Chapter 29: Courtiers and Qi (Chapter 3 of the Ranking)
In any discussion, there will inevitably be conservatives and radicals.
It's just that in the Jiyi Hall today, the roles of the two are reversed.
General Xun Qi, who was supposed to be in charge of the battle, advocated accepting the situation and putting the word "tolerance first".
On the contrary, the civil servants who were supposed to advocate peace advocated strong resistance and refused all demands.
I have to say, it is quite a wonder.
In the final analysis, it is because Xunqi is now weak and dependent on the emperor.
Just like the reason why the two lords are so distressed, there are only a few Xunqi families and their mobility is very weak. Therefore, the Xunqi family may seem to be extremely prosperous, but it is extremely dependent on the imperial power.
If you offend the emperor, you will be deprived of your title and become a citizen for some reason, and this line of kinship will be cut off.
For the relatives, only by hugging the emperor's thigh at all times can they be a hereditary family and have enough strength to compete with the increasingly powerful civil servants.
Now that the emperor is captured, the relatives have lost their biggest supporter, so apart from the Queen Mother, they are the most urgent ones who want to rescue the emperor.
And look at it from another perspective.
This time, many of the deceased were killed. In the eyes of the imperial court, it was due to poor protection and treachery, which led to a catastrophic disaster. But what if it was in the eyes of the captured emperor?
Those relatives who accompanied him on the expedition and were brutally killed may not be, as Jiao Jing said, "loyal ministers and good generals"...
After all, they risked their lives for the emperor!
To take a step back, even if the emperor fails to be rescued, when the prince succeeds to the throne, out of filial piety, he must treat these relatives who once advocated for the emperor's rescue.
Civil servants are different...
Although most civil servants are unwilling to admit it, in fact, the emperor is really not that important to civil servants...
What civil servants need is a stable court situation and a mature government affairs processing system. As long as the powerful machine of the Ming Dynasty is still operating normally, civil servants will be indispensable no matter who is sitting on the throne.
With the continuous supply of imperial examinations, even if they are suppressed by the emperor for a while, they will eventually rise again.
Another meaning of the saying that there is one emperor and one courtier is that as long as there is an emperor, there will be courtiers.
It can be said that the Hongwu Dynasty was the most harsh period for civil servants. They were stripped of their skins and made of straw, and their imperial staffs were used to imprison them. None of this made the civil servants walk on thin ice with fear.
But what about now? Wen Wen is not prosperous but Wu is weak!
No matter how powerful a generation of emperor is, it only lasts for several decades.
Civil servants can afford it!
Therefore, for civil servants, their most urgent need is to protect the border towns. Relatively speaking, although the emperor's safety is important, it needs to be put in the back.
The border town is there, and the Ming Dynasty's border defense is there!
As long as the Ming Dynasty's border defense is stable, it doesn't matter even if it offends the emperor. At most, it will only be suppressed for a few years.
What's more, that's the worst-case scenario.
Now that the momentum is strong, there is still a question mark as to whether the emperor can be rescued...
To put it bluntly, if the emperor cannot be saved and the new emperor takes over, even if they make mistakes, it is for the sake of the country and the country. They have contributed to the establishment of the new emperor, and there is a high probability that they will be reused and rewarded.
This was also the biggest reason why Zhu Qiyu chose civil servants at this time.
In the dispute between the government and the government, there is no permanent right or wrong, nor are there permanent friends and enemies.
In the current situation, his interests are consistent with those of civil servants, so they will naturally join forces.
However, it should be noted that within any common group, there will be different factions and opinions.
For the civil servants as a whole, the safety of the border towns and the capital was more important than the safety of the emperor, but within the civil servants, there were different interests.
Judging from the speeches just made, the ministry officials, headed by Yu Qian, Minister of War, and Yu Shiyue, Minister of Dali Temple, hold a relatively radical view, believing that the country is more important than anything else, and advocate resolute resistance and no compromise!
Ke Daofeng Xianguan, represented by Li Kan in the matter, adhered to etiquette and ancestral systems, and held the view that the ancestral foundation should not be destroyed.
But at the same time, they who adhere to etiquette and law will inevitably believe that the emperor is the foundation of the country and must do their best to save it.
In other words, these scientific officials are actually idealists who want to take into account etiquette, law and justice, but do not want to bow to the thieves and compromise.
The rest are the attendants headed by Chen Xun, a scholar of the Hanlin Academy.
During the Ming Dynasty, the Hanlin Academy had a very special status.
In terms of actual power, it cannot be compared with the Six Ministries, or even with different temple supervisors, but its role cannot be replaced by any yamen.
It is the headquarters of civil servants and the reserve army!
If the imperial examination provided a steady stream of fresh blood to the civil servant group, then the Hanlin Academy was the transfer station for this fresh blood.
It is responsible for compiling books and writing history, drafting edicts, and reading them for the royal family. It is a close servant among civil servants. Although it has no real power, it is a reserve for important ministers in the cabinet.
In the late Ming Dynasty, there was a custom that non-Hanlin officials were not allowed to join the cabinet.
This group of people is what Zhu Qiyu is most concerned about.
Since Hanlin was the clearest among the clearest, although they had no real power, they had huge influence among the scholars and controlled the direction of public opinion.
At the same time, because they are only reserve troops, unlike ministers like Yu Qian, they also rely heavily on divine grace.
No matter how good the Hanlin Academy is, one has to be able to stand out in order to be qualified. If the Emperor is evil and spends his whole life in the Hanlin Academy compiling history and writing books, then he might as well be directly sent out to become a county magistrate and censor!
Therefore, these people are considered to be closer to the emperor among the civil servants.
For them, rescuing the emperor means that they can be reused immediately and replace those ministers, without having to climb up the ladder step by step.
This is also a great temptation!
Of course, as members of the civil service, they cannot show it openly.
After all, the country is more important than the emperor, and it is the basic foundation of civil servants.
But they obviously will not be as radical as ministers like Yu Qian.
Therefore, Chen Xun's views actually represent the thoughts of most of his attendants and some ministers with lower official positions.
You don't have to give in blindly like Xunqi, but you also can't refuse completely like Yu Qian.
Although the territory of Bianzhen was so important that it was impossible to even discuss it, if it was just gold, pearls, money, and silk, in order to save the emperor, I would give it to him.
In fact, as long as the emperor can be rescued, no matter how excessive the conditions are, he may not be unable to agree.
For Zhu Qiyu, the first thing to deal with in order to unify the court situation was these attendant ministers.
Regarding the relatives, firstly, they were in the wrong, and secondly, their interests were contrary to Zhu Qiyu's, so they were suppressed by the hands of civil servants.
Anyway, the foundation of honorable relatives is their title. No one can harm their foundation except the emperor.
At this juncture, the civil servants' big stick was enough to make them obedient and not dare to cause any trouble.
But relatively speaking, these attendants are more troublesome.
They themselves are members of the civil servants, and they are all officials of the Qing Dynasty who were born in Jinshi. They were in the same year, teachers and students, and seniors, and all kinds of relationships were intertwined.
It is impossible to use strong measures.
In addition, although this group of people has no real power, they have a strong influence in Shilin. If you are not careful, they will cause turmoil in people's hearts.
If the imperial court wants to stick to the capital, public opinion must pay attention.
The status of scholars in the Ming Dynasty was very high.
Most people's views on such important events will be influenced by the scholars around them.
These lower-level scholars are exactly what the Hanlin Academy can influence.
In other words, through its influence among scholars, the Hanlin Academy can influence the public sentiment and hearts to a certain extent.
To stabilize the capital, their strength is also indispensable.
So today, Zhu Qiyu must completely dispel Xiao Jiujiu in their hearts and twist the entire court into one.
