Chapter 300 The impassioned Mr. Xiaoge
Cabinet.
The Ming Dynasty's cabinet was located in the Wenyuan Pavilion behind the Meridian Gate of the Forbidden City, close to the Donghua Gate and behind the Wenhua Hall.
This was originally the royal library. Every day it was a secretarial agency where noble officials compiled dictionaries and the emperor consulted on political opinions at any time.
But with the distortion of political strongman Zhu Yuanzhang's obsession with power, and his extremely selfish concept of regarding the country as home.
Therefore, the prime minister system that could have balanced the imperial power and aimed at co-governance was abolished by Lao Zhu with extremely bloody and cruel means, so that both the imperial power and the prime minister's power were concentrated in the emperor.
It goes without saying that Lao Zhu is very energetic. He can shoulder all the tasks that should belong to the Prime Minister of Zhongshu Province, but the kings of later generations are not as energetic as Lao Zhu. Do it all.
So, after the prime minister system was abolished, the cabinet system was born in a subtle way.
First, in the fifteenth year of Hongwu, Lao Zhu imitated the Song Dynasty system and set up Huagai Hall, Wuying Hall, Wenyuan Pavilion, and Dong Pavilion. Among them, Shao Zhi, the Minister of Rites, Wu Bozong, the reviewer, and Song Dynasty, the Hanlin scholar. Na and Dianji Wu Chen were respectively the four great bachelors.
However, these four bachelors are all mascots for display. They are only used to set off Lao Zhu's false appearance of advocating literature and Confucianism, and have no real practical use.
Although Lao Zhu later appointed a bachelor of Wenhua Palace and recruited senior scholars Bao Xun, Yu Quan, Zhang Changnian and others to serve as tutors for the prince, and his rank was the fifth rank, his main power was only as an advisor
But this undoubtedly set an example for Jianwen Xiaocai and Yongle's good uncle, giving them guidance on the route. When government affairs could not be handled, they would select some people to serve as bachelors, bachelors and above. Consulting on political affairs.
So during the Jianwen period, Jianwen's little cutie, who wanted to become a wise king, recruited a large number of learned scholars as bachelors, the most famous of whom was Fang Xiaoru.
But it is a pity that although Hou Fang Xiaoru is well-read in poetry and has great Confucian learning, his political abilities are almost all ideal abilities, which are comparable to those of the Great Sage Wang thousands of years ago.
So Emperor Jianwen, with the active assistance of Fang Xiaoru and other great scholars, only spent four years to hand over the country to his good uncle, His Highness King Yan.
King Yan ascended the throne as Emperor Yongle. Although he also had the power ambition of Lao Zhu, he was a fierce man who could not stand still.
So during the Yongle period, because he was constantly fighting abroad, Emperor Yongle had to rely heavily on civil servants to govern the country.
Therefore, Emperor Yongle also learned from his good nephew and selected some political elites with practical talents such as Jie Jin, Hu Guang, Yang Rong, etc. to join Wenyuan Pavilion to participate in machine maintenance, which was called the cabinet. , to assist the prince Zhu Dapang in handling state affairs at home.
Thus, the cabinet system was formed.
In the following more than a hundred years of development, the cabinet has gradually transformed from an advisory body into a power center with certain powers to discuss and make decisions, and also has control over the "vote drafting" process. right.
Although not as powerful as the original prime minister, in a sense, the cabinet bachelor can be regarded as a kind of prime minister.
As a result, the status of the chief minister of the cabinet has also risen, becoming the career pinnacle that countless officials in the Ming Dynasty have been waiting for.
However, the cabinet still has many restrictions. For example, because the original Wenyuan Pavilion was the territory of the Hanlin nobles of the Hanlin Academy, if you want to join the cabinet, you must have Hanlin status.
Although this rule is unwritten, it is still an insurmountable iron law. Even the emperor rarely breaks such a tacit understanding of the rules.
Therefore, the highest authority in the Ming Dynasty, other than the emperor, was only a competitive game among the Hanlins, and had nothing to do with those who were capable but had no Hanlin experience. Therefore, in the Ming Dynasty, except for some people who have noble temperaments and are obsessed with traditional Confucian ethics to the extreme, who think that the country and the emperor are the objects of their loyalty in this life, most of the remaining people have no idea about the concept of the country, even in the Ming Dynasty If they die, for them it is just a change of family and surname to take over the world.
After all, it was Lao Zhu who started this bad guy first. Who made him treat Ming Dynasty as the private property of one family? Therefore, at the last critical moment when the country was destroyed and the family was destroyed, the Ming Dynasty naturally did not have the good luck like the Southern Song Dynasty. There were a large number of loyal ministers and generals who were willing to fight for the country, and some were just clowns who did not know what life and death were. There is a fight for chicken heads in Jinling City.
So the violent demise of the Ming Dynasty was also destined.
In the words of fatalism, every drink and every peck has a certain fate. You still have to pay back what is due. No one can think about immortality and eternity.
But now the cabinet is extremely lively!
Yan Shifan held the memorial he had written early in the morning in his hand, and started questioning it in the cabinet without passing it through the Secretary of General Affairs.
“Everyone, take a look, this is the consequence of Shuntian Prefecture grabbing the right to build the city from the Ministry of Industry. Wang Youzhao and the others just want to get benefits and ignore human life. It just snowed and ten people froze to death. How many people, if it snows again, hundreds or thousands of people will freeze to death? If these workers and civilians are all frozen to death, who will be able to repair the outer city of the capital for the Ming Dynasty? "
< br>"And that Hai Rui was so bold that he sent people to surround the scene and told the outside world that the people who froze to death were sheep. How can a person who is so callous and callous and regards human life as trivial be able to do a good job in supervision?"
“So today I, Mr. Yan, just want to get rid of this black gauze hat on my head. I also want to impeach Wang Youzhao and Hai Rui, these two harmful officials who neglected their duties and disregarded human lives, to bring justice to the dead workers and people. Fight for justice!”
Yan Shifan gave an impassioned speech while holding up his memorial in the cabinet.
Yan Song, the chief minister of the cabinet, watched his son's performance in silence. He was also wondering in his heart, when did his son have such a great sense of justice? It's really surprising.
But when he heard that Yan Shifan’s target was against Wang Youzhao and Hai Rui, Yan Song understood. It turned out that it was because of the matter of the City Construction Department. It seemed that his son was still unwilling to accept power and was exploited by Wang Youzhao and the others. Walk.
However, out of a cautious attitude, Yan Song did not comment immediately after Yan Shifan finished his passionate speech. Instead, he looked at Xu Jie who was standing aside and looked stunned.
Yan Song asked Xu Jie: "Zisheng, what do you think?"
Xu Jie heard Yan Song's question and looked at the aggressive Yan Shifan, and he could only sigh helplessly. It seems that Wang Youzhao still didn't understand his instructions that day, and finally fell into Yan Shifan's trap.
Therefore, in order to ensure that he would not be implicated, Xu Jie said: "Of course, this matter must be handed over to the Ministry of Punishment, the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and the Dali Temple to take over the investigation. At the same time, it must be reported to the Holy One, who will personally judge it. We, the ministers, Don't go beyond the rules and jump to conclusions."
After listening to Xu Jie's words, Yan Song nodded slowly and said in an old voice: "Zi Sheng is right, Shi Fan, since you have your heart. If the workers and people who died in vain seek justice, then you have to be punished first. First, give the memorial in your hand to the secretary of the cabinet, and let him run to Xiyuan to submit it to the Holy Emperor."
"Then you can do it again. Get people from the Criminal Department, the Metropolitan Procuratorate and Dali Temple and ask them to investigate Wang Youzhao and Hai Rui's faults in the name of the court. You can't do anything for them. "
After hearing what his father said, Yan Shifan was very sad. He was not convinced, but he still bowed his head obediently and replied: "Yes, son, I will do it right away."
Originally, Yan Shifan wanted to personally lead people to capture Wang Youzhao and Hai Rui, but unfortunately, now it is really To give them an advantage, let the Ministry of Justice, the Procuratorate and the Dali Temple get involved.
(End of this chapter)