Chapter 347 346 Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng

Lu Bing left suddenly, and many of the preparations were not handed over to Lu Yi. This made many people who had to secretly control Lu Bing feel lucky, and naturally did not want to interact with the Lu family again. Get involved.

Most of their clues are still sealed in Jin Yiwei's files. Generally speaking, no one will find out unless they deliberately look for them.

Although Lu Bing has fallen, those enemies will not be able to bully him in the short term, but the Lu family is such a big business, and even if the emperor orders Zhu Xixiao to be responsible for the safety of the Lu family, there will inevitably be times when it cannot be taken care of after a long time.

And there is another saying, that is, one emperor, one courtier. It may still be effective when Emperor Jiajing is still there, but once Emperor Jiajing is gone, it is uncertain whether Zhu Xixiao will still implement this order.

Lu Yi took over his father's position and became the commander of the Jinyi Guards. However, he knew more about the dirty things in the Jinyi Guards. It was really easy to punish people, and it was done in the form of enforcing family laws, so the outside world had no way of knowing.

Outside the capital, it may be very popular for the Jinyiwei to command the general affairs, but the situation is very different in the capital. Unless they get an imperial edict, here, where there are so many high-ranking officials, the Jinyiwei really dare not break the law and discipline, especially the former head of the Jinyiwei Lu. Huang Jin, the current boss of Binghe Dongchang, is a cautious person and has always restrained his subordinates.

For civil servants, as long as they do not disobey the emperor, they are not afraid of the Jinyiwei, and the Jinyiwei will not take people at will, because there is no driving certificate issued by the palace or the Sixth Section.

When Lu Bing was alive, he offended too many people. Even though he was good at dancing, he could not be perfect. For example, the current chief minister Yan Song, the Lu family and the Yan family only maintained superficial contact. In fact, because of the Yan family Over the years, Lu Bing has been dissatisfied with various crimes such as corruption, perverting the law, and selling out his official position.

Lu Bing, more often than not, acted as his little eagle dog, always paying attention to whether the big shots in the court did anything detrimental to the interests of the country.

Now Lu Yi will not miss even the slightest opportunity to build relationships with officials in the government. Moreover, Wei Guangde is someone Lu Bing has praised before, and he seems to be a trustworthy friend.

"Don't dare. If anything happens, Brother Lu will send someone to tell you. Guangde will do his best and go all out."

Naturally, Wei Guangde couldn't refuse Lu Yi's words face to face.

The Lu family has been in charge of Jin Yiwei for many years, and there are many enemies. Wei Guangde really doesn't dare to take this hot potato, but he cannot refuse this occasion, so he can only agree with a smile and do his best when the time comes.

After a few words of greeting, another person came to express condolences. Wei Guangde did not delay much, and then left. However, on the way out, he unexpectedly ran into Zhu Xixiao, who was coming from Zuo Dudu's Mansion.

The two of them had different paths in culture and martial arts. They had only met by chance a few times, but they were acquaintances. Wei Guangde stopped in front of the door and said a few words before leaving the Lu Mansion.

This time the Lu family expressed condolences and had a brief exchange with Lu Yi, but the other party did not leave a deep impression on Wei Guangde.

Perhaps it was the flowers that grew up in the greenhouse, but the feeling that Lu Yi gave to Wei Guangde was completely different from that of Lu Bing. The Lu family seemed to be sinking.

In the next few days, Wei Guangde rested at home and quietly waited for the imperial decree from the imperial court.

Having done so many things in the south in the past six months, Wei Guangde thought to himself that he should be promoted to a higher rank. He could expect to be promoted to the sixth rank, or even from the fifth rank.

I went out to have a drink with people from Prince Yu's Mansion. During this period, everyone was still worried about Emperor Jiajing's execution of Guo Xiyan, and seemed to sense a bad trend.

Even Gao Gong, there were rare silences during this dinner.

When the Guo Xiyan incident occurred, Wei Guangde was not in the capital, so naturally he did not know the details. He only knew some of the situation from reading the newspaper.

After this exchange, Wei Guangde realized that Guo Xiyan Shangshu had nothing to do with Prince Yu's Mansion.

"This thing is totally weird."

Wei Guangde put down his wine glass and said, "Logically speaking, even if Guo Xiyan is guilty, there is no need to execute him directly."

"If it violates His Majesty's taboo, what else is impossible?"

Yin Shizhen shook his head and said, "After Prince Zhuang Jing, establishing a crown prince has become a taboo in the palace. Guo Xiyan is so stubborn that he talks about establishing an emperor and establishing a heir apparent. He also says that the king is jealous. How can your majesty let him go if he doesn't kill him?"

Since the dragon's power was so easy to establish, so many people would not have died in history. "

"If you only advise and establish a crown prince, you may just be kicked out of the capital and never hired. It is indeed taboo to say that the king is jealous."

Chen Yiqin also echoed.

They had similar ideas at the beginning, but gave up in the end because they felt it was not safe and would easily offend the emperor. Now Guo Xiyan has used his own blood to prove that their original judgment was correct.

"I heard that last year during the Beijing inspection, he asked Mr. Yan Ge for help, but Mr. Ge didn't agree and had him dismissed from his official position. Maybe he wanted to cause a fight between us and Yan Song. He has a terrible intention. Your Majesty is right to kill him. ”

Yin Shizhen then said.

"Brother Suqing, what are you doing?"

At this time, Wei Guangde noticed that Gao Gong was sitting there with his head down and drinking, but did not answer the question. He felt strange, so he spoke.

Wei Guangde's words naturally attracted the attention of Chen Yiqin and Yin Shizhen to Gao Gong.

Gao Gong could not remain silent any longer. He raised his head and smiled at them. Then he turned to Wei Guangde and said, "I heard that your errand has been decided. Zuo Zhongyun of Zuo Chunfang, Zhan Shifu, is the sixth grade. Haha, you are so His promotion speed and his age are second to none.”

When Gao Gong opened his mouth to speak, he changed the topic and did not talk about Guo Xiyan. Perhaps Guo Xiyan had been executed and there was no need to talk about it in his opinion.

"congratulations."

Yin Shizhen said immediately, bowing his hands as he spoke.

"Any other supervisory errands?"

Although Chen Yiqin had a smile on his face, he continued to ask, looking even more anxious than Wei Guangde.

"No, age is there. The main thing is that I studied in the Hanlin Academy."

Gao Gong looked at Wei Guangde and said with a smile, "His Majesty didn't send you out, which means he still thinks highly of you."

To be honest, when he heard about this official position, Wei Guangde still felt a little regretful, because Zuo Zhongyun was a sixth-rank official, not the fifth-rank official he expected.

"Joy and rejoice together."

At this time, Wei Guangde naturally did not show any dissatisfaction. He hurriedly returned the courtesy to Yin Shizhen, and then bowed his hands to others.

"By the way, who is the Secretary of the Ministry of Finance? Has it been decided?"

Chen Yiqin continued to ask.

This time Ma Kun fell into the Nanjing Zhenwu Camp mutiny. There were rumors in the court about who would take over, but the decree was never issued, so Chen Yiqin asked Gao Gong. After all, he now has a high official position and has access to many people. Information they don’t know.

"Gao Yao, the left minister of the Ministry of Revenue, has the highest probability of being promoted. Mr. Yan Ge recommended Wu Peng to be transferred, and Ouyang Bi was promoted to the minister of the Ministry of Personnel. However, the adjustment of the six ministries is too large and involves three ministries at once. I don't think your majesty will agree."

Gao Gong said lightly, then shook his head and said: "The memorial should have been sent to Xiyuan. It's hard to say how it will be finalized. Let's wait."

Having said this, Gao Gong seemed to have remembered something, and said to Wei Guangde: "By the way, this time my uncle also moved to Youchunfang Youzhongyun to take charge of the Imperial College. I will invite him to the next banquet, everyone. You can move around more.”

The uncle mentioned by Gao Gongkou is naturally Zhang Juzheng. He entered the officialdom nine years earlier than Wei Guangde, but up to now he is only a seventh-rank editor of the Hanlin Academy, and he is the same rank as Wei Guangde in the Hanlin Academy.

But obviously, after the decree was issued, Zhang Juzheng, although still on the same level as Wei Guangde, had already taken the first step to enter the court.

Although the Imperial College was not a powerful government office, it was noble after all, and from then on, his job was no longer mainly in the Hanlin Academy, but in the Imperial College.

Wei Guangde secretly thought to himself, no wonder he went to the Imperial College last year. At that time, he only held the official position of eunuch, and was not in charge.

It's different now, the Imperial College Secretary Ye, this special thing is to create a fast lane for him to upgrade.

In the Imperial College, there is one person serving as a wine minister, starting from the fourth rank, and two people serving as businessmen, starting from the fourth rank.

Zhang Juzheng worked as a sixth-rank official in the Imperial College, so it was natural for him to be promoted later. He could get up as long as he had the chance. Xu Cifu was really clever.

Nowadays, the imperial wine ceremony in the Imperial College is held in high esteem, and Zhang Juzheng is now his legitimate deputy.

Thinking further, Xu Jie himself supported King Yu's ascension to the throne. He sent his favorite disciples to work under Gao Gong. Due to the relationship between King Yu and Gao Gong, as long as Zhang Juzheng was appreciated by Gao Gong.

"hiss"

This old fox is planning to seize the fruits of victory first.

When he was in the Hanlin Academy, Wei Guangde and Zhang Juzheng had many contacts. After all, they were both errands in the same courtyard, and they never met each other when they looked up.

However, after the exchange, Wei Guangde found that this man was very mature and prudent, but he did not realize how talented and far-sighted he was.

It seems that apart from being dissatisfied with the local exploitation of the people and wanting to make some changes, Wei Guangde did not see how much better Zhang Juzheng was than him.

Perhaps, this is the so-called literati's mutual disdain.

Anyway, Wei Guangde felt that many of the things that later generations saw about praising Zhang Juzheng, he did not see what kind of reformer he was now. Zhang Juzheng might have thought of it at this moment, but maybe he didn't even have a clue.

On the carriage home after the banquet, Wei Guangde began to analyze Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng.

Gao Gong didn't have much of an impression, and he probably only took office for a short period of time. Wei Guangde had roughly figured out his three major goals from his previous exchanges with Wei Guangde, which was to fight corruption and promote integrity.

In Gao Gong's view, Taizu's system was actually quite good, but people have changed now.

As long as those corrupt people are deposed and a peaceful world is restored, everything will be restored, the seas, rivers will be clear, and peace and happiness will no longer be a dream.

As for Zhang Juzheng, Wei Guangde seems to think that this man is really similar to himself in many aspects. He is relatively content to enjoy himself, but he is also very angry. This can be seen from the fact that he heard Zhang Juzheng complain many times about the local government's increase in taxes.

Increased taxes are actually exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes. This amount of money is several times that of taxes and levies, and it is also the main source of heavy burdens on the people at the bottom.

Wei Guangde certainly doesn't think that adding gifts is considered corruption.

That money was actually similar to the local tax of later generations. The money left for local government use only accounted for a considerable proportion of the tax rate.

At this time, the central government did not allocate office funds to local governments, and local government offices had to pay for their own expenses.

How this funding comes from is naturally to increase taxes on the basis of regular taxes.

If you meet an honest official, you will naturally know how to save money and reduce the burden on the people, so the tax will be less. If you meet an official who is not so honest, the local area will be in trouble.

In a wealthy place, even if there are more miscellaneous taxes, it can be borne, but in a poor place, it can really force people to go bankrupt and finally raise the flag of rebellion.

The so-called "officials force the people to rebel" and "poor mountains and bad waters produce unruly people" are actually like this.

It seems that the two people's ideas seem to be a bit similar.

Wei Guangde's body swayed as the carriage moved forward, looking very much like the way he shook his head when he was reading.

However, Wei Guangde still felt that the two people's ideas at this time were just similar in appearance, but in fact they were essentially different.

Gao Gong wanted to remove corrupt officials, and Zhang Juzheng wanted to solve the problem of excessive taxes. It seems that corrupt officials and excessive taxes can be equated, but in fact the two are still essentially different.

"Different paths to the same destination" or "going in opposite directions"?

Wei Guangde couldn't be sure at this moment, so he could only continue to observe. Anyway, there was plenty of time.

Zhang Juzheng's official position was similar to his own, only the sixth rank, and he was very small in the ranks of Beijing officials. It would take Wei Guangde more than ten years to let him rise to the top and become the pillar of the Ming Dynasty.

Anyway, when they get together in the future, Gao Gong will invite Zhang Juzheng. Then he will observe how powerful this Ming Dynasty reformer who was praised and criticized by later generations was, and what his political philosophy was.

Wei Guangde's impression of people of this era, in addition to the emperor and Yu Longqi Hu, was Zhang Juzheng.

It is said that this old man almost extended the life of the Ming Dynasty for three hundred years, if he hadn't been bad at educating students and had taught them wrong.

Forget it, those are assumptions of later generations, and it's meaningless to think too much.

Within two days, Wei Guangde really received the imperial edict of his promotion. Just as Gao Gong said, his rank was still promoted, and he had to continue to study in the Hanlin Academy.

Wei Guangde now has a lot of titles, including Zuo Chunfang Zuo Zhongyun of Zhanshifu, editor of Hanlin Academy, and censor of Duchayuan. Maybe he can wait a few more years and change his position from editor of Hanlin Academy to attendant scholar before he can have the chance to leave here.

The imperial edict issued on the same day also promoted Zhang Juzheng, who was mentioned by Gao Gong, to You Chunfang You Zhongyun, in charge of the Imperial College. Now he has become the second most important person in the Imperial College and has completely stepped out of the small pond of Hanlin Academy.

Others who were promoted include Wang Zhi, Langzhong of the Ministry of Personnel, to Shaoqing of Taichang Temple, and Superintendent of Siyi Hall; Zhang Yuanchong, the Left Governor of Jiangxi, was promoted to Right Deputy Censor of Duchayuan, and Governor of Jiangxi.