Chapter 355 Zhou Huaian and Zhao Huaian This Matter Is Very Complicated. The Emperor Is Afraid that He Will Die Soon.

Chapter 355 Zhou Huaian Zhao Huaian... This matter is very complicated... The emperor is afraid that he is about to die...

"Thank you for your help, brother! You, you are my brother!"

In a hidden house in the capital, Xu Xin put He Hu down to heal his wounds. When He Hu stood up to thank him, he showed half of his face for him to recognize. It was the face he used when he was in Longmen Inn in the past.

He Hu knew this face, so it was easier to gain trust and get words from him.

"Brother He, you have done a lot of big things in these years..."

Xu Xin and He Hu exchanged some polite words. Under his persuasion, He Hu told Xu Xin about Zhou Huaian's current whereabouts and some of their affairs.

Zhou Huaian now changed his name to Zhao Huaian, which was not unexpected by Xu Xin.

And the adult he was with now was indeed a big man, much higher in status than the deceased Minister of War Yang Yuxuan. He was the current Minister of Personnel Wang Shu, the real big man in the court at this time.

The Minister of Personnel, the highest-ranking official in the Ministry of Personnel among the six ministries, is elegantly called the Grand Chancellor. This position can be traced back to the Cao Wei Dynasty, when the Minister of Personnel of the Han Dynasty was changed to the Minister of Personnel, who managed the selection, assessment and appointment of officials.

The Sui Dynasty established the Six Ministries, and the Minister of Personnel became the head of the Six Ministries. Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty once changed it to the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, and Wu Zetian once changed it to the Minister of the Ministry of Heaven, which remained a regular position until later generations. After the abolition of the prime minister in the Ming Dynasty, the Minister of Personnel became the nominal head of all officials.

The Ministry of Personnel is responsible for the promotion and examination of officials, and his authority is very heavy, and his chief, the Minister of Personnel, is called the Heavenly Official.

Especially in the Chenghua Dynasty, the three cabinet elders of the current cabinet are all obedient paper puppets, and even Wan An is still entangled with Concubine Wan. In this case, the upright Minister of Personnel naturally became the leader among the civil servants.

Wang Shu is a very famous person, and he is called the Three Gentlemen together with Ma Wensheng and Liu Daxia.

In the early years of the Chenghua Dynasty, the emperor had worked hard to govern the country, but later, as he got older, the contradictions with the outer court deepened, and he began to resist and restrict civil officials. Li Xian, who ruled the world, died in office, and Shang Lu, the god of the imperial examination, took the initiative to retire.

During that period, the court became "three cabinet ministers made of paper and six ministers made of clay".

At that time, there was a ballad: There is only one Wang Shu in the two capitals and twelve ministries. It is said that this man is upright and loyal, and he carries the expectations of the world.

As the saying goes: Wang Duanyi is in the Quan (Ministry of Personnel), he is like a unicorn and a phoenix, and the world knows his auspiciousness by looking at it!

In the 20th year of Chenghua, Li Yu, the Minister of Personnel, was slandered and resigned. Wang Shu took over the position of the Minister of Personnel, and he did do some practical things.

But later, it seemed to touch the bottom line of the emperor. He took the lead in writing a letter to target the Chuanfeng officials.

Chuanfeng officials, this is one of the characteristics of the Chenghua Dynasty. There is no need for imperial examinations. As long as they pass the emperor's assessment, they can become officials. In the seventh year of Tianshun, there was a similar exception, but it was carried forward during the Chenghua Dynasty.

This kind of official is considered a special talent. As long as they are granted the title of "Zhonggong Tezhi", they are special officials who specialize in helping the court do something. The Chuanfeng official is under the control of the emperor himself, not the Ministry of Personnel, and is an official who wanders outside the normal system.

This kind of Chuanfeng official is naturally looked down upon by officials who come from the official examination system, and they denounce the damage to the official administration at this time.

Many civil officials say that Chuanfeng officials harm the court and are flatterers who are created to satisfy the wishes of the emperor or a concubine or eunuch in the harem.

However, this statement has some truth, but it is not comprehensive.

The purpose of Chenghua Emperor Zhu Jianshen setting up Chuanfeng officials is indeed to satisfy his selfish desires, but this is also a means for him to target the civil service group in the outer court, and it is his way to divide the power of the original civil officials.

After a hundred years of development, the Ming Dynasty established a system for selecting civil officials. Most of the appointments and dismissals of officials were proposed by the cabinet and the Ministry of Personnel, or the ministers recommended candidates to the emperor, and then the emperor approved them.

The cabinet system was originally to serve the emperor, but after the Battle of Tumu, the power of civil officials increased greatly, and this system also had some problems.

If the emperor is strong, this system is fine. However, as long as the emperor becomes weak, he will become a stamping machine and can only agree to the memorials submitted by the cabinet. The emperor's power is not as great as the cabinet.

Zhu Jianshen wanted to strengthen the imperial power at that time and make a fuss about the selection and promotion of officials, but the imperial examination was a long-term policy for selecting officials and could not be moved lightly. In the end, he chose to personally appoint some officials to the court.

In this process, the Ministry of Personnel was excluded and became a government office that could only obey the appointment. Zhu Jianshen achieved the suppression of the cabinet and increased the imperial power, but also opened a not-so-good opening.

Although the words of the civil officials cannot be fully believed, some of them are really reasonable, such as the fact that the Chuanfengguan is to satisfy the private desires of some concubines and eunuchs and to arrange their own affairs. This is indeed the case.

They are all from the orthodox imperial examination system, and they are all officials who passed the imperial examination system. Many people have gone through more than ten years of hard study, or even decades, before they passed the imperial examination and became officials of the Ming Dynasty. Naturally, they are not the same kind of people as the Chuanfengguan.

However, the deeper meaning of their suppression of the Chuanfengguan is that the Chuanfengguan is not from the same faction as them, but is a legitimate "eunuch party".

Xu Xin is not clear about these things in the court, but he has been in the capital for many years, and later he became the prince's tutor, which is also an official, so he is also clear about these situations.

Although only some words were extracted from He Hu, it was easy to get more information and discover many unknown situations by inferring the clues he had.

"The civil officials and the emperor have started fighting again!"

Xu Xin unraveled some recent information and pieced together a relatively complete situation.

The court is afraid that there will be a big storm recently, the capital will definitely be turbulent, and a group of senior officials will definitely fall.

This matter is very complicated, but it is also an opportunity. If it is handled well, the power of his "Wang Party" can be strengthened, such as Wang Hua, who has always been a clean stream in the Hanlin Academy, or Xie Qian, who is a member of the Jiangxi Party, may be able to move.

Xu Xin's premonition was correct. In the 22nd year of Chenghua, a big storm was set off in the capital.

One day, led by the Minister of Personnel Wang Shu, dozens of officials, big and small, submitted a memorial to impeach the governor of the East Factory for cruelty and killing innocent people... he should be executed.

However, the final result was that the emperor was furious and scolded a group of officials in the court, without knowing the truth and making random accusations.

The final result of this incident was that a group of officials headed by Wang Shu were forced to retire, and it seemed that the "eunuch party" had won a great victory.

But Xu Xin analyzed the situation and found something unusual.

The emperor repeatedly showed his edge, which was very abnormal. Combined with some news in the palace.

Xu Xin was basically sure that the emperor's health was not very good. Emperor Chenghua Zhu Jianshen, the leader of the Ming Dynasty, was probably dying.