When Zhu Ping'an caught a big fish with his fishing rod, the wind and rain that had been falling in the capital city for a day gradually stopped. A moist mist filled the capital city. The trees, flowers and plants after the rain were looming in the mist, like a fairyland. The Ming Dynasty seemed to be a place of peace and prosperity.
At this time, the memorial that Zhu Ping'an submitted to the Secretary of Transportation before leaving caused quite a stir.
At the beginning, Zhu Ping'an's memorial was mixed in with a pile of memorials praising his merits and not conspicuous. The left and right councilors of the Ministry of Public Administration who were responsible for the preliminary review of the memorial had become numb to it. All the memorials they opened were praising his merits and there was nothing noteworthy. More than ten memorials in the pile were like this, so the left and right councilors of the Ministry of Public Administration did not open them one by one for verification and just reviewed them.
The left and right councilors are ranked according to the ranks of the officials submitting memorials. After arranging the memorials, they are submitted to their superiors for review according to the procedures. After the superiors' review, they are submitted to the cabinet.
There were a total of thirty-eight memorials submitted this time, all arranged in order of rank.
"Hey, there is actually a memorial from a sixth-rank official here. Really, why is a sixth-rank official joining in the fun..." After the Left Councillor of the Ministry of Public Administration had sorted the memorials, he found that the official rank on the last memorial was only sixth-rank. He was surprised, but more so with disdain and sarcasm.
The lowest-ranking official in the memorial just reviewed was a fourth-rank official, and all previous reviews were almost the same. Now, seeing the memorial from Zhu Ping'an, a sixth-rank official, he couldn't help but find it a little ridiculous.
During festivals, according to custom, you officials of the sixth and seventh ranks would submit memorials of congratulations.
Why are you joining in the fun now? Really, don't you consider your own status
"Another person who is trying to take advantage of others by cutting corners." The Right Councillor of the Ministry of Public Administration also shook his head, with a mocking expression on his face. "It seems that every year there are one or two young men who want to use this as an excuse to get promoted, but they don't know that there are so many memorials like this, and at most they only get a single "read" and fall into oblivion."
For the left and right councilors, there are a few memorials like this every year, all of which are about praising the emperor's merits and frequent auspicious events, hoping to be appreciated and reused by the emperor. However, ideals are full and reality is very skinny. There are so many memorials praising the emperor's merits, and there are many more of them than your official position. The memorials of such small officials are like a drop of water falling into the sea. When sent to the cabinet, they are just read. The emperor will not even look at such memorials and will vote on them.
There are many young people who have beautiful dreams, but no one has ever been promoted because of them. They are always like the moon in the well and the flowers in the water.
"Hey, Zhu Ping'an? This name seems familiar."
"There are so many names of officials we've seen. Maybe it's someone who asked you for a favor."
"Yeah, who cares about him? Forget about this kind of person. Let him hit his head against the wall and he'll wake up." The Left Councillor shook his head and sneered, then handed the memorial to the clerk beside him and ordered him to report it to the historian.
The Tongzhengshi was the highest administrative officer of the Tongzhengsi. He was a third-rank official (in charge of accepting internal and external memorials, and submitting memorials and refuting them). When the memorial was submitted, the Tongzhengshi was working overtime to write a Qingci, which was instructed by Lord Yan to be completed and handed over to Lord Yan before the end of the day.
In addition, every time when Emperor Jiajing was fasting and offering sacrifices, there were a lot of memorials praising his merits and virtues, and there was nothing to pay attention to. Moreover, it was also out of trust in the left and right counselors below. The officials below had already reviewed it, so I didn't need to worry about it. The Qingci entrusted by Elder Yan was more important. So when this batch of memorials was sent over, the Tongzhengshi waved his hand and said "pass". Let someone register it, use the seal and send it to the cabinet for processing.
As a result, Zhu Ping'an's memorial was mixed in with a batch of memorials praising the emperor's merits. It was registered and stamped, and then directly submitted to the cabinet.
The purpose of registering memorials is to prevent powerful officials from withholding them privately. This was a system established by the previous Prime Minister Xia Yan. All memorials submitted to the cabinet must be handled by cabinet officials and cannot be withheld privately.
The memorial, which did not cause any disturbance in the Ministry of Public Administration, caused a huge uproar in the cabinet.
The cabinet was not composed only of Yan Song and a few other cabinet ministers, but also of some auxiliary officials. This batch of memorials first reached the hands of the auxiliary officials.
The previous memorials were all eulogies. When it came to Zhu Ping'an's memorial, the officials in charge of checking it were the same as the officials of the Tongzhengsi, who smiled with disdain, wondering why a small official would join in the fun.
"Oh, it's Zhu Ping'an's. He's the number one scholar this time. Let's see how the number one scholar sings praises of his achievements." The official in charge smiled and opened Zhu Ping'an's memorial.
With just one glance, the smile on the responsible official's face disappeared and he suddenly looked very serious.
"Mr. Dong, what's wrong with you?" another official asked curiously.
The official surnamed Dong did not say anything and passed the memorial to the curious official. After the official received the memorial and read it, his expression suddenly changed.
Impeaching a centurion is nothing, but this involves killing innocent people to take credit! Moreover, the war involved was the Gengxu Incident. Last year's war was a fresh scar on the Ming Dynasty, and it was also a scar that made Emperor Jiajing lose face.
In addition, this war involves serious people.
The Gengxu Incident made the Ming Dynasty lose all face. Finally, after Altan's troops withdrew, local soldiers beheaded more than a hundred of Altan's soldiers, which allowed the Ming Dynasty to save some face.
At least that's what people in the government and the public think.
Moreover, the memorials requesting credit for the beheading of Altan's soldiers were personally approved by the cabinet chief Yan Song. In addition, the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Personnel were also involved in this matter. It seems that a centurion who made great contributions was directly promoted several levels. Uh, could it be the one who was impeached
Although it was just the impeachment of a centurion, it involved serious matters and was a hot potato.
At this time, Lord Dong and his colleagues were full of complaints against the officials of the Tongzhengsi. What was the Tongzhengsi for? Why was this memorial submitted to the cabinet so quickly? It should have been suppressed for a while, and only submitted to the cabinet after the aftermath had been dealt with. At least enough time should have been left.
Verification, review, proofreading, any excuse you have from the Ministry of Public Administration can delay it for ten days or half a month.
How good of you! You sent over the memorial from yesterday today!
There was no way out. The matter was urgent and Lord Dong and his men did not dare to delay. With a feeling of panic, they specially selected Zhu Ping'an's memorial and presented it to the residence of the cabinet ministers.
While they were waiting outside, they heard a faint sound of slapping the table coming from the room. Lord Dong and the others who were waiting outside were so heartbroken by the sound.
Alas, I have only had a few days of peace! (To be continued.)