Ming Dynasty man

Chapter 243
The emperor seems to be very beautiful, and he seems to be able to do whatever he wants, but he also has to divide people and dynasties.

Generally speaking, except for the founding emperor who was full of confidence in his speech (he brought down the country, of course his speech was tough), the successor emperor was generally not as tough as his ancestor Lao Tzu, and many emperors were not easy to speak.

Among them, the two dynasties that stand out are the Song Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty.

Zhao Kuangyin, the Taizu of the Song Dynasty, set a rule: no scholar-bureaucrats should be killed. This rule caused the successor emperors of the Song Dynasty to be devastated.

Those people with fame and official positions took this amulet and wantonly attacked the emperor. Although the emperor was angry, he could only dismiss him from office at most, and there was nothing he could do about those scholar-bureaucrats.

Although this rule was changed in the Ming Dynasty, the cabinet draft system greatly limited the emperor's power.

It's funny to say that the power of the cabinet is given by the emperor, but in the end it limits the emperor's power.

Many people may not understand why the emperor gave the cabinet so much power?Isn't this clearly letting the cabinet ministers divide up the emperor's power?
In fact, the emperor didn't want the ministers to share the power in his hands, but he couldn't do it if he didn't give it. If he didn't give it, the emperor had to do everything.

For example: a local prefect leaves office, and a new prefect needs to be appointed, who should be chosen?How to choose?
It is impossible for the emperor to know all the officials below, so he can only let the officials choose, that is, the gang of officials to choose the new official, and then the emperor makes a choice.

At this time, the gang of officials took out a stack of lists, and then handed over the resumes of these people to the emperor for the emperor to choose.

You must know that there are too many things in the country. It is not as simple as just selecting a few officials every day. All decisions must be made with his consent. Even the exhausted emperor cannot do so many things.

And with so much information, can the emperor see it?I can only find someone to help me, and whoever I want to look at is the people in the cabinet.

The people in the cabinet selected a few more suitable ones from these lists and handed them to the emperor. After the emperor read them, he would choose one he liked. In this way, the emperor would delegate power to the cabinet.

Just like the election of the magistrate just now, the emperor handed over the power of selection to the cabinet, and the cabinet selected a few people and wrote the conclusions to the emperor.

This is the right to vote, also called the right to nominate. After the emperor reads it and gives instructions, the official can take office.

If the emperor is busy and doesn't even have time to read the information of these people, or if the emperor is lazy and doesn't want to read the information of these people, then the final selection will be made by the cabinet, in fact, by the chief assistant. That is to say, the first assistant has selected a person, and the emperor just stamps his approval.

This is true for the selection of officials, and it is also the same for other things. The cabinet will come up with a plan and hand it over to the emperor, who will stamp it after reading it.

Sometimes, the emperor has a candidate he likes, but the cabinet disagrees, so the emperor's order is sealed back and the emperor can choose a new candidate.

At this time, the power of the cabinet has expanded rapidly, far surpassing the previous prime ministers, and sometimes even surpassing the emperor.

That is to say, at this point, it doesn't matter whether the country has an emperor or not. The cabinet can issue various decrees. Without the emperor, the state machinery will continue to operate as usual.

This is also the reason why the emperor of the Ming Dynasty could not do his job properly, but the country survived for more than 200 years and still did not fall.

Similarly, the Ming Dynasty was also the dynasty with the most famous officials, powerful officials, and treacherous officials.

Whenever a treacherous minister is in power, the country will be in turmoil and decline for a period of time. When a famous minister is in power, the country will develop and stabilize for a period of time.

Because the cabinet has such great power, in many cases, what the emperor wants to do needs to be approved by the cabinet.

In this way, the emperor can't do whatever he wants in many things.

Of course, the emperor has the right to remove and replace cabinet members, but what if they change people?Could it be that if the members of the cabinet are changed, they will not exercise their power?

No matter who becomes the chief minister of the cabinet, they don't want to give up the power in their hands.

The cabinet is a kind of system, it is medicine, and the members of the cabinet are soup.

If the emperor can't do anything about the cabinet system, then there is another thing that is more troublesome to the emperor than the cabinet system, and that is the faction of ministers.

If it is not for forming a party, the emperor can always choose an obedient cabinet chief assistant, and then let the chief minister act according to his wishes.

But it is not easy for ministers to form a party.

This party is not as simple as a few people, it is an interest group.

When Zhu Youjian first became emperor, his biggest enemy was not Wei Zhongxian, but the Eunuch Party headed by Wei Zhongxian.

In front of this huge group, Zhu Youjian had to act cautiously, paralyzed Wei Zhongxian and others by forbearance, and finally took down the eunuchs in one fell swoop.

But after taking down the eunuch party, Zhu Youjian found that a group that was more difficult to deal with than the eunuch party emerged, and this was the Donglin party.

Compared with the Eunuch Party, the Donglin Party is more difficult to deal with, because these people are all educated people, and there are still many illiterates in the Eunuch Party, especially the leader Wei Zhongxian himself is illiterate.

When the Donglin Party came into the house, Zhu Youjian found that the methods used by these people to fight for power were even more annoying than the Eunuch Party.

The eunuchs often use hooligan methods, which are the kind of forceful ones. If the opponent is too strong, they will give up if they can't get them.

But the Donglin Party is different. These people really persevere in order to seize power, forgetting about all serious business, impeaching this or impeaching that all day long.

Zhu Youjian really wants to do some practical things, but with such a group of people below, what can he accomplish?replace?People from the Donglin Party were mentioned. These people are like weeds, they grow everywhere, and Zhu Youjian sometimes feels discouraged when he thinks about it.

However, since Li Jingheng was born, Zhu Youjian discovered a problem, that is, in Pingyang Mansion, Shanxi, where Li Jing lived, there had never been a memorial to impeach someone, let alone Li Jing.

Those who impeached Li Jing were those in the court, and they were all talking about speculative things.

If someone from Pingyang Mansion impeached Li Jing, then Zhu Youjian still had a reason to investigate Li Jing, but now there is no one, so what reason is there to investigate?
Sometimes Zhu Youjian admired Li Jing a little bit. What method did he use to make people in Pingyang Mansion think badly of him?
Is it as simple as just buying with money?Obviously this is impossible, there are many people who don't love money in the Ming Dynasty, no matter how much money Li Jing has, it is impossible to bribe everyone.

In addition, Zhu Youjian was surprised. Li Jing did so many things in Henan this time, and none of the local officials in Henan impeached him. How did Li Jing do it?
After watching the memorial with Wang Chengen for a while, Zhu Youjian sighed, and pushed the memorial aside: "Big companion, don't read it, it's useless. This Li Jing is so impeccable in his work, there is no way to catch him."

Wang Chengen nodded, packed up the memorial, and put it back on Zhu Youjian's desk.

After pondering for a while, Zhu Youjian said: "Big companion, do you think there is any way to call Li Jing out?"

Wang Chengen pondered for a while and said: "Your Majesty, it is naturally easy to transfer Li Jing. This time, Li Jing will be rewarded for his meritorious service in disaster relief. It is reasonable to promote his position, but Li Jing is now a general, and he will be a deputy general if he is promoted. Is the emperor planning to let Li Jing's military power grow more and more?"

Seeing Zhu Youjian shaking his head slightly, Wang Chengen continued: "If you don't mention the military position, then you have to turn Li Jing into a civil official. This is more difficult. Li Jing is a businessman. Talk about it. Even if no one talks about it, what position does the emperor plan to arrange for Li Jing? Li Jing is now transferred from a military officer of the second rank to a civilian position, so the emperor must give him a rank above the fourth rank, right? The above is the magistrate."

Zhu Youjian was silent, and he was definitely not willing to let Li Jing take over the military power. It was too difficult to switch to a civilian job. There were many civil officials in the Ming Dynasty who switched to military positions, but those who switched from military positions to civilian positions were rare.

Seeing that Zhu Youjian was silent, Wang Chengen continued: "Your Majesty, don't be surprised if you hear something that this old servant doesn't please you."

Zhu Youjian waved his hand upon hearing this.

Wang Chengen continued: "Your Majesty, according to this old slave, it is useless for you to transfer this Li Jing to any place, because he has soldiers in his hands, and if you want to transfer him away, you will only allow him to expand his territory in vain. "

Zhu Youjian nodded silently when he heard this. Everyone knows that Li Jing has soldiers in his hands, but Li Jing's soldiers are militias, not formally organized. If you want to say that he has soldiers in his hands, he can say that these soldiers have been disbanded. As soon as you turn around, his pawns are back.

If he wants to transfer Li Jing away, these people will inevitably run to Li Jing's side, which will really expand Li Jing's territory.

"Is this how to make Li Jing support himself?" Zhu Youjian asked.

Wang Chengen hurriedly said: "Of course not, what the old slave means is that the emperor gave Li Jing a decree and asked him how many soldiers he has in his hand. He would not say that there are only a few thousand soldiers under him, would he?

This time he brought 1 soldiers to Henan to escort food. This is what everyone has seen with their own eyes, and he can't fake it.

In addition, when Li Jing went to Henan for disaster relief, didn't Pingyang Prefecture leave a certain amount of troops to defend against the rogues in Zezhou?According to the old slave, there are at least 1 people.

If Li Jing said that his military strength is less than 2, then he is deceiving the emperor, and the emperor can use this excuse if he wants to get rid of Li Jing in the future.

If Li Jing said that he had more than [-] soldiers, the emperor would order Li Jing to hand over the soldiers.Li Jing will never get a bunch of common people to fool you, then he is also deceiving the emperor, as long as he handed over the soldiers, why should the emperor worry about it? "

Zhu Youjian listened and pondered for a while and said, "Li Jing won't be rebellious because of this."

Wang Chengen shook his head: "This old slave can't guarantee it, but with Li Jing's current strength, no one can stop him from rebelling, but since he is helping the court with disaster relief, he also promised to give you 100 million taels of silver every year. At least it seems that he has no intention of rebelling right now. Besides, the tone of the emperor's decree is best to be discussed, and don't push Li Jing into a hurry."

Zhu Youjian sighed, he, the emperor, was so useless that he was reduced to relying on the faces of the officials below.

But Zhu Youjian was really forbearing, after a little thought, he agreed with Wang Chengen's idea.

"Big companion, I will issue an order to Li Jing immediately. You must send a capable person to deliver the order to Li Jing. You must find out Li Jing's true intentions."

After speaking, Zhu Youjian considered the words, took a pen and wrote a letter, stamped it with a seal, and handed it to Wang Chengen after sealing it.

Wang Chengen took the handwriting respectfully and said. "The old slave will arrange for someone to deliver the decree to Li Jing."

Zhu Youjian waved his hand, and Wang Chengen turned and walked away quickly.

Seeing Wang Chengen leave, Zhu Youjian sighed, not knowing what Li Jing would do after seeing the letter.

(End of this chapter)