Gao Pragmatic once heard a sentence in the movie that made him love and hate in his previous life: children distinguish between right and wrong, and adults only look at the pros and cons.

This sentence is loved because it is really a great truth; It is hated because it embarrasses many people.

Gao pragmatic himself is also one of them.

He once reflected on himself after hearing this sentence: Do I only look at the pros and cons?

He later concluded that he didn't think he was "just looking at the pros and cons." But to be honest, in the face of things, he will indeed analyze the pros and cons first, and as for right and wrong, most of the time he will only insist on it when the "pros and cons" are not so big - at least not when life and death are not at stake.

This made him a little frustrated, but helpless. After all, a pure view of right and wrong cannot lead to success, only appropriate compromises with interests.

In particular, he is a man in politics, and politics is the art of compromise.

"Compromise is the soul of politics, if not its entirety," Acton said. Dahl also said: "Cooking depends on compromise".

This is true in ancient and modern times, both in China and abroad.

Otherwise, why would Gao Gong compromise with Xu Jie's party? Just press it to death and it's over.

But behind the political struggle, there is no doubt that it is not driven by interests. It's just that some of these interests are biased towards the individual and some are biased towards the state.

Gao Pragmatism has never felt that anyone should completely sacrifice their personal interests to satisfy the country, and it is almost impossible - even if you are as clear as Hai Rui, who knows if you don't value money and only love fame? Fame is also a benefit.

However, he agrees with another point of view that seems to be in the opposite direction: if the basic interests of the country are completely eroded by many individual interests, then these personal interests will not be able to be preserved in the end - isn't this how the historical Ming Dynasty was killed by the Donglin Party and the interest groups behind it?

Therefore, if you really want to "do things", you can only compromise if you should compromise.

When did Daode pass away, and there was no way to get through the boats. But there is no evil in the sect, and the tigers and wolves also stand up.

Leave the bottom line in your heart and show your means in the world. This is the rule that Gao Pragmatic has set for himself to travel through this life.

Finding an opportunity for some elderly ministers to fight for the privilege of taking advantage of the Forbidden City is one of the means.

Because the trip to the Hanlin Academy just now made him realize that as a little kid who was "lucky" to study for the prince before he had passed the imperial examination, even if he had "Longwen Whip Shadow" as the foundation, his reputation was not necessarily much better. Most of them can only be like Liu Jun, who is regarded as a "gentleman" by the orthodox Shilin.

Of course, Gao Pragmatic is going to go to the imperial examination, which in itself is what he must do in his plan, but after all, it takes time, although he is still somewhat confident in the success of the imperial examination for some reasons, but no matter how confident he is, he does not feel that he is now capable enough to participate in the examination and be on the gold list.

So during this period of time, the title on his head has always been a "fortunate minister", a "gentleman", and a great one is a somewhat level gentleman.

Therefore, it must be multi-pronged, one is what the third uncle said, go to the scientific examination next year, as long as you go to the exam, this kind of controversy and contempt will be greatly reduced, because it is impossible for people to say that you are pragmatic and did not directly enter the examination in a round is rubbish, right? There are also rules for exams, and no matter how powerful you are, you have to take the test step by step.

Second, it is also very important to find ways to win a good reputation for yourself, especially among Shilin and Wenchen. The tiger skin of fame is sometimes better than the King Kong cover in the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty, just like Hai Jui was impeached by various participants some time ago, and the General Administration Department rolled his eyes when he received the impeachment of Hai Jui, but not even one of those impeachments impeached him for corruption and bribery.

So the next question is, what kind of reputation does high pragmatism need?

Before today's "soft boycott" incident in the Hanlin Academy, he was only making a fuss about "young and talented", and it was remarkable that he used Liu Xian's "pacification" of Baili Gorge to smear himself with a trace of fearlessness and adherence to justice.

But through today's events in the Hanlin Academy, he found that this was far from enough, and he also needed to have another camouflage color—a camouflage color that could complement the high arch of the three uncles.

In other words, it is the aspect that Gao Gong is good at, and he doesn't have to work too hard, because as long as he becomes famous in the future and continues to walk along the route of Gao Gong, no one will question it at all - what is the origin of family learning? In this era, as a descendant, you have to take the opposite route with your predecessors, so that people will really be questioned.

And in the aspect that Gao Gong is not good at, it is what he has to spend his time and effort to do.

For example, Gao Gong is anxious and strict, and if the officials below do something badly, he doesn't care what the occasion is, and he will reprimand when he says it, and if he says it, he will denounce it. And when he thinks that the officials below are doing a good job, he will praise him when he says he will praise him, and he will give you a promotion when he says he will be promoted.

The former is obviously a character that is easy to offend, which does not need to be explained. Even the latter is easy to cause controversy, because you can't be promoted to everyone's officials, and those who have not been promoted, how can they not be jealous when they see their colleagues around them yesterday being entrusted with important tasks today? Over time, Gao Gong may get a bad reputation of "whether it is punished or not, all by joy and anger".

This is only one aspect, the other aspect is to do things with high arches, although the starting point is to stand on the principle of doing things for the country, but because of his unusual relationship with the emperor, many positions seem to be directly standing beside the emperor, and as we all know, the Ming Dynasty has been in the process of fighting for power between the emperor and the civil official group since the beginning of the founding of the country.

That's trouble. Because this is equivalent to Gao Gong in many times as if he was fighting against the civil official group - it was also for this reason that Zhang Juzheng later in history was liquidated by Wanli after his death, and most of the officials in the world supported and applauded.

The first assistant of the Ming Dynasty is not easy to do, which is one of the reasons: you are a hub for adjusting up and down, and if you are too close to the emperor's position, you will offend hundreds of officials, just like Zhang Juzheng in history; If you are too close to the hundred officials, you will offend the emperor, just like Xu Jie.

Although Gao Gong is not the first assistant yet, he is no different from the first assistant, and secondly, it will not take long to really be the first assistant, so he is also in this awkward position, but his personality is there, let him be a complete ball bearing, I am afraid that there is no hope - he is the world in mind and determined to reform.

Therefore, Gao Pragmatic found that it was necessary to act as a lubricant during the current period to ease the relationship between Gao Gong and many non-high-ranking civil officials. First, it is to make Gao Gong's various decisions less resisted by the open and covert, and secondly, to form some good karma for himself.