Chapter 628 627 Before the Emperor
"Half a month ago, I had a meal as a guide, and the teacher asked me to return home because I was worried about state affairs."
Zhang Juzheng said seriously: "As far as I know, Mr. Zhao of the Ministry of War was busy with official duties in his early years and suffered from stomach problems due to irregular meals. He has been suffering from stomach problems recently.
Once an attack occurs, he will be bedridden and the pain will be unbearable and he will be unable to do anything. The teacher will resign first and stay in retreat for two days. I predict that Zhao Shangshu will follow closely and ask for his resignation.
His Majesty has just ascended the throne, and a teacher and Minister Zhao have asked to resign one after another, but they will not accept it and will definitely try to persuade them to stay.
I broke the news again that the teacher's illness was due to Gao Gong's words that day, and he was so depressed that he felt unwell and wanted to go home.
The opening of the sea was unpopular in the past, and the current chief minister was forced to resign. Public opinion in the court was bound to be turbulent. Even His Majesty would never dare to let the teacher leave at this time. The only way to solve the problem was Let the high arches go. "
What Xu Jie is good at is taking advantage of momentum, and the idea proposed by Zhang Juzheng is also what he is best at.
In fact, the essence of relying on court public opinion is to accurately judge people's hearts.
No one supports the opening of the sea, but Gao Gong supports it. He is already on the opposite side of everyone.
If Xu Jiexian insists on opposing the opening of the sea in front of His Majesty, if he is consistent with most officials, he will gain support from public opinion.
Later, if he resigned for some reason and gained sympathy from the public, even the old officials who had previously planned to stay out of the matter would feel disappointed and they could not tolerate Gao Gong to continue to stay in the court.
In the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty, there is also a tradition of ranking based on seniority, just like the ranking of the cabinet.
Although everyone is a cabinet minister, there are still distinctions between the first assistant, the second assistant, and the assistant minister, as well as the distinction between advanced and backward.
Gao Gong came from behind and relied on the emperor's favor to force the chief minister to this point. It was absolutely impossible for them not to be jealous of the enemy.
At this time, if officials from the Ministry of Science and Technology came forward one after another to impeach him, even if Emperor Longqing wanted to protect Gao Gong, he might be helpless in the face of the overthrow of the whole dynasty. If he wanted to maintain the stability of the government, he would have to reluctantly abandon Gong.
"Who are you going to let take action?"
Xu Jie just pondered for a moment and then asked.
"The Criminal Division has assigned Zhang Jin the case."
Zhang Juzheng replied.
"In addition, Li's reinstatement impeachment memorial will be sent to the cabinet tomorrow."
Xu Jie immediately made a decision. No matter what the emperor thought, Gao Gong must be removed from power first. As for the relationship with the emperor, he would find a way to slowly repair it.
At this time, the news of Tan Lun's memorial had also spread, and all the officials working in the government offices in the entire capital had heard about it.
For a time, countless clerks and clerks were dispatched from their respective yamen, and hurried to the General Affairs Department to copy Tan Lun's memorial, and then brought it back to their masters.
In Gao Gong's room of the cabinet, Guo Pu was already sitting opposite Gao Gong and was talking about this matter.
Both of them had relaxed smiles on their faces at the moment. In their eyes, this meant that the officials outside were consistent with their original statement and hoped to open the sea ban to try the effect.
They were inside, while Tan Lun, Tu Zemin and others were outside. With the response from both inside and outside, the policy of establishing a maritime ban might really be passed.
Thinking of the anger he had received a few days ago, Gao Gong felt a little unwilling to accept it.
Although he initially chose to go against Xu Jie because of a dispute over loyalty, he later felt that Tu Zemin's opinion had merit and there was no harm in giving it a try.
Therefore, even though a large number of opposition memorials appeared, accusing him of tampering with the ancestral system, he still insisted on his original views.
Gao Gong is such a person. As long as he thinks it is right, he will firmly support it no matter what others think, and will not be affected by other people at all.
"Tan Lun's memorial is very good. Let these officials who hang around the capital all day long see who is the real frog in the well.
I have never been to the local area, so I don't know how difficult it is to manage the place. Only people like Tu Zemin and Tan Lun who have been in Jiangnan for a long time know how to pacify the place. "
Gao Gong took a sip of tea and spoke calmly.
"It is indeed a good thing to get the support of foreign Korea. This also shows that Governor Tu's memorial was not a whim. It is possible that he had contacts and discussions with officials in Zhejiang, Guangdong and other places before submitting the memorial."
Guo Pu also nodded in agreement.
These ministers in the DPRK certainly don't know as much about the coast as these local officials, so they will inevitably make mistakes when formulating policies.
Perhaps because of his familiarity, he and Gao Gong talked about almost everything on major issues. Of course, they knew that the discussion of opening up the sea had nothing to do with Gao Gong. With today's situation, it was natural to assume that it was Tu Zemin's thoughtful decision after communicating with surrounding officials. As a result, I never imagined that there was someone behind this incident.
"I have already thought about it. Regardless of whether His Majesty agrees or not, I will ask Your Majesty to give it a try. At that time, we will propose to choose a good port to open the sea. We will wait for a few years and see the effect of opening the sea clearly before deciding what to do next.
If it is beneficial to the court, it will be expanded. If it is not beneficial, the port will be maintained or even closed. "
Gao Gong told Guo Pu what he had thought about in the past two days.
"Great goodness, as it is."
Guo Pu naturally had no objection to this.
What is the ancestral system? It is just used by the ministers to restrain the emperor. It is not used to deal with the ministers. He will not put shackles on himself.
Since you are an official, you naturally want to govern the world well and have the opportunity to leave your name in history. This is what officials like them pursue.
To finish the affairs of the king and the world, to win the reputation both before and after him, he has lived up to what he has learned in his life.
"I would like to ask Mr. Guo to lend me a helping hand at the great court meeting in two days."
Gao Gong had planned this before, and after seeing Tan Lun's memorial today, Gao Gong naturally felt that victory was in sight.
Opening the sea, or at least trying to open the sea, is something that everyone hopes for in the eyes of Gao Gong and Guo Pu.
As for the resistance between the DPRK and China, it is nothing more than a group of frogs croaking in the bottom of a well.
What do they know?
Gao Gong looked down upon Beijing officials very much, feeling that they were just leeches lying on the empire constantly sucking blood. They only cared about their own interests and engaged in corruption to make money, but made no contribution to the country at all.
If you have a little sense of shame, you should not oppose policies that benefit the country and the people, such as the opening of the sea.
Gao Gong was still thinking about taking action at the two-day court meeting, so he let out a fierce breath. Little did he know that someone not far away was already planning to take action against him.
Wei Guangde was not affected at all by the discussions among the officials in the capital. Although he also had someone copy Tan Lun's memorial, he just took it back and looked at it.
Although he didn't care about other people's opinions, it had to be said that Wei Guangde only really understood now that opening the sea was really not a trivial matter, and he still underestimated the impact of this matter.
In fact, Wei Guangde estimated that Emperor Longqing, who was in the palace, would break out in a cold sweat when he saw the secret report from Dongchang.
In the blink of an eye, early the next morning, Gao Gong happily walked into the cabinet office, but in less than an hour, he walked out of the cabinet with a frosty face.
When we arrived outside the palace, the bearer of the family's sedan chair was already called to wait here.
Gao Gong didn't say a word, and got into the sedan angrily and walked away.
Today, he once again felt Xu Jie's deep malice in the cabinet.
Not long after handling official duties, he was called into the duty room by Xu Jie. What greeted him was an impeachment memorial from the Criminal Division to Zhang Jin, impeaching him for being self-willed and unworthy of a minister, supporting the opening of the sea, and violating the ancestral system.
Not long after, Li Chunfang also came over with a memorial. This was a memorial from Li Fupin, the censor of Guangdong Province in the Nanjing Metropolitan Procuratorate. The memorial even mentioned the five crimes committed by Gao Gong, a great scholar, and asked Your Majesty to stop. If so.
Gao Gong just silently read the memorials of Zhang Jin and Li Fupin, keeping these two people in his heart, and he even hated Xu Jie in his heart.
Although Xu Jie pretended to be a good old man in front of him, Gao Gong would not believe it even if he said that these two people had nothing to do with Xu Jie.
At this time, Guo Pu, Zhang Juzheng, Chen Yiqin and others summoned by Li Chunfang also arrived. After all, they were impeaching cabinet ministers and needed to go home to avoid suspicion, so naturally everyone had to be informed of such a major event.
Not only to let them know the truth of the incident, but also to teach them a lesson. This is also the tradition of the cabinet.
After reading the two memorials, Guo Pu and Chen Yiqin didn't look good.
No one is a fool, even Li Chunfang is the same. He only glances at Xu Jie from time to time and doesn't say much.
The news that Gao Gong had left the cabinet in despair spread throughout the official circles of the capital and also reached the ears of Wei Guangde.
What can Wei Guangde say about this?
In fact, since Tu Zemin's memorial was sent to the capital, Wei Guangde could do very little.
In his original thinking, he should unite supporters, divide opponents, and find opportunities to pass this policy.
But after this policy evolved into cabinet strife, Wei Guangde's influence became smaller. After all, it was not on the same level.
So far, the cabinet has not convened the six ministries, nine ministers and other important ministers to discuss the matter. Instead, it intentionally or unintentionally allowed the Beijing officials to discuss it in private, but they were not allowed to do anything beyond the rules.
This is the advantage of Xu Jie as the chief minister of the cabinet. No note issued by the cabinet can avoid him, and everything is under his control.
Soon after, news came from outside Lubu that Emperor Longqing had moved to the cabinet.
After Tan Lun's memorial arrived yesterday, Wei Guangde knew that this had happened. The emperor probably felt that the situation was about to develop. Although there were many opponents, the two foreign ministers' memorials were supportive, so he could test the opinions of the cabinet ministers.
But thinking of the news he had just received, Gao Gong's departure, Wei Guangde knew that it must be Xu Jie's change of strategy after seeing Tan Lun's memorial yesterday.
He deliberately arranged for people to move Gao Gong away so that Emperor Longqing would try his best to oppose the opening of the sea when consulting the cabinet.
Just as Wei Guangde thought, when he was about to visit the cabinet, the emperor learned that Gao Gong had been impeached again and went home to avoid suspicion. He was a little dumbfounded at the time.
Without the support of Master Gao, Emperor Longqing didn't think anyone could convince Xu Jie.
After all, in Tu Zemin's memorial, the attitude of cabinet ministers towards this was made clear.
"Your Majesty, although from the lines of Governor Tu's memorial, we can feel his compassion for the people's plight, and the request to open the sea to solve the livelihood of the people in Fujian is also for the sake of the court and the people, but the ancestral system is the ancestral system, and the ancestral system cannot be violated. Please also ask Your Majesty Dismiss Governor Tu's memorial."
After Emperor Longqing bravely entered the cabinet to explain his intention, the chief minister Xu Jie took the lead in speaking out against it.
"Your Majesty, it can be seen from the memorials received by the cabinet in the past few days that most of the ministers are opposed to changing the ancestral system and the suggestions of Governor Tu."
Zhang Juzheng also stood up at this time and spoke respectfully to the emperor.
At this moment, in the duty room of the cabinet, Emperor Longqing was sitting at the top, and the five cabinet ministers were standing on the left and right at the bottom.
"I am here today just to listen to suggestions. If you have any ideas, please feel free to tell me."
Although Xu Jie and Zhang Juzheng spoke against it from the beginning, Emperor Longqing also knew that Guo Pu and Chen Yiqin in the cabinet were supportive. Although Master Gao was not in the cabinet, he was not without supporters.
Sure enough, after hearing what the emperor said, Guo Pu immediately stood up.
"Your Majesty, I am from Anyang and don't know much about Fujian. I only found out about this after reading Governor Tu's memorial. After reading Governor Tan's memorial yesterday, I also looked for Governor Tan's early report on the situation in Fujian and read it. Only then did I find out. The reason why there are so many bandits in Fujian and Guangdong.
Although the opening of the sea is against the ancestral system, if you think about it carefully, it can provide a livelihood for the local people. I ask your Majesty to show mercy and allow a trial of opening the sea in Fujian to relieve the hardship of the people's lives. "
When Tan Lun was the governor of Fujian, Guo Pu happened to go home to observe filial piety, so he had never read Tan Lun's memorial on Fujian affairs. I just read it yesterday and read it. Naturally, he had a deeper understanding of the situation in Fujian and knew that the people of Fujian did not If you open the sea, you will take risks in order to survive. If you want to stabilize the place, opening the sea is the only option.
So even if Gao Gong is not here today, Guo Pu still decides to support Kai Hai.
After all, he was able to enter the cabinet and was talked about a lot by both the government and the opposition.
Until now, when talking about cabinet ministers, people still make fun of him and Li Chunfang from time to time, calling them the "Qingci Prime Minister".
For this reason, Li Chunfang had to keep a low profile, try to avoid being involved in major affairs in the DPRK, and reduce his sense of existence. However, because he got along with Gao Gongxiang, he could not help but get closer.
"Your Majesty, I support Mr. Guo Ge's opinion. For the sake of the people of Fujian, please allow us to open the sea."
After Guo Pu finished speaking, Chen Yiqin immediately stood up and expressed his stance.
Xu Jie opposed the opening of the sea based on the ancestral system, so they requested the opening of the sea based on the welfare of the people of Fujian.
As long as we set this tone and oppose the opening of the sea, although we obey the ancestral system but disregard the life and death of the Fujian people, it may not be able to gain a good reputation if word spreads.
Will people in Fujian really starve to death because they don’t open the sea?
Of course not, it's just that life is more difficult, but these words cannot be said at this time, but must be spread to the ears of all officials as facts.
These are naturally the strategies that Wei Guangde thought of. Facing the ancestral system, he could not find a reason to open the sea anyway, so he could only talk about the well-being of the people.
As for opening up the sea to make money and alleviate the court's financial difficulties, these words were definitely not allowed to be spoken in the Ming court.
People can refute you to death by saying "a gentleman loves money and acquires it in a proper way". The Ming Dynasty always adhered to a small-scale peasant economy and was based on agriculture.
At this scene, Li Chunfang was a little overwhelmed.
Four of the five people present in the cabinet had already expressed their attitude. Counting heads, they were evenly matched and clearly divided, but they were able to contain him.
Who to support?
Who do you support?
According to the original situation, with Gao Gong's support, he had to oppose on the grounds of ancestral system, then the support and opposition would be equally divided.
But today Gao Gong obviously caught Xu Jie's advice, how should he express his stance?
Standing on the steps of Xu, he was afraid that the crime of disregarding the life and death of Fujian people would fall on him.
Taking Guo Pu's side, he seems to be being duplicitous again.
For a moment, Li Chunfang hesitated.