Why did the emperor rebel?

Chapter 321 Cabinet Pros and Cons
In the Wenhua Palace, Zhu Qiyu looked at Wang Wen leisurely, with a smile on his face.

Just looking at Wang Wen's current performance, one can tell that his trip to the cabinet was not in vain.

After waving someone to serve him a cup of tea, Zhu Qiyu asked.

"What do you mean by this, sir?"

Wang Wen knew that this was the emperor who was examining him, so he didn't dare to be negligent, so he sorted out his words and said.

"Today, the minister and Mr. Cheng attended the cabinet discussion. Although the matters discussed were simple and the time was not too long, you can see it from the inside."

"Let's talk about Wang Ao first. He has always been on patrol in the local area and has nothing to do with Beijing. He has been favored by His Majesty to serve as the chief assistant, but he is actually struggling."

Zhu Qiyu nodded slightly, it was no secret in this court.

In fact, when Wang Ao took charge of the cabinet, many ministers in the court did not think highly of him, and even secretly wanted to see his jokes.

One is because he himself has no influence in the capital, and it is difficult for him to gain a firm foothold in the capital immediately when he suddenly rises to a high position.

The second is because the cabinet is different from the six ministries. The cabinet is a group of assistants, and there is no distinction between superiors and subordinates like the six ministries. If he, the chief assistant, meets a powerful cabinet minister, it is not impossible to fight against him or even evade him.

To put it bluntly, among the six parts, the superior and inferior are distinct, and if the Zuo Erguan does not obey the orders of the superior, then he is disobeying the orders of the superior.

But in the cabinet, everyone has the same status and has the right to draft votes, but they are responsible for different affairs.

The first assistant is not a superior, so he has no power to issue orders to the cabinet ministers. If he meets a powerful cabinet minister, he will leave the first assistant alone, and no one else can find anything wrong.

At that time, Chen Xun and others isolated Wang Ao in public at the Jingyan, which was a manifestation of the cabinet struggle.

Sighing, Wang Wen continued.

"However, looking at it today, the situation in the cabinet is complete. Gao Gu and Jiang Yuan share the same position, Yu Shiyue and Zhang Min share the same position, and Wang Ao, the chief assistant, is in the middle to make a final decision. It can be seen that this person is well versed in the way of cabinet balance. .”

It should be said that Wang Ao, the chief assistant, does not have his own follow-up forces, so it is easy for the people below to unite and evade him.

But when Wang Wen saw it today, he could clearly feel that in the atmosphere of the cabinet, Wang Ao was respected.

This was especially evident at the end of the cabinet meeting.

At that time, Gao Gu was obviously dissatisfied with the final conclusion given by Wang Ao, but he did not speak out to defend.

It's not just a matter of the majority being ruled by the minority, but the power of authority.

In just a few months, Wang Ao has gained a firm foothold in the cabinet.

Zhu Qiyu didn't respond to this, and said lightly.

"This is what it should mean. Although there is no distinction between the top and bottom of the cabinet, as the chief assistant, he should be able to balance and coordinate among the cabinet ministers. This is Wang Ao's ability."

It should be said that it is actually very difficult to be a good cabinet minister. There is a problem of heat.

Deep in the cabinet, it plays a role of mediation between the inner court and the outer court, so it cannot be the same as the six ministries, which are clearly defined from top to bottom and controlled by the chief official.

Because in this way, it is easy to breed powerful officials, block the way of speech, and isolate the inside and outside.

Only when every minister in the cabinet has the right to vote, can freely communicate with the inner court and the outer court, and check each other, can the smooth function of the cabinet be guaranteed.

This determines that it is impossible for the first assistant to completely control the cabinet. Once such a person appears, he will be the first to be killed by the emperor.

However, as the nominal head of the cabinet, if the cabinet ministers quarrel with the chief minister every day and treat the chief minister as nothing, and really make the chief minister the same status as other cabinet ministers, then he is also incompetent.

You can't completely restrain other cabinet ministers and turn them into your own subordinates, and you can't let them be on an equal footing with you. You must let them maintain a considerable awe of the chief minister.

The measure of this is extremely difficult to grasp, and the means required are also very clever.

This is why Wang Wen's evaluation of Wang Ao is not simple.

Sighing lightly, Wang Wen's tone was a bit complicated, and said.

"The cabinet discussion system seems simple, but it has unique ingenuity. If things go on like this, the detached position of the chief assistant in the cabinet will be unshakable. Wang Ao does not form a party, but he can make the cabinet twist together. I am not as good as him .”

Some things are easy to say, but it is really hard to think of them without piercing the window paper.

The form of the cabinet meeting may seem simple, but it has broken the situation that the cabinet is doing its own thing.

When there is no cabinet meeting, several cabinet ministers are in charge of their own affairs, basically completely independent, and the existence of the chief assistant is dispensable.

But once the cabinet discussion system is established, the cabinet will form a unified voice on many major political issues.

This is the scariest bit!
Although the actual content of the cabinet is equivalent to the ministers of the various ministries, it does not have the same power as the heads of the six ministries.

But their ranks are very high. Once they unite and reach an agreement on a certain government affairs, their status in the court must not be underestimated.

This is exactly what cabinet meetings do.

The separation of power in the cabinet is an inevitable phenomenon. As far as Wang Wen can see, Gao Gu is obviously on the same side as Jiang Yuan, and Zhang Min is on the same side as Yu Shiyue.

But at the same time, Zhang Min and Chen Xun are very close, and Chen Xun and Gao Gu have been friends for many years, so it is not impossible for Zhang Min and Gao Gu to unite.

The cabinet is like a small imperial court with complex relationships. Everyone may choose their own allies according to their own interests at different times.

This was originally a disadvantage for Wang Ao.

Because he is an outsider, the other cabinet ministers will not be the first choice to make allies.

Moreover, as the chief assistant, if he wins over too many cabinet ministers, he will definitely arouse the fear of the government and the opposition, and be impeached for forming a party.

So Wang Ao chose to connect things but not people.

Through the form of cabinet discussions, the cabinet ministers were allowed to reach an agreement on a certain government affairs and speak out together, but these cabinet ministers themselves did not change their positions.

In this way, when Wang Ao needed to speak out in the court, Wang Ao was able to screw up all the cabinet members, but these cabinet ministers themselves did not form a party with him.

The cabinet still has a smooth way of speaking, and the independence of each cabinet minister is still maintained, but the detached status and personal authority of the chief minister have been quietly established.

In all fairness, if another minister is replaced as the chief minister, if he wants to establish his own position, he must either use the power of the chief minister to force the vote, or win over the cabinet ministers and compete with other cabinet ministers.

The former was too rigid, and the Jingyan conflict between Wang Ao and Chen Xun and others some time ago was the direct result of his use of voting power to suppress.

As for the latter, firstly, it is easy to be impeached for forming a party, and secondly, it is time-consuming and labor-intensive. Wang Ao's own situation is also difficult to do.

In this situation, Wang Ao was able to find another way to achieve his desired goal, which is what made Wang Wen feel so helpless.

Seeing Wang Wen's frustration, Zhu Qiyu shook his head and said.

"Wang Ao's move has advantages and disadvantages. It is just an act of judging the situation. Everyone has their own strengths. You don't have to be so conceited. But after this incident, you can understand why the cabinet took action during this Beijing inspection. right?"

Wang Ao has been implementing the cabinet discussion system for a while, and Zhu Qiyu even knew about it earlier than everyone else.

Wang Ao is a smart man.

After entering the cabinet, after a short head-to-head encounter with Chen Xun and others, he had a rough understanding of the emperor's attitude towards him as the chief assistant, and at the same time he had his finger on the pulse of the cabinet.

It is the bottom line of the emperor not to form a party for personal gain, or to use public weapons for personal gain.

On this basis, the emperor will give a certain degree of support to those he promotes.

For Wang Wen, this kind of support is the cheering of the old heaven officials before they take office.

For Wang Ao, this kind of support is more reflected in his free play of the cabinet.

Since the emperor ascended the throne, the cabinet can be said to have undergone earth-shaking changes.

As the first chief assistant after the cabinet was customized, Wang Ao did not have so many rules and regulations in his actions.

The core issue before him was how to smoothly establish his authority in the cabinet without touching the emperor's bottom line.

So he came up with a cabinet discussion system. Obviously, he guessed very accurately.

As long as he does not form a party for private interests and does not use public tools for private purposes, the emperor is happy to see him as the chief assistant, who can strengthen his position in the cabinet.

Of course, the cabinet meeting is not without its shortcomings, it is a double-edged sword.

For Wang Ao, he can take advantage of the situation and gain a favorable position in the cabinet through cabinet discussions.

But at the same time, if other cabinet ministers hold the opposite attitude to him on a certain major government affairs.

So as the first assistant, he also needs to compromise.

To a certain extent, the cabinet meeting eliminated the specific manifestation of the factional color in the cabinet in government affairs, and unified the cabinet's voice on major government affairs.

But this kind of voice may not be Wang Ao's own voice sometimes.

But now that there is a cabinet discussion, no matter whether the result of the discussion is in line with Wang Ao's wishes, in the end he must represent the cabinet to speak out in court.

This is his responsibility as chief assistant, but also his helplessness.

But generally speaking, the cabinet meeting played a very important role in improving Wang Ao's status.

It enabled the cabinet to achieve relative unity in mutual struggles, and truly became a political force that should not be underestimated in the court.

Wang Wen nodded solemnly, and said.

"The veteran understands that it is impossible for the cabinet to keep a low profile. Wang Ao has taken control of the cabinet. The next step is to speak out in the court. With the system of cabinet discussions, he will be able to get the help of everyone in the cabinet, and he will also have the strength in the Jingchao Have a go."

Wang Wen despised the cabinet before because he, like most ministers in the court, felt that the cabinet was still in a state of fragmentation.

Gao Gu and Jiang Yuan, Yu Shiyue and Zhang Min, and Wang Ao formed a faction of their own, independent of each other, and fighting for power with each other.

But after seeing this cabinet meeting, he completely understood.

Although Wang Ao did not subdue those cabinet ministers, he was able to unify their forces to a limited extent.

In this way, it is inevitable that the cabinet will intervene more in the affairs of the court.

After all, besides the power in hand, prestige and appeal are also very important in the court.

As a heavenly official, Wang Wen has such contempt for the cabinet, let alone other courtiers.

From their point of view, the cabinet is probably still just a yamen, which is not much different from the Secretary of General Administration.

Therefore, Wang Ao needs a major event to declare the strength of the cabinet. Jingcha is the whetstone they chose!
Zhu Qiyu sighed softly, looked at Wang Wen fixedly, and after a while, Fang said.

"I can't help you with the Jingcha matter. Whether it's the Metropolitan Procuratorate, the cabinet, or even anyone else, you need to deal with it yourself, do you understand?"

As the son of heaven, he also has his own helplessness.

This time in the Beijing inspection, Zhu Qiyu tried his best to create favorable conditions for Wang Wen, but in the final analysis, the battle between courts still depends on his own strength.

Whether it is Chen Yi from the Metropolitan Procuratorate or Wang Ao from the cabinet, they are all smart people.

What the emperor wants is the result of the Jingcha, but the emperor will never interfere in every link of the Jingcha, because doing so will only escalate the dispute between the court and the court into a confrontation between the monarch and his ministers.

Therefore, the emperor cannot and will not interfere with the process of the Jingcha. He only needs the results of the Jingcha to meet his wishes.

In the process, if someone needs to sacrifice for the results of the Jingcha, the emperor will not hesitate.

In court battles, there has never been a sword, but blood.

Those who lose can only say that their means are not enough.

Wang Wen looked dignified, stood up and bowed down, and said.

"Your Majesty Long En, I have reported my death. Please rest assured, no matter who obstructs this time, I will do my best. Even if I take off this layer of official robes, I will not let Xiaoxiao's generation disturb the capital again."

Zhu Qiyu nodded, and immediately, a gentle smile appeared on his face again, and he spoke.

"I am very relieved that you have such a heart, sir. However, you don't have to worry too much. The cabinet and the Metropolitan Procuratorate are not people who don't know how to measure. If they go too far, I won't just sit idly by."

Wang Wen thanked him, got up and sat down again, but there was a rare look of hesitation on his face.

After hesitating for a moment, he still said.

"Your Majesty, I have something to say. I don't know if I should say it or not?"

It was the first time Zhu Qiyu saw Wang Wen so hesitant, waved his hand, and said, "Mr. has something to say, but it's okay to say it."

Wang Wen exhaled lightly, stood up and cupped his hands.

"Your Majesty has the audacity to say that your Majesty's promotion of the cabinet is to reconcile internally and externally, reduce the pressure on government affairs, and improve the efficiency of handling government affairs. However, the cabinet is getting bigger and bigger, and I fear that one day in the future, it will compete with the six ministries for power."

"If one day, the cabinet is superior to the six ministries, it may be able to control the power of the book, your majesty must not be careless!"

Zhu Qiyu was a little silent.

After all, Wang Wen is a person who has been in office for many years. Although he looked down on the cabinet before, after recognizing the real situation of the cabinet, he immediately noticed the risks.

In the Ming Dynasty, the dispute between the cabinet and the ministry has always been the main theme of the internal struggle of the Wenchen Group.

The role of the cabinet is to reconcile the internal and external, but in fact, it is the continuous plunder of the imperial power for the ministers.

The relationship among them is very complicated.

Each of the six ministries is in charge, and all have powers, but the cabinet does not have any powers. The only power it has is drafting power, which is also a kind of suggestion power. Strictly speaking, it belongs to the extension of imperial power.

To put it bluntly, the bill is a plan provided for the emperor to deal with government affairs, and the emperor may or may not approve it.

On this basis, the cabinet is very dependent on imperial power.

With the trust of the emperor, the cabinet can use the power of the imperial power to plunder the power of the six ministries.

Among them, the most threatened are the Ministry of Officials and the Ministry of War.

The dispute between the cabinet and the ministry in the entire Ming Dynasty can be roughly divided into three stages.

Before Hongzhi, the cabinet mainly relied on the imperial power to check and balance the six ministries. At this stage, the cabinet was heavily dependent on the imperial power. The way they plundered the power of the ministries was mainly by relying on the power of the imperial power.

Specifically, it is to rely on the grace to deprive the Ministry of Officials of the right to recommend high officials in the court.

This is also what Chen Xun and Gao Gu were doing some time ago.

Because of the close relationship with the emperor, the cabinet often recommends talents to the emperor in private. If the emperor thinks it is appropriate, he will issue an order to the official department and ask the official department for their opinions.

If there is no problem, it will enter the formal selection and appointment process.

But you must know that there are generally two ways to produce high-ranking officials above the third rank. One is that the Ministry of Officials presides over the court push, and the other is that the Ministry of Officials draws up a list of candidates, and the emperor directly selects them.

The behavior of the cabinet actually bypassed the bureaucracy and directly interfered with the personnel power, but what they were doing was in the name of the emperor.

From Hongzhi to Jiajing, the cabinet's encroachment on the power of the ministry went even further.

The Ministry of Officials has been completely unable to intervene in the selection of officials from Zhongshu Sheren, Hanlin Academy, Zhan Shifu and other yamen that are closely related to the inner court.

Since these yamen are selected by Qingliu Huahua, the influence of the cabinet with the right to recommend these yamen has also increased significantly in the outer dynasty, relying only on its own authority and six divisions to resist the court.

In the early years of Hongzhi, a major event happened, which completely intensified the dispute between the cabinet and the ministry.

At that time, there was a speech official who impeached the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi for his improper behavior and should be dismissed.

According to the normal process, the Ministry of Officials should send officials to verify the facts of this matter, and then decide whether to dismiss him.

However, Liu Ji, the cabinet minister at the time, directly bypassed the Ministry of Officials, held the emperor's decree, and directly deposed the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi.

In theory, the Ministry of Officials, which holds the power to evaluate officials, was excluded from the beginning to the end.

This incident caused quite a stir. Wang Shu, who was then Minister of the Ministry of Officials, even said in a memorial that "I don't have the job, so I beg to beg for it."

At this stage, it should be said that in the struggle with the cabinet, the six ministries have gradually lost the upper hand.

Above the imperial court, the cabinet is gradually regarded as having a higher status than the six ministries by default. At this time, the cabinet no longer needs to use the power of the emperor to restrain the six ministries.

In the eyes of the ruling and opposition parties, it is already a tacit fact that the position of the cabinet is respected by the six ministries.

In the reign of Longwan, Zhang Juzheng was born, and the power of the cabinet reached its peak. The reason was that Zhang Juzheng promoted the examination method.

The merits and demerits of the examination method will not be discussed for the time being, but it stipulates that each government office shall keep an examination record and report to the cabinet regularly, and the cabinet will regularly evaluate officials.

This is to directly deprive the Ministry of Officials of the right to assess officials. After Zhang Juzheng's death, although the examination method was once abolished, the power that the cabinet has held in its hands has never been let go.

After Zhang Juzheng, the cabinet has completely become the leader of a hundred bureaucrats recognized by the government and the public. The six ministries can no longer compete with it.

Since then, although there has been a slight repetition, the general trend has not changed.

As a result, the unprecedentedly powerful cabinet finally threatened the imperial power, so that the emperor had to support the eunuchs again to counter the cabinet.

The pros and cons of the twists and turns cannot be explained clearly in one or two sentences.

After pondering for a moment, Zhu Qiyu opened his mouth and said.

"I know what you said, sir, and I will think about this matter carefully. Please step down first, sir."

Wang Wen stood up, arched his hands, and exited the hall.

Zhu Qiyu's expression was a little complicated.

Wang Wen said these words, partly out of public interest, worried that the cabinet would become bigger, and partly, I am afraid that he hoped to use his own power to suppress the cabinet.

His vision is very accurate!

The biggest weakness of the cabinet, or at least the current cabinet, is grace.

If you want to usurp the power of the six ministries, it is not enough to rely on the few people in the cabinet, you must rely on the power of the imperial power.

In fact, the biggest reason why the cabinet can continue to grow is that the emperor deliberately supports it.

Whether it is to master the court faster, or to play more easily for yourself.

In short, several generations of emperors have encouraged the appointment of the cabinet.

Especially during the period from Jiajing to Wanli, the six ministers were rarely summoned.

The cabinet has become the mouthpiece of the emperor, cooperating with the supervisor of ceremonies, and in a sense, it is acting on behalf of the imperial power. How can it not be big?

Zhu Qiyu himself knew the danger of the cabinet sitting in a big position, so he has always been cautious about the cabinet with a trace of precaution, and he never let go of the early court banquets, and the internal and external communication was very smooth.

But the king of future generations will inevitably give the cabinet such an opportunity.

What Zhu Qiyu can do now is to delay this process as much as possible.

The transfer of the cabinet ministers to the six departments is the first step. In this way, at least in terms of rank, the cabinet ministers cannot compare with Qiqing.

In his previous life, the cabinet's expansion began when the six ministers were transferred to the cabinet. In this life, he did the opposite, which may have unexpected results.

In addition, after the Jingcha, there can be no further delay on the side of the Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies.

In addition, some new things need to be added to the teaching of the prince, but this is a matter for the future.

The afterglow of the setting sun shone on the glorious Forbidden City, the young king frowned slightly, and after a long time, he let out a long sigh...

　Two in one, one update today, see you tomorrow~~~
　　
　
(End of this chapter)