In the officialdom, if you want to make a big move, there are few people like Gao Shishi's "Take and Use Shu", and directly talk about things as a minister.

Although the plan of the two elders of the Heart School is decided, the action must be in accordance with the usual practice, first find the officials of the Department of Science and Technology, see the emperor's reaction, and then launch higher officials to discuss according to the situation, and then gradually raise the level, and finally the elders will make a final decision, so there must be a process.

However, the northern and southern inspections will not be suspended because of this, so the various affairs of the inspection between the two places are still progressing smoothly.

Although Yang Wei was in charge of Beicha, Gu Xian became the actual supervisor. Yang Wei received a hint of pragmatism and deliberately kept a low profile, so the two most important projects in the preparation of Jingcha and the consultation work in the consultation were completely handled by Gu Xiancheng.

The examination is the evaluation of subordinate officials by the officials of the ministries and yatangs, which is a large proportion of the project in Beijing, but this project is generally carried out after the consultation, so it is not involved for the time being, and I will talk about it later. (This will take at least a month or two.) )

The so-called consultation refers to the act of sending a petition book with the name of the official to be inspected to other officials in Beijing before the inspection, and the official who has the responsibility of rumoring about it will give an evaluation of the candidates he knows or point out his illegal deeds.

Its purpose is twofold: first, to absorb public information in the preparatory stage of Jingcha and "investigate it accordingly", in order to ensure the fairness and objectivity of Jingcha as much as possible; Second, in the stage of collecting relics in Jingcha, the officials of the department and the province can impeach those who have not been dethroned according to the examination words written by other officials, so as to prevent the unemployed officials from continuing to stay in office.

For example, in the original history of the 21st year of Wanli Jingcha, "Yu Chunxi and other three people, the officials and the soldiers of the two subordinates, and the visit list is discussed, and the branch is based on the correction", that is, according to the visit list to rectify the example.

The specific way of consultation has always been carried out in the form of a visit, and the "History of the Ming Dynasty" said: "The person who visits the order, when the officials are inspected, the public opinion is to determine whether the virtuous or not, and the courtiers are to vote for the person who is in charge of the inspection because of what they have heard in the book, and the matter rate is verified, and then there are those who are evil because of the cause."

Generally speaking, the visit form is a questionnaire that lists the names of the officials who should be examined, and the designated officials (mostly speech officials) check and fill in the actual deeds of the officials they know or hear, and give feedback to the officials for inspection.

After a period of development, the visit sheet was gradually completed and evolved into the visit book. Therefore, in the notes, texts, and recitals of the Ming people, they often mix the visit sheet and the visit book.

According to Zhao Nanxing, who was in charge of the Jingcha in the 21st year of Wanli in the original history, although he was in charge of the examination of merit, said when discussing the issue of visiting the book (the original text is quite long, so I will not quote it), there are probably these key points:

First, the visit was not a product of the Ming court's statutory Jingcha, but an expedient measure taken by the officials for the convenience of the investigation and to demonstrate the fairness of the Jingcha; Second, it is difficult to find out the exact time when the visit appeared in the form, but it can be determined that it appeared before Longqing; Third, at the beginning of the issuance of the visit order, the single recipient was not extensive, and only the two ministers of Zhangke and Zhanghe Henan Province received the visit order, but after a period of development, the number of people receiving orders gradually expanded; Fourth, the content of the interview list is only a list of the names of the officials to be examined; Fifth, the visit list is actually the prototype of the visit book.

By this time, the visit book had become the "old rule" in the investigation, so the visit book was used for repeated inspections in the Wanli period.

The production of the visit book needs to go through three steps: conception, stereotype, and binding, all of which are completed by the officials and commissions, and the specific situation is not described in detail in this book.

After the visit was formed, it was sent by the Ministry of Officials to the Zhangguan Section and the Second Minister of Zhanghe Henan Province. "The visit book is sent by the official (examination of merit)", and the officials and departments gave the matter and the imperial history of Henan Province in charge of the matter after receiving the visit book delivered by the officials, they distributed the visit book separately, which took about a month or two. In terms of the timing of its proceedings, it is not inconsistent with the statements and impeachments of the speakers.

There are many officials listed in the visit, and they are listed in detail in the "Duties of the Ministry of Officials", which are quoted as follows:

In addition to the ambassadors and other officials of the Ministry, the Ministry of Household Affairs will make a register of the officials to which they belong.

The three departments of counseling, criminal punishment, and work will make a register of the officials to which they belong.

In addition to the officials of the five prefectures' subordinate guards and grain collection experience, the subordinate officials will be on duty in the pro-army, brocade clothes and other guards, the commander of the soldiers and horses of the five cities, and the martial arts instructors and other officials will make a register.

The Consultative Metropolitan Procuratorate will make a book of the various provinces, experiences, and divisions.

The Governor of the Warehouse and the Yamen will be in charge of the warehouse, the experience of collecting grain, and the ambassadors and deputy envoys of the warehouse will make a register.

The four temples of Taichang, Taifu, Guanglu, and Hongjealous, and the superintendent of the Lin Yuan, the officials below the five grades and the officials who belong to them make a book.

The Shuntian Mansion made a register of the officials below the fifth rank of the government and the officials of the large and small yamen, and still ordered the government to change careers.

The Department of General Administration, the Department of Shang Bao, the Six Branches, the Chinese Book Department and other yamen made books.

The petition is mainly distributed to the officials, and the officials of the Ministry of Officials sometimes accept the petition and assume the responsibility of consultation. In addition, some high-ranking officials, such as cabinet ministers and Taiwan ministers (Metropolitan Inspectorate Hall officials), also receive a visit book. However, the content and timing of the visit received by different officials are different.

According to Zhao Nanxing: "The name of the official is not listed in the visit; By the middle of October, he was sent to the cabinet ministers and the officials of the Metropolitan Inspectorate. The petition was sent by the court official, and the names of the four divisions were listed at the beginning. The non-special science road visit does not list the knowledge of the officials, that is, the ministers and the officials of the court are not allowed to visit each other, but temporarily arrange for them to go and stay in person. ”

It can be seen that there is a difference between the visits, there are the so-called Kedao visits, and the so-called big visits. The names of the subordinates of the officials are not included in the visit book of the department, and the names of the subordinate officials are included in the visit book sent to the cabinet ministers and the head of Taiwan; In addition, the officials of the department received the order earlier, while the cabinet ministers and court ministers received the order a little later.

In addition, the rank of the official in charge of sending the questionnaire may vary depending on the recipient. The officials who are responsible for sending books to the cabinet ministers and the head of the Taiwan are to be personally served by the officials of the ministry of the court; The officials who send the book to the speech officials only need to be the officials of the meritorious department and the officials in charge of the department and the ministers in charge of Henan Province.

After the issuance of the visit form, the main work was taken over by Henan Province. Therefore, Tang Zhaojing, who was in charge of the imperial history of Henan Province in the original history, once said: "All consultations, receipts, and orders are in charge of the ministers."

After the interview is sent to the speaker, the consultation begins. The usual way is to "take public opinion from the whole country", that is, to listen to the opinions of various places and consider them.

After the consultation, the speaker will fill in the visit form based on the content of the consultation, which is called billing. "If there is a single evidence, the consultation is the same, although the ministry does not dare to indulge in vain."

However, there has always been a contradiction among the courtiers regarding the filling out of the interview form. On the one hand, due to the large number of people who took the examination within six years, "the headquarters has no evidence to conduct the examination, and it is difficult to know about it," and "every time the person concerned has seen and heard, it is inevitable that he will have to pay for honest visits." Therefore, to a large extent, the officials in charge of the inspection need to refer to the opinions of the visit list to decide on the disposition of the personnel, so it is hoped that the officials receiving the visit form will fill in the visit form in as much detail as possible, so that the inspection can be carried out smoothly.

On the other hand, because the visit form needs to be filled in under the real-name system, although "the visit form is secret and difficult to be known to every household", there are still a lot of officials who can see the visit form after it is handed in, such as the officials of the Ministry of Officials, the Metropolitan Procuratorate and the Metropolitan Procuratorate, the Ministry of Merit, the Officials Section, and the officials of Henan Province.

For this reason, many officials are afraid to do anything because they are worried that the contents of the interview form will be known, and that their political future will be affected by the mistake of the powerful. Therefore, there are various excuses to avoid filling out the interview form.

This time, the chief inspector Gu Xiancheng is not afraid of offending people, so he put forward his suggestion: "Those who are on errand must not use Daoyuan investigation as the truth, and slightly dismiss the chaff; The people on call already have external schemes and heard of the past, and it is difficult to avoid it. ”

However, although he has made a statement, due to the influence of factors such as affection and familiarity, especially this year, Ding Hai Jingcha has a great impact, and in fact, it has involved a big battle of practical learning and mental learning, and the actual effect of the visit is probably still not ideal. Judging by past events, it is estimated that there will be a large number of "blank sheets" and anonymous interviews this year – most of which are probably carried out by neutral officials.

After the visit is issued, the consultation work is usually completed within two months, and the "appointment to receive the order" will be made on a certain day of the month. Because there are two yamen responsible for the issuance of visit orders, one is the official department and the other is Henan Province, so there are two yamen responsible for receiving orders: one is Henan Province, and the other is the official department.

The reason why the receipt does not go through the official department should be because the official department is in a close place, and if many officials go to the official department to submit the documents, it is very harmful, so they go to the official department to pay the bill. After the receipt of the questionnaire, the work of checking the examination language will be carried out immediately, and the work of the examination will not be carried out until a few days before the court hearing.

With such a complex process and such a protracted process, it is impossible not to do other work during this period. The affairs of the yamen of the various ministries and courts must still be done, and the operation of the imperial court cannot be stopped for a while. (So I'm going to interject here......)

Two days before the Mid-Autumn Festival, Jingshi received an urgent report from Li Song, the governor of Liaodong:

The Tumen army sent troops from a month ago to besiege the two cities of Yehe and the east and west. Because the two cities were strong and could not be broken for a long time, they divided their troops and plundered them. Suwan, Ula, and Huifa were all plundered and suffered heavy losses.

Under the pretext that his wife Zhezhe was still in Yehe, the Jianzhou Left Guard Nurhachibe was in danger, so he sent troops north to meet him. Because it was necessary to pass through the territory of the Hada Ministry from Jianzhou Zuowei to Yeh, Hadabel Mengebulu was warned by the Ming people that Nurhachi's move was intended to be a false way to cut down the enemy, "to open the border to Yeh and to secretly map Hada", so he refused to open the border for Nurhachi to cross.

Of course, this move "annoyed" Nurhachi - he had won a big victory and destroyed Nikan Wailan, and his heart was extremely high, but he was forced to retreat from Fushun Pass by a letter from Gao Shipra, and it was precisely holding back the fire, where could Hada's "arrogance" be tolerated - and immediately decided to attack Hada.

At this time, the Hada army was divided into three parts, and Menggebulu, Daishan, and Kanggulu each led one (see the chapters of the Gao Pragmatic Fuliao period). Among them, Meng Gebulu has received the support of Gao Pragmatic because of his contribution to the incident of Gao Pragmatic's booby trapping Qing Jiatong and Yang Jitong, and now has the largest number of troops and stronger strength.

However, Hada has been in decline in the late period of Wan Khan, and then Huergan messed around again, and the losses were not small, and now the total strength of the Hada Department is not weaker than Nurhachi's Jianzhou Left Guard, but the actual combat effectiveness is actually inferior. In this way, coupled with the fact that they are still three points in the family, Dai Shan and Kang Gulu began to disobey Mengeblu Yang after Gao Pragmatic left office, so Hada obviously couldn't beat Nurhachi.

After Nurhachi sent his troops, Mengebulu transferred Daishan and Kanggulu to resist, declaring that he was "coming later", but Daishan and Kanggulu were not fooled, and they all said that they also needed time to prepare.

Mengebulu originally had a military staff officer arranged for him through Jinghua, and the staff officer suggested: "Since the two of them do not want to go alone, Baylor can take them with them", which means that since the two of them are unwilling to resist Nurhachi alone, then Baylor you will let them come to your army and gather the three armies to go together.

But at this time, Nurhachi came very quickly, and had already reached the vicinity of the Qing River, and once he crossed the Qing River, his army to Hada City was almost a flat horse, and there was no danger to defend. Therefore, Meng Gebulu did not listen to the advice of the Jinghua military staff, saying that he, as "the right pillar state, the general of the dragon and tiger, and the king of the Khan of Manchukuo", would never tolerate Nurhachi's "evil slave and bully the master", so he personally led the main force of 4,000 to resist, and among these 4,000 main forces were the 1,000 cavalry of the 10,000 Khan's personal guards who had made meritorious service last time.

The position and title of "Right Pillar State, Dragon and Tiger General, and King of Manchukuo Khan" were obtained by Wan Khan in his early years, and he had already made a false appearance in his late period, and later Gao Shishi in order to stabilize the situation in Liaodong, he let these canonizations be inherited by Mengebulu. After Mengebulu's attack, he even forgot that these were all false names, and his real power position was actually only the commander of the Tashan Left Guard (when he was high, he was the Governor of the Tashan Left Guard) - in fact, he was on the same level as Nurhachi.

Mengebulu's 4,000-strong army went south to resist Nurhachi, and Nurhachi's 3,000-strong army went north to the Qinghe, and a major battle was inevitable between the two sides.

The course of the Great War is relatively simple. Jinghua military staff suggested that Mengebulu: The best strategy in this battle is to create an opportunity to attack halfway; The middle strategy is to rely on a slight advantage in troops to defend the river; The next strategy is to let it go.

Mengeblu felt that the upper strategy was "too treacherous" and the middle strategy was "not enough to be brave", so he chose the next strategy.

Wonderful.

Nurhachi ran to the Qinghe to take a look, and Meng Gebulu on the opposite side set up a large camp ten miles north of the Qing River, and was immediately confused, and said to the left and right: "Meng Gebulu is deceiving, and there may be ambushes near the north bank of the Qing River in front of our army." All his generals and his brother Shulhaqi said that this must be the case, so Nurhachi sent scouts with good water to cross the river at night to investigate.

As a result, there was not a single ambush on the other side, except for the large battalion ten miles away, Mengebulu even sent sparse horses.

Nurhachi was so overjoyed that he refused to wait for the night, and began to build pontoon bridges and send vanguard troops across the river that night. Early the next morning, Mengebulu had just woken up from a hangover, and when he heard that Nurhachi's army had lined up along the river, he was not surprised and rejoiced, and ordered to prepare for battle.

Gao Yimin, a military staff officer of Jinghua, immediately left under the pretext that he needed to report the battle situation to Shangfeng. Mengebulu did not object, and personally led people to make an appointment in front of the Nurhachi battle.

Nurhachi gladly responded to the battle, and sent all the troops to the front, and commanded the Chinese army to plunder the formation. Meng Gebulu also sent his generals to fight for the front army, but he was beheaded by Ma Xia with less than ten moves, and his subordinates collapsed.

Meng Gebulu was so surprised that he simply pressed the whole army, but he himself rushed too fast, and when he saw this, he did not retreat but advanced, and with a single sword, he shook Meng Gebulu, who had just woken up from a hangover and was weak, and his long knife flew away. Fortunately, Mengebulu himself was very good at riding, so he simply took advantage of the situation to turn off his horse and escape.

But the boss fell off the horse with one move, and the battle could not be fought well, and the main force of Nurhachi did not come out, and the front army of Yidu alone beat the main force of Mengebulu to a big defeat. Fortunately, the main force of the 1,000 cavalry under his command was the real elite accumulated by Wan Khan for many years, and he rescued Meng Gebulu from the front of the battle, fled all the way north with him, and slipped back to Hada City.

The news that Li Song sent back to Jingshi was that Mengebulu was defeated and returned to Hada, and Nurhachi followed and attacked. According to the time, Nurhachi should have besieged the city of Hada by this time.

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