"Ancestral rules!" Yang Zhen slowly spit out these four words. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 info Ever since he knew that he might really have a chance to use Wanli, the emperor's hand, to deal with Zhang Juzheng, he had been secretly thinking about how to take advantage of the situation and find out Zhang Juzheng's flaws.

The hard work paid off, and Yang Zhen really found an Achilles heel of Zhang Juzheng. It's just that this requires Wanli's own strong cooperation to produce results, so he has never shown it. Until today, when Wanli constantly felt powerless to resist, Yang Zhen took it out to cheer up the Son of Heaven.

"Ancestral rules?" Wanli also muttered as he learned, and he was naturally very familiar with this statement. Whenever a courtier needed to ask the emperor to correct it, he would often bring it out so that the emperor had to make concessions.

The Ancestral Rule has always been a mysterious existence, and when you don't need it, no one takes it seriously, as if it never existed; But once you need it, it's everywhere again. The emperor wants to promote a close courtier, and when the official does not allow it, he will bring it out according to the rules of the ancestors; When the emperor wanted to ask the household for money that had been replenished to the inner treasury, the ancestral rules would be put forward again to refuse the emperor's request......

In Wanli's understanding, the ancestral rules have always been used to restrain the existence of imperial power, how did it become a killer weapon that can be used to deal with Zhang Juzheng in Yang Zhen's mouth? After no matter how much he pondered, he couldn't come up with a reason, Wanli had to ask, "How do you say this?" ”

Yang Zhen smiled bitterly in his heart, people in this era just can't jump out of the framework in front of them, and they can't look at things from a historical height. Even if he is the Son of Heaven who is the Lord of the peoples, he has the limitation of his vision. But since Wanli asked so, he had to give an explanation. But before that, Yang Zhen still needs to ask one thing first: "Your Majesty, does you know that Taizu has done something amazing?" ”

"Huh? Emperor Taizu is wise and martial, and he has done too many amazing things in his life, but I don't know what you are referring to. As a descendant of the Zhu family, he naturally cherishes the glorious deeds of his founding ancestor Zhu Yuanzhang, so it is not bad for him to say so.

"It's the minister who ignored this...... Yang Zhen hurriedly apologized, and then continued: "What the minister wants to say is the decision made by Taizu after Hu Weiyong's case. ”

"Do you mean the dismissal of the prime minister?" Wanli heard the song and knew the meaning of elegance, and immediately asked.

"Exactly. It seems that His Majesty remembers that our dynasty has this rule, and this dynasty will no longer set up the post of prime minister since Hu Weiyong's case, as for the purpose of Taizu, ......" Yang Zhen said: "Shu Chen dared to say a word, it was for the authority of Emperor Dazhang, after all, the existence of the prime minister was set up to divide the power of the emperor." ”

"Yes, that's what I thought." Wanli already had some ideas in his heart, but he couldn't grasp the point for a while, so he had to say ambiguously.

Yang Zhen didn't mean to test the degree of understanding of history by the Son of Heaven, so he continued: "But this also has its own drawbacks. Emperor Taizu has great energy and ability, and it may not be a problem, but for future generations, once there is no prime minister, the attached official of the Son of Heaven, the burden on his shoulders will be too heavy. Even if the god of Chengzu is martial arts, he still feels that he is not enough. So, he set up ......"

"Cabinet!" There was no need for Yang Zhen to remind him at all, and Wanli blurted out.

"Exactly. Therefore, since the beginning of the cabinet, it has only been a secretarial organization to help the Son of Heaven deal with some daily official business. Yang Zhen said, and couldn't help but take a breath, because what he was going to say next was the focus of this conversation: "But after more than a hundred years of inheritance, the cabinet is no longer the same institution as it was at the beginning, and the first assistant of the cabinet has already become the prime minister who is not the prime minister." This alone is enough to show that they are people who have broken the rules of their ancestors, and it is light to say that they are transgressors! ”

When Yang Zhen completely opened the topic, Wanli was suddenly stunned, and it was difficult to come back to his senses for a long time. As the Son of Heaven, he hadn't thought about it at all, but now that he thinks about it, that's really what happened.

When Chengzu Zhu Di founded the cabinet, it was just a small secretarial organization, not only did it not have much power, but the status of the cabinet ministers in it was also very low, but in the five or six grades, that is, the location of their office, it was also extremely narrow and cramped, which showed their humility. But I don't know when the status of cabinet ministers has skyrocketed, and as time goes by, they can almost be compared with previous prime ministers. No, in some cases, their status is even much higher than that of the previous prime ministers, and they have become the de facto masters of the empire, such as Yang Tinghe in the early years of Jiajing, such as Zhang Juzheng now.

Perhaps only in the years when Jiajing really held real power, the power of the cabinet had the least restriction on imperial power. But even so, the officials of the world are also extremely flattering and flattering to Yan Song and Xu Jie, even when facing the Son of Heaven.

The reason for this lies in the problem of the system itself. When the promotion and promotion of officials is no longer decided by the Son of Heaven but by the cabinet, especially the full use of a series of means such as the Jingcha and the External Inspection, officials will naturally regard the cabinet that controls their own future as the real object of allegiance, and as for the Son of Heaven, it is just an ornament in their eyes.

Therefore, since the middle of the Ming Dynasty, all people can see is that officials have neglected the emperor, and the emperor who seems to be the first person in the world has been scolded with blood. In the end, not only were they not punished in any way, but they were held up as examples of loyalty and uprightness. And those officials in Beijing, because of their duties, will always find the sore feet and mistakes of the Son of Heaven, and criticize the emperor as useless, which makes people feel that the emperors of the Ming Dynasty are idiots and fools who don't know anything and always make mistakes.

At the same time, the real rulers of the empire, the cabinet ministers, were rarely attacked by officials from below. At most, he is jokingly called a papier-mâché three-pavilion elder, and perhaps the only exception is Yan Song, who has been the first assistant for decades. But he was also constantly attacked after the defeat of the political struggle, and before that, no one dared to express any dissatisfaction with him.

Because the officials knew very well that their fate was only in the hands of the ministers, and the emperor could not do anything to them at all. Unless you meet an emperor like Jiajing who insists on going his own way and doesn't take the praise and disapproval of literati seriously, you will not cause any trouble if you directly reprimand the emperor.

What caused this kind of Manchu officials not to be afraid of the Son of Heaven but to fear the cabinet ministers was this cabinet system that had been constantly deviating since its inception. But the Ming Dynasty monarchs and ministers in it did not see through all this, until it was destroyed by King Chuang and replaced by the Manchu Qing Dynasty, after seeing the "miserable" experience of the Ming Dynasty emperor, the Qing Dynasty emperor re-firmly grasped all financial and personnel power, and severely suppressed the civil system.

And now, when Yang Zhen put forward this opinion to Wanli as a traveler, it really surprised Wanli. But the more I think about it, the more I feel that there is indeed a big problem in this, and there is a lot to be done.

Since Taizu made a rule that no prime minister can be set up in this dynasty since him, what is the cabinet that is now more powerful than the prime minister, and the first assistant who has no name as a prime minister, but has the fact of a prime minister? As long as he grasps this point and attacks, he Wanli will be invincible.

When those officials criticize and advise the Son of Heaven, they often talk about the laws of their ancestors and the like. But judging from the current Wanli, they are clearly the ones who have broken the rules of their ancestors the most. As long as this point is pointed, Wanli is convinced that no official can compete with him.

This realization made him extremely excited, and the fat face, which had been a little pale, was now faintly red with excitement. I saw him move his body a few times behind the dragon case excitedly, and then he spoke: "Yang Qing really has far-reaching vision, and he can even see such a completely ignored thing, which is really surprising to me." As he spoke, he was stunned again, thought of something, and said strangely: "But Yang Qing, you are just a martial artist, even if you are good at reading, you won't have this knowledge, right?" ”

For this question, Yang Zhen is really difficult to answer. Because he can have this vision, he needs to rely on 500 years more insight than the people of this era. But this point is impossible to reveal under any circumstances. Fortunately, he had another reasonable explanation, so he smiled a little embarrassedly: "Your Majesty, forgive me, in fact, what the minister said was not from what the minister thought, but some of the opinions of my brother Yang Chen." ”

"Oh? Does Yang Qing still have a brother? Where is he now, and what does he do? For such a character, Wanli showed great interest at that time.

"My brother Yang Chen is now the political envoy of Zhejiang, and he is the county commander of Zhuji County, Shaoxing Prefecture." Yang Zhen replied respectfully: "And what I said before is mostly some of the opinions put forward by my brother and his ministers in his spare time in the past. He often said that the current cabinet is the same as the prime minister of the past, so why did he go so far as to remove the prime minister in the first place? ”

"What an insightful talent, I really want to meet this Yang Qing's family!" Wanli couldn't help but sigh lightly.

"Since my brother is also a Ming courtier, Your Majesty will always be able to see him one day." Yang Zhen hurriedly said. At the same time, I said to my brother in my heart, brother, I have already helped you show your face in front of the emperor, it depends on whether you can fly yellow from now on!

Although this conversation can only be a psychological comfort for Wanli at the moment, after all, he does not have the courage and strength to confront Zhang Juzheng head-on, but this is enough to give him great confidence. And what Yang Zhen wants is just such a result, presumably as long as he contributes more, there will be a day when the two monarchs and ministers will completely turn against each other.

Of course, the effect is still there. At least after Yang Zhen's words, Wanli's fear of Zhang Juzheng has disappeared, and the depression and loneliness just now are completely gone. When Yang Zhen went out and Sun Hai and the others entered, what they saw was an emperor who was obviously much more cheerful and loudly asked them to prepare a meal, which made Sun Hai feel that it was an extremely wise choice for him to tell Yang Zhen about last night.