Chapter 21 Chapter 21 Purge dissidents
Shen Shixing has full confidence and confidence in the operation of the "Jingcha" - he has been in the officialdom for more than 20 years, he is familiar with the past affairs of the dynasty, and he is familiar with every "Jingcha" that happened in the past. The situation, its ins and outs, the cause and effect, are all clear to the chest; I have also experienced several times of Beijing inspections, and learned a lot of officialdom knowledge that is not available in books from the turbulent waves.
For example, during the Beijing inspection six years ago, he witnessed Zhang Juzheng's "manipulation skills", using several methods alternately, and easily eliminated dissidents...
According to the system of this dynasty, the Ministry of Officials is in charge of the promotion and promotion of officials, and the power of employing people in the country; Overlapping, it has long been common for you to fight over each other, coupled with the intervention of the officials responsible for supervision and impeachment and the eunuchs in the inner palace, the situation of power struggle became more complicated; As the Minister of the Ministry of Officials, the power of personnel affairs was concentrated in his hands alone; Zhang Juzheng who followed was even more "grasp" and became the most powerful chief assistant of this dynasty since the founding of the country!
However, no matter how incomparable the power was at that time, it is a thing of the past after all; Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng are long gone, and the current chief assistant is him——Shen Shixing—who is sitting in the seat of the chief assistant in real life, This is an iron fact; and based on this fact, he also clearly believes that he should also have the real power of the chief assistant like Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng.
Of course, he also sees everything in the real environment very clearly; the current situation is quite different from the previous few years, from the coming of age of Emperor Wanli to the reactions of the officials and the people. It was very different when Zhang Juzheng was in the country; therefore, if he wanted to consolidate his position and obtain the power he wanted, he could no longer adopt the methods of Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng, but had to adopt a new, A method suitable for the current environment has come out.
"According to the time, according to the time..."
He quietly said to himself in his heart: "You have to adapt to the time, and don't sail against the current - the world is like a chess game, you can't make a mistake in every step!"
He assessed his situation prudently and humbly. According to the most conservative estimate, there are between 60 and 70% of the people who oppose him in the court; however, he also has a strong backing, that is, Emperor Wanli's " "Holy Family"—Based on his support for Emperor Wanli's suspending the early dynasty, Jingyan, and daily lectures, building mausoleums for him, and raising taxes, Emperor Wanli was deeply satisfied with his loyalty. On the matter of storage, he will stand on the side of Emperor Wanli again. He believes that his "sacred family" can still maintain it for a not short period of time!
And with the backing of the "holy family", it is much easier to deal with those who oppose him-this time the "Jingcha" is an excellent tool.
After months of detailed, iterative thinking, his "adaptive" approach emerged.
Based on the fact that Zhang Juzheng was attacked after his death, and even became a "stone from another mountain" that left his descendants, he decided to use the opposite method to Zhang Juzheng to monopolize power; The set of measures formulated to rectify the administration of officials has been put on the shelf, and this time the Jingchao is just continuing this principle; Zhang Juzheng has strict requirements for officials all over the country to have extremely high administrative efficiency and extremely clean individuals. Integrity, loyal attitude of obedience, and strict implementation of impeachment, supervision and other procedures, mercilessly give promotion or demote; Try to let them live comfortably in their current positions.
"The water is so clear that there are no fish..."
He thinks this is the best speech he can declare to the outside world. It can show his magnanimity, he can tolerate the small shortcomings of subordinate officials, forgive their small faults, ignore their opinions against him, and give them a chance to reform. .
Of course, more importantly, this is an excellent smoke screen - when using the method of "not dealing with him" to deal with all those who oppose him, it can first stabilize the emotions of these people, and reduce the voice of opposition, which will also serve as a countermeasure for the people who oppose him. He has earned a reputation for magnanimity; and under the cover of these multiple functions, it will not attract too much attention if he picks out a few confidantes from the blacklist of opponents to beat them down.
He believes that his method of attacking and eliminating dissidents is much more clever than that of Zhang Juzheng; Zhang Juzheng has a straight temper, and he only knows how to suppress opinions that oppose him, but does not know how to use this kind of superficial generosity, which is actually a roundabout way. The strategy of killing and killing——Thinking of this, a smug smile appeared on the corner of his mouth, which added a touch of weirdness to his wrinkled face. It got thicker, and a voice quietly rose from the heart to the throat and muttered: "Xu Guo, Wang Xijue, Wang Jiaping—let's wait and see what the old man's methods are. Sit on the bench in the cabinet; this time, the old man will kill a few younger ones first—see if you can respond to everything in the future!"
His strategy is very clear. Among all the officials who opposed him in the DPRK, he neither dealt with the first-rank or second-rank officials, nor ignored the large number of lower-level officials. The important middle-level officials should be purged; this not only narrows the attack area, but also empties the higher-level officials after the event is completed, and makes it impossible to connect the upper and lower levels because of the lack of middle-level officials. These opposition groups will always be in a state of disunity.
Among the mid-level officials, there were two obvious targets who had been hidden and hidden forces, and he had observed for a long time, namely Luo Yuren and Gu Xiancheng.
However, after careful consideration during this period of time, he decided to abandon Luo Yuren and only target Gu Xiancheng—even though Gu Xiancheng was still his student in name: "Luo Yuren yelled endlessly, and his spirit was more important than his own. Essence - this kind of person is nothing to worry about except talking loudly, and can't do anything famous; Gu Xiancheng is not like that..."
He is well-versed in the world, and he is confident that he will not miss people when he sees people; Solid and rigorous education and near-perfect character and morality are increasingly respected. In the opposing camp, although he is young and his official position is not high, his influence and leadership qualities have begun to show.
"A dog that bites doesn't bark—it's effortless to pull the weeds before they're fully grown!"
After making up his mind, he also began to plan the steps in detail; first, he approached Zou Yuanbiao, a friend of Gu Xiancheng who has been in close contact with him recently.
In terms of relationship, Zou Yuanbiao was originally his protégé, and had been taken care of by him in the past—Zou Yuanbiao was a Jinshi in the fifth year of Wanli. Because Shangshu opposed Zhang Juzheng's "taking love", he was demoted by the imperial staff and was not recalled until after Zhang Juzheng's death. Ren Li Kegei Shizhong - Zou Yuanbiao is good at reading, has a straightforward personality, and became friends with Gu Xiancheng because of his similar temperament; therefore, he decided to use the friendship between teachers and students to win over Zou Yuanbiao and make him stand on his side. To weaken Gu Xiancheng's power.
Secondly, he began to use his status as chief assistant to put pressure on the several units and those who presided over the inspection. Officials are given to Shizhong, Yushi of Henan Dao, and Wenxuan Langzhong of the Ministry of Officials—he hinted to them that they should handle the Beijing inspection this time according to his wishes.The current Minister of the Ministry of Officials, Yang Wei, belongs to him, and he is fully sure that the other people are under the Minister of the Ministry of Officials, and they are suppressed from above, so they are not afraid of being disobedient.
Unexpectedly, things went a little out of control, which was beyond his expectation; the capital censor Xin Zixiu didn't like him, and Xin Zixiu's reply to his hint was: "At present, the rule of officials is getting worse, and the style of officials is getting worse. Bad; fortunately, it is the year of the 'Jingcha', only strict rectification can revive the decline and bring about the disadvantages--the salary of the lower officials and the emperor should be loyal to the emperor, and the code of the 'Jingcha' can only be dealt with impartially!"
Hearing such a reply, Shen Shixing was so angry that he drooped a few sparse beards and stood still for a long time without any wind. His heart was burning with anger, and he uttered hatred in his mouth: "Toast, don't eat, eat fine wine - those who don't know how to praise Things, the old man will take care of you together!"
So, he pre-emptively found Chen Yujiao, who had always been obedient to him, and asked him to attack Xin Zixiu.
In this way, a turmoil emerged from the dark tide to the surface, causing fierce shocks; in the name of "Jingcha", the practice of power struggle and elimination of dissidents reappeared on the court as before...
It's a pity that, as the king of a country, Emperor Wanli didn't care much about these political struggles in the court; he didn't understand the aspirations of the ministers, and of course he didn't know the relationship between them. Consider the consequences of what political struggles?
He is only full of disgust for his courtiers, because they interfere with his private life, especially the two aspects of wife and son!
He wanted to make Concubine Zheng the empress but couldn't, and he wanted to make Chang Xun the crown prince but couldn't—these two things were in his heart, which made him extremely distressed, especially since Chang Xun showed his "grandfather" in "Zhou Zhou". After the behavior of "the real son of heaven", he felt more and more that it was God's will and his will to establish Chang Xun as the crown prince. Why should the ministers object?
In an instant, the helplessness of "not being able to do what one wants" that had occupied his heart since he was a child became full again, together with the feeling of emptiness, loneliness and helplessness that had tortured him for a long time came back to his heart - in the Being an emperor in the emperor's house is already the greatest misfortune in his life; since he was a child, he has neither received father's love, mother's love, nor friends, and the eunuchs around him are sent by his mother to monitor him. The minister who is also a strict teacher forces him to study every day, and teaches him to be a perfect king with a straight face!
He has never enjoyed or received love, and his heart has been in emptiness for a long time; he did not enjoy the taste of love until Concubine Zheng walked into his life-but now, the ministers of the Manchu Dynasty are united. Get up, vigorously interfere and destroy this sweet love.
"Why? Why do they interfere with this?"
He thought angrily in his heart: "It has nothing to do with the country's major affairs, nor the people of the Li people—and, I am the emperor, I should be in charge of the affairs of the whole country, why should I even like which concubine, which one? Son, you have to let them talk endlessly?"
The more he thinks about it, the angrier he gets, love is subjective, he has no way to decide what he loves based on other people's opinions; the Queen Mother of the Two Palaces chose the Queen Mother, he has no feelings for her at all, Concubine Wang Gong just happened to vent his desire The object is equally unemotional. He doesn't think that they have the conditions of "according to the etiquette and law of the dynasty" or "giving birth to the eldest son of the emperor", so he must pay love to them; and Chang Luo is just older than Chang Xun. He was only born some time ago, and if he occupies the position of the eldest son, must he receive more love from his father, so as to become the heir to the throne?
He stubbornly believed that the love and weight in his heart could not be interfered with, so he acted angrily as if he had never had any feelings for the three people, Queen Wang, Concubine Wang Gong and Chang Luo, and he yelled in his heart: "I don't love you, I don't love you, I just don't love you guys——I just want to show those old stubborn people my love for Rou Yun and Chang Xun!"
However, in such a situation, he couldn't be happy even when facing Concubine Zheng and Chang Xun—he began to feel that Concubine Zheng always put pressure on him, urging him to complete her as soon as possible. Empress, made Chang Xun the promise of the crown prince; but when facing Chang Xun's innocent and lovely face, what arose in his heart was the guilt of not being able to resolve the objections of the ministers and making him the crown prince.
As a result, he became very unhappy, without a smile on his face, he didn’t care about others, and he couldn’t cheer up to have fun; every day he just drank wine alone, drunk and fell asleep, and then got himself drunk after waking up For several days, even Concubine Zheng did not see him.
The smart, kind and considerate Concubine Zheng naturally guessed that his emotions were at the bottom; she knew Emperor Wanli, and knew that in such a situation, the only way for him was to create an extremely novel and exciting experience for him, which he had never tried before. Only those things that can attract his heart and arouse his investment can save his emotions and make him realize the joy of life again and forget all troubles.
However, after thinking hard all day and night, she found nothing - all the ways of playing she could think of had already been contributed, and she couldn't think of any new ideas anymore.
So, she secretly asked her younger brother Zheng Guotai to discuss it.
Zheng Guotai is only two years younger than her, and he has grown into a handsome young man. Because he was born in a wealthy salt merchant family, and "brothers are more expensive than his sisters", he has become a prominent relative of the emperor. Therefore, although he is not quite young He is big, but he is already a veteran in all aspects of eating, drinking, and entertainment, and few people can match his threshold of excellence; therefore, when he heard Zheng Guifei asked him to think of a new way of entertainment for Emperor Wanli to relieve his worries and boredom, his heart was full of emotions. Immediately he had an idea, and unconsciously formed a slightly sinister smile on his face, squinting at Zheng Guifei and said: "My concubine and sister, men like the new and dislike the old, is it possible that I, the emperor's brother-in-law, will be an exception? Is it? It's very easy to do, find some other people to serve him, and make sure he feels fresh and exciting!"
However, Concubine Zheng disapproved of this idea, she pouted her mouth, shook her head and said, "Not good—there are already enough beauties in the harem, if you find some more for him, you will have to share some of his heart; and , when the next bunch of princes are born, maybe even Chang Xun's share will be divided in half!"
Zheng Guotai narrowed his eyes, and smiled even more sinisterly: "No, no—Sister Guifei, you can rest assured, the person I am looking for will not only not separate you My favorite, I can't give birth to a prince to grab Chang Xun's seat!"
As he spoke, he supported Concubine Zheng's shoulders, leaned over to her ear and whispered a long paragraph of words, Concubine Zheng couldn't help giggling while listening, and when he finished speaking, she stretched out her hand and twisted her mouth. Touched his cheek, spat at him with a smile: "You little brat, be careful that you can't have a son!"
Zheng Guotai smiled and said, "Aren't you hoping that my emperor's brother-in-law will not have a son with another woman?"
The sisters and brothers chatted and laughed for a while, and Zheng Guotai resigned in such an ambiguous atmosphere; on the second day, he really brought two men who he was using to honor the "emperor's brother-in-law" and resigned. At that time, he brought more than a dozen beautiful young eunuchs back to teach him.
The two men he brought, one named Ke Yan and the other named Xiaoyu, were only twelve or thirteen-year-old boys, but their watery eyes were more charming than women's, and their stature was thinner. She behaves politely, her cheeks are white and tender, her hands are more like water onions, she speaks softly, and her demeanor is full of youthfulness, so that Concubine Zheng can't help but her heart flutters; she knows in her heart that such a child molester is not Naturally born stunners, but those who have taken special medicine, received special training, and are dedicated to serving people, I couldn't help but look at them a few more times, and a thought arose in my heart: "Even when I saw them, I felt that they were so beautiful." Mei—let alone Long Live Lord?"
Thinking that these two people would firmly grasp Emperor Wanli's heart, her heart suddenly became jealous; but after thinking about it again, these two people were men and women, and they were just playthings. Not being able to give birth to a prince will not affect her and Chang Xun's status at all; what's more, these two people come from her mother's family, and it is natural for them to obey her orders. They have grasped the heart of Emperor Wanli, so they are not working for her Woolen cloth?From now on, his influence in the palace will only be bigger and wider...
Thinking of this, her heart suddenly brightened, and she immediately changed her face. She comforted Ke Yan and Xiaoyu with nice words, and rewarded them with some gold and silver. The two of them were sent to serve Emperor Wanli.
After the Wanli Emperor tried it, he was really happy—the unprecedented freshness, excitement, and specialness brought him a strange sensory experience; he was young and full of blood, and immediately fell into this ecstasy; thus, a whole At the end of the month, no matter day or night, he embraced Keyan on the left and Xiaoyu on the right, enjoying the joy of breaking Yu Tao's sleeve to his heart's content. He forgot all about state affairs, Beijing inspection, and the dispute over the establishment of the reserve.
Therefore, Shen Shihang has gained a larger and more free operating space, and can use "Jingcha" to purge dissidents as it pleases...
When Chen Yujiao received instructions from Shen Shixing and began to secretly plan to attack Xin Zixiu, Xin Zixiu, who "handled it impartially", was already preparing to publicly handle the impeachment case of He Qiming, the minister of the Ministry of Industry; Jiao took advantage of this opportunity, and he immediately pursued the matter. In essence, he secretly sheltered He Qiming and attacked Xin Zixiu with all his strength. Therefore, the two ended up "together with each other" and were dismissed together. and the other four censors who impeached He Qiming were accused and punished.
Seeing Shen Shixing's behavior and process of purging dissidents under the signboard of "lenient and tolerant" on the surface, in order to achieve his personal goal of dictatorship, the upright and upright Gu Xiancheng couldn't hold back, and Shangshu criticized this. and accuses Shen Shixing of these acts of eliminating dissidents and harming the country and the people in a long speech.
However, this time he just fell into the trap that Shen Shihang had already set up - Gu Xiancheng, who had only been in politics for only a few years, compared with Shen Shixing, who had been in the dirty and dark political arena for more than 20 years. Just "political skills" is a world of difference, not to mention all kinds of fighting techniques?
As a result, "a letter from the court to the nine heavens, and eight thousand to the Chaoyang Road in the evening" - Gu Xiancheng's book was immediately convicted and severely criticized, and the punishment he received was to become the magistrate of Guiyang Prefecture.
When receiving the order to demote an official, Gu Xiancheng was silent for a long time, calmed down the many rushing thoughts in his heart, and sorted out some thoughts disturbed by the news; then, he let out a long breath, and straightened He straightened his clothes, stared deeply at Zhao Nanxing, Zou Yuanbiao and other friends who came to comfort him after hearing the news, and his younger brother Gu Yuncheng, and then slowly said: "In the past, Mr. Yangming was demoted to Longchang. The station, so it is to learn and think hard, is to become a great scholar; Xiancheng dare not compare himself to Mr. Yangming, but, "the mountains stand still, and the scenery walks only", he should follow the example of the sages and sages; To be poor is to learn by oneself, this is the aspiration that our generation of scholars should hold; so Xiancheng will go here, and will not think of being demoted, but only study and learn as his ambition, everyone, please do not worry about Xiancheng! "
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