The Prosperous Era of Longwan

Gao Yi is dead and Zhang Juzheng is still ill. Fortunately, when Wei Guangde comes back, he will not leave the Ming Dynasty cabinet empty.

Now all the memorials in the cabinet have been sent to Wei Guangde's duty room. Wei Guangde has been nervously handling these official affairs for three consecutive days.

Of course, Wei Guangde did not just work hard, he was also thinking about making some adjustments to the official positions in the court.

You know, in the more than a year since he left the court, the positions of many people have also changed. Although it is not that things have changed, the people on his side have been squeezed out a bit. He needs to put his own people aside. Push up again.

At that time, Wei Guangde's influence in the court was weakening, and Gao Gong took the opportunity to gain some positions.

Now that Gao Gong is defeated, naturally the people on Gao Gong's side will hand over their official positions.

Gao Gong's departure not only gave up the position of a cabinet minister, but also left the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel vacant. Now the left minister of the Ministry of Personnel is in charge of the official seal.

Yesterday, Zhang Juzheng had already sent a note to Wei Guangde at home, which involved plans for the position of minister of the court.

Zhang Juzheng plans to transfer Yang Bo, the current Minister of the Ministry of War, to the Ministry of Civil Affairs. The reason is that Yang Bo was the Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs before recuperating. He has experience in governing the Ministry of Civil Affairs. If he is transferred to the Ministry of Civil Affairs, he can quickly solve all the problems.

Moreover, in the past two years, the official department has been managed by Gao Gong and turned into a one-spoken office, and a prestigious veteran like Yang Bo is needed to calm down the situation.

Those people Gao Gong promoted initially need to be replaced slowly.

If it were someone else with insufficient qualifications and prestige, Zhang Juzheng was worried that something would go wrong.

Zhang Juzheng recommended Yang Bo to be the Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, which naturally opened up the position of the Minister of the Ministry of War. He also asked Wei Guangde's opinion in the note to see who was suitable for this position.

Wei Guangde understood that this was actually a deal between Zhang Juzheng and himself.

He wanted the Ministry of Personnel and gave him the Ministry of War.

It's just that the position of Minister of the Ministry of War is not enough.

During the period when Wei Guangde left the court, Jiangxi officials lost many official positions.

For example, Shu Hua was sent to Shaanxi to participate in politics because he was dissatisfied with Gao Gong's actions. Wu Guifang was also excluded and had to return home due to illness. Others, including Tan Lun and others, were the same.

Wei Guangde began to slowly sort out his interpersonal relationships, and wanted to get qualified people into important official positions.

Even if you don't have enough qualifications, even if you can't be a minister, you still have to be a minister or a person in power.

After all, there are only six ministerial positions. Even including those in Nanjing, there are twelve.

If there are people in the position, it will be difficult to deal with it if those people have not made mistakes and have not taken the initiative to submit complaints.

Wei Guangde, of course, preferred Tan Lun to be the Minister of War.

He has served as the governor of Jizhen and also as the minister of the Ministry of War. Of course, it is most suitable to take charge of the Ministry of War alone.

Zhu Heng can still hold on for a few more years. Wei Guangde has already met Zhu Heng, knows his physical condition, and is also paying attention to training new people.

In Shuhua and Wu Guifang, Wei Guangde also had to rearrange his official positions. In addition, in Jiangxi, there are still many officials who do not come out in the name of recuperation.

Now it seems that these people can all move around and be reinstated.

For example, Zhang Ke, an old friend of Wei Guangde's, was in a beggar's memorial because of party disputes, and he simply gave up his career.

This time in Pengze, Wei Guangde also met Zhang Ke.

This man is still not very willing to become an official, but Wei Guangde still plans to write to him and ask him to come out to help.

Lao Kan has almost done his job as the right chief minister of Fujian. It is time to move to the left chief minister, and then find him an official position as governor of Fujian. Finally, he will be transferred back to the imperial court to join the Metropolitan Procuratorate and help him look after the censor. A bunch of crazy dogs.

Wei Guangde sorted it out while roughly arranging the official positions of these people.

Unfortunately, Wei Guangde repeatedly screened and failed to find officials suitable to join the cabinet.

Yes, it seems that it has become a thing of the past that the court officials were half Jiangxi. Now the court wants to find a high-ranking Jiangxi official with a Hanlin background. It seems that there is no one except himself.

It can be seen how severely Jiangxi officials have been suppressed in the years since Yan Song's fall.

Because of Yan Song's relationship, the Hanlin Academy did not want to see Jiangxi Jinshi, so it was difficult to choose Shujishi.

At this moment, a figure appeared in Wei Guangde's mind.

This person's name is Cai Guozhen, who is Wei Guangde's predecessor and the same year as Wei Guangde. He was a Jinshi in the 35th year of Jiajing and a native of Yixing, Jiangxi.

It was also for this reason that Yan Song wanted to win over Cai Guozhen.

However, Cai Guozhen is a smarter person. He may have seen the natural cycle of things going to extremes, and prosperity and decline. He did not think that taking refuge in Yan Song was a good destination, so he chose to refuse when Yan Song and his son tried to win over him.

Undoubtedly, Cai Guozhen's approach at that time was quite risky, and as a result, his official career has been unsatisfactory, and he was suppressed and retaliated by Yan Shifan.

Naturally, his final official position was not good. He was appointed to Nanjing as the head of the Ministry of Punishment, and then moved to Fujian to study and serve as deputy envoy.

At that time, Fujian was not a good place to be. It was in chaos.

Cai Guozhen also began to think about quitting. Taking advantage of his mother's death, he simply returned to his hometown and stopped serving as an official. He just indulged in the mountains and rivers.

When Wei Guangde returned to his hometown Dingyou, the officials who returned to Jiangxi came to express their condolences. Wei Guangde only felt familiar when they met this man whom they had almost forgotten, and almost didn't recognize him.

Wei Guangde planned to find a good place for these people to go first, and then write to him to arrange for them to serve as officials. They should not continue to stay in Jiangxi. He was too short of people here.

However, the most urgent matter is to supplement the cabinet ministers.

Now he and Zhang Juzheng are the only ones in the cabinet, and they also need assistant ministers to join the cabinet to help handle government affairs.

These days have been really sad, and Wei Guangde doesn't want to continue like this.

The official closest to the cabinet is undoubtedly the Minister of Rites, and the current Minister of Rites, Lu Tiaoyang, is undoubtedly the most suitable candidate.

Lu Tiaoyang was the second-ranked scholar in the 29th year of Jiajing's reign. He was first appointed Imperial Academy Editor. He was also someone who had been steadily walking on the road from the Imperial Academy to the Cabinet.

Of course, the speed is not as fast as Wei Guangde's promotion, but it is not slow either.

Lu Tiaoyang, courtesy name Heqing and nickname Yusuo, was born in Lingui County, Guilin Prefecture, Guangxi.

Lu Tiaoyang had a kind-hearted personality, acted fairly, and never formed cliques. He was also a cabinet candidate that Wei Guangde could reluctantly accept. However, there was one problem, and that was his ancestral home.

Similar to Wei Guangde's old friend Zeng Xingwu, Zeng Xingwu came out of Huguang Township, passed the joint examination, and became a Jinshi through the palace examination, and his ancestral home is in Jiangxi.

Although this Lu Tiaoyang stood out in the Guangxi Provincial Examination, his ancestral home is Daye County, Wuchang Prefecture, Huguang, and he is more or less the same hometown as Zhang Juzheng.

Don't think that relationships such as being from the same hometown and being of the same age are not important. In fact, this is the most important thing about the distance and distance between officials in this era, and it will still be the case even in later generations.

As for the other things, Wei Guangde, who had the instinct of being a bureaucracy official, would not consider them. On the other side of the rites department were Wang Xilie and Zhu Dashou, who were more or less less qualified.

Moreover, Wei Guangde instinctively did not want to use these two people against Zhu Dashou, because although this man and himself were of the same age, perhaps because of their awkward status, the two of them had not interacted much.

【】

Wang Xilie was supposed to be the person Wei Guangde strongly recommended to join the cabinet, but there was a little problem with Wang Xilie.

It was Wei Guangde who helped Wang Xilie become the right minister of the Ministry of Rites, but in the end, Wang Xilie was not grateful at all, and used his status as a senior to try to overpower Wei Guangde.

Perhaps the reason was similar to Zhu Dashou's. Zhu Dashou was a manor in that department and was not promoted as quickly as Wei Guangde, so he was somewhat unwelcome to see him.

Wang Xilie was from Nanchang Prefecture and was a fellow countryman with Wei Guangde, so they should have been in the same boat. However, Wang Xilie was a Jinshi in the 29th year of Jiajing, and he was considered a senior of Wei Guangde, so he was a bit pretentious.

Even though Wei Guangde asked Zhu Heng to remind him privately, Wang Xilie was still like this. Perhaps he was too old to listen to advice, and he was unwilling to bow his head in front of Wei Guangde, a young official.

Maybe he felt that he was also on the road to joining the cabinet and could join the cabinet without Wei Guangde's help.

For such a person, it would be strange for Wei Guangde to allow him to join the cabinet.

After Wang Xilie entered the cabinet, he did not speak up for himself, but instead helped Zhang Juzheng. That is funny.

Well, he is nepotistic and only looks at those close to him.

It seems that the relationship between Lu Tiaoyang and Zhang Juzheng is not much closer than that of others, at least Wei Guangde thinks so. Judging from his conduct in life, he should not fall in love with Zhang Juzheng unconditionally.

However, if Lu Tiaoyang is promoted, the Minister of Rites will have another vacant post. Wei Guangde is in a dilemma whether to promote Wang Guanglie and Zhu Dashou or arrange for someone else to take over.

What he didn't know was that although Zhang Juzheng was recuperating in his mansion at this time, he was also doing the same thing as him, which was who to recruit into the cabinet, how to arrange the vacant official positions, and who to fill.

They thought about it together with Wei Guangde, that is, the cabinet needed to replace someone, and they both chose Lu Tiaoyang at the same time.

Similar to the reason why Wei Guangde chose him, Lu Tiaoyang was relatively upright and fair in doing things. And as far as Zhang Juzheng knew, Lu Tiaoyang and Wei Guangde had no other contact except their intersection in the Ministry of Rites.

He can use such a person with confidence.

Of course, Lu Tiaoyang's ancestral home is also a plus point. At the very least, it can ensure that Lu Tiaoyang can be slightly closer to him in the cabinet.

Similarly, Zhang Juzheng also faced the dilemma of who could take over the position of Minister of Rites after being promoted to Lu Tiaoyang.

Wang Xilie and Zhu Dashou, one was a fellow from Wei Guangde, and the other was the same age as him. Neither of them wanted to support the rise to power.

So, it seemed that the relationship was just a matter of time, but the two of them were unable to make progress throughout their lives and could only stay in the position of minister.

I feel that after two days of resting at home, my body and bones have improved a lot and I feel much lighter. Zhang Juzheng plans to go back to the pavilion early tomorrow morning to run errands.

After all, the cabinet has great power, and he doesn't want to be left behind.

Zhang Juzheng didn't want to give up so soon after finally getting into the position of chief assistant.

Therefore, even without Wei Guangde, he had to persevere.

In fact, to reach the position of an important minister like Shangshu and Cabinet Minister, ability is no longer the most important thing, but depends on one's all-around skills and physical ability.

As long as you're in better health than your peers around you, you can get through them.

After each of them retired and returned to their hometown due to physical reasons, they slowly climbed up step by step.

When you sit in a high-ranking position, you have to drag your opponents to death to get to the position.

The original teacher Xu Jie was like this. It was not until Yan Song was over eighty years old that he became confused and lost the holy family, giving him an opportunity.

If the action against the Yan family had been carried out a few years earlier, when the Yan family's holy family was in full swing, Xu Jie would have been the unlucky one.

This is also in later generations, the maintenance of officials is very important. Annual physical examinations and regular recuperation are essential.

Zhang Juzheng didn't realize it before, but he slowly understood it after joining the cabinet.

People like Xu Jie and Li Chunfang all left the court due to their own reasons, and he will do the same in the future.

Early the next morning, Wei Guangde entered the cabinet and was greeted by people from Zhongshushe who were waiting at the door.

"Mr. Wei Ge, Mr. Zhang has just arrived at the cabinet on errands. He asked you to take the time to come over when you get to the cabinet."

The scholar at Zhongshu said to Wei Guangde politely.

"Oh, I see."

Wei Guangde was not surprised that Zhang Juzheng came back suddenly. Speaking of which, Zhang Juzheng had rested for two and a half days.

That day I went to Gao Yi's house to express my condolences. I stayed there for half an hour and then left to go back to the house to recuperate.

Wei Guangde only went to express his condolences in the afternoon of that day. After all, the cabinet could not be left unattended.

Wei Guangde went back to check the room first, and then Shi Shiran walked to the first assistant's room and asked someone to inform him before entering.

Today's Zhang Juzheng looks much better than he did that day, at least he doesn't look like a dying person.

Well, don't blame Wei Guangde for cursing others. Zhang Juzheng really looked like he was lingering on his last breath that day, and his life was not going to last long.

"Master Chief Assistant looks good. When I see him today, he is very different from the past few days. I am gratified."

When Wei Guangde entered, he raised his hands and smiled at Zhang Juzheng.

"Sit down quickly, Shandai. I'm exhausted these past two days."

Zhang Juzheng experienced the experience of sitting alone in the cabinet. He was not enjoying the joy of holding power, but suffering.

So after Wei Guangde entered, Zhang Juzheng had already stood up to greet him.

After the two of them sat down, Zhang Juzheng was greeted by a flurry of inquiries.

The cabinet has great power, but even greater responsibilities. Regular memorials are easy to deal with, but these are not normal times after all. Emperor Daxing's Zi Palace is still parked in the palace, and the main memorials of the imperial court are now for this purpose.

To put it bluntly, they just want money and want the Ministry of Accounts to give them money.

If the Ministry of Revenue has money, it's easy to talk about it. Just write the word "ke" and that's it. But now the Ministry of Revenue doesn't have money, so it worries the ministers.

After the greetings, the conversation between the two mainly focused on the distribution of power, and how to distribute official positions at the ministerial level.

Now that Gao Yi is dead, Wei Guangde is already a veritable second assistant, but the second assistant is still the second assistant, and he is a little less confident than the first assistant.

Speaking of which, both Wei Guangde and Zhang Juzheng were quite lucky. In just a few years, they went from being assistant ministers to the positions of first assistant and second assistant. Think about those who left for various reasons, such as Gao Gong, Chen Yiqin, Yin Shizhen and others. , what else can be said.

"Yang Bo was appointed Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, succeeded Gao Gong, and appointed Tan Lun to take charge of the Ministry of Military Affairs."

Zhang Juzheng and Wei Guangde discussed quietly, and the two positions were easily agreed upon.

Then Zhang Juzheng proposed to let Lu Tiaoyang, the Minister of Rites, enter the cabinet. Wei Guangde remained calm. Although he knew that this was the best choice, Wei Guangde still wanted to make a move.

"For the post of Minister of Rites vacated by Tiaoyang, I suggest that Lu Shusheng take over."