Cui Chengxiu's visit this time was naturally to go to the Three Treasures Hall for nothing. Since Chongzhen's accession to the throne drove him and Wei Zhongxian out of the capital, the so-called eunuchs have actually dispersed. Compared with Huang Liji, who took over most of the power of the eunuch party, Wu Chunfu, the former backbone of the eunuch party, is much more low-key.

However, Wu Chunfu, who guarded the one-third of an acre of land in the Ministry of Industry, has become a force to be reckoned with in the DPRK and China today. Because the Ministry of Industry has become the base camp of the Scientific Progressive Party, it is known as one of the two major forces in the DPRK and China, along with the New Donglin Party entrenched in the Ministry of Rites.

In the imperial court before the first year of Chongzhen, the prestige of the officials themselves and their close relationship with the emperor determined the power structure of the court. Otherwise, Gu Xiancheng would not have been able to influence the appointment and dismissal of officials in the DPRK and China with a mere ministry of officials, and tried to manipulate the appointment of the ruling minister. And Yan Song's father and son have unscrupulously manipulated the government for decades just because they have won Jiajing's trust, regardless of their position.

This way of cronyism and relying on personal connections to control public power was itself a political characteristic of the feudal dynasty. However, for Chongzhen, such a way of governance is obviously intolerable. Because it means that the power is out of control and the administrative efficiency is low, the replacement of a ruling minister also means the elimination of a group of officials behind him, because others cannot call these officials at all, but will be constrained by these officials, which is also the so-called one son of heaven and one courtier.

In an agrarian society, such a form of political struggle was the norm and the political rule that the rulers tacitly took. The so-called protégés and former officials and disciples of the master are also the external manifestations of this political form.

Of course, from the materialist point of view of later generations, this is also an objective law that determines the form of the superstructure of the small-scale peasant economic base. After all, in a society with a small-scale peasant economy, there is only so much surplus in agriculture that there is a limit to the number of noble bureaucrats that can be supported. But there is no end to the growth of the noble and bureaucratic families in peacetime, and in order to preserve the class position occupied by their families, they can only eliminate the surplus ruling class population through political struggles in peacetime and dynastic changes in wartime times.

For a soul from the Hereafter, such an administrative structure is undoubtedly unacceptable. Therefore, after he ascended the throne, he has been promoting the reform of the political system, injecting some of the atmosphere of the industrial age into this feudal system that has remained unchanged for thousands of years.

This was to first reform the cabinet functions and establish a new Council of State to centralize the power of the imperial court and improve the decision-making power of the imperial court. The next step is to sort out the functions of the six ministries and the administrative succession of the central and local governments, one is to decentralize the administrative power of the cabinet and the Council of State, and the other is to improve the administrative efficiency of the government.

It should be said that the part of centralizing power is actually relatively smooth. Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, collected all power into the hands of the emperor after unifying the country. If it weren't for Ming Chengzu Zhu Di who came up with a cabinet system, the bureaucracy would have been almost helpless to interfere with the imperial power.

Although in the more than 200 years since the establishment of the cabinet system, successive generations of elites in the bureaucracy have continuously expanded the power of the cabinet, and even there have been real ministers like Zhang Juzheng who oppressed the emperor, the cabinet still cannot compete with the imperial power. After Zhang Juzheng's death, Wanli easily regained power, which is enough to prove that the cabinet system of the Ming Dynasty is extremely imperfect.

As a result, the civil officials adopted a tacit attitude of acquiescence to Chongzhen's acquiescence in reforming the functions of the cabinet and establishing a state council to centralize the ruling power of the imperial court after Chongzhen's accession to the throne. Because in the process of structural reform, it is not the power in the hands of the bureaucracy that has lost a lot, but the imperial power, which is difficult to limit.

Although subjectively, this institutional reform strengthened and magnified the power in Chongzhen's hands. However, objectively, it improved the cabinet system, so that the cabinet had the name of resisting the imperial power in legal theory. After all, there was a world of difference between the status of the cabinet, which used to be an assistant to the emperor in handling government affairs, and now it has become an administrative organ accountable to the emperor.

Another effect of this is that the cabinet chief assistant has truly become a civil leader above 10,000 people under one person, although it is difficult to compare with the prime ministers of the Han and Tang dynasties, but it has been able to make him retain his independent personality in front of the emperor, which makes the position of the first assistant even more popular.

Although Chongzhen promised Cui Chengxiu before, when Qian Qianyi's term expires, he will support him to become the next cabinet chief assistant. But with the improvement of the cabinet system and the rising status of the State Council, Choi Chengxiu found that the emperor's promise became more and more ethereal.

This is not to say that Chongzhen wants to repent, or that Chongzhen's power has become smaller, but after the continuous rise of the status of the head of the cabinet, the power that prevents him from becoming the head of the cabinet has become greater.

Although Cui Chengxiu performed well in the battle of Houjin and entered the customs, he stabilized the Jizhou area for the emperor, so that the imperial army could force Huang Taiji back with the cooperation of the local government and get a chance to recover. But after all, he was acquiesced by the top and bottom of the court, and the leader of the eunuch party, who was as famous as Wei Zhongxian, was also forced to retreat to the countryside because of this responsibility.

Although the emperor recalled him to the court, neither the ruling Huang Liji nor the opposition former Donglin party members refused to let him return to the center of power again. Choi Chengxiu, who was marginalized by the mainstream forces of the DPRK and China, had to accept Chongzhen's proposal and take over the land reform affairs that offended the gentry of the world.

Although the land reform affairs made him more notorious, it also succeeded in making Cui Chengxiu, who was single-minded, regain a place in the court. However, this also made Cui Chengxiu pay a great price, making him a thorn in the side of the gentry who owned a lot of land, and the degree of hatred was comparable to Zhang Juzheng, who originally advocated the cultivation of acres in the world.

And Cui Chengxiu's notoriety also made him want to apply to join the Science Progressive Party several times, but he was politely rejected by the other party. In the thirteenth year of Chongzhen, as long as the wisdom lies above the Chinese people, they can see that no matter who takes over as the first assistant of the cabinet, if it cannot get the support of the Science Progressive Party or one of the New Donglin Party, this position of first assistant is also quite difficult to sit in.

The reason for this conclusion is that the functions of the six ministries and the administrative undertaking reform of the central and local governments have finally overwhelmed the prestige and connections of individual officials and become the guarantee for the implementation of administrative power. Behind this phenomenon, it means that the resources owned by the organization completely overwhelm the resources owned by the individual.

As far as human beings themselves are concerned, in order to survive, they must obtain certain material resources. So when a person wants to dominate another person, the best way to dominate is not how deep the relationship between the two parties is, but whether you can master the material resources that the other person needs, and the person can betray his feelings, but he must not betray his own survival foundation.

Before the first year of Chongzhen, everything in the world theoretically belonged to the emperor alone, including the lives of everyone except the emperor. Under this theory, the emperor naturally did not want to see officials or citizens form small groups that would threaten the very basis of the existence of imperial power.

After all, when the crowd begins to assemble, it must be followed by the gathering of certain material resources. In today's agrarian society, where there is not much surplus of material wealth, it is easy to take control of forces that are difficult for the local community to resist, and thus form a de facto independent kingdom at the local level.

Therefore, when Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang seized the world, he began to suppress the Xungui group, which was because the Xungui group occupied too many material resources, thus forming a threat to the imperial power. In such a political struggle, it is unrealistic to talk about feelings and merits, and when the material resources in the hands of the Xungui clique exceed the material resources in the hands of the emperor, the emperor will lose the power to control the Xungui clique, which is based on the reality on the material basis.

Of course, for later souls like Su Changqing, it is not difficult to solve such contradictions, vigorously develop the productive forces, so that the material resources in their hands far exceed those of other individuals and groups, and this contradiction no longer exists, which is also the social foundation of industrial society is more stable than agricultural society.

Based on the functional reform of the six ministries under the guidance of this industrialization ideology, a closer government organization has been formed that gathers material resources. The material resources possessed by individuals are incomparable to those of such an organization. In the same way, the Science Progressive Party and the New Donglin Party, which control these government organizations with the help of partisan politics, have far more material resources than those of the small groups of officials.

Under such a pattern, even if Choi Chengxiu really takes the position of head and assistant to the cabinet, it is difficult for him to suppress it with just one name, and the two political parties that control such huge material resources make the two completely subordinate to him. So if the emperor wants to make good on his promise, Choi Chengxiu must have the support of one of the two.

For the new Donglin Party, which was born out of the Donglin Party, they and Cui Chengxiu themselves have an uncommon hatred, and when Cui Chengxiu became the promoter of the land reform policy, he became a thorn in the side of these big landlord representative elites, and there was an irresolvable hatred between them, and Cui Chengxiu naturally would not find himself bored to gain the support of the new Donglin Party.

So he was left with only one choice, to gain the support of the Scientific Progressive Party. In terms of reputation, the Science Progressive Party may be slightly inferior to the New Donglin Party. However, in terms of strength, the Scientific Progressive Party far surpassed the New Donglin Party by a few streets. After all, for government departments, the best way to gather a lot of material resources is to do things.

If you build a road, you have the manpower, material resources, and financial resources to build a road. When you build a Grand Canal, you have all the resources to build a Grand Canal... Through these resources, one has the power to dominate others. As a result, the Scientific Progressive Party, which is based in the Ministry of Industry, naturally has far more material resources at its disposal than the New Donglin Party, which controls the Shimizu Yamen such as the Ministry of Rites.

( = )