Wang Tianguan took the results of the court recommendation and walked away leisurely, without any serious look on his face, as if he had gone out to visit a temple fair.
Although the results of the court recommendation seemed very unreliable and the emperor would not approve it at all, and today seemed like a wasted effort, Wang Tianguan still didn't seem to take it seriously.
Lu Guangzu stared at Wang Tianguan's back. At this time, he finally figured out that there was an essential difference between him and Wang Tianguan, his main opponent.
He wanted to get things done in the court election, he wanted to fill the cabinet with people, he wanted to deprive Zhao Zhigao of being the chief assistant, and he wanted to disgust Lin Tailai.
And Wang Tianguan didn't have any specific goals, so it didn't matter if he messed up Ting Tui.
Generally, the outcome of a court recommendation must be considered to some extent whether the emperor will approve it. How could he be like Wang Tianguan, who was only focused on screwing up.
This is called insufficient success and more failure than success!
Then other people who participated in the nomination gradually figured out why there was such a result as "Lu Guangzu came first and Lin Tailai came second."
Obviously, all the votes cast by the Lin Party must have gone to Lu Guangzu and Lin Tailai. They were very centralized and unified. Both of them had a guaranteed minimum of seven votes.
In addition, if Lu Guangzu had a few Qingliu Party votes and a few loose votes, he would have fifteen votes; if Lin Tailai had a few more loose votes, he would have eleven votes.
At the same time, the iron tickets of the Qingliu Party members were faced with the three options of Xu Guo, Shen Li, and Lu Guangzu. When they wrote their votes independently, even the iron tickets were inevitably scattered.
Each of the last three people only had a few iron votes from the Qingliu Party, but Lu Guangzu also had the "assist" of the Lin Party's iron votes, so he stood out.
As for Xu Guo, who is expected to be strongly recommended by the Qingliu Party, Shen Li, the big boss with excellent conditions, can only vote randomly, and the number of votes will definitely not surpass Lu Guangzu and Lin Tailai.
Thinking of this, everyone couldn't help but lament that the old leaders in the literary world had such terrifying electoral skills, and they could achieve their goals just by manipulating procedures.
In the past thirty years, the literary world has selected the "Five Sons" every ten years or so. The election experience of the old leaders is really not in vain.
On the same day, Wang Tianguan reported the results to the palace. Now Wang Tianguan's work for this year has come to an end, and he can prepare for the New Year with peace of mind.
At three o'clock in the morning the next day, Zhang Cheng, the eunuch and eunuch in charge of the ceremony, was waiting in the front corridor of Yikun Palace with the memorial in his arms.
After the hungover Emperor Wanli got up from Concubine Zheng, he heard that Zhang Cheng was waiting, so he summoned her in.
Zhang Cheng did not go around in circles and reported directly: "There was an imperial review of Lu Guangzu's memorial earlier, and the Minister of the Ministry of Finance recommended two cabinet ministers. Yesterday evening, the Ministry of Civil Affairs had already reported the results."
The selection of the two cabinet bachelors was of course a major matter for the court, and the final decision could only be made by the emperor, so Zhang Cheng had no choice but to disturb the emperor.
Emperor Wanli took a few sips of the soup and asked curiously: "Who was recommended?"
Zhang Cheng replied: "Lu Guangzu and Lin Tailai, the censors of Zuodu."
Emperor Wanli was stunned. Was it because he was hallucinating or because Zhang Cheng made a slip of the tongue?
Zhang Cheng repeated: "It's Lu Guangzu and Lin Tailai."
After Emperor Wanli came to his senses, he blurted out: "Isn't this nonsense!"
Your ancestor Lu Guang jumped up and down in front of him, strongly demanding fairness, justice and openness in recommending ministers, and also shouted not to give or receive privately, preventing him, the emperor, from directly appointing ministers.
In the end, they pushed noisily for a long time, just to push you, Lu Guangzu, into the cabinet?
What the hell is the other result? By electing Lin Tailai, who is only in his twenties, to join the cabinet, can it be even more ridiculous?
Zhang Cheng put forward a reply and said: "Reject the result of the court recommendation, and then fine all the ministers who participated in the court recommendation?"
Emperor Wanli snorted coldly: "This result can be approved!"
In the entire imperial court, there is only one person who can act as he pleases, and that is him, the Emperor of Heaven! No one is allowed to act more foolishly than him!
Zhang Cheng only felt tired and quickly advised: "No! Your Majesty, think twice!"
Although most of the time eunuchs obey the emperor's orders, sometimes they still need to be persuaded.
You can stir up troubles, but you can't stir up troubles for the sake of making troubles. Then wouldn't the government be completely in chaos?
However, Zhang Cheng was vaguely worried. Now there were old people like them in the palace who had watched the emperor grow up, and the Holy Mother Queen Mother Li was still alive, so things inside and outside would not be too outrageous.
But when old people like them gradually pass away, who else in the palace can persuade the willful emperor who keeps letting himself go?
Then Zhang Cheng continued: "Suzhou and Hangzhou Weaver Sun Long reported the day before yesterday that it is expected that ships will go overseas from New Wusongkou next year.
If Lin Tailai is allowed to enter Zhiwenyuan Pavilion, it will be inconvenient for him to do things outside. Young people are strong and should be left outside to do more activities."
After getting out of bed, Emperor Wanli, who was slightly calmer, ordered again: "This time, let Shen Shixing, Wang Xijue, and Wang Jiaping each nominate one person!
In addition, Lu Guangzu was punished to stay in seclusion for three months, and all the ministers who participated in the imperial examination were fined one year!"
Zhao Zhigao, the chief minister who guarded the cabinet alone, was the first to see the decree and finally felt a sigh of relief.
No wonder Lin Jiuyuan said that whether he feels comfortable being the chief minister or not mainly depends on the strength of foreign support.
If there is no support from foreign forces, I am afraid that the chief minister will not leave Wenyuan Pavilion under the decree.
However, Zhao Shoufu felt that revenge against Lu Guangzu was not enough, so he just closed his door and thought about it for three months and it was over? It seems that no one can do political pursuit.
So Zhao Shoufu picked up two more memorials from other provinces that had been backlogged for several days. The first was that several officials in Henan jointly reported that Henan's inspector Zou Xuezhu had failed in his supervision, which had led to numerous abuses in the province and frequent examination fraud.
Second, several Huguang officials jointly reported Huguang's envoy Hou Shiqing for serious dereliction of duty, which resulted in a large number of people being tortured by the Chu king and clan and had no way to redress their grievances, and even disturbed passing officials.
When the situation was still unclear before, it was not easy to decisively deal with these two memorials, but now the time is almost here.
Just as I finished drafting these two notebooks, an urgent notebook suddenly came in.
After looking at the content, it makes perfect sense - there was a civil uprising in Songjiang Prefecture next door to Suzhou Prefecture, and people rioted to resist taxes!
Zhao Zhigao had just become the first assistant, and his fresh energy had not worn off yet, so he started writing and drawing up votes with great interest.
The old chief assistant doesn’t want to take a break during the Chinese New Year, but everyone else has a holiday. What should I do?
In fact, Emperor Wanli's decision to veto the proposal was basically expected by the ministers, and only those who were smart would approve such a proposal.
Everyone collectively rejoiced that the salary penalty was just a trivial matter. The most unlucky person was Lu Guangzu. Being fined to live in seclusion for three months was equivalent to a temporary suspension.
Although there was a Chinese New Year celebration in between, the actual suspension was more than two months ago.
Of course, according to the principle of conservation of energy, if someone is unlucky, someone will benefit.
After reviewing the situation, the court officials recognized that two people benefited, one of whom was the chief minister Zhao Zhigao.
It can be regarded as a successful counterattack against Lu Guangzu, and it also temporarily eliminated the potential hidden danger of Xu State, which can be regarded as establishing the authority of the new chief minister.
As for the other beneficiary, Lin Tailai, who is two thousand miles away, is a pure win.
Although it seemed like a joke that he was elected to the cabinet by the ministers, and in the end he "failed", this is a real qualification.
At the age of twenty-four or five, he was probably the only one in the entire Ming Dynasty who had the qualification of being "recommended as a cabinet candidate".
Although it was approaching the end of the year, all government offices had not closed yet, so Lu Guangzu received the order while working at the Metropolitan Procuratorate.
Therefore, Lu Guangzu could only put down all official duties and prepare to go home and think about his mistakes behind closed doors.
After hearing the news, the Qingliu censors came to the Zuodu censor's public house to pay their respects and say goodbye.
After all, once Lu Zongxian leaves, he won't be able to see each other for three months. He usually can't see outsiders if he thinks about his mistakes behind closed doors.
President Lu no longer had the fighting spirit of the past and was a little depressed. Everyone comforted him: "This is just a small setback. Why should President Lu be so discouraged?"
Lu Guangzu sighed and said: "Am I discouraged because I was punished to think about it for three months?"
Usually, whenever Lin Tailai was away from the capital, he could always reap some benefits.
But this time, I didn't get any benefits. Instead, I suffered a big loss. The situation in the cabinet further collapsed, and I was also punished. How could I not feel depressed?
Looking at the dozen fellow censors in the room, Lu Zongxian warned: "This time Lin Tailai is not in the capital, and Lin's party still has the upper hand. How can I not be worried?"
Afraid that his colleagues would not understand, Lu Zongxian further explained: "This is enough to show that the Lin Party has condensed into a solid group around the core of Lin Tailai!
Now even if Lin Tailai is not in the capital, they can still exert a strong fighting force in the court. You should be vigilant!
This court case may not seem to have very serious consequences, but it proves the formation of the Lin Party!
Although Shen Shixing is gone, an enemy more powerful than Shen Shixing and his gang has appeared!"
After this lesson, all the censors looked at each other and suddenly felt the pressure doubled.
Suddenly someone broke the silence and shouted impassionedly: "This is a clique, a blatant clique! No one in the imperial court is blind!
Although thieves are rampant, I still want to impeach Lin Tailai immediately for forming a party and monopolizing power, even if he is shattered to pieces, I will have no regrets!"
Everyone followed the sound and turned out to be Qian Yiben, the senior chief censor.
Another senior imperial censor, He Zhuo, also shouted excitedly: "I am willing to sign a joint signature with Brother Qian! Even if I lose my life, it can boost morale and let the world know that there are still people in the court who dare to speak out!"
Lu Guangzu was very pleased. Although the just cause was temporarily frustrated, as long as there are people with lofty ideals who are not afraid of death, we will definitely win the final victory!
Just when the atmosphere was in place, suddenly the censor of Zuo Qiandu came in with a chapter book and said: "The inspectors of Henan and Huguang provinces have been jointly reported by the provinces, and the memorial has been approved to the Metropolitan Procuratorate, requiring strict investigation and handling!"
To be continued...