Chapter 104: The Grand Secretariat Wants to Seize Power

This old fellow Liu Yijing was clearly making his move to contend for power.

As for why he wanted to bring Han Kuang along, the reason was very simple — he needed to prove his own ability before the Emperor.

How does one prove their ability? As Chief Grand Secretary of the Grand Secretariat, if you cannot even control the Grand Secretariat, how can you claim to be capable?

Liu Yijing hoped to gain the support of the entire Grand Secretariat.

Only, Han Kuang also knew that Liu Yijing would find this very difficult to achieve.

The Grand Secretariat now did not have just one or two Grand Secretaries — it had a full five.

Besides himself and Liu Yijing, there were also Shen Guan, He Zongyan, and Zhu Guozuo, plus one Shi Jixie who had not yet taken up his post.

On the surface, none of these Grand Secretaries seemed to hold much real power — none of them had the makings of a power minister.

But everyone knew that not a single person in the Grand Secretariat was an easy mark. These men were merely more cautious, with less intense desires for power — they had not yet reached the point of disregarding everything for the sake of authority.

But having a weaker desire for power did not mean having none at all.

That the late Emperor trusted the Donglin Faction was something everyone knew. After the late Emperor ascended the throne, the Donglin Faction grew strong, and it was only a matter of time before they made their move on the Grand Secretariat.

With the fall of Chief Grand Secretary Fang Congzhe, many people had already begun to realize there was a problem.

For the Grand Secretaries, being told to listen to the Donglin Faction was not something they were necessarily willing to do. They could not win a fight against them, so they might as well give up their positions and return to their hometowns.

In fact, that was what everyone had been thinking before — but no one had expected the late Emperor to suddenly pass away.

After the late Emperor's death, everyone was waiting to see what the current Emperor would do, wanting to see where His Majesty stood.

Sure enough, the current Emperor did not disappoint — he struck at the Donglin Faction right from the start.

At a time like this, naturally many people were thinking of kicking a man while he was down. Before, the Donglin Faction's power was too great, so no one dared. Now that an opportunity had presented itself, they naturally would not let go.

One should know that entering the Grand Secretariat in the Great Ming required two very important conditions.

The first was background — you had to be of the Hanlin Academy. No Hanlin, no entry into the Grand Secretariat. This condition was not just empty talk. There might be a few exceptions, but they were not the norm. Most Grand Secretaries all came from the Hanlin Academy.

Besides this condition, there was another: having served as chief examiner. To become a Grand Secretary, you certainly had to have been a chief examiner — whether for the provincial or metropolitan examinations — and that depended on the Emperor's support for you.

But the step of being chief examiner could never be skipped, for a very simple reason: in the examination halls, there was the saying of the "seat master."

The meaning was simple — your chief examiner was your seat master. He would be your guide in officialdom, and you were to be as loyal to him as possible; in turn, he would do his best to promote you.

Originally this was an unspoken rule, but now it had become widespread practice. It was a rule even the Emperor had to tacitly accept, and it was the main channel through which civil officials formed factions.

As for why the Emperor did not interfere?

The reason was also simple — the court's control over the localities was not that strict, and sometimes what the Emperor said was not as effective as what the ministers said.

If the Emperor could control just one Grand Secretary, he could control all the officials in that one faction. When something came up, the Emperor only needed to find the principal person — there was no need to chase down everyone below.

With such relationships, the power and influence of the Grand Secretaries was propped up. Whatever the Grand Secretary wanted to do, there were people below to help him do it and support him.

In other words, behind every major court figure was actually a small faction.

Every one of the Grand Secretaries at court was like this. Although their factions were not as powerful as the Donglin Faction, that did not mean they had none.

In ordinary times, these people kept a low profile and would never cooperate with one another. Because no one trusted anyone else, they also did not fight the Donglin Faction.

But now the situation was different.

The Eastern Depot was sinking its teeth into the Donglin Faction and refusing to let go. On top of that, His Majesty's attitude was ambiguous, and several of the Donglin Faction's bigwigs had been arrested by the Eastern Depot. At present, the Donglin Faction's situation was deteriorating sharply.

At a time like this, if these people did not come up and stomp a few times, it would be a great disservice to themselves.

After toppling the Donglin Faction, everyone could carve up the legacy the Donglin Faction left behind — how many official posts would that be?

Even if the several Grand Secretaries were not tempted, the people in the factions behind them would be, and they would push them forward.

Besides, would these Grand Secretaries really not be tempted?

Who did not want to be Chief Grand Secretary?

Who was willing to willingly give up the power in their hands?

There was no such person. If one truly wanted to devote themselves to mountains and rivers, then why bother being an official at all?

Lifting his head to glance at Liu Yijing, Han Kuang sank into deep thought.

Clearly, these people were preparing to make their move. Now they claimed openly to be allying with him, but in reality they were pressuring him.

If he did not agree, then these people would directly eliminate him — they would absolutely not stand on ceremony with him. As for the others, they had probably already united long ago.

This placed Han Kuang in a dilemma.

Of course, this was not what worried him most.

At worst, he would simply stop being an official — that was hardly a major matter. But now Han Kuang sensed that things were about to go badly. The Donglin Faction this time seemed doomed beyond escape.

Although Wei Zhongxian was sinking his teeth into the Donglin Faction and refusing to let go, Han Kuang was not too worried about that. Even if a few people were removed, it would not do much good.

Wei Zhongxian's strength was what it was — he had no way to swallow the entire Donglin Faction. The Donglin Faction's power was not just these few people at court. Officials spread across the localities, the great regional magnates — most of them were Donglin men. That was the real source of the Donglin Faction's strength.

If Wei Zhongxian wanted to topple the Donglin Faction, he would have to install his own people or cultivate his own spokesmen among the civil officials.

But the difficulty of that was too great — it was absolutely not something Wei Zhongxian could accomplish now.

Now, if Liu Yijing and the others made their move against the Donglin Faction, then things would take a sharp turn for the worse and spiral out of control.

Because their people knew where the Donglin Faction had people in place, they would choose to replace them and directly topple the Donglin Faction.

The Donglin Faction's positions would be taken over by Liu Yijing's people — that would be a very troublesome matter. If it truly came to that point, the Donglin Faction would fall into an abyss of utter ruin.

Han Kuang did not want to watch the Donglin Faction fall, but the current situation did not permit otherwise.

Since Liu Yijing had come to find him, that proved they were already prepared. Whether he participated or not, those people would make their move.

Once they chose to act, and he did not follow them, then his position in the Grand Secretariat would no longer be secure — attacks would come one after another.

In fact, their reason for attacking was very simple: after Zou Yuanbiao and the others stepped down, there was a good chance Han Kuang would become the Donglin Faction's big leader.

Although he was not the Donglin Faction's leader at the moment, who could say how things would turn out?

Han Kuang's thoughts churned round and round, his head feeling like a mess. He very much wanted to slam the table and curse out that old fox. But reality did not permit it!

Liu Yijing sat to the side, seemingly in no hurry, merely watching Han Kuang quietly, waiting for him to give a satisfactory answer.