"Our Ming Dynasty, where did the real powerful minister come from? As a father, he is neither Wang Mang, nor can he be Cao Ying. Zhang Juzheng shook his head slowly, a self-deprecating wry smile on the corner of his mouth.

Since Zhu Yuanzhang abolished the prime minister system in the early Ming Dynasty through the Hu Weiyong case, the imperial power has been strengthened far beyond the previous generation, forming a stable pattern in which the civil and foreign courts are headed by the cabinet, the eunuchs and the inner court are the hearts of the ceremonial supervisors, and the military power is held by the noble and military ministers.

During the Yingzong period, the civil and engineering changes, the Xungui Wuchen group was hit hard, and gradually formed a situation of civil and noble military cheapness, the grassroots guard system collapsed, and the dukes, marquis, and uncles could only maintain the glory and wealth of the family and part of the power of commanding the army, and basically lost the right to speak on the major politics of the court, such as Xu Bangrui, the Duke of Wei, served as the garrison of Nanjing and commanded the 100,000 army.

The three-legged stool can stand firmly, but the two-legged one cannot, and the Ming Dynasty situation, which only has the two forces of civil officials from the outer court and eunuchs from the inner court, will inevitably fall - as long as the emperor is young or ignores the government affairs, either the civil officials of the outer court have the upper hand and a powerful minister like Zhang Juzheng appears, or the eunuchs of the inner court produce the eunuch Wang Zhen, the emperor Liu Jin, and the nine-thousand-year-old Wei Zhongxian.

But no matter Zhang Juzheng, Wang Zhen or Wei Zhongxian, no one can really become a powerful minister in the true sense of the word like Cao Ying, Wang Mang, and Sima Yi, because the civil officials of the imperial examination are restricted by the system and difficult to develop their family power, and they cannot get the allegiance of the army outside the dynastic system, and the eunuchs of the inner court are completely dependent on the imperial power, no matter how powerful Liu Jin or Wei Zhongxian seems, when the emperor makes up his mind to deal with it, they have no power to resist at all.

The reason why Zhang Juzheng was able to dominate the world was not that he had the power to directly depose the hundred officials, or to have a loyal private army, which were the necessary conditions for becoming a true minister.

Rather, it was his status as an emperor that enabled him to exert influence over the emperor, and the trust of the Empress Dowager Li deepened the strength of this influence; As the first assistant of the cabinet, he can exercise the power to "vote" on the book of 100 officials; The alliance with Feng Bao, the eunuch in charge of the celebrant seal, enabled his vote to pass the "approval of red" without hindrance, and finally became the will of the imperial court, which was implemented by various departments.

Zhang Juzheng was not as arbitrary and domineering as the ministers of the past dynasties, but used special scheming methods to give the green light all the way to the various checkpoints of the Ming Dynasty system, but if any of these checkpoints, whether Emperor Wanli, Empress Dowager Li or Feng Bao turned the red light on him, the channel to turn the "Shoufu Jun Decree" into the "Emperor's Holy Decree" would be closed immediately.

So to a certain extent, before Emperor Wanli came of age, Zhang Juzheng actually exercised the power of the emperor, and used this to vigorously promote the new policy; But on the other hand, his power is not unbreakable, and even quite fragile.

"Others only say how my Zhang family is a saint and a long, Xuanhe for a while, but I don't know that in order to implement the new policy, open up the situation of the prosperity of the Ming Dynasty and protect the luck of China for a hundred years, my heart is really ......" Zhang Juzheng pondered for a long time, let out a long breath, and spit out eight words: "trembling, walking on thin ice." ”

The three brothers and sisters of the Zhang family looked at each other, on the one hand, they had to believe their father's words, and on the other hand, they always felt sensational: in the Jiangling Prime Minister's Mansion, traveling in the south of the Yangtze River, they only felt that their father was powerful and admired by the government and the people, who knew that it would be so difficult?

seemed to see the doubts of his children, Zhang Juzheng also took the opportunity to spit out the block in his chest, so he smiled and drew a circle on the ground: "This is a scholar in the world, and my father drew a circle in it, this is the civil official of the foreign dynasty, you know that less than 20% of the scholars from the poor family who are admitted to the Jinshi are now, and the majority of them are the children of the gentry and wealthy businessmen."

Daddy's new policy has two items: clearing the acres of land and chasing the arrears, reducing the burden of the people's ration fields, and checking the acres of land concealed by the gentry, which is against the squires all over the world; And a whip law changed the grain and cloth in kind in the past to the collection of silver, although the fire consumption was retained, and the local people could not be arbitrarily exploited by dry grains and wet grains as in the past, which was against the officials of the yamen; Passing the examination to evaluate the performance of officials throughout the year, and demoting mediocre and lazy officials until they are deposed, this is again against the nerdy officials who are full of four books and five classics and have no use in doing things. ”

Every time Zhang Juzheng said that he was right, he used a magic stick to cut a piece of the circle like cutting a cake, and when he reached the back of the circle, three major pieces were missing, and in the end, there were only a few left, which were Zhang Juzheng's own cronies and officials who started their careers in the New Deal and benefited from the implementation of the New Deal.

By forcefully implementing the new policy and breaking with the old vested interest groups, Zhang Juzheng has actually stood in opposition to most of the civil officials who came from the imperial examination.

Looking at the circle on the ground that had been cut to the bottom, the foreheads of the Zhang brothers were sweating like pulp.

Zhang Zixuan blinked, picked up a stick, drew another box, a triangle, and a five-sided outside the big circle, and then looked at her father.

Zhang Juzheng nodded approvingly, understanding what his daughter meant: Zhang Zixuan is still working hard to dispose of Wang Bengu, and those three figures represent the Empress Dowager Li, who trusts him, his disciple Emperor Wanli, and Feng Bao, the celebrant who is an ally. With the support of these three, the opposition of the old civilian forces alone is not enough to shake the new policy, and there is no need to accept Wang Bengu's surrender.

After pondering for a long time, the corners of Zhang Juzheng's mouth twitched and smiled reluctantly: "The cabinet produces white lotus, and there are double white swallows in the Hanlin Academy, some time ago I gave it to the emperor to enjoy it, and Feng Bao sent someone to say, 'The emperor is young, he shouldn't use these strange things to make the emperor greedy for fun' - hehe, Feng Bao didn't dare to talk to his father like this in the past." ”

Zhang Juzheng will inevitably offend civil officials for the sake of the new policy, so he has to rely on the Empress Dowager Li and the celebrant Feng Bao, in the first five years of the alliance between Wanli, Zhang Juzheng absolutely dominated, but as time went by, Feng Bao also gradually revealed his ambitions.

As the first assistant of the emperor, Zhang Juzheng must use the power of the inner court to suppress the opposition to the reform among the civil officials, but he himself is the leader of the civil officials of the foreign dynasty and the first assistant of the cabinet, and he must prevent the eunuchs of the inner court from taking the opportunity to take advantage of the opportunity to become bigger, otherwise in the future, there will be eunuchs like Wang Zhen and Liu Jin, and the new policy will definitely be doomed!

And the mad dog-like clear gossip official is a sharp weapon used to balance the eunuchs, because the clear stream and the eunuchs are natural enemies like cats and dogs, and they always bite each other when they meet...... Whew~~ The Zhang brothers breathed a sigh of relief, and so far they have been completely persuaded by their father.

Looking at the white hair on her father's temples and the wrinkles on her forehead, Zhang Zixuan deeply understood the meaning of the words "difficult steps" for the first time in her life.

Now the question she is thinking about is, how can she convince Qin Lin?

"The Jin family rehabilitated Zhaoxue for Wang Zhi, and then allowed her to open Hangzhou Port for trade, forgive her for knowing the general situation, and there will naturally be benefits in the future; As for Qin Lin, the old man wrote a letter to him, and if the Ministry of War doesn't go to the post road, you will bring it to him! Zhang Juzheng looked at his daughter's gains and losses, and had already seen some clues, and laughed loudly: "For his father, he will be transferred to Beijing to be the official of Jinyi Weitang, and he will inspect this young talent!" ”

Don't say that Jinyi Wei commands affairs, even if he commands Tongzhi and commands envoys, he will not be personally inspected by the head of the dynasty, perhaps only Liu Shou, the prince of the left capital governor of Jinyi Wei, has this qualification, so the investigation in Zhang Juzheng's mouth has another meaning.

The two brothers of the Zhang family are happy for their sister, but Zhang Zixuan herself still trims her eyebrows and frowns: Qin Lin's guy is round on the outside and square on the inside, but he is actually the same surname as his father, how can he be easily convinced?

Sure enough, when he came to Nanjing with a letter to meet, Qin Lin was not flattered by the handwritten letter of the emperor's first assistant, let alone overjoyed when he saw the appointment of Jinyiwei to command the affairs and assist in the Nanzhen Fusi, and found that there was a lack of disposal of Wang Bengu at the first time.

The brothers and sisters of the Zhang family looked at each other, with embarrassment on their faces, and after a long time, Zhang Zixuan took a step, looked at Qin Lin's eyes, and said word by word: "Brother Qin told the little sister that it is important to avenge the 100,000 unjust souls who have died, or to implement a new policy, so that the living people in the world can reduce their tax burden, so that the bully squires cannot hide their land, the imperial court income increases, and Qi Shuai trains the new army...... Is it more important to rule the world and open the prosperity of the Ming Dynasty? ”

Qin Lin's face was unwavering, and it was the first time he was so serious when he faced Zhang Zixuan: "That's not right. First, Ling Zun's new policy has several flaws, and it does not reach the ideal level you said, and second, it is difficult to avenge the soul of the wrongdoer, and if it is necessary to ignore the general righteousness and reverse right and wrong in order to achieve a goal that looks beautiful, this goal is often false, and the path to it is also wrong. ”

The brothers and sisters of the Zhang family don't believe that in their minds, their father's new policy is a good policy to open up peace for all generations, how can it be difficult to achieve?

"Brother Qin, please take a look at the letter written by my father, we have a good family background, it seems that there is no need to be so-for-tat, right?" Zhang Maoxiu squeezed his eyes at Qin Lin vigorously, bit the four words of Tong's family background very hard, and quietly snorted his sister from behind.

Jin Yiwei commanded the minister, assisted in the prominent official position of Nanzhen Fusi, and married Zhang Juzheng's only daughter, who in the world could refuse?

Zhang Zixuan's pale face became red, and she looked at Qin Lin with a bright autumn wave, and her breathing became shorter - how she hoped that Qin Lin could compromise!

Qin Lin suddenly smiled, and just when the brothers and sisters of the Zhang family breathed a sigh of relief, he shook his head: "Lingzun has Lingzun's avenue, but he also has his own path below, and the so-called Dao is different and does not conspire with each other - so Lord Shoufu's kindness is in his heart, and this letter and ministry photo have to be thanked for not being sensitive." ”

He grabbed Zhang Zixuan's hand and put Zhang Juzheng's handwritten letter and the photo of the promotion department in her hand.

After being stunned for a long time, forcibly enduring the sourness, Zhang Zixuan said goodbye and left, and the moment she turned around, tears had burst out of her eyes...... Zhang Maoxiu glared at Qin Lin fiercely and chased him out quickly.

Zhang Jingxiu shook his head and sighed, and before leaving, he shook Qin Lin to the ground with great admiration: "Brother Qin's state of mind is like a rock of Mount Tai, unshakable!" ”

(To be continued)