Wanli Xinming

Chapter 398 Ting Tui ([-])

Zhang Siwei acted as Prime Minister when Zhang Juzheng was seriously ill, and was officially appointed after his death for a term of two and a half years.For two and a half years, Zhu Yijun didn't get along well with him, which was the most fundamental reason why he left just after half of his legal term.

Zhu Yijun asked Zhang Siwei to resign in a conflicted mood.According to his plan, the prime minister's term of office should preferably be ten years, so as to ensure the full continuity of policies.

Although maintaining policy continuity is not an urgent issue when I am in full power, it is also very necessary to leave a well-functioning political tradition-God knows whether my future generations will be worthy or unworthy.

However, he didn't have much time to wait for Zhang Siwei's health to improve or get in touch with himself.After all, at this time in the original time and space, Zhang Siwei had already been buried in the ground.Rather than let him take care of his health as an admiral, it would be better to let him go home-maybe he can live a few more years because of it.

After Zhang Siwei left, the new prime minister had to choose carefully.Zhu Yijun made up his mind that this term of prime minister will serve two terms—or at least one term.

In this way, Pan Sheng, who is already seventy years old, and Wang Guoguang, who is about to retire, are naturally out of the game.The reform edict stipulated that cabinet ministers must retire at the age of 75, and the same is true for prime ministers.

What's more, according to Zhu Yijun's observation, although Pan Sheng is an extremely firm reformer, he can follow a big politician like Zhang Juzheng to carry out the implementation. If he is allowed to lead the work of the Zhengshitang, it is estimated that people will sell it and help count the money .

Among the remaining cabinet ministers, Xu Guo and Liang Menglong are 60 years old, Shen Shixing is 52 years old, and Luo Wanhua is 51 years old, all of whom meet the age requirements.

Among the four, Xu Guo has a bad temper and is almost incompatible with the way of speech, and is often criticized by the speech officials.Although he has the ability to govern, he is not as broad-minded as the other three, and Zhu Yijun was the first to rule out this person.

After the original space-time Zhang Siwei died of illness, Shen Shixing succeeded him.Shen Shixing's life experience is very interesting: he was born in the 14th year of Jiajing Emperor Shizong of Ming Dynasty, the son of Xu Shizhang, a Suzhou businessman.But his grandfather's surname was not Xu, but Shen Qian. Because he was brought up by his uncle Xu Pu, and Xu Pu had no sons - so Shen Shixing's grandfather changed his name to Xu Qian through adoptive adoption, so both Shen Shixing and his son followed the surname Xu, Shen Shixing's original name Xu Shixing.

When Xu Shixing won the first prize, his father had passed away, and he and his stepmother depended on each other for life.As a disciple of Confucianism, he was a little brooding about the fact that his grandfather changed his surname, and wanted to return to his family name Shen after passing the Jinshi examination.

Of course the old Xu's family was not happy: Why should the number one scholar be returned to the old Shen's family? Wouldn't it be nice to have the big archway of the number one scholar and the first place in Xu's house?Of course, even if the old Xu family was willing, Shen Shixing would not dare to change it, because changing the name and surname is very simple in modern times, just go to the police station, but changing the name and surname in the Ming Dynasty violated the criminal law, and even lost his head in severe cases.

In the 19th year of Hongwu, in order to prevent military households from refusing to perform military service, Zhu Yuanzhang set a dead hand to restrict the name change-the number of name changes reached three times, he was executed directly, his family property was confiscated, and the whole family was distributed to the frontier.Moreover, it is encouraged to report on such people who have changed their names and surnames, and all the confiscated property will belong to the whistleblower.

For example, Li Ben, a cabinet scholar during the Jiajing period, should have been surnamed Lu.His ancestor, Lu Deyu, was registered as "Li" by the registrant because the pronunciation of "Lu" and "Li" were too similar when he was registered in the early years of Hongwu. This mistake lasted more than 200 years. Hundreds of members of Li Ben's family failed to restore their original surnames for more than a dozen generations.

In the fifth year of Longqing, Shen Shixing became the right servant of the Ministry of Rites and knew about it.So this guy urged Li Ben to ask for an order to restore his original surname. At the same time, he suggested that Emperor Longqing come for an amnesty-if the names of senior officials and ministers in the court are wrong, they can be corrected through this amnesty.

Emperor Longqing considered that Li Ben was a senior minister of the Jiajing court, so he had to show face.In addition, Shen Shixing followed suit, and really made a special purpose for this matter, and Shen Shihang got what he wanted-at that time, a total of 31 high-ranking officials of the imperial court followed Zhanguang, and were able to change back to their ancestors' surnames.

Lord Gong Xian, who conquered Burma, was not eligible to enjoy the amnesty at that time, because this time the amnesty was only for civil servants and important ministers.He was able to restore his surname to Gong later, which was a special award given by Zhu Yijun, otherwise his descendants would still have to follow Gong Xian's surname Liu.In that case, Marshal Gong, who has already been duke, would die of depression, which also shows that Zhu Yuanzhang's strict regulations at the beginning were necessary.

After Shen Shixing changed his surname to the clan according to the special decree, he made a big plaque of "Entong Reconstruction", which was attached to the big plaque of "No. Seeds—what did he really do afterwards.So, both Shen and Xu were very happy.

The handling of this matter showed Shen Shixing's high political skills, which made him highly praised by the contemporaries: he did things before he planned, he did not use power to overwhelm others, and he took care of the interests of multiple parties, making a more complicated matter It is the talent of the prime minister to make everyone happy.

However, compared with Liang Menglong and Luo Wanhua, Shen Shixing's political stance is more conservative.He has repeatedly advised Zhu Yijun about the Imperial Academy. Although he did not dare to obstruct the great political reform, whenever he encountered more complicated problems in administration, he always thought about his nephew lighting lanterns—as usual.Zhu Yijun hopes that there will be such an "opposition" in the cabinet, but it is obviously inappropriate for him to be the prime minister.

Then only Liang Menglong and Luo Wanhua are left.One of these two is a representative of the "native faction" and the other is the leader of the "returnee faction".Luo Wanhua's character is a bit straightforward, but after being tempered as the Governor of Myanmar, he is no longer the same.Being able to quickly use the Manila incident is evidence—Zhu Yijun has not thought that Luo Wanhua may have tampered with Xiao and Xie's Zhengshitang Junling.

But from Zhu Yijun's point of view, choosing one of them means to some extent that the emperor has a tendency to "struggle for sea power and land power", and Zhu Yijun does not want to make this choice.

Later generations of geopolitical scientists such as Mackinder and Mahan proposed the concepts of land power and sea power respectively, and were used to guide the political territory throughout the second half of the nineteenth century and the twentieth century.A common point of view is that continental countries naturally tend to land power, such as Napoleon of France and Mustache of Germany, both take expanding their territory as their own responsibility; while an ocean-type country, such as the British Empire on which the sun never sets, naturally tends to sea power—they Outside the world island, the offshore balance hand must be used to make the land power countries form a balance of power.

However, Zhu Yijun in the 21st century does not believe in this theory. It may be a plausible law summed up by strategists when summarizing the history of the original time and space.But after the end of the Cold War, North America, far away from the World Island, has a hegemony that emphasizes both sea and land powers. Then he controlled the world geographically.

The current Daming has occupied a corner of the World Island—it is also the most fertile corner with the best geographical situation.To dominate the universe and then do kingly things all over the world, it is natural to advance both by land and sea.Therefore, Zhu Yijun is unwilling to tie his hands and feet, and it is not in his liking to choose sides between the naturally formed "sea power faction" and "land power faction".

Do you want to use Tingtui?Zhu Yijun fell into deep confusion.Although the Ting Tui system was a method for the successive emperors of the Ming Dynasty to use the internal contradictions of the civil official group to divide and disintegrate power, its existence itself meant a compromise between the imperial power and the power of the ministers. It is clear evidence that the minister of the special Jane has no face and ranks in the court.

During the drafting and promulgation of the reform edict, Zhang Juzheng and Zhu Yijun agreed that it was extremely necessary for the cabinet ministers to be nominated by the emperor.This design broke the old practice of ranking seniority in the cabinet and ascending to the top in turn. It is not only conducive to the balance between the cabinet and imperial power, but also can eliminate political disputes to a certain extent.

At the same time, Zhang Juzheng believes that after the emperor's nomination, it is also necessary for the selection process of the prime minister to be pushed by the court.This design avoids the problem of future emperors acting recklessly and directly appointing traitors, so that the imperial power will not get out of control-it is unlikely that the prime minister of the cabinet can successfully pass the secret ballot of the courtiers, and it is impossible to disobey the public.

Therefore, the original text of the imperial edict on the prime minister is as follows: "Strengthen the power of the cabinet, establish a prime minister, make the emperor's nomination and push through the court, and then the emperor will appoint and remove him."

But at the beginning of the imperial edict design, neither Zhu Yijun nor Zhang Juzheng expected that during the emperor's nomination process, there would be a candidate who was difficult for the emperor to decide. Could it be that this time nominated two, and the right to choose was really handed over to the courtiers?what is this?The Ming version of the "dish cooking system"?
(End of this chapter)