Chapter 92 Zhang Juzheng 4 - The first round of Fire Phoenix

Just after the Spring Festival of the sixth year of Wanli, Qian Pu, the magistrate of Zhending Prefecture in Beizhili, was so busy that his feet never touched the ground.He is busy not for the national economy and the people's livelihood, but to welcome the passage of the prime minister Zhang Juzheng. After the turmoil of seizing love, Ai Mu, Shen Sixiao, Wu Zhongxing, Zhao Yongxian, and Zou Yuanbiao, who were attacked by the imperial staff, were expelled from the capital and moved to the wild frontier. The situation in the capital gradually calmed down again.Under Zhang Juzheng's repeated requests, Empress Dowager Li agreed to let him return to his hometown in Huguang Jiangling to bury his father after three months of leave after the ceremony of the emperor's wedding was held.The emperor's wedding date was set on February 19th. According to this calculation, Zhang Juzheng's trip back to his hometown would be March at the earliest.When Qian Pu saw this news from the mansion newspaper, he immediately made a calculation in his mind: the official road from the capital to Huguang, from Baoding Mansion, through Zhending Mansion, and then through Shunde Mansion to enter the border of Henan.The north-south official road is more than 300 miles in Zhending Prefecture, and it takes four days to travel fast.Although the fourth-rank magistrate is a high-ranking master in the local area, it is even more difficult to see the chief assistant once. After a few dry official words, you have to slap your ass and leave.From the beginning to the end, Zaifu didn't give you a straight look, even if he tried to curry favor, he couldn't find a chance.Qian Pu thought that between himself and Zhang Juzheng, there was neither a township party nor a teacher-student friendship, and he could not find a thread to connect with Zaifu from inside to outside.These days, there is no one behind the chair, and it is really difficult to get promoted in the officialdom.Qian Pu was a Jinshi who was listed in the 42nd year of Jiajing. In the 3rd year of Wanli, he was promoted to his current position by the Tongzhi of Yangzhou Prefecture.Compared with his peers, his promotion is not fast, but not too slow.However, he always felt that he was inferior to his talents because he was unable to climb up to become a political leader, especially Zhang Juzheng, who was the most powerful chief assistant since the founding of the Ming Dynasty.The current emperor called him "Mr. Yuan Fu Zhang", not only calling him so verbally, but also often appearing in imperial edicts, which is also unprecedented.Qian Pu decided to use Zhang Juzheng's four days in Zhending Prefecture.Give him a good compliment.

With his mind set, he called several masters under his door to discuss countermeasures.These "smart stars" who dig holes and produce maggots have offered their suggestions: "On the day Shoufu enters the country, all the roads he passes must be cleaned. March is the time of spring, and half of the passers-by on the road are beggars. Let the food chiefs of the villages be responsible for getting all beggars into empty houses for a few days. sky." "The city of Shoufu's mansion is the north gate: from the north gate to the south gate, the houses on both sides of the street have to be painted and redecorated, so that Shoufu can feel the peaceful scene of Zhending Mansion."

"The entourage of the chief assistant must be treated well. As the saying goes, the seventh-rank officials in front of the prime minister must not offend these people. If the king of hell does not accept gifts, it does not mean that the little devil does not want money. We must prescribe the right medicine." Qian Pu has a small belly, and people around him praise him, saying that his eyebrows are empty, and this is not a lie.At this moment, after listening to the speeches of the masters, he smiled and said: "You all have good insights, and the suggestions are not bad. But in my opinion, it is just a superficial article. Such things, you can imagine, people in Baoding Mansion Didn’t expect that? I heard that Lord Wu Xianhuan, the magistrate of Baoding, has long been arranging to receive the chief assistant. Therefore, we must come up with a reception plan that no one else can think of. It has been done, not only surprised Baoding Prefecture, but our next stop Shunde Prefecture, Guangping Prefecture, and even Kaifeng Prefecture and Nanyang Prefecture in Henan Province, Xiangyang Prefecture and Hanyang Prefecture in Huguang, etc., cannot be surpassed or imitated. Only this kind of unique reception can be considered a success."

When the masters heard this, they knew that Qian Pu had a plan in mind, so they echoed, "Dong Weng is very knowledgeable, so he must have come up with an extraordinary plan long ago. I hope Dong Weng expressly tells us that we will follow suit." Then Qian Pu beamed with joy and talked about it one, two, three, and four, and the masters were all convinced, and took their respective errands according to the plan, and went to take care of them separately. Before I knew it was the end of February, the Beizhili Yamen sent a letter to the five prefectures under its jurisdiction, notifying the chief assistant to return to his hometown to bury his father, and it was scheduled to leave Beijing on March 11th. Serious reception, from food, drink, housing, transportation to security, there is no mistake.In a few days, a team from the three yamen sent by the Ministry of Rites, the Ministry of War, and the Jinyiwei came to Zhending Prefecture. Don't worry, there is no more mistakes, so I started to move forward again, and went to the next stop for inspection.In fact, Champ kept his hands open. He only picked the scenes and incidents that people wanted to report to the officials who stood in the front, but kept the real tricks secret, for fear that others would take his advantage.Knowing the exact date of Shoufu's departure from Beijing, he arranged for several spies to go to Gyeonggi and Baoding to inquire about the reception situation along the way, from the start and end of accommodation, the likes and dislikes of Shoufu, and even the menu of meals. There are fast horses reporting to him every day.It is 600 miles from the capital to Zhendingfu, and 450 miles from Renzhendingfu. Qian Pu decided to meet him at the junction of Baodingfu and Zhendingfu.On March 17th, he heard that Shoufu's car had arrived at Qingdu County in Baoding Prefecture, so he led his officials to the border between Qingdu County and Zhending County.

As soon as the official road entered Zhending County, there was a small post station.In front of the post station is a pavilion for passers-by to rest their shoulders and drink water.Now the pavilion has been renovated, and the dilapidated post station has not only been reorganized and painted, but also all the supply and storage equipment inside have been updated.It was almost noon when Qian Pu arrived here with his troops.Since Zhang Juzheng left Beijing to go south on March 11th, Qian Pu hasn't had a full night's sleep in the past seven days. Now he said he was taking a nap on the kang, and Sun Guanglu, the master of Qianliang who came with him, seemed to be on a hot wheel. He rushed in and shouted hastily:

"Master, hurry up, here we come!" "Come here, where are you?" Qian Pu lost his sleepiness, jumped up from the chair, lifted his official robe and ran out the door. Sun Guanglu followed behind him, panting while taking small steps: "It's only about a mile or two away, here. Look, you can see the ceremonial banners ahead so brightly." When they were talking, the two had climbed a few steps and walked into the pavilion. Qian Pu set up an awning to look through the gap, and saw horses' hooves on the official road in the northwest direction, colorful flags fluttering, crowns like clouds and cars driving like clusters: this team There were almost a thousand or several hundred people, arranged in a long snake formation, walking towards this side in a meandering manner.

"What a power!" Qian Pu admired enviously in his heart, licked his two thin lips habitually, turned his head and saw a hundred officials suddenly stood up on the empty official road just now, as if they all came from the cracks in the ground. drilled out.These are his bureaucrats. Before, all the cats were resting in various houses, and when they heard the movement, they all ran out to watch the excitement.Champ glanced at them, and shouted like a schoolmaster admonishing a village boy: "Everyone, remember the order. Kneel on both sides of the official road to greet the first assistant. Don't mess up the rules. Got it?"

"The officer understands." The officials responded loudly.On both sides of the pavilion.The red carpet had already been laid out, and under the arrangement of Master Sun, the officials all took their positions, stood up and knelt down. At this time.Shoufu's guiding team with axe, axe, ceremonial guard and flag fan has approached Zhending County.Qian Pu hurriedly jumped down from the pavilion, stood in the middle of the road and waved his hands towards the hatchback. The well-trained gong and drum troupe began to beat and play: at the county boundary, which had always been remote, the ringing of bells and Lu Gao was loud and deafening.In the sound of gongs, drums and firecrackers.There are also thirty-two big suonas blah blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Zhang Juzheng, who was sitting in a big warm sedan chair with bright yellow curtains carried by sixteen people, read for more than an hour, felt his eyes were a little tired, and was talking about closing his eyes for a while, when suddenly he heard the sound of gongs and drums in front of him, He felt that the bearer's pace slowed down, and was about to ask, Li Ke, the head of the guard, patted the sedan chair and reported to him through the curtain: "My lord, Zhending County is ahead. Qian Pu, the prefect of Zhending Prefecture, led the crowd to welcome him." "This Qian Pu, why do you want to mobilize so many teachers?"

Zhang Juzheng muttered something in a low voice, then stood up and stretched himself, getting ready to get off the sedan chair. In terms of seasons, Grain Rain has passed for a few days, and the moisture in the North China Plain, which can't be seen at a glance, has moved, and the lush wheat color changes every day.The willow branches are rolling green, the elms are blooming green, and the melted snow flows into the Hutuo River, turning into emerald spring waves, moistening the vast northern country even more charming.All things are full of vitality, cattle and horses call spring like wine, such a beautiful day, how can it not make people feel refreshed.In fact, since the Spring Festival, Zhang Juzheng has been full of happy events.First of all, before the Spring Festival, more than one million shi of grain was shipped to Beijing from various grain stations in the south of the Yangtze River, and all grains were delivered to Tongzhou warehouse in full.Since Emperor Yongle moved the capital to Beijing, the taxes and food in the south were distributed twice in spring and autumn.At that time, the canal was full of water, which could accommodate the navigation of a thousand-stone large tanker.But fortune and misfortune depend on each other. In a year, the most worrying things are spring floods and autumn floods.When a boat sails in the river, if it is rained continuously, the flood is torrential, and the tragedy of ship destruction and death happens every time, the food loss ranges from hundreds of thousands of shi to as many as 20 to 30 shi, and the full amount has never been collected.For one or two hundred years, this contradiction has not been resolved.After Zhang Juzheng took office, Wu Guifang, a water conservancy expert, was appointed as the governor of Caohe River. In three years, the Jianghuai Caohe River has achieved great results. Through dredging and the construction of gate stations, the regulation function of the water system has been enhanced.At the turn of summer and autumn last year, Wu Guifang boldly proposed to change the Spring and Autumn Games to Winter Games.Winter is a dry season, and some riverbeds are as shallow as ankles, making it difficult for even shallow boats to pass, not to mention large tank boats.However, after three years of treatment by Wu Guifang, many flood storage lakes can be opened to release water to ensure the necessary water level for grain transportation in the Caohe River.This move changed the 200-year-old ancestral system of the imperial court. If there is a slight mistake in handling it improperly, it will inevitably lead to a new round of attacks from the opposition.Although Zhang Juzheng was cautious, he still tried his best to accept Wu Guifang's suggestion.Now that the winter transportation has been successful, more than one million shi of grain has been safely transported to the capital, without sinking a single ship or causing a single casualty. , decreed to permanently abolish the Spring and Autumn Games, and make the Winter Games a permanent rule.The fly in the ointment is that Wu Guifang, the first hero to achieve the Winter Games, died in office in the first month due to overwork.Water conservancy is the lifeblood of the country's economy, and the governor of Caohe is indispensable. Zhang Juzheng strongly recommended another river control expert, Pan Jixun, who is currently the left servant of the Ministry of Industry, quickly took over the post.This arrangement was generally approved by scholars.

With the success of the Winter Games, all the officials involved were rewarded, or promoted, or sealed their wives and sons. This group of people was so happy that they hadn't woken up yet, and the second big happy event came one after another.During the Lantern Festival in the first lunar month, the emperor had fun with all the people, and when he was still looking at the Aoshan lantern in front of the Meridian Gate, a good news came from six hundred miles from Liaodong: but it was said that Zhang Xueyan, the governor of Liaodong, and Li Chengliang, the commander-in-chief, had found information that the Mongol Tatars The tribe wanted to take advantage of the border city to celebrate the Spring Festival, long-distance raids and robbery of cattle and sheep.The two men then used their tactics to lure the enemy into a deep roundabout and outflank them. In the battle of Tuanshan Fort, they encircled and killed the invading captive enemies. The great victory passed not only greatly shocked the national prestige, but also greatly benefited the morale of the soldiers on the nine sides.The little emperor immediately adopted Zhang Juzheng's suggestion, and quickly dispatched Wei Qing, the eunuch on duty in the Palace of Qianqing, to represent him to the front line of Liaodong to reward the three armies for their meritorious deeds.Li Cheng, the commander-in-chief of the Jin Dynasty, appointed Zhang Xueyan as the Governor-General of Rongzheng in Liaodong—this was also Zhang Juzheng's idea.In the nine borders of the north, governing the people is the government, and the governor is in charge; defending the land is the army, and the commander-in-chief is in charge.In order to facilitate the administration, Zhang Juzheng decided to create the post of Governor-General of Rongzheng, with the title of third-rank Youdu Yushi, integrating military and political power in one person. Zhang Xueyan was the first person to hold this post. With these two big happy events at the bottom, the third big happy event—the wedding of Emperor Wanli pushed the auspicious atmosphere in the capital to the extreme.As early as the fourth year of Wanli, presided over by the empress dowagers of the two palaces, the queen was selected for the Wanli emperor-the daughter of Wang Wei, a town of a thousand households in the capital.Qianhusuo Zhenfu was a military officer of the sixth rank. In the capital, people ridiculed this rank of officials as "rice pecking officials".Only in this way, it is in line with Queen Mother Li's wishes.Her family background was humble, so she was determined to find a daughter from a small family to be her daughter-in-law.According to her point of view, the daughters of small families are virtuous, understand difficulties, and don't mess around.Wang Wei is a native of Yuyao, Zhejiang Province. He is a hereditary military officer.The empress dowagers of the two palaces singled out her from thousands of ladies to be selected. The first is her blessing, and the second is also some kind of chance.This Empress Dowager Li is eager to embrace her grandson. Once the queen is selected, she hopes that she will marry Emperor Wanli immediately.What she meant was to set the wedding date in the autumn of the fifth year of Wanli.He ordered Feng Bao to go to discuss with Zhang Juzheng, and Zhang Juzheng raised objections on the lack of twists and turns on this matter.He thought that the emperor was only seventeen years old and the empress was only fifteen years old. Both of them were too young. Should the auspicious day of Luanfeng Heming be moved back? Empress Dowager Li accepted Zhang Juzheng's suggestion, but she also refused to move back the auspicious day too much.After many consultations, February 19 was finally determined as the auspicious day for the wedding.When the emperor gets married, there are very complicated rules and regulations. Empress Dowager Li entrusts Zhang Juzheng to make arrangements.After the Spring Festival, he was given a scarlet brocade robe and asked to replace the guarded green cloth robe.Wearing this bright scarlet robe to work in the cabinet will inevitably arouse the slander of Qingliu.Zhang Juzheng was determined to manage the emperor's wedding well, and he had long since abandoned those rumors.When he went to the woman's home to propose marriage, the British public Zhang Rong was appointed as Nacai's envoy, and Zhang Juzheng was appointed as Nacai's deputy envoy.After nearly a month of busy work, this grand celebration was finally completed. Three days after Emperor Wanli's wedding, Zhang Juzheng once again asked the emperor for leave and asked to return to his hometown to bury his father.The emperor approved him this time and invited him to the platform for a cordial meeting.said: "Mr. Zhang Yuanfu, I grant you three months' leave. You must abide by this time, and return to Beijing by then to perform your duties properly." "I would like to obey the holy order." "Before Mr. leaves, the official affairs of the cabinet must be properly arranged:" When it comes to the cabinet, Zhang Juzheng hesitates.According to the rules of the imperial court, the cabinet cannot be without a head and assistant for a day. During the three months he returned home, for example, he should invite someone to serve as the chief assistant temporarily. Therefore, he carefully analyzed all the cabinet ministers in the opposition and in the court.There are still three cabinet ministers in the Longqing Dynasty who are still alive.They are Xu Jie, Gao Gong and Yin Shizhan.If you want to choose a temporary chief assistant, you must first find out from these three people.Zhang Juzheng weighed repeatedly and felt that these three people were not suitable.Both Xu and Gao served as chief assistants. Gao Gong and him were political enemies. Once he took this position, how could he give up? Xu Jie was his senior, and he returned to the position of chancellor Kui. He returned in three months. Beijing, how could he have the nerve to let him go back to the mountain? As for Yin Shizhan, he is impatient and willful, and many middle officials like him. Zhang Siwei and Zhang Siwei, although he is the only one who sees the lead, who can guarantee that they will not have second thoughts after a long time? After thinking about it, Zhang Juzheng is not willing to temporarily give up the position of chief assistant, and wants to add two more cabinets before leaving. Minister, to form a check on the two old cabinet ministers, Lu Tiaoyang and Zhang Siwei.But whether this goal can be achieved depends on the emperor's attitude. Now that the emperor took the initiative to talk about the cabinet, Zhang Juzheng also brought up the topic smoothly: "According to the rules, if the minister begs to leave for three months, he should find a highly respected and qualified minister to temporarily replace the vacancy of the minister." "There's no need for that," the little emperor replied earnestly without seeming to think about it, "Among the scholars in the world, who else is comparable to Mr.?" "The emperor won the award, but the minister dare not take it." "I'm not flattering, this is the actual situation: I don't want you to leave for a day now, but the burial of your father is a big matter, and I can't stop you. During the time you are away from the cabinet, you are generally on official business, just arrange it properly." "I would like to obey the holy orders." Zhang Juzheng felt that the time had come, and took the opportunity to say, "The cabinet affairs are complicated. Once I leave, I fear that Lu Tiaoyang and Zhang Siwei will be too busy to deal with them in time, causing delays." "What do you mean sir?" "The minister asks the emperor, can you increase the number of cabinet ministers?" "What's so difficult about this? Since Mr. thinks it's necessary, the increase means that there are new candidates for the cabinet ministers. I hope you can propose them." A few days after this meeting, around the beginning of March, Zhang Juzheng formally proposed to the emperor that Minister of Rites, Ma Ziqiang, a scholar of Wenyuan Pavilion, Zuo Shilang of the Ministry of Officials, and Shen Shixing, a scholar of Dongge, should be added as cabinet ministers. The emperor quickly approved it. , the comment was "to follow Yuanfu Mr. Zhang to work in the cabinet." Ma Ziqiang had a lot of criticisms against Zhang Juzheng in the "Daoqing Incident", but this time he was recommended by Zhang Juzheng. I got a little closer to Zhang Juzheng.Shen Shixing was originally Zhang Juzheng's protégé when he was in charge of the Hanlin Academy. He was gentle, refined and humble, so he has always been trusted and supported by Zhang Juzheng. After this personnel arrangement, Zhang Juzheng solved his worries about not being coveted by the prime minister, so he went home to bury his father with peace of mind.On the day of departure on March 11th, the emperor ordered all the officials to go to the vacuum temple in the suburbs to see him off, and ordered Zhang Hong, the eunuch who was in charge of rituals, to hold a farewell banquet on his behalf. The empress dowagers of the two palaces also sent eunuchs to reward gold coins and gifts .The emperor also personally instructed to arrange for more than a thousand forbidden soldiers under the jurisdiction of Jinyiwei to follow Zhang Juzheng to the south and guard along the way.When Qi Jiguang heard the news, he even sent a hundred musketeers as the forerunners to strengthen his prestige.The first assistant returned to the south, and the standard of treatment he enjoyed was so high that it was no different from an emperor.But all this came from the will of Emperor Wanli.As a matter of course, wherever Zhang Juzheng passes by, the officials will go all out to arrange pick-ups and pick-ups with all sincerity, for fear that some negligence will be reported by good people, and they will not be able to offend the holy majesty. After leaving Beijing for seven days, Zhang Juzheng was bored with the daily entertainment and dealing with scenes.In addition, he is eager to return home, traveling more than eighty miles every day, so he is rarely satisfied with the reception in various places.In some places, the officials had waited for days for him to come, but he didn't even bother to get out of the sedan chair. He just opened the sedan chair curtain to say hello to the local officials and then swaggered past, leaving the officials there alone. I was dumbfounded.Now, after hearing Li Ke say that he has already settled in the county, because he sat in the sedan chair for a long time, he wanted to get down and move his legs, so he ordered the sedan chair to stop.When he stepped on the sedan chair and got off the sedan chair, and stood in front of the resplendent and magnificent hexagonal pavilion, the thundering gongs, drums, and suona suddenly stopped, and Qian Pu ran forward and knelt down in front of him, and said loudly: "Qian Pu, the prefect of Zhending prefecture, led the prefects of five prefectures under him, and the county magistrates of twenty-seven counties to welcome Mr. Zhang, the chief assistant, into the country."