On May 28, the 57th year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1718), Li Guangdi, a famous minister of a generation, died of a rapid hernia attack. When Kangxi heard the bad news, he sadly said to his subordinates: "Those who know the most true, and those who know the earth without light!" ”
Kangxi's evaluation of Li Guangdi is very humane - Li Guangdi knows Shu best, and Shu also knows him deeply, and Shu and Li Guangdi are confidants!
Reading this comment of Kangxi, some people say that the temple rises and falls, and the most powerful person is this. It is said that the companion Jun is like the companion tiger, but he has become a confidant with the Jun companion, and the famous hall among them is the true way of officialdom, and Li Guangdi is unfathomable.
After Kangxi, Yongzheng had a higher evaluation of Li Guangdi, and he did not hesitate to praise Li Guangdi to the height of "a perfect generation".
However, those with historical insight hit the nail on the head by saying that throughout the ages, all perfect people have been hypocrites. Yongzheng praised him, admiring him second, and using him as a tool for ruling was the original intention of his heart. In view of this, understanding Li Guangdi, a so-called generation of famous ministers, is definitely of sober practical significance in the world.
This statement, although it is dark and extreme, is also whipped.
Li Guangdi, whose ancestral home was Jianzhou, Fujian, later moved to Anxi County, Quanzhou, and is said to be Li Yuanxiang, the twentieth son of Li Yuan, the ancestor of Tang Gaozu. Li Guangdi was born in the fifteenth year of the Ming Chongzhen reign (1642), and to some extent, he was a remnant of the Ming Dynasty. When Li Guangdi was three years old, the Qing army entered the customs and went all the way south, so Fujian became the main battlefield of the confrontation between the Southern Ming and the Qing court. Growing up in the hatred of the country, according to Confucian logic, even if Li Guangdi does not go to the Qing Dynasty, he should have the mentality of rejecting the Qing, but neither Li Guangdi has either, and the history books only record such an event, when he was thirteen years old, Li Guangdi's home was ransacked by a group of thieves, and since then, he has hated bandits and thieves in the chaotic world.
Because he only hated the troubled times and did not hate the Qing, after Li Guangdi began to study, he had no rejection of the Qing court examination. In the ninth year of the Kangxi Dynasty, the twenty-eight-year-old Li Guangdi entered Beijing to rush for the exam, and ranked second in the second class of high school. In addition to him, there are two other people who are also famous in history, one can be called a major spectacle of the Kangxi Dynasty, he has done many evils in his life, but he has never been punished by Kangxi, this person is the Tanhualang of that department, Xu Qianxue; The other person who is not famous, but has a deep relationship with Li Guangdi, is his fellow countryman, Chen Menglei.
After Li Guangdi entered high school, he stayed in Hanlin Academy for 3 years, and then was selected as the Shuchangguan Shujishi, and the road to Shi was not slow and urgent, and he was on the right path.
Li Guangdi is a man who abides by the Confucian moral tradition. For newcomers to officialdom, this is actually a useful rocking fan, and when you have an idea, you can shake it; When you need to think about it, you can also shake it. In May of the 12th year of the Kangxi Dynasty, Li Guangdi completed his first term as an examiner, asked the imperial court for leave, and proposed to go home to save his relatives.
Coincidentally, his friend Chen Menglei in the same year also made this move.
Human destiny is sometimes driven by chance.
Neither Li Guangdi nor Chen Menglei expected that this time when they returned to their hometown and province, they actually encountered the "San Francisco Rebellion" of the Kangxi Dynasty on time.
In the 12th year of the Kangxi Dynasty, Wu Sangui, the king of Pingxi, first killed the governor of Yunnan, Zhu Guozhi, and then sent troops to besiege the governor of Yungui, Gan Wenkun, and the rebellion in San Francisco ignited gunsmoke. At first, Kangxi did not know that Wu Sangui had rebelled, and the news reached the capital, and the imperial court was about to send troops to suppress the rebellion, and Geng Jingzhong, the king of Jingnan in Fujian, also raised an anti-banner to echo Wu Sangui. At the same time, Zheng Jing, who was alone in Taiwan, sent troops to counterattack Fujian, also wanting to profit from the chaos. Kangxi was overwhelmed, and could only face Wu Sangui first, and for a while, Fujian was in chaos, and everything was upside down.
Geng Jingzhong rebelled, the means were still very vicious, and in the first step, he pointed the spearhead at the Qing court officials in the Fujian realm. At this time, Li Guangdi's "thief" was vividly revealed, and before Geng Jingzhong came to get it, he had taken his parents to hide in the deep mountains and valleys, and his same year Chen Menglei was much sluggish, and before he had time to evade, he was captured alive by Geng Jingzhong, and then forced to be Geng Jingzhong's staff.
The Qing History Manuscript: The Biography of Li Guangdi records:
For thirteen years, Geng Jingzhong rebelled, Zheng Jing based in Quanzhou, and Guangdi served his relatives in the valley, and Jing Zhong sent people to recruit him, but he refused.
The first half of this historical material is credible, and the second half is whitewashed. Under that circumstance, Geng Jingzhong had already found Li Guangdi in the deep mountains and valleys, how could he only politely invite without the rope that was abducted.
More bizarre is yet to come.
After Li Guangdi refused Geng Jingzhong and Zheng Jing's surrender, he actually did a very incredible thing. He secretly walked out of the deep mountains and valleys, collected intelligence on the rebels from various sources, and then wrote down important information such as Geng Jingzhong and Zheng Jing's military deployment and offensive route into a fold, sealed it in a wax pill, and sent people to escape Fujian from the mountain trail and go all the way north to the capital to report the message. On the way, the messenger luckily ran into Fu Hongji, a cabinet bachelor, who got the wax pill and immediately forwarded it to Kangxi. Kangxi opened the pill and was shocked, and he was full of praise for Li Guangdi's loyal deeds.
The Qing History Manuscript: The Biography of Li Guangdi records:
In the wax pill, he sent the envoy to Beijing to division, because the cabinet bachelor Fu Hongji went to it. The upper part was moved and Jia Qizhong was loyal, and the lower military department recorded the leading minister.
Committing sinister alone, sending wax pills for thousands of miles, was the key to Li Guangdi's later rise in the Kangxi Dynasty.
This is quite legendary at first glance, but on closer inspection, it feels that it does not stand up to scrutiny. First, regardless of whether Li Guangdi's whereabouts are exposed or not, it is always a reality to be trapped in deep mountains and valleys, and it is difficult to save his life under such circumstances, and there are conditions to collect confidential information about the rebels from multiple sources; Second, if Li Guangdi really wanted to get a wax pill to serve Kangxi, hiding in the deep mountains and valleys was obviously not the best policy, he should play Infernal Affairs, take advantage of Geng Jingzhong's persecution to recruit them, and fake them into his shogunate, so that it would be possible to collect core intelligence and complete the righteous deed.
With such an analysis, the matter must be subtle.
As for where the subtlety is, let's not show it for the time being, but one thing cannot but be said, Li Guangdi is really deep, no matter what the truth is, he is a person full of scheming and can create stories.
And this is the cornerstone of his later near-flawless and exemplary role.
Of course, it is not enough to have such a cornerstone, Li Guangdi still has a lot of material on top of the cornerstone.
Because of that wax pill, Kangxi had a deep impression on Li Guangdi. Three years later, when the Qing army invaded Fujian and Geng Jingzhong surrendered, Kangxi immediately gave an order to the two leading generals, Lahada and Zhaota, to find Li Guangdi.
Li Guangdi sent wax pills thousands of miles, and this is what he wanted, so at this moment, it is not difficult to find him at all. Three years of refuge was a valuable political asset for Li Guangdi, so when Lahada found him in Zhangzhou and reported his loyalty to the imperial court for three years, Kangxi specially praised him: "Guangdi is committed to serving the country, and it is appropriate to praise him!" (Qing History Manuscript)
After the praise, Kangxi ordered Li Guangdi to go north immediately, preparing to promote him to bachelor's degree. When Li Guangdi had just arrived in Fuzhou, his family sent someone to chase him and tell him the news of his father's death. Although Li Guangdi was full of expectations for Shitu, he knew that filial piety was a big matter, so he had to turn back halfway and observe filial piety for his father for three years.
In the past three years, Li Guangdi has not been abandoned in the slightest, because there are still rebels in Fujian's territorial boundaries from time to time, and Taiwan's Zheng Jing is still "a thief's heart is not dead", Li Guangdi recruited more than 100 township braves and actively took local counterinsurgency, which really added a lot of points to himself.
This also invisibly whetted Kangxi's appetite.
Three years later, in the nineteenth year of the Kangxi Dynasty, Li Guangdi's filial piety expired and he returned to the capital. In order to see this Ai Qing as soon as possible, Kangxi directly skipped the official procedure, summoned him in the palace as soon as possible, and awarded him a cabinet bachelor on the spot.
Six years ago, Li Guangdi returned to his hometown to visit his relatives, but he was only edited by Zhengqipin Hanlin, and now he actually jumped up and soared to become a bachelor from the second-grade cabinet.
It is said that opportunity always belongs to those who are prepared.
But there is a world of difference between seizing opportunities and magnifying them.
In the past, working as a minor editor in the Hanlin Academy was not really a temple, but now he has become a cabinet bachelor, and he has already climbed the stairs and entered the hall.
At this time, how can you sit upright and go to the next level?
The knowledge in it is very large.
Let's take a look at Li Guangdi's Taoist learning.
In the twentieth year of the Kangxi Dynasty, Zheng Jing, who was alone in Taiwan, died, his eldest son Zheng Kezang was killed, and his second son Zheng Kecheng inherited the title of Prince of Yanping with the assistance of Feng Xifan and others.
As soon as this change reached the capital, Li Guangdi immediately played Kangxi: "Zheng Jing is dead, Zi Kecheng is young and weak, and his subordinates are fighting for power, so it is advisable to take it urgently." ”
Li Guangdi knew that Kangxi was a heroic lord, and to serve such a heroic lord, it was not enough to have loyalty and morality, but more importantly, he had to have wisdom and ambition and be very courageous.
At that time, Kangxi had long had the intention of recovering Taiwan, but the resistance of the DPRK was very great, such as the heavy minister Suo Etu advocated: "Taiwan is isolated overseas, and it is all barren land, if you risk to recover it, not only will it lose troops, but also the cost of governance is huge, it is better to abandon it." This means that Kangxi at this time not only needs help, but also grand theory.
Li Guang's profound practice is here, he not only has a plan, but also has insight and courage that ordinary people cannot match.
After breaking the point, Li Guangdi did not stop talking about it, but took a huge risk, used his life as a guarantee, and recommended to Kangxi a candidate for the main general who recovered Taiwan.
The candidate recommended by Li Guangdi for Kangxi was Shi Lang, a controversial figure who had always been difficult for the Qing court to believe in and had changed his lord three times.
Li Guangdi said to Kangxi: "Shi Langxi learned the situation at sea, knew the soldiers, and could be a heavy task!" ”
If you have courage, you can only be effective for those who have courage.
Although there were many opponents of this proposal, Kangxi finally tried to put the people in favor of Li Guangdi, appointed Shi Lang as the governor of the Fujian Navy Division, added the title of prince to the major, and commanded the army to attack Taiwan.
In the 22nd year of the Kangxi Dynasty, Shi Lang lived up to expectations and recovered Taiwan in one fell swoop, making an undying contribution to Kangxi.
Li Guangdi received special favor from Kangxi because of his advice and recommendation.
At this time, most of the dispers who change to the officialdom drilling camp want to strike while the iron is hot and further fight. However, Li Guangdi did the opposite and did something quite meaningful, he did not take advantage of the momentum, but proposed to Kangxi that since his father's death, his mother had been lonely and uncared for, and he could not bear it, and wanted to go home to serve for a few years to fulfill his filial piety.
Kangxi listened, expressed great satisfaction, and did not refuse.
Kangxi's relief at this time has many connotations. With his imperial heart skills, of course, he knew that there was more than one simple filial piety character in Li Guangdi's gourd, but he would not be disgusted by this, on the contrary, he must appreciate it. The reason is simple, above the temple, the self-reliant lord will love the self-reliant minister. In short, the prince will sit, and the minister will act.
Sure enough, three years later, when Li Guangdi returned to Beijing again, Kangxi treated him even more.
In the thirty-first year of the Kangxi Dynasty, Li Guangdi was appointed as the chief examiner of the examination, and was later given the important task of participating in Jin Fuzhihe and serving as the student of Shuntianfu. All this, the discerning people of the officialdom can know at a glance, this is Kangxi training Li Guangdi, let him accumulate seniority capital, so that he can enter the cabinet in the future to worship the prime minister.
Of course, from another point of view, this is also Kangxi's test for Li Guangdi, through specific things, to see if he has the specific ability to do things.
Officialdom floated to this point, Li Guangdi gradually gained the heart, he let us see at least three things indispensable above the officialdom, one is scheming, one is courage, and the other is ability.
However, it is always necessary to pay it back when you come out to mix.
Just when everything was in Li Guangdi's brilliant calculation, something suddenly happened.
In September of the 37th year of the Kangxi Dynasty, when Kangxi toured Shengjing, a prisoner offered a poem to Kangxi on the way, and Kangxi felt that the prisoner was a good scholar, so he ordered that he be pardoned and let him assist the third son of the emperor, Yinzhi, in compiling the book.
It is inconceivable that this prisoner turned out to be Chen Menglei, a friend of the same year when he returned to his hometown and province with Li Guangdi in the early years.
It turned out that after the San Francisco Rebellion was suppressed, Geng Jingzhong was killed, and Chen Menglei, as Geng Jingzhong's "staff", was exiled to Shengjing. Probably because he was unwilling, or he had grievances in his heart, so he took advantage of the opportunity of Kangxi's inspection of Shengjing, and he risked death to fight and staged a bitter drama of dedicating poetry.
Kangxi, in many cases, is indeed like a benevolent lord.
Chen Menglei thus got the opportunity to return to Beijing.
What everyone didn't expect was that after Chen Menglei returned to Beijing, before his body was well recuperated, he did something sad and indignant, and he wrote a "Letter of Renunciation with Li Guangdi", criticizing Li Guangdi, who was serving as a great official in Feng Xinjiang (directly subordinate to the governor), bullying the king and bullying friends, which was not tolerated by heaven and earth.
Chen Menglei said that in the 12th year of the Kangxi Dynasty, he and Li Guangdi returned to their hometown and province hand in hand, but unexpectedly encountered the San Francisco Rebellion the following year, he was trapped by Geng Jingzhong and could not escape from Fujian. On the contrary, taking advantage of this opportunity and taking advantage of the convenience, he tried his best to collect military intelligence on the traitors, and wrote it into a secret fold. At this time, Li Guangdi happened to send relatives to visit his home, because it was the same year, he handed over the secret fold to Li's relatives, asking him to transfer Li Guangdi and try to send him to the capital.
Who would have thought that Li Guangdi would steal it for himself and win the emperor's praise.
As soon as this book came out, the whole dynasty was in an uproar.
At this time, Li Guangdi was already fifty-six years old, and after this strange humiliation, he became angry and turned up to defend himself:
"When the minister went to Ben, he went to Chen Menglei's house to discuss with him, and he didn't answer a word, as for the chenshang wax pill book is his draft, there is really no such thing!"
Li Guangdi said this very cruelly, he not only denied that the intelligence was the credit of Chen Menglei, but also said that he had advised Chen Menglei to try to escape from the rebels, but Chen Menglei did not answer a word. Obviously, he was not loyal to the imperial court, but was actually a traitor.
Kangxi has seen Li Guangdi's defense, what is his attitude?
He did not correct Li Guangdi's name, nor did he cure Chen Menglei's crime of framing him.
Kangxi did not express his position clearly, in fact, he expressed his position meaningfully.
More than two hundred years later, Liang Qichao wrote an article commentary, exposing his true face, and Li Guangdi was a treacherous villain.
"With Li Guangdi's forgetting to betray, his position is treacherous..."
Quan Zuwang, a great scholar of the Qianlong Dynasty, even said that Li Guangdi had three major stains in his life, that in his early years he sold his friends, in his middle age he won love, and in his twilight years he actually returned from the son of a foreign woman.
It stands to reason that Li Guangdi is so morally corrupt that he should not have the opportunity to "complete a generation", and Kangxi knows it, why should he still be kind to him, and even become a confidant?
This comes to the place where Li Guangdi is the highest official, and he is so good at welcoming and serving that he can not only form a great tacit understanding with Kangxi, but also make Kangxi very comfortable, so comfortable that he is not like a subordinate, but an old friend who knows his friends warmly.
There is an anecdote recorded in the official history that illustrates this meaning.
On November 14, 47 of the Kangxi Dynasty, Kangxi gathered all the ministers in Changchun Garden to propose a new crown prince, and ordered that one of the princes be selected as the crown prince except the eldest brother Yinlu. The Minister of the Interior of the Guards and Shangshu Aling'a, the Minister of the Interior of the Guards Ordai, the Minister of the Interior of the Guards Erundai, the Bachelor of the Hanlin Academy and the Attendant of the Ministry of Ceremonies, and Wang Hongxu, the Shangshu of the Hubu, and other private ministers, secretly communicated with the ministers and unanimously elected the eight brothers.
Ba'a Ge Yinhe created the momentum that everyone expected, originally thinking that he could win the position of crown prince strongly, but unexpectedly, this move was a taboo for the lord.
Do you have such a trend?
How do you deal with yourself?
After this question, Kangxi ignored the embarrassment and reneged, and immediately resolutely vetoed the Baa Ge Yinhe.
Kangxi believed that Yin Yu colluded with Yin Yu, and while dealing with Aling'a and the others, he imprisoned Baa Ge Yinhe with unusual cruelty. After doing this, Kangxi asked Li Guangdi, not long ago, Xu specially summoned you to the palace, you have something to say, why are you silent on the selection of the crown prince now?
See how Li Guangdi answered.
This is definitely the essence of his lifelong official life.
Li Guang said that the emperor asked the deposed prince how to cure his madness last time. I said, slowly adjust the rule, the blessing of the world. I didn't tell the other ministers about this...
Speaking of this, Li Guangdi stopped talking.
Where is the high level of this?
Previously, if you don't talk about the prince indiscriminately, you know the rules; The court was silent, not wanting to provoke the wrath of the people; Slowly adjusting the treatment is human favor; The blessing of the world is a matter of state.
The emperor asked how to cure the madness of the deposed prince, which was originally the meaning of restoration.
I said that slowly adjusting the rule, the blessing of the world, is to support the emperor's holy will.
Now the emperor has come to ask, and I will say it openly again, the deadlock can be easily broken, and the disease will not be restored, let alone the blessing of the world.
This kind of tacit understanding and worship made Kangxi very comfortable.
The next day, the Kangxi dynasty announced that Yinren had been healed. After the previous suppression of Kangxi, the courtiers saw that Li Guangdi had handed over the rod, so they climbed along the pole and patted Kangxi's:
"The emperor saw the source of the abolished crown prince's illness, and the treatment has been cured, and he is sincerely the blessing of the country and the blessing of the world. The Emperor gave a judgment and issued an edict. ”
A stalemate storm, through Li Guangdi's dragonfly a little water, instantly became calm and harmonious.
Afterwards, Kangxi said with emotion: "There is no one who knows the land of Zhixuan." ”
Li Guangdi talked about his own affairs, and at this point, it could have ended, but it was complete to take out the little tail behind him.
Do you think that being called a confidant by the emperors of the two dynasties, a complete generation, is an absolutely good thing?
In fact, since Kangxi regarded Li Guangdi as a confidant, he immediately did one thing, reintroducing the previously abandoned minister Ma Qi into the cabinet, with only one main purpose, to check and balance the increasingly powerful Li Guangdi and prevent him from playing yin.
This layer of subtle danger, Li Guangdi is clear in his heart, at first he thought that Kangxi shared his worries, seized power while trying to do practical things (whether it was governance or the Kangxi Dynasty's very important river management, Li Guangdi had famous merits) to balance; When he was old, he played again and again to retreat to advance, so that Kangxi could feel at ease, but he couldn't let go.
Therefore, his last extremely powerful courtier, died at the age of seventy-seven, and died in the office.
It's not easy.
Yongzheng praised him, probably also appreciating his way of being a courtier.
Although hypocritical, it is extremely useful and harmless.