During the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, he was obsessed with Taoism and was almost strangled to death by a palace maid, so he began to neglect his government. Those outstanding cabinet members began to step onto the stage of power and began rounds of performances. First, Xia Yan defeated Zhang Cong, Yan Song defeated Xia Yan, Xu Jie defeated Yan Song, Gao Gong liquidated Xu Jie, and Zhang Juzheng squeezed Gao Gong away.

This article answers why Gao Gong wanted to kill Xu Jie.

Let’s briefly introduce Xu Jie. From his career experience, we can get a glimpse of why Gao Gong wanted to kill him.

At the age of eighteen, he lived in Huating County, Songjiang Prefecture, and met Nie Bao. At that time, he was the county magistrate of Qipin and taught Xu Jie the "Learning of Conscience" - Wang Shouren's theory. From then on, the concept of "unity of knowledge and action" accompanied Xu Jie. A lifetime. At the age of twenty, in the provincial examination, he was supposed to be Jieyuan, but the examiner and examiner had different opinions and compromised and admitted Xu Jie. Xu Jie missed Jieyuan. At the age of twenty-one, he passed the general examination and successfully entered the palace examination. He could definitely become the number one scholar. Lin Jun, the Minister of Punishment at the time, thought he could win the number one scholar. However, Lin Jun had a deep conflict with the cabinet minister Fei Hong. Fei Hong thought there was something fishy, ??and Xu Jie Changed from No. 1 to No. 3 overall.

It was also this year that he met the chief minister Yang Tinghe and heard his loud prophecy: "This son's fame will not be inferior to mine!" To be recognized by the chief minister, Xu Jie has It goes without saying how excellent it is.

In the third year of Jiajing (1524), at the age of twenty-two, Xu Jie entered the Hanlin Academy and became a seventh-grade editor. Although this place did not have the prestige and power of a local official, it was the center of attention. , because once you enter here, half of your foot has already stepped into the cabinet.

At the age of twenty-eight, facing Zhang Cong, his chief assistant, he dared to challenge authority and showed awe-inspiring justice. Then his future was ruined, his family was ruined, and he was sent to Yanping Mansion in Fujian Province, a barbaric place, to work as an official. After eight years of experience there, he matured and became a tolerant and profound man.

Forty-six years old, he watched his teacher Xia Yan being killed without saying a word.

At the age of sixty-two, after more than ten years of patience and management, he got rid of Yan Song, killed his son, and became a scheming and unfathomable politician.

He is such a politician with a legendary experience, leading to the top of power. Can he not be regarded as a thorn in the side and a thorn in the flesh?

Xu Jie served as the chief minister of the cabinet for four years. At the age of sixty-six, he resigned, and Emperor Longqing agreed. In Xu Jie's life, he had been manipulated and manipulated by others, and he had done both good and bad things. During his decades of political career, many upright officials were appointed and the lives of countless ordinary people were protected.

And Gao Gong is the person he has had sex with. Why do Xu steps need to be made high and arched? To put it simply, they are not on the same front. High arch, as the name suggests, arrogant and extremely difficult to arch. Few of those who were officials with him became his friends. He was conceited and often looked down upon his colleagues and superiors.

When did he become enemies with Xu Jie?

The spokesman Hu Yingjia impeached Li Dengyun, the deputy minister of the Ministry of Industry. Jiajing was seriously ill and did not read it at all, so the memorial fell into the hands of Gao Gong, a bachelor of the cabinet. Li Dengyun was Gao Gong's relative. Coincidentally, Hu Yingjia and Xu Jie were from the same hometown. Gao Gong believed that this was Xu Jie's conspiracy, and he publicly stated that he was at odds with Xu Jie.

After Jiajing died, King Yu succeeded to the throne and became Emperor Longqing. As one of King Yu's four major lecturers, Gao Gong was highly valued by Emperor Longqing, and he began to openly confront Xu Jie. But he underestimated Xu Jie's strength.

First, Ouyang Yijing impeached Gao Gong, saying that he was more treacherous than Comrade Cai Jing, a famous traitor in history. Xu Jie found several more officials from the Sixth Ministry, and they all impeached Gao Gong.

In the first year of Longqing (1567), Gao Gong took the initiative to resign. A month later, his fellow countryman Guo Pu also retired. Xu Jie, who was extremely clever, drove Gao Gong away and replaced Zhang Juzheng. In his opinion, Gao Gong had never seen the light of day and everything was foolproof, but everything had surprises.

In December of the third year of Longqing (1569), Gao Gong, who was idle at home, relied on the help of Chen Hong, a royal eunuch, and after countless unexplained insider transactions and negotiations, one year after leaving his job Back again, in the cabinet.

The happiest person about his return was Emperor Longqing. He also gave the teacher a position - Minister of the Ministry of Personnel. Because the Ministry of Personnel is the Ministry of Personnel, it is the most powerful department among the six central ministries. If both personnel power and government affairs processing power are handed over to one person, the consequences will be serious.

In order to get the throne of the chief minister of the cabinet, Gao Gong began to liquidate. The principle is "soft first and then hard". The first target on Gao Gong's blacklist is not one, but a group of them.

First of all, suppress the famous officials

In just a few months, more than 20 famous officials were either dismissed or transferred. Basically, those who impeached Gao Gong were punished by him. It can be seen that Gao Gong was punished. Gong is "revengeful" and is not broad-minded. Ouyang Yijing, who impeached him, resigned voluntarily, and Hu Yingjia was frightened to death.

Secondly, he began to fight against the cabinet

Gao Gong could only rank fifth in the cabinet at that time. If he wants to climb to the throne of chief assistant, he must squeeze out the previous four.

The fourth place is Zhao Zhenji. In terms of qualifications, he is the oldest. Li Chunfang and Zhang Juzheng were both Jinshi in the 26th year of Jiajing (1547), Chen Yiqin was in the 23rd year of Jiajing (1544), and Zhao Xueshi was in the 20th year of Jiajing (1541), but he is ranked first. In the end, I felt unbalanced.

He started to make trouble for Gao Gong. Gao Gong also wants to get rid of him. The two began to fight among themselves, and the honest man Chen Yiqin couldn't stand it anymore and resigned voluntarily. Later, Gao Gong was still more powerful and Zhao Zhenji was defeated. Gao Gong continued his efforts, directly surpassed Zhang Juzheng, ranked behind Li Chunfang, and became the second assistant.

3. The final enemy—Xu Jie

Logically speaking, Xu Jie had retired at that time, and Li Chunfang was a good old man. There are no obstacles in the high arch, so there is no need to kill them all.

But Gao Gong doesn’t think so. Xu Jie's disciples are all over the government and the public. If he doesn't get rid of Xu Jie, he will have great obstacles in governing in the future. Besides, Xu Jie has tried to punish him. Of course, Xu Jie also let Gao Gong find the excuse, not Xu Jie himself, but his troubled son. His two sons, relying on their father's great power, ran rampant in the local area, occupied a large amount of land, and became the largest landowners in Yingtian. At that time, the governor of Yingtian was Hai Rui, a famous upright official.

To be honest, Hai Rui's rapid rise was all due to Xu Jie. In Xu Shoufu's view, Hai Rui was a reliable and honest official who should be reused. Promoting him before retirement would be considered as doing his best for the country.

Faced with the boiling public dissatisfaction, Hai Rui asked Xu Jie to retreat. Xu Jie symbolically withdrew part of his territory, but Hai Rui refused to give in and showed no appreciation, demanding that he retreat completely. This angered Xu Jie, who refused to retreat.

At this time, Hai Rui became an excellent tool for Gao Gong to deal with Xu Jie. Gao Gong quickly expressed his support for Hai Rui's behavior and severely reprimanded Xu Jie's behavior. Hai Rui was encouraged and became more energetic, forcing Xu Jie to retreat.

Xu Jie expressed his willingness to withdraw from all the fields. However, officials in the imperial court suddenly became angry and attacked Xu Jie for being lax in educating his children. A man named Cai Guoxi was appointed as Suzhou Military Preparation Envoy to handle the case full-time. Coincidentally, this Mr. Cai happened to be Gao Gong's student. , and happened to have some conflicts with Xu Jie.

The matter got serious. Xu Jie's two sons were arrested and sent to the army. All the property in the family was confiscated. Even his home was burned down by a group of unknown people. Master Xu could only Fleeed to other places overnight.

The final winner is only the high arch. But what he never expected was that three years later, he would return to his hometown along the same road, and the person driving him home was another eunuch, Feng Bao. Zhang Juzheng, who was single-handedly promoted by Xu Jie, teamed up with Feng Bao, who had a grudge against Gao Gong, and drove Gao Gong away, which was regarded as revenge for his teacher.

Conclusion

In fact, fundamentally speaking, there is no difference between Gao Gong and Xu Jie. They can be said to be of the same origin. They are all doers, they all want to do things, and they all want to serve the country. It is the regret and helplessness of "how can one be bright when one is born with excellence".

Gao Gong implemented the "Longqing New Deal" during his first three years of service. Under his leadership, the Ming Dynasty was still very dynamic.

Xu Jie was recognized as the top politician in the Ming Dynasty. His power, tactics and political abilities were unmatched by anyone except Zhang Juzheng. However, Gao Gong was as famous as him in history. It can be seen that Gao Gong was as famous as him in history. Gong is also an outstanding politician.