Chapter 148 The Case of Slandering the King (Part 2)
It was understandable that the emperor Lei Lei was outraged by this righteous bullet. Xiao Liangyu didn't find it strange. The strange thing was that Shen Yuanfu didn't seem to notice some of the details, and only included them in the draft.
I responded to the "slandering you" part of the bullet in a pragmatic way, which is a bit abnormal.
Xiao Liangyu thought for a while and really couldn't figure out the reason, so he looked through the subsequent memorials. Piao Yao and Zhu Pi read all the subsequent twenty-six similar bullets in succession, and then they realized that Shen Shixing might be a simple man.
I missed it.
The biggest commonality between these twenty-seven bullets is that they all impeach Gao Pragmatic's "Qi Yong Shu" for slandering the emperor. Xiao Liangyu estimates that this is the reason why Shen Yuanfu used the exact same ticket to affix it.
However, although Shen Yuanfu's draft is worthy of being called a master of Tai Chi, it ignores the subtle differences in the specific content of these bullets. Although most of these bullets use pragmatic slander as the biggest attack point, there are extremely
Some bullets are also mixed with other things.
The emperor also processed these twenty-seven bullet seals separately. Twenty-three of them were exactly the same, just two sentences and sixteen words:
"The words are alarmist, but the writing is exaggerated. I use Yuan to supplement my words, but I will forgive you now."
The first sentence does not need to be explained, but the meaning of the second sentence is "Because Yuan Fu's vote proposal suggests that I don't care about it, so I will let you go for now."
In other words, Shen Yuanfu's proposal was still very effective. Although the emperor felt that these people were talking nonsense and wanton, for Yuanfu's sake, he decided not to worry about it this time.
I don’t care about these twenty-three bullets, so what’s going on with the remaining four?
Naturally, we have to worry about the rest. As for the reason, the previous Zhu Pi has already said: What is your intention of being wild and superficial, making crazy nonsense, slandering the ministry, and alienating the monarch and his ministers?
The charge was obvious, including "defaming the ministry and alienating the monarch and his ministers." The charge could be big or small, depending on how the emperor understood the "degree of harm" involved.
The bullet that Xiao Liangyu saw just now was probably the one that the emperor considered to be the worst in nature and the most serious harm, so he punished it the most severely. He gave the direct and straightforward sentence: "Come to the town of Zhenfu and ask the Secretary to report it."
This is the most severe punishment for officials since becoming emperor.
However, "Zhu Xia Zhen Fu Si really inquires and reports" is only one of them, and Zhu's comments on the remaining three bullets are also different.
One of them is "Go to town to ask questions at Fusi", the other is "Reform for the people, leave the capital immediately", and the last one is "Demote three levels and transfer to a foreign post".
Even the person with the lightest punishment was demoted three levels in a row and transferred to another job - Gao Pangshi also received this punishment.
Of course, Gao Pangshi's situation was completely different from that of this official. He took the blame for the emperor that time, and because the Empress Dowager Cisheng did not explain to what position he was demoted, he was let go when he was demoted to a foreign post.
An important position with real power in the place, such as Guangxi's Inspector and Censor, turned out to be a blessing in disguise and achieved some miraculous achievements.
The ordinary downgraded foreign appointment was not as good as Gao Jingshi's, and the censor who impeached him was also different from Gao Jingshi's character at the time.
In the Ming Dynasty, like most dynasties, the official grades were "nine grades and eighteen grades". Among them, the supervisory censor was only the seventh grade, so downgrading one level was from the seventh grade, downgrading two levels was the eighth grade, and downgrading three levels was only the eighth grade.
From the eighth grade.
Starting from the eighth level, and only being able to work outside the country, your options are very limited.
The first-level yamen of the prefecture include the prefect of the fourth rank, the Tongzhi of the fifth rank, the general judge of the sixth rank, the official of the seventh rank, the experience of the eighth rank, the governor of the ninth rank, as well as the ninth-rank Zhaomo and the unqualified inspector, and the jailer.
——There is no position from the eighth grade.
At the prefecture-level yamen, there are only officials who know the state from the fifth rank, Tongzhi from the sixth rank, judges from the seventh rank, and officials from the ninth rank - there are no positions from the eighth rank.
At the county level, there are only seven-rank county magistrates, eight-rank county magistrates, nine-rank chief registrars, and those who have not yet entered the ranks of Dianshi - and there are no positions from the eighth rank.
Oops, what should I do?
Don't be afraid, there are still ways. The most direct one is to strictly follow the eighth-level job arrangement. Although the three-level yamen of the prefecture, state, and county do not have the eighth rank, then we will arrange to go to the province-that is, the chief envoy
Si Yamen.
In the Chengxuanzhengshisi Yamen, there is an organization called Chengxuanzhengshi Si Zhaomo Office, and its chief officer is called Zhaomo, and his rank is from eighth grade to perfect.
What if all the chief secretaries are full and cannot be arranged? Then let the Ministry of Civil Affairs check again to see if the "governor" with the lowest formal official position in the salt transfer department in each capital is full.
What should we do if these two positions are fully staffed? Then we have to be accommodating and follow the idea of "transferring one level up for officials outside Beijing". It is said to be downgraded by three levels, but in fact it is only used down two levels - strictly speaking,
The salary and other benefits are still downgraded by three levels, but the position gives him a "high allocation": if he is raised one level, he will be used according to the eighth level. It is impossible to find a position, because the position of the eighth level is still quite good.
Many.
The four impeachments were regarded by the emperor as "slandering the ministry and alienating the monarch and his ministers". The youngest initiator of the impeachment was "relegated three levels to foreign service", another was dismissed and expelled from the capital, and the remaining two unlucky ones were even impeached.
After passing the Sanfa Department, he was sent directly to the imperial edict.
What this means may not be determined for the time being, but I am afraid that the most lenient and peaceful era of government since Wanli has passed. For the first time, the emperor has really used the killing stick to show some people some color.
Judging from this result, Gao Pragmatic has won the first round of the "slander case".
He did nothing in this. He just followed the practice of the Ming Dynasty and locked himself in the palace without asking about political affairs. This led to such serious consequences. His weight in the emperor's mind was so important that no one would be able to do it again.
Suspect.
After all, Yan Guan's status is special. To deal with Yan Guan so harshly was the first time in the Wanli Dynasty, and it was not even once in the Wanli Dynasty that he promoted Mu Zong to Long Qing Dynasty! Only the Jiajing Dynasty had such thunderous methods earlier.
While Xiao Liangyu happily signed and stamped the Zhu batch on behalf of Hu Ke, he couldn't help but feel a little worried.
He always felt that the matter might not end so easily this time. Although the Xin School did not have an advantage among the higher-ups in the court, the situation had changed slightly: Wang Xijue might have arrived in Shandong and would be arriving in the capital in a few days.
Qi Fu returned to his new position; the Erlai Xin School still had an advantage among the middle and lower-level officials in the court, especially in the south, where it had a clear advantage.
It was hard for Xiao Liangyu to believe that the Xin School would immediately cry for father and mother and give in under the emperor's killing blow. Instead, it was very likely that they would launch a more powerful counterattack.
At this time, he had already sent the memorial away, but the more he thought about it, the more wrong it was. After hesitating again and again, he called his servant, quietly gave him some instructions, and let him go first.
Naturally, this servant's destination could not be anywhere else, but the "Shangshu Gaofu" in Jinggongfang, Zhaohui.
When the news about Xiao Liangyu came, Gao Jingshi had actually already known it. After all, the news that the Li Supervisor learned was equivalent to Gao Jingshi's defense, unless Huang Mengyu and Chen Ju believed that the news had nothing to do with Gao Jingshi.
However, the message sent to him by the Chief of Ceremonies only explained the situation and did not include any opinions. Xiao Liangyu added his own concerns.
Gao Pragmatic was completely understandable about Xiao Liangyu's concerns, because he also believed that the matter would not end so simply.
It was probably just an accident that Shen Shixing's ticket slipped through the net. Gao Pragmatic estimated that it was probably because there were too many bullets of the same type, so he didn't read the words carefully. After a few glances, he found that it said "slander you".
Then I wrote the voting plan according to the "standard answers".
This is understandable. After all, Shen Shixing, as the chief minister, cannot only read these memorials. There are still many government affairs waiting for him to deal with.
But in this way, we can in turn see the emperor's attitude towards this matter - Shen Shixing had many memorials to read, and the emperor had many memorials to read, but the emperor was carefully attracted by these memorials.
After reading the chapter, I was able to pick out four typical examples.
Perhaps, the emperor had already anticipated today's impeachment trend and had even made up his mind...
Gao Pragmatic is of course very pleased, but at the same time he is also a little alarmed.
On the one hand, the emperor's attitude of attaching great importance to Gao Pragmatism was naturally due to his importance, but on the other hand, it was also his emphasis on the changes that would be caused by placing Gao Pragmatism in the position of Minister of the Ministry of Revenue.
What changes does Zhu Yijun hope Gao Pingshi will bring about when he takes office as Minister of the Ministry of Revenue? The most direct and basic point is undoubtedly to ensure the smooth implementation of the ban on feudal vassals. The second step is to ensure the financial security of various places.
There will be another catastrophe caused by lack of money and food like the Northwest Rebellion.
Based on his understanding of Zhu Yijun, Gao Pragmatic estimated privately that Zhu Yijun could probably guess that he would find a way to deal with business tax after taking office, but... he probably didn't expect that he would take such a big step.
It’s not surprising that Gao Pragmatism has always advocated this. He often mentioned this idea when he was the prince’s companion to Zhu Yijun, and Zhu Yijun was very familiar with it. Not to mention his work at that time.
The imperial examination policy was also based on the collection of commercial taxes, which almost caused controversy in the imperial court at that time.
But Zhu Yijun most likely would not have guessed that Gao Pragmatic did not engage in roundabout encirclement this time, but directly punched him out - this is indeed inconsistent with Gao Pragmatic's style. In particular, if Gao Pragmatic had to propose any restructuring or reform in the past,
They will lay the groundwork long in advance and wait until everything is ready before stepping out to be the east wind.
The benefits of doing this are of course obvious. After all, there will be much less opposition and less pressure. Every measure is almost ready, saving time, effort and worry.
But this time, Gao Pragmatic was really "shaking the ancestral system" - he made it clear in "Qi Yong Shu": "This is not the reason why the independent tax law should be changed, but also the old system of accounting and accounting by the Ministry of Household and other government offices should be changed.
"
"It should change", "It should also be easier", isn't this a clear statement?
In this case, it is reasonable to arouse strong opposition.
Gao pragmatic felt that Zhu Yijun still chose to stand up for himself because he had been deeply influenced by him in the past ten years. Secondly, he had a strong desire to change the status quo. Thirdly... he was his personal employer.
It's a matter of habit.
If the Minister of the Ministry of Finance who had just been personally selected was extinguished by him at the first opportunity, it would obviously not be in line with his employment habits. Moreover, he would not be able to slap himself in the face so easily, even if he had to bite the bullet and pretend to be Song Dynasty's minister.
Shenzong, Gao Pragmatic, "Wang Anshi", he has to protect now.
However, Gao Pragmatic knows very well that this only shows that his current political situation is not dangerous, but it does not mean that he is always safe.
Whether it is safe or not depends on whether the fiscal reform is implemented smoothly and whether the dividends after the reform are abundant.
If the implementation of the reform is not smooth, or more seriously, if there is another big chaos like the Northwest Rebellion, it is difficult to say whether Zhu Yijun can continue to support it.
It is true that he is Gao Jingshi's classmate, but he is the emperor of the Ming Dynasty first. It is impossible for him to grit his teeth and refuse to let go despite the danger of chaos in the world. He insists on accompanying Gao Jingshi to die together, and at the same time, he takes the country and the country passed down from his ancestors.
Come to the funeral.
That's not an emperor, that's a fool.
It is also important whether the dividends after the reform are abundant. If after all the efforts to complete the reform, the annual income will only increase by 100,000 or 80,000 yuan, think about it and know that Zhu Yijun will definitely feel that it is not worth it.
.
Can the emperor feel regretful and be pragmatic? Even if he doesn't say it, his dependence on being pragmatic will be greatly reduced.
Fortunately, this is all a thing for another day. Gao Pragmatic is relatively confident in the "curative effect" of the commercial tax reform. The real difficulty lies in the implementation process.
Commercial tax reform is easy to handle in the north, but the difficulty lies in the south. Especially in Zhili and Zhejiang provinces in the south, it is the most difficult. What’s even more troublesome is that it is not under the direct control of the Ministry of Household Affairs - it has to go through the Nanjing Ministry of Household Affairs.
This makes it even more difficult.
While Gao Pragmatic was thinking, the fingers of his right hand tapped rhythmically on the armrest as a habit, and he didn't speak for a long time.
Liu Xin, who had been sitting not far from him, finally broke the silence and asked: "The emperor supports you so much, why don't you express your gratitude or something?"
Gao Pragmatic was startled for a moment, and then he laughed dumbly: "May I express my gratitude?"
Liu Xin was a little surprised by his reaction and asked, "Shouldn't it be?"
"Of course not." Gao pragmatic shook his head and said: "You really don't know much about these activities in the court. At this moment, not only can I not express my gratitude, I even have to go to the court to persuade the emperor to take back his life.
Don't punish those four unlucky guys."
Liu Xin was a little stunned, but as soon as she rolled her eyes, she seemed to understand again, and suddenly said: "Oh, this... is this playing hard to get?"
"No, it's not because of lust, it's because I really want to persuade you - you can understand that this is the tacit understanding within the civil service group." Gao Pragmatic smiled slightly and added: "But I just need to say it with emotion.
Whether the emperor accepts it or not is not something I can decide. What's more... the emperor also has his own understanding of this kind of memorial, do you understand?"
"Understood." Liu Xin reacted quickly this time and shrugged: "It's just a show, to show that you are noble and noble, and have a broad mind of repaying evil with kindness."
Gao pragmatic laughed loudly, and then joked: "Now that you know it, why are you still standing there? Go and study ink quickly. The main department wants to show my magnanimity and broad-mindedness of repaying evil with kindness..."
Liu Xin rolled her eyes at him, but she got up obediently and walked towards the study.
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