Volume 3 Road to Empire_Chapter 872 Spring Three
Selected quotations of the emperors of the Ming Dynasty, this is a collection of quotations edited by the emperor in the third year of Chongzhen, at first it was just that the emperor said that he wanted to let the children of the clan understand the life aspirations of Taizu, and the concept of Taizu's founding of the country. However, after the compilation of the first manuscript was completed, the emperor ordered that not only the children of the clan should study, but also all schools should also be educated.
In order to be able to implement the quotations of Taizu as soon as possible, the emperor also requested that primary and secondary schools be deleted to varying degrees, so that students with different levels of education could remember them more easily. After that, this collection of quotations has been revised every 2-3 years, and has become a thick anthology of quotations and texts today.
It is also thanks to the emperors of the Ming Dynasty that they don't like to say anything ambitious, although Emperor Taizu is wise and martial, but the age is too old, there are not too many words and anthologies to enter, otherwise this book of quotations and anthologies of the emperors of the past dynasties should exceed the thickness of the four books and five classics. However, even so, the number of words in this anthology of quotations has exceeded that of the Analects, and is close to the number of words in half of the "Zuo Chuan".
With the change of the editor-in-chief of "Anthology" to Sun Zhiji, this shameless person in the eyes of a righteous gentleman has almost recorded every sentence of Emperor Chongzhen since he ascended the throne, and this person has shamelessly revised the remarks of the previous emperors according to Chongzhen's remarks to ensure that every sentence of Emperor Chongzhen will not contradict his ancestors.
As a result, one-third of this "Anthology" is now Chongzhen's daily quotations, followed by Taizu, Chengzu and Xizong, and other emperors can almost say a sentence or two, and most of them are self-reflections. If an ignorant schoolboy sees this "Anthology" for the first time, it is estimated that he will think that it was the wise His Majesty Chongzhen who guided Emperor Taizu to create the glorious Ming Empire, and then worked hard to wipe the mistakes of the Ming Emperors of the past dynasties.
All in all, this "Anthology" confirms Sun Zhiqi's reputation as a shameless person, except for compulsory education in the school system, it is regarded as a negative teaching material in private education systems such as private schools and academies. Although these people did not dare to directly attack the "Anthology" itself, they desperately criticized Sun Zhiqi's personal character.
There is a great intention to deny Sun Zhiqi personally, and then deny the "Anthology". Wen Tiren is naturally not as superficial and narrow-minded as those literati, but he will not advocate the importance of the "Anthology" without scruples like Sun Zhiji, so he only adopts a posture of following the emperor closely with the "Anthology".
However, now because of the sudden jump out of Zhang Pu, the former head of the Restoration Society, he advocated that the "Anthology" should be regarded as a touchstone for whether the readers were loyal to the emperor, and that the "Anthology" should be included in the compulsory subjects of the readers, so as to cultivate their belief in loyalty to the monarch and patriotism, and other remarks, which suddenly brought the compilation of the "Anthology" into the field of vision of the government and the opposition again.
Although Wen Tiren felt that Zhang Pu's actions were a bit of a fuss, he also had to admit that some of the other party's remarks were still very correct, if the scholars didn't even know why the emperor was established, and what kind of emperor the previous emperors wanted to establish, why did they assist the emperor to govern the country?
In the final analysis, the so-called matter of governing the country is that the great emperor builds the emperor in his mind according to the ideals of the master, rather than the great emperor building the country in the eyes of the gentry according to the ideas of the scholars.
Although Wen Tiren didn't understand how Zhang Pu changed his position and caught up with the emperor. But he knew one thing, when Zhang Pu threw this unspoken rule that everyone knew on the table, the scholars who stood in the position of the gentry were already in danger.
No emperor would oppose Zhang Pu's claims, and no emperor would let go of those scholars who manipulated imperial power for their own benefit. Therefore, even if the local opposition is loud, Zhang Pu's suggestion will still be accepted by the emperor, not to mention that the current school system has gradually taken shape, and the voice supporting the inclusion of the "Anthology of Literature" in education and entering the imperial examination is not weaker than the opposition voice of Shilin. After all, for these students from the school system, this proposition is more conducive to their competition with those private students.
Just looking at the current battle between the two sides in the press, Zhang Pu, who has the support of the Ming Times, also has the upper hand steadily, and the emperor's non-statement itself means support for Zhang Pu's side. In the face of this former leader of the Restoration Society who broke out again after being silent, coupled with the unclear relationship between him and Cui Chengxiu, Wen Tiren has already made him wary of Zhang Pu.
Before becoming the first assistant of the Ming Dynasty, Wen Tiren dreamed of becoming the first person in the Wenhua Palace, which not only means the highest honor of civil officials, but also the peak of the Ming Dynasty's power. It's like in the past, when he entered the Wenhua Hall as a minister, he didn't have any extra feelings. But when he came to the Wenhua Hall after he was appointed as the first assistant, he had the feeling of half a master.
This also made him develop a habit recently, every time he went to work, he no longer followed the habit of taking a shortcut to the back door of the Wenhua Palace, but had to take a detour to the main entrance, first stand at the door to take a look at the front of the Wenhua Palace, and then slowly walk into his first assistant office.
If it weren't for Chongzhen's penchant for shortcuts, he would always come from the back of the Wenhua Palace, Wen Tiren would actually want to order the back door of the Wenhua Hall to be sealed, so that the ministers could all come in through the main entrance. As the ruling minister of the center of the Ming Dynasty, how can he only want convenience and ignore etiquette.
The Master has said that if the table is not right, he will not sit, and if he is not cut properly, he will not eat. As a cabinet minister, he should naturally set an example for the Manchu Dynasty, and he can't just go through the main door for a moment's convenience. But he wanted to think so, but he didn't dare to make this trouble for himself.
Don't say that the emperor will definitely have an opinion about him because of this, Wen Tiren estimates that there will not be many people in the cabinet who support him. When he was the secretary of the ministry before, he had always been polite to the ministers except Qian Qianyi, so he couldn't just turn his face and deny people not long after he sat in this first assistant position. Even if he can pull down his face, these colleagues may not buy it.
After the cabinet reform, the Shosuke established the position of leading the cabinet in legal theory, but there was also a clear division of powers and responsibilities among the cabinet ministers. Without the support of the emperor, even the first assistant could not infringe on the duties and powers of the ministers, and he could only ask the emperor to remove the ministers on the question of whether the ministers were capable of their own work.
Although only two members of the cabinet were replaced, the three most important members of the cabinet were adjusted, namely the first assistant, the second assistant in charge of the ministry, and the cabinet minister in charge of the household department. Qian Qianyi was restricted from re-election and had to leave the cabinet, while Wen Tiren gave up his position because he took over Qian Qianyi's position, and Guo Yunhou asked to retire because he was old and frail.
The position of the second assistant had to be given up because of the exchange of conditions, although he was a little surprised by the position of the dynasty, but after seeing the Lianghu School behind the dynasty, Wen Tiren was still able to understand the emperor's idea of appointing. However, Guo Yunhou was replaced by an official who was promoted from the local government, which made Wen Tiren a little confused, although this new household secretary named Fang Yuegong was also a member of the Scientific Democratic Progressive Party.
However, unlike the boiling public opinion in the outside world, Wen Tiren knew that this was not a henchman recommended by himself to control the household. He is carrying a black cauldron for the emperor.
However, as a former minister, he easily found the details of this rising star in the party. Fang Yuegong, the word is four long, the number is Yu Xiu, a native of Huguang Valley City, and a jinshi in the second year of the Apocalypse. At the beginning of the household department, he was the head of the household department, "the warehouse of the calendar, and the supervision of the level of grain storage", and was famous for his honesty and talent.
Later, he became the prefect of Songjiang, and won the emperor's attention for the construction of water conservancy and sea ponds in the local area, and was appointed as the person in charge of water conservancy and coastal stone pond construction in the southeastern region.
Due to the lack of funds from the imperial court at that time, Fang Yuegong, who was in charge of the construction of the southeast water conservancy and stone pond, had to raise funds for these projects in addition to supervising the progress of the projects. For this reason, Fang Yuegong drove a small boat every day, looked for people everywhere in the southeastern counties to solicit recruitment, and suggested to the imperial court: "Rich households with 100 acres of land should be advised to lose 8 cents of silver per mu for the purpose of building ponds" and other fund-raising policies.
In the process of building ponds and water conservancy, Fang Yuegong also carried out a series of system reforms to eliminate malpractices, did not allow the yamen and commissioners to directly handle the project costs, and visited the supervisors at any time to check whether all the silver taels issued were in place, so that the southeast water conservancy and sea pond projects were successfully completed one by one. During the two or three years of severe drought, a lot of vitality has been preserved for the southeast.
However, Fang Yuegong broke the unspoken rules of officialdom, and forced the southeast gentry and landlords to pay for the construction of water conservancy and sea ponds, so after the completion of the project, some people falsely accused Fang Yuegong of embezzling 3,000 taels of silver for the project, which caused a large-scale protest by the people in the southeast for a while, and finally confirmed Fang Yuegong's innocence under the investigation of the personnel sent by the emperor himself.
Wen Tiren didn't expect that the other party would be a blessing in disguise, but was directly promoted to the position of the head of the household. Fang Yuegong and Xu Guangqi have a good relationship, so they became a member of the Scientific Democratic Progressive Party. However, in the party, this person belongs to the faction of Xu Guangqi's lineage, and has no close relationship with the party members who joined them later.
Therefore, in the eyes of outsiders, Fang Yuegong and him are the same dog, but Wen Tiren knows that it is impossible for the other party to obey his words. The personnel and financial power of the cabinet could not be controlled, and he, the head of the cabinet, felt that he had lost half of his physical control. Wen Tiren naturally dreamed of concentrating this power in his own hands, but he also knew that this was not an overnight process.
What's more, in addition to facing these challenges internally, the cabinet also has to face the power squeeze of the imperial power and the non-six ministries and yamen, such as the Ethnic and Religious Affairs Commission, the customs premier's yamen, and the army and navy general staff.
Among them, the customs premier yamen made Wen Tiren feel the most aggressive pressure, after all, the customs premier yamen not only has an independent organization, but also an independent and high-income customs. In fact, for overseas subject countries and territories, the Yamen, the prime minister of customs, is much more important in their hearts than the Ming cabinet, which makes the cabinet and the officials of the six ministries a little unbearable.
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