Back home, Lin Tailai finally received a piece of good news. Customer Gu Bingqian reported: "We have purchased both the houses on the left and right at reasonable prices."
This time Lin Tailai came to Beijing and brought more than 200 people with him. The original house only had about 30 to 40 rooms, which would definitely not be able to accommodate them.
Most of the servants can only rent elsewhere temporarily, but this is not a long-term solution.
So either buy a larger house separately, or buy all the neighboring houses and merge the three houses together.
Unexpectedly, Gu Bingqian was so efficient that he bought all the neighbors, especially at a "reasonable" price.
"How did you do it?" Lin Tailai has been busy with court affairs recently and hasn't paid much attention to family affairs.
Gu Bingqian replied: "There have been no major events recently, so we have enough manpower. So I sent dozens of servants to hang around in front of the neighbors' doors and in the alleys all day long.
So they offered to sell the house. Otherwise, how could the family members, women and children even dare to go out and live here?
As the saying goes, if a peach or a plum is not spoken, it will lead to its own trouble."
After Lin Tailai thought twice, he decided to praise him rather than dampen his subordinates' enthusiasm for doing things.
Besides, he really doesn't want to move. First, the location is good. It's in the core of the high-end community of official residences, so it's convenient to go anywhere.
Second, you are already familiar with the nearby terrain. If you change places, you have to adapt to the environment and build a sense of security again.
Third, the name of the old Lige Hutong where I currently live has a good meaning, while most of the names of other Hutongs in the capital are not so good.
The specific arrangements and scheduling of servants were all left to Gu Bingqian to handle, while Lin Tailai focused mainly on government affairs.
Two days later, Lin Tailai had no choice but to curse and go to the Department of Civil Service Examination to take up his post.
The first thing he did after taking office was to call Zhao Nanxing over and reprimand him: "I have given you three orders and five petitions to request the imperial court to reinstate the examination law. Have you written it?"
Zhao Nanxing's attitude remains firm: "I won't accept chaos!"
Anyone who likes to write this kind of scolding memorial can write it, but Zhao Nanxing is determined not to write it and is firmly opposed to it.
However, Lin Tailai's repeated questioning made Zhao Nanxing feel that he was at his wits' end.
Sure enough, I heard Lin Tailai say angrily: "Since you don't write it, then I will write it myself!"
Zhao Nanxing felt again that he had won this game.
Lin Tailai wants to force himself to "suicidal sex", but there is no way!
So on the first day he took office as the Department of Civil Service Examination, Lin Tailai wrote a letter titled "Reform Guide to the Assessment Methods for Officials".
The main contents are two points. The first is the standardization and normalization of the language test, and the second is the restoration of the test method, which is very exciting.
After the elders saw the memorial, they were completely as expected.
Sure enough, as previously "speculated", the significance of Lin Tailai's previous disclosure to the cabinet was limited to "informing".
As for the cabinet's ideas, Lin Tailai did not listen; whether the cabinet agreed or not did not affect subsequent public reports.
Although the examination law is an unnecessary power that the cabinet threw away six years ago, it does not mean that it is willing to see it taken away by others!
Therefore, the cabinet definitely does not want to agree, even if Lin Tailai's well-intentioned plan is to take away all the power without the cabinet "taking responsibility".
Under normal circumstances, hundreds of memorials were delivered to the palace every day.
Unless he is a workaholic emperor, it is impossible to read everything in detail. Most of the work can be completed by adding a ceremonial supervisor to the cabinet.
Only some relatively special memorials would be really noticed by the emperor, such as direct admonishments, wars, disasters, civil uprisings, money and food in Taicang, the advancement and retreat of important ministers, etc.
If there was nothing special about it, Lin Tailai's memorial would just be a show-off among the hundreds of books that day.
If you can give me an "I know it", you will be given the face of the Nine-Yuan True Immortal.
However, in the end, Lin Tailai's memorial was specially sent to the imperial court by Zhang Cheng, the eunuch in charge of the ceremony.
Emperor Wanli glanced at the title of the memorial and the summary of the first few sentences, and asked the eunuchs in charge of rites in confusion: "What's so special about it?"
To be honest, there are not many memorials from ministers requesting improvement of a certain work.
For example, someone has recently petitioned to reform the "Zongfan Cases" to allow those without titles in the clan to practice their own profession.
Therefore, if you only look at the title of Lin Tailai's "Reform of Assessment Methods", it is not unusual and does not deserve the emperor's special attention.
Zhang Cheng, the eunuch in charge of the ceremony, reminded: "Zhang Shuli talked about Zhang Juzheng and Kao Chengfa."
A memorial that talks about reform is not a sensitive memorial; but if it talks about Zhang Juzheng, it is a sensitive memorial that must remind the emperor to focus on it.
If he could not help the emperor sort out such memorials, it would be a serious breach of duty by the Chief of Ceremonies.
Therefore, the job of the eunuchs Zhu Bingbi, the Supervisor of Ceremonies, is not just to criticize red papers. They read the manuscripts every day to filter out such sensitive memorials.
Sure enough, after hearing the name Zhang Juzheng, Emperor Wanli opened the memorial again and read it carefully.
Although six or seven years have passed since the anti-Zhang Juzheng storm was launched, and the climax has passed, this thorn still exists in the emperor's heart.
If "Zhang Juzheng" had not been used as a gimmick, Emperor Wanli would not have paid special attention to Lin Tailai's memorial.
This can be regarded as Lin Tailai's "little skill" in writing. Of course, Lin Tailai would not be stupid enough to reverse Zhang Juzheng's case in his memorial.
Later, Emperor Wanli personally wrote a secret note to the cabinet, the main content of which was "What is going on in Lin Tailai's mind?"
In the early years, when the Ming Emperor was not so reclusive, when encountering such a situation, he would directly summon his cabinet ministers to the Wenhua Hall, where the emperor and his ministers would talk face to face.
But later on, the Ming emperor became more and more "homely", and the form of written communication such as secret letters became more and more common.
After the cabinet ministers received the secret letter, they responded in secret. The specific content was not known to outsiders, and they usually said something that was not suitable for public disclosure.
During the Jiajing Dynasty, Emperor Sejong pushed the use of secret codes to its peak, and often issued secret codes with the nature of the Riddler.
The current Emperor Wanli admires his grandfather, Emperor Sejong, the most, and he also imitates him in the way of questioning in secret letters.
However, the Wanli Emperor in history did not know whether it was intentional or sincere. The contents of ministerial secrets were frequently leaked, causing major political accidents many times.
In the original history, the resignation of Shen Shixing, Xu Guo, and Wang Xijue was all related to the leakage of secret contents.
But it is said that in the cabinet, after receiving the emperor's secret letters, the ministers wrote secret notes and sent them to the palace. Even the newcomer Zhao Si also wrote a copy.
Outsiders have no way of knowing what the secrets contain.
Anyway, after Emperor Wanli read the secret exchanges between his cabinet ministers, especially Zhao Si, he approved Lin Tailai's memorial as a "lower council meeting", which seemed to be quite orderly and impartial.
In various yamen, Lin Tailai's memorial attracted a lot of attention. After all, the assessment system is related to the vital interests of every official. Who can not care?
Not to mention that this was specially issued by the emperor, allowing various yamen to express their opinions.
Most officials do not like the examination of the law in their hearts and are opposed to the memorial.
But at the same time, most people rationally stayed put because the author of this memorial was Lin Tailai.
In the next two days, two things happened in Xicheng, where the officials lived.
First, two censors tentatively opposed the restoration of the examination law and impeached Lin Tailai for disrupting the government.
What's more important is that these two censors did not suffer Lin's style of revenge!
They were not blocked by the Lin family's servants, nor were their doors smashed.
Second, the Beijing patrol camp announced that it has entered a "strike hard" period, and has strengthened patrols in the West City to prevent officials-related gang fights, kidnappings, housebreakings and other vicious cases.
Not only have thousands of troops been deployed in the streets and alleys of Xicheng, but they are also working in shifts day and night.
After these two signals came out, the number of memorials against Lin Tailai soared exponentially!
From two books in a single day, it increased directly to more than a dozen books in a single day, and then to dozens of books on the third day!
According to analysis by key politicians in Beijing, there are probably two reasons why this phenomenon occurs.
On the one hand, although Zhang Juzheng did not pioneer the examination method, it is closely related to Zhang Juzheng and is one of Zhang Juzheng's most representative policy measures.
Therefore, opposing the reinstatement of the entrance examination law is absolutely in line with the current political correctness and has no political risks at all.
In this case, Shangshu's opposition becomes something that is not worth doing.
Many people are idle at work, and it is good to write a memorial that is absolutely safe to give them a sense of presence, so as to avoid being said to be a vegetarian.
On the other hand, the reason is that Lin Jiuyuan's popularity is really great.
This opportunity to oppose and impeach Lin Tailai is really rare without being beaten or smashed.
Even if you can't really do anything to Lin Tailai, you can still enjoy it by following the trend and scolding him safely.
Seeing this situation, Zhao Nanxing, the director of the Examination Department, was in a good mood.
To provoke such a huge wave of opposition just after taking office shows that he is incompetent!
He even began to fantasize about whether it was possible for Lin Tailai to lose his official position as a doctor in the examination department?
At this time, Chen Younian, a doctor in the literary and anthology department who had been pretending to be ill for many days at home, also returned to work in the staff department.
It's hard not to go to work. Lin Tailai has already joined the job. If Chen Younian doesn't come back, won't Lin Tailai become the loudest voice in the staff department?
However, Chen Younian regained his composure and stability after the painful experience of being beaten when he claimed to be the boss of the civil service department a few days ago.
Hearing that his old comrades had returned, Zhao Nanxing came to Chen Younian's apartment and discussed:
"I am considering whether to follow the trend and launch an attack and impeachment against Lin Tailai within the Merit Examination Department."
Chen Younian replied without hesitation: "Absolutely not! There are so many people who oppose Lin Tailai now, including you. There is no need for you to put yourself in danger."
Now Lin Tailai is Zhao Nanxing's immediate boss. Zhao Nanxing is extremely uncomfortable with this situation and is a little anxious.
Chen Younian patiently advised again: "Past lessons show that you must be patient when facing Lin Tailai.
When something happens, you'd rather watch for a while than rush for success. Just like this time, how do you know that Lin Tailai didn't set a trap waiting for you?
Our comrades have suffered heavy losses in recent years and can no longer suffer any more.
Therefore, it is especially important to stay stable now, take self-protection as the top priority, and put safety first in everything."
Zhao Nanxing finally accepted Chen Younian's advice, "Then don't do anything this time, and don't give Lin Tailai the chance to take advantage of it."
He has been demoted to chief, which is already the lowest-ranking subordinate official among the six ministries. If he is demoted further, he will have to go to other places to become a county magistrate.
It can be said that I have no ability to resist risks at all, so I'd better be honest.
Chen Younian then reassured, "It's not that we are doing nothing, but we are moving forward in an upright manner within the framework of the system."
Chen Younian was referring to the upcoming meeting of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and the theme must be to draw up a preliminary list of candidates.
Among the six departmental meetings, the official department’s meeting is the most important, or the one that attracts the most attention.
Because the personnel trends discussed and decided by the Ministry of Personnel have a huge influence on other departments.
The situation of the Household Department is somewhat similar, and it also has a huge influence on other departments, so the Household Department ranks second among the six departments.
During this special period, not many people participated in the ministry meeting on personnel issues, including Wang Yongji, the right minister, Chen Younian, Yuan Wailang, the director of the Wenxuan department, and Lin Tailai, the doctor of the examination department.
This is the first time Lin Tailai has participated in a ministry meeting. It is a pity that his voice does not have a high weight in terms of personnel selection.
After all, this is the main business of the Literature and Selection Department, and the Examination Department can only be regarded as a supporting department.
All official positions have certain qualifications. The more important the official position, the more stringent the qualifications.
If you do not understand the job requirements and recommend candidates at random, you will make a big joke.
For example, for the imperial court to serve as Minister of War, in recent decades there has been a practice that Governor Xuanda or Governor Jiliao returns to the court to serve.
It would be very unprofessional behavior to recommend that a Minister of the Ministry of Industry be transferred to the Minister of the Ministry of War.
As usual, ministers of the Ministry of Personnel are usually transferred from the second-rank ministers of other ministries, or from the imperial censor of the same rank.
Moreover, they must be full-time, second-grade ministry officials with very high qualifications. Those with relatively junior qualifications will not be considered.
There are also examples of ministers of the Ministry of Personnel being directly promoted to ministers of the Ministry of Personnel, but these are very rare cases and are not regarded as regular cases.
After Wang Yongji put down the tea cup, he said to Chen Younian, the literary and anthology department: "How many suitable candidates are there for the official department?"
As an old government official, Chen Younian was very familiar with personnel affairs, so he immediately answered:
"Suitable candidates in line with the convention include Lu Guangzu, the Minister of Punishment, Song Hui, the Minister of Industry, and Sun Piyang, the Imperial Censor of Nanjing."
First of all, these three people are all full-time second-grade ministry officials, and secondly, they have very deep qualifications. They were Jinshi in the 26th, 35th, and 38th years of Jiajing respectively.
In contrast, Wang Ercai, who was admitted to the cabinet, and Wang Ercai, who was a Jinshi in the 41st year of Jiajing, were later than the three above, and Wang San and Zhao Si were even later.
Wang Situ of the Ministry of Husbandry was not nominated because he "avoided suspicion"; Yu Shenxing, the Minister of Rites, was not nominated because of his "little qualifications."
After all, Yu Shenxing only became minister last year, and his senior year was in the second year of Longqing. He was much worse than the previous senior ministers.
Therefore, although Chen Younian nominated Lu Guangzu, Song Qi, and Sun Piyang out of selfish motives, he could not find fault with his professionalism.
Wang Yongji asked Lin Tailai again: "Do you have anyone to supplement you?"
Lin Tailai was deeply troubled. Compared with the Qingliu forces that had been cultivating for many years, his foundation was still weak.
Among the people on his side, there was no one with qualifications comparable to Lu Guangzu, Song Hui, and Sun Piyang.
The biggest difference between cabinet ministers and officials and other official positions is that seniority is very important.
Those whose qualifications are too far apart will only bring humiliation to themselves.
After much deliberation, Lin Tailai could only think of one Wu Shilai, the censor of Zuodu, who was also senior enough, but he was Shen Shoufu's party member.