The most reckless man in the Ming Dynasty.

Chapter 427: Ministerial Power and Imperial Power

Military generals use their military power to force the court to surrender and use their military might to intimidate the world!
This is the current situation in the Zhengde court!
What really frightened all the officials was that Emperor Zhengde did not regard this general as a scourge, fear him, or even suppress him. Instead, he helped him grow, regarded him as his confidant, and relied on his power!
This situation is unprecedented in history.

Such a strange and unbelievable combination is now overwhelming the civil and military officials in the court, making them all breathless.

Even though they had all sorts of clever schemes and used all sorts of means, even taking risks and committing heinous crimes, trying to use food to force Emperor Zhengde to give in, who could have imagined that Zhongshan Hou Tang Hao not only recaptured Hetao in one battle, but also directly defeated the main Mongolian army, captured the Mongolian prince alive, and brought his invincible momentum to press down, forcing the gentry to bow their heads and surrender.

What will a huge interest group do when it is pushed into a corner?
This question has been lingering in Tang Hao's mind for many days.

He was involved in court affairs all day long, so he naturally knew all the news.

To put it bluntly, as those gentry and scholars said, they do not want to see a strong emperor.

The root cause lies in the conflict and contradiction between imperial power and ministerial power!
The current situation is under the threat of Tang Hao's military force and Zhu Houzhao's drastic measures.

The Ming Dynasty's emperor's power, which had been lost for many years, is about to rise again!
The rise of imperial power is bound to be followed by the decline of ministerial power!
Throughout the dynasties, the struggle between imperial power and ministerial power has been endless.

In the Qianqing Palace, Tang Hao and Zhu Houzhao were chatting.

"The power of the prime minister, which represents the power of the ministers, and the power of the emperor, which represents the power of the emperor, are supposed to check and balance each other and cooperate with each other."

"For example, in the early years of Emperor Wu of Han, the relatives of Empress Dowager Dou controlled the government for a long time. Emperor Wu of Han wanted to rule the country himself, so he had no choice but to select his own relatives as prime ministers to counter the power of Empress Dowager Dou's relatives. For example, the famous Tian Fen was Emperor Wu's uncle."

"With Tian Fen's assistance, Emperor Wu of Han gradually purged the Dou family's relatives from the court. When Empress Dowager Dou died, Emperor Wu of Han promoted Tian Fen to be prime minister and officially began to rule the country. However, Tian Fen soon became more and more arrogant, relying on his status as a royal relative and a prime minister who was above everyone else. He used the thirteen Caos under his jurisdiction to sell official positions and even exercised the power to confer titles on behalf of the emperor. This was an usurpation of royal authority."

"Then there was the open and covert struggle between Emperor Wu of Han and Prime Minister Tian Fen. In the end, Tian Fen died of illness. Emperor Wu of Han tried his best to suppress the power of the prime minister. He would change the prime minister every once in a while. Few of them had a good end. Eleven of the thirteen prime ministers died an unnatural death."

"This is the most typical struggle between the power of the prime minister and the power of the emperor!"

Tang Hao gave an easy-to-understand example, the story of the love-hate relationship between Emperor Wu of Han and his uncle Tian Fen.

Anyone with a discerning eye could see that Tian Fen was able to succeed the prime minister because Emperor Wu of Han intentionally promoted him. However, after succeeding the prime minister, he became arrogant and overstepped his authority, which led to a conflict with Emperor Wu of Han.

Zhu Houzhao listened with great interest, as he rarely heard these stories mentioned.

Even those great scholars and celebrities would never tell Zhu Yuanzhang these things. The literati and scholars are the main body of ministerial power. They are crazy and stupid to remind Zhu Houzhao openly that you must suppress the power of the prime minister and strengthen the power of the emperor!
So Tang Hao's words now were like a bombshell, which made Zhu Houzhao very excited.

"Keep talking!"

"This can be seen as the earliest struggle between the power of the prime minister and the power of the emperor!"

Tang Hao licked his lips and continued, "During Emperor Wu's reign, the reason why a situation like Tian Fen occurred was because the power of the prime minister was concentrated in the hands of only one person. If all prime ministers were like Chen Ping, no one would try to weaken the power of the prime minister."

"But people are different. Who can guarantee that their prime minister will always be a wise one? Later dynasties took some measures to deal with the problem. For example, Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty, Yang Jian, invented the system of three provinces and six ministries. In this way, there will never be a situation where a prime minister can cover the sky with one hand. The heads of the three provinces are the three prime ministers. They supervise each other. No one wants the other to become too powerful and monopolize the government. In this way, no one dares to directly resist the imperial power."

"Emperor Taizu of Song Dynasty established Tongzhongshumenxia Pingzhangshi and appointed Canzhizhengshi as the deputy prime minister to divide the power of the prime minister. However, after Wang Anshi's reform, the three ministries were merged into Shangshu Province. In this way, the power was returned to the prime minister, and the power of the prime minister once again competed with the power of the emperor."

"Our Ming Dynasty inherited the system of the previous Song Dynasty, so the problem of the power of the prime minister came up. For example, in the early Ming Dynasty, Yang Xian was corrupt, accepted bribes, and sold official positions. That was because he, as the left prime minister, had the power of decision-making, administration, and discussion. So when he issued an order, such as the simplest personnel transfer, the six ministries and hundreds of departments would think it was normal, or that it was the will of His Majesty the Emperor, so they would not delve into it or question it!"

"After Yang Xian, there was Hu Weiyong, who was promoted to the position of Left Prime Minister, the highest position among all officials. As his power continued to grow, he became increasingly arrogant and domineering, arbitrarily deciding the life and death of officials and their promotions and demotions, and colluded with Zhongcheng Tu Jie, Yushi Doctor Chen Ning and others to form a clique for personal gain!"

"Hu Weiyong relied on the favor of Emperor Taizu Gao, deceived his superiors and bullied his subordinates, formed a clique for personal gain, did whatever he wanted, and manipulated the power of life and death, promotion and demotion. In the end, he attracted the bloody purge of Emperor Taizu, who killed Hu Weiyong and deposed the chancellor. From then on, the prime minister's power was completely defeated in the struggle with the imperial power!"

Where does ministerial power come from?
Always existed!
But since the time when Hongwu ruled the world and his ministers were like ants, the emperor would be so angry that millions of people would die.

Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang, with the power of the founding emperor, suppressed all officials and whipped the world. Even if he killed people so much that rivers of blood flowed and heads rolled, the gentry could only endure it. At most, they would curse him as a "tyrant" and "dictator" behind his back.

The Hongwu era was an era when the emperor ruled the world and there was almost no power for his ministers.

The Jianwen era was an era of revival of ministerial power, and gentry once again emerged to take charge of government.

Later, during the Yongle era, Prince of Yan Zhu Di Jingnan seized the throne. He was also a horse emperor, holding great power, and his ministers were no different from ants!
During the Hongxi and Xuande eras, civil and military officials could still compete with each other, and the power of ministers and the power of the emperor were stable at a certain level.

However, everything that goes up must come down. During the Zhengtong era, a civil war occurred and the military officers and nobles suffered heavy losses. Even the core base of the military officers fell into the hands of civil officials and gentry. During the period when the Three Yangs were in power, the Cabinet re-agglomerated the power of the prime minister, surpassing the six ministries and becoming the representative of the power of the prime minister!
After that, the entire history is about the struggle between the power of ministers and the power of the emperor!
How many people worked hard to hold the power in their hands, to put the imperial power that could take a person's life and shake the world in a moment into a cage, in that deep palace!
nowadays……

Duke Xin Tang Hao released the imperial power with his own hands!

But who wants to let life and death depend on the thoughts of others?
Who would be willing to change from being a chess player overlooking all living things to being a chess piece at the mercy of others, with life and death determined by a single thought? !
(End of this chapter)