Haisheng Mingdi

Chapter 661
Fengtian East City, outside the gate of Wenfu.

The inner four guards have already set up a guard of honor to welcome them, and the emperor specially bestowed a golden chariot to meet them.

After a row of salute guns were fired, they marched towards Miyagi with drums and gongs.

The gentry and ordinary people who got the news along the street came out to watch.

Warm cheers and congratulations were given to the newly promoted cabinet bachelor and chief prime minister.

In the private room on the second floor of a restaurant facing the street, a group of candidates also stood in front of the window and watched this scene with incomparable envy.

"Wen Gong Xuanma pays homage to the Prime Minister, everyone expects it."

"Of course, the civil servants and supervisors have made such achievements in just a few years, and who can oppose it?"

"The chief assistant of the new cabinet is a high-ranking member of the court called by the local government. He was born in Donglin, and he is a civil servant in command of the army. It seems that even if the cabinet is replaced collectively, it will not affect the government too much."

"I don't know who this auxiliary meeting is!"

"It should also be able to read and write."

A scholar looked at the grand occasion on the street, "If you want to say that you are capable of writing and martial arts, and have high qualifications, then Zhang Guowei, Zhu Dadian, He Tengjiao, Qu Shixu, Du Yinxi, and Yu Ying are the only ones. Hong Chengchou should be able to do it too." Count one."

"Zhu Dadian and He Tengjiao are also cabinet bachelors, and Zhang Guowei and Yu Ying are also Diange bachelors. They are all coming down."

"Hong Chengchou is an old traitor, what qualifications does he have to be prime minister?"

Several people are arguing.

"You won't use Ma Shiying and Ruan Dacheng, will you?"

"It may not be impossible, maybe Yan Wogong or Shen Youlong, Wu Yi, Shen Tingyang, Xiong Rulin, etc., are all capable of writing and martial arts."

Everyone is also very clear about the emperor's employment habits, and he doesn't care too much about who was a traitor, eunuch or Donglin in the past. As long as he can unite and resist the captives in the new dynasty and not engage in party struggles, the emperor will reuse them.Ma and Ruan used to have a bad reputation, but Ruan Dacheng is now the secretary of the household department, and Ma Shiying is the governor of Jiangnan and governor of Jiangsu.

"I think that the first assistant used Donglin Wengong, and that assistant will definitely not use Donglin again. It must be balanced."

Wen Anzhi entered the palace all the way on the golden chariot sent by Tianxia.

"Xuan, the first assistant, Wen'an, is in the palace!"

Wen Anzhi climbed up the stairs step by step, and entered the hall to meet him.

It doesn't take three speeches to pay respects to a prime minister, and Zhu Yihai doesn't like that kind of pretense either.

In Wen'an Shangdian, Zhu Yihai gave him the seal of Wenyuan Pavilion and two silver seals, one was Huaizhong Yaowu, and the other was Jide Zhongzheng.

The Wenyuan Pavilion seal was not an official official seal before the Shaotian Dynasty. In the past, the cabinet bachelors were only fifth rank, and they worked in Wenyuan Pavilion.But in the Ming Dynasty, Wenyuan Pavilion was not a real government office. Wenyuan Pavilion was printed with Xiaozhuan, which was not the seal of the official office.

Zhu Yihai later established the cabinet as an official government office, and the cabinet scholars were still first-class officials, so he recast the Wenyuan Pavilion seal, a silver seal, and a large seal script.

This Fang Wenyuan Pavilion seal is also the official seal of the cabinet, representing the cabinet, and is sealed by the chief assistant.

"Grant the seal of the Prime Minister!"

The servant took out another silver seal, but it was much smaller, it was a small silver seal, similar to the earliest Wenyuan Pavilion seal.It can also be seen from this square seal that today's Prime Minister's Office is actually similar to the early cabinet, both of which are the emperor's private secretarial institutions.

It's just that in the past, the cabinet's work procedure was to wait for them to read the memorials first, and even put forward suggestions for disposal, called draft bills, and then the emperor would read them.

Later, the emperor was lazy, or had no ability, so he simply handed it over to the eunuch to approve the red, and the emperor became the shopkeeper.

But now the emperor's prime minister's office is a temporary organization, similar to the XX office group in later generations. It is not a formal yamen organization, nor a formal official establishment, and no official staff.

Some officials are awarded the titles of Minister of the Prime Minister, Associate Minister, Bachelor of Attendance at the Prime Minister's Office, and Bachelor of Attendance at the Prime Minister's Office, and they are on duty at the Prime Minister's Office in turn.

Important military and government affairs are sent directly to the Prime Minister's office without going through the cabinet, and the prime minister and other ministers can't read it first. The emperor has to read it first, and then the emperor makes decisions. .

But the Prime Minister's Office also has the qualifications to draft imperial edicts.

There are two types of imperial edicts drafted by them, such as courtiers and ministers above, foreign officials and soldiers, prefects and above, promotion and adjustment, and disaster relief. It is copied and handed over to the relevant departments, which is called Mingfa, or the cabinet issued an edict.

In order to prevent leakage, the confidential documents related to the ministers, such as instructing strategies, assessing political affairs, and questioning improper punishments, are not handed over to the cabinet, but are sealed by the prime minister. Officials, order a certain official to open it, and order the post station to be delivered within a time limit, which is called Tingji.

Tingji is only allowed to be dismantled and read by himself.

From the working mode of the Prime Minister's Office, we know that this is purely the emperor's secretarial agency, and it is not full-time.

Unless the emperor encountered some important affairs and was undecided, he would consult with the prime ministers and ministers, so he only had part of the right to participate in decision-making and had no administrative power.

Executive power remains in the Cabinet.

But the cabinet has lost the decision-making power of major affairs.

Fortunately, Wen Anzhi, as the new Chief Assistant, was also awarded the title of Chief Minister of the Prime Minister's Office, which means he is still a person at the core decision-making level, otherwise the name of the Chief Assistant would not be true.

Thank you for Wen'an's worship and acceptance.

Song Zhipu also handed over to him, and handed over a pen to Wen Anzhi.

This pen is neither ordinary nor ordinary. Firstly, it is a pen given to Wenyuan Pavilion by the emperor. There are many, but it is also a symbol of the power of the cabinet, commonly known as the political pen.

The chief minister is in charge of governing affairs, presides over the affairs of the cabinet and the academicians, and governs affairs, and summarizes its records.

So this pen is a symbol, representing the power of the chief assistant.

The seal of Wenyuan Pavilion, the political pen, and the two major power symbols of the cabinet are now given by the emperor to the new first assistant, and handed over from the old first assistant to the new first assistant.

The handover is complete.

Zhu Yihai smiled and applauded, and the ministers in the hall also applauded.

Originally, since the cabinet system of the Ming Dynasty, although the number of cabinet ministers was variable, there was never such a big change. Generally, after the old cabinet ministers were unusable, convicted, or sick, etc., they would be replaced.Or add cabinet ministers as needed.

You can change the cabinet directly, but it has never happened.

But the old cabinet ministers did not leave after being convicted. This time the cabinet change was very peaceful, and everyone was very happy about it.

The court is too turbulent, which is not good for all the ministers.

"Wei Guogong, you have become Yuanfu and also the chief prime minister. You also recommend a second assistant candidate to me!"

Minister of the Palace, continue to push, this time push the second assistant.

"I recommend Zhang Guowei and Zhu Dadian to be candidates for the emperor!"

Other ministers also proposed more than a dozen names, including former cabinet ministers such as Jiang Yueguang, Gao Hongtu, Zhang Shenyan, and Jiang Dejing, as well as local governors such as Shen Youlong, Wu Yi, Huang Daozhou, and Shen Tingyang.

Ma Shiying and Ruan Dacheng were also elected, but not many were elected.

These names are summed up, and each has a number of votes.

Zhu Yihai looked at these names, and it was obvious that the ministers from the Donglin Party got the most votes, and most of them had been in the cabinet before.

However, many of these candidates did not meet Zhu Yihai's requirements at all. Although some of them were born in the top two rankings and had a high reputation, they did not have strong political achievements, nor did they have strong resumes in local and provincial governments. He has been in charge, even if such a person has entered the cabinet, he is still dissatisfied.

The emperor put these tickets with names on the imperial case in front of him, and he pondered for a long time.

Finally, he raised his head and glanced at the court officials.

"Now that the Central Plains have not been recovered, and the society is not yet stable, I think the main task of the new cabinet is to defeat the Tartars as soon as possible, drive them out of the pass, and recover the two capitals and thirteen provinces."

"So the new cabinet still has to learn both civil and military skills!"

"I have decided to pay homage to King Zhiren of the Kingdom of Yue as the second assistant of the cabinet, and to be conferred the title of Bachelor of Wenhuadian University, Young Fu, Prince Taifu, and Prime Minister."

"Give silver and seal to two parties, one is to be loyal to the military, and the other is to be loyal and enlighten the sage!"

As soon as the emperor's decree came out, there was a sound of surprise in the hall.

No one expected that the emperor would finally appoint a military general as his second assistant, something that had never happened in the past 300 years of the Ming Dynasty.

Of course, in the Hongwu Dynasty, when there was no cabinet, the founding marshal, Wei Guogong Xu Da was the prime minister.

But after the cabinet was established, all those who joined the cabinet were bachelors.

Non-Jinshi does not enter the Hanlin, and non-Hanlin does not enter the cabinet.

Today, the emperor broke the stereotype again?
Just now the ministers selected dozens of candidate lists for secondary assistants, but none of them was Wang Zhiren, not only no Wang Zhiren, but also not a single military commander.

The emperor just ordered Wang Zhiren.

What's the point of this push?
After a while of silence in the hall.

Gao Hongtu stood up, "I think it's wrong,"

But before he finished speaking, the emperor immediately said, "Does Bachelor Gao think that non-jinshi can't enter the Imperial Academy, and non-Hanlin can't enter the cabinet? This set of old rules is out of date."

"His Majesty!"

Zhu Yihai said coldly, "Why do civil and military divisions need to be so clear? The cabinet used to be the emperor's secretary, assisting in writing work, so it used the Hanlin, but now the cabinet has become the official yamen of the imperial court, and it is also the center for all the officials in charge and drafting. How can it be done exclusively by civil servants?"

"Governing the country and taking charge of the central government naturally requires both civil and military skills. The cabinet also needs the combination of civil and military skills. Governors and cabinet ministers, I think that there are no restrictions on civil and military skills, and only depends on ability."

The emperor had a showdown.

In the future, the cabinet must have military ministers.

A military official can not only be an admiral, but as long as he has the ability, he can serve as a governor-general again, or even a general, a minister, and a minister in the cabinet.

The emperor's reasons are also very good. Now that the two capitals and thirteen provinces have not yet been recovered, why use literature to control martial arts to benefit both civil and military affairs.

The cabinet must have military ministers.

Wang Zhiren's status among the military officials of the Shaotian Dynasty is unquestionable. Zhu Yihai was the chief soldier of Zhejiang at the beginning of his army, and he has been the governor of the Beijing camp for several years.

His qualifications, ability, prestige, and loyalty are impeccable.

"Please draft an imperial edict in Wen Shou Fu Hall, Xuan Ma worships the prime minister, and Wang Zhiren as the second assistant!"

There are still people who want to object, which shows that the emperor's attitude is so firm, and he backed down again.

Everyone understands that the emperor's temper is always autocratic, and it is difficult to persuade people to change the decisions. Only then did everyone understand that the so-called court push today is not for them to really discuss the election.

At most, they came to witness the ceremony.

Today really witnessed too many firsts.

It was the first time that Ming Dynasty changed the cabinet, the first time a military general entered the cabinet, and he was the second assistant.

I don't know how many firsts there will be.

Wen Anzhi walked to the case where Xu Shiqi planned to worship Wen Anzhi's head and assistant just now, but Xu Shiqi was still standing there, rubbing ink for him.

"Please!"

Wen Anzhi picked up the pen, thought about it for a while, and then completed the imperial edict in a smooth and smooth manner. Both the words and the words are excellent, and Xu Shiqi on the side praised him again and again.

"Please take a look, Your Majesty!" Wen Anzhi presented the imperial edict to the emperor.

(End of this chapter)