Chapter 24 Quantifying Political Achievements (Part 1)
The night's discussion did not come to a conclusion. Although Gao pragmatic knew that Gao Gong had indeed compromised once during this period in history and transferred Hai Rui, he was not sure whether Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng would still be the same after their discussions.
Old history.
Even if Hai Rui is still transferred, it does not mean that he has really given up. Historically, a few months later Gao Dang reversed his previous policy and attacked Xu Dang again, and the struggle between North Korea and China became more obvious.
What Gao Pangshi could never figure out was what happened in the months between the first and second wars, which caused Gao Dang, who had already given up attacking Xu Dang, to choose to go to war in the end.
If you really can't figure it out, you can only put it aside for a while, pay attention at all times, and respond immediately if the situation changes.
In addition to discussing two major events that night, each disciple also discussed a few "little things" respectively. Gao Pragmatic did not intend to interfere in some specific affairs of government at the moment. After all, Gao Gong had done a very good job in history, and
It would be abnormal for a child like him to act very familiar with specific matters. This requires a process, so he basically just listened and did not express any opinions.
But there was an episode that attracted Gao Pragmatic's attention. It was Tu Menggui's mention that Zhao Zhenji first avoided welcoming his teacher, and then had several private meetings with Li Chunfang. He treated his teacher as a college student and was in charge of the official department.
, it didn’t take long for Zhao Zhenji to take charge of the Metropolitan Procuratorate on Li Chunfang’s recommendation. There may be some connection between this.
Zhao Zhenji originally also had the responsibility of leading the Metropolitan Procuratorate, but that kind of leadership is different from "taking charge of the Metropolitan Procuratorate". The former situation is similar to a deputy mayor in later generations who is in charge of certain tasks. For example, the deputy mayor is in charge of public security.
But the "Capital Procuratorate" is equivalent to the deputy mayor also serving as the director of public security. The difference is actually very big.
Tu Menggui thought there might be some conspiracy here, and Li Chunfang might actually have sided with Zhao Zhenji.
Gao Pangshi agreed with this inference in his heart, otherwise it would not be possible to explain why Li Chunfang was so panicked after Zhao Zhenji's resignation in history, and finally resigned from office one after another and finally returned to his hometown as an official.
In fact, some historians in later generations put forward this idea after studying the late Longqing cabinet, but Gao Pragmatic was not clear about it. He inferred from another aspect: Li Chunfang's original political stance was close to Xu Jie's, and Zhao Zhenji was also from Xu Jie's faction.
Mingqi in the imperial court, so it is reasonable for Li Chunfang to get close to and even unite with Zhao Zhenji.
There are now a total of five ministers in the cabinet. Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng have always had similar political views and can be regarded as one faction. Li Chunfang and Zhao Zhenji can be regarded as another faction once they get close, while Chen Yiqin can be regarded as a neutral faction if they are not in agreement.
Is it possible that Li Chunfang is close to Zhao Zhenji? Of course.
Although Li Chunfang behaves like a good gentleman, no matter how good his temper is, he will definitely not be happy when he is the chief minister of the cabinet but does not have the power of the chief minister. After getting close to Zhao Zhenji, he will take advantage of the power of the Metropolitan Procuratorate controlled by Zhao Zhenji.
, Li Chunfang, the chief minister, is somewhat of a deterrent to the talents of hundreds of officials. As for Zhao Zhenji, who was suppressed too hard in the past few years and suddenly entered the cabinet this time, his foundation is naturally insufficient, so he needs the political resources left by Xu Jie
To lay a solid foundation, Li Chunfang, the first assistant, is needed to set up a banner and provide cover for him.
Li and Zhao have the foundation and the need to unite.
Thinking of this, Gao Pragmatic suddenly realized something: If Gao Gong attacked Xu Jie's party, wouldn't he actually be attacking Zhao Zhenji's political foundation? Then Li Chunfang would definitely not agree, so it makes sense for Li Chunfang to step up to protect Xu Jie -
- Not because he just wants to be a good gentleman, but because once Xu Jie falls, then Zhao Zhenji will probably fall too. Once Zhao Zhenji falls, Li Chunfang will really be just a nominal chief minister. As for him interceding for Xu Jie
However, Hai Rui directly attacked him. This was something that Haigangfeng was too awesome to do. In addition, Li Chunfang also knew that Chen Yiqin would not jump out to confront Gao Gong about this matter, because Chen Yiqin did the same to Xu Jie.
Somewhat dissatisfied.
Based on the original history, Gao Pragmatic knew very well that Chen Yiqin truly and consistently insisted that "a gentleman does not belong to the party", but here is the problem: there is a very difficult point in his insistence. He and Gao Gong are colleagues in Yufu, but
He and Zhao Zhenji are from the same hometown. No matter which side he leans on, the world will think that he is on the same side and opposes different people.
Unless Chen Yiqin changes his basic principles as an official, he can only remain neutral.
Then the cabinet becomes two versus two, and it looks like a deadlock.
But Gao Pragmatic knew in his heart that there were two unstable factors in this so-called deadlock.
The first unstable factor lies in Zhang Juzheng. This person seems to have always been on the side of Gao Gong. Even this time, he played a huge role in Gao Gong's restoration. However, the reason why he exerted great force to restore Gao Gong was that he wanted to
Gao Gong was used to deal with Zhao Zhenji. In fact, Zhang Juzheng was Xu Jie's favorite disciple, and the political resources left by Xu Jie were always regarded by him as part of his own strength. However, Zhao Zhenji's entry into the cabinet divided this power, which made
Zhang Juzheng was very dissatisfied. Perhaps Xu Jie's original intention at that time was to let Zhao Zhenji cooperate with Zhang Juzheng in the cabinet. Unexpectedly, Zhao Zhenji relied on his old age and regarded Zhang Juzheng as a junior. He bossed him around and even called Zhang Juzheng "Zhang Zi" in public.
Calling someone "Xiao Zhang" in modern times), Zhang Juzheng has always been ashamed to be inferior to others, so of course he cannot accept it.
Therefore, Zhang Juzheng stood on Gao Gong's side and encouraged Gao Gong to become a vanguard against Zhao. The reason was not that he sincerely respected Gao Gong as the leader, but that he used Gao Gong's character and Gao Gong's holy family to help him defeat the enemies within the faction. Once
Gao Gong successfully completed this mission, Zhang Juzheng must have turned his attention to Gao Gong every minute - this is what he did in history.
The second unstable factor is Gao Gong's holy family. The current cabinet is two to two. In fact, Gao Gong must actually have the advantage. This advantage is the holy family: the emperor obeys Gao Gong's words. However, only Gao Pragmatic knows in the world,
Emperor Longqing only had two years to live... He was only thirty-five years old when he died.
If Emperor Longqing is alive, Gao Gong will be the de facto chief assistant regardless of whether he is in the position of chief assistant or not. If Emperor Longqing dies, this kind of holy family will disappear immediately: whether the young emperor Wanli or the harem Empress Dowager Chen or Empress Dowager Li,
They did not have that kind of trust in Gao Gong that was close to family affection. When the time came, all the cabinet ministers would actually be on the same starting line, but the ones the harem really trusted were the eunuchs - the harem didn't know the cabinet ministers, so they had to trust the eunuchs. However, they trusted the eunuchs.
It does not mean that she trusts the eunuch Meng Chong at this time - he was recommended by Gao Gong and was not close to the two empress dowagers. Not to mention that Empress Dowager Chen had no intention of doing politics, and Empress Dowager Li wanted to quit politics because the emperor's son was underage.
That's not possible, and to do politics, one must control the Chief of Ceremonies, so replacing Meng Chong with Feng Bao by his side is almost an inevitable choice.
However, the biggest reason why Gao Gong refused to let Feng Bao serve as the Chief of Ceremonies in history was because Feng Bao was a close confidant of Concubine Li and the prince's "big companion". Once the prince ascended the throne in the future, Feng Bao might become the next Wang Zhen.
.
Gao Gong's "forecast" is certainly not unreasonable, because Wei Zhongxian later followed this path. As the chief assistant of a civil servant leader, suppressing eunuchs is a normal choice, especially for powerful eunuchs like Wang Zhen.
In the eyes of civil servants, this was absolutely unacceptable. But what Gao Gong did not expect was that because Feng Bao was a close confidant of Empress Dowager Li, and Empress Dowager Li was too strict with Wanli, Feng Bao could only act as a strict supervisor and
He did not establish a too close bond with Wanli. As a result, after Wanli took office, besides whipping Zhang Juzheng to death, the first thing he did was to banish Feng Bao - banishing him might have given Empress Dowager Li some face.