The Prosperous Era of Longwan

Hearing Wei Guangde say that Li Chunfang might be the successor of the Minister of Civil Affairs, although King Yu still held on to a glimmer of hope that Gao Gong could succeed him, he did not dare to refute Wei Guangde's judgment.

In fact, many of Wei Guangde's guesses are relatively accurate.

Just two years ago, who would have thought that the group of Hanlin bachelors in the Hanlin Academy who could only write Qingci could take charge of the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Personnel so quickly. Yuan Wei even jumped directly into the cabinet and became the second assistant.

You know, before this, they only had idle positions in Zhan Shifu.

However, Wei Guangde stayed in the Hanlin Academy for a long time, and he already roughly understood the reason.

Since the Tianshun Dynasty, there has been a phenomenon that "non-Jinshi cannot enter the Hanlin, and non-Hanlin cannot enter the cabinet", which is of course not without basis.

The imperial examination system in the Ming Dynasty was quite mature. The Jinshi admitted were divided into three grades. The first grade was directly admitted to the Hanlin Academy. The second grade was Hanlin Academy Shujishi, who served as preliminary candidates for the Hanlin Academy. The third grade was entrusted to local officials or other positions. .

It can be seen that those who can directly enter the Hanlin Academy are among the best among Jinshi. The imperial court attached great importance to such a group of talents and carefully cultivated them.

The Hanlin Academy not only performs its daily functions, but also plays a role in training the abilities of Hanlin officials and increasing their knowledge.

For example, imperial edicts issued in the name of the emperor should have been drafted by cabinet ministers, but in fact general documents were mostly ghostwritten by Hanlin officials, which helped them adapt to government affairs and deepen their familiarity with court affairs.

The compilation of actual records was generally led by cabinet ministers, and the actual editing was done by Hanlin officials. This work deepened their understanding of the stories of the previous dynasty's political canons.

During the Jingyan Sermons, Hanlin officials could not only become familiar with the court rituals and important affairs, but also formed a relationship between emperor, minister, and teacher and student, which became an important reason for their influence on the emperor when they became officials in the future.

In addition, in Wei Guangde's view, the most important thing is that Hanlin officials have more opportunities to get close to the key points of power, and can read historical materials and newspapers, and participate in certain important meetings, so as to gain a detailed and in-depth understanding of the political situation and current affairs. A Hanlin bachelor's degree accumulated qualities for his future career in politics and becoming a cabinet minister.

Judging from the years that Wei Guangde has been in office, he has never participated in a Sutra feast during the Jiajing Dynasty, because Emperor Jiajing did not hold Sutra feasts at all in the middle and later periods.

However, his participation in compiling historical records and reading historical materials and newspapers allowed him to deepen his understanding of the allusions of the previous dynasty. These experiences will be very important if he takes office.

Therefore, the outside world only thought that Yuan Wei and others gained the favor of Emperor Jiajing by writing Qing Ci, and thus jumped over the Dragon Gate to pay homage to the Prime Minister. However, they did not know that the seemingly peaceful Hanlin Academy actually hid mysteries.

Although Gao Gong also entered the Hanlin Academy, he was sent to King Yu early to assist King Yu in his affairs, which inadvertently left him lacking in dealing with government affairs. In recent years, Emperor Jiajing continued to promote him, and finally let him enter the Hanlin Academy. The Minister of Rites helped manage the affairs of the ministry, but in fact he was only training him to prepare for King Yu's rise to power in the future.

At the very least, from Wei Guangde's point of view, there was no need to think about taking charge of a business alone until Emperor Jiajing felt that he was in trouble.

It was only when King Yu ascended to Dabao that he became famous.

As for myself, thinking about how a cunning and cunning person like Xu Jie wanted to send Zhang Juzheng to Prince Yu's palace, I knew that it was certainly not a bad thing for me to come here.

Of course, these are just what Wei Guangde thinks about in his mind, and he will not tell King Yu directly.

"If Mr. Li becomes the Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the position of Minister of the Ministry will definitely be vacant. Yifu is about to come back and Ding You is coming back. Is it possible to find a way to leave a position for him?"

After hearing Wei Guangde say that Gao Gong had no chance and could not become a minister, King Yu's thoughts immediately shifted to Chen Yiqin.

Before Chen Yiqin returned to his hometown Ding You, his rank was not low, but the fifth to third rank seemed to be quite far away, but it did not prevent him from asking Wei Guangde's opinion at this time.

In fact, there were only a few people in Prince Yu's pocket who were close to him, and they were all sent to Prince Yu's palace by Emperor Jiajing.

There was also Jia Yingchun, but he came to him not long after Prince Yu left the government. He was the first minister to surrender to him, so he was more considerate of him.

I just didn't expect that within two years of pushing him to be the Minister of Household Affairs, he would disappear.

At this time, there really was no one in the palace who could do anything.

Yin Shizhen still needs to stay in the palace to take care of the affairs of the palace. As for Wei Guangde and Zhang Juzheng, most of their errands now are editing and recording the "Yongle Dadian" there, and they no longer come to the palace every day.

There was also Tang Ruji, who was also dismissed from his post and lived idle. He had nothing to do with the palace at all. Although he had been in the palace for a shorter time, he left a good impression on Prince Yu, so he still thought of him occasionally.

Wei Guangde shook his head after thinking about it, "The position of minister is difficult. It should be arranged to stay in the Hanlin Academy for a period of time, and then he may be assigned to take care of things. After all, he has been away from the court for two years."

"Um."

King Yu didn't say anything more, but turned to ask Li Fang, "Will Zhengfu return to the palace today?"

Today Wei Guangde entered Prince Yu's Mansion and never saw Yin Shizhen. Now when he heard Prince Yu ask about it, he was also curious as to where Yin Shizhen had gone today.

"Master Yin just went to Xianghe yesterday to inspect the Wangfu farm. He will not return to the capital until tomorrow or the next day at the earliest."

Li Fang replied in a low voice.

"I see."

Wei Guangde thought.

When King Yu was first granted the title, Emperor Jiajing gave him two royal estates, but they were assigned to Xianghe, while King Jing's estate was in Daxing, which was much better than his.

In fact, it can be seen from the allocation of farms in the inner court that King Yu's status was really not good at that time.

But this is all in the past. No one in Prince Yu's palace dares to look down upon him now. After all, he is already the de facto crown prince. No one would think that Emperor Jiajing would call Prince Jing of Huguang back.

unless

Later, Wei Guangde and King Yu talked about the issue of heirs. Wei Guangde had already congratulated King Yu, but at this moment, King Yu was obviously still very anxious.

He knew that if the child in Gongren Li's belly was a boy, it would be easy to tell, but if it was a daughter, it would be hard to tell.

Although the imperial doctor diagnosed the child and said that the child should be the prince, there were still a few people in the capital who dared to believe the words of the people from the Tai Hospital.

Wei Guangde naturally tried to comfort him again. He was not sure that this child would definitely be the future emperor, although the probability was very high.

"Your Highness, actually you don't have to worry. Just by being able to get the palace lady pregnant, you have surpassed His Highness Prince Jing."

Wei Guangde finally smiled and comforted King Yu. After all, King Jing had been married for many years, and women in the palace did not need to be young to King Yu. However, he had never heard of the pregnancy of anyone in Prince Jing's palace.

Even if Emperor Jiajing's death comes, Prince Yu's palace still has no children, and it is impossible for Emperor Jiajing to change his mind.

As he grew older, King Yu began to care about heirs at some point, and from time to time he would miss his eldest son who died young.

A few days later, as Wei Guangde had guessed, Emperor Jiajing approved Guo Pu's request to return to his hometown and Ding You, and then summoned two cabinet ministers, Xu Jie and Yuan Wei, to decide on the candidates for the six departments.

However, slightly different from what Wei Guangde guessed, Li Chunfang was not the Minister of Personnel, but Yan Na. Li Chunfang was transferred to the post of Minister of Rites.

"Change Yan Na, the Minister of Rites and a bachelor of the Hanlin Academy, to be the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel. Li Chunfang, the left minister of the Ministry of Personnel and a bachelor of the Hanlin Academy, was promoted to be the minister of the Ministry of Rites. He ordered the left minister of the Ministry of Personnel and a bachelor of the Hanlin Academy to be in charge of Zhan Shifu and Dong Fen to return to the ministry. The officials are as they were before."

The contents of the decree being drafted in the cabinet came in, and the commotion among the officials in the capital stopped in the past two days.

They all knew that this must be Emperor Jiajing's wish. Since the cabinet had accepted it, nothing could be changed.

Time flies by a few months. A little over a month after Guo Pu returned to his hometown and Ding You returned, Chen Yiqin ended Ding You's return to the capital.

However, there was no position for him to be assigned by the Six Ministers. After sending the official document of canceling the fake to the Ministry of Personnel, he naturally had no choice but to return to the Hanlin Academy and wait for arrangements.

As for Prince Yu's Mansion, he couldn't go there without getting Emperor Jiajing's order.

It was Yin Shizhen who took the lead and brought Wei Guangde and Zhang Juzheng to a banquet for Chen Yiqin, which was regarded as a blessing for him.

In the past few months, before the rainy season in Liaodong, the Tatar cavalry invaded the border wall many times, but Yang Zhao led his troops to fight back. They even led the cavalry to chase dozens of miles beyond the border wall and returned with great victories.

After entering the rainy season in Liaodong, Liaodong has stabilized. Yang Xuan also had to temporarily give up his plan to continue to increase troops in Liaodong because of the deduction of food and wages by the Ministry of War. Instead, he could only continue to station the troops and horses that had been sent out at the forts outside Shanhaiguan. .

And that's all the Ministry of War can do. It can't force these troops to return to the Santun camp in the rain by starving the Ming army.

In ordinary days, Wei Guangde's family was happy to have a new baby, which made Wei's mother who came from afar very happy.

After the child was born, the Wei Mansion held a wedding banquet for several days to entertain Wei Guangde's colleagues and businessmen in the capital.

King Yu also came to Wei Mansion in person, saying that he wanted to be happy. Of course he hoped that he could have a son like Wei Guangde.

But counting the time, Gongren Li is about to give birth, which happened in the past two months.

As the delivery time approached, King Yu was a little restless in the palace during this period.

Seeing Prince Yu like this, Wei Guangde kindly went to Prince Yu's Mansion to comfort him, but it seemed to have little effect. On the other hand, Li Fang seemed to know Prince Yu's worries and quietly winked at Wei Guangde from the side.

Wei Guangde was puzzled, but he could only say a few words of comfort before saying goodbye and leaving.

After going out, Wei Guangde found a place to wait outside for a while before he saw Li Fang coming out of the house.

"Eunuch Li, here."

Wei Guangde called in a low voice.

When Li Fang looked for the sound and saw it was Wei Guangde, she hurried over.

"Eunuch Li, I told Prince Yu in the room just now that this baby from Gong Li must be a son. Why did you wink at me in such a hurry?"

Well, if he couldn't figure out the reason, Wei Guangde would really not dare to get close to King Yu.

After listening to Wei Guangde's words, Li Fang inadvertently looked back at the direction of the room, and then turned to Wei Guangde and said: "Master Wei, there is something going on in the palace. You came in late, so you may not know. The prince is not actually worried about Li Fang." Is the palace lady pregnant with a boy or a girl?"

Hearing Li Fang's words, Wei Guangde was a little stunned, wondering whether King Yu still had the concept of "equality between men and women" in his heart, and did not have any thoughts that should be expected in this era?

But at least, Li Fang's words let Wei Guangde know that the reason why he winked at him before seemed to be wrong.

However, he did not believe that King Yu would have concepts that only later generations would have, so he handed over his hand and said: "I would like to hear the details."

"Master Wei"

After Li Fang said these three words, she hesitated for a moment and said after a long time: "Hey, I don't even know what to say."

Wei Guangde knew from Li Fang's look that there must be something fishy, ​​so he stood there patiently and waited for Li Fang to continue.

"Master Wei, let me tell you this. You and the people outside all thought that His Majesty only died young, right?"

After a long time, Li Fang whispered.

Wei Guangde nodded, how fresh it was. He knew about this at the time and had seen the child when he was alive.

"Then let me tell you that His Highness has already lost two sons and two daughters. What Your Highness is worried about is whether the children in Mr. Li's belly can grow up safely."

At this time, Li Fang revealed the main reason for King Yu's sadness during this period.

Wei Guangde was shocked after hearing this, "This, when did it happen? Why don't the outside world know about it at all?"

"You hadn't entered the palace at that time, so you didn't know that the other one was born to a palace servant named Qi, but he died before he was a full month old, and the other two little princesses were also similar.

The reason for the crown prince's affairs was because His Majesty in the palace had been paying close attention to him, so he knew about it when he was born, and it naturally spread to the court. As for the other matters, because it was not a full moon, he only reported it to the palace and did not spread it outside. .

You don't know, but it's actually normal. Even now, no one in the palace is allowed to mention these things, for fear of causing His Highness to be sad. "

Li Fang explained.

In ancient times, the infant mortality rate was very high, so except for the eldest son, the family did not pay much attention to other children, and the royal family was no exception.

After hearing this, Wei Guangde felt a little more relaxed.

After he entered the palace before, he had not heard of any happiness from the women around King Yu in the past two years. In addition, the example of King Youjing made Wei Guangde think of some discussions on the Internet in later generations, that is, it was suspected that Emperor Jiajing had taken elixirs and had internal diseases. Erysipelas accumulates, so it is not good for heirs.

These statements are also due to the fact that several of Emperor Jiajing's sons also died in infancy, and in the end only two became adults, namely King Yu and King Jing.

Even the adult heirs had their fertility damaged due to the influence of erysipelas in Emperor Jiajing's body.

King Yu seems to have few heirs, while King Jing seems to have no heirs at all, so many people in later generations still agree with this view.

But now that I heard Li Fang's words, it seemed that Prince Yu was quite capable in this regard, and could at least make a woman pregnant.

However, four children in a row died young, and it’s really hard to determine whether it was related to Emperor Jiajing’s taking of pills.

In fact, before this, Wei Guangde didn't really believe this rhetoric, because according to his understanding, Emperor Jiajing took a large amount of pills, which should have happened twenty years after Jiajing.

Before that, he was still very diligent in royal affairs.

However, Wei Guangde was not sure whether the previous emperor secretly took the elixir.

"I see, Your Highness is worried that the child will die young."

Wei Guangde murmured.