In the first year of Wude, there was a great meeting.
It had just been midnight, and the night had not yet receded, but the entire capital was bustling with traffic and brightly lit!
The civil and military officials, who had rarely rested at home for a few days, put on the most gorgeous and luxurious court clothes and rushed to the palace with heavy hearts.
Because today is a major court ceremony. The emperor will hold a court meeting with civil and military officials, princes of the kingdom and foreign envoys in Fengtian Hall, and accept the congratulations from the ministers and envoys!
The Great Court Meeting is different from the daily morning court in the past. It is held once a year. It is the highest-level court ceremony where the emperor meets with princes, vassal kings and officials.
According to the "Book of Rites of Zhou", the purpose of the imperial meeting is to "take care of the affairs of the world." The emperor inquires about the governance situation of the princes, and the princes need to make detailed reports. Therefore, the princes' meeting with the emperor is also called "debriefing," which is equivalent to the current meeting of leading cadres. Annual “Debriefing Report”.
In addition, the emperor would also inquire about local governance, which involved local officials, which was called "performance appraisal," similar to the current "performance appraisal" or "management by objectives" for officials at all levels.
To put it bluntly, the Great Court Meeting is more like an assessment, a great opportunity for an emperor to take issue with anyone.
In the past, civil and military officials may not have paid much attention to the annual Great Court Meeting, and just followed the procedure step by step.
But today's great court meeting is completely different, because this is the great court meeting in Emperor Takeru's first year, which is enough to change the fate of many people!
If any vassal king or official's answer cannot satisfy Emperor Takeru, or if Emperor Takeru intends to use this meeting to attack certain people, then today's meeting is destined to not be peaceful.
Therefore, today's grand court ceremony is an important day for Emperor Wude of the Ming Dynasty to show his governing philosophy!
As an emperor and a courtier, will Emperor Wude take this opportunity to quell the discordant voices in the court in one fell swoop, promote his closest associates, and completely control the power of the government?
This is a difficult problem that arises in every official's mind at this moment!
Therefore, the civil and military officials had no choice but to ignore it and go out early to have an audience.
Xuan Mian Chao Yuan surges with green ai, and the chicken sings in the sky and the inner door opens!
When all the civil and military officials were having trouble sleeping, eating and sleeping, Zhu Gaoxu, the new emperor of the Ming Dynasty and the Wude Emperor, also put on a golden red-bordered robe and a green, black, red and yellow crown early, and sat on the dragon chair to think deeply.
Today is the first court meeting in the first year of Wude!
After today, the prosperous age of Yongle will end and will become history!
From now on, it will be the era of martial virtue for Zhu Gaoxu, the new emperor of the Ming Dynasty!
Because today, he, Zhu Gaoxu, will be worshiped by thousands of people, and he, Zhu Gaoxu, will rule the world and open a new imperial era for the Ming Empire!
Everyone knows that today's meeting will determine the future direction of the Ming Dynasty!
The seven ministers in charge of the seven ministries are Jian Yi, the official minister, Xia Yuanji, the household minister, Chen Qia, the military minister, Wang Jing, the rite minister, Jin Chun, the criminal minister, Song Li, the industrial minister, and Xie Jin, the academic minister.
Lu Mu, the general envoy in charge of the general affairs envoys department, Gu Zuo, the censor of Zuodu, in charge of the Duchayuan, Jia Liang, the Qing of Dali Temple in charge of Dali Temple...
A group of court ministers and officials of all sizes in charge of the yamen stood quietly outside the palace gate, while Yang Rong, Yang Shiqi and other cabinet bachelors also stood in front of them.
Speaking of which, after the cabinet's restructuring, its status has been greatly improved, enough to rival the Seven Ministries.
The reason is very simple. Those who entered the cabinet, such as Yang Rong and Yang Shiqi, were all the emperor's confidants.
With this status alone, no one dares to look down on those in the cabinet.
Furthermore, because of the legal examination, the cabinet has the ability to inspect the completion of the tasks of the temple supervisors of each department, so it also has the power to control the temple supervisors of each department.
Although this small amount of power cannot be compared with the great power controlled by the Metropolitan Procuratorate, no matter how small a mosquito is, it is still meat. In addition, the cabinet is the special advisory body of the emperor, and no one has ever dared to despise it.
There are hundreds of officials in these seven departments and three divisions alone.
In addition, the powers of the Minister of Taichang Temple, the Minister of Taipu Temple, the Minister of Guanglu Temple, the Minister of Zhan Shifu, the Hanlin University Scholar, the Minister of Honglu Temple, the Imperial Academy Jijiu, the Minister of Yuanma Temple, and the Minister of Shangbao Temple are slightly less powerful. Officials led by important ministers, there are more than a thousand officials lined up outside the palace gate!
The officials led by the big and small Jiuqing have included all the civil servants of the Ming Dynasty. In addition to them, there is also a tyrannical force in the Ming Dynasty—honored military attachés!
These proud soldiers who followed Emperor Yongle to conquer the world and crawled out from the dead were all dressed in fresh clothes given by Emperor Yongle and were lined up in sequence quietly.
The British Duke Zhang Fu, the Duke of Guizhou Mu Ying, the Duke of Yin Xue Lu, the Duke of Cheng Zhu Yong, the Duke of Wei Xu Qin... plus the existing marquis and uncles, the total number of dead people is twenty or thirty. , and every one of them is so powerful and domineering that people dare not look directly at them.
After all, the noble military officers and nobles who were knighted in the Yongle Dynasty were all fierce generals, the kind who had truly climbed out of the dead.
As for Xu Qin and Zhu Yong, the second generation of Hongwu nobles, after several years of experience in Liaodong, they have gradually matured, becoming less frivolous and more stable.
A high-ranking and powerful military attache appeared one after another, causing the atmosphere at the scene to suddenly become silent.
You must know that most of these princes and nobles are now serving in the military department. They are either generals who are stationed in one place, or senior commanders in charge of the military department. None of them are simple things.
Moreover, since the royal family separated its financial power, the Ministry of Household Affairs only levied agricultural tax and salt tax, while the royal family was responsible for collecting commercial taxes and other miscellaneous taxes, and was responsible for all military expenditures.
In this way, the military department was completely separated from the imperial court and was only responsible to the royal family and only took orders from the royal family!
In other words, in the past, civil servants could use salary, salary and other means to blackmail or suppress military attachés and ministers, but now they no longer have such opportunities.
You and I don't play together at all. We are directly separated from the court system. What else can you use to threaten and suppress me?
Even the salary is issued directly by the royal family, and no one has the right to ask, let alone interfere!
Many courtiers and gentry have only now realized why Zhu Gaoxu was so kind and divided the financial power of the imperial court.
With the financial power divided, the civil servants and gentry had no excuse to force Lai Lai to interfere in the affairs of the military department.
The royal family has completely taken control of the military power, straightened its waist, and felt confident in speaking. No matter how hard the civil servants and gentry pushed Lai Lai, they would not be ignored at all.
From the looks of it, this "transaction" was actually a loss for the civil servants and gentry, and a huge loss at that!
Civil servants and gentry wanted more power to realize their political ambitions, such as having the right to speak in the court.
Gaining some financial power was a victory for the civil servants and gentry, but now it seems that they have lost more.
At least, if you really offend the royal family, they can just stop you, or release those warriors Qiu Ba to beat you!
Xia Yuanji looked at these arrogant military attachés and ministers in front of him, his old face full of sorrow and indignation.
The Wude Emperor Zhu Gaoxu is really not a son of man!
That deal was a huge loss!
