Chapter 2171: Taizong Chronicles 39: Kou Zhun Dismissed from the Chancellorship

When news of the death of Liu Wenyuan, Prince of Andong, reached Luoyang, the court as a whole unconsciously breathed a sigh of relief. That old fellow was finally dead—for those nobles in the court who harbored hostility toward Andong, this was truly a cause for celebration.

Setting aside the overly distant future, and not even mentioning the next few decades, at least during the reign of Emperor Jianlong, Andong could no longer become a threat to the court's heart. The combination of the remaining Andong royal house with the state of Andong was far less threatening than what Liu Wenyuan had posed.

Therefore, aside from carrying out the customary funeral rites for the death of a feudal prince, the court placed no obstacles whatsoever on the succession of the Andong princely title, giving it a green light all the way. Over the past few years, the court had made up for its lack of knowledge about the Andong royal descendants. Compared to the tiger-like, wolf-like Liu Wenyuan, Liu Jitan was nothing but a docile sheep—even if he proved restless, his brothers could give the court plenty of material to work with...

It could be said that with Liu Wenyuan's death, the decades of open and covert struggle between the court and the Andong branch of the imperial clan—between Taizong's line and the Prince of Qin's eldest son's line—finally truly subsided, coming to a temporary close.

At the same time that Liu Wenyuan passed away, enormous changes had also taken place in the court of the Great Han Empire, presenting an entirely new configuration. And for the upper echelons of imperial power, any change ultimately came down to changes in personnel.

Clearly, the personnel configuration at the empire's center had undergone another major shift. The people were largely still the same, but the Director of State Affairs had changed—that was the biggest development. Shortly after the Lantern Festival in the eighth year of Jianlong, the "Edict of Dismissal" was promulgated. Though sudden, the process was simple and smooth. Kou Zhun, who had served as the empire's Chief Chancellor for a full seven years, stepped down citing "foot ailment."

Of course, Emperor Liu Wenji found him a decent place to retire—sending him far to the southeast to serve as Prefectural Administrator of Huzhou. In the empire's appointment of chancellors, while there was no shortage of those sent to serve in local posts, going from a dignified Chief Chancellor to a mere small prefectural administrator could only indicate one thing: this man had suffered a major setback in his official career, and for the rest of his life he would sink into obscurity, unlikely ever to be recalled.

Such a fate was not easy for Kou Zhun to accept—a man of fierce temperament, lofty ambitions, and an extremely strong desire for power. Especially since Kou Zhun was only sixty-four, not old at all for a Chief Chancellor, and he had always been full of energy and diligent in governance. His goal had been to achieve accomplishments and renown like those of Zhao Pu, the Chief Chancellor of the Kaibao era...

Yet all of this came to an abrupt halt with the issuance of the dismissal edict. The Great Han Empire was, after all, an autocratic monarchy, and the one on the throne was not a mediocre, weak-willed sovereign, but a scheming emperor who had spent eleven years forging his imperial position into something as solid as iron and spreading his authority across the entire realm.

Liu Wenji might not be as forceful as Shizu or Taizong, lacking that absolute protagonist aura, but judging by his ten years on the throne, this was by no means an emperor as easy to deal with as he appeared.

Once he lost the emperor's trust, Kou Zhun's chancellorship naturally could not be preserved. With Liu Wenji's methods, he had plenty of ways to push him out of the court. Being exiled to Huzhou—not stripped of everything, nor banished to some remote mountain wilderness—could be considered a measure of tolerance that preserved his dignity.

Speaking of Kou Zhun, one could at least not deny his insight and ability, as well as his capacity for strategic judgment on major and critical matters. At the very least, during his seven-plus years as Director of State Affairs, he had made outstanding contributions to the development of the Great Han Empire.

Kou Zhun's contributions lay mainly in three areas. First, he assisted Liu Wenji in consolidating imperial authority, dispelling that shadow that had hung over the Great Han emperors since the Kangzong era. This was fundamental—if he hadn't kept pace on this matter, Kou Zhun could never have served as Director of State Affairs for so many years.

Second, he rectified official governance, fought corruption and purged graft, reasserting the legacy of Taizong, and dealt a heavy blow to the resurgence of fraud, extravagance, and embezzlement that had crept back since the Kangzong court. The authority of the empire's legal system was restored once again.

Third was something never openly stated but always pursued in both overt and covert ways: the suppression of the empire's meritorious nobility. Whether it was promoting and cultivating commoner-origin officials and landowners, or weakening the presence and influence of the noble clique within the central organs of power, these were all very conspicuous political features of the Jianlong era. Naturally, the political contradictions accumulated from this were equally intense.

Therefore, in the position of Director of State Affairs, Kou Zhun was by no means a mediocre and idle man. On the contrary, he was a man of action. But being a man of action also inevitably brought with it countless criticisms. It had to be said that of the various contradictions and hostilities stirred up by the "Jianlong Reforms," Kou Zhun had shouldered a good half of them for Liu Wenji.

The "anti-Kou faction" emerged precisely against this political backdrop, and it included not only the nobles whose interests had been damaged, but also many commoner-origin officials of the same class. For example, the southern officials whom Kou Zhun had always despised, as well as many who could not stomach Kou Zhun's forceful—even to the point of unreasonable stubbornness—style of governance.

In light of this, though he took Zhao Pu as his model, Kou Zhun could never reach Zhao Pu's heights. First of all, lacking a supreme leader like Emperor Shizu was an inherent disadvantage. On the other hand, in matters of personal conduct and interpersonal relations, Kou Zhun also fell considerably short of Zhao Pu.

He was a clever man, but the ways in which he was clever were not entirely to the emperor's liking. Both Taizong and Liu Wenji held similar impressions. It should be remembered that back when the Director of State Affairs was being chosen after Xiang Deming, both had harbored reservations about Kou Zhun.

But ultimately choosing Kou Zhun was also a political choice. At least this man could get things done, dared to get things done, and had a strong ability to see things through. On Liu Wenji's journey toward the pinnacle of imperial power, Kou Zhun was a vanguard—easy and effective to use. With such an energetic, decisive general at his side, Liu Wenji saved much effort in governing the state and had greater leeway when handling thorny problems.

Therefore, even Liu Wenji never denied Kou Zhun's abilities. It was just that time was passing, the political situation was shifting, and people's hearts were changing. By the seventh year of Jianlong, after suppressing the unruly Prince of Andong, Liu Wenyuan, Liu Wenji's position had been thoroughly consolidated inside and out, and no one could challenge him anymore.

With little worry remaining about the stability of his throne, the empire's political atmosphere had also been fundamentally transformed, and the prosperity of the people's livelihood had achieved remarkable results. Under such circumstances, if it were merely a matter of maintaining order and governing the people, Kou Zhun was no longer indispensable. By comparison, the negative reactions triggered by Kou Zhun were continuously fermenting.

The bureaucrats and nobles—those old forces whose interests had been infringed upon in the rectification and reform, those groups that still wielded enormous say and influence in every aspect—their discontent had gradually accumulated to a very deep level, to the point that even Emperor Liu Wenji could not help but feel apprehension.

Of course, if it were only that, it still wouldn't have been enough to shake Kou Zhun's position. Liu Wenji's resolve was firm, and he wouldn't have dismissed a chancellor simply because of opposition from nobles and bureaucrats. The problem lay with Kou Zhun himself.

First, the divergence in political views with the emperor was growing ever larger. In particular, on the matter of employing and selecting talent, the emperor's reliance on the southern literati was something Kou Zhun found utterly abhorrent. He repeatedly blocked Liu Wenji's promotions of officials of southern origin, and was also highly critical of the Academy of Politics and Law.

As for military affairs, fiscal and tax matters, and legal matters, Kou Zhun also had many of his own ideas and philosophies, which he brought out bit by bit. If it had stopped there, it might have been tolerable. But when he began pushing his own ideas through as if they were the emperor's will, then the problem became serious...

Of course, Kou Zhun wouldn't go so far as to commit any obvious acts of overstepping or violating protocol. But when his various words and deeds gave the emperor such an impression, then his chancellorship was doomed to be short-lived.

What truly made Liu Wenji decide to dismiss him was during the northern inspection tour in the sixth year of Jianlong. While Liu Wenji was in Youzhou plotting matters concerning Andong and making military preparations, Kou Zhun was pulling his leg back in Luoyang. He believed that arms should not be lightly taken up, that things with Andong hadn't reached that point yet, and so he exercised the authority of the Director of State Affairs to obstruct Liu Wenji's military preparations from the Luoyang side.

At the same time, when the victory reports from the "Six Great Han-Iranian Battles" reached Luoyang, without obtaining Liu Wenji's consent, he directly responded in the name of the Hall of State Affairs, sending envoys to offer congratulations. He still had his reasons—at the time, the court's attention was all on the internal turmoil in Andong, with no mind to spare for Anxi.

During the heaven-worshipping ceremony in Taiyuan, Liu Wenji received another "amusing anecdote" from Luoyang, saying that Kou Zhun had gone to inspect the Ministry of Works, and had questioned a Vice Bureau Director through an office clerk. That Vice Bureau Director had knelt while conversing, and under Chancellor Kou's awe-inspiring majesty on all sides, had been so frightened that he wet his pants...

In short, there were many "little stories" about Chancellor Kou, and the contradictions spanning between him and the emperor were growing ever deeper day by day. Kou Zhun was a man who never repented, and his style was very difficult to change easily.

When negative impressions gained the upper hand in the emperor's mind, when the emperor's trust and favor continued to decline, his fate was sealed. Ordinary people often compared Liu Wenji's leniency to that of Emperor Taizong. But those who had dealt with him for long would discover that Liu Wenji's leniency was a matter of necessity—because his "accession was not legitimate," he faced pressure and challenges from all sides, and often had to adopt a compromising attitude and measures.

At the same time, Liu Wenji's leniency was also directed more at those who were useful to him. Once one was labeled "useless," even the deepest tolerance would fade. As with Kou Zhun—not fabricating charges against him was also a political necessity, after all, Liu Wenji couldn't slap his own face.

Compared to the dismissal of Xiang Deming back then, which required observation and waiting, cautious deliberation, and even Xiang Deming himself requesting to retire, the handling of Kou Zhun was clean and decisive—truly just a matter of one edict.

Facts also proved that no matter how awe-inspiring and arrogant Chancellor Kou had been at the center of power in the past, before the emperor's authority, he too was helpless, and could only ultimately trudge off dejectedly to the distant southeast.

He wasn't even allowed to return to his hometown, because the emperor wanted Kou Zhun to go to the southeast, to see the mountains, rivers, and lakes there, to see the flourishing culture and talent he had always looked down upon...

At the same time, Kou Zhun was probably also the first Chief Chancellor whose dismissal was celebrated with mutual congratulations by the entire court, civil and military alike. Apart from his close confidants and diehard followers, almost no one expressed regret or sorrow. To have reached such a point—that was Kou Zhun for you.

But regardless, in the Hall of State Affairs of the empire, the era belonging to Kou Zhun had thoroughly passed beginning in the spring of the eighth year of Jianlong. And the one who succeeded him was Han Chengjun, Minister of Personnel.

This was another choice tinged with compromise and appeasement. Toward the noble clique, Liu Wenji likewise did not dare to suppress them one-sidedly, and at the same time, the central organs of the court could not be entirely dominated by those commoner-origin bureaucrats in making decisions.

As for Han Chengjun, his abilities naturally could not compare with those of his father Han Hui, but his basic qualifications and résumé were sufficient. Add to that his identity and the circumstances of the times, and he could become the Chief Chancellor of the Great Han. This was a position that even the "Sack Chancellor" had never managed to sit in...