Chapter 16 Xu Jin, the left minister of the Ministry of War
"Mr. Liu, you died miserably. Fortunately, the emperor's grace has made you the Taibao. You have been given the posthumous title of Zhongxuan, and you have been given sacrificial silver. Woohoo! Your soul is at peace!"
At this time, in front of Liu Daxia's memorial tent on the road, Xu Jin, the left minister of the Ministry of War, cried so hard that his heart broke.
After a group of officials persuaded him for a long time, Xu Jin's mood calmed down a little, and he was helped onto the sedan chair. However, as soon as he returned to his official sedan chair, tears disappeared from Xu Jin's eyes instantly, and his eyes only looked in the direction of the Forbidden City. .
But at this time, Xu Jin saw a ball of paper flying into his sedan chair. When he opened it, it only read: "Meet at the Xuanwumenli Street Enjoyment Teahouse."
So, Xu Jin immediately changed his clothes, asked someone to leave the sedan in a secluded place, and took several of his followers to the direction of Xuanwumen.
As soon as he arrived at the teahouse, Liu Jin came to greet him personally: "His Excellency Xu, you are fine!"
Although civil servants and eunuchs are often at odds with each other, it has actually become a common phenomenon for civil servants to make friends with eunuchs in private.
Xu Jin still cares about Liu Jin's relationship.
Not only because Liu Jin was behind the Ming Emperor, but also because he had recently become interested in Liu Jin's idea that the empire needed a strong monarch to restore the Yongle era of prosperity and loyalty.
Xu Jin felt that Liu Jin was an ambitious eunuch. Every time he talked to him, it was not that he wanted to be the chief minister of ceremony, but what he wanted to do with Ming Dynasty and the people of Ming Dynasty.
Sometimes, Xu Jin felt that if Liu Jin had a man, he would probably be Wang Anshi of the Ming Dynasty.
Even eunuchs could have such ambitions. Xu Jin sometimes felt even more disappointed when he thought about the courtiers who were declining day by day just for fame and reputation.
The Ming Dynasty is not the Qing Dynasty, and after the middle of the Ming Dynasty, as the court's control over folk thoughts was greatly reduced, many scholar-officials had the ability to proactively think about society and the people, including their own lives, and even had a certain degree of tolerance and tolerance for heretical ideas. degree of acceptance.
Otherwise, Wang Xue would not have appeared, nor would the ideological trends of the late Ming Dynasty be deduced.
Today's scholar-officials do not only regard themselves as the emperor's servants as they did in the Qing Dynasty. They also regard themselves as the masters of the country. Many scholar-officials also have their own sense of social responsibility.
Xu Jin is such a person and an ambitious person, so he is very interested in the Zhongjun Society organized by Liu Jin.
Because he discovered that Liu Jin's Zhongjun Society had clear views on society and the emperor, and it also made Xu Jin know the concepts of "nation", "country" and "citizen" for the first time. If it weren't for the fact that the organizer Liu Jin was an eunuch, he would have already taken the initiative to apply to join as a minister.
But Xu Jin still doesn’t know that Zhu Houzhao asked Liu Jin to do this. As the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Houzhao intended to liberate the minds of the people of the Ming Dynasty. Once a person has no thoughts, he will be like a walking zombie, only caring about his own selfish interests and desires and letting himself fall. , if the people of a country have no ideas, the entire nation will have no soul and motivation to move forward, and will become backward and declining.
History has proved that those who are backward will be beaten, and the backwardness of science and technology and civilization stems from the backwardness of ideas. In the Ming Dynasty, many people, especially those who had mastered knowledge, that is, scholar-bureaucrats, were promoting the progress of people's ideas. However, Zhu Houzhao wanted him to come earlier, so he initiated the idea of association propaganda.
As an emperor, Zhu Houzhao naturally had his own selfish motives and would naturally choose ideas that were beneficial to him. It could also be said to be a brainwashing theory, so he asked Liu Jin, Zhang Yong and others to organize the Loyalty to the Emperor Society. Nothing is taught, nothing is taught.
Without further ado, Xu Jin followed Liu Jin to discuss the topic of state power distribution and land annexation for half an hour. When he wanted to continue the discussion, Liu Jin interrupted him: "The trial has concluded."< br>
Liu Jin's words brought Xu Jin back to reality. Xu Jin was ambitious and enterprising and naturally had a desire for official power. In the past few days, what he was most concerned about was the candidate for Minister of War. After hearing what Liu Jin said, he said directly: "I wish Heard the details.”
Liu Jin gave him the list: "I copied this from your Majesty's case. Wang Hua, the left minister of the Ministry of Rites, and you are the two final candidates after the court recommended it. Your Majesty has not yet decided who will be the minister of the Ministry of War, between you and Wang Hua. But you should know that in terms of qualifications, Wang Hua is the number one scholar and has served in the Imperial Academy and the East Palace. If His Majesty wants to choose you, the only thing you can do better than Wang Hua is your loyalty!”
As he spoke, Liu Jin took out the application form of the Zhongjun Society and the program of the Zhongjun Society: "Master Xu, if you really have the ambition to serve the country, join this society, because I, Liu Jin, don't want people who only want to get promoted and get rich to become Minister of the Ministry of War. .”
Xu Jin understood what Liu Jin meant. Naturally, he had to become a member of the Zhongjun Society to get Liu Jin's help to become the Minister of the Ministry of War.
Xu Jin first took the outline of the Zhongjun Society and looked at it, and saw only one sentence on the title page: "If you are greedy for life and afraid of death, do not join this society. If you want to get promoted and make a fortune, look for other ways."
"As expected, your society is different from other literati and poetry societies. What they think about is fame and fortune in the imperial examination, but your society has directly abandoned these selfish desires, and the awe-inspiring righteousness is reflected on the paper. I, Xu, am also a loyal minister, and I am not greedy for life or afraid of death. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have killed the Tartars alone when I was the censor of Liaodong! Please apply to join now!”
As Xu Jin spoke, he proudly took the application form, casually took the Four Treasures of the Study from the side, and began to fill in the file and application reasons by himself.
"Sir Xu has been a righteous man all his life. It is a blessing to have an official like you in our Ming Dynasty. The person who introduces the company will write the name of our family Liu Jin." After Xu Jin finished writing the application form, Liu Jin took it over. , and said: "I will submit your application, and our Zhongjun Society will assess you. Once you pass the assessment, your application will be approved, and you will have to pay a social fee at that time."
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Xu Jin felt that the way to join the Zhongjun Society was very novel. Not only could he not be able to pass the exam directly, but he would have to pay social fees after being assessed.
Xu Jin sometimes wondered whether Liu Jin and the emperor behind him were deliberately trying to sell their official positions and develop some kind of society in name, but in fact they wanted to sell the Minister of War, because he had recently heard that the current emperor was very fond of doing business. , and even set up a royal industrial company, selling something called soap in the name of the royal family. The business was very prosperous, but it didn't look like what a king should do.
Xu Jin wanted to test it, so he asked directly: "May I ask Eunuch Liu, how much does this social fee cost, so I can prepare in advance."
"You don't need to prepare, it's only one tael of silver, and you pay it once a year. Isn't it possible that your servant Xu can't even hand over a tael of silver? If you can't hand it over, our family will lend it to you!" Liu Jin said.
Xu Jin couldn't help but smiled awkwardly: "That's not true." At the same time, he was also secretly surprised: "You pay once a year, only one tael, so you can get a position as Minister of the Ministry of War? It's too cheap, right? Or are they not trying to sell their jobs, but really want to do something?”
(End of chapter)