On the first day of July, the first imperial meeting finally arrived as scheduled.
This is the first time that the new cabinet has convened important ministers from various central departments such as the Seven Ministries, the Metropolitan Procuratorate, the Five Temples, and the General Affairs Department to hold a court meeting.
Emperor Wan Tong was still suffering from illness.
The Fengtian Palace meeting is held on the first day of each month. It is basically a ceremonial formality and does not involve specific discussions.
But starting from this time, the cabinet has decided to hold regular meetings of the DPRK every month, summarizing the progress of major daily affairs of the previous month and major local events, and at the same time laying out and arranging the key matters of this month.
This court meeting lasted for more than a month, and even the successive personnel appointments and dismissals were only approved after being communicated at the regular small meetings. However, everything involved in this court meeting was all in full swing. The layout and arrangements have been prepared in an orderly manner.
Except for the chief minister, every cabinet minister will also give an outline description of the prospects and plans for the next few years based on the work they are responsible for.
In other words, it is to show your colleagues your ideas for this piece of work.
It can also be said that this is a small test, whether it is a mule or a horse, pull it out and walk it for a while.
Don’t say how well you can do it, at least you have to let everyone see if there is anything worthy of admiration in your ideas.
Those attending the meeting were the main officials from the Seven Ministries, the Ducha Yuan, the General Administration Department and the Five Temples, which are commonly known as important ministers. Of course, some officials from the Ducha Yuan, Qian Du Yushi and the Five Temples were not qualified to be important ministers, but they also had to attend. .
For Gu, Guan, Huang and others, this is a familiar journey, but for Qiao Yingjia and Feng Ziying, it is a big test.
Similarly, Gu, Guan, and Huang Luxin also need to come up with something different from the previous cabinet. Otherwise, it will be a bit embarrassing if they are overshadowed by the performance of Qiao and Feng.
Feng Ziying also took great pains to prepare for this court meeting, and even went to Qi Yongtai's house once to talk about some of his ideas. Qi Yongtai, who was already seriously ill, still managed to listen to Feng Ziying's ideas and gave some pointers. .
He has extended his political ambitions to his most beloved protégé, and he also knows that his protégé’s ambitions are not limited to his own things, he will go further.
Maybe he can’t see it, but he still hopes.
Qi Yongtai is very clear that his current cabinet and the current cabinet may be an era of transition and linking up the past and the future. The real Zhou Dynasty will embark on a completely different path from the previous dynasty, and it may have to wait until Feng Ziying officially takes over as the chief minister.
As for how high Feng Ziying can reach in the future, Qi Yongtai has no way of predicting it.
As the cabinet minister in charge of military affairs, Feng Ziying knew that this was a rare opportunity for her.
He needs to have a good balance.
It is necessary to fully reflect some of the ideas of the military, but not to irritate the ministers too much. At the same time, it is also necessary to combine the national expansion strategy with the interests of all classes to attract some who are beginning to lean towards the industrial and commercial classes, or Ministers who have interests linked to the industrial and commercial classes.
Feng Ziying felt a bit of pressure when she entered Fengtian Hall.
The former superiors or division commanders are now nominal subordinates. Of course, this nominal thing is very mysterious.
Cabinet ministers only have the qualifications to discuss politics and are crowned with the status of bachelor. In fact, there is no change in their titles and grades. In theory, bachelors are all fifth-rank, but when conferring bachelors, the original title is canceled, which does not mean that You will be reduced to the fifth grade, and everyone will continue to maintain the second grade status by convention.
The time of the great court meetings in the Zhou Dynasty has been changing, sometimes early, sometimes late, according to the emperor's wishes.
However, now it is basically up to the cabinet to determine how to facilitate the ministers. This was also proposed by Feng Ziying and won unanimous praise from all officials.
After all, sometimes it’s inhumane to get up at midnight, especially in the middle of winter to walk through the streets to attend the meeting.
Even young people like Feng Ziying feel like they are being tortured, let alone those elderly officials who are old and weak and have low energy and blood.
At the age of sixty, it was difficult to even walk or ride a horse. It was too much to rush to court early in the morning in the freezing weather in the capital city.
it is necessary.
No matter how much credit you have made, no matter how righteous you feel your superior cabinet ministers are, in front of these senior teachers and seniors who are all in their forties and fifties, the imbalance in their hearts must exist, and they all need to be done once, twice, three times, and five times Only in the process of continuous adaptation will you slowly get used to it and feel at ease.
Prior to this, Feng Ziying needs to resolve this unnecessary hostility and antipathy with a relatively humble attitude.
Of course, once the formal court proceedings enter, Feng Ziying will not hesitate to maintain a serious and cold attitude and express her position as a cabinet minister.
For Feng Ziying, Cui Jingrong, Han Xu, Chai Ke, Sun Juxiang and others had complicated inner emotions.
They all admit that Feng Ziying’s talent is undoubted, and no one can deny the great achievements he has made in recent years.
The Battle of Jiangnan solved the biggest internal trouble for the imperial court and completely eliminated the possibility of Chen Jixian's creation of vassal towns. The two battles of Liaodong completely eliminated the biggest foreign trouble since the founding of the Zhou Dynasty. Jianzhou Jurchen and even the entire Jurchen became The historical term has been eliminated, and now only the geographical term Liaodong people is left, which is no different from the Liaodong Han people.
Such a great contribution, no amount of reward is too high.
But Feng Ziying is really too young, in her twenties, she is an eyesore no matter how you look at her.
Even if he is ten years older, everyone thinks it is acceptable. It makes sense that a cabinet minister in his thirties is amazingly talented. At least everyone is psychologically balanced. But what do you think about a minister in his twenties?
But it was still in the brewing stage, or when Qi Yongtai was taking great pains to convince everyone, an incident occurred, and he almost succeeded.
If Emperor Wan Tong and Li Sancai really want to join forces to succeed, even if many people in the court can continue to stay in the court, it is inevitable that they will be gradually marginalized, and more importantly, Emperor Wan Tong will definitely strengthen His power solidified.
This will endanger the vital interests of the scholar-officials and is also the most intolerable.
Thanks to Feng Ziying's precautionary measures, we were able to turn the tide again and pull the government back from the edge of the cliff.
In this case, there seems to be nothing left to say.
An eyesore is an eyesore, and after seeing it for a long time, you will get used to it. Seeing how modest and courteous the person is now, warm and approachable, after looking at it a few more times, it seems to be quite good.
Chai Ke was the most familiar with Feng Ziying. Looking at Feng Ziying's slightly restrained look, he waved his hand: "Okay, Ziying, you will be in charge of your own affairs. Since you are a bachelor, you are also responsible for the Ministry of War, which you are most familiar with." In this work, Zhisheng and you are old acquaintances, and we complement each other. Now that the Jurchen problem in Jianzhou has been solved, Liaodong is stable, but now there are nearly 200,000 people in Liaodong and Dongjiang towns. Everyone just said We are discussing whether it is necessary to retain such a large army. Should the pressure on the Ministry of Revenue be reduced? When you talk about this matter later, everyone will not be polite and will ask questions and opinions. of."
The Seventh Department of the Central Government also went through a round of major adjustments. Miao Changqi was eliminated. Gu Tianchuan's attitude in this round of performance was also quite ambiguous. Gu Bingqian, who originally supported him, was extremely annoyed and unceremoniously took off Gu Tianchuan's left leg. The position of the Imperial Censor and the No. 1 figure in the Imperial Procuratorate was also vacant.
This involves the need to balance the interests and patterns of the scholars in the south of the Yangtze River, the north of the land, and Huguang.
Among the cabinet ministers, Gu Bingqian and Huang Ruliang were Jiangnan scholars. They were divided into the first assistant and the third cabinet minister. They still seemed to be in a dominant position. However, the relationship between Gu Bingqian and Huang Ruliang was not good, which was also a problem.
As the leader of the Huguang scholars, Guan Yingzhen served as the second assistant. It can be said that the Huguang scholars received the highest courtesy in this dynasty. In addition, Chai Ke served as the Minister of Hubu, which was already a high position second only to the Minister of Libu. , so it is natural to make some concessions among important ministers such as the Seven Ministries and the Metropolitan Procuratorate.
The scholars in the North seem to have been weakened. Qiao Yingjia is the fourth cabinet minister, in charge of the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Industry. Feng Ziying is the last one in charge of the Ministry of War. As for the local scholars, plus the fact that the Metropolitan Procuratorate was directly connected to the chief minister, the northern scholars seemed to be suffering a lot, so they had to make up for it in other aspects.
Cui Jingrong continued to serve as the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, Han Xu became the Censor of the Zuodu of the Duchayuan, and Sun Juxiang became the Shangshu of the Ministry of Punishments. In addition, Sun Chengzong served as the Shangshu of the Ministry of War and Wang Yongguang occupied the Minister of the Ministry of Industry. The seven ministers were added to the Censorship of the Zuodu of the Duchayuan. Four of the eight high-ranking ministers from the north were from the north.
The Minister of Rites gave Li Guanghua, another man who stood up correctly in this incident and followed Gu Bingqian closely, as a reward.
Li Banghua was originally the general affairs envoy. He moved to the general affairs department during the exchange with Shuntian Prefecture Yin of Jiayu Village. He quickly became close to Gu Bingqian and became a close confidant of Gu Bingqian. He happened to take over the Ministry of Rites, Gu Bingqian's old base.
Zhu Guozhen, the Minister of Shang, also gained a firm foothold this time. His relationship with Huang Ruliang became increasingly close. In the later period, he had drawn a clear line with Tang Binyin, so he became Huang Ruliang's direct descendant.
The Minister of the Ministry of Industry gave the decision to Wang Yongguang after several deliberations. He also considered that Wang Yongguang’s factionalism was not obvious and he had a good relationship with the scholars in Jiangnan, so he finally let Wang Yongguang take the position.
A series of major adjustments were completed before the Great Court Meeting. This was also necessary before the Great Court Meeting was held. It also meant that there would be no major changes in China and North Korea for a long time.
(End of this chapter)