In addition to giving Zhang Juzheng a calligraphy, Long Qing also sent Chen Ju, the eunuch Bingbi who was ranked last among the ceremonial supervisors, to the Gaoda Scholars' Mansion. Under Gao Pragmatic's recommendation, he had a serious talk with Gao Gong.
The next day, another edict was issued to the Gaoda Scholars' Office: "Your Majesty assists in government, is honest, straightforward, and does not avoid resentment. As a result, I have been informed of rumors. Why should I seek to retreat any further? It is better to comply with the previous edict, that is, I am giving you an auxiliary explanation to assist me in adhering to my intention, so be careful not to say goodbye again."
Gao Gong did not persist this time, but left the house and returned to the pavilion to take care of things.
However, this time the matter was destined not to be settled so easily, because on the same day that Gao Gong left the government to take charge of the affairs, Gao Gong's disciples could not sit still.
Tu Menggui, the official in charge of the official affairs, reported: "Liu Fenyong, the Minister of Shangbao, pretends to serve the old ministers, and has the false intention to promote others. He is making false suggestions, blaspheming and disturbing the country. It is better to stop granting them urgently, and still carry out investigation and treatment, as a human minister." The precept of false public and private interests.”
Cheng Wenshu, who was in charge of Zuo Gei of the Engineering Department, said: "As an assistant minister, I have devoted myself to serve the country, and I will rely on you for eternity. I cannot let it go for a day. Fen Yong and Cao Daye secretly conspired to trap Yuan Fu. He is guilty of being a pervert and cannot do it for a day." If you want to win, you should show off and run away, or give him a warning."
The two people had roughly the same idea. They believed that it was very inappropriate for Liu Fenyong and Cao Daye to belittle them in such a belittling manner, and they wanted to directly remove them or even continue to hold them accountable.
Zhang Juzheng, who wrote the draft on that day, did not give any approval and directly sent it to the Ministry of Personnel.
Gao Gong met at the Ministry of Civil Affairs and replied: "Fen Yong tried to serve in the palace, but it was ineffective. The young man in Daye was young and sharp, but he was also an official, so he was not deeply to blame. Please forgive Fenyong and reinstate him in Daye. "
This statement is interesting: Liu Fenyong is an old minister of Yudi, and he has made meritorious service in the past; Cao Daye is young and energetic, and he is an official, so we don't need to go into details and ask the emperor to exempt them from punishment.
Doesn’t the emperor hope that Zhang Juzheng and I will give up the confrontation and join hands to serve the country? OK, I will not only stop pursuing these two people, but also ask the emperor to reinstate them to their posts.
The emperor refused to let him in, and issued another edict: "This Cao Peng is framed by conspiracy, and his crime is abominable. It is necessary to strictly enforce the law. If you report to me, I will be lenient. If you work hard as the previous decree, Daye will be demoted to one level and transferred to a foreign post."
Therefore, Liu Fenyong was still transferred to Huguang Xingguo as the magistrate of the state. Cao Daye suffered a loss and was demoted to the eighth rank of Qianzhou Wugong County Magistrate, almost demoting him from the official rank.
Zhang Juzheng had no reaction to this.
As April passed, the emperor's illness neither improved nor worsened. Everyone thought that although the emperor's body was weak, it might not be a serious problem. As long as he rested peacefully, he would get better.
But the emperor himself seemed unwilling to take a good rest. On this day, without any request from the Ministry of Officials, he ordered the Taichang Temple Minister to take charge of the Imperial Academy's drinking ceremony, Ding Shimei, who was a former official and a bachelor's student at the Hanlin Academy, and served as the attendant of the East Palace. Official. He also appointed Zhang Siwei, Zuo Shilang of the Ministry of Personnel and associate director of the Hanlin Academy's bachelor's degree, to be in charge of Zhan Shi's affairs. At the same time, he was promoted to Shao Zhanshi and concurrently a bachelor's degree student in the Hanlin Academy. Ma Ziqiang was promoted to Zhan Shi and was still a bachelor's degree student , assisted in the affairs of the government, and taught the common people together.
Zhang Siwei took some time off due to illness last time and had just returned to Beijing. As soon as he returned to Beijing, he found that he was inexplicably slandered as a gift of "eight hundred gold" to Gao Gong. He was both angry and funny at the same time - not to mention that Mr. Gao Ge had always been interested in it. For me, I don't need to do these stupid things at all. Even if I really want to pay a bribe, how rich I am and what status does Gaoge always have? Can I afford eight hundred gold to give you money?
He had just returned to duty at the Ministry of Civil Affairs when he was promoted to an official position by the emperor. However, this also reminded him of the false accusation he had made, so he accused Cao Daye of having an affair, defended himself in the first chapter, and was dismissed for begging.
The emperor replied that the matter had been resolved. Don't be burdened with thoughts and hurry up and take up your post as ordered.
Zhang Siwei's problem was a minor one, and he just dealt with it according to the usual practice. Since the emperor said so, he should stop being reserved, so he went back to the Ministry of Personnel and did not mention it.
On the same day, the emperor also promoted the officials from the left to the Shizhong. In the Song Dynasty, Han was assigned to the criminal department, and Cheng Wen was assigned to the engineering department. Wu Wenjia was promoted to the military department from the left to the Shizhong. The engineering department is on the right, Zonghong Siam is on the left, and the criminal department is on the left. Chen Sanmo is on the right, and the official department is on the right. Tu Menggui is on the right, and the official department is on the right. Zhou Liangchen is on the right. For the military department, give it to the right.
Since most of them were Gao Gong's disciples, the outside world believed that this was the emperor's gesture to further appease Gao Gong.
Regarding this matter, neither Gao Gong nor Zhang Juzheng expressed directly, but just two days later, Gao Gong went to the cabinet as the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, asking him to adjust the military preparations of Su Song and Huguang Inspector Cai Guoxi to Shanxi to supervise the academic affairs. Then He also voted for approval as the chief minister of the cabinet and submitted it to the emperor.
Seeing this, the emperor breathed a sigh of relief and felt that he had basically succeeded in mediating the conflicts between Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng.
The reason why Long Qing felt this way was because he had always believed that the starting point of the conflict between Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng should have been the handling of the Songjiang land withdrawal case by Xu Jie. And this Deputy Ambassador Cai Guoxi served as governor of Yingtian in Hai Rui. After being promoted, he was sent to Su Song to handle Xu Jie's "special case".
Deputy Ambassador Cai had been insulted by the Xu family when he was the governor of Suzhou in his early years [Wufeng's note: mentioned above]. Therefore, although he was not as reckless as Hai Rui after he took office, he was very dedicated to thoroughly investigating the Xu family, even if Later, Gao Gong wrote to him to advise him not to go too far, but he was reluctant to listen.
However, Cai Guoxi has excellent personal ethics, and unlike Hai Rui, who likes to be forceful, he slowly collects evidence of the Xu family's crimes and does not take action until the evidence is conclusive. Therefore, although the outside world is dissatisfied with his continued suppression of a veteran who became an official, they also find There was no good reason. In this way, Cai Guoxi has been working in Su Song's position of military preparation until now, and the Xu family was also hit hard by this. Xu Jie's sons Xu Fan and Xu Kun were all found out and even arrested. Distributed and confiscated into the army.
Long Qing was a kind man. Although he knew Gao Gong's intention to suppress Xu Dang in his heart, and even he himself also intended to suppress Xu Dang who was "all talk but no practice", it was not Long Qing's original intention to bring Xu Jie to this level after all. It was just that When things got to this point, it was hard for him to take the initiative to exonerate Xu Jie.
Long Qing felt that Xu Jie was Zhang Juzheng's mentor, and the misunderstanding between Gao Gong and Xu Jie made it so that Zhang Juzheng must not be a good person in the middle, and the conflict between him and Gao Gong probably originated from here.
Therefore, Gao Gong's transfer from Cai Guoxi made Long Qing very happy. He believed that no matter what Mr. Gao said, he still cared about the matters he confessed. This move must be to ease the conflict with Zhang Juzheng.
It seems that all my efforts have finally paid off. Now it’s up to Mr. Zhang.
Did Mr. Zhang take any action? No, he has remained silent. No matter what the emperor and Gao Gong did, he just accepted it silently, neither obeying or catering, nor taking the initiative to resist.
Long Qing felt that this might also be the default attitude, after all, Mr. Zhang usually didn't talk much.
The situation in the court finally calmed down under the emperor's strong mediation, and the smell of gunpowder seemed to have gradually dissipated.
But this is not the calm after the rain, but the unusual calm before the storm.
Because in May Yiyou, Longqing suddenly fell seriously ill. This time was different from usual. The emperor's whole body was swollen and he could not even get out of bed.
On this day, the Qianqing Palace was full of imperial doctors, and the leader of the imperial hospital was kneeling on the ground, asking the emperor to summon the ministers and the prince with trembling words.
Long Qing lay with his head tilted, as if he heard it, but also seemed not to hear it.
He knew that his day was near.
"It is reported that...the three assistant ministers of the cabinet and...the noble concubine and the prince are waiting."
