The investigation to find suitable scholars from Guo Daxing County, attached to the capital, as "preparatory prince-in-law" candidates was quite important in the eyes of the emperor, but not particularly important in Gao Pragmatic's view. Anyway, he sent people out to make contacts, and slowly That's it for selection and observation.
After all, according to the information given to him by Zhu Yijun, it was enough to choose one person in the eighth year of Wanli. Because the wedding date of the three princesses was set by Empress Dowager Li in the ninth year of Wanli, there was plenty of time.
Gao Jingshi's current main task is to act as a lubricant between Guo Pu and Zhang Siwei. The purpose is to contribute to the overall stability of the court - okay, this is nonsense. The real purpose is to stabilize the overall situation of Gao Pangshi. , and don’t overly stimulate the Xinxue lineage.
These two purposes are generally in conflict.
If we want to stabilize the overall situation of the Party, it is not enough for Gao Pragmatic to come forward and do some internal lubrication. Internal lubrication can only temporarily cover up the contradictions, but cannot eliminate them in a profound way. To eliminate contradictions, or at least temporarily eliminate them, the key is Or there needs to be new cakes to distribute.
The so-called "Gao Party" is certainly a political group with practical learning as its guiding ideology, but practical learning only emphasizes application in the world, enriching the country and strengthening the army. It does not emphasize being a public servant of the people. Therefore, if the Gao Party wants to have cohesiveness, , we also need to make them feel that they have "a bright future", which is nothing more than a future, and a future is nothing more than promotion.
However, the official position system of the imperial court is always in the form of a pyramid. The higher you go up, the higher the position, and the fewer the positions. They are all carrots and pitfalls. If you want to make up for it, you will inevitably have to occupy other people's pitfalls. How can it be that easy? ?
If "others" retire and get out of the way, that's fine. But if someone is begging for nothing and refuses to retire or die, what can you do? It's not just a blank stare.
What's more, even if someone retires and becomes an official, or simply dies in office, and this hole is cleared, it doesn't necessarily have to be someone from your high-level party who takes over. Isn't there a big boss in the line of human psychology?
Besides, although the big bosses of the Xinxue lineage currently in power are not as favored as the Gao Dang of the Shixue lineage, the Xinxue lineage has far more disciples than Shixue - when did the Xinxue lineage rise?
But what about practical learning? From Qiu Jun to Wang Tingxiang, this was just the theoretical school of practical learning laying the foundation for practical learning. It was Gao Gong and Gao Xinzheng who really promoted practical learning to become known throughout the country. It was his administration in the past ten years. Only then did practical learning seem to be catching up. Even in the eyes of some people, with the continuous advancement of Gao Gong's New Deal, the effects of the New Deal were gradually praised by many scholars, and practical learning might even replace Xinxue and become the scholar Maybe Lin Xinchao will.
However, Gao Pragmatic feels that this view is still too optimistic. Gao Gong's new policy may not have a great impact on the interests of scholars from some families in the north where tax evasion is not too serious, but it will not have a great impact on some areas in the south. Scholars, the impact is too great. I am afraid it will be difficult for them to favor the New Deal just because of the benefits of "prospering the country and strengthening the people", regardless of the huge losses to their own families, or the huge losses of those sponsors who paid for his studies. loss.
But at the same time, some industrial and commercial owners who became rich due to the Gao Gong New Deal - such as maritime merchants, silk merchants, cotton merchants, porcelain merchants and even tea merchants, etc., had scholars from their families (the imperial examination for business registration had long been (opened), and the scholars they supported were definitely supporters of the Gao Party, and once they became officials, they would basically become Gao Party members.
The Gao Party, to put it bluntly, is the Party of Practical Learning and the Party of Reform.
However, these industrial and commercial proponents of the Gao Party have just started and have just enjoyed the dividends of the New Deal. They are not yet able to influence the top leaders, and the support they provide to the top leaders is still negligible.
Gao Pragmatic knew that it would take at least ten years for them to be able to help. Without this ten-year gestation period, they would not be able to provide much fresh blood to Gao's party.
Therefore, the Gao Party must stabilize itself in the next ten years. If it stabilizes, the Practical Learning Party will have a firm foothold in the Ming Dynasty's political arena; if it cannot stabilize, it may just be like in history, and the party will disintegrate and the people will perish and the government will cease.
In other words, the current Gao Party actually has a very weak foundation and relies entirely on the power of the imperial power. The Xinxue lineage is different, because the current Xinxue has long gone astray, and they are now just talking about it.
Conscience, in fact, is all about self-interest, so especially in the South, various ideas of supremacy of private rights have begun to appear.
For example, Li Zhi, the self-proclaimed heretic thinker, puts personal interests as supreme. Although his thoughts also include propositions such as the sanctity of private property, national interests are completely ignored. This is high pragmatism in any case.
Can't agree with that.
From a highly pragmatic point of view, private property is of course sacred and inviolable, but how can national interests be ignored? If national interests cannot be protected, how can you guarantee your private property? If the country cannot raise troops or provide disaster relief, what kind of private property is there?
Can there be security?
Ask the people near the towns in Jiubian, do they think it is a good thing that the country cannot support the army? Ask the people in the prefectures and counties in the north that have been plundered by refugees, do they think it is a good thing that the country cannot provide disaster relief? That is.
The South is neither suffering from foreign invasion nor suffering from the Little Glacier disaster, so it has no personal experience with these pains. It thinks about its own little profits all day long, and even resists the almost non-existent low taxes.
Endless.
So to put it bluntly, the imperial court is now nothing more than a dispute between practical learning and spiritual learning. Being pragmatic is actually to pull some from the position occupied by the spiritual learning line to the plate of the practical learning line, and not to force it too hard.
, causing the court to fall into serious intra-party strife.
This is the most testing method. It must not only show the strength of Gao Dang, but also leave a slight leeway, and slowly change the strength comparison between the two parties in the way of boiling a frog in warm water.
Therefore, after careful discussions with Guo Pu and Zhang Siwei, the first assistant Guo Pu came forward to make the memorial, and the memorial to Wu Dui, then the governor of Xuanda, as the minister of the Ministry of War was the first to be submitted to the emperor's desk.
In fact, in the eyes of the government and the public, Wu Dui's other qualifications are sufficient, but he has a disadvantage, that is, his time as governor is too short. Compared with some previous ministers of the Ministry of War, Wu Dui has only been appointed governor of Xuanda for only two years.
, it’s really a bit too short.
However, the emperor still chose to support the cabinet and the chief minister as always. Just one day later, Zhu approved: "According to the vote, Wu Dui will be promoted to Minister of the Ministry of War."
Next, Wu Dui's resignation came one after another. He just claimed that he was too inexperienced to take on the heavy responsibility of the army, and asked the emperor to take back his order.
It is impossible to take back his life, not to mention that Wu Dui's resignation is nothing more than some doubts about the government and the opposition, and he has to go ahead. Zhu Yijun is not unaware of it.
Therefore, the emperor's imperial edict was issued immediately. First, he greatly praised Wu Dui's previous achievements, especially his role in promoting the tribute issue, and his contact with the Mongolian right wing after the tribute was completed. In the emperor's opinion, It is "effective", so "I will not resign, but should take up my post immediately."
Wu Dui had already received Gao Pangshi's notice, so there was no problem in taking up his post immediately. After a little tidying up, he left the Xuanda border where he had stayed for nearly ten years (he first served as the governor of Xuanfu for several years, and later took over as the governor of Xuanda). , Shi Shiran came to Beijing to take up his new post.
With Wu Dui's appointment as Minister of War being finalized, Gao Dang's second step was about to begin, which was to ask the emperor to add cabinet ministers to the throne, with Guo Pu still coming forward and Zhang Siwei seconding the proposal.