My life is like walking on thin ice

Chapter 438 New Order
In fact, the Chinese political arena in the past - at least the Han Dynasty in the past - had a similar buffer mechanism.

For example, back then, Chao Cuo's "Plan to Reduce the Power of the Feudal States" not only scared the princes and relatives in Guandong into a cold sweat, but also triggered a long-lasting political and public opinion sensation inside and outside the court in Chang'an.

But before that;
Before Chao Cuo presented the "Plan for Reducing the Power of Feudal States" in court, he had discussed the matter privately with the then crown prince Liu Qi and the emperor, Emperor Taizong Liu Heng.

The core of Chao Cuo's discussion with the crown prince Liu Qi was whether the "Strategy of Reducing the Power of the Feudal States" should be put on the table and when it should be put on the table;
With Emperor Taizong, Chao Cuo needed to discuss the specific details - how to reduce the power of the feudal lords, how to do it, who to start with, what the reasons were, etc.

Later, the first few versions of "The Strategy of Reducing the Power of the Feudal States" were repeatedly rejected by Emperor Taizong. Chao Cuo must have discussed with the late emperor, who was only the crown prince at the time: What should we do?
Your father doesn't agree. Should we just let this matter drop for now or wait for the future?
Judging from the fact that Chao Cuo brought up the "Plan for Reducing the Feudal States" again after Emperor Taizong passed away and the late emperor ascended the throne, Prince Qi's response at that time might have been: strive for excellence and wait for the future.

It is well known to everyone that after Chao Cuo's "Plan for Reducing the Powers of the Feudal States" appeared in the court again, an extremely fierce conflict broke out between the then Prime Minister Shentu Jia and the previous emperor.

But few people noticed that even Shentu Jia - even Shentu Jia, who stubbornly confronted the late emperor over the issue of "Plan to Reduce the Powers of the Feudal Lords", had actually met the late emperor in private before the full-scale outbreak of the conflict between the monarch and his ministers.

The specific content of the conversation was nothing more than: Shentu Jia advised the late emperor to think twice, and the late emperor said, "I have thought about it three hundred times, and this matter must be done."

Shentu Jia saw that he could not persuade him, so he could only threaten: If Your Majesty is so stubborn, then I can only refuse to issue the executive order in the court meeting as the prime minister;
The late emperor immediately became furious: Do you have the guts to try it?

Shentu Jia in the original historical timeline: He died after trying...

This is just an extreme case.

Under normal circumstances, if a minister wanted to make a suggestion in a court meeting in front of all the ministers and officials, he actually had to meet the emperor alone in advance to obtain the emperor's permission - or at least tacit approval.

Meet in private first and tell him clearly what you intend to do;
The matter would only be brought to the court for discussion after the emperor nodded and said, "Go back and write a memorial and present it at the court tomorrow."

However, such a buffering mechanism is obviously not that stable.

Those who are sensible will naturally meet with the emperor in advance, explain the pros and cons, and then decide whether to do this thing based on the emperor's reaction.

But people like Shentu Jia, who were stubborn by nature, could easily bring the conflicts between the emperor and his subjects to the surface even if they met the emperor in private, causing turmoil in the court.

There is a saying in later generations that goes: The leadership team must be united no matter what;

Don’t say anything that disunifies others, and don’t do anything that disunifies others.

To use Liu Rong's words, we should add one more sentence: Even if there is real disunity, we must never bring the contradictions to the surface.

——The most cost-effective and most stable way to deal with the conflict is for the two comrades to sit down privately and resolve the conflict in a friendly manner.

And the future Shangshu Tai will be responsible for this task.

From then on, before court officials submitted memorials to ask Liu Rong whether or not to do something, regardless of whether they had consulted Liu Rong in advance, Liu Rong could rely on the intelligence network: the Embroidered Uniform Guard, and the staff group: the Secretariat, to predict the general development of the situation.

Let’s take the example of the time when the old Prime Minister Shentu Jia argued with the late emperor over the “Plan to Reduce the Powers of the Feudatories”.

If such a thing happened again in the future, Liu Rong would first learn through the Embroidered Uniform Guard that Prime Minister Shentu Jia had made up his mind to oppose the "Plan to Reduce the Power of the Feudal States".

This step was most likely achieved by the previous emperor.

After all, it is not only in recent years that the Embroidered Uniform Guard has been placing spies around court officials.

The next step was for Liu Rong to seek advice from the Secretariat, taking into account the objective reality that Shentu Jia was going to stubbornly oppose the "Plan to Reduce the Powers of the Feudatories".

——That’s the thing.

——Everyone in the Shangshutai is a talented person among talented people, a talented person among talented people;
——Everyone, please help me think about this: Is there any way to persuade the old prime minister to change his mind and support me in promoting the "Policy of Reducing the Power of the Feudatories"?

——If it really doesn’t work, at least ask the old prime minister not to oppose me openly, so as to avoid turmoil in the court and discord between the emperor and the prime minister. It would be embarrassing if it gets out...

To be honest, the late emperor really lacked a department that could give him advice and provide solutions as a group.

In the end, it was Liu Rong who intervened and played a somewhat reconciling role, thus defusing the tense atmosphere between the emperor and his minister.

Otherwise, if the original historical timeline was followed, the late emperor, who was so angry at Shentu Jia that he turned red, would probably join forces with Chao Cuo and make the old prime minister die in office...

Furthermore, the ideas and suggestions that the Shangshutai could give to Liu Rong were not limited to passive responses such as "A certain court official wants to do this, what should I do?"
When Liu Rong took the initiative to want to do something, the Shangshutai was also able to gather ideas from all sides and turn Liu Rong's originally vague and broad ideas into detailed and specific operational plans.

It is well known that Liu Rong today loves to "make trouble".

The foresight of a time traveler always makes Liu Rong want to do something unprecedented, something that has neither a realistic basis nor specific operational experience or precedents in this era.

If Liu Rong had to worry about every single thing like this and think of the specific operational plans by himself, he would probably be exhausted to death.

——How did Emperor Qin Shi Huang die?

Isn't it because I worked overtime every day for more than 20 years, maintaining a high-intensity work of more than 16 hours a day, that I exhausted myself to death...

Liu Rong is not afraid of being tired;

But Liu Rong was very worried that his limited life span would not be enough to support Liu Rong to complete all his set goals and allow Liu Rong to fully utilize the special "talents" of a time traveler.

With the Shangshutai, Liu Rong no longer had to think hard about doing something as he did in the past, and then think about the next thing after he had done it.
Instead, you can directly throw the general idea of ​​a matter to the Shangshutai and let them come up with a plan.

Liu Rong himself continued to think about the next thing.

As for what the ministers and officials in the court had guessed just now: memorials from other courts entering the palace and the emperor's approval before leaving the palace all had to go through the Secretariat - this was natural.

The Shangshu, the Shangshu, is in charge of this matter.

But it was definitely not as terrifying as the ministers and officials had imagined.

——The right of the Shangshutai to deal with memorials submitted by the outer court has always been limited to: re-arranging the memorials according to the importance and urgency of the matter;
The more urgent and important ones should be read by the emperor first and quickly;

Things that are relatively less urgent and less important do not necessarily mean that the emperor will not be allowed to see them.

Instead, after looking at the important and urgent things first, look at the ones that are not so urgent and important later.

To put it bluntly, it is just the right to classify and organize memorials, which is not even a right.

In this regard, the future Shangshu Tai will not change - with regard to memorials, the Shangshu Tai's responsibility will still be to sort them.

As for the replies sent back, there is even less to say - the Shangshutai will just do whatever Liu Rong says.

Those who have been instructed should be delivered to others;
Someone was also sent to deliver the rebuttal, and to curse Liu Rong at the same time.

Those who stayed in the palace but didn't make it were moved to Shangshi, or the imperial kitchen in popular terms, and burned as firewood. ——Liu Rong was not stupid!

Liu Rong would never give up the power to approve documents, that is, the power to handle government affairs.

Apart from the future Crown Prince Regent and the current Empress Dowager of the Eastern Palace, there is absolutely no way that a third person could take away from Liu Rong the power to handle government affairs that belonged to the Han emperor.

This is the reason why only names and tools cannot be lent to others.

But then again, the real fatal point of Liu Rong's reform against the Shangshu Ling, which was really worthy of the outer court's anger, was not discovered by the outer court.

To be precise, only the stakeholder discovered it but pretended not to know.

Question: In the feudal era, who was the emperor’s first-line administrative assistant?
The answer is beyond doubt: Prime Minister.

From the time when Emperor Qin Shi Huang unified the country until Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty abolished the prime minister system - during this period of more than a thousand years, at least 99% of the time, the prime ministers and chief ministers of successive dynasties were in charge of the operation of the government.

The emperor is rich and powerful, and he is the only one who is supreme;
But the same thing is true: most emperors were born in deep palaces, and they neither know joy nor sorrow.

What the world is like, how the people are living, and what to do about things often all depend on what the prime minister says.

Except for a few traitors and powerful officials, the vast majority of prime ministers were trusted by their respective monarchs.

For example, if a natural disaster occurs in a certain place, the Chinese emperor, who has never seen such a situation, will almost certainly look at the prime minister in panic: What should we do?

Then the prime minister would stand up, present facts and reason, and explain to the emperor in all aspects: what natural disasters are and what consequences they will lead to;
Our court should send as many people and allocate as much supplies as possible to provide relief to the victims and calm people's hearts.

The emperor looked around and found that all the ministers and officials nodded in agreement, so he nodded as if he understood: Since the prime minister said so and you have no objection, then let's do as the prime minister said...

Or maybe the emperor has some understanding of natural disasters and some experience in relief;
However, due to the Prime Minister's identity and status as the "head of all officials" - especially his rich experience in the officialdom for decades, he could only admit that he was a "layman" and leave the matter to the Prime Minister, a "professional", to decide.

Unless he is a founding emperor or a powerful monarch with both great civil and military achievements, the above two situations are the default ways that most feudal emperors deal with state affairs.

And these two situations, without exception, have one characteristic.

——The Prime Minister has the final say!

The worse and more severe situation is that the emperor is sidelined and is only the nominal "master of the world", while the actual decision-making power is entirely in the hands of the prime minister.

When the situation is relatively optimistic and normal, this means that the prime minister is the emperor's only adviser and think tank.

To put it in an exaggerated way, whatever the Prime Minister says is what happens;
Whatever the Prime Minister says, we must do it.

This is not only one of the sources of the great power of the prime minister in the feudal dynasty, namely the "power of the prime minister", but also the origin of the "conflict between the emperor and the prime minister" that runs through Chinese history.

——As a feudal emperor who owns the world, he cannot even decide how to do something or solve a problem. He has to listen to the words of a certain old man in the court.
No matter who it is, it is unlikely that they would feel happy.

Over time, unhappiness turns into suspicion, defensiveness, and even jealousy.

Why?
Why should we let an outsider, such as myself, have the final say on the empire of our Liu/Li/Zhao/Zhu family? Why should we let an outsider, such as myself, make decisions?

It is understandable that the emperor has such thoughts.

But is it wrong for the prime minister who "controls the government" and "oppresses the emperor" in the eyes of the emperor?

No.

It is an indisputable fact that the vast majority of feudal emperors were laymen when faced with the vast majority of problems and situations.

The prime minister's rich administrative experience means that most of them are able to handle most problems at a level above the standard - this is also an objective reality.

When the two are combined, the Prime Minister will have something to say

——You can’t let an expert like me handle such a big matter. Am I going to let a young boy like you, a layman, solve it?
yes;
This world belongs to your Liu/Li/Zhao/Zhu family.

But as the Prime Minister, I am not only responsible for you, a young boy;

I am also responsible to the people of the world and your ancestors.

It's better for you to be unhappy and unhappy than for everyone in the world to be unhappy and for all the emperors in your family to be unhappy in the underworld, right?
As a result, the contradiction between the emperor and the prime minister became increasingly acute, to the point of being completely irreconcilable.

Eventually, a feudal emperor would emerge every few hundred years and change the prime minister's name and theoretical authority.

Xiangguo~
Prime Minister~
Prime Minister~
Prime Minister~
Or maybe a military minister or something like that.

The names are varied, and the specific scope of authority and the way of exercising power are also different.

But in the final analysis, the status and effectiveness still belong to the prime minister, who is the head of all officials.

And now, Liu Rong has set up the Shangshu Tai - an emperor's staff group that already exists but will definitely be very different in the future.

From then on, neither Liu Rong himself nor the rulers of later generations needed to ask the prime minister for everything or have everything decided by the prime minister.

Are you, Prime Minister, a professional?

——There are hundreds of people in and around the Shangshutai, who is not a professional? !

Can you alone be as powerful as hundreds of people in the Shangshutai?

Three cobblers can still be better than one Zhuge Liang!
Three hundred Shangshulang are not as good as you, the head of all officials?

This is the key reason why the new Shangshu Ling created by Liu Rong really hit the pain point of the outer court.

From then on, when the country was in trouble, the emperor was no longer the "default outsider";
The Prime Minister is no longer the know-it-all that has been passed down from his ancestors.

Logically speaking, such a department with evil intentions would inevitably provoke a fierce reaction from the Prime Minister himself, or even a crazy counterattack!
But looking at Tao Hou Liu She, who was picking his fingernails at the head of the court at this moment, Liu Rong felt inexplicably relieved.

——It feels really good to help a "retainer" become the prime minister~
If a tyrant ruler is in power, this may be a disaster for the people of the world.

But how could Liu Rong be considered a tyrant?
He is just an ordinary Han emperor who has an unconventional mind, loves to stir up trouble, and can basically accomplish whatever he wants to do, and can even do it well and beautifully...

(End of this chapter)