Ming Jiajing: Starting from Immortality

Chapter 15: Against the Emperor’s will, the cabinet rebelled!
At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, ministers, either because of hometown ties or because of their common interests, had close contacts and helped each other, as if they were part of a faction. Such situations did exist, but they were short-lived, and they did not form an obvious faction among themselves that did not care about right or wrong, but only discussed similarities and differences.

The formation of factions that only care about differences and similarities but not about right and wrong began during the Jiajing period, with Zhang Cong and Gui E winning over people who discussed rituals. After that, forming cliques and factions became a necessary means and became more and more intense. By the time of Yan Song and Xia Yan, after years of open and covert fighting, officials formed alliances and established their own factions.

If no change is made, the factional struggle will continue for a long time, and factions such as the Donglin Party, Zhejiang Party, Chu Party, and Qi Party will be born one after another, and then crush each other until the demise of the Ming Dynasty.

Despite having lived in the prosperous capital for a long time and holding a high position in the government, Yan Song had several habits that remained unchanged over the decades.

First, he planted a vegetable garden in the yard of the mansion. In summer and autumn, he would occasionally go to the vegetable garden to water and apply fertilizer, and he only ate vegetables from the vegetable garden on his table.

Even when he was granted Tian'en's favor and moved to Xiyuan, he had someone specially send him vegetables from the vegetable garden in his mansion. Yan Song said to others that it was not right to eat other people's food.

The others seemed to understand and had no idea what Lord Yan wanted, but as the chief minister of the cabinet, such small things always satisfied him.

365 days a year, the vegetable garden in the mansion provided vegetables for Yan Song to eat every day.

Second, the huge mansion raised many chickens and ducks, and he could hear the crowing of roosters in the mansion every night and early morning.

Perhaps, as the ancients said, great disasters and great blessings are all decreed by heaven.

At four o'clock in the morning, a rooster made the first long crow in the Yan Mansion, and then many roosters around the mansion followed suit and the crowing has not stopped since then.

In order to raise money, Yan Shifan was busy until very late last night. When one is busy, one cannot hear the outside sounds. But as soon as he touched the pillow and felt sleepy, the crowing of hundreds of chickens and ducks seemed to come into his ears.

The furious Yan Shifan wanted to have all the chickens and ducks killed, but when he thought of his old father who loved chickens and ducks, or to be more precise, his old father who loved to eat chickens and ducks, he could only plug his ears in hatred and barely fell asleep.

Listening to the crowing of cocks all around, Yan Song had not slept all night. He sat on a recliner in the study, with a fox fur blanket covering his knees. He leaned close to the lamp beside him, reading a book.

The door of the study was open, and a large pot of charcoal fire used for heating was burning, adding some brightness to the study.

In the blink of an eye, it was already dawn. Two stewards from the Yan residence were leaning sideways in front of him, leading the way. Xu Jie walked along the stone road and stopped in front of the steps outside Yan Song's study.

A steward of the Yan residence led the way up the steps and knocked on the study door. His voice was neither too loud nor too soft, just loud enough for Yan Song to hear. He loudly announced, "Lord, Lord Xu is here."

Yan Song put down the book in his hand and looked at Xu Jie with red and cloudy eyes.

Xu Jie is here at last.

Even though he deliberately asked the doorman to politely refuse Xu Jie's visit by saying that he was not awake yet, Xu Jie still waited to see him.

that power.

It is both an aphrodisiac and a poison.

After all, he was old, and after sitting all night, it was difficult for Yan Song to stand up on his own, so he called to the steward, "Help me up."

The steward walked in and helped Yan Song.

"No need to get up, please sit down."

Xu Jie had already quickly climbed the steps and entered the door. He gently supported Yan Song's arm beside him, then sat down on the chair next to Yan Song and instructed the steward who was still standing there: "The spring breeze is so cold, why is the door open? Go out and close the door."

"Yes."

The steward walked out and closed the door. The two people who had been fighting for decades suddenly sat together calmly. Although they had countless things to say, they didn't know where to start.

"Your Excellency should know everything, right?" Xu Jie asked with his eyes lowered.

This was naturally referring to the performance evaluation system. Yan Shifan had been dealing with money ever since the end of the imperial financial meeting, and he had not yet figured out what was going on.

But Yan Song, who had read all night, could not fail to understand the emperor's intention in canceling the budget at the beginning of the year. Yan Song did not pretend to be confused and nodded, saying, "I know everything."

"Master, what do you suggest I do?" As soon as Xu Jie opened his mouth, his air was as cold as the wind whistling and the water flowing in the Yi River.

"Hard to say."

Yan Song slowly pulled his hand back: "It depends on what you want to do."

"Mr. Prime Minister." Xu Jie wanted to argue.

Performance evaluation method.

The officials in the two capitals and thirteen provinces were subject to inspection and assessment, including all officials from the Qingliu and Yan party. How come only the Qingliu officials acted accordingly?

Will the Yan Party just surrender?
Yan Song interrupted him and confirmed his thoughts, "I have served the emperor for twenty years, and I am still unable to retire at the age of eighty.

A person may not feel tired after enduring one day, but will feel tired after ten days. It is not difficult to be careful for a year, but it is difficult to be careful for a lifetime.

I am content to have a chance to retire peacefully and return home. "

"Second to one man, above ten thousand others; with a wise ruler in power and powerful ministers everywhere, the job of a cabinet minister is the most difficult. But no matter how difficult it is, you cannot give up at this time, otherwise, the court of our Ming Dynasty will be in chaos in an instant." Xu Jie said this very sincerely.

If you want to fight against the performance evaluation system, you cannot do it with the power of the clean stream alone.

Yan Song had been the chief minister of the cabinet for twenty years and held all the power in the court. He might not be nostalgic for the feeling of being a high-ranking official, but he, Xu Jie, was only fifty-eight years old this year and was in good health. He was unwilling to give up the power that was just one step away from him.

If he becomes the Prime Minister of the Cabinet, but is still like the Second Prime Minister, unable to control the life and death of officials throughout the country, and if all the wealth in the world goes to the Xu family, then wouldn't his position as the Prime Minister be in vain?
Even Yan Song was moved by the heartfelt praise. He could not say the words he had prepared to reject Xu Jie's conspiracy. "Then we have to consider disobeying the emperor's will."

a bolt from the blue!

Because of the dispute over the great ceremony, the emperor beat to death more than a hundred court officials.

At most, the emperor beat to death 17 ministers who had cried and made remonstrances to the emperor in one day. To this day, the smell of blood still lingers in Zuo Shun's court.

This is what happens when you go against the divine will.

At that time, Xu Jie had just passed the imperial examination and was appointed editor of the Hanlin Academy. He witnessed it with his own eyes and later compiled it into history, writing it himself.

Xu Jie only wanted to gain the power to inspect and evaluate officials, but he did not want to go against the emperor's will.

"Shao Hu, do you think that after you have the power to inspect and assess, you are pretending to obey the emperor but secretly disobeying him, showing leniency to officials you like and punishing officials you hate harshly, and that this is not going against the emperor's will?"

Yan Song seemed to see through Xu Jie's heart. He stared at his face and said solemnly, "The emperor did not establish the performance evaluation system to let you form a clique and attack dissidents!"

(End of this chapter)