I was compiling the daily records during the Wanli reign

Chapter 306 The Young Wanli Emperor: Reading the Veritable Records of Emperor Shizong, Cultivating the Art of Imperial Reign, and Learning the Way to Control Ministers

July 12th, early morning.

North of Daming Gate, in front of the Ministry of Revenue.

More than 230 officials from the Ministry of Revenue, led by Liu Sijie, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, walked together toward the Office of Transmission, carrying memorials in their hands.

The simultaneous dispatch of all officials to submit memorials was an unprecedented event.

Before this.

Some officials in the Ministry of Revenue who believed they would be dismissed have submitted documents to Yin Zhengmao requesting their dismissal.

This is the principle of voluntariness advocated by Shen Nian.

If officials give the court enough face, the court will also give officials enough face.

Upon hearing this news, officials from other government offices in the capital concluded that these officials in the Ministry of Revenue supported the policy of eliminating redundant officials and positions throughout the country.

"Hmph! These officials in the Ministry of Revenue really listen to Grand Secretary Yin and Grand Secretary Shen, so obedient that they even give up their careers. Aren't they afraid that all the dismissed officials in the country will criticize them behind their backs?"

"These officials in the Ministry of Revenue are so sensible; it seems they're vying for the top position among the Six Ministries. They've made great contributions in recent years, and now they're taking the initiative to support this policy. It seems that eliminating redundant officials and positions across the country is an inevitable trend!"

"Alas, the court is different now than it used to be! I predict that being an official will become increasingly difficult, and when Grand Secretary Shen becomes the chief minister, he will probably squeeze all the officials in the country to the extreme!"

"You feel exploited? If you feel exploited, then resign and retire! I think this move is just to weed out some of the rotten apples and rotten apples in officialdom, and there's nothing wrong with it!"

……

Officials from various government departments were discussing it, and their opinions differed.

Among those clamoring for opposition are not only officials who are likely to be dismissed, but also some officials who are unlikely to be dismissed.

The latter objected.

They became the worst because officials with worse performance records than them left the government.

No one wants to be at the bottom of the officialdom.

At this moment, the heads of various government offices couldn't help but curl their lip in disapproval after learning that the Ministry of Revenue had submitted a memorial supporting the reduction of redundant officials and positions throughout the country.

They read the speech given by Yin Zhengmao, Shen Nian, and Liu Sijie in front of the Taicang Treasury several times that day.

The reason the three were able to persuade the Ministry of Revenue officials was...

On the one hand, there were two Grand Secretaries in charge, and on the other hand, the officials in the Ministry of Revenue were generally obedient and had a high level of awareness.

But officials in other government departments are different.

For some officials, dismissing or demoting officials is tantamount to killing their entire family.

However, news has already been released by the cabinet.

If the heads of various government offices oppose the policy of reducing redundant officials and positions, they can go to the cabinet to communicate with Zhang Juzheng. If they support the policy, they need to persuade all the officials in charge of the government office.

This was undoubtedly a daunting task for some government officials.

……

Near noon.

Officials from other government departments successively submitted memorials, some supporting the reduction of redundant officials and positions, and others opposing it.

However, the scale is not very large.

Many officials are waiting to see how the young Wanli Emperor will characterize the matter during his daily court session tomorrow.

If the young Wanli Emperor expresses his support, then the implementation of this policy will be a foregone conclusion; if the young Wanli Emperor shows any hesitation, then a large number of opposing officials will submit memorials to seek a change of fortune.

……

On the morning of July 13th, at the Huangji Gate, the regular court assembly was held.

The official on duty at the Office of Transmission read aloud the recent memorials to the throne.

To the surprise of all the officials, not a single memorial addressed the issue of reducing redundant officials and positions throughout the country.

Afterwards, the five cabinet ministers spoke.

They were all talking about the policy of "first the people, then the officials, and finally the bureaucrats" and the situation of maritime trade.

If the Commissioner of the Court of Judicial Review does not read the memorials on abolishing redundant officials and positions throughout the country, then it must be the intention of the young Wanli Emperor.

The five Grand Secretaries also refrained from discussing the matter, understanding that the young Wanli Emperor intended to treat it as a matter of "recruiting officials," rather than having the emperor issue an order for its enforcement.

Enforcing the law can easily make a ruler appear heartless.

However, many officials were unsure of Wanli's true intentions, whether he supported or opposed the reduction of redundant officials and positions.

Because the young Wanli Emperor and the five Grand Secretaries all avoided the matter, the hesitant and conflicted officials did not know which side to take, so they all chose not to mention it.

Soon, the morning court session ended, and there was no further progress on the matter.

……

Near noon.

While many officials were hesitating between supporting and opposing it.

An explosive piece of news has been released from inside the palace.

Feng Bao advised the young Wanli Emperor and the two empress dowagers that there was also a serious problem of redundant officials and positions in the inner court, and suggested that the inner court and the outer court should implement policies to reduce redundant officials and positions at the same time.

Feng Bao's willingness to make such a public suggestion clearly represents the intentions of the young Wanli Emperor.

At this moment.

Some astute officials understood what the young Wanli Emperor meant.

It turns out that the young Wanli Emperor's silence was not because he opposed the policy, nor because he wanted to see the opinions of his ministers before making a decision; he simply did not want to bear the reputation of being a "heartless emperor."

Emperor Wanli tacitly approved of this policy.

However, he hoped that the officials in the capital would take the initiative to submit memorials supporting this policy, and that some officials who believed they would be dismissed would petition their superiors for dismissal.

There are still many clever officials in the capital.

In the afternoon, the area in front of the Office of Transmission was as bustling as the area under the Zhengyang Gate.

Officials from many government departments followed the example of the Ministry of Revenue, adhering to the principle of "not leaving a single one behind," and formed teams to submit memorials supporting the policy of eliminating redundant officials and positions throughout the country.

In fact, each government office only needs to send one clerk to submit the memorial.

But if officials do not make a serious statement, they are going against the tide.

There were clearly quite a few people who supported this against their will, but in this situation, opposing it was tantamount to cutting off one's own career.

They could offend the five Grand Secretaries for the sake of protecting the young Wanli Emperor, or they could offend the young Wanli Emperor for the sake of protecting the five Grand Secretaries, but no one dared to go against the common will of the young Wanli Emperor and the five Grand Secretaries at the same time.

……

July 15th.

The five cabinet ministers submitted another memorial, requesting the implementation of a policy to eliminate redundant officials and positions throughout the country.

The specific plan is to implement it first in the two capitals and the inner court this year, and complete it by the end of the year.

In addition, the chief officials of the provincial administration commissions and censors of the thirteen provinces, as well as the generals of the Ministry of War and various garrison commanders, were ordered to examine the performance evaluations of local civil and military officials, with the plan to complete the task of eliminating redundant officials and positions by the end of next year.

Emperor Wanli personally approved the policy, first stating that it troubled him greatly and kept him up at night. After agreeing to it, he instructed the Ministry of Personnel to handle the matter carefully based on performance evaluations, only eliminating redundant officials and positions, and not failing to reward any virtuous ministers and generals. He also instructed them to make proper arrangements for the dismissed officials.

As soon as this reply comes out.

This means that the policy of reducing redundant officials and positions in the capital and the inner court is about to be implemented.

The Ministry of Personnel quickly became the busiest government office in the entire capital.

They needed to formulate dismissal criteria based on the performance evaluations of officials in the capital, draft a list of dismissals, and then submit it to the heads of various ministries. Finally, the heads of each ministry would make the final decision and determine the number of officials to be dismissed.

At this time, the Censorate and the Six Ministries were in the worst mood.

The Censors of the Censorate in Beijing and the officials of the Six Ministries were to be responsible for supervising the dismissal of officials in various government offices in Beijing, in order to prevent any government office from practicing nepotism and reducing the number of officials without authorization.

Afterwards, they also had to reduce the number of officials, and this was personally supervised by the young Wanli Emperor.

An official once submitted a memorial stating that the more officials there were in the censorate, the better the discipline in the capital's officialdom would be, and that these officials should not be dismissed.

Then, before the young Wanli Emperor and the cabinet could react.

Officials from other government departments submitted memorials refuting this reasoning, arguing that the censors were currently overly strict in their oversight, that officials in the capital were evaluating performance and would submit memorials on even the smallest matters, and that the excessive welcoming and sending off of officials in local government was all caused by censors. They argued that the censors were the ones who should be dismissed the most.

Because there were too many people refuting the memorial and providing too many examples, the official in charge of the imperial examinations had no choice but to withdraw the memorial and dared not raise any further objections.

Meanwhile, the inner court also became busy.

In the twenty-four departments of the inner court, Feng Bao was practically the sole authority, but he still had to report to the young Wanli Emperor and the two empress dowagers.

He will most likely show favoritism and keep more of his own confidants, but he will also definitely dismiss many redundant officials and positions, restoring the number of officials in the inner court to a normal level.

Shen Nian didn't care about his favoritism.

Because Feng Bao still harbored no ill intentions towards the young Wanli Emperor. For an official in the inner court, loyalty is of paramount importance, and a stable inner court is a great benefit to the previous dynasty.

……

In the afternoon, the Wenhua Hall was quite cool.

The young Wanli Emperor sat on a wooden couch, leisurely eating chilled grapes.

A book was placed to the side, titled: Annals of King Sejong.

Recently, the young Wanli Emperor has been studying the Jiajing Emperor's methods of governing his ministers, and he is becoming more and more excited as he learns.

In his eyes, his grandfather, the Jiajing Emperor, was omnipotent and the best model for him to learn the art of imperial rule.

During the Great Rites Controversy, the old officials were suppressed and new officials were cultivated, thus quickly establishing absolute imperial authority.

After that, he would sometimes reprimand and sometimes encourage any of his ministers, keeping them under the emperor's authority and ensuring they dared not be negligent or harbor any disloyal thoughts.

In the later stages, he cultivated two opposing camps: the Yan faction and Xu Jie (of the Qingliu faction), allowing officials to check and balance each other, while he, in his high position in the imperial court, only acted as an arbitrator.

Even if he doesn't attend court for many years, he can easily control the world and monopolize the government.

When Emperor Wanli proposed the "policy of reducing redundant officials and positions throughout the country," he put the five Grand Secretaries at the forefront. When he saw that the officials in the capital did not blindly obey the five Grand Secretaries and only realized his intentions after the inner court announced the reduction of redundant officials and positions, he was very excited.

After this policy is implemented, many local officials will inevitably criticize and insult the five cabinet ministers.

This is the effect he wants.

No matter how outstanding the five Grand Secretaries are, they cannot make all the officials in the country listen to them; no matter what unexpected things happen in the court, it can only be blamed on the ministers for doing something wrong.
There's no way an emperor could be wrong, especially one who has assumed personal rule.

He could not admit his mistakes, for doing so would damage the emperor's authority. He had to remain aloof and make the world operate according to his will at all times.

The young Wanli Emperor actually disliked Shen Nian's frequent pronouncements that "there should be no factional strife in the court, the emperor's will must follow the will of the people, and the imperial family should be frugal so that officials can be frugal as well."

He felt that Shen Nian only considered issues from the perspective of a subject, and always ignored the interests of the royal family, and the interests of him as the emperor.

However, Shen Nian remains the official whom the young Wanli Emperor trusts most and whom he most wants to promote.

Because of Shen Nian's idea of ​​"making sure everyone in the world has enough to eat," the young Wanli Emperor felt that he had the potential to become a wise and virtuous ruler, and that Shen Nian was capable of assisting him in governing the Ming Dynasty well.

but.

The young Wanli Emperor would never allow Shen Nian to grow into a powerful prime minister like Zhang Juzheng, who held absolute power over the country.

After assuming personal rule, he was the only one who could control the entire country and command a hundred responses at a moment's notice.

……

July 20th.

Wang Guoguang, the Minister of Personnel, submitted a memorial proposing that the policy of eliminating redundant officials and positions throughout the country be implemented in Nanjing as soon as possible, and that the scale and intensity of the reforms should be greater than those in the capital.

To prevent the dismissal of Nanjing officials from being all talk and no action, or from individual officials abusing their power and opponents causing trouble, he also suggested that the court send a cabinet minister to supervise and oversee the process.

Nanjing was the secondary capital of the Ming Dynasty.

The government offices and official positions were almost identical to those in the capital, but many officials were very idle, and some were practically in a semi-retired state.

In the early years of the Jiajing reign, there were more than two hundred officials in Nanjing.

The number of officials who remained in Nanjing when Emperor Yongle (Zhu Di) moved the capital was almost unchanged.

However, the number has now risen to over 430 (according to data from the Wanli Huidian).

The problem of redundant officials and positions in Nanjing is extremely serious and it is long overdue for a cleanup.

Subsequently, Zhang Juzheng approved Wang Guoguang's proposal in his draft, and believed that "the positions in Nanjing are simple and not necessary, and there is no need to fill all the vacancies in Nanjing in the future, unless they are urgent."

This means that there are too many official positions in Nanjing, but too few actual duties. There is no need to fill all the vacancies; some less important positions can be left vacant.

In addition, Zhang Juzheng recommended that cabinet minister Yin Zhengmao go to Nanjing to supervise and oversee the work.

He recommended Yin Zhengmao.

One reason is that Yin Zhengmao's temperament is most suitable for this task.

On the other hand, Yin Zhengmao will soon retire and is not afraid of offending people, while Wang Xijue, Shen Shixing, and Shen Nian will serve as cabinet ministers for a long time and are not suitable to do something that would offend too many officials.

However, after the ticket was intended to be delivered to the young Wanli Emperor, he insisted that Shen Nian go to Nanjing to supervise and oversee the process.

The reason is that: Yin Ge is old and not suitable for travel, while Shen Qing is familiar with Nanjing and has no students or old friends to hold him back, making him the best person to carry out this task.

Upon seeing this reply, Zhang Juzheng could naturally guess what the young Wanli Emperor was thinking.

He wanted Shen Nian to offend more officials, and then to experience more setbacks in his position as Grand Secretary, so that he could eventually support Shen Nian and demonstrate imperial power.

This is something that the Jiajing Emperor had already done before.

But the current Wanli Emperor is no longer the child who could be scolded at will. His reasons are justified. Zhang Juzheng cannot claim that he deliberately made Shen Nian make enemies in the officialdom.

In the cabinet duty room.

Zhang Juzheng and Shen Nian sat facing each other at a tea table.

Shen Nian poured Zhang Juzheng a cup of cool tea and said, "Your Majesty has your own ideas. Since ancient times, no emperor has been able to tolerate a minister who can command all officials. My mentor, you also have countless enemies in the officialdom. It doesn't matter, as long as things can be accomplished!"

Shen Nian appeared very open-minded.

He understood the young Wanli Emperor, knowing that he was becoming more and more like the former Jiajing Emperor: loving money and power, valuing his own and the imperial family's interests far more than those of the people, and enjoying manipulating the emperor's mind.

This might be something ingrained in one's bones.

It is possible that the emperors of the Zhu family all held this view.

No matter how many lessons or principles a minister teaches, it is difficult to change such a mindset.

After all, from an emperor's perspective, he also needed a sense of security.

This is something a cabinet minister must consider; once he undermines the emperor's sense of security, misfortune is not far off.

Zhang Juzheng's current power is entirely due to the fact that the young Wanli Emperor was too young to rule personally.

Zhang Juzheng nodded helplessly.

The current Wanli Emperor is much better than the Longqing Emperor, who became complacent after ascending the throne.

He only hoped that after experiencing some things and assuming power, the young Wanli Emperor would gradually understand what the major national affairs were, how a wise emperor should manage the officials in the court, and how to govern the country properly.

(End of this chapter)