Guo Peng was not surprised by Guo Jin's suggestions.

He narrowed his eyes and looked up and down, nodded and smiled.

"Let me tell me why did you remove the power of the Minister of Personnel instead of the Minister of the Shangshu?"

"Because Tian Pushe cannot be the Minister of the Secretariat."

Guo Jin analyzed carefully: "Although Cheng Lingjun was the oldest official since his father started his army, and he was from a poor family. Although he was recommended as a scholar by his father, he was not supported by scholars because his time was still short.

Therefore, Cheng Lingjun has always supported his father's decision, but behind Tian Pushe, there are too many scholars who are supported by scholars. Once they get power, they will inevitably give back to scholars.

Therefore, my son believes that Tian Pushe will definitely be biased towards scholars rather than fathers in the future. This is a very unfavorable thing for his father. This is why Tian Pushe cannot take charge of the Shangshutai."

Although the analysis is not so accurate, overall, the butt is not crooked and well organized.

Guo Peng nodded with satisfaction.

"So do you think Cheng Yu should be removed from his post as Minister of Personnel and only retain the Secretary of the State?"

"Yes."

"Okay, Cheng Yu was suppressed, then, what about Tian Feng? Taking off the Minister of Personnel is equivalent to cutting off one of Cheng Yu's arms, which caused Cheng Yu to suffer a serious injury.

So what should Tian Feng and his team do? Or should they maintain the status quo and ignore it? In that case, it seems that Tian Feng's power will increase greatly."

Guo Peng continued to ask with a smile.

"The Minister of Works is not bad. This is a service department that cannot make decisions. At most, it involves the issue of corruption and cannot affect the overall situation of the court. Therefore, the Minister of Works does not care, but..."

Guo Jin's eyes became sharp: "The position of Minister of Rites cannot be handed over to Secretary Cui anymore. Secretary Cui and Tian Pushe are in-laws and natural alliances.

If Cheng Lingjun lost the Ministry of Personnel, but Tian Pushe did not lose the Ministry of Rites, the forces of both sides would inevitably be unbalanced. Cheng Lingjun could not suppress Tian Pushe, and the situation at Shangshutai would still change."

Guo Peng is quite satisfied with this statement.

"In your opinion, the two most important departments within the eight departments of the Shangshutai are the Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of Rites?"

"yes."

Guo Jin nodded: "The Ministry of Rites selects talents, the Ministry of Personnel appoints talents, and the personnel power lies in these two departments. For ordinary officials, the ownership of these two departments is crucial.

Whether you have the power of the Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of Rites can even reflect whether a high-ranking official's political power is strong, thereby changing the tendency of ordinary officials to take sides."

"Yes, you're right."

Guo Peng nodded in praise, and then asked: "Support Tian Feng's Grand Canal proposal, remove Cheng Yu's Ministry of Personnel, and then Tian Feng's Ministry of Rites, and attack both sides together, so that they will lose their crucial key points and become harmless... What else?"

Guo Jin nodded.

"If there is any other thing, it's probably my uncle... Cao's assistant and Qiao Zhongcheng. Cao's assistant supports Cheng Lingjun. He has the power to audit, which is a big check and balance against Tian Pushe, who is in charge of the Ministry of Works.

If the assistant Cao attacks Tian Pushe, if Tian Pushe is not careful and the problem is found, he will inevitably be severely attacked by the assistant Cao. Similarly, Qiao Zhongcheng has power and subordinates in the Censorate.

The Censorate is specifically targeted at officials and has great deterrence to the other officials deployed. Tian Pushe wins over Qiao Zhongcheng in order to check and balance Cao's audit power and retain the ability to counterattack, so..."

"Do you want to move Cao Cao and Qiao Rui?"

Guo Peng interrupted Guo Jin.

Guo Jin blinked.

"Did my father think it's not good?"

"You moved Cao Cao and Qiao Rui, what else can Cheng Yu and Tian Feng fight? The two knives had chopped off their claws, and then moved Cao Cao and Qiao Rui, which was equivalent to pulling their teeth."

Guo Peng smiled and patted Guo Jin's hand: "What you want for your father is to let them fight within the scope designated for your father, not to let them not fight.

You took away their power, and they couldn't fight it anymore, but those powers still need to be controlled by others. Who are these new people who hold power? Do you know what they are thinking?

Their appearance will completely break the entire government structure, and the situation that their father has worked hard to create will be reorganized, which will take too much energy."

Guo Jin opened his mouth, as if he didn't expect this.

"Cao Cao and Qiao Rui cannot move."

Guo Peng shook his head slowly: "It is not only to let Cheng Yu and Tian Feng continue to fight, but also to continue to control the situation for your father. Cao Cao is your mother's elder brother, and Qiao Rui's two daughters are concubines for your father. They are both from poor families and are not loved by scholars.

No matter how they are, they are still loyal to their fathers. They know that if they want their children to be officials, they must stand by their fathers, so they are reliable chess pieces in their hands.

It would be different if it were others. The power of auditing and the power of inspecting officials must be in the hands of close friends and officials from poor families. It cannot be delivered to scholars, so that they can fight corruption at any time, crack down on corrupt officials, or attack scholars."

Guo Jin nodded.

"My son understands that Cao Shoufu and Qiao Zhongcheng cannot move, so... there seems to be nothing else to do. If you do this, you can already play a role in balancing the forces of both sides."

Guo Jin looked at Guo Peng.

"Anything else."

Guo Peng said, "Who do you hold the Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of Rites in your hands? Who should you make the Secretary of the Shang Dynasty? Such two important departments are suitable to make the Secretary of the Shang Dynasty and to rest assured to be the father?"

This stopped Guo Jin.

"My son didn't expect this matter, the candidate... My son didn't know much about the court officials in the court, and only the father could decide on these things."

"It is not to ask you to answer specific candidates, but to ask you to tell you who is the right person and who can enter the selection range."

"this……"

Guo Jin looked embarrassed: "The Minister of Rites and the Minister of Personnel are both very important positions, which are related to the overall situation of the Shangshutai and the government. Neither Cheng Lingjun's people nor Tian Pushe's people are controlled by them, they cannot be accepted. However, there are not many people wandering outside these two major groups in the Shangshutai..."

"Then look for it from outside."

Guo Peng said, "From the Shangshu Desk, see who is the most suitable person to enter Shangshu Desk."

Guo Jin frowned and thought hard.

"If the person who is suitable to enter the Shangshutai outside the Shangshutai is nothing but officials from other departments. The staff station is definitely not good, the Censorate, and the cabinet is not good. For local officials, they don't seem to have much qualifications... I'm sorry, my father, but my son is really unsure."

Guo Peng nodded.

"The next thing you need to know most is the origin, faction and political tendencies of the officials in the court. This will be of great help to select officials and manipulate the government in the future. If you choose an official to take an important position, you must have a comprehensive understanding of him.

First of all, the Minister of Rites. The people required for this position must be respected and famous scholars, so this will not be easily influenced by Tian Feng or Cheng Yu.

This person must preside over the re-examination of the Public House, so he must have the status of a great scholar and his academic level must be recognized by everyone, so that he can be appointed as the Minister of Rites."

"What my father said is very much."

Guo Jin asked, "But there seem to be not many such people outside the Shangshu Desk, especially scholars, who want to be trusted by their fathers. Is there really this?"

Guo Peng wrote a name on a piece of paper and handed it to Guo Jin.

Guo Jin was stunned at first sight.

"Xu Jing? Father, Xu Jing? Is Xu Jing, Runan? Xu Jing who tried to surrender when the army surrounded Chengdu? This person... How could this person take such a position? The Minister of Rites is the face of the country, how could Xu Jing be qualified?"

Guo Jin looked down on this person who was greedy and afraid of death from both sides of the rat, and even felt that he was not worthy of being called a famous scholar, let alone an official.

Even the Imperial Academy teaching that Xu Jing is now working is not worthy of him to do it.

What kind of students can such people teach?

Although he had a very famous reputation before this, he was indeed a famous scholar. He also hosted the Yuedan Review with Xu Shao and was famous all over the world.

"Why can't he?"

Guo Peng asked Guo Jin back.

"Because he is greedy for life and fears death, and he is betrayed his master for glory, and has no integrity, the people selected by such people as the Minister of Rites must be greedy for life and fear death and forget their righteousness when they see profit!"

Since Guo Jin heard about Xu Jing, he has been very disgusted with Xu Jing.

Just like Guo Peng hates Cui Yan.

So Guo Peng smiled.

"He is indeed a greedy person, but A Jin, he is very famous, and in the years since his surrender, have you seen someone talk about his betrayal of his lord and his gratitude? It's like this thing doesn't exist, as if everyone has lost their memory."

"It seems...it's true..."

Guo Jin had to nod, because no one had ever talked about Xu Jing's rebellion for honor over the years, as if this matter did not exist.

Xu Jing was a professor at the Imperial Academy, teaching students the essence of the Five Classics. He had never participated in the government affairs, but he had as many people as he had contacted, and no one mentioned his past stains.

"Do you know why this is?"

"I don't know."

Guo Jin shook his head.

Guo Peng sneered.

"Because he once had the aura of presiding over the Yuedan commentary, he was once a master recognized by scholars all over the world, and many scholars commented by him, and even now there are scholars in the court who have been praised by him and are holding positions.

Denying his morality, denying his aura of famous scholars, criticizing him, and slandering him is an enemy of those scholars and families he has commented on. Their ability to become an official depends on Xu Jing's comments.

Isn’t it just a matter of denied Xu Jing and slandering Xu Jing now? Isn’t it just a matter of self-destructing one’s foundation and self-punching one’s eyes? Will they do such things? Will they admit that they are the same as Xu Jing?”

"I see."

Guo Jin nodded.

"It's not only that. Not only will they not slander Xu Jing, but their descendants will not allow them, at least they will not allow them to criticize Xu Jing publicly.
To be continued...