Forbidden City, Hall of Literary Glory.
Hall of Literary Glory was quite famous in the Forbidden City. Although it wasn't as famous as the Three Major Halls and the Emperor's Palace of Heavenly Purity, Hall of Literary Glory was the Emperor's study.
During Wanli's era, this was where Zhang Juzheng taught the Wanli Emperor how to read.
Zhu Yijun was holding two memorials in his hands. From time to time, he would knock on them. He stood in front of a screen with his hands behind his back.
This screen had twelve sides. There were no flowers, birds, fishes, or insects on it. There were also no hollow carvings. Instead, there were many pieces of paper pasted on each side. It was somewhat similar to the sticky notes of the future.
However, these sticky notes weren't pasted by the sticky note girl. Instead, they were pasted by Zhang Juzheng.
On one hand, it was for Zhu Yijun to see. On the other hand, it was for deterrence.
On these twelve screens, there were the information of all the officials of the Daming Imperial Court. Their positions were already their achievements.
To put it bluntly, this was a simple file of the Daming Imperial Court's officials.
The pieces of paper were changed every ten days. Every time it was changed, a lot of them would be taken off.
Since the implementation of the examination, these twelve screens had been placed here. Every time Zhang Juzheng punished an official, he would take a piece of paper from here.
Since the implementation of the examination, more than five thousand and eight hundred pieces of paper had been taken off.
Each piece of paper represented an official of the ninth rank or above. This meant that Zhang Juzheng had already dismissed more than five thousand and eight hundred officials who didn't meet the requirements of the examination.
Holding the memorials behind him in his hand, Zhu Yijun passed them to the little eunuch beside him. One of these two memorials was Zhang Juzheng's resignation.
The other was Liu Tai's impeachment of Zhang Juzheng. These two memorials were very interesting to Zhu Yijun.
Behind Zhu Yijun, Zhang Jing and Chen Ju were standing respectfully.
These two top secret agents in the Imperial Palace had already sensed the unusual atmosphere. This was the first time the Imperial Majesty had called them together, and it was also the first time he had called them to the Hall of Literary Glory to discuss matters.
The Hall of Literary Glory was the place where the Imperial Majesty studied, and it was also the place where Grand Elder Zhang taught the Imperial Majesty.
Although the Imperial Majesty was just standing in front of the screen, the two of them still felt a little scared. The atmosphere in the hall was unusually heavy.
Zhu Yijun sighed. There were more than five thousand eight hundred people, and all of them had studied and passed exams. Even the worst of them was a High Scholar. It would not be an exaggeration to say that they had suffered for ten years.
Perhaps there were innocent people among them, but there weren't many.
But most of them wouldn't say that they weren't, and would all blame it on Zhang Juzheng.
Not to mention now, even corrupt officials in the future would have a lot of talk about how the country was like this, how they were corrupted, and how they were roped in, let alone in this era.
With Zhang Juzheng's reforms, the administrative efficiency of the officials in the Daming Dynasty had indeed improved a lot.
In Zhang Juzheng's reforms, Zhu Yijun valued this point very much. It was very difficult to reform officials!
The five thousand eight hundred officials involved a lot of interest groups, and these people probably wanted Zhang Juzheng to die.
But they definitely wouldn't do that. Thinking of ways to encourage the Emperor was the right way, and it would be best to push the blame to the Emperor.
Thinking of being the scapegoat, Zhu Yijun's mood was not good. No matter what, Zhang Juzheng's evaluation of him as "saving the Prime Minister" was absolutely appropriate.
If it wasn't for some of his big words, such as "If the Lanzhi blocks the road, I will get rid of it", "I am not the Prime Minister, but the Prime Minister", his evaluation would definitely be higher.
If it was like Fan Zhongyan said, "First worry about the worries of the world, then rejoice in the world's happiness", then Zhang Juzheng would definitely stand at a very high position.
Of course, without me slandering the Great Qing, it would probably be much better.
Zhu Yijun suddenly thought of something. When Zhang Juzheng died, should he come up with a super awesome evaluation for him, and then let people publicize it wantonly?
In history, the person who played this trick the best was Tang Taizong, Li Shimin. Just look at how he played with the publicity.
Not to mention tampering with and discrediting the history of the Sui Dynasty, he spared no effort in publicizing himself.
Whether it was "Using bronze as a mirror, one can straighten one's clothes; using ancient times as a mirror, one can know the rise and fall; using people as a mirror, one can know the gains and losses.
Wei Zheng is gone, and I have died in one mirror! "
This evaluation of Wei Zheng, or the phrase that Li Shimin always said, "The people are the water, and the ruler is the boat. Water can carry the boat, but it can also capsize it", raised Li Shimin's image by several levels.
Zhu Yijun felt that he should learn from his predecessors. Creating the image of an Emperor was a big matter.
In the future, celebrities all had their own image, and there were specialized teams to design publicity strategies for them to maintain their image. As an Emperor, how could he not create such an image?
Thinking of this, Zhu Yijun thought of a person, and that was Hai Rui.
Hai Rui's name was absolutely famous throughout the country. In the bureaucracy, it could be said that it could stop a child from crying.
The battle that made him famous was when he participated in the memorial of his grandfather, the Jiajing Emperor. That phrase, "Jiajing, Jiajing, every family is clean", was truly the strongest voice of the era.
Most importantly, Hai Rui was like an ascetic monk. He was absolutely perfect. Even if you wanted to impeach him, you wouldn't have a chance.
He impeached the Emperor, and he didn't fear the nobles. His reputation among the people was really shocking.
Zhu Yijun and Zhang Juzheng didn't think the same way. He liked Hai Rui, especially some of Hai Rui's ideas in his later years. For example, he wanted to be strict with the law, and he wanted to be like his ancestor, Zhu Yuanzhang, who peeled off the skin and replaced it with grass.
Of course, Zhu Yijun didn't do this, but Zhu Yijun felt that if he really wanted to establish a new Daming Revenue Supervision System, he definitely had to be heavy-handed. The suitable person was someone like Hai Rui, and he was also suitable for the tax bureau.
With Hai Rui's Daming Tax Bureau, it was definitely comparable to the US Internal Revenue Service.
Of course, it was impossible to expect Hai Rui to listen to him. If things went wrong, Hai Rui might even point at his nose and scold him. But that didn't matter. What kind of situation had he not seen in the future? The people on the internet were much more ruthless than him.
At that time, he would be comparable to Emperor Taizong of Tang. He would say, "Hai Rui is really my Wei Zheng." Then, when the old fool Hai Rui died, he would also say, "Using bronze as a mirror, one can adjust one's clothes; using ancient times as a mirror, one can know the rise and fall; using people as a mirror, one can know the gains and losses.
If Hai Rui is gone, I will die in one mirror! "
At that time, the officials who were punished by him would be nailed to the pillar of shame. Now, who would remember the corrupt officials that Li Shimin punished?
The people who praised him were Wei Zheng and Emperor Taizong.
The Great Tang Khan of Heaven and a generation of famous officials. How good, how positive.
Li Shimin could suffocate himself to avoid Wei Zheng. As someone from the later generation, couldn't he do the same?
A wise ruler couldn't do without famous officials.