Chapter 615 Chapter 614 The Cabinet and the Censors Fight

"You go to the Ministry of Personnel. In the next two days, you can help me think about what positions Wang Ning, Yin Leshun, Liu Fenyong and others should take. After all, they all came from the palace."

The people mentioned by Prince Yu all came to Prince Yu's palace in the early days. In recent years, many of them are only the second in command in the government office and have little real power.

However, since they made the choice at the beginning, and as long as Prince Yu's palace requires them, they will do their best to do it, so Prince Yu will treat them as his confidants.

As for Wei Guangde, Emperor Longqing asked him to go to the Ministry of Personnel and asked him to try to place these people. It seems that he also meant to transfer the relationship of these officials from Li Fang to him.

Is this to expand my manpower in the court?

Wei Guangde was suspicious, but he didn't ask, instead he bowed his head and said, "I obey your order."

Wei Guangde thought the conversation was almost over at this point, should he say goodbye and leave, but before he opened his mouth, Emperor Longqing said again, "Think about it again, is it necessary to appoint the crown prince now?"

"Crown prince? Your Majesty, is it Shangshu Gao who requested to appoint the crown prince directly? Shouldn't it be the ceremony of giving the prince a name? I remember that although the late emperor gave the prince a name, he did not instruct the Ministry of Rites to register it in the Jade Book through the Ministry of Clan Affairs."

Wei Guangde frowned and asked.

Emperor Jiajing did not allow Zhu Yijun's name to be included in the Jade Book, that was intentional. He was worried that if he was included in the Jade Book, he would be a member of the royal family. When he saw him on the city gate tower, would he let him follow in his brother's footsteps?

It's better to just give the name without issuing the Jade Book, so that he can't be considered as officially entering the royal family.

"Yes, he said that the enthronement of the crown prince and the naming of the prince can be done at the same time."

Emperor Longqing explained, "I am a little unsure."

Now he only has one son, Zhu Yijun. If nothing unexpected happens, that is, if Princess Chen has no children, then the Ming Dynasty will fall into his hands in the future.

If there is a legitimate heir, the legitimate heir will be enthroned; if there is no legitimate heir, the eldest son will be enthroned. This is the rule for determining the crown prince in the Ming Dynasty. He is not as good as King Jing in all aspects, but he still has the support of many people, which is why.

As the actual beneficiary, he certainly cannot break this rule.

In addition, he also likes Zhu Yijun very much, otherwise he would not have arranged a master so early.

"Your Majesty, the queen has not been enthroned yet. It is really not appropriate to enthronize the crown prince at this time."

Wei Guangde answered after only a little thought.

Although Princess Chen has no children, she is the successor of Zhang, chosen by Emperor Jiajing. In any case, the queen must be her.

If the crown prince is hastily enthroned now, it will be troublesome if Princess Chen has a son in the future. This is why Wei Guangde gave this suggestion.

Emperor Longqing nodded, "I have thought it through. I just felt something was wrong at first, but I understood it as soon as you mentioned the queen."

"If you have nothing to do during this period, you will go to the Proofreading Office and hurry up to copy the ceremony. This is what my father asked me to do that day. I must do it well."

Emperor Longqing then ordered again.

"I obey your order."

Copying books has been his job for many years, and he is very skilled. It's just that he reads too much and sometimes feels dizzy.

"The Ministry of Rites, the Hanlin Academy, and the Imperial College have sent all the staff they can. The burden there is heavy, so I will leave it to you."

Before Wei Guangde said goodbye, Emperor Longqing left the throne and walked in front of him to instruct him.

As a son, Emperor Longqing naturally had to do what his father told him to do.

He was relieved to leave it to Wei Guangde.

After leaving the Forbidden City, Wei Guangde went directly to the Proofreading Office. He hadn't been there for a while.

Because Wei Guangde has been in the palace, Lu Bu dared not to call him in, so when Wei Guangde opened the call book, the front was blank.

But it doesn't matter, he just came out of the palace, and he just noted the time he was on duty and the reason at the back.

"Who is in charge of the Proofreading Office now, is it Zhang Shaoqing?"

Wei Guangde was naturally asking Zhang Juzheng. He hadn't been here for a while, and Zhang Juzheng was in the Taichang Temple, so he didn't know if he was in charge of the things here.

"It's Zhang who is in charge. He comes to make arrangements every day at Mao time, and then he hurried to the Taichang Temple to do his job."

The clerk in the office hurriedly answered.

"Yes, there are a lot of things in the court recently."

Wei Guangde sighed.

"It's the same for Lord Wei. He and Lord Zhang are both busy. They hurried back to the office when they have free time, which makes me admire him very much."

The clerk smiled and flattered.

In response, Wei Guangde just smiled. These clerks will have fewer opportunities to deal with him in the future, and their future is just like that, so there is really no need to make close friends with them.

Walking into his own courtyard, Lu Bu was still sitting in the courtyard in a daze. He was a little confused for a while because of the changes during this period.

No one from above contacted him for some days, so he consciously did his job well.

But Wei Guangde had been accompanying the new emperor in the palace, and he didn't know if he would come back here.

If he didn't come back, he didn't know if he would still think of him and transfer him to follow him.

Although he was a spy of the Jinyiwei, he knew that he could only eat and drink well if he followed a good leader. If he left Wei Guangde, he would be unwilling, after all, he was a person who received three salaries now.

The money of the Jinyi lieutenant, the silver of the clerk, and the silver given by the Wei Mansion were enough for him to live a comfortable life in the capital.

If he couldn't do business with Wei Guangde, he didn't know when he would be arranged to go out again, and he could only get the silver of the lieutenant.

While he was thinking about it, Wei Guangde appeared at the gate of the courtyard.

Lu Bu rubbed his eyes and hurriedly stood up to greet him, "Master, you are back."

"Well, it's not bad. I'm not lazy."

Looking at the clean yard, Wei Guangde smiled and then ordered: "Send over all the manuscripts that have accumulated these days. I will see how many there are first."

"Manuscript?"

Lu Bu was stunned. He didn't expect that even after King Yu ascended the throne and became emperor, Mr. Wei Guangde and Wei were actually sent back to take care of copying books.

"Sir, Mr. Zhang did not distribute the previous manuscripts to us, but gave them to other departments for recording."

Lu Bu explained hurriedly.

"Master Zhang has good intentions. Otherwise, this room would be filled with manuscripts, haha."

Wei Guangde understood that Zhang Juzheng was not sure about his next stop, so he assigned the manuscript to other rooms for processing, which saved him a lot of trouble.

"When they are distributed tomorrow, let them follow the previous rules and distribute the manuscripts equally to all parties."

Wei Guangde ordered Lu to preach.

It's okay if you have nothing to do today. It's good to take a half-day break, just in time to understand the current situation in the school admissions office.

"I heard that there have been many more writers and scholars. Are there any branch officers in each branch? Will the Hanlin Academy send more people here?"

Wei Guangde asked.

"Yes, there are hundreds of people added. Many of them are graduate students of the Imperial College. They are copying at the Imperial College. There are also many branch officers, including editors Sun Ding, Hu Jieyin, Jiang Jin and so on."

After all, Lu Bu had stayed in the Hanlin Academy for a long time, and he was quick to mention people's names.

"Well, that's good."

Wei Guangde nodded. It was better to have someone else. Otherwise, it would be an impossible task to complete the task of copying the ceremony in three months.

"Sir, please sit down first and I'll boil water for you to make tea."

Wei Guangde had already entered the room and sat down. Lu Bu said hurriedly and ran out to do his work.

After Lu Bu went out, Wei Guangde began to think about what Emperor Longqing had told him and how to arrange those people.

We didn't get real power before, and we definitely can't do it now. We have to give them errands.

Scooping some water into the inkstone, Wei Guangde began to grind the ink himself.

When Lu Bu brought tea in, Wei Guangde had already polished the ink. After Lu Bu went out, he spread out a piece of paper and recalled the information of those people and their positions.

You must be promoted, and even if your rank cannot be changed temporarily, you still have to be transferred to a government office with real power, especially an important government office.

With the idea in mind, Wei Guangde picked up his pen and started writing. This way, he would write it first and then revise it, which would be safer and avoid any mistakes.

"Wang Ning, the young minister of Guanglu Temple, moved to Taichang Temple and was in charge of Shangbao Secretary. Yin Leshun, the foreign minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, was the Shaoqing of Guanglu Temple. Liu Fenyong, the foreign minister of the Rites Department, was the minister of Shangbao. Wu Zidong, the head of the Ministry of Rites, was the minister of Shangbao. Shaoqing served in the imperial office and served as secretary Zhou Weifan, who served as the chief secretary of Guanglu Temple. Wu Zi, the chief secretary of Honglu Temple, became the chief minister of the right temple of the temple.

I kept adding names and deleting them, and it took me a long time to roughly decide on their official positions.

The days went on like this, and Zhang Juzheng came over after learning that Wei Guangde had returned to the school registration hall.

"Shandai, I'll leave the matters here to you. Taichang Temple has a lot of affairs these days, it's really..."

Zhang Juzheng still maintained his usual elegance and said to Wei Guangde when they met.

"Uncle, I know all this. Just go and do your business. I'm here and nothing will go wrong."

Wei Guangde laughed happily.

Zhang Juzheng already knew that his participation in drafting the edict had made the relationship between him and Gao Gong so bad that there was almost no room for recovery, but what could he do?

He couldn't calm down in front of that huge temptation, not to mention that it was what his teacher asked him to do.

In fact, Zhang Juzheng had already reacted when he was writing, and he was just pretending to be dumbfounded in the next few days.

On the one hand, it is the huge benefit given by the teacher, but the price is to hate Gao Gong; on the other hand, it is to make enemies with the teacher, but you may not get the benefits of Gao Gong.

How to choose? The benevolent sees benevolence and the wise see wisdom.

After getting in touch with Gao Gong, Zhang Juzheng did not think that he was easy to get along with, otherwise he would not often say those words to Wei Guangde in Prince Yu's Mansion.

Zhang Juzheng knew the people in Prince Yu's Mansion very well. On the surface, everyone seemed happy, but in fact, most of them had strong opinions about Gao Gong.

Therefore, being hostile to Gao Gong may not be the hidden cause of being hostile to the entire King Yu. Naturally, he should remain the same towards Wei Guangde.

In the final analysis, it was just a fight between himself and Gao Gong, and it had nothing to do with anyone else.

There was no handover procedure. Zhang Juzheng himself no longer took care of the affairs of the school records office. He only went to the document room there to hand over the affairs to Wei Guangde and left in a hurry.

Wei Guangde would not interfere too much with the distribution of manuscripts in the collation office, and would only require equality. Of course, for highly efficient officials, the task of collating one or two manuscripts would be appropriately increased.

As for sealing yamen, there is no such thing as sealing yamen in the school registration hall at this time.

Two days later, on the Zhengdan Festival, the first month of the first year of Longqing, one hundred officials entered the palace to celebrate. The branch officials had a rare chance to take a break. The next day, the court meeting was delayed for another two hours, and everyone hurried back after it was over.

In this way, people from the Cabinet and the Ministry of Rites came here every day to understand the progress of the transcription, which made Wei Guangde very agitated.

However, he knew the reason. The Ministry of Rites needed to grasp the speed of copying books here and estimate the time when the book would be completed, so that it could determine the time in Yongling with the Ministry of Works.

Before the first lunar month, news finally came out from the palace. Emperor Longqing issued two decrees in succession. Zhang Juzheng was promoted to a bachelor's degree in the Hanlin Academy, and Zhang Juzheng was promoted to the right minister of the Ministry of Rites and a bachelor in the Hanlin Academy. Yin Shidan was promoted to a bachelor in the Hanlin Academy. Take charge of court affairs.

Wei Guangde's official rank surpassed Yin Shizhan because he participated in the copying ceremony. His diligent work satisfied Emperor Jiajing, and his efforts earned him two opportunities to be promoted.

In any case, Wei Guangde felt that he should do his job well and not ignore the mess just because the old emperor died. After all, it was his last wish.

Wei Guangde had handed the note to Emperor Longqing through Chen Ju, but no decree had been issued during this period.

Perhaps Emperor Longqing was still busy stamping the imperial edicts that conferred posthumous titles, Wei Guangde sometimes thought helplessly in the proofreading office.

"Master, Hu Yingjia submitted two memorials today"

The reed cloth was still the same. When Wei Guangde was proofreading, he went outside to inquire about the news in the court and informed Wei Guangde when he was resting.

"In the reign of our ancestors, all the major military and national affairs were decided by the ministers. Since Emperor Yingzong ascended the throne at a young age, the assistant ministers occasionally set up a precedent for reporting to the emperor in the morning, and it has been followed. I also studied that in previous dynasties, the prime ministers must bring the censors with them to the cabinet to discuss matters, so that all the memorials can be heard in advance. The system of the current dynasty requires the six departments to take turns to record the affairs on the left and right sides of the palace. The imperial edict is probably the legacy of the previous dynasty. I beg to restore the old rules. From now on, when meeting with ministers, the censors must be ordered to take turns to accompany them. Anyone who reports unfaithfully will be allowed to explain the right and wrong in person or retreat to participate in the discussion. In this way, all the ministers will be sincere and the emperor will be able to support him."

Looking at the first memorial submitted by Hu Yingjia, Wei Guangde had a sneer on his face. Did he think he could represent the six departments with this?

It seems that the power of the six departments has been greatly increased. Who would agree? Do the people in the six departments dare to accept it?

However, the development of the situation soon exceeded Wei Guangde's imagination. He did not expect that the people in the six departments would really dare to take the bait thrown by Hu Yingjia.

At this time, the ministers in the court came forward one after another, including Grand Secretary Xu Jie, Li Chunfang, Guo Pu, and Gao Gong, who were all ordered to resign. The emperor issued a favorable edict to retain them, and the officials of various departments also began to follow up, and the Beijing inspection in the first year of Longqing began.

Yang Bo, the Minister of Personnel, was responsible for the assessment of Beijing officials. He demoted Zheng Qin, the Imperial Secretary, and Hu Weixin, the Imperial Censor, for personal reasons, and protected his fellow townsmen. No Shanxi people were evaluated for inferior positions.

Ying Jia impeached Yang Bo for his personal grudge, demoted the censors, and protected his fellow townsmen. Hu Weixin also submitted a memorial, exposing Yang Bo's unfair assessment of officials, his manipulation of the upper and lower levels, and his corruption.

In response, Grand Secretary Gao Gong, who had long been at odds with Hu Yingjia, took revenge for personal reasons, accusing Ying Jia and Weixin of "participating in the same officials' false reports and drafting an edict to demote them as civilians", which caused an uproar in public opinion.

The officials Ouyang Yijing, Xin Zixiu, and the censor Chen Lianfang were dissatisfied and jointly submitted a petition to rescue him, accusing Gao Gong and Xu Jie of dictatorship. Yingjia was thus saved and transferred to Jianning as a magistrate.

Wei Guangde did not expect that the officials of the Ministry of Personnel were so good at fighting that they would help Hu Yingjia even though they knew they had no chance of winning. In particular, Ouyang Yijing's participation was not something Wei Guangde had heard of beforehand.

Although Ouyang Yijing later handed him a note, he did not tell him because he did not want to make things difficult for him. He participated in protecting Hu Yingjia not because they were right, but to save the face of the Ministry of Personnel.