Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 163 The overall will of the civil service group
While Zhu Youjian was busy adjusting weights, measures and calendars in the inner court to prepare for entering industrial society, the outer court was not stable.

Although Zhu Youjian has always said that Huang Liji and others assisted in ascending to the throne, he has no intention of adjusting the bachelor and other ministers. The court officials continued to attack these people, trying to get them to vacate their official positions.

After the new emperor ascends to the throne, he will adjust the titles and no longer add ministers, ministers, ministers, and ministers to his ministers at will. Today's official positions are a carrot and a pit. Unless the current officials are driven out, the positions will not be vacant.

Especially after the emperor proposed the well-field system and the purple pavilion meritorious officials, many ministers of the government and the public wanted to win over the merits of presiding over the well-field system. This has caused many officials to focus on cabinet positions and want to oust them——

After all, according to previous practice, ministers can serve as cabinet bachelors, and all ministers and ministers who are from the Hanlin Academy have the opportunity to join the cabinet.

As long as the existing cabinet bachelors are driven out, many officials in the government and the opposition can serve as bachelors.

As the chief minister of the cabinet, Huang Liji naturally received the most attacks. Especially since he was forced by the emperor to revise the law some time ago, he was hostile to many middle and low-level officials.

It can be said that he is under great pressure now. If the emperor hadn't brought out the Purple Pavilion Heroes and Purple Pavilion Wise Ministers as temptations, he would have asked for an official position.

But even so, Huang Liji still couldn't bear the pressure. He discussed with other bachelors whether to propose to the emperor to add a few more cabinet bachelors to ease the pressure on the government and the opposition.

Shi Fenglai, Zhang Ruitu, and Li Guopu all strongly agreed with the proposal to increase the number of bachelors. Because they all felt that since the emperor ascended the throne and established the Standing Council, Jiu Qing's voice has become more and more powerful. If the cabinet does not make changes, its powers will be reduced.

The four of them seemed to hold high positions and made all kinds of decisions, but they did not have much say in the decision-making process.

The emperor used the order of speeches at the Standing Committee meeting to pay more and more attention to the opinions of Jiuqing. In particular, the six books of ministers are returning to their position after Taizu dismissed the prime minister.

Although the cabinet still has the power to vote, the court officials also agree that the decree without the vote of the cabinet is the central purpose. But they feel that the power of the cabinet is getting smaller and smaller, and it may even return to its original position.

Of course, the four of them were unwilling to accept this situation, but they knew that they carried the original sin of being attached to the eunuchs. If you dare to disobey the emperor's will, you will inevitably be charged with treason and no longer have your current status.

Therefore, after Huang Liji proposed adding more bachelors to the cabinet, the other three people unanimously agreed and planned to let the newly added bachelors help the cabinet regain power.

Even if they are not regained by then, the responsibility for the loss of cabinet power will still be borne by these bachelors. It would not be like now, with both the government and the opposition blaming them.

Not only the four of them, but also many civil servants in the court wanted to add more cabinet ministers.

Judging from the emperor's unwillingness to keep Sun Chengzong in the court and sending him to supervise the division in Liaodong, Yuan Keli realized that the emperor was deliberately maintaining the current cabinet situation and suppressing the power of the cabinet.

As the Minister of the Ministry of War, he was of course very pleased with the increase in the power of the Ministry of War. I feel that my power has increased a lot, and it is completely different from the previous situation where I almost became the executive agency of the cabinet.

However, as a civil servant, Yuan Keli did not want the power of the cabinet to be suppressed all the time, allowing the emperor to become more and more arbitrary without cabinet constraints.

Therefore, after Sun Chengzong entered Beijing, Yuan Ke immediately discussed with him and proposed to the emperor to add several bachelors to the cabinet. It will not cause major changes by removing the existing cabinet bachelors, but also allow the cabinet to proactively maintain power——

The cabinet cannot be allowed to be controlled by a few eunuch bachelors, and it is difficult to disobey the emperor's wishes.

Sun Chengzong, as the cabinet's scholar-supervisor of Liaodong, certainly agreed with this. The maintenance of cabinet power helped maintain his status as a great bachelor who oversaw the foreign affairs.

With the tacit understanding of these ministers, on the 23rd day of the dynasty, Li Guopu begged for a break and was retained by the emperor. Led by the four bachelors of the cabinet, many ministers in the court agreed, and many civil servants agreed, they requested at the court meeting to increase the number of bachelors. Faced with these people's requests, Zhu Youjian keenly realized that this was a counterattack by the civil servant group. Since he came to power, he has continuously adjusted the system and changed the distribution of power, which attracted the first wave of counterattacks from the civilian clique:
"Wei Zhongxian suppressed him some time ago, and many civil servants did not dare to move around, focusing on bringing down Wei Zhongxian. 』

"Now that Wei Zhongxian has been defeated by me, they can't wait to target me as the emperor, haha!" 』

Smiling in his heart, Zhu Youjian didn't believe that these officials didn't know that he had no intention of adjusting the cabinet. The several commendations and awards given to Huang Liji and others all illustrate this point.

However, they still asked for new members to be added to the cabinet, and even forced the four cabinet bachelors to take the initiative to propose this point. This shows that this is the common will of many civil servants, who want the newly added cabinet bachelors to maintain the cabinet powers and limit the power of themselves as the emperor——

After the new bachelor arrived, since he did not have the original sin of eunuchs, he would not be easily manipulated by the emperor Zhu Youjian. They dared to use the power of the cabinet to argue with the emperor.

At that time, whatever resolution Zhu Youjian wanted to pass would have to be discussed with the cabinet. It would not be like now, where the cabinet bachelors had almost no say and could only formulate corresponding decrees according to Zhu Youjian's will.

He understood this very clearly, but Zhu Youjian knew even better that he could not object to this proposal.

Because before this proposal was put forward, Zhu Youjian, who owned Jinyiwei and Dongchang, had no signs of large-scale connections between courtiers in the capital, and no one even publicly proposed this initiative.

But at the court meeting, they collectively agreed with this. It shows that this is the common view of all civil servants, which can be said to be their overall will.

All civil servants, including the four current cabinet bachelors, followed the traditional thinking of civil servants and realized that this situation could not be allowed to continue and allow the emperor to expand his power unscrupulously.

In Zhu Youjian's view, this is the overall will of the civil service group and the common thinking that transcends partisanship——

It is a suggestion made subconsciously by civil servants under the unified concept of values.

It can be said that there is no collusion among civil servants, because this overall will is not conscious at all, and many civil servants are not aware of this. I just feel that what I do is in line with convention and consistent ethics.

But they didn't realize that some emperors were very sensitive to this. Just like when Emperor Jiajing faced the hundreds of officials from Zuoshunmen, he keenly realized that his power as emperor was challenged. Therefore, he did not hesitate to use the imperial staff to maintain the emperor's authority.

Some emperors who were assimilated by civilian officials did not realize this. Because they think about things according to the thinking of civil servants, they naturally think that the civil servants' suggestions are reasonable.

Today's Zhu Youjian realizes that the civil servant group is fighting back, but he can only agree with them like an emperor who has been assimilated by the civil servants, so as to avoid alerting many civil servants and triggering a larger-scale counterattack.

The internal and external troubles of the Ming Dynasty and the fact that the first year of Chongzhen had not yet arrived did not support the large-scale confrontation between Zhu Youjian and the civil servants, causing the government and the public to criticize himself as the emperor.

Even Emperor Jiajing launched the Zuo Shunmen case four years after he came to power. Zhu Youjian's current authority is not enough to fight against hundreds of officials.

Therefore, Zhu Youjian pondered for a long time in the throne room. When the courtiers were confused and uneasy and wanted to continue to persuade the emperor to add cabinet ministers, he finally said:
"The affairs of the imperial court are complicated, and the four cabinet bachelors are indeed not enough. We will add two more in the future."

"The cabinet must have six bachelor's degrees who can join the government to participate in aircraft maintenance."

(End of this chapter)