Shen Shixing felt very happy when he left.
The problem of the large number of Buddhist temple landlords is indeed the biggest hidden danger he faces during his current term as chief minister.
He didn't expect that one day he would really have the motivation to deal with this matter.
Shen Shixing knew that this was the motivation given to him by the emperor. If the emperor had not insisted on reforms, he might have gone with the world long ago, and would not still be thinking about doing these things to offend those with vested interests.
Of course, the emperor is willing to share foreign mineral resources to benefit the world, so that he, the first minister, can be harmonious with his relatives and friends, and will not affect his own interests and the interests of his relatives and friends because of the reform. This also makes Shen Shixing willing to continue to hold high the banner of reform and pay homage to the Buddhist temple. The land takes action.
After returning to the cabinet and seeing the portrait of Zhang Juzheng and the portraits of famous ministers of the past dynasties in the Wenyuan Pavilion, Shen Shixing spontaneously felt the expectation that, like Zhang Juzheng, he would also leave his name in history because of the reform.
"Yuanfu, what's the result of the trial?"
Wang Xijue asked Shen Shixing when Shen Shixing was looking intently at the portrait of Zhang Juzheng and other cabinet ministers.
Shen Shixing gave the list to Wang Xijue: "It's out."
After Wang Xijue looked at it, he frowned and asked, "The Heavenly Official has chosen Hai Rui!"
"This is the wisdom of Your Majesty. I know that the most important thing to rectify the Buddhist temple next is whether the officials below can be upright and courageous."
"If anyone were to be the Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, he would not be as reassuring as Haigangfeng."
Shen Shixing said with a smile.
Wang Xijue nodded and gave the list to Liu Yingjie.
Liu Yingjie smiled and said: "Letting Hai Rui be appointed as Otsuka Prime Minister really shows that the emperor is wise!"
Wang Xijue glanced at Liu Yingjie, then smiled and said, "Yeah, I didn't understand it just now, but now I think I understand it!"
Shen Shixing just smiled slightly: "It's good if you can understand. Then according to the rules, please schedule the cabinet minister to come to the cabinet for questioning. This way, we can make a decision on rectifying the Buddhist temple."
It turns out that since the drafting of decrees was carried out by the Imperial Secretariat, the cabinet has completely changed from a secretarial organization to an administrative organization.
Although the cabinet is no longer responsible for directly drafting decrees, like the Privy Council, it can talk to the newly appointed civil servants and ministers of the internal affairs system before the emperor formally issues the decree, exchange ideas, and then review and return the emperor's decree based on the results of the communication. , let the emperor appoint him again.
This is done to facilitate work.
After all, the appointment of officials appointed by the emperor may not necessarily be suitable for the cabinet to implement policies. For example, in history, some civil servants deliberately restricted the cabinet after becoming ministers of the Ministry of Personnel and Minister of War, preventing reforms from proceeding.
Historically, the most serious internal malpractice in the middle and late Wanli period was the struggle for power between the officials and the cabinet.
Moreover, this struggle for power became so serious that in order to prove that they were more impartial than the cabinet in selecting candidates, they did not hesitate to draw lots to recommend ministerial candidates to force the cabinet to give up interfering in the selection of ministers!
This method is undoubtedly self-destructive.
Although it did eliminate the possibility of the Ministry of Personnel selling off their posts, it also destroyed the screening mechanism. Ministers drawn by lot were often no better than those selected manually. Even the uncertainty of the draw was high, leading to more serious internal strife.
Because among the officials drawn by lot, there are often those who support a certain policy and some who oppose it.
Therefore, Zhu Yijun did not intend to pursue absolute justice in the Ming Dynasty, so he was willing to give the cabinet the power to interfere in selections, just like the prime minister could veto a personnel appointment in the Tang and Song Dynasties in history, so as to achieve the purpose of unanimously supporting certain reforms.
However, Zhu Yijun only gave the cabinet the power to reject his own ideas before formally issuing the decree, rather than a single person. This was also to prevent the emergence of a powerful minister who was too loyal and too high-ranking, and allowed himself, the emperor, to Can't be made.
The political system is such a contradiction. It requires both delegation of power and centralization to prevent it. But in the era of monarchy, in the final analysis, it still depends on what the emperor wants to do.
They also ruled independently, but Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Youjian could bring two different endings to the dynasty.
But no matter what, Zhu Yijun didn't want to be as tired as Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Youjian, so he simply made the cabinet work harder.
"I wonder what you think of monks and nuns in Buddhist temples?"
Shen Shixing only asked this sentence after meeting the seven newly appointed ministers: Zhang Xueyan, Xu Guo, Hai Rui, Wang Lin, Yu Shenxing, Shu Hua, and Shen Li.
These seven civil servants all began to criticize the problem that the Buddhist temple occupied too much space.
Whether it is a sincere criticism or a false one, they all know that they must have this attitude now, otherwise they may not be promoted even if they are about to be promoted.
They all know that reaching this point means that they may have to settle for a certain important position.
Historically, when he was the Minister of the Ministry of Finance, Wang Lin, the Minister of the Ministry of Finance, advocated the destruction of all private nunneries and even talked endlessly.
Therefore, the cabinet did not ask Zhu Yijun to change the imperial list, but secretly asked the emperor to issue an order quickly.
Zhu Yijun ordered the imperial minister to issue an order.
After the appointment of a number of personnel was issued, Shen Shixing also divided the work among the cabinet, saying: "The examination results and policy making are still decided by the servants themselves. In addition, the current affairs of renovating the Buddhist temples are also done by the servants themselves." Among other things, Ziyu (Zhang Xueyan) is responsible for internal affairs; Jingshi is responsible for external affairs; and Zihe (Liu Yingjie) is responsible for post road transportation, soldiers, horses, food, and other matters."
Wang Xijue and Liu Yingjie both nodded and had no objection.
Afterwards, Shen Shixing invited the cabinet bachelor Shen Li, the official minister Hai Rui, the household minister Wang Lin, the household minister Lü Kun, and the right minister Jin Xuezeng to the chief minister's residence, and first said to Wang Lin:
"Da Sinong, my servant, it was because you advocated the rectification of Buddhist temples that you persuaded Chen Ziyu (Zhang Xueyan) to include me in the imperial nomination. However, please don't just pay lip service to me."
"Don't worry Yuansuke, Shingo (Lu Kun) and I have been waiting for this day for a long time, as well as Otsuka Zai, and Wenxuan Wangbulang."
Wang Lin said.
Hai Rui smiled: "Exactly!"
"My servant was still worried that the guild wanted to resign because all the courtiers had selfish interests. Now that I think about it, that won't happen. It turns out that the lord has long been interested in eliminating a big disadvantage for the country and the people!"
Shen Shixing smiled and said to Hai Rui, then asked: "But on the surface, renovating Buddhist temples is renovating Buddhist temples. Behind this are all the powerful officials and gentry, including relatives of the emperor, noble generals, officials, nobles, and wealthy businessmen. Jia, have you really thought about it?"
"Think about it!"
"While today's world is as benevolent and virtuous as heaven, we are willing to develop foreign countries to benefit the people. We should not only think about the wealth of our family and surname, but we should dare to do it once and live up to our lifelong ambition!"
"It will be nothing more than a ruined reputation."
Wang Lin said.
Lu Kun also followed: "Yes, the benefits brought by this subscription are obvious. The monarch and his ministers can take into account both public and private interests due to external development. The country will be prosperous and the people will benefit, and the monarch can also live in harmony with relatives and friends. In order to continue like this, there will be less killing in the world. , the Buddhist monks and nuns who have become tools for the powerful and powerful gentry to exploit the country’s innocent people should be rectified! Let the interests of the people really be consistent with the long-term peace and stability of the country.”
(End of chapter)
