On both sides of the royal street between the Chengtian Gate and the Daming Gate, the civil and military yamen of the imperial court are placed respectively. To the west of Yujie, there are mainly the Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies and the Jinyi Guard Yamen, and the Taichang Temple and the General Administration Department are also here; To the east of the Royal Street is the Zongren Mansion and the Five Divisions (the Criminal Department and the Metropolitan Procuratorate and the Dali Temple are listed separately, located in the Fucaifang in the southwest of the Imperial City), as well as the Hanlin Temple, Honglu Temple, Qintianjian, Tai Hospital, etc.

Generally speaking, with the exception of the Hanlin Temple, the closer these yamen are to the royal street, the more noble or prominent the status.

The Hubu Yamen reflects its dignity and prominence - it is adjacent to the Royal Street, and the area is the first of the civil and official yamen on the east side of the Royal Street. To the north of the household department yamen is the official department, and to the north of the official department is the Zongren Mansion.

Such a setting is obviously symbolic: because the Zongren Mansion manages the affairs of the clan, Zhu Yuanzhang designated the Zongren Mansion as the first government in the world, so it is not only placed on the side of the civil officials, but also closest to the palace, and the corresponding military yamen is the Governor's Mansion of the Chinese Army.

Below the Zongren's Mansion is the Ministry of Officials, and once again it will be the turn of the Ministry of Households. However, although the Ministry of Officials is noble, it is the same as the Zongren Mansion, covering a small area, and the two yamen together are even slightly smaller than the household department, which shows how amazing the scale of the household department yamen is.

From today on, Gao Pragmatic is the official in the center of the six largest government departments.

Even if Zhu Yuanzhang set up a large number of rules for civil officials, as long as he dies, these dead rules will naturally not stop the living officials.

Although the Ming court has a lot of rules, and theoretically it is not allowed to do a lot of things when the officials in the court take up their new duties, some procedures are actually really necessary, such as a "meeting" is completely necessary.

In the face of the household yamen that were clean after the obvious "big cleaning", as well as the officials and subordinates who were full of courts, Gao Pragmatic of course had to make a leadership speech.

However, he didn't shout any big slogans, but only put forward a work goal, that is, to ensure that in the three years when the imperial court opened the ban on feudal domains, the household department could make every effort to ensure that the imperial court's financial situation was good, and try to eliminate the antecedents such as the outbreak of the Northwest Rebellion - the antecedent was the reduction of military salaries, and this group had already known it.

This goal is not high, nor is it low, but everyone can accept and understand it. Originally, the current court's requirements for the household department are almost like this, after all, if there is another rebellion in the northwest, the number of people involved may not be as few as the previous time.

This time the Northwest Rebellion was quickly pacified thanks to Gao Pragmatic, although there was a great shock at the time, but the war achievements were also sufficient, and many things were covered up, otherwise everyone would not have ended well.

You see, if you really want to be held responsible, there is such a big mess in the local area, Liang asked Meng, the governor, is not just dismissed? And a small mess causes a big mess, can Gao Guang first mix a crown belt and stay idle?

Not to mention the two of them, they can't even run away from the patrol. As for the local officials such as the chief secretary and the judge, each of them can find the responsibility for the ineffective handling of affairs, and then be implicated.

And is this really just a local issue? Isn't that the responsibility of your military department? Is the household department not responsible? Even the officials are responsible!

Why did the Ministry of War agree to such a salary cut? Did you make a mistake in your calculations and overestimate the "resilience" of the local government?

Why can't the household department come up with more money and food, so that it can only transfer the pressure to the localities? Isn't the work of your household department "effective" enough?

And the Ministry of Officials, what's going on with the election of officials in your Ministry of Officials? Liang asked Meng Yan, Gao Guang was cowardly first, how did you pick the local chief? Is that kind of place in the northwest suitable for such an official to rule the party?

All of the above, regardless of whether it is reasonable or not, if you really want to take care of it, you can take it out and hold it accountable. Even if you are "not afraid of the face of the sky", even the emperor can climb into it - in the final analysis, it is your emperor's approval to cut military salaries, and you can't take responsibility for leadership?

Of course, generally speaking, everyone still has a tacit understanding, and usually does not involve His Majesty the Emperor. But that's the truth, it's just that once the problem is involved, it may get out of control.

Although the rebellion in the northwest has been basically settled, but the past does not forget the future, and if the northwest can make trouble because of the lack of military salaries, will other places be foolproof? No one dares to play this package ticket, so the current pressure on the household department is very great, and we must find ways to make money to eliminate these hidden dangers.

Although Shen Li's transfer to Zuodu Yushi is not a demotion, everyone can almost guess the hidden meaning behind it - he must have been transferred because of unfavorable financial management, otherwise why would the person he is getting in exchange for now be a high and pragmatic golden saint? It is said that in the previous cabinet meeting, Gao Pragmatic was asked to be the great Si Nong or even the Holy Lord himself, isn't this intention obvious?

Therefore, everyone still understands Gao Shishi's simple speech today, and does not think that he is arrogant and deliberately wants to give everyone a dismount.

Of course, the household department was originally the sphere of influence of the practical school, and Gao Pragmatism really couldn't do this.

There are too many people at the meeting, dozens of people, of course, Gao Pragmatic can't be too specific, not to mention that according to his habits, he will not carry out any big actions without finding out the details of the household, which is not the habit that a good leader should have.

Later generations had a sarcastic saying specifically to describe this kind of leadership, called "a pat on the head, there is; slapped his chest and dried; A slap on the thigh, broken; Slap your ass and go. "Although Gao Pragmatic was only a grassroots cadre in the past, he still took this as a warning.

After the meeting, a small meeting is held, and it is a routine practice. After the meeting, the three officials of the household department had a high-level meeting, which was roughly equivalent to the meeting of the local secretaries in later generations. As the saying goes, a meeting with a large number of people is not important, and there are not many people in an important meeting, which can be regarded as an inherent characteristic of the past and present.

The household department is not like the military department, there is no four-waiter system, only two waiters on the left and right, namely the left waiter Cheng Wen and the right waiter Hu Zhili.

Cheng Wen is the gold list of Jiajing for forty-four years, and the chief examiner that year was Gao Gong, and Gao Gong once personally taught Gao Pragmatic to read, so although Cheng Wen is more than 20 years older than Gao Pragmatic, he often calls Gao Pragmatic "world brother" on formal occasions, and Gao pragmatic is also called "senior brother".

The two of them knew each other very early, in the past, Gao Gongqi returned to Beijing, and Gao Pragmatic came with him, and soon met Cheng Wen, who was in charge of the matter at that time. Later, Gao Pragmatic did the government, and the first time he represented the prince as an envoy, Cheng Wen was the envoy, and the friendship between the two was excellent.

Later, Cheng Wen went through many positions, and when Gao Shishi returned to Beijing to discuss the issue of Taoism at the Chongyang Conference, Cheng Wen was already the left attendant of the household department.

In a sense, Cheng Wen is the landlord of the household department. And the reason why he can hold such an important position is that the household department is one of the basic plates of the real school, and it needs to be guarded by a "housekeeper"; Second, it also shows that his ability is still good - after all, Shangshu's transfer sometimes has more political factors than others, while Zuo Shilang is the "executive deputy of the executive branch", and many times he has to actually "preside over the overall work".

Although Shen Li was transferred because of his poor work, Cheng Wen is not to blame for this matter, after all, he is not the ruler, and there are many things that can only follow Shen Li's footsteps. Once Shen Li can't show his courage, Cheng Wen will not be able to stand out - sometimes this is the case in officialdom, if you perform better than the number one, but you are already the second in command, then what will this number one think of you? So Cheng Wen could only honestly follow Shen Li's baton.

Because Cheng Wen and Gao Pragmatic had a close relationship, Gao Pragmatic knew about these situations, but Gao Pragmatic didn't have any good ways at that time.

After all, Shen Li is not Xu Guo, Gao Pragmatic can quietly compete with Xu Guo for who the leader of the Shi School is, but it is not good to do this to Shen Li.

If he gives Cheng Wen full support and lets Cheng Wen do his own thing, then on the one hand, Shen Li's situation will be very embarrassing, and on the other hand, the outside world will laugh at the internal struggle of the real school, and even give birth to other incidents because of this, wouldn't it be very unbeautiful?

Now that Gao Pragmatic has made himself a household secretary, this situation can obviously be improved, and he also believes that with his relationship with Cheng Wen, Cheng Wen can fully support his work.

As for Hu Zhili, his qualifications are even older, not only have he held many positions, but he is also an "old household department".

Hu Zhili word Ruli, number Yazhai, his people are from Yongchang, but his ancestral home is in Lanzhou, and he is from his father to Yongchang.

When Hu Zhili was nine years old, he was already intelligent and outstanding, and was highly appreciated by the people of the time, and was called a prodigy (the Ming Dynasty was really rich in prodigies); 11-year-old disciple of the doctor; Seventeen-year-old middle-aged man; At the age of 21, Jiajing has not been a scholar for 38 years and has entered the officialdom.

As mentioned above, most of the Jinshi in the Ming Dynasty were obtained in their thirties, and those like Hu Zhili, who were admitted to the Jinshi in their twenties, were basically focused on training. But it's a pity that although Hu Zhili was admitted to the Jinshi, his ranking at that time was not very high - someone in his same department is now a pavilion elder, that is, Wu Dui, who is the second-class "Cijinshi origin". And Hu Zhili is not only ranked in the top three, but even the seventy-ninth in the top three.

This ranking obviously had nothing to do with the Hanlin Academy, so Hu Zhili was appointed as the governor of Boryeong Prefecture.

The magistrate is the official in charge of the prison in charge of the government, which is equivalent to the president of the local intermediate court in later generations, and also has the function of auditing in the Ming Dynasty, which is the seventh grade. At that time, the prefect Luo Tingshen regarded his childishness as unshaken, so he was a little contemptuous and slack.

At that time, Hu Zhili came to his mansion, but Luo Fujun remained silent, as if talking to himself: "I won the Jinshi at such a young age, and I was promoted to the official of Baoning Mansion, so I must be a backer in the court, right?" ”

Hu Zhili replied: "Now the ministers of the imperial court, most of the celebrities in the Central Plains of the Yangtze River, my ancestors' hometown is Gansu, even if the students want to climb, they don't know who to find!" ”

Luo Fujun smiled again: "In today's world, there is a way that money can make ghosts grind. ”

Hu Zhili replied in a positive tone: "The gentleman's words are wrong. One is that the student's family is poor and has no money to bribe courtiers; Second, he has been taught by his parents since he was a child, and his teacher has taught him that bribery is an unrighteous act. If adults regard students as young, can they still remember Qin Zhiganluo, Western Han Dynasty to illness, and Eastern Wu Zhou Yu? Before they reach the crown, they will be of great use. The student is ashamed of his lack of talent, more than 20 years old, and he is still involved in the matter, and now he is ridiculed by adults, which is really ashamed. ”

Luo Tingshen was slightly embarrassed when he heard that his family was poor, and said with a smile: "In this way, the old man is over half a hundred years old, and he has only become a prefect, and he is even more embarrassed." ”

This Boryeong Mansion can be introduced a little, from the Yuan ancestor Kublai Khan to the thirteenth year of the Yuan Dynasty to the first year of the Republic of China, Langzhong was ruled as the Boryeong Mansion for 636 years. During the Ming Dynasty, the northern Sichuan branch guarded the road, the northern Sichuan branch patrol road, and the northern Sichuan military preparation road all ruled Langzhong.

North Sichuan Province also governs a total of 31 prefectures and counties in Boryeong, Shunqing, Longan and Tongchuan Prefectures, of which Boryeong Prefecture has jurisdiction over two prefectures and eight counties (namely: Jianzhou, Bazhou; Langzhong, Cangxi, Nanfang, Guangyuan, Zhaohua, Zitong, Tongjiang, Nanjiang counties), in the late Qing Dynasty, which was widely circulated in local Sichuan opera, there is a saying that has evolved into a common saying that "the lawsuit is not afraid of Baoning Mansion", which shows its status and influence in Sichuan at that time.

At the beginning of Hu Zhili's tenure, regardless of the fatigue of the saddle horse, he reviewed the old cases of the eight counties in the two prefectures under the jurisdiction of the government one by one. Three days later, he went to visit the prefect with more than 100 pieces of all the old texts, and Luo Tingshen was puzzled: "Is it possible to read all the files so quickly?" ”

Hu Zhili replied: "If the prince does not believe it, he can check it at will. ”

Luo Fujun really didn't believe it, so he casually flipped through a few volumes, and asked Hu Zhili: "After reading the volume, what do you think?" ”

Hu replied: "There are 36 volumes, and the verdict is wrong, and it must be retried." Especially in the case of Zhao Ting in Jianzhou who raped a people's girl and forced people to die, right and wrong are reversed, and there is no distinction between black and white. If this case is not corrected, it will be difficult to uphold the law of the Ming Dynasty. ”

This prefect Luo Tingshen is a member of the Chunhua clan in Shaanxi, after the 25th year of Jiajing, the sea of eunuchs rose and fell, and finally survived until his early fifties, and in 1553 he was promoted from the presiding officer to the prefect of Baoning.

He is good at perfunctory, prevarication, and sycophancy in government affairs, and his life is also peaceful. Unexpectedly, when I met a newborn calf now, he was neither sensible nor humane, but also insisted on being more serious, and threatened to help the right and eliminate the evil, eliminate violence and peace. What's even worse is that the Zhao Ting he mentioned was the son of Zhao Bingran, who was the squire of the military department at the time.

Luo Fujun wanted to be obstructed from it, but he was pushed back by the "Hu nerd", who was neither soft nor hard, so he had to avoid it under the pretext that he was unwell and needed to recuperate for some days.

In fact, Hu Zhili knew who Zhao Ting was, but he knew better that Zhao Bingran was an important minister of the dynasty who could govern the country with military power and peace of mind.

When this public patrol was in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, he also assisted Qi Jiguang, the deputy commander-in-chief, to fight against the Japanese invaders, and his achievements were outstanding and his reputation was very good. He has successively served as the governor of Shuntianfu, the governor of Jiangxi, and the governor of Xuanhua Datong, etc., and has been awarded platinum and colored silk by the emperor many times.

Hu Zhili secretly thought to himself: Zhao Bingran is an upright official, loves the people like a son, and has a good reputation for the government and the opposition, and will never tolerate his son for ruining the government and damaging his reputation. So, Hu personally retried the case, and when all the witnesses and exhibits were there, the high-flying Zhao Ting still wanted to deny it in every possible way, but he no longer had the arrogance of the past.

Hu Zhili was also worried that the case would be connected to Zhao Bingran, so he decided to send the case file to the Criminal Department, and then go to the Military Department to meet Zhao Bingran to explain it, so as to prevent the ministers from attacking him.

Just as he was about to get up, Zhang Shi, the governor of Sichuan at the time, came to Baoning Mansion again and reprimanded Hu Zhili with a fierce voice: "Zhao Ting's case has been closed, and it has been reported to the Criminal Department for approval, why do you want to toss again?" ”

Hu Zhili replied: "Although the case has been concluded, the trial is unfair, and now the retrial is for the sake of the law of the country and the injustice of the people, why not?" ”

Zhang Shi said: "Who instructed the retrial of this case? ”

Hu Zhili replied: "It's all the idea of the lower officials. ”

Zhang Shi sneered and said: "You disobeyed the instructions of the Criminal Department and retried the old case without authorization, what crime should you be guilty of?" ”

Hu Zhili said: "Eliminating violence and peace and redressing grievances for the people is the purpose of my Ming Dynasty's law, and there is a law in Article 120 of the Criminal Law that 'unjust cases are tried without going through the Criminal Department', Futai should not forget it, right?" Zhang was speechless for a while.

Subsequently, Hu Zhili hurriedly prepared the reporting documents, rushed to the capital day and night, and exchanged views with Zheng Xiao, the secretary of the Criminal Department, in a timely manner, and repeatedly emphasized that "Zhao Ting forced people to die, and they should be beheaded." Moreover, this person has always been evil in the township, and the people are full of evil, and not killing is not enough to comfort the souls of the wronged and calm the people's habits."

When he went to the military headquarters to meet Zhao Bingran and told the truth, the young Sima was silent for a long time, and suddenly choked up: "It's all because the old man has no way to teach his son." Crimes committed by unscrupulous sons shall be dealt with according to the king's law, and ...... will never be tolerated or connived at. Later, he wrote a handwritten letter and asked Hu to pass it on to Zhang Shi, an old friend who had been recommended by Zhao Bingran to serve as governor of Sichuan.

Zhang Shi read the letter, and had to agree to escort Zhao Ting, who had been taken away in advance, to Baoning Mansion, and beheaded him in Jianzhou in the autumn of that year. Seeing that Hu Zhili was so powerful, Luo Tingshen was afraid in his heart, so he simply decided to "send the plague god", so he took the initiative to recommend it to the imperial court, and soon Hu was promoted to the head of the criminal department.

After Hu Zhili entered Beijing, he successively served as the director of the Criminal Department, the director of the Military Department, the Wen Xuan Langzhong of the Ministry of Officials, the Right Governor of the General Administration Department of the General Administration, the Secretary of the Imperial Servant, the Secretary of Guanglu, the Secretary of Taichang, the Right Deputy of the Imperial History of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, the Left Attendant of the Household Department and the Right Attendant of the Household Department of Nanjing, etc., until he was transferred back to Beijing from Nanjing, and then became the right Attendant of the Household Department today.

The above two people are Gao Shipra's right-hand men in the household department.

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