The emperor's decision on counterinsurgency affairs in the southwest, and the opinion that the palace and Jinyiwei should send personnel to the southwest together with the cabinet to investigate the case of trafficking civilians as slaves, was raised at the cabinet meeting, except for Zhang Ruitu, who raised some objections, and the others did not resolutely oppose it.

After discussing this urgent matter, Huang Liji reported to Chongzhen on behalf of the cabinet and discussed the adjustment plan for the superintendent's subdivision that was finally decided after more than half a year.

There were 10 governorates and 29 governorates, replacing the previously mixed governorates. In addition, 39 feudal ministers and 44 senior officials from the six ministries of the Central Committee and the cabinet formed a meeting of the State Council, replacing the previous informal meeting of the cabinet and the senior officials of the six ministries.

In this way, the system at the central and local levels and at the provincial level has finally come to a head. The official venue for deciding major state affairs has also shifted from the court meeting to the State Council meeting. The Cabinet still led the entire Ming bureaucracy, but the Council of State became the other leader of the system.

On the face of it, the establishment of the Council of State strengthened the central government's control over the local government and the cabinet's leadership over the Ming bureaucracy. In practice, however, the Council of State also has the function of limiting the unlimited expansion of the Cabinet's powers. The emperor, who was above the Council of State and the cabinet, also strengthened his control over the entire bureaucracy.

Although many members of the Cabinet also saw this, the plan was finally approved by the Cabinet due to the temptation to strengthen the Cabinet's powers.

After listening to Huang Liji's report, Zhu Youzhen was silent for a moment, then nodded and said: "This plan is generally good, maybe there are some flaws in the details, but I think it can be promulgated first, and in the process of implementing the plan, adjust the inappropriate parts, and it will be fine."

However, after the formation of the Council of State, the power of the governors in various places has also been greatly improved, and once this position sits on the mediocre and incompetent, it will be a disaster for the current reform.

Therefore, I hope that the cabinet will take advantage of this year's inspection of the Ministry of Officials to conduct a strict inspection of officials at the level of governors. Officials who are incompetent and morally corrupt must be transferred from the position of governor.

In the future, seniority can no longer be used as a determining condition for the appointment of officials at the level of governor, and political performance and ability should be the first factor. In addition, the appointment and removal of governors must be discussed by all members of the cabinet and approved by me, and no decision should be made on my own, whether it is me or the cabinet. ”

Huang Liji, Guo Yunhou and other cabinet ministers immediately expressed their support for the emperor's statement. After all, the power to appoint personnel belonged to the emperor, and the cabinet and other civil officials could only recommend a few candidates at most.

However, for Chongzhen, it is not really useful to cling to the power of personnel appointments, and these civil officials have been trying to fight against the imperial power for more than 100 years, trying to take away the power of personnel appointments. Therefore, the civil servants geniusly invented the way of court pushing.

The so-called public recommendation of two or three people, appointed by the emperor, ostensibly is to select the virtuous and recommend the able, for the good governance of the country. However, because the civil officials do not have the power to directly appoint someone, they will naturally not tear their faces when they are publicly promoted, and if the emperor does not appoint them, the power of the election will be in vain.

Therefore, the public recommendation soon became a way to rank seniority and be a group of kind. As long as the official's qualifications are reached, if there is a vacancy in a certain place, you can be pushed up, and as for whether the official is suitable for this vacant official position, basically no one cares.

And for the emperor, being able to master the talents and experience of dozens of officials is already quite outstanding. It is really a tedious and troublesome thing to find out whether the officials who are recommended each time are suitable for the vacancy. After all, the Ministry of Officials of the Ming Dynasty is not the Organization Department of later generations, and the past experience of each official is not recorded in such detail, and even you don't know whether the recorder has verified whether his records are true.

With this in mind, if Chongzhen wants the cabinet to take responsibility for personnel discussions, he naturally has to give them a certain amount of authority, so it is inevitable to appropriately release some powers for personnel discussions.

Zhang Ruitu did not agree much with the reaction of his colleagues, and after Huang Liji sat firmly in the position of first assistant, the expanded cabinet soon formed a pattern headed by Huang Liji, Xu Guangqi, and Guo Yunhou.

As the No. 2 person in the original cabinet, Zhang Ruitu fell to the three, almost the same status as Shi Fenglai and others. This gap in status naturally makes it difficult for him to agree with this reform.

The first assistant responsibility system basically cut off the connection between other ministers and the emperor. From this point of view, Zhang Ruitu believes that such a reform will only lead to the emergence of powerful ministers, which is not a good thing for the Ming Dynasty and the civil official group.

Therefore, with the deepening of reform, Zhang Ruitu also slowly turned from the original neutral to a conservative, and even began to make friends with Donglin leaders such as Li Biao and Qian Longxi.

The turmoil at yesterday's court meeting not only hit the Qingliu officials who wanted to make a fight, but also made Zhang Ruitu feel very depressed.

He had reservations about the adjustment plan for the supervision and defense area. After all, in the process of redividing the defense zone, the governors from the north accounted for more than half, and this was undoubtedly a means of artificially suppressing officials from the south, after all, the number of officials from the south far exceeded that of the northerners.

As for the new organ of the State Council, Zhang Ruitu is even more strongly opposed. This idea, which was put forward by Huang Liji less than a few days ago, was forcibly passed in the cabinet, which not only reflected the hidden danger of Huang Liji's excessive power as the first assistant, but also made Zhang Ruitu realize that once the State Council was established, no one would listen to the words of ordinary cabinet ministers like him.

Zhang Ruitu remembered again, what Lu Chengyuan analyzed for himself last night, he couldn't help but think about it, and when his colleagues were still echoing the emperor, he suddenly said out loud: "Your Majesty, the capital has been in an uproar these days, which has caused many officials to be deceived and show their ugliness in the court yesterday, in the final analysis, it is still the poor information between the government and the opposition.

If only the officials of our cabinet and various ministries could be like Your Majesty, they would be able to know in advance what the Ming Times would do. At yesterday's court meeting, there would have been no misunderstanding..."

Zhu Youzhen suddenly interrupted him and asked, "What does Mr. Zhang want to say, you might as well say it directly." ”

Zhang Ruitu pondered for a moment before he said respectfully: "The minister thinks that since the Daming Times is no longer the Dongchang of the past, it is extremely important to understand the public opinion of the people and our policies for governing the country. It is better to transfer the Daming Times to the cabinet for direct management, so that when I assist His Majesty, I will not make any more mistakes. ”

The room, where there was still some discussion, suddenly quieted down, and the ministers, including Huang Liji, all looked at the emperor, if Zhang Ruitu was talking about other things, they probably wouldn't be so concerned, but when it came to the ownership of the Ming Times, these ministers were all uneasy.

Although the ministers sitting here have different official experiences, they are all well aware of the tremendous role of the ministers in guiding public opinion and suppressing political opponents.

These turmoil in the capital these days made these ministers finally begin to face up to the status of the Daming Times, realizing that this newspaper was not the plaything of the emperor on a whim. And after the clear stream force that once called for wind and rain in the court was easily knocked down by the Daming Times, the idea of how to control the mouthpiece of public opinion like the Daming Times in the hands of the cabinet is not only one or two people who think so.

It's just that everyone didn't expect Zhang Ruitu to jump out so quickly and directly ask Chongzhen for the management power of the Daming Times. No matter what kind of reply Zhang Ruitu's request gets, for the other ministers, they are happy to see Zhang Ruitu throwing stones for them and asking for directions.

Zhu Youzhen glanced at the expressions of the other ministers, and couldn't help but ask Huang Liji casually, "Mr. Huang, do you also support Mr. Zhang's idea?" ”

Huang Li glanced at Chongzhen's expression very carefully, and then said thoughtfully: "The Daming Times was originally a newspaper established by the palace, and then ordered the Hanlin Academy to assist in the creation of newspapers. Speaking of this Daming Times, the minister doesn't know if it is a yamen of the imperial court.

The imperial court has allocated funds to the Daming Times, and there is also the obligation to transfer officials to posts, but the operation and publication of the Daming Times cannot be supervised by the imperial court.

Since last year, the Daming Times has also added responsibility for the publication and management of newspapers and books in the world. If it is said that the Daming Times is not a yamen, I am afraid it will be difficult to convince the public.

Since His Majesty asked Yu Chen, the minister thought that what the eldest prince said still had some truth. With the power and influence that the Ming Times has today, it is always more appropriate to incorporate it into the formal system of the imperial court.

If His Majesty thinks that it is better that the Ming Times will not be included in the formal system of the imperial court. Then the minister also hopes that some of the powers of the Daming Times and the Daming Times can be split, and the part that should be attributed to the power of the imperial court will be set up and a department will be taken under the management of the imperial court, so that there will be no conflict between the articles of the Daming Times and the imperial decrees in the future. ”

Zhu Youzhen looked at the other ministers, and couldn't help but smile and said, "Since several gentlemen have the idea of incorporating the Daming Times into the imperial court system, I will naturally follow the opinions of all gentlemen.

Then the cabinet will come up with a complete plan, and as long as I think it is okay, I will naturally agree. However, I would like to state in advance that my agreement to incorporate the Daming Times into the system does not mean that I will allow someone to turn the Daming Times into a personal mouthpiece of public opinion.

The formulation of the policy for running the newspaper of the Ming Dynasty and the appointment and dismissal of the editor-in-chief of the newspaper and other personnel must be approved by me..."