After Zhao Song left the emperor's residence, he did not leave the barracks, but found another place to live in the barracks, and the soldiers of his cronies were also summoned, although they were not qualified to meet His Majesty, but they were also specially arranged to live next to his residence, so that they could devise corresponding plans.

And after Zhao Song left, the emperor was not idle, his schedule was full every day, and arranging Zhao Song's audience was just a small thing in today's schedule, and the next things were even more important.

The Emperor had been standing in front of the map on the steps, thinking, sometimes gesturing with his hands, but none of the attendants in the corner of the hall made a sound, so as not to disturb the Emperor's thoughts.

It wasn't until a long time later that a middle-aged attendant military attache slowly walked to the edge of the platform with extremely light steps.

Then he knelt down silently.

"Emperor Qiqi, the Duke of Yongguo, the Duke of Cai, and the Marquis of Pingyuan have all arrived, and they are all waiting for Your Majesty in the conference hall now."

"It's all here already?" The emperor finally withdrew his gaze from the map. "Alright, tell them to prepare, and I'll go over right away."

"Yes!" The high-ranking attendant military attache immediately stood up, turned neatly and left the lobby, walking towards the conference hall in the side hall.

Yongguo Gong is Wang Zhaojing, the prime minister of the Han Dynasty today, the highest-ranking minister who leads the cabinet, and the apex of the entire Chinese civil officials; Cai Guogong is Shi Manqiang, he is the same as Ji Guogong Chen Sheng and Cao Guogong Jixiang, he is also the marshal of the Han army, and now controls the Han army in Shandong, Henan, Huguang and Sichuan. The Marquis of Pingyuan is Chen Hong, who is now a cabinet minister in the cabinet, responsible for finance and taxation, and is known as the minister of finance.

Since the establishment of the world, the new dynasty under the emperor's design, while following some of the systems of the old dynasty, has also carried out some new reforms according to its own needs, and the civil service system is naturally the top priority of the reform.

One of the problems in the politics of the previous dynasty was that the cabinet, which controlled the real power of the government, was disconnected from the six ministries in charge of actual affairs, so that the first ministers could easily monopolize the power, and most of the cabinet ministers could not find the specific affairs they were responsible for, so they could only be reduced to decorations and could not play an auxiliary role, while the six ministries were often constrained because of the lower status of the ministers in charge of affairs, and as a result, communication between the upper and lower levels was not smooth and the operation was not effective.

As a result, as soon as the new dynasty was established, while the cabinet was used, the emperor also made the decision to integrate the cabinet and the six ministries. In this way, the first and auxiliary ministers (officially called the prime minister, some also called the prime minister) can control the overall situation, and the other ministers can also exert their power and feet within their respective spheres of authority.

However, due to the large number of affairs of the national and imperial dynasties, the six ministries have also been divided and divided according to their needs, and there are now more than a dozen cabinet ministers.

For example, the Ministry of Households, its functions have been separated, household registration and population management have been divided into the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and the ministers in charge of it are called "people's ministers"; The world's financial planning and taxation are divided into the Ministry of Finance, and its ministers in charge are called "Finance Ministers" (Pingyuan Hou Chen Hong is now serving as Finance Minister), and the commercial trade is divided into the Ministry of Commerce, and its ministers in charge are called "Commercial Ministers", and now they are served by Shangdang Hou Zhou Xuezhi.

As for the emperor's wife and brother, Xu Housheng, who was named the Duke of Weiguo, was in charge of industrial affairs before Dingding, and after the establishment of the new dynasty, he also justifiably became the "minister of work" in charge of the Ministry of Industry, responsible for the country's industrial and mining and construction matters.

Under such a new system of government, the status of cabinet ministers began to be linked to their powers, and there was no longer a phenomenon like the former Ming Dynasty, where the first assistant covered the sky with one hand and the six ministries were superficial.

The prime minister is in charge of the overall situation of the world, and the minister of finance holds the power of the world's financial planning, these two can be said to be the most important positions in the imperial court, and now these two middle-aged important ministers have been summoned, calmly sitting on the side of the long round table and chair in the side hall, occasionally talking to each other. The marshal, Cai Guogong Shi Manqiang, sat on the other side of the round table, he looked at the other side without squinting, and did not participate in the conversation between the two cabinet ministers.

In the pre-Ming era, since the Tumubao Incident, no matter how high-ranking the military attaché was, he was not qualified to sit before the head of the cabinet, or even to sit, so of course this kind of scene would not appear. However, since the establishment of the new dynasty, the emperor felt the lesson that the previous Ming Dynasty had despised the warriors and caused the low status of the warriors, so that the combat effectiveness of the army was deteriorating, so he deliberately improved the status of the warriors, completely grasped the power of the army, and made the army self-contained, and did not allow civilian officials to lower the status of the warriors by mastering the way of promotion. Moreover, he repeatedly bestowed the rank of senior officer in the army in order to give them more confidence to defend their position.

He was not afraid that the warriors would rebel after giving them a high status, because he knew that as long as the people's hearts and the army's hearts were on the side of the imperial court, no one would succeed in the rebellion, and very few people would take risks - and if the people's hearts and the army's morale were lost, even if the warriors did not make trouble, how could the dynasty be saved?

At the same time, it was precisely because the Han deliberately maintained a balance between civil and military affairs that the two cabinet ministers did not take the initiative to talk to Marshal Shi in the chamber.

It's not because they don't have a good relationship, but because they are deliberately avoiding suspicion.

When the military attache informed the emperor that he was coming, the two important ministers stopped talking, and the top civil and military officials of the three empires were all sitting in danger, waiting for the emperor's arrival.

The entire conference hall was silent, and only the slight fluttering of the scales of the brass enamel Western clock reminded people that time did not stop passing.

"The emperor has arrived!" With a strong and solid shout, the three important ministers stood up from their chairs at the same time, and then walked to the open space on both sides.

When the emperor, dressed in a black military uniform, walked into the council chamber, the three powerful ministers who could silence ten thousand people knelt down on their knees in unison, and then shouted out at the same time.

"Long live my emperor, long live, long live!"

The emperor just waved his hand casually, signaling them to excuse himself, and then walked to the throne on his own.

Originally, the oval-shaped table seats were the same pineapple wooden seats, but at the insistence of the important ministers, the main seat was deliberately raised one step higher, and the seats were also covered with gold and jade to reflect the supremacy of the emperor.

Except for this seat, the other furnishings of the council chamber are relatively simple, even simple, and it is difficult for those who have not seen it to believe that in this humble council room, countless major decisions related to the national economy and people's livelihood, and the life and death of countless people have been formulated, and then implemented by the bureaucrats and military machines of the entire empire.

Because they were often able to meet the emperor, these important ministers were not as nervous as Zhao Song, but they still stared with bated breath, for fear of upsetting the emperor.

They can all be said to be the emperor's elder brothers who followed him from the beginning, but now they all know that they are already monarchs and ministers, and the boundaries have been clear, and they must maintain this boundary, and they can no longer continue the way they got along in the past under the current environment.

It is precisely because they have this consciousness that after the emperor ascended the throne, no matter how the emperor refused, they still used various ways to respect the emperor and highlight the supremacy of the imperial power, and they knew that the emperor said the best choice for themselves.

"I've kept you waiting." The emperor waved his hand lightly and motioned for the attendants in the room to walk out.

Without hesitation, the attendants and military attachés all walked out in silence, and then closed the doors, leaving only a young secretary in the corner of the chamber to record the conversations of several people in the corner of the chamber for later access to the records—the kind of secretaries were carefully selected and reliable young men, and they would also be promoted to serve in the cabinet chamber in the future, and the future was very bright, so they would never have any thoughts of leaking secrets.

After these people left, the emperor's originally serious expression suddenly eased a lot, "Okay, now that everyone is gone, don't put on this tense face, they are all your own brothers, you can say whatever you want." ”

Seeing that the emperor was in a good mood, the three important ministers secretly glanced at each other and breathed a sigh of relief.

However, even so, they still dare not treat themselves as brothers in front of the emperor and be presumptuous.

"Thank you for your grace." The highest status among the three is the prime minister of the dynasty and the prince of Yongguo, Zhaojing, so according to the unwritten rules among the important ministers, he is responsible for replying, "As a courtier, I should assist Your Majesty wholeheartedly, and I dare not arrogant myself." ”

"What trespass and don't trespass? I took you to fight this world, and I have to take you to rule with me! The emperor frowned dissatisfiedly, "I am now in the ninth place, if you are worried about this and that, you will not talk well, how can I know whether things are good or bad?" ”

These words were said cordially and with a sense of trust, and several important ministers were excited and happy, and they all had smiles on their faces. Their respect for the emperor is not just because he is the emperor and therefore has a supreme status, but more importantly, because he respects him from the heart. It was under the leadership of the emperor that they formed a group, and then walked out of Xuzhou step by step, growing their strength little by little, and finally swept the whole world, in their hearts, "the emperor sees thousands of miles, absolutely good, we only need to implement the rules" The idea has become a subconscious to some extent, and almost never disagrees with any opinion of the emperor, even if they do not particularly understand this opinion.