As Ma Shiying, Sun Chuanting, Song Shixiang and other scholars, as well as scholars such as Fang Zhenru, Song Tongyin and Ye Tinggui, gradually joined Feng Ziying, the Feng clique or Feng party camp gradually took shape.
Feng Ziying did not like to use the terms Feng Clan or Feng Party. He preferred to call this group the Fuxing Society or the Revitalization Society.
However, if we use the name "Revival Society" or "Revitalization Society" at this time, it will more easily attract hostility from the outside, so we simply keep this concept vague and everyone understands it tacitly.
“Brother Zishu.” Feng Ziying came to the doorstep to greet him in person. Chai Ke was also a little touched and held his hands in hand, but Feng Ziying didn’t take it seriously and said, “Please.”
Feng Ziying has always had a good impression of Chai Ke.
In addition to the original friendship, what is more important is that Chai Ke has few selfish thoughts and does not have as strong a desire for power as Guan Yingzhen.
The other party served as the Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs for several years. After replacing Huang Ruliang, he sorted out the entire Da Zhou finances in order. In the past few years, Da Zhou finances have also entered a period of stability.
He could roughly guess the purpose of Chai Ke's visit, and he must have been entrusted by Guan Yingzhen.
According to the original agreement reached between Gu Bingqian and Guan Yingzhen, or the deal between the two when they expelled Huang Ruliang, next spring, in March of the third year of Xuanshun, the current cabinet should step down or the chief minister should be replaced. It's time.
Gu Bingqian should resign and Guan Yingzhen is about to take over as the chief assistant. But judging from the current situation, Gu Bingqian has no intention of resigning, and is also making drastic changes in personnel to consolidate his position. This makes Guan Yingzhen very anxious. .
Although Guan Yingzhen was in charge of the Ministry of Personnel, Cui Jingrong, the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, was not his person.
Cui Jingrong is a scholar from the North, and important ministers of third rank or above are not as simple as being nominated by the Ministry of Personnel, but need to be decided by the cabinet.
The current structure of the cabinet is like this. Gu Bingqian, Guan Yingzhen, Qiao Yingjia, Feng Keng, and Xu Guangqi. Qiao Yingjia and Feng Keng are all northern scholar leaders, Gu Bingqian and Xu Guangqi represent Jiangnan scholars, and Guan Yingzhen is the Huguang scholar leader.
Guan Yingzhen wanted to be the chief assistant, but he was born with shortcomings.
Although Xu Guangqi, the leader of the Jiangnan scholars, was a little reluctant, he basically would not disobey Gu Bingqian's wishes after Gu Bingqian made his decision.
So Guan Yingzhen wanted to overthrow Gu Bingqian unless the northern scholars fully supported him.
According to the regulations originally established, the first assistant was selected by the ministers and appointed by the emperor. However, the number of terms of the first assistant was not mentioned, which means that you can be re-elected as long as you can get the support of the important ministers. According to the convention, the second assistant is also It cannot be a scholar in the same line as the chief minister to prevent the emergence of dictatorship.
Of course, many things here are conventional and not customized, so many problems arise.
Chai Ke came to Feng Ziying out of necessity.
From his point of view, the situation is no longer what it was when Gu Bingqian asked for help.
With Guan Yingzhen's side constraints, Huang Ruliang could not attack Gu Bingqian with all his strength. Moreover, Gu Bingqian could still get the full support of the scholars in Huguang. In addition, Feng Keng waved the banner for him and persuaded some important ministers to support Gu Bingqian and some to abstain. Gu Bingqian regained his position as first assistant.
Now Gu Bingqian not only recruited Xu Guangqi to his command, but also recruited Zhu Guozhen. Basically all the Jiangnan scholars among the important ministers were integrated under Gu Bingqian's command. Why did Guan Yingzhen think that Gu Bingqian should give up the throne?
Gu Bingqian is only in his early fifties and is in good health. He even took a concubine last year and is very energetic. How can he give up the throne according to the original private agreement?
That's right, in theory, if Guan Yingzhen can get the full support of the northern scholars, he can indeed win the vote to overwhelm Gu Bingqian at the important ministers meeting next spring and become the chief minister.
You must know that the original agreement that Gu Bingqian abdicated the throne was a private agreement and was not legally binding. Feng Keng was not the guarantor.
Even if Feng Keng is the guarantor, so what?
Feng Keng alone has the final say on the Beidi scholar group. There are also Beidi scholars who are among the important ministers in front of Qiao Yingjia. Will they listen to Feng Keng?
If you do some math, among the eight ministers and the censors of the Duchayuan, except for the Minister of Agriculture, Lian Guoshi, who is Feng Ziying's die-hard ally, the others are not considered to be Feng Ziying's people.
Among the ministers, deputy imperial envoys, and ministers of the five temples, who is Feng Ziying’s friend?
The left deputy of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, Censor Fu Shi, is one, the right minister of the Ministry of Industry, Pan Ruzhen, is one, and the right minister of the Ministry of Agriculture, Geng Ruqi, is one. Besides these three, who else is there?
Including Lian Guoshi, who serves as the Minister of Agriculture, there are only four. Including Feng Ziying herself, who is eligible to participate in the vote, Feng Ziying's party only has five people.
On the side of the Huguang scholars, there were only six officials: Yang Lian, the right censor of the Duchayuan, Xiong Tingbi, the left minister of the Ministry of War, Yang He, the right minister of the Ministry of Personnel, and Guo Zhengyu, the right minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs.
In other words, even if you get Feng Ziying's full support and the total of eleven votes from both sides, you must still need ten votes to become the first assistant. Even if you get nine votes, twenty votes may be used by Gu Bingqian as the current first assistant. Nominal veto.
Where can I get these ten votes?
Either dig it from the Jiangnan scholars, or pull it from other northern scholars.
The situation of other northern scholars is also more complicated. In theory, they are all Qiao Yingjia's basic base. People such as Cui Jingrong, Han Xu, Sun Juxiang, Sun Dingxiang, Sun Juxiang, and Wang Yongguang are all veteran northern scholars. Even Feng Ziying, they They may not buy it. It is too difficult to get them to support Guan Yingzhen.
However, there are also some third-rank ministers whose situation is unclear, such as Bi Ziyan, the right minister of the Ministry of Commerce, and Cao Yubian, the minister of Dali Temple. These people are relatively independent and seem to have a normal relationship with Qiao Yingjia. Will they follow Qiao Yingjia's orders? It's hard to say.
On the side of the Jiangnan scholars, Chai Ke thought that if Haosheng worked hard, he might be able to get a few votes. Gu Bingqian's control was not that strong yet, but it was almost impossible to get ten votes.
But Guan Yingzhen refused to give up, always feeling that there was still a chance. Chai Ke also knew that Guan Yingzhen must still have some back-ups. For example, among the Beidi scholars, besides Feng Keng, he must also be able to I got a ticket, but the official Ying Zhen didn't tell me the details, and he couldn't ask further.
For example, with the Jiangnan scholars, I guess Guan Yingzhen is also planning to make some deals to see if he can get one or two votes, especially since there are many Jiangnan scholars among the five temple ministers, and they all hold idle positions. It is usually of little use and not many people value it, but in the meeting of important ministers, every vote counts. (End of chapter)