While Zhu Yijun was talking to Chen Ju, Gao Pragmatic was also discussing the current situation in Rixin Building. However, his main topic was no longer the emperor's trust in him, but more specific aspects. For example, the official affairs of the Ministry of Personnel
Whether the successor can continue to be successfully recommended by the Practical School, and what to do if the recommendation cannot be successful, etc.
Of course, it is not just matters concerning the imperial court that need to be discussed, some decisions made not long ago also need to be implemented, such as the finishing work of the Luzon strategy, the development of the Japanese strategy, especially the Kanto strategy, etc.
This was an internal meeting. Gao Pingshi and Huang Zhiting convened the meeting as lord and mistress. Liu Xin, who had just returned from Kaiping, presided over the meeting as secretary-general of the Beijing Secretariat.
Gao Guoyan, chief financial officer of Jinghua Bank and president of Jinghua Bank, Gao Mo, head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Cao Ke, secretary of commerce and trade, Erdemutu, military secretary, Ruan Fuyuan, Gao Wuzhong, financial secretary, Gao Qi, intelligence secretary, Gao Wuzheng, secretary-intern, Gao Wu
If you attend a meeting.
Except for Ma Yi, another trade secretary who had not yet arrived in Beijing and was absent, all members of the Beijing Secretariat attended the meeting. To a certain extent, this is also a manifestation of Liu Xin's previous strategy of "cabinetization of the Secretariat"
.
In addition, there was another person who was not qualified but was allowed to attend the meeting. He was the captain of the left-wing Hussars Luo Yuan, who had made great contributions in the previous Luzon naval battle.
Since Luzon no longer has many combat missions with the Beiyang Fleet, Luo Yuan, as the captain of the high-speed reconnaissance ship, began to act as a messenger. He had been ordered to return to Beijing twice before to report on the battle situation.
This time he returned to Beijing to report on the latest situation in Luzon. After that, Gao pragmatically ordered the "Left-wing Light Cavalry" to be parked in Tianjin Port and asked him to come to the capital to receive new orders. He arrived in Beijing the day before yesterday and was allowed to participate again today.
For a meeting of this level, everyone in Jinghua estimated that he was lucky enough to be promoted and re-employed by his master.
The meeting was actually divided into two parts. In the first half of the meeting, apart from Gao Pragmatic and his wife, only Liu Xin, Gao Guoyan, and Gao Mo participated, while in the second half, everyone participated.
The first half of the meeting was actually presided over by Gao Pangshi himself. He first briefly explained the changes in the court during this period and allowed everyone to speak freely.
It is worth noting that this is the first time such a situation has occurred within Jinghua, because in the past, matters related to the political arena were basically decided by Gao Jingshi alone. At most, Liu Xin would communicate with Gao Jingshi after coming to Beijing.
Huang Zhiting rarely asked about the details of the Ming Dynasty's officialdom in the past. She did so not only because she believed Gao Jingshi was capable of handling it, but also because she was worried that Gao Jingshi would be dissatisfied with her involvement in these matters.
Gao Mo has always been very aware of what Gao Jingshi has done - no matter whether it is in the imperial court, within Beijing, or in southern Xinjiang, Gao Jingshi seldom keeps secrets from him. However, as an intelligence chief, Gao Mo behaves very consciously.
As long as Gao Jingshi did not ask him for advice directly, he never expressed any opinions and just acted according to Gao Jingshi's instructions.
Gao Guoyan's status is quite high, because he is not only Gao Pragmatic's cousin, but also the financial director of Jinghua Bank, Hangzhou, and the de facto CEO of the Ming Dynasty Federal Reserve Bank, which has a great influence on finance.
After years of training, my abilities are professional enough.
However, the characteristic of his previous work was that he was only responsible for one person, Gao Pragmatic, and his jurisdiction was very clear, that is, he was only responsible for financial work and never participated in other projects. This was the first time he had participated in such a comprehensive meeting.
Or perhaps because he took care that Liu Xin had just returned from Kaiping, and Gao Guoyan had not been very involved in comprehensive affairs in the past, especially court affairs, Gao pragmatically gave a rather detailed introduction, which took more than half an hour.
When he allowed everyone to speak freely, Liu Xin, Gao Guoyan, and Gao Mo all turned their attention to Huang Zhiting first, but Huang Zhiting shook her head and said, "Tell me, I don't know much about the affairs of the imperial court."
Seeing that she didn't say anything, Liu Xin thought about it and found that she, the secretary-general, had no reason to shirk, so she said: "Since I think the emperor's 'test' is over, judging from the emperor's actions today, I think the emperor is doing this."
Promised - In fact, the emperor's move today, the so-called establishment of the Dingnan Protectorate, should be more of a promise like "Whoever restores Yanyun will be crowned king", rather than really intending to establish the Dingnan Protectorate now.
Protect the Mansion."
Gao Guoyan originally had little interest in government affairs, but after hearing this, he was a little confused and asked: "If it is just a promise, then why do it need to be made in the form of a decree? What's more, this decree has not been endorsed by the cabinet.
, it makes no sense at all.”
Liu Xin smiled and said: "The director is right. There is indeed no practical effect in issuing an order like this, but this is exactly what the emperor intended. First of all, the seriousness of an order is the highest. Saying this in the form of an order is considered to be correct.
This promise is a certain guarantee, and since it is an imperial edict, even if it is not endorsed by the cabinet, it must be sent to all ministries in the capital, so that everyone in the world will think that the emperor has such considerations.
Secondly, the imperial edict does not have the signature of the cabinet, so it cannot be effective, and it will inevitably cause a strong backlash from the cabinet. The director noted that this is exactly what the emperor is using, and he wants to use the strong backlash from the cabinet to veto him.
This edict."
"Why is it that it is very honorable to be returned from the cabinet by the cabinet?"
"It is true that you have lost face, but this way the emperor can have enough reasons to take back his life." Liu Xin laughed and said: "The emperor still needs me to do many things for him, so it is impossible to let me go now."
Go to southern Xinjiang and leave it alone. Even if he said in this imperial edict that he would let me "lead" the Dingnan Protector from afar, he actually asked his wife to know the affairs of the capital as deputy governor. But as one of the reasons for the master's refusal to be appointed,
'The Protectorate of Dingnan has a very important responsibility, so why should he take charge of it from afar'.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! So, this means that if I want to be appointed as the Protector of Dingnan, I must resign as the Secretary of the Ministry of Revenue and go to Southern Xinjiang in person. Do you think the Emperor can agree now?"
"That's impossible. The emperor will never let Rixin leave the center until Chahar is restored." This was almost absolute, so Gao Guoyan was persuaded by Liu Xin.
Gao Mo was more concerned about another point and asked thoughtfully: "The Secretary-General believes that the post of Dingnan Protector is a promise like 'whoever restores Yanyun will be crowned king'. Is there any other evidence for this besides the imperial decree itself?"
?”
"There is no actual evidence, I am just inferring, but I think this inference should be reasonable." Liu Xin replied.
Gao Mo said simply: "I would like to hear the details."
If you are willing to hear the details, then you have to ask Liu Xin for an explanation. Liu Xin has already mentioned the meaning of the imperial decree just now, and there is no need to mention it again at this time, so Liu Xin said: "No one else, but the powerful ear."
She paused and said: "Judging from the emperor's performance in recent years, he must be planning to be the master of the revival of the Ming Dynasty. In other words, he is to be a sage king. What is a sage king? Even Emperor Taizu,
Because of the massacre of heroes in his later years, the people in Shilin may not be sincerely regarded as a holy king.
As for Chengzu, no matter how much we emphasize the forced helplessness of launching the Battle of Jingnan, its nature and results will inevitably be regarded as a crime, a stain rather than an honor.
The second ancestor was not a saint, so Xuande and Hongzhi had no choice but to wait. Under such circumstances, if the emperor wanted to be called a saint in the future, all he needed was to pacify Mobei and destroy the remaining Yuan Dynasty.
In addition, you also need to show extraordinary ability in governing the world.
Everyone, if you can't properly handle the issue of heroes, it's hard to call yourself a saint, right? Judging from the current situation, my role as the commander-in-chief when the Ming Dynasty launched the decisive battle against Chahar is almost certain. Therefore, I think
, how to deal with the reward from the master in the future is already a major matter that the emperor has to consider, and the Dingnan Protectorate is probably the solution that the emperor has thought of. As for my strength...this seems to need no explanation. "
Gao Mo nodded and said, "What the Secretary-General said is true."
Huang Zhiting interrupted at this time and said: "I think this should be the best result, but if something unexpected happens...will there be a worse situation?"
Liu Xin pondered for a moment and replied: "It's not completely impossible, but I think it mainly depends on two conditions: one is the degree of strength and self-confidence the emperor has, and the other is Jinghua's strength when he completes the reward.
At what level.
These two conditions are variables, which means they are not set in stone. If when the emperor completes the reward, he thinks that he has enough strength to overwhelm the Dingnan Protectorate, then most likely he will not be too worried, at least under the Second Saint King
Under the temptation of words, he would insist on doing this even if he was worried.
On the other hand, if he feels that the strength of the Dingnan Protectorate can pose a huge threat to the Ming Dynasty before he completes the reward, then his decision may become very cautious and he may eventually give up. By that time
, it’s hard to say what kind of ‘bad situation’ will arise.”
"So how do you think the 'degree' in this should be mastered?" Huang Zhiting asked solemnly.
However, Liu Xin shook her head and said: "Answering this question requires a very deep understanding of the emperor. I cannot answer it. I think you are the most suitable person to answer this question."
Huang Zhiting had no choice but to look at Gao Jingshi, but she always felt that Gao Jingshi's judgment on the emperor was a little too optimistic, so there was a little worry in her eyes.
Gao pragmatic pondered: "This issue is actually very complex. I think it includes not only the balance of power mentioned by the Secretary-General, but also some influence. Usually I call the 'power' mentioned by the Secretary-General hard power, and
Some influences, including reputation, are called soft power.
Relatively speaking, hard power can be judged simply through data comparison, while soft power is much more complicated. For example, when Jianwen cut down the vassal vassal, he probably did not expect that many vassal kings would persist after the Battle of Jingnan broke out.
He had a wait-and-see attitude, because in his thinking, whatever the emperor wanted to do was allowed, and he had the right to do so, and the vassal kings everywhere should obey him unconditionally and support him unconditionally.
But the fact is that the vassal kings everywhere knew that King Yan was just the number one victim of the policy of reducing vassalage. Once Jianwen completed the reduction or suppression of King Yan, it would be their turn one by one.
Therefore, once there were signs that the imperial court might fail on the battlefield, their determination to obey the imperial court would be greatly shaken. And when King Yan invaded Nanjing, everyone quickly accepted that there would be no large-scale war at all.
Rebellious.
What did Chengzu rely on to achieve this? It was blood, ability, and achievements. When these things are accumulated together, it is prestige.
But prestige is difficult to accurately judge. For example, based on what the Secretary-General just said, how does the emperor judge his own prestige, and how does he judge my prestige among the government and the public? It is difficult to make an accurate prediction.
Estimated.
If after the victory in the decisive battle of Chahar, he thinks that he has returned home from all over the world and is the Holy Lord recognized by everyone in the world, then he will judge his own prestige very high, and accordingly he may judge my prestige low.
Some.
On the other hand, if after the decisive battle of Chahar, the people of Shilin only focus on promoting my so-called illustrious military exploits and ignore the role of the emperor's strategic planning and support for me, then it may lead to his lack of confidence.
In turn, he overestimates my prestige and at the same time overestimates the threat I pose to him."
Liu Xin was reminded by him and immediately said: "Oh, I understand what the master means. The master is saying that in the future, you should find a way to praise the emperor more and less about your own achievements, right?"
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Gao Pragmatic nodded and said: "Yes, that's exactly it."
Huang Zhiting hesitated and said: "Is this enough?"
Gao pragmatically spread his hands: "It's not enough to be natural. A multi-pronged approach is needed, but for me... this approach is the lowest cost."
Liu Xin almost laughed out loud when she heard this, coughed slightly to cover it up, and then said: "So, what should we do at this stage? I mean right now - the cabinet is going to knock on the door, and now I don't know what the outcome will be."
Gao Pingshi said: "The result is actually not difficult to guess: the emperor will try his best to appease the mood of the cabinet, but will be very embarrassed about withdrawing the order, but he will eventually withdraw the order and reach an agreement with the cabinet."
"What kind of agreement?" Huang Zhiting asked.
Gao pragmatic smiled and said: "I don't know the specifics, but we should probably take a step back. This is an old tradition, just like a group of people in a house. Originally, other people were quite satisfied with the house, but
If you say the light is too dark and insist on tearing down the wall, others will definitely disagree. At this time, someone will jump out and say, everyone should step back and open a window, and then you will reach an agreement."
Huang Zhiting had always been a little worried. After hearing this classic statement of Mr. Lu Xun's pragmatic application, she couldn't help but smile and said: "The master really sees things thoroughly."
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PS: When I posted this chapter, I realized that yesterday’s chapter was posted 1 minute late, after 0 o’clock, which is really embarrassing... But when I think about it, there is no perfect attendance award anyway, so it doesn’t seem to be a big deal. After all, I just posted it.
It's late, but it doesn't mean it won't be updated.
