Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 45: Shenming device

Senseless! Totally confused!
Before attending the Standing Meeting, none of the ministers would have thought that just changing their titles would completely change the way senior officials play.

From then on, the chief minister truly became the auxiliary minister, and the cabinet ministers also became the minister of state affairs. Their additional titles also needed to be changed.

Before they could think about it carefully, Zhu Youjian had already personally helped up Huang Liji and other bachelors. While ordering people to give tea, he also ordered:
"Please discuss the title of the minister of state affairs!"

"After all, you are the future ministers of government affairs and are qualified to discuss important matters of the court."

After hesitating for a moment, the ministers acquiesced to the name of the Fourth Assistant Minister and did not refute. It is true that the assistant minister makes the first assistant truly the first assistant, but the title of the fourth assistant minister also gives the title of assistant minister to ministers other than academicians, which disperses the authority of the cabinet. This is a good thing for the ministers of Jiuqing.

Nowadays, all the cabinet ministers have accepted the title of Prime Minister. It would be unjustifiable for them not to accept it.

Therefore, the ministers remained silent for a while. After drinking the tea given by Wenhua Palace, they began to discuss the promotion of the title of minister of state affairs.

The ministers who discuss affairs have the authority to discuss important affairs of the court, and may be called by the emperor to participate in regular meetings in the future. The ministers are very cautious about this and feel that they cannot be granted easily.

First of all, the six ministers and the title of minister of consultation were determined. After all, the imperial government was nominally under the six ministers. Even if the cabinet later surpassed the six ministers in terms of authority, the cabinet ministers usually had to add the title of minister to be ranked first. As the head of the six ministries, there is no dispute about the title of minister of the six ministries and minister of state affairs.

Some people even thought that the title of Minister of Political Affairs should be added, but they did not dare to propose it. After all, after adding the title of Minister of Bi Zheng, whether to add the title of Grand Bachelor of the Palace and whether to become a cabinet minister are all controversial matters. Too many things happened today, and the ministers did not want to cause trouble.

Then the censor of Zuodu, as the head of the speaking officials, was also given the title of minister of political affairs. But for the censor of Youdu, who is also a second-rank official, it is a bit controversial. After all, the censor of the right capital is usually given the title of governor, and there are not a few who add the censor of the right capital to the middle court. If all ministers of the right capital are added, there will be too many ministers, which is not conducive to the maintenance of the status of the six ministers.

When the Minister of Rites came to Zongdao, he objected fiercely and said in front of everyone:

"How noble a minister is, he should be cautious when adding titles."

"If you don't have a real job as a second-grade official, how can you get the title of second-grade official and assistant minister?"

"Those officials who have been awarded the title of Minister of Secretariat or Imperial Censor should not be promoted to the rank of second-rank minister of government affairs. It is more suitable for these officials to be promoted to the rank of second-rank minister of administrative affairs."

Lu Tunan was furious when he heard this, because Lai Zongdao was targeting him again. His additional title is Youdu Yushi. Lai Zongdao's statement clearly excludes him as a minister of political affairs.

Zhang Jiude, the minister of Dali Temple, was also not satisfied. Like Lu Tunan, he was awarded the title of censor of the right capital last month because of his merits in the three palaces. Lai Zongdao did not allow the censor of Youdu to obtain the title of minister of political affairs, which clearly meant that he was not allowed to be the minister of political affairs.

This is true even for the two lower status members of the Nine Qings, let alone the other two. Cao Sicheng, the left minister of the Ministry of Personnel, who was given the title of Minister of Hubu, was also opposed to not having his minister of state affairs given a title. We all have the title of Minister of Political Affairs, so how come you have the title of Minister of Political Affairs but I don’t? It’s just a title, why are you so stingy!

Yang Jingchen, the right servant who only had the title of left servant of the Ministry of Personnel, did not dare to say anything and watched them argue. This is naturally even more true for other officials who are not even ministers.

Obviously, the three people could not compete with the six ministers and the censor of Zuodu. Lu Tunan said angrily:
"The ministers and censors of the capital are the second rank, and the ministers in charge are the second rank."

"Replace the second-rank minister and the imperial censor with the second-rank minister in charge. How do you deal with someone who has the title of minister and censor of the capital?"

Thanks to Wei Zhongxian's indiscriminate use of various official titles, there were not a few people in the court who received the title of Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce and the title of Imperial Censor of the Capital. There were five Ministers of the Ministry of Industry alone, as well as several others including the Minister of the Ministry of Hubu, the Minister of War, and the Imperial Censor of the Capital. If these people were all in the Wenhua Hall, the six ministers and the Zuodu censor would definitely not be able to compete with them.

But those people are not here! Lai Zongdao showed off his power and said: "Lu Tongzheng does not need to talk nonsense. The existing ministers and imperial censors have been given titles, and your majesty has not said that he wants to remove them."

"The additional titles of Minister of Administration and Minister of Discussion are His Majesty's grace for the ministers who have assisted in reaching the highest level."

"Whether it is the second grade or the second grade, it all comes from heaven's grace. It is a reward given to the ministers by His Majesty for his supreme merit."

"Is it possible that the envoy Lu Tongzheng is too humble and doesn't want this favor?"

Knowing that Lai Zongdao was using strong words to make excuses, Lu Tunan was speechless. Unlike the officials who have to be demoted after the Chief Secretary is downgraded, there is no need to take back the promotion of title. Those who already have the title of Minister or Capital Censor can still retain them in the future, but they are of no use at all except in name. The four auxiliary ministers, as a new title system, completely replaced them.

Originally, he wanted to use his rank as the censor of Youdu to obtain the title of minister of state affairs. However, after hearing Lai Zongdao say that everything was a matter of grace, Lu Tunan felt that he could no longer fight for it. If he continues to fight, he is dissatisfied with the emperor's rewards and dislikes being promoted from a second-rank minister to the government.

In this way, Lu Tunan could only confess his crime to the emperor and then ask for a holy judgment.

Of course, Zhu Youjian did not want to indiscriminately issue titles to the fourth ministers. One of the reasons why he changed the title system was that Wei Zhongxian wholesaled various official positions, titles, and honors, leaving him little room for adjustment and had to start from scratch. .

Huang Liji, the chief minister of the cabinet, joined the cabinet in August of the fifth year of Tianqi. Now in just two years, he has become Zuo Zhuguo, a young master and the crown prince, a bachelor of Zhongji Palace, and a minister of the Ministry of Personnel. The rank, title, and palace are all the highest. Except for the birth and the third Duke, Zhu Youjian has no way to grant favors. It can be said that he is an extremely human minister and his official position has reached its limit.

Three great scholars, Shi Fenglai, Zhang Ruitu and Li Guopu, entered the cabinet in July of the sixth year of Tianqi's reign. Now in their early year, they are already the young master and the crown prince's grand master, the great bachelor of Zhongji Palace, and the Minister of Household Affairs. The only adjustment space left for Zhu Youjian was to add the official minister and the rank.

Other ministers also received many additional titles. Wei Zhongxian, who was nine thousand years old, did not take his official title seriously at all and gave out official titles indiscriminately. This forced Zhu Youjian to change the title-adding system and put aside the original title-adding system.

Seeing that Zongdao and others had acted as evildoers, and there was no need to personally suppress the ministers and increase their titles, Zhu Youjian immediately decided:

"The six ministers and the imperial censor of the Zuodu will be given the title of second-rank minister in charge of political affairs, and the remaining officials who have been given the title of minister of ministers and censors of the capital will be given the title of minister of the second rank of minister."

"From now on, all ministers and ministers in charge of certain aspects in the court will be changed to ministers in charge of special supervision. Depending on their merits, they will be given the title of envoy, minister, or minister."

"The left minister and the right minister who are added to the left minister can have the title of third-rank minister of government and be the alternate minister of government."

Now the six ministers and the censor of Zuodu were satisfied. Lu Tunan, Zhang Jiude, and Cao Sicheng were somewhat disappointed, but not necessarily much. Especially Lu Tunan and Zhang Jiude. They used to hold the positions of general envoys and ministers of Dali Temple, and they needed to be promoted before they could become ministers. Now that he has been promoted to the rank of second-rank minister, he is ranked directly in front of the six ministers. Even among all the ministers in charge, he is the closest to the minister of discussion.

It can be said that their status has been improved again, and they have truly become the second of the nine ministers below the six ministers and the censor of Zuodu, and above other officials. The minister is no longer enough in front of them.

It can be said that Cao Sicheng's status has not changed. He is still below the Minister of Civil Affairs and above the right minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs. His title of Minister of Administration is one level higher than Yang Jingchen's title of Minister of Administration. It is still possible that after the vacancy of the Minister of Civil Affairs, Cao Sicheng , to become a true second-class product.

The one who was most disappointed might be the chief envoy who was not present. The reason why Zhu Youjian established the first- and second-grade titles was to give additional titles to the former second-grade chief envoys who were demoted to the third grade. However, after the establishment of the title system of the Fourth Auxiliary Minister, the ministers unanimously opposed the promotion of the title of the Chief Minister from the second-rank Minister of Administration, believing that those officials who could not even be transferred directly to the Minister of Administration were not worthy of becoming Ministers of Administration.

However, their original second-grade level needs to be maintained and cannot be reduced without reason. After discussion among the ministers, it was proposed that the emperor should give these people the rank of casual official or honorary rank as a sign of great favor, and the rank should be maintained at the second rank.

This approach of being careful about the name of the weapon was approved by Zhu Youjian. He once again followed the good example and used casual officials and honorary ranks to maintain the rank of the chief envoys at the second rank, without adding additional titles.

(End of this chapter)