In fact, there are not no people who can replace Zhang Juzheng.

For example, high arches.

But unfortunately, Gao Gong was already seriously ill, and according to his family, time was short, so he asked for grace to return to his hometown.

Zhu Yijun is naturally accurate.

And it stands to reason that Gao Gong should have died of illness in the sixth year of Wanli in history.

It's just that in this life, Gao Gong was relieved a lot of Zhang Juzheng's past alliance with Feng Bao to bring him down, especially when he was able to regain the emperor's recognition, but he couldn't stay in the position of first assistant for a few more years, which was still a regret in his heart, so he still inevitably contracted a serious illness due to old age in the seventh year of Wanli.

Of course, it is inevitable that people will be born, old, sick and die.

What's more, the medical conditions in this era are not as good as those of later generations, and an old minister like Gao Gong is short-tempered, even if he is conditioned by the famous doctor Li Shizhen, it is still difficult to extend his life span for many years compared to history.

It's just that Zhu Yijun's worries in the past are even more prominent at this moment.

That is, Daming has really entered the era of shortage of good assistants.

As soon as Gao Gong left, the entire Ming Empire could be called an auxiliary minister with the courage to reform, and Zhang Juzheng would be.

If you look at it according to the development of the original history.

The first assistant after Zhang Juzheng, except for Shen Shixing, who can also suppress the officials, tinker, and manage the relationship between the monarch and the minister, is really no longer a person who has made great achievements.

But Zhu Yijun felt that the first assistant behind Zhang Juzheng in history was not good, and it could not be completely attributed to the fact that there were no outstanding talents after Zhang Juzheng in the Ming Dynasty to serve as the first assistant.

Because whether the first assistant is excellent or not depends more on the environment at that time and the emperor's ability to recognize and employ people.

After all, before Xiao He and Li Shanchang rose, no one knew that they could be good ministers.

"Let's wait and see what happens. It's just that there is something about Mr. contacting the Xu family, and as soon as there is a situation, I will immediately report it to Yu Zhen to know. ”

Zhu Yijun first commanded Zhang Whale.

"Yes!"

Zhang Whale agreed and withdrew.

"Emperor Qi, Master Shen has a secret performance to send."

After Zhang Whale left, Zhang Hong reported new political affairs.

It turned out that after Zhu Yijun gave Zhang Juzheng and Yin Zhengmao the privilege of secret playing, he also gave the secret performance privilege to the cabinet ministers Ma Ziqiang, Shen Shixing, Qi Jiguang, and Yu Dayou, who went to Zhejiang to serve as the chief military officer and guard.

And it was Zhang Hong who managed these secret recitals.

Zhang Hong will arrange for people to wait at the Qianqing Gate every day, and the ministers who have the privilege of secret music can send their trusted house slaves or Wu Ben to directly enter the Qianqing Gate with the secret music, and the guards shall not stop it, and the eunuchs who are responsible for reporting the news of "there is a secret music" at the Qianqing Gate will go to the celebrant and inform Zhang Hong to collect it.

The whole process is equivalent to only letting the secret music go through the hands of the person who sent the secret music by the minister and Zhang Hong, without going through the General Administration Department and the cabinet, and not issuing the six sections.

The emperor could also learn more secrets from the foreign ministers, and he could also communicate more privately with some of the ministers.

It's just that Zhu Yijun didn't expect that Shen Shixing would be the first person besides Yin Zhengmao to give him a secret recital.

Zhu Yijun took it, and when he saw that Zhang Hong still had a secret book in his hand, he asked, "Who else?" ”

"Jizhou Qihou's."

Zhang Hong took out Qi Jiguang's secret notebook, held it above his head, and replied.

Zhu Yijun also took it, and went to the study, took the key that only he knew the corresponding logo, and opened the secret book of Shen Shixing and Qi Jiguang.

Zhang Juzheng wanted him to comment on the three things of "apportioning the land into the mu", "increasing the commercial tax", and "the officials and gentry paying grain and errands" after inspecting the place, and showed that he hoped that if the imperial court wanted to continue to reform the system, it would implement the "officials and gentry pay grain and errands in one body", that is, cancel the right of preferential treatment and exemption of powerful officials and gentry.

Zhu Yijun laughed after watching Shen Shixing's secret recital.

He understood why Zhang Hong insisted that he continue to trust the scholars, and not because Zhang Juzheng made peace with Xu Jie, he would abandon the scholars and start to reuse the eunuchs, obviously he had guessed through Shen Shixing's secret recital, these scholars were really not one heart, and sure enough, there were civil officials with a keen sense of smell who would know to express their loyalty to him, the emperor.

It can be said that the fundamental reason for the disagreement between the two eunuchs, Zhang Hong and Zhang Whale, on the matter of Xu Jie's peace with Zhang Juzheng, is that there is an information gap between the two.

It stands to reason that Zhang Juzheng explained the matter to Shen Shixing and Ma Ziqiang, and Shen Shixing and Ma Ziqiang could explain it to him, the emperor, in secret, or not.

But now, Shen Shixing reported to him, the emperor.

And Ma Ziqiang did not.

This undoubtedly shows that Shen Shixing is already doubting that it is not only Zhang Juzheng's intention to hope that the imperial court will continue to reform, but also may be the meaning of him, the emperor.

Therefore, Shen Shixing directly explained it to him, the emperor.

After all, the officials in the world are all examined at various levels, just like thousands of troops crossing a single-plank bridge, and those who can become cabinet ministers are those who have survived from many Hanlin and successfully resolved various political crises and finally entered the cabinet without harming their own interests.

Therefore, Xu Jie is not the only one who will doubt whether the Son of Heaven will play an important role in these events because of many incidents, and then begin to think about making peace with Zhang Juzheng and joining forces to suppress the Son of Heaven.

At least, Zhu Yijun is sure now that Shen Shixing should have doubted whether he, the son of heaven, had the intention of continuing to restructure, so he decided to secretly explain to himself what Zhang Juzheng gave him, and report his attitude to himself.

After hiding behind the scenes for a long time, it is inevitable that there will be some clues to be suspected.

What makes Zhu Yijun happy is that this not only reflects Shen Shixing's cleverness, but also reflects Shen Shixing's attitude.

That is, Shen Shixing regarded himself as the leader of the emperor, and did not report to Zhang Juzheng alone, but intended to show his loyalty to the emperor rather than to Zhang Juzheng, and it was also obvious that he did not support the attitude that the monarch could only be a puppet and complete some ceremonial work, and the great government should be controlled by the civil servants.

Because since Shen Shixing could guess that he, the emperor, might have the intention of continuing to reform the system, then Ma Ziqiang was afraid that he would also guess.

But now Ma Ziqiang has not reported to himself.

The reason can only be that Ma Ziqiang prefers to hand over the decision on whether to continue the reform to Zhang Juzheng and other civil officials, rather than the emperor to decide this matter, so as not to ruin the national model in which his scholars are only responsible for actual government affairs and the emperor should only complete the ceremonial requirements and the work of continuing the heirs.

In Zhu Yijun's view, Shen Shixing may have done this because he cared more about his own power, and more about whether he could rely on the emperor's support to become the first assistant in the future, rather than caring about the interests of the entire civil government.

Of course, Shen Shixing may have done this out of public intentions, or maybe he really did not advocate hypocrisy, but thought that he should return power to the emperor.

He felt that Shen Shixing may have thought that the first assistant in the back could no longer be like Zhang Juzheng, almost as the "executive vice emperor" to control a lot of power, such as the appointment of ministries and governors and the decision of important policies.

After all, not everyone has the identity of the emperor and the minister of life, and not everyone has the opportunity of Zhang Juzheng, that is, when he was the first assistant, the Son of Heaven was still young.

And now, the Son of Heaven has reached adulthood, restricting the power of the monarch will only lead to chaos and more serious consequences.

After all, the emperor will not sit still, and will seize power by reusing eunuchs and even military ministers.

Because the lessons of history are not far away.

In Zhu Yijun's view, Shen Shixing may really just think that what the new chief assistant should do is not to exercise power on behalf of the emperor, but to manage the relationship between the emperor and the ministers, and want to deal with the excessively fierce political struggle in the Zhang Juzheng era in a more peaceful way, and there can no longer be a situation where the ministers are killed for the new policy or even the officials of the same department are punished for cleaning up the portal.

Shen Shixing may think that what the new Shoufu should do is to let tens of thousands of civil officials in the world be able to implement the emperor's will more cooperatively through the Shoufu's discipline, instead of forming a party and completing a certain reform at the request of a powerful minister, and even having to take all kinds of drastic measures to severely crack down on officials who disobey this powerful minister and insist that the power should be owned by the emperor.

After all, science is still the dominant ideology today.

Therefore, among the officials loyal to the imperial court, most of the officials still insist that it is normal for the court to have great power only in the hands of the monarch's father, whether it is the appearance of a powerful eunuch or a powerful minister, and there is no difference from the dictatorship of relatives and the dictatorship of the harem.

The biggest problem with Zhang Juzheng's implementation of reforms in front of Zhu Yijun is that he has become a de facto minister, and is not tolerated by many ministers of science in the world, no matter how correct what he does, but in the eyes of science officials, the source of his power is illegal, not to mention, what Zhang Juzheng has done has indeed harmed the interests of the world's officials and gentry.

(End of chapter)