin and yang.

After talking to Lu Suyao, who knew almost nothing, Zhu Cihong felt a lot more relaxed.Human beings always need companions, and this social attribute is engraved in everyone's genes.

"Your Highness, what should we do now?" Lu Suyao asked.

Sometimes things in the world are like an open-book exam, everything is in front of you, and not everyone can make correct coping behaviors.

"Of course it's for someone with experience to do it." Zhu Cihong felt a tinge of warmth in his heart.

In the whole world, who has the most experience in party struggle?Who gets involved in party struggles at the age of 17?Who is the contestant and the referee in the party struggle?Who can never get tired of being dizzy and dizzy by the clique ministers?

Of course it is Emperor Chongzhen.

Zhu Cihong simply talked about the wind direction in the south of the Yangtze River and the court, and mentioned that Qian Qianyi was sent to prison for investigation.With his rich experience and keen intuition, Emperor Chongzhen said sharply: "This is a party struggle!"

To be precise, this is the first stage of the party struggle: mobilizing troops and setting up camp.

It won't take long for the second stage of the Ming Dynasty's party struggle to emerge: people from all sides are in place, and they have come to the table one after another to draw a clear line and reveal their identities.

Finally, the third stage is generally known to the world.The decisive battle: the two sides accused each other of being the chief culprit of disasters for the country and the people, accusing each other of forming a clique for self-interest, posing as if it was either you or me, and waiting for the emperor to make the final judgment.

During this process, the emperor would occasionally use court rods and imperial edicts to resolve some local battles, kill some minions and small officials of the sixth and seventh ranks, and exile some main backbones of the fourth and fifth ranks.In the final decisive battle, the commanders and generals of the first rank and second rank will face each other. The winner will either remain unmoved or be an extremely human minister;

After the decisive battle.Some people resurface from the ashes, some fill the vacancy, and some go back to hiding for no reason... Wait until the battlefield is cleaned up.Those who entered the cabinet in the court entered the cabinet.Those who sit in the hall sit in the hall, tidy up the people, and prepare for the next party struggle.

"The crown prince's wars and civil affairs are remarkable, but this court struggle is beyond his grasp." Chongzhen finally waited for the opportunity to show the emperor's skills in front of the crown prince, and his excitement was no less than that of the emperor. Received good news from Beizhi.

What he hated the most in the past was the formation of cliques among ministers, and he absolutely hated cliques.But this time there was a smell of factionalism.Rather looking forward to it.

"My son should be a good student, so as not to be in power in the future and be misled by treacherous ministers!" Chongzhen said with pride, as if he had forgotten what he once said "every civil servant can be killed".

"I would like to obey your orders." Zhu Cihong said goodbye after having achieved his goal.He originally wanted to give the imperial father a gaze or expression full of admiration.Reluctantly, the facial muscles were slightly stiff, but it was natural for his eyes to be cold.Simply don't superfluous.

Emperor Chongzhen was indeed an old hand, he kept silent in the first stage, as if he didn't know anything.He has to wait until the second stage, when people are in place, before he can judge who is a gentleman and who is a traitor.

As everyone knows, once the decision-maker presets his position and then checks his seat, it shows that he has been dragged into the water.

Once the emperor goes into the water, the yin and yang fish on the Taiji diagram will be in chaos.

In the end, no matter who wins or loses, it will seriously hurt the vitality of the country.

Moreover, Chongzhen had been emperor for 18 years, and he had played party disputes with ministers for 17 years, and he never thought of "information asymmetry".He thought he knew his ministers quite well, but in fact it was not easy to remember Sanding Jia's name every time in the palace examination, and he was not as good as Lu Suyao in the intricate interpersonal relationships and dynamics among civil servants.

And once a war breaks out, the civil servants will make their position clear, but not everyone can see this position.Some are suspicious, some pretend to be upright, some appear to be honest, and some show praise but derogate.Choose one of these people to be placed in later generations, and they all have the strength of literary masters, and many of them are praised by later generations as "masters of Confucianism", "leaders of literary circles", and "masters of thought". teaching materials for the class.

Is Chongzhen really sensitive to reading elegant words?Do you really have the wisdom to see through the smoke and reach the essence?

……

This simple pass made the cabinet ministers who originally wanted to see the crown prince's methods couldn't sit still.

First, Li Yuzhi had an audience with Zhu Cihuang, so that the official came to test the news, but was blocked by the crown prince.Then when Wu Tong was talking about "Spring and Autumn", he intentionally or unintentionally said some old jokes about party struggles and harming the country, but Zhu Cihong still didn't answer the bell.

Then, Sun Chuanting invited the governor to Beizhi, but was held down by Zhu Cihong.

It wasn't until Jiang Dejing rushed back from the Huaihe construction site that Zhu Cihong held a plenary meeting of the cabinet as if nothing had happened.

"Recently, the atmosphere in the court is a bit strange." Zhu Cihong said casually at the end of the meeting.

This sentence was like a signal that for the four cabinet assistants, the real cabinet meeting had begun.

"Your Highness, people in Nandu are not stable. One is that Zuo Liangyu is not defeated, and the other is that the theory of internal response is boiling. Everyone is in danger." Wu Sheng said.

"Isn't there something that should be in danger?" Zhu Cihong said innocently.

"Your Highness, this is the legacy of factional disputes." Wu Sheng said, "Once there is a big dispute between the court and China, slander and slander are everywhere. Sometimes people are really sitting at home, and the disaster comes from heaven."

Zhu Cihong rubbed his chin, seemed to be pondering, and said: "I think this is purely because some people have been idle for a long time, and it's not worth paying attention to at all."

"Your Highness, sitting on the sidelines like this may cause great harm." Jiang Dejing was in a bad mood after being impeached.He looked dull while speaking.

Zhu Cihong said: "As long as they don't wield knives and guns and fight privately, there won't be any harm."

"How can your Highness say that!" Jiang Dejing was well-known in the court for his violent temper, and the temper and character of someone who dared to quarrel with Chongzhen several times can be seen.

"These officials are trapped in party disputes, so they can't handle official duties, and the people can't take care of them. This is where the vitality of the country is dissipated!" Jiang Dejing said bitterly.

Zhu Cihong nodded in agreement, and said: "Originally, the appointed officials on the Jiangnan side are not capable of doing things. Let them make trouble first. We will clean up after the imperial court is free in the north."

"Your Highness..." Jiang Dejing was choked up, knowing that the crown prince was lying, but he couldn't think of words to persuade him.

"The key point is what Mr. Jiang said. If officials do not handle public affairs, the people will not be able to take care of them, and the country's vitality will be dissipated." Zhu Cihong said: "So at this critical point, especially the government affairs in hand cannot be stopped. Today, President Li is not here, change Today we will talk with the Metropolitan Procuratorate to strengthen discipline inspections and strictly review the progress of various tasks in various prefectures and counties. I still have to reiterate: party disputes are for boring people. If there are people in charge, Participating in it, it can be seen that his examination results are too loose, and the Metropolitan Procuratorate has to work harder."

"Mr. Jiang, the management of the Huaihe River is a major event that will benefit the future. The cabinet has approved the Ministry of Industry's strategy of 'drainage and water storage. Shu embankment to attack sand, plant trees to consolidate the soil'. I also attached my name to it. And Your Majesty Zhu criticized. I also hope that you will be firm in your heart, and don’t be shaken by the chirping of birds.”

Jiang Dejing lowered his head and said, "I understand."

"As for your proposal of Zhang Biqian to be the Minister of the Ministry of Industry, please give it to me after the cabinet vote is drafted." Zhu Cihong threw out the chips in his hand in a timely manner.

Sure enough, Jiang Dejing was refreshed, and bowed to say that Zhang Biqian was indeed an official and would not disappoint His Highness.

Zhu Cihong said again: "Mr. Li, is it true that Wu Weiye's test scores are too low?"

"Wu Weiye won the first grade in the evaluation in September, and the next evaluation will be in December, so we will know then." Li Yu knew.

Zhu Cihong's eyes lit up, and he praised: "This is really old-fashioned talk. No matter whether the party fights or not, the rules should be followed. It is okay to have personal enmity with Wu Weiye, and it is okay to bring him down, but don't follow the rules. It won’t work if you come!”

Zhu Cihong is famous for his obsession with rules and disregard of favors, the four elders were not surprised when they heard this.However, he is much more confident about the party struggle that is about to set off a big wave. As long as there are rules and regulations, the current situation will not be overturned.And although this incident has nothing to do with them, it is also a good opportunity to clarify the context.

In every party struggle, there will always be a loser in the end, a seemingly winner, and some real winners who stand on the sidelines.

Zhu Cihong obviously wanted to be the real winner.He doesn't have a deep understanding of the situation in the south of the Yangtze River now, and he needs a starting point to find out the factions, positions, and relationship networks of the southern officials.If there was no such thing as Zuo Liangyu, Zhu Cihong would have to find other excuses, but now that Qian Qianyi has been dragged into Zuo's case, it happens to be a touchstone.

After understanding the morale of Jiangnan, it is just in time to clean up Jiangnan after the north is pacified.

It's just that the affairs of the Shibo Department may be affected a little bit. There must be many people who will wait for the situation to become clear before taking out money to express their position.

After all, Zhu Cihong himself is also a target in this party struggle: whether the crown prince has held the emperor hostage.

This time the cabinet meeting was really coming to an end. Zhu Cihong inquired about the situation of this year's rural examination, and asked the Ministry of Officials to evaluate those candidates who intend to go directly to the official position, and select the best to assign the secondary officials in each county.At the same time, I also asked about the preparations for the exam next spring, to see how to arrange for candidates in difficult places to take the exam.

There are about 100 applicants in the provincial examination in each province, and between three hundred and four hundred Jinshi in the general examination and palace examination.There are not many people who are short of grassroots officials.Zhu Cihong just cared about it with the mentality that few are better than nothing. What he paid more attention to was the permanent cultural level test, which is the "female Dingke" that Jiangnan Shilin ridiculed.

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