At the beginning, it was just a customs prime minister yamen who managed some pocket money for the Son of Heaven, but by the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, it had become a huge organization that managed more than 100,000 employees.

In addition to administering the customs duties of the Ming Dynasty, the Prime Minister of Customs, Yamen, also had the obligation to guide the customs unions of overseas subject countries. In addition to the responsibility of managing customs duties, the Prime Minister of Customs, Yamen, was also responsible for managing the affairs of maritime neighboring subject countries and their interactions, including a series of decisions on behalf of the Ming Dynasty in the ASEAN.

The most important thing is that the Yamen, the Prime Minister of Customs, is still in charge of the various armies stationed overseas and the Patrol Office, the Town Guard Office and the Governor's Office in various sea areas. In other words, today's customs prime minister Yamen not only has money and an army in his hands, but also has a huge resource production area.

Since the thirteenth year of Chongzhen, after realizing the importance of overseas grain imports, huge resources, and markets to the country, the cabinet ministers headed by Qian Qianyi tried to take back the power and resources in the hands of the customs prime minister Yamen. Even Wen Tiren, who succeeded Qian Qianyi, would never tolerate such a small court independent of the cabinet.

With the various resources reserved by the customs premier yamen, it is not an exaggeration to say that even if the Ming court under the control of the cabinet collapses, the emperor can also take over the coastal and overseas organizations and resources through the customs premier yamen, which is much more complete than the empty six departments in the south.

As the Cabinet gradually strengthens the leadership power of the central government over the local governments, it is naturally difficult to tolerate such an anomaly. What's more, Feng Quan and others are not satisfied with the power in their hands, and are trying to set up a maritime fleet that completely belongs to the customs premier's yamen in the name of strengthening maritime inspection and smuggling, so as to better deter overseas subject countries and territories and enable the premier yamen to gain more benefits.

In Wen Tiren's opinion, the customs premier Yamen and these people are simply dizzy. They want to bring all overseas affairs under their own management, so what else does the Ming want for the navy and the central cabinet, it is better to let the customs prime minister Yamen directly replace the cabinet.

However, Feng Quan's arrogance found a way for Wen Tiren to weaken the customs premier's yamen. Because of the idea of the Prime Minister's Yamen wanting to take charge of overseas affairs, the Navy General Staff Headquarters, the Ministry of International Trade and Postal Affairs, and the Household Food Bureau all began to be dissatisfied with the Prime Minister's Yamen.

The General Staff Headquarters of the Navy believed that all military forces at sea should be under their management, and in the past, because the navy had just been formed, it really lacked the manpower and resources to manage the overseas garrisons, so the Prime Minister of Customs Yamen was entrusted with it.

Zheng Zhilong, the current chief of the Navy, believes that these overseas garrisons should be under the management of the Navy General Staff Headquarters, especially those who defect to the pirates in the southern oceans, and the customs premier Yamen is basically in a state of laissez-faire for them. If they continue to do so, there is a good chance that these pirates will once again become a scourge of the seas.

As for the Ministry of International Trade and Postal Affairs, whether it is overseas trade affairs or postal affairs, they want to build their own merchant ships and mail ships, instead of entrusting the management of maritime transportation to the Prime Minister of Customs, Yamen, as is the case now.

The Grain Bureau of the Ministry of Household Affairs was mainly concerned with the management of agricultural production in overseas territories and overseas colonies, and was dissatisfied with the customs premier Yamen, believing that the other side was too lenient in its management. And the tariffs imposed on the export of cash crops and grain from these places seem to be picking their skins at them.

Therefore, after communicating with these three parties, Wen Tiren is actively planning to divide the customs prime minister's yamen into three, which is divided into the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Colonial Affairs and the Customs Bureau. Some of the powers of the Ministry of Colonial Affairs, the Customs Department, and others were to be taken back to the Cabinet for management.

For Wen Tiren, the most troublesome thing about this incident was not the resistance of the customs premier yamen, but the internal affairs office standing behind the customs premier yamen. Since the 24 eunuchs of the inner court were reformed by the emperor and finally changed to the internal affairs office, the scale of the inner court has been reduced by more than half compared with the period of the Apocalypse, and the inner court, which was originally high-profile, now seems to be low-key and does not seem to exist in front of officials.

But in fact, the power of the inner court did not disappear, the original Dongchang became the current social investigation department and the Daming Times, Jinyiwei penetrated into the newly formed police department, and the local town guards and eunuchs also shifted from supervising local politics and military to economic and public opinion control.

Whether it is the rebellion of the two feudal feudatories in Shaanxi, the rebellion of the gentry in Henan, the salt introduction case in Yangzhou, the scientific research case in Nanjing, the bandit robbery case in Taihu Lake, and the disaster relief and corruption case last year, there is a shadow of interference by the internal affairs government behind them. It's just that now the internal affairs government only contributes but does not receive credit, and most of the procuratorates of the criminal department come forward, so it is difficult for the local gentry to incite the resentment of the local people by pouring dirty water on the inner court, so as to get themselves out.

If it weren't for the great interests of the customs premier yamen, and the hidden danger of Feng Quan's threat to his status could be eliminated, Wen Tiren really didn't want to provoke it, and now he kept a low profile and was dedicated to making money for the emperor.

However, when he stood at the main entrance of the Wenhua Hall and looked at the exquisite buildings built on the white marble platform, he couldn't help but want to try what the power of the cabinet chief assistant could do.

Not long after the Lantern Festival, the government offices in various places have just opened, and there is naturally no major event on the cabinet side, and there are only a few cabinet ministers on duty these days. However, Wen Tiren has been working every day since the Lantern Festival, so the courtyard of this Wenhua Hall is also very clean, except for the roof is covered with some snow, there is no trace of snow and ice in other places.

As soon as Wen Tiren walked into his first assistant duty room, his exclusive secretary immediately followed him into the door and reported to him some government affairs received today. After listening to a few official documents, he interrupted him impatiently and asked, "Who is on duty today?" Why didn't these documents be sent elsewhere first? ”

"Back to my lord, it's Fang Ge Lao, but he went to Xiyuan beforehand, so these official documents were sent to my lord first."

Wen Tiren stopped his movements in some surprise, looked at his secretary and asked, "Now at this time, what does he have to report to His Majesty?" ”

Fang Yuegong didn't come to report to the emperor alone, and he came with Ji Jiliang, who managed the Household Grain Bureau. Fang Yuegong, who had just been evaluated by the officials, was called a cool official by the local gentry when he was working in the southeast, but in fact he was just a middle-aged man under 50, and compared with the white-haired Ji Jiliang next to him, he seemed very shrewd and capable.

Fang Yuegong, who was specially summoned to the capital in the middle of last year and began to take over the affairs of the household department, has come to this Xiyuan Jingshe more than once, but he has followed Guo Yunhou or Qian Qianyi before, and only appeared here as a deputy, but he came as the principal today, and his mood is very different.

Although the emperor was a little surprised by the arrival of the two, he soon received them. Fang Yuegong noticed that before their arrival, the emperor had already handled affairs in the Jingshe, and it was obvious that Chongzhen was not as playful as the legend suggests, entrusting all political affairs to the cabinet, thus allowing the first assistant to monopolize the power, so that treachery was rampant in the court.

As the first time after the Lantern Festival to discuss government affairs with the minister, Chongzhen did not rush to ask the two of them about their intentions, but first invited the two to drink a cup of hot tea and chatted a few words of homely things, before cutting to the chase and asking: "Fang Qing and Ji Qing came to Xiyuan today, why did they come here on official business?" ”

Fang Yuegong immediately sat up straight, and said to the emperor: "Back to Your Majesty, the minister was appointed to take charge of the household department last year, and because he didn't understand the affairs of the household department, he never reported to His Majesty on his work.

In the past few months, the minister has been understanding and taking over the affairs of the household department, and finally has a concept of the household department in his heart a few years ago. And the minister also got a lot of help from the minister's side, so he had some ideas for the next work of the household department, so he pulled the waiter over with him, reported to His Majesty about the few things that the minister wanted to do, and asked His Majesty to agree. ”

Zhu Youzhen was still very satisfied with Fang Yuegong's ability to endure until now to report to him. It is worthy of being an official who was evaluated by officials when he worked in the household department, and his work is still quite steady and solid. Although in the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty, the evaluation of the official is quite low. It's almost equivalent to saying that this person can do something small, but he can't be allowed to do big things. After all, the so-called officials are able to do the work of small officials well, and as for national affairs, it has nothing to do with him.

However, in Zhu Youzhen's view, in the current Ming Dynasty, officials have turned this comment into a label for suppressing cadres, and officials who can do things have become talented officials, and the ministers in the court are left with those wine bags and rice bags who can't work just by eating. That's why it appeared that the north was still at war with the Jurchens, and the local officials in the south could still do stupid things to force Tusi to rebel.

Not to mention, Nurhachi was about to reach Shanhaiguan, and the ministers in the court did not think about how to resist the Jurchen army going south, but first held the front-line governor responsible for the defeat, and cut off the head of a minister like Xiong Tingbi, who was familiar with border affairs, in order to intimidate their own defeated army. If it weren't for Sun Chengzong's prestige in the border army, and the population of the place occupied by Nurhachi was too large to digest, where would the Ming Dynasty still be able to keep the Hexi Corridor.

Strategically, for the Ming army, which was difficult to return, it may be the most correct choice to lose the Hexi Corridor and directly guard Shanhaiguan. However, for the military and people's hearts in the north at that time, recovering the Ningjin front line finally maintained the last bit of morale of the Ming border army.

Therefore, no matter how bad the local gentry's reputation for Fang Yue Gong was, Zhu Youzhen still summoned this person to the capital and let him manage the money bag of the Ming Dynasty.

However, the other party really gave him a little surprise, Fang Yuegong reported the work plan to him for the first time, and proposed to "check the books and books, please forgive the old endowment". That is to say, the first thing that the new household secretary of the Ming Dynasty had to do when he took office was to ask for verification of the actual payment status of the field taxes in various places, and to verify and liquidate the past arrears.

He advocated that the debts of the rich should be collected, and the arrears of the poor should simply be pardoned, and in short, the arrears should not be allowed to continue to grow, and finally become a bad account of the household.

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