Volume 2: Soaring! The Overlord of the Region Chapter 203: Completion of the First Cabinet
Although Wang Chengen did not get any real job in the recent personnel adjustments of the inner court and the factory guards, his eunuch rank was only promoted from Fengyu to Jiancheng. But if we talk about the most powerful person after the crown prince became regent, it is this 14-year-old boy.
There is no other way. His Highness the Regent's personal secretary! All memorials must go through him if they want to reach the Crown Prince! Especially since His Highness also said that the court is short of officials now, please recommend, and self-recommendation is allowed!
Oh, God has mercy on us. After we passed the imperial examination, it was enough to protect our family from tax and labor service. The reason why we are still taking the imperial examinations repeatedly is that we want to be officials, right? But the emperor is so lazy that there are so many vacancies, but he just won't fill them! Finally, His Highness the Regent is going to fill an official position. We must seize this opportunity! If we don't catch it, we don't know when we will have to wait for the next one!
Therefore, all of a sudden was trampled by people. Not to mention the flattery of officials at all levels, even many eunuchs in the palace cried and shouted to worship the 14-year-old Wang Chengen as their godfather!
But who is Eunuch Wang? He has followed His Royal Highness the Crown Prince for so many years, and even witnessed the battle of Sarhu. What scene has he not seen? So, although his mentality was temporarily inflated by the sudden flattery, he did not need any knocks, and he quickly adjusted himself.
"Master, I have been exhausted in the past three days. I have received more than 3,000 letters recommending officials at all levels. Master, I have a favor to ask of you."
"Hmm? Go ahead."
"Young Master, although many of the young eunuchs in the palace are literate, you also know that if you want to survive in the palace, you have to worship a godfather or a teacher. These literate young eunuchs are the objects of competition among the eunuchs in the palace. Therefore, I dare not ask these guys for help in many matters involving confidentiality. But with thousands of posts like now, I can't handle it alone. What if this delays my work? So, can you transfer a few students from Fangshan?"
"Hahaha, Wang Chengen, you silly fellow." Zhu Youdong laughed: "I told them to recommend themselves, but I didn't say I would go and see them one by one in person!"
"ah?"
"You are going to be a eunuch in the future, so I will teach you. As a high-ranking official, you cannot manage too many things, nor can you manage too many details, let alone expect to be able to grasp everything at the grassroots level. In many cases, you can only give a general outline. Find the recommendation list of Li Gelao, the six ministers, the assistant ministers, the left and right censors, and the general secretary, and make the relevant registrations."
"What about the others?"
"Well, it's not good to throw it away as garbage. Let's find a place to put it and let it gather dust."
"...Uh, I will obey your orders."
"Well, go and do your work. Also, tell Zhang Shize to ask him to invite the Duke of England to come to my place."
Why invite the Duke of England? Of course, this generation of Duke of England was to help Zhu Youdong select talents: after all, Zhu Youdong had been away from Beijing for six years. Before that, he had little contact with Beijing officials when he was in Beijing. In short, he lacked understanding of these people. Therefore, a mature and steady person who was very familiar with the Beijing officialdom and had an independent position was required to be the interpreter.
The current Duke of England, Zhang Weixian, is of course the best choice.
…
"Your Highness, I, Zhang Weixian, pay my respects to you."
"Please don't be polite, Duke Ying. Please take a seat. Zhang Shize, don't leave either. Come listen here together."
After Wang Chengen brought up the lists submitted by the bigwigs of the court, Zhu Youdong explained the purpose of inviting Zhang Weixian here. Zhang Weixian did not refuse and directly started to look through dozens of lists with Zhu Youdong.
The first thing I looked at was of course the list submitted by Li Sancai.
The only elder in the cabinet at present first requested to increase the number of cabinet members. There were two names on his recommended list: Fang Congzhe and Wu Daonan.
Zhu Youdong had some knowledge of Fang Congzhe: the leader of the Zhejiang Party after Shen Yikuan. He was a man of limited talent. Although he was the first minister of the Ming Dynasty after Ye Xianggao in the historical dimension, he did not achieve much. When faced with many problems, the solutions he proposed were just various delays.
However, it was really smart of Li Sancai to propose this candidate at this time.
As the general representative of merchants along the Grand Canal, especially the Yangzhou salt merchants, Li Sancai was unwilling to see the crown prince ascend to power so quickly. The reason why he betrayed the Donglin Party was that the Donglin Party had become a burden to his entry into the cabinet, and the crown prince's butcher knife was about to fall on him, so he was forced to change his position at such a critical moment. It was his change of position that prevented the crown prince from reaching out to the Grand Canal for the time being, giving the Huaiyang merchants some buffer time. Therefore, the Huaiyang merchants praised Sancai Xianggong, and with the support of Jinling Daily, Li Sancai's reputation actually rose instead of falling .
But now it is different, the whole country is managed by the grandson. Sooner or later, the grandson will extend his hand to the Grand Canal and the salt industry. So, Li Sancai recommended Fang Congzhe, which was really a very clever move.
Because, among the many political parties in the Ming Dynasty, the Zhejiang Party is the party that is more willing to consider the country. At least, since Shen Yikuan, the Zhejiang Party has openly opposed the emperor's collection of mining taxes and customs duties, but secretly supported it.
Since the Crown Prince is now in power, and I have so many stains on my body. When the Crown Prince wants to rectify the grain transport and salt industry, I cannot stop him. At this time, in order to give an explanation to the big businessmen behind me, I must find the Zhejiang Party to take the blame - it's not that I don't try hard to resist, but the Second Assistant bypassed the First Assistant and directly supported His Royal Highness the Regent.
This move was an open conspiracy, but Zhu Youdong had no choice but to accept it.
"Mr. Zhang, I know Fang Congzhe. He is the current Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel. But who is Wu Daonan?"
"Your Highness, Wu Daonan is from Chongren, Jiangxi. He was a Jinshi in the 17th year of the Wanli reign and is fifty-three years old this year. Since he entered the government twenty-three years ago, he has mainly been in the academic administration and the Ministry of Rites. He is currently the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites in Beijing. This person writes very well and has the ability to do things. I personally think that he has two shortcomings. One is that he is too proud of his reputation, and the other is that he is too timid. The combination of the two is that he is irresponsible."
"Ah? How can such a person be a minister? Forget it, let's promote him to the position of Minister of Rites."
Next, Li Sancai recommended Zhao Huan as the candidate for the Minister of Personnel.
"Your Highness, Zhao Huan is from Yecheng, Shandong, and he was a Jinshi in the 44th year of Jiajing. Since he entered the officialdom, he has served as a local official, the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Personnel, and the Censorate. There is no need to worry about his ability to get things done. But he is now unemployed at home, and I don't know if he can come when the imperial edict is issued."
"Mr. Zhang, why is this man idle at home?"
"Well, Your Highness, this man is from Shandong, and he has a very straightforward personality . When Zhang Juzheng lost his father, all the officials in the court wrote to the emperor to ask him to take back his father's love. Among the few officials who refused to write, this Zhao Huan was one of them. Later, when the emperor levied mining taxes, many officials strongly opposed it, but he publicly supported it, only saying that attention should be paid to the collection method. Therefore, in recent years, he has been repeatedly impeached by the Donglin Party, and he was often unable to report to work because of writing self-defenses for a long time. Later, he simply retired..."
"I understand. I have the confidence to recruit him." This kind of person must be brought to the court. Well, the rule that once the censor impeaches, the impeached person must be suspended from work and write a self-defense must be changed.
Next, Zhu Youdong brought out the candidates proposed by the various bigwigs one by one, and Zhang Shize commented on them one by one. By late night that night, the candidates for the six ministries and the Censorate were finally finalized.
On December 11, 1612, at the second State Council meeting, Zhu Youdong first decided on the candidates for the corresponding positions. After a fierce or undercurrent of competition, His Royal Highness the Regent finally completed his first "cabinet formation" since he took office.
Cabinet elders: Li Sancai, Fang Congzhe, Wen Tiren (the Crown Prince’s special promotion officer).
Minister of Personnel: Zhao Huan.
Minister of Revenue: Xu Honggang (formerly Minister of War in Nanjing).
Minister of Rites: Wu Daonan.
Minister of War: Wang Xiangqian.
Minister of Justice: Liu Yuanlin.
Minister of Works: Xu Guangqi.
The Left and Right Censors-in-Chief of the Censorate: Sun Wei and Yang Tingyun.
In addition, there were 844 vacancies in the court at the levels of assistant minister, doctor, chief clerk, censor, etc., and they were also filled.
Among these positions, Zhu Youdong deliberately promoted several "young people".
Cheng Jiming was appointed as the Langzhong of the Military Selection Department of the Ministry of War. Li Biao was appointed as the Langzhong of the Civil Selection Department of the Ministry of Personnel. Wu Zongda (the third place winner of the imperial examination in 1604) was appointed as the Secretary of the Ministry of Rites. Huang Shijun (the first place winner of the imperial examination in 1607) was appointed as the Director of the Ministry of Revenue. Shi Fenglai (a super eunuch in the historical plane) was appointed as the Director of the Ministry of Justice.
At the local level, Wang Shaozheng was transferred from the Governor of Yingtian to the Prefect of Shuntian, and Zhang Yicheng took over as the Governor of Yingtian.
Sun Chengzong was promoted to Governor of Fujian, Xiong Tingbi continued to serve as Governor of Yunnan, Yang Hao continued to serve as Governor-General of Ji and Liao, and Li Zhizao was appointed Governor of Zhejiang.
What was most unexpected and enviable to everyone was that Yuan Keli, who had been unemployed at home for many years, was able to return to officialdom at this time, and started as the Governor of Southeast!
In this round of personnel adjustments, apart from the promotions of the crown prince's own team and the old officials in Nanjing, the Zhejiang Party was undoubtedly the biggest winner. Although the Chu Party did not gain much, it was able to retain its vitality with the new banner of Xiong Tingbi. With Zhao Huan ascending to the position of Minister of Personnel, the Qi Party had regrouped.
The worst off were the Donglin Party. After Guo Zhengyu committed suicide and Ye Xianggao retired, Zhao Nanxing and Zou Yuanbiao were unable to resume their posts. In addition, Gu Xiancheng died this year... The bigwigs of the Donglin Party completely lost the opportunity to be active in the political arena again. Among the young people in Donglin, Zuo Guangdou, Yang Lian and others were dismissed from their posts because of the case of alienating the royal family at the beginning of the year, and there is no hope of holding up the banner of Donglin for the time being. Therefore, the Donglin people, as well as the Jiangnan merchants and gentry behind Donglin, placed all their hopes on Qian Qianyi, who was the runner-up in the palace examination in 1610, who returned home to mourn his father's death and happened to avoid the purge in early 1612, and was about to return to the court in 1613!
