Returning to Qianqing Palace, Zhu Qiyu once again thought about the scene he had just pushed to the court, and after thinking that there was no problem, his whole body relaxed.
The significance of this court meeting was of great importance to both the government and the public, but he was the only one who knew it best.
Simply speaking from the perspective of official transfer, the appointment of three cabinet ministers and two ministers at once can be regarded as the biggest move in recent times.
His original plan was to have Zhang Min succeed the Minister of Industry, and then let Yu Shiyue, Jiang Yuan and Wang Yining join the cabinet.
Whether it is from the perspective of the stability of the court or the role of the cabinet in reconciling internal and external affairs, the situation of the cabinet must always check each other.
Jiang Yuan is a student of Chen Xun, and Wang Yining is close to Gao Gu. After the two of them join the cabinet, they are bound to continue to be attached to Chen Xun and Gao Gu.
As for Chen Xun and Gao Gu, they seem to be close now, but in fact, they are secretly guarding against each other, so at best they have a loose alliance.
As for Yu Shiyue, he has always been at odds with the Hanlin Academy. Some time ago, he had a very unpleasant quarrel with Jiang Yuan because of Wang Zhen's case. Jinyiwei has recorded this information.
Therefore, after he joins the cabinet, he will most likely move closer to Wang Ao.
Of course, Yu Shiyue would definitely not completely surrender to Wang Ao. Although he was weak in the cabinet, he had a close relationship with the Six Ministries.
Before Yu Shiyue became the minister of Dali Temple, he had been the deputy imperial envoy of the capital for a long time, assisting Chen Yi in running the capital procuratorate. The two had a deep friendship.
In addition, his relationship with Yu Qian is also very good.
With such confidence, even if he is in the cabinet, he does not need to be completely dependent on Wang Ao, and there is a high probability that it will be a loose alliance.
In this way, there are two loose alliances in the cabinet that check each other. However, because the alliance is loose, it is impossible for serious conflicts to occur.
Even if Wang Ao and Chen Xun have serious conflicts, they still have to worry about whether they will be benefited by the other two parties.
The more complex the relationship between the cabinet is, the more in line with Zhu Qiyu's expectations for the cabinet.
The system of group assistants determines that they, like the Metropolitan Procuratorate, are highly independent.
Only by not dealing with each other can they truly have the greatest effect on him as the emperor.
It should be said that Chen Xun's guess was accurate.
Zhu Qiyu's positioning of the cabinet was in the middle or lower position among the six ministries.
He had seen the scene in the late Ming Dynasty when the cabinet overran the six ministries and the chief assistant outshone all officials. This was not a good thing.
If this kind of strength develops to an extreme, it will lead to party strife.
The imperial court now also pays attention to personal connections, but it has never given birth to the so-called clique like in the former Song Dynasty.
The reason is that the current imperial court is headed by the Six Ministries and the Metropolitan Procuratorate.
If these ministers want to be ministers and ministers, personal connections are certainly needed, but they are not the most important condition.
The Six Ministries and the Metropolitan Procuratorate are all yamen, so to be the chiefs of these yamen, one must have solid political achievements.
Take Zhang Min for example. The reason why the government and the public thought he might take over as minister was not because he curried favor with any courtiers (not counting the emperor), but because he overcame many pressures and carried out the restructuring of craftsmen households.
Moreover, he had previously presided over the construction of many water conservancy, roads, temples and other projects under the responsibility of the Ministry of Works, and had outstanding political achievements.
In the same way, the same goes for the Metropolitan Procuratorate. If you want to be the censor of Zuodu, it is not enough if you have not uncovered a few corrupt officials who shocked the government and the public during your tenure, or you have petitioned the court to change the bad habits of the governor. Qualified.
In other words, anyone who wants to become a minister must have outstanding political achievements in the local area and be deeply loved.
Or, he must work hard to achieve some real achievements in the position of minister.
Only with these solid political achievements as a foundation can their personal connections play an icing on the cake and help them ascend to the position of minister.
But the cabinet is different!
The role of the cabinet is to reconcile internal and external affairs, so the requirement for ministers is not performance, but prestige.
If a minister wants to join the cabinet, the best way besides simply being in the emperor's heart is to have a group of ministers who cheer for him.
The more "high moral and respectable" he is, the greater his influence on the government and the opposition, and the easier it is for him to mediate when there is a conflict between the emperor and the foreign court.
This is because the positions themselves have different requirements for officials, and there is no distinction between them.
But once the cabinet surpasses the six ministries and becomes the head of the imperial court, the problem becomes serious.
All officials who join the officialdom do not want to climb up.
When the Six Ministries and Seven Ministers are the top civil servants, they will work hard to become ministers and court officials and achieve political achievements.
When the chief minister of the cabinet is the top civil servant, they will naturally work hard in the direction of the cabinet to raise their hopes and form a party.
Human nature is what it is and cannot be changed.
This point, speaking of it, was his fault. To be precise, it was the mistake he made in his previous life.
The cabinet grew from his hands. The biggest mistake he made in this matter was to let Wang Wen, who was the Minister of Personnel at the time, join the cabinet as the chief minister.
This precedent was set by him, which laid the foundation for the cabinet to override the six ministries.
With this precedent, in the following generations, the six ministers would be inferior to others, and they would all think about how to get from minister to cabinet minister.
You must know that people who can reach the position of minister have strong personal connections. They deliberately manage to join the cabinet, and the speed of forming parties is beyond imagination.
Therefore, the cabinet must be restrained.
In his hands, in the future, only cabinet ministers will be promoted to the six ministers, but there will never be promotions to the cabinet.
The cabinet, like the ministers of various ministries, became one of the springboards and transitions for courtiers to attack the ministerial position.
Then, even if party strife cannot be eliminated, the disaster can be reduced as much as possible.
This is also the best way he can think of for the time being.
The cabinet is now on the rise, but it can still be contained.
Last time, he wanted Wang Zhi to join the cabinet as the chief assistant, but the courtiers collectively opposed it. Everyone thought it was a demotion.
This time, Wang Wen should take the lead in the War of Oala, followed by Wang Ao. In the end, Wang Ao became the chief assistant, and Wang Wen took over as the Heavenly Official. Everyone in the government and the public thought it was normal.
This all illustrates one point.
That is, although the cabinet now has more power, in fact, in the minds of the courtiers, it is still deeply ingrained that the six ministries and seven ministers have a more noble status than the cabinet ministers.
This is also the reason why Zhu Qiyu changed his ways and wanted to add officials to the six ministries.
Among the six ministers today, Wang Wen from the Ministry of Husbandry has been promoted to Shaoshi, Yu Qian from the Ministry of War has been promoted to Shaobao, Hu Hui from the Ministry of Rites has been promoted to Shaofu, and Chen Xun from the Ministry of Works has been promoted to Prince Taifu, all with the first-grade official title.
Although Chen Yi from the Metropolitan Procuratorate, Shen Yi from the Household Department, and Jin Lian from the Criminal Department have not yet been promoted, Zhu Qiyu is also planning to make arrangements slowly.
In contrast, he did not intend to give any additional titles to all ministers in the cabinet before they were moved to the actual position of minister.
Things like status cannot only rely on people's cognition, but more importantly, they must rely on institutional constraints.
He added the title of Shangshu of the second rank to the cabinet in order to enable the cabinet to stand shoulder to shoulder with the six ministries and become one of the central yamen.
So the best way for the officers of the six departments to overpower them is to add the title of Congyipin.
In this way, it can be guaranteed that the six ministers will always outperform the cabinet ministers, whether it is from the perception of the officials or from the grade level.
As long as the six departments are still at the head of the imperial court, the ultimate goal of officials is to become ministers.
Even in this process, planning to enter the cabinet is used as a springboard, and he will not focus all his energy on making friends like in his previous life.
Human energy is limited. If you want to achieve political achievements in a down-to-earth manner, you cannot have the energy to form a large party.
If there really is a person who only cares about forming a party, then the end of his career will be in the cabinet, and he will have no hope of becoming a minister for the rest of his life.
Zhu Qiyu believes that no ambitious person will be so blind.
Even if such a person does appear, as long as the six departments maintain their transcendent status, they can be suppressed.
Of course, Chen Xun is a special case. He has been moving around in the Imperial Academy and has no outstanding political achievements.
However, he is the only one.
Later, Zhu Qiyu would gradually transfer officials from the Hanlin Academy to science, education, ministries, or localities.
Anyway, it is impossible for them to directly join the cabinet, not even the bachelor of Hanlin Academy!
From this perspective, Takagu is actually quite miserable.
He recommended Chen Xun, but he delayed himself.
It should be said that Chen Xun's position as minister was not what Zhu Qiyu had originally planned.
After all, Chen Xun has been circulating in the Imperial Academy, and the conventions of the six ministers need to be supported by political achievements.
However, just the day before the court recommendation, he received a memorial from Gao Gu recommending Chen Xunqian to be promoted to minister of the Ministry of Industry.
Although the memorial was from a high position, it was impossible for him to go beyond Chen Xun to do this kind of thing, unless he wanted to become a mortal enemy with Chen Xun.
Therefore, nine times out of ten, this was Chen Xun's own intention.
Zhu Qiyu was indeed hesitant at the time, but after thinking about it for a while, he was sure.
The reason for doing this is to once again strengthen the belief in the hearts of the courtiers and clearly tell them that the ministers of the six departments are more valuable than the junior ministers of the cabinet.
I believe that smart courtiers can already see some clues.
In his recommendation to the court, he said "Jin Chen Xun is the Minister of the Ministry of Industry." The word Jin means that this is a promotion, not a flat transfer, let alone a demotion.
The Minister of Industry and Industry was not ranked high among the seven ministers, and most of the time he was in a low-ranking position, but the second assistant was the number two figure in the cabinet.
If the second assistant is transferred to the Minister of Industry, if he is promoted, then the status between the six ministries and the cabinet will be clear.
As for Chen Xun's clear qualifications, this is indeed a problem, but not a big one.
Compared with the new establishment of the cabinet, which has no precedent for various rules to follow, the promotion and circulation of the six ministers has its own set of deep-rooted old rules that have been formed since the founding of the country.
Occasionally making a small exception is regarded as the emperor's prerogative, and it cannot really shake it.
What's more, just as Wang Ao was challenged by Chen Xun and Gao Gu when he succeeded as chief minister, Chen Xun was bound to be challenged when he became minister of the Ministry of Industry.
Because he only has Qingliu qualifications, this kind of challenge will be more fierce and difficult than that of ordinary officials who succeed Shangshu.
At least, the officials from the Ministry of Industry would not be convinced by him.
Thinking of the next few years, Zhu Qiyu sighed.
If nothing else, the next few years will be the most difficult for the Ministry of Household Affairs and the Ministry of Works.
On the Ministry of Revenue side, he already had a case against him, but on the Ministry of Works side, Chen Xun could only shoulder the responsibility himself.
But, then again.
It was Chen Xun's own idea to go to the Ministry of Industry.
Zhu Qiyu followed his wishes, but whether he can continue to do so depends on his own ability.
Originally, he planned to have Jiang Yuan or Yu Shiyue promoted back to the ministry as minister in a few years to once again clarify the status of the six ministries and the cabinet.
Chen Xun's incident only accelerated this process.
So in fact, it doesn't matter to Zhu Qiyu whether this person is Chen Xun or Gao Gu. Chen Xun dared to take this risk because he had the courage.
Relatively speaking, Takagu was much unlucky.
Because this kind of thing only needs to be done once to let the courtiers see that the six ministries are more valuable than the cabinet.
If nothing else, Chen Xun should be the only official who could be promoted from the cabinet to the six ministries without sufficient political achievements.
After this, Zhu Qiyu will not set this precedent again. He will not say these words to others, but he will definitely do so.
In other words, unless Gao Gu can be as ruthless as to be transferred to the Metropolitan Procuratorate, with the false title of Right Capital Censor, he will be released as the governor of the capital, or he will lower his status and become a minister of the Six Ministries to earn enough political achievements.
Otherwise, he will only be able to work in the cabinet for the rest of his life, with no hope of becoming a minister.
But the problem is that if Gao Gu wants to discover this, he will probably only react a few years later when he discovers that Jiang Yuan and others have been promoted and left, and he is still stuck in the same place.
Therefore, Gao Gu's future career goal is to kill Wang Ao and succeed him as chief assistant.
But even the chief minister can only be compared to the ordinary Qiqing at best, and is always slightly weaker than the three giants of the outer dynasty, the Ministry of Personnel, the Ministry of Household Affairs, and the Metropolitan Procuratorate.
What's more, with Wang Ao's methods, it's not certain who will win and who will lose!
However, this is not what Zhu Qiyu needs to worry about now.
At least for now, after this adjustment, there should be no particularly large-scale changes in the high-level structure of the imperial court.
Of course, with Chen Xun's change, the layout originally drawn up by Zhu Qiyu for the cabinet also underwent some changes.
Now that Chen Xun is no longer in the cabinet, if Wang Yining and Jiang Yuan join the cabinet at the same time, they will inevitably choose to rely on Gao Gu. After all, they are both from Hanlin.
In this way, with the combined efforts of the three of them, even Wang Ao, the chief assistant, would have difficulty resisting. In order to fight against Gao Gu, he and Yu Shiyue would inevitably form a closer alliance from a loose alliance.
The cabinet will become the same as now, becoming a situation of tense bipolar opposition.
This is not what Zhu Qiyu wants.
Therefore, he had no choice but to feel wronged by Wang Yining and continue to work in the Ministry of Rites.
If Wang Yining is removed and Zhang Min joins the cabinet, the situation will change again.
Since the cabinet is a group of assistants, even if the chief assistant has the right to vote, he is not the superior of other cabinet ministers.
None of the courtiers who were able to achieve this level were willing to be inferior to others.
If possible, with Yu Shiyue's two major backers in the outer court, he would definitely not want to be attached to Wang Ao.
Then his other option is to win over Zhang Min, who is helpless and has no idea why he suddenly joined the cabinet.
In this way, Wang Ao holds the power to share the votes, Gao Gu has Jiang Yuan to help, and Yu Shiyue and Zhang Min join forces to form a three-legged alliance, which is the most stable situation.
At this point, his adjustment to the civil servants has come to an end.
Although there will be adjustments in the future, they will not be such large-scale and frequent adjustments.
However, what surprised Zhu Qiyu was.
The old official went directly to the book to resign after the recommendation.
He had promised Wang Zhi that after presiding over the court promotion, he could completely retire from office, but he did not expect that Wang Zhi would be so anxious.
Reminiscent of Wang Zhi's first two official memorials not long ago, it also seems extremely urgent.
Although Wang Zhi had always wanted to retire before the Civil War, his unusual sense of urgency still made Zhu Qiyu instinctively feel a little strange.
After pondering for a moment, Zhu Qiyu suddenly waved his hand, and immediately a servant came forward, knelt on the ground and asked.
"What are your orders, Your Majesty?"
"Go and summon Shu Liang. I have something to tell him."
Looking at the figure of the young chamberlain leaving in a hurry, a stern look flashed in Zhu Qiyu's eyes.
Wang Zhi, a veteran of the Five Dynasties, a heavenly official of the Ministry of Personnel, the head of the six ministries, and the head of a hundred officials.
With your identity, status, prestige, and connections.
Why is it so urgent to get out of the whirlpool of the government?
What are you anxious about?
In other words... you are not in a hurry, but you have noticed some signs.
Does this kind of sign make you feel scared even with your current status?
