Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 137 What is Strength (Part [-])
From Gao Pragmatic's point of view, there are many kinds of strength.

Just like Yan Song, relying on guessing the emperor's thoughts at any time, thinking about what the emperor thinks in everything, being anxious about what the emperor is anxious about, doing everything properly, and not being afraid of people's words, this is strength.

Just like Xu Jie, relying on forbearance for many years, he wins over his party members and broadens his opinions. He obviously joined forces with others, but in the end he was able to clean up all his crimes. Instead, his prestige was unparalleled for a while, and he was praised as good in the world. This is his strength.

Like Gao Gong, relying on the emperor's students to his unparalleled holy family, even if they don't serve as the first assistant, they are actually the first assistant. The disciples would rather die than betray, this is strength.

Just like Zhang Juzheng, relying on internal and external collusion and the empress dowager's dependence, the emperor was deeply afraid of the sentence "Let Mr. Zhang hear it, what can I do?" This is strength.

Just like Ye Xianggao, relying on... well, relying on whatever nonsense reasons, anyway, if someone can be alone for seven years, then that can also be regarded as strength.

But are these strengths really considered strengths?In other words, are these strengths considered hard power?

No, none of these count.

What is hard power?Except for you, this chief assistant is useless to anyone else, that's hard power!
It stands to reason that this situation is nothing short of nonsense in Daming—without you Zhang Butcher, would the emperor have to eat pigs with hair?If you change the first assistant, the world will not be able to function normally, and the sun will rise and the moon will stop?

This kind of situation has actually happened at certain times. For example, Zhou Gongdan was the hope of the public, and the world was the heart, and it was irreplaceable; another example was Cao Cao, who was the hero of the world, overwhelming the crowd, and irreplaceable.

However, those are abnormal phenomena that only appeared under special circumstances in a special era, and it seems that they are not things that may happen to Daming right now.After all, in the system designed by Zhu Yuanzhang back then, it seemed impossible for someone inside the court to threaten the imperial power.

Unless the world is in chaos and Chongzhen has nothing to do with Zuo Liangyu—but after all, Zuo Liangyu is only a Ming minister and a separatist regime.

So Gao Yushi wants to have this kind of strength, but it is really unreliable no matter how you look at it.

But he is really working towards this goal.

Because he knew that otherwise, there would be no way to change the deep-rooted power structure of Ming Dynasty and achieve the best system under his ideal imperial system.

At the beginning, when I looked at the history of the Ming Dynasty with a high degree of pragmatism, I saw someone explaining that the cabinet system of the dynasty was already the predecessor of democratic politics.

He doesn't care about the height of his predecessor, and he doesn't want to delve into it, because he is an extremely pragmatic person. Anyway, in his opinion, he didn't see any kind of debauchery in Daming in the end—even when he died.

Does the cabinet system mean that democracy is over?

As long as the director of ceremonies representing the imperial power does not approve the redemption, your cabinet draft is just a scrap of paper, can it be implemented as an administrative decree?
In history, Emperor Wanli played a stalemate with the civil service group because of the dispute over the country. After many official positions were vacant, the cabinet and the Ministry of Officials and other departments recommended successors. If there is indeed a big event, please approve it. Most of the vacant official positions will not be approved. What is the result?The result is that these positions have been vacant for many years.

why?Because from an institutional point of view, the final and only decision on the appointment and dismissal of these officials is in the hands of the emperor.Whether it is the Ministry of Officials, the Ministry of War, or even the cabinet, they only have the right to recommend, not the right to appoint or dismiss.If the former official of this position died of illness, and the emperor did not approve the recommendation of the cabinet or the Ministry of Staff and the Ministry of War, he could only leave it empty until he was in the mood to approve it.

Courtiers need to be pushed by the court to join the cabinet?

Innocent!If the emperor disagrees, even if you push him a hundred times, he will not be able to enter the court.What's more, there is another way called "by special order" to join the cabinet.This is like writing code in later generations. Zhu Yuanzhang left such a "bottom loophole" long ago.

The cabinet minister recommended by the court can be vetoed by the emperor; the cabinet minister specially appointed by the emperor cannot be vetoed by the court.

"History of Ming Dynasty Xu Youzhen" records that "all the schools in Russia have been opened, and Youzhen is famous among the people, saying, 'The Supreme Emperor is back!' Interesting congratulations. Immediately, Youzhen is also a bachelor, enters the cabinet, and participates in maintenance."On the day Ming Yingzong was restored, Xu Youzhen was ordered to join the cabinet. Is there time for the court to push it?Obviously impossible, it can only be a special order to join the cabinet.

The biography of "History of the Ming Dynasty Zhang Jue" records that "Jiu accumulated anger at the court officials and plotted revenge every day".A person like Zhang Cong, who was in the top position against the ministers of the Manchu Dynasty during the great wave of ceremonies, and whose reputation as a scholar in the officialdom has already fallen into the [-]th hell, if he expects the court to push him into the cabinet, it is obviously a dream.But he really joined the cabinet in the sixth year of Jiajing, how did he join the cabinet?Jiajing specially appointed.

Taking a step back, so what if you join the cabinet?You are the chief minister of the cabinet. If the emperor disagrees with something, can you still force the emperor to agree?The cabinet ministers, even the chief assistant, "forced" the emperor to the extreme, and they were nothing more than threatening to resign. Do they have the slightest initiative?No.Not to mention, didn't Xu Jie just tentatively submit a letter of resignation, but was directly approved by the Emperor Longqing who had already disliked him, so he could only pack up and go back to his hometown in Songjiang in a daze?
This is still light, let alone heavy.If the emperor really dislikes you to the extreme, even if you are the chief minister of the cabinet, the emperor can directly order you to dismiss your official and let you go away.What's more, ransacking your home and killing your head is not a problem-you said you were pushed into the cabinet by a high-ranking minister?What's the use of that, my emperor is the most powerful in the world, and I can't kill you?

In the final analysis, civil servants can restrict the emperor only by the illusory posthumous name, which has no mandatory binding force at all.If the emperor becomes cruel, I don't want this bullshit reputation, and your civil official group will have nothing to do with him.This is like Long Qing who wants to go back to Yu Mansion to cherish his old life, but he can be pushed back, while Zhengde can go to the south of the Yangtze River to play with dragons and phoenixes, and lead troops to kill captives at the border.

Where is the difference?It's just that Long Qing has received a high-level sage education, so he still wants to save face; while the Zhengde boy ascended the throne and acted rashly, face is not as important as "fun" in his eyes.

Therefore, it can be said that the emperor of the Ming Dynasty can really ignore too many things, because the cabinet can indeed maintain the normal operation of the country. The emperor only needs to tell the supervisor of ceremonies that "every cabinet draft is approved as usual", and everything will be fine. I want to be a free hand-throwing shopkeeper.

But the problem is that if the emperor wants to take care of things, no one can stop him from taking care of it, and indeed he can take care of everything - as long as he can save face.Just like the Chongzhen Dynasty, more than 17 chief assistants were changed in 50 years. Who can limit him?

However, the ruthless thing is that although this master is indeed an emperor who is determined to work hard, and it is very rare to be able to be self-denying and dedicated to public affairs, his ability to govern is really a mess.Tomorrow, the Qi Dynasty has a tendency to slowly regain the situation. Under the blockade, the wild boar skin is about to kill itself, and the domestic rogues are becoming more and more serious. Unfortunately, Chongzhen came to power. Under his leadership, the wild boar skin and the rogues Not only were they all relieved, but they also worked together to crush Daming to death.

Therefore, to say a thousand words and ten thousand, if he wants to cure the chronic disease that Daming brought from his mother's womb, Gao Wushi must grasp the power like Cao Cao and Reckless.Without such great power, even if he could "cure the symptoms" for a while, he would just be an enhanced version of Zhang Juzheng and give Daming a few more years of life. What's the use?As long as there is another emperor like Chongzhen, or even worse than a kind-hearted emperor like Chongzhen who does bad things, Daming will still burp.

Therefore, the strength in Gao Wushi's mind, in the final analysis, is: even the emperor can't oppose my will!

As for mastering such a powerful force, but in the end he does not want to seek to usurp the throne, whether this will eventually kill himself and even his future descendants and disciples, of course, he also cares about it.

　By the way, can any of you readers guess what the "concern" mentioned at the end of this chapter is?In addition, thanks to the book friends of "Space Calls Me an Alien" for their rewards.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)