The cabinet house is located in the east of the Forbidden City. From Yongle to Zhengde, the status of the cabinet has been steadily rising. In real history, by Ming Shizong, that is, during the Jiajing period, because Xia Yan and Yan Song were in charge of the cabinet successively, its status began to rise. Comparable to the previous Prime Minister, his power can also firmly suppress the six tribes.
Fortunately, so far, there has been no independent prime minister, and the number of cabinets has been maintained at about three people. In fact, Emperor Yongle initially established a cabinet with a number of people ranging from three to seven. Therefore, when the emperor brought Yang Tinghe in, it cannot be said that there was any problem with the etiquette system.
He entered the pavilion with the sacred mission of promoting sweet potatoes. Even though Wang Bing always thought highly of himself, he did not dare to neglect it too much.
Yang Yiqing didn't express anything. When he saw Yang Tinghe greeting him, he said calmly: "The cabinet is not a big place, so I can just choose a place to sit. Serving His Majesty, being self-denial, being honest and honest are all in my heart. I don't need to." Let’s just talk about it. From now on, we are in the same cabinet, and His Majesty Hongshu Yiwu also attaches great importance to it. If there is any need, the three of us can help."
"Thank you, Mr. Ge, for taking care of me."
In the past, the most important task of the cabinet was vote drafting, which meant writing down one's opinions on paper and then pasting them on the memorial. Later, it was forwarded to the emperor by the Supervisor of Ceremonies.
It was through this move in the middle that the status of the Supervisor of Ceremonies was highlighted.
The amount of power sometimes depends on the distance between you and the emperor.
Zhu Houzhao knew that the hidden danger was that once the kings of future generations were lazy, they would hand it over to the eunuchs to approve the favors.
But so far, he still retains his position as Chief Ceremony Supervisor.
The balance between the inner court and the outer court is also an important aspect. If the ceremonial supervisor is suppressed to the maximum extent, and one day the civil servants climb on his head to defecate and urinate, and the emperor will cry every day when he is told not to respond.
Since last year, because the so-called "major matters" need to be handled by the cabinet minister, the cabinet has one more task besides voting.
It means arranging major affairs. If there is a problem, the following people will respond and they will study and solve it together.
Although meetings are a very annoying thing, when a matter involves many departments, meetings are indeed an effective way to solve the problem. Everyone sits down together and explains clearly the whole story and possible solutions.
Only by organizing such research and discussion meetings from time to time can the cabinet members have a clear understanding of the progress of the matter and current problems when Zhu Houzhao asks.
"Your Majesty is acceptable for 'not knowing yet'. But what is unacceptable is that he doesn't know even if he asks anyone... Mr. Jie must have heard of these before, so naturally it won't be a problem. And besides His Majesty, there are also have……"
Wang Hao was reminding him and indicated Yang Yiqing's position with his eyes.
Wang Hao is considered older here. He is 58 years old, four years older than Yang Yiqing, and nine years older than Yang Tinghe. But who made Yang Yiqing the first among the four to join the cabinet?
When Yang Yiqing was managing the horse administration in Shaanxi, he used relatively drastic methods, such as smuggling. He would deal with each one he caught. The treatment here basically required confiscation of homes or beheadings. Otherwise, how could such a messy place be controlled?
To a certain extent, Yang Yiqing was more strict and unkind than the emperor.
It is a completely different style from that of Li Dongyang and Xie Qian.
He is now the head of the cabinet. According to the rules, the remaining three people should be managed by him. In other words, if you do something that makes Mr. Yang Ge dissatisfied, this is not acceptable.
Yang Yiqing followed the direction Wang Hao pointed and looked at Mr. Yang Ge who was making comments at the desk, and he understood in his heart. When he was in court, he could not hear any rumors at all.
"Thank you, Mr. Ji, for the tip."
During this process, Wang Bing did not speak, but only exchanged greetings with him.
After sitting down, Yang Tinghe didn't know what to do.
The main emperor's request for him is two words, sweet potato. But for such a new thing, even the officials below knew about it, so naturally there would be no memorial.
After a while, three or four eunuchs brought a lot of books. Yang Tinghe checked them from morning to night. During this period, the other three pavilion elders were very busy. Wang Hao also left for a while and went to Qianqing Palace, probably for something.
Yang Yiqing only glanced at him a few times, but didn't say anything.
On the second day, Yang Tinghe couldn't sit still, so he walked over and said: "Mr. Yang Ge, I have checked some ancient books and information, and I have indeed seen no records about sweet potatoes or similar sweet potatoes. I thought that this Sitting in the cabinet would not make any progress on this kind of thing, so I thought it would be better to go out and choose a place first, and then discuss with the Ministry of Household Affairs, Ministry of Industry, etc. how to promote it."
"But, Jie Fu can just do it."
"yes."
Yang Tinghe turned around and left. When he passed by Wang Bing, he lowered his head and said, "Mr. Wang Ge."
"Um."
Wang Hao was not in the cabinet duty room, but in the newly opened room next to it.
In addition to the duty room in the cabinet, three new rooms have been added. They are all arranged in a reception style, with a few chairs and tables. Things are currently being discussed.
He is responsible for contacting the Ministry of Revenue, the Shaofu and the Ministry of Industry. This involves a major matter, road construction.
Generally speaking, the elders of the cabinet give each other face. For example, although Wang Hao is not responsible for contacting the Ministry of War, if the specific matter involves the Ministry of War, he can also notify them to send someone over, and unless the minister is called away by the emperor and the chief minister , otherwise the minister will also come.
In the same way, the other two people can also be called Hubu.
Mr. Ge and Mr. Ge will not blush over this matter. After all, they need each other. Today I beg you, and tomorrow you have to beg me. As long as it's not the core issue, it doesn't matter even if you assign some work and contribute a little effort.
For example, if the Ministry of War is disobedient, Wang Hao can go and talk to Yang Yiqing.
So the people below don't like to make trouble to this level easily, so why bother? No matter how hard you hide, you can still find the emperor.
Unless there is a very good reason for refusing, wouldn't it make the emperor feel that you are deliberately making things difficult for others?
Now Wang Hao summoned the three top leaders of the Ministry of Revenue, the Shaofu, and the Ministry of Industry to discuss the matter.
The cause was Zhang Cong, the magistrate of Shanyang County in Huai'an Prefecture, who reported that officials from the Shaofu Prefecture withheld wages from Huai'an Prefecture to Yangzhou Prefecture, causing the engineering team to complain incessantly. The engineering team hired ordinary people from the local area.
When ordinary people couldn't get the money, they kept suing the officials. But Shanyang County is not responsible for building this road. It is built by the imperial court. The officials sent were not officials from Shanyang County. He was a county magistrate who was in charge of heaven and earth, but could not control other people's young mansions.
However, many ordinary people don't understand the difference at all. Aren't you Shaofu and Shanyang both government officials? A nest of snakes and rats, what difference can there be!
Zhang Cong, a county magistrate, was afraid after hearing about this kind of thing too many times. If something happened, he would be guilty even if he was not guilty, so he sent memorials to his superiors one after another.
He Jian, Minister of the Ministry of Industry, said: "...Many of the people who built roads were originally kitchen households. After the auction of the salt works last year, kitchen households were unwilling to engage in salt production and would rather be employed in road construction. Their lives were originally difficult and salt production was not successful. Now we can’t even build roads, and it’s difficult to express resentment in our hearts. The public resentment is so huge that if something happens, it will cause a big disaster.”
This is also understandable. If nothing works, then there is no way to survive. It’s on everyone’s head, so who’s not in a hurry?
So Wang Hao cares about this matter.
The emperor is now responsible for matters, and road construction is a major matter that falls under his jurisdiction. If something goes wrong, it will inevitably be an oversight. As an imperial master with a well-known reputation, he didn't want this mess to happen to him.
"Mr. Li, the draft for this memorial in Shanyang County has not been drawn up yet. I just want to discuss a solution first. You are dedicated to serving the country and working conscientiously, so don't let the people below be deceived. The money allocated is going to be high. Find out which layer the deduction was from."
"Don't worry, Mr. Ge, since someone has reported this matter, I will definitely take it seriously."
"What about the other sections? In addition to Huai'an Prefecture and Yangzhou Prefecture, other sections should also have this kind of deduction of wages, right?" Han Wen, the Minister of Household Affairs, said it with hatred. He knew the corruption of subordinate officials the most.
With such an investigation, it is easy to find a case.
This road connects the two capitals along the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal, and the amount of silver allocated for this road is currently no less than 4 million.
The reason why the imperial court had to spend a lot of money to do such a thing was, of course, to build roads, and on the other hand, it wanted to spend as much money as possible from the people to the people.
In other words, it is to be given to the people.
If a large amount of this money is intercepted at the official level...
"Let's check it out." Wang Hao felt that for the sake of safety, he sent someone to check the whereabouts of the silver coins and sort out the context. "I will talk to Mr. Wang Ge about this matter and ask the Ministry of Punishment, Dali Temple and the Metropolitan Procuratorate to send Come and investigate together with the young master. Otherwise we won’t be able to explain it when the time comes.”
"yes!"
Wang Hao looked at the ticket in his hand again and decided on his plan. However, since Wang Bing was involved in the punishment, he still wanted to say hello.
From his point of view, it is best not to be too serious about being greedy for ink. It is impossible to completely eliminate it, but he does not know how far the people below will go.
On the other side,
Yang Tinghe knocked on the door of Meng and his daughter.
He originally wanted to choose a place first, but he felt that sweet potatoes were a new crop and he didn't know exactly how to plant them or where they were suitable for planting, so he decided to ask clearly. Anyway, he was a senior citizen, and how many acres of land he needed? Easy.
Of course, that's not what he cares about most.
At that time, many people in Qianqing Palace did not dare to ask more questions.
But it's different now...
"Your Majesty has given me this task, and it is a very heavy burden. But there is one thing, I have not seen it with my own eyes, so I still can't fully believe it. Brother Meng, you can't lie to me. This sweet potato can really be produced per acre. Thirty to forty stones?”
Meng Qiuzhong lowered his head, "How dare you lie in front of the emperor and the boss? I saw with my own eyes overseas that the yield per mu is approximately this amount. This cannot be false."
"That's really God's blessing..."
(End of chapter)
