The Prosperous Era of Longwan

After returning from the Qianqing Palace, several people separated after entering the cabinet and went back to their respective offices to work.

When Wei Guangde entered the room, Lu Bu also followed him in and whispered in his ear: "Sir, the dispute between Gao Ge Lao and Huo Shangshu about the reform of the capital camp seems to have escalated some time ago.

Today, Huo Shangshu wrote a memorial about the camp. He also mentioned the past a few years ago and disclosed the conflicts between them. It seemed that he did not want Gao Gong to continue to intervene in the matter. "

"Oh? Give me the copy of the memorial."

When Wei Guangde heard this, he stood still and thought for a moment before giving instructions to Lu Bu.

Originally, Wei Guangde usually took over the handling of memorials about the Ministry of War, but some time ago Gao Gong published several memorials on the reform of the military system.

First, he quoted Zheng Dajing, who had accused the Ming army of lax punishment in the Like incident two years ago, saying, "Generals on all sides who have been accused of crimes and punished will use conspiracy and conspiracy, and no one will be afraid."

In other words, even if a general is dismissed due to negligence, he will often be reactivated soon as long as he sends people to the capital for some activities. Therefore, the generals have no fear of punishment from the court.

In the memorial, Gao Gong mentioned: "Today's ministers are not willing to follow the dead. The disadvantage is that they are too concerned and the rewards are too light." The Ming army's unfair rewards and punishments will seriously dampen the enthusiasm of the soldiers to fight.

Later, Gao Gong proposed reforming the Ministry of War.

"History of the Ming Dynasty Official Records" records: "In the Ministry of War, there is one Shangshu, and one minister on the left and one on the right. The Shangshu is in charge of selecting and concise political orders for the world's military guards and officers. The ministers assist him."

However, during the Jiajing and Longqing periods, the Japanese invaded from the north and the south, and the border affairs were troubled. The old personnel structure of the Ministry of War was unable to handle the complicated border affairs and could not adapt to the complex border situation.

Therefore, Gao Gong suggested changing the Ministry of War's "one minister and two ministers" to "one minister and four ministers".

"Also because the current situation is disturbing the border affairs, please appoint a minister of the Ministry of War to select the governor. The minister will be the governor, and the governor will be the army. China and foreign countries will have more troops, and the border will be rich."

Gao Gong emphasized that the position of Minister of the Ministry of War is related to the safety of the dynasty. In the past two or three decades, there have been troubles in the border areas. Under this system of the Ministry of War, if the border governor is absent, the Minister of War will be vacant. If it is difficult for the Minister of War to escape, there will be Personnel from other departments will be appointed instead.

In this way, the eastern wall is often demolished and the western wall is repaired, which seriously limits the effective performance of the functions of the Ministry of War.

First of all, Gao Gong saw that the Ministry of War was seriously limited by the "one minister and two ministers" situation in the early Ming Dynasty. There were too few ministers. The left and right ministers mainly assisted the minister in handling the affairs of the Ministry of War. They were busy with official affairs. Once foreign missions were transferred, the affairs of the Ministry of War would be Processing is difficult to guarantee.

Secondly, the minister's duty is to assist in the management of ministry affairs. He lacks understanding of the situation in the border areas, and it is difficult to provide suggestions for the Ministry of War's planning and decision-making on border affairs.

Finally, the Ministry of War is responsible for patrolling border affairs. However, because there are too few ministers, other officers are usually seconded when necessary. They often take their posts because they are not in their duties and are not aware of border affairs, which affects the effective handling of border affairs. The long distance makes it impossible to perform duties in a timely manner, thus delaying the opportunity.

Based on the above shortcomings, Gao Gong proposed targeted reform suggestions to Emperor Longqing, changing the Ministry of War to "one minister and four ministers".

Gao Gong believes that the newly added minister can not only serve in the ministry, but also inspect border affairs.

In other words, two actual ministers will be added on a flexible basis. They will assist in the ministry at ordinary times and patrol the border defenses when nothing happens. If there is a vacancy for the governor and the court cannot find a suitable person to fill it in a short time, the minister will fill the role. This will not affect the situation. Ministry of War operations.

There are other memorials such as apportioning the power of the governor, clarifying the relationship between powers and responsibilities, etc.

Just as Gao Gong accused Chen Yiqin of infringement, Huo Yi obviously also has this view.

After being contacted about the impeachment of his incompetence at the beginning of the year, Huo Yi easily believed that Gao Gong was behind the scenes and ordered the Ke Dao Yanguan to attack him.

The target is naturally the area under his butt.

It seems that Gao Gong had already coveted the position of Minister of War for a long time when he returned to Beijing.

Because Gao Gong suddenly proposed many reform suggestions to the Ministry of War, Emperor Longqing finally agreed to let Gao Gong accept the affairs of the capital, and Wei Guangde stopped interfering.

Originally, Gao Gong's sudden intervention in the restructuring of Jingying had alarmed Huo Yi, but these few memorials made Huo Yi feel Gao Gong's strong malice.

Wei Guangde's thinking has always been "do more and make more mistakes, do less and make fewer mistakes". If Gao Gong wants to intervene in the Beijing camp, then just let him go.

Beijing camp is not that easy to deal with. There are too many noble interests involved in it. When he gets involved in it, he walks on thin ice and has to be careful when dealing with problems.

Since Gao Gong wanted to get involved, of course he was willing to let him do it.

But now I understand a little bit, maybe this is Gao Gong demonstrating to him, showing a hint of threat.

So now that he knew that Gao Gong was having sex with Huo Yi, Minister of the Ministry of War, Wei Guangde was just having fun, letting them fight to the death, and he just watched from the sidelines.

However, Wei Guangde still thought Gao Gong was superficial after all. In fact, the current Ming Dynasty faced external problems. "The troubles from foreign barbarians are most urgent from the Northern Qiang, followed by Guangdong and Yue, followed by Yunnan and Shu, followed by Japanese barbarians, and Western Qiang." And then again."

Especially when the Jiajing and Longqing dynasties alternated, "all the nine sides of the dynasty were surrounded by enemies. In Xuanda and Shanxi there were the Ada tribes, on the three sides of Shaanxi there were the Jineng tribes, and in Jiliao there were the Tuman tribes. Galloping from the west to the east, disturbing my battlefield, I will never have peace."

Internally, it is because corrupt officials are rampant and there are many unwritten rules in the officialdom, which leads to the breeding of all kinds of strange phenomena. The huge national power cannot be concentrated in the hands of the central government for reform, and because of financial constraints, everything is restricted.

In response to such a bad situation, Gao Gong advocated the implementation of reforms, which were gradually promoted from the outside to the inside. He first hoped to re-establish the Ming Dynasty's strong border defense system, and then carried out internal purges.

In the two years since Gao Gong was dismissed and returned to Xinzheng, he did not remain silent in regret or anger. Instead, after withdrawing from the court, he was more thinking about how to implement the reforms he had in mind for the Ming Dynasty.

First, make major adjustments to the military, consolidate border defenses, then clean up the officialdom internally, and finally adjust some national policies that are not suitable for the current situation, in order to return the country to the prosperous days of the early Ming Dynasty.

In recent years, Wei Guangde had formed a small group with Chen Yiqin and Yin Shizhen, and he was used to being powerful and dominating in the cabinet. The first thing he thought about when doing things was fighting, and he had long forgotten the current situation of the Ming Dynasty.

He only remembered that the Ming Dynasty still had a hundred years to go, and he never thought about doing too much. He was more interested in muddle along, so he was not aware of the political reforms that Gao Gong had already begun.

In his opinion, Gao Gong's return must be to compete for the rights they originally obtained.

In fact, at this time, Gao Gong was still interested in fighting with their small group. With the emperor's support, he was sure of victory, and he would go to see them if he had the general trend in hand.

The Ministry of War has already intervened, and now he and Zhang Siwei, the minister of the Ministry of Personnel, are busy making a list of redundant officials in the officialdom. He is going to do a big job now.

Although he does not yet have the title of chief minister of the cabinet, he already has the power of chief minister of the cabinet.

However, when Wei Guangde read Huo Yi's memorial, Gao Gong had already returned to the duty room and knew the content of Huo Yi's memorial, which made him very angry.

The old story Huo Yi mentioned was that in the 40th year of the Jiajing reign, when he was still serving as the minister of rites, the minister of household affairs was appointed to be stationed in Jizhen to pay the prime minister's salary. At that time, there was a vacancy for the minister of household affairs, and the cabinet was proposed during the discussion. Gao Gong was transferred to the left minister of the household department and went to Jizhen.

When Wei Guangde saw this, he felt confident in his heart. This should be Yan Shifan's strategy. He wanted to let the high arch go out and make Prince Yu's palace lose its help in the court.

Although King Jing went out to join the vassal at that time, King Jing's family, or the Yan family, did not completely admit defeat, and planned to take action to weaken the power of Prince Yu's palace.

If Gao Gong leaves Beijing, there is little hope of joining the imperial court. With his purpose so clear, Gao Gong will naturally not be willing to go, so he chooses to shirk.

During this meeting, Huo Yi happened to be present and expressed his support for this matter, so Gao Gong was resentful.

Yes, Huo Yi's thoughts at this moment were similar to Wei Guangde's. He believed that Gao Gong was fighting for power. Perhaps his idea was to add two assistant ministers to the Ministry of War so that he could easily deploy people to fight for the power in his hands.

Wei Guangde still had some vague impressions of what Huo Yi mentioned, and he had indeed heard similar rumors.

Yes, it was a rumor, because in the end Gao Gong did not make the trip, so the matter naturally did not get done. This should be due to the interference of Xu Jie and others.

Thinking of this, Wei Guangde's heart skipped a beat.

If Gao Gong dismissed Hai Rui and transferred Zhu Daqi to Yingtian as governor before, it seemed that he wanted to ease the relationship with Xu Jie. After reading this memorial, Gao Gong's desire to retaliate against Xu Jie will become even more serious.

You must know that Gao Gongren's character is like this. Huo Yi's memorial is actually tearing open his long-healed wound.

This memorial was made public. After the content is spread, I don't know how many people will know about it. Thinking about the fight between Gao Gong and Xu Jie two years ago, I am afraid that Gao Gong will be said to be ungrateful and repay kindness with hatred.

And the fact is indeed the case. Gao Gong, who was responsible for this matter, originally did not want to break up with Huo Yi and make things happen, but after seeing this memorial, he had already made up his mind, although Emperor Longqing had not wanted to change the Minister of War before. He meant it, but now he has decided to push the matter forward.

Huo Yi must be expelled from the court.

Thinking of this, Gao Gong immediately spread out the rice paper and asked someone to rub the ink. Then he took the pen in his hand and wrote a piece of "Bian Huo Ben Bing Shu" in one go.

Gao Gong was very powerful. He explained the forty years of Jiajing in his book, and at the same time opened up a layer of scars on Emperor Longqing, which was the Battle of Shizhou the year before last, and accused the Ministry of War of handling it too lightly.

When the Datong disaster happened, Zhao Ke escaped from the battle and avoided fighting. However, Tian Shiwei and Liu Bao were sentenced to death because they had discussed their death in advance in Shizhou. Later, because the border general Ma Fang and other superiors interceded for mercy, and the families behind them came to the capital with money to carry out activities, they were finally sentenced. To avoid death and exile in the army.

Gao Gong directly reported the information he knew, and combined with his previous accusations against the Ministry of War, he wanted to prove the fault of the Ministry of War's regular and improper punishment.

The Battle of Shizhou was a huge blow to Emperor Longqing at the beginning. He believed that if this matter appeared in front of Emperor Longqing again, Huo Yi would inevitably follow Liu Tigan's path in anger.

Wei Guangde only guessed the beginning. He thought Gao Gong and Huo Yi would engage in a protracted quarrel, with both sides constantly blaming each other, and he was happy to watch the jokes.

But the next day, when the copy of Gao Gong's memorial came into his hands, Wei Guangde couldn't laugh anymore.

The Battle of Shizhou had nothing to do with him, but he also had a hand in Tian Shiwei and Liu Bao's activities.

After all, many matters in the Ministry of War at that time were closely related to him, and he received a lot of money from the Tian family and the Liu family.

Fortunately, this memorial concentrated the matter in the Ministry of War and did not expand it.

After all, this matter involves a lot. Although it is a punishment decided by the Ministry of War, which one does not need to be dealt with by the Ministry of Punishment, Dali Temple and the Metropolitan Procuratorate?

Anyone who fails to handle the relationship well will be impeached.

But in Gao Gong's memorial, he only complained that the Ministry of War was not doing his job and had no intention of conducting a thorough investigation. That would be much better.

"Shizhou"

Wei Guangde murmured, "Huo Benbing, it seems you can't stay in the court."

Wei Guangde would not take action directly, but at this time he was considering quelling the matter as soon as possible. The best way was to let Huo Yi get out.

As long as Huo Yi leaves, Gao Gong will have no excuse to continue to attack the Ministry of War, and he can expose it now.

Wei Guangde made up his mind that when His Majesty asked him, he would stand at the top of the high arch and speak.

Gao Gong wanted to drive Huo Yi away. Although Wei Guangde still hoped that Zhang Juzheng would be stronger and could restrain Gao Gong's attention, but it was a matter of his own. It was best to satisfy Gao Gong and settle the dispute.

Huo Yi has left, who can take over this position?

Wei Guangde has no interest in the household department because it is a quagmire.

He has no interest in the Metropolitan Procuratorate because it is very sensitive and is not within the reach of a cabinet minister who ranks low in the cabinet.

As for the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Personnel, they were one-third of the emperor's land. They were the hub for moving the cabinet and could not be relied upon.

The Ministry of Industry has always been under the control of Jiangxi people, so naturally he does not need to pay too much attention to it, and he is not very concerned about the Ministry of Punishment. After all, he has no idea of ​​​​interfering in local affairs.

But as for the Ministry of War, we have to think carefully. Who are the people who are qualified to succeed Huo Yi now?

The first thing Wei Guangde thought of was naturally Tan Lun, the governor of Jiliao who was just around the corner. If Tan Lun was asked to return to the capital to serve as Minister of War, would the emperor give his approval?

After all, he had said a lot of good things to Tan Lun in front of the emperor, and Nianji Town was considered peaceful. Although there were occasional wars, the scale was very small, with only a few hundred people.

Moreover, for insurance purposes, Qi Jiguang was transferred to Jizhen as the chief military officer, and soldiers from Zhejiang were also transferred.

Under the current situation, even if Tan Lun returns to the Ministry of War, it will actually have little impact on Jizhen.

Wei Guangde made up his mind to push Tan Lun to compete for the position of Shangshu of the Ministry of War. At this time, the south gate of Baihu Fort suddenly opened, and a fast horse rushed out of the fort towards the governor's office of Datong.

What happened yesterday was really shocking. The grandson of Anda Khan actually came to surrender with a dozen tribesmen.

The garrison of Defeated Hu Fort first locked the people outside the fort for a long time and did not dare to open the fort door. After understanding the situation in detail, they arranged for the soldiers to go out and collect the weapons and armor of the incoming people, put them inside the fort, and sent people to guard them separately.

At the same time, they spent another night, sending people to separate Han Naji's entourage for questioning, and finally figured out the situation.

After asking the clerk in the fort to write down the situation as concisely as possible, he immediately sent a messenger to Datong to deliver the news.

There is no doubt that it is very dangerous to temporarily accommodate Hannaji and his tribe, as they may be attacked by Anda Khan and his troops at any time.