As soon as Zhang Siwei took office, God gave him a big mouth and almost beat him. This guy is not in good health, but the emperor is not used to it. He has no intention of doing more if you are not in good health. Zhang Siwei has become a bit sharp-mouthed and monkey-like in the few months since he took over the Political Affairs Hall.
His uncle Wang Chonggu applied for early retirement, which was approved by the emperor. He must have arrived in Yunnan by this time, and Zhang Siwei lost an important think tank. Although many people came to him during his tenure as Deputy Prime Minister, Zhang Siwei did not dare to trust his confidants. After all, these people were untested.
After becoming Prime Minister, the power of the Jin Party suddenly increased sharply, but Zhang Siwei still lacked people in his pocket, especially a think tank with high-level vision and whom he could rely on. Compared with their background, Zhang Siwei and Zhang Juzheng were not in the same order of magnitude at all, so they were unable to command as expected and needed to coordinate many things - which made them particularly tired.
Of course, Zhang Siwei's lack of Zhang Juzheng's political ability is the decisive factor. It was only when Zhang Juzheng took over in the sixth year of Longqing that things started to turn into a mess. As the saying goes, "The ministers were left behind, the generals were playing at the side, and the scholars were clamoring in the countryside. Everything was regulated and everything was in order, and everyone fell into ignorance. And the disaster of disintegration and landslides was hidden in the As long as there is nothing wrong with Yan An." If the exams and reforms had not been carried out, the Ming Dynasty would have been in chaos by now. But even in this situation, Zhang Juzheng still thrived and built a new Ming Dynasty in thirteen years.
Taking annual income as an example, in the first year of Wanli, the annual income was more than 10,000 taels. When Zhang Siwei took over in the thirteenth year of Wanli, his annual income was 75 million, which almost tripled. Money and food were sufficient to cope with three consecutive years of widespread famine. The reason why the disaster in Shanxi was so annoying was entirely caused by the stupid Yu Zhao.
Therefore, Zhang Siwei needs money and food. Under these conditions, being more tired than Zhang Juzheng is basically a matter of ability. It’s not that Zhang Juzheng has a better head than Zhang Siwei, but that Zhang Juzheng can look down, bend down, has a tough temper and is broad-minded at the same time - these excellent qualities of top politicians, Zhang Siwei and Zhongxing County Prince compare them all. Half a bottle of vinegar level.
To be honest, in today's political affairs hall, Xu Guo is superior to Zhang Siwei in terms of his ability to lower his face; in terms of his ability to bend down, Wang Guoguang dwarfs him; in terms of temperament, Liang Menglong and Pan Sheng are on par with each other, but They are all stronger than Zhang Siwei and have a broad mind. In this regard, Luo Wanhua, who has seen the world, is far behind him.
In this case, there was only one way for Zhang Siwei to avoid being ignored and to retain power - he planned to hug the emperor's thigh tightly. Because he is the Prime Minister of the Political Affairs Hall, this thigh is particularly convenient to hold, at least when he is facing the saint most often.
Although Zhang Siwei wanted to embrace the emperor's lap, major changes occurred in the central system after the reform. The political affairs hall had much greater powers and responsibilities than the cabinets in the Jiajing and Longqing eras. Moreover, after Zhang Juzheng and Zhu Yijun's running-in, the relationship between imperial power and prime ministerial power became more obvious. The boundaries of the country - all general government affairs that do not involve political and military power and that the emperor has no intention of interfering with are all decided by the Prime Minister.
In this way, Zhang Siwei could not do "the three edicts are mutually beneficial" - so Wang Gui, the Prime Minister of the Song Dynasty Shenzong, was appointed by the Minister of Political Affairs. The "History of the Song Dynasty" said, "He went to the palace to present the imperial edict, saying that he could get the imperial edict; whether it could be completed, it said Those who receive the imperial edict; those who withdraw from the edict and submit matters are said to have received the imperial edict." Therefore, it is said that "the three edicts are mutually beneficial" - where the system is, the emperor has no idea of reaching out to help him beyond the boundaries.
From Zhu Yijun's perspective, Zhang Juzheng's death made him clearly feel the sluggishness of the government's operation. The Prime Minister does not have the authority to stick to his word, and many things start to be debated in the political hall. Problems reported from the bottom up have also led to buck-passing among various departments - it's not that everyone has lost their public conscience after Zhang Juzheng's death, but that the previous super coordinating ability of Prince Zhongxing covered up many things that should have been done long ago. Exposed institutional problems.
For example, this Shanxi disaster relief-the imperial government's functions of disaster prevention and reduction are now scattered among several ministries. The Ministry of Civil Affairs is responsible for disaster relief, the Ministry of Construction and Transportation is in charge of water conservancy construction, the Ministry of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce also has some of these functions, and Pan Jixun, the Minister of Huanghuai Water Conservancy, is also in charge of some.
Having multiple political branches will naturally lead to increased coordination time. Although there is a cabinet to control the general affairs, several deputy prime ministers are unable to reach the departments and bureaus that are responsible for each ministry. Coordination through the minister is naturally inefficient.
As a result, Zhang Siwei worked harder than Zhang Juzheng, but his efficiency was not as high as Zhang Juzheng's. When Zhang Juzheng was the prime minister, the deputy prime ministers and ministers followed his lead and were afraid of not doing their best to prevent Zhang Jiangling from scolding or even giving him political blows. But now, when making decisions, Zhang Siwei is always worried that Pan Sheng and others will dig holes for him. He needs repeated research and consideration before he dares to make a decision - the so-called exhaustive consideration is nothing more than this.
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The major reform that began in the fifth year of Wanli Dynasty changed the six-ministry system that had lasted for hundreds of years since the Sui Dynasty to nine, set up the political hall, added the Privy Council, abolished the Supervisor of Ceremonies, and established the Ministry of Internal Affairs - this was the main purpose of the reform. It used the Government Hall to centralize the power of the prime minister, the Privy Council to enhance the emperor's military power, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs to further standardize the emperor's industry.
This half-baked political reform worked well in the hands of Zhang Juzheng, because the old man was amazingly talented and could direct as well as his fingers. After Zhang Siwei took over, he found that the operation was stagnant - he lacked the authority of Zhang Juzheng. Although he fulfilled his duty of adjusting the yin and yang of the wok, the "prime minister" and the "chief minister of the cabinet" were very different, and Zhang Siwei still pretended to A few months later, Zhu Yijun also felt something was wrong with the idea of the emperor's thighs.
The severe drought in the thirteenth year of Wanli marked the beginning of a series of major disasters in the Wanli period in the original time and space. Although Zhu Yijun has not studied the climate records of the Wanli period, he remembers the words "Little Glacier" clearly.
Judging from the process of the court's disaster relief in Shanxi in the past few months, when the emperor was anxious and the prime ministers were red-eyed - the court's disaster relief system was not functioning well, especially in the early stages of the drought, when the news from Shanxi was mixed and the court's luck was The lack of food means exposed a lot of problems.
Not only in terms of disaster relief, as the reforms changed Ming society, Zhu Yi also felt that many functions of the center needed to be further strengthened. When Zhang Juzheng was in power, the system of temporarily assigning an official to be responsible for something needed to be changed. It was necessary to add more departments and further refine the responsibilities to make the central government's command over the local areas more powerful.
After months of careful consideration, Zhu Yijun felt that it was necessary to further adjust the central structure - to further reform some of the institutional issues accumulated in the eight years of reform, so that the superstructure always matches social development.
Therefore, after the situation in Shanxi stabilized, Zhu Yijun held a military and political meeting in the Wenhua Hall and proposed the idea of deepening the central reform, and made this matter the primary political task of Zhang Siwei as Prime Minister.
At the meeting, Zhang Siwei took over the task—his head was buzzing.
