Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

Because of Han Yu's remarks that the emperor should be in power, Zhu Youjian strengthened his control over the cabinet.

In the name of adjusting the division of labor, he established a Finance Department in the cabinet, headed by Han Yu and Xu Guangqi, who were responsible for financial memorials.

Han Yu's power was mainly concentrated in the financial field. A financial and economic committee was established to let Han Yu solve the difficult financial problem.

The word "economy" has gradually changed from "managing the country and benefiting the people" to "managing the country and benefiting the world" to referring specifically to money and property. The original meaning of this word also shows that economic activities are related to the governance of the country.

The Finance and Economics Committee is abbreviated as the Finance and Economics Committee. It has enormous power. The chief officials of the Ministry of Revenue, Ministry of Works, Sinong Temple, Taifu Temple, Taipu Temple, Shaofu Temple, Guanglu Temple and other government offices with financial power are all included in this committee.

The Minister of Revenue Bi Ziyan, like Xu Guangqi, became the deputy director of the Finance and Economics Committee, assisting Han Yu.

The first task that Zhu Youjian gave Han Yu was to implement the various taxes previously set by the court, and to complete the creation of the Yellow Book before the fifth year of Chongzhen.

Han Yu complained bitterly about this task, but since he wanted power, he had to take responsibility.

The situation in which people only hold power but do not take responsibility as in the past must be changed.

However, this was not the most uncomfortable thing for him. What he did not want to let go of was that the emperor asked him to complete the trial of the rebellion case as soon as possible, and to transfer the trial committee of the rebellion case into the Integrity Judicial Committee and hand it over to Yang Jingchen.

The chief officials of the Ministry of Personnel, the Ministry of Justice, the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and the Supreme Court were all included in this committee. Yang Jingchen's right to speak on personnel selection was still unquestionable. He also had to cooperate with the Ministry of Personnel to implement the responsibility system throughout the country.

Human rights are so important that Han Yu didn't want to give up this power. But under the emperor's order, he could only publish the list of traitors and hand over the Anti-Corruption Law Commission to Yang Jingchen.

In addition, Zhu Youjian also established the Liyue Education Committee, which was headed by Wen Tiren and was mainly responsible for rituals, music, education, book revision, and preparation for the National Assembly. The power was relatively small, but the influence was very large.

The Minister of Rites Cheng Jiming, the Imperial Academy Chief Academic Liu Zongzhou and others were included in this committee.

These three committees were all under the charge of the cabinet, and there was one committee that was handed over by Zhu Youjian to Yuan Keli, the Privy Councilor.

That was the Anti-Rebellion and Disaster Relief Committee which was established very early but was later separated.

At the beginning, because of this committee, Yuan Keli had power almost equivalent to that of the prime minister.

After Han Yu returned to the court to take up his post, he proposed to split the committee into a suppression committee and a disaster relief committee.

Out of consideration for avoiding suspicion and also because he had too many part-time jobs and was too busy to handle it, Yuan Keli agreed to the proposal.

Now most of his part-time jobs have been removed from him, and his power is almost limited to the Privy Council.

In order to check and balance the Prime Minister, Zhu Youjian merged the two committees into the Quelling Rebellion and Disaster Relief Committee.

Yuan Keli presided over the meeting, and Xue Fengxiang, Bi Ziyan, Shi Fenglai, Xu Guangqi and others assisted. Yuan Keli regained his say in government affairs, and also strengthened the power of the Privy Council to a certain extent.

The establishment of four major committees divides the power of the cabinet into four major parts.

In addition, Zhu Youjian also set up a standing office in the cabinet, headed by Li Guopu and Zheng Yiwei, responsible for the daily affairs and duty of the cabinet. Li Guopu actually became the standing deputy, the so-called second assistant.

The three departments of the Executive Office, the Finance Office, and the Grand Council further dispersed the power of the cabinet.

The system of division of responsibilities was further established in the cabinet.

Han Yu felt very uncomfortable with this division of labor.

But outsiders don't know much about this. Many scholars praised the ceremony of conferring titles and appointing prime ministers. Most scholars believed that the current emperor respected civil officials very much and was very generous in granting them titles.

However, some newspapers also raised objections. They cited the provisions in the Great Ming Code and the Great Ming Code that "civil officials are not allowed to be granted the title of duke or marquis", and believed that the title was inappropriate.

This attracted attacks from scholars and literati, who nitpicked and pointed out that Taizu's rule prohibiting the indiscriminate conferring of dukes and marquises did not include the emperor's newly created sons and sons, and even did not include earls.

Some even bring up the example of the emperor posthumously conferring the title of Duke on Yu Qian and Zhang Juzheng, arguing that this is in line with what Taizu said: "Those who were generals or ministers during their lifetime, who were able to eliminate major disasters and serve the country with loyalty, should be conferred the title of Duke and posthumously honored as Duke together with those who made contributions to the founding of the country, regardless of this rule."

In addition, it was common for the Ming emperor to award civil officials hereditary titles. Inheriting titles was also known as inheriting nobility among the people.

Therefore, most people believed that it was appropriate for the emperor to confer titles of nobility on the sons of meritorious officials, and even those who had made great contributions could be conferred the title of earl.

This made Han Yu feel very comfortable, and he also felt that the emperor's promise of title was not an empty promise.

If he could achieve the same feats as Zhang Juzheng, even if he could not get the title of duke because he did not support the young lord, he would be almost certain to get the title of earl by demoting two levels.

So he dug up the practices of Zhang Juzheng, who was overthrown by his father-in-law, and even the practices of Zhang Fujing, and thought about how to rectify internal affairs and solve financial difficulties.

But before that, he still had one thing to do, which was to bring the rebellion to a complete conclusion.

More than a year has passed since the eunuch party was overthrown, and those eunuchs who should have been tried have already been tried. In fact, if it weren't for the gift money case at the end of last year, Han Yu would have been able to finalize the list of traitors at the beginning of this year.

Now, after more than half a year of retrial, the new list of traitors has been recognized by the emperor and most of the ministers. The first thing Han Yu did after becoming the Prime Minister was to make the list of traitors public.

This was Zhu Youjian's request, to come up with a list that would be recognized by the people of the world, to prevent the dispute between the eunuch party and the Donglin party from continuing and affecting the order of the court.

He also had another intention, which was to allow the public to supervise the officials whose property had been confiscated.

If someone failed to hand over all illegal income and income from unknown sources and was reported by the public, Zhu Youjian would increase the punishment and send the Jinyiwei, who had already been strictly disciplined, to confiscate their property.

Therefore, the list of reverse cases will be publicized for half a year until it is finalized.

This incident attracted the attention of the government and the public. Many scholars shifted their discussion of the officialdom to the list of traitors.

Many newspapers also solicited relevant information from the public and encouraged them to report those who had escaped the eunuch party.

The Donglin Party members were also very satisfied. Han Yu had regained some of the support he had lost because of the gift money case.

However, some people were not satisfied and believed that the emperor should dismiss all those involved in the treason case, such as Guo Yunhou, Xue Fengxiang, Yang Jingchen, Wang Yongguang and others, all of whom should be dismissed from office.

However, this opinion did not receive widespread support, especially among some remnants of the eunuch party, who later proposed that Yuan Chonghuan was the main culprit in the construction of the temple.

As the host of the construction of the Liaodong Temple, Yuan Chonghuan should have been ranked fifth, but because of his previous achievements, the emperor gave him a lighter sentence and downgraded him to the sixth rank.

If Guo Yunhou and others were to be dismissed from office for treason, Yuan Chonghuan should be removed from office and even have his property confiscated.

As his teacher, Han Yu certainly did not want to see this. There were also many people in the court who spoke up for Yuan Chonghuan and even wanted to remove him from the list of traitors.

Therefore, the final punishment was still to demote those below the sixth rank. Those above the fifth rank were demoted to civilians and never employed again unless they made meritorious contributions overseas.

The crimes committed by each person on the list and the punishments they received were clearly written down and made public to the world. (End of this chapter)