Fei Hong image).
Fei Hong, whose name is Chong, is a native of Guangxin Mansion, Jiangxi, and is currently selected by Emperor Zhu Houxi of Jiajing to become the first assistant to the cabinet of the Ming Dynasty.
Before introducing Fei Hong, it is necessary for the author to give you a science popularization of what is called a cabinet.
Because the cultural level of the founding emperor Zhu Yuanzhang was not very high, the ink in his stomach was not enough, so at the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, he followed the system of the Yuan Dynasty.
What system did the Yuan Dynasty have? In a nutshell, it can be called three major pieces. That is, "Zhongshu Province, Left Prime Minister, Right Prime Minister".
This Zhongshu Province is a department, and it belongs to the highest-level organ unit of the imperial court.
The left prime minister and the right prime minister are the positions of the unit, and they are also the most hierarchical and powerful positions in the bureaucratic class.
If the emperor is the number one in command of the imperial court, then the right prime minister is the second in command, and the left prime minister is the third in command.
Although the second-in-command and third-in-command have a lot of power, they also have to undertake a lot of government affairs for the emperor, so as to relieve the emperor's work pressure.
In the thirteenth year of Hongwu, in 1380 AD, the appalling Hu Weiyong case occurred in this dynasty.
Hu Weiyong's case) Comrade Hu Weiyong, who was the right man of Zhongshu at the time, was corrupt and perverted the law, did not do good things, and was detained by Zhu Yuanzhang with the intention of rebellion, Zhu Yuanzhang pretended not to know, and then pretended to learn by chance, he was very angry, not only actively dealt with Hu Weiyong, but also abolished the official position of Zhongshu Province and the prime minister.
Zhu Yuanzhang's meaning is obvious: I am not targeting you Hu Weiyong, I am targeting the prime minister system.
My Lao Zhu just said: Whoever shares power with me, I work hard with whom.
In Zhu Yuanzhang's view, although China's prime minister system has existed since the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, it does not mean that it is right.
For thousands of years, it was very contradictory that the power of the prime minister and the imperial power operated at the same time.
If the power is too small, then the province of Zhongshu will be useless, and the left and right prime ministers will not be able to help the emperor at all, and if the power is too large, then it will often threaten the imperial power, and even overshadow the imperial power.
And to cover the imperial power is to cover him Zhu Yuanzhang.
On weekdays, only Zhu Yuanzhang covers others, where is the reason why others cover Zhu Yuanzhang?
Some readers may ask, isn't it okay to find a balance between big and small?
This is true in theory, but it takes a lot of time and effort and practice to achieve this balance.
Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang image).
The emperor was not a scientist, and he did not have a lot of time to do experiments.
Therefore, Hu Weiyong fell, and the prime minister system was gone.
However, as soon as the prime minister system was gone, no one took on the work that was originally done by the prime minister, so it returned to the emperor himself.
Zhu Yuanzhang is a workaholic, he can stay up late, he can liver, he can even work without sleep.
Of course, the emperor's diligent government is not a strong point, and the later Zhu Yunwen is also a diligent king, and the later Zhu Di is also a workaholic.
But the problem is that Zhu Yunwen can devote himself to his work wholeheartedly without distractions, but after Zhu Di became the emperor, there are too many things, going to the West today, going north tomorrow, and repairing the "Yongle Canon" the day after tomorrow.
The power has been regained, and the workload has increased exponentially.
In that era, there were no model workers, and there was no overtime pay, and the emperor worked overtime in vain.
Ming Chengzu Zhu Di image).
As for Zhu Di, although people often call him the Emperor Yongle, the Emperor is a man, not a god, and if he continues to do this, sooner or later he will be finished.
Under such circumstances, Zhu Di set up a secretarial agency to help the emperor, and this institution is the cabinet we are familiar with.
The cabinet is a department that we can understand as the emperor's confidential secretary team.
The leading secretary is called the Cabinet Chief, the secretary in charge is called the Cabinet Vice-Assistant, and the remaining group of ordinary secretaries are called Cabinet Scholars.
Of course, these secretaries are not full-time professionals, but are basically temporarily transferred from the six ministries, so in addition to serving in the cabinet, they often wear multiple hats.
It is precisely for this reason that the term of office of the secretaries in the cabinet is often not fixed, and if they do a good job, they will work for two more days, and if they do not do well, they will leave as soon as possible.
In the beginning, these secretaries really did just the work of the secretaries, helping the emperor to copy and write when he had nothing to do, and helping the emperor to come up with ideas when he had something, in essence, they did not have any substantive power except for "only for the emperor's reference".
In official terms, the decision-making power is in the hands of the emperor, the executive power is in the hands of the six ministries, and the cabinet only has the power of deliberation.
Under the emperor's arrangement, the cabinet and the six divisions of labor cooperated, each performing its own duties, and the supreme order of the Ming Dynasty set off from the Forbidden City, through 1,936 post stations across the country, with a total length of 143,700 kilometers of post roads, and distributed to every corner of the Ming Dynasty.
However, it is said that the cabinet has no power, but after all, they are always hanging around in the center of power in the empire, and over time, they begin to gradually grasp real power.
There are two reasons for holding real power.
First, it is not uncommon for cabinet ministers to enter the cabinet part-time, and it is not uncommon for them to enter the cabinet part-time at the level of Shangshu and squire, and they serve in the six ministries, and work in the cabinet, and one person works two jobs, which is equivalent to eating two bowls of noodles and only giving one bowl of money, that is, having administrative power and senatorial power.
Second, there are some cabinet ministers and Shoufu whose personal abilities are quite excellent, fans in the court, there are still a lot of fans and sisters, they can often provoke the big beam in government affairs, have many supporters and a certain influence, and improve the weight of the cabinet in the political environment through their own efforts, such as Yang Shiqi who helped Mingrenzong Zhu Gaochi ascend to the throne of God, Yang Rong, Wang Wen who joined as a minister in the Jingtai period, and Li Dongyang and Yang Tinghe, the full-time dads who took care of their sons for Emperor Hongzhi during the Zhengde period.
The above are just some of the outstanding people who have appeared in the cabinet, and if you really want to talk about the masters in the cabinet, Yan Song in the Jiajing period and Zhang Juzheng in the Wanli period are the first to be recommended.
Yan Song was the first assistant, specializing in court politics for 20 years, except for Emperor Jiajing himself, he was basically not used to anyone, in essence, it was not much different from being a prime minister.
Portrait of Zhang Juzheng).
And when Zhang Juzheng was the first assistant in the Wanli period, the ten-year-old Wanli Emperor had to tremble when he saw Zhang Juzheng, either quickly called Mr. or immediately called the teacher, and the status of Zhang Juzheng, who was in power alone, was almost the same as that of the prime minister of modern society.
The story of Yan Song and Zhang Juzheng, I will mention it in a future article, and now, let's shine the spotlight on Fei Hong.
In fact, Fei Hong's ability to become the new head of the cabinet is a complete accident in the eyes of the ministers.
When Zhu Houxi first ascended the throne, Fei Hong was mixed up with Yang Tinghe.
Yang Tinghe bullied Zhu Houxi, he followed the bully, Yang Tinghe opposed Zhu Houxi, he followed the opposition, from any indication, it can be shown that Fei Hong is unswervingly following Yang Tinghe to curb the imperial power, so the relationship between him and Zhu Houyu has always been antagonistic.
But the strange thing is that soon after Yang Tinghe took the initiative to resign, Zhu Houxi promoted Fei Hong to the secretary of the ministry, and soon gave him the green light in his official career, so that he went straight to the cabinet and became the first assistant.
Friends, Comrade Zhu Houyu is not Zhang Wuji, he likes to do what kind of revenge with virtue, those ministers who opposed Zhu Houyu back then were all severely rectified by Zhu Houyi, and there were no less than 34 people who were just pressed to the ground and fought in court, and then beaten to death.
Portrait of Ming Shizong Zhu Houxi).
And the reason why Zhu Houyu uncharacteristically reuses Fei Hong is because Zhu Houyu discovered early on that Fei Hong is essentially different from those ministers who spare no effort to oppose him from beginning to end.
Zhu Houyu recruited Yang Tinghe back then, a mouthful of Lord Yang, Teacher Yang's name, but Yang Tinghe did not buy his account, Zhu Houyu also had a bribe, specially sent a box of ** to Mao Cheng, who was the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, hoping that Mao Cheng could say good things for himself in the court.
I didn't expect Mao Cheng to collect the money very quickly, and he really wanted to do things for the emperor, so the more various excuses were delayed.
Only Fei Hong, as soon as Zhu Houxi first came into contact with him, he said intentionally or unintentionally that he was not intent on going against you, but the current situation is like this, in order to keep his official position and continue to serve His Majesty, I can only temporarily stand on the same team with Yang Tinghe.
This made Zhu Houxi understand that Fei Hong's ingredients were not pure, and he had room to fight.
Therefore, not long after the Great Etiquette Incident passed, Zhu Houxi sent the minister who had shown his heart and ambiguity to him to the throne of the first assistant.
Fei Hong, a benevolent brother, has no problem with his character, he can be a bowl of water when he is the first assistant, fair and strict, but his work ability cannot be as good as his character, not to mention anything else, when Comrade Fei Hong was the first assistant, there were two things that were not very authentic.
First, there were occasional exiled Japanese samurai in the southeast coastal area, and the local government was sparse several times, but Fei Hong did not pay attention to it.
In Fei Hong's view, it is really not worth it to make any trouble in a small country.
Second, the Mongolian Great Khan Mansuer harassed the border, and Chen Jiuchou, the governor of Gansu, lied about the military situation after repelling the enemy army, saying that he had killed Mansuer with one shot, and Fei Hong easily believed Chen Jiuchou's statement when he didn't see anyone alive or dead, and reported to the court without saying a word.
As a result, less than a week after Fei Hong reported the results of the battle, an embarrassing thing happened - the "resurrected" Mansuer Khan sent a letter to the imperial court, hoping to communicate with the Ming Dynasty and do business.
It's hard to be confused, but if you keep being so confused, it's a bit of a problem.
Here, there is a very important knowledge point, that is, at this time, the Ming Dynasty was still in a serious atmosphere of seclusion and seclusion.
The southeast coast pays attention to the fact that there is no piece of armor left, and it is difficult for foreigners who have scalded their heads to understand the situation of the Ming Dynasty, and the border areas north of the Ming Dynasty are under the instruction of Chen Jiuchou, the governor of Gansu, to close off the tribute and do no business at all.
However, according to the vastness of the Ming Dynasty, such a small change is really irrelevant, and there is no need to go up to heaven to let the emperor know.
At this time, the Jiajing Emperor Zhu Houxi naturally didn't care about these messy things, he was still immersed in the victory of the great ceremonial dispute, and was happily ordering the Hanlin Academy to compile a "Record of the Emperor" for his father.
A vassal king, he actually wants to compile a record, and the ** people of the Hanlin Academy think that this is too lawless.
But they are very clearly aware that the ministers were heaven in the past, and now Zhu Houxi is heaven.
The sky of the Ming Dynasty has changed a long time ago.
Next Chapter: Anti-Thief Buying Officials: The rebel leader on the wanted list actually became a member of the court of Zheng Sanpin? Hotspot Engine Program