Chapter 284 Chief Baikui (1) succeeds as chief assistant
The emperor's efforts to convince Concubine Zheng stopped here.
But Gao Pingshi came out of Qianqing Palace, looked up, and saw the snow disappearing and the clouds disappearing, and he felt the spring breeze was slightly warm, and said to himself: "Thirty years...exactly thirty years."
Thirty years ago, Gao Gong became the chief minister. He was nicknamed "Xiao Ge Lao" by the court because he served as a companion to the prince. Thirty years later, he not only occupied the high position of Pavilion Lao, but also became the third uncle. He generally became Yuanfu of the Ming Dynasty.
Of course, to be honest, he is not yet Yuanfu, because the emperor only approved the words of the first assistant Wang Jiaping and the second assistant Liang Menglong, and the edict ordering him Gao to succeed the Grand Scholar of Zhongji Palace has just been issued. It has just been sent from the Supervisor of Ceremonies to the Cabinet, and there are still some procedures to go through later.
However, sequential succession is not as good as being pushed into the cabinet. This does not require another meeting of the nine ministers. The emperor can directly issue an edict - after all, he has already been pushed through the cabinet once, so there is no problem with qualifications.
So if there are no accidents, as long as Gao Pragmatic completes a little bit of the inherent process tomorrow - Shangshu resigns, the emperor refuses; Shangshu resigns again, the emperor refuses again - he will become the new Yuanfu of the Ming Dynasty.
This process is different from "three requests and three concessions". It can only be done twice. If it is done three times, it means that you really insist and the emperor will have to consider replacing someone.
Of course, Gao Pragmatic has no intention of insisting on anything less. Although he is not a good official, he has always wanted to continue to promote reforms, so further strengthening his power is necessary in his opinion. Therefore, if the position of chief minister is not vacant, then So, if he really wanted to free up his space, he would do it.
It was close to noon. Gao Pingshi planned to go back to the cabinet for dinner first, and take a look at Wang Jiaping to see if Liang Menglong was there. If he was there, he would still want to persuade him to stay. Of course, this was a courtesy invitation, and the two of them had not only decided to go. , and the emperor approved it, his pragmatic efforts to retain him were useless.
When they arrived at the cabinet, Wang Jiaping and Liang Menglong were actually there. The two of them sat in the front hall and laughed as Gao Pragmatic came in. Without waiting for Gao Pragmatic to speak first, the two of them got up first. Wang Jiaping said with a smile: "Rixin, From now on, the imperial court will rely on you to take care of it."
Liang Menglong followed closely behind, and said with a smile: "Congratulations to Rixin! From today on, the Xinzheng Gao family will be 'two prime ministers in one family, three generations and four Jinshi', and their name will go down in history from now on!"
Gao Pragmatic hurriedly handed over his hands to thank the two of them: "The second uncle is too praised, and the students are scared." The "student" here is not that Gao Pragmatic thinks he is their student, it is just a kind of self-effacement, which can generally be understood as "I am a student" People who are still learning.”
As for Liang Menglong's sentence "One family has two prime ministers, three generations and four Jinshi", it can be simply interpreted as "one family has two prime ministers", which refers to Gao Gong, Gao Pragmatic's uncle and nephew both serving as chief assistants;
"Three Generations and Four Jinshi" refers to Gao Jingshi's grandfather Gao Shangxian, eldest uncle Gao Jie, third uncle Gao Gong and himself, all of whom were selected as Jinshi in the Ming Dynasty.
Gao Jingshi's grandfather, Gao Shangxian, was a member of the Gengwu Department of Henan in the fifth year of Zhengde. He was ranked 84th in the Dingchou Department of Zhengde in the twelfth year, and ranked 14th in the imperial examination.
Uncle Gao Jie ranked 12th in the Henan Provincial Examination of the Jiawu Section in the 13th year of Jiajing, ranked 220th in the Yiwei Section Examination in the 14th year of Jiajing, and ranked 191st among the top three in the Imperial Examination;
The third uncle, Gao Gong, was the Jie Yuan in the Henan Township Examination of Jichou Ke in the 8th year of Jiajing, the 49th place in the Xin Chou Ke Examination in the 20th year of Jiajing, and the twelfth place in the Imperial Examination;
Gao pragmatism is even more powerful. He was the chief of Xinzheng County in the first month of Xinwei in the fifth year of Longqing, the chief of Kaifeng Prefecture in March, the chief of Daoshi in April, Jiemaoke in Henan Township in the seventh year of Wanli, Jieyuan in the eighth year of Wanli, and Gengchen in the eighth year of Wanli.
The first place in the National Science Examination and the first place in the first grade of the Imperial Examination are "six consecutive wins".
Because he was the first six-song scholar recognized by the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yijun, the Emperor of Wanli, had a separate tablet inscribed with the title of Jinshi. On it was a hymn personally inscribed by the imperial pen: "The legend of the dragon and the tiger sings the golden list, and the gathering of wind and clouds is the symbol of jade."
Crown. I have been the true leader for two hundred years. I wrote the poems and wrote the elixirs for you." It can be said to be an unparalleled grace and honor.
In fact, in addition to the "three generations and four Jinshi", there is another interesting phenomenon in the rural examinations of the three generations of the Gao family in Xinzheng: in addition to the eldest uncle Gao Jie, the grandfather Gao Shangxian, the third uncle Gao Gong and his Gao Pragmatic
I myself, among the three generations, there was actually a Henan Jieyuan!
What does "Yiluo Mingmen, Zhongzhou Yifan" mean? This is it.
After making a modest remark, Gao Pragmatic immediately said something to persuade him to stay, but as soon as he opened his mouth, Wang Jiaping smiled and said: "There is no need to say these words for Rixin. I am not belittling myself. Compared with you, Gao Rixin, I am really no Yuanfu."
You are so talented. Who can I replace you with as the king now? I should be right in my name and right in my position."
Liang Menglong smiled and said: "I don't need to mention it. I should have begged for the bones a long time ago. Now it has been delayed for a long time. If I don't retire, I'm afraid it will cause gossip."
Gao Pragmatic couldn't persuade him, and sighed repeatedly, and asked when the second prince would leave Beijing so that he could see him off. Liang Menglong said: "I have already packed my luggage and will go back to my hometown tomorrow."
Gao pragmatically said: "The students will go to Yantai Mayi early tomorrow morning." Liang Menglong was from Zhending, Beizhili. After leaving Beijing, he should go due south, so Gao pragmatically proposed to go to Yantai Mayi, which is located in the southern suburbs of the capital.
Send each other off.
Liang Menglong knew that Gao Pragmatic would definitely send him away, so he had nothing to say, so he could only smile. Wang Jiaping said: "I still need two or three days to sort it out, so let's set off in three days." Gao Pragmatic also agreed as usual.
, make an appointment to see each other off.
Wang Jiaping smiled and said: "Now that I have resigned, it is very inappropriate to stay in the pavilion for a long time. I will not talk to Rixin anymore today. I will take my leave first."
Gao pragmatically said: "It's already noon, why not have lunch before going back home?"
Wang Jiaping waved his hand and said: "As we get older, we eat less. Besides, Rixin must be busy today, so I won't bother you. By the way, the seals and other items that should be guarded are all in the check-in room. Rixin can send them."
If there are any deficiencies, I can send someone to my house to inquire at any time while I still have three days."
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! This is all I have to say, which handover of chief and assistant would miss these things? Gao Pragmatic just responded casually.
The two left immediately, and Gao Pragmatic saw them off personally, not just out of the cabinet, but directly to the gate of Donghua. Wang Jiaping and Liang Menglong persuaded him again and again before he stood still, and then waited for the two of them to leave in the green sedan chair.
After being almost out of sight, Gao Pragmatic returned to the cabinet.
On a traffic thoroughfare like Donghua Gate, any news spreads quickly. Gao Yuanfu, who is about to take up his new post, is prepared to send off his outgoing first and second assistants with such etiquette. Naturally, he can gain a good reputation - otherwise Gao Yuanfu would do this.
Once he has done something, it is enough to send him out of the cabinet.
The higher you are in a high position, the more you must pay attention to etiquette in order to maintain a good reputation. This is the basic quality of being an official in China. Gao Pragmatic naturally has this quality and will definitely do it.
Following the departure of Wang Jiaping and Liang Menglong, Gao Pragmatic, who returned to the cabinet, did not go to Wang Jiaping's first assistant to check the room, and returned to his own room without even taking a second look.
It's not that he neglected the handover, but that Zhu Yijun's edict ordering him to succeed has not yet come out. Of course, it would be fast to reply to Zhu's resignation, but it would obviously be a lot of trouble for the Supervisor of Ceremonies to write a new appointment and then go through the process of stamping it with a jade seal or something like that. So,
It's slower.
Besides, he himself has not yet completed the "three requests and two concessions" between him and the emperor. At this time, he went to Wangjiaping to be the first assistant. It would seem that he was too restless, as if he couldn't wait to be the first assistant.
So Gao Jingshi wrote a note in his check-in room, then called Xiong Tingbi over and asked him to take it to Zhong Zhaodou.
Naturally, the reason for looking for Zhong Zhaodou was to investigate the medicinal diet case, in other words, to implement the agreement reached with Zhu Yijun. Although the root of the dispute over the country was that the civil servant group wanted to force the emperor to realize that the imperial power was limited and that Confucianism could not be violated, but Gao was pragmatic.
I'm not worried about not being able to convince the officials.
The reason is very simple. He had already discussed the punishment for Concubine Zheng when he exchanged opinions with the emperor last time: remove the word "emperor" and demote the concubine from the imperial concubine to a noble concubine.
The "imperial concubine" is regarded as the "deputy queen", which is equivalent to the "executive deputy" of the harem. Once the queen becomes vacant, the imperial concubine can be easily "promoted" to the queen. Therefore, her son's status is also very noble, almost equal to
The "executive deputy" of the crown prince is equivalent to the second in line of succession after the crown prince to a certain extent.
However, the imperial concubine does not have such privileges. Although she is very noble, she will not be regarded as a "vice queen", and her son will not be regarded as the second heir to the throne after the crown prince, but only one of the ordinary princes.
one.
In other words, under the premise that Queen Wang has a legitimate son, Zhu Changhao, according to the custom of the Ming Dynasty, this is how it is:
Concubine Zheng is the imperial concubine, so Zhu Changxun should be the second in line to the throne after Zhu Changhao. This is because "his mother is noble", while Zhu Changluo, the eldest son of a concubine, can only be ranked third;
Concubine Zheng is the noble concubine, then Zhu Changluo is the second in line to the throne, and Zhu Changxun is the third in line to the throne. This is simply based on the order of eldest and youngest.
Gao Wuzhen's current attitude is aloof, because his position in the dispute over the country has always been "waiting for the queen to give birth to a legitimate son." Now the emperor's legitimate son Zhu Changhao has safely passed through the most dangerous period after the baby is born. Unless
There really is some kind of misfortune coming from heaven, otherwise Gao Qingshi would be confident to protect this child from growing up.
The emperor himself had also had headaches over the dispute over the country's foundation for many years, and now that the medicinal diet case had arisen again, he felt that procrastinating it would only make the situation worse, so he made up his mind to appoint Zhu Chang.
Hao.
In this case, Gao Pragmatic aimed to remove the word "emperor" from the title of Concubine Zheng, depriving her and Zhu Changxun of their political specialness. This would also maintain the so-called principles of Confucianism, which would naturally be enough to convince them.
Hundreds of officials.
As for some radical officials in the court who said in their memorials that if they don't kill Concubine Zheng, the world will be uneasy, Gao Pragmatic is even less worried. These people are not jumping high because they really think that if they don't do this, the country will be destroyed.
But just because they have low status and insufficient qualifications, they can only use this to gain fame.
Although such people are often academic officials, Gao Pragmatic is not afraid at all - he is now at the top of the court, and his literary and military achievements are unmatched. Among civil servants, he is the leader of the Practical School, and among nobles, he is
He is the God of Wealth of various families, and among the military generals, he is the living God of War. Plus, as always, the Holy Family is Dulong, why should he be afraid of officials?
He is now like what is said in "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu, "The good warriors of the past were invincible first." He has already achieved that no one in the whole dynasty can defeat him, and it is only his duty to defeat others. In this case
After all, Yan Guan just wants to gain fame, and he is not simply looking for death. Naturally, he will not be his target...it is too late to curry favor with him.
There is no need to worry about the consequences, but there must be a reason for settling the case so quickly, otherwise the face will still be difficult to deal with. However, Gao Pragmatic had already thought of a solution to this problem on his way back to the cabinet from the Qianqing Palace - reuse the waste.
Saying this may be a bit disrespectful to the deceased, but there is no other way. Gao pragmatically wanted to take advantage of Bingbi, the chief of the Supervisor of Ceremonies, and Wang An, the governor of the East Factory, who had just committed suicide.
According to the statement written by Gao Jingshi to Zhong Zhaodou, the "real situation" of the matter is as follows: Wang An learned from the outside world a so-called medicated diet formula, which is said to make people live longer. After Wang An got the medicated diet formula, he was
When Concubine Zheng learned about it, Concubine Zheng happily presented it to the emperor, and ordered someone to cook the medicinal meal in Yikun Palace for the emperor to take.
It is unclear whether the medicinal diet itself has such effects, but at least the emperor did not show any problems after taking it for a period of time. Therefore, Concubine Zheng did not feel anything was wrong and had been preparing the medicinal diet in Yikun Palace. As long as the emperor
You can eat it when you come.
However, there was something wrong with this medicated diet. It could not be taken with wine, especially when the user was in a high mood and drank wine at the same time. As a result, the emperor happened to violate both taboos that day, so the medicated diet not only failed to prolong life.
, but caused the emperor to cough up blood and faint.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Therefore, as the highest-ranking minister in the cabinet after Wang Jiaping and Liang Menglong both entered office, Gao Pragmatic determined that Concubine Zheng had no subjective malicious intent in this case.
, but in fact it caused damage to the emperor's dragon body, so he planned to report to the emperor that he would strip Concubine Zheng of her title of imperial concubine and demote her to the title of virtuous concubine.
Hey, wasn't it agreed that she would be demoted to a noble concubine? Why did Gao Pragmatic say that she would be demoted to a virtuous concubine? Of course there was a reason for this, and the reason was that she had to leave room for the emperor to show mercy outside the law.
Gao Pragmatic suggested that the emperor demote Concubine Zheng to a concubine of virtue. The emperor could refuse to agree and tell the emperor how good Concubine Zheng was and how unexpected this time was, and then he could just demote her to a concubine.
In politics, there must always be room for success, and you must always be good to me and everyone, so that you can be long-lasting.
All in all, Wang An seems to be the unluckiest person to have to shoulder the blame after his death. But in fact, he was indeed involved. Although Gao Pragmatic did not really investigate the matter, he generally did. This kind of speculation cannot be regarded as a complete injustice to the former admiral of Dongchang.
After writing the article, Xiong Tingbi had just sent him off when the imperial edict arrived. This imperial edict contained nearly a thousand words, but it was actually just a few sentences:
Because the first assistant and the second assistant were honored to serve, the emperor appointed Gao Jingshi to be the bachelor of Zhongji Palace, Zhao Zhigao to be the bachelor of Jianji Palace, Shen Yiguan to be the bachelor of Wenhua Palace, and Zhou Yong to be the bachelor of Wuying Palace.
After Gao pragmatic received the imperial edict, he immediately began to write a speech in his own hand - not a speech about resigning and becoming an official, but a speech about refusing to accept the resignation.
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PS: My mother is going to see her grandson today, which is okay, but today the temperature suddenly dropped to 13℃, which scared me so much that I even turned my winter clothes out... I don’t want to have a cold for half a month!
