Ming Jiajing: Starting from Immortality

Chapter 25: The emperor’s reverse scale: selling official positions and titles!
Cinnabar is as red as blood.

It was rippling gently in the purple gold bowl on the desk of Yan Song, the chief minister of the cabinet.

It was also gently rippling in the purple gold bowl on the desk of Xu Jie, the Second Assistant Minister of the Cabinet.

Two "pivot pens" were each inserted into the purple gold bowl on the desk and dipped in cinnabar. Both of them slowly probed the tip of the pen in the inkstone. An 81-year-old man wearing a pair of presbyopic glasses, and a 58-year-old man wearing a pair of presbyopic glasses, looked at the secret blue paper in front of them which was made of various fibers mixed with leaves and crushed, looked at the bright red parallel prose that was already more than half written, and pondered the following words.

Blue paper, red words, and first-class official script.

Despite the turmoil in the imperial court, the two prime ministers were writing poems for the emperor in the duty room of the Western Garden Cabinet.

Decades had passed since Zhu Houcong began practicing Taoism. He often ordered Grand Secretary Yan Song, Xu Jie and others to compose Qingci and burn them as a sacrifice to God.

The Qing Ci written by the two men "deeply satisfied the emperor's intention", and people at that time called them "the prime ministers of Qing Ci".

Little did people know that numerous military and national affairs, the emperor's intentions and the ministers' feelings, were all deeply foreshadowed in these seemingly absurd poems!

It was only during the Jiajing reign that memorials impeaching others would be written into the Qingci.

"I'm old." Yan Song finished writing the last word of his memorial accusing Gao Gong of forming a clique for personal gain and sheltering traitors, put down his pen, took off his glasses, and slowly stood up while holding the edge of the table.

Xu Jie still had two lines left to write in his poem about Zhang Juzheng, so he had to put down his pen. He stood up, took off his glasses, walked to Yan Song's desk, and glanced at the person mentioned in Yan Song's poem.

Ge Shouli, Minister of Rites of Nanjing.

Xu Yangzheng, Shaoqing of Nanjing Guanglu Temple.

Liu Ziqiang, the prefect of Yingtian Prefecture.

These three people were all close to Gao Gong in the court.

Two people make a friend, four people make a party.

Citing the lessons of the Song Dynasty, even if Gao Gong and his four companions did nothing, they were still considered to be forming a clique.

Of course, it is not realistic to want to kill a cabinet minister simply by forming a faction. After all, this is the Ming Dynasty, not the Song Dynasty.

Yan Song simply tied the interests of Gao Gong and the other three together, and then attacked them by treating the improper behavior of one of the four as the behavior of the whole group.

Although Gao Gong was hot-tempered, he was always a cautious person and rarely found a breakthrough point, but Ge Shouli was not like that.

When Ge Shouli was the Minister of Rites in Nanjing, he rejected the requests of subsequent successors to the title.

One who asks for succession after the lineage has died out.

If the eldest son of a family dies without leaving any offspring, his younger brother or his younger brother's son can request to inherit the title or estate.

That is the so-called "subsequently".

Last year, the clan members of Ning Wangfu were confined within the high walls. Later, someone requested to release them and restore their titles, but Ge Shouli directly rejected the request.

perhaps.

Ge Shouli did nothing wrong in the affairs of Prince Ning's Mansion, but Ge Shouli forgot that the current emperor obtained the throne through succession.

Denying the request of Prince Ning's Mansion is tantamount to denying the legitimacy of the emperor's throne.

This is the emperor's Achilles' heel.

It is not far-fetched to define Ge Shouli as a traitor in this way.

So many years had passed since the Great Ceremony Debate, but Yan Song still remembered it vividly, and he used it to report Ge Shouli, and then to report Gao Gong, just to create more innocent souls in Zuo Shunmen.

If Yan Song did not make a move, it would be fine. But once he did, it was a killer move. Xu Jie could not help but feel a chill on his spine. He praised him against his will, "The elder is an old horse waiting in the stable. These 169 words are truly unmatched by anyone in the world.

I also have 169 words, but I still have two sentences to think of."

"Shaohu." Yan Song looked at Xu Jie standing beside him, calling out in a complicated tone, "You are waiting for me, but you are also worried about your student. With your talent and energy, you should have written 1,690 words in this hour, not to mention 169 words."

Xu Jie and Zhang Juzheng were master and apprentice.

In this society where master and apprentice are like father and son, Zhang Juzheng's refusal to merge inside and outside the Yuxi Palace and his behavior against the will of his mentor were tantamount to disobedience.

In the Ming Dynasty, anyone who disobeyed the parents was sent to the yamen, and their life and death depended entirely on their parents' wishes. If the parents allowed their children to live, they would be beaten with some boards and survive. If the parents wanted their children to die, they would be beaten to death in court.

In the officialdom, there are similar situations. If a person disobeys his teacher, the teacher will report him to the emperor, and the disciple will be looked down upon by all officials. Therefore, an unwritten rule has been formed that if a master and disciple fall out, the disciple must submit a petition to resign from his position.

However, for a disciple as proud as Zhang Juzheng, Xu Jie would find it difficult to take action even though the master and disciple were now strangers.

In the Qingci, only three crimes of Zhang Juzheng were written. However, as they had been master and disciple for many years, all the crimes were to the point.

1. Deceiving the world and stealing fame.

In recent years, Zhang Juzheng, under the banner of ancestral laws, has built a large number of defensive or offensive buildings in the northern border and southeast of the Ming Dynasty at the cost of manpower and money.

But this is completely against the teachings of our ancestors in which they say to give the people a rest. Doing things that violate the laws established by our ancestors is called deceiving the world and stealing fame.

2. Forming cliques for personal gain.

Whether it is civil officials in the court or military generals in the army, their appointments all follow certain conventions and methods of employing people.

The Ministry of War is in charge of the selection, appointment, military registration, military affairs, and military orders of military officers across the country, and is the headquarters of military administration.

Zhang Juzheng served as the Minister of War as well as the Minister of the Cabinet. However, when he was doing things, he completely ignored the Minister of War when he issued orders in the Ministry of War.

When hiring people, he was nepotism and appointed and dismissed military officers without going through the Minister of War, the Ministry of Personnel, the Censorate or other conventional procedures.

Many times, the general stationed at a border town was actually a newcomer in the army, such as Qi Jiguang, Li Chengliang, and Ling Yunyi.

Although these generals performed well on the battlefield, proving Zhang Juzheng's vision, they were ultimately not in line with court rules.

3. A harsh government is more ferocious than a tiger.

In order to defend against the Tatars in the north and the Japanese pirates in the south, Zhang Juzheng issued a letter from the Ministry of War to all the generals in the border towns, giving them a death order that they could die in battle but must not be defeated.

Even if one dies in battle and captures a city, he will still be considered meritorious; even if one is defeated in battle and defends the city, he will still be considered a fault.

Victory and defeat are common in the military. Such a letter of decree was extremely unreasonable and made all the generals in the world feel insecure.

These three charges were enough to get Zhang Juzheng dismissed from his post, but they were no match for Yan Song's vicious methods.

Xu Jie was silent.

Yan Song said earnestly: "Shaohu, this is a life-and-death struggle. Your kindness and mercy will hurt you.

Zhang Juzheng's current status is all due to your kindness, but Shaohu, you forgot that Zhang Juzheng is not the only disciple you have, and Zhang Juzheng has also forgotten that he has a senior brother, Zhao Zhenji, in the southeast.

Compared with Zhang Juzheng, I think Zhao Zhenji is more suitable to join the cabinet."

"Lord?" Xu Jie widened his eyes.

In his heart, it is not so much that he was reluctant to part with Zhang Juzheng, but rather that he was reluctant to part with the positive value that this disciple of the cabinet minister brought to him.

Yan Song made it clear that he gave up Zhang Juzheng and allowed Zhao Zhenji to enter the cabinet and become prime minister, which was a way to give him a favor.

Yan Song said no more, but everything was implied. Xu Jie returned to the desk and wrote the last two lines of Qingci.

Directly pointing out that Zhang Juzheng was selling official positions and titles!
The emperor asked Yan Shifan to investigate and gave 1,200 acres of official land to the old grandfather of the Zhang family and promoted Zhao Qian to the prefect of Jingzhou Prefecture.

It became the arrow shot at Zhang Juzheng's heart at this moment.

(End of this chapter)