Chapter 903 992 Scrape the Silver to Build a Sea Vessel

The Kaocheng Law was the first step of Zhang Juzheng's reform. When the memorial was approved by the palace and sent down, it caused an uproar in the court.

As Wei Guangde and Lu Diaoyang said, although the Kaocheng Law was a continuation of the original system, it also had innovations, especially in this era of exaggeration, deceiving superiors and subordinates, and false reporting in the officialdom, it was very targeted.

But it was precisely because of this that it was opposed by many people in the court as soon as it was released.

"Set limits to examine things" and "blame people for things", in fact, everyone knows that once the Kaocheng Law is successfully promoted, many people in the court will have trouble, because this is completely a matter of breaking the original environment of the officialdom.

According to the Kaocheng Law, all officials will start to compete for the assessment of officials, and the capable ones will be promoted and the mediocre ones will be demoted.

But the most important thing is that no matter what mentality and ideals most officials had when they took the imperial examinations, in the face of reality, after they entered the officialdom, they were surprised to find that they actually didn't know how to be an official.

The knowledge of being an official is not mentioned in the books of sages.

Even though they followed the requirements of the sages' books to guide their work at the beginning of their rule, they soon failed in the face of reality and suffered a bloody head.

Except for quietly licking their wounds, they all compromised with reality.

The sages' books, although they taught them the truth, did not tell them the means to achieve it. This made many officials who relied on studying hard to enter the officialdom at a loss, and finally became mediocre.

There are too many such people.

Although the family knows their own affairs, at least they relied on their hard study to obtain official status, which is naturally not so easy to be stripped.

Although they can't handle government affairs, they can still be officials with official status, at most they are mediocre, and they will try to find loopholes during the inspection to seek better comments for themselves.

Whether it is the relationship between fellow townsmen or the friendship between teachers and students, in short, they are very mediocre in handling government affairs, but when dealing with interpersonal relationships, they are surprised to find that they seem to have strengths and are very handy.

As long as they handle interpersonal relationships in the officialdom well, it seems that not only will their official positions not be lost, but they will also be promoted step by step, the only difference is whether they are fast or slow.

However, when Zhang Juzheng took out the performance evaluation law to supervise their work and give them scores, their shortcomings were completely exposed.

Especially after the implementation of the six central ministries for two months, many people already knew that their evaluations were not good.

Once or twice is harmless, but if it happens more often, this evaluation will eventually become one of the main bases for the imperial examination, and their official positions will not be guaranteed?

Without an official position, how can they survive in the officialdom?

No, they must change.

Their change is not to work hard to learn how to handle government affairs, but to play the trick of fraud, which they are already very familiar with.

At the same time, they racked their brains and tried to find loopholes in the performance evaluation law, hoping to stop the performance evaluation law by submitting a memorial.

Although Zhang Juzheng was in a high position and had people inside and outside the palace at this time, he could not reach his former height after all, because the souls that traveled through time and space had completely disrupted the court.

Although their memorials were rejected, they gave more people hope, and more and more memorials were submitted against the performance evaluation system.

At the same time, forming cliques and factions seemed to be a familiar operation for Ming officials, so they naturally had to find someone who was influential enough in the court to lead them to raise their arms and call for action.

Wei Guangde's previous inspection tour in Jizhen may have been intended to avoid these people.

Because when Zhang Juzheng began to investigate fraud and deal with things, they approached Wei Guangde, hoping that Wei Ge Lao could help them.

Wei Guangde had never expressed his opinions to the outside world before, and there was news in the cabinet that Wei Ge Lao and Lu Ge Lao had opinions on the performance evaluation system, so they were regarded as people who could be used.

To attack the prime minister, the second prime minister would naturally be the best.

Wei Guangde deliberately avoided these people and did not become their knife, but it did not mean that he did not understand what was going on. Zhang Juzheng actually understood it.

Wei Guangde sent people to keep an eye on Zhang Juzheng, and so did he.

It was just that Wei Guangde's performance all along made Zhang Juzheng understand that Wei Guangde actually supported him, or at least tacitly agreed, but he just didn't want to express his position publicly.

In Zhang Juzheng's view, this was fine.

If there were major mistakes in the process, he would not be able to escape responsibility. Even if he resigned and Wei Guangde took over his position, it would not be too bad.

The two sides were promoting the operation of the Central and North Korean Bureau in such a tacit understanding, and Zhang Juzheng could do it boldly without worrying about someone stabbing him in the back.

Even in Zhang Juzheng's view, he was in his forties and in charge of the cabinet, while Wei Guangde was only in his thirties. Even if he gave up his position, he might not be able to do it steadily.

He could still work for at least another 10 or 20 years, and by then, Wei Guangde, who was in his forties or fifties, would be able to take over.

At this time, Wei Guangde mentioned that he could use this turmoil to severely punish officials who were not good at flood control.

Before, in the capital, most of the officials in the capital were just told the evaluation results, hoping that it would serve as a warning, so that they would know shame and rise up, but now it seems that the effect is not great.

If they were dealt with rashly, they would be worried that the officials in Beijing would revolt.

Taking advantage of this flood control incident, we can deal with local officials first and let them see how powerful it is. It seems feasible.

Zhang Juzheng quickly understood Wei Guangde's meaning and nodded slightly to him.

Give a peach, return a plum. After pondering for a while, Zhang Juzheng said: "You can discuss the changes in the guards with Tan Zili. I will not object.

As for the voyage to Nanyang, I have no objection, including the restoration of the Xuanwei Department in the old port.

Just don't mess around. "

After coming out of the cabinet office, Wei Guangde directly sent a message to Tan Lun, asking him to come and talk in the evening.

At first, Wei Guangde only wanted to let the Ministry of War do this inspection of the guard station, but after meeting Ge Shouli in the afternoon, Wei Guangde had other ideas.

To deal with the people below, it seems that you can hold the knife of the Metropolitan Procuratorate in your hand. There is no shortage of young people in the Metropolitan Procuratorate. They are all new people who entered the official career in the last imperial examination. Those who were elected to the Metropolitan Procuratorate are not Shaodu still hopes to create peace for all generations.

When inspecting the guard station, the Ministry of War took the lead and took the censor from the Metropolitan Procuratorate. Local resistance was directly thrown to the Metropolitan Procuratorate and asked them to investigate and impeach. The Ministry of War just tried its best to deal with the generals and military households. .

Not to mention the gentry and officials who were afraid of those mad dogs in the Imperial Procuratorate, even the nobles and nobles in the clan were a little numb.

However, Wei Guangde was not sure whether Ge Shouli was willing to take the bait.

Ge Shouli was also a man who had experienced the ups and downs of officialdom for a long time, so he would not be able to see through their thoughts, so Tan Lun had to discuss this matter with him.

At nightfall, Wei Guangde invited Tan Lun into the study to talk, and made it clear to Tan Lun what he was thinking today.

After a long while, Tan Luncai hesitated and said: "Will Brother Yuli agree? This is asking them to take on the task of offending others."

Wei Guangde was not surprised by Tan Lun's hesitation. He chuckled and said, "Can't you see what kind of person Ge Yuli is in the past year?

He is a real person who has thoroughly read the books of sages and practices the essence of the books.

The change planned by Hyobu Wei this time is a great thing for the court, and he should choose to support it.

Moreover, I see that his beard and hair are white today, and he will not stay in the court for too long. "

After Wei Guangde said this, how could Tan Lun not understand that he just wanted Ge Shouli to completely burn the last bit of his value and squeeze it all out.

Seeing that Tan Lun was still hesitating, Wei Guangde chuckled and continued: "In the future, I will take more care of him and his descendants in the court.

I think Ge Yuli would be happy to cooperate with us. "

As long as Wei Guangde doesn't make any big mistakes, he can stay in the Ming Dynasty for at least 20 to 30 years. He has already reached the throne of Second Assistant. In fact, many people understand what this means.

Although Zhang Juzheng is still the family now, and Zhang Juzheng is also in his prime, investing in Zhang Juzheng is still a bet on Wei Guangde. In fact, many people in the court still have their own opinions.

Those people who only know how to sneak into the camp have always wanted to join the Wei family and become Wei Guangde's disciples. Isn't that what they had in mind?

If the second assistant is covering him, the first assistant also has to give him three points of thin noodles.

Don't think that Zhang Juzheng is an impartial person. In fact, his handling of things is more slippery, no worse than his teacher Xu Jie, or even worse.

Thirty years after Jiajing, during the later period of Yan Song's reign, Wei Guangde and Yan Mansion became sparse because Wei Guangde had already sided with Prince Yu's Mansion, which made Yan Shifan extremely unhappy.

At this time, Zhang Juzheng was still a guest of the Yan Mansion.

Of course, Gao Gong is not bad either, especially after he quit Prince Yu's Palace and entered the Ministry of Rites, he was courted by Yan Shifan in every possible way.

They are all good at dancing and naturally know how to deal with things.

At that time, Wei Guangde calculated that the Yan family didn't have much time, so he decisively abandoned ship, but Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng didn't know.

You know, Yan's ship sank, but a lot of people were killed with one shot.

In the end, Tan Lun nodded and whispered: "I understand. I'll talk to him about it when I have time and see what he means."

"Also, last time I talked about the Ministry of War raising military funds to build ships, do you have any clues?"

Wei Guangde asked again.

Although shipbuilding was under the control of the Ministry of Industry, it was a navy warship builder after all, so Wei Guangde also hoped that the Ministry of War could squeeze out a sum of money to build ships for Yu Dayou.

Although he knew to some extent that the Yi people were not very strong near the Daming Sea. Even if they summoned all the ships from all the countries in the Far East, they would still be less than a hundred ships, including their armed merchant ships.

But so what?

There are none in the Far East. There are also many Spanish, Portuguese and other barbarian ships in the Western Ocean and across the sea, but it takes time to gather them.

If the other party really plans to have a war with Ming Dynasty, they can still gather a large number of warships in a year and a half.

Wei Guangde knew that at this time, not to mention other European countries, Spain alone could assemble hundreds of large warships.

Note that we are talking about large warships here, not the armed merchant ships that can be seen everywhere in the Far East.

Even with Wei Guangde's meager historical knowledge, he also knew the legend of the Spanish Armada.

The Spanish Armada in the late sixteenth century consisted of more than 150 warships, more than 3,000 cannons, and tens of thousands of soldiers.

This is not all of the Spanish navy. The Spanish maritime fleet had more than a thousand ships at its peak, and the fleet traveled across the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean.

Britain was able to become an empire on which the sun never sets, and it was precisely because of its defeat of the Spanish Armada that it gained the opportunity.

Although it was once challenged by the Dutch, the sea coachmen, in the end because of its success in acquiring more colonies from the Spanish, the emerging Netherlands was unable to replace their position again.

"It's a bit stressful, but I will try my best to get some money to spend."

Hearing Wei Guangde ask about the situation of the Ministry of War, Tan Lun replied with some embarrassment.

The military salary that the Ministry of War now receives every year is actually not enough for normal payment. Many military posts can only be allocated military salary for ten months, and they have to raise the rest by themselves, or they are simply in arrears.

In the early years of Jiubian Fenghuo, the Ministry of War gave priority to supplying military pay to border towns. After all, there were wars and deaths there. If military pay was not allocated, how could you expect the soldiers to use their lives?

Tan Lun's subtle expression was fully visible to Wei Guangde.

After pondering for a while, Wei Guangde said: "I was originally planning to write a letter to Wang Zongmu to ask him to prepare early in Huai'an."

"What preparation?"

Tan Lun interrupted Wei Guangde out of curiosity and asked.

The two of them are very familiar with each other. It may be rude to others, but to them it is an insignificant detail.

Therefore, Wei Guangde told the officials from the Ministry of Rites and what happened to the cabinet in the afternoon. Although the cabinet would send a special letter to the Governor's Yamen, Wei Guangde would still write a letter alone to explain some things clearly.

"Are you planning to ask Yu Dayou to dispatch more warships to go north to Huai'an to help transport grain? One hundred and twenty thousand dan is already a permanent amount, and you still want to break it."

Tan Lun hesitated for a moment, but finally asked.

"Just preparation."

Wei Guangde smiled and continued: "But now I have a new idea. The Caosi Company applies to the Ministry of Industry to build a canal ship every year. It seems that the money can be transferred directly."

"Ah? Are you planning to build sea-going ships directly instead of river ships that the Caosi will use?

Is this appropriate? "

Tan Lun said in surprise.

"It doesn't matter whether it's suitable or not. Since we have a permanent quota for grain and sea transportation, we can't always use the Nanyang Navy's warships for transportation.

And you don’t know, Yu Dayou wrote to me before. He mentioned in the letter that after he learned about the Fushan Island shipwreck, many questions could not be answered. He suspected that the Fushan Island shipwreck was man-made and his purpose was to stop it. Shipping grain by sea.

This time I wrote to Wang Zongmu to remind him of this matter. All sea routes use large naval vessels, forgetting Caosi's flat-bottomed boats. I'm afraid there will be another problem. "

Wei Guangde revealed another shocking news to Tan Lun, which shocked Tan Lun.

"It concerns the Cao Army. Do you want the Ministry of War to send someone to conduct a secret investigation?"

Although Tan Lun felt frightened, he still asked.

"What can we do if we find out? It's just letting people take the blame. Let them make trouble."

Wei Guangde smiled disdainfully and said, "This time I plan to ask Dayou to bring most of the navy's warships to transport the grain. The Caosi also withheld half of the shipbuilding silver and gave it to the navy to build sea-going ships. This can be regarded as a lesson to them.

Next time if you dare to play conspiracy and tricks again, I will just flip the table and everyone will stop playing. "

"What does that person mean?"

Tan Lunchi asked a question.

Wei Guangde just chuckled and said: "Haha, uncle is not a fool. I have always supported him secretly, and it's time for him to repay me." (End of Chapter)