However, if Longqing refused to allow the power of the cabinet to be further expanded, how could he explain that he let Gao Gong serve as a scholar of Wuyingdian University and concurrently serve as the secretary of the ministry? You must know that the official department is known as the "heavenly official" and is in charge of personnel, and Li Chunfang, the first assistant in the cabinet who is ranked before Gao Gong, does not dare to compete with Gao Gong at all, and Gao Gong is equivalent to mastering administrative power.

It stands to reason that this power itself is already very huge, but Emperor Kelong Qing is still not satisfied, and even the palm print of the celebrant is also put on the top of the person recommended by Gao Gong, which to some extent is equivalent to giving Gao Gong the final review power!

In the original history, everyone must admit that in the end of the Longqing Dynasty, everyone who did it against the high arch ended up bowing and stepping down, without exception.

Why does it always say that Gao Gong is the only courtier in Longqing's mind who can be fully trusted? This is the reason: Longqing can not only completely and completely delegate power to Gao Gong, but also support Gao Gong to the extent that "to go against Mr. Gao is to go against me".

So, Gao pragmatically speculated that Longqing's refusal to continue to increase the power of the cabinet formed a paradox with this trust? He doesn't think so. The reason is that Longqing does not trust the cabinet system, and he does not want to go against Taizu's original intention of not having a prime minister, he trusts only Gao Gong!

There's a big difference. If Longqing really trusts the cabinet system itself, and subconsciously thinks that it is a good thing to have a prime minister in the actual sense, then he should not care who is the "prime minister" in this powerful sense. However, the fact is that when Xu Jie's "negative domestic popularity" and the slightest sign of power in his hands, Longqing decisively let him go home to retire. It can be seen that in his heart, Gao Gong can hold great power, but the cabinet itself cannot have such a convention, and the power of the position itself must still be limited to "auxiliary", not "zai".

Therefore, he would rather let Gao Gong concurrently serve as the secretary of the ministry, and would rather appoint the master of ceremonies recommended by Gao Gong to vigorously strengthen Gao Gong's power and prestige with these actions, rather than directly hand over these powers to the cabinet. Because as long as these powers are separated, then in the future, if there is no such person as Gao Gong, the power will still be dispersed, and it will not form an overhead to the emperor. But if these powers evolve into the powers of the Cabinet, then the head of the Cabinet, such as the Prime Minister, may actually become the Prime Minister.

You must know that the current cabinet already has a parliamentary power, and some people regard the cabinet as the "Zhongshu Province" and the cabinet ministers as the "prime minister", mainly focusing on this point. The cabinet parliamentary power is mainly embodied in the drafting of votes, and its instrument operation mechanism basically has three aspects.

First of all, although the cabinet has not been "shut down" in advance for all the political affairs that have been requested and approved by the six ministries, it is not an adviser after the fact, nor does it mean that it may not be consulted, but all of them must be drafted by the cabinet, and all of them can be "refuted." All chapters and performances in the country, except for the above-mentioned six inscriptions, which are approved and then "drafted," are also submitted to the cabinet for approval and vote.

Secondly, the ministers are responsible for the White Cabinet. In December of the third year of Jingtai, Emperor Jing ordered the Ministry of Officials to raise officials such as the Ministry of Officials, and the Ministry of Officials "put two books at a time, and seal them with the ministry,...... One is a handbook for the secretary of ceremonies, and the other is sent to the cabinet for advisers", breaking the stereotype that "the ministers and cabinets must not be white". With the formation of the cabinet system, the handling of major issues by the ministers is generally discussed with the cabinet to reach an understanding. For example, Wang Qiong, the secretary of the Ministry of Shangshu at the time of Zhengde and Jiajing, said: "The power of the cabinet is gradually increasing, which is no different from the establishment of the prime minister. The power of the six ministries is gradually decreasing, and everything is more than happy to be subject to the decree of the cabinet.

Again, the governors, fu, general soldiers, and inspectors outside the country directly wrote to the cabinet and asked for instructions. Especially since Zhengde, the governors have written to the cabinet in the form of unveiling posts, asking for instructions on the military, government, finance, and endowment plans, and the cabinet is in the center to teach strategies remotely, which is accustomed to it. Therefore, whenever the civil unrest is calmed down and the border affairs are stable, the cabinet ministers must be rewarded without exception for their efforts in strategizing.

All of the above three instruments, all the decisions of the emperor were made through them. Since all of them must be voted by the Cabinet, the Cabinet is active and relatively stable, unlike the "reserve advisers" of the Hanlin Scholars and others in the past.

In addition, the cabinet vote is intended to have a certain restraining effect on the imperial power. First of all, in terms of the draft vote, the emperor's power to approve the red cannot go beyond the cabinet vote and act on his own, and the draft vote becomes an administrative order after the approval of the red. Secondly, if the emperor takes the initiative to issue an edict and issue a decree to deal with political affairs, he must also send it to the cabinet to "discuss whether it is indeed possible" and "if the holy will is taken, he must also be discussed by the cabinet before acting". If the cabinet does not agree, theoretically it can "seal back" and "execute" the edict and the central decree, that is, refuse to draft the decree.

Xu Pu, a university scholar, once said: "Since his accession to the throne, there has been no internal surrender. As soon as the lucky door opened, the end of the stream. The ministers did not dare to obey the edict. In the early years of Jiajing, Yang Tinghe, a scholar, "returned the fourth of the imperial approvers, and played a few or thirty sparse".

Again, the cabinet ministers revealed the views and positions of the cabinet, and the emperor had to pay attention to them. Secret disclosure is one of the ways for the cabinet to enter the speech, "Chinese and foreign ministers are sealed, there are general political departments outside, and there are meeting gates inside, and there are number books, but the cabinet can only enter the secret disclosure." …… A thousand words from the outer court are better than banning secret words."

The cabinet can not only give advice to the emperor, handle national affairs, and relieve the emperor of his heavy burden; It also cooperates with the six ministries with executive power to provide checks and balances to improve the quality and efficiency of governance. This is the main reason why the Cabinet has a trend of "becoming a prime minister" and that Cabinet scholars are regarded as "prime ministers".

Of course, if the emperor doesn't care about his face at all, he can still bypass the cabinet, for example, Jiajing always did this kind of thing in the era of the Great Rites Discussion, but correspondingly, there are civil officials like Hai Rui, who dare to scold the emperor and say, "The people of the world are not upright for a long time, and the internal and external ministers know it", so Jiajing, a very skillful emperor, became the representative of the faint monarch in later generations.

Of course, Long Qing has seen and understood his father's wrists, and of course he doesn't want to mix up the name of a faint monarch in the future, so his actions are very cautious: Gao Pragmatic, the prince's companion, is a new one to be created by the emperor, but although this position is hung in the Hanlin Academy, it has no grade, and according to convention, it is the so-called "non-entry". It's such a trivial matter, you can't say I'm messing around, right?

As for his dedication to the book, although I gave him a bachelor-in-waiting, it was a "fake bachelor-in-waiting" - the "fake" here is not a real or false false, it is equivalent to an "honorary scholar-in-waiting" - not actually holding the position of a scholar-in-waiting, it is purely for the sake of the prince's face to put a name on him, you can't say that I am messing around, right?

It is precisely because Gao Pragmatic has figured out these things that he feels that he is afraid that not only some people in the later historical circles have underestimated Longqing, but he may have underestimated this benevolent gentleman before-he may not be benevolent, but benevolence does not mean that there are no means.

Look how beautiful he is doing today, with a new idle official, not only to save face for the prince, but also to show favor to Gao Gong, by the way, to test the bottom line and attitude of the civil officials to the imperial power, and even slightly show his grandeur as the emperor.

Awesome.