Regarding Qian Qianyi's close gesture, Liu Ru was actually not cold. Although Qian Qianyi is well-maintained on weekdays, he is nearly sixty years old, and his appearance looks only in his early forties, and he can be regarded as a merry old celebrity outside.

But the current Liu Ru is still young after all, even if she has been by Qian Qianyi's side for a long time and has developed some of the temperament of a lady, the girlish feelings in her heart have not been completely abandoned. If Qian Qianyi was thirty years younger, making such a low-pitched and small move in front of her would naturally make her heart flutter.

But now, the old Qian Qianyi made such a move, which inevitably made her feel a little crooked, and she felt that this old lover was not stable enough. After all, she is with Qian Qianyi, not because of the other party's style and appearance, but because of the status of Qian Qianyi above 10,000 people under one person.

After living a life of exile in her childhood and growing up in a place with a complex environment like a brothel, the precocious Liu Ru understood early on that a talented and good-looking woman like her, if she did not have the protection of a man with enough ability, would eventually become the plaything of the powerful.

When you are young and beautiful, you can still live a few comfortable days, but once you get tired of the powerful, you will silently disappear into the world. In the past, in the homecoming courtyard, she had seen many tragic stories. Yes, although Qian Qianyi is a little worse in age, she can be regarded as the best choice in other aspects, and it can be regarded as a good destination for her.

What's more, Qian Qianyi's main room had died of illness a few days ago, and Qian Qianyi, who was very fond of her, also hinted that once he relieved himself of the responsibility of the first assistant, he would inevitably officially marry her.

Since the two have reached the point of talking about marriage, Liu Ru naturally will not lose each other's face too much. Therefore, he just glanced at Qian Qianyi, put down his hand and said: "In the past few years, all ministries of the central government have been carrying out reforms, and now the functions and powers and internal relations of all ministries have been sorted out.

As a result, the more powerful of the six ministries, the Ministry of Works, the Ministry of Households, and the Ministry of Officials, because they have more power in their hands and more resources at their disposal, often go against the instructions of the cabinet and do their own thing. As for the army and navy, the prime minister's yamen, and the land reform committee, which are directly under His Majesty's control, the orders of the cabinet are basically ignored without His Majesty's signature.

In addition, my lord, your temperament has been thoroughly explored by the following people, and the officials of various ministries seem to be even more unscrupulous. At present, the decisions made by the Cabinet seem to be less effective than those made by the Council of State. In the last few months alone, the cabinet has made decisions that have been vetoed and revised by various ministries at the Council of State, no less than three or four times.

My lord should know that His Majesty's purpose in convening this Council of State is not without the intention of restraining the excessive power of the Cabinet, but I am afraid that he has no intention of letting the Council of State override the Cabinet. After all, there are 80 or 90 people who can participate in the State Council, and there are only nine people in the Cabinet. The lord thinks that it is easy for His Majesty to persuade these eighty or ninety people? Or is it simple to convince the nine in the cabinet? ”

Qian Qianyi finally understood a little at this time, and his face was also a little impressive, and he couldn't help nodding slightly and said: "Naturally, it is easier to persuade the latter, Ao, I understand." According to what you said, Your Majesty is disgusted that the Cabinet is too weak in handling government affairs, and wants us to be tougher. In this way, we will be able to kill the arrogance of the six ministries and re-concentrate power in the hands of the cabinet..."

Liu Ru nodded and continued: "In my opinion, Your Majesty is probably more than that. At this year's level of famine, the local government does not think about working together with the central government to tide over the difficulties, and they want to turn over Wang Hanru's incident and slap the face of the imperial court, isn't this just forcing the palace to His Majesty. ”

Qian Qianyi's heart suddenly brightened, and he slapped his thigh with his palm and said, "I understand, Your Majesty wants the cabinet to be a villain and suppress these unscrupulous voices." In this way, the cabinet is really about to take a tough stance.

But will this backfire? If we get the excitement of the people below, I am afraid that we will not have a good time in the future, after all, we will have to go back to our hometown to retire in the future. ”

Qian Qianyi's appearance of suffering from gains and losses finally angered Liu Rus, she stood up, raised her eyebrows and said fiercely: "Qian Muzhai, can you be tough like a man."

Are you worried about the future pension, I think you are worried that there are too many people who will offend, and there will be no chance to return to the auxiliary position in the future. I will explain all the things that should come to mind. As for what you want to do, you can decide for yourself, after all, the concubine is just a woman, and she can't really make decisions for your husband. ”

After saying that, Liu Ru left Qian Qianyi alone, and walked outside without looking back. Qian Qianyi opened his mouth behind her, but he didn't dare to stop her after all. Seeing Liu Ru disappear behind the cotton curtain, Qian Qianyi, who was standing there, put his hands behind his back, and whispered with a wry smile: "Qingqing's temper is growing day by day, and even the old man is a little frightened when he starts a fire. Hey, how can this matter be so simple, I think it's better to find Qitian and Zhuo Fan and discuss it again..."

No matter how these high-ranking officials in the capital tried their best to plan for themselves, trying to get what kind of benefits they could get with the help of the case of Wang Qi, the governor of Henan, for ordinary people in the capital, these things were at most an after-dinner conversation, after all, they were not victims of the disaster in Henan, so naturally they did not have so much resentment.

With the advent of the first month of the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, the boiling public opinion storm about Wang Qi's case in Beijing finally calmed down a little, and was replaced by some news such as New Year's celebrations that occupied the lives of the people in Beijing. Of course, for some officials, knowing that the current atmosphere of joy and peace is just an illusion, and after the New Year's Eve is over, the struggle in the court will come back, and it is inevitable that they will enter the stage of trying to see the poor and the dagger.

However, the dark tide in these courts obviously did not affect the atmosphere of the New Year in the palace, and compared with previous years, the various celebrations of the New Year organized in the palace this year are more abundant. Of course, this abundance was based on the novelties offered by the various workshops in the Gyeonggi area, rather than seeking various curiosities from all over the country for the emperor to enjoy.

Considering the great famine year that has just passed, the Ministry of Internal Affairs has kept a low profile in organizing these events, and although some literati are still dissatisfied, the Gyeonggi region was not affected by the disaster last year, so there is not much criticism among the people of the capital. After all, for most ordinary people, as long as their lives can go on, the arrogant and lascivious lives of emperors, nobles, and officials are not very profound for them.

Only when they can't even eat, and the emperor, nobles, and officials are still enjoying it all day and night, will it arouse the strong hatred of the people.

In fact, as far as Chongzhen himself is concerned, he is not willing to handle the celebrations of the New Year too much. The first is that last year's disaster was really destructive, and his desk was piled up with a large number of reports on disaster relief affairs and reconstruction work in the disaster area, and he was really in no mood to celebrate.

The second is that in all the celebrations of this era, the emperor has to abide by many trivial etiquette and rules, like a manipulated puppeteer, which makes him extremely disgusted. At this time, he was able to understand why the two emperors, Wanli and Tianqi, liked to stay in the palace and were reluctant to meet with their courtiers.

However, he could not cancel these celebrations, because they were no longer just to entertain him and the people of the capital, but more importantly, to show his national strength to overseas vassal states and friendly countries.

With the Ming Dynasty vigorously carried out overseas trade, not only strengthened the Ming Dynasty's commercial exchanges with the East and West Oceans, the Western Regions, and Central Asia, but also the political and military power of the Ming Dynasty in recent years. For example, the maritime power of the Ming Dynasty reached the American continent in the east, crossed the Japanese archipelago in the north, and controlled the Strait of Malacca in the south. The land forces of the Ming Dynasty controlled most of the grassland areas to the north, the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains to the west, and deep into Burma and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau to the south.

As a result, the countries and tribal alliances around Daming were greatly shaken, and they had to pay considerable attention to Daming. After all, after Emperor Yongle, the Ming Dynasty adopted a strategy of contraction, lacked attention to overseas countries and neighbors, and wanted to close the country to live a peaceful life.

Otherwise, it would be difficult for the Mongols to return to the Monan steppe; Vietnam was also unable to gain independence from China; It was also difficult for European colonizers to invade the Nanyang Islands, China's traditional region of influence. And when the Ming Dynasty turned its attention to the periphery again, even if the north of the Ming Dynasty had not yet recovered the Liaodong region occupied by the Later Jin, the political pattern of Japan, Nanyang, the Southeast Peninsula, the Mongolian Regions, and the Western Regions had been greatly affected, which made it impossible for these countries in the neighboring regions to ignore the political changes within the Ming Dynasty as in the past.

In today's situation, some officials in the Ming Dynasty sneezed, and perhaps a civil war was about to break out in some small countries. Even if Chongzhen didn't want to play the game of all nations coming to court, these small neighboring countries had to send representatives to Beijing so that their countries could understand what was happening in the court of the Ming Dynasty for the first time.

Although Chongzhen has not yet reached the extreme state of "Yidi, beasts, fearing power but not virtue", he knows very well in his heart that dealing with these small countries adjacent to the Ming Dynasty must not show any weak state, otherwise some people will test the overseas Ming businessmen, thereby increasing the cost of the Ming Dynasty's foreign business.

This year's catastrophe and famine in Daming can't be hidden from others, but he doesn't want anyone to take this opportunity to test how much Daming's national strength has been lost. Holding these New Year's celebrations is to prove in front of these surrounding forces that although the Ming Dynasty has suffered a famine this year, we have not yet reached the point of breaking our bones.

In addition, the celebration of the first lunar month was also a place for him to win over the Mongol tribes and appease the royal family who had moved to the capital. It was only on such occasions that he was able to meet with the Mongol chiefs in large numbers without being hindered by the old officials, nor too provoking the Mongol chiefs of the Chahar and Tumut tribes. After all, in theory, they are the leaders who lead the left and right flanks of Mongolia.

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