"Silence, silence!"

"Colleagues, before voting, the old man will first say the rules, and if the people outside the hall can't hear clearly, they can ask the attendants on the side." Hu Hu stood in the middle of the Danqi and raised his breath and opened his voice.

Inside and outside the Fengtian Palace, there was silence.

"First, you can only have one ballot per person, and if your ballot is damaged or you want to fill it out again, you must exchange your ballot for a new one."

Everyone understands this article, everyone can only vote for one, and if you vote more, it will be fraud.

"Second, after everyone gets the ballot, they are not allowed to talk to their colleagues on the left and right, and if they have any needs, they can directly call the internal servants, otherwise, they will abstain and the ballot will be invalid."

It's also nothing, preventing tandem.

"Third, everyone only thinks about one stick of incense, and after one stick of incense, if there is nothing to fill in, it is considered a waiver."

You can't wait for you to think about it, you have time, others don't have time, besides, just choose someone, do you need to think about it for so long?

"Fourth, if it is found that there is any fraud in filling out the ballot, the ballot will be invalidated!"

"Fifth, each person only has one vote, and the ballot papers with multiple checks are invalid, that is, you can only tick the name of one person, and others don't have to."

"Sixth, after everyone has filled out the ballots, put the ballot papers in their hands into the ballot box in front of you in the order of the pilgrimage, remember, fold it in half and put it in, there are six ballot boxes in total, two inside the hall and four outside the hall, don't put it wrong."

"Seventh, this is a secret ballot, and I ask you to refrain from adding your name or other marks to the ballot. Once found, the ballot is invalid. ”

"Eighth, after the voting is over, the ballot box will be opened in public, the votes will be counted, and the votes will be counted. The person with the most votes is the first assistant of the cabinet, and the second person who gets the second number of votes is the second assistant of the cabinet! ”

"Ninth, the final result of this secret ballot will be decided by the Holy Lord!"

Hu Hui opened the holy decree in his hand and read it aloud one by one according to the nine articles listed above.

"You've heard me clearly, what questions can you ask now?" Hu Hui put away the holy decree and asked.

"Master Hu, may I ask, who are we going to choose?"

"Chen Xun, Gao Gu, Ma Yu and Cao Nai. The four of them are the four candidates appointed by the emperor. ”

"So we can only choose one of the four?"

"Is this nature?"

"Isn't there no chance for those who are qualified to serve as the first assistant in the court?" The officer asked a bold question.

"There is no chance this time, if there is, I would have received the recommendation a long time ago." Zhu Qizhen explained.

The emperor said so, and the official only retreated stupidly, Meng Yan glanced at it, and the official seemed to be from the ministry.

"Who else has a doubt?"

"I haven't brought pen and ink with me until the last dynasty, how can I fill it in?" An official asked.

"You don't have to worry. The old man has already prepared it for everyone, and I will send it to you along with the ballot in a moment. Hu Hu explained.

"Mr. Hu. Let's get started, it's clear to everyone. Second assistant Chen Xun said.

"Okay, let's start distributing ballots!" Hu Hu looked at it, and no one said anything more, so he said to the eunuch standing behind him holding the ballot, "There is Lao Xing's father-in-law." ”

"The old man is polite. You're welcome. The leader was the eunuch Xing'an, the eunuch of the ceremonial eunuch, nodded slightly, and led the five eunuchs behind him, one of whom was in charge of one area, six ballot boxes, and six areas.

There are about 120 votes for a zone, for a total of 720. But there are not so many officials, and they are in their early 700s.

This is only the civil and military officials above the fourth rank in Beijing, and those who are idle at home or have only one title are not counted.

The power of the first assistant of the cabinet is not small, and the major and minor affairs of the whole country, as well as military and political affairs, are all involved, so this time, the civilian and military generals voted together to select the first assistant of the cabinet.

Military attachés are mainly the governors of the five armed forces, and at least officials above the command level are qualified.

Also, it must be a military attache in the capital, and those from other places are not counted.

"Lord Liu's, Master Ma's, Lord Yang's ......" ballots were distributed one by one.

Qianhu is only a fifth-grade official, and Meng Yan is not qualified to participate in the vote, but the officials of the six departments and Hanlin, although these officials are not up to the level, they are all talents reserved by the imperial court, and they are all qualified.

Let's put it this way, as long as they are admitted to the imperial examination, the officials in Beijing are eligible for one vote.

The ballot paper printed on mulberry paper has nothing special on it, except for a moire of lace around it.

Obviously, it was made in a hurry, and it was not like that of the Inner Government, which would never use such poor paper.

Isn't it like the Ministry of Rites doesn't even have the money to print the ballots?

No matter what kind of mentality the officials had when they got the ballots, Hu Hu ordered the chamberlains to send the pens one by one.

"Your Majesty, you're ready!" After all the preparations were ready, Hu Hu reported to the emperor.

"Then let's start, Hu Lao Aiqing!"

"Yes!"

Hu Hu ordered someone to bring the case over, took a copper incense burner, lit a stick of incense and said: "The time of a stick of incense, you only have the time to consider a stick of incense, choose one of the four, you can hand in the ballot in advance, but once the ballot box is entered, it will be regarded as a complete vote and cannot be changed!" ”

The time of a stick of incense is actually very fast, especially when Hu Hu lights a fine incense, the time is even shorter, Meng Yan estimated, if a stick of incense burns out, it will be about twenty minutes at most.

This time is actually very abundant, just choose one person, and it's not a matter of being entangled in everything, and who to choose, no one will know in the future, and there are not so many scruples, choose what you want.

However, although the monarchs and ministers of the Ming Dynasty have not played the voting selection, the rule is very simple, isn't it changed to writing with a pen when you say it with your mouth, and you don't need to sign it.

Hu Hu was the first to fill out the ballot, then after drying it, he folded it and put it in the ballot box in front of him.

Needless to say, Hu Hu put a tick behind Cao Nai's name, and Meng Yan saw it, because he had to cooperate with Hu Hu to replace some of the votes later, so the position he was standing in was closer to Hu Hui.

Then Guo Nu also quickly filled in the ballot, and Jinyiwei was qualified to vote for the north and south yazhen envoys. There are seven tickets in total.

Meng Yan believes that Guo Nu has already said hello, and these seven votes must all be Cao Nai, with Guo Nu's control of Jinyiwei now, there is absolutely no problem.

The number of people who voted in each district gradually increased, and those who voted were finished. A separate area was designated, but loud noises were not allowed, let alone disturbing officials who had not yet voted.

Soon half of the incense burned out, and more than half of the officials had already chosen their voters, put their ballots into the ballot box, and then found a place for themselves, silently waiting for the results to be announced.

As the minutes ticked by, the incense had burned two-thirds of the way, and less than a third of the time remained. There are still about half of the officials who can be entangled.

Is it so difficult to choose a cabinet leader of your choice from among the four people?

This is a secret ballot, are you afraid that others will know which one you voted?

It seems that some people are still very entangled in their hearts.

"Colleagues, please hurry up, the burning incense in front of you is less than a third of the time, and if you don't put your ballot in the ballot box within the allotted time, it will be counted as your automatic abstention." Hu Hu stood up and reminded loudly.

"Hu Lao Aiqing is right, since the rules have been set, they must be followed!"

"Mr. Hu. My ballot is spent, can you give me another one? An official who had not made a decision for a long time raised his hand.

"Yes. Give one to the tall man! ”

The chamberlain took a new ballot paper and sent it over, took back the waste ballot from the tall man's hand, put the discarded ballot paper directly into the charcoal basin, and burned to ashes in an instant.

When the results of the roll call are in, all ballots will be processed in the same way.

This is Hu Hu who wants not to give anyone a chance to turn the tables, even if Wang Zhen and others know that they cheated in the end. There is no evidence left.

"Boss, the lower officials also want one, I broke this one."

"Well, give it to him!"

One after another, people asked for ballots, and the attendants sent new ones. Bring back the old ballots and burn them.

Soon, most of the officials in the middle and outside the hall voted for themselves after careful consideration.

There are more than a dozen people, some are still thinking hard, some are biting their pens, not knowing how to start, and some are so red that they don't know how to start!

"The time is almost up, you haven't voted yet, hurry up, when the time comes, you haven't voted yet, even if you abstain." Hu Hui glanced at the incense burner in the incense burner, and there was only the length of his fingernails, which was about to burn out.

At a glance, there is no military attache in sight, this martial artist is always neater than a literati, so the rest are basically civilian officials.

There were also abstentions, probably because the four people on the ballot were not very satisfied, so they simply didn't vote.

After all, this is only a minority, these people's thinking is really difficult to immediately, if you want to abstain, just don't tick the box, you have to stand up and show off, no matter who becomes the head of the cabinet, they will not promote a person who does not support him.

Maybe this is the so-called wind bones, with Meng Yan's thinking, these people are indeed difficult to understand, but in this era, there are still many people of this kind.

Meng Yan counted it, and there were actually as many as seven like-minded people. "When the time comes, the rest of us will either turn in their ballots, or you will abstain!" The incense was exhausted, and Hu Hu deliberately paused for three seconds before announcing it loudly.

Of the remaining seven or eight, three put their ballots in the ballot boxes at the last minute, and four simply abstained.

It is not like the later generations who have to legislate to ensure the fairness and justice of the selection and various rights, and so on.

This is just a small epoch-making rehearsal, but it is still mixed with black-box operations and injustice.

In Meng Yan's view, such voting is just a game for the powerful. (To be continued......)