At the end of the imperial meeting, Zhu Si held an internal court meeting. Not many people attended.
Only Jiang Mian and Fei Hong were allowed to enter the cabinet, plus Qiao Yu, the Minister of Personnel, Xi Shu, the Minister of Rites, and a little-known Tang Yin. If we still have to count, it is Zhang Zuo, the eunuch who is the ceremonial supervisor and the eunuch next to the emperor.
Just these few people completed a closed-door meeting.
After the meeting, Jiang Mian did not go to the cabinet to check in. Instead, he hurried to the Hanlin Academy and found Shi Yun and Feng Xi, who were Hanlin bachelors at the time. The first assistant bachelor entered the Hanlin Academy after the internal palace meeting.
Many people felt that something was fishy, but after Jiang Mian arrived at the Hanlin Academy, he also held internal discussions with Shi Yun and Feng Xi. Even the three academicians, Li Tingxiang, Liu Long and Yang Shen, were not allowed to enter.
They didn't know what happened.
When Jiang Mian left, with Shi Yuan behind him, Li Tingxiang was allowed to enter Fengxi's official room. "Mr. Feng, I wonder what happened?"
Li Tingxiang asked this question for the entire Hanlin Academy.
Fengxi said: "This matter cannot be made clear to the outside world yet. We will let others know after the meeting tomorrow."
Li Tingxiang also felt very awkward. We are ministers in the same palace. Since Jiang Mian has come to see you, why am I not qualified to know about it even as a lecturer?
Is this looking down on people?
Yang Shen was not in the Hanlin Academy that day. He only found out about the matter after receiving a notification from Yu Chengxun at noon. "The matter is not simple."
Yu Chengxun shook his head and said, "There are rumors in the Hanlin Academy now. It may be related to the fact that His Majesty said earlier that he would increase the number of Hanlin bachelors. It seems that the matter should have been settled, but it cannot be announced to the outside world yet."
Yang Shen frowned: "There are many people who know, but no one has spread the news?"
Yu Chengxun said: "There is no news from the Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of Rites. Now those who know about it are keeping it secret for the time being." "Alas!"
Yang Shen sighed heavily.
Yu Chengxun seemed to know why Yang Shen was so depressed. He said, "Do you want to find Jingdao earlier and ask him to go to Tang Yin to find out? Among these ministers, Tang Yin is probably the one who is most likely to be unable to keep secrets."
Yang Shen said: "Then where is he now?" "I don't know."
Yu Chengxun also answered very directly.
Yang Shen shook his head and said: "I suspect that this time it is definitely not as simple as just adding a Hanlin bachelor. Jiang Ge Lao and Qiao Shangshu's time in the court is numbered. If they are also abolished, the order in the court will be
I’m afraid there’s going to be a big change, or maybe the matter of discussing etiquette needs to be further advanced.”
Yu Chengxun said: "Then what should we do now? Who to go to? Or Yongxiu, you should go visit Tang Bohu in person?" "No need."
Yang Shen seemed confident, "Recently, I have been communicating with Hanyuan and people from the six departments a lot, and I have mobilized all the six departments at the principal level. If your majesty wants to promote the ceremony before the year, then you can only take the last step."
When Yu Chengxun heard this, he was very pleased: "Yong Xiu, it's rare for you to be so persistent. Do you know that there are some unfavorable rumors about you among the people, saying that you were promoted to Lecturer, and you secretly made an agreement with His Majesty. Your Majesty will ensure that you will be promoted to the position.
You give up the dispute about the Great Ceremony, but now it seems that those people are talking nonsense. You have such an upright temperament, how could you break your principles for the sake of glory and wealth?"
After listening to Yu Chengxun's words, Yang Shen himself felt a little embarrassed.
I did make a deal with the emperor, but the way of the deal was relatively secret, but it seems that the emperor also agreed. Why didn't he further ask me to give up the dispute on the ceremony?
wrong.
What if the emperor still has some back-up plans, and when I go to argue for the grand ceremony, the emperor makes our secret transaction public, will my reputation be tarnished?
Not right either.
I have been so insistent, how could others easily believe it? At that time, they would have thought that the emperor was trying to alienate the relationship between me and the scholars. Why should I think about this? I should first think about how to deal with the great ceremony.
.....
Until the court meeting the next day, no outsiders knew anything about the contents of yesterday's internal court meeting.
Among the people involved in this internal discussion, except for Jiang Mian, who went to the Hanlin Academy to inform two Hanlin bachelors,
No one else knew about the situation. However, before the court meeting began the next day, several unusual characters appeared among the people waiting to enter, which made people speculate.
Present at the court meeting were Tang Yin, Zhang Cong, Huo Tao, who had just arrived in the capital, and Gui E, who had just arrived in the capital yesterday.
At this time, these people basically
As a cabinet scholar, Huang Zan was not with these people, although he was also a member of the Yili faction.
On the other side, the main officials of the Hanlin Academy are also here. Normally, the middle and high-level officials in the Hanlin Academy do not participate in court meetings every day. Their status is relatively high, but their actual power is low, and their participation in court affairs is not high. On the other hand, in the Six Subjects
Even though many people have not been in the court for a long time and their official positions are not high, as censors, they rotate almost every two or three days, and each of them has to go to court for at least ten days every month.
The meeting officially began.
When the emperor came up, he took out a resignation letter and announced it to the people present: "Mr. Jiang Ge has worked hard for the imperial court and has made great contributions. Now he has resigned again. I have discussed it with several ministers yesterday and decided
He agreed to return to his hometown and gave him carriages, horses, slaves, and two hundred taels of silver to pay for his journey."
"Thank you, Your Majesty."
Jiang Mian immediately expressed his gratitude to the emperor.
Although the ministers present did not speak, their hearts were filled with waves.
The second assistant, Mao Ji, had already resigned, and now the first assistant, Jiang Mian, has also resigned. This means that all the cabinet team left over from the Zhengde period have now left, and an era is over.
Zhu Sidao said: "As for anyone else's request to resign, I will not allow it. It is the time for the imperial court to appoint people, and you all should concentrate on your work. The New Year is coming soon. Please concentrate on your official duties and not slack off at all. If you have anything to do, wait until next year.
Let’s talk about it after spring begins.”
This means that only Jiang Mian will serve as official this time, and besides Jiang Mian, including Qiao Yu, Fei Hong, Liu Chun and others, their resignation memorials will not be allowed.
Some of them may not have been allowed to do so in the first place. They submitted a petition to resign, but they only served as a stepping stone for the emperor and themselves to test the emperor's attitude.
The rules of the Ming Dynasty court have always been like this. If you have something to do or nothing to do, you have to give a memorial and resign. If the emperor doesn't like someone, he won't say that he has to make the emperor and his ministers quarrel with each other and directly drive the person back to his hometown. That would be too embarrassing.
Even if the conflict intensifies, as it did between the emperor and Yang Tinghe, the relationship between the emperor and his ministers can be regarded as "a good beginning and a good end", and no one in the court believes that the emperor will hold Yang Tinghe accountable again in the future.
Zhu Sidao: "Now that the matter has come to this, decisions should be made on many matters in the court, especially in terms of personnel. Each government office should also fill the missing positions. I have mentioned before that we should add another Li Yi in the Hanlin Academy.
I am a bachelor of the Hanlin Academy, but I wonder if there are any candidates to choose from in the Hanlin Academy?”
At this time, Huang Zan walked in the queue and said: "Your Majesty, I recommend Zhang Cong to be a scholar in the Imperial Academy." "Ah?"
The ministers present were not happy when they heard this recommendation. Zhang Cong should be a Hanlin bachelor?
How can that old boy be so virtuous?
A guy who has just passed the Jinshi examination is not yet a first-class scholar. Letting him become a Hanlin scholar is already an exceptional promotion. Now the exception is not over?
Zhu Si did not wait for anyone present to jump out and object, but instead looked at Jiang Mian and asked: "Mr. Jiang Ge, do you think this person is suitable?"
Now, strictly speaking, Jiang Mian is no longer the chief minister of the cabinet and is a retired old man. However, the emperor still asked him to give his opinions. In fact, he seemed to be telling the ministers present that this was what we had discussed internally yesterday.
As a result, you will be less involved.
Jiang Miandao: "I second the proposal." Sure enough.
At this moment, many people present felt annoyed. How could Jiang Mian compromise on such a key position? You even resigned, but you actually agreed to Zhang Bingyong becoming a Hanlin bachelor?
After hearing Jiang Mian's statement, Zhu Si was very satisfied and nodded: "If we really want to add another Hanlin bachelor to the Hanlin Academy, then the number of Hanlin bachelors will be too much. In my opinion, we should add more Hanlin bachelors to the Hanlin Academy."
Choose one of the bachelors to join the cabinet."
Okay.
Do you want to place Zhang Cong in the Hanlin Academy as a bachelor, and also want Tang Yin to join the cabinet?
Don't think that we don't know what you are thinking. But people with a certain degree of political acumen here don't think so.
They would think that since Jiang Mian could compromise on his becoming an official and Zhang Cong becoming a Hanlin scholar, then the emperor could not "take" everything, he had to "give", right?
Could it be that Jiang Mian is so spineless and is suffering the consequences?
Zhu Si said again: "Mr. Tang's status as a civil servant and his qualifications in the court are not enough to join the cabinet. But as for who of the remaining two Hanlin bachelors will join the cabinet, the court will discuss it in the next few days."
This dispelled the doubts of many people present.
It turns out that the exchange point is here.
The emperor added a bachelor of Yili Hanlin in exchange for Shi Yun or Fengxi to join the cabinet. This transaction seemed unfair, but it was the best result that the civil servants could get.
After all, there must not be any more people from the Yili faction in the cabinet. One Huang Zan is enough. As for Fei Hong and Liu Chun, they are not from the Yili faction. They are said to be neutral factions, but they still tend to favor the Great Rites and other issues.
The orthodox faction has never expressed too radical opinions on issues such as discussion of rituals.
Zhu Sidao said: "Is the position of right minister of the Ministry of Rites still vacant now?" He immediately came to the important point.
Things that had been inconclusive in court discussions in the past few times seemed to be settled at once today while Jiang Mian was taking office.
Many people were looking behind Zhang Cong, because there was Gui E who had just entered the court, and Gui E was very active in Nanjing. This time he rushed to the capital, clearly to grab the fruits of victory. Did the emperor want to
Let Gui E, who is from the Etiquette Sect, be the right minister of the Ministry of Rites?
If this is the case, then Zhang Cong, a scholar of the Hanlin Academy, and Gui E, the right minister of the Ministry of Rites, would form a two-pronged sword.