Ming Dynasty man

Chapter 164 The Real Rebellion
These letters must be the top secret of the Jishi Army, and if he does not join the Jishi Army after reading it, he will surely die.

Yang Liufeng wanted to pull his hand back, but thinking that these letters involved the most confidential things in the court, if he didn't read them, it would be really itchy.

After thinking about it, Yang Liufeng gritted his teeth and said, "Wan Sheng knows that from now on, Wan Sheng will be a member of the Ji Shi Army."

Yuan Keli smiled lightly, turned his head to look at Zhou Hengchen and said, "Would you like to take a look?"

Zhou Hengchen smiled wryly, "So what if I don't see it?"

Yuan Keli smiled, took his hands away and said, "You two watch it together!"

Yang Liufeng and Zhou Hengchen looked at each other, and at the same time slowly reached out to pick up the letters on the table, and then read them carefully. After a while, their eyes narrowed and their expressions gradually became dignified. As they read more and more letters, The expressions of the two became more and more dignified.

After an unknown amount of time, the study suddenly lit up, and Yang Liufeng suddenly raised his head, only to realize that the sky had already darkened, and someone had lit the candle.

Yang Liufeng gently put the letter in his hand on the table, then sighed and said: "It turns out that there are so many shady scenes in the court, it's a pity that we were kept in the dark."

"That's right, there are few civil and military people in the Manchu Dynasty who only know how to fight for power and profit all day long. How can this great Ming Dynasty be stable?" Zhou Hengchen also sighed.

Yuan Keli looked at the two of them and said with a smile: "Be careful what you said just now, if you want to save the world and the people, you must rely on the emperor's sages and the talents of the ministers. I don't know how you feel now?"

Seeing that the two of them were silent, Yuan Keli sighed and continued: "Since the current emperor ascended the throne, he really wanted to make every effort to govern, but it is a pity that he has no understanding of people, and he is also self-willed, suspicious and unresolved, he is not a sage king. As for the group The ministers only know how to intrigue and scramble for power and profit, and there are even a group of officials who catch wind and shadows every day and act recklessly, so that the ministers in positions of power cannot be reused. If this continues, the days of the Ming Dynasty will not be long."

"Sir, do you have a good plan?" Zhou and Yang asked hurriedly.

Yuan Keli shook his head and turned his gaze to Li Jing.

Li Jingjing nodded and continued: "If you want to change the fate of Ming Dynasty, you have to do something serious. First of all, the emperor must not exercise power. You and I both know that if the emperor is a wise emperor, then everything is easy to talk about, but what if the emperor is a foolish emperor? Who can guarantee that the emperor is Ming Jun or Faint King?"

After a pause, Li Jing continued: "What's more, even if the emperor was a wise king when he was young, it is hard to guarantee that he will not be confused when he is old. Such examples are not uncommon. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Tang Taizong, and Tang Gaozong were not wise kings when they were young, but when they are old, they are always good. some stupid things!"

Yang Liufeng and Zhou Hengchen nodded silently upon hearing this.

Both of them were well-read in history books, so they naturally knew what Li Jing said was true.

Seeing the two nodding, Li Jing continued: "Let's talk about this dynasty. This dynasty has had sixteen emperors from Taizu to now, except Taizu (Hongwu), Chengzu (Yongle), Xuanzong (Xuande), and Xiaozong (Hongzhi). Chao, may I ask if there is still Ming Jun?"

Zhou and Yang shook their heads almost without thinking.

They knew very well that since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, only the above four emperors could be regarded as good emperors.

Li Jing continued: "There is no Ming emperor, how to govern the country?"

Zhou Hengchen and Yang Liufeng looked at each other, and suddenly understood what Li Jing was going to say.

The emperor is useless, and the country is naturally governed by ministers. Throughout history, the Ming Dynasty has the most famous ministers. If there were no such famous ministers, the Ming Dynasty would have collapsed long ago.

Similarly, the Ming Dynasty had the most treacherous and powerful officials in all dynasties.There are so many foolish emperors, it would be a ghost if there were no treacherous and powerful officials.

The achievements of the eunuch party are even more unique compared with previous dynasties. From Wang Zhen to Wang to Liu Jin to Wei Zhongxian, it can be said that each one is stronger than the other.

The reason why there were so many treacherous and powerful officials in the Ming Dynasty, and even so many eunuchs arrogating power, was because there were problems with the Ming Dynasty's system.

After Zhu Yuanzhang became emperor, he realized that the prime minister was a threat to the emperor's position, so he used the Hu Weiyong case to remove the prime minister.

But there is no prime minister, and many things must be handled by the emperor himself. It is okay to meet a model worker emperor like Zhu Yuanzhang, he is willing to do anything, and he is willing to take care of everything.

But not every emperor is willing to be a model worker. Who would want to be an emperor and suffer so much?
Therefore, after Zhu Di became emperor, he began to appoint secretaries (cabinets).

Zhu Di was more domineering, and none of the cabinet members dared to be presumptuous, but after Zhu Di's sons and grandsons became emperor, the power of the cabinet began to show.

The power of the cabinet is the drafting power, that is, the proposals from all over the country are first reviewed by the cabinet (mainly the chief assistant), and then written into a report and presented to the emperor, who will review it after reading it.

That is to say, the government affairs that the emperor wants to deal with are actually filtered by the cabinet, and this right is much greater than that of the prime minister.

Although the emperor has the greatest power in his hands, that is, the power of personnel, and he can change people if he does not execute it, but no matter how he changes, the power of the cabinet has never been reduced, but has become bigger and bigger. , refuse to execute.

In such a situation, in the final analysis, the emperor did not want to work. If the emperor did not want to work, he could only let the secretary do it. But if the emperor did not give the secretary the power, the secretary would not be able to work, so the emperor could only look at the cabinet. The power is getting bigger and bigger, and it can only be endured.

But the greater the power of the cabinet, the more uncomfortable the emperor is, and the emperor has only one person, how can he deal with these old fritters, so the emperor began to find helpers, and the helpers were eunuchs.

You must know that the memorials sent by the cabinet cannot be implemented without the emperor's instructions.This is the right to command, also called the right to criticize.

However, the emperor had too many things to do, and he had to give instructions on so many things himself. He would definitely not be able to give instructions. If he met a lazy and slippery emperor, he would be even less willing to do it. So the emperor asked eunuchs to help give instructions. These eunuchs It's called Bingbi eunuch.And Bingbi eunuch is not one person, but a group.

The eunuch Bingbi has a lot of power, but the eunuch with the greatest power is not the eunuch Bingbi, but the eunuch with palm seal, because after the instruction is completed, a seal is required, and it is useless to not stamp it.There is only one seal, so there is only one palm print eunuch.

In other words, the palm print eunuch is the boss of the eunuchs.

Later, the famous eunuchs were basically palm print eunuchs.

With the help of these eunuchs, the emperor can finally check and balance the cabinet and ministers.

This move is very good, the cabinet is powerful, the eunuchs are backed by the emperor, and the two sides are evenly matched, basically a tie.

But in order to truly balance, the key still depends on the emperor, and who the emperor trusts.

It's a pity that the emperor trusted eunuchs more after all.

So the Ming Dynasty was unlucky. Whenever the eunuchs were in power, the Ming Dynasty would lose its vitality.

But it would be wrong to say that the Ming Dynasty ended because of the eunuchs.

Even worse than the eunuch is the Yanguan.

The officials are mainly composed of the thirteen censors and the six divisions of the Metropolitan Procuratorate. Their grades are extremely low, usually the seventh rank.

Although the rank of the speech officials is low, they have great power. From the central government to the local government, from the top to the emperor's officials, down to the common people, from state affairs to social life, they are all within the scope of their supervision and speech. .

Especially the censors of the Metropolitan Procuratorate.

The Metropolitan Procuratorate is like a lunatic asylum. Once the gate is opened and the lunatics like Censor come out, it will be like scolding someone, catching someone, biting someone, and killing someone.

The Yanguan dared to be so arrogant because of the rule set by the previous emperor that he was not allowed to kill the Yanguan.

With such a rule in place, officials are naturally lawless. If the emperor dislikes them, they will not be polite, and they will scold them as soon as they say, and then the emperor can't do anything to them.

The middle and early stages of the Ming Dynasty were okay, because there were a bunch of powerful big names in town, although the officials were finding fault all day, they probably did some serious business, and they were not too arrogant, but in the later period, especially after the Donglin Party made a comeback, It's completely over.

These people don't do anything in the court all day long, they just fight with others, if you want to do this, he says no, if you want to do that, he also says no!

With such a bunch of bastards making trouble in the court all day long, it would be unreasonable if they could still get things done.

If you want to say that they have nothing to do, this is completely correct, but if you say that they have no purpose at all, then you are wrong. You must know that there are only so many positions in the imperial court. Come down, how do they go up?

If the people above get down and they haven't gone up yet, then continue to scold them.

Many people are aware of these ills in the imperial court, but no one can change them, and dare not change them, including the emperor.

Because these rules are ancestral system, set down by the emperor's ancestor Zhu Yuanzhang.

Through the letters just now, and what they heard and saw, Yang Liufeng and Zhou Hengchen also understood at this time that to change this country, the existing system must be changed first.

However, it is impossible to change the existing system by relying on the emperor, and neither can the ministers in the court.

Instead of agreeing to change the existing system, these people will obstruct change. Therefore, before changing the system, all these stumbling blocks must be knocked down.

At this time, the two of them finally knew what Li Jing was going to do. The person in front of them was going to rebel, and it was the real rebellion type!
The bandits rebelled just to make a living, so when the court gave out money and food, they surrendered without hesitation, but this person wanted to overthrow the Ming Dynasty!
The two were horrified, and secretly looked at each other, their eyes met, and then avoided.

Yang Liufeng and Zhou Hengchen's petty movements naturally couldn't escape Li Jing's eyes, and Li Jing also knew what the two were thinking after thinking for so long, because Li Jing's question was originally intended to make them think about it.

On the surface, neither Yuan Keli nor Li Jing seemed to clearly explain what the purpose of the Jishi Army was when they spoke, but Yuan Keli's brilliance was that he spoke first to guide and pave the way, and finally Li Jing made a concluding speech.But Li Jing's brilliance was that he raised the question and let the two of them think for themselves.

When Yang Liufeng and Zhou Hengchen figured it out, they would naturally know what Ji Shijun was going to do.

(End of this chapter)