In the western suburbs of the capital, see Xin Zhai.
The current Jianxinzhai is four to five times larger than when the emperor gave it to Gao Jingshi. However, although the area is larger, the number of buildings inside has not increased much. Only two small buildings have been added to the original building complex.
, separated by two courtyards.
The first one is in the west wing. It is more exquisitely built but elegantly furnished and simple. It is for the teacher Guo Pu.
The first room in the east chamber is more grandly built, but the furnishings are not worthy of Gao Yude's reputation as a money-spreading boy - not to mention anything else, just talking about the furniture inside, there is not a single piece of precious rosewood from the south.
Even the pineapple flowers and trees, which were not uncommon in the Ming Dynasty, were not used.
The furniture here at Gao Pragmatism is all made of oak, which is more common in the north. In fact, oak is not a bad wood. Maybe many people have never heard of oak, so you can mention its other name, which is "
"Oak" - Anyone who knows the history of the British Royal Navy will certainly not be unfamiliar with this word.
Of course, making oak furniture is not pragmatic. In order to save money, he will not lack this wood. After all, this is in the Ming Dynasty, and the wood is still guaranteed. Even if it is rosewood and yellow pear rosewood from the south, it is easy to get. He uses oak.
The reason for making furniture is that he has specially mobilized a group of carpenters to become familiar with the properties of oak and lay a foundation for future shipbuilding.
Not only that, Gao Pragmatic even transplanted a few large oak trees in Jian Xinzhai to remind himself not to forget this matter.
The size of Jianxinzhai has expanded a lot, but Gao Pragmatic has vacated a large piece of white land and has not started construction, so the current Jianxinzhai looks a bit empty. Looking eastward from the east wing where he usually lives
, that is the empty space.
There is a three-story building in the east wing called Shouxin Building, which is Gao Pragmatic's daily residence. The third floor is his bedroom, the second floor is the study room, and the first floor is the reception hall.
Although Gao Yude himself has no rank or rank, perhaps no one dares to treat him as a rank-and-file idle official. After all, he is not called Xiaoge Lao for nothing. Generally speaking, people who can come to see Gao Yude will be in the capital.
They must all be considered number one. But even so, most of these people can only go to the flower hall on the first floor.
However, today, Gao Pragmatic met a visitor on the second floor of Shouxin Building.
This person is none other than Huang Mengyu, the former Datong garrison eunuch who came to the capital from Datong overnight.
Huang Mengyu is a man who is rough but fine. Gao Pragmatic has known this for a long time, so he was not very surprised that Huang Mengyu didn't even enter the capital gate after coming to Beijing, but came directly to see Xinzhai first to pay homage to him.
As for Huang Mengyu's attitude, Gao Pragmatic is even more satisfied - Huang Mengyu's greeting card clearly says "Huang, the lackey of Mu En's family, bows a hundred times."
Huang Mengyu was a eunuch, but he wrote this greeting letter in a way that a military commander would face a civil servant. This is of course very particular.
Eunuchs are the emperor's domestic slaves, and of course they should not become the "stooges" of a certain civil servant. That is purely taboo. But Huang Mengyu is different. He was born as a border army guard. According to the custom of the Ming Dynasty, such eunuchs would
When making submissions to the court, you can also call yourself "chen", as Zheng He did back then.
Here, eunuchs regard themselves as ministers, and the court recognizes them as such. Of course, ministers also have civil and military distinctions, but according to Zhu Yuanzhang's ancestral precepts, eunuchs are not allowed to study. Even though this rule was broken long ago,
If eunuch Bingbi doesn't study, how can he be praised?
But even so, although the guard eunuchs were doing the job of supervising the army, their status was still regarded as similar to that of military ministers - it was impossible for civil servants to regard eunuchs as equals to themselves.
Therefore, Huang Mengyu played a trick here and used the same kind of greetings as the military ministers were accustomed to to express his position.
But what best illustrates Huang Mengyu's far-sightedness is not his self-effacement, but the fact that he did not hand such a greeting to Gao Gong like most people would, but handed it to Gao Pragmatic.
It stands to reason that Gao Gong is the emperor's master, the chief assistant of the cabinet and the official in charge. After all, Huang Mengyu has been promoted to the capital and has returned to the capital to be the director of rituals. Eunuch Bingbi has come, and his status in the inner court is roughly equivalent to that of the cabinet.
Qun Fu. With such an identity, even if a certificate of nomination is required, it should be handed over to Gao Gong as a matter of course.
But he did not hand it to Gao Gong, but directly handed such a greeting note that could not be taken lightly to the "impeccable" Gao pragmatism.
Gao Pingshi couldn't help but sigh in his heart: If Meng Chong had the overall situation and long-term vision of Huang Mengyu, how could he be like that in the original history? As soon as Long Qing died, he was immediately replaced by Feng Bao, and disappeared from the annals of history.
?
Huang Mengyu's approach not only has a long-term vision, but also knows that he will not get much promotion opportunities in the position of eunuch Bingbi soon. He must slowly polish his qualifications and deepen the emperor's family's understanding and trust of him. This is
It will take at least several years or even more than ten years, so it is not absolutely necessary to rush to Gao Gong - even if everything goes well for Gao Gong at that time, it will be almost time for Gao Gong to retire when he is old.
At the same time, this approach is very decisive, because it is betting on Gao Pragmatic, and Gao Pragmatic is only ten years old!
Normally speaking, even if Gao Qiang is unparalleled in academics and has a smooth career, if this bet continues, it will probably take more than ten years to get a chance to get back the money.
Therefore, this is a big bet! What he is betting on is that the time when the two generations of Gao Gong and Gao Pragmatic have been in politics can be connected, or even if their uncle and nephew cannot achieve seamless connection, then at least there can be some relationship between them.
People with "high party" can make a transition.
Gao Jingshi was indeed prepared for this, so he urged Gao Gong to recall Guo Pu to the capital to revolt, because historically Guo Pu lived until the 21st year of Wanli!
But why is Huang Mengyu so sure? There is a misunderstanding here: in Huang Mengyu's eyes, the connecting figure between the two generations of Gao Dang is not Guo Pu, who is slightly older than Gao Gong, but Gao's pragmatic Qin Da
Uncle Zhang Siwei!
In Huang Mengyu's view, the first reason why Gao Gong recalled Guo Pu to the capital to revolt was to continue to strengthen Gao Dang's ability to control the cabinet, and the second reason was to pave the way for recommending Zhang Siwei to the cabinet!
As we all know, although the number of cabinets is not customized, generally speaking, it is usually four to five people. But now there are only three people left in the cabinet: Gao Gong, Guo Pu, and Zhang Juzheng.
In fact, Huang Mengyu vaguely felt that the relationship between Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng was not as good and close as the outside rumors. This was something Huang Mengyu felt when Gao Gong asked Guo Pu to take charge of the "purge of post roads" proposed by Gao Pingshi Shangshu.
Suspect.
However, even if there is no discord between Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng, and the two are really close and good allies, it doesn't matter, because the cabinet is still short of members, and at least one person should be able to make up for it, and in Huang Mengyu's opinion, this person
Nine times out of ten, it should be Zhang Siwei.
Zhang Siwei is the best connector between the two generations of the high party in terms of age, seniority, closeness and even governing philosophy. Therefore, Huang Mengyu made up a timetable for the cabinet to take power:
If Gao Gong had become an official at the age of seventy as usual, it would have been eleven or twelve years later. Gao Jingshi was already in his early twenties at that time. According to the level of his performance in this Taoist examination, he would have been on the gold list and officially entered the official career.
At this time, Gao Gong could rest assured and become an official, so he pushed Zhang Siwei up. Zhang Siwei was about fifty-seven years old at this time. Then Gao Gong continued to work until he became an official at the age of seventy. Then another twelve or thirteen years passed.
Jingji was about thirty-three years old at this time. Gao Jingshi was favored by the Holy Spirit and was a prince's companion. If he had been admitted to the Jinshi School early, he would have been fully qualified to join the cabinet at this age!
Huang Mengyu himself is only thirty-one years old this year. He will be in his early fifties after more than twenty years. Although he is already a grandfather to the people, for people in the officialdom, this is simply the golden age. When the time comes, there will be another one, both inside and outside.
Combined, are you still afraid that you won't have the chance to do this?
Even if you are lucky, you might be able to get what you want in the Zhang Siwei era!
Thinking of this, Huang Mengyu's gratitude to Gao Pragmatic became even more real, and he said respectfully: "Shidu, you also know that I, Old Huang, have been in the border town for a long time, and I don't know much about things in Beijing. This time I have to ask Shidu
He Yuanfu favored me and was able to return to Shenjing. Lao Huang is really grateful in his heart, but... I don't know what to do to live up to your expectations. I hope I can give you some advice."
He didn't call Gao Jingshi "Yude", not because he didn't know that Yude was the Crown Prince's palace official, and Gao Jingshi had a more promising future than Shidu, but because this "Shidu" could show that he and Gao Jingshi got acquainted.
Good morning, it's an old friend.
Gao pragmatic smiled, and he no longer pretended to be polite to a smart man like Huang Mengyu, and said directly: "Old Huang, you have a few tasks, but we can talk about the other ones later, the most important one
But you have to remember it now."
"Please read and give me some advice." Huang Mengyu nodded repeatedly, pretending to be listening attentively.
Gao Jingshi looked directly into his eyes and said slowly: "Go against Feng Bao and make him think that you are the person we transferred back to the capital to replace him, and try to make him focus all his energy on you."