There is no trace of time, spring comes and summer goes and another year.

The Ming Empire has a history of nearly two hundred years, but the universe is still singing and dancing.

Some people say that after the establishment of a new dynasty, a process of entropy increase will begin, and reform and stability of the order will be a process of reverse entropy.

Zhu Houzhao has been suppressing the increase of entropy since he ascended the throne, but Zhu Houzhao does not know whether the process of suppressing the increase of entropy will end after him, so that the dynasty will continue to tend to a state of disorder and chaos.

Fortunately, the world is still peaceful and inactive, and children and grandchildren only have children and grandchildren, and Zhu Houzhao can't control the future generations, and now he can only do a good job in the present and cherish his last old age.

Tingtui's fraud allowed Zhu Houzhao to see the increasingly obvious signs of the rising merchant class vying for political power, and he also dealt with a number of officials who fell under the sugar-coated cannonballs of the merchant class.

However, as the emperor, Zhu Houzhao had to rebuild a system that was easier to delay the increase in entropy, in addition to eliminating the factors that caused the increase in entropy.

For this reason, Zhu Houzhao specially summoned the cabinet ministers to discuss the matter.

Although the various ministries of the Guards have been specially independent as the highest military organs, the cabinet has also become the highest administrative organ, the Ministry of Officials has become the highest personnel management body, the Metropolitan Procuratorate has become the highest supervisory organ, and the Criminal Department and Dali Temple have become the highest judicial organs.

But Zhu Houzhao did not have a team that planned the overall situation with him in the entire imperial military and political aspects.

At present, it is mainly the cabinet ministers who are still playing this role, after all, the cabinet ministers are in charge of the administration of the empire and are more aware of the current state of imperial society.

"The court push fraud has exposed a lot of problems, and the most alarming thing is that businessmen interfere in politics! A Hou Lu, just an ordinary businessman, can actually manipulate the selection of cabinet ministers! If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed it! ”

Zhu Houzhao said a word, and then asked the cabinet ministers Xia Yan and Xu Jin: "What do the two Aiqing think?" ”

Xia Yan also saw the shortcomings of Tingtui, he had to admit that the times have indeed changed, in the Hongzhi period, the power of businessmen in the world is not as good as now, Tingtui is undoubtedly easier to launch capable ministers, and now, the merchant forces almost want to confront the powerful, in Jiangnan, the rich businessmen have even been able to threaten the government with a strike, and now Tingtui is controlled by businessmen, so that it is inevitable that the officials are full of businessmen's children.

Therefore, Xia Yan also hopes that His Majesty the Emperor can take back the power of Tai'a and directly issue an order to appoint and dismiss officials, of course, this kind of appointment and dismissal is inevitably unobjective, after all, it is impossible for the emperor to know everything about tens of thousands of officials in the world, therefore, in Xia Yan's view, at most, it can be recommended by important ministers, and the emperor can appoint and dismiss him.

However, if an important minister is recommended, it is inevitable that the emperor will attach too much importance to an important minister, and because of the influence of this important minister, he will lose his mind to appoint and dismiss officials.

Therefore, Xia Yan thinks that there should still be a court push, but too many people cannot be allowed to participate in the court push, because allowing too many people to participate in the court push has proved to have not prevented businessmen from interfering in politics through bribery and other means, and letting a small number of important ministers have court push is easier to achieve the purpose of balancing the interests of all parties, because an important minister basically represents the interests of one party.

"Your Majesty, Tai Ah Ben is in the sole charge of His Majesty, but there are thousands of redundant affairs, which has made His Majesty have no time to spare, and it is fair and reasonable to be elected by the courtiers, but there are too many people involved in the court push, it is inevitable that Your Majesty does not know whether all the court pushers are dedicated to the public, so the minister proposes to set up a council office, and regularly appoint a group of important ministers as the ministers of parliament, and His Majesty and the ministers of parliament will promote officials and resolutions on important matters, and the ministers of parliament and the Son of Heaven are odd numbers, and the ministers of parliament have one vote, and the Son of Heaven will make the final decision!"

"In order to prevent the Minister of Parliament from dictatorship, the term of office of each Minister of Parliament shall not exceed ten years, and every five years, the Son of Heaven needs to re-appoint and dismiss the Minister of Parliament, in case the Son of Heaven is biased towards one person for too long, and the Minister of Parliament should not be nine, so that the Son of Heaven can know its roots, observe its dynamics, and those who are ministers of parliament are important ministers of the country, and those who are virtuous can live in it, so they will naturally think of the society of the country and the grace of the king!"

Xia Yan stepped forward at this time.

The Parliamentary Office?

Minister of Parliament?

Zhu Houzhao thought about it and understood what Xia Yan meant, the Ming Dynasty did not have a prime minister system, which means that there is no decision-making organ, although the cabinet has this role, it cannot directly represent the prime minister's power, for a super empire, it is indeed impossible to have a decision-making organ that coordinates the overall situation.

When he was young, he was fine, shrewd and capable, and he could act as a decision-maker himself.

But he is old now, and it is inevitable that future kings will be lazy, and having a decision-making body to manage the world for the emperor is naturally to avoid the world from losing order or being taken advantage of by businessmen, but having a prime minister means that there will be powerful ministers, which means that there will be usurped the throne, and Xia Yan's method limits the term and time of the minister.

Zhu Houzhao could guess that Xia Yan's suggestions must have been influenced by the theory of a mode of state operation in the sacred science, and proposed this method.

However, Zhu Houzhao also has to admit that Xia Yan has his own limitations, he still asks the emperor to directly appoint ministers of parliament, although it is indeed for the purpose of protecting the power of the imperial power, but it is still unavoidable that if an emperor is mediocre and subjectively appoints ministers and villains as ministers of parliament, it will still make the empire not have a good leadership body.

This still has to test whether the emperor can choose the next prince.

Of course, Zhu Houzhao's ideal result is that even if the system of ministers of parliament is really established according to Xia Yan, then the ministers of parliament are not appointed by the emperor, and even the emperor should not rely on the family inheritance system to become the emperor.

However, when Zhu Houzhao really wanted to say this, Xu Jin had already stood up first: "Your Majesty, Xia Yan should be punished!" ”

Xu Jin's words really startled Zhu Houzhao, and Xia Yan himself was stunned and looked at Xu Jin in dismay.

Zhu Houzhao calmed down first, and before Xu Jin could speak, he could guess that he would only do it according to Xia Yan's idea.

The civil officials of the Manchu Dynasty are afraid that it will be difficult to agree, after all, no one wants this country to really only let the emperor and a few trusted people have the final say, and they also don't want to let the common people in the world have the final say.

"Taizu has a testament, the dynasty cannot say anything about the prime minister, Xia Yan said that the legislative office is no different from the province of Lizhongshu, and the so-called minister of parliament is no different from the prime minister! Therefore, Xia Yan should be punished! In addition, the Ministry of Officials, together with the Six Ministries, the Metropolitan Inspectorate, the Temples, the Guozijian and other court ministers, officials, and soldiers, was originally a testament of the first emperor, how could it be changed without permission! Xia Yan deliberately abused his power, so he should be killed! ”

Xu Jin showed a tough posture that he had never seen before, his words were very sharp, and he gritted his teeth as if he had a deep enmity with Xia Yan and the sea of blood.

Of course, the root cause is that Xu Jin naturally does not really tolerate Xia Yan, but does not tolerate Xia Yan, which makes most civil officials lose the power to influence the decision-making of the imperial court.

"Your Majesty, the minister's original intention is not to set up a prime minister, but to change the system of court pushing, and although court push is a legacy of the first emperor, it is not an exception, it is just a temporary expediency, and the power of Tai'a is originally reserved for His Majesty, so it is naturally all up to the holy judgment!"

Xia Yan glared at Xu Jin, he just made some suggestions based on the actual situation of the imperial court, but he didn't expect Xu Jin to directly ask the emperor to kill him, which made Xia Yan's dislike for Xu Jin even more.

"What Xia Qing said really has no intention of resetting the prime minister, even if he has this intention, he can't be killed! I have already stated that the innocent can not be killed, and the lives of people can be deprived at will, you Xu Jin is the leader of the Qingliu, how can you say the word "kill" in vain! ”

Zhu Houzhao said and asked Xu Jin coldly, he knew that Xu Jin's idea was that I didn't agree with your point of view, so I was going to kill you, but as an emperor, although he had his own concept of governing the country, he didn't want the empire to have a party dispute, so he was also disgusted that these uncivilized officials had this kind of concept that you don't agree with me, I am my enemy.

Xu Jin didn't expect that he would be criticized by Zhu Houzhao, and couldn't help but secretly admire Xia Yan for a while that Xia Yan was really favored by the emperor, and at the same time knew that His Majesty the emperor obviously agreed with Xia Yan, but the more this was the case, the more Xu Jin felt that he couldn't let Xia Yan's idea succeed.

"I would like to follow His Majesty's instructions, but today's discussion of the court push, the minister actually thinks that the court push has no drawbacks, and the real so-called drawbacks lie in the people, because the officials selected by the court are mostly utilitarian, regardless of morality, so it is difficult for the ministers of the court to have upright, so the minister thinks that instead of changing the court push, do not let go of the rule of the Qing officials, strictly evaluate and select, take morality as the first priority in the examination, and the gentleman governs the country, when the source can be cleaned!"

Xu Jin didn't dare to force the emperor to kill Xia Yan at this time, so he only changed the topic and expressed his opinion on Tingtui's fraud, and according to his meaning, Tingtui had no drawbacks, and what really caused the current result was actually the officials appointed by the imperial court.

Xu Jin didn't dare to say that it was wrong for the imperial court to evaluate officials based on their political performance, but in order to prevent the emperor from blaming the current phenomenon on the court push, he just said that the court should still pay attention to the character of officials.

"From good as ascending, from evil as collapsing, ancient and modern, can be as high as a saint, can have a few people, Your Majesty, the minister believes that the safety of the Ming Dynasty and the society is pinned on the noble character of the official, it is tantamount to a fool's dream, and the person who proposed this proposal, if not pedantic, will be a hypocrite who is loyal and treacherous!"

Xia Yan replied to Xu Jin very unceremoniously.

Zhu Houzhao can also smell the smell of gunpowder between these two people, and he does know that it is difficult to ask a person to be a saint and expect him to pay all the time, after all, idealists have always been a minority, so Zhu Houzhao also knows that Xu Jin's purpose in saying this cannot or does not want most civil officials to lose the purpose of controlling the imperial power through the court system.

"Although morality is important, it is difficult to have standards, and it is not only virtuous to do things for the people, but only to observe the results of the center.

Zhu Houzhao waved his hand and didn't continue to discuss with the two of them, he naturally had nothing to say about Xu Jin, knowing that this guy was not an official who sat in the middle of his ass, and Xia Yan's proposal gave him inspiration, however, Zhu Houzhao didn't immediately decide to change it, after all, adding a decision-making organ is not a trivial matter, and he has to think about it carefully.

Xia Yan couldn't hide his dislike for Xu Jin, so as soon as the two came out, Xia Yan snorted first and said, "Duke Xu is not a gentleman, why force others to be gentlemen!" ”

"Yuanfu is not a villain, how can he insist that the world is a villain!"

Xu Jin replied, and smiled coldly, in Xu Jin's heart, in fact, he didn't take Xia Yan seriously.

Because in his opinion, Xia Yan is a practical person and will not pose a threat to his civil official group, and once a son of heaven and a courtier, Xia Yan will not be the first assistant for a few years, and now it is Xichang that Xu Jin really wants to get rid of, and there are some nerds in the civil official group who do not follow the crowd, such as Hai Rui.

Unconsciously, a rumor began to circulate in the capital, the reason why Yan Hou Lu dared to manipulate Tingtui was because he had the support of the palace Da Jue, and this palace Da Jue was Gao Zhong, the governor of Xichang, and Gao Zhong's original intention was not to manipulate Tingtui, but to use this matter to weaken the power of the foreign dynasty, and frame the Qingliu leader Xu Jin, otherwise, Hou Lu would not have confessed to a Wei Yinglai as soon as he entered the edict, and also said that he was Xu Ge Lao's Qingke Sect.

As a result, some civil officials and scholars began to be deceived by it, and began to shift their attention to the scandal of the court push fraud to the matter of the eunuchs framing Zhongliang, and for some children of well-to-do bureaucratic families, this view was naturally very easy for them to accept.

"What merchant class has risen up in a vain attempt to control the government and further exploit the common people, these are all nonsense made up by traitors and villains who want to confuse the public!

Let's ask, how can an ordinary businessman control the government without power and no position, behind this is naturally the command of the powerful minister, what class antagonism, it is just nonsense, even if there are mercenary people among the merchants, but there are also those who value Confucianism and morality, and the merchants provide employment, so that the poor people in the city have no food and clothing, how can it become the exploitation of them!

According to the meaning of some people from poor backgrounds, wouldn't it be better if there were no merchants in the world, and in this case, who would provide them with the opportunity to work! Therefore, the manipulation of the court push fraud by businessmen this time is just an accidental incident, and its essence is just that the eunuch cannot tolerate the ministers of the court! ”

Some pro-merchant scholars began to express their views.

There is even a growing number of people who support this view.

After all, among the scholars, the benefits of trade capital still account for the majority, not to mention that even the children of the common people, once they read the books and have their own industry, they will forget their parents or they were exploited by the rich in the past, and they were forced to work overtime and work hard to get rich, and the welfare of the imperial court is getting better and better, and the control of merchants is also relatively strict, so that many children of the common people do not have much painful experience of being exploited, and begin to shout for the merchants who provide their favors.

Of course, there were also many scholars who were influenced by the new ideas and had their own minds who began to criticize this view.

In any case, among the people, various views are beginning to become more and more opposed.

……

"Your Majesty, this is about the impeachment of Gao Zhong, the eunuch of Xichang, the eunuch of the Imperial Palace, and asked the imperial court to strictly investigate Gao Zhong's false accusation of Xu Jin", because it was the impeachment of the eunuch, so Ni Song, the imperial historian of the Zuodu, personally handed the music to the emperor.

After Zhu Hou took care of it, he thought to himself: "This Ni Song, the impeachment of Gao Zhong's recital, but it was submitted so quickly, at the beginning, the impeachment of Tingtui cheating was delayed for a long time, I don't believe that you will have no position, I'm afraid, I'm still wearing the same pants as Xu Jin!" ”

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