When Wang Yuan arrived at Li Dongyang's residence, there was already a long line of people lined up outside the door. After all, it was the appointment of the first assistant to the official position, which was a major political event, and countless officials came to pay a visit with various thoughts.
Some people were brought in by the Li family servants, but they had to leave after having a cup of tea.
Some people are not even qualified to drink tea, so they have to get out if they are handed a famous thorn.
In these two categories, it is impossible to see Li Dongyang.
Some people were also brought in to drink tea, but whether they could meet Li Dongyang depended on Li Dongyang's availability.
After Wang Yuan handed over the famous assassin, he was immediately taken in to drink tea and was placed in the innermost position.
After waiting for about half an hour, the old servant of the Li family came over and said, "Scholar Wang, please come with me."
Li Dongyang was in the bedroom. When Wang Yuan went in, he happened to meet Jin Lei's future father-in-law, Jin Gui, coming out.
"Scholar Jin!"
"Scholar Wang!"
The two of them bowed their hands and greeted each other. They were both bachelors, but their levels were very different.
Jin Gui was Li Dongyang's number one confidant. As soon as Li Dongyang retired, he would either seek refuge with Yang Tinghe or become a lone minister wholeheartedly. Judging from historical experiences, Jin Gui chose to be a lone minister, and was eventually forced to resign and leave with a bad reputation.
Beijing.
After all, the most effective way to attack a political opponent is to make that person's reputation bad.
Wang Yuan came to the bedroom and found Li Dongyang lying on the bed, still lying on his side. Lying on his back, his buttocks hurt.
"Mr. Li Ge!" Wang Yuan saluted.
"Sit wherever you like." Li Dongyang's face looked a little haggard. He probably hadn't slept well in the past few months. The anal fistula was so torturous that Li Dongyang couldn't stand it anymore, so he resigned five or six times a month.
Wang Yuan said flatteringly: "I am shocked to hear that Mr. Ge has become an official, which really hurts our Ming Dynasty. Without Mr. Ge at the helm from now on, I don't know how many storms this ship of Ming Dynasty will have to go through."
Li Dongyang smiled and said: "Little slippery man, stop flattering me and be more practical."
Wang Yuan also smiled and said: "What does Mr. Ge want to hear?"
"What do you want to say?" Li Dongyang asked.
Wang Yuan went around in circles for fun and said with a playful smile: "It depends on what Mr. Ge wants to hear."
Li Dongyang laughed happily, and then sighed after laughing: "Well, when I was in the Hanlin Academy, I was also so out of shape. Apart from studying, I loved to tell jokes and smile playfully all day long. Now that I am older and have a higher official position, it is actually
You can’t joke around, you have to think carefully before you say anything.”
"It's just the normal state of the world." Wang Yuan said.
Li Dongyang suddenly suppressed his smile and said with a serious face: "Do you remember your imperial examination essay?"
Wang Yuan replied: "I wrote it myself, how could I forget it?"
Li Dongyang warned: "When Yang Jiefu (Yang Tinghe) is in court, you must not conflict with him. If you want to follow the imperial examination articles, at least get through to the cabinet first. I only hope I can survive until that day."
Wang Yuan said in surprise: "The elder also wants to reform the system?"
Li Dongyang said with a smile: "Aspiring officials, who doesn't want to reform? Even Yang Jiefu wants to change, but he certainly can't!"
"Why can't Mr. Yang Ge reform?" Wang Yuan asked for advice.
"I know him too well," Li Dongyang sighed. "He is a good manipulator of power, and it is precisely because he is obsessed with manipulating power that he cannot be a minister of reform. Even if he is the first to carry out reforms,
We will only attack the imperial power and nobles, and we will never dare to involve the interests of civil servants."
Li Dongyang really has no political ability at all except forbearance.
It was because he could not withstand the pressure from Liu Jin that Li Dongyang brought Yang Tinghe into the cabinet. Li Dongyang also liked to exclude dissidents, but most of the time, Yang Tinghe had to do this dirty work. Li Dongyang himself could not do it, and he also tore apart
Don't be shy to bully people.
As early as the Liu Jin era, Yang Tinghe was already the de facto civilian leader! Li Dongyang knew all the dirty things Yang Tinghe had done, and some of them were personally instructed by Li Dongyang.
Both of them are entangled with high-ranking officials in the court, and coupled with a careless emperor, they will never be able to carry out reforms in this life.
Li Dongyang took out a piece of paper from the jade pillow, handed it to Wang Yuan and said, "Just take a look."
Wang Yuan held it in both hands, but it was a reform plan, which included: rectifying the farmland, reforming the military system, reforming the salt administration, reforming the tax system, reforming the land system, attacking the nobles, etc.
If this reform plan is successfully completed, Ming Dynasty will surely usher in the prosperous era of Zhongxing.
"What is this?" Wang Yuan asked.
Li Dongyang explained: "In the seventeenth year of Hongzhi, Liu Xixian (Liu Jian), Xie Yuqiao (Xie Qian) and I decided on this plan. The late emperor had already agreed with this plan at that time, and planned to complete it step by step. Unfortunately, the opposition was too loud and it was difficult to
The implementation was launched, and the late emperor passed away half a year later."
Wang Yuan nodded and said: "That's it."
Li Dongyang smiled bitterly and said: "Before the death of the late emperor, he asked the three of us to assist the new emperor. He also hinted that we can take advantage of the transfer of imperial power. As assistant ministers, we can cut through the chaos with a sharp knife and carry out reforms. Who knows that your majesty will now... ascend the throne?
They forced me to resign in the first year, so how can there be any reform?"
Wang Yuan curled his lips and thought that Zhu Houzhao was quite nonsense.
Li Dongyang added: "This reform plan was mainly formulated by Liu Xixian (Liu Jian), and I was just playing a part. Liu Xixian is a real minister of the country. Once he leaves the court, it will be impossible to carry out reforms. I have no idea.
I don’t have that ability, and I don’t have that determination. It’s beyond my ability to barely maintain the situation. But I’m still unwilling to do so. I can’t let the Ming Dynasty continue to deteriorate.”
"As long as Mr. Ge has your heart," Wang Yuan comforted.
"If you are powerless, you are incompetent. I even need to rely on Yang Jiefu to control the court, so how can I have the courage to reform?" Li Dongyang sighed, "To tell you the truth, it really scared me last year. There are constant border troubles in the north.
There are rebellions in Zhili, Shandong, Henan, Jiangxi, Huguang, Sichuan, and Guizhou. It looks like the building is about to collapse. I am afraid that I will become a minister of the country's subjugation!"
Wang Yuan said: "It won't happen."
Li Dongyang said: "As for that! If Emperor Xianzong hadn't turned the tide, the Ming Dynasty would have been..."
Xianzong was Zhu Jianshen, the grandfather of Zhu Houzhao, who doted on Concubine Wan Guifei. At that time, the country was really in danger of subjugation. There were often millions of refugees, and the national finances were in a mess. Zhu Jianshen relied on various means to bring her back.
It is a pity that the historian's smear campaign against Zhu Jianshen was no less slanderous than that of Zhu Houzhao.
The record about Concubine Wan Gui in "History of the Ming Dynasty" is outrageous. The information comes from Mao Qiling's "Shi Yiji of Sheng Chaotong" in the late Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty. And where does Mao Qiling's information come from? It comes from "Gushan Biqu" written by Yu Shenxing of the Wanli Dynasty.
How did Yu Shenxing know this? When he was a lecturer in the Hanlin Academy, he heard an old eunuch chatting in the palace. Moreover, he was forced to resign for sixteen years and stayed at home to write nonsense.
When the Qing Dynasty compiled the "History of the Ming Dynasty", it actually quoted three or four sources of unofficial historical materials, and used the Spring and Autumn style of writing to write it so seriously that even Emperor Qianlong found it ridiculous.
Some people say that the Tumubao Incident left the Xungui Group in ruins.
However, with the change of seizing the door, the Xungui Group has risen again!
This kind of rise was not manifested in the court and military power, but in invading land and amassing wealth. The violent land annexation in the Ming Dynasty began just after the incident of seizing the gate.
, civil servants, eunuchs, generals, and even the emperor began to act randomly.
Their reasons were quite legitimate, because there were millions of refugees at that time, and there was countless land in the north that was abandoned, and it was just right to occupy these ownerless lands - what a waste it would be to have them abandoned.
Once the gap is opened, land annexation will intensify.
Zhu Jianshen was able to stabilize the situation and was considered a very qualified emperor. However, many problems have not been substantively resolved and have been delayed until now. It cannot be done without correction. All officials with brains know this.
It's just that, due to various reasons, some people turn a blind eye and some people only selectively see it.
For example, Yang Tinghe also wanted to reform. He wanted the emperor to abolish the imperial village and the imperial store, he wanted to take back the large amount of land in the hands of the nobles and eunuchs, he wanted to cut down the bloated imperial guards, and he wanted to rectify the useless Beijing camp that consumed countless amounts of food.
Only Yang Tinghe did not dare to attack the civil service group.
Yang Yiqing was just the opposite. He attacked the civil service group from the very beginning, starting with the abolition of redundant officials. He was blocked as soon as he spoke out his words.
None of them are advisable!
Li Dongyang warned: "You are still young now. You have to be patient. It is not too late to reform after the age of forty. The most important thing now is to stabilize the situation. This shabby house in the Ming Dynasty cannot withstand the tossing. This reform plan,
I give it to you in the hope that you can always encourage yourself."
Wang Yuan asked strangely: "Why did Mr. Ge choose me?"
Li Dongyang smiled and said: "I have said that the last ten or twenty years will not be a good time for reform. The government and the world will definitely get worse step by step. When it is bad enough, it is almost time for you to join the cabinet, and everything will be over.
It's been done, and when the time comes there won't be so much resistance to reform. Being an official requires patience, and if you endure until the end, you will win. And you, who was a bachelor of the Hanlin Academy in your teens, have enough time to endure."
Just let me be an old turtle.
Li Dongyang added: "No one else can do it. For example, your teacher is already forty years old. If he endures another ten or twenty years, he will be fifty or sixty years old. Ministers of reform need to live a long time, otherwise they will definitely die and the government will die. Let you
A teacher who wants to reform when he is fifty or sixty years old will give up halfway unless he lives to be seventy or eighty years old."
Wang Yuan couldn't laugh or cry, and didn't know how to evaluate Li Dongyang.
This old gentleman has been living in poverty for most of his life, and has failed to do well as the chief minister. He still needs Yang Tinghe to help control the court. The reform plan also came from the former chief minister Liu Jian. In recent years, he has not even dared to make side effects, and has been thinking
The reform book was hidden in the pillow, and now the important task of reform was entrusted to Wang Yuan.
You may say he is great, but he is incompetent.
Call him incompetent, but he is the ultimate winner.
Moreover, he was "clean" and not too greedy compared to other chief ministers. He indeed cared about the country. Although he did not dare to reform, he elected Wang Yuan before leaving office.
Li Dongyang added: "Jin Gui is a trustworthy person, Yang Yiqing is a usable person, and Fu Gui (the Minister of Rites) is a trustworthy person. These are the three people you need to know about the cabinet and the six ministries. Remember, be patient for twenty years!
"
Wang Yuan cupped his fists and said, "Junior, remember this!"
"Go." Li Dongyang waved his hand. He didn't want to talk anymore because his butt hurt so much.