Chapter 34 Chapter Thirty-Four
Of course, the struggle between Shen Shixing and Xu Guo was carried out in secret, just like a duck paddling water, with both feet hidden in the water and desperately exerting force, but the body exposed on the water was as if nothing had happened, and the expression on his face even seemed leisurely. , Contentment—on the surface, the two seem to "get along very well". When they meet, they always bow to each other, showing utmost courtesy and thoughtfulness; when talking, they are more sincere and mutual. Caring and caring, as if they were helping Emperor Wanli and working together for the welfare of the people.
But in their selfish hearts, both of them resented each other, wishing to kill each other's political life with a single knife, and expel them from the court of the Ming Dynasty; therefore, each of them carried an invisible sword, and slashed at each other whenever they had the opportunity.
The "speaker" system of this dynasty has become the most commonly used knife by the two of them-since the speaker has the privilege of "exemption" from attacking the ministers in the court, of course the upright speaker can use this right of immunity according to his own Conscience speaks whatever it wants; it is a pity that in the whole world, there are only a very small number of upright people, and there will inevitably be a phenomenon of unevenness among speech officials. There are often "opposition for the sake of opposition", "attack for the sake of attack" "Speaking officials are unscrupulous, and even form cronies with courtiers, or accept bribes to attack political opponents on their behalf; such officials are neither conscience nor a "person", but just other people's political affairs. It's just a tool; however, for powerful officials who need tools to eradicate dissidents for themselves, such officials are their favorite and most indispensable...
Therefore, the two unanimously took advantage of the speaker; at first, the result of the rivalry between the two sides was that Shen Shixing had the upper hand; "Auxiliary" has a higher official position, "the watermelon is close to the big side", and there are just a few more people attached to him.
However, Xu Guo is not a fuel-efficient lamp, and some people who originally opposed Shen Shixing naturally joined his camp; To help him with the principle of "strike the main enemy", or even hope that the two of them are evenly matched, and hope that both of them will lose and lose in the fight in order to profit from it-the total sum is quite a lot, and the strength is not weak, almost The result of this battle is always three defeats and two wins every five rounds, and the loss can't be too much; and when Shen Shixing was attacked by public opinion because of the turmoil of establishing a reserve, building a mausoleum, etc., this group of people took the opportunity to Hit the dog in the water hard, and the number of victories will increase, and the battle with Shen Shixing will gradually reach a "tie".
Of course, in addition to using officials, Xu Guo also opened up many fronts capable of attacking Shen Shixing. He didn't care if he belonged to him, so he secretly assisted Zou Yuanbiao, Gao Panlong and others to transfer Gu Xiancheng back to the capital to serve as an official; in addition, he also tried his best to win over the "middle faction" and "young and strong faction" among the courtiers, making them become officials For the third assistant Wang Xijue, it is even more hard work, trying to win the position...
Finally, the time for the decisive battle has come.
The fuse was a border-closed war—Huoluochi, who was nomadic outside the Great Wall, invaded Lintao, Gongchang and other places, looting, burning and killing wantonly, causing a lot of trouble; "Bai Li Kuai Chuan" flew to report to the imperial court, because the matter was so important and urgent, Emperor Wanli had to temporarily leave his medicines, and summoned the cabinet scholars in the warm pavilion to study how to deal with this matter.
Shen Shixing means to deal with it in the same way as Mongolia, appease, seal a name, promise to pay tribute, open the market, and take the principle of peaceful settlement as the top priority, which is in line with the political ideal of the ancient sage and enlightened "Huaiyuan people"; Guo Guo's opinion is on the contrary. He believes that Huo Luochi's invasion of the border has violated the covenant previously agreed between the two parties. He is so rebellious that he doesn't take the Ming Dynasty seriously; The imperial court should send a large army to beat them to pieces, and teach them a lesson, so that they will surrender obediently after suffering, and never dare to commit crimes again; finally, he emphasized that Shen Shixing's opinion is not good, because Well, if the imperial court does not take tougher measures at this time, but blindly appeases and treats with softness, wouldn't it be "increasing the ambitions of others and destroying one's own prestige"?What's more, if a foreign tribe violates the border, not only will they not be punished, but they will be given preferential treatment such as appeasement. Wouldn't it be a clear example for other tribes to set an example for other tribes that "noisy children have candy to eat"?In order to gain benefits, the foreigners from other tribes also want to invade the border to be appeased?So, is there still a peaceful day at the border?
When he said this, all the people present except Shen Shixing nodded their heads one after another; after all, Emperor Wanli was a vigorous young man, and he agreed as soon as he heard this, and a thought mixed with excitement and curiosity suddenly surged in his heart : "I've never seen people fight a war, I really don't know what it would be like to fight—well, this time, I must fight by myself—hey, that must be something new and exciting—— The play said: 'Thousands of troops and horses', this time, I really want to lead thousands of troops and horses to go out, it is more airy than acting..."
His eyeballs rolled up and down, left and right, and such an urchin-like idea was established. Therefore, in his selfish heart, he had already decided to adopt Xu Guo's opinion before the grand scholars had a discussion.
It's a pity that the grand scholars uphold the tradition of civil servants in this dynasty who are good at discussing. One thing always has to be discussed repeatedly for a long time without any result. , but Emperor Wanli couldn't wait—an hour later, while the academicians were still chattering, his addiction to "fushou ointment" came up, and after a while, he began to yawn and stretch The waist came; after a while, I couldn't even sit still, and all the fresh, exciting, war thoughts in my mind began to cool down, and were gradually replaced by one thought, that is, to go back to the cigarette bed to swallow Clouds and fog.
So, it didn't matter what the scholars were babbling about, and he didn't want to hear it anymore, so he got up and drove back to the harem.
As soon as he left like this, the situation changed immediately; the highest status among the bachelors was Shoufu. Therefore, Shen Shixing, who was defeated by the "dove" theory, turned the defeat into victory, and came to a conclusion as the Shoufu; The "hawks" in the country had no choice but to hold their flags down hastily and return with hatred.
The incident of Huoluochi's attack was thus decided to be dealt with based on the principle of "appeasement". Soon after, an order was issued to be carried out by the local officials, and the case was closed in the court; However, the internal strife has only just begun, and then it will unfold like a raging fire.
Xu Guo's disciple Wan Guoqin saw his mentor inexplicably won and lost in this political battle, and felt very upset, so he immediately impeached Shen Shixing; and Shen Shihang's disciple Ren Rang stepped forward again, In order to avenge his teacher, he went up to impeach Xu Guo - the "two parties" were dispatched separately, and immediately the sky was covered with dark clouds, the sun and the moon were all covered, and no one in the court could figure out who was right and who was black Who is in vain...
And just when the two sides were fighting vigorously, there was another incident at the border; this time, the "Eight Hundred Miles Express" came from Fujian in the south. The people began to complain again; and because the famous anti-Japanese general Qi Jiguang had died of illness, and the successor commander in chief was inexperienced, sending troops to attack always failed, and the problem became more and more serious.
As a result, the cabinet scholars were busy again, and Emperor Wanli reluctantly summoned them again to discuss the "anti-Japanese" matter; and at the end of the discussion of the matter, Xu Guo seized the opportunity to borrow He said: "Recently, the four barbarians have been rebelling and causing trouble from time to time. The whole country should work together to 'repel the barbarians' together; From time to time, out-of-the-box malicious attacks on those in power have caused the ministers who bear important responsibilities to be uneasy; there are many troubles in the country today, if the ministers are forced to resign and ask to go, who will deal with these accidents? Please decree by the Lord Long Live. All the courtiers should be loyal to their duties with an open mind, and don't make some emotional disputes, making the little Yis around laugh at them!"
This remark, on the surface, is of course high-sounding and loyal to the country, but in fact it pointed out that Ren Rang's impeachment against him was instigated by Shen Shixing, and it also exposed the phenomenon of quarreling among the officials It was given to Emperor Wanli.
Emperor Wanli was thinking that his ears were not clean, and this performance was just in line with his wishes, so he immediately adopted Xu Guo's opinion, and ordered all the officials to shut up and stop talking about ministers, otherwise they would be severely punished—just Well, he didn't notice at all that the many incidents that the speech officials attacked the ministers these days were all provoked by Xu Guo!
This time, Xu Guo was "getting cheap and being good-looking", and his opinion was accepted by Emperor Wanli, and he took a lot of face, so as to shut up all the ways of speaking, not only clearing up, but also blocking the attacker's mouth, On the surface, he put on a lofty "old man seeking the country" - he couldn't hide the pride in his heart no matter what, and he kept laughing when no one was around.
However, after all, things in the world are unsatisfactory in all likelihood; his laughter has not stopped, and a new accident has occurred.
In order to register the crown prince, Emperor Wanli had already announced the entry of cabinet scholars into the palace as early as last year, and he clearly instructed: "I don't like the chattering of ministers, which makes me restless for a long time; For people who don't understand the details of the matter, they can only hear a few words, just as father and son in the palace are arguing every day, and don't know how many right and wrong, rumors will be born; so, I think these chapters are simply provocative Separating my father and son, I'm so angry that I'll stay in the middle—but if no one in the court bothers me about Li Chu's matter, I'll make a decree in the year after next, otherwise, I will Let's talk about it when the eldest son of the emperor is fifteen years old!"
His instruction was actually just a casual perfunctory, to stop the courtiers' mouths first, and try to keep their ears quiet for two years; however, Shen Shixing immediately used the old and outdated concept of "the king has no jokes" to establish this statement "Authority" and "credibility", and grasping the chicken feathers like an arrow, repeatedly warned courtiers to stop speaking within the time limit set by Emperor Wanli himself, so as not to anger Emperor Wanli and make things twists and turns again.
"Slow things make things smooth, things slow make things round..."
He repeatedly emphasized the principle of haste makes waste, and repeatedly blocked the ministers from speaking.
In doing so, he indeed catered to Emperor Wanli's wishes; however, he was very dissatisfied with most people in the court who were eager to establish a reserve as soon as possible. The bottom scolded Shen Shihang all the way - Xu Guo, who had been in the officialdom for a long time, of course would not let go of this rank that could attack Shen Shihang, so he kept fanning the flames secretly and stepped up his efforts, making the already turbulent officialdom turbulent. The tide is surging.
Then, an extremely rare opportunity came—today, when the two-year deadline set by Emperor Wanli had only passed halfway, Zhang Youde, the director of the Ministry of Industry, recklessly broke into trouble.
He is because the canonization of the crown prince requires the Ministry of Industry to prepare in advance a lot of buildings, decorations and various items used for the ceremony, which will take about a year to prepare. Therefore, he started planning a year in advance and asked for instructions. Annotation for the grand ceremony.
Now, Emperor Wanli seized the opportunity. He took the opportunity to lose his temper. He first accused Zhang Youde of violating the imperial decree, and came to talk to him about the establishment of the reserve when he was only halfway through the time set by him; : "Since someone has violated my will, they must be punished - I will punish and postpone the appointment of the crown prince for another year!"
Everyone of the ministers knew that this was the excuse that Emperor Wanli made for not wanting to establish Chang Luo as the crown prince early, but he was confident and decisive, and there was no room for negotiation at all.
As the Chief Assistant, Shen Shixing of course did not dare to fight, and knew that this matter and his attitude would cause an uproar, so he simply took the approach of "taking a step back", finding a reason to take a leave of absence, and avoiding the limelight.
How could he know that no matter how hard he tried to avoid facing the reality, other people couldn't let him go? The cabinet scholars decided to collectively protest and demanded that Emperor Wanli cancel the plan to postpone the appointment of the crown prince; He was not in the court and did not participate in the discussion, but because he was the head of the auxiliary ministers, Xu Guo listed his name as the first in the joint list when he presided over the meeting, and did not wait for him to cancel the leave. When he returned to the court, he presented it.
Of course, the lack of this joint name displeased Emperor Wanli, who slammed the table and cursed in the harem and lost his temper; and when Shen Shixing heard about it, he was afraid that it would affect his heart in Emperor Wanli's heart. In fact, he hastily went to Shangshu to draw a clear line between himself and this joint letter: "The old minister Fang neither knew nor participated in the joint letter when he was on leave—this is the time to assist Xu Guo. , when the old minister was not around, he listed the old minister’s name without even noticing it, please look into it, Lord Long Live!”
Then, he catered to Emperor Wanli's wishes and said: "Long live Lord has already made up his mind about the appointment of the crown prince; how can ordinary insignificant ministers know the holy will? How can they have the right to intervene? Zhang Youde is a humble official. Small, not knowing the seriousness, not knowing the reason, recklessly going up and down, disturbing the audiovisual, should be punished by a judge; and the establishment of a reserve should be arbitrarily determined by the Long Live Lord, so don't be affected by a few words of a small minister. National ceremony!"
Emperor Wanli accepted his "heart-to-heart talk", and of course gave him a good face, and sent a eunuch to pass on a few words of encouragement; It's a completely different uproar.
Since the courtiers have worked hard for many years to establish a reserve, but have not succeeded, and now, in order to keep his position as the first assistant, Shen Shixing stepped on all the hard work of everyone for many years, and regarded it as the cornerstone of his maintenance of the first assistant throne. , This immediately aroused public outrage, not to mention those who originally opposed him, even those who were originally attached to him couldn't stand it, and expressed their opposition one after another. Refers to the point where there is no end to illness".
Some people blamed him for not having the integrity to be a minister. Not only did he not dare to argue with reason, but he was attached to the emperor's heart, which caused the crown prince to be unable to be registered for a long time and delayed state affairs; "National humiliation" to discuss; some even quoted the allusion of "Xiangyuan, the thief of virtue" and added the infamy of "old thief" to him; thus, groups of speech officials criticized him in large numbers, The ministers discussed and abused him in private, and even mobilized the power of public opinion to sanction him.
Among the many people, Xu Guo was the one who made the most outcry—he basically advocated that the cabinet should resign, and take the actual action of resignation to be responsible for the "establishment of the reserve", arousing the attention of Emperor Wanli and proving his loyalty , Frank, so, for several days, he used words in front of Shen Shixing to provoke him, forcing him to submit his resignation letter with him.
In the end, Shen Shixing was so forced that he couldn't bear it anymore, and couldn't hide his face in front of all the officials to escape, so he was forced to submit his resignation letter together with him in full view.
Fortunately, he still had some confidence in his heart - he thought that based on Emperor Wanli's usual attitude towards him, and the fact that he had been commended a few days ago, after the resignation was submitted, he would definitely be comforted, so he His heart is not heavy; what's more, while asking for resignation, he secretly hopes that things will go faster: "If the imperial decree comes down early, it will be more face-well, resignation is not allowed, Consolation from the holy edict—isn't this a big show!"
Who knows, this time it was not what people wanted - the imperial decree came down very quickly, but the content was far beyond his expectations - for the resignation of the first and second assistants, Wanli The emperor's reaction turned out to be to agree without saying a word!
Like a thunderbolt from the blue sky, Shen Shixing was immediately stunned and stunned on the spot; however, although he had been in the officialdom for a long time, although he was stunned, shocked, and his heart sank, it only took a moment for him to regain his sanity. It returned to normal.
He knew that this time, no matter whether he followed Xu Guo's way or self-defeating, it didn't matter what the reason was; The thing to do is to immediately pack up and go back to the hometown - you have to step down from the stage simply, and you have to go beautifully, so that you can maintain the little bit of dignity that you have left, and you won't make a lot of ugliness, which will have a negative impact on you. The political lives of two sons...
Notes:
Notes: